001she's here oh okay she's i don't know where she's gonna be late um i called to order the oswego community unit school district board of education meeting can i have a roll call please mrs doyle mr gatewood president excuse me president president mrs croner here dr marino present mrs simelton president mrs swanson present please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge 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 you have to bear with me i forgot my reading glasses tonight do you need to borrow mine i'm okay yeah i'm all right my arms are still long enough these days thank you on behalf of the board of education i would like
002to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting tonight we will have two opportunities for the public to speak the first will be during our public comment and the second will be during our q a session 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 to the secretary to the board when the secretary calls your name i ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that all comments will be limited to 3 minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes no discussion of personnel matters or responses to questions are permitted
003the board does not participate in discussion during public comment if your questions or concerns require follow-up a member of the administration will reach out through the contact information provided on the comment card thank you lori paulson good evening everyone my name is lori paulson if we could just take 71 seconds to pause so thank you that is the reason i'm here tonight the 71 seconds was for number 71. mr mark chappis jr i came forward excuse me tonight because i felt it's time my emails started out the paper trail i'll run you through it real quick as i emailed the board members today i started out friday looking at the resources that we had at oswego east high school and there was a mr epperly is who the email would go to to bring my
004story to him and it bounced back the email i was subbing at a school and i went to ask the secretary they know their stuff she said he hasn't been in the district for two years so um i gathered myself together and i emailed one of the assistant principals um of which i didn't get a response and i'm not here to point fingers i just the anguish around this weekend as well i knew the father of this senior and um i attended the wake in the beautiful service celebration of life and the burial um so i knew i had to come forward this isn't easy for me to release this information about myself but it's time this is what i wrote to the mr epperly who's no longer with us in the district my name
005is lori paulson and i am a substitute teacher for district 308 i've been a substitute for the past 14 school years i am a licensed teacher with a master's in teaching in endorsements middle school language arts social studies and business i am presenting all of my credentials not to brag but to give you some background on how capable it appears i am on paper to be a regular teacher however despite my strong educational background and many years as a substitute teacher i live with the constant uphill battle called mental illness i have been diagnosed with bipolar just over 18 19 years ago and so this illness or setback as i choose to call it has limited my potential career options that's not why i'm here though it's the unpredictability of this illness mania to depression
006to severe delusional paranoia at times and it limits what i can do but i'm here tonight to let you know what i can do i can speak up for those who do suffer from this any of the illnesses depression bipolar there's all kinds um but the thing is the stigma has to be broken we have to talk about this stuff these kids they don't know how to deal with it i've been dealing with it for 20 years but i'm 57 years old i know that things will pass and i know how to get out of this mess that i think is the end fortunately my journey has never geared me towards taking my own life fortunately but that's because i have supports in place and that's why i'm here tonight it's called dbsa it's depression
007bipolar support alliance they have been doing virtual meetings even before the pandemic i'm on my 200th one and all it is is peer support there's no credential people it's peer support talking about what is going on what do you do to stay healthy for the day and these people come all over the world africa australia i had one person i spoke to mrs paulson i know i got it i'm very sorry to interrupt your important message i apologize the biggest thing is dbsa and nami those are the ones i want on websites and whatever you need me to do i will support whatever i need to do i'm not afraid to say what i have if it's going to save one of our kids thank you thank you thank you mrs paulson did you did
008you get my email today and dr pajasic's email sorry i didn't get back to you i had some other things going on with kids okay i just wanted to make sure you got it thank you i did and she did email me back thank you very much thank you i i know we're not allowed to do this dr moreno but i would just like to thank miss paulson for your vulnerability and and being brave to do that i really appreciate it that's what it's about it helps me too to make sure i can help someone else thank you thomas naninger good evening my name is tom nannigan i have two children in the school district every day i can't help but reflect on the absolute chaos and insanity that has enveloped this district our state
009and our country it's as if there's a willing force that's hell-bent on destroying our kids our community and our way of life i have three comments slash questions for tonight first is it true that the state of illinois tied an 11 million dollar payment to keeping a mass mandate in force along with a vaccination mandate for teachers and staff we know of other districts getting this same type of payment when does the district who we entrust with our children stand up and say this has nothing to do with their help and tell the governor no i am proud to know the folks over at parkview christian academy for taking a stand on for what is right second in normal times i would have thoroughly enjoyed seeing that picture of the staff at ohs all dressed
010up for halloween and what i might add were some pretty good costumes but did anybody actually think about what they were posting our kids can't do any of this per the district-wide ruling but the teachers can huh oh and let's further add insult to injury by this picture being taken indoors without masks on i guess that's when it comes to not celebrating halloween or being forced wearing a mask that would only apply to our children and not for the teachers and staff again i scratch my head and third following up on that picture of all the teachers without mass i can't blame the teachers when the school board has the same problem of not following their own mandates how do you know i ask well i went to the board meeting on october 12th and
011i came right from work i got to the school early and usually the doors of the building were locked i tried the door it wasn't locked so i entered i thought maybe the meeting was starting earlier or something but when i got up to the second floor community room i saw that the closed door meeting was still in session lo and behold half the people in the room did not have their masks on a couple were eating but even when they were finished a lot of the masks were not put back on it wasn't until getting close to the end of that meeting and the start of the public meeting did all the mass go on sounds a little hypocritical and looked a little hypocritical a mandate for thee but not for me there are
