SD308 Board of Education (5/8/2023)

001Board of Education meeting for May 8 2023 can I have a roll call please Mr Cerrone here Miss Doyle here Mr Gatewood president Miss Johnson present Mr ploger Miss simelton present Miss Swanson please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance flag of the United States of America and let's do the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all now we'll move to 4.1 superintendent candidate profile by school exec connect Dr O'Mara and DR Horton will be presenting not the emergency management system provider foreign no I'm just trying to figure out okay okay hold the phone all right um we're thrilled to be back here tonight we've had lots of great discussions and received lots of good input from the survey data focus groups open forums and and such

002great conversations very open uh Community with their opinions so we have uh good we've prepared a report that that Dr Horton Hill will describe for you and at the end of tonight's session we will release the profile for the board and for you to post on your website so that the public has a clear transparent sense of what this community needs in their next superintendent so I'm going to talk uh turn it over to DR Horton who can walk you through the PowerPoint of course any questions along the way please uh please Shout good evening I will try to take my time as we comb through this it's a lot of information you had to really engaged community members uh kudos to this District in this community for their student the student conversations I mean

003I was really impressed with hearing and listening to the students uh and definitely the passion coming from our parents um your staff and the community members as a whole so it's uh kudos to this just overall setup so I'll walk you through everyone in this room can read really well but I will make sure I try to hit the high levels and uh looking forward to the questioning uh once we're done all right so of course we conduct focus groups with a wide variety of stakeholders there was a total to be honest of nine different focus groups and we also had two Community sessions and you'll see this in here again there was also an online survey a questionnaire and which we had over 1100 response response to that which is pretty impressive uh and

004then we created a new superintendent profile based on the information collected from the focus groups as well as the questionnaires all right how would a profile report be used which is really critical the board and Consultants will use this new superintendent profile as we screen and conduct our interviews for Kansas there's been a lot of interest uh in in the superintendent vacancy and this is without the profiling being posted yet which says a lot it's a compliment to what has been able to be accomplished over the last few years the profile report will be used to develop the interview questions right which the the board and the firm will use at our different stages and then the candidate community may use this profile to find out about the strengths and being honest about the challenges

005of the community again as mentioned um what 90 90 attendees 1100 respondents and we this was the survey was open for roughly two weeks about 10 days which is really great and of course this for the record it is a sampling uh you know the reporting is not scientific study but it's you know provides only the perceptions of those who responded focus group questionnaire I I will I will go over the questions when I turn through the page but as you can see there are five prequestions that were asked in the focus group um and here's some of the responses that we talked about first it was about District strengths here it speaks about in general Oswego District appears to be prioritized inclusivity diversity and a well-rounded education for students it talks about the highly

006engaged Community strong connections between home and school continue to hear that throughout the entire piece the dedication and this is kudos to teachers and administrators dedication of administration and staff and teachers to their students was evident through their passionate work in regular communication with families communication continued to resurface as a shrimp the focus on meeting the needs of all students including special education was also highlighted pretty well pretty significant challenges this is always the tough part right Oswego District faces a range of complex and interconnected challenges including those related to community engagement fiscal stability diversity and inclusion professional supports Mental Health Resources research and curriculum development and mentorship programs and also strategies around communication which is a little different from communication as a whole it talked about there's a there's one way that it needs

007to be more diverse in how the communications are being delivered additionally there are the issues surrounding Staffing student behavior and burnout prevention for the staff addressing these challenges will be important for the development and success of the next leader of Oswego 308 Community District Focus areas for the first year there are a lot and I would not take I would not advise anyone to take all this on but to be honest I'll just highlight assignment and there there's no ranking for this so this is on here for the list is first that doesn't mean that's the first priority it's just that it is it happens to be captured this way so prioritize the financial stability and creating a plan to address finances building a culture of empathy and inclusion including addressing issues related to implicit

008bias discipline and the equity divide that came up consistently enhancing diversity efforts and making parents and students of color feel more welcome and engaged improving communication and engagement strategies to build trust with stakeholders and the last one I'll highlight is prioritizing the well-being and mental health support of students these are areas that in the first year that they would love for the superintendent to tackle and you can see there are others as well how did you prioritize this list is that are they there's no ranking no ranking for this these are these are pretty much from the focus groups when we met uh we were able to consistently hear these things and they made the list because it came up multiple times thank you yeah good question next one desired skills and characteristics so I

009think this is important we just talk about all of these right someone's a servant leader good listener adaptable goal oriented hey was this my did my wife do this what I don't blame me oh wait okay I thought a good listener all right prioritize your monetary aspects of each School unify the district strong Communicator both ways both ways right and I think that has a lot to do with listening as well as pushing information through and with communicating with the with staff with community members parents students and the board collectively having a diverse experience right leading leading schools or school districts a great Problem Solver commitment to the community is a huge one it came up in every single focus group possess strong leadership skills approachable thick skin authentic accountable and able to stand up

010um for all is crucial other priorities that that we thought were critical to highlight I'll just name a few of these it's essential that the superintendent leads with an open heart and possesses the diverse and compassionate leadership experience they must also have experience working with a symbol district and actively get into schools with boots on the ground that continue to be stated and I'll jump down as far as the process it was it spoke about focus on a leadership framework driven decision making so leading through to framework research base transparency and stakeholder inclusion during the hiring process should be the norm and I think this is really critical what you all have been doing with uh with the focus groups and the surveys that's been really uh including a really inclusive of everyone the committee

011needs to be diverse to represent the school Community without any self-serving interest and educated on how to lead Oswego 308 is essential when actually elaborate on that in a few centuries a few of the sessions it we I don't I'm not you all understand how Dynamic this community can be there are multiple municipalities that you have to serve and how do you serve the needs of all collectively and that continue to come up here's the questionnaire 1129 total responses um 284 with staff 707 active parents 74 business owners and 185 students responded I'll just I'll talk about this next this next segment educational strengths as you can see the top one became strong communication with parents and community and right underneath that was opportunities for students outside of the classroom classroom parents as well as

012students talked about the diverse opportunities of different uh engagement opportunities that they can take part in consistently and they were excited about that safe students and staff learning environments they feel like this is really critical for school systems in this day and age that a high percentage of the respondents felt that this has saved students and staff learning environments that is really critical so hats off to creating that culture and then use of technology for learning educational challenges environment that attracts and retains highly effective Personnel that continue to come up some of the things that we heard were salary and really making sure that we can keep the staff that's that's homegrown in the in the district in the community adequate resources to fund programs and Personnel to meet students needs and challenging the state

013the state-of-the-art curriculum like really uplifting the curriculum that we currently happen Ela Math Science and all of those areas and there was a there was things that continue to be uh highlighted around student Readiness for the next level of learning organizational and managerial strengths the schools are clean and well well maintained school grounds that's important again school safety resurfaced again as a strength relationships with other units of government so that means that the current leadership and board works well with the multiple municipalities that you do business with every single day and the schools are modern modern school facilities and of course up-to-date technology here are the challenges for organizational and managerial challenges stewardship of financial resources in this in this stage you're going to hear that a lot in many districts considering the the Whirlwind

014of dollars that came in but we have to be prepared because it's going away class size was a concern long-range strategic planning and implementation so they separated that continue to plan but also make sure that it's being implemented with fidelity open two-way communication between school and District that came back and some kind of way school safety made it on here again on the other end right yeah so you have a little split on that one priorities for the new superintendent no surprise you hear fiscal responsibilities student well-being 21st century skills I thought that was really critical and we talk about the things that really make us successful it's not just numerous and literacy skills it's how do we communicate how do we collaborate our creativity Innovation and all those things is something that they want

015the new superintendents to take on as a priority improve academic achievement for all students and strong relationships with staff and community members characteristics and skills needed for the new superintendent also someone who makes decisions based on what's best for students possess a deep knowledge of in curriculum and instruction and manage the budget effectively it continues to recycle and practice its transparency and decision making now we get into the tenants of the new superintendent profile I'll read a few of these uh because it's it's it's a few slides and it's a lot of information but I will make sure that we highlight again this is not a rank these are things that that we were able to pull from when you align the survey with the focus groups possess a deep knowledge of innovative teaching and

