001foreign I called to order the Oswego Community Unit School District Board of Education meeting for today March 6 2023 can I have a roll call please present all right can we all stand for the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you so I get to welcome you all and thank you for being here tonight I know that our schedules are full and there are plenty of other things that you could be doing and I'm glad that you decided that this was one of the important things that for you to do tonight so an important aspect of the board's role is to connect with our community and open forums are
002a way to accomplish that through conversations dialogue deliberations and Collective thinking the purpose of these conversations is to allow the board to hear and understand your educational aspirations and desires for your District the board then takes those desires with the district's direction as reflected in our statements of vision mission core values beliefs Etc so we want to thank you tonight for coming out we're going to have a robust conversation around our mission and we just want to make sure you understand that we value your voice and we thank you for being here tonight thank you thanks again for coming my name is Faith dalquist I'm the associate superintendent and I am standing in for Dr sparlin tonight he is at Illinois State he is cheering on our OE basketball team has made super sectional so
003yay um so we are dividing in and conquering some of the responsibilities uh this evening so once again thank you for coming to The Forum we really want tonight to be about open conversation and a dialogue but with a little bit of structure so you will see that there are questions at your table that will want you to go through uh and answer we want you to start out by introducing everybody at the table so that you know uh everyone there and then we'll give you about a five minute notice when we get toward the end and you'll need to select someone from your table could be the school board member to summarize and to share out so you know about the conversations that were held and then we'll have public comment at the end
004so start off with introductions and then work through those questions thanks thank you foreign thank you foreign is everybody ready to wrap up can I okay can I give you can I give you three more minutes okay I'm gonna give you three more minutes to wrap up and once you wrap up then what we'll do is we don't have to anyone can speak from the table we don't have to go um question by question if there's something that jumped out at you during the conversation and you want to express it feel free to do that more than one person can report out at the table it doesn't have to be just one person so I'll give you three more minutes and then we'll get started thank you five four three two one we're gonna start
005over here at table four so feel free to share out whatever you like you don't have to go question by question anyone at the table can speak up I'm going to bring you the microphone who wants to talk first out okay I mean we had lots of conversations um and we actually okay um yeah I was just saying we had lots of conversations and uh so I think everybody said what they want to say we actually talked about how to summarize this huh people in the live stream okay all right so first question was Thrive along their unique in uh educational journey and we just really stress flexibility uh tailoring to individual students student needs and connections um does anybody else want to add anything no we of course went into more depth um the
006two uh was what are this our district strengths and empowering supporting and motivating all students the skills of our teachers um we talked about student ambassador and student voice and choice um and then wait yeah that was about it for number three we talked about improving transportation and communication um teaching or self-advocating and social emotional learning um improving White Noise Communications IEP resources and what's important um was building a relationship with some adult you know like uh making sure the adults are available to our students and so and we do a good job we just can improve how can we work together to improve the overall theme on that was assuming positive intent we all want our students to succeed regardless of of their position we want to make sure that the you know that
007the curriculum is evidence-based and reviewed by the teachers and um was oh work together on transitioning our students from example for example from uh Elementary to Junior High to high school was there anything else that I kind of miss in the summary they said I did a good job I don't know yeah all right where am I going now all right so so first of all I'm going to ask that everybody give my table a round of applause because they definitely had some courageous conversations over here yes yes yes awesome thank you um our journey started at question number one we believe we sort of got around to discussing aspects of the other three questions um we talked about growth being individualized we talked about genius in all kids um a student who is defiant
008um has uh and how to how to change that mindset uh tapping into students genius um each student having something unique um one story uh not being the whole story right so we all have and I love this piece too right so each of us has a story here in 308 and and it's important like it's an important story right I mean they're actually that's like one of the things that's fun about this whole gig right I get to hear all these different stories but together they're kind of like their chorus right and and we need to be cognizant be aware and listen to those whole stories and so that was really awesome I told you this group was was awesome but there's also that fear of sharing right and that kind of gets in
009the way at times we are whether we want to admit it or not there are times where we are afraid to share we're afraid ourselves to be vulnerable and yet at the same time I hope we are reflecting and realizing we're asking our students to do just that I hope we're asking ourselves hey how are we going to ask our students to do something if we can't do it that's tough that's tough came up too when we talked about rigor right talking to people in Dartmouth to help with seventh grade math right and raising we're raising what were our expectations and we don't realize it uh staff are in different places just our students are in different places hey guess what so is our staff so are we so probably is everybody right and and