012many more issues that i would like to bring up like the yearbook the pronoun surveys world teachers forcing their beliefs down our children's throats see our team masquerading in the form of scl vaccination mandates the busing nightmare and so many more but i'm sure that many more subjects will be brought up by other parents and concerned citizens tonight i want to end that i still believe that there are good teachers and administrators in this district as i have had a very positive experiences with them since the start of this year and know that they still have the best interest of my children at heart unfortunately the bad has been outweighing the good for a long time now thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight thank you dominic castillo my name is dominique
013castille good evening board members most of you know i pulled daughter from sd 308 while my taxes continued to go to this district my daughter has not set foot in the school since march of 2020. looking back now i made the right decision and here's why i no longer trust the public school system i don't trust your dei director who's had embarrassing behavior on facebook under a different name or her own i don't trust her with my children i am embarrassed that i have to be on the lookout for pornography slipped into children's books because those in power believe they know better than us and what to show our children i don't trust the staff and that my child could come home from school and be ashamed of her skin color because that's all you
014people seem to focus on these days i don't trust sending my daughter back due to the stance i have taken because teachers have also shown they cannot act like adults in school in a school setting and keep their personal beliefs at home as we have seen in the trump packet email from one of our school nurses i don't trust the board of education who has tucked their tails throughout this entire experience instead of standing up for parents and students and what is best for everyone you are our only defense against any radical policies coming from the state no matter the party affiliate i follow data i do not follow propaganda and paid off science the data is telling me that this has been completely overshot with devastating consequences the data is telling me that the
015kids belong in school full-time unmasked even several members of our group are we the parent group on facebook were considered first choice for committees but not picked why sometimes there is such a thing as too much education and i think that is showing in our district with our staff we've lost our common sense and we've lost our street smarts the data is telling me that school districts are getting money to make certain decisions and whether that is every school district or not that's a huge problem because at that moment in time it's not about the children i am sick of a top-heavy administration of overpaid people i am sick of abuse of our tax dollars and kicking the can down the road i don't trust the public school system as it is now and i
016do not trust the way it's headed there's a video circulating on the internet of top people in the education system saying if people the teachers in college don't believe what they want they'll be phased out why are we here why are the children so far behind in school why don't any of you see the alarming signs that are being thrown in our faces that this is going to end poorly for everyone all eyes are on you we've made headlines there's an active lawsuit yet you all sit here as if your current plan is or was successful i've said it once and i'll say it again we do not co-parent with the government thank you thank you the q a session will follow the following procedures and protocol individuals wishing to make a comment or ask
017a question will be required to fill out a comment card with their name email and question so that the board and or administration can follow up if a question cannot be answered at the meeting to ensure the process is as efficient as possible we ask that speakers submit their comment card to the board secretary prior to the meeting the board secretary will call each person in the order the cards were received to ensure that all topics get addressed the maximum extent possible after three questions on the same topic have been heard apologies the board president will ask the board secretary to call the next person that has a question on a different topic at 9 pm the board president will announce the time and the final question of the meeting that has been taken or
018will take place when the community members approach the microphone the person shall then state their name and topic of their question or comment for the public record questions and comments will be limited to two minutes or less and may be directed at the board in general or to a specific member of the board if no board member is directly asked to address the question or comment from the audience then any board member may answer or comment and additional board members who may wish to answer a comment can do so as well board member answers will be limited to two minutes if no board member elects to respond to a question then the president will make a statement on behalf of the board questions can be on any topic except for specific student situations or specific
019personnel no questions or comments can be made about any teacher employee administrator or by referencing the district employee's title if members of the district have any of these types of questions they should be directed to the building principal or district administration thank you michelle trager hi my name is michelle drager i have four kids in the district all levels special ed gifted dual language i would like to talk about student voice and the juncture of that with special education i came to the board meeting i think it was october 12th and um we have the new role of student ambassadors and i know you guys were like super excited that they're student ambassadors to give you information about how the emergency e-learning could impact them with their ap exams and it was like a revelation
020and that's great i'm not sure what the actual percentage of students in our district who take ap classes not sure where that percentage actually is but what i found interesting was there was also the special education presentation that night so you have your student ambassadors talking about the surveys that they're going to do in their respective high schools ohs us we go east then you have special ed presentation which is talking about some of our high school students who are not in those two buildings they are at eba they're at goal the new reach program i would like to know how their student voice is going to be brought into that because i hear you that you're trying to bring that in and it's really important but you have two high achieving ambassadors from each
021high school not all of our district high school students are at those two high schools also during that special education presentation there was a discussion about how staff would be trained in executive functioning and i really appreciate mrs croner asking that's great that special ed staff are being trained in it but are our gen ed staff being trained in it too because our special ed students are in if you're going with least restrictive environment they're in the general ed classrooms and for me you know i've talked to you guys about fasd before executive functioning is a huge part of that and as i've mentioned before that number is two and a half times the rate of autism it's prevalence of one in twenty so at least every classroom probably three to every two classrooms there's