016learning with experience and trauma-informed practices be familiar with the Oswego 308 Envision 308 strategic plan and the four priorities student learning support for student learning finance and facilities and Community Partners focus on student-centered decision making and planning while concurrently being creative confident and responsive is a Visionary leader who is Future focused a strategic thinker and a relationship Builder with staff community and the board and highly skilled at building trust mutual respect and consistency both systematically and while strengthening a unified district-wide positive culture and climate these are more profile components but should be a person who passionately Embraces the current traditions and values of the district yet is open-minded resourceful and responsive to the diverse and changing needs of the students and families of honoring the current 308 what what it has been while also helping

017to move it on to the next phase of his existence as a school system exhibit again excellent communication and public relations skills to engage all stakeholders communicates a Clear Vision for the future of the district and also motivates and inspires others to act according prioritize the recruitment training and retention of Highly Effective teachers and leaders this is important too Guided by clear human resource practices focused on hiring staff who are diverse in race gender and background that came up a lot because that successful experience as a teacher building and District level leader and understands teaching learning and behavior needs while promoting instructional and managerial methods that are engaging in support of our academic abilities want a person who's successful experienced as a teacher and building District level leader understands teaching learning and behavior needs while

018promoting instructional and management methods that are engaging in support of high academic and social emotional growth values the unique needs of every student and allocates resources for programs in and out of the classroom that support students academic creativity displays skills and fiscal responsibility financial management and future focused facilities planning it will continue to be highlighted that this community is growing and we have to have a leader who can prepare and and use what's available to think about the expansion of of this District a visible Hands-On leader who becomes immersed in the life of the district schools and a community have a strong presence in the classroom and activities in the community events as well what are the next steps I forgot to mention one of the things that is in the report but you'll see

019they also want a superintendent who have who has experienced some failures right because we grow from that and that's really important here's what's next for us for the board Consultants to conduct interviews and reference checks using the new superintendent profile we will then recommend candidates to the board and the board will conduct first interviews choose finalists and the board holds second interviews and candidates presentations and board make selection of finalists conduct reference checks negotiate contract with the goal of being having a new superintendent to begin on July 1st 2023. questions uh for us here's our contact information for the board and for the community if you have any questions about the profile and things of that nature you can reach out to myself for Dr Kevin O'Mara and or myself uh if you have questions

020you back up one slide go back one yeah sure I thought one of the selling points was that you guys conduct reference checks too we do at the very top okay because then it says board a more in-depth reference more in depth yeah so there's we do reference checks at the very beginning we do yes ma'am and then once you get to that final SEO or two you can we'll go deeper and we talked about some other ways on May 22nd we'll talk underneath profile that we developed with the board about next steps and camp figure out who's doing well with the board's commission I would like to have the full report which is these slides of the highlights of this report with Ursula so you each have a copy of that to take home

021and with the board's commission I will send this uh profile to Ursula tomorrow morning so it could be posted on your website we want to make sure we maintain the high transparency and good communication with your you know how many uh applicants have you have you had I know that we had an update a bit ago but just interested 26 and our most I expected this morning that we might have more than I don't know and uh how many of those were out of state uh and uh still feeling good about the timeline talked about a tentative timeline um I shared that last time we met but we're going to redo it again this evening if it's okay with you okay yeah in the full report DR Horton Dr Amira is there um a place

022that um shares out any input that was given that was outside of the questions survey then yeah typically do not include that in our reports and I'll be honest with you the reason why is because much of that is full of hate speech inappropriate language um things that probably should not be revealed to the public at lunch um we did take into consideration some of those responses when we developed our profile so they have been accounted for but I certainly don't want to put on towards language in the public domain I appreciate that does that make sense yes I very much appreciate that do we have access as a board to that information if we wanted it uh we can talk about it okay next time we meet we'll be in closed session I think

023that's it becomes better served in closed session thank you does that make sense yes it does make sense I did just get some feedback from some community members that they felt that the questions that were asked didn't were all geared positively and didn't allow for there to be um I think an opposite dialogue so I heard that a lot of people used the open question to input stuff but if you've put it in here and made sure that we have that information as well minus the the hate speech that is I did get one email from one Community member who portrayed those concerns with me as well about the nature of the survey change the survey too much it destroys the psychometrics that have been the right to align the results that were presenting tonight

024so there's a reason why the survey is a foreign the bottom line is we wanted to develop an accurate candidate profile that the Oswego Community could stand by I think this reflects that I appreciate that I just feel that it is my duty to represent my constituents I understand um who's up right now our next step would be by May 22nd in closed session to deliver a slate of five to seven semi-finalists to the Board of Education when I say deliver I mean all their paperwork with our reference checking and our recommendations to move these candidates forward that are best fits based on this profile that we've just revealed to the to the Board of Education community after that we would suggest the board sooner rather than later during the week of May 29th determine

025a schedule to interview those five to seven candidates over a two to three day period and then perhaps the week of June 5th interview the three finalists that you'd like to interview for the final position we would recommend that that happen over a three-day period so that you have a single day with each of the three five and can you tell us how our community will be involved in that process more details about uh community and staff and teacher and admin involvement will be our top one of our top discussion topics on May 22nd that's why you need three days though because there is community and staff and admin and teacher involvement that we would recommend to the Board of Education knowing that these are board decisions to make and these are only our recommendations

026but we found that model to work very very well yes thank you thank you what I'd like to do though is um man president is to get an idea of what you're looking for for dates during that week of May 29th and June 5th so that we when we interview candidates which is coming up we're going to be tied up this weekend very long that we can share some of the information with our candidates so they can black off their times especially if they're coming from out of state so do we want to send out a questionnaire on the dates and then um like you guys we need your responses back right away well Monday is a holiday so if you need three days it's pretty much Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Wednesday the 30th 31st and

027the first Okay so Tuesday Wednesday Thursday of the of the week of what what are those dates the 29th the week the 30th the 31st and the first the Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Memorial Day week okay all right and then the week of June 5th we need three days we already have a board meeting on the fifth okay we do have a meeting on the fifth yeah so then the sixth seventh and eighth yes unless one of them could be combined with a board meeting if we could start earlier about how how long how big a time slot I'm sorry I I just sent you the profile I was doing two things at once the time slot for June 5th how long will it take to have these meetings are they an hour long the first

028run the first round of interviews I think you probably won a black a two and a half hour window for each of those three days it gives your community and your and teachers have an advent Gene committees time to interview those candidates before the board does also gives about 10 or 15 minutes and we'll talk about this in Greater detail on the 22nd but it also gives the board a chance to hear uh and see a presentation by the candidates on the last day the third day whatever that third day is you may want to tack on an hour or so for deliberations [Music] and we've got tools for you to use during deliberations too that work pretty well they're pretty cool all right so right now first looking you send out something for Tuesday

029May 30th 31st and June 1st yes um what time do you want to do this the the time that I would like to work you know was yeah generally in the late afternoon early evening for our part that's whether for the three finalists for the first round for any time okay yeah I have that you've got a real job okay yeah I could probably sneak out for an hour if necessary depending on everybody first round interviews that the interviews it will um you won't be here for more than an hour and in every case I'd like to commit to less an hour for each of the five to seven all right so let's just say four o'clock Tuesday the 30th and the 31st and then June 1st I'm sorry yeah June 1st and then June

0306th 7th and 8th it's six months well the fifth is our board meeting do you want to do something on the 5th yeah let's let's do something on the fifth it's two and a half hours oh that one yeah we can't no that's why okay let me let me say this yeah the board meeting no well let's let's let's we'll talk about this on a 20 second in great detail but I would say that if you have the Committees here let's say at two o'clock and at three o'clock then the board can meet at four o'clock and that before if you want to do three four and five that's fine too the board doesn't need to be here for the entire three hours right yeah does that make sense yes and is that for both

031weeks I can't that's for the free finalists that's three finalists okay at least that's your recommendation that's my recommendation exactly right so we can do the fifth thing that's up to you but that's that's the board members don't need to be here for that three hour block only for one hour which need to be here for each of the three days so do you guys want to do something on the fifth at like four o'clock yes yeah yes I'm already booked yes yeah and seven yeah right before the board meeting yeah so five instead of four yeah so six five six six six six seven starting at three o'clock is that a true statement for the candidates 3 P.M 4 P.M 5 p.m but I think she's saying do it on the fifth do it

032at five instead of four is what you're saying right actually because of our board meeting so well that's our time though that's our time our time will be five someone Administration or someone else can be three and someone can be four okay schedule similar for the sixth okay I know this really doesn't matter but if you're gonna deliberate with the people who are also meeting with him you might want to go at four that's why because you're going to want to talk to in our model there is no deliberation but you're having them meet with other people you're going to want to know what those other people thought we have we have a tool and a methodology that will take care of that I promise you you did say something about and have time for