010I think we're at a point where we need to allow ourselves some Grace in those in those instances in those places uh problem sharing versus problem solving or I'm sorry problem sharing yeah did I say that right I think so so in other words hey here's a problem I found it found the problem okay how you gonna solve it right like how do we get to that mode how do we get to the point of of problem solving and and we talked extensively about I went to three different Junior highs today we talked extensively about hey what do we see at the junior highs and hey we we thought about a system solution over here and everybody started nodding their heads when when we said the word Middle School model right but but we know
011some of the some of the things that come up in with with that uh and and then led us to introducing the house system at bed narcik so it's not like there aren't people out there thinking about this right we know some of the things that we have and and we're thinking about that safe space for kids in which they can Thrive instead of thinking about their deficit instead of thinking in a deficit lens it's easy for any of us I think if we're really self-reflecting it's easy for any of us to go out and think about what did I not do right today probably constantly feel like we're under a microscope am I going to say the wrong thing what am I going to do wrong right our kids do not feel any different
012and then the last piece skills based versus performative based and I think that's a huge huge conversation that needs to be had because I think there's some Miss um uh I think we're not necessarily digesting that piece fully as a community right we're asking for skills we're moving away from a performance piece and I think that's important too so did I miss anything group I probably missed a bunch I did all right all right it's a good group good group Alina or whoever who we got no okay Anthony you're doing this I guess so all right all right all right right right right yeah good to see you all right okay I'll try my best is that loud enough okay so for question one what does it mean to um what is the logo that
013we have mean um making sure resources they need to be successful in school not only on the academic level but on a social level and another aspect of that is I hope that that definition would also mean that we are trying to reach our students at whatever learning curve they may have and giving the staff and the students the resources they need to make that that trigger that they need to be successful um number two um some T some students allow I mean I'm sorry let's try again there some teachers allow students to have redos for um for assignments they may have not performed as well in I think that I I was a former teacher myself and I it was no mandate by my school but I would have students that I knew knew
014the material and so I would allow students to have retakes anybody who scored 60 and under so they would um basically failing failing under but they get that chance to retake and you'll notice you'll be surprised and it wouldn't necessarily be the exact same test but it gave them that confident support that made them feel like this teacher cares about My Success not just whether or not pass it the first time around because education is not about a test result it's about empowering education inside that student that they can carry on from that point forward so I thought that was a very important approach and that's what was my voluntary approach and I'd like to see us do more of that I know that Oswego East is doing that at some degree correct that's awesome
015here okay yes okay so um some students are allowed to yeah redo assignments in order to raise their scores some don't like the like um some don't lack the policy problems um oh okay I see what they're saying I'm sorry that was wrong okay there's a lack of I think that one of the things we we'd like to see more of us is more policy driven um structures to our educational system and policies can can range but that would probably be a very good um thing to to invest a little bit more energy into and that's one of the things we see them doing pretty well in some aspects students like to have their voice and their choice and topics that they are debating so for example inclusive inclusivity um is a big thing in
016our district and that's one of the things that I I've noticed as I went to the various schools I went to about four and they seem to post a lot of comforting inclusive inclusivity I can't speak the word now inclusive wording that whether you you believe it or not it does empower students to feel a little bit more confident to be themselves and be recognized accountability can be an issue in standards can be set by people who also need to feel appreciated valued and supported and supporting our students and some of our schools can do a great job with this somewhere so my schools do a really good job with this and there are other clubs and um groups that also help students and parents feel involved and and pulled into the process of learning
017um and um number three which I don't have the question here um the um the opportunity for improvement I would like to see um I come I came from Chicago and I went to see me on vocational I don't know if anyone have heard of that place but it's an awesome school it teaches a great amount of academics but also these vocational skills that I could have used to go on to um to trade schools something like that I think the district would get a great amount of um of feedback and positive uh growth in our students if we offer those applications at a higher level learning and Military recruitment some schools when I went to school in high schools there were a lot of recruiters that came in just to speak about the military
018and opportunities they give I think our students can benefit from that also and also a lot of I think another thing that we could improve in is um differentiating instruction and that is again going the idea that every student can learn every student can grow every student has their learning style that you have to reach and be good if we took a little bit more effort and a little bit more investment in finding those so that we have less less failures which is going to build in my in my estimation would build up the entire student body if we can build up the lowest score as possible um dual credits could be should be separated from from AP classes only my son is in AP classes he gets dual credits and um I think it'd
019be a great thing if that was expanded out throughout the school's student population number four more Community involvement much like this I think this is awesome we're getting together we're talking with the we're discussing our students best interest and our District's best Direction and that can only build us closer as opposed to have everyone being sort of in our Islands um and with that comes the idea that I think another great thing would be is to have we agree that would be great is to have District sanctioned uh events at various schools and those can be of any topic of any style just the idea that you're pulling multiple people to each one of the schools so they get not only they get to know the parents but they get to learn the educational structure
