SD308 Board of Education (10/23/2023)

001pres Dr Mario here Mr present M present present and present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I PL Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with li justice for all so there is no public comment we will move to 5.1 well I want to welcome this evening we are thrilled we are starting a new initiative where we are inviting um groups within our district led by students and Educators to present and tonight we are welcoming the bionic believe it or not I care and I want to thank you all for preparing and uh being prepared to share your reflections with the board um you may come on up so do we have a microphone there so it would

002help us if you would if you would if you want to hold it and uh you could take it off the yeah take it off the stand and then share the mic um it's just all right okay we're just going to start by introducing ourselves so my name is Nina I'm Natalie I'm Griffin and I'm also Natalie and we are four of your nine bionic board members so firstly I'd like to thank you all for taking time out of your day to meet us here today uh it means a lot to all of us uh and so just a big thank you not only from the nine of us on the bionic board but all 450 of our OS bionic club members as well as our three teacher sponsors that we have over there wonderful

003teacher sponsors uh who is the clicker can you introduce their names as well I think it would be Wonder yes sorry so that's uh that is Miss man over there Miss Wendy man that is Miss Rachel Zer and Mrs Colleen prle we also have wonderful Miss early back there as well all right so this is a question that we throw around a lot in our all of our bionic programs uh specifically our hike and talk programs which we will get into later and that is the question what is your why now I'm willing to bet that all nine of us on the board could probably talk your ears off about our individual wise and why that we are so invested in the bionic Club CL but our why as a board as a whole is

004to make the OS bionic Club as accepting kind and positive as we can make it not only for students at our school but students in surrounding districts and just overall members in our community so a few of you already know who we are and what we're about but for those of you who don't allow me to explain so bionic is an acronym and it stands for believe it or not I care and what we're about is spreading kindness and positivity and just showing people that there's it's easy to be nice right uh and so we're all about improving our community and we do that not only through physical health but also emotional health so we have multiple programs where we work with food drives as well as uh we do a Giving Tree program that

005gives back and helps people in need and we also do emotional health Focus things uh specifically we make sure that us nine on the board as well as our three teacher sponsors people know that they can go to us with absolutely anything that they need to uh last thing I'd want to add is that we are the absolute largest Club at OS with 450 members and Counting uh and we've been around since around the 1990s in bionic we have two community outreach programs and the first one that I'm going to talk about is teens activating the language of kindness also known as talk which is our high school program through this program our talk mentors lead groups of high school students through activities and discussions that spread awareness raise pos positive ity and ultimately strengthen

006our school Community this is our 22nd year running this program as it was founded in 2001 the second program I'd like to talk about is Heroes invested in kindness every day or hike which is our elementary school program this year we are running hike in 12 of the 13 elementary schools in our school district and through this program hike mentors will work with groups of elementary school students to teach them that their words have an impact on their peers and teach them how to spread kindness in their school Community after spending a whole day in these elementary schools our hike mentors have the opportunity to join the hike after school program where they will go to these elementary schools on a weekly basis for the rest of the school year to volunteer last year I

007participated in this when we piloted it at Four elementary schools and I volunteered at Southbury Elementary School twice a week reading to kindergarten students on top of these Outreach programs we also offer Vol offer volunteer opportunities for the members of bionic in our local community Through organizations like the food pantry okay so now that you've heard a little bit about what we run and how we run those programs I want to talk to you about the goals of not only us board members but the entire Club in general so our main focus is to create a community obviously within our individual high school but also through the other schools in our district such as the elementary schools and also outside of the community we often do programs throughout downtown like the kindness rocks and stuff

008to show all community members that there is kindness and positivity in the world and through the food drive and Giving Tree programs to help anybody who might need it um but some of the board goals specifically are to make the group budget friendly as high schoolers we often try to be involved in a lot of activities and the budget tends to kind of go out the window because everything is pretty expensive so we want to make sure that bionic is as accessible and as open and as easy to join for any of our um board members which also helps with making it a very open environment but the main reason we're here today is to talk to you about chords um not only to recognize our seniors but to recognize all the hard work and

009community service that our members go into so this is an example of our current Point tracking system every event that we run has a corresponding point value so for example the talk and Hike programs are the biggest events we run so they have the biggest amount of points associated with them and every year of membership has a certain number of points you have to meet so for example if you only join bionic your senior year you would need 50 points in order to get your cord but this is the part where we need your help so this is a continued example of our C current point system these are our current seniors so I'm just going to go in depth about how we track these and what these kind of look like so as you

010can see we have the names listed in addition to their ID numbers and then we have each event that we run as we run them and then if they attended that event they earn those points and then we have their total number of points off to the far end so as you can see on this slide we have obtained all of the um things that we need in order to finalize these chords however we faced some contradicting information on who we need to go to so that is our next step our next step is understanding who we need to go to to finalize these chords so that we can recognize all of our bionic members and especially our seniors so again we would just like to thank you as board members and everyone else um

011for letting us come and speak before you today in addition to your ongoing support to our club um we would also like to thank all of our bionic members and their families who have come out to support us today so thank you all um so if any of you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to any of the board members um or Mrs M Zer or prle and again a big thank you to all of you [Applause] thank you board comments yeah do you want go ahead go ahead any questions having to answer go ahead well they had a question they ended with the question who do they need to go to I don't they're all nodding we do we know that answer yeah yeah we will follow up with you

012okay yeah we will follow up with you and and and I would say given the research and not only given the research but the the depth of thoroughness thoroughness in community service and impact in our community um I for when will vote to make sure we get we get we get a court for you all so we got to figure it out One Way Or Another We're going to get a call I agree I think we can figure out a and I I see lots of people in the audience can I just see a raise of hands of those who are hike and talk people here tonight wow awesome thank you so [Applause] much thank thank you you guys did a beautiful job you Wendy and Colleen and who else is back Rachel's back there

013um I've seen this talk program in many iterations over the years it's been a long time but it's always been an opportunity for students and I've only heard great things about this program I've seen this program up close and personal and I'm just so proud of you all um there there was a time where this program was just um in one school and it is now in both schools but more importantly it is a district sanction Club where it has not been in the past and so I want to congratulate you all for showing um the district the importance of this program and the effect that this program has on students and so I want to thank you all and your sponsors for all their hard work and dedication over the years you guys have

014been hanging in there for a long time and so we really appreciate everything that you've done so thank you and I'm I'm actually I'm actually going to a hike program next week I believe it is so uh looking forward to that but thank you I had seen your presentation well maybe a month ago maybe I've lost track of time and as I said then these kids just blow me away these kids are pretty awesome so thank you thank you well I um am not unfamiliar with many of these faces I am a very loud and um obnoxious advocate of bionic I've also had the opportunity to see some of these kids grow up when they were very little I'm not going to cry um and um Charlie congratulations on Amia I saw that today very

015proud of you um and I could not be more proud of you but what I don't know that many people know is how many lives you've saved um when you had your first talk training and we had all the other schools in I got I was able as a board member to talk to the other schools and I got a text message at the end of the day that you guys recognized a student in crisis and saved their life it's it's amazing wow the power and impact of this program and what you've taken on as students with all the other things that I know you're running to is so incredibly important because you're going to know what your your students are what what your your classmates are going to do um before but they also

016have a safe place to go um to Rachel and Wendy and Colleen I'm pretty sure that you have a ticket to whatever is beyond heaven or whatever you want to call it um I thank you for continuing to be a safe space for our students you are all the reason that I do what I do you and I will forever be a um bionic talk hike path supporter and um will continue to fight for you and I too I will pay for the cords if I have to you deserve them and I'm I'm super super proud of all of you thank you thank you I'll I'll make I'll make can I just say one more thing oh one more thing Aurora Catholic joined us this year because of Mrs M there she is she went

017to aora Catholic where her mom teaches and went and said your school needs this program wow it's because of student a one of our students that are where a Catholic today has this program and I am just I'm just so grateful so keep spreading keep spread no I'm sorry I just wanted to follow up on what uh Miss Johnson said uh I don't know if it was a year ago or about um where you all came and gave a presentation and I was in the middle of telling you all thank you and I became emotional and I couldn't talk anymore and the reason why oh no it's happening again take your time I can do it the reason why and I did not I was not able to finish and the reason why is that

018I personally my household has personally benefited from the work that you do and my son was in personal crisis and one day he came home and he said dad I'm going to this program called Talk and at the time you know if you if as parents there's a twinkle in your kid's eye and you know that twinkle but it was gone but when he came back from talk it was back and so from the bottom of my heart personally I know the work and the impact of these programs and so I just wanted to say thank you from the bottom of my heart [Applause] okay so we want to thank you again for joining us this evening um and really we look forward to uh your continued success um every day and we know that

019the lives you've impacted and your own will be forever remembered so thank you [Applause] all okay all right we're going to move on to 6.1 the superintendence report um Dr kelot if you would please give us your superintendence report wonderful uh this evening uh well we want to thank you all again um oh no today we thank and we celebrate the dedicated drivers and monitors of the of our on this bus driver appreciation day um this is really uh I had the opportunity to join um uh members of our leadership team over there and to thank our drivers personally and the transportation department for all their hard work um these special staff members are often um some of the first at work each day they're the district Representatives that engage with our students at the

020start and end of each day of the school year of each day while collectively driving thousands of students thousands of miles each day they safely transport our most precious cargo we sincerely thank each and every staff member of our transportation family today and always we are nearing the end of principal appreciation month and this past month we've celebrated each of these special leaders over the last week in many different ways um we appreciated the community we invited community members from each school to join us in thinking out of extending words and phrases and with that we created um an art piece essentially that they were able that was framed and provided to each principle um so it was really a gift that went beyond just a mere physical item but really A word of gratitude

021words that were captured for all of our principles um and with the same Spirit of Celebration I want to share that this evening comes to the board a a resignation notice from one of our members of our principls who has shared the news that he plans to entire early uh retire at the end of this year from formal Service as a principal we know that these days retirement means the end of one career maybe the start of a new one so I won't say you know so he's retiring and moving on to the next Adventures of his life um Mr Larry pek has served as a principal of Churchill Elementary School for six years uh following many years of school leadership and Educational Service his focus on instructional leadership and POS positively supporting a school