022also ninety percent comorbidity with mental health issues for that population during the pandemic binge drinking by women of childbearing age has gone up by 41 percent so what we're looking at with entering kindergartners five years from now is an even higher prevalence of fasd those executive functioning deficits are going to be very important to address in all of our classrooms not just the special education classrooms and i will do anything i can to help this district move forward with learning about fasd especially in the education environment so i'm not addressing to any specific board member but i would love to hear anyone's thoughts about including the student voice as well as addressing the fasd thank you thank you mrs trager um i do want to really thank you for for everything that you said and
023i want to thank you for your continued advocacy for fasd i definitely think that's something we need to discuss as a board and it seems to me that you're absolutely right we've made an oversight there and that something that we can correct though and i know that i'd love to talk with you further about your ideas on that and i i just really appreciate you coming up and making us aware i think i would like to sorry um you brought up a great point about not all of our high school students attend the two major high schools in the district and that is actually something that we discussed when we were talking about the student ambassador program and getting that started obviously it's something that's very new and we have lots of thoughts and ideas
024and plans on how to advance that and and make it more inclusive and to include potentially student representatives from those other schools where we have high schoolers attend that is definitely something that we talked about as a group and to be fair the last meeting which i wasn't here in person i heard it live but i don't know if you guys heard like the audio was so very very garbled that i couldn't hear if the student ambassadors were addressing that issue about their questionnaires so they could have but it wasn't able to be heard right we did hear after the fact that the audio was horrible and i think maybe it has been re-released with a better audio so you can go back and listen to it for for fun and maybe dr sparling can
025address some of the different things in the survey and who all the survey i know it was an optional survey um i'm not sure if it was yeah it was an optional survey but uh mrs trager you bring up a good point i'm gonna double check to make sure that students that you mentioned over at eastview academy and goal were included in the student responses as well i also just want to share i think two really important things when the student ambassador program was kind of going through the board it we we really wanted to let the students lead the charge on putting this together and making sure that their voice was prominent on the school board it is like mrs croner said it is a living breathing thing originally it was supposed to be
026just two ambassadors when chosen they all interviewed so well we were so impressed that they now have a committee and i think that mr gatewood and dr sparlin can take that information and make sure it's raised kind of as a priority at their next meeting but i totally agree with you we we did talk about making sure that it was inclusive but we just haven't gotten there yet but we will make sure that that is a priority thank you for your comments hello my name is michelle palacios i'm here tonight to address the importance of student safety and special education in terms of the number of adults to students although i am fully aware of the difficult position the nationwide shortage and specific reference to teaching assistants puts the district in the most vulnerable students
027in your student population are going without the one-on-one instructional support and direct supervision they so desperately need especially when there are health and safety risks associated with those factors my son is in the life skills program and he is one of those children due to a genetic disorder he is globally developmentally delayed meaning he is non-verbal he's in a wheelchair tube fed and also has medical conditions as a result he is 100 he is 100 dependent upon others for all his needs to be met so as a parent can you imagine how terrifying that must be to see how these kids quality of life in school is suffering it has been brought to a parent's attention that recently there has been an instant an instance of special education classes not attending specials lunch recess etc
028also brought to light was that their self needs for example bathrooming and diaper changes are not being maintained as necessary in theory how would you feel confined in a room for seven hours in a soil's diaper sensory sensitive kids need if they need environmental changes how are we to trust that their iep and the educational rights they are entitled to are legally being honored and upheld if there isn't enough staff to keep up with goals and benchmarks all of this is absolutely no fault to loyal and hardworking staff that are stressed and overworked but still come back every day there is simply not enough hands and they should not be obligated to bear the weight those voids leave in conclusion i am empathetic to the fact the district is exhausting their resources attempting to fill
029these vacancies but what if you are unable to what is being done in the meantime to help support current staff schools have been short staffed all year and it is getting worse more measures need to be taken like higher wages or increased incentives like what what was done when um there you guys were negotiating blessing contracts how else are you supposed to retain and sign on new staff with the amount of their workload without a competitive salary all i ask is that you better protect those students whose best interests you are suppose you're supposed to serve thank you thank you thank you is there anyone who'd like to respond dr hildebrand would you like to respond to the special education portion of that please should i be happy to uh thank you for your comments
030and your concerns um i'm the executive director of special education and i would be happy to follow up with you specifically regarding the instance that you identified as having occurred several weeks ago i do want to say that we prioritize our students who are receiving one-to-one teaching support it has been a challenge this year that's been shared with the board of education as well pertaining to staffing shortages across the board but in all of our buildings we ensure that our one-to-one sport is being provided even if we have to find coverage within the building to be able to do so so while we understand that not all positions are filled at this time our principles on a daily basis assess what openings we have and assign staff accordingly um but again i'll would like to
031speak with you specifically about the instance that you identified tomorrow possible thank you exactly and i think perhaps what uh conversation in terms of reconciling those differences in terms of what's being potentially heard and shared versus what is actually taking place is important to do so thank you basically well i i appreciate your comment in that respect i would like to be clear that we're not looking at a reduction of staffing in any way shape or form but it's more so a matter of ensuring that we have adequate coverage given the shortages i would also like to say um that we are certainly working very diligently and i appreciate your acknowledgement of that as well that we are making every effort we can to try to recruit and to hire staff we certainly have just
