SD308 Board of Education Meeting (8/9/2021)

001on behalf of the board of education i would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system residents interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it 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 in order to hear from as many community members as possible comments are limited to three minutes per person for a total of 45 minutes and three comments per subject unless time allows for more within the 45 minutes tonight i will read five email comments at the beginning

002with students being given the priority and these will be prioritized in the order they were received all hello board members i'm a freshman in 308 and i'm asking you to please abide by governor pritzker's k-12 mask mandate i say this as someone who doesn't like wearing a mask i say this as someone who misses seeing my friends smile i say this as someone who wants so badly to return to a pre-pandemic world i wish i could hug my teachers and friends i wish i could sit less than a foot away from all my classmates i wish we could talk shoulder to shoulder in the hallways but that's what i wish would happen as much as i want this pre-pandemic school experience i want my friends classmates and teachers to be safe and healthy over all

003of that as mustard as i want these i know that when one student gets hospitalized none of it will be worth it i know this must be a hard decision to make but you can't teach science in classrooms and then ignore it when it shares an unfortunate truth sadly the pandemic hasn't ended cases and hospitalizations are rising and every credible health department recommends universal masking in schools as much as we all want to be back to normal please make the decision that will protect everyone thank you for hearing me out hello board members i am an incoming freshman in district 308 and i am requesting that you abide by governor pritzker's masked mandate for k-12 schools i'm reading what was sent in this pandemic has been challenging and difficult for everyone but it is not

004over covig-19 cases are recently rising across the states and public schools are prime places for the virus to spread and infect thousands of children going to school in person is the best way for students to learn but the safeties of those students and the staff is most important as much as i hate wearing a mask anywhere and even though i am vaccinated i am still at risk of spreading it to my younger sibling who is unable to get vaccinated schools with students and faculty wearing masks will lessen the risk of spreading it to family and friends who are unable to get the vaccine or getting infected with covet itself i miss so much seeing the smile of my friends instead of having to read it in their eyes or being able to hug them without

005the worry about dying of this deadly virus and taking safety precautions like wearing masks is the best way to go back to something normal so please consider abiding by the governor's mandate to help lessen the spread of covid19 thank you for your time hello i am a freshman at oswego east high school with the rising concern about the delta variant and the worrying amount of cases rising i think it would be best to continue enforcing the governor's mass mandate for our schools i know some people might see this as unnecessary or useless because we all just came out of a long exhausting lockdown but the truth is until we start to work together and wear our masks this will be our lives until then until we come together we won't be able to see our

006friends faces until we come together we won't be able to travel to many places until we come together we can't move on from this drawn out situation so please let us all come together wear our masks and fight this virus as a community good evening this is avery mccowen robbie and i am currently a student at oswego east high school below is my public comment good evening my name is avery and i will be an incoming junior at oswego east high school i know the topic of masking has been very contentious so i wanted to share some thoughts as a current student one of the things that all students have learned since the beginning of elementary school were the character counts pillars two of which are caring and citizenship if you truly want to dissect

007the mask debate wearing a mask demonstrates two of our foundational character principles for our district we all understand that masks are not an enjoyable experience however if you can't be quiet while the process is going on you will be you will be asked to leave we all understand that masks are not an enjoyable experience however i am an emerging adult wanting to do everything possible to be a strong supporting sd 308 community member don't even understand why wearing a mask during a pandemic is even a question on the table i understand as americans we fought hard for our freedom but wearing a mask to get us out of this pandemic will give us back our freedom to resume our pre-pandemic lives something we all want our world is broken and we need to teach our

008children that the only way for us to be saved is to come together as good citizens not only of our district but our nation to care for and protect one another thank you for your time jennifer stamp thank you i would ask that the entirety of my comments be made a part of the official record my name is jennifer stamp i live in this district and my daughter is an elementary school child in this district she is ineligible for the vaccine due to her age i've also been a lawyer for nearly two decades i want to address constitutional rights and liberties in regard to the enforceability of a masked mandate as we all know the first amendment gives citizens the right to assemble and redress grievances with their government however the right to assembly is

009not absolute as you stated in your opening remarks when assembling at a public meeting the first amendment does not allow audience members to interrupt delay or disturb proceedings courts have held that when this occurs microphones can be turned off the disruptive audience member may be removed and the meeting may be adjourned the first amendment is also subject to time place and manner of restrictions i'm happy to show my id to verify that is my place to be here i live here this is my daughter's school district you're my school board i'm here to address my grievances i challenge any subsequent speaker to do the same if audience members are coming here in mobs from other communities to dictate policy i question whether they are properly placed here our local school board is not their government

010they have no grievance to address with you that affects their life or their child's education through speaking they are preventing actual community members from addressing their grievances with their government it defeats the entire purpose of the first amendment for persons in our community the first amendment is not a shield to say or do whatever you want there are several forms of speech not protected by the first amendment including defamation fighting words intimidation harassment threats it's not a first amendment right to harass audience or board members it's disorderly conduct it's a matter for the criminal code and not the constitution i would also like to address the idea that covet is governed by parental choice it's not a parental choice to determine if a community as well as its children are exposed to a potentially deadly

011virus it's not a vote we take among parents covet safety is the domain of the health department period i would also like to address any debate that the governor's mass mandate does not need to be followed the governor's authority to impose mass mandates was challenged last year by six separate plaintiffs all six lawsuits were dismissed in sangamon county the court found that it is squarely within his emergency powers as well as within his powers under the federal and state constitution to issue a mandate if the school board ignores the mandate they face liability and accreditation issues if an individual ignores the mandate they're welcome to be the seventh plaintiff in a masked lawsuit and i would expect that the governor will remain undefeated in that lawsuit as well i apologize but your time is up

012thank you for your time thank you [Applause] bristol casper she's not here yet christian crystal read the name again crystal casper hello my name is crystal casper i'm the mother to a sophomore in the district for months i've come up here to advocate for parent choice especially when it comes to masking kids this past week governor pritzker once again overstepped his authority to issue mass mandates for all schools including private institutions i'm guessing the board thinks they're off the hook which is why there's no agenda item for math well i'm here to tell the board it's not mass aren't laws all right i'm sorry mandates aren't laws house bill 2789 has not been passed giving the governor the ability to make mandates enforceable this is a fact and i encourage you to investigate that thousands

013of parents grandparents taxpayers and state reps are all banning together to fight for our children manuka board members have maintained the local control making mass optional and are considering suing j.b pritzker the village of orland park is fighting back against the illinois general assembly to push back and have the governor reevaluate his mass mandate school board members are stepping down because they don't agree with masking kids and school boards are waking up and standing their ground to give parents a choice regardless of these mandates when is school district 308 going to stand up and join this fight to end these illegal mandates on our children mass may be causing our children more harm than good it's not okay for children to be silenced and complacent to be instilled with fear if they don't wear a

014mask thinking they're going to get others sick it's not okay for my child to have a headache from wearing a mask for hours at a time and it's not okay for my child to be able to not talk to his friends because they have to stay three feet apart my son doesn't even recognize his friends because half their faces are covered tell me how does this make school a fun place to be why would any child want to go to school like this my son does not want to go back to school if he has to wear a mask here are my three questions here are my questions for you that i would like answered to a follow-up email are you going to discipline kids who refuse to wear a mask are you going to

015allow mask breaks if needed what are you going to do when my child or any other child passes out from wearing a mask because it does happen what are you going to do when my kid or any child gets a staph infection on their face or bronchitis from breathing his or own germs for eight hours and that too does happen these are all legitimate questions and liability concerns that can arise from prolonged mask usage all children in request are required by illinois law to have access to free public education and that is not contingent on wearing a mask my son will not be wearing a mask to school he will not be tested for covid by school staff and my son will not be subject to unwarranted discipline or discrimination this fight is not over

016i call on the school district to unite with parents teachers administration and do the right thing for our children and fight the governor in his illegal mandates that infringe on our normal school year let's retain our mass optional option don't they deserve that after what they've been through for the last 18 months thank you michelle klein [Applause] michelle klein i am hi my name is michelle klein i'm here to speak on behalf of we the people of 308 and also on behalf of awake illinois to whom it may concern all every single one of you awake illinois is a registered 501c not-for-profit social welfare organization supporting constitutional and parental rights in illinois we are proud to announce the awake illinois chapter has officially launched and is available to meet with community leadership and policy makers

