SD308 Board of Education Meeting (6/7/2021)

001i apologize so i called to the order of the oswego community unit school district 308 board of education meeting can i get a roll call mrs doyle present mr gatewood president mrs johnson present mrs croner dr marino present mrs simonton present mrs swanson president item 3.2 pledge of [Music] it allegiance one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice 4.1 opportunity for the public to address the board of education on behalf of the board of education i would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting we value the feedback we receive from our residents and encourage everyone to take an active interest in their public school system residents interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board when

002the secretary calls your name i ask that you come to the microphone state your name for the public record and provide your feedback please note that comments are limited to 5 minutes per person and that only three comments per topic will be heard no discussion of personnel matters or responses to questions are permitted the board does not participate in discussion during public comment follow up to your questions or concerns will be addressed by administration through the contact information provided on the comment card crystal casper could you put your mask up over your nose please it it is a rule in the schools thank you my name is crystal casper i'm speaking on behalf of the community in action group i have been in contact with faith but felt this issue needed to be addressed publicly

003as a concern for many members of the community in action group my email was asking for specific instructional material that is can you speak into the microphone please my email was asking for specific instructional material that is being given to teachers on how to incorporate crt into the curriculum the response was that there were no standards that are being taught to students on crt it is the teachers that are being trained on best practices instruction to meet the needs of the students i'm referring to the cultural culturally responsive teaching that what you guys call it um she had attached some slides for reference um i will be speaking to faith hopefully this week regarding the email response i sent to her but i'm going to read you what my response was seeing as there are

004no standards being taught i would be very interested in what training actually means and more specifically what it will look and feel like in a class setting what are teachers being encouraged coerced or forced into doing examples for each point on your slides would give better understanding and not just gloss over or leave room for interpretation were there training sessions that took place in person or over zoom are parents able to gain access to those meetings if they are over zoomed will there be future training and if so can parents be involved what is the overall goal of school district 308 wishes to accomplish with these new programs how can the dei and sel departments give parents more insight in open forum to discuss issues in opposition with these new ideological trainings that may not

005align with their own world views if teachers do not agree with crt agenda are they given the ability to opt out are parents given the ability to opt their children out of these learning sessions or will it be intertwined in all lesson plans ceasing any way to avoid it is there oversight on how the material is being infused into the classroom will parents be given the opportunity to review all the lesson plans in advance so they can determine whether they are appropriate or not policy states opportunity for all students so if parents do not wish to have their children exposed to certain materials there should be options available the public school system leaves much to be desired in little control to the people that matter most the children and the taxpayer we want our kids

006to be able to enjoy a few years of childhood untouched unscathed or manipulated by the government we want to preserve their innocence and encourage free flow of thoughts and opinions without being subject to scrutiny or criticism it's abundantly clear the public school system's objective is the exact opposite they want one view equal outcomes and total compliance while trying to create this utopia of acceptance and love they are pushing kids to become combative aggressive cynical and overly germanic about their feelings at any given moment you are essentially creating victims and enemies in k-12 with civil unrest on the rise does it make sense to encourage activism angst and identity politics on our youth this will only produce more anger vengeance and hatred among us all our kids deserve a good education based on facts figures distinguished

007literature not of opinions feelings and political agendas thank you for your time thank you jennifer clark good evening my name is jennifer clark and i have three students in the district i am against requiring our kids to wear masks next year masks don't work even the beloved dr fauci stated in an email that masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading the infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting unaffected people from acquiring the infection he also states that the typical mask you buy in the drugstore the kind all our kids are wearing is not really effective in keeping out the virus which is small enough to pass through the material i know the pro mask argument has been that we all need to wear masks because we don't know

008who is asymptomatic and that they could spread the virus to everyone they come in contact with however we know we are now learning again from dr fauci's emails that and dr askawi who testified before a congressional committee that asymptomatic spread is very rare and is not the predominant method of spreading covin we've known from the beginning that children are the least vulnerable population and if they do catch it they have a 99.997 percent chance of survival and yet we force them to mask up for what we know they will recover from the virus but will they recover from wearing the mask there is more and more scientific evidence mounting that covid protocols are causing extreme emotional psychological and physical harm particularly in young children who are vulnerable and going through important developmental changes specifically wearing

