001Mr Cerrone here Miss Doyle Mr Gatewood president Miss Johnson via phone Mr ploger present vehicle Miss Hamilton president miss Swanson president motion passes 6-0 we are not Open Session everyone stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of the United States of America under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay 4.1 public comment on behalf of the Board of Education I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we received from our residents and foreign interested in speaking to the Board of Education this evening are asked to have completed a common card and presented it to the second when the secretary calls your name I ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record
002and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to five and that no Personnel matters or responses the board does not participate in the discussion during public comment follow up to your questions or concerns will be addressed by Administration Dvorak good evening my name is Shelly Dvorak I want to thank you very much for allowing me to have this opportunity to participate in what is important in our community um Dr sparlin thank you I mean you've done a white great job and I wish you the best in your retirement okay with that being said and done with the glasses on so I can read um I am here as a taxpayer as well as I work here in OE as a TA as you know this has been a concern for ours for months
003last session I know Mrs hartigan made a comment of 4.5 million dollars that's being spent on in regards to substitutions and contracts for TAS and teachers I have to tell you that was a number that just blew my mind um in a district that is you know our we're Penny pitching and I have seen it for the last 25 years it's a number that is just overwhelming frustrating not only for myself as a taxpayer but also myself as an employee of the district I'm speaking tonight in support of other taxpayers like Mrs d'alessio who has spoken before and Mrs hartigan who has also spoken as an oeta for compatriots um these ladies have discussed the fact that the members um such as the 4.5 million has been spent for the teachers substituting they also have
004discussed the lack of quality of the contracted support staff um as Mrs hardigan made comment at the last one a contract sub refused to do her Duty and Mrs hartigan had to be pulled from her own student to cover this this contract sub the frustration is um continue to continue uh we are doing our very best and yet we're not the ones who are being part of the discussion um I want to discuss also The Exodus of good staff due to lack of financial sustenance lack of direction from teachers and administration who are overwhelmed with their own sense of responsibilities their own Mile High care for their students and their teaching please don't get me wrong these are all many good things about our teachers and our support staff I mean we've got kids that
005are just doing amazing things going to State our Scholastic Falls are you know becoming going into sectionals and going to Regionals and such we have fantastic Fine Arts students who are getting gold keys at whatever conferences that they're attending we have students that who are doing well emotionally but sometimes they're not getting the support they need and then you have you know we can't forget our sports teams I mean we've got several students that I mean I mean it's amazing to see this young and man cheating his dreams and we have students that are going to State we have students are going to sectionals and doing a fantastic job so obviously our district is doing something right however there are things that we are not doing correctly and where that is start coming from the
006top in the essence of asking the right questions to the right people I mean you ask a teacher something that a support staff is doing can they truly answer everything in an efficiently way can they can I as a support staff say yeah the teacher is great in this class or you know this teacher's not so hot in this class well who's asking uh to continue on with all this being said um the district really needs to do a self-check we need to decide what's important the priorities of that I mean I was here the night that we were talking about the list of contracts and we couldn't get a straight answer of how many contractors that we had in that list and it was like I'm like whoa that's Financial why aren't we having
007this you know check and balance the frustration is here we're losing good staff and the good staff is going on to other districts so I'm really hoping that as a board we are doing these self-checks and finding and asking the questions we need to ask thank you thank you Joanne Johnson probably don't need this introduction but my name is Joanne Johnson I've been a resident of Oswego for 26 years and have had five students go through the Oswego 308 School District I have one more left who is a sophomore I will tell you that my experience as a parent and and success of my five children has been off the charts and I do attribute that to the school district and to the teachers within the school district what I will say is that all
008of my children have gone through the honors programs and I think that's a big part of their success as well as us as parents advocating for them to be in those programs when maybe a teacher didn't acknowledge um that that they were ready for it but you guys definitely hurt us um as far as the Gen Ed and the special ed kids those are the ones that I see that are really lagging and and falling behind and you know I was very thankful to be included in the session where um the three superintendent firms came in to present what they had to offer to our district in order to find the right person for the job I was disheartened that we have issues in the district such as academic proficiency as well as employee satisfaction
009and ultimately without our teachers being happy with what they're doing they're not going to be as effective in teaching our children and that is very much at the root of what is going on within our district but what I heard coming out of the gate with each one of them was talking about diversity and inclusion and to me that was disheartening not because I'm racist not because of anything other than as a parent as a taxpayer I want the very best person in the position that can take on the challenges that our district is facing I would like to see somebody who can go up to bat and can strike out and say hey I missed the ball let's try something different the relationship between the superintendent and the school board is so critical to
010the success of a district they have to be a team they have to have respect for each other and they have to align on the goals and ultimately we have a lot of discourse between the administration the teachers and the Board of Education now I have to acknowledge the board because I've been fully immersed for a little while now and you guys do this as a service to the public you're not getting paid for it and I know that you have absolutely taken plenty of heat and some of that heat came from yours truly would I back down and anything that that I fought for no because ultimately it was for the kids but I would like to stress that I hope and pray that when the next superintendent or even the company that's going