017to discuss collaboration efforts our members include parents taxpayers and involved citizens who support our american principles protections and liberties whether the issues are at the local school board level or the state level we are organized and paying attention from rural areas to urban areas we are actively calling out any forms of government outreach or constitutional violations especially those that are oppressing our children from house bill 2789 the latest sex ed senate bill 0818 and the implementation of device curricula parents are understandably concerned about their children's education additionally the perception that elected school boards have any role in health care decisions or medical decisions is worrisome we support parental rights regarding facial masks viral testings asymptomatic quarantine and or 12-19 vaccination of our children we implore this school district and administrators to lead and enact policies

018that maintain the integrity of the constitution of the united states the declaration of independence and the bill of rights should you be willing to meet and discuss how our advocacy may help unite our community stakeholders please contact us please visit visit www.awakeil.com to learn about how we are affecting positive change by educating others on these issues and empowering our communities communities to advocate we are awake illinois and we cannot be canceled thank you you also you also all receive this email already [Applause] one a little second hello again public servants remember me because i certainly remember you oh mrs johnson i hope telling everyone that you don't work for them was worth it because 120 000 people got to see make a fool of yourself so keep it up i want to welcome you all

019today 516 of the permanent pandemic yes it was 516 days ago on march 11 2020 the world health organization declared chronovirus pandemic and here we are talking about masks and wearing them apparently i just want to let you all know one thing hell will freeze over before i let david pritzker tell me what to do i think many of the parents in this room feel the same way so our governor can kindly pound sand we don't want to force our kids to wear a suit of masks period i mean do you guys just like to see kids suffer did someone hurt you as a child so is your mission to hurt these kids it also makes no sense why any of you care what and what any of these parents decide to do with their

020own kids most of these women spent nine months with their kids in their belly and probably went through a lot of pain and labor so i think they've earned the right to make the decisions at the very least but today i need to highlight a very important issue last meeting mrs johnson took her time to complain about someone telling her you should know what's good for you over the past week i myself been a target of not only harassment but threats and physical violence on august 3rd at a school meeting i was charged at and hit by a deranged member of the public and was almost knocked off my feet other people screamed profanities at me the police actually wouldn't let me file a report at the school so at 10 30 at night i

021had to drive to the police station myself to seek justice after that i was featured on nbc5 and a couple days later i got messages from an unknown number who wouldn't tell me who he is saying play stupid games win stupid prizes and a friend of mine who was then school with activism herself on three separate occasions had people show up to her home address and throw projectiles at our home with their husband and young children inside i myself have seen people lurking outside my house this has got to stop i am 18 years old i live with my parents who are not involved with my activism and i am deathly afraid not only for my own safety but for theirs as well if any crazy person show up to my home address and i

022don't appreciate the news media in oswego broadcasting what town i live in or even doing the research to find my home address mark harrington i have gone to the police stations more time in the past week than i have in my entire life and it is exhausting i just want to be able to advocate for children and parents without having to look over my shoulder every five seconds or worrying about my safety while walking my own dog in my own neighborhood harassing us at our homes workplaces or in public has got to stop please all remember that we are humans and we will disagree but we have to be conscious of everyone's safety thank you [Applause] joanne johnson hi my name is joanne johnson and i'm here to talk about critical race theory and my

023husband is actually holding up a picture of our family and as you can see our family consists of every color from translucent to coal black the only thing that matches in this picture is our clothes and the reason that we did that is so that nobody would stand out i have taken time to ensure that i've been educated on what critical race theory teaches critical race theory is not history it comes from the opinions and it uses it to manipulate it uses history to manipulate and justify the vilification of the white man as well as to be intolerant of other people's opinions this is my family the only colors that matter are the color of our blood according to crt color blindness equates to ignoring the struggles of the black and brown community according to

024critical race theory our white children are need to learn about their whiteness and inherent racism our white children are the oppressors of their black and brown siblings note my parents actually fled from greece i am white i have white skin i do not have white privilege never have all he wanted all my dad wanted was an opportunity to be a citizen in the united states and to be able to hold down a job and never take anything but to contribute to his country critical race theory teaches our brown children that their brothers and sisters need to help them make it in this world because they can't do it on their own critical race theory theory says that white people are not allowed to be racist because they are not in the minority lack of brown

025people are our white grandson who adores their papa is really racist according to critical race theory they are nine months and two years old in the johnson household our children are taught to show respect to everybody our children will respect the law if they get pulled over their hands will go on the steering wheel and they will answer yes sir no ma'am our children are expected to do the best that they can in school and all have straight a's including the brown ones all children that have to deal with people that are bad this is a fact of life it is not their job to judge the lives of others it is for them to learn how to deal with the adversity and tough things in life our school district should apologize but your time

026is up okay sorry thank you [Applause] no i'm sorry you cannot defer your time to someone else okay our school district shocked me with its publication of being racist i've never seen it in any of the five years of my five children went through this school i see our volleyball teams with mvps and honorable awards going to black children to include gay black children if you want to teach this hate infested theory go for it but give parents the choice to opt out this is not history this is using history to be a victim my kids are not victims joanne's and kevin's they are victors to end this i'd like to make a statement about last month's school board meeting four things that struck me deeply one threatening emails are being sent that is wrong

027and we as a community are better than that two that the school district doesn't work for us you are an elected official to represent and fight for we the people three then to sit out a vote when a hundred percent of the parents that came up said they didn't want mass and you set out the vote clearly your personal feelings cannot be put aside for the people who elected you it may be high time to let someone take your seat four lastly there was a member who said that they refused to have their child carry that avid binder because it caused back issues i agree that it is within your right to do that but don't then turn around and tell us what we must have our children wear mass when it has been proven

028that is bad for their mental and physical health learning and comprehension as well as social skills they have zero percent chance of dying this is less lethal than the flu to our kids these vaccines have killed more kids than covet i was not prepared to speak i worked in the school district until the mass mandates came out and then i refused last year but can you put your mask up please i'm sorry thank you so sorry um i've been in this district for the past 20 plus years the crt thing for me is extremely frustrating i know no i've been in this district and i can say that i have treated everybody the same and i've never had issues with anybody black asian white indian it doesn't matter you're you're selling the whole district short

029thinking that this is going to improve anything i think it's just going to backfire and as a parent of five kids that have been through this school district i think all parents should have an option of what they want their child to do you know the lady here that that would probably like to have her child vaccinated and can't that's her prerogative and there's plenty other people out here who think opposite i think this is what's missing in america we need to be able to debate our differences respectfully and make a decision that's what makes us americans it's not tyrannical we're a republic we need to start acting like it we're all adults come together unite do what's best for the children politics aside get rid of it do what's right dennis okay uh hi

030my name is inga denos dear school board members the united states of america is an exceptional nature nation founded in liberty inspiring leaders including george washington thomas jefferson abraham lincoln frederick douglass and reverend martin luther king jr have demonstrated what it means to be american uniting people through a common culture of humanity and citizenship that celebrates and respects the individual a public institution schools such as schools should reflect our american values now ask yourself if you agree with the following generalization should be should we be teaching children that all white people are inherently racist segregation should we be teaching children that america is systematically racist country based in white supremacy intolerance should we be teaching children that you are either racist or anti-racist and there is no neutral conjuncture should we be teaching children that

031white america is inherently anti-black and that all whites suffer from unconscious bias against people of color marginalization should we be teaching children that the most important determine determine of success in their life is skin color if you answered no to any of these questions consider how this approach is undermine undermines progress towards equality as a concerned parent i do not believe that crt should be in k-12 education today this type of teaching will not establi establish mutual respect rather than focus on division we should promote bringing people together and celebrating the talents of individuals while fostering strong bonds for the betterment of our shared community thank you [Applause] taylor spears jayla spears [Music] she's she's coming jayla spears good evening my name is jayla and i'm a senior at ob this past year i had