009masks has caused fatigue headaches decline in cognitive performance a disposition for viral and infectious illnesses anxiety depression masks are dehu dehumanizing they erase our facial expressions and discourage communication children need to see what adults and other kids are feeling part of socialization comes from reading and interpreting the facial expressions of others academically how can children in a regular classroom learn speech nuances and letter sounds without being able to observe the movement of lips and emotion in the face we are delaying our children's learning abilities when it comes to reading we can see the negative impacts masks are having on developmental issues but what is happening happening inside each child emotionally our children are being isolated and they feel alone over the last six months i've seen my own children hide behind the mask they become

010less social and more withdrawn because they are no longer able to socialize with their friends at school they can't work on those lifelong skills of making new friends and starting conversations with people because they feel like they're being withheld behind this mask my junior high son said that towards the end of the school year kids should stop going to in-person learning because there wasn't any point no one could talk to each other you had to certain sit so many feet apart and you had to bring beyond your chromebook anyway during class they just stopped going because they weren't getting that social aspect of attending school this must change masks are not healthy and they create undue anxiety and stress kids wearing masks for six hours a day breathing the same air constantly touching their mats

011causing bacteria and germs to form on the mask and then repeatedly breathing those germs back into their bodies the face masks are also face mix are also causing skin irritations and bacterial infections around the nose and mouth how is this healthy for our children not to mention the fear that we are instilling in our children thinking the air they breathe is deadly or the fear that getting in trouble for not having their mask on correctly i know the default approach of this school board is to follow the isbe's lead which looks to the cdc for health recommendations but the cdc's guidance is just that guidance it's not law we elect you to represent us and do what is in the best interest of our children not the isbe please put parents back in the driver's

012seat for their children's health by returning our schools to normal no masks and minimal to no social distancing i know it's possible other school districts across the country are removing the mask mandate and are turning to normal let adults protect themselves as they see fit and that parents decide whether a mask is appropriate for their children if someone wants to wear a mask great they can wear a mask but it should not be mandate for all children also i hope you are not considering requiring students who are not vaccinated to continue to wear masks while those that are vaccinated do not have to do not have to wear masks to segregate segregate students based on vaccination status is just another way to cause division and insecurity in our kids the elementary kids might not think

013much of it but believe me it'll be a big deal in junior high and high school some kids cannot receive the vaccine for medical reasons and by requiring them to wear masks you are putting a big sign on them that singles them out from their peers i'm sure there are a lot of kids that can handle being different but there will be some students that cannot and it will have emotional consequences like depression isolation or worse as if something is wrong with them so again please let the parents decide whether a mask is appropriate for their children or not they should not be mandated thank you thank you katie hayden hello my name is katie hayden thank you again for being here and listening so i just have a few things to go over on

014a different note of course i come to you today because i'm concerned about your use with esserban esser funds and i wanted to bring up some things for you to look over and investigate at last at the last meeting laurie doyle laurie doyle asked if we could do more for our students by not using these funds for capital fund means or deferred maintenance i understand that district 308 has had issues with hvac in the past and i understand the need but ruth croner also echoed her concerns about spelling and sc 308 being reliant on technology faith brought up her concerns and attempts to tackle sc 308's ela concern so thank you i appreciate that and ms swanson also brought up special education testing for eyewear for students who struggle with ela i feel the board

015has some really great ideas and great motivations moving forward but my question is why in the esser funds plan is there no mention of a re resource coordinator or even on your employment opportunities page for sd-308 maybe it's labeled as something differently maybe an interventionist maybe i'm missing it but in chapter five i'm referring to the illinois p20 chapter five learning renewal resource guide it talks about different ways to allocate funds with the ussr one two and three it talks about some of the things that were hot topics during this election in 2020 and 2021 also to mention that sd 308 envision plan i don't see some of the things that were mentioned in that plan anywhere on the ester funds it talks about creating self-sustaining programs mentorship community volunteers and different resources for our

016students these students need this they've been impacted by cobit 19 and we even had these struggles before this and not to mention which i know you've all heard it before college remediation rates at district are 49 whether we want a minute admit it or not that's half of the student population that's not ready for community college and the pell grant only covers between 30 to 45 non-credit hours i know what a real financial burden is is having to pay college tuition rates for courses that they were in in high school when they weren't approaching their goals that is a true financial burden and that will be a financial burden to 50 percent of sd 308 student population moving forward after their senior year if we really want to help the students impacted by covid19 and