011to be helping choose the next superintendent that we aren't picking them for anything other than their capabilities and I would absolutely like to thank Miss Johnson Miss Doyle Miss Swanson and Mr pluger for supporting the school board candidates being involved in the selection process because we don't know which four of us are going to be honored to sit up there to help turn things around because we would be willfully blind if we thought that there were no issues here so I want to thank you for that because again as I said before that relationship between superintendent and board is absolutely critical to the success of our school district and our children all right item 5.1 is our annual presentation on community relationships and Partnerships report Mrs dalquist and Mrs commutis will be presenting this evening
012all right I believe that they're going to pull up the one page summary so you can see uh what we are talking about uh and while they are doing that I wanted to highlight that usually we have a large team uh here oh it's over there okay I'm waiting for it to be there all right we have a whole team of people that work on this Michelle early Jadon Waller Renee Sartor Denise Hildebrand and Kristen Paul I do a lot of the work around this as well so I definitely wanted to give a shout out to them what you see there at the beginning is just the goals that are listed in Envision 308 in 2026. but if you scroll down then you get to on the left hand side are the indicators of success
013from last year's last year's presentation that are still listed in Vision 308 and then the column to the right is the progress that's been made so far so one of the things that we're really working on is uh Gathering and feedback through student ambassadors and having that group expand they've recently developed a mission statement that will be later on in the agenda today and then have done some work with mental health and a student survey then on our website page one of the goals was to have a list of current partners and then have a draft of a pamphlet and a push and they have really worked together to get a list of Partners and put that on so that future business partners would be recognized there and then this group of people that I
014talked about so far really worked hard to put together a list that was from all of the different departments so that it is on our website with all of the pieces around special ed around English learner around diversity Equity inclusion around SEL so it was one stop shopping for our parents and that has been successful and they've been pulling together to do all of that and I think I'm going to turn it over to Teresa sure so um the next one that's up there is the draft plan for the parent education Summit and the community chats and that was just the end of what faith just covered so that's kind of continuation of everything that we've done there the next one is the alumni we are currently working on building a database on our website
015we have an opportunity for people to sign up and we include that in newsletters every now and then we are building that core up we want to have that single spot for people to be able to come register at the district and for us to communicate so that first newsletter was an accomplishment and then we presented to the the CAC communities so the community advisory committee that met here on our different opportunities for communications and some of the Community Partnerships that we have across the district and then the dashboard and that's an ongoing one but that is updated after each one of these meetings on the district we did include a link to that in the last newsletter as well so people can kind of follow along but we do update those in all the
016presentations that are shared here as well as the presentations that are included and board docs can be found on our website following each meeting and the next piece is just the indicators of success that we'd like to bring back at next year at this time when we do this same in or report and by then we want to have a standardized feedback form that we use for all of our parent engagement opportunities and make sure it's tied to Envision 308 and then get our feedback on how they've found it to be successful or not and then the next piece there is continue the website listing of Partners and create a form for future Partners to complete if interested so if they're looking at the website they have a way to contact us right away we're
017going to continue that whole group working together for a parent page and work on a parent survey to know what they might be interested in coming in and what Forum that would be whether online or in person and back to Teresa and then we're going to continue to grow that Alumni network and begin some quarterly newsletters within those there will be opportunities and ways for people to come back and be part of things at the district announcements on public events and those sort of things and continuing to update that dashboard on a regular basis and then the bottom is just how all that ties into Finance student learning support for student learning and of course Community Partnerships just remember that the whole slide Deck with all of the details it will be posted on the
018website tomorrow it is also in board docs this evening does the board have any questions in regards to the presentation this evening small suggestion can we clearly I won't be here so tell me if this is out of the realm of possibility but um if you slide up just adding and I again I don't know how it would be done but adding a student voice piece would be nice like even if it's like you know some kind of here's our clubs or here's our sports teams or here's our just some sort of students giving feedback on OHA feedback are you talking about the survey well or even just little you know little videos that kids make that that you know even if it's just on canva or whatever just something like you know here's our
019club here's here's what we do or here's just some you know some you know the talk program or right well I don't like again I don't I just like the only thing that's missing from here for me is just a is a student-led and I know that we're just kind of getting started on this whole so again clearly I will not be here for that I mean I'll be here in the district but I won't be here right I just mean some sort of you know like a student ambassador report or uh you know a like a I mean there's so many things that happen in all of our buildings all the time we do try to use social media platforms to capture a lot of those stories on a daily basis and use that
020as kind of a platform so it's not so many stories because they are literally multiple every day yeah um but I mean we can certainly look at trying to to weave some of that back in most of the goals around this quadrant of the Envision 308 plan are really focused on connecting at that higher level the district with the partner organizations and bringing some of those opportunities like the parents to have educational things and sponsorships and some of that that we have that really comes into the district level a lot of it doesn't seep down um to the student level but we certainly can look at it through that lens I think the student advisory committee piece is probably the only place up their faith I don't know if you ever jump in that's probably
021the only place where we have specifically called out students and that really is student-led and and involving students at every aspect of that portion of it but beyond that a lot of it is really that 2000 foot District I think to Ali's point though if we if we did have a way to report out what students were doing just so that the community could be could appreciate um all of the great things that our students are doing it may spark uh the idea of a Community Partnership with someone they say oh I can help them to do that better by whatever it is but I think it'll it'll be great PR for the community to see all the great things that the students are doing so we do yeah and if you don't shout out
