SD308 Board of Education Meeting (02/10/2025)

001sgle Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting for February 10th 2025 can I have a roll call please Mr Cerone here Mr Gatewood present Miss Johnson present Dr Maria here Mr ploger present Miss similon present Miss venoth present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all our student board members poier president thank you thank you on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank you for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our members of the public encourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System residents interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening

002are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to three minutes per person and no responses to your questions are permitted comments should be asked addressed to the Board of Education as a whole and not be directed to an individual board member audience or staff the Board of Education will not address concerns against individual employees rather a complaint against an employee must be in writing and signed by the person who makes it and the Board of Education will refer any such complaints for appropriate review campaigning or advocating for any candidate is inappropriate during public comment comment

003should be limited to business before the school district and not political advocacy followup to comments and and your questions and concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you Megan hon hello um I'm Megan hon and I'm currently A J Junior here at OE um I would like to talk about why I believe our school district should approve flag football as an ihsa sport um making flag football in ihsa sport would allow our schools clubs to become full teams um as teams we would be competing against other high school teams um flag football has become more popular and growing in high schools and colleges and it still continues to grow I have always wanted to play football I've grown up watching it playing with my parents but

004I but they would not let me play tackle because I had some knee issues when I came to high school I was very excited to play Powderpuff I have played my past 3 years here at the beginning of the school year when I found out that as we go had a flag football club I wonder why my school didn't have one about a week later my school announced that it was going to have a flag football club I went to almost all the practices and had a lot of fun especially when we scrimmaged OE would have the freshman sophomore team scrimmage the junior senior teams and then we also played two scrimmages against as weo there were a lot of girls who came out to the practices and games and shows so much interest which

005made it in a a really amazing experience I believe in athletics for everyone and this is a chance to give more students options to be athletes team members and competitors I also play high school and travel softball my softball coaches have seen improvements in my throwing from playing flag football there are reports that throwing football is increased throwing velocity um there there was a commercial yesterday during the Super Bowl um about making flag football of our city sport across all 50 states and it sounds like a good idea to me and I hope you agree thank you for listening thank you thank you Don Marquee you're going to have to bear with me because I forgot my glasses I'm too old to do that but my name is D Marquee and as a concerned parent

006and taxpayer in our district I find the recent Trends in the educational spending and student performance alarming my daughter actually just recently graduated so both my children graduated from AO 308 the numbers speak for themselves highlighting the trou troubling disconnect between our investment in education and the outcome that we see I know this cuz my daughter just went to college over the past four years spending per student has increased significantly rising from $2,810 in 2021 to $1 155,156 in 2024 this is an increase of 18% per student however despite the investment we see concerning downgrades in SAT scores particularly math where the scores have dropped from 50501 in 2021 to a troubling 476 in 2024 the language art scores are similarly declining from 510 in 2021 to 419 in 2024 this indicates not only that

007we're investing money in our educational system but we're not seeing the expected returns from the students as a taxpayer I'm deeply concerned with the efficiency of our spending it is essential that we incre increase the fundings to translate and improve our educational outcome the current data confirms that this is not happening as a parent I worry about the implications on our children's future are we adequately preparing them for Success are our resources yielding better results it is crucial that our district address these issues headon we need transparency and accountability and our funds and allocated how they're spent additionally we must explore new strategies to enhance our student learning and performance our children deserve the best education we can provide as our community and we need to advocate for Meaningful change let's come together and figure

008out where our money is going thank you Kelly badoni my daughter attends Boulder Hill and is in the Dual language kindergarten class with Mrs Matas she is our oldest and honestly she loves going to school and adors her teacher as do we however it is becoming more and more apparent to us there is something not right happening in class my daughter has been coming home for months telling me how other students yell at the teacher throw things and are disruptive students try or do turn over tables when they're angry throw things that other students and the teacher yell at the teacher she hides under the table so she doesn't get hurt by her classmates because they're not able to control their anger or Outburst how she and the other students have to evacuate the classroom

009until these classmates can be calmed down or taken from class how she is afraid of one of her classmates who often has these out bur She was recently moved to another table away from him she told me she's happy because now she does not have to sit next to him and doesn't need to be so afraid what is honestly also disturbing to me is how she tells me these things like this is normal behavior in kindergarten I've heard stories about her classmates being stabbed with pencils students throwing chairs at other kids and did chairs make contact with these kindergarteners injuring them my daughter came home on January 29th telling me that a student injured her teacher in front of the entire class I as a parent was informed about this by my 5-year-old not notified

010officially by the school I wrote about these concerns to the School in the district the next day asking where the support is for these kids who are having these outbursts asking what's being done to protect the other kids and the staff in the classroom now less than one week later on February 5th I got a phone call from the principal Miss Jones telling me that it was finally my daughter who was injured by an outburst from an unregulated student my daughter was hit in the face by a pencil case that was thrown at her my daughter also told me other kids in the class are using language to scream at the teacher saying shut up and shut the up we do not use this language in our household and now my daughter is coming home

011saying these things are being said and she's learning them from her kindergarten class in the past 6 days there have been at least six evacuations for kids in this classroom including two evacuations in one day how in the world are other children in the class supposed to get back to class and focus on learning like this I've heard it mentioned one goal for kids at Boulder Hill is to be resilient I would agree I want my daughter and other kids to have the skill but should they have the skill at the ages of five and six in kindergarten after so many months of these evacuations they think this is normal because they experience it happening day after day in their first year of school this is not normal nor should we as parents the school

012or the district allow it to be so something has to change we just celebrated the 100 days of school this means there have been 100 days to take action for the school and the district and support the staff in this classroom whatever's been happening is not working because nothing is changing as I said there was another evacuation today students were throwing things at least three children have been injured Miss Matas was injured again we as parents were not notified about the teacher getting injured in front of our children by the school another mom in the classroom wanted me to share her story too her daughter was repeatedly targeted by one child in the class she was hit pushed pushed down to the ground and S out to be hit had a hand shoved into her

013mouth skirt ripped and was subject to a lot of verbal bullying her action her actions got the classroom a full-time aid but she was not successful in her attempts to get a third dual language teacher for Boulder Hill I found this interesting since in May last year I was told there would be at least three kindergarten dual language classes she was not able to save her daughter from the bully after multiple attempts at working with the school in District she finally got her daughter from the class pulled her daughter from the class A few weeks ago is this what we all need to do to keep our kids safe in this classroom what are the consequences and actions when these unregulated children are repeatedly violent or screaming at their teachers using inappropriate language please let

014me stress we do not blame or fault Miss Matas in the least for any of this we think she's a wonderful teacher who's doing her absolute best in this environment it seems to me there is a huge gap in what the school is aiming to do to educate our kids and keep them safe versus what is actually being done action must be taken now we have to make this a safe place for our kids please please get Boulder Hill the resources or ability to make this happen I do not want my daughter or anyone else to be more collat damage on the way to getting this resolved we need action now please step up and make this a safe classroom thank you thank you Sam Chavez no micone yes yes it's for people online girl

015okay I'll hold it a little way want to hurt your ears okay let's do this put the timer on we got it hi my name is Samantha I'm also going to piggyback on with that my daughter is in kindergarten with the best teacher Miss Matos and she finds it totally normal that she successfully dodged a chair that was aimed at her by the same child she also was successful in dodging multiple attacks throughout the school year this is this is normal I don't hear about it directly it's totally normal for us be evacuated multiple times a day because another child's having outbursts I don't think I've seen a project that she has worked on because the same individual has trashed her desk and stomped on her artwork so I don't get those things sent home

016very often which makes her very sad she works really hard on them she loves arts and crafts I got a phone call at the beginning of the year same kid smashed her fingers just stomped on them music class no reason couldn't tell me anything else other than that sorry I'm frustrated and just um multiple incidences then you know I find that other things are happening no emails no phone calls I didn't know that the class was regularly evacuating for the longest until I decided to ask her because they happened the beginning of the year and then I didn't hear anything about it because it's normal it's normal to dodge pencils it's normal to make sure that you kind of hover over your stuff on your desk it's normal to keep an eye and keep track

017on certain kids where they are in the classroom um she was crying cuz her best friend transferred to another school which is piggyback onto that you know mom's story like it's just sorry I'm again shaking it crazy um the lack of communication the lack of support for this child or any other children in there this should not be normal I mean there's constant violence in the classroom I don't know how she's learning and I don't know how she's thriving in it it's it's really sad because this teacher is incredible she's not getting the support she needs and we're not getting the information we need to help in the best way we can we would love to volunteer we would love to come with different Outlets to help but we don't know what's going on we

018literally have to hear from other parents and and reach out ourselves like we all found out the evacuation through each other because you know verifying hey my son my daughter said you know they were on the hallway because the room got trashed oh yep mine mine said that yep mine said that mine said that so we do talk and make sure that the story is align of what's going on and it's totally normal oh yeah know Miss Matos the the kid grabbed a big gigantic candy cane she don't know what it's called and whacked her in the finger she never came back she had to go to the nurse she left like totally normal to attack the teacher it's ridiculous it's crazy and lack of communication's probably the most frustrating on top of it something

019needs to be done we got to protect our children it's a great program it's a great school you have great teachers they're not getting supported we're not getting supported all I ask some action to be taken some investigation to be taken please thank you thank you Daniel Laos good evening good evening I'm going to read a prepared statement how are the children if you were to pose this question to Mrs Jones principal of Boulder Hill Elementary she might respond as she did to me I know the children are in danger this was her chilling admission when I asked what was being done to protect my daughter and here is a record of what's happened to her the injuries that she has suffered on September 10th she was pushed to the ground twice September 12th 2

020days later she was scratched in the legs December 10th she tripped and fell January 22nd she was stabbed in the neck with a pencil January 23rd the very following day she was struck on the leg with a thrown chair and today today I had to go back to the school because the same child hit her on the arm with a th with a pencil box now let me focus on the incident on January 22nd on that day Mrs cure the assistant principal contacted my wife and I to inform us that my daughter had been stabbed in the neck with a pencil but as it turns out that was not accurate the truth is that my daughter my daughter relay to us was that the student threw a tantrum and hurled objects indiscriminately and a pencil

021hit her on the chin I was misled uh by this phone call um the facts were not straight and this is showing an escalation of behavior by this child oh and and furthermore we did not receive a phone call I was told that that was protocol that the parents are supposed to to be informed when a child is injured we did not receive a phone call so that very same day I spoke with Mrs Jones and it was acknowledged that the child that and that is when she acknowledged that the children in that classroom were in danger she assured me that she had increased staff presence to mitigate the risks but these half measures have failed repeatedly today I had to pick up my daughter again the same boy in another fit of rage through

022a container of pencils again my daughter was an innocent bystander again the school failed to properly account for what happened today it was Mr meismer assistant principal who called to tell me that my daughter was struck in the head with a pencil box later my daughter told me that it was not her head that was struck but her arm they're not giving me the the correct information and Mr mmer gave me the impression that he really didn't care for my presence that day he was annoyed and bothered by my concern let me be absolutely clear my daughter is not receiving an education at B Hill Elementary she is receiving an indoctrination in fear she is learning to hide under her desk she is learning to evacuate her classroom she is learning learning to endure harm