022Community can be seen in all that he does each day I can attest to that um when I visited his school but also when I met with members of his community um really spoke to that Larry is a model of the Mantra that he proclaims which is to be positive productive and professional we are grateful to Larry and for him Jo the community um in which he lives for the final years of his professional career as a principal um we're trying a number of new initiatives uh so to recruit for specific roles within the district this is a championship team that I'm grateful to be on and we want to bring more to this so coming soon we have our par palooza on October 26 and language Cafe led by our human resources department so

023language Cafe on October 2 8 and per paloa on October 26 last Friday I want to thank our HR team at the cross down game which was riveting uh providing information on joining our team we are committed to connecting with our community in meaningful ways to help find the best fit for those interested in joining our scho District 308 team um tonight I'm also introducing a new practice where we're going to invite board members to join me in celebrating and bringing notice to different things across the community so in addition to board comments I want to start over here with oh to my right with Miss similon thank you and that concludes my official comments thank you so much so we're acknowledging um Ascend which is a student program here in our district it's acronyms

024stand for activating students compassion through essential notable discoveries and and they held um a an event on Friday and it was hosted by wabansi Community College this incredible event brought together students from six area districts for a full day to engage in learning and sharing their experiences opening their minds to the experiences of others our own superintendent Dr katti was the keynote speaker sharing his own story his why he is where he is today a special thanks to our own Dr Waller for her commitment and vision that brought this amazing concept to life in such an amazing collaborative way thank you um just asking in community to please mark your calendars from Monday November the 6 for a public form hosted by the Board of Education two times each year this where the board we

025come together uh with our community to engage in open conversation and collaboration this is also an opportunity where we can Envision what's possible instead of just admiring what's before us and so there will be additional information coming out about this evening um very soon so please uh look for that communication um all right our food drive uh concluded last week with a total collection of 26683 KN items and cash equivalents collected for the kenel County Community Food Pantry uh this incredible effort provides food security for thousands of neighbors each week at each level we honored the schools with the highest percentage of items donated per student during the cross town football game Friday night uh congratulations to ASO High School trer junior high school and Southbury Elementary School Southbury was the overall winner as well

026uh new this year we re recognize the schools who surpass their previous year's collection total our level up winners are Long Beach Elementary School South b elementary school big nark Junior High and trer Junior High uh the energy was high and positive at the cross down game we appreciate the great sportsmanship and student Behavior at the game and the chairing so uh Red Red Ribbon Week uh takes place uh every year from October 23rd through the 31st and today is October 23rd so it's the nation's largest and longest um run drug uh drug use prevention campaign uh the week is set aside uh to highlight important the importance of living a drug-free life and many of our schools will be engaging in different activities uh as we celebrate uh the important commitment to living a

027healthy lifestyle and finally last but not least uh congratulations to the OS Panther marching band on making finals and placing seventh overall at the Illinois state championship this past Saturday this is the first time in school history this has happened and in addition they also play they also Place third out of the out of all the 6A bands in prelims first place in the visual Ensemble caption out of all 42 bands in the prelims was a little awkward but take my word for it uh and second place overall in the music caption at finals so good job OS marching band thank you so we'll move on to 6.2 board committee reports we have a report from the equity and teaching and learning committee anyone like to speak out on that we all documents Finance oh

028it is finance and Facilities okay anyone want to speak on that want to add anything we have some action items uh some information and action items coming up this evening um related to um some savings but also forecasting additional costs I would agree um and I think it is um showing the precedent that we would like to set in making forward progress in the district uh both from a cost saving standpoint and also kind of setting the goal as being uh the district to look up to in this particular area we'll start with that then we'll move on to the entire State okay okay thank you um no I mean it's yeah I mean we had a a presentation on we're going to do with um you know the rpn contract process moving forward um

029kind of uh U solidifying that um so it was it was a good meeting yeah we went a good I don't know a half hour 45 minutes late and uh I had a feeling that would happen at the the finance committee so okay thank you and then will we uh will we get information on the recommendation that was made for the steuart Farms lead I'm assuming oh yeah um the recommendation was to continue the partnership um and you know I don't know if it's if it's going to be completely necessary but maybe think about putting you know something like a 90day you know out just in case we decide to sell it or something along those lines but um I that that might complicate things so we'll see and increasing the cost make no sense

030we we um decided to kind of leave the we were talking about 300 bucks or something it was like $800 a year or something like that so just to in good faith um we decided to leave it the way it was or it made sense to leave it the way it was yeah and I mean it makes sense but um you know it was interesting because when I first got on this board there were discussions about do we really need this land we're not going to get a third High School yeah so forth and so on but with the amount of building that's occurring and it's you know it's going to end up creeping South um and if you look at a map of the district all the schools are up North so that land

031I think becomes um pretty um uh important when we look into the future especially if the district grows out um there's not a lot of schools in the southern part of the district and if you go down to uh Na Township they would tell you there are no schools in the southern part of the district so uh but yeah we've also looked into uh selling that land in the past and we talked about what that would um look like and frankly we just wouldn't make any money off of it so um the recommendation was again like Mary Joe said to extend the Stuart Farms Le they've been a good partner with us and it just made sense yeah yeah we're taking care of the land so we're not it's not an added cost to us

032which a lot of times additional land is um often times land is liability when it comes to government so um but in this instance it's it's being used to produce food and you know so it's a it's a good partner it's a good relationship it's great sounds good since we are um introducing um information and action on the same night I will share that we did speak a lot about the Gallagher employee benefits Cooperative I um probably am the outlier here uh the overall the committee wanted a recommendation to be made for this I have a lot of hesitations about it I know that it looks like the savings are great I think that that is a roundabout number and I don't know that we're actually going to get to that number and secondly there's

033a lot of things that our current plan has and I'm just going to use the rush Copley um partnership right now that we don't have answers for and so um and there was quite a few of them on the the list and I just feel as though we've rolled out so many new things this year and we haven't had um some plans that um this doesn't have a lot of plan around it and I'm just concerned about that so I just wanted to bring that forward um so that when you see that a recommendation is made you know that we did actually talk about a lot of positives and negatives about this um and I have a feel feeling that Ken Miller is here we'll have a full present have a full and maybe maybe

034maybe because they I think that they said they were going to have that discussion literally the next day so maybe they had that discussion we we do have updates from the questions in terms of the reservations and we're grateful for all the questions that came up it is really important that we do our due diligence with any initiative um and um so I I would say that and then I I'm not sure if we've rolled out anything in terms of cost benefits or anything this related this year so this would be the first item related to this particular subject that we brought forward so I do appreciate that and I do know that we took the feedback of the board members that evening and and came back with information tonight so it'll be embedded in

035the presentation yes okay um are we we're is okay we're moving on right okay 6.3 board member comments any board member comments that were not outlined in our um shoutouts um during superintendent comments um my head M go ahead you know just uh uh today myself and many uh at this table are participated in the homestead Stars Mack trick- or treat event um helped this help to ensure these great students were able to practice the many skills needed to be successful on Halloween uh it was an amazing experience and I could tell the students had a great time um after the fact we were told uh the students had the biggest Smiles as they were going through their goodies you know their goodie bags that they got you know for trick- retreating um I also

036want to thank teachers teachers assistants and the homestead team who put this together and then uh finally I went uh I wanted to say that we it's funny not not funny coincidence that I spoke about the kennel County food pantry and the amount of items that we donated this year um I volunteered a couple weeks back at the Mobile Food Pantry over at Long Beach and um that only is you know great to to give back to the community and to support but the people that run that um they were like oh my God this is so much easier when we have volunteers um and they were able to help everybody quicker it was much um so they very appreciative um so if you get a chance um I volunteer for anything but a food

037pantry is is one that you know we've got ongo and it's uh there's a lot of opportunity so thank you thank you just want to say thank you to um the Will County Board um you know there was a um uh mental health resolution that was passed by the Will County Board the voters uh overwhelmingly were in support um unfortunately it became contentious for some reason but um but in the end they ended up following the wishes of the board and uh for all our students that are in Will County and could certainly benefit from um any kind of Mental Health Services I just want to say thanks to the Will County board for stepping up in um listenting the voters and doing the right thing in the end um even if it did take

038um uh for some reason some contention it's it's sad that everything has to be political this day and age or too many things I should say but uh thank you will County Board okay yeah okay so I just have a couple things um first of all there have been there have been two events that I've been to in the past week both of them have to do with the um with the hate crime in planfield um one was uh in plane field itself I and I just want to say it was we were at a Fieldhouse and the Fieldhouse held 1600 people at least that's what the that's what the police officer told me um and there was overflow outside the building I mean there was there was tremendous attendance so um it was it

039was sad but it was great to see uh a whole bunch of people different you know different sizes shapes colors just kind of coming together um to um um to stand up against hate uh there was also another event yesterday that yesterday that I went to that was a little bit more formal that was um at Benedict University uh the one that the one thing that they brought up is that you know ultimately the way these problems get solved is by the by the children um by the young people and that just really emphasizes how important it is as as Educators and as Schoolboard members um to make sure that the children are taken care of so I just kind of wanted to bring that point up as well just to emphasize um moving on

040to a different different subject really quick uh the holidays are coming um whether we like it or not uh so Community cares uh you may be familiar with puts together their um holiday project in which um for Christmas we collect food and um we collect uh sponsors who will basically um buy gifts for certain families anyway all of that starts in a couple weeks I just wanted to make you aware and also if anyone is we support basically a hundred families at the holidays so if anyone feels the need that they would qualify for that I would direct you back direct you back to your school and to the school social worker but again it's a it's a great program there'll be more information coming out but just wanted to make you aware of that

041um and Dominic stole my thunder on food pantry so that's all from me thank you oh oh uh Library board meeting is Wednesday the 25th thank you um it's uh it's important the the library board is having a really tough time these days so um I think the more people that show up even if you don't speak just to show your support um I think it's I think it's great if you can make it to be there what time when um it starts at 5 o'clock what day Wednesday the 25th oh uh it's at the Montgomery campus this time okay thank you hello Isabelle and Luke hello how are you doing good how are you good good to see you guys um so we'll ask for your um student ambassador report at this point all