022here if you don't follow us on social media please do but yeah we do try to put those stories together so anyone across the district can always email stories at sd308.org that's just a little if you have if you see something you hear something neat if your students have come home with some neat idea like that's what we try to do is use that as a vehicle to get that information back to the district office because you're right there's so many cool things every day but we're not in all of the buildings to capture all that so we rely on everybody to help us be our eyes and ears so please share the stories and we absolutely love to to feature those those are certainly more fun than the business stuff thank you I have
023a I just have a comment um and then to follow up first and foremost um just in a huge amount of gratitude to Mrs early and Dr Waller um uh some of the programs that I've participated in uh this semester um have come from these two Educators and they have been very powerful so thank you for the work that you do I think sometimes it's exciting really powerful I had a parent reach out to me that said that they were looking for a specific matter and I said well this is very interesting we have a community chat very interested [Music] sort of a weeping phone call back saying thank you um it was really fun something that she needed and I share with what it was but it was an incredibly important and Powerful so
024the work that you're doing is really hidden home in this District to that though I would like to say do can we have a little bit more communication um and maybe even some um and when it comes to communication because so many people that I share these with don't realize that they're happening and again I'm not saying you guys aren't communicating I know for a fact you are you all information overload somebody's really important um communities Outreach that get lost so maybe we should consider just something a little bit more proactive and um the word out there I think that's incredibly important and then the other feedback that I got was something about having to sign up through years can there be an easy obey so I just wanted to pass that close piece of
025information along but again some really really important work being done here and I'm incredibly grateful that it's getting superintendent report well good evening board uh February is Black History Month it's important that we remember that black history is American history and we all should set a time aside during the month to acknowledge the struggles resiliency and inspiration of black Americans throughout history and today they ask that you keep please keep an eye on our weekly newsletters as we share uh the these stories about different people some of whom you know and some of whom you may not know and uh but they all Inspire us all there's also a special webpage on the website with links to local events and other ways we can celebrate this important month tonight I am going to share a
026number of celebrations because there are many this year we had a number of Staff members who are recipients of the those who Excel award that are given by the Illinois Illinois State Board of Education so congratulations to Southbury principal Samantha sinovich who received the award of meritorious service in the administrative category do a language instructor at Hunt Club Diana calvillo who received the award of meritorious service in the early career educator category first grade teacher at the wheatlands Barbara Richmond who received the award of meritorious service in the teacher category and the members of the bionic program believe it or not I care Wendy prep kawain Prado and Rachel azifer to receiving the award of special recognition in the team category these honorees will be invited to the 49th annual those who Excel and teacher
027of the year are banquet on April 29th so congratulations to all of our district recipients and I think that deserves a round of applause that's quite enough quite a great thing here all right as I said there's a lot of good stuff happening here so I'd also like to congratulate our Oswego Co-op gymnastics team on winning the 2023 ihsa Regional Championship this is their fifth consecutive title they will compete at sectionals tomorrow night congratulations to the panther OHS Panther co-ed cheer team I'm placing sixth at the state finals uh this past weekend congratulations to OHS girls bowling team as they are the regional Champs in both oh and OE girls Boeing we'll move on to the sectionals this coming weekend as well also a number of our students from both Oswego and Oswego East High
028Schools recently earned multiple Awards in the National Scholastic arts and writing competition in the Midwest region eight students who won the gold key will have their work Advanced to the national competition which takes place in March the Scholastic art and writing Awards give students the opportunity for recognition exhibition publication and scholarships also last week's over 30 student athletes joined a national Signing Day on February 1st as they committed to their verbal scholarships offers that they've received from their colleges for the next academic school year congratulations to those students and we look forward to seeing them continuing their athletic success at colleges and universities across the country and in closing I'd like to remind that a reminder that the five essential survey is underway and open to all parents through March 31st if you haven't already
029please take the time to complete the survey this feedback is important to the schools a 20 parent participation rate needs to be reached in order for those results to be be provided to the schools so more of the information is available on the home page on our website and that is my report for this evening 2.2 student ambassador report hi everyone so the ssac is playing planning to meet again on February 9th this Thursday and we hope to narrow and continue working through the many facets of mental health which is one of our goals for this semester we also hope to introduce the ypar process which is the youth-led particip participatory action research which was used last year when making research questions Gathering results through the survey that was sent out to students and developing
030solutions to what we focused on which was sexual harassment as we transition into this analysis of mental health of the mental health responses within the school we want to look at the schools and the student population and we want to create an environment in which students can amplify their voices and with an added perspectives of the new members we will be able to see how mental health is treated in the district 0.3 all right so I thought we'd do a board member I'm good I got that too okay um so in your for the public you can you can see the documented um reports of equity financing those they are they are now I would just ask are there any addition of those reports reports if no questions you'll move on to 6.4 we had
031another committee yeah policy and legislative or like 100th meeting I want a board member because I wouldn't let John talk about wrestling member comments there you go see so there's also really quickly before we get started I just wanted to be due to the truly happy of this the fancy that there is another one coming up this Monday and it has been added and added our schedule just because of the sheer amount of work that we work is what that we're doing so I just want to make that clear to the community thank you thank you tons of meetings tons um so on top of that um Oswego East had four kids qualify for sectionals um wrestling sorry um and an alternate and Oswego High School took fourth as a team um we have five
