SD308 Board of Education (10/10/2023)

001Board of Education meeting for October 10th 2023 can I have a roll call please Mr Cerone Mr Gatewood present Miss Johnson hi Dr Mario present Mr present Miss Simon present Miss present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for [Music] all okay 4.1 public comment on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we received from our members of the public and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System members of the public interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening are asked to have completed a comment card

002and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to 5 minutes per person and that no discussion of personnel matters stating staff names or responses to your questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment followup to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you elen f hello my name is I'm currently a freshman at East High School when it comes to minorities who do you think of well I'm will to bet you don't think of a like during the summer of 2021 I was diagnosed with hearing loss

003and throughout the rest of the year I was ined the death Heart ofing Community which I'm still learning about today the death heart of he Community is an important part of society from people who are you to people who can and all the hearing but this community has been significantly isolated from the world for Generations due to a practically impenetrable language barrier when my parents were the age I am now people people were bullied and shunned for having glasses since at the time not many people especially kids would have glasses and kids would either have terrible eyesight or perfect with nothing in between and even the mere thought of a child having curing AIDS at the time was unfit now having glasses or contacts is not unheard of and we are at this pivotal point

004in society again where people aren't just deaf or hearing but often in the middle the world is no longer black and white we are discovering more and more Shades of Gray I am one of those Shades of Gray last year I took a survey of the students at benari Junior High to discover the student interest in an ASL class speaking on behalf of the student population as of last year approximately 50% of the students asked were enthusiastic about a possible American sign language program to become a part of one of the many many foreign languages offered in sd308 I do not understand why high schools don't offer ASL as a foreign language language especially when it was more and when more and more people are coming to terms with hearing losses Perhaps it is because

005the lack of Interest understanding or publicity well I'm here to tell you that the interest still exists and as a person who gets excited when they see someone else wearing heing nades proudly as I do and a person who starts to cry when someone translates what they are saying in Sign Language during an inauguration of of a president or a child meeting Santa Claus I am here to say that people like me who are part of our society are needing to feel less isolated less invisible as humans We crave connection be it interaction holding someone's hand or just a simple conversation people in the deaf and heart of hearing Community need this as much as anyone else and having a class dedicated to the culture and communication with this significant Community we can make all

006the difference in the world the difference of being Hur thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you R hman uh Rick Herman welcome um I'm here to talk about the uh Transportation uh for the buses and uh the communication that goes along with it um I'll give an example was September 29th uh my kids uh gets out of school at uh 3:40 at uh 4:09 we got a message that it was going to be 30 minutes um behind schedule of arrival well it had already been just about 30 minutes at 4:50 p.m. we get a message that it was now leaving the school so in that whole time the kids were at the gym waiting for their bus to arrive but no communication to us over an hour after they left um

007I called the transportation department that moment at five minutes later 455 uh no one answered uh left a voicemail for a call back I've yet to receive a call back to this day uh which shocks me uh they did arrive my house at 5:15 p.m. that night we had an appointment schedule and it's kind of difficult when their scheduled time of getting home is at 4:18 and they're getting home at sometimes at 5:15 uh every day uh today for for example no alert that they're going to be late uh 4:18 is the um time they're supposed to get home 4:39 they arrived I would thought that was supposed to be 10 minutes if they're going to be late we were getting messaging but their bus route is consistently late on the drop off now arrival

008to the school we have no clue um I do ask my kids if they're late to school a lot of times they are um but we have no communication back to us if they are late I'm looking for answers of why the bus is always late is it this particular route how can they be sitting at the school for an hour and I know it's other routes too sometimes of no communication to us to maybe we can go pick them up or anything is there any work being made for improving the transportation I understand there's shortages and things like that is there better routing they can do any progress being made at all with any of this and is it just their route or is this every single route in all the schools is it

009there something particular happening in their route before them or just looking for Solutions and also better communication to the parents that the bus is going to be late or is not at the school because there's opportunities for us to maybe go pick them up if we're aware that they're not on the bus sitting for 30 minutes or something like that thank you thank you thank thank you Carol hi my name is Jessica and I am also my child is on his kids BS it is BS number 8110 at Boulder Hill it is 87% of the time that is late either in the mornings or in the afternoons or both that particular day that um the Gentleman Just addressed uh they were over an hour late we did notag get notification uh this has been an

010ongoing for me personally for my family an ongoing problem for 3 years I've been patient 3 years I have resorted to doing uh carpooling with other parents uh I spoke uh last year about this issue uh they said Jessica hang in we're Hang on we're going to work on it where Mr dvo who is the operate route operation super supervisor manager uh David duvo he it took him 3 months to um analyze my kids BS to tell me that there was nothing that they could do um last week my child they were supposed to be picked up at 8 uh 18 in the morning she got picked up at 8:39 with no supervision because I was trusting that the bus was going to be maybe uh two three minutes late but it was not so

011there is my 9-year-old on the side of the road waiting for the bus this is constant it is not that it happens just once a week it is constant at the school they already know that if I drive my kid to school it is because oh you're bus 8110 yes I am my kid is in bus 8110 so as a parent of having this issue my I the suggestion to the board is we have to find a solution some of those Solutions I've been talking to other districts uh CPS does Vans they use CTA Vans where because it's easier to drive a a van to everybody can drive anybody can drive a van with a regular license versus a bus license so could we subcontract uh Vans to assist those routes our bus has 10

012pickups I met with Mr devote this morning um and he's again looking into this uh so that is one option another option might be po possibly giving the parents a stien to subsidize or to help with their missing work to then be able to drive their kids to school and maybe drive others kids in their neighborhood my particular neighborhood my kids are in the Dual language prog program there's three families in the whole subdivision that go to Boulder Hill so if we could work together and if there's uh incentive for parents to be able to help alleviate some of that issue we can work you know I'm just let's think outside the box you know having a we hiring sign or Flyers is not working I mean we've been working on that for 3 years

013and it hasn't worked as a parent I am doing my job to bring my child prepared to school to have her ready to learn to have her on time now I need the school to do that for my child she is very stressed because in the morning they are late a lot of the 87% of the time so when they are late she's already in in uh specials and the teacher is like you got to hurry up you're already late you're 10 minutes late late you're 12 minutes late you got to hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry she is like stressed 3 years of rushing her because she's always running behind because she's always late it disrupts the classroom it disrupts everything it throws it I mean imagine getting to work late every

014day it affects everything and I am asking the board to look into different solutions other than just having um were hiring flyers and um you know to look into other neighboring uh school districts to find out what may be working for them um or to have a group uh of us parents that have those kids and let's brainstorm on how we can help we are failing our children by setting them already late every day at school and it's very stressful on the staff it's stressful on the parents and especially and the children thank you for your time thank you thank you thank you okay 5.1 we will now have Dr katti superintendent report good evening board Community thank you very much um I want to start my comments this evening by just taking a minute

015um to reflect and request from the board and opportunity in the community here uh to take a moment of silence and why when to ask for this is I want to address the ongoing long-standing and increased violence in the Middle East every life is precious and it is heartbreaking to witness the loss of life and lives due to any form of aggression we hold steadfast in Our Hope and our desire to live in a world that dignifies the lives of all in every way tolerating differences and more importantly coexisting in peace I would like to take a moment of silence in honor of those impacted and extend a most profound hope of prayer and peace for the lasting peace for that area of the world thank you and this is something that's been of concern

016for me as well as for the board so I appreciate this moment I'm going to Pivot and uh we'd like to move on to some unique and important celebrations we have within our midst in the district one of our students her name is Lucy where she's age nine I listen to this third grader from Southbury and is among 80 Junior golfers representing 31 US states and two countries who have earned in an invitation to compete at the Augusta National Golf Club for their 10th Annual Drive what were you doing when you were 10 years of age this will happen on April 7 7th 2024 uh Lucy earned first place in each of the three disciplines and scoring 132 points and registering a 36 Point Victory now everybody don't go to that school and get your

017your autograph today but I can't fault you if you do this is an incredible achievement for such a grade uh scale deserves special recognition we send her our best wishes and this well congratulations to her family uh as we know this is a partnership last Friday our high school students participated and Ascend this first day this is the first day of a series of learning and engagement opportunities during the shortened School Improvement days this is using a unique model of having our students participate in their classroom watching presenters live online and allowed everyone the opportunity to engage in the same amount of content but also engage in smaller groups the topics include goal setting and dreams and the importance of community and developing empathy this idea came from our students who are serving on the