042right so uh at our last ssac meeting we were able to create next steps for our work this school year one goal for the future is to build better relationships between High School staff and students our first step in achieving this goal is to identify what the disconnect may be between our staff and students since we already have the students input in this area we are now focusing on the teachers perspective we have since started the beginning stages of our teacher survey which will allow us to receive teacher input in perspective of student teacher relationships and its impact on success in the classroom we have identified six main categories to create our CR to create our questions around when we assess classroom commonalities we can better identify where how and why student teacher relationships are

043impacted the categories we have established are one classroom environments this category includes everything from the clarity of classroom expectations to the rigor of the course to the safety in the classroom two classroom structure um what is the class use for instructional in uh Learning Classroom time uh are there Bell ringers small groups uh are there lectures is there lots of independent work time and Etc uh number three respect and Rapport how much respect does the teacher receive and how is that respect returned what is the relationship type and is the class majority student l or teacher l number four is homework amount is the homework in said class nightly are there accessible resources for homework help uh is the homework busy work or necessary for student growth uh five instructional strategies what different ways do

044teachers instruct students during class time if something is taught in a way that is not clear to the student do they express their concerns and is there a possibility for instructional flexibility and finally number six is mental health support this category identifies the path to receiving mental health support in the classroom uh are there clear resources that teachers can provide for students and is there a clear Avenue of communication for teachers and students to go to uh the ssac is looking forward to further engaging in this work all right so at the last SSA meeting I joined a separate group from Luke and we worked on the beginning stages of planning our next in school Ascend event we began by going over some successes and shortcomings from our previous Ascend event a couple weeks ago

045that included the positive interactions we saw when students were able to discuss topics with each other you know turning and talking one-on-one conversation and how we could maybe expand that for our next event um we talked about the timing and Clarity of communication needed to make students and teachers feel they understand what's going on and they can engage properly and lastly how we can of course make our programming more engaging and increase relatable connections to the student body from there we were able to discuss our goals for the next asem program on January 26 we decided to work on a plan similar to the human Library events of past years these allow students to interact with people of many walks of life and experiences our first goal is to get a diverse group of adults

046willing to share their story the main topics we would really like to cover with our speakers are succeeding without a college degree overcoming adversity in a field of work and finding success and joy throughout that experience and most importantly we would really like to hear from people who struggled throughout school you know they weren't straight a 4.0 but they were still able to find success and happiness um so if you believe you or anyone you know would be a good fit for any of these topics or if you have a different story to share please visit the sd308 website and fill out our Google go Form application uh we would really like to give our student body an interesting and moving experience lastly I wanted to discuss the Ascend conference this Friday for those who

047are unaware District 308 hosted the first of its kind a diversity equity and inclusion conference at wanzi Community College last Friday the 20th I was able to attend along with a large group of both students from ASO East and ASO high school we were also joined by students from many neighboring districts it was such a great experience that real allowed me to educate myself on many issues faced in our community I personally attended two trainings one on implicit bias and the other on the opioid epidemic and there were many other trainings offered along with those that gave students the opportunity to learn about intersectionality celebrating identities diversity in the workplace and so much more students are now now able to go back to their districts equipped with the knowledge needed to educate their peers whether

048you know that's more intellectual or in my opioid epidemic when we learned how to administer can which is a good skill to have especially you know as kids are going off to college overall everyone had a great time and we were able to walk away with valuable information to share with others thank you Dr Waller for working to create such a great event and thank you to the amazing people within our district who supported presented and volunteered to chapon for this event thank you yeah I had uh two students who wanted to say say thank you so two of my students in my district so definitely District uh Valley View 365 view so uh definitely had an impact on districts outside our own so that was uh was an awesome little uh um what do

049you call it um proud moment I guess for us as three I just want to um to touch upon something Isabelle said so on January 26th we are they are holding a human library and a little bit about what a human library is is you will have different um adults sitting in a room and basically they are a book and then people go in students will go into that room and they will get to quote unquote read the book um and so this is something that was developed um in out of the out of New York and uh We've participated in it as a district before but we are going to run it ourselves this year and I know that uh Eugene and I are are really proud of the students for taking this on

050um what we hope is that students will have the opportunity to go hear different stories and um it will help them understand people um better like someone with a disability for instance they can go in you hear the story and then you have an opportunity to ask questions and so they uh the student advisory committee is currently looking for any adult that would be willing to take that on it is a very um it is definitely something that you have to be willing and open to do and be comfortable with students asking you questions but the impact is is pretty phenomenal so um Isabelle could you tell one more time where they can send that information um so there should be a Google form on the 308 website um and there's also been a flyer

051created I don't know if that's posted or not but that will also have a QR code to the Google form which will probably just ask I haven't read through I'll be honest I haven't read through all of it but I think I know the person who did it and I believe there's just a couple questions background and all of that but you don't have to fit you know every story I mentioned it could just be something you feel is important to share with students and what's the date of it January 26 thank you Isabelle do you know where on the website um probably if you don't it's not it's not it's fine I just saw the form today so I'm not sure if it's live yet but okay I it's coming yeah okay moving on

052to 7.1 the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please make motion to approve all items under consent including 7.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on October 10th 2023 open and close session and 7.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district are there any questions on the consent agenda second oh somebody second it right did you say second I somebody said I second it but are there any question do you have questions anyone have questions on the consent agenda okay I I M Johnson hi Mr Cerone I miss s hi Mr hi Miss hi motion passes 70 so this evening I'm proud to bring to uh our discussion and for uh review Dr zmy um Glenn compos and Ken Miller are going to discuss some work

053that they've also worked with the finance department um in cooperation with Mr obafemi to talk about transition to a new health care assistant provider one of the the core issues that the board has brought to our attention mentioned is there really a need for uh increasing our financial viability and I'm pleased with the work this team has done and I'm sure you'll have lots of important questions and I appreciate those questions because we want to ensure that the community and um are everything is done and with viability so good evening board um with me tonight is Ken Miller and Glenn campost um who are really lead our benefits team within our human resources department we have three goals in our human resources department to recruit retain and reward our staff um we have provided with

054you a memo and a slide presentation tonight uh to answer any questions uh we did have a meeting with the finance committee we met last week also with each um president of the unions to discuss feedback and then we have amended our presentation and our memo based on that feedback so Ken and Glenn um would I like to call the law office of Ken and Glenn couldn't pass it up I need a logo they do U if you guys would like to uh start our presentation for our recommendation for our employee benefit Cooperative you have the clicker right there thank you right thank you Dr zumy um and thank you to the board of education for the opportunity for the two of us to uh come here and uh talk about a subject that's near

055and dear to our hearts employee benefits so well you can and uh thank you board um before we take a deep dive into our medical insurance it's going to be helpful to provide an overview of our medical offerings On Any Given month we have approximately 2,800 or more employees enrolled and additional 2,800 dependants enrolled in our medical insurance these employees and the dependants are enrolling one of three different plans there is our traditional po there's also a high deductible po which comes with a healthcare account that helps our employees offset that high deductible plan and we also have finally a HMO plan all told the costs to cover these members on our insurance runs approximately $27 million per year oh I'm sorry no it's all good thank you Glenn I'm better off holding the mic

056than I am with the mic in the mic stand um so for the past 15 years or longer um and again 15 years is about as far back as I'm able to find records our district has been self-insured for employee medical coverage this means that the district contracts with the third party claims ad administrator in our case Blue Cross Blue Shield to uh negotiate rates for payment with providers to determine what the provider networks are and ultimately to pay claims on the district's behalf so to determine premium rates the district relies on the services of our broker currently locked in corporation um to be able to perform an Actuarial analysis and review and recommend the premiums that the district will ultimately charge and over the past six years this approach has served the district very

057well I'm pleased to say that we've been able to maintain our insurance rates unchanged since January 1st of 2017 um and unlike the Bulls who needed a couple of years in between to get a 6 ft we've been able to run the table uh to provide some con to provide a little bit of context for this number Ken's got jokes okay we got to make benefits fun yes come on and right and to provide some contacts for that number when I last had the privilege of talking to the Board of Education about benefits back in April 36% let me say that again 36% of employees who have our medical coverage have never had their rates increased in January due to increased plan costs that's more than one in three which is complete which is unheard

058of in this industry and while there are many benefits like I've gone over as far as maintaining the self-insured approach there are some risks associated with going in alone loan ultimately at the end of the day claims Drive premiums and if claims Drive premiums our risk pool is then ultimately vulnerable to increases in claims costs or claims activity that ultimately need to be factored into those costs and while the district does have stoploss reinsurance to be able to protect against catastrophic claims we're responsible for the first $120,000 in claim costs for um those on our HMO plan and $230,000 for those that are on our po plans so as a result of increased claims activity and inflationary pressures that are driving up the cost of claims unfortunately we will not be able to continue the

059sixth year winning streak into a seventh and remaining self-funded with the status quo all else being equal uh was uh projected to result in the need for an average increase of approximately 88.8% for medical thanks so the task is now how do we find ways to be able to mitigate the impact of rate increases and also hedge against future rate increases um from a position of strength that the past 6 years have afforded us so to accomplish this the administration is recommending that we move away from our self-funded approach and instead join uh the employee benefits Cooperative that is led by Gallagher this Cooperative has been in existence since 1984 it consists of 125 school districts across the state of Illinois governed by a board of directors where every District gets a seat and a

060seven member executive board that handles some of the broader policy and administrative decisions gallago then serves as the broker of record for all of the plan design offerings and in looking at the employee benefit cooperatives track record they their average increase per year over the course of 5 years for those that um have um HMO insurance is 4.4% per year for those that have poo plan designs it was approximately 5.3% on average for a 5-year average for their cost increases which is uh pretty good compared to to the industry average we're right now seeing 7 and 1 12 10 even in some cases 14 to 15% is not unheard of so by moving to the employee benefits Cooperative um not only do we get the chance to um have strengthen numbers we will also be