032qualifiers five alternates and uh Cruz Ibarra got his 100th win as the first place match so our champion hit his hundred hundredth win as a senior as the Champaign regionals which was pretty cool to see it's awesome um I would like to shout out um Amy Overstreet she is the family and consumer Sciences teacher at the nursing Junior High leadership panel for the students of that class and it's about 80 of them and it was a forum by which be invited leaders from all over the community to her class and it table and the the question that I got most was what is happening routes there was a person who called off sick and so therefore someone else had to take a double route and it left them at minutes for 30 minutes more and
033obviously it impacted them greatly because they they asked me about it a lot and table and then they would rotate in every rotation that question was a question and so we're just you know you know better for for our students and I you know I tried to articulate it to them in in the eighth grade way that I could we have no work to do um go ahead no were you done I'm sorry yeah we're done go ahead uh I have the uh opportunity to do a site visit over at Traver uh if you've never had the chance to go see the library first of all uh definitely go there it is there's so much to do there I want to spend the day there um a lot of students going in uh it is
034more than just showing up and getting a book say the least it is uh quite quite something to say the least um I was able to tour the building during school hours I have to publicly apologize to Ms Kellogg for interrupting her class but um the good news is the fellow social studies teacher uh it was a lot of fun getting drilled by a student so so I'm always up for that it was a nice uh local Civic lesson which I'm always up for that as well uh any chance we can get to um bring local Civics uh to uh classrooms I'm I'm game but I will Echo what you said uh they were definitely uh what they wanted to talk about with Transportation well actually after I should say after the one to know
035my favorite school which I told them I do not have a favorite school I do have a favorite mascot but uh that's that's the secret we will keep but um yeah Transportation was definitely uh what they wanted to talk about and it was interesting what it affected um and so uh I have said this before and I will continue to say um the bulk of what I'm getting is that at the junior high level um I did have some parents uh that I have been talking to uh one-on-one who did reach back and say hey I've seen some improvements so after that but a bulk of of what I still received and directly from student voice at this point um is built Junior High and transportation so uh overall though uh while remarkable uh visit
036at Traver suited that um just just remarkable um although a couple students thought I was a former teacher and now I forget the name escaping me but I had to go introduce myself uh apparently I get mixed up with a lot of people but I was not that person so very impressed The Traveler it's a great site visit that's all I do want to just say um as the board president you know I I speak for the entire board and I I don't take that very lightly and um so when our board we understand our next superintendent of course that understands shade that and I I could not agree more I will I will today I think it was Friday um sometime last week that was just once again beautiful to see I hid in
037the background to see the from the studio while they're they're serious stuff there's a lot of funny and just see the light bulbs something that I will always be grateful for as they make picture of them so sit around their and I'm going to get emotional emotional um and then they talk about what it means and when we're untying and when we when we hurt each other and the things that stand that uh really hard to take those things back up because the wrinkles are still there and I think we have to continue you know get to meet with some not meet with but some of the candidates that I haven't said they're involved we cannot and it you know a lot of a long time social media has you realize that we have a
038lot more in common have or that we different teachers and um what changes we're making so maybe at a future board meeting we like what we are doing and we can hold ever support transportation Department in sure that our students are safe transported out on instructional thank you we're not 7.1 consent agenda are there any questions on the consent agenda can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda please uh make a motion to approve all items under consent including 7.1 minutes for the Board of Education meeting on January 23 2022 open and closed session and 7.2 to acknowledge the foia request received by the district second Miss Swanson aye Mr Cerrone aye Ms simultan aye Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson hi Mr cloger Mr pluger sorry thank you hi hi we got you
039now yep the ugly counts one before she passes president simultane we're getting some feedback that it's hard to hear in the microphones on the recording so if everyone could just speak up a little bit thank you item 8.1 is in for as an informational item on financial statements does the board have any questions on what's been presented this evening well I'll go first I am the broken record we really need to provide some more transparency when it comes to our spend and so I am board meeting we can please have a month to month care for court that explains Earth year over year so that the board members can understand or spending is very cyclical um and so it's very it's very important for us to see because the last year versus this year on
040a month-to-month basis typically it is a report that you should be able to get from our financial software but nonetheless Earth but I really like to see the CDR item 8.2 is information on roof bids for Oswego High School and Homestead work to be done this summer Dr pesky all right and I'd like to introduce uh both Bill Queen our director of buildings and grounds along with uh Charlie Johnson our representative from kluber Architects so that they can share with you the most recent bids that have gone out and the information about those good evening President Hamilton Dr sparlin you guys got me on the board of education I think yeah go close how's this on January 26 2023 bids were publicly open and read aloud for the above reference projects OHS and Homestead Elementary
041we're going to start with OHS three contractors chose to submit bids for the project low base bid was submitted by JL Adler Roofing and Sheet Metal incorporated from Joliet Illinois and the amount of 531 470. second lowest base bid was submitted by Metal Masters roof Inc from McHenry Illinois in the amount of 623 723. we only received three bids from them so that's that's where we were at Homestead roof replacement five contractors chose to submit bids for the project the low base bid was submitted by Metal Masters roof Incorporated from McHenry Illinois in the amount of 769 thousand four hundred twenty three the second lowest bid was submitted by JL Adler Realty sheet metal excuse me Inc from Joliet in the amount of 799 400. the bids that we had received with the two lowest
