SD308 Board of Education (9/25/2023)

001for September 25th 2023 can I have a roll call please Mr Sone here Mr Gatewood present M Johnson Dr marel here she said here Mr present Miss s present Miss present please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge alance to the of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all okay 4.1 a public hearing on fisal year 2024 budget we will now hold a public hearing on the f fiscal year 2024 budget we will therefore have two opportunities for public comment tonight the first opportunity will be during the public hearing on the fiscal year 2024 budget if you wish to make a comment about the fiscal year 2024 budget please make it during the public comment portion of that

002hearing if you wish to make a comment about other matters unrelated to the public hearing you may do so during the second opportunity for public comment please make sure that you noted that you note on the comment card during which portion you wish to speak okay for the public hearing this is a public hearing convened by the Board of Education of community Unit School District 308 regarding the fiscal year 2024 budget at this time I will ask each member of the Board of Education the district's attorney and the district administrators who will speak to identify the M elv for the record at this time I would like to ask our administrators to give any additional information and updates on the fiscal year 2024 budget thank you can you hear me you have a comment yes

003okay thank you good evening my name is Amanda Amanda we have we have an public comment first thank you Amanda Mr harburger so harer bur 57 burough drive over Ino Gates Creek um I did send some comments to the board and I wanted to make some additional comments tonight so for the past decade I've seen the same PowerPoint that shows high level Deltas but it never really died dives into what's really going on and if you instead back up and look over the past decades you can start to see very insightful things like if you go down to General Administration what percent changes have happened from 2012 2013 to today that number is 800% so that's a public record so when people challenge you're too topheavy your own data suggests that and if you start

004dissec ing everything by percent you can start to understand how things have changed the missing part in this whole budget process is showing the changes and then deep diving into that and explaining explaining it to the general public how many citizens actually go through that ISB form am I the only one does the board go through it that way you have to dive into the details and follow the money there's a lot lot of good information in there but there's never Dialogue on it right why did some of these percents change right your top level budget changed 164% 150% so if there's a specific row that changed by 300 or 400 let's dig deeper and explain it it's never been explained to even the finance committee and I've been on the finance committee for multiple

005years never bothered to be explained so when the community pushes back on tax rate and property taxes why is that is that because they see their tax bill and don't understand where it's going probably part of the part of this role of the Board of Education and the administrators is to educate the community are you doing that I don't think you are so my ask is and you can't you've inherited this a lot of you are new to this you've inherited it so you're not going to change it for this budget cycle but over the next couple budget Cycles how can you dig into this and better explain it as a set of Administrators and as a board by asking more questions of the administrators to dig deeper and explain it that's my ask start

006educating the Community Drive The Narrative of why you're doing what you're doing I don't see that narrative I've been a resident since February of 2001 I started getting very active in the finance committee when it first started we never had the narrative never I've suggested this percent change method probably a decade ago and every time I suggest it it's too much work it's too difficult and that's been from various CFOs okay I'm not saying the current one but that's been my past history with CFOs oh that's beyond on the bare minimum that's too much work it's really not that much work to pluck out key numbers and start doing percent change why am I wired that way I'm a practicing engineer for over 28 years a lot of what I do is look at percent

007change okay so if I've got a current product in the market and I'm doing a new product development I'm looking for how big of a change there was and if somebody proposes a design change that's 25% we're going to have to do a lot of work to figure out if that'll work versus a half a 1% so percent change by dollar and by percent is an effective way to drive down and figure out where the money was going and where the money is now going my ask next budget cycle do a better job than just that one PowerPoint that I've seen in the same format for the last decade thank you Mr HB thank you thank you okay 4.2 update on the fiscal year 2024 budget Raphael oaimi will now give his update on the

008fiscal year 2024 budget and now the board asks members of the public to comment on the fiscal year 2024 budget do we do that already yeah we we did all this okay okay good evening thank you um so on August 22nd the tentative budget was reviewed by the board and placed on public display at our local library and at our business office at 71 Stonehill don't you talk into the microphone I think it's good we're being told it's she's on the computer can you hear me now is that better yes today is our fiscal year 24 Bud public budget hearing nothing has changed since the original tentative budget was proposed our mission in the business office and as a district is to build trust with our community and stakeholders through transparency Clarity and communication of

009District finances what you see here is a summary of the fiscal year 24 budget operating funds District revenues as we have discussed come from local state and federal funds approximately 58% of those come from local property taxes so if we look here we can see the different revenues and expenditures um in the Ed fund the onm fund the transportation fund working cash and then the total what I want to point out is the transportation fund does have a deficit of $4.9 million which is what we're seeing across the country based on the rising Transportation cost we do have a plan to Levy more this year to um take take care of that um in working cash we see a $22 million fund balance largely due to our bond proceeds which leaves us a total estimated

010fund balance of 57 Million by June 2024 this is a balanced budget once the budget is adopted by our Board of Education we will file with each of our County clerks within 30 days it will also be electronically submitted on the official ISB form posted on our district website and a copy will be sent to the Regional Offices of Education in our counties that's all I have any questions from the board just have one it's not really a question but um help me me out with this so evidence-based formula um by the state was created basically because there were certain factors in each state that or each district I apologize that was going to cost varying degree of of money right and so when they figure out this um calculation they look at many factors

011of the student population to figure out the true cost and correct me wherever I'm wrong um and if I remember correctly here's one example um our El population I want to say since 2015 remember this Dominic I think it's doubled which would be a correct me if I'm wrong but if it's doubled you're talking about a 100% increase in our El population as is one example um I guess my point in my question is we've had tremendous growth to say the least in this District at one point we were the fastest growing County in the um in the United States I guess my my question or my point is how or I don't want to say how but clearly these things will affect a budget and and what our expenses are am I wrong or

012you're absolutely right sir thank you yeah and I think uh bringing in the op some there were some major things that changed in how our budget looked over the years yeah I was going to say the historical piece there is the uh the effect of bringing in the the co-op for sure losing the co-op the you're talking about the special I'm sorry bringing in bringing in in bring the resour bring in house yes that that did have significant impact on the district's finances yes did I'm actually uh doing a presentation later on in this meeting about uh the the uh ebf and I'm going to do a series of them the first one tonight is going to be an introduction to what ebf is and then I hope to dive more into it every board

013meeting so that folks in our community understand better what ebf is and how it impacts the district's finances thank you very good all right 4.3 close public hearing at this time we will close the public hearing 5.1 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 this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please

014note 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 lesie killo hello my name is lesie Calo I'm a bingo eighth grader in Spanish and history classes I'm here because I feel you should have a student's point of view on the effects of a teacher lless classroom today September 25th I came to school hoping and wishing that I would have a teacher that was fluent in Spanish that would present stay present and would inform me on things when they happened I really took it slow when turn

015the corner to see an empty classroom this isn't new though in sixth grade I went through three different teachers before finally finding a permanent teacher who supported us constantly and made personal connections with this which is something I value in a teacher on Friday September 22nd my parents received an email informing families that Administration and I quote is working with human resources to secure a bilingual substitute the email didn't specify much other than that my questions are what standards are the teachers being held to what can I expect as a student has been through many teachers in just the first weeks of school I honestly feel disappointed and discouraged and I don't really feel like participating in class fully matters anymore however I'm here hoping that my voice will be heard and changes will be

016made Dr katti you've asked how are the children well let me tell you we're not [Music] okay oh my gosh Michelle [Music] trer good evening happy fasd month but that's not why I'm here tonight um I have two eighth grade daughters who are classmates of Leslie's um they couldn't be here tonight because of their activities and honestly this was last minute based on the events of today that those of us decided it was important to come tonight as Leslie mentioned this current group of E grade DL students for those of you that aren't aware when they were in sixth grade their social studies teacher left six weeks into the year she let she let the district know that this would be what happened if she didn't feel she was compensated correctly and she followed through

017we had a substitute for six weeks he suddenly stopped showing up when you looked in Tyler CIS for those six weeks no grades were entered at all for any of our students during that time when I asked the the principal at that time he said he didn't have any idea he didn't know for six weeks so you can imagine when this cohort is now eighth graders and we are encountering the same situation we have an assigned teacher who came maybe two days the first 11 days of school and then stopped showing up we have had a bilingual substitute who's been fairly consistent in those DL 8th grade classes however we knew that the assigned teachers last day of leave was Friday this past Friday we also knew that the sub was not going to continue

018subbing in those DL rooms after Friday there was a meeting on September 14th at plank many topics were covered one parent asked why there is no honors level social studies class for DL students as there are for NL the elll director told parents that if we wanted students to work at honors level just email them and they can make that happen that's the first time any of us had ever heard of that and it still wouldn't be designated an honors class the way it would for ndl students they should be differentiating instruction anyway which isn't happening for those kids who can use more academic rigor I've asked numerous times for information on what the actual curriculum is this year for the Spanish language arts at curriculum night the elll director just said they're reading The

019House on Mango street they're not doing that for the whole entire year all the other ndl classes for my students laid out the various units each grading period will be and why those things were chosen I was told there is an SLA curriculum if that's the case why so mysterious why so reluctant to let the parents know what that is because we still haven't been given that information at that meeting I asked and clarified are we to expect rotating Subs again because we know that September 22nd is the last day of the leave for the assigned teacher so the position can't be posted and we don't know if that person's returning we also know that the bilingual sub has stated that's the last day then as Leslie mentioned we received an email at 4M on

020Friday saying we will let you know when we find bilingual teacher but they didn't want to tell us what's going to happen on Monday just send your kid and trust that you know what you're doing well I can tell you what happened today my fifth grade my eighth grade student who had fifth period history had a random Ela teacher filling in when both my students had eighth gr 8th period SLA there was no teacher students were texting their parents in real time saying we are alone with no teacher a student took attendance and another student ran it down to the office after 7 to 10 minutes a biling teaching assistant and a Dean showed up nth period history was taught by a random science teacher with that bilingual ta this is not a situation where

021a lot of teachers called in sick this was a situation we all knew was coming that was explicitly asked about I did not expect that there would be a miraculous find of a Spanish language teacher by today but I did expect there would at least be a plan for coverage now the upper administration of this District greatly encouraged us to work with building level leadership on this and I will say Dr Craig I feel is trying to take this program under her Wing but she was given no information about the history of this program she had to hear it from me when I requested a meeting with her she is also not solely responsible we need leadership in the Dual language program how long are we supposed to wait 15% of the school year is

022now gone and 25% of my kids educational day is Dual language how much longer do we wait while there's still such a vacuum of leadership at the program level at that meeting on September 14th the first question asked by a parent was whether or not the DL program was going to continue and she was told yes while the district may not be actively dismantling it I am very fearful of it collapsing at the junior high level I never thought I would consider this but I may have to pull my kids out this close to the finish line because in good conscience I cannot continue to let them waste 25% of their educational day with no end in sight thank you thank you thank you Carolyn Andrews hi good evening my name is Carolyn Andrews I

023actually work in the district at bner Hill um I'm also piggybacking on the Dual language program I have two children of mine that are in it I've had three kids in the district total and I have one at Boulder Hill and one at plank um like Michelle has said it's been very frustrating and all of us again we feel like we're repeating the same thing as sixth grade um the sub that was taking over I had emailed never got a response back concerned about my son's grade I will say Dr Craig did respond um but the sub did not um there's also um my child included and staff members that work in the Dual language program have told me it is not always in Spanish that is not okay um I have people in the