033deliberation is at the very last day I would say that would take place on the Sabbath the very last day candidates okay celebration I wouldn't deliberate before you've seen all three candidates I agree okay so let's cut Ursula can you recap the June 5th 6th 7th times three four and five three four and five at five PM but I would just like to send some uh we should check with the new board members as well to make sure they can be there that early right can you repeat that or so I'm sorry we would need we I would like to check with our new incoming board members just to make sure that they can be attend that early as well what was a decision made uh on your first round of interviews the week of

034May 29th if if you've made that decision in discussion tonight I missed it it's the 30th the 31st and the first right 31 and one yes what what time for those we said four o'clock for us for us four o'clock well it would only be the board okay only the board is involved in the semifinals okay got it so you're gonna do a 4 pm of 5 PM at a 6 p.m on the 30th I thought they we saw just people could meet earlier no he was talking it's only us so are you doing all three in one day all three in one day you'll do oh three each day we don't know if it's five or six or seven I don't I don't care as long as we don't start till four yeah I'm

035I Echo that okay four o'clock four o'clock start on each of those days let's keep the first as a tentative if we don't get seven we could probably do um all the semi-finalists on the 30th and 31st okay perfect does that make sense yes is it appropriate to ask the new board members that are in the audience right now okay perfect but not the first okay so now we're going back to the fifth sixth and seventh Fifth Sixth and seven so if if we do it on the fifth sixth and seventh is that a little better that would be where we start at five yes the fifth sixth and seventh the board starts at five years right correct that's what I'm hearing and that would just be one interview each day for those days okay

036here's here all this is gonna be in much more detail in 20 seconds I wasn't really prepared so I'm sorry that I didn't bring anything for the for the interviews to take place in the fifth the sixth and the seventh I would recommend you identify a committee of community members and parents not to exceed 12 people it can be overwhelming for a candidate to walk in on a crowd of people to interview plus you won't have time to act more than plus you'd last a question and I would also identify Committee of staff teachers and admin they'd spend one hour with your parent community committee one hour with your staff teacher and admin committee and we have feedback sheets prepared for those committees to give feedback to the board not ranking candidates that's the board's

037decision legally and rightfully but they would be giving feedback and each of the committee uh from each of the Committees on each of the on each of the people that uh are being interviewed from the finals so did you say the staff teacher admin it's 12 people total or 12 each 12 Max okay 12 Max for each of the two committees one parent community parents Community Committee and one staff teacher admin committee Maxwell for each of those two committees that make sense yes and I'll bring all those documents and the metrics and the tools to the to the meeting on the 22nd you'll have a whole package to review it'll be thick okay hey other questions for us first I already sent you the profile well uh develops the questions we'll talk about it in

038a few workshops too okay but really those are your decisions when we have the interview workshop with you on the 22nd we will leave you with about 200 sample questions okay they're all categorized in different areas fiscal curriculum instruction Communications leadership and so forth we've done a good job of kind of parsing those out but ultimately you as board members need to to develop those and based upon the profile that has been developed there are some questions that are more relevant than others I would imagine okay and you'll identify that absolutely yeah we will walk through your interpassal interview questions on the 22nd have until the 30th to get those finalized and again Madam president I would suggest you be the person to collect those from your board members will do are we allowed to

039give them for the board interview only um I I don't know what if I want to say pre-work but some areas that we will be discussing so that we can encourage them to bring actual metrics or examples versus generic so come in with perhaps a 90-day plan yes that there's nothing wrong with that okay I wouldn't spend too much time in the interview process itself going over that and reviewing that part of your deliberations right conversation and if you're kind of reading through a 90-day plan that kind of precludes a good a good conversation the reason I say that is if I were a potential candidate and I saw all of that information it would be very hard to focus on what I really want to bring to the table and I am not as

040an HR practitioner a shock and awe type of interviewer I think candidates should be prepared but that is like literally that's like the ocean right there so I would like the ocean but you want that person to walk across that ocean it can be overwhelming Divine and I have done this many times and we will walk these candidates through the profile when we interview them wonderful thank you that's a very valid point and I agree can I make one more suggestion at some point include the students like you said parents teachers like even if it's just our student board members yes oh yeah like you've got one from each school right here if they're not away at College already yeah I know but it just wasn't on his list and I wanted it on there

041if that's what the board wants to do we can accommodate that but again you don't want my recommendation is that you don't want more than three groups meeting with these finalists right or they could be a part of the 12. I would just saying they can be a part of one of the commissions more than three hours or so with a candidate then then there's a tail off as far as expectations sure no yeah we're we're good okay but if you're gonna do that you might want to check there check their time yeah no she's she's still working I love it I still have her envelope oh yeah you are I actually got a computer though right now so any other questions just for Ian Caitlin can you guys check your your schedule for June

0425th 6th and well June 5th I think but we're just June 5th and 6th that's starting at 5 pm to identify somebody on the committee that might be able to in your absence you know we're graduating them the week before that it's not like they want to come back and uh every person okay okay that's a big deal oh that's important to know did you hear that guys and again that's part of our May 22nd conversation but it you want it consistent EEOC mandates that you have a consistent interview process set up let's commit to all days maybe we can borrow that for here okay thank you so much Dr Horton thank you so much Dr O'Mara thank you both we will see you on the 22nd we'll see you on the 22nd what time

043is 6 15. 6 15 right here thank you so much thank you safe travels back we start at six if we can if we needed to start uh Dr O'Meara at like six or something like that if we could is that okay with your schedule and DR Horton yeah thank you okay moving on to 5.1 public comment do we have comments today yes thank you so on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their Public School System residents interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it in to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls

044your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to five minutes per person and that no discussion of personnel matters or responses to questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment follow up on your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration through the contact information provided on the common card thank you good evening my name is Sheila Los tumbo and I'm the bilingual reading specialist at Hunt Club I would like to comment on the decision to split my position between Hunt Club and Boulder Hill next year last week I submitted a letter on this topic to Dr sparlin Ms dalquist and the board and thank you to those who responded that

045letter was signed by myself and 38 of my colleagues so you can see that this is not about me or my job it's about the negative impact that this decision will have on our students for those listening who may not know Hunt Club in Boulder Hill each currently have one full-time bilingual reading specialist as these are the two schools where we have dual language the plan for next year is for me to be split between the two schools leaving Boulder Hill with 1.5 and Hunt Club with only a 0.5 bilingual reading specialist we were told that this decision was made in order to make things more Equitable when in fact it is doing the opposite at Hunt Club we recognize the need at Boulder Hill no one can dispute the fact that they need additional

046support and the truth is adding a half-time reading specialist is not nearly enough the problem is resources should not be taken away from Hunt Club students in order to meet those needs if we're looking at numbers then let's break down the Spanish language Services we currently have available at Hunt Club this year we have the same number of monolingual and dual language classrooms so we should have a similar number of supports in English and Spanish we have six monolingual teaching assistants which means one per grade level we have four bilingual Tas which means that grade levels have to share resulting in less Spanish language support for our students aside from our Tas let's look at the other related service providers at our building such as our speech and language Pathologists our learning Behavior Specialists our

047interventionists our social workers and our reading specialists we have 2.5 staff members who provide additional support in Spanish versus 9.5 who Provide support in English that is not even close to balanced yet the district is taking away some of our limited Spanish language support please keep in mind that this comment is in no way intended to diminish the value that our non-bilingual staff members provide they are obviously an essential part of our team and they go above and beyond to support all of our students regardless of the program they are in many of them even signed a letter that I submitted because they want what is best for all of our students and they are well aware of the need for bilingual support point I'm making is that there is already a great imbalance in

048the support that we offer our students the Dual language program has existed in this district for nearly 20 years these supports should have been in place from the beginning yet here we are nearly two decades later still fighting for the most basic services while the Dual language program is only housed in two buildings is a district program and District leaders should understand the impact that these decisions have on students the district's own website promotes the DL program and States quote SD 308 is committed to growing an effective dual language program end quote really well what steps are you taking to grow the program taking resources away does not demonstrate a commitment to growing an effective program if we do not come up with an alternative solution there will be many students who qualify for interventions

