001for August 19th 2024 can I have a roll call please mrone here Mr gate M Johnson Dr Mario here Mr pres M pres president 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 that one okay since there's no public comment we will move on to 5.1 superintendent report Dr katti please good evening board uh welcome back to the 2425 school year um it's been wonderful to be out in our schools with members of our leadership team U members of our Board of Education as well as um all of our District staff and just really I can tell you the excitement is palatable in our schools great
002seeing students reunited with their friends um meeting their new teachers and getting back in the group of learning together our youngest Learners in early childhood started today and so all schools are officially in session all right as with most learning opportunities um there have been a few challenges and we know that Transportation routes are not running all the time as we have expected or expect and we definitely do not feel this is in any way acceptable um it is our mission in a few minutes I'll invite Mr OB to speak to that briefly on some of the things we to diagnose it um I want to thank our families for their understanding but also your communication it really makes a difference and sometimes you feel like you're not being heard but we want you to
003know we are hearing every single person who calls and reaches out to us we are reaching back and we're making our efforts and if we're not getting to you yet we will get to you to address the issues um I want to assure you that our team work has been working seven days a week um to improve this today today we began a web page because on Friday we saw there were challenges with the communication systems went down so today we went to the backup plan and we started uh loading our our routes to the transportation web page on our website um we event that and this way there's a late route possibly it shows up there automatically based on working with our dispatch I want to thank our dispatch team and our teams at
004the at the transportation department for really working since is almost 247 after the last four or five days to get the call with here comes the bus with the versitron routing system with power school I think uh part of it is the fact that a lot of schools are going back at the same time so the the technology firm that's supports uh Transportation they having problem too which is impacting us but I is no excuse we have to do better and we're working very hard to do better and we promise you that we'll be available to take your call to answer your question we are making sure that we get it right and we're working hard to do that thank you thank you Mr Bei um with that we've been working very hard in our
005human resources department to ensure that every position was staffed um whether it was a full-time educator or Personnel or was somebody who we had to bring in as a temporary person to make sure that every student was welcomed by a welcoming face Dr zmy do you want to add anything to this sure good evening Dr katti and Board of Education um much like um uh transportation we we are making a lot of of progress we're not exactly where we want to be yet uh we still have some open positions uh within our district um our team is working 7 days a week week as well um doing paperwork sessions uh tonight um we're bringing to the board uh a number of recommendations 37 recommendations for support staff um eight recommendations for some new teachers uh
006we continue to um work to uh recruit uh new staff in in our district um all open vacancies are supplemented in a variety of different ways for our system um in some cases it's a daily sub in some cases a dedicated building sub which is a part of our system where the same teacher um stays in the classroom every day sometimes we contract that service for example a psychologist or teacher's assistant those positions are worked through our we have a process that begins within our special education department that goes through human resources and runs through Finance um we have currently working through a non-compete Clause um where we are looking at a variety of ways to bring on uh very good former contract employees for us um we prefer um in all cases to have
007our own sd308 uh Personnel uh our contract people while um they are performing a task uh our our preference is an sd308 employee that is supported by our four uh local great unions um the other thing that we have to be careful of is uh with Illinois school code um a substitute teacher may only serf for uh 90 school days for any single position in a school year before they're teacher record so we need to be cognizant of that as well but rest assured there is an adult in every class every day with every child okay um we are allocating resources appropriately um we will continue to build not only for this year um more uh in our Reserve but our teacher Residency program that um is being launched this year and led by anamarie
008candelario and Reagan srth um are hopeful that those 20 residents will be teachers in our system next year and uh that will help us um be aggressive against the teacher shortage Nationwide thank you thank you very much and just to bring just one more um quick comment just want to acknowledge again all the people behind the scenes who really make our first uh start our first start so successful um our operations teams are custodial Transportation crossing guards office staff teaching assistant and many more other really important roles student registration to really get that start of the Year running um and really led by our school leaders our principles who really invested time in preparing to welcome our Educators and staff back um to make this the best place for our students to grow and learn
009um on a more uh board related I just want to thank uh we had our back to school bash we had some lemonade stand volunteers I think uh ltin you were out there volunteering that day Mary Joe um Ursula back there thank you Ursula um I Heard lots of we we served over a thousand lemonades I think it was that day um just to welcome folks back and I know many people were passionate about doing that um and I want to thank uh everybody for really coming out to celebrate this important day of coming back together um as a reminder this is really this we could have wish for a better start and I want to thank everybody for their efforts and with that I'll open up to any additional comments on behalf of our
010entire District we thank the 30 area businesses and organizations who participated and our back to school bash speaking of back to school bash uh event for staff and their families uh this great level of community involvement showcase the importance of our schools and our staff in the community where they live and work we look forward to even more Partnerships forming in the future could you let say that I'm sorry uh another announcement on Friday September 6th our satellite food pantry distribution will resume at the old tber building on Franklin this is open to anyone who needs additional food resources uh please combine between 6 and 7:30 we thank the Kendall County Community Food Pantry for their continued partnership in this effort to support our community excuse me as a matter of process Ursula if there