018superintendent's advisory Council along with teachers and administrators from the high school in the district this incredible opportunity was a true collaboration and directly addressed topics indicated as priority needs from our student body through survey feedback that we received last year congratulations to the team of students and teachers who helped to develop this learning event we look forward to hearing more about what you plan for our next sip day thank you all as many of you may know today kicks off the 10th Annual districtwide uh food drive this annual collection or event has a massive impact on our community to help fight hunger and food insecurity at our recent education commission meeting in Aurora I was there this was a matter of great concern um that are we are looking at how we partner with local

019organizations this particular Drive benefits our local County Community Food Pantry who serves over 2,000 families every week we account for the largest single donation each year while we do make this a friendly competition between buildings at each level the goal is the same for everyone we are here to make a difference in our community when we do all when we all do a little it really adds up a lot and as they say many hands make light work we encourage you and welcome you to join us in donating online um we also through this is happening through October 16th please join us in breaking our record from last year which combined with cash and food donations totaled 413,000 items our district alone has provided 1.7 million items to our local Pantry through this annual collection

020this is an amazing impact that we are having and we always announce that this celebration the the winner of this effort at our cross town football game I see some shirts over here for our football cross town coming up on October 20th at aohs it is also this evening with mixed emotion that I want to share the news of the upcoming retirement and you may have read of two of our long-standing educational leaders who have really made a profound difference in their time with our district now they will be with us for the rest of the year but I think it's important to acknowledge and take moment in stock right now at the conclusion of this year our associate superintendent Miss Faith delest along with our Junior High director Miss Shannon ners will retire from

021District um from this District following distinguished careers in public education I think that's worth an Applause faith has been part of this district for The Last 5 Years she's been an educator in Illinois since 1991 and serving as an administrator for 29 years this is in incredible contribution and we are grateful for her leadership and dedication and she most certainly has to earn the opportunity to enjoy herself and her family in retirement maybe even sub I'm just kidding Shannon has spent 17 years in our district uh she's one of the longest serving administrators heing School District 308 she's an uh she started serving as an assistant principal at Thompson junior high then as a principal 7 years ago she moved to the district off office to oversee all of our Junior highs her expertise and

022experience and knowledge will be missed but like Faith she more than like more than well deserves her free time and retirement we wish both of them all the best and we celebrate with you and we will know we'll have time to celebrate more with you you as you prepare for this change um my final comments tonight are really about the transformative process we've been going through it has really been a tremendous experience coming into this District um as we know um any change takes time um we received questions about programmatic changes uh Transportation as we've heard this evening um last meeting the Dual language program um our the way in which we think about our budget and organizing our finances and a significant opportunity for improvement in those areas um I recognize that in my

023first 90 days I've been getting to know the district uh reviewing the key areas needed working with Educators parents and community members as Riden through our superintendent Advisory Group recently it is my intention and plan to be as methodical proactive in the exploration of processes that need to be addressed um I am going to be identifying and working collaboratively to identify opportunities of growth we will uncover what is not making our district stronger than it needs to be and work towards identifying ways to make it as sustainable and as strong as District as possible we have to work towards continuous Improvement we have to identify ways to identify the root causes and then work to move through a systematic process to improve what's happening in our district one of the first things we've identified as

024a district is the need to improve our climate and culture and one of the areas that we're doing that is by identify six core values that will guide our work these include Integrity humanization courtesy dignity collaboration and empathy with these values guiding us we can operate in a way that is more transparent and builds trust when we acknowledge the importance of Building Systems and structure and not just responding in reacting we can make great things happen and is my intention and this administration's intention to work collaboratively with our community and to continue to strengthen it and with that I turn it over to Madam president thank you Yes actually I'm going to share share the time with you and invite we have enough we have lots of celebrations as you notice when we come together

025so I want to make sure that uh we have an event we have a celebration that we're going to president so we want to acknowledge Stephanie San Roman we want to acknowledge Stephanie San Roman she is one of 30 music teachers to be awarded by the Nashville based nonprofit Country Music Association and um aswel High School's band director has been recognized nationally for her commitment and impact on the lives of students Stephanie San Roman is one of 30 music teachers to be awarded by the Nashville based nonprofit Country Music Association it's the 7th year the program has recognized Educators make the greatest impact on their students through music according to a news release San Roman is the only Illinois educator to earn this year's music teacher of Excellence she joined the asgo school in 2006

026as an associate director and was promoted Ed to director 3 years ago all 30 Award winners will be celebrated at a SE a ceremony that took place on September 19th in Nashville the organization will also give a total of $150,000 to all of this year's recip recipients half of each teachers investment will go to their classroom needs and music programs with the other half going to personal expenses officials said so congratulations to Stephanie [Applause] okay yes okay 5.2 board committee reports and we'll have the report of the equity and teaching and learning committee are there any comments um regarding the equity and teaching and learning committee I have one but I'll I'll see if you Eugene OR Dr Mario if you wanted to say anything first um I just had one encouragement for the community

027um Can Can you all hear me yes okay I just have one encouragement for the community uh we are looking at these committees as a way to really get more input both from uh board members prior prior to going to a full board meeting uh but community members are also welcome these committees to observe the discussions listen in and also make comment uh as they would like we had one visitor at our last meeting and we hope to see more community members in the future I agree um thank you Dr Mario and um I'll uh I'll just add couple a couple of things that um kind of pondering coming out of there first of all a large portion of the meeting was to talk about um um the ASL class and um one thing I

028want to talk about we it's um I guess appropo that we're talking about equity and also teaching and learning um when it comes to this program um you know sometimes in life you don't know till you know uh and my first time on the board for those that don't know uh one of the reasons I didn't run again is because um um late in my first term my wife developed an acoustic neuroma and uh my wife being um hard-headed as she is uh I believe me no pun intended there um she just kind of kept putting it off putting it off putting it off and then uh it got to a point where they um told her immediately you need to go to the doctor matter of fact doing doing a simple hearing test they

029actually knew exactly what was going on uh my wife then had to endure uh three surgeries uh one to take out her left ear uh another one to get rid of the um um uh the tumor itself and then the third one to Anchor in um the the hearing aid uh piece uh into her skull and uh I will say this that um you don't know until you know right and just something simple as the last time we were on a flight um the person next to her was trying to talk to her on her left side and she turned and said I'm sorry I'm I'm deaf on that side I can't hear right and uh um so when we talk about uh those in our community who um deal with with um uh heart

030hearing uh hearing loss so forth um we should realize uh how many people it impacts but sure but we also should um uh remember that there's a huge benefit also to um being um uh accepting and celebrating um uh that that uh that community that exists with us and and I know my wife was very much um uh motivated uh to take up sign language herself she is a um a foreign language teacher so probably helped her a little bit but but you know um but these things do impact people sometimes you don't even you don't even know um my tragically my wife see sees out sees out there certain things that that people will say about me and and I feel bad for that part for her but you know uh I guess it

031goes with the job um but um one concern that I always have is that I hope we are monitoring the this um Committee in particular um this was a moment that I was excited to see equity and teaching and learning come together uh I know sometimes people have a concept of equity this is Equitable this is this is Equity um this class and what we're doing um but I hope that we will continue to monitor because I don't want that getting lost by combining the two um committees so uh I just wanted to add that piece and uh like I said I guess the theme there is you don't know sometimes till you know I I would just like to share um that I was as many administrators will share with you that have sat

032on a committee with me I'm pretty passionate about things and um I see some Smiles across the aisle over there last year um I brought ASL to uh Mr arson and Mrs dalquist and uh at the teaching and learning committee because I am part of that deaf in heart of hearing Community I am fully deaf in the right side of my ear which is why I'm always asking people to talk into the microphones because I can't hear um masking was hard for me because I'm a lip reader but um I know that there was some hesit ation and I thank you both for seeing this through over the last year it means a lot just not just to me but to so many in our deaf and hard and hard and hearing Community um I

033was at the bowling alley a couple months ago and the family next to me communicated fully in ASL and I just don't think if you don't see it you don't realize how much it impacts people's lives so I look forward to our next meeting being in ASL thank you all right anybody else thank you Dan all right 5.3 board member comments any board member comments tonight I just have a you know went on a tour um with Dr katti um Miss haror and uh Miss Jones over at Boulder Hill a couple weeks ago um I will say that it was uh they're very resourceful with their space um there's a lot of uh space constraints going on um uh but uh a lot of vibrant classrooms um excitement in the school um so it was

034it was very heartwarming as well um I I also uh that was that was pretty much all I want to say I was had had some fun playing Simon says um it's been years I did pretty well I think soon as you go out oh yeah anybody that that knows me probably thinks I wouldn't do very well Simon says right um but yeah so I appreciate uh taking that tour with me and um showing me around and um seeing the great things and the things that we need to improve so okay so a week ago Saturday two weeks ago this coming Saturday um I went with uh couple admins and several teachers to uh serve lunch at hessed house so for those of you that aren't aware um hessed house is kind of a a

