001the ASO Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting for April 8th 2024 can I have a roll call please here present present please stand for the pledge of alleg i al to the flag of the United States of Amica and to the for it stands one nation God indivisible all right good evening we are thrilled this evening to have a special recognition and I'm going to invite Teresa cinas to lead us through it if you could join us out here please all right let's go up all right so this evening the board is really proud to to acknowledge the award-winning efforts of our students who receive state and or national recognition for their school related activities and tonight we're recognizing many individuals for their commitment and dedication to the 2023 2024 Special Olympics State
002basketball tournament and Miss Jessica Wade the Special Olympics coordinator so congratulations to the students from our sgle [Applause] and so congratulations first to our students from the asigo Wildcats junior basketball team and coaches Michael fulam and lean treken bro these students received a silver medal in the junior division 3 at the Illinois Special Olympics State basketball tournament we're going to introduce them now avelyn brazowski [Music] [Applause] Logan [Applause] llamas Jacob [Applause] Mach Anthony Mueller Ethan [Applause] noski Logan Olen Oliver Sanchez Guan Alden [Applause] Schmidt Andrew [Applause] C Everett [Applause] smoker and Caleb [Applause] Graham okay so athletes that your name was just called if you would like to join join your coaches right up here we're going to take a special picture of you with our board [Applause] [Music] okay and everybody smiling at me
003[Applause] all right now we're going to congratulate the asgo wild cats high school basketball team and their coaches Michael fulo and Bill canano who earned a bronze medal in the senior division five [Applause] category Colleen Claire damiola [Applause] aun Liam flare there you go will [Applause] Jarvis Brandon [Applause] lavorn Matteo [Applause] morasco Ben nuttle Zach [Applause] petak Jacob perita Julissa Ramirez Benny Robinson Mila Stucky [Applause] Divine nagas [Applause] tagim and Keon [Applause] Thomas okay we're going to do the same thing so students if you want to come on up here and get congratulated by our board and joined by your coaches we're going to take a picture of you come on up I am taking my friend mil [Applause] I hey you remember me julisa come to the front there you go right like this
004side there you go there you go B turn yours around smil [Music] come on we want to see your smile there you go good job guys okay and finally tonight we're going to congratulate the following individuals and their coach es TJ Wade and lean treken brck who participated in the special Olympic State basketball tournament competing as individual skill competitors Lacy salowski gold [Applause] medal oh yes gold medal Division 1 wow Emma Sanchez garan silver medal division [Applause] one and Andrew Bice gold medal division M2 okay we're going to do a picture of you guys if you want to make your way up here and your coaches we're going to do a quick picture [Applause] Andrew turn it around there we go [Applause] okay so we have one last celebration and that's for the special people
005that are a big part of each and every one of these students lives and we just want to say thank you and congratulations to the coaches teachers parents and families that are here so thank you so much okay that concludes our celebration for you all this evening feel free to go um we appreciate you coming out yep but you're welcome to stay and come [Music] back [Music] who up car in the [Music] shop did they haven't told me that's the part of it says I [Music] know you [Music] wereing [Music] agree I put two tapes in press the buttons it was like but I was Ambassador for the United States what's up there isone there isone we might see [Music] the okay we have no public comment so we're going to going to move past
0065.1 and go right into our superintendent report superintendent report um I have no comment given that it's a final four this evening the spirit in the spirit of brevity uh you all doing great and have a great night well we do have some celebrations coming up we do want to honor it is uh the month of Ramadan is coming to a close soon and we want to honor before them uh the aid celebrations that are coming up for our our members of our community who've been celebrating um uh this month of fasting um also this month we honor autism neur and neurodiversity um this is a month we also reflect on Child Abuse Prevention death history Youth Sports safety and Arab American history um these are all important things to really take to account um
007and reflect on uh this month I am so proud of our financial team and our district financials office under Mr Rafael bemi and Amanda satar will be hosting four communities discussions next week um the dates are next Tuesday Wednesday and Thursday please look on our website there's lots of information of this we also have a special Zoom session virtual session if you can't join it in person please join us as we think think about the planning of our tenative budget for next year these are opportunity to hear about the status of our budget um questions that are coming up for you and also about how our schools are funded and the way in which we we find our resources we continue as a district to think about our eight priorities last uh at our last
008board meeting you heard a robust presentation around the eight priorities um this evening we'll continue that conversation as we think about our the alignment between our a priorities and our Equity policy that we are bringing to the board um these are not I would say ending points these are starting places as we think about the work that need to happen um these are beginning points these are calls to action for us in terms of how we we reflect and the systems that we need to put into place around supporting our students and our staff and how do we strengthen who we are as a district and last but not least it is a month of sports and so we want to invite reminder all our employees we have our volleyball tournament this weekend for all
009employees uh there will be 11 teams representing our schools and departments we invite everyone to join the fund come out to OS to support this this coming Saturday starting at 10:30 a.m. can I play say that again a board team yes what's that yeah we could uh uh the challenge has been th thrown out I think that is a challenge for next year oh wait Jen Johnson is already stretching getting ready seven okay here we go wrap you in bu W remember needs over this younger people yes yes so each one bring one there we go and as a reminder if you really want to help the your team to get the creative and capture the award for the best fans so yes you can come and win too you can be F so with
010that I want to thank everybody and we also have some special shout outs from our board members who are going to be helping with that thank you so much start I want to thank the assistant principles because last week was National assistant principal week and these extraordinary leaders show an unwavering commitment to our students and staff in the schools every single day so thank you for all that you do last week was also School librarian appreciation day and Par professional appreciation day we want you all to know how much your care support and hard work are valued in our schools two of our district alums are in upcoming Productions at the paramont theater shout out to Amanda drinkall for her role in a street car named desire which runs through April 21st so get on