032a teacher who talked about real world topics and it kept the whole class engaged we were able to improve our critical thinking skills and were given space to speak freely in an intellectual environment i began to develop a real connection with my teacher and classmates because our teacher decided to incorporate things that we actually care about in our curriculum things that matter being accepted was enforced and it made for a better learning environment i did exceedingly well in that class because my teacher pushed us to be better as students and as people this definitely has not been the case for all of my teachers i've had teachers who sat me and two other black girls in my class in the back for entire youth an entire year and never bothered to learn our names it

033made me feel unnoticed and insignificant i've had teachers who by definition bullied students in my class and i've seen teachers give up on students who needed guidance witnessing the treatment of my friend witnessing this treatment of my friends made it hard to learn because i never felt comfortable and i was afraid to ask questions a simple word of encouragement or acknowledgement of a student's feelings goes a long way some students need that student teacher connection and need to know their teacher actually cares about them i was told that outside the family origin teachers are the second most influential person in the in a child's life they hold an immense power and influence about how we feel about ourselves teachers have a huge impact on our growth so they need to be held to a higher

034standard how teachers interact with students have a profound effect on academic outcomes and how students feel about themselves that's why we're here in support of the district and culturally responsive teaching students want to be seen and supported when we feel good we do good we need teachers to be more accepting and willing to consider our backgrounds while teaching messages that will impact us thank you for hearing my voice [Applause] william sampao good evening to the board and the superintendent i'm will sample i'm a senior at oa and my one's coming tonight to talk about culturally responsive teaching um by definition it means um it's a research and response based form of teaching i think all students myself can benefit greatly from this form of teaching um i'm just one of those two immigrants and it's

035always been very important for me to see representations of myself and my culture and my community this has driven me to start programs with the library teaching kids how to how about their differences and make them unique i think that message needs to be spread into the classroom personally i haven't experienced this much i think a lot of our black history education has been focused around european history inaccurate understanding of this nation's history and an additional lens with which to examine our legal framework can only enhance our understanding of our nation and its current state students learn about various events um beginning as early as third grade we learned about the holocaust and like world war ii because that information allows us to learn um to understand our past and the atrocities and successes the

036successes only make sense when we understand all that we have and need to overcome i believe that diversifying the narrative and immersing students in multiple cultures will provide us with some valuable messages we can learn for life i can't wait to the future for this district thank you for your time [Applause] good evening school members of the school board thank you for the opportunity to address you on the record my name is asanto jones and i live in district 308 and i'm a proud senior this year this district like many others around the country has faced unprecedented challenges fluctuating mandates and a barrage of concerns from parents and students so i thank you for continuing to show up as a student in this district it is greatly appreciated concerned parents are the part of the

037reason we continue to thrive as district parents of this district unify organize and voice their concern and this board in turn listens isn't always perfect but we're all striving for one goal the best for every student this pedagogy is not new to our district as addressed with our diversity and equity committee since 2008 we know that culturally responsive teaching not to be confused with critical race theory are attributes of excellent educators cultural responsive practices foster high expectations for students despite negative stereotypes foster's critical thinking skills and inquiry and most important a safe environment in which a student can engage and grow it is always it also fosters a healthy student-teacher relationship overall my experience at this school has been positive a specific instance of this was when an english teacher i had for two years

038during my freshman and sophomore year pushed me more than other any other teacher she was the first of my teachers to expect more out of me than i expected of myself and i have high expectations of myself throughout middle school i was able to go through school barely engaged in class discussions as long as i continued to get an a in the class this changed with this teacher the class environment she had allowed students to flourish she made the she made it feel comfortable to ask questions she did this through little things like taking the time to pronounce every student's name correctly and also through bigger things like holding every student to the same expectation through her making sure the class fits each student's individual and cultural needs students can reach their full potential and

039feel welcomed this is not the standard i've had more than one teacher would not call me by my preferred name assange because it was too hard to pronounce oftentimes people of color allowed to fall behind because of preconceived notions i have once been referred as the whitest black person that person knew the reasoning was because i was nice quiet and intelligent having this said about me as a child child confused me at the time i associated these traits as an aspect of my identity not as subverting racial stereotypes why was academic success not seen as something that could be associated with people who look like me culturally responsive teaching emphasizes having high expectations for every student i want to say thank you to miss toonaman because you have demonstrated what excellence and practice feels and

040looks like this is why i'm in support of continued cultural responsive teaching and training in the district thank you for listening andrew nicholson thank you members of the board as we know will and kendall counties have been classified as high transmission areas with cases going up in will county 141 percent over the last 14 days cases going up in kendall county up 198 over the last 14 days we remain at only 48 fully vaccinated so now that governor pritzker has implemented the mass mandate parents are looking to school boards to make sure that the mandate is implemented and that you do not give in to uninformed denial of science this isn't about opinion and this isn't about asking you to honor the request it's about doing what is required four things to keep in mind

041my mask protects you your mask protects me so if somebody doesn't wear a mask i'm the one who's at rest schools that don't adhere to the mandate are opening themselves up to liability and sanction the state of illinois has the right to remove funding and insurance companies have the right to remove coverage from schools that refuse to comply the virus does not care about political beliefs you should not care about them when you're defending children from it and lastly you don't actually work for the parents you work for the school district and it's your job to do the right thing for the school district and the people who go to school either to learn or to be taught or to to teach i'm going to tell a little story my eight-year-old went on a playdate

042on sunday and he was almost at the door when he said oh wait i forgot my mask and he ran back inside i forgot it his mother forgot it but he was like needed an umbrella because it was going to rain so he came back in to get his mask and when he came home later that night he told his mother myself they had gone into uh a fast food restaurant and he said i wore my mask and i said did you really said of course i did dad it's the same way that children have been talking to parents about stuff that they think is obvious for generations kids do not have a problem with masks parents have a problem with masks pediatric icu departments all over the country are getting overwhelmed children are getting

043coveted and even when they do survive they're experiencing greater side effects something called the long covid as part of a layered approach including social distancing sanitizing and vaccination masks are safe to use and work to protect kids from covid when everyone uses them please do not give in to the anti-science agenda protect our children thank you for your work for our kids and our schools and if nothing else this meeting has taught me that we need to push to make public education more available to everybody thank you terry jackson harry jackson hello um i live in the school district my kids are graduated now but both went to us we go east but i'm here as a concerned citizen concerned citizen for our school children a current concerned citizen for the community at large because

044of the the spread of cobit and especially right now with the spread of the delta variant which is much more aggressive much more contagious and as as most of you probably know just from following the news and keeping up is is rampant again across the country and the um it seems to me that a lot of people in the room i'm sure the board knows this very well but a lot of people in the room don't seem to realize this and that the kid that their decision well they think their decision as a parent is is to to make the decisions for the health care for their children but think about how this affects the rest of the children in the school district and that's your responsibility is to protect them and it's not just

045about their individual child but it's about all of the children this is a very very contagious virus and possibly deadly virus even for kids actually right now across the country there's a little it's affecting a lot of children right now there's children across this country that are hospitalized there's children that are on life support it can happen but it's not it's not just that it's the fact that this is a virus that you can have that you don't even realize you have that you don't have symptoms your child could be sim could have coveted could be some not feeling symptoms could spread it not only to the other children in the school but to the staff in the school to the employees in the school to the janitors to everyone in the school and then

046bring that that home spread that to the family spread it to other community members and this is where what i think we're really missing is that this is about the collective about of us as a community us as a school district us you know as a school here at us we go east is to protect each other and the simple fact of wearing a piece of cloth over over your face in order to protect people where's the humanity where's the caring about other people in the effects that that this can have on people with immunocompromised health issues and and just we just don't know what this can do to the individual child and why take the chance and as a board why take the chance on a child getting this and possibly possibly dying it's

047very serious thank you [Applause] this will be our last comment for the evening zoe mormont hi i'm zoe wearman i'm an incoming senior at ohs and some of you may remember me from two meetings ago when i urged you to require masks i was going to get up here today energy to require masks again for my safety but today i stand urging you to consider this for the future consider the fact that the cdc had to recommend wearing masks to keep me safe consider the fact that none of us have a choice but to go to the school district consider the fact that this virus is deadly why did it take a state mandate for masks to be required well i couldn't tell you that but the truth is i don't care what all these