061able to retain our current plan designs reduce our liability for high cost claimants secure stable rates for the next 18 months align our benefit renewals to coincide with our fiscal calendar and also like I had said hedge against future premium increases by broadening the risk pool and with that I'm going to turn it over to Glenn to go to take a little bit deeper of a dive so one of the primary reasons or factors I should say for making this recommendation here tonight was to retain the ability to retain our current plan designs in fact there will be no change to our co-pays deductibles or plan network with this change in fact the coverage will may be improved because we're going to add CVS Pharmacy back into our Network for employees who rely on our

062supplemental plan such as hinge leago Rush reimbursement um as well as first stop essentially joining the EBC will not be a barrier to renewing those plans moving forward gager would act as the broker record in negotiating a renewals for these services on the district's behalf and ultimately here our goal is to make sure that we meet the needs of our employees and their dependents so they can in turn meet the needs of our students so just to be clear this will not change our ability to join to continue our our annual contract with Rush Copley correct at this it would not at this time we would have I'm sorry because that's an annual contract my understanding is that that was an annual negotiated every year for the last however many years we've had that that

063is something that we annually negotiate and as of now that would not change any of that that is correct sir okay thanks I'm sorry does it so you have a question does it does it potentially impact future years any any in a relevant uh relative terms you know compared to what we currently are doing yeah well uh Gallagher much like Lockton Corporation Gallagher is one of the big players in this industry they have built a track record and built a Consulting practice from the ground up that is now a Fortune 500 company when it comes to having the expertise on hand to be able to negotiate intricate agreements such as the one that we have with Rush um Lockton has done an absolutely amazing job but but I do believe that we would be able

064to continue that momentum with Gallagher and I don't see that it would necessarily preclude or prevent or be a be an impediment to those negotiations by switching over okay I concur to that um reducing our liability for high cost claimants um in looking at our liability for these high cost claims that we've been having uh as kench mentioned earlier previously we are are responsible for the first $120,000 in HMO claims in addition we are responsible for the getting the first $230,000 in claims for po plan participants um the cost of a safe net for these cast a plans is approximately $2.5 million per year and the cost of coverage for these this type of uh planning fluctuates from year to year by moving to the EBC program we would be covered under their stop loss

065policy and claims above $70,000 I'm sorry claims cost above $75,000 regardless of the plan wouldn't factor into underwriting into the future so an added benefit also of moving to the EBC is that our benefit renewal will align with our fiscal calendar and when we join we would actually be guaranteed stable rates for the next 18 months and in looking at the overall impact of this recommendation if we were to move to the employee benefits Cooperative instead of the 88.8% increase on average that was forecast under the uh do nothing scenario or the status quo scenario we would only need to see on average an increase of 5.2% uh this means that our employees would save approximately $375,000 in increased premiums over the course of the next 18 months while the district would avoid cost increases

066to the tune of $ 1.125 million over the next 18 months additionally it will free up the district to be able to budget for benefits with certainty because right now um in in our budget there are two renewal cycles that occur for every single fiscal year because our benefits are on a January to December basis as opposed to the July to June basis that our fiscal year needs to run on under the school code so this will provide us the ability for the first time in a very long time to be able to better budget for benefits with certainty there we go we got a tongue tire there better budget for benefits with certainty uh addition the district will be able to hedge against future increases by spreading our risk over the other 125 districts

067that are in the cooperative and be able to retain our plan design changes without any barriers or impediments to continuing to negotiate those annual contracts for Standalone services that many of our employees have come to rely upon and that have given us a comparative advantage in keeping costs low so we currently negotiate just to be clear we currently negotiate our rates individually with a firm correct correct versus now we would be negotiating as part of a conglom Cooperative of 127 other districts correct so instead of having 1725 employees uh on average we would have the purchasing power of 28,000 employees on average thank you and they strengthened numbers um so if the board were to approve this recommendation u in looking at what our next steps are in our timeline for implementation we would be

068looking to hold our open enrollment um between November 6th and November 17th and this would cover the first 6 months of that 18mon um transition so between November 6th and November 17th employees would have the ability to elect their plans for the January 1st to June 30th benefit period then come May before we pack up our classrooms and we look to we look forward to the nice long summer um we would be looking to select our benefit offerings for the second open enrollment period which would run between July 1st 2024 and June 30th 2025 now with the two open enrollment periods the dollars that are going to be charged for premiums will not change between the two but let's say that you tried the HMO and you'd like to switch to the PO or if

069youve got the PO and you'd like to switch to the higher deductible plan having that second open enrollment window to be able to do so is a benefit and a rare opportunity for somebody to be able to make midyear plan design changes so I know that we've covered a lot of ground and I appreciate the the humor with the uh with the jokes there but um what questions does the board have first I just want to say Ken thank you and I miss you thank you for the jokes I appreciate that um what I the one question is um what will employees lose as we switch to this plan and I may have a second question based on how you answer that so again setting aside there are some of our Standalone offerings that are

070negoti it on an annual basis and again joining the employee benefits Cooperative is not a barrier or impediment to our ability to continue to negotiate those the most consequential plan design the most consequential change to the overwhelming majority of our employees would be needing to Remember come January 1st to take your old Blue Cross Blue Shield card out of your wallet and put a different one in your if you are on our HMO plan and you've got referrals that are already in place for Specialist Care those referrals will remain intact again the they will be cloning our plan designs identically there will be no impediment or impact where our employees would be losing out and in fact by adding CVS Pharmacies back into the mix they would actually stand to gain okay you cancel my

071second question Dr zmy can you add to that just to based on your assessment of what you've heard yeah I think the the the uh the key piece that we're looking for here is um the more opportunities that we can to negotiate with a large group it would be the better um one of the things that when we talked with the the union groups they had those very similar questions what am I going to lose how can things be different for us good different and then bad different and I think we were able to meet with them and speak with them and to be able to talk through what those concerns are I think they're very excited about the addition of CVS Pharmacy um things related to rush Copley um Glennon can you speak to

072maybe um um the teleah health um as well too they were excited about right so we have a tele Health PL program that provides employee assistance Behavioral Health as well as um urgent cure um the program has been effect since January first it is it's been extremely successful we actually have uh we meet on somewhat of a regular basis to go over this information with our current broker as well as uh first stop Health in terms of the program assess um I just speak to that we are saving additional monies from the use of first stop Health that is our employees um using first stop health for things such as um urgent care and again Behavioral Health um the program again is expected to again not change moving forward but if you have specific questions

073I'm not exactly sure what those might be I certainly would be happy to answer them and just a couple other things same same plans with uh diabetes and hypertension absolutely so there so to our um we have three plans that go uh but they are actually paid through brw hosper Shield one is wonder which is for um weight loss one is Vago which is for diabetes and then there's hinge which is for hypertension and those three plans will continue under interrupted I've been told that there will not be any disruption to those plants if I can so something I wanted to point out a lot of times when you talk about joining the co-op a lot of people assume that what you're doing is you're taking out other people's risk but what I want to

074point out is our loss history is what it's going to be used against the determination of our premium just to stay up again our loss history is what it's going to be used to determine the price increase so we would not be taking on other districts loss history it's going to be our m lost dist stre where the advantage comes in is the uh the ability to be able to to use the uh the power of a larer group to negotiate bettered pricing which you currently don't have so you go from negotiating with 1,700 lives if you will to negotiate with 28,000 lives that gives you more half in the marketplace to be able to get pricing that Jordan Al would not get with uh fuel lives thank you is there going to be any

075um Interruption to payroll the deduction from the payroll system no there will not be um this will be just like any open enrollment we upload that information effective January 1 and then we obviously look back at that information so it's actually a work in progress starting January 1 and we make sure that or I should say make sure that um any sort of lagering sort of um enrollments um any any sort of issues that pertain to coverage I send out several letters or email Communications reminding employees to look at their deductions to verify the coverage and the contact me if any disruptions um so to your question that shouldn't be an issue it's been it's the same it it's not going to be any different than previous years thank you can can you speak to

076how many different organizations you spoke to in doing your research and what potential savings there might be it was what six thank you yeah I believe we had met with six different um firms um of which there were two that offered a Cooperative option but uh in looking at the track record of the cooperatives and the length of time that they've been in the game and also the the track record of success Gallagher the employee benefits Cooperative that is managed by Gallagher uh St stood alone um in meeting with their um Executive Vice President in meeting with their their team that would be assigned on a dedicated basis to District 308 again we uh we saw the quality and we saw people who are who think a lot alike when it comes to how our

077approach to benefits about being Progressive about being proactive about looking upstream and finding ways to be able to deliver care in the lowest cost earliest stages possible the other thing I would like to add is is an executive board that actually makes decision for the co-op I goal is we will work very hard to get one of our employees to be on that executive board so our voice is not lost uh among those 125 School District so that's the plan here we will work very hard to get more likely than I can on that executive board so voice is not lost so that ties into my questions um so before we decide whether last year was the last dance um well played thank you right pun intended he was waiting for that anyways um I

078had three specific questions I'll throw them all out at once CU they absolutely relate to that how many Luda districts are in here who's going to represent us on the out of the 125 districts and is it one vote one District or is it proportional so just to so answer the question there's a board of directors if you will right that governs the uh the co-op and there is an election held for that and what we will try to do is we'll be one of the larger members of the co-op so we will do everything we can to work to make sure that one of our people gets on that executive board that governs the co-op so I guess I guess my question is I'm not trying to be break difficult here but are there

079other Luda districts on there because I'm sure they have the same philosophy and if so which ones and then who's going to represent like who goes into to who's casting like that vote who's who's showing up when the 125 get together and say this is who we want what uh we can find out for you okay uh the other District in our area who are in that that Co-op I know the governing uh uh system for that Co-op is there executive members who are elected by the member district and those executive like you to in in most co-ops they make decision representative of the members in the co-op but what we will do we will use our influence because we'll be one of the larger members of the co-op to make sure that that executive

080board we have one of our staff member serving that executive board hey and and I appreciate it it's just you know uh and I'm not saying this is necessarily a barrier but um you know I've watched organizations like iasb and um let's be honest and blunt um usually the people holding the key the key there of ended up being non-unified affluent districts um and so I'm just curious if that's what we're entering in here or if we're entering in with other Luda districts just curious what the makeup is and so we'll be we'll be happy to share the makeup of all the districts uh with a board did we talk to any other districts that are in this and ask how they felt about it yes okay I've talked to a number of districts who