023to justify mistreatment to suppress her fears and to comply with violence she's learning to be a victim the children are in danger Mrs Jones the principal demonstrates an appalling lack of leadership through this failure she has become a willful enabler of dangerous Behavior her lack of decisive action is the reason our children have to endure perilous days in kindergarten in kindergarten a failure of this magnitude is an embarrassment to our district the children are end danger Mrs Jones has failed us all including and especially the children causing these injuries they're not to be blamed the blame Falls squarely on the administration on Mrs Jones and by extend mentioned those beneath her Mrs cure and Mr meismer thank you for your the children are in danger thank you I know that tolerating inexcusable behavior is a

024standard at Boulder Hill Elementary but what will be revealed today is if that is also the standard for the fine people here this evening thank you our children are in danger Jordan jeffre how we doing everybody my name is Jordan Jeff um I'm just going to piggyback a little bit off of what's already been said uh my daughter uh is a student at Boulder Hill Elementary she is in Senora mat's class which which she loves dearly um but unfortunately I have to sit up here and look at you all and say that my daughter is not being protected at this moment um I do not feel comfortable taking her to school I do not feel comfortable leaving her in the care of other people um it honestly makes me question the whole education system now

025I know a lot of the people here that work for the educational system feel that they are doing a great job and there are plenty of you that are doing a great job but the fact that is that we've got this many people sitting here trying to defend their children and that's appalling it's honestly ridiculous and we shouldn't even be here right now because we're talking about children and I've got a list here from 2024 into 2025 of my 5-year-old stabbed in the chest punched in the shoulder kicked in the chest slapped in the face nurse called and giving wrong information on what's Happening unfortunately her mother and I we are we are separated but we are united front now there are plenty of times where she's getting information that I not getting and I'm

026relying on her to relay that information to me and that's after going to numerous staff members and telling them I need information as well because there doesn't need to be all of this miscommunication and now that we're talking with other parents we're starting to see that some of this miscommunication seems to be deliberate and that's not good um even today we had another outburst another set of things that happened and another set of information that's being spread from parent to parent trying to figure out what is going on um it's it's infuriating to be honest I I don't know what else to do other than to literally take my daughter out of school and homeschooler and that's what I want to do personally but at the same time there's trust in Educators there's trust in

027the plan trust in what you people do every day I get that but her safety cannot come second and that's period that's for everybody else that's sitting here the kids have to come first so you can see I've got my Boulder Hill watch dog sweater on because every once a month on a Friday we get to go in as dads and we get to be that additional resource we get to go in the classrooms we get to say hey teachers what do you need is it mixing glue is it cutting things out or is it going over and taking care of the student and letting him know that he's cared for that he's loved that you can take some time and we're going to we going to attend to you like a father would right

028like a parent and if this is something that needs to happen every single day in Boulder Hill then that's something that needs to be in place and there's plenty of dads there's plenty of watch moms out here that want to be a part of this and they want to be in their kids lives they want to be a resource so I I don't want to hear about 60 90 days in order to get this and that and that and that I I I'm done with all that I know you guys have rules that you have to follow I am a father and that comes first you must protect my child or else we're going to start talking about some different things here and that's that's all that it has to be so I appreciate your

029time thank you thank you thank you Alexis ch okay [Music] so for those who have not met me nor spoken with me I will introduce myself I am Victoria Jeff's mom my name is Alexis jeffre she is a kindergarten student at Senora mat's class in Boulder Hill I was also a student and graduate of um Migo School District 308 aside from being a student I have multiple family members who have worked within the district along with previous superintendents I was proud to be a part of this community furthermore I am writing this email to come to a resolution to find some support for Sen matus and her students um to find just you know a little bit more support below are the incidents that have occurred with our daughter just in November she was stabbed

030in the chest with a pencil punched in the shoulder twice kicked in the chest and face slapped in the face the nurse had called me that my daughter was in um crashed into a kid hit her head and that she was hearing ringing in her ears so that I had to come pick her up upon arriving in the office I was um Bamboozled I will be quite honest by um assistant principal Miss Kerr basically encouraging me and trying to tell me that um my daughter was going to be the um the V she wasn't the victim that she was the aggressor and I'm like what are you talking about I heard that she just crashed into somebody um now my daughter has a scar in her ear there was two fights that happened um at

031recess and she was just shooted away when she was told to you know ask for help for one of the crossw Walkers basically I was was told you know I just want to let you know what happened before you decide to seek medical treatment with one is illegal um and it's just unethical moving forward my daughter was denied acccess to using the restroom by two staff members my daughter's five see something say something that's what we all say Mr meismer was great and did reach out to Jordan and I though about this and he's been in contact with this throughout this um the Miss Jones unfortunately she did explain that principles you know don't deal with this but it's after all this and I will continue my daughter was hit in the face with a

032Play-Doh cup with Play-Doh in it elbowed in the chest pulled down by her neck twice tripped over a student last week there was five evacuations in the classroom two in one day today there was another there's Holden Place drills where the children are held and told to hide under the desk and then there's the evacuation drills with an emergency bin where the students are taken out of the classroom um I will be running out of time but if you guys would like I can forward my email but basically everything is within the handbook that these children aren't learning um this isn't normal environment and everything that's in your guys's handbook is not happening in this classroom nor in the um in and this is not only it's for Miss Doom's class other students are being

033affected and it just these kids aren't learning they're emotionally and physically being injured and that's just not what we need we don't need 5-year-olds you know coming home like this our daughter has a scar in her ear has been having nightmares and urinating herself in class also at home because of all these situations and she's afraid to go to school so thank you thank you thank you I know I'm not supposed to do this but that event that she talked or when she said that uh our daughter was denied access to the bathroom it was during the pickup line so she was in the car going to pick up our daughter and our daughter was standing outside it was about 10° outside and she was refused access by the staff member outside and the staff

034member inside to go inside and use the bathroom my daughter ended up urinating on herself in 10° weather outside in front of everybody so it wasn't just a refusal of the bathroom it was much more than that so thank you thank you Michelle Trager hi Michelle Trager four kids in the district um I I wanted to this is related to Boulder Hill um but what my request is is that you fix NextGen it needs to be tweaked so at the beginning of the year at a bpack meeting an assistant superintendent said yes NextGen um does cover social work and related Services you have a TA at Boulder Hill who has an MSW but not the school certification part so she asked about NextGen um um she had a meeting set up a virtual meeting with

035someone from HR that Boulder Hill gave her time off her ta duties to take the HR person didn't show up the HR person didn't respond to emails to follow up from this ta either when this ta had a conversation with an admin at HR she was told oh no the grant wasn't written to include social work so my question is the grant wasn't written to include social work is that because of the parameters of the grant if that's the case then please find another way immediately for us to take somebody who's at Boulder Hill which needs the support is it going to happen instantly no but we can at least you know you guys are having your three to five year initiatives like you can get this started and on the way if it's within

036the parameters of the Grant and it was just an oversight then why was it an oversight and can we please fix it right away you're hearing all these stories about lack of support now you might say oh the social work positions at Boulder Hill are filled right now but they're not filled by social workers not all of them some of them are filled by school counselors school counselors cannot provide this the legally mandated Social Work minutes on a student's IEP so if you don't have the people to provide those minutes we are in violation of those IEPs only School social workers can do the Social Development studies that are necessary on case studies for IEP I don't have any idea if there are any students in active case studies right now at Boulder Hill I

037the number should not be zero because we're also Bound by child find which means that we should be identifying students and evaluating them to see if they need services so that's what I'm that's what I'm asking uh advocating for Boulder Hill as always I will say uh my daughter is in an older grade at the Dual language Pro program so she hasn't had these incidents but I just want you to know this isn't the first stop that these parents have made coming here tonight I've seen them at the parent focus group meetings at Boulder Hill they have tried they have been very patient at the expense of their kids possibly so please fix NextGen and do what you can to to support Boulder Hill better thank you thank you thank you right uh good evening

038uh board this evening we are going we have invited members of the OA to join us in the approval of the agreement with the asgo education support Prof professionals and I'm going to turn it over to Dr zmy well good evening everybody thank you very much for uh your time um I'm very excited I'm very excited uh tonight to bring up our members of our executive board for oesa so if U miss Lynn and Miss Nikki can you come on up to the to the podium please excellent thank you so uh along with their wonderful executive board um I would like to present tonight to our Board of Education um a fiveyear contract for your consideration uh we just recently had a ratification um I'd like to thank uh Mr obafemi and our finance team

039um led by Mr obafemi and Miss satar uh along with a number of folks within human resourc sources to help negotiate um but I'll turn it over to you two so you can tell a little bit about your journey and just uh be here for just a a brief moment hello good even for those that um do not know me my name is Lyn W I am the President of the OA uh Union and then with us we have some of our members that were on our negotiating team if they could [Music] stand thank you our board consisted of a lot of um I'm a special education secretary at ASO high school I'm the register at ASO high school and we have multiple secretaries we have our Tech Representatives everyone was very well represented on

040our uh bargaining team um also on behalf of the Union I'd like to thank our negotiating team for sharing your side um and respectable dialogue that we all had with uh all of our articles that were presented um from both sides uh we're continuing on a positive path of our support staff being recognized um by you all as an integral part of the SD 308 educational um family that we're putting together as a community and not we're starting to come together we're seeing it as a whole unit collaboration working together um because of the ratified contract that we are currently in this school year we were able to reduce almost 90 contracted teacher assistance that we had last year in our district that we have hired this year um that are our own staff for

041this school year and we're continuing to get applications throughout the year I just received three for our building last week so the Contin is working um our plan is working and it's becoming more positive um with the new contract that we'll be getting this fall um we know that we will be able to reduce now our nursing contracts um that we have this current school year to reduce it our our goal is zero um for next year um we continue to work with our mission statement of our recruiting retaining and rewarding our staff in the district um and then finally to the board members Jen Lata Jared and Eugene we want to thank you for all of your dedication that you had with us um while you were here and your support we wish you

042all the best in the future to those of you who are stuck with us Dominic bar Joe Amy thank you for your continued support we continue to look forward to um working together and coming together on our future and our newest strategic plan that we're working on with the district as well um we know that the road is not been easy as we've heard with our uh teacher assistant and the support staff in the district over the last few years there's still some bumps um but knowing that we can collaborate together uh and come to a positive solution and have positive conversations and um things are going to change and we look forward to that and making a difference thank you thank you thank you very much you with with that we would love to

043hear a motion uh would love to make a motion to approve the professional agreement with the asigo education support professionals Association second I do have can I am allowed to say something I just want to say this um thank you for all that you do first of all I mean I I I've spoken with so many of of you over the years and I I cannot thank you enough for all that you do um I also though want to thank um um those who you in our finances who have who have worked diligently I can tell you that they have worked hard because they're aware and uh when people want to talk about like the the money piece and all that I I I would I would challenge people to go to other districts uh

044that do not do five-year projections and so forth we we do pretty well with with what we can and this is a testament to some of the struggles that we have knowing we have those contracted employees we're all aware and I cannot thank you and enough for all that you've done to work with us through this um and um I I hope you know how valued you are you're correct we we hear stories and and we are fully aware and and thank you for weathering through all those things that we've weathered through and and uh please know that we care and and you're all appreciated so much thank you very much you yeah and I and I think you I I think that kind of represents I don't want to speak for everybody else but