024Dual language program who are working at plank reaching out and like pushing parents to help do something that's a problem um another issue I feel like and I know Dr Craig can't do anything about the paast but if this keeps rolling over it seems like there's an issue with curriculum and the teacher is getting support with it if something's not done it's just going to keep rolling over of teachers quitting or leaving because of stress I don't there seems like there's like a disconnect between Elementary d L and Junior High I I work at Boulder Hill so I see both and there there just seems to be some kind of Disconnect where the teachers do not get support come junior high level it seems like they are doing a lot on their own opposed to

025getting help with the curriculum um with that I completely understand that it's not always feasible to find Subs um you know that are bilingual I mean teachers in general are stressed out so I completely understand that but when we're told that there is going to be a replacement like Michelle said we knew this was coming and now there wasn't my son told me today Dr Craig was in there subbing which again I appreciate that but there really needs to be somebody in there that's Bilal um let's see if anything else um besides that honestly I just you know I used to be really excited and like say like brag about the program but tell people like no apply get your kids in dual language like it's a great opportunity and it's actually kind of in

026Paris now thank you thank you thank you Mr harburger Wayne harburger 457 burough drive over in Gates Creek so I almost talked on this topic about a month ago I think Ursula saw me at the meeting and was surprised I didn't talk I was trying to let this work itself out I have foed the contract for the tennis courts it said start no sooner than June 12th it said start by August 15th which is the day before school so if you just read the contract you got to ask where are they going to practice for tryy outs and everything else the answer is they were going all over the place they were going to Yorkville they were going to other school districts they were riding the bus so the district was encouraging or incurring additional

027costs in the form of transportation and if I remember correctly that Department's a little strained so you're adding additional strain on an already strained situation to get the girls wherever since OE was finished and that's another interesting thing is the OE contract had the same dates so who in their right mind decided to work on both tennis courts in the same year hm sounds like poor planning to me so simple project due one year big project due the next year the communication back has been pretty bad I sent not one but three emails to the head of building and operations I got a very quick response from the ad who is always good I got a pretty flippant response back from building and operations I ask for this topic to be on a board meeting

028based on the latest policy I don't know how a taxpayer adds an agenda item to a board meeting the policy used to allow me to send an email and ask for it the policy does not state that so I will formally ask as a taxpayer how am I allowed to add an agenda item onto this board meeting superintendent provided a verbal update I drive by about every day to check on this supposed to be done for conference think conference is next Thursday have my doubts have my doubts so again we've we've improvised we're doing everything over here at East including senior night but I just got to ask questions right where's the communication I'm a parent I'm a guardian I'm a taxpayer the staff isn't responding and then I also have to ask about execution

029right where's the execution of getting it done then I notice then I notice on tonight's agenda is on the as we East track when I read that through that email I've got more questions and answers and I emailed the board on these questions but more questions and ask answers what's the review process why did the bid go out and get accepted and now we're doing changes driven by the OE team building administrators and athletic department now you're looking at a bill for another half million okay last time I checked all I hear is we need more money we're broke should that have been halted sometime this early summer and rebid how is how do I as a taxpayer know you're now getting the lowest bid on that job right got lots of questions I hope

030the board asks lots of questions back to building and operations and at the end of the day the communication from one individual is pathetic and it needs to be reflected on his reviews okay communication pathetic and execution is also pathetic so I don't know what the board can do but there's definitely an area for improvement with people in the building and operations area lack of communication and lack of execution is not helping parents and Guardians know how to plan and doing change orders late and not rebidding is costing the taxpayer more money right half a million dollar more give me a break thank you we want to now welcome um two individuals we're going to be doing a presentation Jeremy Bell and Mike freze I'm sorry Bailey will be joining us this evening for a

031presentation on our school safety as you know being proactive in school safety is an extremely important part of it tonight you're going to hear board really a focus on more some of the both technical elements of this that have really to do with how we develop and I've heard this once before the hard outside of our system versus the internal we know that there is a big emphasis on social emotional learning that we're building in our district but this is really about those practices that are focused on bringing uh firm outside to our district related to safety good evening Board of Education uh District administrators student ambassador and visitors um my name is Jeremy Bell I'm the executive director of student services with me I have Bailey Campbell assistant director student services and another member

032of our team that is not here tonight who had unfortunately a previously established uh family event um is Mike frers he's our coordinator for School Safety and Security um tonight we're going to talk a little bit about um some highlevel Safety and Security items some of this um is U information that was shared out um at last year's uh board meeting in terms of um some of the things that we're continuing with um but we do have new board members so we wanted to make sure we had that information shared out as well um I hear Miss Johnson often talk about what is the purpose and what is the why um and so we wanted to make sure that we LED with that um if you look at uh in terms of student services Safety

033and Security is only one aspect of our department um it's a large aspect but it's still only one aspect of our department um we try to link and connect everything that we do um each and every time when we have initiatives when we have um oversight um and you can see see here how we've connected uh there it's bolded for you here in terms of board priorities climate for learning uh Envision 308 and with the district Equity statements we're going to talk a little bit about what we've done over the course of the last school year to keep our sd308 family safe when we talk about Safety and Security our approach really starts with planning um we did move to monitoring we evaluate um needs and then we respond to those needs in terms of

034planning we always look at the vulnerabilities that exist within our schools within all of the spaces that uh within the district we want to increase um any mitigation strategies we can to reduce those vulner reduce those vulnerabilities we evaluate um process and Trends and we build those layers filters and barriers the first way in which we do that is by our emergency response plans we refer to these as erps this is a large document that is housed at each building the first part of that document if you were to walk into any of our buildings has a general context of how to deal with particular emergencies or crisis situations that may occur the second part of that document or the second part of that U manual would be building specific information with engineer building Engineers

035um uh particular individuals that would be helping and assisting with a given crisis or emergency this Erp is modeled after the uh IC and Nims um kind of platform those are incident commands um and and and national uh ways in which to respond to a crisis event second uh effort of planning is school drills um we we are required um annually to provide um drills to staff and students um not all of our drills um in terms of our Alice drills for example have students in the building some of those we do um specifically with staff to make sure that they feel equipped to deal with a situation that may occur but you can see that last year we conducted over 286 drills throughout the district why would we do so many drills do we

036have to do so many drills we have the capacity to scale some of that down but we've elected to continue um to put as much uh ownership on drilling with our buildings and with our staff so that they are ready in the event um that response is needed a big lift last year um active visitor management um our in in collaboration with our technology department our building design operations we were able to put new call boox cameras at all main point of entry in all of our buildings these cameras are crystal clear I don't know if you've had the opportunity to see them but they're Crystal clear they audio and video record um full-time um and what we've done is relocate some of those to outside of that uh initial vestib area we found that

037some of uh those initial vestib areas when people would gain access to our buildings even if it wasn't fully inside they still had the capacity um to either pull a fire station or something like that a pull station which would essentially send all of our kids out and we wouldn't know who was at the front door active visitor management continued Raptor Technologies we use raptor every time you go into a building you need to have your ID it is scanned through Raptor raptor is directly tied to the Illinois State uh State uh police database but one of the things we've also started to do is also started to load in our court orders our orders of protection and other um uh paperwork that we may receive um in order to protect those people coming in

038trying to gain access to our kids all right the next section in our security and safety response is monitoring so we are responsible for monitoring um and providing a number of Avenues in order to collect information this information is collected across a number of different platforms and the beautiful thing about it is that it's continuous and in real time so something that you hear um in our district a lot is see something say something this is the premise that we use to protect our students and staff and encourage throughout the district one of the ways that we collect information is through our 308 incident reporting form so this is present on our sd38 website and then again present on all of our school's websites as well this is a tool that our students our staff

039our community members can cons can submit a online report they can do so by providing their name or they also can do so anonymously another option is our Illinois safe to help this is a Statewide initiative um last year we actually started printing this information on the back of all of our student ID cards so they have a number of ways to reach out via a free app a text message a phone call and of course the website as well and again this is a anonymous tip line for school safety related issues another way that we monitor data and um is securely securely is a comprehensive analysis system that monitors our students um Google sweet platform so this is their email anything that they're writing on Google Documents Google Slides Google Sheets and again this

040is providing realtime notification um building leaders and District leadership actually get a notification based on the analysis of what's happening through that securely platform which is a third party program um it then ranks those um alerts and gives that information to us so that we can respond it also tracks the web searches as well so like Google YouTube things of that nature when this data set was pulled um 82% of our flags for security were actually happen happening during the school day um surveillance cameras uh this is something that again is another big project um at the beginning of last school year there was just over 795 total cameras and at that time there was three buildings that had no cameras whatsoever by the end of that last school year and to start this school

041year we now have over 845 total cameras and we're proud to say that all of our buildings have at least 10 cameras and that does not include the call boxes that Jeremy just mentioned which also provides an additional Camera and Video feature kind of that next phase of safety and securities evaluation um whenever we get uh notice whether that's via the incident tip line securely a Community member a staff member an administrator we kind of all go into evaluation mode the number one way in which we do that is through uh the threat assessment process uh last year we were required to provide our threat assessment process to the Roe um and so we have submitted that um what we did last year was work with the district threat assessment leadership team and um uh

042we utilized the seag model uh sorry I don't have to memorize comprehensive School threat assessment guidelines um refer to that as the seag model that is kind of the gold standard for threat assessment um it provides a clear flow chart um for all of our our buildings um to be able to kind of um walk through in the event that we receive a threat I will tell you that um the district Improvement team or sorry not the district the district threat assessment team last year um went through the level one and level two training um through the seat stag model uh through navigate 360 to be able to um provide uh real time uh support and consultation um this year we'll talk a little bit but we're looking to do threat assessment teams um throughout

043the district um specifically at every building in the secondary another way in which we evaluate the potential need for uh support is mental health screening again this is not the core function of uh the Safety and Security process but it is a way in which we receive information that we may need to respond to mental health screening um as I said is not that function however we do review the CRS the cssrs data which is our suicidality screening this is not a full diagn IC um tool it is simply a screening measure in the event that we um are alerted to a student that may be in need okay and then we come to response so in the event we need to respond to an incident we work to define the problem to determine that

044response based on a number of um plans and procedures that can then be activated and of course two- a communication between our community community our family and our First Responders so sometimes when we're responding to incidents that that does look like a 911 call um approximately last year we had 95 calls now note that was made from District extensions um and we are working to be able to track those calls that are also made this year outside of that District extension um so roughly speaking that's about one call for every two school days last year in addition to those 95 EMS related calls we also had 44 fire related calls so totaling 139 calls and you can see that it's kind of been for you based on building fire related and EMS related now in

045addition to the fire and EMS we also have police service calls the police service calls same thing are divided by building they're also divided by municipality so we also have oigo Aurora Kendall County Sheriff's Office clean field and Montgomery and the total is roughly 681 um mentioned earlier in the presentation was Alice as this is a response and option based strategy um that our entire sd308 staff is trained in and has received again training this year um Alice is one of the most recognized responses um for critical violent incidents or active shooter incidents um and Alice again stands for alert lock down inform counter and evacuate we talked a little bit about the things that we monitored last year um um the uh data sets in which we pull information um how we plan how

046we monitor how we evaluate how we respond where are we going in in terms of Safety and Security it's not a One-Stop shop that you can come to our department um and and have all the answers we have to work interde departmentally with building and operations with technology um with Educational Services um each and every day um we value those uh those connections um it's it's critical um and it's it's something that we have to own together what are our plans going forward our plans going forward are to continue with initial and recertification of Alice on the e-learning platform navigate 360 anyone that has an sd308 email is able to access the online learning modules in terms of Alice that's Alice for schools but there's also additional Alice um modules if someone wanted to participate