081are on the who are part of the uh EBC and a number of them have been in the uh EBC for a long time and based on conversation that I've had with them they've been they've been satisfied a lot of them started out using Brokers individual Brokers what happened is a lot of time individual Brokers are there to make money if you will the core uh there's no profit to be made so when you do well the uh the increase is distributed back to members of the co and the determination is made instead of increasing rates what happen is the the profit if you will is used to buy down the rate increase to make sure the increases doesn't happen so are you invited as a member or has have there ever been members who've

082been declined we have to be voted in yes we have to be voted in and based on the criteria of I would imagine like your loss ratio or yes okay the executive board are to V Us in and based on conversation with the folks at Gallagher who managed to co-op they have been School District that have applied that they declined not to take up because of their uh loss profile okay okay any other questions any other questions okay uh thank you team for your due diligence and your efforts to bring this information in the presentation tonight thank you all right it was so nice to see Glen yes Glenn it's good to see you um we uh we invite uh Mr obafemi to you know part of early on in my tenure here in the

083district the board had asked for regular updates and opportunity to think about evidence-based funding um both for our own learning but also really for the community at large and so um Community when you are listening if you hear things that you think would be helpful in these presentations please follow up with an email and uh we will be doing this regularly as part of our board meetings okay this is the second part in the series of information that we're going to share about the evidence-based uh funding model now the uh the first presentation that was given last month was more of an introduction and the second installment is more uh a way to kind of share how much we've received since the implementation of ebf as a district I would benefited from that so I

084think this is a recap of when ebf was sent up back in 2017 became law and the fact that is the best practice as far as uh funding of uh schools from the state as opposed to the old method of everyone gets the same amount of money regardless of uh the need the unique need of every District so uh the uh the key metrics that is used in ebf is that the state is committed to allocating minimally $350 million a year of the 300 million that is allocated uh the allocation is going to be based on uh on the tier and the unique need of each district so tier one being districts with the uh with the furthest from adequacy all the way to uh tier four who are the local funding to be able

085to fund the educational need of their students and I think it's important to point out there's a a second part to their funding levage 300 million goes to uh State funding the other part of that is $50 million and that $50 million is used to uh to form property tax relief Grant where districts with a relatively High property taxes can actually apply for Relief except the tricky part about that that is the district would then have to Abate an equal amount from property taxes that a will to Levy but the also the funky part about that too is there's no guarantee that you will get that money year to year so you Abate your taxes and which means you lose the ability to get that Revenue your Levy and you're not guaranteed to get the

086money back from the state so you kind of putting your fate in the state thinking that they'll do right by you and there's no guarantee that they will do right by you that's an important part that I want to point out with the 300 million the basis is just going to be on your tier so if you are farthest from adequacy you get a set amount based on the number of variables so from where I'm sitting I think the the property tax relief Grant is a tricky way uh of going I think just going with the uh the allocation from the 300 million makes more sense now I just this is a recap of what I just said that uh since uh ebf started the uh legislation was passed in 2017 and the allocation started

087being made in fy8 and it's been 300 million for the uh for the adequacy Target and the then the 50 million as has been for the property tax uh Grant read it now since uh ebf was implemented the state has been very good the first three years in FY uh 18 19 and 20 of actually raising the allocation that were that were made to school district however in 2021 as a result of uh coid 19 the they actually did not step up and increase that so the allocation in 2012 21 was flat and it was mainly because of coid 19 as we all could remember when coid 19 when it happened back in uh 2020 no one knew what the impact of it was going to be on our F on the states finances and

088I dare say on school district finances and we know a lot of uh business is shut down and we know a big chunk of uh Revenue that the state gets comes from income that is generated from state income tax from sales taxes and so that impacted State negatively and what you will see in the next uh slide is that the allocation I'm going to show you that the history of the allocation went lower in 2020 21 compared to the three the prior three years but in 2020 uh 2022 and onward the state is pretty much caught up so there was a dip in 2021 and it was made up in 22 23 and in the current year 2024 the state has been spot on they kept to the commitment that it made of increase in

089allocation every year so what I just mentioned and I thought it would be it would be nice to see a picture so if you look at 2018 when uh ebf actually took took effect there were steady increases each year then if you look at uh 2021 it was pretty much flat and that was the impact of coid 19 on state revenue but then from that BP on then things took off again and it's been steadily increasing from fy18 to 2024 this is another way of showing that I know sometimes it always is always helpful to look at pictures and you will see the the steady increase except for fy21 which was pretty much flat compared to fy20 and I wanted to uh to show a table that lays out on much the district has received

090since the implementation of uh ebf so 2018 which is the first year in 2019 there was an increase of 6% as you see and that went up again to almost 7% in 20 uh 2020 but then in 21 as I mentioned because of the impact of coid 19 that was essentially flat but then it picked back up in 22 back to about 7% and the last year and I think to a large extent because of allocation from the federal government to States as a result of Co the state like a lot of other states got a lot of money from Esser and all the appropriation that were distributed by the uh the Congress so what the state did is passed that money around and then the uh the pent up demand from businesses there was

091an increase in uh business activity in the state of still annoy so the state made up that difference so in 22 it went up back to 7% and 23 it went up even significantly to almost 11% and if you look at the allocation this year 97.7 million so he almost 10 10% so except for the blit in 21 the state has actually been committed and the Appropriations have been there the allocation has been there for us and to help uh a bottom line that's it any questions I have a question what do you me perfect thank you so the the allocations in this in this column allocations to 308 yes yes this is us all right then I have another question District appropriation yes earlier on I thought you said that the total Appropriations were

092300 million for the district wide Statewide I'm sorry state why for ebf so what the state committed to when ebf was passed is that every year 350 million will be appropriated by by the state appropriated and the distribution of that 350 million 50 million will be set aside for the property tax Grant 300 million will be allocated based on the tier of the individual school district and that will be driven to large extent by the distance from uh the distance of the the funds required the the mean uh the medium fund required to educate a child appropriately so districts with the local resources to be able to provide an adequate education to their to their students were HED here got old Harless amount essentially they got what they were appropriated in 2017 and they would

093not lose ground I there there's just I get all that there's just one piece I'm missing um it it I some I'm missing somewhere how there's three call it 300 million yes I I can I I no I think I I can answer this okay I know 97 of 300 is not coming to 308 correct 8 million so it's 300 million of incremental so let's say that they were spending $20 billion a year they're going to another 300 million incremental incr we got we got eight we got eight and a half of it understand 300 million okay yeah I thought gosh we're getting no am we better be like the entire state right you know we're getting a third of the money but okay no I'm sorry I if I didn't explain it right that's

094okay that was the increase that was available they gave us the they gave us uh the increase the difference to to to build on the prior year okay so yeah now I get it thank you so just for the the the population the community um so we were getting 6% of that 300 incremental we were then we were getting seven then we were getting seven again and 11 and 10 um why did we suddenly get a bigger piece of that $300 million pie because when you look at it uh adequacy hasn't gone up adequacy has been pretty much much steady right so what is what is used to determine is school districts would tear so the lower you are in AR the more money you get from the par so which means the further you

095are from from ad so the variables that I put in there in my next presentation we're going to talk about the calculations or file they reach that adequacy okay it's a it's a combination of the equalized assessment value the value of local property taxes right and the amount of money that the district can safely generate from local funds without putting undue burden on on local taxpayers So based on all those variabl we at 69 the lowest you could pretty much be 60 so as you see we're pretty close to the lower of aacy so that's that's another thing is that even though we've getting incremental dollars from the state yeah relative to the year prior um we're still one of the worst funded districts in the state because we're still tier one it doesn't it's

096not that we for adequacy for adequacy yeah and I think for what we for what a district like ours is supposed to need I think saying we're the worst funded may be a misnumber right so the way ebf was set up is the state they looked at how much it will cost the average cost of educating a child in state of filad regardless of where the child is located and let's say that amount is 7500 and looking at the property wealth and in the percentage of property taxes that residents of a community are pay and the ability to raise additional taxes locally then the state used that to create tears so if you look at our tax we're pretty high so the state looked at us and we also you also look at the the

097variety the mixture of the property taxes so we are mostly residential we don't we don't have that much in the way of industrial and we also are farmland and farmland taxes is based on what the firms produce right so in looking at that we fall on our ability to raise additional Revenue locally is pretty limited without hitting up uh uh taxpayer for even a higher tax rate so the state looked at us and say you need more help to get your adequacy and that's why we keep getting the increases in allocation and unless the the makeup of our property taxes changes significantly or ability to generate local wealth changes significantly a level of uh contribution from the state will probably stay very similar as long as we get the appropriation from the state because we're

098still going to be tier one I I appreciate the series I was I wanted to hear more about it and I'm looking forward to the next one so I don't know if anybody else has anything yeah any other questions um so one thing that I just want to point out because it's the week that it is um since it's uh the um veto session in Springfield one one of the aspects of um when the evidence-based formula was passed there was a provision right and in that provision um there it's uh known if you will as invest in kids and what that provision was was basically a voucher system uh for people who um wanted to perhaps circumvent the public education system and uh be reimbursed if you will for what they were paying to to

099the private system one thing to that a couple things I want to point out about that is that's come up um certainly from some of the people that I've discussed with uh in the community I I'll give a couple of pieces here one is that when quote unquote inves in kids was put in as a provision for evidence-based formula these were the following leaders of the Senate and the House Bill Bradley a republican Mike Madigan the Democrat Jim Durkin a Republican John Colton a Democrat those those were the leader that was the leadership of the Senate and the house at the time Bill bra Brady is a um graduate of the Central Catholic private school in in Bloomington Michael Madigan was a graduate of St Ignatius private school in Chicago Jim Durkin was a graduate