045I think that kind of represents how the rest of us too I mean we could not function without you thank you thank you so much and thank you for going through this process and reducing by 90 contracted Tas that's amazing well that was a kind of a two steps like last year and then this year and um so that's a big number it should should get better yep even so um yeah we appreciate the win-win and you thank you that you done what a change great okay Miss similon hi Miss vmou hi Mr bloger hi Dr Mario I Miss Johnson I Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood hi motion passes 70 okay now we'll have a presentation from the air mark uh an update from aark thank you board um Aramark is here to kind of

046give an update and go over the second chance breakfast as well as some increases in participation in the Food Service program good evening thank you for having us um we just wanted to kind of go over our updates um that we've had in the last couple of months um we started our Second Chance breakfast pilot at Church Hill Elementary um in October and participation as our bar graph shows um participation in the cafe is in blue participation in our Second Chance breakfast cart is in Orange um month over month we've exceeded we've um exceeded goals there about 300% participation more in the cart versus Cafe 263 per in November and so forth um we have principal merits here from Churchill Elementary who just want UHD like to say a couple of things about the breakfast

047cart and what it's brought to Churchill Kelly thank you good evening um I'm really proud to be here tonight to talk about our Second Chance breakfast we launched this on October 1st and we really wanted to make sure that no student started the day hungry um we served an average of 25 bre breakfast and since launching that almost tripled our numbers in what we serve every single day I think we've seen the impact in fewer crisis calls meaning once students have their basic needs met we're not hungry and we're ready to learn so we're taking away that barrier we see increased focus and engagement they're super excited to go out there grab their breakfast go back into class and be able to be with their friends and have that snack time too if they need

048it there's been really minimal operational concerns we've had um a few you know spills of course especially in the younger grades but they're very easy to clean up um seamless execution I think it kind of goes all through our three pillars that we've been talking about effective systems and teams Aramark worked with me really closely to make sure that they were there to support including the scanning and so it's really been quick quiet clean back to class for learning I think high quality instruction comes back because I'm not hungry I can focus my brain can develop and those neurons can go together to make sure that I'm retaining the information and again it's really more than just a breakfast cart it's Equity student well-being and really building a stronger School community so I'm really proud

049of it and I think it's been a huge success at Church Hill thanks Kelly for all your support so we've also with um Kelly's support we've um done a survey to the other principles um regarding uh whether or not they'd like to launch a cart as well um we've had some uh reaching out from the other other elementaries um we have three other schools that would like to um pursue that as well so we're in the midst of connecting with them about um launching that as well um during that time we've also um implemented a breakfast uh cart in the hallway during breakfast at a e go high school um so the students have another point of food access during the day um just because the cafeteria is on the other side of the building

050a lot of kids are migrating towards the Dean's office so they have access point to the food that they would have in the cafe there again minimal spills principal Grace was great about allowing us to launch that there um so we're excited about that um again Boulder Hill is one of the elementaries that would like to go ahead and do the second chance so that any late arrivals have um access to food and snacks as they need so um and there's another three there as well um for our high school um at the end of January we did our um Grand Opening of our rally Cafe um this is the second Cafe we have in the district for uh the grand opening and aso's uh School District was the first in Illinois to launch our

051rally Cafe and it's really about school spirit um made to order bars our rotating Test Kitchen and lots of grab and go options so it was a great day there those are some of the um pictures um from the grand opening all right so now we would like to introduce to everybody the new popup rotation or station that Junior High School I think they are so ready for a uh steer fry bar steer fry bar Ramen Bowl Panini bar and smoothie so actually uh tomorrow we're starting it off with a stir fry bar at uh Cho junior high school and that's going to be happening uh towards the end of the week hopefully we're not going to be having snow days cuz I'm looking uh really looking forward to that um we also partnership with

052our um um vendor and partner riches um and we did a lot of sampling lately with uh within uh high schools uh junior high schools and elementaries and here just a couple pictures just to celebrate and U uh introdu new pizza crust introducing new breakfast items uh it's like a healthier version of the double chocolate donut Donuts so it's like you know less sugar less fats and all that good stuff but it's still delicious so um yeah that's coming up soon on the menus as well for breakfast um at elementary schools we did celebrate a hot chocolate day I hope you guys heard about it already it was a huge hit um we did send a flyers to all of the principals and they were so receptive um they did send out to the families

053and um hot coca day just generated 269 additional meals for breakfast which is just a great a huge huge thing to achieve so thank you for that um and then we just um as we said we're going to be focusing also on capturing feedback from uh students parents principls uh we did send out surveys and um out of all the principles we have uh 43% of schools responded um 88% U of them were um happy with uh with the uh results and how we do service there um and 80% recommended us being um their vendor for the school as far as students feedback um mostly I've been going through the junior high schools um and getting responses what you they looking for what manyu items they are um um they looking for and that's why

054we introducing those Chef popups I think they're so ready for something else and something more um however about 80% of students said that they are satisfied with their meal at school so that was a huge win as well um and overwhel Patty if you would like to yep so just to wrap up participation this year um this school Year's numbers are on Blue for the bar graphs and oranges last year so comparison to um last year over this year um we're ahead this year um we've had an increase in breakfast meals you can see and um lunch meals as well so um overall um we've got about a 3% increase in meals and about 233 meals per service day um more so we're looking forward to introducing more things for the students to try um

055in addition to the limited time offers like Chef Natalia was uh saying our rotating Chef popup bars um we're looking for that to be a big hit as well at the junior high level and thank you very much oh questions yeah um the second chance meal I saw looking at Boulder Hill um when are you so um is that for next year principal no principal Jones reached out and she said that she was going to be talking with her Administration about um implementing that and where she would like it so as soon as that's finalized um we have in the work Works a person to prepare those bags and we'll find uh the labor to what time she wants it running okay the school yeah last time I had the concern for the kids that

056tend to show up a little bit late um you know because the buses and correct Boulder Hill is quite large with a lot of busing um so and probably and then they have a large number of free and reduced lunch as well so um so just we definitely want to make sure we capture all of the students doesn't matter who as long as they're late you know they can come in at whatever time we're just trying to uh figure out a time when that would work best for the school and then the other thing I'm I'm still hearing some issues at Boulder Hill okay um milk delivery I don't delivery I'm getting nods heads delivery [Music] oh okay yeah I I yeah I just heard there was shortage of milk a lot of days so

057um those were my only I just want to make sure you know our kids are are getting fed you know we're not missing the kids that are showing up late not not by their fault you know SOC any of the late arrivals and we've tried to go to the offices as well any of the students that have late arrivals they're great about riding down like lunch Choice might be but if they're hungry please send them down we can get them a breakfast meal as well but this way it's a little bit more organized the way we've done it at Churchill it kind of also second like little snack program march on in and right back kind of like getting your head behind you it's worked really well so we're hoping to model that again the

058other I'm excited okay so iead okay sorry um so will this eventually be districtwide we would love for that to District okay that's my question I'm wondering who makes that decision yeah is it just about principles reaching out cuz through the lens of equity we want to make sure that all of our students have an opportunity to have that second chance at a breakfast if they don't get it if they get late but so what are the requirements or stipulations to get a cart just everybody's if they want it we can do it and we just need to get the labor piece there and we have extra carts in the district that we had ordered during Co so it would just be a matter of puring more equipment a lot of the constraint that been

059is because the district is carpeted and the spills but what we found at Churchill it's been very minimal as far as like the garbage and that so okay I think that's something I would be interested invest in researching get everywhere our kids well absolutely I mean I think so one of the things that I would recommend and I know with Amanda I think it would be important to look at the numbers and then to examine where there's a need and to ensure that we are I'm sure many of our schools would appreciate appreciate this kind of support so it would be great to see a follow-up report come to the board about some of the considerations and the criteria establish what could be some criteria to then determine where there is receptivity the right the

060Staffing and also the need and in order to support our students so we definitely want to go beyond you know um we appreciate the the collaboration and we'll call it a pilot right and so you've piloted this program and I'm hearing from board members the the interest to move forward so let's let's look into it further and so thank you you Amanda y go ahead yeah I just have oh no I just did you go no oh wasad okay um my only question was what are the setbacks that you're facing with this second chance meal because I know I raised a few questions at the last time we had this conversation so I just want to know what the setbacks are that you're experiencing you got to use the microphone sorry um a lot of

061it has been garbage and positioning of where it is we do need to get some Wi-Fi points in some of the buildings like asgo high school does have Wi-Fi outside and across from the dean area that captures to the dedicated pushcoin terminals um we do need to for Churchill because they have a smaller participation in the cafeteria we're able to mark off on the roster book who already purchased breakfast so it's not a duplicate um so we just go with a binder for the larger schools for participation we actually need the pushcoin terminals to to go ahead and do that for the point of sale to go through um I would say that um garbage and storage in some of the um locations like Boulder Hill has storage constraints we need um more refrigeration and

062things like that for their location um for the larger larger population smaller kitchens go ahead just have two questions they're both on the finance side and I imagine one you will be able to answer and one might be for you so um by the way anybody's ever interested there's a nice little inflation calculator on the EUR us Bureau of Labor Statistics and if you just as an example if you put $12,000 uhar on January 1st 2019 that's the equivalent of $115,000 today which means 12,000 and 2019 is the same as 15,000 today for your purchasing power I'm curious if you've uh how much um like hiring and and some of those pieces as far as labor market inflation has that affected anything on your end as far as rolling out or not really not really

063it's just been a matter of at the elementary the time frame between when school starts and when their first lunches start is kind of the kind of tricky sweet spot to you've caught about two hours so trying to find the best time in order to get that done okay and I guess uh this might and you might not be able to answer this Mr OB I mean if not no big deal or somebody from your team but uh I'm curious if uh we do lose Federal funding is it going to be problematic for us to to continue programs like this or you would you have to look into it more yes it will but I don't anticipate that we will lose funding for that uh the the funding for this comes from the US Department

064of Agriculture good not the US Department of Education that's number one number two they actually more States uh who are not as financially well off as Illinois would depend really really strongly on the national school launch program so because of those reasons I don't anticipate that it will be a problem that we have to wrestle always proud to live in Illinois I love State been here my whole life and go back six Generations I love it thank you okay is that it thank you thank you so much thank you so much yeah and by the way we promis the board this will be done quarterly this is Q2 so they'll be back again in three months for Q3 thank you and then in June they will do their final presentation at the end of uh

065for Q4 excuse me and we have one question from uh Miss Johnson on the line who Miss Johnson oh Jen sorry Jen go ahead go ahead Jen um I just wonder what the protocol is or what the rules are for say if a student drops their lunch what what is the protocol for what happens drops their lunch they drop they drop on the floor oh okay the student comes back into the cafeteria and the server ends up replacing the meal okay I've heard a lot of issues happening over at Prairie Point um regarding this um from um adults not from students so if you could look into that over there I would greatly appreciate it absolutely thank you for bringing it to our attention thank you Jen okay thank you again you all okay okay