047they can take a look at those as well this is the simplest way that we have found to get a uniform message out that doesn't have a lot of variance in it we have trained trainers within the district there should be one at each of our uh buildings so each one of our administrators or at least one administrator at that building is a trained Alice trainer and can walk through additional circumstances tabletops or training needs based on what that building has but in terms of leveling um what we need need all staff to know um this is what we've elected to utilize and it's been uh successful so far um in terms of threat assessment what we want to do and I referenced this earlier is we want to have threat assessment teams or individuals

048capable of managing the threat at each building level now school code will identify that you need specific individuals at each on each team in order to assess that threat a school counselor a social worker um a school psychologist an administrator law enforcement to name a few we don't have that level of resource at every building so we need to make sure that we have teams associated with each of those spaces to be able to respond in the event that there is a threat made I will tell you that every 911 call and every threat um that is made comes through our office to some degree we're notified immediately we pick it up unse securely um or we're being notified by law enforcement and so we're actively um supporting those buildings um each and every time

049that thre comes through SE stag level two then that threat assessment level two is more um uh case management tabletop discussions and walking through each of those pieces Bailey myself and Mike freeders are getting trained to be trained the trainers in that seag level two uh process um early in October and so we will be able to deliver that um level two training to all of our staff um uh that are trained in in the level one development of a 3 five and 10 year plan with regards to our security cameras as as Bailey said we started the year last year with three of our buildings that had no cameras whatsoever now keep in mind that this is not an active surveillance situation where we have someone Manning a a a station and they are

050actively surveilling all of those cameras we use this as an investigation tool we use it as a Safety and Security measure in the event that we're alerted to something whether that's during school hours or after school hours but we want to make sure that our our ability to investigate is uh as good as it can be and we want to have some Equity within all of our buildings um and so part of our our our look looking uh our planning this year is going to be looking at where those inequities exist what our refresh Cycles need to be where our warranties uh currently sit and we want to work with Finance we want to work with technology and we want to work with operations to be able to uh provide you with that most upto-date

051information and understand what that planning aspect is going to look like and then the last piece of this is reunification man now we already have reunification plans established in some of our emergency response plans but what we've recognized and attended some training um and what we we've looked at when we've uh talked to some surrounding districts and surrounding counties is that there's a lot more work than be that can be done around reunification in the event that we had to evacuate a building not necessarily for a mass casualty event but for uh a gas leak or something to that end we we need to make sure that we are communicating to the general public and to the parents that we will reunite your children your child with you and we will do it in a

052seamless fashion that doesn't create panic and hysteria so we want to continue that work and plan for what we would need to do to really roll that out with some robust um training and priority okay there's other there's many other aspects to Safety and Security we hit on a couple High Lev ones did not get into the weeds with some of these we' T we can talk about mass communication systems we can talk about Window Films we can talk about all of these things that you may hear from some of our surrounding districts that have been uh engaging in um but we wanted to kind of keep it a little succinct for you this time any questions um um p uh slide 13 and 14 just curious as to what what type of awareness programs

053are you using so that students are aware of these options when it comes to alerting um the district about concerns or issues where where does this kind of information lie um I would imagine it needs to be something that's consistently being put it put in a place where they know it's there that it's being talked about about those types of things sure yeah so um previous to stepping into this role I was an assistant principal at plank Junior High School um so I can speak a little bit about what that looks like at the junior high level um we direct a lot of our students or we did direct a lot of our students through the use of QR codes throughout the um office spaces and student services and our social worker counselor's office because

054a lot of times they're coming to those um those those staff members and if they're not necessarily reporting that information directly to a staff member at least having them present throughout the building um we do push that out too um in our principal newsletters when they're sending those um newsletters home weekly updates to parents and including those links in there um and then the Illinois saf to help I did mention that information is posted on the back of all of our student IDs um and on the website as well very good thank you just just an observation I don't expect you to have an answer for this CU I did not send this ahead but um so I'll make it an observation um one of the things that I noticed as I looked through this

055was um the elementary schools that were listed as far as um police service calls while there was the ones that were listed seem to be kind of the same I noticed that there were some not listed U that's observ a number one not because I don't think we didn't list them because we asked the same question right because they didn't have service right that's that's where I was going with that um the second is I noticed that Murphy is significantly lower than the other uh junior highs and the third piece is that I notice o is about 50% higher than OE so um as far as uh service calls cuz I think it's like 75 around 75 more we can we can argue the exact number and that's about half of what Asos or ASO

056easts are so it's not I don't really have a question other than I I I hope and I'm sure we are right that we're looking at those things kind of and and I'm sure there are uh explanations and so forth but um I would be uh it would be I I would want to make sure that we're we're noticing that I guess and but and thank you for the presentation oh um I might be taking your question I don't know we'll see um yeah on slide 13 see see something say something um just it was topic that I recently was discussing um so when it says reporting anything you see or hear that may be concerning suspicious or dangerous I guess defining that helping helping students understand what might be concerning Behavior might be suspicious

057but might be dangerous um and I'm not saying that I it's just a something are you probably already doing it sure I think it's a a valid uh feedback um I I can't speak to that exact language that's going out at each and every building as to defining what's dangerous or suspicious um we did do some campaigning last year um with the help of communications to be able to p this out uh districtwide um but I don't know that I can articulate if we Define that piece yeah not just um you know strangers in the building acting weird you know but um you know also Behavior within the school of normal people that are just you know the commun I can tell you by some of the reports we received they're reporting everything okay um

058no I won't say that they're reporting everything but I think that um based on a lot of the reports we reive we do investigate quite a bit um but I think I what I hear you saying is that we need to be more purposeful and intentional um when we're educating our kids about what that means just because we say see something say something um we're okay with them reporting anything and everything whether it's suspicious or not um but I think there's some intentionality that we can absolutely and um I sent a few questions about Alis and I appreciate the responses one of the things um you know I still um kind of want to understand is uh with the two police um what do they call it supervised drills where it's kind of school resource

059officers re yeah re it's kind of reenacting the situation right or so let's be clear whenever we do analis drill we're not reenacting anything we're not simulating anything okay um it's not uh it's very clear in code that we're not allowed to um do those types of of drills um for fear that it would uh induce trauma um or would um create undue stress within the educational space um what we do talk about are things like um if um if an individual was in this particular location how do you respond is that an opportunity to barricade is that an opportunity to try and Escape or evade um we do actually do one of these um drills on a school Improvement day or teacher Institute day where we're talking just with staff because it's important if

060our staff are guiding our kids even though it's in a drill they they can feel comfortable that they're um teaching them or educating them on a particular method right um but we do above and beyond what is necessary for the Roe and for the state um this is something that's been a practice uh since before I uh inherited the position um and I just uh I think it's valid that we drill as much as we do because the the statistics are not decreasing reason um and we want our staff and our kids to be ready but the reality is is we can't predict every situation so um we want to make sure that they're getting the training that they need um kids are comfortable staff is comfortable the supervised uh drills are required but we

061don't supervise every in terms of uh police yeah I um I don't know just I wouldn't mind just seeing this um if there's ever a time where absolutely at kind of every level from you know early childhood elementary junior high high school I I wouldn't mind just getting a feel for this um because I do hear concerns I I I you know so I am just want to follow up with that and uh um you know student input I don't know if this is something that we've gotten student input about um just I don't know because it's one of the responses and I appreciate the cander is that it's it's a developing there's there's no solid um Effectiveness or research around it because it's relatively new and um um and then some of the other

062things I wrot was that student input was really important in in this particular uh instance so um and I don't know if you have anything to say right now but or if you want to take it back or yeah I think overall um you know I see the drills firsthand you know when we do them um and I will say you know we're encouraged to talk with our teachers with some time about you know different situations and where we would go um I do however feel that sometimes when we do these drills I think it is important to keep doing them and you know do them repetitively some students just kind of go through the motions almost like it's kind of just oh we do this every couple of months you know it's just kind

063of what we do and so it's not as taken seriously which you know it's just a drill but I think there does need to be that serious aspect to it as well um so I think there's that and then also kind of going back to the defining of like what is um like Behavior you should be looking out for I think you know it is important like to report all that but I think that is also an area to where students kind of maybe they don't know maybe they don't report enough so I think those are just some of the things that I would be able to say on that than thank you for that Luke um one of the things that I would like to add now building on that is just any crisis

064we may face in our lives requires a high level of mental acuity um real sharpness and flexibility and and I appreciate that we're thinking about the developmental way that we approach this and I know that I have not um frankly I'm learning about what the process is what this gives me confidence in is that there's a team who's really engaging in reflection and practice around it but I will say If you think about the research around fires when the nation moved into really thinking about the response for fires very few incidents happen because of the level of re regularity that we invite um our our students and our staff to engage uh a crisis where there is a threat an oncoming threat requires not that we we have all the answers but that the staff

065and really it's the staff the resp responsibility falls to the staff but also the students to have a sense of okay the direction we're going to respond how what's the type of mental acute what's the kind of sharpness I need to be thinking about um in response to those situations and and what I would say is that um we need to engage in both thinking about the developmental needs of our students and the adults frankly on at the same time requiring a rigorous regimen and thinking about practice and so I would say that you can't reduce both muscle memory yes there we go that's the word I was but one step further than muscle memory unlike a fire or a tornado where it's your your muscle memory is the same in these instances it's it's

066a judgment call So when you say mental acuity I think that's important but in in one instance you may run the next one you may fight the next one you may barricade so I think you know Mr Bell when you talk talked about um asking the the the during the drill asking them what would you do I think to Luke's point in order to make sure that the students and the staff are engaged I think we have to like make the drills engaging so that they have to make the decisions as opposed to just going through muscle memory because that's what's going to get them to understand that it's I'm not going to we don't want to get them to the point where they're stop dropping and rolling when they should be running so we

067refer to that there to me there's a situation fine line there um it is so I it is it is a fine line but can you do them though can you do these situational awareness type drills so we call it situational awareness right because there is that level of decision- making that has to happen yes um we rely heavily on the staff to be to be leading that yes obviously at our at our younger grades absolutely um and based on the developmental you know capacity of of the students as to how they respond in some of those situations we also have to be mindful though of those individuals are still humans they're still leading right and so um they may be in a place where they're not you know they just uh gotten a you

068know spilled their coffee you know and then all of a sudden this this alarm goes off or this drill goes off right and so it is muscle memory to a degree um and we want to continue to promote that practice um and there's many different ways in which we can do that we also need to make sure we we calibrate everyone's thinking to be the same um and so that's where those e-learning modules come in for us um uh and then we're able to kind of build on that based on the different buildings and what the building's needs may be yeah and don't get me wrong I I think the uh you know the training and it's I know all that is um very important and uh I just had my two cents I guess

069what I find S no no I've already gone what I find interesting too Luke and I'm interested if you feel this is that for students um this is very normalized for you this is a part of who you are you've always known this um my son and I were in a building um shopping and there was a a a situation emergency situation he had he knew exactly what to do I'm panicking and he's like Mom we're going to do this and it was just because this is what they're used to and I found that very sad and I'm really sorry if you guys are in that scenario but I also know that that muscle memory as someone who's been through a lot of Alish training the whole purpose of the muscle memory is to to