032initiated a new undertaking in that respect together with our human resource department and communications so we will continue to work diligently to fill our open and vacant positions as you stated it's a nationwide and also statewide shortage of staff so this is not something that's unique to 308 at this time but i would be happy to speak more specifically with you about some of the concerns that you have regarding your child as well yes dr hildebrand just mentioned that what she mentioned on tuesdays and thursday nights from five o'clock to seven o'clock at the district office and we're trying to publicize this uh by way of social media and any other platform that we can that we are interviewing for all the open positions within our district we have building administrators district administrators special education
033administrators and human resources on hand to help people walk through their application uh we would talk to him on the phone bring the proper credentials and and in hopes to uh expedite the hiring process for the shortage that we have here in 308 and i just want to i want to thank you michelle for for telling us about this making sure that the board knows what your experience is because that is not what we want any parents experience to be um and we are aware obviously of the shortages and the shortages that are nationwide we do believe that your child absolutely deserves dignity and we are working with our administration to support them in in doing whatever they need to get people into those roles so our kids can be taken care of because the
034kids are our number one priority and i want to thank you very much for sharing with us isabelle it's odd okay um hi my name is isabelle and i am a freshman at oswego east and i want i'm here to talk about including lgbtq plus students in our schools i first wanted to thank you for these student voice ambassadors and especially for the questions they put on that google form they were optional so if people were you know did not want their child to share that information or the student didn't want to they obviously didn't but through talking to students even students who were at you know lgbtq plus they valued that and they thought that will really give students equity and um i really don't see why there should be many complaints because all
035it does is include more students which should never be an issue um one thing i would want to bring to your attention was uh there's a study by the university of texas that says that students who have their pronouns and their name that they choose to go by respected they are 65 percent less likely to commit suicide that is a very big statistic so even if one has a religious or personal objection to being transgender or lgbtq plus you should this this statistic is very important because we want people to live full lives so my question is is there any policy within the district that uh helps to make sure that especially transgender and non-binary students have their name and pronouns respected if so how is this enforced and if not why when there are
036such important statistics and facts representing this mrs patterson you want to take that is she here yeah she's here she's here okay i know i saw her [Music] i don't know if there is a specific policy but it's one we could certainly talk about it there was at this time but we could definitely talk about it right we could take it to policy committee i'm aware of the um march 1st 2020 guidance from the state that governs school districts response to those students who are non-binary transgender i can't quote it i can't cite specific policy perhaps our board attorney might add to that but there is the expectation and administration are guided either case by case or as a total school population that there is not to be any inequities or unfair practices with those
037students and i'm just i'm blanking on the board policy there is board policy 7 colon 10 which is educational uh opportu equal educational opportunities and there's a section in there that talks about not discriminating against any student on the base of their sex sexual orientation or gender identity yes and i would also add that our student information system is currently set up to be able to adjust to a student's preferred name as well as students identify gender and that we have run trainings on that information for our administrators at the building level again when students have needs that are very individualized or they're going through kind of a situation where they're trying to communicate with school administrators about what their needs are we do have gender support plans and those types of pieces that both
038dr pajasic and i work with the schools to guide them and we are at a place where we are working on having a more directed process for all administrators to follow and some more specific tools in the toolbox that we would then have vetted trained and recommended to them so those are coming in the next couple of months thank you miss patterson great i will just say on behalf of the board that this is an active conversation that we've been having with administration and is a dialogue between the board and administration so that we can support all of our students and it is something that we are paying attention to i do like ali's idea though about talking about that specifically with the gender pronouns being put into the policy committee is that something that
039we want to discuss further i think we could talk about it at committee before yeah bringing it to the board i know we got a lot of we had a lot on our plate in the next month but you know one one more we could add one more i think that's a great idea ally thank you maureen is that something that you can start working on there are proposed administrative procedures that address that as well as the guidance that ms patterson mentioned which is at least 22 pages with very detailed recommendations for school boards yes i just want to thank isabella for speaking up it's great to see our students here so thank you [Applause] crystal casper hello board dr sparlin i have a lot here with questions in term intermingled into it um the
040most recent test scores and data show are special education students are struggling there have been there has been a severe decrease in support staff and the quality of services have declined ever since the district took over the kendall county co-op i would like to formally request a special education audit to be completed to address these issues i would also ask that a special education committee be formed it seems the district keeps trying to ignore these important matter and even chose a dei director with absolutely no background in special education instead we have found the dei director attacks others on social media because of differing beliefs what kind of example is this setting for our children the national sex education standards are very concerning to parents the standards are not complex compiled using data driven research
041but instead come from biased organizations this is not what parents want and this is not what students need the student surveys are linked to panorama and crt at the very least they should always be an option to not answer questions regarding personal information such as preferred pronouns additionally the most recent survey sent out by student ambassadors focused mainly on pronine pronoun sexuality and racism these surveys should focus solely on education after all isn't that why we are here we are interested in hearing about opportunities to reduce debt or increase revenue other than asking for another referendum when you compare our land cash fees to surrounding districts we are lacking severely lacking in this area also waiving impact fees while we are in financial turmoil only hurts our district more holding on to old trauber is