017our struggles prior we should be setting them up for success by having interventionists that could help them on their way to transitioning to community college so i ask you to please investigate that if you can in your allocation of s or funds because having a 49 college remediation rate does not set them up for success for a prevailing wage in society as a successful sixth citizen and did you know just a little interesting fact that the city of chicago schools district 2 299 their college remediation rate is 59 we're 10 percent away from being in the category as an inner city school that's our reality right now and just because we live in oswego does not mean we can take on or not try programs that inner city schools do to help their kids who

018are struggling in regular regular public education curriculum i ask you today to please review chapter five and the p20 what is that i gotta go back to the first page p20 council learning renewal resource guide i and i ask you as our society becomes more open to different means of education let it be known as we've been talking about different things that intellectual discrimination is real and it is out there my family and my ancestors have experienced it and it impacts our youth education and our workforce and and that are out and that outgrowing disabilities as we become an adult does not happen we as adults learn coping mechanisms so i ask you today to consider the fact hang on i lost myself to consider these things because it's prevalent that 49 of our student

019body could be intellectually discriminated not only in their education but in their workforce fighting for a prevailing wage thank you so okay all right so we're going to move to 5.1 board member comments i just wanted to say that participating in graduation as a board member was something that i didn't know i was going to be able to do and was such a joy to be able to do after the year we've had in covid it was just amazing to be able to look at the faces of our youth i saw that day potential possibility relief joy anticipation and hope and after the year that we've had it was um something that definitely was it was proud to see and i look forward to what our students go off to do both in their careers

020their trades and whether it's starting a family so i just wanted to say that thank you for the opportunity to do so i i echo that um when you when you get elected to the board you there's so many implications to being a board member and you don't sometimes you don't realize what they are but it was such a thrill to be at graduation to be able to hand the students their diploma jackets and got so many calls from parents and text messages saying how excited they were that um we were able to do that being a employee of the district for 11 years i know a lot of students and so i was just overjoyed to be able to have that opportunity thank you yeah i would also say that being our first graduation

021as new board members it was very special and having the opportunity to hand out the diplomas was just amazing to see each child's face another thing i'd just like to say is that i've started meeting um one on one with some of our directors and today met with our sel director and elementary and junior high and just feel very grateful for how passionate they all are about serving our community and and what a great example of administration they are and finally just as june is pride month i wanted to recognize all of our lgbtq plus students and staff and as many of you know when i started this journey i promised to be an advocate for all of our students and just wanted to say to our lgbtq plus students and staff that i i

022do see you and i do accept you and support you and just want you to know that you you do have an advocate in me and um just wish you a happy pride month so thank you all right any other board member comments no okay sorry okay so 5.2 board committee reports i know we have teaching and learning [Music] sure it's a great opportunity to sit in on that on that meeting and i won't steal the thunder from the presentation later on but it was uh the proposed high school graduation requirements um and it's exciting to hear that the graduation requirements consist of six different departments and uh they will be changing or there were there were changes that are being recommended and for science for drivers education uh the electives and the computer literacy

023will be embedded within several of those and so is this exciting to me because this that the recommended changes will give greater opportunity for the students and flexibility so that they can uh take classes in which they are interested in versus being um limited based on how the electives and certain classes are categorized right now so i'm excited to hear we're excited for everyone to hear more about the the presentation later today eugene and i had a good time hanging out with you for a day it was awesome but thank you for listening and to all of the administrators and the teachers and the and the building reps who were part of those conversations just thank you it's been a long time coming some of those great job all right items 5.3 is the superintendent's

024report so good evening board i won't say a whole lot more about graduation other than we graduated over 1400 seniors on may 22nd at northern illinois university it was a hot day but it was a great day to final to bring all of our 308 kids back together as a graduating class of 2021 before departing 308 since we just finished the end of the school year i have a variety of highlights that i wanted to share with you the high school principals informed me that the class of 21 2021 as a combined graduating class earned a total of almost 19 million dollars in scholarship money so congratulations 19 million dollars so congratulations to all of the seniors who just graduated on all their hard work that's quite the accomplishment this past couple of weeks we've

025had a quite quite a wonderful couple weeks athletically here across the school district congratulations to the ohs boys baseball team for winning the conference for the first time in 18 years that was a big accomplishment for them so congratulations to those guys also congratulations to the following ohs girls who qualified for the state trek tournament that will be held at eastern illinois university this weekend uh the four by four relay becca corbett grace davis emma pax and ella with alternate sofia marasco and janelle east qualified in the four by four relay emma pax qualified in the pole vault audra sutherland qualified in the 3200 and becca corbett in the 800. also congratulations to the oswego east girls soccer team the oswego east boys tennis team the oswego east girls track team and all winning the