070intent to increase the chances of survival so yeah and I think you know since I was like in elementary school in little we've been you know hiding in a corner and like shutting the lights off but I think more recently which I think has been really important within the last couple of years we have been going over okay if this situation happens we're getting out of the buildings we're not just staying here and where do we go and I think that has been a really important step because we're not just saying okay let's just all hide in the corner which sometimes can be um an appropriate situation but sometimes you just need to get out of the building and so learning that um from students like The more we do it I do feel the

071more those situations come up and they go over the intercom and say you know this person and give a description and sometimes it can be a little scary for some students but um most of the time it's a really good um thing I feel that we can know when to leave and when it's a good time to stay in the classroom as well that makes my heart Happy actually you know that that what we're pushing out there is getting um to that end user which is you guys so thank you for that and there was there was the the scary part who was that's so part of that drill that's where my you know that's where I'm saying we need so part of that drill would not include um pretend gunfire or any of those

072things that would exacerbate the right want to make sure that they know what's going to be coming over the intercom um but we can talk about uh ways in which to do that make sure we're clearly articulating a drill make sure we're being more intentional when we make those announcements um for kits that may be experiencing right and that's the key thing is there's always intentionality at the start of the announcement that it is a drill because it can be scary um and we do offer options to opt out um so there is not only um different layers of drills as you mentioned as you kind of went through Elementary to Junior High to high school um but then also clear intentionality when we work with students okay we're going to let um jar go

073and then we're going to well I actually have comments oh no no you I made my I swear I so I actually want to talk about something that I feel was um first of all welcome Bailey to the team you joined a very important um and also very challenging team um but critical to our success and keeping our students safe um I talk a lot about psychological safety and I do think we have a lot of areas for opportunity there this is not directed towards any these are observations and I'm also going to kind of pry openen a little bit to something that um Mr Bell and I have worked on together um and I'm not going to be using names or anything but um social media is a huge threat to our students and

074I think that should be a part of this and I think that really needs to have its own area and then I really think and and I'm a huge advocate for if we don't put it on paper and we don't focus on it it's very hard to lose sight of it but we have to talk about bullying and I think that's part of this needs to be part of your presentation um and I just would like to talk about our culture our our community culture here there is not a week that goes by that there isn't something on um the asgo moms or Yorkville moms or Aurora moms talking about students getting bullied and so what I would encourage your your team which is very small and I recognize that you are covering 15,000 plus

075students um is maybe not just do the bare minimum what can we just do to get buy but how can we secure our community and how can we insulate it to the best of our capabilities which I know are stretched very thin but when something when a situation happens with students and parents we really need to learn how to deescalate just as we know an escalated child doesn't learn a student and a parent they're escalated in these situations are not hearing or rational at the time that that's happening and I have a handful of situations where we are so worried about following the process of what we need to do that we are forgetting that these are human beings that are very escalated at this point so I would really like to see social media

076and bullying as a part of your overall plan I think that they are and that's just my one person one board memb opin opion and then I also we talk a lot about Building Systems and processes and administrative procedures a lot they have been lacking and I know that Dr katti's team is working very hard on that but I also want to remind us until all of those are in place we cannot take punitive measures against staff members or teachers or students that maybe don't know the process and I continue to hear that that's happening and it's very disheartening so I just ask that all of our administrators and our parent and our principes and our assistant principles and counselors just remember if this was your daughter or your son or your grandchild or your

077godchild how would you you know expect to be treated in that situation and um I I I hope that we can just do better for our community and work on um insulating and protecting um our students and our families so thank you all right j i I was I was definitely going to end on a a trying in on a positive note and here's a little factoid for you uh you mention you kind of alluded to it in my lifetime I'm not going to tell you how old I am we've lost this many students in the United States to a to a fire in a public school so I I I like to think that that's hope that we can actually um accomplish a lot so we've lost zero now before my lifetime that's a

078different story but during my lifetime zero wow thank you so much you thank you both very much 7.1 we'll have our superintendent report from Dr katti one second I had it queued up and now I lost it that's all right we'll wait will wait we need a little Jeopardy music yes yes yes oh je well um lots to cover this evening and I just appreciate the the Investments and the comments and also the presentations that have been prepared this evening uh Miss Campbell and Mr ba uh Miss Campbell and Mr Bal thank you for your time and as well Dr conade and your leadership there um tonight I want to start with just uh some news I got a chance to observe some of our tennis last week and also Golf and uh 2023 iGo

079Co-op girls gol golf team won the SPC conference champ Championship with an undefeated record uh congratulations to these athletes yes big round of applause uh oh jeez oh yes yes hold on coach Chandler and his staff and good luck in the ihsa state playoffs 20 years ago the iGo Panthers 20 2003 varsity football team raised the IHS a78 State trophy to the Delight of its hundreds of follows after a double overtime Victory against Libertyville and Champagne Illinois OS Wego High School is excited to welcome back this team team this coming Friday as well as honored captains to celebrate this huge accomplishment prior to this year's OS homecoming game on September 29th we want to thank all of you who will participate in the special Gathering September 28th which is also my son's birthday is National

080Honor School uh I didn't know this till this week the National School parent group day we want to acknowledge the many contributions of parents across our district that help with projects big and small so many wonderful experiences for our students and staff wouldn't be possible without your partnership and leadership as we know that that trust is a foundation for academic Excellence this month Hispanic Heritage Month on September 15 through October 15 this is a time for us to recognize the contributions and influence of Hispanic and Latin Americans to the history culture achievements in the United States on a personal note I am proud of the long history of the Dual language program which I believe represents some of the best of this work and we want to honor that and I'm excited to know that

081this is a place before I came to this District I knew about this program in this District when I was a principal long time ago and this evening we were also reminded through the voices of our students and our families of how we still have a long way to go and I want to share with you my commitment and I know this board's commitment to raising the investment and commitment of this program until it is realized C we're nearing also the end of FS fasd Awareness Month um we hope that you have had a chance to follow our comments our feedback um in our content and our parent newsletters about this important work and the understanding required in advocate for those impacted by fetal alcohol Spectrum disorders our educational Community is a very diverse one

082as we know uh representing many backgrounds cultures and experiences we appreciate our differences and also about the way in which we have to learn to acknowledge what traditions in our community those may practice amongst our community are several students staff and families who practice Judaism last week rashash Shana the Jewish New Year and beginning of the 10 days of repentance this past Sunday into today our Jewish families observed yam kapor a day of atonement a solemn day but also one of reflection and renewal their rituals and traditions associated with riam kapor include fasting the entire day from sun down to sundown visiting the synagogue we wish our families a meaningful yam kapor last week I was joined by members of our district leadership team board members at an equity Leadership Institute this was held by

083the Midwest and plains Equity Assistance Center in Indianapolis this is one of four Regional Equity Assistance programs funded by the United States of Department the United States Department of Education this learning experience brought to the Forefront the importance of working towards our vision for diversity equity and inclusion it's not enough to think about how we bring all those to the table but rather how we design a table that is inclusive from the start speaking of which coming to the table I want to share with you that this coming week we have our first superintendent Advisory Group this is going to be held on Thursday this will be involved by there will be groups of parents um Educators and administrators from our every part of our school district and will'll meet four four times this will

084be an opportunity to engage through an online portal we're going to be exercising Community organizing through some digital experiences um share celebrations and obstacles and bring many voices to the table to provide diverse input to the district leadership team I do want to emphasize here that if you were not selected to formally participate in this part of it there will be additional opportunities and so please look out for those messages moving on to a very serious matter this evening here in the oigo community Unit School District 308 the safety and well-being of our students are at the Forefront of our mission you heard some of this tonight however tonight I want to go further to openly express our support for a victim in our community who bravely came forward when a teacher failed to prioritize

085student safety and engage engaged in grooming Behavior with a student we recognize the immense courage it takes to come forward in such difficult circumstances in response to this breach of trust the teacher involved will not only be permanently barred from teaching within our district but will also face comprehensive restrictions that prevent them from teaching anywhere else within the state state or country and will be issued a no trespass letter to ever be on sd308 grounds again furthermore we want to emphasize that our commitment our commitment to preventing such incidents from ever occurring within our districts again the implementation of Faith's law on July 1st is a significant milstone in our ongoing effort to safeguard our students this crew crucial legislation is a testament to the unwavering dedication and diligent work of our human resources staff

086and attorneys who have been Resolute in ensuring to ensuring the safety of our educational Community the Safety and Security and well-being ofu of our students are non-negotiable priorities for sd308 we will continue to take all necessary measures to create an environment where every student and staff can learn and Thrive without fear this unfortunate incident serves as a solemn reminder of the importance of our ongoing commitment to student safety and we we will relentlessly pursue this mission to the fullest extent possible thank you thank you Dr katti and thank you for your leadership in this area you know we as a board require a culture that is one where we do not tolerate um the harming of our students and um people anyone needs to know that those kinds of behaviors are not tolerated and that

087there's an expectation that um any kind of action or be or or actions on their part will be um will have severe consequences and that we want to provide a safe space for our students and a brave space for our staff to come forward when there are issues like this that happen so we want to make sure that the word is out that um not on our watch not on our watch okay 7.2 board committee reports so we had a finance and Facilities report since our last meeting um is there anything um for finan and Facilities that would like to be reported out we do on our board um on a on the board docs we have a document that's out there for our community to see regarding um what was discussed at our meetings

088and what were the takeaways and the action items that will go uh with that particular committee so our community has an opportunity to see it um if there's anything that anyone wants to say on that I will say that everything was reported on there that we did discuss we did actually make an amendment to our mission and we added communication which Amanda very kindly did already flawlessly say tonight so it's not represented on board docs but we did add communication to our mission that we are dedicated to transparency to communication and Clarity Clarity yeah I thought she was going to say it and then um I I'm not addressing anything specifically but we have been talking and we are looking forward to um with um Raphael to Bringing new financial reporting structures to uh the

089table and variance reporting and so forth so I do look forward to digging into all of that we've just only had one meeting so um we've got a lot of work ahead of us thank you okay 7.3 board member comments have any board member comments this week go ahead um you know I I certainly hear things loud and clear and thank you um thank you Dr katti for um everything you said um I found it interesting that you know one of the things that as a board member I always try and figure out is what's happening here that's unique to hear and then what's happening everywhere right uh and what are systematic problems and it was interesting today because at my own school and by the way sorry it's a homecoming week at my school

090so if you see this this is dressed like a teacher day so I took out the 31-year-old uh shooter shirt from Good Old Sono so sorry about that but it was how old you are yeah well no cuz I didn't tell you what year but but anyways narrows it down um but in my own School uh we were unable we're unable to do grab and go breakfast for the foreseeable future because we can't find people to work the job and um just so you know how this affects my students uh many of them have to go to a place called willo back and forth and so now to go stand in line in cafeteria is probably not going to happen and so we have students that are going to go without food that's basically what's

091going to happen because we can't find staff for this position and um my own wife is a Spanish teacher and uh for her to find a sub in her district is uh at this point problematic to say the least it affects her way more than me when she has to get a a guest teacher um as opposed to me the lowly social studies teacher and one of the things I found in my research on this topic there are 1,600 right now bilingual teacher positions not filled in the state of Illinois we're Beyond a crisis point but to bring this full circle to why I mentioned my students my students I asked them a question because I said hey how many of you are going into education none of them raised their hand zero we're already

092at a crisis point and I have students that out of that class size none of them are going into education I asked the next question how many of you uh you know someday way down the road are planning on having kids the majority who's going to teach them is what one of one of my students said like how are we going to have teachers that is a problem that's already here it already exists whether it's bus drivers whether it's par professionals whether it's lunch people to serve uh our nutrition to our our students and in many areas of our education system we're already at a crisis point and here's the problem it's not going to get better if I've got 11th and 12th graders and zero of them are going they're into education I've said