100of Fenwick High School also a private school and John Culler and went to Loyola Academy also a private school um the provision was supposed to um help students who were in underperforming districts so if you lived in a district that was underperforming you were supposed to be the target uh student of this provision approximately 28% of those funds have actually gone towards students in underperforming school districts the M vast majority have gone to students who are already in districts that are overperforming or at least performing um adequately so um one of the things that I always ask continuously I give the example of Hinsdale so Hinsdale High School District if you live in um Hinsdale itself you can go to Hinsdale South it's not a problem however there is um real life redlining um if

101you look at Burridge Middle School Burridge Middle School is the only District that it um that it touches that is a majority africanamerican and if you go to burdge Middle School you feed into Hinsdale South you do not have the choice to go to Hinsdale Central if you go to Hinsdale South Hinsdale High School District will let you go to Hinsdale South if you are in the Hinsdale Central boundaries will not let you go to Hinsdale Central if you're from Hinsdale South the representative of that uh one of the representatives in that District uh big proponent of investing kids will never tell you does investing kids give you a choice when it comes to this High School the answer is no you're not going to have that change so I I've heard this say oh

102you're against uh choice or or whatever the the bill was set up by bipartisan to try and help students who were in underperforming ing districts that's not happening and if it was really choice I would challenge that Republican representative from Hinsdale I'll talk to her anytime um are you going to uh guarantee Choice within the own in the High School District you represent I know the answer and I know I won't get a call so um I just wanted to make sure that that piece was because it was attached to the evidence-based formula when this was passed and I just wanted to make sure that um um that piece was covered as well since since the session is this week and there's been a lot of talk about it yeah there was uh there's legisl

103um there's an attempt being made to actually pass that during this fall session uh yeah and uh just based on the composition of the legislator now I'm not sure how likely that is to to pass but I I may be wrong but I I'm just not sure how likely it is because of the composition yeah what what I've what I've heard because I've had conversations with with representatives from both sides right um I'm going to be blunt to the point we have a representative that our borders uh touch that um sits on a a private school board of education um he's very much a proponent of this um and uh uh small school rivalry right he's he's from Newark and I'm from Sak so uh um anytime he wants to play basketball if we want

104to go back to basketball analogies I'm in uh but anyways the um there's also uh others on uh who have looked at this they see that how this was passed and everything else and um they are interested in how constituents feel so um you know I for those um who have a um opinion on this uh if it's you know I'm not going to tell people what to believe but I would highly recommend that you reach out uh to your state reps and senators thank you any other questions please thank you thanks okay next we have uh for information this evening uh Bill Queen joining us to discuss the plank rooftop unit bid results and she's uh joined by Charlie CL uh johnel from clubber so I want to welcome you and my uh Barry

105White voice is uh sounds a lot worse it really is so I'm I'm okay still a couple away I'm still I'm still okay there we go Bill Queen please come up yes please oh you yeah you can work from there if you but Charlie if You' like to come up to the like good evening board Madame President Dr katti colleagues bill so I I feel it's important to give a little background on the plank project before we talk about the recommendation so as a part of the envisions 308 plan for Capital Improvements the rooftop units at plank Junior High were identified as a priority project to replace critical HVAC systems necessary to maintain School indoor air quality and ensure the health and safety of students and staff in the building plank was established and opened

106up in 2006 making these units about 17 years old um they're they're reaching their life expectancy and and it shows my maintenance text are there a lot we're spending a lot of time and it's been quite difficult finding parts and replacement parts moving forward um recommendation on September 28th at 10:00 a.m. bids were read publicly opened in red allowed for plank Junior High rtu replacement the lowest B base bid was submitted by hel Mechanical group of Freeport the second lowest bid was submitted by mg mechanical Contracting in of Woodstock Illinois is at this time the administration recommends that the Board of Education approve the second lowest bidder and mg mechanical at the sum of $3,494 [Music] th000 the reasoning behind this recommendation is that hell mechanical is currently involved with boilers and chers projects at

107asigo High School asgo East and we've experienced significant delays from from the original complet timeline in awarding the second lowest bidder we expect this project to be completed in a time to begin the 2024 2025 school year that concludes any questions thank you Bill what I would like to add is that in the future before we go out to bed what we plan to do is uh add a process to it where we actually uh write a memo uh shared with the board that um that lady out the justification for a particular bid that we're going out for that lets the board know why we pick that particular project to do before we even go out and uh inform the board and get uh permission to move ahead with a bed process before we even

108start that that is something that we plan to do moving forward I think because of time this time we didn't do that but moving forward we plan to do that right in demo uh with a recommendation as to the the the rationale for choosing a particular project and asking permission from the board and offering an opportunity for the board to ask questions before we go ahead and create an RFP and go out for bid I say that would be really helpful I know a lot of the conversation we had at finance committee was why this project so um so I appreciate you uh hearing that and um proposing a solution to that appreciate that very much yeah Charlie do you want to add anything in terms of what came up I don't I don't have

109I don't have any additional comments okay can I ask one question so uh I think uh Mr Queen you said that going with uh mg would you had the impression or I don't want to use your words but there was a reason why you felt this one would not have the significant delays as the other if I remember with the original one with Helm it was because of parts and Etc why it was delayed do we know why we believe this one would be um less problematic from a timeline perspective I I don't so so that was twofold right at East there there were some situations with with getting equipment and getting getting set up for ASO high school there was no reason for that job not to come in on time and and for

110that in the sensitive timeline with this project we can't go with them I I it's not my recommendation to go with them and there a couple of other things that I would like to point out too the uh the approach that we use in drafting the RP we put in a request for liquidated damage in the RP process and uh what that would do is we set a uh substantial completion day of I believe August 8th and what that would do is it will offer uh the uh the winning bidder the the the option to finish on time and if they don't they will have to pay the district compensation for every day they missed in finishing by the set day and the flip side of that would be if they do finish on time

111we will pay them uh a bonus if you will and that bonus is actually not going to be no money it's going to be part of the contingency that we set aside for the for the project so if there's no contingency we don't pay that so we're thinking that would be an incentive to make sure that the win and bidder actually finishes the work on time it's got It's an incentive to get them to to prioritize our work because we know a lot of biders they have a lot of work they're doing all at the same time and we believe that if they they started to make a little extra money if they put our job first they would do that I suppose the one that doesn't give them any incentive and just to clarify

112you said that the helm did not have the request for liquid liquidated damage but we will do it for future ones we didn't do it for prior but from the from this point on for the rtu we put that in the RFP and we intend to put that in RFP uh going forward all right thanks okay all right um thank you very much for being here question thank you again Mr Queen and mrfi um next we have our new ISB resolution ions each board member will take a vote on each of the five new resolutions which will determine how our district votes at the delegate assembly in November okay so J Jared can you just refresh our memory just take a minute and refresh our memory about um industrial construction uh yeah it was it

113was a again these are not like I want to make it clear we're not voting on you know hey this this means anything for this District or anything like that it's merely us telling iasb um this is what we want you to have as a priority as far as things that you should try and um get done quite quite frankly down in in Springfield and so the industrial construction piece is uh basically asking that um they do not uh allow Zoning for industrial um uh construction with within a certain U uh area around a school around a school it could though have repercussions for our district because oh I'm not I'm not yeah no no no I'm not I just I'm not arguing that like like if ISB goes down there and they're successful we

114we need to realize like like hey this is us sending iasb down there to either Lobby for or against totally agree I just don't want there to be confusion like this means it's automatically going to happen if we vote on it right we're one vote the consequence well like I know that around the Hunt Club area there's been a I can't remember what it was like a granite um Quarry or something they wanted to put back there and I know that there was a lot of uh discussion around there because of air quality and so I just want to make sure that we understand what what this means because iasb is saying do not adopt this and um I want us to understand that it could possibly have with all the construction going on in

115our community um down the road it could have some sort of implication yeah and this this come I I think I gave the background last time and I I'm I'm listen I am honest sometimes to a fault um I I will totally admit my bias on this it's no uh accident that comes from Pleasant Dale which is not too far from where stereogenic occurred um having um having a a a brother who um and and and niece and nephew right who were growing up within uh ground basically Ground Zero stereogenic uh and having a brother who passed away from a very rare cancer um you know uh it's uh I I definitely understand where this is coming from is very difficult for me I admit to to divorce myself from from those feelings and those

116emotions so it doesn't surprise me um at all and it doesn't surprise me where it's coming from okay so to if we're saying we agree with ISB we're saying to them Lobby against industrial Construction in um correct in districts that so it's not close to schools that's what we're saying and and and to be fair right because I always try and be fair um the part of the reason they're saying not to adapt is because they're stating that this could um do things to small towns who have very little space they might be surrounded by Farmland I'm familiar with one small town that I grew up in that was definitely surrounded by a Farmland um how how and that their fear is that the only place for them to build is next to schools in

117some cases uh and and a lot of those small towns are hurting totally get it y um if I'm being totally fair though um we did have industry in my small town and it was not next to the school so um it can be done all right we're gonna we're gonna have a we're just going to do this for all five and then we'll vote so school resource officer funding so remember we were having a discussion and this was about the funding not what school resource officers do but can we get a clarification from you on what they do yeah so in relation to this funding request or submission the resolution is really to provide additional funding if districts need it or requested to support sros for the purpose of train who are trained in

118tactical measures in a critical situation to save lives and the focus of this particular I should say funding request is in relation to school resource officers and their role in emergency planning as it relates to drills uh installing security I mean supporting um school safety measures in relation to active Shooters and school shootings that are happening nationally that is the specific language that is used here in relation to the SRO and the recommendation to support funding to offset the cost that school districts may have to pick up in paying for SRO so SRO May cost the district anywhere from 350 to 500,000 to a million depending on the number you have and so this would be to provide that funding so we're not talking about um whether or not we believe that SRO are appropriate

119in schools that kind of thing that's not what this can divorce the two huh I don't think you can divorce the two I mean that's this is why we're having having this discussion yeah and I I like I listen I might be in I might be in the minority here but I'm I'm going to say it like um we are very appreciative of everything that our law enforcement does and and forbid we ever have to deal with a situation like this I I I think that you know um this day and age our our law enforcement um not being having a relationship with with a with the schools is just it's not realistic and and I get I get the SRO argument and I don't disagree with those I I do think some of that