042from for each any questions uh Mr Queen did the mids come in uh at budget under budget over budget so oh was under Homestead was over but you need to remember we submitted those drawings three years ago so there was a little inflation there very good thank you thank you Bill uh board does any any questions regarding these this informational item for this evening just one other question in regards to the oh Roof bid uh I know we've we've repaired or replaced or fixed sections of that roof before will this be a hundred percent completion of that roof or what percentage of completion would it be if not a hundred that that would not be a hundred percent completion the percentages it is a little hard to say that it's a mixed up system right
043we have a bunch of different roofs going on in there it is in scheduling it isn't a plan so at those dates we will reevaluate those um Mr Gay with OHS is a school that's been uh added on to a number of times so there's many different sections of the roof that would be done at you know that would come up we have you know their end of life would come up at different times but I'm sure that we could provide that information if needed does that absolutely does that fix the leaks in the locker room and in the athletic entrance no um I have one question um is this uh as far as the bid did they come in about where we Homestead we were a little higher OHS we were under what we
044expected so they were both really close to where what our uh Figures were at all right any other questions for item 8.2 item 8.3 is a update on the work that's been done regarding our district admission statement Mrs dalquist thank you well as you know we've been working on a district mission statement for many months we've had groups such as the board themselves executive leadership team student ambassadors our community Advisory Group and most recently we took the final copy we saw it fitting to take it to the superintendent student advisory Council so that student voice would have the final touch on the mission statement that we bring to you tonight the current statement that we are seeking for approval at the next board meeting at February 27th is together we Empower support and motivate all
045students to thrive along their unique educational Journey then we will be coming back at the next board meeting seeking approval I've had the opportunity to sit in on three of the discussions and it's been incredible to watch the dynamic of the conversation was different in all three settings and it was the pros and cons for all of the descriptive words and then now to even be a part of the the last one with the students where they landed at motivate being the word but I think that I think it encapsulates even a part of the community advisory committee uh during that I think this encapsulates quite well um who we are who we strive to be in the future for our students so I just really appreciate the effort that went into it to make
046sure that all stakeholders had a voice in creating it very good any other questions I just want to share that I just feel as though voting on this in February is not in our best interests we have the opportunity with um with the whatever um superintendent search firm we go with to get a lot of good news Community about what they want they want just in a superintendent but what they want um we've waited this long and I foreign we can always change it when a new board is seated right when a new superintendent comes in we're not spending millions of dollars printing correct we're not spending millions of dollars Printing and uh a mission statement can be changed anytime but it's also something that I wouldn't think would be you know is this the
047last mission statement this was done in 2015 so it's been some time you know when we talked about it in June the ideas of of uh you know does it currently match the work that we're doing right now in SD 308 and the answer was no so we've gone through quite a process to get to the point we're in but this is a discussion that the Board needs to have if you want to find us to bring it to the back to the board for approval on February 27th or if you'd like us to hold on that when I think about this um I'm not sure if the format of the search firm and what they're actually looking to elicit from our community um I don't know if it's something that that they have to
048specifically add requests or or what what would that look like in order to speak to this hospital I'm not adjusting that whatsoever but I am suggesting is as we're looking for a new superintendent no District it's just made just makes sense that in before before you know hired and also came to get the best we get from the community about about the new superintendent could be helpful to the board just just the feedback but I'm not suggesting it would just be interesting superintendent we stand getting around since 2014 2015 . yeah a disappointed clarification yeah I just want to make just one point of clarification because I don't think it is something that's being slid in I think we've been going through this process for uh for some months with intentionality of getting it completed
049and then new information came to light while we were going through the process so I don't want it to appear as though we're putting it on the agenda just to get it approved now I do I do agree that um I do understand I should say how getting the the input of the current or the the next superintendent could be beneficial but I think that if we believe that this mission statement is representative of who we are then I think that it really just informs the next superintendent in regards to our mission and then they can decide if if who they are aligns with who we are because I believe we you know we did get our our community's feedback we did go through the process this is not something that you know was created
050in a vacuum by the the board we lit we did circulate this throughout the community to all stakeholders so I just wanted to make sure that um I don't I don't know if I understand completely what you're what you're saying or about sliding it in to get it approved now so part of the things that we went through my very first year here when we did listening sessions for Envision 308 uh and we listened to uh the number was over 3 000 people as we had some things with Community groups as well as staff and students to come up with the the statements that were in Vision 308 and we did go through with different committees through board Committees of what the you know priorities were there and then we looked at Envision 308 and
051through the notes of those conversations to begin to draft phrases and statements and then we came to the board and to the groups that are mentioned there in the memo I think that it's very fitting that we ended with students in amplifying their student voice that is something that is really unique to our district that we believe in that and I think that that group uh as part of their first meeting went through and made this important decision would be an important consideration for whether we would approve it at this time I just don't to to act upon this and I I please the customer to someone who has a long history and did and also envision keep going down a road Where We Are [Music] heard from okay thank you Jim thank you Mr