093this before at nauseum and I'll say it again if we and when I say we I'm including myself and I mean us as as a society continue to wait until the problem Falls at our doorstep we've waited too long it's too late at that point because most of us want something fixed in the immediate now and at that point it's too late and it was interesting because one of the things students start brainstorming well we can just get more people okay how you going to get more people we'll just have more kids great that will help in 20 years if you can pull that off it will not help now so um you know all these stories they they pain me to no end but I keep wanting us to understand the interconnectedness in this

094and us to understand all of these problems are happening and we have to work together to to try and get there and I'll be quiet after that so I'm going to play off that and say that you you're absolutely unequivocably right but I'm going to extend it with my comments to we're also seriously lacking again not just here but everywhere of parent participation in their Student Activities for example uh we could go to Tuesday I volunteered at the panther Marching Band review I worked in the concession stand it was great I had a great time the parents were wonderful the kids were the the review was wonderful my point is they were seriously lacking parent volunteers and and having been a concession stand manager in a in another school district for N9 years um you

095know it's just not gotten any better for some reason we think that someone not to worry because someone else will take care of it and that's just not the case and I think we as a whole need to realize that now having said that back to the review um again the kids put on a great show there were I think eight bands that came uh Crystal Lake showed up to this um the concession stand was organized chaos I mean that the parents did a great job they really had it down but there was a lot going on so um the whole experience was wonderful and and uh Dr katti I think you would agree that I think OE and oh really showed out though above and beyond okay all right good all right yeah if

096if we had to say so yes um not but love our Fine Arts without bias I love our progam not paral at all um but um but no the whole event was great but but again back to the point um parents out there if you you know if you're listening online or whatever um if you want you need to participate in your students education and that goes beyond just that goes beyond just the the traditional education part um you know be a part of who they are and what they're doing and and you know flip a few burgers or something you'll be glad you did that's it for me anybody else flip a few burgers or something a few Burgers I I don't have anything Amy do you have anything yeah I just have a

097um can't he hold on one second hold on one sec hold on we're g to get it we got to turn the mic up can you turn the mic up that little brown knob right there on the side try now Amy mic check all right can you hear yes yes yes okay good thank you uh I just also wanted to take a short moment to recognize Hispanic Heritage Month um because of just the personal connection that I have uh my husband's parents grew up in rural Mexico with a lot of poverty and not lots of access to education his father never learned to read or write and supported his family by traveling north to pick grapes in Southern California as well as other produce and he eventually migrated there with his family and his children

098just a generation later his grandchildren are now college graduates students business owners and more and I share this not to share a family history but demonstrate the power of education and uplifting all members of our community and to join in celebration of a culture that has enriched our country our community and has over and over again demonstrated the power of a strong public education system so I hope you all take a moment this uh month uh and enjoy that culture uh and celebrate alongside myself and my family as well thank you thank you thank you Amy beautiful Madam president may I add one thing I want to invite I think it's appropo when we think about investments in education we actually were recipients this month um of a 400,000 teacher retention Grant um I think

099that's uh led by Dr Kade and Dr zmy um and working with um our team I want to invite Dr uh zwy to speak to this briefly good evening uh yes tonight we will be bringing a recommendation of a very exciting candidate to join us as a director of Planning and Development uh the primary responsibility will be uh create the creation of a teacher residency uh program there are uh a few throughout the state and we expect to be uh a leader amongst them uh we'll be taking our our time to grow some Partnerships with universities uh in addition to uh building our teacher Network we'll be looking at a grow your own uh track as well as a aspiring leadership um cohort for the future thank you good you want to say go ahead

100no no go ahead um I want to thank the ASO Co-op girls golf team you stole my thunder Dr katti for the invitation to their SBC Conference tournament last week takes a lot to get me somewhere at 700 a.m. but it was definitely the perfect morning of sunshine wet greens and Fairways pars birdies and a few hazards expertly navigated by our ladies golf team it was a really really great morning and I would also like to thank the uh Natalie and the bionic student board for the invitation to the talk training this past Thursday talk stands for teens activating the language of kindness these students are truly transform forming classrooms and hallways through mentoring their fellow students and raising red flags or yellow or green when something seems off it's a truly see something say

101something at the most fundamental critical and organic level these students truly uh buoy my sense of hope yes and then lastly let's um acknowledge um the information technology day which was last week um you know it plays a critical role in managing and maintaining the essential systems and applications power powering our digital experiences so acknowledging it for all that they do like bringing Dr Mario from Atlanta to the yeah exactly yes okay 7.4 our student ambassador report take it out Luke hey um um last week the ssac the student ambassador student advisory committee was able to meet for the first time we took some time to get to know each other as well as Define our roles within the ssac some highlights include listening to all students in our schools um the need to consistently

102amplify student voices in our schools and during board meetings uh our committee is focused on giving students the opportunity to directly have an impact and take ownership of their own education last week we also had the opportunity to go over the important data that was collected via our mental health survey last school year to give new committee members a better understanding of where we left off so we can hit the ground running with a vision and a goal for this school year we were also able to briefly discuss the imple implementations of this school year based on the mental health survey regarding student to student uh interactions and accessing support services this school year during a during a few half days students will be able to um begin having dialogue around important topics related to

103community building goal setting empathy and cultural celebrations in addition we discussed student teacher relationships and the challenges student face in the classroom but we also discussed the importance of hearing from teachers to better understand their perspective as well this week we plan on um diving deeper into that important data to put together a comprehensive plan for this upcoming year on behalf of me Isabelle and the rest of the ssac we are all ready to work together for the students to have a successful and productive school year thank you okay 8.1 the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda make a motion to approve all items under consent including 8.1 minutes from the Board of Education meeting on September 11th 2023 8.2 to acknowledge the foyer requests received by the district

104and 8.3 to acknowledge the administrator and teacher salary and benefits report second are there any questions on the consent agenda Mr gate hi Dr Mario hi Johnson hi Mr i s i Mr I I motion passes 70 okay so this evening um I'm going to invite to speak uh we've got rafhael and uh Mr Obi and Dr pesky who will be speaking to the EK go East High School track progress you can St yeah hello board members and folks on home Ling uh what we would like to to talk to you about is a track project at the uh high school as as well as the U the high school as well as the heast high school uh earlier I believe uh in the spring before I started in the district the uh the administration

105then presented a proposal for track uh needed track repairs at boat high school and uh at that time um the uh the project was designed and the blueprint was developed but I don't think there was uh enough engagement with our customers in this case those of the athletic department Folks at both schools and uh so the work started as planned and as as the work was being done the athletic department with the customers noticed that the uh the implementation of the work was not to what they thought was important to serve the needs of uh ultimate clients to an athletes in the district so during that period uh Dr katti was contacted and uh Dr Gatti asked me to try to problem solve the issue even start on the district day this was the middle

106of August so working with uh Dr peski we convey uh a group of uh folks who were impacted by this work those are the athletic folks the teachers as well as the administrator at BO High School to try to get the issue resolved and some of the things that we will up against was the fact that uh time wasn't on our side we needed to complete this if before the start of the athletic season so we're trying to uh to get this work done at the same time we're trying to get it done correctly so that was what happened so in order for us to get it done what we had to do is we had to agree to some change orders in order for the work to be done correctly and that's that's how

107we ended up here today Dr py do you want to add anything yeah so I think just the other things I would add um uh this even predates my own time uh the plans for the track were actually designed around 2019 but we never had the money to implement the project um and so when we were asked to move forward on the tennis courts and the and the uh tracks we had those plans didn't know how those plans came about but we had those plans we went out to bid uh them previously and so we went out and we rebid them in this climate uh having the funds to do that so um the the one thing that we noticed is that there was not a there was not a collaborative effort into the design

108of those elements and those plans from the staff so as they started doing the work and the the coaches started pointing out some things that didn't look right um we were bringing the civil engineer back to talk about um those plans and whatnot and uh uh just starting to get their input now we did back in April we did uh have several different alternates that were bid uh is in addition if you recall and we decided to keep the project uh to keep the project uh the cost minimum we didn't take a lot of those uh alternates and now looking at both tracks together in order to be Equitable between the track at OE and the track at O8 we're looking at adding some of those uh an example I shared today was um there

109was a an alternate for around the outside perimeter of the track there's uh uh there is uh the ability to put just gravel on the outside of the track about a 10in perimeter around the track before it it hits the the concession areas and the stands and whatnot well that's not that way there is no gravel perimeter around o it's actually uh P blocks and at OE when they took that track out it was black topped all the way up to the outside of the curb so things like that we didn't catch until the project was actually being done we we knew we bid it out but uh uh we didn't take that that bid and um so to make things consistent between o and OE we've added a few of those things in the

110uh into the scope of the work so thank you for that and one of of the things that Dr pesy mentioned and one of the things that I've asked Mr obem to start to work on is our review process when we start investing in these kinds of projects we need to think about the end in the beginning and to ensure that we're really engaging um our interest groups that need to be involved in these projects number one and it needs to be in plain English presenting to individuals blueprints that have no image to them um don't mean much right and so that's one of the things that the the members of the athletic department responded in terms of some of the challenges even as early as today we are dealing with timeline issues because of

111the weather and I had to have a conversation to be frank to the with the board about with both the um project manager and also the contractor and um with one two of the companies about timeline and some of the challenges they're facing in terms of delivering on this project and so I had to reemphasize that behind this project are students who need a track who need Court who need these kinds of projects so one of the things that we are committed to going forward I can't change the past why we had to move on this is we wanted to make sure to the extent possible I wanted to push every element that we had possible in our power fairly to get to a viable track so our students have a place to to engage

112this spring this fall um but I can assure you going forward we will be bringing to this board new procedures and pro processes regarding our review process for these kinds of bids and we'll be working with our attorneys to make sure that these are are are looked upon and we are developing much more clear procedures Mr Obi so I just I just wanted to be very upfront and saying did we do everything right we did not with the way this uh this RFP was uh was designed design was developed uh we should have engaged our users and we also should have taken them out to the site and show them instead of giving them blueprint to see how the work is going to turn out we've learned from that and we're committed to making sure

113that we don't have to relearn this this mistake that has been made that we move forward and not to have to spend another $500,000 for work that if we had just done a little planning on the front end we will have avoided all that well I I I don't know I'd have to I'd have to ask would we have avoided or we would we have just been able to probably get a a better proposal in our RFP that's true a couple of things that's that's one thing the other thing our timing will have been better now we're rushing to try to finish this and the track season starts in a couple of weeks if we design it better we could have out all this done by July oh oh without having to uh to try

114to rush to finish no yeah I appreciate the response that you provided in with my questions so uh and you basically covered it so um thank you for and thank you for bringing that to the public um and we don't want to hide that uh you know we want to acknowledge it this was something that could have done better I I absolutely absolutely agree um I am encouraged to hear that there are going to be some procedures put in place um because in a in a lot they're they're looking back and I know we don't don't want to look back but look we're going to do it anyway looking back there are several gaping holes that could have easily been avoided and and we probably could have saved some money where so we wouldn't have

115to you know reorchestrated some things um but assuming we've learned from all of this um and moving forward we've got better procedures in place um ultimately we just need what's best for the kids can I ask a question is there a statute I want to you for lack of better terms a statute of limitations on a bid that we have of course so so my my question and thought is can we also consider in the present in the uh policies and procedures that if if a bid is two years old that we not use a bid that we had from two years ago but that we rebid so that we can make sure that yeah just clarify we did Reid what we did is we avoided the cost of having to redesign the track so