049according to the district's own criteria who will not be able to receive them how are we going to meet the needs of those students the DL section on the district website States quote all students no matter which programs in which they may participate are monitored and supported through the SD 308 multi-tiered system of supports School staff work collaboratively to provide opportunities to be successful as monitoring dictates students are also provided interventions to meet their needs end quote who is going to provide those interventions also why is this change being made now the needs of Boulder Hill are not new surely District leaders have been aware of these needs so why have you not been able to plan ahead and budget for additional support and what does this mean for the future of the Dual language

050program will additional funding be made available the following year to restore a full-time position at Hunt Club and give Boulder Hill the support that they need or will we continue to lose resources I hope you take the time to consider all of these points my colleagues and I welcome further discussion on this matter and we hope that we can work together to find a solution that will meet the needs of all of our students Grace real hello hello hello my name is Grace Ryle I am a student at Oswego High School and I would like to address the issue of students of the locker room would you talk into your microphone a little bit oh I'm so sorry that's okay they can't believe you behind Pull It Forward there you go okay thank you I'm

051sorry um I'm trying to address the issue of stealing items out of the locker rooms at Oswego High School and I'm sure it is an issue here East as well um so I am proposing that we or you guys allow students to have time to go to their locker during the changing period a lot of students have classrooms across the school which is not allowing them time to go to their lockers um and with doing so it would allow them to put their belongings away instead of having the small lockers with that there are bigger Lockers in the locker room but there's one for every three Locker rows which is not enough for students um causing students to have their belongings outside of these lockers which is causing the stealing um something that my school

052does I don't does this but um they lock the locker rooms during gym periods and most of the time I've noticed that the locker rooms have not been locked properly or just have been left unlocked on accident or maybe a student went in but they were unlocked sometimes students will hide inside of the showers which is causing things to get stolen as well which is something that I would like to address as well um something that has happened recently to myself personally um someone cut my lock off if there was something that someone could do to help with that that would be very nice because I know a lot of students who have similar stories to mine and have gotten very valuable items stolen from them that's all I have thank you thank you thank

053you thank you very much okay we're moving on to 6.1 superintendent report well good evening board uh this week is Teacher Appreciation Week so I'd like to start off by acknowledging our teachers and simply saying thank you thank you for everything that you do on a day in and day out basis to make our make sure our kids feel happy safe and loved uh thank you for being the role models that you are and thank you for making a positive difference in our lives of our kids and to please know that you're appreciated this week is also May 10th is also School nurses day I'd like to thank our say thank you to our school nurses for everything they do for our students on a daily basis through their efforts they ensure our kids are

054cared for when they are sick we're not feeling their best and I thank you for that and you should know how much you are appreciated as well this is our last board meeting prior to our high school graduation on May 20th we will have approximately 1 450 students who will walk across the stage and become alumni of SD 308 uh the OE graduation will be in the morning and Ohs in the afternoon and this is the 11th year that we've been we've held the graduation at Northern Illinois University and it'll be a great day for our students our staff and our parents and finally I'd like to say uh thank you to two of our board members who have served uh both serve two terms here in School District 308 and uh Ali I can

055remember my first interview when I applied for my first job here in sd308 you were the first person that uh I met and they had greeted me at the door and we you were the first person I had a conversation with and uh during this time you and I have developed a very nice relationship I've had the opportunity to watch um author all three of your boys compete wrestling and football and watch them grow into the young men that they are and uh I just want you to know I appreciate the relationship and the opportunity to uh to be a part of that and Lori the the same goes for you you and I spent a lot of time together uh during your two terms you served as SD 308 president for a couple years

056during a very difficult time and I've enjoyed our our time together and watching your daughter grow into the young woman that she is so I thank you for your service and the relationship that we've had over the last couple years so I I thank you both yes thank you so much and student ambassadors uh I'd like to say thank you to Anya and Caitlin for serving as our SD 308 ambassadors you know I've had the privilege of not only getting to know you but to work with both of you and some very very serious topics and you've both represented your schools our school district in excellent fashion and because of you we are better so I wish you both the best I wish you both the best in the next chapter of your lives thank

057you that's my report for this evening thank you student ambassador reports all right so the mental health survey went out um a few weeks ago and the ssac plans to meet four times in the next two weeks to desegregate data and look through those responses we'll then use the ypar process as we've talked about before the Youth Department youth participatory action research yep um to create new research questions and find solutions to work toward our goals in mental health um and recently the new student ambassador position application opened we're really excited to see that and I think one of the first things Caitlyn and I noticed is how the interest is growing a lot faster than it did when the position first came out I think around two years ago um so Caitlin and I

058wanted to thank you all for allowing us to have this amazing opportunity and work with you all and get to engage it with our community at school and outside of it in a way that we didn't think that we could have at this district and we realized now it was possible it was so amazing getting to get to know you all and work on these amazing projects that we have before and we're really excited to see how the leadership that comes in next year and the years coming forward will be able to uphold that vision and those values and we'll definitely be coming back to see it playoff but thank you yes thank you [Applause] hey moving on to 6.3 board committee reports the equity and the finance and Facilities committees have met the reports

059are online for anyone in the who would like to see them and we would like to ask are there any questions from any of our board members regarding those reports okay if no questions we'll move on to 6.4 board committee comments I'm sorry board member comments do we have any board member comments uh first I would like to start by saying I had the opportunity to attend Mamma Mia uh when was that last week oh my goodness the fine arts department in this district is incredible and I've had the privilege of seeing Fine Arts professionally done and I promise you you I mean they were I would have paid far more than what I had to pay in order to see them if you if you did not get a chance you missed it and

060I would say if any additional performances that we have please do not miss them because our students did an amazing and amazing job so I was very excited to be a part of that so find work to all of our students and staff to help put those Productions and wait a minute the set design oh my goodness okay I won't go on and on but it was amazing so that was wonderful to be a part of um and then lastly I just want to give a few words to Ali and Lori I'm sorry Hallie yeah Ali and Lori um if I'll say first you don't know until you know and you don't know until you know and I think a lot of times we have preconceived notions and and of of what it's like to

061sit up here and the two of you served during one of the most difficult Seasons that the world has ever experienced and yeah and I do pray we'd never experience again but but I just wanted to commend you for your leadership your commitment your perspective um the value that you bring the historical nature that you know within the district um has been incredible and I so very much appreciate the value that you all have brought to the board because it's helped me tremendously to learn to grow um and and I love the how much input you have given um and just your commitment to not only just what we do as a board but to the students and the staff so sincerely from the bottom of my heart I have grown tremendously because I've had

062the opportunity to sit with both of you and I greatly appreciate it and thank you for all that you have done foreign amplifier that was awesome um uh you know had a lot of opportunity to to interact um the students were genuine lots of um activities and performances I spoke I talked I told my my family about it too it was it was great um and then I did went to the narcic Multicultural event and that I know there's a large sense of pride in that room um lots of good food and that was a great experience as well so I just wanted to um Point those out and keep it up um I'm Gonna Save Our appreciations for our board members and our students for a little later so we've got a little token

063to give you but I did want to Echo Dr sparlin's appreciations when it comes to the teachers and our nurses I mean as it relates to being a teacher I am not a teacher but I'm a teacher at harp um and I I just feel as though um teachers the value of a teacher is so much more than I think that our society places upon them and so I I I've always felt that you know they should be paid as well as our doctors and our lawyers because they're teaching our most valuable asset um to to develop and grow and go out into the world and and be these amazing citizens and so I want to acknowledge our teachers and and I want to just say I appreciate them very much and and our nurses

064I mean you know they have experienced some very difficult times during covet and they stood up and they they were resilient in their in their um in their value and in what they did for our nation and so I definitely want to say thank you to our nurses in our schools and in our nurses around around the country and around the world I anybody else want to go ahead first and foremost with um teacher appreciation week and nurse appreciation week I want to thank all of our Educators and nurses for their unwavering dedication to our students because without them truly none of this is possible and we wouldn't be sitting here um over the past few weeks I've had the opportunity to see our students and our staff shine on April 25th my son and

065I drove to Chicago to watch our Oswego High School bands participate in a symphonic celebration it was truly breathtaking to listen to our talented students play on the Chicago Symphony stage I was blown away by their performance and I want to thank Mr schoenbach for the invitation and congratulate both him and Miss San Roman for a true and honestly beautiful presentation by our band on April 29th my husband and I on a rare date night were able to take in Mamma Mia presented by East theater the cast student production team and pit Orchestra wow knocked my socks off I've been to I've been very fortunate to be able to catch some shows on Broadway and these were second to none I'm so impressed and I can't wait to see our students soar uh Bravo to