042costing the district 200 000 a year alone this money could be better utilized transportation is another issue right now with the lack of drivers over capacity and the fact our transportation budget remains in the red while other districts aren't experiencing the same problems what are we doing differently and why i would also like to revisit the mask mandate when are the masks going to come off our children with covid rates at an all-time low there is no justification to continue this nonsense in the last week we've had 17 positive cases among students and 5 among staff the numbers keep coming down we already learned that isbe has no authority and all accreditation has been restored to those who chose mass optional i'm sure you heard about the 145 school districts that are suing the district
043are that are suing in district 3 i apologize mrs casper um your time is up do you have a sentence or two that would wrap up your comment um no i just wrote like you've left us with no choice other than to sue you guys because you won't take the masks off our kids so that's i guess that's all i have to say and i mean there's questions in there when are the masks gonna come off what are we doing differently about transportation why are we having problems when no one else is how can we reduce our debt okay i mean there's lots of questions in there that i would like answered to okay please i hear that and thank you thank you you want to take the transportation one good yeah hi john petsky
044i'm the chief financial officer for the school district and we do have a presentation on our finance and facilities committee to talk about our debt and what we've done to restructure the debt that we've issued as well as future opportunities for restructuring that debt we'll also at our next board meeting we'll be talking about the levy and how our levy compares some of our percentages and things like that with some of our neighbors so we'll be taking a look at our financial picture as far as the transportation we do continue to have some challenges um we outsource quite a bit of our transportation and we also have kind of a hybrid where we have some transportation in-house as well we do have right now five drivers that are in training it just takes a little
045while for them to go through that and we've got an additional i think six to seven uh applicants who are being being screened and interviewed and whatnot so we're we're slowly increasing the number of drivers so that we can we can have more drivers available for the routes that we have i just had a meeting last friday with the transportation team one of the things that we're talking about is winter time getting better with our calls if there is a bus that's late we don't want kids waiting out there for 20 minutes 30 minutes and trying to decide why why are some bus buses that are late not being reported so we're going to have our drivers uh kind of give us that 10 minute heads up on the radio call to let us know
046when they are are running behind so it is something that we're actively working on and we do know that it's continuing to be a challenge so thank you for that i'm trying to resist urge to say it's a hot mess all right there's a lot of great questions in there that relate to lots and lots of different topics so i did want to address um you mentioned our land cash and um impact fees impact fees and those aren't decided by the district correct that's set by the village of us we go so correct we have no say in what the impact fees or land cash are set or um uh what's the other one any discussions with the village about those fees and we continue to do so and we've actually had those in-board meetings
047with various municipalities as division subdivisions are being discussed however we have zero authority to set any of those and that's been as it is for you a constant source of frustration for the school board as well as is things like transportation and reducing sidewalk curbs that has happened around the village right now so kids can't get on buses via sidewalks anymore um so yeah there's there's a lot there that we wish we had a little bit more say in ourselves right and but as far as a referendum we have not talked at all about proposing another referendum that is not something that's on our radar at this time um and a levy is totally a different thing from a referendum so i look forward to your presentation about levees and what that's um some different
048scenarios with that yeah at our next board meeting um i would say that i really am interested in your idea about the special education committee and um i would welcome you to email me more about that because i think that's something that the board would would be interested in learning more about your ideas for that i have a question on that one too is that how does that tie to i want i want to say epic epic is the parent organization for special education students open to all parents and i think that informally the epic parent organization which encompasses any parent in our district from pre-k through 22 age 22 who would like to participate in this i know that denise participates in those as well as other administrators faith does as well where they
049routinely have conversations about these things so it already is happening from a parent-led avenue i'm not sure if you're asking more for a special education curricular committee or if you're looking for parent voice which certainly is available through epic and i know that they have regular meetings scheduled and anyone is welcome in fact i'm sure they would welcome more parents to attend absolutely yeah i hope i hope that answers um your questions if not you are also always welcome to email the board as you know but thank you very much um since you're in litigation uh the attorneys will be responding to that thank you scottish hi good evening thank you for allowing me to speak to you this evening um just have a few questions and it's really pointed towards all of you at
050the board you can raise your hand or nod your head or whatever it may be or just offer a comment afterwards there's a lot of discussion out regarding transgender students and how different schools are handling it and i was just wondering i looked on the 308 website as far as uh what what our district's stance on that is and so i just like to get clarification on on a few questions and mostly it's in response to the illinois state board of education non-regulatory guidance supporting non-gender non-binary and gender conforming students and basically just again just a few questions to understand what your thoughts and your stance are on these on these potential issues um is it okay for biological males to use girls washrooms and girls locker room facilities we we have policies that address
051these i'm not sure what can you help me understand what are you are you looking for individual board member opinions what the district 308 stance is on these fellow illinois school code i'm sorry we follow as far as i know and there's people here that probably know way more about the specifics than i do um but as far as my understanding is we follow illinois school code as it relates to use of washrooms and um gender identity but go you know what go ahead and answer ask all your questions oh sorry sorry and then we'll jump in i wasn't sure if he was waiting for us because he kind of sounded like he was like i was just waiting for i was just waiting for an answer yeah okay okay i have ideas is it