048parents do in their free time they can take their children to play dates without masks and run around speaking against masks all they want but they don't get to endanger my safety this school district is where i learned to speak for myself and where i learned to fact check my sources this school district is where i learned exponential growth which has become a very relevant topic during this pandemic this school district is where i learned biology which taught me how dangerous pandemics can be one person's constitutional right ends when it negatively impacts the health and safety of others two meetings ago the message i received from the school board was clear the message i received was that one child's discomfort wearing a mask is more important than my physical safety when receiving an education in

049a building where i'm required to go i've been called fearful and i can assure you this isn't fear i've simply been well educated an education i receive from this district and my community an education that i am now using to say consider our safety when formulating safety plans this year i've heard these parents cry to give them their power back that it's their children so they get to say what they wear as a teen girl in this district i can say the squirty tells me what i can and can't wear and that these parents never had the power due to the dress code if you can make me put on a sweater you can make everybody wear a mask and follow proper safety protocols ultimately your job is to keep the district running and now

050your job is also to keep the students safe so please keep me safe this school year by maintaining proper safety protocols throughout the year as long as covet is raging we need to continue requiring masks thank you to all the board members who have had to put up with threats and harassment you didn't deserve that as you are simply trying to do your job but please don't cave to public pressure the loudest voice in the room isn't always the right voice the safety of students is the most important and one student hospitalized would be one too many as many of these parents have said they love their children in that case they shouldn't want their child hospitalized from covet or potentially dead please listen to the students who have to go to school and who

051care about keeping people alive thank you [Applause] thank you everyone for your comments we now move on to 5.1 board member comments as many of you know the board members had a retreat on june 26 to start the year off right with the majority of the board being new our iasb representative provided a training and during this training she asked each of us to write down what we wanted our legacy to be at the end of our term i thought these statements would be helpful for all of you to hear so i'll read a few of them for you now this board sought information to be prepared for discussions thoughtfully considered administration's recommendations and collaborated respectfully to make decisions in the best interest of students staff and the school community as a whole compassionate advocates

052for all students and staff that we set an example to our students and community of how to work collaboratively how to work through problems from multiple perspectives while respecting each other's opinions and ideas this board was a caring governing body who listened to community input in their decision-making process which led to an educational environment where kids feel safe cared for and prepared for what comes next created a culture of professionalism integrity and equity created a team that included all stakeholders working together for the best interests of all of our students brought our community back together had a top rated and sought after district proud proud to be a boe member representing the community proud to work here go to school and graduate from here we develop systems to create and maintain a learning climate that

053values all individuals while simultaneously creating a sense of community we cared and were fair our governance aided in creating an educational environment that is inclusive of all community members they did what was right and what was best for current future students staff and community the district is positioned for growth and for everyone to reach their maximum potential while in the district and beyond among these statements you will notice common themes of collaboration community and doing what is in the best interest of our students please know that this is what is in the hearts of every person who sits up here tonight we want to work with one another not against one another and most of all we want to provide the best world-class education possible in the safest environment possible for our children thank you

054anyone else okay so we move on now to the superintendent report well good evening board uh tonight is our last regularly scheduled meeting prior to welcoming back our staff on august 16th and our 17 000 plus students to the 21-22 school year the summer has been an extremely busy one as we prepare for the upcoming year and i am looking forward to the school year beginning i have i have often said that schools are just bricks and mortar without the students and staff and i know i speak for everyone when i say how much we are looking forward to the upcoming school year last week we held a two-day orientation for our new administrators our new administrators spent time with our district leaders in professional development and we also held a retreat for all admin

055last friday at murphy junior high uh one thing i'd like to thank the oswego oswego rotary for choosing school district 308 as one of their service projects this year last week rotarians and different community members came together uh to clean all 142 of our district 308 buses so i can now say that our buses are waxed they're gassed and they're clean from top to bottom and they're ready for kids on august 18th so as you can see there's a lot of things happening in school district 308 as we get ready for the 21 22 school year and that is my report for this evening i'll have more more later i motion for approval of consent agenda i make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the july 12 2021 board

056of education meeting open and closed session and 6.2 acknowledge the foia request received by the district second mrs simonton aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mr swanson aye mrs croner hi mrs doyle aye mrs johnson aye motion passes seven zero item 7.1 is financial statements are there any questions regarding the information that has been provided to the board this evening item 7.2 is in regards to driver's education vehicles dr petsky will present at this time dr pesky thanks dr sparlin all right well i'd like to present to the board of education today just a little bit of history on what we do with our driver's education vehicles and uh i'd like to talk about the challenge we had in january when we went to bid for our vehicles and a proposal that has been

057designed to help us meet that need so starting off on our first light here you can see our current practice we currently rent our drivers education vehicles they're uh we rent them for about 675 dollars a month per vehicle it comes out two for six vehicles three at oh oswego high school and three at oswego east high school so six total vehicles for forty eight thousand six hundred dollars so if you did want to look at this in terms of a lease cost like a three year lease that would be like a hundred forty five thousand eight hundred dollars over three years in addition to renting the cars or even if we were to lease the cars we would be responsible for the maintenance over those three years and the maintenance cost comes out to

058about six uh six thousand four hundred eighty dollars now back uh back in 2014 we've started renting these vehicles and in 2018 we released a bid to find out if we could replace our vehicles and when we released that bid we had no one respond to it so we engaged with our current car dealership and we just acquired six new vehicles and again began renting the vehicles now that lease is up we did go out to bid or not the lease but the renting program is up now we uh we did put out the bid we were given three bids from three different dealerships and we uh chose the lowest bid and we started negotiating with the sales team for that for those vehicles and when the finance department found out that we were leasing

059the vehicles they said no because you they don't want the liability with leased vehicles to uh they don't want the liability of leased vehicles being used in the driver's ed program so we reached out to our other bidders and told them the same situation and they they too they were not comfortable with the finance department honoring a lease so we went back to our we went back to our current rental agreement and and our local dealership and they they said that they weren't interested in considering the rental program either so that left us with looking for another option and fortunately there are some out there so if you look in the next box here on the right the proposal is we've engaged with a fleet management company with enterprise fleet management and um what we're

060looking at is doing what's called an open-ended municipal lease and so they will lease the vehicles to us the the cost for that lease is 48 366 dollars it would be a three-year program this program would include maintenance so we wouldn't have an additional cost there but what's nice about the fleet management system is at the end of the three-year term enterprise will work with us to either sell the vehicles and give us the equity which would amount to about twenty six thousand eight hundred twenty six dollars at the end of this lease or we could roll that equity into acquiring new vehicles so it gives us some options so in addition to that twenty six thousand eight hundred twenty six dollars in equity we get also the maintenance cost and the difference between the

061the two leases in the program so we would actually be saving about eleven thousand three hundred thirty six dollars a year or about thirty four thousand eight dollars over the three year term there we go um and just if you've got a question about bidding or not bidding are we still within the realm of what we can do because we did bid this out we um we do not have to go out for bids to compare this but i do want to mention we are a member in what's called source well or eni public sourcing these two groups our memberships in these they uh enterprise actually won contracts for them so they can acquire vehicles for us at a co-op purchasing program price so we are assured that we are getting low prices on the

062vehicles that we are engaging in this contract with so that's something i'd like to talk to you a little bit more about later too there's other purchasing options with these co-ops as well so let's look at the complicated screen just so i make sure everyone knows what we're talking about here so the first thing let's look at the thing that pops out and that's the four squares and kind of the lower left with a fleet management option we can actually choose to do one of four things we can either buy the cars right now outright which is called the self-funded or the cash option we can finance the car we can buy it on finance terms to zero and we can own it when we're done or we can do a closed end lease where