066Mrs Chandler and the production team I wanted to share my appreciation for the staff at Long Beach who invited Mr Gatewood and I to a discussion where they advocated for their students and fellow staff members it was a truly humbling morning with their staff and students and we greatly appreciate the opportunity to visit and we appreciate the invitation last week I was invited by the Boulder Hill student council to their end of year celebration with a just such a group of bright wonderful engaging students I want to give a special shout out to Eleanor who's in the fourth grade who invited me to play what I thought was a very friendly game of Oswego Appley she's very bright has a definite future in real estate and Banking and handily beat me and took all my

067money and walked away with 3 390 in all of the properties so um even when we had to multiply our Dice and times it by four to figure out how much I owed she taught me some very cool multiplication tricks she's wicked smart and I was glad to see our math literacy in action so thank you Boulder Hill for another warm welcome finally I would like to thank Lori and Ally for eight years of service to this district there is so much more that goes on behind the scenes as a board member and the time commitment can be overwhelming the mere fact that you committed eight years and hundreds upon hundreds of hours of board meetings phone calls community and District events committee meetings board forums board Retreats training and so many others is commendable

068and admirable and I'm truly thankful you also taught me how to listen you taught me how to actively listen and to remember that no matter what I saw happening there was always a flip side to that story so thank you very much for your patience we haven't always seen eye to eye but we have always come back and been able to work side by side and I'm greatly appreciative for that as you move forward in new Endeavors your service and impact will always be remembered and we hope that you will continue to be a champion for public education and sdo SD 308 wherever life takes you Anya and Caitlin thank you for boldly and authentically representing your rep your respective student bodies along with Colton you have paved the way for student voice not only

069in our district but across the state of Illinois by modeling for your classmates what it means to be actively engaged in decision making processes you have helped to build our school Community into a more inclusive relevant and meaningful education experience we look forward to watching you achieve your goals and chase your dreams and remember this is always your home [Applause] okay we'll move on to 7.1 our consent agenda are there any questions on the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please I make a motion to approve all items under consent including minutes from the April 24th 2023 Board of Education meeting open and close session and to acknowledge the foia request received by the district second Mrs Doyle I miss Swanson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms simultan aye Mr

070Gatewood aye Ms Johnson aye Mr cloaker hi motion passes 7-0 item 8.1 is an informational item on financial statements does the board have any questions in regards to what has been provided item 8.2 is an annual resolution in regards to a in regards to request for release of Kendall County Land cash funds are there any questions in regards to this informational item item 8.3 is an informational item regarding the intergovernmental agreement with the Plano area special education Co-op are there any questions regarding this item I I do have a question and I think we actually might have even discussed this prior but I struggle with how we bring students into the program when we have some shortage and resources how does that work so the agreement that is is here talks you know and pushes

071into what that would be if you want specifics about which of the criteria would be used for next year I would want to get back to you on that okay thank you item 8.4 is an informational item where we are bringing back to the board in regards to our mass communication tool Mrs commutis Mr frieders will provide the board with an update since we last presented to the board we have Scott Bedell here our district webmaster too just in case we have any questions that we can't address thank you for having us this evening we're bringing back something a little bit different we're going to just quickly recap and then explore a new uh potential component of our communication system so the last time we sat with you Scott and I discussed the desire to

072move away from the current mass communications and web tool that we have in place now and that is still very much on the table but um what we're looking at tonight is really just two components of that which are both offered by catapult the first being the one we brought to you before which is our mass communications known as Blackboard right now this is the one that would do the text calls emails those sort of things and we're going to kind of cover um real quickly I'm going to hand this over um to Mr frieders here to to go through some of this but um the reason that we're we're fitting together at this table is really just um we were both kind of on a parallel path at the same time in regards to

073exploring potential resources for some needs that we discovered and as we kind of cross paths in those conversations coincidentally both ended up with the same company for two different needs that both complement each other so I covered previously with you the mass communication side Scott and I are here to address any of those but at this point we want to turn it over to Mr readers here who will discuss this one element offered by catapult and the reasons why we feel this might be a possible solution for the district good evening thank you for having me so the specific option that we're looking at is the EMS portion or the emergency notification component of catapult some of the reasons what we're looking to achieve with this is to really enhance the safety of our staff

074and our students by quickly being able to convey messages during a time of Crisis it'll allow us to enhance some of those communication tools that we already have in place by providing a functionality on a device with our staff so we can push a message to them we can pull a message back and receive real-time information for what's happening inside the buildings at an administrative level and also at a district level it also allowed for us to really enhance our parent reunification we have a controlled reunification every day at the buildings which is kind of like Controlled Chaos the one day I was at an elementary school and they put me on the parent pick-up line it was an experience for sure but during those opportunities where we're not doing it at a controlled Time

075by our controlled script or at a remote location we could definitely see some opportunities for improvement and some efficiencies that we want to explore what does EMS do again it pushes that information out to our staff this component actually also has a bullying tip reporting function that can help supplement not only the Illinois sector helpline but also our own reporting system that is sits on our own web page it allows us to integrate with our First Responders and send real-time information to dispatch centers to have First Responders come to our location and it does allow us that reunification component that we kind of touched on a really neat feature built into the app is that accountability function so our staff can take student attendance can report that to building administrators in real time and the

076administrators can keep track and see what the status is of their building as those numbers are coming in this space there's really three vendors that are providing these types of services and they are all recognized what is a nationally recognized protocol or a standard response protocol that is catapult crisis go and Raptor we evaluated all three of their offerings looked at all of them had demos on all of them and then obviously then obtained pricing on those three options as well after looking at all three our recommendation was catapult for a multitude of reasons reinforces what is already our current platform but then also allows us a customizing feature where we can modify things to reflect how things are done here in District 308 they do offer training and Support options for our staff again

077it allows us the ability to push out email text and voice calls and does have future options for us to explore including the viability of being able to tap into our public address systems inside the building so that if we push out a notification for a shelter in place then it would send out a pre-recorded message over the PA system and our staff could get that information over the PA as well again it connects with law enforcement and really allows that interconnection between our departments where our Communications team and our Safety and Security team can really function together as a unit and she can send information out to the families and we can work with our staff as well to ensure that we're pushing out accurate real-time information and collecting it as well um so

078one example just historically as we were um talking about this and what some of the needs might be you may recall an incident um probably already been a year and a half or so ago um at one of our Junior highs where we had as process would have it the police contact us because there was a report of someone with a weapon in the area school went on a full lockdown barricading was in process everyone followed as they were supposed to do um though in that type of situation given the current protocols the alert portion of Alice is really important we alert everybody what's going on you know they make the decision as to what's the safest route for them with the threat being outside we did have everybody inside but after that initial notification

079went out a period of time went by without anything and that's because our protocol of course would have those individuals also barricading for their own safety that were you know previously calling things overhead additionally we didn't have all of our administrators for that building in the building at the time some of them were out of the building at meetings so what may have seemed like a short time looking back you know half hour 45 minutes feels like a very very long time when you are in a heightened State during a potentially real safety incident in and so that's really as a district where we first identified a need to be able to communicate back and forth as we sat and listened to what the system can do the fact that we teach our our students

080and Alice that big pieces to be informed and then make that decision as to what their appropriate response is going to be that could mean students are in all sorts of places students and staff they may be in a different classroom they may have left the building they could be you know anywhere and so we don't we don't necessarily know where they are we know where they maybe should have been at that time of day but we don't necessarily know they're there so again this type of communication enhances what we're doing already from the district to the community it allows you know Mike and his safety team and the law enforcement to be able to connect directly in classrooms I'm you know teacher Smith and classroom F12 and I these are the 12 students I

081have with me right now these are the three I don't that I maybe should have and then they can from the outside manage a situation and tracking down the remaining students so we want to just provide you some real life examples of what this does on the surface it may sound like it duplicates what we have in place but it absolutely does not is really taking it to a much more granular level than what we have for mass communication and the two will really complement each other in our ability to manage during a unfortunate situation Theresa Mike thank you so much for that informational presentation and providing that example Teresa because I know that that in from that that example came from the after-action meeting that we had at that uh after that incident last