035homeless shelter out out in Aurora um it's actually a pretty large one anyway um it was part of uh District 308 gives so we all gathered and and uh we actually we got off pretty easy we were handing out pizza um so it could have been worse but it was a great experience to to hang out with some other teachers and also to have some conversations with some people that otherwise you might not be talking to so that and again we mentioned the food drive um food pantry was also last week over at Old Trower um we you know virtually 100 families again um if there is a need please make sure that you send people there there's you know nobody nobody in this community should starve so that's it from me you know can

036I so yeah we got the uh letter about the food drive I think recently or an email or some form of communication but it was uh for every dollar you give it's like eight items of food so I mean it's you can make a significant difference with like 10 20 200 you know um but even 10 or five you know is still good um but yeah that was uh you know I I forget that how how well they do with the resources they yet so than you yeah no we're going to move on if you you have something I just have um two quick things I wanted to say and I did not prepare these so God help me um I just wanted to make an apology to our dual language families and our elll

037families I know that I've spent the last two weeks really getting to know a lot of them and I will tell say that I was not fully vested in understanding and the knowledge of the program and I think all of them who have reached out to me and allowed me to listen um I do feel that there are a lot of areas of opportunity in our district and right now it is very high on my priority list so to the students that we may have let down I'm really really sorry and I apologize and I have spent um many conversations with Dr katti over the last two weeks um really uh digging in and and and sharing information and really understanding what the root cause of the issues are so I just really wanted to

038reach out and and say that um to everyone involved and I know that uh there is better days ahead um for that program uh that was the first thing um and then secondly um I just wanted to bring awareness to the fact that October is ADHD Awareness Month um also incredibly personal to me as I have been um I was diagnosed with ADHD when I was 26 but looking back on my history um I've obviously had it uh for most of my whole life and um I encourage um and I shared with Dr katti some resources but I strongly encourage our administrators to look into uh professional development uh regarding ADHD it affects a lot of students and as we know when students are disregulated they are not learning and um most people that have

039worked with me including everybody at this table know that I I have trouble with executive functions I see it in students every day a lot of the times we label that as behavior issues and they're not behavior issues they are um executive function impairment and um I look forward to um seeing the district dig into that and and the professional development and getting to understand our students and where they're coming from because we know that they're not learning if they're disregulated um when I was in second grade my teacher decided to duct tap my mouth uh shut for the first semester of of school now I did go to a um a parochial school so things were a little different um on the private side of things but um I was so scared that my

040parents were going to find out you can't really hide a rash from duct tape after so long and um um it just goes to show that you know those kids that we think talk too much or distract or what have you have a lot of other things going on and um it's really important for us to find out what those things are so we can help them in their Learning Journey so I just wanted to thank you for letting me share thank you Dr so I want to close it out I want to invite Faith uh doist to join me and uh we're getting ready to celebrate a very important group of our employees this month so fath I don't know if you're aware of it but it is principal appreciation month um and uh

041these group of individuals work incredibly hard I know people even in June July and August wouldn't you love to be a principal no you would not um there's a lot a lot of work to do um to be ready for everybody to come I know some of my favorite years were being a principal uh and wow not going to get emotional about that um and it's just a great job but it's also very very tiring and trying to meet the needs of of everybody and I am just honored to work with our principles thank you thank you let's give them we will be sharing a lot more about our principles at our our second board meeting in the month of October we will be kicking off next week is the official week where we have

042lots and lots of ways that we're going to be taking time to celebrate them every single day um and then at our last board meeting of the month we'll be bringing some more announcements and celebrations around that one it's um one other as long as we're going through this it is also uh lgbtqia plus uh History Month I always uh um talk about uh the story of Albert cashier I don't know if anyone knows this story um but uh Albert cashier served um Illinois uh in the Civil War on marched under Grant's Army um um came over from Ireland um and um was born um born born born a woman uh but the father uh of Albert um when she came over he um encouraged Albert to um to uh present and work a as

043a man because there would be more opportunities and Albert joined the Union Army served um the state of state of Illinois um was almost captured um uh went through many heroic uh moments when Albert came back um unfortunately there was a moment where Albert became um uh foggy in the head for lack of better terms start to suffer from dementia and uh had to be in was uh hit by a car and at that point um the doctors um realized that um Albert um uh Albert um in their minds was not in their minds was not um a male threatened to take Albert's pension away after uh defending his country uh and his own soldiers that he uh um served with showed up and um they said Albert Albert deserves his pension Albert is one

044of us Albert is a soldier here for Illinois and um so I always tell the story of Albert cashier Albert cashier yeah so look it up you can fact check me I always tell people to fact check me so please do thank you for that all right and now we have 5.4 our student ambassador reports okay can you hear me okay yeah a little louder okay um so we have had some very productive discussions since our last school board meeting throughout our ssac meetings we have really been focusing on the survey results from the mental health survey that was released last year um we were really able to dive deep into the demographics that made up the results especially we looked where race and gender intersected with kind of how PE students looked at issues

045um the main result of the survey that really stood out to us was how students of every demographic of every race of every sexuality stated that they had too large of a homework load and that was one of their biggest concerns so we're really trying to kind of get to the root of that and understand what subjects are weighing on students the most what what might just be not wanting to do work and what might be a serious issue because that it can become serious if students are spending their whole night at home doing homework and then we kind of talked about students solutions that help students relieve stress while still allowing them to learn um we would really love to survey teachers next to get their perspective on the homework load and how we

046can possibly connect teachers to each other so you know if one one subject is having a big test and a lot of homework the other subject isn't doing the same thing because I think that's a lot of issues we see where every single class has a test on one day and then you have no homework for a week so that's something we'd like to try to confront um we also discussed have the survey stated the majority of students did not believe that sexual harassment had gone down in their Community which combating sexual harassment had been our goal of previous year so we tried to address the failings and successes of last year's actions and how we can approve the the attempts that were made and the biggest thing was we really tried to acknowledge how

047large of an issue sexual harassment is and how we can address it knowing that we can't change society as a whole at the moment um and one small way we discussed was even letting students know the process for addressing harassment within the district because we heard from admin that many times students believe there was no discipline or no action taken against a student that was accused when in fact they're Bound by confidentiality but students don't always know that so we really wanted to work together to educate students so they feel heard and understood and understand the process um but overall we are still in the process of weeding through survey results and creating an action plan plan for this year I also just wanted to speak to students directly um I wanted to speak on

048what is going on in the Middle East right now so to fully represent student voice I'm not going to share my personal opinions because that's not what this forum is for but I wanted to speak to all people affected Jews Muslims Palestinians and Israelis Al alike are really struggling and hurting right now it's no one wants to see people they know die or people in their communities die so I wanted to remind all students that their feelings are valid and understandable um you don't have to know everything or have a fully formed opinion and there is support if you're struggling to speak personally I'm Jewish and I spent much of this weekend in Temple discussing the issue I've talked to my youth group and the biggest thing is people don't know how to feel it's

049a complex issue and I think we need to understand that but also understand feelings are valid you don't want to watch people in your community die you don't want to watch people die so this morning I was able to talk with principal Bowski about how to best support students and she re reiterated that Administration is here for us no matter our connection to the conflict no matter what side were on um and may all the memories of the Dead be a blessing and may that re region soon find peace excellent thank you okay you're good yeah okay thank you thank you to both of you Luke and isbel all right point one the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please if there are no questions make make a motion

050to approve all items under consent including minutes of the Board of Education meeting on September 25th 2023 open and close session minutes of the Board of Education meeting on September 28th open and close session and to acknowledge the Foy of requests received by the district second Mr Gatewood hi Dr Maria hi Miss Johnson hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr cler hi Miss v i motion passes 70 okay thank you um this evening I want to regarding financial statements and the investment schedule are there any questions from the board on this item you know if you can walk me through um the master total portfolio report and what it's telling me um what what you know what are the takeaways that I should be getting from this report what it is here can you

051pull the mic closer Rafael please thanks what we are showing is the the amount of money that we have an investment in the district for the month of October so just just in uh overnight investment you know that that's okay so not not our capital expenditure Investments no no this are yeah okay and um okay so these are just generally interest bearing bank accounts yes okay okay that's all I have other questions from anybody else no okay uh 7 okay 7.2 um I want to invite uh Dan artson our executive director for high schools and for assessment and he will be uh I'm going to invite faith doist our associate superintendent also to speak to any questions you may have good evening everyone good evening uh it brings me great pleasure here to uh to