116we were told that the track plans were already designed so what we needed to go out for bid was there so we put those designs out to get bid on so the bids were the bids were done in April um but the work that they bid on was the design that had been done previously yeah everything on everything on page two should have been part of the RFP and the design the design needs to be reviewed because cuz it was four years later and that's maybe that's where I was going is design sorry design not the necessarily the RFB cuz cuz perhaps we would have been able to catch some of it if we would have perhaps I don't know part is we should have engaged the users and the analogy that I've been using

117if someone is coming to your house to do work and they decide to do the work without consulting with you the person who's going to use that there's no way that it's going to work and that is part of the planning process when you do an IRP you take the users there you show them not just blueprint you show them the civil engineering talks to them about what everything is going to look like the dimension is going to be taken in real time instead of in Blueprint and all those things should have happen before we develop the RP no and I agree and I and and the reason why I'm bringing up the point is let's just I'm going to just assume that happened 4 five years ago but if we if we're using the

118same blueprint then maybe that's the assumption that it was already done so I'm just saying that if if there's a blueprint from years ago and then we don't bid on it and we get to the point of now putting forth an RFP if even if we decide to save the money on the by using previous blueprints act like it's a brand new blueprint so that we're not back in the situation again I think it's really important to say these things out loud yes um we got I think I have a lot of conf Sation with taxpayers who feel like we're not transparent what I think is very important though to point out is we get the board gets a very small piece small view of what is happening and we trust that the processes and

119procedures are in place yes behind the scenes and I think we have determined that that hasn't happened so I just want to tell you and share with both the new board members but also the community we can talk about plans being from however we have to be very specific about what was discussed and we went from in a year in a year from July 11th of 2022 to having an estimate from our internal team of 755 I plotted all this out on a spreadsheet $755,000 to now1 almost 1.5 million in the construction industry we don't call that a change order and we don't call that scope Creek we call that a completely new project and um I'm married to a construction person um and so I have I just have to be honest I don't

120obviously know these vendors but this feels very um disappointing to me on a lot of different from a lot of different perspectives when when it was brought to the board that there was like an $188,000 overage because of the rubber or something because we don't we can't get that that to me is a change order and I get it almost $500,000 is not a change order it's not scope creep it is a rebid I am very uncomfortable with all of this because everything that's been brought to us doesn't feel like it's possible is talking um because the last three purposes of the project were a full depth track and reducing pavement and track surface so how did we get from those things which feel and the and the concrete ribbon curb I don't understand how

121we go from $790,000 7,000 to this are these things that we have to have are these things that we must have are these things that we would like to to have and I would also caution when we talk about Equity you're talking about a quality Dr pety OE gets what OHS gets that's not Equity that's equality and so we have to be very careful when we say that because we're it's never going to be Apples to Apples they're very different the pool here is very different the track here the tennis courts very different so I get very concerned when we use that terminology we have to make it the best for for o and the best for OE so it's not really Apples to Apples so I just want to talk about that I don't

122is the the question here tonight is does the board approve [Music] $487,900 was never they didn't know what was going on I just don't I I I have to understand what that what that means like so you're telling me in June they went out there and they're like nope this isn't going to work yeah I I I absolutely agree and I know you're both brand no we we we are looking into this um so when I got involved in this it was because the athletic department OE expressed some serious concern about the uh the the work that was being done it was contrary to what they understood attraction look like for safety and for uh for use so once they they contacted Dr kagat and he has been look into it what we did we

123asked for stop work because we thought it was necessary to do it right the first time because if our customers are saying to us what you're doing is lousy we can't continue to do it I continue to pay for it then we engaged in a in a problem solving meeting where we actually looked at what was designed and what should be designed and how it should be implemented and So based on the feedback that we got from the coaches who know better than we do we were informed that for safety reason we need to do it differently for example the design shows there should be like a wall behind the end zone so if you imagine a kid catches a touchdown or something run to the end zone can't stop himself can run directly into

124a walk so that has to come up now if we'd engage with the athletic department in the initial design they would say no you don't want to put that but that's also my question back to a vendor that a vendor would allow that is just mindblowing to me and that's where I I just I'm one vote but I just this is all shocking to me to be honest with you and I I too want our students to be safe I want it to be aesthetically pleasing and I want it to work for multiple Sports I just want to understand that this 48790 is what we actually need or it's it's the whole kitten Kaboodle like we have to do this now and my second part to that is we're using DB this $487,000 was it

125allocated to something else and what are we not doing that it was allocated to Dr pety one spoke to this a little earlier Raa or do you want to go first Dr pety yeah so we do have the we do have the uh Five-Year Plan that was outlined with the work so um that the D dollars would be taking away from something in that Five-Year Plan but I think we need to know what that is I think if you're going to say we need to move $500,000 that means that we're not going to be doing next year this Mission critical work or whatever category it falls in I think you have to bring us the full story not just ask us for and and in this one we're we're pretty confident that we we can

126that's a fiveyear plan at the end of those five years we can reissue Des set we're going to have to to cover the the other deferred maintenance items so what we'll do is instead of doing one of the five-year projects that year it'll be a reissue the next year and we'll do with that next year so um it's a a reissue on debt service extension to take care of the grounds and the things that they need so to be to also be very very blunt because I don't know how to be different is that the contractors they've got us over there Athletics season starts very soon I know and so we have to make a decision do we want to be right or do we want to make sure our kids get what they need

127to be to be able to uh to do what they need to do to be able to participate in athletics the window is getting very short and I think everybody knows that we know that our vendors know that and so this is where we are so there are no good options here we can either move forward and do this and know that we can plan better in the future and make sure this never happens again or we can try to you know to not provide Athletics those are the choices that we have well the reason I asked is because a while ago and I forget what document it was the reason we were doing things differently Dr psky and picking different alternates is so that both tracks wouldn't be under massive construction at the same

128time correct but now we're saying both tracks are going to be under massive construction or we're going to get it done and just be done with it no the the difference there is like the track at o uh the track at o was just resurfaced and the track at Oe was taken down to the asphalt and reported so now the the next time the track at o needs to be done it'll be not just the rubber overlay that's taken off and redone it'll be the asphalt will probably be uh deteriorating at that point and need to be reported so it's the it's the asphalt and the rubber uh which is a total replacement of the track versus just a resealing uh of the rubber um on the track so that's what we're alternating are those

129two two aspects of the project so in in 5 to seven years OE will only need uh the rubber relay down and O will need to be redone the asphalt and the rubber so Dr hotti besides just saying this is never going to happen again what do you foresee with your staff and also was there because Eugene brought up a great Point typically there's a 30-day typically in commercial construction there's a 30-day estimate or quote depending on what it is it's typically at the quote level and then secondly there's typically a change order percentage so if it goes over a certain amount was this reviewed legally and did we have um legal approval on this and the contract was in our favor no and uh what had happened we had backed oursel into a Conor

130from the whole design process and the fact that we didn't engage to people who needed to make sure this works for us we ran out of time so what we're trying to do is just do what was necessary to ensure that our kids have track use that's that's really what it balls down because the alterity would have been for us to bust them somewhere else and deny them the the opportunity to be able to have CrossCountry track and field in their own uh building that's that's that's really what it B down to so in finance and Facilities we thought this was going to be October 1st now it's October 15th so that was part of what we're negotiating today since I've been here this is actually taking up a chunk of my time more than

131I I wanted it to so today uh talk to the Civil I've been calling the civil engineer he's been on my speed di I've been talking to him at least three four times a day between the civil engineer and the robber company trying to make sure that we we ensure that our kids have the experience that he expect from us so the uh the robber company first the ashall company said they had a schedule and we were now falling out of their schedule so they don't know how they can get us back on schedule the robber company said well the ashall company has to go first in order for them to be able to do a robber on it and there has to be a 21 day wait before the robber can go on it

132and we told them that's not acceptable because I kely to be able to to use the Trap later on today they called me back they said if you wash it four times a day the oil can go up and then we can lay the rub in without having to wait 21 days and this is because they're persistent and just talking to them trying a problem solve to find a solution to making sure that our kids can use the track so what we have right now there's a commitment to finish oh on the 9th that was what was uh said to us depending on the weather because you can't put ashal down when it's raining or Robert when it's raining and then uh OE there's a promise to us if the wether cooperates OE will be

133finished on the 16 of October 16 yes which should still be at a reasonable time for our kids to be able to enjoy uh track and fil I do appreciate both yeah of you and the work that you've put into this that you inherited quite a mess um I look forward to the Board hearing about the procedures and processes put in place to avoid this in the future yeah this is a a hard pill to swallow it's it's very disappointing um but if we keep the main thing the main thing which is our kids need a track to run on um and we have to do it but I am I'm on record this is we also didn't address the track for 18 years and Jared talks a lot about future thinking and that Five-Year

134Plan that we have and when you don't address something for 18 years it's pretty desperate I'll just a couple things I have first of all um I'll be honest with you um I would really want to know more about these procedures and processes because I don't ever remember something like I'm not saying I'm doubting anyone or anything but I'm I've never come across anything like this in my time on the board the second piece is actually there's two more pieces one is I hope that now we are in constant contact with our coaches in the athletic department so that they know what's going on um I I you know um I I I I hear yeah people need to be of course right I think yeah as far as scheduling and all that type of

135stuff right right I mean I hear things and I just want to make sure that they're being looped in as much as we can possibly Loop them in um but I have to ask this question like um I just need to know I I want to do what's best for our kids yes um I'm willing to do that but I need to know are we doing this legally correct we're okay to do this and and that's all I need to know at this point yeah um from what I've heard tonight it certainly sounds like it's an emergency has arisen yeah and uh the language in the contract purchases provision bidding statute uh is that in case of an emergency you don't have to re bid but you do have to have at least six of

136you out of the seven voting yes for it that's good to know glad I asked and one of the things that came out of this too we actually have a a standard meeting now with the athletic department that we are meeting with them once a month just to check in this is not even having to do with bids just to find to get their input of how things are going what do they need how can we support them so we have a standard meeting on the on the book I mean my my fear here I'll be honest with you I'm going to be just you said blunt I like that right I'm going to be blunt back my fear is that um realizing and looking again not just at our district realizing that we have

137other Athletics where we're pulling people from outside of the district to fill positions and vice versa right there's there's there's a lot of hey I'm going to go here and Coach because of X Y and Z I am hopeful that whatever we can do to reassure our coaches of consistency and reassure them that um the program going further is going to be in a good place or at least a place that they can operate out of is being conveyed to them that as a as one board member as you said as one board member that's what I would need to make sure is happening because don't get me wrong students are the most important piece but they don't have coaches or they're going through change if you're a senior suddenly your coaching staff is uprooted

138that that's a huge impact on those students and that's why I'm saying what I'm saying absolutely and we we recognized and I I played Athletics in in college and in high school and I know a lot of my teammates that I play with that was one of the reasons why they came to school so I understand the importance of Athletics I mean education is important but we need sometime let is the hook that bring the kids to school that they look forward to every single day yeah and I I think this this message in this lesson is the right people have to be at the table whether it's Tas whether it's teachers whether it's principls we cannot make decisions without having the subject matter experts at the table one of the things that just kind