011needs to be a movement to public comment at the end that's fine too we can make that motion yeah I can yeah let folks know if they if they would like or or if they want to address it she wants to address it with Heather that's fine too all right um have you checked out the first day videos and pictures on our Facebook page yet if you want a guaranteed smile check it out it's easy to see and feel the excitement in our students and staff on that exciting day I did check that out yeah and it did give me a smile so um the blue and silver bash was a huge success last week pantherfest takes place at OS this Friday these two community events hosted by our high schools are among the many
012ways they seek to connect their Community with our schools we hope many families future wolves and Panthers and alumni can enjoy the festivities and to go off of superintendent comments that were earlier um do you enjoy working with kids and making a difference in the lives of our future Generations well have we got the job for you we encourage you to consider a career with sd308 we are hiring for bus monitors and drivers teaching assistants custodians and other essential roles that don't require previous experience you'll receive the training and guidance you need to succeed in one of these important crucial roles check out our openings on our district website okay all right and with that I pass it back to you Madame President thank you Dr katti for 5.2 board member comments are there any
013board member comments can start over here um sure um I will defer to somebody else talking to to speak to all the school visits that took place um but there are two things that I did want to bring up um first of all because I didn't see it anywhere I wanted to share that um Garrett forward has an open house this weekend 24th Garrett Garett forward oh geared forward uhu um and it is from 1 until 3 if anyone wants to go um 1 to three it's at 71 Stonehill it's at their it's at their headquarters um there will be hot dogs I'm told um good when they grill out it's it's really you know if if you have a student that's even remotely interested in robotics I suggest you bring them out to kind
014of check things out it's it's very the open house at least is very laid-back um and and there's a lot of there's a lot of cool things that these kids do it's actually pretty amazing what these kids do so if you get the opportunity stop by that's this Saturday um the only other comment I want to make is I've gotten um a couple I've gotten a couple comments from parents about clubs that are parent-based um kind like pto's and and that type of thing with a lack of leadership and I just wanted to say that I I mean you know as as a board there's not a whole lot we can do because it's it's goes back to parental involvement but if you have any opportunity to get more involved in your school in your
015in your student school um please please step up and do so um I know people say that they're busy um we're all busy um that that's unfortun Ely not an excuse anymore but but if you do have the opportunity and you have the inclination I would strongly encourage you to step up and participate that's all for me big impact too yeah just wanted to comment that many of the board members have been out in schools visiting schools on the first week uh with Dr katti um those are going to continue next week I I know tomorrow or this week last week and this week um I know tomorrow I'll be at Fox Chase Elementary in the morning U I was with Mr Gatewood earlier um uh or last week um and I know um latata
016and Mary Joe Jared have been to some other schools as well so we really enjoy seeing all the excitement around the first day of school uh and have enjoyed those visits and look forward to other visits in the future just just real quick because I have to sorry I'll make it I'll make it real quick I I I appreciate the um update on transportation and I agree like we're not trying to make an excuse but I do think it's important to inject into the conversation that we're not alone when it comes to some of the issues that we're experiencing and I mean I could speak to a couple districts I know um that like they have some stories also and the labor market has not like all of a sudden just loosen up and here
017we go you know it is still a very tight market and and a lot of these districts are trying to compete for a finite amount of workers and so I'm not trying to say that that's the only thing that's going on but nonetheless I do think we need to be cognizant be able to compartmentalize what is labor market issues and what are things that we can fix good point um I will I will speak to the um steam program that Mrs W wouth and I went to attend um at El uh Wolf's Crossing and B narc so um you know steam is mathematics and science and engineering and all of those um disciplines and there were 850 students over the the course of I think a couple of weeks um who signed up to participate
018in this program and it was a waiting list for other students to get into it it's like the summer a summer program for students um we partnered with a an organization that provided uh these students with um computer aided design and coding and all sorts of of um disci the disciplines around Steam and they were able to take their projects home with them so they were learning in the in the moment like how to um how to code for this machine that they built and they could see it in real time like if they were supposed to go left and it didn't go left they could come back and recode it I mean and then I from what I understand it's $250 per student and this organization was taking care of that um and for
019them to be able to take their Projects Home was like the the light in the eyes of those students to that they were working on something that they could physically and tangibly have to take home was just amazing so we're hoping to get more involved with that organization and do more things but um yeah the students you can see it in their eyes it was it was absolutely yeah it's really good awesome I think I think that's it that's okay moving on to 6.1 oh yes um oh the call where the money came from yes yes yes sorry please clarify in terms of the camp that you were just talking about which was very exciting we've seen um videos and pictures we were able to um provide those opportunities to our elementary and junior high
020students with our summer enrichments yes so yes so um we were able to do maker spaces and drop activities as well as those camps so our um steam uh section of our learning invitation have been very busy the summer trying to make sure that we have a good pathway up to high school and provide additional steam opportunities at our elementary thank thank you Dr love that that's a good use of our money all right 6 point one consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on August 5th 2024 open and close session and 6.2 to approve the field trips for overnight and or over 200 miles second are there any questions on