052bring this course to proposal to you guys tonight so uh what I'd like to do uh is really just talk through this course a little bit answer any questions you may have as you saw by public comment tonight uh and some comments from board members this is something that's of tremendous value to us as a school district in our community so what we're proposing tonight is uh American Sign Language one that would be rolled out in school year 25 which would be next school year and then the following school year will be asl2 and those uh numbers next to that are the Illinois State course codes that would be coordinating with that correlating to that um so those are just there uh there's actually courses one through five in the Illinois State uh course code

053so our plan moving forward would be to bring ASL 3 and four uh to the school board next year for approval um really this class as we talked about last last week in ETL uh has tremendous value in lots of different different ways some of the things and there were great great questions by board members last week about the course uh one of the things we did change on here was a course fee uh initially we had $25 on there which is uh would would keep it comparable to the other uh World language courses that we have for like Spanish one has that largely those are for consumables things of that nature but we want to get a better handle of what that $25 course fee really would be uh of course as we move

054forward we will put that in the course catalog uh that could could very well no course fee whatsoever it could be $25 it could be 10 so once we have that definitive finger uh figure we will let you guys know for that so um beyond that uh as I said as we talked about last week in ETL uh lots of great questions uh we had this course again has tremendous value to our students uh it's a course that has been brought up over the course of the last few years in lots of different ways but um again we think it has tremendous value for our students here in as weo and uh we look forward to having it the next slide uh this is the tentative timeline for course selection of course we're here tonight

055uh presenting for information as we go to the next board meeting would be for Action uh after that it's a pretty quick pretty quick turnaround for some things here uh getting into the course catalog and then of course as we go through there with teacher recommendations all the way through student course requests and the timeline all the way down to the very bottom uh which will be February 16th right now for course selections to be finalized for next school year there's a lot that happens within that window of time really soon as uh October 25th uh the action takes place uh course catalog being made public things of that nature there's a again it's a tight window for lots of things that happen but we've done this before and um you know we've adjusted this

056the uh timeline just a little bit to the left this year giving our student services department a little bit more time are counselors to work with students one of the things we hear each and every year is we have 3,000 students at each High School uh and it's very difficult for everyone to get the appropriate amount of time with our students to talk about this so we've provided about an extra 10 days for student services to meet with students which is huge um that gives counselors more time it gives our students more time with counselors um so that's something we've tried to do this year which makes our scheduling a little bit tighter but at the same time time is going to be a lot more valuable to our students you have any questions I

057do and I I'm also okay um sorry I didn't give him submit these sure no problem just was a very busy uh few days I think he got on Friday or something um sure uh how many districts are in the area are offering ASL you know to um as a high school course yeah there's quite a few actually planfield Yorkville uh we do have a running list here our surrounding communities do this is pretty much the norm to offer this okay so this is it wouldn't be something out of the ordinary okay well I kind of was hoping that we wereing UNT we're catching up we are seventh largest District so I think that puts us at the top well yeah Al offered at Harvard so I mean it's pretty common all the way from

058it's offered in many I would say junior high through college so yeah I um I also just I thatness is just a comment I see this as a um kind of uh helps in that teacher pipeline that we're trying to develop this gives you know our students unique skills to support future students in probably areas that are hard to hire for um um so I I I see that as um kind of complimenting that um and uh I appreciate it I'm not on that committee so thank you well and I also yeah to your point too I I want to remind us that um it sends the correct message well I don't want to say the correct message but it sends a correct message to um our community because we do bring in students from

059other communities for our um uh dhh program and at the um uh lower levels and so um it's kind of I don't want to say strange but it it I think it's um a mixed message to not have this but then to have um those uh students filtering it from other uh communities that we service so I think it sends the right message for sure yeah and or a right message it'll help it'll help out dep of heart hearing students exactly when they have people that can communicate with them that aren't um and you know it's and that was brought up in Comm a committee we brought that up in committee there's so many benefits um I really appreciate the committee talking about um how courses are vetted and and refining that process I'm very

060glad to hear that um but there were two other courses that were proposed I just wondered what is h did we talk about this what is happening to those yeah there were actually three other courses that were initially proposed so uh those will go back into our process that we're developing okay uh and those those courses and the individuals who worked in those courses spent a tremendous amount of time and effort on those courses uh I've already communicated that with them about what we plan moving forward with those courses and those will kind of automatically be part of the the process moving forward um this course in particular was just something that we felt um had the absolute uh need in every capacity to move forward uh to talk about as a group last week

061in ETL um but those courses again people put a lot of effort and time that was really where what I wanted to address was that going back to culture and climate and our goals you know they bring the teachers bring these to you because they're passionate about something so we don't want to lose sight of that I I just want to make sure that those are back on the docket at some point absolutely Faith wanted to add something okay and then I actually think Dan said it better Amy yes um thank you so just a couple so just a couple things I'd like to add um one I want to I want to give an appreciation to the administration for bringing um this recommendation back to the teaching equity and teaching and learning committee I

062think that's a good process I will continue before it goes between before the whole board um I'm glad to hear that there will be a quick proposal for an additional two years considering that are all of our other language courses have a four-year program I think that's move um you know ConEd on a successful month the first year um I think that uh is appropriate um I also mentioned this in our committee meeting but I want point for the whole board um that we are clear with our students in the course selection process about which schools and universities accept this as a foreign language credit uh just so that they can plan accordingly more and more universities and colleges are accepting this as a foreign langage credit but it's not as widely accepted as you

063know like Spanish or other languish um and then the last thing I wanted to say was I know that a change has been made on the um in regard to the cor and I appreciate that considering we don't know exactly you know what those consumables might be I would just say that if it is way if we end up choosing some sort of rle or program or an application of some sort that's puts this out of line with other courses and course fees that the board would know about that so it's not a surprise to students to enroll in the course I believe we have to approve it right no no does it wouldn't be here back at the board meeting it is public knowledge of what the fees would be eventually but we're not

064looking to raise it past that we just wanted to be able to give details we even had the slide written as $20 or less at one point so yep and that's fair right as soon as we yeah that makes sense yep we will absolutely make sure everyone's aware of that too again that we're not trying to hide anything from anyone especially our our um our students and things and and from the committee I thought there was a really good conversation that came about you know um it it's a it's a difficult one it's a tough one to navigate through but at the end of the day like um what what do we what do we do with some courses that we have that have dropped to a certain level and that that's tough because I

065think I I believe anyways we want to offer our students as many options as we can as we can give them at the same time that you know one of the conversations that came up in the committee was what does that look like what is the balance right do you run a class with only two students right um I mean obviously if if you if you if you um have to right that that's you know there's some HS have toos if you will but um that's a conversation that at some point like you know we will have to talk about and think about because it's not just a matter of oh you had a class and it has no impact and I'm not talking about this class in particular I'm talking about the the larger

066conversation among the committee um and so we do have to be cognizant of that and to speak to the point about why we maybe uh took those other three classes back to take a look um there's a point where we if we if we add too much we will reach saturation if that makes sense and and so we'll have to have those discussions they're not going to be easy either I think they'll be more difficult than people realize because are you going to offer a class for two students one at both if one is at each school right and Howes what does that look like and we also added if you if we do decide to have to Sunset any class that we just give the students in administration time to make that decision yep

067Jared and Eugene both of you thank you for bringing that up I think that was another important conversation um with any I think the question should always be if students are taking this course of course are they not and that should be part of the proposal process as well okay all right any other questions all right just thank you so much all right thank you thank you did you have any Luke I just saw your face for second I'll just say real quick um I was able to uh during homecoming week I'm in AC capella choir and at our Pepa L we were able to have the ASL club actually um sign the star spangle Banner along with us and um just seeing that like the amount of support that's in there um from the

068community and just overall with the students I think I just I can see that students are very excited about this opportunity and just um having that opportunity to experience that you know working with choir it was just really beautiful to see and I'm excited to see this going forward wonderful thank you Luke that was awesome I want to also share that at talk training where we have other districts come in and learn about our talk program we had two sign language interpreters there as well and all I thought was this is beautiful but it's tiring to do that for an entire day I can imagine yeah thank you thank you thank you all right 7.3 update on change orders for the track construction I want to invite uh director of buildings and grounds Mr Bill

069Queen and Mr good evening welc evening board all right so we'll start with change orders change orders 1 through 10 have been completed with the exception of the installation of the takeoff boards sand delivery for the long jump installation of concrete pads bolt boxes for pull Vault and to raise the storm Inlet rims around the football field at oehs change orders 81 12 14 and 15 we are currently soliciting uh competitive bids uh with competitive bidding these items May cost may be a lower cost of work um items 12 14 and 15 are scheduled to be completed to Summer of 20124 along with the installation of the rubber track surface which is already included into the project was that date I'm sorry what was that date again and which track sorry at this is at