011over there quick get your tickets quickly and uh Tiffany toppel who stars as Carol King in Beautiful Beginning April 24th hopefully you can catch one or preferably both of their shows um and and show your support for both our alumni and local theater nice 12 students from asigo East High School participated in with bansi community colleges automotive department Signing Day committing to training with technicians at local dealerships as a prerequisite for entrance into the highly competitive Automotive program at the college yay Kudos also to ASO high school graduate Ashley Sanders for her contribution to the video game MLB the Show which now offers the option of playing as a woman on the baseball field okay that's right thank you for being uh such a great role model Ashley uh to Future generations of students with
012big aspirations love it I love that I got this one since I just heard the other day about one of my former students at Purdue who's uh studying engineering was uh on a team that got honored so uh 12 iGo East engineering students students recently competed in the Illinois design Educators association's Regional CAD design competition at wansi Community College and nine of them came home with medals in their events yes two two also qualified for the state state competition at Illinois State University congratulations to these students and their instructors we thank you so much was Emma Kate in that group yes she was all right Mama moment that's awesome and last congratulations to our students and staff who presented an incredible evening at amplify the presentations the ideal sharing the talent showcases and illustrations of
013collabor collaboration and rightful presence were impressive congratulations all right that concludes our comments okay we'll move on to 6.2 student Ambassador reports all right boy this is probably the earliest you've ever done this I know this is so early the sun's still out oh my goodness sort of sort of a little B it was eclipsed uh since the last board meeting the ssic was granted the opportunity to present our research to the superintendent Advisory Group this Thursday April 11th our dedicated committee is putting in lots of hard work to put together a presentation and develop recommendations based on our research and both the surveys that we provided uh to our peers and our teachers we look forward to sharing our data as we take the next step to improve student teacher relationships in sd308 we
014want to thank the members of the ssac for all their hard work and commitment to the meetings and the needs of our students additionally uh we want to thank you Dr Kel God and the board of education for your continued support of our research uh belief in the ssac and our missions to elevate student voices within our schools and communities thank you Luke as mentioned earlier right before spring break the ssac supported and some of us participated alongside the sd308 Coalition for our third annual amplify event the event began with breakout sessions discussing a ple plethora of topics including religious freedom racism censorship and rightful presence these breakout sessions were home to many important and meaningful conversations where we were fully able to engage the audience on a oneon-one level from there we all moved
015to the Performing Arts Center for a variety of per performances along with the panel discussion we were also excited to collaborate with Boulder Hills Bobcat celebrate diversity Club the baby Coalition as Dr Waller fley calls them as they shared poems they created on who they are and gave performance gave a performance on the dangers of discrimination our students put in incred put on incredible performances along with an important and thought-provoking conversation thank you to all our attendees and thank you to the vendors that came out to show their support and also thank you for Dr Waller for being the Visionary behind this event thank you Isabelle all right we'll move on to 7.1 I'm sorry 6.3 the board member comments anyone would like to start um since we're doing shoutouts anyway I want to recognize
016a couple of students from asgo East this past Saturday um Dr Waller and miss similton and uh Miss Finley and I were at the NAACP Freedom fund gala where two of our East students were awarded Sydney Finley Memorial scholarships so congratulations to Pilar Martinez and also to Hunter Brown job oh I was I attended amplify uh great event along with other board members um you gave a perfect summary um uh right yeah when it resonates there was a lot of resonating so um I also attended that same day um the MSA faston um another great event with guest speakers and students talking about the reason and purpose of fasting um basically um understand what you have and that you have Purl engine that you you know don't take it don't take it for granted um
017the things that you do have um games followed and a wonderful meal so um that was my last couple of weeks so along with a lot of other things but uh more uh committee work and stuff like that so anyone else I just have um I want to apologize for my absence in March I was sick for the first uh board meeting in March and then um had a planned scheduled uh vacation with family much much needed uh to get away with no Wi-Fi with uh my son and husband so I highly recommend uh disconnecting if you can do that so I want to apologize and thank you to the board for um allowing my me to uh get out of here for a little bit um but I did two things that I really
018wanted to talk about they were while ago so I apologize but at the end of February um the OE students put on a black student showcase uh featuring black excellence in essence Isabelle was there it was absolutely mind-blowing the talent in our district just continues to literally blow my mind I didn't know what I was walking into it was a fashion show there was poetry there was um the purpose behind step which was so beautiful that I didn't know uh we had students who the band was amazing and students who did their own um original song and I just was blown away and then also the college and treade Expo on 36 that Joe put together just as awesome and I continue to applaud the district for um letting our students know that college isn't
019the only way um there is trade and there is um armed services and um variety of ways that you can enter the community after you leave here the last thing I wanted to share was that on April 24th but it is in honor of the month of April which is Sexual Assault Awareness Month is denim day so I encourage and invite everyone to uh wear a denim on April 24th with with me um as a district of equity and of valuing and seeing all people uh we must put a stop to victim blaming and destructive myths around sexual harassment and assault and I think our student board members for leading the and Dr Waller for leading the way on understanding that this is an issue amongst students as well denim day asked community members elected
020officials businesses even students to wear jeans as a visible means of protest against the misconceptions surrounding sexual violence thank you go ahead so I promis what I'm about to start saying is related to something at some point but you'll have to bear with me here right so um you'll see you'll see uh the my my hair is a little bit it's a little out of control but um a few years back probably about four or five years ago uh I lost my oldest brother to cancer and so I decided I was going to grow my hair out I was uh um fortunate I guess to have kind of a full head of hair and mostly not gray um and um then I lost um uh my older brother suddenly um last year and so um