026southwest prairie conference titles this season i mean that's incredible i mean how many teams and how many sports how many individual athletes did i just name there and then finally congratulations to the oe girls softball team on winning the regionals last week so um a lot a lot of good things happening there so on a separate note i'm also very happy to announce that you know a couple meetings ago we were talking about uh junior high athletics and activities and clubs for uh next year uh we will have junior high activities club sports and things next year and we will also be implementing uh activity buses for students so when they stay after school to get extra work both for academics tutoring uh stay after for clubs activities uh there is a way for them

027to get home as we transition back to in-person learning so again it feels very good to have so many positive things to report this evening and that is my report oswego wrestling is still in the hunt too yes they are yes they are so item six uh can i have a motion to approve the consent agenda i make a motion to approve all items under consent including 6.1 minutes from the may 10 2021 board of education meeting open and closed session 6.2 to acknowledge the four-year request received by the district 6.3 the acceptance of the gifts and or donations received by the district in fiscal year 2021 and 6.4 to approve the resolution to appoint dr john petsky as treasurer as of july 1st and to approve a resolution fixing the amount of bond at

02815 million second mrs simonton i'm sorry yes hi dr marina aye mr gatewood hi mrs swanson aye mrs doyle aye mrs johnson aye so motion passes uh six 6-0 yes item 7.1 is financial statements uh does the board have any questions in regards to the financial statements that have been provided this evening all right moving on item 7.2 is a resolution for early redemption of taxable educational purposes tax anticipation warrants so item 7.2 is an informational item regarding the early redemption of the 25 million and tax anticipation warrants when the taws were issued in february we were hopeful but not certain that the district would be able to pay them back by june by june 20th so maturity date of july 31st 2021 was chosen however an option of paying back the tiws early was

029included to maximize district options and as a result of the state paying our quarterly mcats on time the outlook of cash flow is higher than anticipated in the past so therefore the district can choose the early redemption date option of june 28th to save 17 416 dollars in interest we'll bring this information i will bring this item back for approval on june 26th are there any questions regarding this informational item this evening all right item 7.3 uh item 7.3 is in regards to the start times for the board of education public sessions starting on july 13th our current start time is 7 30. i believe the board would like to change that start time to 7 15. is there any discussion that needs to be take place on this item because we do have this

030for approval later on the agenda okay hearing none um if you could item 7.4 are the equity belief statements if we could bring that presentation up please item 7.4 is an informational report in regards to the work that was completed by the board of education equity advisory committee this past year the information being presented this evening are recommendations on equity statements provided by the committee as the board listens to thinks about and engages in dialogue it's important to note that you can accept the statements as they are written you can modify them or you can send them back to the committee with directions on any revisions that you would like to see these statements reflect the uh vision of diversity equity inclusion to which st 308 aspires to these statements will be used to guide

031and monitor the work of the in the sd 308 classroom and school and district levels the equity committee was comprised of a large number of committee members and their names are listed on the slides uh up on the powerpoint presentation so we would like to thank all the members of the committee for their time their dedication and their hard work on this committee the committee had its first meeting on october 21st 2020 and the fifth meeting and final meeting on may 5th the committee came up with nine equity statements that are being shared with the board this evening the equity statements can be thought of as belief statements in regards to diversity equity and inclusion we will now go over the nine areas and the committee focused on which include an equity statement for each

032of the areas the first one that we talked about was curriculum and we believe that delivering relevant and effective curriculum and instruction that is responsive to the needs of all students including those from marginalized identities is critical when we talk about marginalized identities some of the examples are our special education population students from different races lbgtq plus our english learners sometimes even by gender or by low income or by their culture and what we mean by this is choosing materials that reflect diversity and also choosing instructional practices that ensure all of our students feel included and can be successful if you look at the next two slides this first one is about marginalized identities and we acknowledge that there is biases and inequities of marginalized identities in our schools and our community and we will