052s Jeff so is there anyone else who feels does okay then we will go forward putting on it on the point one action item approval of bills for payment can I have a motion please I make a motion to authorize the bills of payment in the amount of three million 169 320 and 25 cents as presented oh second Mr Cerrone aye aye Ms Johnson Mr ploger Miss Swanson hi Miss simulton hi motion passes six zero action item 9.2 approval of superintendent search firms so here we're going to pause and have I don't have a comment on um um yeah I don't have a comment on the the search firms but I heard concerns about the quality of candidates that we might get if we were to um try to move forward and have a superintendent
053seated um you know by July so do we um want to consider engaging with the search firm but other alternatives well as a social scientist right you know many of us will say that it's not the history repeats but it sure does rhyme and uh for many of us who have been engage engage voting I would say active actively engaged and voting and and definitely paying attention for quite some time in this District um we those of us we really remember uh back to I believe it was 2013 right when we had a superintendent who uh that superintendent resigned in February and um we had a search for one of the search firms that um would that came into our boardroom the other day and they've presented a candidate do a board during election year
054um and we came up with uh Dr Wendt uh at that time and I think that was in late May and that was Blade the blade in the process um for finding a superintendent and I think that we do the community a disservice if we don't learn from what we've done in the past this is not to and I want to make sure I reiterate them this is not to point fingers at anyone from the path because we are a community and we learn together the point of bringing this up is we should not necessarily or we should take any consideration right um you want to travel down that road again and I would say that we probably should learn lessons from our path and um I definitely want to reiterate that I think we're
055going to have a new board and the new board needs to be able to get along with our new superintendent but I also think that we need to realize that getting uh into this late in the game is also going to hinder us finding the best possible candidate we can bring in for our community and that's what we should do we should bring in the best person we can bring in for our community I think we need to realize those two things can I get clarify Clarity on a couple things you said Jared just first thank you and just Clarity on something else you said Jerry you said going down that road again um just just from a contextual knowledge let me know which road and then also because you have contextual knowledge you're asking
056you said uh it sounds as if you're saying we should consider additional options what are those options we needed we we felt and and by the way I I again want to reiterate I am not pointing fingers at that board um because I believe the community felt the same way so I don't think the board was acting in a way that was not reflective of the community so I want to say I think the board at the time and the community felt that we that we that that position and and that's what that board did um they filled that position uh they did they did what was after them right um however um once that position was filled uh there were definitely some things that alarmed the community uh once that position was filled uh
057there were some things that perhaps um uh made the community uncomfortable with what they were finding was coming out of Iowa at the time and um I think there were people in the community had some buyers remorse um and I want to be careful where I go with some of this but um you know I I think the point of all of this is to say that um and the lesson to be learned is we need to make sure that we are doing our utility so so Jared and then I'm just going to speak to Dominic and what Jared I think are trying to say correctly if I'm wrong um so normally you you um Embark upon a search for a superintendent that process for most districts um who take the time to do it
058starts in like October um at the latest so right now we are significantly behind in terms of the time frame in which we would pick us because right now for this year because right now um districts have either already named their superintendent or are in the very last stages of of our next year so here we are in the month of February process which would mean and if we are who say we are which is we want to make sure that our new board has the access and offer offer to be a part of that particular process then we're looking at May June and in May and June the candidate selection pool is very shallow so do we want to from a shallow pool of candidates I think is not what you're saying Jared is
059you picked in May and you felt like maybe that pool was really shallow and you wanted a better process Jared didn't pick in me I did and the pool wasn't shut up Okay so so I I spoke to um personally for myself I needed to understand what um what the pool would look like and I did speak to one of the um the search firms that was here and I asked them that question and they they were pool is going shallow that delegating but they were also saying that the pool is shallow no matter what because nobody wants to be an administrator incrementally I think that looking would be a mistake no no no we need to go in before a person is exactly so I'm feeling a little wide were they all ready to
060ready to get started ready so you're having a lot of probation saying that's not a good idea I'm not saying what I'm saying is that they they are all ready to do um what they presented that they would do that is that is not the issue um and they will they will do a search for us because that's what we want um I asked them about whether or not when we got to May and June um if we were not interested or didn't want to move forward with the candidate a pool that they had provided for us what would that mean and they said that they would um they would re-embark Upon A search process if that's what what we wanted because we have till May in order to include the new the new um
061the new board and so what because hold on What's Missing is if we start a process now and we want to create a profile of what that board or or what that candidate should look like and the new board has not had an opportunity that very important tool and then we interview candidates who that board did not have an opportunity to be a part of selecting now they can come and say you know what I don't like that process I don't like I don't like these candidates I want to start over so we're just having a conversation about what's out here and what's available but in fact the pool is shallow come May and June if that's what you're picking from from my HR perspective and someone who has been in this exact position before
062on the HR side number one um but we also have to remember that there are candidates out there that we don't know about and there are fake situations that we are on a literal well I totally agree with Mr cloger like we ask Ed the firms about that thorough to say that we have we've been going down that and all of a sudden someone's pulling the brakes and so I we don't get her and we always have the you know we're not finding what we need but um we still have all the upfront work to do to build the leadership profile to meet with constituents in the community all of that stuff takes time and we have Dr sparlin until June till the end of June so um when there is an opportunity to if