070o e24 so the track surface will already included at that so that's 2024 for oehs rubber plane surface OE this process was started Monday 109 yesterday at OE the plan is to complete the oval for practicing purposes and relocate the ohos for competitions it is anticipated the rubber installation will be completed over a 3-day period perod of time Without Rain temperatures above 50° potentially October 20th also during this time frame Sher asphalt will be completing the outstanding work noted in change orders 1 through 10 moving on to O upon completion of the oval at oehs Midwest track builders will relocate to O to lay the Rober on the oval and all the jump pins in order for the district to have a functioning track for for the start of track and field where both schools

071will U Iz for meets and it is anticipated the rubber installation will be completed over a 5-day period over a time without rain and temperatures above 50° potentially October 27th prior to the insulation of rubber shoulder asphalt will be installing the long jump takeoff boards P Vault boxes during the week of October 16th that concludes my track update there there was something that kind of confused me can you go back to the beginning bill just at the start you talked about something for 2024 I wasn't sure what that was the the sound cut out sound cut out so the completion of that work will commence in the summer of 2024 which work oehs that's with the track with the jumps the rubber jumps part not the track the track oval will be completed they've started

072that yesterday they worked on it today hopefully that rain holds off tomorrow night we can get some rubber on that track is that where you said that for those competitions will happen at OS for for jumping was it uh long jump and which we just I'm just trying to which sports are going that would be the long jump pole vault got it all that good stuff so the ones that we're going out for additional rfps those are related or what I I they are related that that's work right we're we're into this thing pretty far with the contractor and and we would like to see some other numbers to to get that cost lower for the long jumps for the long jumps absolutely at o I'm sorry that's great news thank you I'm sorry I

073guess to kind of add to what Mr Quinn is saying we've had some issues with the ashfold uh vendor um the vendor is not being as responsive as we would like for them to be and I guess um because of the existing um bed that we had with them they kind of thought they as B bear and they have not been as responsive and they have not been as flexible so we're thinking this would be an opportunity for us to go out back into the marketplace and contact other possible provider to see if we can get better pricing that what it's been provided to us for the work that we can do until the summer okay okay so I guess I have a couple questions question one is have so sorry screen um question one

074is um have we been actually I'll start with this so I'm assuming that means OE is not going to be able to have any kind of home meets next year and if I'm if I'm making that assumption incorrect then you can let me know but if that is correct have we sat down and talked with coaching staff with with what what that's going to look like for them CU I I will be honest morale is is is is a concern for me and then I have one question for Meen but you go ahead you are correct and I guess we have sat down with the administration and and gone over that with all parties involved I'm I'm glad that we've talked to I I just really want to make sure that we are getting feedback

075from the coaches we're talking to the coaches um we're doing whatever we can with those coaches Mr bloger I'm I'm speaking with Tony every day I'm speaking with Darren every day okay um I wake up in in the morning and I'm calling these contractors for sing at 420 just to make sure I know where they're at then the next call is to those those administrators those athletic directors just to make sure we're on staying on top of anything that could change or has changed in the future so we we are communicating probably I would I wouldn't say overc communicating but we are communicating a bunch with these administrators absolutely okay and I hope the administrators then are are communicating with their coaches and then um Morin just you know what question I'm going to ask

076I'll ask it again Ask last meeting so uh is there anything that we have done incorrectly in this process um to at at this point other than obviously I'm just going to speak bluntly other than going off of plans that were old but that's something that's that's another issue right I mean my understanding is what came to light when it came to light other than these things that are going to be postponed what has to get done has to get done now because of the timing before the winter so that it's available for use in the spring um and therefore I think you're ratifying uh those change orders at deeming them as an an emergency okay thank you I'm I think I'm still so Jared's first question something about OE not being able to have

077not having this for their next season is did I what did I hear OE will be practicing on their facilities but they will not hold meets here at OE Chase for for any of the track field track and fielders is this just for correct okay we we'll hold all meets at OS for both schools okay they'll have access for practice but not for the meet itself because they need all the events the jump pits and absolutely okay that's why okay and I'm going to assume I could be wrong but I'm assuming this question is going to come up which would be well then why not just hold off I'm going to assume correct me if I'm wrong the reason why we don't hold off for the whole thing and we deem it as waren said

078is because then what you're looking at is one of two options right you either tell OE they don't have a track season at all next year or you're busing them every single day somehow with our with our already fragile transportation system to O and back potentially every single day for practice I'm going to go ahead and make that assumption but you can correct me if I'm wrong you absolutely right and the other variable that we thought about in making the decision is the fact that not only will we have to provide transportation then we put uh uh students at risk of trying to drive to uh drive from OE to o and um and just the uh the possibility of traffic incidents without that we're just trying to do everything we can to lessen any

079complication related to that by moving forward hopefully hopefully everybody realizes the uh current traffic situation yes yeah that's another story in itself those those tracks were bad those tracks were real bad what do you mean by that cuz I was not here just to give you a little background what you seen in some of those those changeovers were undercuts right and that that's when you go into what's an undercut undercut is is the process of removing an element or soil something that's in the dirt to put something back that is compactable and Foundation proof um when these tracks were built for US 20 15 20 years ago no under drains were ever put in we we open the ground up there's no drainage um which totally tells you where we're at with with these with

080these tracks and and how they didn't last and and what was not done so there was a lot of extra work involved into that process um um somebody got over on us years ago and it was very very important that things went right this time around so we got it right as a district and and didn't have this problem we would love to be in a situation where we're just running routines right where we're just pulling the rubber off and putting new rubber down that is less less evasive on the on the on the building on the sport and on the district itself we weren't there and both tracks were so far gone OE would have not had a track season at all and O probably would have came up mid season so just to

081clarify when the things that we discovered as we were attempting to replace it is that would happen we would discover the improper drainage which which caused us to have to go we did and and you're going to see that one change order which is a big one and that one chewed up every bit of my contingency that I had but it had to be done at the time that it was done and found in July to keep that project going got it and and are you saying that that's what contributed to the now delay no that that is not all of it absolutely not got it it's it's a combination of things what uh Mr Queen just mentioned was a big chunk of it the other big chunk of it as we mentioned in the

082last meeting is that we did not uh engage to final user the way we should live and the decision was made to go ahead with a project uh without recognizing the expertise of the folks who are going to use it and the staff who are going to work with the to use it so construction started uh based on theoretical design um without actually taking the folks who are going to be using it to the field and say this is what we envision to do I mean does this make sense from a user point of view we skip that process quite frankly so it's a combination of uh underly issues with the with the way the the ground was was prepared and the the replacement track wasn't done the replace track wasn't put in properly that

083was one the other part is that the the project to replace the uh the track wasn't done with the engagement of the final user so there were two things and us us as well to add to that too we're it's an anomaly we're trying to take a square block and fit it in a round hole these football these are football fields and and the things that we're trying to add don't don't equate to the football field that the way we're standard with with standard Turf you know we run off a crown right that Crown does everything on that football field most of these track facilities are flat they're Turf they're flat and I'm not politic for Turf I'm just telling you what we're dealing with when we're trying to put this together on a football

084field no but it it's it's a it's a valid point to bring up because I think this came up somebody can correct me if I'm wrong in the discussion piece which is you know this is these are the things that in the s for the sake of saving money it cost us money and I'm not trying to sell us on Turf either but I'm sure that if we did a you know cost analysis we're going to figure out that that's actually cheaper Long Haul than doing what we're doing and we're going to make some money right and so the question the problem becomes coming up with the front end capital for that and and listen I understand I understand people's frustrations I I have them too right like I don't even want to bring up

085the word parking lot but like those are things those are things that if we don't build up enough to to to to invest in something to save us money then then we are costing us money in the long run and it it's hard it's not an easy discussion to have I get it but I think that is where this particular board at this particular Moment In Time finds themsel is G boards were afraid to look to the Future and say we need to spend money in order to make some decisions need to be made I don't I don't I I think at times yes I can I can remember a few boards that were like that yes so I I'll concede that but I also think there were a few boards that had nothing left

086right so there was there was that's what I mean at this point in time what does that discussion look like because when sparland was here he and I sat down and I wanted to understand what Turf costs and why it why we didn't have turf fields and why we didn't have all of these Community football leagues feeding into our high schools and where all that um was what was happening and so it is one of those things where we have to start to have those discussions which is here's how much it costs to maintain our current field grass field and what it is required to have a grass field because it does there's so many things that people don't understand and that cost money incrementally over time or do we look forward and say we