066uh board this evening I'm going to invite Dr dubiel to talk and share information about some of the work that's been happening to really strengthen and address some outstanding concerns and work that needed to be done in the area of uh um our special education program and also in terms of our the diverse Learners task force specifically and so I want to thank you Dr dubiel okay um good evening board so this evening I'm going to provide an overview of the two diverse Learners task force that we initiated this year so I am going to provide an overview and give you you an update on those task force the two task force that we initiated this year was a multilingual task force and a special education taskforce the multilingual task force was charged with identifying

067one program that they believe needed specific attention during school year 2526 to be clear this does not mean all of our multilingual programs do not need attention it will very much be tied to the three-year strategic plan but a program in the multilingual Department that they felt needed particularly attention to there are three programs in multilingual and the individuals that were part of this conversation were District staff building staff and teachers that were appointed by the OA for special education similar structure where those individuals were tasked to identify up to three programs there are over 12 in special education that needed specific attention for them to uh for implementation in 2526 again that does not leave the nine remaining task uh special education programs to be disregarded but what they believe needed um specific attention

068um again that included members that were identified by the oea district admin and school building leaders the timeline of the task force for the this year had three phases and it will continue um into the next year so the task force came together for the first time in November and December I will speak to the process that that involved phase two is the analysis we are currently um in phase three well a little bit of phase two and phase three we're in approval stages so we're rating for on approval so we're having a lot of conversations about the financial impact for some of the recommendations that came from the task force um there will be adoptions and accommodations and um changes to the recommendations if it's going to impact fin finances or another Avenue that

069we just may not have the resources at the that time phase three is then the implementation and then phase four and five will be the progress monitoring and the continuous Improvement for phase one what that included is working with the task force to realign our work with the six building blocks you will remember our consultants and cummings Bogan with AC ACB Consulting um allows us to utilize her framework because those attributes lift up common vision of Excellence responsive strategies and areas such as datadriven decision making with working with the group we also emphasize the criticalness of a seven-point decision-making Continuum making sure that the individuals in the space realized this was not a my decision a you decision but an our decision finally we utilized a tro and that's the name of a company that

070utilizes a number of different decision-making protocols and we landed on the scan decision-making protocol and what scan stands for is where the individuals in the space could identify the issues be clear on the issues ask questions regarding the issues that could be impacting those programs assess the priorities and identify next steps so all the team had was all the information in front of them regarding all the programs and they identified the program again that they believe needed immediate attention in 2526 that immediate attention could range greatly in this work we emphasized and founded our work in the three foundational practice of effective systems and teams high quality instruction equity and rightful presence an example of the effective systems and teams that we lifted was ensuring that there was collaboration again Union Partners all the individuals

071all the teachers on the task for Force were identified by the union and we built capacity one of the things we learned is that there was some gaps in some of the awareness surrounding the program so we took some time to build everybody's capacity on it so that when we get further into the discussion during phase two they felt well versed on the programs for phase two of the analysis after we conducted our scan after we um verified that there was a Continuum of seven points and we lifted the ACB ACB blocks of the six building blocks of decision-making then we delve deep into some quantitative and qualitative data that data included student enrollment the students who were in The their home school or not in their home school but they were in a program

072that could have been far away or close to their home school the transportation Logistics and information academic data such as access scores and curriculum or an absence of perhaps some curriculum the qualitative involved some teacher administrator feedback there was a lot of feedback that was taken from the group based on their known experiences with students and families as mentioned the high quality instruction that was lifted in the phase two was going into a deeper dive to the quantitative and qualitative information there was also a lot a lot of hours weekends lots of hours I can't emphasize that enough behind the scenes information of just Gathering years of data um phase three and that's where we are at right now so now that the task force are done and have made their recommendation it sits with

073a variety of teams to analyze what can be realized so there may be some adoptions there may be some adjustments to the plan there's a lot of conversations that are happening in small groups with principles as well as oneto one with principles so that they get a sense of how their building may or may not be impacted with some of the program shifts that occur and then once those adjustments it made we would execute the plan this is where our equity and rightful presence is absolutely highlighted if and when the plan is that is recommended is approved um there will be a lot of moving parts to ensure that the work that we do is absolutely aligned with best practices everything from resource mindsets to program structures ensuring that our needs are never compromised of

074our students making sure we're having conversations and supports in place again working with our Union partners for Staffing and then thinking about the nuances of the facility and curricular needs because as you could imagine if we're discussing program changes we need to have a conversation about what that means with the facility so this is very much a cross collect collaborative conversation that has occurred with multiple departments including Transportation operations lni um equity and engagement all the building leaders and again our Union and partners questions thank you Dr dual so I just want to First reiterate I think one of the things that tonight's purpose was really to give you uh sense Board of the process that we're engaging um you will be hearing uh within the next couple months some of the additional now specific

075recommendations but I thought it was important for the board to hear tonight some of the process of what's gone in to thinking about the challenges that we are facing in our various diverse learning programs and to ensure that that's aligned um I I'll lead off in terms of questions Dr can you talk a little bit about how this is connected with the strategic planning process and how those two are complimentary and then I'll open up for the board yep so as um alluded to earlier with multilingual there was one program out of three that was identified and with special education three of the 12 what we anticipate in the next threeyear strategic plan is looking more deeply into all of the programs the purpose of this task force was to identify a program that the

076team felt needed immediate attention Dr dubiel thank you very much for your presentation can you let me know if BAC and epic were involved in these discussions so one of the things that we did is ensure that no they were not so one of the things that we did was ensure that our Union Partners were but what we anticipate first of all we're very much in phase three so that's where the accommodations and adoption pieces would be it would be very difficult to bring it to a group where we don't know quite yet what is being recommended so we're very much we're very much in limbo to see if now what's recommended recommended is actually feasible once and we've like just today we made more adjustments um based on some uh building leadership feedback once

077we have a sense of what is going to happen yes we anticipate that there'll be an opportunity for some informational um send out to the different uh parent groups okay I think their feedback would be incredibly uh helpful and supportive um moving forward so thank you okay other questions for I just wanted to inquire a little bit about because you had mentioned you know all the hours weekend like all the data that goes and I appreciate the the quantitative and qualitative piece uh both of those being there I think they're very important um I'm just wondering I'm thinking of um another conversation that I heard about data uh and how easily accessible it is in regards to being able to pull data for items like this is there seems like there's enough data but are

078there areas of growth in regards to what we could support as a board in regards to platforms that would do some of that data pulling for us and make this system or this process more um like agile yeah and I think we're having conversations at the senior leadership level to talk about some of the data uh platforms that we have we know we're examining one in part well we may be examining a particular but this one particular that we know needs a refresh and a reboot so I do think um it would be something that would be advantageous for the district to have a more friendly user friendly and we are having those conversations of what that could look like something to come in the future yeah thank you yeah and I would say that

079we leaned in a lot in these initial these are these committees that you're talking about many of them are union leg and so this initial phase is really that review the parent component was extremely instrumental in our strategic planning process and so those two to your question Miss Johnson will become very evident in terms of the feedback we've received through the strategic planning process as well as we did do a lot of work around um when Dr duel came in meeting with parents throughout her entry plan so in her entry plan she met with a number of parent groups um including epic and so there was a lot of feedback about significant challenges that we are facing and I've met with um a number of those groups as well um particularly with individuals from those

080groups and so there are some very true um tried and true challenges that are longstanding and a lot of those are a part of the work that we are working to develop a very coherent and methodical plan to ensure that we can get to the other side of this and I think one of the things that will close with is if you want to talk a little bit about the program descriptors and the win that we have received there that's a first for our district and I think a parent recently said to me that the last time we had program distri was 2015 is what I hear so correct um and I'll just add this piece as well regarding the qualitative part as uh family feedback as mentioned some of the qualitative information was leaning

081in on our staff and our leadership about what they have experienced and we're talking collectively over a 100 years years of input and we're not saying 100 Years of Staff input but just all the experiences combined we had almost an infinite number of feedback regarding all kinds of plans so um feedback and insight regarding people's trials tribulation celebration regarding all kinds of programs I don't think that there's anything that um would be shared would be S surprising however of course we still welcome that Insight right because there was a lot of information shared that we were aware of that's why we elevated this and we accelerated this rather than wait for the three-year strategic plan we knew that this was a concern both in the multilingual space and in the special education space so rather

082than wait to 26 27 we wanted to identify at least one program in each department that we could um prioritize right away and you really utilize that as a pilot as a model of what we could do with the additional programs um to speak to the programs and attributes it was clear um that some of the program Des scriptures in special education were not as explicit and it needed to be so um back in the summer we worked with uh several teams to think about ways we can provide more description about each program so in that work we included different attributes so not only described a program but what are the different attributes of a program those attributes are factors such as learning profile so that included academic functional and cognitive processing health communication sensory

083motor social emotional and behavioral profiles and access to general education so with each one of our programs not only are we describing it we've identified all of those attributes of the students that may fit or may likely fit within each of these programs so it was quite a collaborative process after we've identified and we um had these attributes drafted we shared it with the Oe the oea then provided a survey to their membership on what they thought about the language of the attributes and the descriptors we took that feedback and we um uh currently we took that feedback and we adjusted again so we're excited that we're finally going to publish it it's currently sitting with our translator so we can have it all translated into Spanish that's awesome very good okay thank thank you

084so much thank you thank you thank you all right now we invite Dr Kel Gotti to provide us with his superintendent report all right good evening board um just a couple quick updates first of all I want to um really bring to our attention board um I think that this is a period of time where we know that there are significant issues that are going to arise in each of our schools um I want to reiterate our our district administration's commitment to when problems do arise um we are always and we'll continue to continue to address those and work with the school staff work with parents work to understand how to do it better I know that at times um those issues become extremely escalated and uh it's extremely important to us that we continue

085to maintain a posture of improvement and never giving up until we have those fully realized and fixed um it's not uh done until every child feel successful at school and I want to reiterate our commitment as a district to that Spirit of continuous Improvement and the importance of um we won't not give up and we will continue to work on those and we recognize the challenges facing those and I would say that in that same Spirit um we think about our history and this is a period of time where in our history this month we celebrate and we recognize black history month and I think uh no history can be more in America reflective of that commitment to struggle and to Rising above the challenges that come before us um as a nation we think

086of um Black History Month not just as black history but really our history as American history I think the motto in our nation of eus Unum out of many one um reminds us that our strength lies in our diversity and in our unity and as we reflect on our Rich contributions and the rich contributions of African-Americans throughout history in our nation we celebrate how these stories are woven into the fabric of our American journey um I encourage all of our Educators um students and families to participate and to reflect on the activities and the experiences of our our history and recognize the importance of that um today um and Beyond um our district website actually has a number of activities being highlighted and so I encourage those of you to to reach out who haven't

087seen any of those to take a look at some of the things happening in our community right now um this is uh Peak uh cold and flu season I have actually uh it's a it's a really tough period I know a lot of of staff and students and Educators board members um are facing that and you know just as a I've been asked as a public health uh announcement just remind us the the value of washing hands my dad was a pediatrician and always reminded me of that so washing hands and lots of liquids and uh I used Ginger recently that helps a lot too so uh but you know that's a little home remedy on my end but I really want to thank everyone for their efforts to work together and staying healthy and