063we lease that vehicle for three years and we give it back we don't have any equity in the vehicle or and the reason there's a star above that last option is that's what i would recommend that we do there's an open-ended municipal lease and what that means is we would lease the vehicles and we would lease the vehicles and if you look at that spreadsheet up top the lease vehicle would be 671.75 per vehicle per month and then at the end of our three-year term we could give uh enterprise ten thousand five hundred dollars for each vehicle and we could buy it or we could lease it um we could lease that ten thousand dollars or we can give the cars back to enterprise and say sell the cars and they're telling us that the

064expected value of these cars when we're done with them will be fifteen thousand dollars so when they sell the car for fifteen thousand dollars they're going to keep their ten thousand dollars that they put into the car and they're gonna give us the difference which in this case would be four thousand four hundred and seventy one dollars per vehicle so can you see how on this uh open-ended municipal lease we get twenty six thousand eight hundred dollars in equity at the end of this we can then take that twenty six thousand dollars we can then acquire six new vehicles and apply those dollars to that lease so instead of paying a hundred forty five thousand dollars over three years we can subtract twenty six thousand dollars off the top so we're saving a little bit

065more money so not uh it's it's uh works to our benefit um and that's kind of all that this screen says and the last thing i just had in here is uh it does include a vehicle maintenance program so we would not be paying extra so where we were renting the cars for 675 675 dollars a day and then doing maintenance this allows us to uh for 671.75 build that maintenance in so oil changes uh any manufacturer recalls or any warranty repair work that has to be done we take it into any of these 37 maintenance centers around our area and they take care of it no problem and what i didn't opt to do is i didn't do the tire replacement and the brake replacement because after our three year lease we're not going

066to have that many miles on them to justify replacing tires and brakes so we can trade them in get new vehicles and that my board of education is how 308 will work with source well to partner with enterprise fleet management for our driver's ed education program and if you're curious there's a picture of the 2021 nissan rogue that we would be acquiring so i would be happy to entertain any questions do they have sorry do they have six nissan rogues for us they do see a lot of empty car lots yeah there's a lot of empty car lots the one nice thing about the dealership enterprise has a nationwide selection so as soon as we tell them this is the option we want to go with they will get the vehicles for us and our

067other car dealership has been kind enough to allow us to use our current vehicles until we acquire the new ones is it is there a fee to be a member of source well no great question there is not a fee it's just a matter of signing up for it and then it's just keeping track of what purchasing agreements they have and if those truly are the best prices or if we can get better pricing other places and are you familiar with other districts who are using um this fleet management service not for their driver's ed vehicles so some other districts are purchasing their vehicles and choosing to do other things but i can certainly reach out to other other cfos and find out what they're doing but i do know the few that i've checked

068with they purchase their vehicles and they keep them which unfortunately you know with the maintenance that you kind of take a chance when you buy your cars absolutely thank you is there any um difference in our insurance coverage when it comes to the lease option versus what we're currently doing of renting yeah you know what that's a good question i don't think there is but i will i will double check with our insurance provider just to make sure but i would i would think that leasing would be more in our favor than renting so if anything i think it would be more in our favor to have the lease option but i'll i'll get that information for you as well thanks thank you dr patsy any other questions all right very good item 7.3 is

069an annual item in regards to updating the membership of our board of education advisory committees the board chairs have gone through the applicants and are recommending the new members to the finance committee are there any questions on this informational item all right item 7.4 is in regards to board policy 7 colon 165. this policy needed to be amended as we approach the new school year the suggested changes have been approved by the board's attorney and if there are any questions i'm sure maureen would be happy to answer them for the board all right item 7.5 is in regards to our district safety plan tonight we'll share several highlights from our comprehensive safety plan document the safety plan serves as a guide to the operations of our district amidst the pandemic knowing our highest priority is

070the health and safety of our students and staff over the past several weeks our area like others across our state has experienced a rise in coca-19 cases due to this and the increased presence of the delta variant the governor issued a mandate that all persons in pre-k through grade 12 schools wear a mask to help slow the spread of the virus aside from the mandate having our safety plan in place is important as it addresses several other topics aside from masks additionally once the board adopts the plan it will be in place to guide the use of masks in our schools when the governor's governor's mandate is discontinued as we have stated throughout the pandemic we use guidelines of local state and federal health officials to create our plans and our policies but also retain

071enough latitude to adjust in response to the individual needs of our schools and our community as you hear more about the plan moving forward this evening it will be clear that we have included many layers of mitigation to protect students and staff and make us create a safe environment while also doing all we can to keep students present in class where we know they learn best the information shared tonight along with the full safety plan will be available on our district website for parents to easily reference so with that teresa comedis is going to present the safety plan theresa thank you we'll just go over some of the highlights as dr sparlin mentioned this is a comprehensive document currently at 21 pages in length we're just going to go through some of the highlights this

072evening the components of this plan remain subject to change based on guidance that we receive from local state and federal authorities as well as in response to any of our own or area trends in regards to covet 19. there were several guiding principles that we utilized as we put this plan together of course the number one priority for our district always has been and remains protecting the health and safety of the students and staff in our buildings we did reference local state and federal guideline guidance that has been provided to us in order to develop the plan it was also important for us to develop a plan that was both feasible and flexible to adjust to the community and school needs and risks and of course we want to maintain in-person school for all students

073to avoid missed instructional time related to illnesses or exposure we pulled a couple of pieces of the cdc guidance out here this evening the first being in regards to transmission rates within schools multiple studies have shown that when multiple prevention strategies are in place that those rates are typically lower than or similar to community transmission levels which leads to the second one which is that together with our local public health officials our administration will be considering multiple factors when they make decisions about layered prevention strategies as we make these decisions we know that they also impact our surrounding community so we want to do what is right based of our school school population families and students as well as the surrounding community to begin the school year there are a number of mitigation measures that

074we already have planned these are discussed in detail in the safety plan but i'll just take you through a brief summary of a few of them here cleaning and sanitization will still be occurring on a daily basis we have a number of resources available to do full disinfection in our buildings each evening we will still be encouraging hand washing and respiratory respiratory etiquette as far as trying to minimize the transmission of droplets when someone is coughing sneezing etc we will also have hand sanitizer in each of our classrooms as well as in common areas throughout the building our ventilation systems will continue to be running at the maximum air exchange that we can to in order to bring as much fresh air into our buildings as possible our classroom layout will be so that we

075can try to minimize any any germs between students within the classroom so we'll discuss that a little bit further when we get down to the social distancing component but certainly not prescribed at the level that we saw last year and we no longer will have one-way hallways one-way stairways and bathrooms throughout pathways throughout classrooms we do have visitor and volunteer procedures in place you'll see as we get further in this that's tied back to metrics so where there's higher community prevalence of covid19 we would see that be a little stricter than when we see the numbers lower in our community we will also have masking tied to metrics we'll get to that a little bit further in the presentation but as dr sparlin said earlier this is really a plan that's important for us to

076adopt for the school year regardless of the current mandate that we have in place we want to make sure that we have this plan underneath so if that were to expire we know what our plan is as a district following the guidance of the illinois state board of education and illinois department of public health as well as the cdc we will continue to promote the coveted vaccination as a primary mitigation measure social distancing walk through that a little bit as well that looks a little different in the guidance from federal and state resources this year dependent upon masks it's a little bit more flexible we're looking more around the three foot distance as opposed to what we talked about last year with six foot distancing we'll also continue to have ppe available to our staff

077and to our students who are not able to obtain it on their own this could include face shields face masks gloves gowns etc okay so our metrics that we utilize when we're developing our plans and reacting to our local trends are really calculated over time so there won't be one or two days of a sharp increase or decrease that we would be reacting to as far as any changes based upon metrics we'll be evaluating all of our metrics in two week intervals we'll be utilizing the 14 day average of new cases per 100 000 population and to do that we're going to be utilizing the four zip codes that most of our students originate from so we won't be utilizing an entire kendall county number we actually have done a deeper dive into the location

078of where our students come from and the four zip codes make up our primary service area that we'll utilize in order to measure those metrics for any of our metrics based mitigation so things that we either add on or take away in response to our local health situation would be announced no later than the thursday prior to the week where any changes would go into place the only exception to that would be is if we're responding to an urgent situation an outbreak etc there could be things that happen a little quicker we will be reporting our metrics both for our district like we did last year as well as a link directly to that four zip code service area on a metrics page of our website this chart goes through a few of the metrics-based