120though falls on school districts utilizing them incorrectly um and so so in this case you know I they were very careful how they crafted this um and and I want to be careful that you know I listen I mean I'm not going to tell anybody how to vote what to what to believe in but but I do want to make sure that we send uh a good message and a positive message and part of the reason part of the reason that they're used potentially incorrectly is because we don't control the SRO officer the local police department does and I think that's a point of of contention for a lot of people which is they still are the employee of the local police department they are not our employee so what we can ask to continually

121is to please like for instance go to the national school resource uh board or whatever organization and take their training and we can but that is all handled in an intergovernmental agreement and what are we going to you know hold them responsible for I mean at the end of the day they're not our employee we have an intergovernmental agreement an intergovernmental agreement I just I have the research shows that this is this is an issue I also understand that when it comes to a school Intruder God forbid a school shooter our teachers our Educators aren't trained in tactical measures right but I think the discussion I I think it's very hard to ask us to divorce oursel one thing from the other do we believe in school resource officers are we going to say no

122go ahead and yeah we want funding for it I just don't know where we land on that yeah I think the one thing it was a good point you just brought up Jared it almost like swayed me a little bit because it made me think of this so if this resolution passes regardless of how we feel about sro's if it passes and this is a question I'm asking and then additional re requirements are um pushed down to the districts but yet we don't think uh we and we don't approve this dollar amount then that means that we would have to cover the cost that the state is pushing down if we say no if it well not we but if if if it doesn't get approved we still then have to pay for whatever legislation

123that is then pushed down so that's where I was like I didn't think about it from that perspective yeah and again like I you know this doesn't this doesn't this doesn't stop us from saying hey okay we have to change this is how we use SRO in our I got you yeah okay all right next number three bus driver regulations you want to it basically reverts back to I forgot what year but it basically it UND it's basically asking them to undo some legislation which restricted um bus drivers in the past it's it's trying to get more bus drivers in the in the field I I'll be honest I I me personally I'm reluctant on it because there's a reason why they were put in place uh on the flip side I don't know about

124you but I like I I like my own School District I see a board out front that says okay here's here's the buses are going to be late this is the bus you're really taking you know um understand everybody's frustration when it comes to busing and transportation but it it really is um uh it it it has everything to do with a shortage right is it rolling back safety well that's what I was going to ask but is is this a true correlation so are we are what research is showing that if we roll This back then uh you know more people in droves are going to say oh they just want to train locally versus by a national provider so can for instance have a I don't know who we have on staff but

125I'm going to give a just a possibility if we had someone on staff that could train new drivers why would we not allow that let's say they have 25 years behind the wheel or some I don't know what you need to do there's very specific um ways in which school bus drivers attain their life insurance and how what's saying right now is that in February they put another set of rules that you have to you know train through a national provider and so forth which takes away our opportunity if we have those locally and makes it harder because everybody's going after the national trainers versus locally where we all go after our own I don't I don't think that um I don't think it's going to affect safety what I think it is going to

126do in the long run is we already have get our on buses so much earlier than they need to be because we have to have drivers that run multiple routes I think that poses more of a safety issue than who trains them do I think we have them a responsibility to make sure whatever I don't even know who does that like puts I I don't know Mr if it's you but whoever puts those protocols in place for how they're trained um I worry more about how much we continue to keep putting on our current drivers the the the other piece behind this though that we haven't discussed just to make sure that we talk about this too is there's there they want the reimbursement to ra be raised to 100% and I'll be honest with

127you like that's why I'm I'm I I I agree with everything you've said but I'm reluctant because there's only so much money and and if it's coming in the form of transportation that's great um but then realize that use it I don't want to call it a block grant but it kind of indirectly is because if it's not money that's going to the you know evf as an example but hey you're still going to get it but it's locked into Transportation you know I I'm I'm yeah this is this is a tough one because imagine a negotiation when you have no skin in the game you so yeah okay next one employment history review um this is the one that's uh basically trying to get um what is it uh other other a other state

128agencies involved in um DCFS and so forth in um Aaron's law and or Faith's law I'm sorry Fates law different one sorry apologize Fates law and um uh I I don't know they're they their their reasoning for this is it's just not uh I mean DCFS is already having problems as far as having employees um adding this on the plate is yeah probably problematic to say the least so um Brian Brian um Heather do you guys have any thing to say on this one yes I think we mentioned this last time we we agree with your sentiment I absolutely think it is irresponsible to add this on to DCFS in this time um agree and they are so already so burdened and we have to remember that we have the burden to put people in

129place in HR that will do the appropriate background checks and um it this is going to be a little bit of a of a burden for the district when we have big chunks of hiring because you have to do it all at one time but I think we have to remember that um it is the role of our district to hire train and provide ongoing professional development for our HR teams along with a strong partnership with our board attorney to make sure that our hiring practices and our screening practices are legally solid I think adding this to DCFS is just unacceptable y okay last one uh I've done a little bit more research on this one and and actually talked to some other districts and I I totally understand where this one is coming from

130it's the alternative safe school funding and listen I indirectly the the teacher shortages involved here right right so if you I'm sorry I'm I'm going to stop you I'm this me can you just explain what you understand I don't know why I could not comprehend this one to save my life so yeah so basically what it's saying is that these School dist school districts are getting to a point where the amount of students they basically have in crisis or that need um you know uh above and beyond um care uh resources s um um supports is is increasing and and that's just true that's just that's a fact right I mean that is happening across the board and so what they're asking here for is basically alternative safe school funding because what's happening is you

131have school districts that because their amount of out placements and so forth is increasing they are struggling to afford that it's it's an added expense and on top of that look at some of our own own programs here where it's difficult to attract and so you are Outsourcing in some cases or just not finding the staff that's qualified to deal with these kind of of of things right and so I I okay sorry and so I'm not I'm not making an argument for it I'm just trying to give I'm just trying yeah I'm just explaining what's going on and so um you in some cases you have teachers that are attacked by by students at a higher rate um other students that are attacked by a higher rate uh clearing school school um rooms at

132a higher rate all these things cost money right and so um you know it even mentions in here as far as an analysis it says yeah while they don't they don't recognize that they do say we might need to review s SP 100 and I don't know if that's I don't want to go down that rabbit hole but I will say that there are times where s sp00 May be thrown around incorrectly um and so I I I feel the dist this District's frustration I get it one of the things they say is that there's already a position statement that already states that they're going to advocate for evidence-based formula to support funding for alternative schools so that part of that be making it part of that formula I mean this to me I get

133it I get the school district they're they're frustrated it's they're not alone like if you talk to the right people in the right school districts you'll hear this story throughout many school districts but there's a reason why they're saying not to adapt or adopt I'm sorry and that is you know because they're making that fight through evidence-based formula my issue with this one is that in my opinion I think like adding more funds to support this particularly the way it's written uh immature and aggressive behavior in students um Can incentivize districts to place students in those school elementary students elementary students and I think there's a better way to address the serious concerns that schools have I don't disagree wow I I take a completely different um perspective from this and I um am very

134I guess lucky if you could say because one of my best friends runs the largest um Regional safe School in The District in Rockford it's through Regional um o through the Roe number four um so just I want to give you a little bit of perspective so first of all Eugene the purpose of an rssp is twofold to increase safety and promote learning in schools and to meet the particular educational needs of disruptive students more appropriately and individually so when rssp went into effect in 1997 it served 1,325 students in 2012 it served 4,000 students there are 80 rssp program sites in Illinois and Rockford alone served 917 students last year and so the issue becomes that they are funded based on competitive grants and evf both of which flu fluctuate and so the pro

135what happens is small districts like that are serving maybe 50 students so their cost per student is incredibly High but in Rockford where they're serving 917 students the cost is relatively low so it depends and and a school I don't know the particulars of this but they can choose what they do with their students or not I think one of the things that bothered me about this particular um proposal was two things a to review SB 100 um I think that is a little bit irresponsible because I think we still need to have exclusionary options for schools when it comes to behavior that is incredibly egregious like throat punching a teacher or something like that so I don't think going back to that is necessarily um the right thing to do I think what is

136is we've heard in this district and I'll just focus on our district although I know a lot of educators are feeling this across the country is that we are seeing these behaviors in younger students over and over and over and so for me and this is just me I would rather see the school code changed to include K through 12 because right now it's 6 through 12 before and and I know that our Alternative Program could very much serve some of those students if it had some proper I just think that I we have experiences with some kids in school right now they're incredibly disruptive but there are not a lot of options for them we do know the gened class classroom is not the place for them so um I just with this if

137we are going to if we're going to keep the current model then I think that they should have funding that is definitely more consistent yeah but I don't know if that dis addresses that so that's the question yeah I I would first of first of all I think that the the resol utions committee does not adopt this so if there's a question as to where I would stand on this um I have a bias I'm married to a child psychologist and so I would say that I think to your point I think that there are the the the value of sb1 is that it provides a significant attention to what are the interventions that are in place and so when those continue to fail we do have then in our we do know that there

138are behavioral profound behavioral strategies to address how children's needs are addressed and typically that then goes through tier one tier two as in terms of restorative or remedial practices or interventions tier three being special education and we know that there tends to be a preponderance of students of color who end up in special through that route my concern is that at least in that route there are clear there there's clear case management and attention to what's happening there my worry as I read this as it stands I think you rais some important questions were some important issues were raised tonight about safety of our Educators that has to be a Paramount issue um and resourcing our schools so that when there are challenges we are able to um make sure that uh students are uh

139teachers are safe as well as children are safe however in the way this is written today it it it concerns me that it doesn't position the level of other interventions that need to be considered equally and so I could imagine this coming back with uh a review of sb100 IT mentions that but to do it an Absentia of that I worri that it becomes like a slippery slope for exclusionary practices not to and this is with the equal concern I have about teacher safety yeah and I think you know I I'm I think rather than a review I think sometimes it's a re-education of SB 100 that needs to occur true and um again I this screams to me desperation due to probably the teacher shortage because you know where is it where is it