088and sometimes that can be hard and we have to stay home when those things happen um and uh last but not least I know that it is almost a kindergarten reg that oh wait I'm sorry I misread that so kindergarten registration is open and uh we are excited to welcome our next group of uh students I want to thank uh Mr Bell and his Department uh this is the time to really start to to complete those registration forms for parents it's kind of like oh my gosh I can't believe we're here um the process is fully accessible online and your early registration is really helpful when we think about the way in which we prioritize and we think about our staffing for next year class sizes and resources allocated and really it's the best way

089early registration and registration Now is really helpful when we think about the ways in which we can think about our dual language programming opportunities there think about the ways in which we are supporting families and students and entering the school year um I'm excited that on March 11th we'll be hosting a Kinder Quest this is a new thing for our incoming kindergarten students again that's March 11th this special event will offer a prospective students and their families the opportunity to meet School administrators staff and representatives from various departments including special education Transportation multilingual Services technology stay tuned for more details on this exciting event coming soon if you haven't seen it yet so and with thatal I want yep put in your calendars um and with that I want to thank the board and invite

090the board for any other comments you may want to make related to announcements and celebrations some celebrations uh several students from OS placed in the Scholastic art and writing Awards this year so congratulations uh to all of those Panther writers Poetic Justice an oehs writing group uh had a successful showing at the regional Scholastic writing competition they have advanced to the National Finals uh these students wrote these pieces in creative writing spoken word and the spoken word Club congratul congratulations and good luck at the national level wow Dr John Waller who is in this room Dr Waller who's the assistant superintendent of equity and engagement is the recipient of a number of recent recognitions for dedication to an advocacy for all students congratulations to Dr Waller for receiving the following the ace accelerate career through

091education leadership award the 2025 don't be and her dirty looks the 2025 women's empowerment award by the Quad County Urban League and the black Student Association motivational speaker award uh by the annual black Excellence ball congratulations to you congratulations many sd308 band and choir staff members were selected to present or perform at the 20 25 Illinois music educators conference congratulations uh to Juliana carus uh at mury uh chandren J Daniel at Thompson Lisa heemstra at bednark Devin Cano at trober Rachel Maxwell at trer uh Jessica Corey at plank Uh Kevin shach at uh OS Steven Rex wrote at oehs Stephanie San Roman at ohos and suel Moore at oehs thank you for showing off your talents and thank you for all you do for our students in band and choir those of us uh I

092wore the wrong shirt I didn't wear the band shirt tonight oh well we appreciate you our Junior High robotics teams have recently celebrated success so congratulations to the plank octobots and the benar benar domo arigato for their performance at the bavia section tournament and congratulations also to the bricks of power from benari the waterlog Gearheads from Murphy the otter Bots from trer and the C pickle Bots from Thompson for their hard work this season congratulations I don't know which name is the ohos and O oehs chapters of business Professionals of America also recently competed at their Regional competition in their first year of having a chapter OS Advanced Four students to State and in their ninth year oehs Advanced 83 students to State congratulations and good luck and last the asigo high school floral team

093recently won State congratulations on this amazing [Applause] accomplishment we'll pass it back to you madam president thank you and now we will hear from our student board members for their report okay so I'm excited to announce some very very important things that will be coming up so on March 3rd the students will be hosting a District's public forum as student board members we are honored and excited to create a space for students to share their experiences with teacher student relationships additionally we are hopeful to gain insight and feedback that will further guide us into finalizing our action plan to improve teacher student relationships amplify will take place on March 13th at oo High School from 5:00 P p.m. to 8:00 p.m. our very own Coalition students are planning to lead students Educators and community members

094in sessions that address important topics like sensorship gender identity and psychological safety students will share their stories and experiences as students in our diverse District please mark your calendars for an inspiring and impactful event and then the black Excellence ball hosted by iGo High School BSA is happening at o on February 22nd doors will open at 6:00 p.m. so we should come together celebrate and experience and honor black excellence and culture I've also heard wonderful feedback about the success of BSA Buddies the BSA board members from both high schools were eager to Mentor younger students hoping to instill pride and a strong sense of identity early on helping to prevent the insecurities they once experienced themselves they are truly enjoying the opportunity to empower these students boost their confidence and ensure they feel seen and

095valued thank you thank you great L and now we'll have our board committee reports we'll start with the finance and Facilities committee who would like to give that report legislation yeah I do actually so basically the the two main things that we talked about or well first of all an update on the master facilities planning process um we are are up against a situation where the rooftop units at broa have come to the end of their natural life so we have put together or there has been some quick bids put together to replace those um we do need a long lead time to get that done generally it's about 16 to 18 weeks because they need to be ordered so in order to have people in place to get that done um over the summer

096while students are out um we did need to process that now so that's underway Qui I'm just going to add to so broa is not going to be hosting extended school year this year um but they were already not going to be because of the parking lot so it kind of so the timing is important that we get both done over the summer this summer okay so how does how do quick bids work versus regular bids oh I think quick was just my [Music] oh there is an agenda coming up right on there is we do have an item where I can cover that okay thank you thanks for the plug Mary Joel no problem um the other main thing that we talked about speaking of bids there was there are bids in on the

097um pavement and we have projects um across several of the schools including broka uh Grand Park Grand Park and Murphy um asgo and ASO East um I think that's here for information today correct it's not here for information today are we not doing anything we're doing a lot but that's not today it's not coming well anyway those are in the works obviously that wouldn't be until uh till the weather gets warmer which it won't be in the next few days so um based on the um bids that have come in so far it looks like the lowest bidder is Abby Paving who we've used in the past and has done some done some good work for us so anything else you'd like to add no okay you want you want to add something to that

098or you want to wait until your presentation okay all right and then our policy and legislative committee who would like to speak to that okay um we uh we were provided a highle review of the methodology and revisions to the review of student rights and responsibilities for um uh 2526 school year and I think we're um bringing that here to the board not this meeting but next meeting is that correct 24th on 24th thank you um so great job to the team uh very um informative loved some of the the changes that we've we've made and kind of some of the updates so appreciate that um definitely um um answered all of our questions so I look forward to that on the 24th there also also the vision 2030 was briefly discussed as it was

099covered in the finance facilities meeting uh was mentioned that Vision 2030 30 is aligned with our strategic plan there are a number of bills that were discussed uh that impact K through2 education that were passed in 2024 I'll highlight one oh sorry go ahead I I think that was probably after you left yeah and from I was going to highlight one is that okay okay I'm sorry sorry uh Public Act 103-0 771 this one's fascinating right uh actually goes into effect June 1st 2025 and that listen all of us Educators out there are excited that fellow board members that you will uh now in part of your training will be to uh be inducted if you will into training on how to improve student outcomes uh the training will be uh will regard uh improving

100student outcomes required by um uh the state in the scope of the duties of a school board member so that happens and goes into effect June 1st 2025 as I said uh many of us educators are now I'm just kidding most Educators don't even know that that's happening but I happen to be excited that that's that's going to be a part of new Schoolboard train uh training if you will and hopefully that will help so I'm going to tag on to that we also had a discussion um about Title 9 uh because there have been some changes based on the new Administration um T Title 9 basically deals with um sex-based discrimination in school or education program that receives funding from the federal government um it's historically been pretty fluid um there were changes made

101during the 2020 administ uh during the 2016 Administration and then during the 2020 Administration and there were some rules that we adopted and added to our policy based on that uh the new Administration is going back to the changes that were made before so at least that's the latest news and and because I am not the expert on this Mr Bell I am throwing it over to you for the latest update thank you for that so yes there uh we were operating prior to the start of the school year on the 2020 Title 9 rules those regulations were were impacted as of August one or the first day of school if you will um through January um when the new Administration took over they have since vacated um through V various legislative acts uh many

102things and have gone back to the 20 rules um uh and so what we have learned is that uh iasb and press will be issuing guidance on that in their uh April issue of press we did update several of our policies according to the 2024 rules and so we will look at the Press guidance as those uh updates come out and then bring those back to the board for um a first read and action accordingly thank you thank you J okay mam president thank you all right um any board comments I got wine go for it in my uh spare time right I uh I'm Moonlight as the uh Vice chair and commissioner for the Grand Army of the Republic War Museum uh War Memorial Museum that we have in Aurora it's a true Gem

103and um they kicked K off um Thursday night we had a a little dinner and uh kicked off um Black History Month with um a new um exhibit there called um war on two fronts or the two fronts I think it is man now now I'm now I'm now I'm bothered but it was uh it was uh talking about many of our African-American uh Aurora veterans and what they faced uh after uh coming home from such Wars as World War I World War II and uh some of these other Wars as well which was fascinating and here you go I want to embarrass somebody I learned something this is what I learned sorry you know I'm going to do it this is what I learned in in the conversation I learned that our president right

104president similton that her mother was the first Clerk of Aurora the first African-American clerk African-American female on top of that clerk in Aurora so that was uh I went there and uh that was what I learned on my way out she tell you I called her right away and I was I said listen I want to tell you what I learned tonight right oh they learned some other things too but that one I got the the most excited about so uh it runs in the family yes he proceeded to tell me that exact same thing yes first yeah yeah but uh if you get a chance definitely check it out it's uh it's uh it's pretty cool and it's awesome that we have that in Aurora um so yeah I'm going to tell my mom

105that you brought her name up CU she'll be excited I have a comment it's just it's regarding the whole like um Boulder Hill situation but I just wanted to start off by saying like as someone me and cie and ssac as we talk about building teacher and student relationship I think it just goes far beyond just high school students and Junior High it also reaches down to Elementary and Kinder Garden Preschool like those are also important age groups as well and fostering uh safe and nurturing classroom for all ages and all grades up until high school and even in college it's very important for all students so I'm not going to lie I kind of broke my heart to hear those types of stories and hear how unsafe these classrooms are becoming and these are

106students too regardless of the aggressors or the people who aren't being aggressive there are students that also need to be nurtured and come down and find that reason why are they acting out or why are they misbehaving in the classroom not to just like throw them off on the side but to understand where they're coming from where cuz these are kindergarteners these aren't even like high schoolers these are children and you know like everything starts at home and fostering a very healthy safe environment without disregarding the situation and making it seem like it is okay because it's not okay not for students that are getting injured and not for the person who's acting out it's not okay either way so for and I know Callie's not present here but she did tell me she was

107watching online like being someone who is advocating for a healthy teacher student relationship it also goes beyond just what me and Cali do in high school or for our Junior highs also for our elementary also for our kindergarteners also for our preschoolers because it starts young and if we can build preschoolers and kindergarteners to have a really good teacher student relationship you don't have those issues of self-efficacy coming on early on in middle school you don't see those issues coming in high school cuz now they've grown into it so we start at a young age you teach and you Foster an ability to learn and be in a positive environment at a young age so that you don't have these issues in the future you don't see them in junior high you don't see them