052okay for biological males to shower with biological females is it okay for a biological male to displace a biological female on girls identified sports teams is is this something that what is the district's stance on those issues in regards to sports we follow all the ihsa recommendations for for the sports piece of it so when you say you follow the isa recommendations what what is that so boys are allowed to compete on girls teams sometimes the answer is yes it depends on the situation and that goes back to policy 7 colon 10 which was referenced earlier with respect to equal education opportunities for all students what about the equal opportunity for girls if a boy is on the team is displacing a girl and i don't believe that's ever happened in this district well we
053should have something in place that states cut and dry what the board stance is on that because that is 7 10. and policy 710 states that there shall be no discrimination based on sex gender or sexual orientation or gender identity and it also references title ix and other federal laws that apply so what about what about a girl's right for a spot on that team if it's a girl's team because you're pretty much if you follow that statute we're just we could be eliminating all girl sports okay i i this is a hypothetical that would be hard for any of these board members yeah the hypotheticals are occurring in this district not in this district but the district should be prepared for something like this we should have strong policies in place to say yes
054we allow uh biological males to compete on girls teams or no we don't well but can i can i also add that we also have a female kicker on the football team who's fantastic and several female wrestlers who compete on the wrestling team at ohs alone so i i don't think sure is really a transgender or yeah no born as male or female i think it's an equal opportunity right if the sport is not a gender facility specific sport my son wrestles and he has girls on team i think that's fantastic as a person that taught self-defense to women for many many years i think it's great that girls get on the mat learn how to defend themselves i think that's commendable however if it's a girls volleyball team is is is a male a
055stronger more dominant male allowed to to compete against girls well that that's a decision that ihsa which governs all high school sports in in our state they've made the decisions on that i don't have a computer here to look up what those regulations are for you at on the spur of the moment but they have settled all those questions and that is what we follow so that our teams are allowed to compete at the ihse level but what are we doing as a district what what what do you all feel is the right thing to do if we're just going to follow statutes with the state dick states from on high then why are we all here if we're not going to stand up for our young girls and allow them a spot to compete
056so then why are we then why are we here i understand what you're saying and i and i see your frustration and i and i i don't disagree that it is difficult um decisions that potentially could would have to be made by coaches on who they put on the team or not but like ali said we've we've had girls on the football team that play and participate and theoretically are taking a position from a boy who could have had that role and we have girls on the wrestling team that i know a little bit about wrestling not a lot but i know that not everybody gets to wrestle every week there are certain weight classes and not all the 124 pound or whatever it is you know sorry but my point is if something wrestling
057is wrestling there's not the boys wrestle team in the girls wrestle team so i'm 100 with you i think it's great but if we have a girls volleyball team that's designated to promote the sport amongst girls and prepare them possibly for college level sports shouldn't that be reserved for girls right i totally hear what you're saying we don't have a girls and a boys football team because there's not right so if we have a girl kicker more power to it i i love to see that i think that's awesome but if we have a girls team then then why do we have girls volleyball so i i hear your question i've heard you say it a few times basically what you're saying is if it's a girl's team it should be reserved for biological females
058thank you that's what i think i'm hearing is that what you're saying that is exactly okay so my answer is that i want all of our students to be able to participate in ihsa sports in order to do that we have to comply with ihsa rules because it's inter-school so there's a governing organization so this is the kind of question that would be a great way for you to advocate with ihsa if you have different beliefs because they do set the rules for all of our schools to be allowed to participate does that make sense thank you that's just my opinion though no no no i i i agree yeah it's up there but what what are you doing as our representatives to to take on that front dr sparlin what what what's not a
059board no it's not and uh mr dumanthus we uh i think you and i could have a good conversation about this and with the head athletic director darren howard because i think some of the questions you ask we have the answer for and i want to give you a specific answer to the questions that you're asking perfect so i'll give you a call and we'll get together on that okay thank you very much dr schweitzer very much thank you thank you thank you katie hayden hello um i want to thank you all for being here tonight i don't have anything to read off of i know that there's a lot of change that's trying to take place in the world right now and i think for everyone it can feel a little overwhelming but at
060the end of the day we're supposed to be giving our students the right at a good education and we're supposed to be preparing them for success in the workforce and today with everything that's taking place i feel that's questionable are they truly going to be ready are we really going to be able to advocate for them and to make sure they can pass certification courses licensing have their services that they have from kindergarten to their senior year with ieps and 504s carry over to community college and then a state exam i'm hearing from too many parents that these services aren't following through and it just doesn't exist in the workforce so i wanted to let you know that i've been trying to reach out to all of you i've been going out in the aurora
061and the oswego area handing out these brochures that i left for you tonight and i've been sending out emails because we need more directors we need more volunteers we need kids to be successful in the workforce and i also want to remind you i know you're shortly staffed and hiring to please make sure to value your visual kinesthetic learners just as much as you do your i t people and people who are certified because it takes a lot to keep these buildings running and up and going and they should be on a similar platform as to those who use a computer because everyone's role matters and we need to remember that not all disabilities are visible thank you thank you thank you thank you katie and thank you for providing your hand out and for
062all that you do to support young adults and students in our community and i appreciate the work that you're doing and i think it's great and i hope that you have great success with this and i agree that all of our employees have great value in our district and it's all one big machine that works together and we couldn't do any one thing without the other we all need each other to be successful for our students so and one last thing i'd ask if someone could give me the information so i could pass these out on a heavier level so those who do have unique skills to bring to the table do have the information available to them and the students thank you okay thank you katie thank you community resource collaborative is that awesome