087make an investment that we would have to then pay for you know over time I'm just saying we need to have those hard discussions and not shy away from them I agree I I I 100% agree with you one of the first triple eyes that I went to uh former president Banks and I we sat down we listened to the to the to the whole um Pitch from one of these um you know places that will install Turf we came back and talked to the board and it it made sense it made sense the problem was we were also uh at the time having a conversation about how much money we needed to cut from the budget and so uh I'm just going to be blunt uh selling to the general public hey I am

088contemplating increasing third grade class sizes right that is still affecting us but hey let's put in a turf field but I'm going to put in a million dollar tur field it's not probably two because you have two t it it it was an impossible cell those conversations have happened it's the part that's difficult is getting everyone to to then get to the point of realizing okay this is CAU our our inadequacies are costing us money right and and that effects of all that are still happening they're still here so when we hear from multiple schools about like third grade class sizes those are legit those are those are legitimate like yes I share your concern but they are still the effects of what was happening in the past and so that's why I say that

089cost piece I'm glad we're having the conversation but that's a cost like that's a cost to our district that's still occurring today yeah and I just I want to say and again it's not specif it is it's arising because of the specific discussion but again I would ask Dr katti you and your Administration while I very clearly know that the board belongs in the balcony I think for the board and for our taxpayers and our community it would be for transparency reasons um very helpful to see um what your staff is putting in place regarding process regarding these type of projects and um just kind of showing us where the changes are made so that we have a level of confidence moving forward no I I appreciate that and I if you want to speak

090to that Eugene's had his hand up for a minute no it's all right keep going now the the one thing I'm going to add it in though before we end but you can go one thing I wanted to ask the board since we're talking about this we know uh money's always an issue will the board be open to looking at sponsorship as a way to complete some of this projects and that will be uh you know talking to a third party maybe with naming rights that will pay for uh an elaborate uh uh field that wouldn't cost taxpayers money but it would involv maybe having a business an entity's name on the top field as an alternative way to having taxpayers share the but bear the burden of that if that's something that the board

091will be interested in that's something we can look into as a way to subsidize the cost of projects like that that are sports related we know the marketplace is more minable to providing sponsorship for sports they wouldn't do the same thing for reduction of third grade classes but we know we can those are options that we can look at if it's something the board would be interested I think conversation we we we kind of do that right we we had this conversation before with the you know the new scoreboard scoreboards and things along those lines but um you know if we wanted to expand our I would want it to go through a committee put it that way yeah yeah the the one other thing that I would add just in regards to having the

092conversation I appreciate all the work that was done in order to make sure that the tracks were safe and and the same consideration I would ask that we do as we start to cons because I know we made some changes uh with with the design so that whatever the prep work was needed we did that or approved that so that if we decided to do uh Turf later that it was it was in place but I would also ask that as we're doing our research still continue to consider the safety of the kids because there's new significant research that talks about the safety of kids when playing on Turf versus grass and so I just want us to make sure that we're considering the safety of the kids as well and not just go the

093cheaper route with Turf when you know I'm looking at an article right here that says 58% there's a athletes are found 58% more likely to sustain injury during athletic activities on artificial turf so I just want to make sure that we're considering it uh when we're thinking about um anything anything well that'll be part of our process so I think to your point um Jen regarding thinking about a process safety is one of the criteria we wanted to think about in any of our contracted process right so that's one uh so I just I think that's important so thank you for bringing up that research appreciate that okay we're done okay thank you and yes Mr Bei we would want to any burden we can reduce on our taxpayers now if you brought us Fredo

094Le versus Johnny Walker I mean I think we have decisions to make um but I think we want to investigate any possible opportunities Johnny Walker Mar much TR Johnny Walker malro I don't know the malro man sponsored [Music] umz we would want to reduce any opportunities um to passing it along to the taxpayer we need to have another discussion and I don't think tonight's the discussion but Jared you kind of tipped the edge towards Equity like well we really need to build to a lot of what I have learned recently in the community is sorry Mr Queen um is that in the past Mr pickerel offered to build um a turf field at OHS we said no because you have to build both I think we need to have really um open transparent conversations about

095what Equity looks like a lot of people in our community always say well equity and well Equity um that's equality having having a turf field at both having a very fancy pool at one versus the other we have to look at our district as a whole and what benefits our entire student population and I just want to make sure that when we talk about Equity we're talking about it and all using the same common language yeah I I'm thinking about um District 300 they just uh endorsed a master facility plan to get started in the next year or two that's going to cost significant amount of money to really be able to review um so has when was the last time the district has done a master facility plan so I thought we did one

096but did from what you said comprehensive what's the name of the architect that brought us that CL yeah we have one we have clubber did that was not no that's not a master facility plan that's just an Envision what they did was a record of repairs a record of repairs yeah a facility a record of repairs and the state of the facility Master facility plan is more it's more detailed than that it envisioned future use of buildings it it thinks about uh the educational use of the building the square footage is much more detailed than the facility repairs that was included in uh Vision 308 and I've actually had a conversation with them and they they they acknowledged that what they did was in a master facility plan we met with them last week and

097that were and we talked about in the future immedately putting money in the budget for them to do a master faity plan is much more detailed than what they did common language yeah we have some some pressing needs and so so I'm I'm only raising that as we think about these issues versus turff versus we can't look at these things in isolation while if there are wealthy benefactors who are interested in naming rights for both stadiums we are open to that it sounds like from the board so thank you mrti no thank you sd308.org yes um on that end I want to move to uh item number 7.4 new ISB resolutions um we will have a short discussion on the five resolutions before us Mr ploger will be voting on behalf of the board of

098the of the board at the delegate assembly in Chicago during the triple I conference this year go ahead yeah so one of the things that I'd like to start off with this is first of all thank you to the board because I think this you know sometimes we'll hear oh you're not transparent we don't know what's going on this is definitely us being transparent um I will tell you that not all School ports do what we're about to do and what we're about to do is also part of that education process for the community because it's a window into what is happening around the state uh not just here and as I always like to say hey if these are things that oh we jump out at us and we can relate to that means

099we have a problem at the state level if there things that are foreign to us we don't know it helps us understand what's going on in other districts but perhaps at that point they're either unique to that District or a few districts or at least not applicable to us and so as an example to this the first resolution uh it says industrial construction knowing where this is coming from actually makes a lot of sense it's coming from Pleasant taale um I'll try not to get too personal but um Pleasantdale is um near near Willowbrook and Willowbrook was where we had the stereogenic uh piece a few years back there was a high rate of cancer um I will tell you as a personal uh note that my oldest brother lived within a half a mile

100of stereogenic and my brother is no longer here he had cancer a very rare form of cancer so I say this because it explains kind of where this is coming from from Pleasantdale and it says the resolution says be it resolved that the Illinois Association of school boards shall support and encourage legislation that prohibits the construction of industrial facilities near schools I've given you some background kind of where the school district that you know proposed this is probably coming from uh the recommendation from iasb is to not recommend why so there's got to be some kind of reason and their reason basically is local control and small communities um best know what to do but on top of that some of them are only able to build near schools so you have to also consider

101the small town aspect right so if you're a small town you're surrounded by a bunch of um corn field soybean Fields I grew up in one of those small towns right um it's very difficult sometimes to build in any kind of industry in some of these small towns that are already hurting unless you're putting them near schools I am not telling you that means that's the way you should go I'm just trying to give context to this so what we need to decide is how you want me to march in there and vote on this on this particular resolution individual votes like we did before and majority and the majority will and we're going to post those on the website and and I don't know that we necessarily have to give you know to to

102determine what our vote is right now but that vote will be publicized we we have to make sure of two things one I know what I'm voting for when I March in and uh in my in my adamant opinion the public know where we stand yep and obviously there's a timeline that it happened before triple I conference right I'm fine with no um so I I think let's let's make sure we're all on the same page when it comes to the process so we know that when we submit um our form to you and to Ursula it will have our individual preferences our selection right yes or no those both of those will be publicized right our individual vote and our and then our Collective vote so it's not like we have to come back

103before this body to say oh I vote Yes or no or do you guys want to come back before this body because it's going to be public anyway so what would like to do because we don't have to vote today as to how you want to go about it I think publicly we should at least vote and then just um announce the vote and and I came here prepared to vote I don't know if everybody did but yeah some I mean I don't think we're going to be voting today okay because this isn't like something that uh you know your traditional but who all wants making decisions we're just talking about how we're going to vote at this meeting yeah who all wants to come back before the the the actual meeting uh on November

104whatever it is I I'd like to propose that we just we we vote on this out in front at the next meeting at the next meeting so that people are prepared just just an agenda item with that as an agenda item we come back and vote we don't have to have a discussion on everything no we don't have to have a discussion because we're having it right now I'm just giving background cuz I was asked to give background so and as yeah next Bo meeting you so you're going to pass those out to us so we'll have those before we go home tonight yes let's let's do that should be an easy sheet too yeah so you want me to get into resolution two resolution what does anyone have any thoughts or comments on um