079mitigation measures i discussed a number of mitigation measures earlier not all of those are tied specifically to metrics these two both masks and visitor volunteer restrictions are so the cdc which was endorsed by our local and state health authorities have broken down risk into four categories low moderate substantial and high transmission you can see that the metrics for each of those four categories are across that first full row there and that is again based on the new cases per 100 000 population so again the governor's mandate that is in place at this time is what the district is following in regards to masking however if that were not in place the metrics based measures would be once this plan is adopted so at low transmission rates masks are recommended for all persons age 2 and

080above but not being mandated within our schools when we move up to moderate we have kind of a hybrid in place here where masks would be required while students are in areas where they're moving or areas where they can't socially distance so as we think about arrival dismissal passing periods those kind of places everyone be masked but once they're seated at their their desk or their learning area and they're not up and about and they are able to maintain that social distancing masks would no longer be mandated while they're in that specific spot when we move into the substantial and high transmission areas we would then require masks on all persons in our schools much like the policy that we are following at this point in time our visitors and volunteers are also the restrictions

081are based on what the zip code areas metrics are so we do not anticipate any additional restrictions on visitors or volunteers in any way when our community is in low to moderate transmission stage however we would begin to bring in some of the restrictions when we see that move into a substantial transmission stage so in that case we would be encouraging for meetings to be held virtually if they could be or held outside of times when students are in our buildings when we move into the high transmission we would be having our essential personnel in buildings while students are present and wearing masks in order to minimize the exposure of people in our buildings outside of the student population while the students are present what we've done is built sort of a bank of additional

082mitigation measures that can be utilized in response to the local community health situation it is important to note that each of these is to be considered individually and each of these are responses to the current situation and the possible transmission sources in the population that we're talking about so these are not specifically tied to a certain metric or a certain population it's also important to note that these can be both added and taken away in response to the spread or potential transmission within the schools at this time none of these additional measures that are up here are being considered within our school at this exact time these are things that would be layered as a response so these could include optional screening testing which would require parental consent required testing for high-risk sports and activities

083which could also be dictated by our sports association ihsa limited movement within our buildings meaning that we would have like specials teachers maybe not utilize shared equipment or shared spaces for music art those sort of things but try to come to where the students are to limit the movement throughout the building capacity restrictions in large gathering spaces use of barriers when spacing is difficult so this is like the plexiglas a temporary dividers that we have from last year and then masking in certain settings so if we were to see a spike or an outbreak within a set population or a certain area or while a certain activity is taking place it may be that masks would then be required within that specific setting as opposed to a blanket rule across the school another significant change

084this year is the reporting of illness within a student or staff member the full list that's up there are the current known covid19 symptoms there have not been any changes to this list from the end of last school year the list is pretty long but anyone that is experiencing any of these covid like symptoms it is recommended that they get tested for cova 19 and that they seek their health care provider's opinion on a potential alternate diagnosis so unlike last year we would not be having each person report and then tracking the number of days that they from the time that the symptoms were onset through the time that they come back however for each person that is ill we'll be providing a very comprehensive list of recommendations from local and state health authorities which

085include being tested and consulting your health care provider for an alternate diagnosis and without either of those an individual should be away from school for 10 calendar days and they should also be fever-free with improvement to their symptoms before they return to school so we will still be tracking and reporting illness but not issuing specific quarantine dates for someone that calls in sick we also have a lot more latitude in regards to quarantine options after a known covet exposure all of these options are subject to direction by our local health department what that means is the local health department has the ability to come to us and say that given the current situation that we have within our local community they are no longer endorsing a specific shortened quarantine and we may have to move

086to a different category without that guidance the first the one all the way to the left the 14-day quarantine is kind of what we were used to last year the more traditional quarantine where there's no presence at school or school-related events no testing required or anything from the time of the known exposure the quarantine is a full 14 days the next option moving right would be a 10 day quarantine which again is no presence at school or school related events on that 10 days testing is recommended for someone completing a 10-day quarantine but not required beginning at this section and moving all the way right all of these would require that a mask be worn by that individual while they're completing the remainder of the 14-day quarantine even though they're returning at day 10 as

087well as social distancing be maintained moving right the next option would be a seven day which again no presence at school or school related events for those seven days but that that quarantine would end at seven days but it would require that a test a pcr test on or after day five of the exposure be done prior to the return to school the final right is the new test to stay strategy that is outlined in our state guidance what this allows is for students to remain in school even after they are known exposure to a covid case there are several things that must be in place in order to utilize the strategy it is only applicable when we are in a universal masking so as long as masks are required within a school setting a

088student who is exposed to a known case of covet 19 may remain in class and not miss any time away as long as they are tested throughout that quarantine period is recommended at day one three five and seven following exposure this is not a required pcr test this would be any of those approved tests that we currently are utilizing in our state so this is a big difference from last year many of our students that miss time away from class were due so it was due to a quarantine of a known exposure and in this situation as long as masks are in place students would be remaining in class and not missing time this walks you through the process of what happens when we do receive a positive case from a student or staff member

089any time someone tests positive for covid19 they are required to complete a 10-day isolation period from the net clock begins from the first day after the symptom onset if they are experiencing symptoms or the day after the specimen was collected for those not experiencing symptoms it's also important to note that return must include resolution of the fever as well as improvement in the other symptoms if someone tests positive for covid19 vaccination status does not negate the isolation requirement so regardless of vaccination status someone that tests positive would be required to complete the full 10 days of isolation close contacts which are defined by the state as those who are not fully vaccinated would be required to quarantine per the idph directive which is outlined in full in that previous table that we walked through and

090it's important to note that in addition to those who are fully vaccinated that there's also a second category underneath that for those who have experienced a covid positive case within the last 90 days and can demonstrate the presence of antibodies they would also not be required to quarantine under that same guidance as the fully vaccinated individuals for each positive case that's reported to the school district we will utilize our nursing staff to conduct contact tracing and notify close contacts and we are also required to report this back to our local health department we'll discuss a few special settings in school these again are addressed and this is a summary of what is covered within the state guidance for our elementary settings our lunch spaces will be three feet between students at the secondary level there

091will be some flexibility for choice and we will offer socially distanced lunch spaces for students that wish to be seated in those areas as well as traditional lunchroom seating for students that would like to sit closer we'll also be cleaning the surfaces throughout the lunch room and the lunch serving times as often as feasible but we will have sanitizing wipes and hand sanitizer available for student use in those areas driver's education masks are required that is part of the federal tribal mandate but students will also utilize hand sanitizer before and after and wipe the shared services in the vehicle prior to leaving band and choir we have the preference the outdoors be used whenever possible when we are in the high risk category we would ask we will ask our students to utilize the bell

092covers over their instruments as well as the mask the special masks that are in place for playing instruments we would be encouraging as much distance as possible and wherever possible avoiding shared equipment our athletics will be following the school mitigations in regards to mask so wherever we're at within that metric-based table our athletics would be following the same as well as possible required testing within the high-risk sports and limitation of spectators as i mentioned earlier that is our plan although we may receive additional guidance restrictions and direction from the ihsa that we would need to comply with so that is a brief overview of the safety plan which has been shared with you in its entirety and i am here to address questions teresa first off very well done uh thank you for walking us

093through the highlights of the safety plan um it was very well laid out so thank you you're welcome will it be available on the website i see people taking notes when will it be available on the website yes so this summary will um actually should already be on the the website for a review and the full safety plan in its entirety will be available prior to board approval for review and will be on our district website once it has been approved by the board thank you yes lori okay great job i know how hard this has been with a constantly moving target i know that you are putting in about 27 hours in each 24-hour day trying to get this information correct accurate and out and i appreciate it so thank you i do have

094to wonder about page 11 which is lunch i'm i'm real concerned that we're offering choices of traditional lunchroom seating for students so they can sit closer than three feet um okay so can do we have one do we have enough seating in our secondary schools that's junior high in high school so that every student can sit three feet apart if every single student chose to sit three feet apart can we do that do we have that availability it was the plan as part of the administration's approach to determine by asking parents what their option what their choice for their student would look like so that we could react to that either way it's not as easy as just saying do we have space what would happen is in our buildings we would need to open