139of hit me is I think it's very important I I feel like we've built these committees last year we rearranged the Committees this year we've rearranged it and it's kind of just a a notion but for instance in our finance and Facilities we have a list of things that are being attended to I think we should talk about those I think this is an opportunity to say the tracks the tennis courts all the things that are on that list I think if we don't we're taking away the opportunity another opportunity for um just engagement transparent engagement in transparency so if we're just saying this happened go look at the document but we're not like by the way the track and the tennis courts and the swimming pool are all on you know it gives it's

140just one more way in which we can engage people and get feedback so I maybe it's maybe that's not appropriate but I I think that it should be more than there's a document go look for it so one of the things that I've asked uh Raphael and coming into the district is really to look at a master facility planning and to a I know there's been some work done but really A assess what's been done and then consider if there are additional things that need to be done so that we can start to think about priorities of these matters and then really the when I talk about procedures I'm thinking about really the monitoring of these projects well the development all the way through to the end right so we're not in a position as

141um Mr said where we're backed into a corner and that we can forecast these in a better way and with more time you know we've been as soon as this was brought to my attention in the way it was we we've been really on this pretty regularly and consistantly weekly uh to try to bring uh a closure to it um unfortunately um there are a number of other factors and I think there will be definitely a postmortem um as part of this work so a good old fashion approval stamp Google now has an electronic one um is always very helpful but to make sure the right people see it is just so critical and let's pray for good weather yes so so I have a question though there is Noe tonight legit that that was

142my question so so when's our next meeting well they're going ahead it's action tonight where it's it's not action tonight so what so what is this six s vote situation that's what I'm that that's my point how can they keep they're recommending it but there's no action for the this was an update where no I get that but then the timeline I'm hearing is by our next board meeting is October 6th going with this don't have I mean obviously time is of the essence so if you give it a straw poll tonight and then put it on your next agenda as a ratification yeah for the Emergency that has been taking place between tonight and that next meeting that will all right so straw pole straw poll tonight right now yep straw poll so is

143this last thing I with that that I have everything that's on these change orders that's also going to be done by October or just that's what they're asking but I want that's everything's going to be that's what they're saying by October 9th okay weather permitting weather permitting is a huge October 11th all right that's what I said let's let's that's that's that's the absolute deadline right to um Dominic's Point some say some some say approved and some say pending the ones that are approved who approved those yeah I think we gave the goahead because of time because some of the uh I gave the I I gave the goahead because of the urgency it would it would significantly impact and one of the things that I understood was that it would be if this was

144canceled Al together there was a potential in order to manage the impact on our students we would definitely not want to pay for their we would want to you know refund their athletic fees there some impct um and so that Transportation so the cost of that would definitely increase Beyond 90 we were looking at close to $110,000 an impact if we had canel these things can we do when we do our straw poll can it come with some sort of outline of what this new procedure is going to be when it comes back for ratification the new procedure for going to bid the process the process for how you guys are going to to make this I I think that's for future separate yeah vote that's a separate issue my commitment and if you want

145me to go on record that there's a commitment to improve not even improve substantially improve how we consider these processes and to review what I would say is what is our current process there's questions about that but review the current process identify essentially do a SWAT what is you know what are the strengths weakness and opportunities and then thinking about what we need to do to improve it significantly um I would not tie that with our current I would I would not tie with this project I would say that that is a commitment that is part of actually one of the things that I've spoken with a community at large and when I came in in terms of fiscal responsibility and our transparency around our process and procedures so that is definitely part of my

146own personal goals for the year um professional goals I would say okay before we do the straw poll can you pres I'm sorry can you present the question just so we make sure that we're voting in the correct way so can you tell us what the question is does the board approve change orders in the amount of 47 $87,900 the tracks yes we don't have we can't see Amy Amy Amy yes or no yes I'm here yes okay 70 so we'll put it on as an action item at the next meeting for ratification okay all right thank you okay um next I want to invite uh Mr befi to speak to really we've been thinking about this for a while our evidence-based funding work um it's a really important part of our financial it's been

147a huge impact in terms of our financial um profile as a district and so I want to the board has asked and we have consulted and I want to welcome Mr Obi thank you thank you Dr Kai so so what uh evidence-based funding which we call uh ebf for short is a form of State funding uh that school district gets if uh I'm sure a lot of people remember what general State a is this is what replace General state the law that brought uh ebf into bin was actually enacted and signed by Governor rer back in 2017 and uh before then there was a commission that was impaneled by by the legislator the governors and folks with interest in education uh Improvement that looked at why is it why is it that Illinois was number

14848 in the funding of schools the state government so the majority of the funding that most School District used to fund day-to-day education of of students comes from uh property taxes which is we makes Illinois very unique uh among a lot of other states most States the uh the state actually kicks in a substantial amount so as a basis for that uh a committee was set up to look at different ways of making State funding more Equitable uh than than it used to be it used to be under ABF everybody got the same amount of money you get a base rate depending on how many kids you have and attendance that's what you got so as you can imagine communities with uh property Rich proper richness they can supplement that and then educate the their

149kids in a fabulous way think of Nutri think of Park Rd and so the new system that the the community came up with for ebf has four key components to it one is the adequacy Target and what that really mean is that the committee uh thought about how much do does a school district need to educate a child minimum level of Education that a child required in order to be able to get a decent education regardless of where they located where they located in oo Harvey nria everston I'm much do you need to get a decent education and at that point it came up to about $7,600 per that's the base level and then you look at uh the the local ability of the uh District to be able to fund that that education and

150that's what you look at you look at things like the property wealth in that Community we know there are some communities with uh with a highly diverse property mixture where you have residential you have a lot of commercial too so the burden of property tax is not bone just by res by residential they you know you take a place like Chicago for example you take a place like Evon with a mixed combination of residential and Commercial and what invariably happen is the equalized assessment value what that means is the uh the value of taxable property in those Community tends to be larger because they have a l so they look at that as the local capacity and then based on that then what you do what the uh the commission then did is it distributed

151those uh those School dist into different ti so the less you are away from adequacy the lower uh your ability to be able to fund the uh the education of children without some support from the state and the higher you are then the more access you have to local wealth so one through four so one would be the community would like 0% adequacy the ability to be able to fund their own their own education and then you have Community with as high 100 is the Baseline right but you have some community in the state with 137 140% and you have community that are much lower than 100 we for example Ino uh our tier win the uh tier one because the last calculation that was done in FY 24 we at the 69% adequacy so

15269 is pretty low 100 is the Baseline and then you have community that go some of them go as high as 175 those are the community that are fabulously uh wealthy when it comes to property tax so then with that being said then the the state then looks at it and says okay we're going to give you a base minimum funding based on your ability to get money from local funds or whether you need money from the state any questions and so I put this in to show an illustration of what the funding looks like back before J straight AG uh this is what funding looked like here where you know there was no equity involved and then General State a came into being to try to level the plan field but what we know

153is just about one got the same base amount from the state so when you have access to property taxes you can then fund more so he not Equity as you can see the little guy he got the same amount as the guy who was the big guy but he still doesn't have enough to be able to see over the F it's an illustration of what the General State a is what ebf tries to do is kind of like level the plane field the big guy didn't get as much as the little guy but he didn't need as much because he has access to all the funding sources uh apart and separate from the state so this is the process that is used the step one is uh each district get the same amount that it

154got the previous year this is the whole humless uh part of it so there was this is part of the negotiations that was uh that was worked out between the legislator you are property wealthy uh districts who said I don't want to give up what I have and so the legislature said whatever you are the previous year you can't get less than that that's the whole armless part of the deal so you've clarified this in finance committee by what that means is not 2023 minus one or minus one it's 2017 correct no it's actually the the prior year so we will get no less based on appropriation let me clarify that yeah this is the legislator so the legislator gives and they take it away so what they've done is they've committed to allocating $350

155million a year and that incremental that will be distributed based on the teair so the biggest trunk which there's uh there's a PowerPoint that explains that comes to tier one and the next big chunk comes to tier two and progressively so the guys who was sitting in t pH they don't lose any money so the worst we can do is whatever we got this year is what we are supposed to get next year subject to appropriation okay so so once we get it to tier four if we ever get to tier four um we would always get what we got the year prior at least in theory objective appropriation in the yes in theory yeah yeah yeah anything can change we understand that trust me right okay so the next step is then there's a

156calculation made of how much it cost to educate a child and then figure out how many available resources each district that so based on tiar so the the tier one District they get the chunk of that 350 and any other additional amount the they the state will appropriate and then the district with the highest property wealth those are tier four they would they will get whatever is left over so it's kind of it's is equity as opposed to equality see with the with the hold harmless it almost seems as though they get the first shot you know what I'm saying it's it's the 350 you know or the 350 is incremental though right the 350 is incremental so that's not right okay so I'm wrong okay so I got to think what I spoke about

157the base funding which I just talked about home L which is that whatever you got the prior you you will get no less than that subject to State appropriation and we know are the state of Illinois SP so I just want put that out there so far the state has actually done that and the last couple of years it hasn't hurt that it's been a lot of uh Federal allocation uh been sent to uh to uh States and what is done what is done is allow the state of Illinois to be very generous with the allocation that has been distributed we know the federal government is not in the same position anymore now I suspect that what will probably get as long as we stay in tier one is probably somewhere I estimated based on

158the data that I have available we'll be looking at about $4 million a year going forward I suppose to the $9 million that we got this year and the prior year can I ask a question about that real quick sure and you can correct me where I'm wrong but I've seen where or read where in order for the state let me back up I've read that this is a 10-year plan and I think this is year six yeah I've also read that in order for them and this was a number of years ago in order for them to meet their goal which I think is every school at at least 90% I don't think it's like fully funded it's not even close was 740 million a year and if but I think there's like a

159minimum to which is about half of that like somewhere 350 is the minimum 350 is the minimum so I like I I mean I agree to a degree about the generosity piece but at the same time what I don't think people realize is that according to the law the state is supposed to find 350 million extra dollars every year to at the minimum for this right that's correct so when everything is good and which the last few years since it's been antic things have been good for the most part the economy has been good so the state has been able to do that and then some so these are some of the things that are taken into consideration when the state is trying to determine adequacy Target adequacy Target is kind of like the minimum

160amount that the uh school district will require to be able to fund a child's education well an example would be how many teachers do does the uh is required in a district I'm a Liberian there's a formula that was used to develop that how many social worker does the uh is required in the district and you look at things such as how many English Learners as what we just talked about a little bit ago because the more English Learners that you have you know the more resources required to get the kids to adequacy so is this per um Is this different for every school district the Ade adequacy Target yes it is okay yes it is based on the composition of that particular District okay so a district that is more homogeneous without the need

161for extra extra services for example their adequacy target will be lower than one as diverse as hazards where we have a lot of English Learners we have uh we have uh teachers who teach different different subject we probably need more librarian because of the the size of the district all those things are taken into consideration in trying to calculate the adequacy tget and and real quick just I'll try to make this brief but I like that you brought up the English learn as an example I know special education is another example right um and I think it's important to realize that the state in a bipartisan Committee divid created this right and recognized that districts with a higher special education population higher El population are going to have higher needs and so I think especially

162after listening tonight one thing that we always have to remember is that is the state telling us this and so our commitment and our investment to those pieces like like a dual language program is is imperative um for the student as well yes absolutely and low income as well correct the what our our low income population as well as something those are all variables because there's a recognition that when you have kids who come to school not ready to learn because they have not all the advantages and privileges of the the more money uh people do it will take you more resources to be able to get them to where they need to be so there's a recognition of that and that tends to correlate with wealth so this is what I mentioned earlier the