021why is that related to any of this I'll explain uh for those that don't know this is uh blo blue and green Spirit Week um it is National Donate Life month and my older brother uh was a donor and um the um the theme this year is donors are superstars and for those of us that have lost loved ones to cancer or or suddenly to massive heart attack right either way uh there is that feeling at times of hopelessness right and so um you cling to things if you will and so for me I've already started getting comments about uh my hair definitely from my wife um and so um you you'll see me uh going to try and get through that stage that I hate so much but uh the goal is to donate
022again um it's the least I can do um you know and so um please know that there are people out there this is a tough month for a lot of people uh as they remember their loved ones and um I've found out just recently the amount of uh donations that my my my brother has been responsible for in multiple countries multiple States although I cry foul when they tell me that they donated his tendon because I played him at basketball and I'm telling you I I have questions about whether his tendons were really worth something but they claim that they claim that they were so um we have family families out there that um have loved ones who are donors and uh thank you for wearing blue and green uh today I I found blue
023but I can't find anything as blue and green so I got I got work to do I guess so uh to those families out there yes your loved ones are superstars good got anyone else um last week I attended a pre well Boulder Hill has a professional learning um experience that they put on for their teachers the teachers themselves do the um presentations in the facilitation of these sessions and I went over as what they call the referee it's like an opportunity to like motivate and cheer on the um the the staff and so they they have this um experience prior to the students coming in the morning and it was just beautiful to see um the staff pouring into their peers and um they had numerous I mean maybe 10 12 different topics that
024they were presenting on and they allowed me the opportunity to take um Boulder Hill bucks is what they call them I was able to pass those out you know to the facilitators and to the attentive participants and I mean they were really excited to get them and I'm like I can um they were like you can give them as many as you want so when I would give people two they were like I get two I'm like yeah so it was it was a good time time and um I really appreciate seeing the the transformation that's happening at Boulder Hill just walking in and the whole like the environment itself is so different than what it had been and I could feel it I see I saw it and so I'm just um encouraging that
025building to continue to to make change and um you know pour into their into their staff and we got them keep pushing okay we're moving on to the consent agenda um let's see can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make a motion to approve all items under consent including 7.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on March 18 2024 open and close session 7.2 to acknowledge all foer requests received by the district and 7.3 to approve the field trips for overnight and or more than to 100 miles second okay before we go to the call um Heather I'm I'm I'm I'm going to put you on the spot because I know you can answer it um can you just share with us what we are approving when it comes to
0267.3 approval of field trips overnight more than 200 miles I just want to for you to expound on that for us and for the public so that they understand that what why we do this but then what we're not approving as well so right now um we take a variety of field trips we've got field trips that are in town in state um but we currently have a board policy that says there is board approval required for any field trip that exceeds 200 miles or is overnight so those field trips are submitted to our executive director of high school um reviewed with uh the corresponding level director um they come through the principles so the sponsor has filled out the application been reviewed at the building level and then at the district level um there
027is a variety of information uh collected as part of the application from dates of the field trip number of approximate students chaperon so there's criteria that we look at um for both the field trip and the chaperons um cost of the field trip and then uh most importantly Transportation um so that also gives our transportation department the opportunity to uh schedule or then make alternate Arrangements um so because of our current board policy the field trips um under those that umbrella are the ones that come are the only ones that come to the board so we're not approving um whether or not they go or not we're not approving the process that took place before it got here and what what was or was not happening within that process because I need need our community
028to understand that we don't approve um field trips no the the board is um essentially approving as presented so the field trips that come to the board through um the field trip process and it is only the field trips that meet those criteria so we have many other field trips um there is you know as I mentioned multiple layers of um kind of part of the approval process so some field trips take longer to make it through the process you know if there's questions at some level they might have to go back and seek more information um but the board is approving just um for the field trips to occur they are first as I mentioned screened and reviewed by both building and District administration okay thank you all right we're ready Mr Gatewood hi
029Dr Mario hi Miss Johnson I Mr cheron i m s hi Mr hi M hi motion passes 70 okay uh this evening uh first off we have uh 8.1 financial statements U Mr obafemi will discuss uh any updates regarding that are there any questions from the board regarding our bearance report that's in here for our expenditures to date what I just would like to point out is that uh starting next fiscal year we are developing a more robust uh budget uh tracking report that we will share with the board that is in more detail than what we have here we're cooking that up and it should go into effect July 1st with the 2025 budget now the financial that uh we presented to the board today includes uh variance which looks at the the budget
030to actual uh to date and then the second page has to do with investment report as it stands right now we at uh 46.1 million dollar in in cash on hand this is the uh the toughest time of the year because we're waiting for a largest distribution of property taxes uh which will come in late May early June so this is a tough time uh financially as far as cash flow is concerned but we feel comfortable that we'll be able to weather it and we will get uh as I mentioned the levy that was approved back in December the 2023 Levy 55% of the estimated amount will be uh distributed by the different uh uh counties that we Levy in uh by June and that is actually the time of the year when we have
031the most cash and then we make that work till September when we get a second installment 45% of the actual Levy and we got to make that work till next year so okay okay can I ask one quick question sure how so so the funds that we'll get after the um first installment of real estate taxes how soon does that get turned around uh how soon do we spend it no how soon do we receive it we're supposed to receive it uh the majority 55% of that Levy that was approved by the board we're supposed to get that by no late on the end of June end of June yes so June taxes are due June 1st we get it by the end of June and what the count is tend to do they tend