020of a school the environment the look The feel and I think again that builds up community structure a community Oneness that can only help our students and um and of course make a difference every day and that is what every one of us should strive to do and we should strive to empower our students to feel like they they can do that also thank you hi um I'm Jameson uh three things about myself and favorite color right is that right no sorry uh so question one uh what does it mean for students to travel along their unique educational Journey um we focused a lot on the students and on the teachers I'll start with resources that we talked about um ensuring that every student has what they need um and I like what you said
021every student's got their own unique learning style you know they need to be catered to in some ways some things work generally and broadly some things don't work at all I actually was a student K-12 and yes we go 308 district and I had a very unique educational track and there were a lot of things that could have been done needs that weren't met um not to fault the district at all but there's opportunity for growth sorry we haven't got there yet I guess um so uh we talked about equipping teachers making sure that they had resources some things that uh totally off track I guess um we we talked a lot about the teachers um how they can empower the students uh and the students oh my gosh so I'll move on to question
022two now um what are our district strengths in empowering supporting and motivating all students we talked about student voice so we talked about how there are two students on the board of directors or um on the education board and how that's really important making sure that the students have a voice with the grown-ups right because they're not just being dictated the rules they're actually having a say in the rules they get they get to participate in the rule making so to speak and they get to uh they get to know that they were involved that they had they had a hand in this and that I think that gives them meaning uh gives them purpose and it's important for them to be involved uh strengths teachers teachers were something that we brought up a lot
023something that came up a lot where this teachers as the students biggest strength um other things that uh we talked about were opportunities that the students have opportunities like honors and AP something that was a big deal for me other things like sports and music and clubs and all the different ways that students can get involved at the schools those are all great strengths that the district has uh for meeting their goals opportunities for improvement we had brought up safety for students as actually that wasn't sorry I'm getting lost a little bit um one of the opportunities for improvement is communication communication between students and teachers teachers and families the district and parents communication all around ensuring motivation among the students I know that's a hard thing to do but um that is a way
024this that uh something that would benefit the students an opportunity for improvement and that we we also continue to talk about student voice with that um listening to the students making sure that they continue to have a say and last how can we work to improve um a big thing that we talked about throughout the whole conversation was being vulnerable right that communication and that trust piece and something that came up just in this question was accountability making sure that we could hold each other accountable that there are lines you can't cross like you gotta you gotta have a standard uh of dialogue and communication of of behavior from everyone from this from the students to the teachers to the parents to the school board everybody needs to be held accountable and we have that
025vulnerability that honesty and that openness as well as that accountability that sort of standard that we're all able to meet there is trust trust flourishes an environment like that and that can only bring good things for the students right when the parents trust the school district and the teachers and the teachers in the school district trust the parents the students will only do better when those dialogues those Community lines of communication are opened up the students will only be benefited and with that one thing that came up as well was to stand with each other where we can right rather than pointing out the differences between us you know something that was brought up there were a lot of head nods around this relatively diverse table people that don't necessarily agree with each other on
026all kinds of things we agreed on a lot tonight and that shows right there um that we can stand with each other and where we can we have to fight to stand with one another for the sake of the students that's all I have to say thank you this is this is the result of our our teachings our experience his experience with us our our future is in really good hands right um okay so um okay an update I don't know if you all know that our Oswego High School East Oswego East boys High School boys basketball team is um playing right now in the is this the second Super sectionals and the score is 2015 and we are up at the end of the first quarter so and so before we adjourn the last
027item on our agenda is 5.0 board member comments do any of our board members have any comments that they'd like to make thank you for everybody that came um and I I hope that when these forums are done in the future we continue to have this kind of um outpouring and and participation and I want to say thank you to our staff that are here it's noticed your time put in cannot thank you enough so thank you I second that and just wanted to say you know we if you haven't noticed we have changed the structure of how we do our open forums and I think it's evident by the participation today that we are going in a direction that you all want um in the past it's been where we sat on the stage
028you sat here and you spoke to us about your concerns regarding the administration um and that's that was all finding good but by voting by your feet you told us that that wasn't where you wanted to go because the participation was was very low but I thank and I appreciate you all for being here tonight and if this is the direction we want to go we'll just keep going in this direction and I appreciate you all for being here because I know that there's a lot going on in our communities and for you all to be here tonight I very much appreciate it so and on behalf of the whole board we appreciate it very much okay and I need to adjourn right oh wait we just need to adjourn so all it do I
029need to do though can I have a motion to adjourn oh oh no there is no public comment there are no public comments okay motion to adjourn second all in favor any opposed we are adjourned