063that's it yep all right i want to thank everyone for coming today and for speaking up and and really for for letting us know what's what's happening for you and advocating for yourselves your families and your children come on up what she's gonna kind of tune in i'm confused i think we just got in the couch to get her slit for ursula yeah i think it's probably safe to assume it's your turn to speak to make your items yes hi thank you for having me um i want to address the issue with when teachers say things inappropriate to children or call children names that they should not be calling them what is the procedure the proper procedure for it to be addressed um last thursday my daughter was called to be by a teacher um
064i have video of the incident afterwards or the other kids telling him you caught her bee and i spoke to we spoke to try to speak to one of the aps at the ohs he hasn't returned our call we went to the school that day spoke he sent a dean out and said he had to take his son to an orthodontist appointment um since then i called today to speak to the principal he didn't return my call i have a problem with that my daughter's not a female dog and she should have never been caught a female dog so what is the procedure of addressing this to the teacher and taking care of this teacher because we own a business and if one of our employees go into a business that we're doing business with
065and says to someone you're acting like a bee we can't deal with that he has to go so what is the proper procedure not only that i didn't address this issue but on september 24th my other my son was called was told he's not he's smarter than the average monkey because he came to class with the past because he was late i didn't address it because he's in black ball playing football he hasn't been played because of an issue with my daughter he was a starting player and he just stopped starting and he was just walking up and down so i want to know um what is i mean what can be done about these teachers that to me it's racism there's no other way to put it it was mrs adams correct that is
066correct okay thank you um and thank you for the the question i am sorry to hear what you what you're sharing with us that's unacceptable and uh i appreciate you going through the process that you did you told you just told us you spoke to the ap yeah or you tried to get a hold of ap you tried to get a hold of the principal and uh neither neither were responsive i would assume over the last 48 hours from last week till end of today and so what i'm going to ask you to do is our executive director of student services mrs patterson's right over here so when we're done here uh the three of us are going to have a conversation so we can make sure that this is addressed promptly for you okay
067because it's not okay it's not right and it will be addressed i can assure you thank you i want to address this as board though um you are 100 right that that is unacceptable no student should be spoken to that way and that is not something we tolerate as a district you did everything right so i want to reinforce that too right you called the school you went to the building administration that is what you should do and you're doing the right thing by showing up tonight and making sure that you're heard that we know about it and that it's getting followed up on so thank you very much for for showing up for letting us know and for advocating for your kids thank you thank you thank you nathan brown good evening my name
068is nathan brown and i live right across the street here at 423 devoe drive in the prescott mill subdivision i'm a 14-year resident of the village i'm a member of the prescott mill single family hoa board for nearly eight years and i have three children that are students in sd 308 i'm here tonight to ask this board to find a solution to the excessive amount of oswego east high schoolers that are parking in prescott mill now for over five years as someone who lives across the street from townsend park i unfortunately have a front row seat to the issue at hand as of this school year there are now a line of cars monday through friday beginning at 6 a.m and sometimes staying as late as 7 pm parking bumper to bumper for 600 yards
069the length of six foot football fields right in front of my home when i purchased my home eight years ago i thought i was going to live across the street from a park not a parking lot but that's in fact what our neighborhood has become a remote parking lot for oswego east high school that continues to grow larger and larger year after year because the school district and you the school board have refused to address the severe parking shortage here at oswego east let me be clear i believe high schoolers deserve a safe solution that doesn't involve them having to park in our neighborhood along with more cars and more students have come more problems for those living on our neighborhood excessive speeding littering cars parking in front of mailboxes cars parking in front of
070them blocking driveways cars parking in front of fire hydrants cars parking in the middle of intersections cars parking and crosswalks cars not stopping for stop signs and nearly hitting my daughter and other children on numerous occasions buses having difficulty making turns kids dealing drugs in front of my home kids having sex in their cars in front of my home and the list goes on and on we have residents that are unable unable to leave work because of the line of cars trying to get out of the neighborhood every morning unfortunately not once says the principal of oswego east superintendent sparlin any member of his staff or any member of this board reached out to us the hoa or the residents to come up with a solution and there's a safety issue of cars flooding the
071intersection of harvey and townsend just two years ago on august 16th after school let out a distracted high school student blew the stop sign hit another car drove over the sidewalk and took out a fence and a brick pillar at that very entrance by the grace of god there was no kid standing at that corner when it happened as there usually is a steady stream of students walking from the high school back to their cars and prescott mill the situation if unresolved is a recipe for disaster we have gone to the police department we have gone to the village board we've spoken to the mayor we've spoken to the police chief they have implemented additional parking restrictions but the problem continues and grows larger year after year because the school direct district hasn't done its
072part the can cannot continue to be kicked down the road we cannot continue to wait year after year for a solution enough is enough the students of oswego east and the residents of prescott mill have been more than patient waiting for a solution we are done waiting we are done with your apathy we are done with being ignored and disregarded i'm gonna wrap it up okay thank you members of the school board i implore you to take a hard and serious look at the severe parking shortage prioritize the problem do your fiduciary duty and find a way to provide more campus parking for high school students thank you can i ask you one question i want to ask another question i've got so many so go ahead come on wait my first question is did