032to just um they tend to ass sign it out as soon as they get it because they know it's been September since we've gotten any distribution and expenditures are being rolling so yeah do we do we get partials uh we should get some money in may they try to get us some money in May but they they biggest trunk of it will be in junee so we're waiting with bed bread and not I'm not talking categoricals when I ask this question but when do we when do we get the state payments in the federal now the state comes regularly right the state uh ebf comes every month so that is that helps us a lot okay During the intering period when we're waiting for the huge distribution that we getting from uh from The Three
033Counties so what we've been doing is we've been doing cash flow analysis every month monitoring our cash flow and making sure that we have enough and as it stands right now we do not anticipate running out of cash between now and the end of June we're in good shape no tax anticipation Wars thank you okay thank you so much um next up we have 8.2 Fox Chase is he not going to announce the most important part please okay about the meeting is coming up that he's presenting oh yes so just as a reminder yeah please regarding our financial projections we Dr Kel mentioned it that's why I to take your your moment pleas repeat it then as part of the uh budget development process for the fiscal year 2025 budget we are doing a community
034budget workshop and we're inviting everyone to come out there will be three of them uh that we will actually Four that will present the first one is next Tuesday and then we have two on Wednesday one at noon on Wednesday will be virtual the next one will be in person and then the one on Thursday will also be in person what we've tried to do is strategically locate these budget Workshop meetings to have one in each of the counties that we Levy taxes from so that's it will be in in Kendall uh uh will and Kane and we're going to absolutely overwhelm our internet on um Wednesday April 17th love it CU everybody is going to be online I hope we we would love to have as many people as possible so we can have
035a conversation about the budget development process the district uh cash um finances really uh uh we're developing the fisal 2025 budget we would love to share with everyone it's exciting information that we can't wait to share and that procceed the board meeting on April 22nd at which point what will happen there so so April 22nd what we will do then we'll present the tenative budget to the board and that budget will then be on display for 30 days and then uh in uh on June 3r we will approve the budget once we present to the B uh to the board for approval on the 22nd then it will be on display we'll load the Turner Budget on our website we have it available in the finance office for anyone who wants to take a look
036at it and then there will be a public hearing that will be held after the 30 days on June 3 where there will be public comment available for anyone who wants to make comment about thetive budget and then the board will approve it after the public comment can I can I can I repeat that just in case uh anyone didn't hear so for anyone wanting um transparency on the budget come on down and and take look it's it's wide open right we would love to have a conversation with folks we go and it's a I mean it's it's more than just here's the budget it's a workshop that's um yeah Workshop yeah so that that means explainer right yes yes and we also open to ideas something that we've overlooked we we we know we're
037not perfect we we're doing the work that we can to get to put the district in the best position so we'll we'll be happy to engage and I've convers and dialogue with folks who show up please come on down and and let's let's work together at the budget workshops thank you and I I do know that um uh some of the comments that we've we've had and you know some of the public comments and like it's been uh taken to heart and kind of helped steer the you know the uh um the conversation and the priority and um just basically acknowledging that yes we need to get there so yeah this is great on April 22nd too when we do the budget presentation here at the board we will answer the question that was raised
038by board member plure about what will happen if we are three additional scenario during the the March presentation when we did The Five-Year Financial projection uh board member pler asked a question if we had zero increase in evidence-based funding what will the financial condition look like we have the scenario that we'll talk about that the second question is if we had a scenario where there's no increase in CPI in property tax levy how would that impact the district finance and the third and the final scenario that I will call a doomsday scenario is if we have no increase in ebf no uh CPI increase in uh in the uh property tax uh uh Levy rate how would that impact us financially I will be happy to share that uh on the 22nd and it will
039scare the heck out of everybody I'm sure it will and and can I remind everybody that once you see those numbers for ebf it's an election year this would be a great time to open up those lines of communication with your legislators it has been a game changer for us here thank you thank you thank you board thank you um Fox Chase and Hunt Club we have a concrete 7 asphalt pavement Rehabilitation mrfi and Mr Queen good evening uh on March 21st we uh had open bids RFP for the Fox Chase and Hunt Cub uh parking lot Rehabilitation six contractors chose to participate Geva con Geneva construction came in at the low bid um Administration is recommending the contract be award Ed to Geneva construction for 479,000 with a 75,000 contingency totaling 5 55 5
040154,000 any questions I have a strange question shoot does it cost more to re rehabilitate a parking lot or build one from scratch do you know and if you don't know I'm not I'm not holding you to this yeah yeah it cost more to to totally rehel itate depending on when you catch it it's in our advantage to seal and and coope those things when we can so but yes absolutely I appreciate it thank you AB Mr Queen can you just explain um the um the things were declining and why were're the declining them because I don't understand that at all they're wh ifs right so the project coming in at that base bid is good and with the 75,000 contingencies those were extra bids that we were asking for to cush the deal a
041little bit but we don't feel they're needed in this in this project and we think we can get this project done with the with the amount that we want awarded thank you can you talk about the timeline timeline yes yes so we're dialing in that now this just happened so we're looking to start as soon as school lets out and I was told the process will take from two to three weeks before from start to completion so we're looking to have these wrapped up before the end of June I know a lot of parents at Hunt Club and Fox Chase thank you H hunt club is our by far our worst location that we need to tackle um Fox Chase we're we're we're only doing about 90% but that front half is pretty good and
042we're going to attack that with some seal coating and striping to get a little more life out of that parking lot and then this is this is part of that that presentation that I was giving you guys being proactive we're going to dive into this and try to nail a couple of these every year like we do at roofs and and boilers and Chillers thank you thank you Mr Queen next this evening board for 8.3 we're bringing back to board an opportunity to review our Equity policy that's been developed and give the board a chance to reflect and Dr Waller and Dr conade will be leading this I know there is a PowerPoint are you going to are we do you all need the PowerPoint we have okay all right I was just making sure