108or reduced in high school so that's my only comment on that issue thank you for that and that's why you're here and um it is it is it is um the role and responsibility of us who sit on this board to make sure that our students um they deserve and they we expect for them to have a learning experience that is safe um where they feel belong you know where they feel a sense of belonging and that they um that no harm comes to them I mean so you know as part of our as part of what we do to monitor ourselves as a board um I wrote on here that um I was heartbroken to hear it and so this kind of stuff will not happen on our watch and we will make sure

109that things are taken care of and I know I'm speaking for this entire board um when I say that and so um we will things will be taken care of and they will be taken care of because they are you guys are our future and um I can't imagine um the types of experiences if they're having these types of experiences how that's impacting them um and you know every one of them are our children they belong to us and we would not want anything any harm to come to them so it enough said right enough said Can can I lighten it up a little bit oh yeah unless anyone else has any comments and and I agree with everything that you said um I just want to as I usually do just highlight a few

110things that I've been to and done since since the last meeting um first of all I want to I want to highlight OIC was at as here at asigo East last Friday um which is basically a multicultural gathering with um oh my gosh let me let me just say there were so many tables with food different ethnic foods um there were so many people there um celebrating so many diverse Nations and through food and through song and through dance again I want to stress that it's really important that we keep uh um we keep our diversity alive and we celebrate everybody else's culture so if you didn't go this year you had better go next year because I totally blew my diet and yeah but it was well worth it um did get a chance

111to catch some wrestling between um as we go W Bonzi Valley um I want to highlight that especially with winter sports um you know regionals are going on sectionals are going on not only in wrestling uh but but other winter sports so I want to congratulate all the successes so far and wish good luck moving into for those that haven't finished yet moving especially wrestling move into uh sectionals and finals um did go to a couple meetings at the weights and southberry and it is amazing how much you can get from teachers and staff at 7:45 in the morning before their second cup of coffee um I do want to thank them for all of their contributions and all of their hard work across the board but at those two schools in particular I was

112at the black history job fair also here at OE In This Very Room where there was an honor given to the lovely Dr Waller who is who is my highlight for this particular meeting um I would also encourage more people to go to that it could have been a lot better attended but um and then finally and then I'll be quiet um this Saturday was this past Saturday was the 15th annual Hoops for Hope um which is where Yorkville High School and asigo High School come together and play a lot of basketball and do a lot of things like have um they do blood donations they take uh um Registries for bone marrow um there's food there's Raffles um I was only able to catch the um the sophomore boys it was a really close

113game but we won um so that was good but but I also uh was able to catch the ceremony of the survivors and what was really cool about it was all of the student athletes got together from both schools and everybody gathered in a circle in the middle of the court and everybody held up a certificate which basically had the name of someone whose life someone that they knew whose life had been touched by cancer whether they whether they passed or whether they were Survivor so it was there were also cancer survivors there some of whom have been there multiple years um this was all at Yorkville this year so um again it was a great Community experience and next year it's over here at asgo so I would encourage you and to to attend

114and that's it for me I forgot one thing uh February 22nd for those that don't know speaking of blood blood drive you want you want do go for it um for it so we have talked or or many of you know um Robin Vickers in the community and and her son Andy who uh passed away last year there is a blood drive on February 22nd um it's kind of posted all over the place see me if you need um it's on our website it it is on the website okay um we are trying to get actually we have a pretty good turnout so far but we are accepting blood donate me too blood donations um in honor of Andy which is something something that um something that he would want so it's a great Comm

115another great Community gesture and um you know Robin does a lot for the community so if you can make it and if you're eligible to donate please come by well make an appointment first thank you Jared here to help all right 8.1 consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on January 27th 2025 open and close session 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district and 8.3 to approve the field trips for overnight end or over 200 miles second I have a question before we approve yes did you second I did okay go ahead Jen um Dr conade when it comes to um adults that are as chaperon if you will

116are those necessarily School Employees are they parents who can they be so typically we can have a mixture of both um we always have School Employees um present as chaperon um but for some of our larger field trips we do also utilize some parent chaperon okay thank you very much [Music] go ahead Mr ploger hi Dr Maria hi Miss venoth hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson I motion passes 70 okay 9.1 uh this evening I invite Dr Paul and Mr Owen to a presentation bringing to the board for information some work that's been done um to really think about our platforms and vendor platforms for our career and college readiness um always recognizing the career involves the trades and other um career involvement so this is a expansive term

117um want to make sure that's clear as we think about this work tonight I want to thank you all oh you have other guests here so I'll let you all inv introduce yourselves thank you yes hi everyone good evening um Ben and I are very excited to also share some additional staff members who were part of this process to highlight the journey we' been on this year in exploring a College and Career Readiness platform uh so I'll give them a chance to introduce themselves as we begin our presentation good evening I'm Kate libl I'm the assistant principal of student services at ASO High School good evening I'm Ben Owen I'm the director of career and college readiness and before I hand things over to John I did want to point out that as we go

118through the information tonight you're going to hear times when we will say college in career and you're going to hear times that we will say career in college that's not a mistake that's intentional and the reason for that is when we're referring to legislation will align with the language that is utilized which is typically College and Career however when we are referring to the district goals and future Readiness for all of our students we put the term career first because we want to ensure that we're preparing all students regardless of what that future path is so I did want to call that out that that's not misspeaking so just thanks Ben uh and I am John Francis the executive director of schools here in 308 uh so just kind of a history of how we've

119gotten where we are today uh this this work really started with the vendor review process back in the fall of looking at different vendors including the one that we are currently using and what is going to serve Us best going forward um the reason we really needed to do this is getting feedback from the people who use these services at our buildings that we needed something uh that was better for us in prep preparing our students for their future Readiness uh and just something better than what we are currently using this lies within all of the work we're doing with the strategic planning it it is grounded in the foundational practices specifically high quality instruction um and you know on this slide where is developed an aligned this is part of of the the plan

120develop an aligned rigorous curriculum and support for ambitious instruction and practices to ensure all students are actively engaged in learning growing and achieving and then the two bullet points underneath that are really the success indicators right first that it's integrated uh that we have an integrated scope and sequence that aligns with the pace framework for students in grade 6th through 12th and that we can provide two College and Career pathway endorsement sequences within the plan and one additional call out there is when we refer to the PACE framework um the pace framework stands for postsecondary and career expectations framework if we not familiar with that which kind of takes me to to my next Point um so obviously we had a lot of considerations wrapped around looking at a um College and Career Readiness platform

121um we do in District have navian uh that is a platform that is used to greater or lesser extents across our Junior High and high school buildings um what we felt like a need in considering whether it's Naviance or any other platform was to look at first and foremost some of those legislative demands that we have on us um for that career in college readiness particularly as Ben mentioned that pace framework that post-secondary and career exper expectations framework um will go into effect for us this summer um the state is looking for all of our schools 6 through 12 to be able to have either adopted or created a pace framework that will kind of outline our work that pace framework really lays out the experiences the knowledge um and the learning that our students

122need to have at each grade level 6 through 12 in three different areas financial aid and literacy postsecondary education um planning and selection as well as that career exploration and development so that framework can actually kind of create that scope and sequence for us when it comes to that um career uh exploration and post-secondary planning part of that pce framework legislation of course is also that College and Career pathway endorsement which Ben mentioned um with the goal working towards having two of those available to our students at least as a starting point those uh pathway indorsements really create experiences for students particularly at the high school level where there's a course of sequences that they take aligned to a career pathway um there's embedded team and Project based learning there's opportunities for uh dual credit

123within the end of that pathway there's workplace learning there could be opportunities for internship and more of those experiential types of things um we already have coursework in our buildings that allow students to earn industry credentials those are all things that get wrapped up into some of those um pathway endorsements so anything that we wanted to look at as far as a platform we wanted to make sure would align with those legislative uh requirements then a few other considerations that we had as a team just from a practicality standpoint and making sure we had the best services for students was something that would give us some powerful Data Tracking um something that not just in terms of those indicators that we have to keep track of for the state but also um some of the

124things that we're doing with students to keep track of their day-to-day whether that's volunteer experience or work experience that they're having that would fit into that uh pathway endorsement we would want something that's not just looking at is what are colleg is available to me or what careers are available but all of that um including military experiences and trade uh and uh uh internship opportunities um academics post-secondary supports um community and alumni connections this piece was really important to us that alumni connection we do keep track um of the outcomes for our alumni sometimes that's hard to do we lose track of our students what platforms might exist that we can better keep track of our students but more to the point can we build an alumni support network for career Readiness for college readiness

125and connect our current students with alumni and then I just also wanted to highlight highlight the K5 expansion capabilities right now that expectation for us legislatively is 6 through 12 um but we recognize that it's never too early to start talking about what are your dreams and how can we connect kids with the information that they need to start planning um and so would a platform provide us that opportunity all right I do want to highlight obviously I am here today but um I want to thank all of our colleagues for their work and participation we were able to tap staff um from the district office from our Junior highs and high schools um Administration and student services staff um and I want to thank everybody for their time we wanted to be sure everybody

126was represented including our special education programs um and special populations so a little bit about the timeline um at the beginning of this school year the work got underway and um began to flesh out what were the questions what were the needs some of those considerations that I just went through um and then also identifying who are the vendors we want to look at and what criteria um do we want to evaluate them through and then as we got into this semester um we were able to have some of those meetings with vendors um our team that you just saw had time with the vendors got to see each of these different platforms um and then we had an opportunity to pull students um from each of the high schools to spend some time working

127in each of these platforms and get some feedback from the students because while we as the adults in the room might see hey this looks nice or we get good information from it we really if we want our students to be invested in the process and use the platform then we needed to get their feedback all right so I'm going to talk a little bit about the actual vendors that were part of the review process the selection criteria and then into our recommendations so there was three vendors that took part in the vendor review process and they were selected based on the extent to which they are engaged in thisk Market in supporting schools and future Readiness for students so the three vendors that um took part in the vendor review process were navian which

128is the current College and Career platform that we have implemented in School District 308 School links and Zell and the platform considerations or evaluation criteria so as Kate mentioned when we started this process there was that list of things that she initially referenced that were really important to us to help ensure that we were providing these opportunities for all of our students but also to ensure that we were really being reflective of how comprehensive this work is and to do it right we need a platform that is going to provide a lot of layers of support um for our staff and for our students as we move forward with this work so these uh criteria that were developed for the evaluation process are really based off those considerations and I'll call out a few things

129from each kind of bucket here but the first one is Data Tracking and as Kate mentioned it was was really important for us to not only have the ability to track those things that are going to be legislative requirements or are currently such as our College and Career Readiness indicators the components of the post-secondary and career expectations framework but also to be able to customize and pull the data that we need to be able to kind of adapt and best meet the needs of our students so that was referred to um previously when we look at career and post-secondary exploration this is really important because we are not just focusing on a single path for students it was really important for us to ensure that the platform offered a robust offering um in resources and

130supports for all of our students regardless of what that path is so as Kate mentioned for some students that might be college for some students that might be um entering the workforce and the trades it might be the military but we're really focus on that career preparation for students regardless of what that path is um for the students getting into the next component is uh academics and postsecondary what we're looking at there is how the platform can either further enhance what we're doing for our students or increase opportunities through a variety of different things I want to call out a couple specifically so from feedback from our student services department it has been identified that the the need for a comprehensive course planner that can be utilized by our student services staff by students and