095up non-lunch spaces as lunch spaces which of course then require supervision as well as a number of other mandates from the state in regards to food service areas so access to sinks running water drinking water etc so we built those spaces based on what parent feedback is in regards to the option um i guess i'm going to need more information on what was the parent feedback on this um i think i'm hearing the answer is no we don't so what happens i guess my question is one what happens on day one if ninety percent of the students say no i want to sit three feet apart are we prepared for that um faith do you want to specifically address that lunch thing sure so i know that the high schools have been contemplating making sure

096that they have additional spaces and additional staff especially the first couple of days as to do the overflow or what that would look like if it's 98 of a particular lunch it will be a challenge the first couple of days as we figure all out what that would be but we're already preparing of what that would look like if that scenario played out and have already said that we would be able to hire additional staff to what's needed to keep that going so who will keep track of which students have sat three feet apart at lunch and which have not as it relates to your quarantining process of having to maintain that social distance of three plus feet until your 14 days concludes so a lot of this is the issue of the guidance the

097way that it would be presented to the students so that we would say this is what is expected and then we'll do what's feasible within the district as far as being able to track and trace the movement of the students that are are in the building when we're under a universal masking mandate it's a lot easier because then we aren't you know attempting to figure out what rules look like you know per student so to speak but there is a lot of it that relies on us providing the requirement according to idph much like the local health department would do when they call and provide that guidance to someone that's under a quarantine but not not able to within you know what's feasible and what's not for us to be able to track the movement

098of a particular person throughout the day the reason we looked at this a little differently for elementary versus secondary is the amount of time that they're actually seated next to somebody these lunches by the time they get to the space especially because we have to utilize multiple spaces for lunch by the time they get to a space get a chance to sit down and actually remove the mask to begin eating it is very unlikely that they would have more than 15 minutes with with anyone within that close contact it is also specifically addressed in the faqs that were released today by idph and isbe in regards to social distancing in cafeterias again it really talks about the feasibility of utilizing the physical space as much as possible but again understanding that is not required and

099it also does discuss in here specifically that there is not a need for students teachers or staff who are vaccinated to distance while eating so again as students make that decision if someone is fully vaccinated they are not under any sort of even guided restriction on social distancing so i guess what i'm asking with this just i'm i'm i'm thinking i need to clarify just what i'm hearing is and i'm trying to just be abundantly clear my child goes to the first day of sixth grade and generally speaking in junior high they're given a week to settle into a space and then that's their assigned seat for the rest of this the quarter right on monday they decide they want social distancing on tuesday do they decide they don't the next student wants to remain

100in school so they need three feet of socialist distance will they be allowed to switch their assigned seat will they not all of these things are almost guaranteed in my mind to be reasonable questions that will come up in some rather short staffed lunch periods so i guess i'm not sure who to direct the question to um in terms of staffing for this but but this just seems offering these choices pretty continuously and i'm assuming at high school you can choose day by day um this this seems like kind of a headache and a mess and i'm just not understanding what the process will be for a parent that really wants to encourage their child to do the right things and wants to quarantine and wants to do the things the way they're supposed to

101whatever their choices on a vaccine status can you help me understand that i'm not sure which sure so the quote the statement in regards to those that want to quarantine i do think it's important to note that if somebody is identified as a close contact that option to take the full 14 days out of school is most certainly there we are not enforcing that anyone come back sooner or submit to any sort of testing or anything to come back earlier faith covered a couple of meetings ago with that temporary distance learning looks like but there were they will be offered that temporary remote education for when they are out of the building so and we would not be forcing anyone to come back while they are on a quarantine and we have we have prior

102to this being released we walked through exercises with each of our buildings to understand what the available space looks like for lunches and what our furniture capacities and everything looks like so that we could accommodate initially we were kind of panicking at the six foot but it was released at the three foot for elementary and as you mentioned junior high we will know who is seated where on a daily basis that's an assigned seat once it's it's assigned it remains that way at the high school level again that would be the flexibility of having both the socially distanced as well as not socially distanced seating and again it it's important to note that the social distancing of three feet and this is outlined specifically in the guidance that came out this morning as well that

103it's mouth to mouth three feet it's not three feet of space between individuals so it really right so really like your mouth to someone else's mouth may only be you know ten inches or a foot of space between you know your shoulder to shoulder area so i'm not questioning that i'm merely questioning the piece of student choice on whether or not they choose just to be socially distant and i'm a little concerned at the fact that what i'm think i'm hearing is depending on how many students choose that they would like to be socially distant at lunchtime they might not have that option no not at all we would make sure that we maintain enough spaces so that if it was chosen that every single student there would certainly be it just means that we

104would have more spaces as lunch as opposed to a cafeteria yeah we certainly can accommodate the choice of anyone that chooses to socially distance during that lunch hour and the again the time period that they would be exposed while actually seated to be able to remove the mask and actually eat depending on the number of spaces we have to utilize would become shorter you know the more spread out we are thank you i have a question about lunch as well and this may be a question for another meeting but i'm wondering what lunch is actually going to look like like are they going to have like get a lunch menu and your choices are you know a cheeseburger or pizza or salad today is this a sack lunch i'm assuming not the same as last

105year's sack lunches which is a lot of things you could take home and then later go ahead do we have that answer yeah hi ruth um so i've been working very closely with uh patty and jessica in the cafeteria and what we're gonna do is we're gonna have lunches that are kind of grab and go but there's still an option with some of the some of the like an orange or an apple sauce or if they take milk and things like that but uh we definitely are going to limit the options it's not like a free-for-all lunch um and uh we're gonna start with those grab-and-go options and will that will those grab-and-go things be posted as a lunch menu so my kids can be like no i don't want a ham sandwich today i'd

106rather just bring something from home bring something from home yeah we'll have a lunch menu with that as well so um i had another question about the quarantine options as as usual it's a little confusing um so there were four different options how how do we determine what option we're using is it like if so some of this is choice based on the individual subject to the quarantine the difference between day 10 and day seven is that you would be required to test at day five or after to come back at day seven so if somebody says no way i'm not testing they would be subject to the 10 days the difference between the 14 and all the other options would be that if we were in for example the low transmission and so masks

107were recommended but not required and that the return of coming off of quarantine early would require a mask and social distancing be maintained until day 14. okay my question about the test to stay i have a couple of questions one is in regards to students who are asymptomatic and they receive a false positive like what if you test you're exposed you test positive on day one you have no symptoms can you test again on day three if that's negative like so the the rapid tests or any any school-based testing if someone tests positive the recommendation is that they go out and get a confirmatory test before it's a true positive okay if using your example someone were to test positive within our school we certainly would record that positive do the contact tracing and move

108forward with having that student begin the 10-day but as a parent i could then take them somewhere absolutely yes it's more accurate confirmatory yep and then who's paying for these tests to stay rapid tests the state of illinois is offering testing without charge to any district in the state they offer two different forms of that one is the shield program which is a saliva based test where students would spit into a small tube those are collected with a barcode that's we would know which student that ties back to those are taken to a state lab where they're tested the results are then typically available in less than 24 hours back to the parents the other option is the binex which is the same test we were utilizing for athletics at the end of last year

109that is a nasal spa but it's not the real deep nasal swab and those are rapid done it's a card the sample is taken and then put in a card there's drops on it we know within 15 minutes as well both of those can be administered tested and reported back through the shield program so it is our intent to have a relationship with that program that would allow for us to offer testing at least a few days a week within our buildings again it would be parental consent required and it wouldn't be required that the testing be done by the school if someone would prefer to use their doctor's office or pharmacy or somewhere else to get the testing done that's certainly allowable and it's rare for us to kind of know on day one