082year so uh board what questions do you have again this is for information but they will be bringing back for action in the near future does it replace anything I know I hear everything is about enhancement but I I think one of the systems that's on the comparison list is something we currently have right but does it replace that or or are those are these additional features that we could adopt with that system so both um it catapult as our Choice provider for mass communications would replace entirely the Blackboard mass communication system that we have the EMS component that Mr frieders was just presenting on would be something brand new to our district all three of the vendors that you saw at their crisis go um catapult and raptor have some sort of relationship with

083the district and none of those this wouldn't replace any of those things that are already in place at this time so if Raptor's the one that's coming to your mind that's our visitor management system this is not a replacement to that got it so I had the same question so my question is they want forty five thousand more to do the EMS because Raptor already repter does this we have Raptor 2 at Westward we have this system which goes out to teachers cell phones correct so everything that you see uh on those three vendors is a mobile application that's either on a personal device a district device or even your laptop so it would be in addition to the Raptor that we're already using for our visitor management that's only one segment of raptors offering

084this would be in addition to that I wanna I wanna deal I do have one question for the for the student ambassadors up here um just a curiosity when we do Alice drills in the building do they just do a blanket Alice Alice Alice or do they say there's a perpetrator on the second floor b-wing um so I clearly remember just one happening this year and it was like they actually went there and they're like okay the perpetrator is like on like the second floor the specific way and our teacher is really good about like preparing us for that we did only do it once and I like kind of don't remember it I don't think my memory is that bad either so it's like I feel like I should remember it more than I

085do I definitely remember the procedures but I don't remember the specific steps which is kind of why I was like I was looking into the presentation and I was looking up more stuff about how this is going to work because another thing for me is that like I want this to be easily accessible because I feel like a lot of like the platforms that we use for certain functions in our district like it gets complicated and I try to like figure it out and I can and this is definitely something that should be like like really really easy to read Because if it's a crisis management thing this shouldn't be like you have to start figuring it out this is like you just like look at it and it's right there that leads to my

086next question given that it's an app would it be a requirement for the students to download or is it just for staff but you can't make it required either it would be a staff application that we would use and it would not be required on a personal device we would put it on all district related devices okay so if the teachers aren't going to put it on their phone you're wasting your money say it again so if the teachers aren't going to put it on their phone you're wasting your money yeah in speaking with navy District districts that have moved to a mobile application similar to this they rolled it out as an option they put it on all district devices the staff had the option to put it on a district device and they

087had very good reception among the staff I thought the numbers were 70 percent after rolling it out but staff eventually were very very open to the option and put it on their personal devices now you can track Lori do you have questions oh um so I have a couple of questions that says if needed reunification can be conducted with the app is that extra to this or it's all a part of the module it's all part of the package okay and then maybe you've answered this I apologize why now are we talking like why why did you bring this forward now as Teresa indicated it's been a project that I've been working on is coming into the district and it's feedback that I've gotten from staff our emergency plan currently acknowledges Blackboard as our Communications

088tool and obviously with that no longer being supported it provides for a whole in the system also the the general feedback from the staff was that Blackboard wasn't very functional for them to move on the go and use to communicate real time from staff to the administration so looking for something that was updated that was easy to use functional has been on our radar and you were asked to bring this forward yes okay thank you for that and then did you speak with other districts to see what they used and I'm familiar and used crisis go in my last district and then what was the feedback on that a very positive feedback on the application itself we looked at Raptors real-time usage particularly in running their drills and how they they practice their drills through

089the application so that in the event they needed in a crisis this is how they're they're training on it it was very well received by the staff and it functioned very well thank you catapult or Raptor the one that I looked at was Raptor right but so because we clearly we have Raptor but catapult does the same kind of thing where you can test it out with the staff so all three of these applications are going to recognized and supported by what is the standard response method that is sanctioned by I love you guys which is a not-for-profit organization that provides emergency resources for schools all three are on their list of approved vendors but I'm just the practice part is also on catapult yes the drill component yes and then just on a sidebar

090because I won't be here um maybe we could throw in a couple more alistrials I know we have what three or four that are required by the state but I don't think it's a bad idea actually we far exceed the state's recommendation so the state requires bylaw one supervised law enforcement drill currently we're doing six okay in each building my final question is one um the technology department also brought forward a proposal about radios and so forth have you worked together and how do all of these I guess what I'm I'm my question is I think is how do all these things work together and do we have it feels like a lot of different things modules or whatever and a lot of change at one time to roll out prior to school starting have

091you worked with the technology department and is this all it would be nice to see a presentation where we see how all of these things work together we have a new student information system rolling out it just feels like a lot of change all at once a lot of money and how are all these going to work together so the timing of them all being new at the same time is actually easier than having rolling out pieces because all of these are intertwined with one another so the student information system provides the information that feeds over to the mass communication system which provides the information that shares over to the EMS module so if we had different vendors that was one of the components as to why it was really we felt a better choice

092for catapult while they all function relatively similar being able to have that connectivity between the exact same vendor and not having a whole nother provider that leads to potential problems with data sharing back and forth so the fact that all of them are unloading at the exact same time is actually easier as opposed to unloading um you know an old mass comes with a new CIS and then the next year new mass comes with the new CIS and then we'd be changing it over and over again so easier for who easier for our Administration or easier for our teachers we're already experiencing several issues we've heard as Mike said as he was talking with staff um and certainly Scott and I have um heard feedback from everyone utilizing our current mass communication system that it

093is a problem it's not functioning appropriately we are having a lot of messages that don't go out or errors or downtime a lot of things that are leaving really unacceptable holes so it's really not an option that we don't find something that could help us to communicate in real time with our parents much like there really wasn't an option as far as the student information system went the EMS component is just an add-on it's not it's not a replacement for anything but it really is taking a number of things that are being done in silos so as was indicated when there's an issue you've got police working with people on the scene then you've got myself working with the public information officer from the police side using our components for mass communications and then trying

094to send that back to the school to be read overhead there's just there's a lot of gaps there and so this is allowing for us to really kind of take a number of disjointed siled things that are already occurring and kind of putting them into one easy place for tracking for um you know even like the um Anya mentioned being able right now initially this will be for staff but being able to go oh that was called overhead what does that mean and being able to look right away and see what that means and then being able to communicate concerns and whatnot back and forth with Administration while that's being done on the safety side we're then mirroring those similar messages on the public side back out to the community so it's really not a

095whole bunch of new things it's really kind of trying to streamline things that are already in place and not really um working well together Dr petsky Dr Kinkade do can you assure us that the transportation department that is asking for new um radio support the technology department and student information all of this works together you feel that this is the appropriate way um I what I don't want to see us do is make a decision on all of these what feel separate parts and then down the road we're like oh sorry this doesn't all work together yeah that's a good point so uh Brent and Kevin from the technology department as well as Mike and Jeremy have been working together on the handheld what we have in the schools and they use the handheld radios

096two-way radios for supervision for playground supervision lunchroom cafeterias Transportation parent pickup so they're doing a lot of communication with the two-way radios which we've already got in place the issue there is that technology is now over 10 years old and we have a we have an analog radio system and what we're looking at upgrading to is a digital radio system which enhances our capabilities I am fully I fully understand that actually we only need to do a software update to make it digital because I've looked into this and so forth so what my question is and I thank you for that and if other board members need that answered please like jump in but my question is is do all of these work together are they integrated and if we make these rather large purchases

097how what is the assurance that a they work together and B how long will it get us like down the road foreign work together like you can't access the EMS catapult through the two-way radios but the two-way radios play a very basic foundation in terms of their communication and then the EMS what they do in terms of a parent student communication effort is uh is built on top of that and then with our transportation radios uh definitely our handheld radios and the transportation that we're looking are the same technology and integrate so with a handheld radio you can go through a bridge to connect to the buses and transportation so they are I'd say that in instead of saying they're all integrated I would say that they are all building blocks of a more unified

098communication system than what we have now that's what I'm looking for silos and fragments that's what I'm looking for is behind the scenes have you work to create administrative procedures so that people know what to use when and so forth Dr Kincaid I'm sorry yeah and while John talks kind of more about the hardware what we've been trying to do is look then at the integration of the data in terms of the student data the parent data and the staff data I know that Scott has been working with Brett and Kevin has been working with Kim O'Hara from sis to make sure that where our staff data is entered can 2A work with some of the systems that we're now discussing to make sure as staff enter the building Mike and Scott and Teresa talked