063we I guess we're still yes I agree we need to have a plan B but like we haven't even gotten into the practice yet that we're already pulling yeah I don't consider it um you know what I'm just asking like Jared when you said we don't want to go down the road are you saying that you feel like we're we're what what what role did he answer that because I'm not sure I'm understanding what do we not want to do do we are you saying to rush the process Rush is that what he's saying yeah and then we've we've also heard that you know it could take up to a year to to finish this process and do it right so um now but go ahead go ahead Jared so I think we need to
064we are making it that we we want the best candidate and if they're not finding a candidate that we are comfortable with then yes I am 100 comfortable with going with alternative to just hiring somebody because we feel we have to we have to hire someone by a date I don't think that was wrong for a reason we all agree that we are going to um to share what our thoughts are on who you know who our who the search firm you know using the rubric that we selected and I definitely believe that we should go forward um not putting on any breaks regarding that um but if um you know we also need to understand that I don't know I'm just wondering about waiting until what if we get to May and um we
065have a person I thought the point was to bring the people who are running for the board in on one of those meetings and that would have been before me well they firms talk about having a focus group specifically for the the aters I think we think we believe that that's a really good really good thing to do um it doesn't it like close right close I agenda item but definitely having a focus group specifically for them um most boards who go through this process it takes about five or six months and they they start like I said in like October November we we don't have that right now but it's not to say that we're going to rush the process if we don't find our first well for the record I think it would
066be an inaccurate description irregardless of your feelings of that superintendent to say that we felt rushed about that I'm talking about yeah when they hired when I was on the board time so when we hired Dr Wendt that was we did not feel rushed we did not feel like we had a low pool of candidates and that's good I think I like yeah I feel like we're just making a lot of right I don't have a crystal ball before appropriately and hopefully diligently as we come on but I think everyone and I agree for the community and find what we want we are not going to just hire alternative what the community wants and hear from the community and and I I agree with that but we also got to contemplate or investigate what the
067downfalls would be of um not looking at filling you know the seat in an interim level um with the prospects of letting the new board really dig in and choose their superintendent I'm definitely trying to be difficult to pass all we want but the truth of the matter is the community is already pretty much had uh they're safe on that and um whatever we want to say about it that's not happy and so going down and doing the same thing all over again is it well receive um from many in the community of rehash and do the same thing well I'm just saying if we were to we could start the search and I agreed with Jen we can start getting Community feedback we can start looking at um the different aspects that go along
068with you know what we need for a superintendent but um if we were to go through that process with a relatively and the search firm isn't the only one that's saying that other districts are saying that I believe the Illinois State um Board of Education not the not the is B but uh iasb you know is also kind of conceded that uh the the pool that's going to be available now is not necessarily going to be the top tier candidates so there's a good chance that we might not find the greatest candidate I know that you might have had it yeah you might have I'm talking I think we're making a lot of assumptions and nobody has a crystal ball and if you don't try you're never going to know what do we tell our
069kids well I just well I don't know if yeah but this is a a big decision I mean this this isn't just you know this this is something that we can let the new board whoever it would be completely select their their superintendent from A to Z and then with an interim in place they have plenty of time to make that happen and be appropriate we mitigate that risk we mitigate the risk of not having the best Canada pool um you see what I'm saying a few 12-month process if we need it that's what just is that what you're saying like um we give the new board the opportunity to pick their superintendent the case then none of us should make any decision yeah that's that's what I agree with you on that Jen for
070sure yeah can work in Terror apparel I I agree we have to make the decision about the search firm because we we need all of this time I totally agree but I think I see both sides because I I think that I mean honestly I can say that we don't know what the search firm is going to find we can think about this from a traditional standpoint of because I agree when you think about the candidates who would be the Top Choice they've all they're likely if they're available and they're not under contract they're likely already selecting uh the district or the place that they're going to work right now so I do understand that there the those individuals will not be available but I also don't think that that may preclude or exclude uh
071other candidates that could be out there that may be the right fit for the district that's one side so I I fully understand and consider that now if that happens then we have to consider a plan B because we're not just going to select the candidate simply because they're available and then if now we're at June Dr sparlin's con uh contract is up and now we have to have an interim but the thing that I think about from the interim perspective is that there's decisions that have to be made right now and of course Dr sparlin is here the team is here so we have to consider if we don't find a candidate by the end of June or June then are there decisions and implications starting today that that will be further um exacerbated
072in June and do we have to make decisions or we are making decisions now and what decisions are what are the decisions that we have to make and I'm being very vulnerable to say because I don't all have all of the contextual knowledge that's why I'm asking deeper questions of Mr cloger of Miss Johnson and everybody sitting here so that I can make sure that I can contribute to the decision of yes we said go full steam ahead with the uh search firms and I believe that we should continue to do that no matter what because whether it takes us I mean I think four months on this higher is pretty aggressive but all of the firms said that they could do it so if if if they're following that trajectory and we get the
073results we think we can get great but if we don't now I hear us saying let's just make sure we have a good plan B and the plan C so that we can get the right candidate but the one thing that they all start we want to want to include our new our new board in the process agreed so if if but then there are other things that we won't be able to start like actually interviewing the goal and all of that and that's gonna have to take place after when it when is when is the election started until May though okay so so the first meeting in May all right so now we're still back to that May June thing um but one thing that I thought of when Dominic was talking was there's