021the consent agenda Dr Maria hi Mr hi Miss s i Mr i m i motion passes 5 action item 7.1 approval of the Personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as discussed and presented second Mr hi I Mr hi m s i Dr Mario I motion passes 5 Z action item 7.2 approval of banking services can I have a motion please I'll make a motion to approve the election of serve Bank as our official banking services provider based on the outcomes of the RFP process second Dr Maria hi Mr hi Miss hi Mr I I motion passes 5 Z action item 7.3 approval of jedar purchase can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Jetter purchase from Alan J Coleman in the
022ount of $ 24,79330 I just uh want to make sure the community knows that that's all so all right okay so can I have a motion to we already made a motion oh no I'm sorry wrong thing go on MAR hi Mr hi Mr hi motion passes 5 Z now can I have so can I have a motion to return to public comment and move it to right now we making it 8.1 is that what we're doing 4.1 we're moving to now what are we moving it to I think I would just I make it 8.1 okay make a motion to move we have 8.1 as a German so okay make a motion to add 81 as comment thank you make a motion to add 8.1 as public comment second Miss hi Mr hi Miss
023hi Dr hi Mr hi motion passes 5 so on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our members of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System residents interested in speaking to the board 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 five minutes per person and that no discussion of personnel matters stating staff names or responses to your questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussions during public
024comment followup to your questions or comments or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information providing on the comment card thank you Michelle thank you board I was trying to help a firsttime dad to the district who was lost and looking for an early childhood education meeting so thank you and thank you for helping me figure that out and I think I got him pointed in at least the right direction um so I appreciate this thank you uh Michelle Trager um I have four kids in the district still um I want to say hello I want to acknowledge the commendations that Dr katti received last week and the recognition of progress made I want to thank Dr katti and the board members who welcom students at the doors to their schools in the
025rain last Thursday and then traveled around the district uh I want to share the reminder that next month is fetal alcohol Spectrum Disorder awareness month and that September 9th is fasd awareness day I hope that our district will continue to raise awareness and share information about this brain-based disability that occurs at least at a prevalence of 1 in 20 more than twice the rate of autism and in our district again that amounts to at least 850 students who are likely impacted most of whom are undiagnosed or misdiagnosed um so what I want to do is encourage the district to explore training in neurobehavioral approaches and I know we don't have anyone here from diverse Learners tonight uh make myself available whatever I can do to provide resources to them the word neurodiversity is used a
026lot now uh but it's not just a new way or a nicer way of saying that a brain is functioning differently than expected similarly when we say we strive to be trauma informed it means more than trying to create safe spaces and felt safety it means believing that trauma may have changed the way the brain developed it requires actual training in how we work with individuals recognizing in that the standard ways we have been taught social learning cognitive behavioral Star Charts sticker charts Point systems and I was taught that way a long time ago too as a school social worker uh and a mental health worker those are not effective for all types of students particularly when we suspect a brain that functions differently it's not enough to have the heads of our programs learn
027a little about fasd this takes real commitment to examine our values so I wanted to share a couple little examples from last year that I know of that sort of illustrate this this necessary value shift in one Elementary School a volunteer was asked by an aid if he would mind talking to a young student for a few minutes about the students's favorite cartoon characters very soon the teacher came out and stated that the students behavior did not Merit him getting that attention and that time to talk about his interest and she took him back to the room I know in at least two elementary schools and I'm sure there are others where young students were not allowed to attend their classroom parties not because they were unsafe during the actual parties but as a consequence
028for behavior in the days leading up to the party I know that makes sense to us with our valued systems but let me ask you and it's not rhetorical do you think that consequence changed those students behaviors that they remembered the next time they were disregulated that they were able to connect cause and effect that they were able to regulate and behave as expected if they just tried harder the answer for some of these students is no and what do you think happened when the students realized they had missed their class parties the feelings of rejection grow and build on each other and perhaps the behavior escalated again because of it I haven't usually shared my personal experience with these situations but when my son was in second grade he missed the Valentine's party he
029had been warned it had been explained if you don't earn this many points or if you have a tantrum then you won't be allowed to attend he was asked did he understand yep he ended up missing the party which to him didn't make sense because the day of the party he had been earning all of his points I had signed up to work that party which I did while he sat off in some other room that was 10 years ago still sticks with me and that was when I didn't know better so I went along with it that's what I mean about a value shift if we're using these systems and these consequences that don't result in improved outcomes why don't we try something new instead we say the student is defiant resistant we say
030they should be able to meet these expectations B based on their age or their verbal abilities but we're missing that parts of their brains did not evolve as expected maybe the working memory retrieving information Making Connections processing understanding cause and effect or sensory stimuli and it is different for each student and it is a scatter Ed profile meaning they perform close to expectations in some areas but not in others it also means inconsistent performance from day today some days they may be able to perform a task and the next day not be able to do that exact same thing are they lazy are they oppositional this does not mean we don't ask for accountability we still do but we do it while accommodating for an environment that is a poor fit for the brain-based disability
031and shifting our think and values from behaviors to symptoms of that disability please consider that and again anything I can do to help our new diverse Learners team pursue that neurobehavioral approach let me know thank Youk you thank you all right 9.1 can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn second all in favor I