131families as our junior high students are planning and moving into high school to be able to interact and kind of engage in that planning process for four 6 years um whatever that looks like for them at the time proactively through the platform so kind of growing the the abilities that we currently have in place here um that also allows for like streamlining and efficiency to free up some of the time of our student services staff to be able to serve students in other capacities also um really important obviously that we maintain the Common App or the the college integration application components as well as uh like just the simple tasks that students need to complete like obtaining transcripts and those types of things in terms of interface support and network I'll quickly summarize this into

132a couple key points the first one is how userfriendly um is the platform for our different stakeholder groups looking at our staff looking at our students our families our community members and really focusing on all those stakeholder groups that could engage and the level to which they could engage with the different platforms when we look at support in network it was what support does each vendor provide us through the implementation process through the roll out of features through the professional learning aspect um to ensure that we are implementing with Fidelity and that we are going to be successful um as we move forward with um a platform regardless of what that is and then the last thing here is network of support so beyond what that vendor can offer um because we know there limitations

133and those relationships aren't necessarily forever it was important for us to look at that network of support beyond the vendor itself in terms of other districts um that are similar to us neighboring districts um similar in size that we could partner with and learn from their experiences um and how they've utilized these platforms also and then the last column here um other features this list could be extremely comprehensive because there's a lot of things that can support this work um as Kate mentioned the community uh and Industry partner component was really important so we want to make sure we wanted to make sure that the platform that we were going to recommend gave us the ability to increase our interaction with our Community Partners in terms of being able to more effectively communicate in terms

134of career and college uh activities for our students but also to invite them in when it's appropriate to be able to come into our classrooms uh support that career exploration attend different events and really enhance those uh Community part Partnerships that are in place for our career exploration currently um the last thing I'll mention here because a lot of these were already mentioned is we wanted to ensure that there was the ability for um parent or family involvement also so what did it look like from a a parent account access how could parents and Guardians support their students and be involved in this process also so that brings us to our recommendation for a College and Career platform moving forward and based on the process that we went through we would recommend School links as

135being the College and Career platform for School District 308 beginning in the 2526 school year um with implementation starting this spring as you look on the screen here you can see that this is the different components that really of the platform that really align with the criteria and the considerations that we had so from the core access and accounts adding the graduation and academic success component adding the uh data suite and then some of these other components also it creates a comprehensive package through the school links platform that allows us to address all of those things that were identified by the team and as we look at The District's uh goals moving forward to ensure that we have a comprehensive platform that supports this work um we did re uh received some intentional feedback from

136members of the equity learning and Innovation committee and there was a couple questions that came up as we were discussing the different components here that I did want to address to make sure that we had those answers also so the first question that came up was through this platform is would School links be the place that students in addition to utilizing common app that college integration tool is it the platform where they could also accumulate letters of recommendations for that process and we did confirm that yes this would be the same platform that they would do that work in an additional question was would we have the ability to onboard alumni or is it just limited to current students um and we did receive confirmation from school links that we do have the capabilities to

137onboard alumni also uh through this process if we choose and what uh determine what that looks like and then the last question was uh in regards to the HBCU Common App um asking if that was integrated into the platform also and it is not directly integrated um in essence like the Common App itself is but they School links did confirm that they have processes in place to support students through this and that they have experienced no issues in other districts with students um completing that process so a couple key advancements when we look at school links that really align to the work that we have ahead of us in uh District 308 is that industry partner management so we talked about being able to grow and enhance those relationships that is one key component another

138feature that was U kind of really shined through the school links vendor process was the student opportunity board and you'll see a screenshot of this in just a moment but what this does is it gives students um the ability to search through the school links platform and look for um job opportunities and other opportunities so internships career opportunities and different things of that nature that they can filter based on specific criteria that they put in and this is housed through not only Our Community Partners but also Community Partners who may be involved with other districts and have posted opportunities within the platform for students also um looking at some of those academic enhancements such as course planner and the ability for a public facing digital course catalog those were uh advancements over where we're currently

139at alignment to the legislative requirements and career exploration for all students was crosswalk resources that really directly support the requirements looking at scope and sequencing the ability to uh customize what's already there but Al things that we may want to modify to best meet the needs of our students and then um the accessibility features to make sure that all students in uh users have access we talked about the network of support in one advancement I'll say with School links is that when you look at the Chicago and Chicago um land suburbs 90% of high schools um are utilizing School Lings so when we look at that Network that is available to us there is a um a deep well that we can reach to to kind of learn from other districts but also to partner

140with and ensure that we are moving forward with intentionality and Fidelity as we Implement and then the last point is the parent uh and alumni access we did briefly talk about the parent access I do want to call out that when our students become alumni so we have our students who have accounts when they become alumni they uh retain their School links account through uh School District 308 for life so it gives us that ability to continue to engage our graduates and really help with tracking but also start leveraging them as Community Partners to meet the needs um as we move forward also um on the previous slide these are just some screenshots there is the accessibility features um here and down on the bottom right is a scope and sequencing these are very brief

141uh images it's much more comprehensive on the next slide this is just a preview um really zoomed in on what the industry partner management looks like so this is where we have the ability to list partners that we currently have uh collect information at different events and include these Partners in our database and Target specific audiences that we want to reach out to to engage in different capacities in addition once we are up and running in the platform Community Partners have the ability to request to be a partner with the school district also those do have to be reviewed and approved but it's a two-way communication where we can directly input um or Community Partners who see that we are in the school links platform because it is becoming very commonly used and they maybe

142the support surrounding districts can also choose to engage with us to kind of grow that also and then this here again I said this was a great feature for our students this is a screenshot um from a demo account so everything here is not going to be completely accurate of the student opportunity board just showing how this will increase the opportunities for our students to really be able to go in and search based on specific criteria that they input and uh and see additional opportunities for internship ship and potentially full-time jobs as they're going through that career exploration process um as Kate mentioned we did uh we know the importance of getting student feed feedback through this process so we as staff we support this but students live in this uh the platform dayto day

143if we do this right so um we did uh engage students in demo accounts to be able to go in and explore and kind of provide feedback on what that looked like for them in the board memo you will see that there is a document link that has um much more extensive um highlights from the student feedback but I did want to call out a couple here um some general themes from student feedback was that that the platform is very userfriendly it's easy to navigate and they like the level of the interactiveness as they were looking through different resources and trying to find some of those things we ask how easily they could um Locate uh the longer the third quote here um I thought was a great call out also so this is student

144feedback uh specifically calling out the accessibility features and access that School links provided and how it makes the platform more accessible to all students so I thought that was important to CL uh include also all right so coming to our projected budget when we uh talk about the budget I do want to talk about the reach that the platform would have so that core access component which is in essence the uh Apples to Apples with our current platform um when implemented 6th through 12th grade would reach approximately 9100 students when we look at some of those add-ons that support the the high school uh requirements really with like the academic enhancement as well as some of that Data Tracking those add-ons would reach approximately 5,400 students in grades 9 through 12 so the anticipated cost

145and this is detailed um in uh it's included in the board memo in additional uh detail in terms of historical cost projected cost and funding recommend commendations um is outlined here but I also want to mention that historically in the recommended funding is um a split between local funding and CTE Grant funds so we are not really see we're remaining relatively constant in the local uh funding requirements and any additional cost that would be incurred um is able to be covered with our CTE Grant funds um which are coming into the building so the projected cost are up here there is a onetime implementation cost of $6500 year one um is listed as 65,7 and you can see there's a slight increase each year and School links indicated all platforms did see an increase and

146when they provided multi-year quotes but School links talked about that as being they are investing millions and millions in dollars to um continue to grow and enhance the features and really meet the needs of districts within the state of Illinois so I will hand it over to Dr Paul so one of the biggest areas we wanted to pay attention to is our implementation plan of how we start transitioning into um with your board approval of this platform um with School links and so we've already started conversations both with our building leaders as well as School links about what that looks like for the remainder of this year as well as planning for the future so you can see just some highlights here um how we're also working with our technology team with doing a data

147data transfer from our current platform to um the recommended platform uh so we don't lose that information that our students have already provided us um in our current platform um in addition providing ongoing professional learning for the users of our staff such as our student services teams at both of our high schools as well as paying attention to how we can support our students and our parents learning more about this platform and what does that look like for them um I don't know if it was mentioned but schoolinks does have an app for parents to be able to access the platform as well so providing easy access not needing to go to a website to go to find out more information so more details to come as we work with our building leaders um and

148our students and our parents for um ongoing professional learning um again additional documentation that was highlighted today is in the board memo including our current costs with our current vendor um as well as all three vendor proposals for your review um and we are here to answer any questions you might have based on our presentation this evening I hit two and I'm sorry I didn't POS these earlier um multiple languages yes or no yes so um it has I do not remember off the top of my head the exact amount but it does have the ability to translate into um several languages do you remember Kate what it is a lot is good a lot is good yeah um but yeah it was it was a lot more accessible from a language aspect okay um

149and then the other thing is um does this also you know help kids uh or actually adults you know coming from our transition program um you know the services that they might need or uh you know things like you know what I'm saying um or is that something that would be a different platform so I we have the ability for any of our students to be in the school links platform so I think it would really be navigating through with our our staff and those programs and identifying the resources that best align and tailoring that experience uh for those students and I think um so I guess so yes appropriate yes okay uh I think part of the benefit of that um Community partner feature in the platform is that we can kind of tailor

150that the way that we want to so I think that gives us an opportunity when we think about some of those special populations to include some of our Adult Services connections and those contacts so that we have that in student services so that our special education teams have that um as well as help provide our students and families with that access thank you I have a couple questions um first thanks for getting the questions that we did ask answered and I think the parent access is a game changer so I love that um my my question is actually for Hope um cuz then it'll lead to my second question it's okay don't be nervous nervous not her I know she made a face so do you currently use navian and um well I'll just ask

151that question do you currently use naviant but what should they do or plan to do in order to ensure that students are leveraging this new program okay so my advice okay first answer your question yes I still do use navian I really do love navian and the whole like clever program so for this new program School links my only advice would be just make it um I don't know the word to use but let it be cohesive like with the counselor and um the students I had a really good time when it came to applying for colleges and requesting transcripts through navian with my counselor and she was able to communicate with me like through the app so I thought it was really cool that I didn't have to do too much work in the

152like requesting it did not take that long it didn't take too long to get that information instead of just getting the paper and doing all that so that would be my only advice for seniors or Juniors that are graduating early to have a really good system between counselors and students using this new app um I think that'd be my only also another thing is um I hope it's easy when it comes to like putting in information for like what colleges people want I think Navia does a really good job of narrowing down but not just narrowing down like finding what fits you like do you like a roll area how like how big do you want the campus to be what do you want to go into here are the schools that um are really

153good for the major that you want to go into I really like that aspect about navian as well so that's my only thing that I would say just catering to people that do want to further their education in college having it easy especially your freshman year freshman usually don't know what they want to do with their freshman year so I liked how the app would give me ideas I loved how the app would also like help me figure out a career I wanted to go into they had a quiz they would allow me to take a little quiz answer a few questions and then give me a bunch of careers from what they think that I'll most likely want to do to what hey is this something that you think you might be interested in