163uh local capacity City and this really correlates to the available property wealth the eav and the uh the composition of the property tax base so in our case the majority of our property is mainly residential and on on a on a rate basis we have a higher rate than some of the the uh communities that have a more diverse property rate so in looking at us that's one of the reason why we get a high contribution for the state F because if you look at our tax rate it's high because the the majority of the burden is been shouldered by by residential property as opposed to a community like maybe uh Bowen Brook that has a very diverse property rate they have uh industrial property a lot of industrial property they have more businesses than

164we do so those are things that are factoring to determin and details so as I mentioned so we get uh so we get the Lion Share of the allocation because we tier one and we have limited uh property wealth and then it goes on to tier two tier three whatever is left over goes to tier four quite frankly they don't really need it they can they have a lower tax rate and it's not much of a burden to their Community as it is to to a community like house so this is this is what I was just talking so this is the distribution level as you see the tier one they get a chunk of it and then the next one they get over 50% of it and the next uh level tier two gets

165about 49% of the new funds and then tier three if they're lucky they'll get about whatever's left over and on and on it goes and that's the way it should be though really this is the classic example of equity if a school is 100% funded do they still get some ebf funds do what they do is they tend to get what they got the year before okay and they may get slightly more like 5,000 or 6,000 but nothing significant the district I came from we were at 137% adequacy so since uh s uh ebf has been implemented since 2017 when I was there we've gotten maybe 5,000 here 3,000 here 6,000 there more our base amount has been $8.5 million it hasn't grown much from it okay real real quick on that first of all

166side note I whenever I talk to people in education outside I I keep it on on on my phone and computer and I start pulling up and I have their number I'm like oh you're at this District you're at 95% right now like I've gotten to that point but um to your to your point about those that are above I believe and you help me correct me when I'm wrong here but there's a provision in there about if you reach a certain threshold in tier four I think they have they're either they have to or there's a way for them to vote about some type of property tax abatement is is that correct or or or no it's uh they're they're given they're given the fast track to getting um reimbursement or something along those

167lines right I like there's always these 25 districts that get chosen every year and you get some kind of money back because yeah those are the ones who are of a really High tax rate right what they trying to do they're trying to give relief to community with a really high tax rate yeah so I don't know I think that this this um we need a little more context to the slide I don't know if you were about to give that what that what that is what I was trying to show is that the uh tier one those are the ones with the uh lowest access to property well they get the biggest chunk of the allocation every given year and and the reason it works is because the number of schools in tier one

168continues to go they they shift to tier two tier two shifts to tier three and so tier one will that's that's the theory and because when you look at this number when he says 49% of the new funds go to tier two it it if you had equal amount of tier two and tier one that wouldn't be very uh Equitable that would be you know giving it to the assumption is that you don't stay in the same tier right and tier one the number of schools is going to be continually going lower and lower that's the assumption but we know the makeup of certain Community it makes it hard for them to move oh yeah but there's still the the the quantity in tier one is going to be right going lower right so therefore

169there will be more money to distribute amongst fewer schools right that I in the so if all things are equal they progress right so that's it this is the introduction here and my plan is to do more of this every every board meeting I didn't want to just I figure we can take it in small bites small chunks and then we'll get biger bite as we go on and my hope is that by the by the time this fiscal year is over we all going to be experts in EF be an in viralist we can talk to our neighbors we can talk to our community member when they ask questions about ABF we Ratt it up and just explain it today yes yeah I I'd love to see Yeah the more detail and kind of

170understanding how that uh you know what incremental amount do we get because of a student with English learner you know that's an English learner um how I mean how does all that work I I don't thinker all that stuff in there maybe they don't and that's I don't think correct me for on but I I think that's like the magic question right is how do you factor all a sudden or as far as like like how the state you know comes up with how does this work so they they get a they got a part of money right yeah and they use some of the variables that I talked to this are the key variables that they use here those are the thing those are the key variables that he used in in doing the

171calculation but I'm hopeful that uh maybe the third or the fourth meeting down we would do the calculation yeah but that's that's the goal here I don't want to lose everybody no exactly and at some point like you can take this show on the road you can take take it to our community and I'm happy to yes and I think the important thing we also need to let our legislators know how much we need for them to keep doing this for us because our kids deserve the same education that communities with a high property tax we app and this is a great idea it's a great step but we need to make sure the state keeps funding it the way they're supposed to yeah bringing into Community is great I've always heard great things when

172Dr pky would do that so um just build on that okay so thank you thank you Mr oami thank you uh next uh board member travel to the triple conference I'm pleased to share that this year our board will be attending the triple I joint annual conference confence which brings together um a number of associations from across the state to participate in uh 3 days three days of learning um in Chicago this will be from November 17th through the 19th and uh um from it uh we also have a presentation we have members of our board who will be presenting on student voice yes and Leadership it should be a wonderful presentation and we're having another presentation on oh on super eval yeah uh we'll also be presenting on one of the tools we use

173in our evaluation system called super eval so we'll be serving on a panel um so all right next I just have one thing um I mean I I appreciate this and I'm not I'm just going to speak for me I'm not going to speak for anybody else but um I I see the allocations someone's going to look at them I hope and um I personally will just not be um I you know some of this I'll I'll fit on myself um you know as far as like travel and um uh food I'll I'll take care of myself on that and um you know I hope when when we talk about numbers like evf where we're at um I understand that it's very small but it's a small part that um I'll I'll do myself um

174I usually jump on the train or or or Comm or carpol with someone so yeah no I think we all did that think I just didn't want to speak I just didn't want to speak for other people yeah I think we all did and even last year some of us got our own hotel rooms for some some of us used our hotel points right so I mean we're doing you know we we are we are understanding of of what our situation has been and um but we also know that it's important for us to have professional learning that allows us not to be um in a bubble but that we're understanding what's going on with the rest of um of the state of Illinois and the Rich learning that we get from these uh conferences

175I mean we brought back super eval from that conference and we' brought back many things that we've implemented here at the district so um at the board level so it's also an opportunity for us to shine a light on some of the really amazing things happening in here like our student board and and and that's important because we we're we're we're being seen on the national level with our our student voice um efforts so it's really good and I and I appreciate that because I'll tell I'll true story My First Year going to Triple I I just happened to wander down to the delegate assembly and and I said is is anyone coming down here from o week I like I just went cu no one was going to go and and the response I

176got is oh you typically don't participate and so us not having a voice and iasb was was what I found my first year and that was alarming to say the least uh as large of a district as we are we should at least have a say so I I appreciate that part so yeah I'm all on board when it comes to that yeah that was cool I just uh um last year one of the votes kind of uh shifted some of the power from the large districts to the small districts and I was at least there to see it happen but that's because there's a lot more small districts so they were going to get the votes um but uh um it's good for us to at least know what's going on on um so

177we can be prepared for everything so I hope to attend this year with no broken bones oh yes right you in your scooter you got you got along really well though I did I did I got all over the video wonderful Dr Kade we have a policies first read yep so we met in our um policy and legislative committee to talk about uh the current recommendations um the recommendations that you have for your first read are really driven through the most recent press issue um and as you look through the red line um you'll see changes that are being recommended in verbage used by the state licensed versus certified um in addition to footnote legal reference and grammar updates there is no substantial changes uh to content just the updates through press recommendations okay that

178was my only question so all right thank you all right all right we're moving on to I I just have two couple questions I'm sorry really quick on the last um on educational philosophy our annual report I didn't see one last year did we do one last year I don't think I don't think anybody know Teresa did we didn't do an annual report last year did we nope noted one no annual rep hope we can um since it is part of our policy go ahead and do that um and then on I'm sorry I only printed out the pages I had question questions on under commercial companies and political candidates the very last sentence says material from candidates and political parties will not be accepted for posting or distribution except when used as part of

179curriculum I appreciate that but this isn't talking about curriculum why is that on there my so my best guess would be if it happened to be part of like it wouldn't be excluded from the materials that are already used so um we're not advertising or using those materials but if they happen to be mentioned in a curriculum material I you know just how we were trying to separate last year student services from this from that so I was just questioning that and then um the we it does reference the administrative manual in here no pressure but will the board get to see a version of that at some point I I would anticipate okay and then on the field trip um I just want to talk about the field trip thing um I think it

180has some interesting um tentacles that we haven't discussed before it says except that field trips Beyond 200 mile radius or extending overnight must have prior approval to the school board is that only if it's a field trip that as part of the curriculum and not including clubs or Sports I think Orel if it's sanctioned by the board it has to be it has to be approved by the board for if nothing else sorry go ahead Fai nothing else for liability reason okay thank you do you want to add what's been past practice on this particular issue uh that has been our past practice that we need to do that okay so out of state have historically come for board approval um in the past past um there has been out of country but um we

181have not um gone through approval process for out of country not connected to curriculum so we've tried to um separate that um curriculum versus noncurriculum and that is um outside of the scope of the district appreciate clar Y and I'll just add too on the political what is what was the I forgot the wording but I mean if you are running a a you know an election where you're trying to um you know educate your students on on elections and what's going on um I could definitely see a situation where you would be you know ask the students hey if you want to bring in you know information from all candidates to to to to educate the on the election piece but this is about our signage on our athletic oh yeah and I was

182like what does that have to do I well I think I think again if I'm reading it correctly it's it's one of those situations where they're they're wanting to make sure you're you're allowing that piece right um you know I certainly when when there's an election I reach out to both parties and try and get as much as I can or third parties even but that's difficult thank you thank you okay we're moving on to 10.1 action item approval of agreement with Kindle County food pantry can I have a motion please make a make a motion to approve the three-year agreement with the Kendall County food pantry as presented second can I just say something real quick I I just want to say that um this is very important um aspect of our community and

183and what's done and I I applaud everyone involved with um making sure that we're working uh together to help our most um at need absolutely Miss benm I Dr Mar hi Mr Cerone hi misson hi mrw hi M johnon Mr hi motion passes 70 action item 10.2 approval of resolution authorizing litigation against social media companies can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the resolution authorizing litigation against social media companies second Dr Mario I miss Simon hi Mr cler hi Mr Cerone hi Mr G I miss Ben I Miss Johnson I motion passes 70 action item 10.3 approval of government entity settlement agreement with Altria Group Inc can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the government entity settlement agreement with Altria Group Inc Philip Morris USA second Miss

184venm i z Maria hi mrone i m Sim hi Mr G hi i m Johnson I Mr I motion passes 70 action item 10.4 approval of District administrator contract can I have a motion please make a motion to approve the district administrator contract as presented second and super excited that you want to say something or that we have that we uh have that District administrator here that shows commitment and commitment to stay this evening we want to welcome um as part of this vote in a few minutes uh Miss amarie candelario and who has applied for the position position of director of planning and development director plan Dr Maria hi Mr gatwood hi Miss Johnson I want to just go on the record and say that I would like the uh I'm saying I but

185I would like the um Administration to add institutional Effectiveness down the road yes thank you Mr pler hi Miss s hi mrone hi Miss I motion passes 70 action item 10.5 approval of personnel report can have a motion please make a motion to approve the Personnel report as presented second Miss v i Dr Mario hi mrone I miss Simon hi Mr GW i m Johnson I Mr bler I can I have motion to go back into close session make a motion to enter close session under statutes 5 ilcs 12202 C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees 5 ilcs 12202 C8 security procedures School Building Safety and Security and the use of personnel and equipment to respond

186to an actual a threatened or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees students staff the public or public property second Dr Mar hi hi Mr hi hi Mr I motion passes 70 we are now back in close session we're going to go back in the back if you you guys want to take a 5minute break