140affected most it's it's affected in some of our hardest to fill positions I'm talking about the state now hardest to fill positions and and our most vulnerable students and I agree I don't you know we we need to focus on the the proactive end thank you okay all right so we're ready to vote um this is a this is just a clarifying um so for example um industrial construction says do not adopt if I agree I am agreeing to do not adopt we're agreeing or disagreeing with the with the um recommendation it's that parenthesis is just telling you what the what their board recommended their board said do not adopt this their board said do adopt this so forth so if I want to adopt it I would say if you want to adopt it

141you're going to say I agree if you do not want to adopt it you're going to say disagree they give a they give a they give a recommendation we don't have to agree with that recommendation well but our our vote is one so the majority yes is the vote yep yeah whatever you tell me to do to go in there and do I will whatever I'm just saying it for the public yeah yeah so in number one do not adopt the industrial construction no that's what the they're telling us not to adopt we are either agreeing with the resolution or we're disagreeing with the resolution with their resolution to say like if we say they wouldn't bring this to us to say hey we want you to vote to agree like it's okay see I

142CH that okay so we go ahead I'm let's say number one the committee is say or the recommen the whatever ASB says recommend recommends that we do not adopt the industrial construction yes if I agree that we shouldn't adopt then I Mark agree yes Wait no that's no you are you are telling I asked the question you are telling me whether to go in there and and agree with the resolution or not so so ignore ignore the parentheses just ignore what's in parentheses wait the that what you're saying are we voting on their recommendation the resoltion I I'm trying to yes I do I do know I'm been trying to tell you okay thank you then we're going to say it again again so I'm going to I'm going to say it again right these

143are the recommendations we can either agree or disagree with the are we agre to the resol finish so I can't I can't like I got be able to finish if you want me to explain it go ahead go ahead these are the these are the resolutions we are either agreeing with the resolution or disagreeing the what's in parentheses is what that board the the the the resolutions committee that's their suggestion so their suggestion is do not adopt if if you say oh I agree with them then you're going to actually Mark disagree you don't want to adopt that if you're saying no wait a minute I want us to adopt it I don't care what the resolution committee said you're going to say agree oh God right so you so so you totally don't look

144at what they're recommending disregard parth I I scratched it up fine so scratch so if I I if I'm concerned about industrial construction within a within our school district I don't want that I'm going to say you agree if you if you're concerned than you're we got the resolution says we listen the the resolution literally says we do not want to build next to a school so if you're concerned with that you would agree with that okay I put agree okay okay but I was Jared tell me if I'm wrong or right I am agreeing or disagreeing to the resolution regardless correct yes yes you're agreeing or disagreeing with the resolution I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the recommendation that that has nothing to do with anything other they want they want you to

145realize what the rules committee has stated okay give me a second give me just give me a second who's on first yeah this has happened before we are we are smart student ambassadors any suggestions at this juncture you may want to you may want to step in my friends we welcome you as our board members yeah make this simple I'm sorry all you need all you need to tell me is if you agree or disagree with the resolution that's it that's all you agree with the resolution you disagree with the resolution so are we are we verbalizing this or are we handing we should go one at a time I I think we we do a straw right we could do a straw all I need is four people at least to tell me one

146way or the other is that what we're doing a straw disagree yeah I mean there there's no official so the you want you want to do this no oh no you you're the secretary you do it fine okay I need to know non industrial construction do we agree with the resolution or do we disagree for all those that agree raise your hand all right well that's more than four so we agree the majority agreed that we don't want construction around school that is correct so when I walk in there and they say agree then I'm going now what does happen as long as we want maybe a teachable moment what does happen is sometimes there will be enough people in there to block it from even being taken taken up so realize when I report

147back I might not report on all of these because there may be enough people said it's it's gone it's not even going to be taken up anymore okay all right school resource officer funding I need to know whether you agree with this resolution or you disagree with the resolution do we want do we want funding to be provided by the state that's the question yes yes so if you are so if you are saying you agree you're going to going to raise your hand I have four okay I only need four to tell me one way or the other uh then there's the bus driver regulations and you're telling me if you agree with that resolution or you disagree with that resolution that they want to be trained locally and the 100% funding I don't

148want to leave that out of there so if you agree I'm reluctantly agree it you don't get half okay yeah I'm also reluctant but all I need is four so I'm I'm going to march in there and say I agree I don't know about marching but that's okay it's getting late and I'm getting tired so uh employment history review if you agree with this resolution you're going to raise your hand for agree if you disagree then you don't need to so how many agree with this resolution that was easy I will go in there and disagree my my agree and my disagree are both the same all right and then the last one is alternative safe school funding if you agree with this resolution you'll raise your hand and if you do not agree then

149you don't need to raise your hand I doesn't matter whatever Dr keltis just said I like what he said all right so I'm I've got I've only got one hand up so I'm Marching In to disagree okay you did it that was [Laughter] painful it is very straight work yes yes so I think what's throwing people off I think I disagree yeah I disagree I actually it makes sense didn't you go in and vote before no but I he he was our no I knew what I knew how to vote I knew because well this is what the same sheet they give you every year no no that is the same sheet they give you every year that's a year ago next agenda item is yes let's let's move on next agenda item all right

150action items my head just started hurt all right um 9.1 would you guys like to be excused know you have you mean you're not enjoying [Music] this Tom I'm glad you permission not to answer that question do you agree or disagree yeah raise your hand if you agree thank you have a good night take care thank you all right action item 9.1 approval of EVC resolution can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution with Gallagher's employees benefits Cooperative second um I do have something I'd like to say about this yeah um it's it's it's quick turnaround and there's some things that I'm still worried about when it comes to the government of this so [Music] um I'm very reluctant on this but at the same time I understand the timeline

151so um remind us of the timeline please I think you have November 6 start as as start I mean you we can't vote on this November 6 and them say hey start signing up so and it makes sense like I mean you know Insurance that's the reluctance let's raise those question I just I the my my only reluctance is can easily satisfied with once I understand the the governance of this um what I and I want to make it clear that um you know I I will I will probably support this I I will support this but but um there's a reason why because it seems like it's an 18-month commitment and um I but I I do want to understand what we're talking about as far as our influence I mean I I that's

152great that you say we're going to go in there and try and influence this but this also a public meeting so now all those 125 school districts if they want to do their homework are aware of what we just said and that's kind of why I'm interested in the in the governance of this and I I want our employees to to have a say and I want us to speak on their behalf and I want us to be there representing them to the best that we can so I'm happy that that's our attitude I'm not saying like I'm you know not content with that but I would like to know the particulars just so I can speak to it also so I I look forward to hearing back on on that and the reason that

153we've had this quick turnar around is because UMC um Mr oim came in and and we were needing to have done this work PRI to well can we speak to why we're moving now versus a year from now it's right now so when you're in Market you have all your Brokers come to the table and you start building your benefits packages we are past that window and so we're jumping right into it already we talked about this in the committee meeting I was very uncomfortable with it because this is not how we like to work um but it would take a whole another year before we can make any impacts or save any money yeah so it's a timing issue uh uh benefits normally wrong calendar year as I think Ken mentioned from January to

154December so this is your time we normally do our open enrollment so if we don't do it now then we have to wait till next year to be able to do this right so this is only an 18month Commitment if after 18 month they come back and we're now satisfied with the service or the rate we can always go back to what we're doing before that's a good point so it's not a long-term commitment so and that's what I realized and that's like I I'm still reluctant I'm still reluctant yes but but I think I could be um I just need that education piece on how the governance of all of that works and once I have that I I I will feel a little more comfortable so I can you know when question I

155can speak to it what I can say is prior District where I worked when we switch over to abbc we were able to get one of amand there someone who serve in the same capacity as am mandate with me to be the vice chair of the uh the board of governance and she's still the vice chair today of the board of government of that of that of the uh Coop it's always difficult for me I I admit some of my roots I uh um uh are deep right and so I'm still the small town kid sometimes from down the road so when I hear us getting involved with other places and and who's going to have the influence and who isn't I'm cautious and I I um I don't mind change I don't mind explaining

156change I understand that there's an evolution but I just need to understand it to be able to speak to it that's all I appreciate that thank you yes thank you okay um Everybody y got anything you want to say no okay go ahead I did second it right yes okay Miss I Dr Mario I mrone hi Miss Simon I Mr G I Miss Johnson hi Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 9.2 approval of new High School courses for fiscal year 24 can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the new High School courses for school year 24 as discussed and presented second Dr Maria hi Miss Simon hi Mr cler hi mrone hi Mr gwood I miss hi Miss Johnson Miss oh did you oh what did you say she

157she was signing she was signing oh okay um Mar passes 70 um and I just want to say like thank you to the board because that's that's I think we've done a awesome thing here for our students so for sure this is actually a momentous moment for our district I agree um the evolution of this it took a lot um to get to this point um I know um Miss Johnson had some history for this would you mind sharing some of that I think it's wor I'm just very grateful as part of the de and heart of hearing Community I'm incredibly grateful that we are finally uh bringing this forward you it 9.3 action item approval of destruction of the audio recordings of the closed session meetings I make a motion to approve the destruction

158of the audio recordings of the closed session meetings from October 25th 2021 through April 11 second Miss venth no Dr Maria I Mr Mone hi misson they were from 2011 no 2021 to 2022 this is the audio recordings oh okay I Mr Gatewood i i m Johnson no Mr clober no motion passes 4 three four three yeah 43 action item 9.4 approval of the release of those closed session minutes which no longer require confidential treatment can I have a motion please make a motion to make available no closed session minutes at this time due to a determination that it continues to be necessary to protect the public interest or the privacy of an individual by keeping them confidential second Dr Maria hi Mr Gatewood i m Johnson I Mr cler hi M Simon I Mr

159Cerone no Miss v i motion passes 61 action item 9.5 approval of personnel report can have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Miss vmou hi Dr Mario hi Mr hi Miss Simon hi Mr Gatewood hi M Johnson hi Mr cler hi motion passes 70 can I have a motion to go to return to close session no yep uh make a motion to enter close session under statutes 5i LCS 120 2c1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of certain employees and 5 ics1 20/2 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 individuals second Dr Maria hi M hi Mr hi Mr hi Mr g i m hi if

160you say no you have to go right um so