033not remain silent and will actively speak out and address injustices dismantle structures that lead to inequities and work to educate and change behaviors to ensure an inclusive and equitable school community for people of all identities and the committee felt strongly enough specifically about racism that we created a separate belief statement that included justin race if you think about what our country and nation had gone through at this point in time and were reacting to a lot of our students that we have been listening to the idea of actually calling out racism as one of the pieces the committee felt very strongly about that so there's verbiage from these two slides that are exactly the same but one is specifically about racism we then looked at the recruitment and retention of staff and we want to

034prioritize the recruitment retention and advancement of administrators and staff with diverse backgrounds the committee felt it's very critical to have staff that represents different backgrounds of all of our students that attend our schools student voice was one of the very critical things that we discussed and we want to empower student voices as a critical tool to create this inclusive and socially just school community and in my opinion my experiences this is the most powerful tool that we have to create this it's by connecting with one another that we learn each other's stories backgrounds and we learn the impact of our actions on others and this piece was very critical to the committee in professional development we need to engage in ongoing equity centered professional learning and that includes internal and external reflection this next piece

035while very global in this statement this is included partly because of the climate for learning framework that we have we want to provide a physical intellectual cultural and social emotional safe place for students and staff to learn and this would involve implementing our climate for learning framework and going along with all of those pieces that need to be in place in order to do that we also want to look at policy and embed equitable structures in the school systems policies practices and procedures and finally the committee felt very strongly that we need to partner with community groups to do this work we need to enlist community groups to promote the academic and social emotional success of all students not only in the partnership with the work but their partnership in giving us feedback on how

036that we are doing so this is an informational item we'll be bringing this back later on but if next if we are approved we want to incorporate these belief statements into the threads of our strategic plan and then create action steps for each of the five years of the street strategic plan so that we can better realize and move toward these belief statements at this time we can address questions i have a question but i have more of a statement i had the opportunity prior to being elected to the board to sit on one of those uh the meetings where these statements were being devised and just i appreciated the critical thought and the diversity of the team that was on the call and even the sensitivity to the and even the debate that happened

037as as the team was articulating and going back and forth about language specific words and i just appreciated the sensitivity that they had and to see the finest the final document i appreciate all the work that went into that and i was only on a couple calls and i mean they were hours long and so i just i just wanted to acknowledge and thank the team for the effort they put in yeah yeah i'd like to also include the dei committee which is about 60 community members who are also a part of that process that um then fed up into the equity board advisory committee so thank the dei committee as well for their work in the process guys as as you're talking about the debate i have a question on slides five and six

038so on slide five so we will deliver relevant and effective curriculum and instruction that is responsive to the needs of all students so personally i would stop there like i understand where they were going with the from marginalized but i think that it kind of contradicts the next slide which talks about we acknowledge the existence of racism are so are we specifically going after racism or are we going after bias and are we talking about all kids or just some particular groups of kids i guess for me those you know what i mean like for me i want to i want to be responsive to the needs of all students right and i understand like i so i guess my question is around the debate on these two right so in one it seems like

039we're going for marginalized identities so i think marginalized identities i'm thinking you know the kids who are hard of hearing the kids who are severely you know have some pretty severe you know in some of our programs and then i get to the next slide and i'm like well wait a minute was i interpreting that wrong so i guess my question is more around maybe the debate between verbiage and where the thought is between bias and racism [Music] i can offer insight we had a debate around that very same certain piece of adding on whether we want to say including those from marginalized identities or stopping it at all students and that was a discussion that the committee had because it is it enough to say all students and the impetus behind that was as

040listening to students and parents tell their stories they really wanted these belief statements to reach out to those children and make sure that they understood that it's including those marginalized identities and that's why we landed although it was a long discussion about whether that needed to be included and eventually i believe the group came to there's no harm done by saying including those from marginalized identities to weigh out um what might have been overlooked by just all students all right and then my second question is more of a lawyer question on slide six and i had i had asked previously if this if the statement we acknowledge the existence of racism in our schools in our community opens us up for any legal ramifications because i know there's a lot of schools that are heading

041this way but i don't know that a lot of them are actually putting in writing so i guess from a district perspective what does that do yeah thanks for the question from a strictly legal lens that first sentence could be problematic because it could be perceived as an admission of racism that could be used against the district so i think the rest of that slide is fine and and certainly you can say something about we acknowledge the existence of racism in our society we condemn racism wherever wherever it is found but just the way that's worded i would recommend wordsmithing if we if we swap it out for bias is that still well i guess it could still be never mind that's a terrible question and then my next one's on we'll come back to