043I'm like wait so thank you all for um creating the space for us to dialogue around the equity policy um the committee has spent a lot of time collaborating um on what this should look like incorporating all of your feedback um and so we're ready right so I'm just excited to share with with you and and bring it back again so I know that you've seen this but um we wanted to make sure we provided a rationale for why we need this Equity policy and so this is the the data that we utilized um we wanted to make it clear as we look at our district by race um how diverse we are right um 47% of our students identify as white yet we know that there are very U many identity markers within that
044space um and then 53% of our students just about um our students of color and so from this space um we wanted to highlight some of the discipline disparities that we've seen among our marginalized populations in our district um and so as you can see um our black students and our Hispanic students are leading unfortunately in our OU of school suspension data this is an important percentage because as I said previously um when you look at this our black students make up 11% of the population and our latinx Latina students make up 26.7% so there's a disparity in them leading with our outer School suspensions um Additionally the team pulled together um our IEP information so um we have about 15.2% of students with IEPs in our district um the equity committee pays a lot
045of specific attention to the intersection intersectionalities of our students understanding that um their Journeys at times can be doubly impacted based on who they are and so from there as you can see um our students who have IEPs um are at a disparaging rate as far as their out of school suspensions um from there we also felt it was important for us to look at our data for our students who have FS um so looking at those demographics as well um and though we do not have many um indigenous students it is still very um important for us to notice that they are leading within that space and so though it is a smaller group that means that we can Target how we support and lift and validate their um identities through this policy and
046in several other ways um and then as you can see the trends for um our students who are failing in in uh different cours is also black and um Hispanic latinx Latin I have to say all the all the options and so looking at this piece here these are our students with IEPs as well as our um multilingual Learners so we wanted to pull that information as well again um this data paints a picture for why it's necessary for us to move forward with these steps um and so previously when we went around in the circle we did add that we looked at several school districts um to guide us in how we wanted to develop the equity policy as well as the success indicators we looked at District 203 we looked at District 204
047we looked at bavia we looked at Elgen um and so the committee worked together to um take some of those pieces but then ultimately determine what's best for our district so this is our intro um for the policy I'm going to be quiet and give you a moment to read and this is our next area kind of give you some weight time um as we continue to delve into Our intention and purpose for our policy just making sure that we're making it clear that um though we do understand and recognize that race is a significant conversation that must take place regarding Equity we are focused not only on Race but also religious freedom identity um language soci socioeconomic status sexual orientation zip code ability um and again the intersections of what that looks like and
048so the next um a couple of slides or there's three slides these are our sd308 commitments we do have the sd308 call to action attached within that policy and luckily for all of us Mr Jeremy Bell and Bailey Campbell are present tonight if you have questions about that call to action but what we recognize about a policy is that um it's phenomenal to have one but it's not going to be good enough if we don't attach action to it because we need to make sure that we are going to be doing what we say we believe in um and so with this here our commitments I'll pause again the next slide we want to highlight the multiple Pathways we want to be actively positively encouraging and supporting our students having those high expectations um believe
049it or not um high expectations is one of the number one interventions for all students but particularly for our students of color um and so we've also been in collaboration with every department so we are also looking to make sure that we are living and breathing this in in various departments so looking at professional learning how we are hiring recruiting and retaining um there's a lot of moving Parts here and for fortunately within the equity committee we have representation from all these departments so everyone was able to come in together and name and identify and commit to these pieces and then these are our last three all right and I just want to make sure that I honor the individuals who came together to work so D diligently um on putting this Equity policy together
050um supporting the districts call to action and then super excited um I know uh the success indicators draft is what will be coming next and so the success indicator also supports the equity policy also supports um what we are doing and collaborating with with Dr Paul um on mtss and the school Improvement process so are there questions questions or feedback and feedback so can I ask so I I I'm not GNA jump ahead but I just want you to think about something and I don't know I'm sure you probably already have around your success indicators right um because for me what I would like and hope that we are going to do is address the systemic inequities right um because you know our that the the data that most people often see is around um
051outcomes right and we know that students don't fail systems fail so what is it about our systems that are resulting in inequities for our students and if we don't address that then so I didn't know where where that's going to fall but for sure we need some type of um I wouldn't I I I know that there are things out there that are different from Equity audits because you know you want to attack the domains that need changing so what what tools will we use to assess those domains that need changing you know is it you know is it culture and climate we know it's culture and climate we know it's it's student engagement we know it's uh critical inquiry we know all of these things and we just need to address them so how
052how we going to do it so that's not big at all that was a lot well great I was going to start with the indicators Dr that sounds good thank you so much Dr K we got this um so I just want to start with this um and and obviously there's a lot more thorough information coming so the areas of the success indicators that the equity Department as as well as the committee and working with every Department are focused on is around gifted from elementary to Junior High to also High School looking at representation our processes and procedures on how we um test students to get into that program at third grade and really having an honest conversation about if they do not have access at that level then how are they going to be
053successful when they get to select these things at the high school level so we've met with everyone around that very fruitful conversations around what exactly we're doing and what exactly we need um everything from having a robust tier one universal all access and collaborating with ntss to reviewing our Benchmark assessment and making sure that it is available in the languag is necessary for our students um we've also worked with the multilingual learner department or El Department we've also worked with special education human resources um we are going to have a rightful presence statement we actually have an lgbtq statement as well we work with the discipline Department um and Elementary discipline and Mastery connect as another piece So within each of those spaces and I may have missed one but within each of those spaces
054there have been like long conversations about what we do in this district and how um how we can eliminate lessen and un lessen those inequities coupled with professional learning because that's such a huge piece of what is happening but then also making sure that as we are um fostering a clear direction for success for these equ inequities excuse me that we are also working together to lift School Improvement and lift mtss this is this is the part that is is going to marry it where we're saying this is the state of where we are this is where we need to go this is how we're going to get there utilizing these pieces and so um having the experience with working and collaborating and developing these um a priorities honestly has been even more helpful to
055make sure that we have a clear Direction on where we're going with those success indicators and now I'll pass the mic thank you uh Dr Waller um some two other things that I'd like to just add to the information that was shared is there's already been um discussions in planning uh with Dr Paul and the junior highs about opening up uh course selection um to Dr Waller's point to get additional students on track of available courses so while you know course selection has um gone for this coming fall as we think about new courses and Pathways leading into because it comes fast and furious um in August and September um that's the work that has already started planning for 202 26 the other lens is enhanced parent collaboration and communication around course selection and opportunities
056that Dr Waller uh has spoken about so I think those are the two other pieces uh to build out um opportunities through an equitable lens to all students so and I would add to that um that's that's perfect and another piece we are looking at an equity toolkit um that um was share with us by some special people so we are certainly looking at that as well um but we are also looking at who we are going to collaborate with um this school year we've been fortunate enough to to have Dr godi Muhammad step in some spaces with our teachers on cultivating genius and that particular pilot we are working with Ernest Crim and developing what that will look like to work with him next school year um so and courageous conversation with Mr Glenn
057Singleton um as that was a pretty powerful experience that we just had so we are you know making those steps to determine these collaborations so that we can be consistent about how we're moving forward thank you I was just going to add one more thing that the curriculum audit that we just did has a huge focus on Equity um and they looked at so many different Avenues and that will come back in a very formal Report with suggestions to overcome some of those specific obstacles that you were talking about who did the equity audit it was all part of the I just don't just put it on on the name the company yeah sir you can restate it Cur cmsi yeah cmsi it's all part of the curriculum audit but we specifically looked for an
058entity with a focus on Equity oh yeah that and they did ask me a lot of questions about Equity yeah no that was that was amazing I thought that was amazing yeah so when you said Equity a I got confused because I thought she said curricul I was thinking Equity okay I have not watched the entire last board meeting so I apologize that this has been covered but I did have um and chew over this with Dr katti this week um I've read this so many times and I just want to thank you everyone that has put into the work that has put the work into this and re and recognize that none of the administrators can do anything if the board doesn't make a policy so this is a long time coming um but
059I have a few questions very specific to the policy in the opening paragraph one of the things that I have been thinking a lot about is where does this Equity policy fit in our policy manual but also in our journey right and it's really about what is the goal of education and I think this board we may not agree on everything but we do agree that this is one of our main goals um but within with that knowing that every single student has a very unique journey I do feel that all students will meet or exceed College Andor career career ready standards is important but I also think that there is something beyond that I think that there are some students and I really mold over what that word was whether it was Community ready
060or future ready and I think that that's maybe a little bit what's missing in there there not everybody's going to go to college not everybody's going to have a career if you will like an accountant or a lawyer or a doctor um some people are just going to be parents some people are going to be Community activists but as I've sat in this seat over the last couple years I've realized how we really have a little bit of a gap in our community with adults that are Community ready adults that are Future Ready adults that know you know where to vote how to vote when to vote adults that know how things work and so forth so I really would love to see a little bit of that captured there because I think we do
061have a responsibility for bringing students that are ready to vote bringing students that know how to use a debit card and a checkbook and all these other things but it doesn't necessarily fall into a career or a college or a trade college is important I don't think we should ever stop pushing that but I think that is something that I would love to see there secondly in the third I guess paragraph it is sd38 will continue to modify its practices I think that should be an ongoing continuously Monitor and modify I think that is something that is important that it might be working right now but it might not be working in two or three years or maybe we've moved along our Equity Continuum and but there's still more to do if we ever figure
062it all out I mean we've really we've really hit the right the golden jackpot so what was the propos the last thing the very last sentence I'm hoping that we can say um updated action plans and progress towards these commitments shall be reported to the board annually and available on the website for community and stakeholder review I think if we do not have it in front of us all the time like I started carrying our values with me so that I always am referencing them I think if we put it up there and we are transparent and it's up there and everybody sees it that we'll be um more prone to making it reality are you just thoughts looking for no I love it I was just wondering okay well one I need to take
063a picture of what you just said so I can so I can write it but I was wondering because this is under the governing Can it can I frame it so that it's the board requests because I really I want I want the language to be does that make sense I think that's where it stands for girl yes is that okay I just want to make sure and and then um I just wanted to also make sure to capture Monitor and modify so I I'll have that piece in there and then in the in the beginning paragraph which I really love that you push that and Dr Kad has actually talked about the um career college career and Community piece and so in this beginning oh let me go back sorry in the beginning paragraph
064it talks about them um become to become contributing members to society so what I'm wondering is if we can add a a caveat but can we make it a commitment so like we have these commitments can we give it its own line as far as commitment however you feel in your committee and the team the administrators feel it is necessary I just want to make sure that we are covering everybody and we are what if somebody's like but wait I'm not going to college I'm not I don't even know what I want to do as a career but I need to go out and I need to get a job and I need to create a life for myself have we done things within our our power to make them ha able to do that
065kind of thing absolutely so I mean I would also love to see a line where we could count back change but okay okay okay I won't do that I won't do that we can make that part of our finances but um no seriously that is that's just what I want I think that if and I'll and I'll use a very personal example I happen to take my son into of his friends recently um to altitude the trampoline park and some things were exchanged with another really large group of kids that was very unfortunate there was a lot of racial um things towards my um friends Sons I went to talk to adults and we could not have a conversation and it really hit home and I was like I just want us to talk as
066adults we have to get back as a community to being able to talk to each other about things and I think if we can teach our students how to find those ways is where we align and the things that are the same um we had a great um uh I'm sorry like a a a session we attended at um our Board conference and it talked about just starting to talk to someone and say pizza okay pepperoni and then you were like what could we find that we actually agree about the fact that I can't talk to other adults and and and have this opportunity to talk about what our kids exchanged with each other is very concerning to me as a community member and even if those students don't stay in the asgo community knowing
067that they're out there in another community and they came from us and so we want them to represent us and we want to represent them um I just think is really really important I want to make sure we cover everyone which leads me to one last little really nitty bitty thing is when we say zip code disability Etc I hate Etc it's like who's Etc so um I know why we're putting it in there but it just it's just a personal pet peeve so thank you change that yeah we need to make that okay it's a good C there are other ways to explain the idea and other relevant identities or intersection I was going to say at the same time I I want something noted in there still so I don't want to just
068takeen out because like when the first I know what he said I I heard him I'm just saying I I don't I don't want it take it out and just completely ignore it I I heard everybody Dominic thank you because um you want to talk about personal stories when first thing I always explain when I talk about Equity is like my son's milk allergy right and and you know for for those who don't um you know like like and the reason I start there is because it doesn't have to be what right right now it does need to have that right absolutely has to but it doesn't have to always be those things and I think some my point is we sometimes cross equity and we don't realize it so I'm fine with us coming
069up with something besides Etc but I don't want it being yes thank you I got you okay thank you thank you and uh this will come to the board next uh meeting for action but in between if there are other recommendations please send them this way so that we can have a uh representative document that I'm just wondering like if I want to more time yeah does anybody need more time I do want to say one thing which is I was going to say was thank you I want to say thank you because I'm not to call the person out even though they're in the room because I know they're they're like me kind of they're humble but when I when I go to my mom lives in bigford and when I'm driving bigford on
070a Sunday and I see people in your team working at the ad Center on a Sunday morning that's pretty impressive stuff so um yeah but I don't call them out cuz I I know they're they're like me they're a little humble so they don't want me to do that maybe maybe they do but they'll tell me later no I want to talk oh okay okay all right thank you um next item uh Draft Board of Education meeting calendar 2425 8.4 any questions related to this no okay that's what you thank you all right that concludes our consent we are moving along 9.1 action item approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 4,331 7774 as presented second Miss ven
071hi Dr Mario hi mrone hi Miss Simon hi hi Mr G hi M Johnson hi Mr cler hi motion passes 70 action item 9.2 approval of high school sports girls wrestling can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the addition of girls wrestling in sd308 second all right now Dr katti you're want to yeah I wanted to bring up why this is coming tonight and uh Dr K yes so when we originally present presented um the additional of uh ihsa sports for school year 25 um the information presented was girls lacrosse boys lacrosse and girls wrestling um but when we voted in action at our last meeting the motion just stated lacrosse so we wanted to make sure that we were clear and transparent with our community so we wanted to bring
072this forward so that we had girls wrestling also present in a motion a IAL yes make it official and and I'm going to repeat then from what I said last time which is you know uh I appreciate I appre and I appreciate the explanation last time about the process so not we don't have to go back down that road unless you want to um but again um you know anytime something's brought in front of me and you say hey we're going to include more students I'm I'm of course going to say yes I just want us to be cognizant of things that we've done done uh to our Junior High Sports and and where we're at with all those things as well so thank you Dr Maria hi M Johnson hi Mr hi mrone hi
073Mr G I miss I miss Sim I motion passes 70 action item 9.3 approval of student rights and responsibilities handbook can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the two 20 2425 student rights and responsibilities handbook as presented second and I just want to say again thank thank you to everyone who worked on this it was great job got to get them home so they can watch the game Miss ven hi Dr Maria hi hi hi Mr Gatewood hi M Johnson hi Mr hi motion passes Z action item 9.4 approval of resolution authorizing loans tolling $1,900,000 from the working cash fund to the educational fund and the transportation fund can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize a loan totaling $15,900 th000 from the working cash fund to the
074educational fund uh $7,900 th000 and the transportation fund $8 million second can we just have a really quick explanation why we do this of course Mr so as it relates to the transportation fund we actually ended the year last year in a deficit of $5 million in the uh fund balance by law we cannot have a deficit in the fund balance so we have to transfer 5.1 million dollar to cover that and this year to date in the transportation fund we have uh negative of about $3 million already so we transfer we're then what we're doing is borrowing from our bank which is to work in cash to uh to plug the deficit until we get our tax receip and we have three years to pay that back and as it relates to the Ed
075fund as I mentioned earlier we're pretty low to uh right now because the timing of our receipt so in order to so essentially what we doing we borrow from ourselves instead of borrowing from somewhere else the way the uh the state uh school code works is the working cash fund is a bank for the school district so instead of going out and issuing bonds to do a Taw where we borrow money we have all the issue cost of insurance and we also pay interest we borrowing it from each other and we'll pay it back once we get tax distribution in June without having to pay interest and we also have three years to pay but we'll pay it back when we get that money money in and and I think it's important to note that
076this is the advantage when you have reserves money and Reserve yes yes thank you yes it is well I I would imagine you're having some sleepless nights right CU you was like we're we're cutting it close not really we just not really that's how you because we justs right to get we do our Cal projections we're doing our Cal projections on a daily basis so have a good idea how much we need how much we spend earlier he said comfortable yeah so that's not going to like if I heard G to get close yeah if we if we were getting the to the point where I can't sleep at night we probably have done a TA because we don't want to we don't want to send our paycheck that we wouldn't be able to uh
077to negotiate so it's not it's not that close thank you thank you thank you thank you for stating it out loud mrone hi Hi I hi hi hi I motion passes 70 action item 99.5 approval of residency program so this item is being there's a motion to move it to the next month Mr Dr zi yes correct um we are in a good a good space with NCT we just have this still in attorney review we'll bring it on April 22nd I'm gonna make it I should make the motion before they have the conversation yeah so can I have a motion to postpone the approval of The Residency program to a future meeting please make a motion to postpone The Residency program with the national Center for Teacher residencies as presented second okay now we
078can have the conversation go ahead hello again just trying to follow Robert's Rules no thank you getting like really de here what he said um our attorneys have reviewed their attorneys are in the process of reviewing the contract we will bring a contract to you April 22nd okay thank you Dr Maria hi hi Mr hi hi are we voting to postpone it yes I Johnson hi Mr hi motion passes 70 action item 9.6 approval of agreement with asset control Solutions can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the agreement with asset control Solutions in the amount of $37,500 second I just want to say a big big big big thank you ra Raphael Amanda thank you this is huge really appreciate it can you share a little bit about the signific ific
079just so that the what it is is part of gasby 34 government accounting standard board uh school districts and government and entities are supposed to have a um a way to measure the assets of fixed asset of the organization and I believe for the last eight years or so we as a district we have not complied with that so it's a way to have a true value of all the assets that we have uh that would be any assets over 500 even at buildings the value of it the work that we've done to improve it which raises the uh the value of the asset and you do that for good uh uh annual financial report and also you do that for insurance too but we haven't done that in the last eight years so this
080is our attempt to actually comply with that uh requirement as a matter of fact we had a meeting with uh with an audit firm today since you H me to speak to it in the past we hav't had a uh annual financial report completed till uh February and you were actually require to have it completed no lateer on December so what we've talked to the auditor about is to have it completed by November we like to do stuff early instead of doing it late so we met with them today and they they they provided us the list of things that they would need in order for us to have it done so they they booked Us in for us August for them to do onsite visit in the meantime we're going to be sending the
081pre-work document to the firm and they will have most of what they need before they come here they will have it by June so that by the time they come here in August they will have all the papers that they need to be able to do onsite uh uh testing and and to Echo it Jen saying this is how stuff is supposed to run run and look and that's only going to help when it comes to building confidence with the community so thank you huge undertaking and I can tell you that um Mary Joe and Dominic I were a little shocked that we didn't have that going so we're very grateful it's a huge undertaking and thank you more than a little but yes more than a little [Music] shocked hi hi Mr hi Mr
082I Mr G hi Dr Maria I I motion passes 7 action item 9.7 approval of building administrator contracts can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the building administrator contract as presented sorry second I didn't know if we were doing sign langage Mr hi Dr Maria hi Miss s hi Mr Chiron hi M Johnson hi Mr G hi Miss men hi motion passes 70 and with that we want to uh congratulate Kelly marotz she's here uh welcome to [Applause] s38 all right welcome to the [Applause] community all right action item .8 approval of building administrator contracts for 20242 can I have a motion please M make a motion to approve the building administrator contracts for 20242 as discussed and presented second um sorry you know I got lot but um I just
083want to say like I remember doing so many school visits and sitting with so many building administrators and we've lost some good ones over the years and and there's some who have stuck stuck with us and whatever we can do to show show them that we appreciate them so they're they're important long overdue yep misson hi Miss Hi mrone I hi hi hi hi motion passes 70 action item 9.9 approval of resolution for dismissal of probationary part-time teachers can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing dismissal and non Reemployment of probationary part-time teachers and teachers hired on a temporary contract second Mr I Mr G I Miss Johnson hi Mr hi Miss Ben hi Dr Maria I miss I motion passes 70 action item 9.10 approval of res resolution
084for dismissal of first and second year teachers can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing dismissal and non- Reemployment of first and second year probationary teachers second Mr Gatewood I Dr hi Miss Johnson hi Mr hi Miss Simon hi mron hi Miss Ben hi motion passes 70 action item 9.11 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Mr hi hi Johnson hi Mr I miss Sim I Dr Mario I miss I motion passes 70 10.1 can I have a motion to go oh sorry I'm so sorry can I have a motion to go back into Clos session I make a motion to enter close session under statutes 5 IL cs120 2c1 the appointment employment compensation discipline
085performance or dismissal of certain employees and individuals 5 ilc S1 120/2 C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees 5 ICS 12202 C11 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending uh before court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the Clos session meeting second hi actually hi hi hi