099about staff that kind of move throughout the day so that that's a smooth transition also talked about the student and family data The Hub being sis but then can it talk and update that's all part of the discussion and process not only the aps that go along with when you enter where what are you going to do how do you get from Station to Station but we're looking especially um Scott Kim myself and Brett and Kevin on then the integration of the actual data thank you that's what I was trying to get to and you said it much more eloquently good so I I do appreciate the Cross interdepartmental communications collaborations because that's what we're looking for we're looking to see all of these departments working together in making these decisions so um one of

100the things you said was that Blackboard is no longer going to be supported um and we get that that's not you know something a decision that you all made what were the dollars that we were spending annually for Blackboard or so in in total Blackboard includes a whole other component that we don't have up here right now which I talked about before which was that website content management system our total is just under seventy thousand dollars annually for Blackboard but that would be those two components included and then these what we're bringing here that what you have in front of you right now is just what Mr frieders discussed just the EMS component of catapult and then we'd be moving our mass communications and then we'd be moving eventually our website content management system over

101the website's a much larger project and conversion than the mass communications would be so we'd like to kind of that's why we're bringing these two together right now we'd like to look just at these two components right now um to miss Swanson's point we did we did ensure the discount regardless of it what process we move all the components over to the same vendor they'd be recognized as a multi um multi-package here but we'd be looking at kind of a a soft transfer over away from the Blackboard 2 component product to the Catapult for those two and then the addition of the EMS component so the previous memo that I shared with you that I think is linked in board docs right now on the mass communications the website management has the total of those

102two amounts and then this would be on top of that amount okay so total is how much you know it's like 113. Dr Sparling could you work with the originals to put the together all of these proposals and show us what the actual Financial impact and how they all work together that would be I think incredibly helpful and then where are we getting the money by the way can we can he go first yeah so originally the Blackboard contract was signed Years Ago by the board after an RFP and it started as a much bigger program that we cut parts of every year almost as they kind of either phased out or didn't work it started as about a hundred and forty thousand dollar contract and our most recent cut from that was actually one

103year ago when the contract just sat over one hundred thousand dollars and then we cut out the uh like thirty thousand dollar chunk of an app leaving us at that sixty nine thousand dollar amount roughly um so all together what we've looked at is kind of presenting the board back with all of the pieces that you had when you had the original RFP proposal essentially over 10 years ago to get back in apps and integration and website communication and to have these interconnected things that then work with our new sis PowerSchool more unified than their current one which is where we get these these different parts and even our current vendor has switched pricing which we showed you during the information over a month ago and we can definitely bring back any pricing you need

104um about what you're essentially sitting at is depending on the number of products you get you get discounts and we're sitting just around 120 I want to say for that first year um but it it does vary based on students so like even your emergency management system is based on a like per student pricing so depending on the size of the district we get slightly different pricing but again that's kind of where you're at yes it is back up from where it was but it's it's actually right around if you went back and looked at our original RFP you're right around that original like web Communications price that the board originally signed but now you're seeing those components again also the question about where it's funded at so the mass communications and website content management

105system are already housed expenses within our department that has to continue clearly we need some sort of solution for those two what which vendor we utilize but that money's already captured in there and adding in the addition of this EMS module taking into account the discounts that we get with these multi-product add-ons really is absorbable within that existing amount that we were used to paying with Blackboard when we originated the contract and you said that was how many years ago when we first started with Blackboard it was before my time right I think it's about eight eight or nine years ago it precedes me too yeah but we haven't been budgeting that much 140 000 we haven't been budgeting that kind of money right for a while um we recently those two cuts that Scott

106talked about were within the last few years so it has been fairly recently that we've had that large larger sum of money in there um again that the cost didn't go down because we felt that we didn't need the components the cost went down because the components weren't functioning the way that we needed them to for example when we discontinued the app it's because the app wasn't integrating with any of our other systems so essentially was becoming a landing page and then logging in separately to a whole bunch of other things that's just because the functionality of that specific provider is not really the current technology so we do feel that there's a need for that component it's just that we didn't have the provider wasn't able to provide it so we didn't want to

107continue to pay for less than par product but that has been part of our communication suite and we would like to continue on with that and bring that component back one other thing to note is even just looking at this one for year one to year two um because of Any switch you'll see a higher integration cost for year one which is kind of those numbers we're bringing back up because like when you look at catapult year one two ongoing annual you'll see about a five thousand dollar difference right there which is like your startup cost unfortunately you're switching to any company we have to make sure that integration is smoother and then year two would be ongoing a little less so yes we will ramp up year one and then come back down which

108is also why catapult has looked at up to like a five-year renewal but I honestly just grandfathering in the price at that second year for discounts thank you it's switching okay we're moving on 9.1 action item bills and entertainment thank you bills for payment can I have a motion please I make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of three million 667.40 as presented second Mr Saron hi Mr Gatewood aye Miss Johnson aye Mr Plover aye Ms Swanson aye Ms Doyle aye Ms simultan aye motion passes 7-0 action item 9.2 approval of press policy manual section seven can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the draft press policies for Section 7 as discussed and presented second Miss Doyle aye Miss Swanson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms

109simultan aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson aye Mr Plover hi motion passes 7-0 action item 9.3 approval of building administrator contract can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the building administrator contract as presented second miss simultane I miss Swanson aye Mr pluger aye Ms Doyle aye Ms Johnson no Mr Cerrone aye Mr Gatewood aye motion passes six one action item 9.4 approval of District administrator contracts can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the district administrator contracts as presented second Mr cloger no Miss Johnson no Mr Cerrone aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms Swanson no Miss Doyle aye Ms simultan I motion passes 4-3 action item 9.5 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please I make a motion to approve the Personnel report as

110presented second Miss simulton aye Mr pluger aye Mr Gatewood aye Miss Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms Doyle aye Ms Swanson no motion passes 6-1 and we're moving on to 10.1 recognition of board members and students leaving office so can we just um like we huh can we come to the front like we do when we do the pride um you know you don't want to know about anymore not really I want a picture no okay oh we have a lovely picture from our last meeting that had our student ambassadors and many of our our beloved staff members there you go all right um so on behalf of the board we just wanted to say for your service we say thank you for your sacrifices for the time spent away from your families the missed

111activities the celebrations the travel and the like due to your commitments to the staff and the students of 308 the board offers a heartfelt thank you and our sincerest farewell as you transition from your board role again thank you from the Board of Education and we had something to do [Applause] has it been that long I recognize all right now Eugene is going to recognize the student ambassadors I was hoping I didn't cry when I did this no I'm just kidding but no the student ambassador's role has really been I think the Highlight for me and as I said last year you know when you all are doing this it's not about self-promotion it's not even about serving yourselves but it truly is about serving your peers and giving them a voice and providing the

112board with a a student's perspective that really helps us to govern and you're not only servant leaders as I talked about last year but you have grown and to be to be transformational in your leadership and there's a book uh that I was reading it's called the effective leadership Pro prototype for modern day and the author States this it says transformational leadership is a calling much more than a title a transformational leader does not care about how she is called she only cares about what she is called to do and the both of you have been the time that I've had the privilege to spend with both of you the dedication that you have put in to make sure that you represented the the student body has been exceptional and you are not only seen

113and heard but your voice is demanded that this board the administration and the teachers to take action so Anya and Caitlin thank you for your commitment thank you for your courage to speak truth to power and you've played a vital role that will not only shape the students of SD 308 but you're Legacy has already reached beyond the walls to transform how student voice is Incorporated in districts across the state of Illinois so thank you for setting the standard and blazing a path for the future of SD 308 student ambassadors and the superintendent student advisory Council on behalf of the board Dr sparlin and Dr Waller we know that this is only the beginning of how you will be transformational in every single environment that you will be in thank you so very much thank

114you so proud of you both thank you guys so much all right we're moving on to 11.1 administration of board members oath of office so will our new board members please bring your board member oath you have a sheet that has your Boardman or oat and if you come to the front here oh I'm sorry we can go now okay so we're going to read this together okay and where you insert your name just speak it and we'll read together so let me start each School Board member yeah I'm gonna have you do that each each School Board member before taking his or her seat on the board shall take the following oath of office so if you'll raise your right hand and we will read this together and you'll insert your name so I

115read it let's read it together do solemnly affirm that I will Faithfully discharge the duties of the office and the member of the Board of Education of Oswego Community Unit School District number 308 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States the Constitution of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my abilities I further affirmed that I shall respect taxpayer interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees I shall recognize that a school board member has no legal Authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a