073you contact the school board residents of our neighborhood have contacted the school board i i've received an email from a resident i think only me and i forward it to dr sparrow and i actually did as well dr sparlin and i personally talked about it i had a resident reach out to me and he has been he has told me that plans are being discussed and this is the first i've heard of it was three weeks ago so i just want to make that very clear so can i ask a couple questions just absolutely as a practical thing because this this is a matter that's it's been an issue ever since i've been on the board for probably larry as long as you were ever on the board pretty much since your subdivision was built
074right across from the high school so i want to make sure i understand what you're asking for are you asking for us to build additional parking or are you asking for additional parking restrictions and enforcement in your subdivision of what's already there i'm asking for you to build additional parking you have a massive property here you have six ball fields of which i've never in the entire time i've lived in prescott mill ever seen every single one of those ball fields used at the same time you have ample ample space everybody i talked to thank you i i don't want to cut you off too much but i get where you're coming from and i know that i want to be respectful of your time yeah so dr sparlin have you explored the concept what
075are what are you what do you have in mind right now yes thank you for the questions i have been in contact with uh members of your community over there i've driven over there multiple times i i agree with you the kids are parking on the east side of the vault there's 50 to 70 cars along that pathway i've been over there multiple times at the school we are we make you know we make announcements and we let the kids know that they're not supposed to be out there and uh and then i am also i've got dr pedski right now working with our architects to see if there are any other areas on our property i looked into this years ago i was told no but we're looking into it again to see if
076there are possibilities of any additional parking spaces that could be added onto the property here at oswego east we've got approximately a thousand spots on this lot but we also have a lot of kids on this in the school we have 2 800 kids 200 staff members there's 3 000 people under this roof on any given time during the day so if we can't do any additional parking spots i will be sitting down i've had conversations with mr parlia you know and i will have additional conversations i know they put the two-hour restriction on devoe on the east side of the parking you know and so if we can't do something here we'll have further conversations with the village so we can work together to hopefully come up with a solution to your problem because
077i understand it is a problem over there and we i know the village has addressed it and we are in the process of addressing it on our end and if we can't do it like i said we're going to try to come together to see if we can do something together okay i appreciate that you're most welcome thank you thank you build up well and that's one of the things i think we're seeing with a lot of our facilities as we've grown the school is growing every single year i think this school has now overtaken a wage number of and students enrolled um and some of the extra things i'd like to see if they are keeping up with our enrollment i know that the classroom spaces but you know again with right we're at
0782811 as of this month for the kids uh the number of students in the school and are we over have we overtaken ohs you know i thought that was the case mrs doyle but you know what it's not the case ohs is still about 50 more than a week and i believe next year though is the height of our enrollment and then it will actually start to decline again over the next three or four years okay so we are already looking at the apex right exactly that bubble yeah yes but can we also talk about the fact that i when i had some parents reach out to me about this it was students trying to avoid paying the parking fees at the high school and so i think that needs to be addressed in some
079way that if you aren't going to pay to park there you can't park here like i don't know if that's a part of the communication or what have you but i think that is where prescott mill is is feeling the carryover from it yeah you know you like i said you you know we oh we only have x number of spots here and then we do women at the parking so all kids that are 16 don't get a parking spot you know there is a lottery for those for those numbers and unfortunately when you have a neighborhood that surrounds a high school this is always going to be an issue as the high school gets it has gotten to the size that we are now has the police department ticketed them they do they take
080them yes they go by they chalk the tires it's two-hour parking like i said i've talked to i talked to the village we've had these conversations they're they're doing that they're all so low on manpower to be able to do all you know do this but they are ticketing and um so we we're all doing our part here and i think it's it's it's part of the process and we're getting there um but like i said i use the word hopefully because i can't tell you there is a solution to this right now right would this be something and and this is totally outside of your scope but just in in spitballing here is some faster solutions is this something that an hoa could work with the police department on community service officers or providing
081some volunteers community service resource people to help talk or you know what i think that would be a question i would need to call it yeah is that something that we can ask them to consider yes you know what i'll have that conversation with them it's a good thought i haven't thought about that i think that is it for our comments tonight um i again want to thank everyone for coming we really do appreciate hearing from each and every one of you and as you know you always can also email the board um can i get a any other final comment sorry from the board anyone else have anything that they would like to say i apologize for my delay due to work no worries i just i just want to share with um our
082families that have joined us tonight that i too have um heard from a lot of sped parents and i hear you and i'm listening and um ask dr sparlin almost weekly um and um ken miller who was our executive director of human resources due to the turnover um what how we are addressing things and it is also something that we've talked about in teaching and learning so i remain committed to our sped parents and i hear everything that everyone said tonight and i just appreciate the opportunity for parents students and community and even staff to come and to share because it's insights that we that are really really helpful uh for us to listen to you to understand and to gain insight so that as we're seeking and making decisions that we'll know exactly how
083to consider all students and and staff in our decision so i truly appreciate this form and having the opportunity to listen and uh will it'll help us to make decisions going forward so thank you yeah and i would just add to that that we love hearing your solutions you know when you when there is a problem and you have ideas about it we can't think of everything and sometimes you guys you know you're right in the thick of it and you've got a great idea and we want to hear it yeah i'd just like to add that you know we understand um and we value your comments and we hope that there will be plenty of other opportunities and platforms for us to hear from you and not just in this particular way but as
084we go forward in other ways and creating ways to hear from you and so we very much appreciate your time and we value your your thoughts and opinions if you don't want to look up everyone's email address you can always use boe