105resolution number one no okay well yeah without voting on that one I mean go ahead you the one thing was basically you know this probably should go in front of the EPA um so and part of the other thing with the ESB is that they've they've had discussions about this they thought about these things um so they bring a sort of an experti and what how they're why they're saying adop yeah I don't I don't I don't just I don't agree fully with that Dominic I do I do agree that I don't think they just make a decision out of anywhere but I do think that we need to realize there are differences right there's a difference between whether you're in a small town whether you're in the city of Chicago whether you're in the

106suburbs whe whether those suburbs are affluent whether those small towns are affluent all those things factor into different types of um uh approaches to this whether your district is a unified district or a k througha District or a high school district none those things I said though I was just basically saying that they already came together and discuss this right but okay so as I understand it each of those regions have a have a discussion right each of the delegate regions yes have a discussion about it and then they all come together and they determine um whether or not so it was more of an education pie so yours was two whether or not the resolution committee is recommending it or not they hear from all of those assemblies yes but I just want to

107make sure we're not left with the impression of well they already did the work so we can just vote how they voted cuz I don't think that's what we want to do because we we've not done that in the past or at least I never did I just looked at their hours of work yes yeah yes okay and and yeah so all right okay so resolution two uh school resource officer the Illinois Association of school boards shall request that the Illinois legislator legislature sorry consider legislation providing Educational Funding to all school districts to offset the cost of a school resource officer uh the recommendation from from iasb is to recommend reasons sro's help student safety and even with grant money it still costs districts money and for our particular District it also costs money I

108believe they were even talking about in here about somehow factoring this into um ebf as well um again um that's just that's just the logic that's where things are coming from there are some school districts that don't have SRO because they don't have access to those things or they would be extremely expensive for them to gather because again you're talking about some districts in rural areas intice that's also too um adamant about how they utilize that role yep um can I get a clarification from um president Simson about what we're doing right now are we discussing these or we're just reviewing and then we're going to vote individually we are discussing and reviewing but we are not voting we are allowing you to take the opportunity to take the the information that we discuss here

109tonight and mow that over and we will be uh voting at our next board meeting okay then I if I could I'd like to add a couple of comments to this resolution in particular yes please um I do want to raise an issue about the funding of police officers and schools generally as this resolution ask the state to provide funding to pay our resource officers whom we are paying out of District funds currently from my understanding there are lingering questions in the research as to whether the employment of police officers in schools actually makes schools more safe I have not found any indication that this is the case and in fact there is a lot of concern among youth organizations and civil liberty groups and advocacy groups about the use of police officers in schools

110there is research that points to the fact that students of color and female students actually tend to feel less safe with school resource officers in schools so I would just say to my fellow board members that I am opposed to this resolution and that I oppose using police officers and schools generally no matter the source of funding and because I don't have any research that points Theus conclusion that SRO are making schools mle more safe and I wonder if the funds spent on our SRO could be used in more research-based initiatives that support social and emotional health of our students through the employment and additional social workers psychologists or through the funding of other programs one one thing I will say since we're going to have this discussion one thing I'll say um uh Dr

111Mario is I don't know that um and this is just me just one board member I don't know that they're necessarily hand inand in other words one thing to that I would consider here is the res resolution is basically saying hey um if you have an SRO let's have this count as part of your funding um and let's have this offset rather than school districts have to take the um the cost but I would I would caution us a little bit because the resolution doesn't say you have to have an SRO and so I think that might be a separate they might be two different conversations Maybe not maybe somebody has different uh uh take on that but in mind it's like okay if we are going to have an Ro um what what does

112that look like right we know we fund it and I'll be I'll be blunt I've heard conversations in the past where you know people have said well why aren't you why aren't you more like the village because they don't uh you know they don't Levy as much as you Levy realize we pay we pay we're paying the V we're paying the village for that SRO so you're welcome yeah you're welcome um so I I I don't know that they're they're together I think you can have kind of both but again I I understand your point and I'm certainly not trying to um tell somebody else how to vote just just just a thought there on that one no I agree I had to say I do understand that the resolution is asking I'm just saying

113on the basis of like some philosophical beliefs that I have that any vote to kind of push forward um funding And in regards to employing police officer in schools are this something that I'm going to likely push backg on and this does have the potential to do that so well and I just to do what wait what do you mean if they if the ending resolution you know if it were to pass in legislation or anything like that or is be decided if you have an Sr like you were saying then we were going to fund you but if you don't then you don't get any money but if it's just part of an increased um funding total then that would be a different story so it really depends on how they would implement the

114that that offset so so yeah let's talk about that that actually because if let's let's say it it P let's say the IB is successful they Lobby the legislator legislator agrees right what that will infect you're going to get because you're held harmless already what it's going to do is it's going to say okay you actually need more funding right so that's that's kind of what I'm saying is that that they might tie that to having an SRO tie what though what do you tie that in incremental funding to having an SRO and that's where the philosophical issue would come into play there's also who knows how legislation What legislation would come up can I put you on the on the spot we have talked a lot about this um the philosophical part that Dr

115Mario is bringing forward I think many of us feel that way and can you explain that we have taken steps um when we sign our agreements with the village and what you have done uh behind the scenes means to change this uh for our district specifically can before you speak to that I do want to say one thing which is as I read this and there was a consent decree in Chicago regarding their use of police and this is really very much in line with where the the direction and the consent degree came from a federal I think it was part of a federal order um that really said the purpose of our partnership with law enforcement is really to support this versus a lot of the other factors that I know are often associated

116with school resource officer so I'm not commenting on a current use of them in this District I'm just saying when I read this and what this is outlining particularly it is in line with Federal mandates that really it's about the preparedness involved ex regarding um the use of uh the partnership with our police officer and our police departments very different than than a lot of the ways in which and what the the consent decree essentially articulated and I'm trying to remember what year This was um where officers were used in mentoring programs within the schools and a variety of other factors I'm not again not commenting anything here I'm just saying that that is essentially one of the ways in which that it's really important now I think for us if we want to come

117back before to come back to the board and speak to this a little bit and give some more facts about what's happening in our district I think that's fair here um Dr K if you want to just add anything right now did you want to speak to her question yeah so as sorry as board member Johnson mentioned um we have over the last couple years worked in strong partnership with um our with OPD specifically that's where our school resource officers come from in order to even become a school resource officer through the police department they have addition training above and beyond to qualify for that role um and then we have not only worked and changed our um IGA with um not only us weo but our other police departments um but then we've also

118worked in Partnership this last summer to put in different kind of progressive steps to deal with two main issues um that we're seeing in terms of vaping and uh fighting so we have tried to really strengthen those relationships um through our sros and have worked in strong partnership uh especially with OPD thank you Eugene I'm not going to repeat everything because I I feel the same way I I fundamentally don't agree with how the SR are being used in the schools and so a vote Yes although and I when I was reading it I said the same thing I said well technically this is not saying that but fundamentally um if they're there then everything that I disagree with it it enables it to continue to happen and even to grow as Dominic is saying

119depending on how it's legislated so you know I I I'll consider everything that I heard well I do want to uh revisit this the SR and how they are being used in our schools because that has never really been a conversation that we've had because when I hear things like they write tickets students get tickets like I don't even understand what that means it doesn't sound good to me so it's like yeah it's like these kinds of things I mean last year I sat in on a trip last year I sat in on a um session with triple ey and they were saying a lot of things that um validated some of the concerns that Dr Mario Just identified and so I want to make sure that you know we're we have a conversation about

120it yeah we can definitely work with the board to set up a time to come back and discuss this but I really want to be clear that this is really about um there's a difference between the use of SRO or police and the enforcement of disciplined School climate culture issues versus emergency planning um I would say that our our our law enforcements there is there is a lot of research that shows especially when you look at Homeland Security are the work that's come out of the CIA and the I'm sorry not the CI the Secret Service around partnership and coordination with our district resource officers it's indispensable you cannot beat it it is extremely important that's very different again when you look at the consent decree that came out of CPS regarding the use of

121SRO for climate and culture purposes right for enforcement those are very different issues no I agree I think you it will be very difficult to quantify or even qualify if it's being effective because we don't know what has not happened because they're there so I don't disagree with you based on how it's written and what the intent is for but for me if it was limited to that scope yeah and then not used if they were not used in other ways then I could say great but the the other thing too that I just want to clear something up I mean I understand the the legislation piece yes I get it but and if this was a if they were advocating for a block grant I I could understand but I somebody can correct me