074just so much change going on with a new board a new superintendent all at the same time why are we putting ourselves about this for the first time why are we why are we putting ourselves in that place I don't I don't know I mean because I'm not there but I'm not looking at each of you but I'm really struggling with all the questions right now like we've spoken about all of this and had a trajectory forward and once that leadership profile which I do believe every board when exactly what we're looking for once that leadership profile is created I think that really is where we start to have some of these questions May entered in a better place to get that person available is that person to give their voice we don't even know
075we're making a lot of assumptions to say this person is or is not available if we do the we do this that we'll notice and they will not be happy that the exact same thing that we it's a good chunk of the community that pays attention that's not an assumption I'm not talking about that as an assumption I'm saying that units are available and you're not the only person that said the word assumption um you I just want to make that clear that that I'm not the only person that noticed that and and and there were people in the community that were not happy with that higher not not so function that that our community isn't going to notice and that there are people who are not going to say why are we doing the
076same thing I agree with Jen about status well we so um I'm gonna say this and then I'm gonna stop talking um when we when we came into this room the first time just to vote on whether or not be or when we talked about how we were going to go forth in this process we all came in here with a certain set of facts or knowledge or understanding and now we are here what a maybe a month later if not more we know more we've thought about it more there's a whole bunch of other things that are factors that you know we've gathered from you know whether they were meetings um with faith in Dr spotland or whether they were superintendent updates that we get every Friday or whether they were so you search
077firms that we've talked to or you know whether the the 10 board presidents that I you know that I'm in contact with all the time and just understanding and I I just I have a lot more information now and I don't know if I would made the same decision that I made then I'm making now but I do feel like we have to get started and I think that from those three search firms that I'm just not maybe we just all need to get in a room together the next time we have a board meeting and maybe talk about this a little more but I think at this point if you talk a little more about the rubric the rubric and your rankings for each of the the search firms or if you guys your
078person the The Firm that you chose first well if that's where we're transitioning I think we did everybody provide their rankings yeah even everybody that's on the phone so I don't know if we're going to change anybody's mind so do we even have a discussion on that or The Firm that things on everyone's in appropriate about them specific as to why you thought they were good or anything no not me um you know I'm the one that had a little bit of concern with the first one because uh yeah it was it was me I don't know I no I um I felt that somebody could really outweigh their their vote um but uh I I wanted to make sure everybody said number one was the first choice number two was the second choice number
079three was the third choice so they're for the lowest score would be everybody [Music] I'm looking to my left and there's nobody there Lori and Jared aren't here I mean you guys don't vote on that stuff that's why um I just want to make sure that you know we didn't assign three points to our first one no okay so the lowest point wins okay so okay so you would um would you like to announce the name of the The Firm that was selected in terms of um everybody chose number one everybody tells us SS School accept connect School exec connect so we had a this is this is the first time we've ever I did not consult with it okay okay and listen I feel like because I know we're gonna have this conversation later
080but I also feel like it's important to note because Jared keeps bringing up that last superintendent but there was a reason that we brought in who we brought in and I don't I think that those reasons in 2013 are much different than they are in 2023 and I think that the district's in a much better place and I think that we're kind of you know what I mean like there was some things that were happening that that needed fixed quite frankly and you know whether the community appreciated him or not things got fixed right and then at the time he left we got Dr Nguyen and you know what things got fixed and things mellowed and he got us through a lot of things so I'm kind of struggling with the fact that we're not
081going to pick because of one superintendent oh like that's not my well I just I just wouldn't yeah I don't even think I gave that or that I just think I think we're in a much different place than we were back then I think everyone on this board that I've spoken to and I've spoken to each and every one of you in both in public and in private we all want to include people we want to know Infinity with those eight candidates in uh and with the finalists and everybody forward understand there would be as important thing with our community [Music] Community Vision for them with regards to who the leader of the district is but I also think that my son it was you know how many years ago plus the fastest but then
082I just reset it for everything we just find ourselves in a complete environment yeah I like that [Music] um just so we're clear when when when decisions are made one year following year when you see things happen or the year after that or the year after that and so the residual things that we are seeing are 100 because of that decision so um you know things were not fixed that that's that's absolutely not not the narrative we should be telling the community at all and to sit under the bright light and and and talk to our community about cuts that wasn't Dr sparler I want to make sure that we are making this clear that that was because of his and so um um and and so we absolutely need to make sure we're paying
083attention to the things that happened in our past uh yeah I agree it's definitely a different place um I definitely think that thank goodness we have uh tremendous staff whole thing together um and and do a tremendous job in this District but um yeah no I I I cannot I cannot listen to say something because because we continue effects of that and and uh there are a number of people in the community that absolutely share that that thing that the same thought okay and before we vote um just want to let everyone know that our board members will be vetting the references that so search file has given us so our vote is going to become contingent upon getting those those back so if you guys can have those back to us by Friday send
084any of any Ursula um you have the questions that the references that completed by Friday but our vote will be sold one if there's no more conversation can I have a motion please I like to make a motion to approve School exec connect as our superintendent search firm contingent upon the reference checks oh second Miss Swanson hi Mr Gatewood aye Miss Johnson I Mr poger motion passes 6-0 action item 9.3 approval of personnel report can I have a motion please yes you may um I would like to make a motion to approve the person that were Personnel report as presented Miss Simonton aye Mr ploger Mr Gatewood aye Ms Johnson hi yeah Mr Cerone aye Miss Swanson hi I would like to make a motion at 8 48 to adjourn second