116majority vote at a school board meeting I shall abide by majority decisions of the scoreboard while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels as part of the Board of Education I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the Equitable and quality of Education of every student in school district I shall Foster with the board extensive particip Association of the community formulate goals Define outcomes and set the course for our Oswego Community School District 308 I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law I

117Shall Serve as education's key Advocate on behalf of students in our community schools or schools to advance the vision for Oswego Community School District 308 and I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district towards fulfilling the vision of the board has created fostering Excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills knowledge citizenship and personal development welcome to the board back to the board thank you [Applause] oh man did I tell you both it was long it's long oh yeah well do you remember when the first time I read those I almost passed out well I was it was in the uh yeah the auditorium yeah 12.1 what which means indefinitely because this board that board no longer is constituted in the same way that it will

118be and so we are moving on to a new board so can I have a motion to adjourn do I do you want me to say that I make a motion to adjourn sign idea sign D.A second aye Mr serone aye Mr Gateway aye Mr clover hi item 13.1 uh Ursula may I have a roll call of the newly seated Board of Education Mr Cerrone here Mr Gatewood present Miss Johnson present Dr Mario present president can I have a rope I'm sorry can I have a motion to appoint the superintendent as president pro tem to preside over the election of the Board of Education president I make a motion to appoint the superintendent of schools Dr John sparlin as the president pro tempore is that how do you say to preside over the election of

119the Board of Education president second aye Dr Maria aye Ms Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms simultan aye Mr cloger hi Miss wendman aye item 15.1 the Board of Education will elect an officer for the position of President nominations are now in order for the office of President any member of the board May nominate any other member and nominations do not require a second I nominate Miss Hamilton Mrs Hamilton has been nominated for the office and president are there any other nominations for the office of president are there any other nominations for the office of president lastly are there any other nominations for the office of president if there are no further nominations denomination for the office of President is now closed Mrs simultan being the only candidate nominated for the office of President I

120hereby declare you elected by acclamations congratulations President simultan [Applause] okay 15.2 the Board of Education will elect an officer for the position of Vice President nominations are now in order for office of Vice President are there any nominations for vice president I nominate Mr Gatewood are there any further nominations for the office of Vice President are there any other nominations for the office of Vice President any other nominations for the office of Vice President if there are no further nominations the nominations for office of Vice President are closed Eugene Gatewood being the only candidate nominated for the office of Vice President the chair here hereby declares him elected by acclimation congratulations Mr [Applause] 15.3 the Board of Education will elect an officer for the position of secretary nominations are now in order for office of

121secretary are there any nominations for secretary I would like to nominate Jared pluger are there any further nominations for the office of secretary are there any other nominations for the office of secretary any other nominations for the office of secretary if there are no further nominations the nomination for the office of secretary is closed Jared ploger being the only candidate nominated for the office of secretary the chair hereby declares him elected by acclimation [Applause] 15.4 the Board of Education will establish regular board meeting dates times and places has everyone had an opportunity to look at 15 points four yes options for Monday meetings and options for Wednesday meetings I am unable to do a Wednesday meeting I um I just weigh in this um and I don't know how to say this delicately it was

122the one thing I was going to make sure that I said tonight um our meetings are still long and part of that is on the board we continue to bring questions that we we could have probably put in our weekly updates that would have helped other board members to maybe cut down on those um I I loved and I think we should all celebrate things that we're doing but honestly like we're going to go to graduation I hope one of the things that we don't do as a board is take up our Public's Time by all seven of us chiming in on graduation it's going to be an awesome event it really is um but we've got to figure out ways to cut down our um our time and one of the things that we

123went to iasb and brought back information on how we could do that and we as a board um the two new members of course excluded have not done those things um and um um I I don't have faith in putting a long board meeting on a Wednesday so I I vehemently say we still have to do this on a Monday I also would question if we've contacted and um had any communication with other taxing bodies that we overlay um maybe it's better to go to a Wednesday but I would need to see that um and if not um it would be a change for anyone and in the general public who wanted to um make sure that they were hitting as many of the taxing bodies as they could um I understand that I don't

124like to just do things because we've done them forever I agree with that assessment but I also need as a board member to see that we've communicated with those outside taxing bodies and making it easier on our voters so I strongly advise us to stay with the Monday meetings the one thing I'll add in um in uh I guess I'll say Pro for pro Wednesday meetings and if we do stay Mondays I want us to consider this that for and for the climate and culture of our staff and for the administrators preparing for the meetings most of the time I mean we of course we get the information on Wednesdays and so if we don't review it until Friday and send our questions in then that means that every other weekend pretty much our district

125administrators are working all weekend to answer our questions and or preparing most of the day Monday well it's just really Saturday and Sunday and so I just want us to be mindful of that as well because if it was all Wednesdays then they could give them Monday Tuesday and even the day or Wednesday to prepare um but you know myself included I have to do a better job with of course just my schedule and making sure that whenever I get access to the information I send whatever questions that I have so that they're not having to prepare and answer my questions on the weekends every single time sometimes we know it's going to happen but you know I just wanted to make sure that we were all mindful of how it how it does impact

126everybody for when for if it stays on Monday and and I think we can um the fact that Jen's not available on Wednesday I mean pretty much says that we're not going to do it on Wednesdays um and or should we you know um the um the board Norms you know we're going to talk about those and that's getting your questions in um so that's where a place where we can mitigate that issue I agree um as well um and so and bringing the questions up um getting them in early helps our staff and will help shorten our our meeting time too I agree and so it's kind of freaking do a lot of that all at once you said that we get the board packet on Wednesday we get in on Thursday and a

127lot of times that information isn't even up like for instance the superintendent profile wasn't up and that's nobody's fault here I just when we get it so it does make it a little hard but also for those of us that do have you know full-time jobs it's hard to then on a Wednesday get a board packet and or have to work it is having the weekend is very helpful for that I'm willing to do a Wednesday meeting if we want to start at 8 30. that's I have my son I have a I have a commitment no we we get it Monday It is Well we understand so then let's talk about let's talk about the time um I know we thought we may be able to get it up to six o'clock would that

128help I mean 15 minutes is 15 minutes six o'clock is fine with me six o'clock we do six o'clock okay so it's Mondays at six o'clock which is closed session that starts at six o'clock the public board meeting then begins at seven yes see if we can make that happen so I think I need to make a motion Miss Hamilton one question um this is would be starting in July so we would continue our regular meetings on Mondays at 6 15. okay okay no there's another half dozen meetings on top of there we could start if we wanted we could you could agree um starting on May 22nd or well that one's a special one that's already sir your choice so then can I our board meeting is is is now before we oh Maureen's

129got something I don't know okay perfect I was is now an appropriate time to see if Dr Mario and Mary Jo have are available those days are you talking about the superintendent interviews so this way we can not we can get your question answered in three seconds rather than reply emails yeah fifth and sixth and seventh I don't think Jared was here as well so I I think we need oh Jared wasn't here either yes I need to clarify the my responses I am available those three days at the end of May and I can be tentative and the fifth and the sixth and I could be tentative June 7th so for the 30th the 31st and the first it was four five and six so it's between from four o'clock to six o'clock on

130the 30th and the 31st but on the fifth this in the sixth and perhaps the seventh it's only five o'clock at five o'clock I definitely prefer 30th 31st and first well that it's both so there's there's three days on three days okay the initial interviews will be the 30th 31st and the first and then the last round will be the fifth sixth and the and maybe the seventh and the fifth is already a board meeting so we are just going to start out early yeah um I may have to do remote on the on those days if that's if that's possible okay I think it's possible okay so then we're going back to the motion for the change of the board meeting time so can I have a motion to hold our board meetings on

131Mondays starting in July at 6 00 pm but is that option one without the date with the date yeah option one at six pm second miss simulton I miss venmuth aye Mr cloaker hi Dr Mario aye Ms Johnson aye Mr Cerrone aye Mr Gatewood hi all right um Maria H [Laughter] just Maria was fine Maria 16.1 opportunity for the public to address the board of education do we have anything more comments no okay um can I just welcome our new board members and welcome back our board members [Applause] to Amy and Mary Jo and Dominic and Jared school board members decisions affect positively or negatively the learning experiences opportunities and outcomes for generations of students that is a responsibility that I'm sure you don't take lightly during your tenure May the reason you serve manifest

132in our district and the lives of our students and staff thank you in advance for your service thank you thank you all right 17.1 can I have a motion to adjourn make a motion to adjourn all in favor aye