110about the exposure so the guidance does discuss that as quickly as you can kind of get on that testing regimen with the focus really being around day five and day seven of that exposure when it's most common for those to be read on the tests thank you you're welcome they answered it and these quarantine options have nothing to do with whether they are vaccinated students or unvaccinated students they do so quarantine in and of itself the definition of a close contact as long as someone does not have symptoms if they were a close contact to a known case of coven 19 and they are fully vaccinated or they have had a confirmed case of covet in the last 90 days or can demonstrate the presence of antibodies then they are not subject to quarantine as

111outlined from the idph so this is only that all of those were not factors and then we would kind of come into this scale and determine um based on both whether or not masks are used universally as well as whether the family chooses to want to have the child tested depending on which day they are coming back i have one more question then does this shield program also cover the antibody testing or only nope it is a screening testing program that's utilized the primary purpose of the shield program is to identify asymptomatic cases within school settings where there could be challenges to physical distancing and or consistent mask and other mitigation measures employed and some schools are utilizing it and we've had some conversations with them as well it doesn't mean that it needs to

112be utilized school-wide for all students in order to have that in place in our school we may utilize it for example in our high-risk sports population or have it there for the optional testing but this would not be something at this time that would even if we begin that relationship with shield would not be something that is being offered to all students and staff on any sort of regular basis at this time and the 14 day option that is really just for families that prefer that option or if we had gotten to a situation where we were no longer masking our social distancing correct correct and additionally it does require that so depending upon what the student's activity level might look like there could be restrictions on extracurricular activities if they're choosing not to test

113and those sort of things so the true definition of close contact is still six feet or closer for 15 minutes or longer and requires a 14-day quarantine what the guidance that came out from isbn idph and cdc specific to school settings has done is attempted to put the focus around how to keep kids in classrooms and to prioritize in-person learning ahead of some of that so while they're not willing to say that there's no risk in coming back at day 7 or day 10 when we employ these other mitigation strategies whether that's testing social distancing or masks that that really reduces that risk significantly and that the presence of the student physically in the the classroom would be a priority and i do have some concerns that while we're insubstantial or hot that we're giving

114this lunchtime option to secondary students because we're we're saying that they have to be masked all the time but then in the one unmasked situation that they are in school we're saying go sit with your friends um again some of that was based on the guidance that says that fully vaccinated do not need a distance while eating so we are not requiring uh to know who is and who is not vaccinated but we are allowing the opportunity for someone that is vaccinated and to not need to follow the the rest of the considerations here it is it is very um it is very you want to be able to stay at the meeting you're going to have to be quiet okay okay thank you have a good evening again the district is not um asking

115for vaccination status and will not be seating students based on their vaccination status that is a choice of students to choose we will have the opportunity for students to socially distance for those that wish and those that do not and yeah all that i'm saying is that since um right since we're asking for masks they're mandated that that seems the most high risk time to then have that choice and i know that we run into all kinds of issues with spacing and and absolutely staff and everything so i'm not trying to be nervous absolutely the guidance does acknowledge that it definitely acknowledges that and and openly states that that is likely the most challenging time for schools is meal service time but again we're asked to prioritize the presence of students in in school all

116day every day and that we're should maximize our physical distance wherever possible but but again to remind us that while it's recommended that physical distancing be at least three feet and that it is not mandated that there be three feet so again i think it's we are not alone in that struggle and where what spaces we can put students to eat and again going back to what are some of those requirements in order to have an area serving as a cafeteria in regards to access to water and hand washing and you know the services and all of those kind of things that that play into that as well but um going back to mrs doyle's initial concern we certainly have the capacity and ability to accommodate any student that would wish to have that minimum

117of three feet at the secondary level and we would have that choice beginning at the junior high level but at the elementary there would be at minimum three feet between each student and did you say that students will have to choose their seat for lunch in order to junior high does maintain assigned seating seating charts so we'll know where they're at for each lunch period that is not something that we do and is not something we believe to be really feasible for us to attempt at the high school level to know um you know who is seated where there's a little bit more there's quite a bit less time for that and getting them through the line and even to a space to attempt to eat something is very quick and so any additional measures

118that we were to add into that would take away from the the time that they have to eat so again it's that unfortunate and not ideal balance between what we feel is safest compared to what is feasible for us in order to have students attending full-time in our buildings i have a question about staff since you guys were just talking about staff so we have some staff in our buildings who are not vaccinated right um a it's not our intent to force this correct correct and then b i know that last year there was i'm trying to remember what it was called this might be a mooring question but if a staff member goes out on the quarantine it was the kovid days is that what you're referring to is that still or is that

119no no it is not under ffcra yeah yeah no that expires september 30th even if you had extended it correct yeah so that again the quarantine would only be required if someone was closer than three feet when we're in a masking situation and then even given that they have these different options so if they were to test to stay they wouldn't miss any time away but any time that is missed would be their normal accrued sick sick leave time available to them okay i just wanted to clarify thank you teresa what about mass breaks so we are encouraged are started at our last administrative retreat and encouraging our staff to when weather is appropriate take things outside so you know flexible seating options a gym outside anything that we can do to try to kind

120of offer that that time away from masks in addition to of course the lunch time and then temporarily you know removing them for a drink or you know eating at any point in time that is all certainly allowable so we are encouraging staff and we hope that while weather is nice we're seeing classes taking advantage of that masks are not required outdoors we are utilizing our playroom spaces and our playground spaces and having recess time for kids without masks great thank you question in regards to the sick leave so i think i heard you mention that it would end so if a teacher was sick is there any additional consideration for the number of sick days they currently have given that we're in the middle of the pandemic or is it the same number of

121sick days and they would likely exhaust them if they were out on a quarantine it's the same number that they have the teachers also have their own sick bank as well that they can uh ask for additional days through the reunion i think one last question the great gator vs mask debate so that was discussed in the faqs that came out again this morning it it does say that the cdc doesn't recommend gators would that have a single layer of cloth however a single layer folded over to be a double layer or an athletic gator type of face covering that's two layers or more are considered acceptable thank you so it's really just to a two layer regardless of what the face covering if it's the mask with ear loops or a athletic gaiter any

122other questions for teresa i just want to say thank you so much for all the hard work that went into this i know i had the opportunity to see it many times and um it was just you did a lot and it's great work thank you thank you those are all the information items for this evening okay let's move on to action items can i get a can i get a motion for action item 8.1 approval of bills for payment i make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 7467 hundred and eight dollars and eighty six cents as presented mrs croner aye dr marino aye mrs johnson aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mrs doyle aye mrs simonton aye motion passes seven zero can i get a motion for

123item 8.2 approval of rejection of bids for cooling tower project for the wheatlands thompson bed narcic and oswego east high school and rooftop duct work for oswego high school i make a motion to reject all bids based on the cost being significantly higher than the estimate second mr gatewood hi mrs johnson hi mrs doyle aye mrs swanson i am thankful aye mrs simultan aye mrs croner aye motion passes 7-0 can i get a motion for 8.3 approval of new finance and facilities advisory committee members i make a motion to approve the new finance and facilities committee members as discussed and presented a second mrs doyle aye mrs swanson aye mrs croner aye mrs simonton aye mr gatewood aye mrs johnson aye dr marino aye motion passes 7-0 you guys got some really great people on

124there by the way thank you i like those names can i get a motion for 8.4 approval of amended district administrator contracts i make a motion to approve the amended district administrator contracts as discussed and presented second mrs swanson aye mrs simonton aye dr marino aye mrs croner aye mr gatewood aye mr storyal aye mrs johnson aye motion passes 7-0 can i get a motion for 8.5 approval of amended building administrator contracts i make a motion to approve the amended building administrator contracts as discussed and presented second mrs croner aye mrs johnson aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mrs doyle aye mrs simultan aye motion passes seven zero can i get a motion for 8.6 approval of new building administrator contracts i make a motion to approve the new building administrator

125contracts as discussed and presented second you guys are slagging mrs simultan aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mrs croner aye mrs doyle aye mrs johnson aye motion passes 7-0 can i get a motion for 8.7 approval of personnel report i make a motion to approve the personnel report as presented second mr gatewood hi mrs johnson aye mrs dorial aye mrs swanson aye dr marino aye mrs simonton aye mrs croner aye motion passes 7-0 can i get a motion to adjourn i make a motion to adjourn all in favor aye