154and then giving me colleges based off of that navian did a great job with that so that's what I would say on that note that's great so does this do that yes it does and and I if I can speak for our counselors I think they would agree with you that they they want a big piece of irritation to our student services teams right is the amount of data entry and plugging things in and we don't want to be spending time doing that we want to be spending time in meaningful interactions with our students so the more we can streamline and automate some of those things so that you can have more meaningful conversations with your counselors about career interests about college um will be helpful to us so they totally agree they want it

155to still stay as easy and streamlined and that was important to them yeah that's great and yes um this plat this School links platform does offer a lot of those things that you mentioned in terms of the interest inventories alignment suggested matches um being able to search for colleges based on uh specific parameters that are of Interest those are all Incorporated here also so the one the second caveat to that is that it's an AI generated program that it does extract data and I don't expect you necessar haven't answered when I'm about because I didn't give it to you beforehand but it extracts data and my assumption is of course it's Predictive Analytics is based on what we put into it and so it said that it it's it's the little research I said it

156said it predict is Predictive Analytics to improve outcomes so my thought thought is what outcomes um what specific outcomes will this program help us in the district to to improve or identify etc for the students that's a great question um one of the things that was kind of touched on is what do we what happens when students graduate what Pathways do they take for careers in colleges um that they might be selecting or trades or vocational schools and this platform we are hearing can provide us that additional data beyond the high school experience um and we're eager to learn more as we more about this platform and the capabilities it can offer us yeah I think that's important especially for Data Tracking cuz if it's if it's saying that it's going to provide that my

157hope is that it'll provide you with a dashboard so that you don't have to disaggregate the data as we were just talking about and because it's saying that it does it but I want to make sure that it does it for you because otherwise we'll be doing the same exact thing know export of data into spreadsheets so then figure out how to exactly um from talking with other districts and I don't know that this direct like is a direct correlation but through that process um and part of the kind of customized reporting that it shares will kind of it will indicate what those top careers are like so we can assess our programs against it our offerings for students and we can really see student interest student skills and what our offerings are and how

158we're able to support that at our varying schools and across the district also okay and I'll add a couple more outcome related pieces that I think are are of value to us and what we're considering is um in that course planner feature if we're able to be better more efficient more comprehensive in students creating course plans that allows us to better project course enrollments several years down the road so speaking to Ben's point about not just do our programs match what students are interested in but do we have the capacity to offer those programs as we go one two three four years down the road um and I also think that more of an immediate kind of outcome we want to look at is when we at least speaking for o when we look at

159our five Essentials data and how students are responding in terms of the importance of high school for their future those responses are fairly low and I think what we would look for as in a near-term kind of outcome is if we're better able to connect students with what their why is that we're going to see a better understanding of why High School is important what I'm doing on the dayto day is going to lead to something and better investment in that instruction dayto day that's good the the one piece um so we had in in Valley viw we had Naviance and um now we're School links this year and to your point hope um or maybe this makes you feel better or not I will tell you that the um recommendation letters that I've written

160this year through School links number one it's it's actually easier than Aviance number two the students seem to know that they were in there in place quicker than under navian I know there were a lot of times where students came came up to me like and they said oh did you get that done I was like yeah I did that like a few days ago and they didn't know that whereas in School links it was like I don't know why or how and I'll get to that in a second but but they they knew pretty quick the one caveat and warning I have about School links is don't do what my district did which was pretty much train nobody on anything and uh so we're sitting here learning things on the Fly I don't I

161don't care man I'll air it out I don't care I don't care the truth is the truth and set you free at some point right um so by but that's important to your point because I I fear that there are students out there who because quite frankly the the teachers haven't necessarily had the training to help them there are students who are kind of in these systems and the danger is it becoming a checkbox for that report card piece right because what what I think people don't realize is some of these things are in place because the state is expecting us to have certain criteria when it comes to the state report card and this definitely is a tool that can help as long as right we do that work up front and so then

162to Hope's point then she doesn't have teachers who don't know what they're necessarily doing with the system either so that's my one warning and just I don't know just a little from from my own experience if you will from both navian and School links I actually have a question on that note does this um app help uh students and parents learn how to fill out a fast good question because I know that it can be really really difficult for parents that are immigrants that don't know how to fill out a FASA or I've never filled out a FASA or have a student that's going to college for the first time so and it was hard for me I'll say that so does this app help students and teachers no students and parents learn how to

163fill out a fast bu so we will ask them that question thank you so much for raising that okay this just something that's always interested me uh I'm sorry were you no I said any other questions okay um was you know if we're going to have more insight potentially into our alumni um I've always been interested in how much we are our students are getting in scholarships and grants um I know it's Millions dollars a year um but uh I'd really like to know and I think the community should know um or would like to know as well so um shows the value you know so I don't know if that does that or if it's um some way of tracking it we will find out if they can do that as well these are

164really great questions so we appreciate your your questions keep them coming and that's good to know as well because I know we do try to collect that actually coming up here shortly from our graduating class what scholarships what awards have you gotten so that just so that we know and can recognize students but that could be something that we share back as well from each of our high schools yeah whatever we get um I would like to know yeah and I will follow with schools to get like a definitive answer a definitive answer on that we do have the ability for some of that customized Data Tracking so like again an example of that is like our industry certifications or credentials that students are earning we have the ability to track that through School links

165um if we Implement so I will see like what that looks like in these different capacities also thank you one there's a question from Jen Jen go ahead Jen um this might be more for Dr katti but I think one of our Al large area of opportunity for us is with our Alumni network and shed our strateg plan um call for it and this be a another tool for the alumni um networking and Outreach do we have someone that can actually input that information and be responsible for that currently within our staff or is that something that would be something we would have to look into outside of our current Staffing it's a good question so did you hear so yeah I did hear okay you want to build and then I'll build on what

166you said yeah and um so I can speak a little to that in each building we do have our College and Career Center um which is staffed by a secretary position um part of what they do as we close out each year with each graduating class is try and collect that contact information for our alumni so that we can utilize them um not just for metrics but also we're really starting to build that program of of an Alumni network so there are some staff that are trying to do that work it's always been a challenge um but I think that there's some capacity there absolutely and in year one of our strategic plan we've identified uh formalizing some partnership opportunities and also sponsorships to be able to build on what you've just shared um Jen

167so thank you for raising that and um I would say that um it's a I think the a lot of times it's really not even the the human power to do the work it's also the vision and the coordination of what we do with that information and sometimes the first step is to gather the information so thank you for that recommendation and maybe there's some coordination and I know um having uh Mr Owen and his role will help us get there and we have a lot of projects already on the burner but let's let's put that on there as well I think that's a worthy especially we have so many local community members who are alumni of our district um who would be so excited for this of opportunity one last followup for the HB

168um HBCU uh Common App if I I know for example with navian the the common app link was listed but if the HBCU Common App it link is not listed it sounds like School links has a process for doing it and just so that we have access I would I would ask them if they could at least list it on the page or somehow have information inform within the system so that students know that it's available for them if they would like to follow that process but if it's not available to you know to school link I just want to make sure we we mention it and that it's not if it's not listed there some students may think it's not available so I just want to make sure that it's at least listed thank

169you what would uh what would graduates access School links for like I graduate from myo School District next next year why would I go back to this tool there are times where graduates need transcripts and so they would need to be able to access this platform to to locate them um I think that there might be some information in there that might be useful Ben could probably speak to that a little bit more because in his former District he use School Lings so um I can say in addition to being able to put in res uh request for transcripts and additional things when we onboard our students and throughout their process and their time in our our school district they'll also uh create individual learning plans they have the ability to in essence create some

170portfolio um components like resumés and other things to highlight their accomplishments so they can access those things and then we can again use the the platform to um kind of increase that intentionality about how we're connecting with our alumni to um kind of transition that from their time as a student to as they continue on in their Journey coming back and being a partner to support our currents who um are in the district after them thank you okay thank you team for your due diligence and uh there been a lot of steps to get here and so um just as a reminder for the public this has come tonight for information um so in this interim period There's an opportunity for more questions to come in from either the board or for the public about

171this and so we thank you and we thank you for your your attention and for everybody coming out tonight I appreciate you uh next I want to invite uh Mr Queen uh to speak and Mr OA to speak to our two RT un units we heard some earlier discussion um we did so I would like to elaborate a little bit more on that um the approval tonight is to replace the two bro call rooftop units at bro call Early Learning Center uh we we would look to do this purchase through a co-op such as Omni sourcewell these are purch purching organizations that allow government agencies and educational institu institutions to access pre-negotiated contracts um the bidding is already done for us um the second reason we would like to do this is for the timeline

172uh we got a crucial date that we're trying to make for this summer where we're potentially closing this building down where we've collaborated with teaching and learning and several other departments to uh get that building empty so we can tackle this project with some parking lots and this is ample time for us to nail these two rooftop units that have been failing us all year um they've been a struggle to keep going my crew uh time and time again have been over there keeping them up but uh it's time to replace them they're over 20 years old and with the purchase of two units it would be 365 with an additional 35,000 for the curbs pushing us to 400,000 to replace these units now this is just to replace the units we would still be

173going out to RFP for the labor after after we purchased Securities units so if we were to purchase them on the next board meeting for the 24th we would get these in about 17 to 18 weeks putting us right in timeline for July when we would look to install these um any questions bill can you share with the board how these units specifically you could normally fix Parts but because it's all one unit what I'm referring to she said explain how you can typically fix the unit but because this is all one unit you couldn't fix it explain that process it is well it's two units one two units to supply the building half for one bu half of the building half for the other side of the building so the BAS system is shot

174we can't communicate with it like we should be doing on a regular basis um so my guys are using trades of to tricks and we're opening Valves and we're moving water just to fluctuate through that building so there's a lot of things that my team is able to do but that time is running up on us those those fixes will only work so long and we really need to address these units like I said they are at 20 plus years um the non-communication is a big piece for me and my team did that that get you Jen thank you so much I think it's just another reminder that um our buildings are getting older right and um we we are still paying on many of them um through through our uh bonds getting closer we're

175getting closer but just a reminder that like for some people to think that broa is over 20 years old that might be a shock to the system but um those buildings are are aging and and it's not the only one so I think it's just a reminder to to all of us on that front Okay other questions thank you okay that's it okay moving on to our action items um action item 10.1 approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 37 milon1 18,5 2410 as presented second Miss vmou hi Dr Mario hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of resolution can I have

176a motion please make a motion to adopt the resolution authorizing the abatement of a portion of the working cash fund and directing the transfer of $7 million to the capital projects fund second Mr Cerone hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr ploger I miss vmou I Mr Gatewood I miss Simon I action I'm sorry motion passes 70 action item 10.3 approval of antivirus replacement can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the five-month contract with crowd strike in the amount of 23,31 uh6 second Miss Simon hi Miss vmou hi hi Mr poer hi Dr marel hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Mr Gatewood hi motion passes 70 action item 10.4 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed

177and presented second Dr marel I Miss Johnson hi Mr Gatewood hi Mr bloger hi Miss Sim hi mron hi Miss ven hi motion passes 70 um action item I'm sorry 11.1 can I have a motion to adjourn I make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I