122if I'm wrong but I am not aware of like the state of Illinois saying hey here's your ebf dollars now here's how you have to spend it like I don't know that that legislation has happened so to I'm sorry but I'm going to push back a little bit on that to to to question suddenly that the state is going to start telling you exactly how to spend your evf dollars I I don't know I don't I don't I don't buy that argument if it was a block grant yeah I would I would I would understand that uh and I could could understand that but I somebody can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm not aware of the state of Illinois saying here's your evf money and here's how you spend it so all right

123next one can I oh yeah please okay so um I really this is like awkward cuz I'm looking away but um I really see where people are coming from when it comes to the racial Equity because as someone who's in school and even as I'm white so I'm not going to get the full experience of the profiling but I is Iselle speaking yes but I do go closer and louder she's she's pretty loud yeah keep going yeah yeah I do think that um there are issues and but my only the only thing that's holding me back on this is who's going to stop a fight you're you can't have a teacher like you can't make teach put teachers in that position of physically stopping a fight and I know there's like so many things we

124can do before that to stop it but we can't we can't make all the structural change happen in a year if like and I know we're not even fully discussing getting rid of ours but no in that mindset of course like it's just a question of I know there are ways to combat this and ways to stop it and structural things that have to be done with the education system but when we get to day-to-day school when we can't solve everything in a day you can't have teachers stopping a fight you can't have teachers you know taking care of that stuff because that's not fair to them they didn't sign up to physically restrain a student and I know there's issues with how that's um disciplined so I think it is a complex issue in

125Equity but I also don't want our teachers to have to take the burden and also it will like from the student perspective it will it could mess up student teacher perspective thank you so to your point that's why we are going to have a broader conversation um at a later date but I appreciate that comment because we we we need to have the conversation okay go ahead the next one and I'm going to preface this with this if this is if this is coming from the state um it's not been a fun party to be a part of but clearly we heard about it tonight and so it it it's in regards to the school bus driver shortage and it's not being put out there because there's only one or two school districts suffering from

126this there are a multitude that are right um and I'll get to that a little bit more but the the Illinois Association of school boards shall support changes to the federal and state uh school transportation regul ations that return licensing requirements and Driver trainer liability back to pre February 2023 levels at minimum allow local training and testing for bus driver candidates and increase the transportation reimbursement rate from the state of Illinois to 100% I don't think when we talk about the school by the way I'm sorry the recommendation for ISB is to recommend and the reasons there's a shortage and some districts aren't aren't they they can't keep up they can't they can't function properly now I don't think that a lot of the general public realizes that there was legislation that I'm not going

127to say led to the shortage but certainly you know was counter to what they were trying to do I don't think a lot of people understand that piece I also question at what point is it that you're just throwing people in buses and how safe is that um like listen this it's a problem and by the way we need roads that function I had a parent in this District tell me they drove from Prairie point to Wolf's Crossing and it took them 45 minutes I believe it 45 minutes now I I like I am very sympathetic like like I've had issues with with Transportation with my own son I have a son who goes here and it's not been fun but if it takes 45 minutes I mean I can sometimes make it to to

128the white socks Park in 45 minutes on a Sunday when no one's going to go to the game but like 45 minutes there's no way that's not going to affect us so I I this is a complex issue I'll shut up because number four this is number three this is three bus driver regulation anybody got anything to add I like the recommendation I think that's all I have to say yeah I like support this recommendation I I I I wrote that I was reluctant because we have a problem we have to solve it but boy it it doesn't feel good rolling back regulations and if something goes wrong I'm going to be honest with you so all right you want me to go to the next one next one resolution for employment history be it

129resolved that the Illinois Association of school boards shall request the Illinois legislature consider using the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services child abuse and neglect tracking system as a means to fulfill the employment history review of Faith's law the REM the recommendation from iasb is to not recommend reasons it they State it's not the right system to deal with Faith's law you know administrators we're looking for you guys to weigh in on this say if you got anything to say oh Dr zmy I mean I have if you want you can go first go ahead no I would say that I agree with the rationale which is really that there are both financial and efficiency limitations with this that could really overburden the process and delay the already hiring process that we've already seen

130I think this reminds me of the last one which is there could be some good reasons to efficiently work with DCFS but they're already over taxed and so for us to now uh defer to them for this kind of important work when they're already overtaxed with what they're doing I I I'm not going to suggest we vote one way or another but I do think we vote as we support this ISB when you say you support you you're saying you're going along with their recommendation I'm going along I support their recommendation Dr Z I I do as well okay any other discussion Dr marel you want me to move on before we move on yeah going back to the bus drivers who in our Administration can give us some more insight into that what would

131be what would in other words what would be the ramifications if if let's say we were ISB was to successfully Lobby for those pre February 23 pieces and to get 100% funding for all transportation is that what you're asking is who could I agree that would be good to see what would be the ramifications if us now I mean just right off the cuff that will help us that means all the money that we spend on Transportation will get 100% of it back that's a win now the question is does the state have the money to payers and my thinking is probably not I think uh I'm more excited about the prospect of the state funding ebf uh the way supposed to be funded than uh warranted by the state funding transportation 100% which they've

132never done before since I've been in the business so to now say we are going to vote for them to do it but we would like for them to do it I mean it will it will mean we'll get uh 100% of the expenditure that we have related to Transportation back and and like I said I was reluctant you know I I listen we heard it tonight and I agree 100% I you know if there's things that clearly we need to do on the communication side there are things that we need to do on the communication side but like I mean I watched I watched a bus on a day when I sat on 34 and probably could have gotten out of my car and walked home faster uh and I watched the bus pull

133up in my neighborhood at 5:00 and they're sitting in the same stuff we are I it's not fun it's not easy and we knew it wasn't going to be easy when when Wolf's Crossing was shut down okay thank you all right I'll turn yeah you may go to next one or wait resolution five resolution five alternative safe school funding be it resolved that the Illinois Association of school board shall advocate for additional funding to be provided for regional alternative safe schools to allow for an elementary appropriate program additional funding and approved certification programs for board certified Behavior analysts uh in school districts and additional flexibility with student discipline to help local districts provide the safest learning environment possible possible we also ask that the state legislature review SB 100 and make any necessary changes to

134allow for more local control as it relates to student discipline postco especially at the elementary and middle school levels the recommendation from from iasb is to not recommend reasons ebf should already cover this again this is not me speaking I want to make this clear that's I'm just just reading the recommendation and what EV or uh iasb said I agree with this recommendation to not support that and like I understand where this is coming from somebody else can correct me if I'm wrong but I'm sure we are seeing a huge increase in students with mtss and and and other pieces and they're getting younger and younger they are definitely getting younger and younger I I'm not that's not an advocate for or against that it's just trying to explain the rationale of where it came

135from so I agree with that rationale I would just I guess my I know that I was quick with my comment but I would say that um the solution to that is not to separate students from Local District put them in safe schools in my opinion I appreciate that yep okay all right thanks again too bad everybody was great good job all right moving on yeah um you guys can leave if You' like thank you all great night thank you for all your comments today they're very helpful insightful thank you all right 8 point one action item bills for payment can I have a motion please make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 7,872 18244 as presented [Music] second Miss vmou hi Dr Mario Mr Cerone hi Miss similon

136hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr cler all motion passes 70 action item 8.2 policies for second read and approval can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the following board policies section 2 School Board 2 colon 802 col 170 section 4 operations 4 colon 45 4 colon 100 section five general Personnel 5 colon 230 section 6 instruction colon10 6on 1 190 6on 240 section 7 students 7 colon 275 7 colon 305 7 colon 330 Section 8 community relations 8 colon 25 8 colon second Dr Maria Miss Simon hi Mr clber hi mrone hi Mr gatwood hi M VM hi m johnon i motion passes 70 action item 8.3 ratification of expenditures for cost related to the high school tracks can I have a motion please make a motion to ratify

137the expenditures for the additional cost related to the high school tracks as presented second and then I have again so Moren we're we're well within our bounds to do this no issues okay thank you Miss vmou hi Dr Maria hi Mr Cerone hi Miss similon hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson hi Mr pler hi motion passes 70 action item 8.4 approval of board member travel expenses can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the board member travel expenses to attend the triple conference in Chicago second Dr Maria hi Mr Gatewood hi Miss Johnson I Mr bloger hi Miss Simon hi Mr Cerone hi Miss Ben I motion passes 70 action item 8.5 approval of personnel report report make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Miss vmou I Dr

138Maria I Mr Cerone I miss Simon I Mr Gatewood i m Johnson I Mr cler I can I have a motion to return to close session make a motion to enter close session under statutes 5 ilcs 1202 C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline