SD308 Board of Education Meeting (01/13/2025)

001January 13 2025 can I have a roll call please Mr Cerone here Mr G presid Miss Johnson Dr marel present Mr cler present Miss Simon present Miss venas president student board members hope here and K president Miss Johnson present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay all right good evening Madam president president today's an exciting evening we've got a number of uh students and staff members we are thrilled to recognize and I'm going to now turn it over to uh our executive director of schools uh Mr Francis thank you Dr katti uh what a great night for us to celebrate first of all

002we are going to start with our student recognition first of all the asigo community Unit School District 308 board of education is proud to recognize our students efforts and accomplishments there are several students here with us tonight who have excelled in academics Athletics and extracurricular activities we have a lot to celebrate from this fall students as your name is called please come forward to be congratulated by the Board of Education and our superintendent Dr kelti first of all we have Ali wartell Ally is a freshman at asigo high school this fall she placed fourth in the class 2A girls ihsa State final golf tournament her score of 144 points secured her spot on the podium congratulations Ally at this time any administrators and coaches who are present to join Ally up front for a photo

003and athletic directors [Laughter] congratulations [Applause] Ally next we have two students from asigo East High School who achieved All State status at the girls swimming and Diving ihsa State final meet first Katie malm Katie Katie is a junior and Katie took first place in diving next and next we have Addie Miller Addie is a [Applause] sophomore allly scored second in the 100 meter breast stroke and placed fourth in the fifth and2 200 free congratulations Katie and Addie again any administrators coaches athletic directors come on up congratulations Katie and Addie [Applause] the last group of students that we would like to recognize tonight have amazed us with their artistic talents the Illinois art Education Association Statewide Student Art Show took place in October and the following students were named iaea Student Art ambassadors for Illinois's K12

004art curriculum we have Caitlyn Russell Caitlyn was taught by Mrs steel Jenna Allen Jenna was taught by Aaron kley we have Cheyenne Beasley Shia love and last up Payton lustrup [Applause] we have if if Laura steel Aaron kley Michael scura Randy Craig and Heather stannish if you're here I see Mr skura is here he's got to get up for a [Applause] picture also one more time for our admin all right let's give one great big last round of applause for all of our students and faculty being [Applause] recognized and we would also like to recognize our January 2025 Pride winners tonight the Board of Education acknowledges our pride winners from Churchill Elementary Prairie Point Elementary South Bar South Berry Elementary and Murphy Jor high for the month of January Pride stands for proudly recognizing individuals

005demonstrating Excellence the Board of Education began the program nine years ago to recognize promote and celebrate the many contributions made by our teachers and employees across the district we thank our genous generous District Partners Chick-fil-A Culver's imagination Print and Design Huntington Learning Center serve bank and the scoop for helping to make this program successful we would also like to thank all those who nominated individuals for consideration awardees after your name is called and we share your nomination please come forward to be congratulated by the board and Dr katti and then please wait until the rest of the individuals from your school have been called up because we love our pictures with you first we have Church Hill Elementary School welcome Sarah Carson Sarah is a speech pathologist and behavior therapist Sarah strives to have a

006full understanding of her students unique communication needs whether through words actions devices or objects as shared by a nominator her unwavering dedication Innovative strategies and compassionate approach have transformed the lives of countless students empowering them to express themselves confidently Sarah also collaborates effectively with staff and families to ensure each student has what they need to succeed congratulations Sarah next we have Tom clayon physical education teacher [Laughter] Tom Works to make his classes enjoyable for all students Tom wants the best for all his students and maintains high expectations while also making his lessons fun and engaging with creativity and friendly demeanor he also makes a conscious effort to include students in the cross categorical program by giving them space to move and providing equipment that allows for their full participation congratulations Tom and finally unable to

007attend the meeting but we have Lexi slutter building nurse in her first year at Churchill Lesley has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to ensuring every student has access to a healthy learning environment as shared by her nominator she works to support both staff and students and her co-workers are grateful to have her on the district District nursing team congratulations [Applause] Lexi congratulations [Applause] Churchill our next Spotlight is Prairie Point Elementary School first up Jen Boozle [Applause] Jen is a physical education teacher who goes above and beyond to serve her students fellow staff members and the Prairie Point School Community she is dedicated to her work taking the time to grow and develop curriculum in her free time she is not only an amazing PE teacher she is a gracious and considerate person congratulations Jen next up

008we have Kira Ki Cara is a kindergarten teacher and is and is admired greatly by all of her students one parent shared that their child talks about her all the time after school they can see the impact she has on her students another nominator said she is willing to listen laugh and grow right alongside her students congratulations Carol and finally from Prairie Point teacher assistant Jen [Applause] hooks Jen carries a smile and a great sense of humor into her work her capacity to care for and serve both students and staff is appreciated by all Jen finds ways to help those in her building whenever possible she connects with students bringing positively positivity and fun to the building while maintaining high standards and expectations of student behavior in academics congratulations Jen as we give another round

009of applause please come on up Prairie Point [Applause] administrators one more round of applause Prairie Point next up southberry elementary school starting off with Sarah how kindergarten [Applause] teacher Sarah prioritizes building connections with students adapting to suit each of their different needs she has built collaborative relationships with her fellow staff members and those around her can see her passion for teaching every day we feel very fortunate to have her as our child's teacher one parent said Sarah's enthusiasm inspires a love for learning among all of her students congratulations [Applause] Sarah fourth grade teacher and NextGen Mentor Dr Megan Truax is [Applause] next Dr Trac strives to cultivate a safe classroom environment for all ensuring her students believe in themselves and accomplish what they're capable of she is supportive of other teachers and works hard to

010share her expertise as a NextGen residency Mentor her positive attitude and focus on relationships makes learning fun for her students her coaching support and true passion for her job inspire me to grow and learn every day one nominator shared congratulations Megan and we have loose deck teacher [Applause] assistant L is a Stars teacher assistant she is patient with students holding them to high expectations while supporting them with her warm smile and welcoming presence through her work she encourages all students to be successful as shared by her nominator she not only helps and supports her specific students but is also observant and supportive of all other students in our school congratulations [Applause] [Music] one more round of applause for South [Applause] fairy and for our final School of recognition today is Murphy Junior High School starting

011with social worker Sarah [Applause] null Sarah is an advocate for the social emotional needs of her students always available to lend a list listening ear and offer helpful advice she Bridges the gap between school and home working as a partner to students parents and staff a nominator said she is one of a kind it's apparent that she cares deeply for her students and fosters a safe environment for them Sarah's experience and positive attitude have impacted all of us congratulations [Applause] Sarah next up Erica Ric [Applause] ericeric is a sixth grade honors Ela teacher and collaborates well with her co-workers to ensure her students receive the best opportunities possible she is dedicated to helping students succeed both in and out of the classroom Eric is a strong advocate for what is best for students and staff

012alike a nominator said Erica is organized and those around her know that she cares congratulations Erica [Applause] and our final employee of the night is Michelle liberer dedicated building [Applause] sub Michelle has flourished in her role as a substitute special education teacher this year helping students excel in the classroom she rallies behind her students supporting them to be the best people they can be as highlighted by her nominator she leads by example congratulations Michelle [Applause] thank you all of our honores please proceed out into the Hall we will have one big group picture thank you for all of our students families and Community who are nominating our teachers for these Awards just want to thank uh Mr Francis Teresa and Brandon I'll wait till I w't B no oh Jared I didn't know I mean

013so cute no idea today I was looking forward to the M&M's and there are no M&M her award right put it on is it okay let me okay somebody spray light we're not going back session [Music] Sports all right okay are we ready yeah okay uh good evening board thank you again um next we want to invite uh Dr Paul we've got Megan man Tanya sharp and Dr Lasco who will be presenting an update on our high school English text selection I want to thank also um all the department chairs and school leaders who've been involved in this process I know that it's been a long uh process and I want to thank all those involved in advance of this presentation for their dedication and perseverance to the work that has been brought forward tonight

014so again uh thank you to your principls and you all for your leadership turn the good evening everyone um as you know I'm Dr Paul assistant superintendent of learning and Innovation for our district um I'm with uh several team members who are going to introduce themselves uh to you here in a moment um as we begin our presentation um we know that the work that we do is grounded in our foundational practices and really wanting to focus on our priority this year of a rigorous and ambitious instruction and um with me tonight I have several leaders who are going to be helping tell our story story um in our high school novel Tech selection that we'll be bringing to you today for information we've just moved our presentation up a little earlier uh to allow

015uh my colleagues to head out after this presentation uh so next um I'd like to uh give it to uh Dr alasco Who will introduce himself and then uh Miss sharp and Miss man thank you Dr Paul first of all um I've been promoted to doctor and I am not a doctor neither medical nor educational nor any other kind of doctor but I appreciate appreciate the nod of uh confidence I suppose that started with you Dr katti um but my name is Kurt loo I am assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at asgo East hi everyone I'm Tanya sharp I'm the assistant principal for curriculum and instruction at asgo high school hi everyone I'm Megan man I'm the director of humanities uh so uh what you can see in front of you right now are

016all of the individuals who are part of our high school novel Tech selection process um we have teachers representing both high schools as well as at Thompson junior high because one of our courses is taught at um the eighth grade level honors English one um so we had representation led by our two amazing Department chairs um you can see colen and Amy's name is noted there and this work actually started last year and has continued into this year and you're going to hear a little bit more about the timeline of uh the work that the uh committee has done as well as in case you're curious we did share with you in the board memo an explanation of each of the courses in case you'd like to kind of see a little bit more about

017what each course is so the need for this work began in October of 2023 after um the the schools and District received an email from the college board that they were sunsetting the springboard resource which has been the current resource for about the last decade um the College Board communicated that the sunsetting of the springboard resource was driven by a recognition that the College Board is at a juncture where considerable new investment would be necessary to ensure the relevance and quality of the springboard program in years to come the College Board then allowed one more year of springboard purchase which is the year that we are currently in right now um so that schools could have ample time to adopt an alternate high quality resource so the 2425 Academic Year uh the teams have been

018working through the current Resource as as College Board allows them to print student and teacher resources from springboard so that they can still utilize them we're relevant um they can access those PDF files within springboard digital but there is no new print material purchases springboard digital has also remained accessible for this year only uh but some features are not are not currently available so beginning in the 2526 Academic Year springboard and springboard digital will no longer be available with this the team got together and put uh action plan in place where they are continuing to use the resources this year however they noted that certain steps needed to be taken in order to make sure that we are prepared for the 2526 Academic Year so in the spring of last year spring of 2024 Ken

019kelvy and Amy Howton got a team of teachers together where they began to review and analyze um the vertical articulation of the course standards noting alignment gaps and and overlaps that are currently existing with that they also did a needs assessment where they found that there needs to be a better balance of reading and writing instruction where currently the springboard curriculum and the resource um is very writing heavy with that they also reviewed and analyzed all of their common assessments and the Common Assessment data they identified areas of strength and weaknesses and determined necessary revisions based on that data there was an immense amount of feedback that was provided by all of the team members and then um once all of that work was done uh Kurt and I were included in that along the

020way um and it resulted in a a few additional things one of those things is that they really wanted to create a story of the course so for example for English one what is the story of the course what is the purpose of these resources how are we assessing our students so in a very small example English one the the story of the course is coming of age um meaning that the overall literature exposure and development of those skills were in alignment with that quote unquote story or theme um in addition as they continued to review and analyze the planning and pacing guides they were they have also been adding in the seal and CRT standards um from there they have been the revising the the pacing guid as needed collecting the resources from springboard

021and continuing to determine gaps or areas for improvement on a uh in April 2023 that Institute day all of the course team Representatives presented to all of the English teachers across both buildings they provided uh an update on the work that has been done and opportunities for additional feedback as the work continued into this year um through that work also came the proposal of some novel text proposals to meet the needs of where those gaps are and then that is where I will hand it to Megan our timeline continues um this fall the teams continued to work specifically um working on vertical articulation with their writing rubrics it was an amazing process to see there were giant rubrics all over the room and they were working in um content teams working vertically um and it

022was great work they also continued revisions on their common Summit of writing um or reading assessments and planning and pacing guides in addition to the curriculum work the department chairs were busy reading novels and bringing forth 10 to continue in the process process throughout November and December the novels were reviewed by High School principles assistant principal of principles of curriculum instruction equity and engagement myself and Dr Paul the assistant superintendent of learning and Innovation we are proposing seven novels to move forward to be used in four of our English courses um these novels will be on public display for 30 days and then we would ask to vote for approval in February meanwhile the teams will continue to work on curriculum work throughout this semester working on continuing the planning and pacing guides scope and

023sequence Curriculum maps and um and then sharing that with their teams before I share with you and summarize the considerations that were weighed in assessing the novels that we're proposing tonight I want to take a moment to um really celebrate the leadership that Amy Howton at o and Colleen uh calie at OE provided as Department chairs of English at their respective schools uh and their teams that came together did a phenomenal job as well with a relatively accelerated timeline uh as you know it's very hard to find time to read uh let alone to read this many novels this thoughtfully and also um if you had a chance to review any of the uh summaries of the texts that that that were considered before proposing the seven that Megan alluded to a moment ago you

024can see how much not just individual thought but how much collaboration went into this process uh and in that sense um as well as others that I'll that I'll be um noting in a moment we um we really did a good job I believe in this process of adhering to the foundational practices on which uh the district is now focused uh that is of course high quality instruction effective systems and teams teams and equity and rightful presence um so on that note the considerations that um were specifically kept in mind throughout this process include from a curriculum and standards alignment perspective um how much these texts can be integrated into the English language arts curriculum Tanya spoke to that a moment ago so I won't belabor the point but U we needed to make sure

025these texts worked with our academic objectives and our instructional priorities um that also meant of course the the the the teams of teachers and the department chairs who led the work needed to consider text complexity quality on the literary merits of the books that were being um that were being read and reviewed of course um had a lot to do with which text they agreed to advance and um which would be appropriate for our students um we had to make sure that these texts connected to our summ of assessment standards and priorities and the course objectives um uh and by by the way I'll take another moment to step outside of this presentation to say I think our English departments are leading the way with respect to curriculum work in general if you're looking for

026a model for what good curriculum integration and good articulation looks like and what good collaboration looks like you look you need look no further than our English departments doing a phenomenal uh job um constantly tuning their curriculum making sure that it's relevant and rigorous and engaging for students um with respect to engagement we wanted to make sure that this the text met our social and emotional learning standards as well and the text that um the the about half of them I've been able to personally read um I can say very confidently that they are spoton with respect to addressing social and emotional concerns that are gerine to our students today going through the various things that are uh the members of our society are now facing um so um in addition to those social and

027emotional learning standards we also wanted to make sure these texts represented our culturally responsive teaching priorities um and so in these texts you'll see a diversity of perspectives and experiences represented author perspectives characters perspectives um represent uh a broad array of human experience in the United States um and even globally and I think the the staff members who are involved in vetting these books did a the defined job of making sure that we were um appreciating the diversity of our current student populations and making sure that these these books when read by our students would help reinforce the sense of rightful presence in our schools with with regard to literary merit alone we in addition to wanting diverse and cultural perspectives represented we also want want to make sure these books were were current contemporary

028relevant and so the publication date was also considered the reading level and student interest and um were weighed um heavily as well and we wanted to make sure these books were well reviewed and had um garnered attention from those who award um Publications because of course we want these books to stand the test of time because we don't want to do this year after year with books that may may miss the mark so these books have been have been considered with respect to how much they are in fact um um speaking to uh aspects of life in America today in doing it well from a literary perspective so in these courses um that Tanya uh described earlier in her in her uh words we have two types of text that we use in English one

029is a core text which of course serves all students in the class and the other is a choice text uh which allows for individuals to read um certain texts of their of their uh that are interest to them or perhaps a choice text may be read by many members if not all members of the class depending on how um the course is evolving over time so when you review the list of texts you'll see some are identified as core and some are identified as as Choice texts and um we're happy to present these seven titles to you I'm not going to read every detail on this uh slide here because you can do that for yourself but I just wanted to note that we are talking about text in u the Freshman English program English

030one um English two um which again serves sophomores English three for juniors um I'm sorry four levels english four for seniors one of our um courses Hors English one is also taught at the e8th grade level uh we at this point are not recommending a book yet for that level but that's work in progress as well uh so the um the various texts in front of you um again you can see from the publication date um are are texts that are highly relevant to students uh social experience today um and also um are wonderfully representative of number of different kinds of adolescent experiences um as uh we want to make sure our students can connect with these texts and we'll be interested in reading them not only for academic Merit for also for their own

031uh reading pleasure so to enhance um where these novels situate themselves um I just Dro your attention to the board memo uh we do have a chart provided for you where you can see the current core text uh the current Choice text the new proposed text and then the proposed text Choice use uh so that you can see where these novels kind of situate themselves in the courses you see um presented on the slide um we did want to give you an overview of the financial piece um one of the things that we want to highlight right away is that there is a onetime cost of um $770,000 um and we are going to be budgeting an annual uh budget replacement cost for 18,000 in the event that books need to be replaced um we

032did um consult with three different vendors uh per your request is to consider uh different vendors out there to see which one would best meet our needs the one that we're recommending is fallet um it is Library bound and warranteed for the lifetime of the book uh should the book need to be replaced uh the library bounding binding of the book allows it for durability for multiple student usage um you can see in your board packet we have the breakdown from the three different vendors as well as the cost with a projected uh student enrollment um we did include for your review as well as audio files as well and that is included in the onetime fee um in addition uh you can see that our annual fee for springboard was over 100 Grand and

033that was annually so this is a cost savings to our district by having this one-time fee with books that can be used uh to come and um we have some additional information we wanted to share with you because should the board approve these novels we are already in the works planning for some professional development coming up in the coming days in February and April and I'll turn it over to Tanya to share that with you thank you um so as you can see uh highlighted here here on this slide is stage two um so the team is currently in stage stage two of the curriculum develop renewal development um they're developing Equitable and sorry developing Equitable curriculum scope and sequence and they're identifying evidence-based instructional resources which they began doing last spring and they are

034and they have continued to do this fall um some of the requested professional learning based on the gaps that they have found and kind of renewing and reviewing their assessments and their resources is they um would like some more professional learning about reading skill assessment especially as they are going to start shifting from being so writing heavy in the last decade or so to being more balanced with the reading and writing uh additionally as part of some units uh more professional learning and speaking and listening skills um is also requested literature circles for high school students this is an important professional learning for the teachers as the students may be reading a text all together or students may be choosing which book that they would like to read and then thus a unit happening um

035more through a literature Circle um Additionally the English teams will continue to meet to continue to assess revise the planning and pacing guide um as well as assessments and rubrics and then of course english team time for novel review and planning for semester 2 specifically so for the SE the semester that we're in right now um they'll they'll continue to have that time with each other as the english team members and then we're looking for February 8th to have that professional learning from an outside provider um hopefully on literature circles and then we will continue the curriculum document review and novel planning in April and then in may we are looking to have both schools together to be able to roll out the revised and renewed curriculum um and the resources hopefully that they'll be

036using so that they can have um that time to prepare before August comes so as we conclude our presentation we really wanted to end with a professional development that we are planning for this year as we move into next year should these um books be approved by the board um we really want to make sure that we're continuing to provide that ongoing professional learning for our teachers um the department chairs as you heard have been preparing the team since last year they've been doing continual professional learning um the teachers are aware this is coming they're excited uh they're excited to hear um the outcome of uh bringing this to the board and they're ready to begin implementing um next year when we begin next school year so we want to turn it over to you

037to see if there are any questions questions yeah um I oh thank you so much for your presentation and I was just thinking about our students who are sitting here and just wondering was was there any involvement of our students in the process or do you see any involvement going forward for students in terms of the book the novels that you've proposed so that's an excellent question um I'm not aware of student involvement in the novel selection although that is something we could definitely take in consideration for the future might I add that I think in listening to the conversation I think this is an opportunity um there is a review process right now correct right so I think there is time still to to even do some uh temperature checks around the books and

038the novel's choices but I I will say that throughout the process I heard intentionality about the level of Engagement and approach students were always at the center of those conversations um and really drw the types of choices that were made um and because the educators are working with students every day that their knowledge of student voice was very important and I and I do know that in speaking with Dr Paul um a number of times that that was raised so but I do think as part of the review process There's an opportunity there to invite and we have a number of opportunities and student access that you can do that so yeah and um as part of the memo uh some of these novels do increase the number of student choices as uh Miss sharp

039mentioned um literary circles part of their proposal is to increase student Choice within the novel selection as part of the course so they're building uh additional opportunities for students with these resources um I have a couple comments well thank you again this is the second time I've heard the presentation so I I'll reiterate some comments that I did that was were said at um the equity and learning committee uh but I want to concur kind of what what Lata and Dr K or uh Dr katti were saying about student voice um I think when teachers read you know novels or a whole stack of novels uh thinking through the lens of their students they really know their students really well and they can probably guess after years of teaching what will resonate and what will

040not but that to be said if per chance when you go to the year 25 26 and 26 27 and there's a novel that's really not hitting right for lack of a better term I don't want us to um I would encourage the administration not let's not wait you know a decade to like replace it right or to think through through that again and that's where you can get some you know feedback from students about you know like or dislike or their engagement with those those um with those texts um I also want to say that you know there's no perfect book for a high school student to read you know um there's just so many books out there that would uh connect with our students um so there's no perfect book you know there

041were some on the list previous that I have Nostalgia for that I was like oh darn and there's others on this new list new list that I'm like oh that's great and then there's others that I've added to my reading list uh to to to you know to to for my own personal reading so uh I appreciate um um the due diligence with choosing the text and to re at something that Jared said at our meeting you know we really trust our fellow Educators to um bring recommendations to us uh about which novels uh would uh best fit the needs of our students so uh thank you for that thank you to the team um I know that the English Department chairs um well versed in curriculum and I know that I you know um

042not surprised that they could be a model for um other curriculum development pieces I had one question that popped into my mind that I didn't get to ask or that I didn't ask I heard you say that the English one honors at the e8th grade they're not going to be utilizing the English one texts that are here or they are so English one honors is currently there's not a novel proposed okay so they're not reading the English one text did they previously read the English one text if you look in your um board packet it has what the English one students are reading but not English one honors we can get that information to you not currently available that my question are are they going to propose a novel are is are they using springboard

043as well or so so what they've been doing this year has been pulling resources so short stories poems um novels that they currently have already been in use um they're going to continue moving forward um we had a conversation and with the English Department shares and right now we're not moving forward with proposing a text for um honors English one okay at the eth for eth graders thank you hello I I want to thank you again for bringing us to our ATT mention I knew like I know it's a lot of work so thank you again for all the work that you guys put into this my only question I know you guys already stated it but why did you guys choose to go for more recent novels cuz I know that one of the

044reasons was that you didn't want to be outdated but from a student perspective I feel it's important to go for more older or historic novels because I know in the past we did Animal Farm or L the Flies which really focused on like the war setting and really diving deep into how like a historic perspective so how would the change of more recent novels such as like 2020 2019 would it change like how history is getting taught in books or so you want to go ahead thanks that's a wonderful question I think EXC that's a wonderful question and so I really appreciate you g us a chance to talk to that point because I agree we need to make sure that we are also using this opportunity to teach students about uh historical uh epics

045and experiences and um uh important uh historical change that has affected our lives today and so there are many books in the curriculum that will remain in the curriculum that do have um these are not replacing necessarily some of your favorites yeah um but there so there will still be a lot of those kind of I guess I don't know for lack of a better word Classics or more more more familiar texts that have been in publication for decades um but that is a wonderful question because that's our one of our challenges as Educators is to be both honoring the past but also recognizing the present moment in helping to helping students to identify with their own place in history and it kind of goes back to that concept the rightful presence that I talked

046about it's one of our foundational practices it needs to be a sense that that you know um I as a student today um belong and I have a right to shape the future that I'm going to inhabit and I need both historical understanding in addition to contemporary awareness and a recognition also of some voices that have been underrepresented over the past uh couple of centuries unfortunately so we're trying to make improvements in that regard too but that's a wonderful question thank you uh thank you for your presentation tonight I just wanted to look at the projected implementation plan and understand that you feel this is a lot of enough time to implement this um I just want to make sure that our teachers are getting um the professional development that they need to make sure

047that our students are successful so can you just tell me within these five date or four dates if you will how you feel this is enough time so as we shared during the presentation our English Department chairs have been providing professional learning since last year to the teams um so they have not waited till this point in time um we continue to connect with our department chairs both assistant principes of cni and Megan director of humanities has frequent conversations um where at one point they might say we want this professional learning but where our staff is we're going to need more of this or less of this so we're willing to continue to support them even going into next year to make sure the professional learning continues um both department shairs and assistant principles are

048great advocates for the teachers to be able to let us know what you need or what they need and that's what we're already planning for to be able to provide this professional learning coming up in the coming months and the assessments and the rubrics um for these specific novels or this group of curricul are they being um are they coming from a curriculum company or are they coming from our our Educators T will answer but um I just want to say thank you for the question because that's something that we have been talking quite a bit in fact I think the last time the department chair spoke to this their words were we can't wait like we have to move on so we you're right I really appreciate your understanding there is a lot of

049work that has to go from go forward from the approval point to the implementation point so thank thank you so while springboard is sunsetting the resource we are still utilizing the curriculum the curriculum is not it's not an upheaval of the curriculum within the vertical articulation that took place and the needs assessment that's where they were finding out what needs to change what needs to adjust and that work has been happening since the spring of last year so by the end of this school year that's what those dates are for it will be fully completed thank you um I have something to add I want to first off say thank you so much for telling us about the plans that you guys have moving forward I would like to um talk a little bit about

050just involving as much student voice as possible when it comes to selecting and coming to select these books I think that a lot of students don't know what comes into picking the books like the relevancy and you guys actually taking time to read these books and go deep in them so I feel like just adding student voice as much as possible would help maintain a really healthy conversation between teachers and students in the classroom as well so I know that you guys said um how you collect your data so I feel like that's very important and I love the way you guys do that I think that's very smart and strategic um I would say that if you know you guys do use these books um to collect data from students the following years on

051whether they like the book if it was relevant enough to the things that are happening in our society and I would take that and use it for a next selection of books I you guys decide to do thank you hope that's a that's also an excellent point and one way that we um that we govern our feedback is is as teachers roll out a new text or any kind of new piece of curriculum they're constantly assessing students response and reaction to it and and they believe it or not they get together and talk about it so they in this case um there will be a lot of conversation about how these books go over you know for instance you know the there's a new text that we implemented a for a freshman English program called

052Everything sad is untrue you know I don't know if you've seen that title around the school um there's been lots of conversation after it was implemented about how did it suit our needs curricularly did it did it um resonate with children um is it well-liked the kids P want to turn the pages or just kind of going through the motions they have a lot of those conversations but I think what I'm hearing you and and uh uh President samilton says that we really need to make sure that we're structuring our own process of review so that that those voices and those perspectives are being incorporated into the next round of decision- making and one reason we did I I spoke to this really briefly one reason we wanted books that were well reviewed in awardwinning

053is because when books are well reviewed you there's an assumption that it's being reviewed relative to the readership it's aimed at right like if forance if you write a young adult novel you're not really so concerned about what the grown-ups you know middle-aged people like me think right um Miss bowy says I'm past middleaged but I don't know if that's true enough but but the point is not not so much concern about what I would think of just more what does a young readership think of it and if if if it's popular with that readership it's likely to gain an award so that's why we talked about award-winning well-reviewed books because of that very phenomenon um but that said we can do a better job going forward making sure that student voice is incorporated more

054structurally more methodically and intentionally into our process so again great Point how did some of the feedback um from the curriculum audit play into what this process look like did it change any of the process um did it affirm the process um if you could speak to that a little bit that would be helpful absolutely uh the curriculum audit talked a lot about planning and making sure we took the time to plan for the future and you can see that evident um in the timeline presented to you today um and the planning that took place last year as well as really looking at what our needs are and aligning our work to standards so several times tonight you heard um mention of um unpacking priority standards looking at uh student achieve ment data looking at

055um how we can align our work to not only um the the English standards but also social emotional learning standards and cultur responsive teaching standards um that's a big part of the planning process as well as having common curriculum map and scope and sequence so that students have similar experiences in the courses that they're taking um to create Equity within our system um that thoughtfulness with professional learning and articulation um as well as communication um with both high schools and our junior high as well thank you okay okay thank you all right thank you thank you team again for your leadership and uh presentation this evening we can give them a round of applause that's a lot of work well deserved okay uh next I want to invite um our uh our team to discuss

056some updates regarding our foundational practice I know the board has prioritized this year in following the our policy that's focused on equity and rightful presence to really make time to think about some of the learning and connections we're making between the policy and more importantly the practices that we're seeing in district and so I want to invite them to speak to that this evening uh Dr Paul Dr Waller and Dr dubiel good evening B good can you hear that oh it's a little evening is mine working hi there there we go mic check good evening Boris we're excited about tonight's presentation because it will highlight one of the most important stakeholders of our group and that students um tonight we're going to discuss how we use how we can use the curriculum to Elevate student

057agency and student advocacy and how we're using the student data achievement to really reinforce our foundational practices again of effective systems and teams high quality instruction equity and rifo presence so as you heard me just mention about the curriculum audit it's really important to us that we continue to identify areas where we can use data from our students to be able to inform our instructional practices and so this evening you're going to hear a little bit more about some data that we've collected um from our students grades 3 through 12 and how this data is helping inform our continual work um around school Improvement planning and supporting our students overall well-being in school so in transitioning to um this slide I think the timing is great with our young ladies asking the questions around student

058voice and student choice and so um tonight we wanted to lift student agency and student advocacy and recognizing that student advocacy is one of the rightful presence Pathways and so um as we share this information and we think about student agency as it pertains to curriculum we wanted to make sure that we discuss what it is and what it's not um and so we need to make sure that we're taking opportunities to validate and leverage our student voices providing them with options choices um background interest and and creating those spaces where we're actually receiving the information that they're giving us and then utilizing it and applying it um and so ultimately the the intention with student agency is that what it is not is disregarding any of the needs that the students have whether it

059be academic social emotional um understanding rightful presences is students need to have a sense of belonging and within student advocacy this gives our students a voice this teaches them how to utilize their voices in a way that would be effective and so that that they are received um this is creating opportunities for discourse this is understanding how to agree to disagree right um this is teaching them those skills so that they can actually make long-term meaningful skills um meaningful change within their own lives um and then we wanted to highlight what it is not right and so what it is not is adults speaking on behalf of students or not taking into their um their perspective in the conversations it is not exclusionary and most importantly it is not a one-time event it is something

060that has to happen consistently in order for us to actually understand what they need and and so that they even have the practice to share with us what they need because again um you give them an opportunity one time and you know they they do their best to share what they need but then we give them the opportunity to lead into practice and and that is what will impact the social emotional growth and learning that we know is needed so in addition um we wanted to Define what curriculum is and what it is not uh this is something that we are working towards creating common language in our district this year not only um what you just heard about student agency and student advocacy as well as what curriculum is and we know that curriculum

061is alignment with rigorous stand standards of learning um it is a map to uh provide guidance for our teachers of where to go and how to get there we know though that Curriculum maps is not a on siiz fits-all we really encourage our teachers to be reflective of the data that they're receiving both informally and formally from their students and using that information to really differentiate learning needs based on the data that they're receiving throughout the year so one of the things that we're going to highlight our social emotional Wellness terms and Dr Waller is going to explain what these are no problem you know we've been doing this I'm like well she's on a roll um but so we wanted to highlight the areas of focus whether with it being around self-management social awareness

062emotional regulation self-efficacy and then I know we have the social perspective taking and it's important to note that that is for our secondary um that is not for all students um so we wanted to make sure that we have these pieces here because we're going to dig into the data all right so the data you see before you is for our students that are grades three through five in our district the survey was administered in the fall uh we had over 3,000 students complete the survey and the social emotional Wellness competencies you see on the Le hand side are listed in percent favorable being the highest with the lowest uh percent favorable in the middle on the right hand side you can see where our district compared to others nationally uh the little bubbles kind

063of indicate where we are as a district um and again you can see it's in rank order uh self-management being the highest and self-efficacy being uh the area for uh potential growth you'll notice some patterns as I transition into the data for grades 6 through 12 you can see that we did have a higher participation number um of our grades six through 12 of over 8,000 students responding to the survey our highest category was self-management with 80% % favorable um and then you can see sequentially with our area for growth for self-efficacy you can see that this is parallel between grades 3 through 5 and 6 through 12 self- efficacy is an area for continual growth for our district um so areas to celebrate and areas to continue to um improve can you just step

064back just um one more one slide um because I wanted to Define self-efficacy while you were actually looking at this information and so self efficacy is how much students believe they can succeed in achieving the academic outcomes and then you'll see as we transition to the next slides the the questions that actually support um this definition yeah thank you for framing that up for us Dr wer um and so we wanted to provide for you um the highest responded questions for self-efficacy for grades three through five as well as six through 12 um you might notice that there are some patterns here um one of the things that we did do with our principals earlier this year is when when they completed their quarterly uh School Improvement reflection we asked them to look at the

065lens of their current action plans for equity and rightful presence high quality instruction and effective systems and teams and to consider this data set for their current action plans does this affirm where they're at in their plans for their school does this cause them to pause and to make some adjustments and tweaks um or is this um additional data that they might need um we are not presenting to you today our short answer responses for students grades 6 through 12 we are still unpacking those Trends um that we see but one parallel that we are making is that this data is not surprising us it's actually drawing us to some conclusions we've already made in the previous years um with the superintendent um advisory council with our students and the data sets they've been collecting

066along the way from their peers it's giving us indicators that we still have some work to do when it comes to self efficacy within our system these are the questions with the lowest responded favorable responses um for grades three through five as well as 6 through 12 um note that the question that is the 29% responded favorably for grades 6 through 12 uh how sure you that you will remember what you learned in your current classes next year is a data point we are aware of as a district and we are continuing to plan in our strategic um plan that is coming soon to you um and how we can continue to Pro provide opportunities for students to be making connections with what they're learning in the classroom to their future so we wanted to

067give you an opportunity it's a lot of data um to see if you had any questions um just as we conclude our presentation our students will complete the survey again in the spring uh the first Administration was allowing us to get a benchmark of where we currently are as a district and the second administration of the survey will be able to give us an idea of where we've grown where we still need to go and then how that can you to help inform our continual work around our Student Success in those schools can you give a little bit of detail I remember you talking about it in the um in a committee meeting but in regards to how this data informed the school Improvement plans or how it impacted it well so a piece of

068what we were saying was is that so we're in courted to reflection our school Improvement plans we know um support our effective teams they support our equity and rightful presence and our high quality instruction and So within the equity and rightful presence Lane that's where we're asking them to dig into the research from or excuse me the data from Panorama to make those connections as it pertains to equity and rightful presence um for example and I know the young ladies will share some work that they've been doing through ssac but we know our high schools have one trusted adult as their goal and so it is imperative that they look at this Panorama um data and information especially the the short answer pieces to really dig into um lifting that data to make adjustments to

069their school Improvement plans so that is the intention that they will um within the support from schools and from Kiana and and we do a lot of collaborating but that they're coming together and they're actually being intentional about what this is saying um because it's important data and we keep looking at and we're talking about it and we need to make sure that we're applying it so they're making shifts so that's and I remember some each school has a a focus based on and some of it was based on this data oh I'll let you finish no no you're right are I think you're so they each choose a pathway so the rifle presence has four Pathways um it is opportunity Gap the universal access student advocacy as well as cultural and relational responsiveness and

070so they've chosen a pathway and within that pathway is how we support through the pan room great thank you and to just to add on to that offer high quality instruction we have six elements of that rigor relevance engagement future focused learning social emotional learning and cultural responsiveness and um our schools um throughout our system have chosen either rigor relevance or engagement as an area to focus on for high quality instruction and again this data set kind of lets them know where their students are at how relevant is the learning from their perspective how engaging is it how rigorous is it and then what are we going to do about it how we're going to make some adjustments and shifts instructionally great and the timing of this is is perfect and I'm so glad that

071you lifted that because we we do so much collaborating where we are are um in the professional learning that we are going to to be providing um principles and assistant principles on these different areas where we're marrying both of our as well as as the systems and teams pieces so that all is is a collective piece and they can see it as a holistic view um but then giving them an opportunity to then have time to dig deep into the specific pathway that they chose um and then us providing examples of what that looks like since this is all very new what I think I appreciate about the school improvement process that we're engaging in now with those plans is that um we didn't have this data I don't think when they originally developed their

072plans and so now this our plans are like living documents right so if something pops up and you're like oh my gosh 10 they're at the 10% Mark you know we can adjust but we're still through that lens of those different Pathways in our um uh and what we're rooted in as a district I was really excited to hear because we saw this presentation also at Equity teaching and learning that um um the principles are using these at the building level I think it's really key because I heard that they can also like drill down grade level classroom level and that really gives them I think a good sense of their um of their um population and what they can do for that population although that's individualized I also heard at the uh committee meeting

073that there is um some consistency um among we're seeing all these respons respons responses in the aggregate but when disaggregated they remain consistent in regards to areas of strength areas of of growth um and so for me if everyone's struggling with self-efficacy all I can think about is collaboration like where are our third to fifth grade you know our primary grade principles if everyone's in self-efficacy you know building on our Collective efficacy uh with principles um where can we you know provide that time and space for them to do that uh and then I also love that we're doing that um the the the second data collection you know later on in the spring right um so they can see if those strategies that they collaborated on paid off and so um I think it's

074a really good cycle and it's really informing a lot of uh different aspects at the building level so thank you um I thought I had a question besides that but oh another thing I just wanted to point out is that self-efficacy or yes self efficacy obviously is the the lowest that we're seeing but I'm not super excited about us at the 50% Mark for you know emotional regulation like if only half of our students can emotionally regulate themselves and grades three to five that's a concern too although we're in that green percentile it's maybe speaking to some more you know societal concerns you know more broadly uh but I don't think it would negate a uh building principle making the case for I'd love to work on emotional regulation just because we're in you know

075in that 70th percentile or something like that those are just some comments thank you thank you I'm interested in this is a panorama survey or panor data collection management system or so Panorama Panorama is the name of the company um we presented both um our tier 1al Universal screener so all students grades 3 through 12 take this survey on those social emotional Wellness areas um that you see listed up here and it's the survey is brand new to our system um we shared this with you heard I think I heard um and what is the universe of users on when you're getting that percentile number the overall number nationally I'd have to look that up for you is is it widely used across the country yeah with the nation so I can get that data

076for you no I mean if it's if it's more than just Illinois oh yes most definitely I'm fine with that so if our selfefficacy is at 46 47% and that puts us at the bottom um what does I mean what what's average Nationwide if you know because because a lot of these other numbers like like emotional regulation for example puts us in 60 to percentile um yet it puts us at the bottom with self-efficacy I mean do kids generally believe in their ability to do their academic work and ours don't yeah well I think that that's a really great question we need to continue to do our data analysis this our first time administering the survey and that's an excellent point because when you look at percent favorable 47% is not that far off from

07749 right above it but the percentile nationally is quite different uh so thank you for raising that question we'll definitely look into that it's like it's like night and day practically okay thank you so my question is around self-efficacy but in a sense that if this is about the belief of a student that says to me that there's got to be some kind of Paradigm Shift right and how are we going to do that for our students do we have a thought about that like what is the plan to shift the Paradigm of a student's mind to believe that they can succeed and do this and and achieve the outcomes that are expected of them you you know it's a great point it reminds me of some conversations we had this past weekend at our

078town halls and there were a number of students who came um actually they were graduates and one of the messages that they uh they're recent graduates from our district and um just thrilled to have them present because they had such fresh Reflections um on the district and one of the things that they wrote they spoke to was the the impact of Educators who had raised for them the value and the belief beyond the curriculum beyond the I should say the the taught resource and text but really in their capacity to design experiences that capture their minds and excitement and enthusiasm that's when I think of that concept of self ethicacy I think it's that it's not s a definition so I think uh those educator those Educators maybe future Educators um they're teaching now so

079I would say that for me and listening to them they they frankly felt that they just had not had enough Educators like that and I would argue as a district I have to look in the mirror we have to look in the mirror as a district is how are we as a district providing the kinds of experiences and learning and supports for our schools in order that they can experience that right so it's it's it's not a a simple answer I think it's a it's a collective answer that needs to be addressed and I think that it's the power of the principle in the building it's the power of how they're raising Educators voices and I and I frankly I think that the work that we're doing with the Union right now to ensure that

080educator voice is really well coordinated with the district will make a difference I would also add uh I you know we don't have to guess at how to do this there's tons of research right out there and Dr Kat you spoke to one of them you know like part of the research says that you know if you have Educators who believe and tell you that you can do things that you are more likely to achieve those things it seems simple uh but then you think about what that means in the classroom what does that look like in a classroom what does that look like at a building but that's that's one strategy um so all I'm saying is you know we don't have to guess how to do it people have already done the research

081we just have to pick the one the strategies that we think will best fit um our students I just I think this is um some very powerful data and I just want to thank the administration when I first started on the board we are responsible for approving School Improvement plans and frankly it was and this isn't a shot at anybody it's when you know better you do better um but it we have a ton when you sometimes you get into this place where you either have not enough data or you have too much data and you're just like kind of data paralysis if you will but how do we take the data that we do have and inform all of the other things that we have to Output with that data and this for me

082to see the full circle come back back to our school Improvement plans is such a an upgrade for our district is such a just I just want to say like a boss move like it it frankly when we were looking at school Improvement plans before it was just a shot in the dark and now to see this come full circle in the last two years is truly remarkable to me like I I actually have Goosebumps um because now it's all starting to make sense whereas before it was all this Spirit information it was like yeah it sounds good let's throw that against the wall but I just really want to give kudos to your team because to see this come full circle back to the student School Improvement plans and honestly I felt like a

083fraud sitting there approving them because I'm like yeah sure great you know but now the depth and the levels of which we are seeing the collaboration and the uh across the district and um the analysis of the data that we do have is is just really remarkable and I want to say one other thing and I don't know if um Dr Mario meant this but I loved the idea of collective aacy with vertical articulation meaning starting at the elementary schools and building on those those um skills that we need for our students I think you could really I think the levels could inform each other I think the high school could inform the junior high could inform Elementary so I don't know if that's what you meant but I really love that idea of putting

084those two things together so um just really Kudos obviously I obvious have can reiterate everything everybody here says but until we know what we're measuring we can't we can't start anywhere and the Baseline is where we start so um just really excited and proud of all the work here yes um Dr k k can you speak a little bit to the the impact of the direct of research and accountability in terms of the data absolutely as um Dr Waller mentioned there's been very intentional work not only through her department but also the schools Department in collaboration with both diverse Learners and uh learning Innovation about the review of the school Improvement the collaboration between district and school administrators um and then also as Dr katti mentioned our director of assessment accountability we're also entering a

085uh vendor review to provide a data warehouse and visualization um across the district so we've used we've taken steps over the last few years but we're at the point where we want to do a deeper dive and have more availability and accountability so we are um have started that process in December and are continuing uh that review and we'll hopefully have a recommendation for all of you in the next month or two I just power collaboration is pretty impressive I just wanted to add that this is an amazing job that you guys are doing and from a students's perspective I'm not even going to lie to you guys like being a student board member just gives you such a bird's eye view of what really goes into classroom work and all those different stuff and

086seeing self advocacy is that how you pronounce it advocacy seeing self advoc advocacy being at only 47% it just I don't know it makes me so sad that students can really walk into a classroom and truly believe that they cannot accomplish something like that just I don't know it's just it hurts me almost like I feel like if students were able to understand that the goals that they want to reach are achievable and that they can do it that also build such a great student and teacher relationship and I feel like because that self- advocacy is so low and they don't believe that they can do what the teacher either giving them or the tasks that are at hand that they don't even feel like okay let me build this relationship with my teacher let

087me have that trusted adult that I can go to because I myself don't believe in it so when you allow students to believe in themselves first then they can believe in what they're doing they can believe in that adult and I just think that it's just so I don't know so outrageous to me to see only 47% of students are like yes I can do it and that rest of the percentage are like I'm doubting myself and I don't think that should ever happen I feel like it's a conversation that needs to take place in the classroom I feel like all teachers should be able to see this and understand that hey half maybe some of half of your students that are walking this classroom don't believe that what you're about to give them that

088they can do it whether it's a test a homework assignment like they need to believe in themselves first and put themselves first so that they can have that person that they can run to that trusted adult that person for them I just that's just my only comment on this and I think you the two of you and your team behind you are at the Forefront of this I think what you're doing with the teacher student relationship is groundbreaking and I think that you advocating for this is actually going to be incredibly powerful um both previous comments are reminding me of like how cool to have this data like if I'm the high school principal I can look back and see my eighth grade class coming in and kind of figure out okay what what's this

089going to be like I have some data to help develop support so that ver articulation is well pointed out some additional data that we've looked at is five Essentials um and some of the most um struggling data is actually students seeing the connection of what they're doing in their classes to their future Beyond school and that's something that in conjunction with the work um of oural and our academic data that we're trying to kind of triangulate through the work of our College and Career Readiness so so not only looking at oural data but other data that we have available also as what's driving some of the um uh Pathways for change we've seen both principles in our student advisory groups really like just attack that data it's it's really cool to hear them and see

090them talk about it and how far they've drilled down and desegregated it and resegregated it and all that it is it's pretty impressive um to hear them talk about that and inform what's going on behind the scenes it's it's pretty it's very powerful this is the culture we've been trying to build is there um demographic data as well yes there is okay okay all right thank you thank thank you team and uh thank you board for your feedback and uh yes thank you very much do we have any public okay so we're moving on to 6.1 public comment oh boy we got a lot going on on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we received from our members of the

091public and encourage enourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System res residents interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening are 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 5 minutes per person and no response to your questions are permitted comments should be addressed to the Board of Education will not I'm sorry 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 complaint

092for appropriate review followup to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment card Heen hello my name is Katie heyen a local member in the community and engaged in active parent in sd308 um I wanted to thank you for the warm welcome the last last two weeks from admin staff Educators and community members that's been truly enlightening uh I think tonight has been a really great discussion of what we talked about with student advocacy College and Career Readiness but we're missing something we're missing a whole another different path of Education different forms of path of Education from licensing exams and certific ation courses I think a lot of students can kind of get lost when it comes to student advocacy and feeling that success crossing over

093into the workforce because we're forgetting about those other paths for students how are we going to bridge those gaps when it comes to the workforce I personally know that when it comes to doing different Paths of Education if you're not sponsored by a ba or an employer students then have to take what is called an intellectual aptitude test and we when we have our Department of Education developing IEPs 504s and ohis for our students who is connecting that information to our union halls to our other forms of education and to the Department of Labor if the Department of Labor is setting up specific guidelines when you think about a real estate exam it's time there's a guidelines for insurance exams and the same goes for other Industries so if we really want to think about

094college readiness and success for students and advocacy we also need to be marketing those other paths so by saying College and Career Readiness we're already eliminating a whole group of students and when we highlight which I thought it was amazing tonight we had athletes in here we had artists in here and we were celebrating them for their achievements but we also need to be talking to these athletes artists musicians people who are in kinary and expressing to them about different forms of Education they could be a part of historical preservation projects you know within the city or within their local communities some of the tools that they use in these very classrooms go beyond and go into the workforce so I just ask that you consider to start marketing to the students a little bit

095differently than what we do with just the traditional path in the classroom and that we also think about moving forward how can we help bridge that Gap from education to the workforce can we start having those conversations with our unions now beyond the union um for educators your plumbers and pipe fitters your electricians your masonry unions you know go beyond to that start connecting with your baas and your representatives um and then I just wanted to give you some food for thought I know you guys may know me as the tri lady in our community because we talk about our trials and education efforts uh for our family this has been our symbol for three centuries of building tradition okay when one of our children graduates this year he'll be an eighth generational Mason but

096with all that strong history comes generations of struggles in education and for what feels like a traditional classroom that hasn't changed for decades and I think that's where we're really starting to lose some of our students and if we could Bridge those gaps I think we could tackle College remediation rates engagement in the classroom and success in the workforce thank you so much and I am Katie Heiden your number one choice on the ballot come April 1 hello thank you Tony GES hi I'd just like to my name is Tony Charles I just just like to first thank you for all the hard work that you do um to make us we to make School District 308 a great place to live learn and teach we really appreciate it um I just have um a

097couple thoughts for you um as you receive your uh calendar later on this evening I'm a member of the calendar committee um and so we've been looking at things and um I think there's a concern about when we start school that there's a lack of consistency um I look at schools around us school districts around us and uh sometimes people are talking about you know they're concerned with the end date but there's no consistency with the beginning date and so I looked at the school districts around us um and either all these districts either this year and or next year end after Memorial Day um to the West Yorkville 115 to the south of us planfield 202 uh to the east Indian Prairie 204 they end June 3rd nville 203 hensdale 86 to the north

098of us West aora 29 and East Aurora 131 they in June 2nd so a lot of school districts do end after Memorial Day um but I think we need consistency in when we start our day um so I think the real question comes is is the end of the school date about the education or the vacation U the survey that was given to teachers um asked about you know what is your preference with ending before after Memorial Day um and how important is that 46.7% % said that it's it is important to end before Memorial day but 53.57% said it's not important to them if we end before Memorial Day or not uh there's other factors I know uh to to take into consideration um one of which is a cost value as well um

099I know that in August it's always hot in May it's in May and June it's always going to be cooler um we have 20 plus buildings just elementary junior high and High School we have 20 of those um and I know we keep those at a comfortable level um during the summer and the first part of August as well but when you start adding hundreds and thousands of 98.7 degree bodies then there's a bigger tax on the um air conditioning system so I think that's one factor um I agree that graduation date is is highly important um but I think if we start an end days cause there to be an uneven um distribution of days per semester I know that was kind of one concern but this really only mainly affects High School teachers

100who teach semester classes um and I've been teaching in this district for 20 years I teach mostly all semester classes at the high school um I have I feel I have a diverse teaching style and practices um so the uneven school day uneven semesters has affected me every single year and we adapt you know there's many things that are going to go on that are going to cause uh us to need to adapt there's things like um seniors that'll be leaving early there's people who are testing for AP classes that are coming and going and so you adapt and you work and do the best that you can there so it's not something that you can't overcome um another concern is family vacations uh Memorial Day is a nice 3-day weekend but most family vacations

101are taken and finished up into August um not Memorial Day uh this is probably because there's a higher percentage of hotter weather and lack of rain at that time so I feel that we really need to be consistent in starting our school year with the third week of August and then it can end when it ends one of the other concerns is Thanksgiving um teachers were asked uh the importance of having Thanksgiving week off on the Monday and Tuesday being in school the importance was 45.7 six% whereas for having the Monday Tuesday off 54.2 four said they'd like to have that Monday Tuesday off um the your schedules that are going to be proposed to you today do half of what the teachers want for Thanksgiving and do none of what the teachers want for

102the start and end of the school year so I I have concerns and questions about that um so why another question is why is there a sip day on the Monday of Thanksgiving week um last year the calendar committee was told Thanksgiving week we want to have it off because it' be a nice fall break but we that was dismissed by the calendar committee because we said in another couple weeks we have two weeks off for a winter break um so students get the week off teachers have a sip day and then there's a rumor about that being an asynchronous day but that's confusing as well so that doesn't help teachers the only rationale that I Was Heard and given was that Thanksgiving week off other districts are doing it so so should we but

103isn't that the exact thing that we tell our children not to do and isn't that line of thinking the exact opposite of teaching our students to be independent thinkers I thank you for your time and consideration on these two ideas regarding the calendar and once again thank you for all your time and work you do thank you thank you that it that's it okay all right now we're moving on to 7.1 superintendent report I'd like to ask Dr katti to give us his superintendent report good evening board it's been such a rich evening already um I want to just take a few minutes to bring some highlights to you all um uh hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season board and uh had some time for rest and celebration with your families um we are

104ready for the second half of the school year I call it um time for us yes clap away uh time for us to integrate all the strong Foundation we've set in the first part of the school year um one of the things that's been a highlight is over the past several weeks I want to thank our leadership team um uh to and our staff uh for really rallying to really bring in the voices of our community um Educators uh parents uh community members Advocates uh to really think about the hopes and the experiences and the ideas for a brighter future um ultimately a strategic planning process is about figuring out what the best way is to make a plan that can come to reality and your voices have mattered through surveys discussions and polls we've

105received thousands thousands literally of feedback points from leaders in general Community from students alumni parents staff um business folks and just general parents or commun members who are um listening uh this feedback is shaping the next uh stage in our strategic plan and will help us and really realizing and actualizing a plan that can can make a difference and what I've shared with the team and what I will share publicly is that our goal is to really put pen to paper on a plan that will be something we can achieve and uh and and make do and make work and not something that's just uh the the moonshot although there's always room for the moonshot right but we've got to make a plan that can really stick um our students are counting on that and

106uh next meeting we'll have updates and some some of the trends for the board around the feedback we've received um and what the data has told us along with a draft draft version coming in February and with a recommendation formal recommendation uh for approval at the end of February and approval by the board or feedback from the board in March um related to this the work is continuing and so um I want to our and and this happens in a number of different ways and so our diverse Learners department has been working um to really think about the way we are thinking about our support for our multilingual Learners and special education programs for both of those programs and a task force uh has been developed for both of these programs and has brought together

107Educators and um our staff and our team to think about how we are developing these programs and so we are really looking at they're in a second phase of addressing the types of programs we have in our district um what are the kinds of services that we are we have in our district to best serve um the um get um the needs of our students best met and um we recognize that this is a long-term process but it has to get started you know we have programs uh we had a alignment around our program review our types of programs and I want to thank our Union partners for joining us in that effort um not last um and not least but I want to highlight uh a message I sent out last week regarding the

108power school breach um that was the very uh shocking and disappointed to hear about uh Power School is a online tool that we use and we know that this is a unfortunately a trend and it hit us um Power School is an external provider that we use to house our information um this this breach impacted thousands of districts Across the Nation and they brought that information to us and so the information again that um was breached may have included contact information for students staff and parents um our records as a good news if there is one in this did not include Social Security numbers or any kind of medical information we don't collect those Social Security numbers and so I think it's a highlight of like being Discerning of we have been as a district

109about the kind of data so there's a little bit of a silver lining there um we want to take uh this moment to really restate that we are tracking what we can around this situation and as we learn more information we will be telling the public and ourselves and our community about what's happened and what is available to us um to ensure that we are doing the best to to ensure that there are layers of security um and data remains safeguarded um last I want to also talk about um Dr King's holidays coming up it's a really important time to celebrate the legacy of Dr Martin Luther King Jr um we are reminded of his his mission and you know I I will say that many of us sometimes well I will say I'll speak

110for myself I have often wondered what it would have been like to stand with him to walk with him to walk behind behind him to follow his leadership to be alive during that period And I want to invite us to really reflect that the legacy of and the mission for justice that he called for is one that we can realize today we can walk with him in the way in which we commit we commit ourselves to act with Justice to act with truthfulness to act with courage to bring forward the core values that we have in our district that is what he championed and his belief was so profoundly strong that made he he was part of such a movement and I would argue that the movement we have in our district is to Champion

111these kinds of changes for our students and we have to keep going and keep doing this work um there are activities in our schools being planned I'm excited to hear about those there are moments there are reflections service opportunities this is a great time to to reflect on his it's not a day off it's a day of service is what I tell people about Dr King's holiday and anything we can do to reflect on that is a great thing for our students in our history on a somber notee I just want to acknowledge formerly the devastation experienced in California um in the Southern California area I think it's important uh We join in mourning the lives of those lost who th those who've lost their lives their homes it's hit me personally I have friends

112who've lost a friend who lost his home um and uh has three children in in that area and so it's it's a very hard thing and we want to also be we're grateful for our our First Responders who are risking their lives and going in there to help all these um folks who are in this time of great loss and challenge so our thoughts and our prayers and and I loved um our robotics team put a shout out on social media inviting action and saying to hey any robotics teams in California let us know how we can help and I thought that was such a great example of the steps we can take and also a great example for that robotics team for their focus on their priv prity so um and with that I

113want to turn over to the board for additional comments that we have we want to make collectively this Saturday the asigo Wolves hosted the asigo Panthers for the boys and girls cross town challenge basketball games congratulations to our sgo East boys and girls basketball teams for both completing a program sweep all right the team from asigo East has advanced in the 2020 2425 International public policy forum debate competition making them one of 32 teams to remain in the contest this International Tournament started off with 280 teams congratulations and best of luck for the next round and the next round I'm excited about this one so uh ASO e senior Cooper Carlile was cast in the Illinois High School All State musical the prom um I happen to have a senior in my house hold who

114was uh there to witness and watch and said could not stop laughing it was definitely the best uh of the Productions that they had down there in Champagne um even had another um student um in in my school who was also in the performance so uh shout out to say the least Cooper had the honor of Performing uh at the 49th annual Illinois High School uh theater Festival this past week it was uh great for all uh all students uh who went down uh and so congratulations Cooper and uh all those students who got the experience uh going down there yes congrats uh recently gifted education math students at Churchill and Homestead Elementary School celebrated the national hour of code uh two guests from festo Corporation visited class sharing their experience with math coding and

115Engineering in their careers students learned how coding is used with robots for the manufacturing and production of certain items students also got to see how code can fly a drone Robby Wilson ofo High School took third place in the Illinois high school art exhibition art Throwdown 25 pieces were submitted and over 1,000 votes were cast in this competition also thank you to Maurice stake and Dan Whipple two of our teachers for mentoring and supporting Robbie congratulations Robbie before winter break the berari Murphy and thomps some Junior High School bands hosted their first ever composer residency Laura Estes eses a composer and retired teacher from Georgia spent two days with the students from these schools each band played one of her pieces and received feedback from her students also got to learn about M Miss esd's

116inspiration and creative process so before I read mine I just want to add that uh you talked about the um basketball cross town challenge there's actually a wrestling on this Thursday at East so be there I will uh we received great feedback from families and other community members that will guide us as we develop our strategic plan we will continue the conversation surrounding our strategic Journey with a few remaining focus groups meeting virtually this week and next on special education gifted education and multilingual Learners please visit our website to sign up there's also a community service available if you haven't filled it out already on our website collecting input and ideas we do encourage you to participate and again this is one of those few opportunities where um you know the the the Slate is

117clean we want this to reflect the community as a whole and we can only do that if everybody participates so please do so thank you now we'll have our student board member reports hello so as many as you know our district is developing a a strategic plan and through this process emphasizing the importance of incorporating all perspectives to ensure is cohesive and Innovative our goal is in the planning process is to establish a roadmap for future successes as we transition out of the current phase we are now focusing on specific ideas and have watched Dr Dr K gu video introducing our strategic plan and at our last ssac meeting we discussed staff wellness and how teachers uplift one another through collaboration and support additionally we explored social emotional learning for adults furthermore we reviewed our

118youth participation action research or yarm initiative which aims to drive an Implement change we in the process of analyzing credible research articles that will help us determine next steps to better student teacher relationships so what's been really insightful about this experience is being able to learn more about our schools Improvement plan and it's focus on one trusted adult as a committee we have defined one trusted adult as someone who oh we worked very hard this took lots of time lot of nitpicking so for us to come down to this it took it took a while so Grand reveal drum roll please so someone who genuinely invests in students growth and well-being establishing a foundation of of mutual respect this adult actively seeks to connect with students by making themselves relatable and approachable ensuring that students

119feel valued and accepted they communicate high expectations for achievement and behavior offering guidance and accountability while maintaining a supportive non-judgmental environment that allows students to learn from their mistakes this person listens deeply follows up and follows through and offers helpful advice above all they advocate for their students are unwavering in their support and strive to be a reliable presence students can count on dedicated to fostering each student's learning and success Bravo Now that's how you improve student efficacy that is beautiful oh I also want to take some time to thank uh Mr B and Miss PRI which she's not here but they helped and contributed a lot to this beautiful now we have a trusted adult definition so very good bravo bravo a I love it very good all right 7.3 board committee reports equity

120and learning and Innovation who would like to start um at uh our committee meeting we saw the two presentations that were uh presented tonight and we were able to give impact or I'm sorry give feedback and um U have some discussions um and then those were on the novel recommendations as well as um the data Pro uh provided uh from uh the Panorama um uh assessment as well so um and then we also were able to give uh some have some discussion about some questions uh around our strategic plan uh so that's a quick summary thank you thank you you're welcome anyone else okay finance and Facilities would you like to speak on finance and Facilities take Mr I didn't summarize this um yeah we basically we went through the Strategic plan um academic academic

121Wellness safety um and self-directed learning uh as well as Master facility Plan update which I think you went through a little bit earlier um one not it's coming up look to the end you know we talked about um just our you know our thoughts it was it was kind of a similar to probably the exercise that you went through um talked about continuing to push for support of math and reading as you know obviously um for all students as well as early educ introduction of second language acquisition uh social emotional Wellness early and often uh suggested to introduce life skills courses like consumer ad coding digital literacy mental health investing finances Etc to better prepare our students for the future uh Beyond High School um we also we did talk about uh um career assistance

122you know um as something that we should look into um safety we did a you know quite a been on facility safety as well and then we talked about you know freedom from bullying um and being safe in the classroom having a trusted adult stuff like that so there's more in the report here I just don't want to read the whole thing that's perfectly fine thank you all right 7.4 board member comments any board member comments sure oh I got quite a few all right well um go ahead so uh you mentioned um MLK uh Martin Luther King Jr day and one of the things that I always um like to bring up is uh not alone and and the origin if you will of um of the American aspect of the nonviolence movement and

123so every MLK Day always remind us of byard Rustin right and so some of those other individuals that were are also involved that maybe we don't hear as much about right uh to your point about California I also wanted to weigh in um I just have seen some disturbing things out there and I just want to remind us that we can care about everybody um it's not an either or proposition um it's a little disturbing to to read some of the comments um you you can absolutely care about people in North Carolina and California at the same time uh I guess maybe that's good news for some out there um we also had the opportunity today to today to talk to Senator resen um about number of initiatives which I'm pretty excited about and there's

124definitely connections into many of the conversations we had in regards to um cell phone policies uh that districts are and cell phone issues that districts are facing um as well as uh The Vaping problem uh as well and um you know um we we many of us shared some of our our stories and we got to also listen to some things that are going on in Yorkville and Yorkville is doing something similar to what going on in my district um and it was interesting that some of the people that are pushing back the most are actually parents um and you know the issue that came up was safety for kids and um you know I I reiter reiterated one of the stories that comes out of our school uh and why we had to address

125this is we literally had students who unfortunately were texting each other and finding ways to to to to meet up in bathrooms and unfortunately there were times where where vaping was an issue and we had other students who did not feel safe using those facilities so it's a very layered and complex piece um and you can correct me where I'm wrong uh Dr katti but I don't think uh Senator resen is looking for some Statewide Universal piece but definitely looking for ways in which districts can be uh protected and and assisted with some of those policy pieces when it came to the vaping aspect that was there were definitely some eye openening things I I don't know if you felt the same way that I was not aware of and how um speaking of uh

126technology how we have companies out there that are targeting our young people uh specifically no using using AI while they're at school um and specifically for vaping and so um the the Health crisis that could evolve from some of those pieces as well was discussed and and um um I I applaud her for approaching us and uh I'm not going to say anything more but we may have some future opportunities to to make sure that we're talking to both sides of the aisle and multiple school districts to try and uh be a part of a Solutions so that our young people are healthy so yes that's all I have abely thank you you thank for joining um I attended a couple of the focus groups uh for special education as well as English Learners and

127the only reason I'm mentioning that is because it uh it was definitely an opportunity for the public to um give their perspectives there were definitely uh um you know more aha moments um uh you're not thinking about act and made with good points so these focus groups are are way to kind of uh drudge that up so please attend if you can anybody out there in the community listening today um or in the papers so than I just wanted to share that um the board we have we get a journal that comes in the mail to us from the Illinois School Board Association and I was particularly proud of um seeing a good portion of it um was a reflection on the the um what did we just go to Triple oh triple I triple

128I um and uh there's quite a few articles in it this month about uh student board represent represent ation and bringing students to the uh board table and I just wanted to say that um I did participate in a few sessions where um Lori Grant who is doing amazing work around this did not know I was there necessarily know I was there and wasn't saying it because I was there but really um used and highlighted as Wego and the work that we've done around student representation and I just wanted to say how proud I I was that I was able to hear that and um um have had so many different board members reach out um over the time um and ask for our phone numbers and I've constantly given them Dr Waller's number and

129what does it look like and how does it work and um sent people to our website to see our YouTube and see how our students advocate for themselves but I'm just really proud and grateful to see it and Lori continues to um say uh wonderful things and Advocate based on what asigo and Lockport has done so I just wanted to bring attention to that thank you board members for your comments and we'll move on to 8.1 our consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on December 9th 2024 open and close session 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer request received by the district and 8.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and

130or over 200 miles second are there any questions on the consent agenda just I I have one comment um you know I listen um foyers are foyers and and they're open to the public and that's fine I I I would just say hey if you you love our community and you want the information um stick around right um um don't don't don't leave and then decide you're going to to to be here right I mean we we're we're very welcoming Community stay here if you want to file foyers and and you care about school district it's awesome um be be in the state um be here and and you know like we we welcome all people I I don't understand the concept though of um having us from other states yeah I don't I don't

131understand the concept of us paying for for if I like that people are concerned and that's good that they're you know but we're all still fitting the bills for those and be great to stick around stick around next time if you want those right Foya is not free in other words it's not free and and I'm that's that you know um and I know that's going to get comments and that's fine I don't care uh I I mean at this point uh you know why not so Jared sometimes it's easier to look in somebody else's backyard than your own yeah I mean Hey listen um I I don't you know whatever people want to say I I like Illinois like honestly I i' I've been to 48 states and and and I'm not saying Illinois

132doesn't have a host of problems we do um and I and I get that um don't don't add to them I guess you know stick around be part of the solution I I don't I I love Illinois not fond of the winners but um with that being said my comment about this is that we I know that uh Dr katti you and your Administration um as the board requested are working on some just like policy and um more of not I'm sorry excuse me not policy but more of procedure and just um parim parameters around foas and how we share foas how long we share foas and that kind of stuff can you just give us an update on when we might review that stuff in public thank you you know December no no problem

133December was such a uh intense closed month so we have been working on so this is what I can say um we are we are not far off and I'm reviewing some of those procedures I like it to actually go to the policy committee so my recommendation would be before it came to the full board if it's okay I'd like to bring that those recommendations to policy committee for review regarding some of our practices we are doing there first of all just for anybody listening there is no plan to limit or reduce um people's access to their foyer rights those are not governed by us and so there's no such agenda it's really more about some procedural uh Pro steps that we are looking into and I I would recommend so the answer to that

134will be then I'm guessing then we have February so let's say the last board meeting of February we'll give that we'll bring those updates to the full board I just wanted to share that we had had some board discussions around it Freedom of Information is Freedom of Information no one's questioning that but there are ways in which public bodies have practice around how foas work and stuff there is one person that works on this and it takes an incredible amount of Manpower and so we just wanted to understand and make sure that we are consistent in our practices so uh I know that we had talked about that and I just wanted to make sure that we uh didn't forget about that and and I just want to reiterate like compared to some other school

135districts I can tell you we are far more transparent than they are and so I mean if if whatever listen I'm not saying there aren't criticisms out there but if that's one of them if you don't think school district is transparent with their foas challenge you 100% would love to show you some examples out there in fact I hey advertise those examples I would love that CU I can show you some and if you want to bring them to light I'll help you out I'll hold the door right open for you but um that's not one of the pieces and we have to understand though as a community there's a cost bless you there's a cost to being that trans parent which is we encourage it and and we do right um like I said

136just be around here and be part of the solution ready Mr Gatewood hi Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr pler hi Miss vmou hi motion passes 7 zero okay uh first up we want to invite Dr zmy to speak speak to an update regarding the 2526 and 2627 school year calendar I know that I met with uh Union presidents uh co-presidents of faith scobby and Andrew godal regarding this and so I I will say that um I know it's been a very involved and collaborative effort and so I want to now turn over to Dr zmy well good evening board always a popular topic this time of the year to talk about when school is going to begin uh we are going to be bringing to you tonight

137for information a shared 2-year academic calendar encompassing 2526 and 2627 um I'd like to thank on our committee um Andrew God health and Faith scobby um with oea and the the the committee it's really a part of our collective bargaining agreement um we also sought out additional um uh information this year from other local associations um as well um as well as our secretaries in our building I'd also like to thank Dr Paul for co- facilitating and Dr cancade for attending as well too um it is always challenging to come up with a a calendar uh to fit everybody's needs but it's always collaborative and fits into our core values so in uh attached for you for 2526 is a proposal within our state guidelines and recommendations a few of the highlights in the memo

138that I'd like to bring your attention to is just that local comparison review um taking an opportunity to review other uh school districts uh especially those where uh many of our employees also um send their own children to had a chance to look at that with uh other HR directors uh beginning of the school year for 2526 would be August 11th 2627 would be uh August 17 those are the Institute days the first days for students or a couple days after uh professional development opportunities were also taken into account um a Thanksgiving week schedule uh break for students um and then a desire for additional School Improvement half days um under the guidance of our assistant superintendent of learning and Innovation and deput of schools uh they plan to request approval from the state for

139two additional half dayss perhaps um for more professional development I think we heard uh the desire for that a little bit more uh the next steps for the board is um to consider action on these proposed calendars uh we're requesting at at the January 27th uh meeting uh but certainly we encourage all stakeholders to review the attached proposals and provide any feedback prior to this date um I certainly would love to hear from our students as well too at the start time and uh end time of the school year and look forward to any discussion from our board that we can bring back to any stakeholders at this time thank you I do have a few things yes sir all right so let me start with um um I love the part portions I'll say

140portions um because I think we all end up arguing about calendars too but I do think we need to um really start paying attention to what's going on with our our climate and and and the Summers because if we start to start if we start to experience these Heat days more and more in August I do think we need to at least at the very least start having the conversation around that piece so that's number one um number two uh I'm always like cautious yes we should compare to other districts but we need to make sure we always look at the holistic um conversation so like if you bring in 204 I can tell you for a fact well 204 they the kids have the week off but the teachers are in conferences for that

141Monday and so like it's a long day it's a long arduous day and and I know for in 204 the last day of school is actually the Monday after Memorial Day and it's a teacher work day not exactly the most popular thing to do there as well so I you know I I'm like I deal with this in my own School District where where teachers will look at certain things from other districts it's it's important to look at the entire thing and I think there are AP teachers who want as much instruction time before those AP tests and and I totally get it the the one question I have when I looked at this um other than I thought there were some really good points brought in uh public comment especially centered around the August

142piece is there can you explain and may Hey listen maybe you had this conversation I'm looking at it from the wrong lens the 23rd and the 24th of October is there a reason why you didn't do that on the 30th and the 31st instead I I just like I don't know as a teacher hey if I can uh yes avoid a full day of Halloween I'm all about it um but I don't know maybe maybe I'm looking at this from the wrong lens I'm just asking like you know Dr Paul Dr King K do you recall that coming up it's an excellent point yeah it is an excellent point but I don't it didn't come up in the meeting this is an important part that this is a committee and and I think so I

143think some of the feedback tonight I would say that this should go back to committee sure for their review and and because it's brought for information and so the board's feedback is um going to be really helpful for the committee to review it and then we'll bring back next month those recommendations so thank you so much for raising that and just to say that the feedback tonight will be helpful for that committee to review it's a committee effort it's not the individual efforts so and and and I want to I'm talking about the individual public because what what the union president said to me is that it's literally if we're talking about the teachers opinions and we're talking about percentages that are very close we're not talking about a 6040 spread or whatever so I

144think it's really important to reflect on that and I think the more we can get that um feedback and I know that even last year I received comments from the board I mean from community members that said you know you should look at this District or that district and I said well we did and and you know with all the districts around there really there going to be so many oppos opposing some districts do it this way some do it that way and granted maybe Illinois should step and make it a Statewide calendar right but be careful what you ask for lot of other things so but well and I want to make sure I I reiterate that I I respect the committee and and and I absolutely but but I'm just I I looked

145at that and saw that and I to your point about talking to other areas I I hope part of that conversation can be hey let's really look at what's going on in August because that might not be and I think I think it's responsible from a truly a fiscal perspective I mean what it the the the the weight of whatever it might be on our systems and I mean like our HVAC systems and stuff like that our buses our drivers if we let's be honest I don't think it's getting cooler in the future and um I I I can just tell you from my community I hear a lot in my little neighborhood you know like every wants everybody wants to be at the pool through August because it's hot and so but in May

146it's still very chilly so you know just from a perspective of giving our kids a great summer is that something to look at but I also have a question in the past I mean we have such a great working relationship with the Union um in the past I used to kind of get some like Contraband information that somebody would pass along but I do know that they take these um surveys among their membership is it something that they're willing to share with the board so that we have I know it's been shared with maybe the calendar committee but I think having that information and I'm you're you're right 57 48 43 53 but I think having that information but also understanding the why behind it is very helpful for us to understand what we're approving

147I also just want to commend us on doing a two-year calendar it's um becoming quite um uh common for school district to do two-year calendars it really helps families prepare um and also if we could just have a little bit more I think understanding of like for J what Jared pointed out for those two days of why those days were picked um it would be very helpful because it is every year without doubt we approve the calendar and then we hear well did you know this day was this day and this day was that day and it's like okay well let's make sure we know that ahead of time the only other only other two comments that I have were were religious holidays review viewed so that we made sure that we didn't have anything

148and I would really love our student Advisory Board to have the opportunity to review the calendar and give actual um intentional feedback to the calendar committee so that we know that I you know parents are one thing but I would love kids I would love to know from our students what they feel about going back on August 15th versus like an August 29th or something how does that affect them um and their learning is it what do they feel like being in school when it's really really warm and hot and stuff like that so just having you know and I don't want to put the pressure on the two ladies up here but we have a whole you know student committee that could really give feedback into this I I was talking to Dr Waller

149earlier you know it's one thing to understand student advocacy um and student voice and it's another thing to actually be the the um Ally for that so we need to start making sure that we are getting their voices at the beginning of um these big um anything that comes to the board should include the student board so making sure that we're hearing from them prior to um having us approve anything they are the board just because their different age doesn't have anything to do with the fact if we do go with student voice one thing that I hope we think about are the students that have to work during the summer um especially like and listen I'm going to counter because there's the August piece and I agree with it on the flip side if

150you're a senior and you're ending the the quicker you can start working is going to be better off for what you're about to face so does that push us back into graduation and then them for college and stuff or I know a lot of students that travel during the summer because they're you know that's given as a gift or something like that but we need to hear from them you know so in in this community I would say that the the that may date is extremely important and it's a shift in culture that cannot be done very quick I would say that that that is a very important thing so do you mean ending in May the end date in May yes before memorial correct I think that is something that I in talking to

151folks when I got here um when I first entered the district so I think any attempt to shift that is not a quick shift it's it's it's it's going to take time I think these are important considerations but there are so many considerations and I don't want to lose track of some of the other considerations that are represented here a balance of semester one and semester to like a balance of all these other things like are you do families want to start later in August but does does that mean you know they have to go two more days over you know Christmas break is that palatable you know I'm not sure that I I don't know I don't think there are any easy answers um especi and I'm thinking about you know graduation and what

152that means for families if you go past certain times I believe we have we likely have graduation already scheduled several years out due to having to reserve an NIU right and so yes is that palatable to be letting you know having graduation for you know so there's just lots of cons considerations uh I don't know if we'll have a lot of so I want to keep those intact um as we talk about other you know things as well I do have two clarifying um things I want to clarify um in the Fridays in um the summer I'm just clarifying the district is closed but 12 administrators you all are working remotely is that the case on which states on in the Fridays in June Fridays in the summer it says district is closed I just

153want to clarify for the am I saying it right four 410 Dr marel the 410 what is that Monday through Thursday they're increasing their hours increase the hour four days a week for 10 hours a day and then they're closed oh I didn't know that I thought they were working you all were working remotely okay that's helpful um Dr Waller is suggesting you put that in The Ether for the summer and then uh my other question is just a clarifying question about the the the importance of the trimesters is that I see the trimesters indicated on the right hand side of the calendar is that that has to do with I think great um Elementary level assessment data is that right yeah okay just double check my understanding of that thank you and I think

154to your point though I think having like for instance in the memo that was provided to us all very important information but I think having the the a little bit more information of why they chose the dates they did to your point Dr Mario is a way for us to more defend you know the calendar when we're approving it is here's why we chose these dates here's why these dates are important here's the things that we can discuss and can't discuss but um you know one of the things that I just want to give a huge shout out to is um the Thanksgiving week and having some uh professional Improvement days in there such a huge move forward for us and I just think that it's better than having kids sit around doing a Thanksgiving

155Day you know puzzle or whatever for those days when they're already like checked out and letting teachers kind of unwind a little bit into the other work that they actually have to do so I just really appreciate that change from the calendar committee Dr could you ask for uh uh FAQ I think for some of these things let's put together FAQ from the committee of these points that are being raised that I think a Next Step would be helpful Dr Paul and Dr Z I'm concerned about how how many more committee meetings you would have to order to you know incorporate all these things this is an important feedback and this is why we have the information to action so we'll make sure that this comes prior to the board me of the board can

156review it so you're looking at January 27th yes yeah yeah we would not have to change the goal is not to change this schedule so well things can happen but no snow days all right Dr Mar I was gonna an fq was coming to my mind as well like a list of why are we doing this in in in Thanksgiving week why are we having a start date that's different in you know the second week versus third week of August things like that I think would help the board and the public understand as well to your point I completely agree like the the Thanksgiving week is nice but then are you willing not you but is the community or the calendar committee or teachers or unions you know they're willing to give that up to

157and to start earlier in August you know you have to have the day somewhere you know what I mean well and I know there's also been a lot of discussion about why start on Wednesday or Thursday I know we've vacillated between those two days so having that FAQ before we approve something I think just makes our decision a little bit more solidified and getting our students involved okay all right president okay thank you yep and next we have an operations um project update Mr oemi and Mr Queen good evening good evening good evening so wait before we go forward I just want to thank you for the lighting outside of the the boardroom it's like that yes wonderful to to have Clarity and see who's out there so I appreciate your we're going to continue

158with that to Dr K it all right so in this uh project update I wanted to provide you with an update on the projects that I'm developing for the summer work of this year um first and most importantly the Redevelopment of broka uh parking lot we have some safety concerns over there we need to address um and some parking issues so that is number number one on my list number two would be Grant Park in Murphy it's a resurfacing um this is just to peel it back and put it back so we got some new asphalt I got a couple areas I need to look at I got some water issues um that I want to develop and then Plank Road that's the road from the Waterworks building that leads all the way up to

159the entrance apron of os back parking lot next to the ball fields and the bus lane at here at uh East we lost there you go I could speak louder we have no no we need it for the record for the record got it all right so we we're hosting an RFP this Thursday at 71 Stone Hill at 8:45 following next Thursday we will hold our bid open where we will bring these contractors in open the bids that they provide for us and then after that we will follow up with FFC and then here for information moving on to approvals that's my project update for tonight okay thank you all right 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

160the amount of 4,261 25839 as presented second Miss vmth hi Dr Maria hi Mr Cerone hi Miss Sim I Mr gwood hi M Johnson I Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of board policies can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the following board policies section two School Board 2105 section 6 instructions 6 col 135 section 7 students 7 colon10 section 8 community relations 8 colon one0 second Miss vmou hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon I Dr marel I Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 10.3 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Mr gwood I Dr marel hi Miss Johnson hi Mr pler hi Miss Simon

161hi Mr Cerone hi Miss ven I motion passes 70 action item 11.1 can I have a motion to adjourn please make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I any opposed no