042that we'll let you wordsmith it that's why we pay you the big bucks right uh the number eight recruitment and retention of staff um again like i think i think the problem with staff and staff not being representative of our student body is a bigger issue than just i i want to hire the best person for the job no matter what race gender sexual orientation i don't care i want to hire the best person for the job i think to address this slide it goes down to slide 13. so if you go down to slide 13 we talked about partnerships right i think if you want to address the needs of getting some people into the buildings to be in the buildings and teaching in the buildings and being more representative of our community you

043have to get into the high schools and you have to get these kids when they're deciding to go to college right i mean we have deca at um we have future educators of america we have a couple different programs where i teach at and i i think we have some similar things at our high schools but i think that there could be a bigger push maybe even with some outside groups to maybe get some of these kids in you know maybe do maybe do some observation hours maybe you know as part of you know a two-hour block and let's go down to the grade school that's closest to us and see if that's something that we really want to do in life because i think the way that you fix this problem is to get

044more people involved in education which i think kind of lends itself to the community partnerships but i really struggle with slide eight and i i want the best person for the job and i believe that the committee does also want the best person for the job but in meeting with and i've had the opportunity to meet with small groups of administrators of color from our district and find out some of the obstacles this year and some of the things that they have experienced and i do believe there is room for improvement to help retain some of the great candidates of diverse backgrounds that we have also to during the interview process or even the selection process get more advertising and have more of a building our rapport and our reputation to draw in candidates from

045diverse backgrounds i don't think anyone is talking about or promoting at least my perception is dangerous when i speak for an entire committee of people that we would not continue to hire the best people for the job but we're wanting to make sure that we have um we're recruiting and retaining some of our some of our populations that our students don't see very often i even used which you don't really think of as being from diverse backgrounds but even at the elementary level be sure great to have a few more male teachers you know and so it's not just about race or about it's about looking at your team and how do we have a lot of diversity within that team to represent and to embrace the students and the families that we all represent

046so i wonder if that one is a matter of tweaking the language um yeah because i think the lay average person reading that is going to to make the same assumption if you want to call it that that alley is but talking about recruitment oh it does say recruitment retention and advancement um i just i think we could maybe just add a little bit like more to the suggestion i would almost say that i mean if you're looking for the best person for the job and what the goal is is to prioritize all of these pieces to give students what they need and in order to be the best person for the job you have to in some way shape or form reflect these students backgrounds and needs it doesn't that kind of fit into

047not just prioritizing recruitment retention but maybe even more that we believe that the recruitment retention and advancement of administrators and staff with diverse backgrounds is important to provide this to our students i i i'd like to jump in here this happens to be my background so what i think where i see where ali is coming from because when you read it for what it's worth it reads that way but what i think a lot of people don't understand from an hr perspective is when you're recruiting especially in education we recruit from a very specific from very specific schools because they happen to have education programs and what we need to start focusing on is other colleges beyond the niu's of the world the judsons of the world where we see a lot of aurora universities

048where we see a lot of those candidates from we need to expand our recruitment efforts we need to go to job fairs where there are more diverse candidates and i think that it's more of a systemic thing versus a candidate of color versus a a caucasian candidate i think this is more systemic but i don't think that's what the way that slide reads i think like to faith's point i think we you know we do need more men at the grade schools you know i think in all three of my kids in how many years of grade school we had one so like to me we could maybe tweak that a little bit to maybe i don't really know how i want to tweak that but i think i just want to i want to

049add a little something more to it to reflect the to reflect well i think it's the word prioritize that is throwing people off like by but advertising it sounds like it's no right i think we should prioritize the retention of staff across the board i mean across the board i think but i think it's equalizing the opportunity that's what we're oh that's nice to do now you can you can see what 20 plus people did over about 10 hours of work and that's and this is what what they came up with so it is a it's a difficult process it was to eugene's point i was able to send it on some of those meetings as well and when you see that sheer volume of people that were on the invitation i thought this is

050going to be a disaster it was they it was phenomenal they did really great work but absolutely it was round and round on this stuff and when they're in that with that group they come to consensus and then other people are looking at it going wait a second that doesn't make sense to us so but i i agree with ali i don't think that slide reads the way we that it was intended not we but that the group intended um latonya you were part of that group what did what was the i mean this was monson making right yeah i think that that statement is speaks to where i think we want to go um i i know when people read things and it says diverse um you know i'm always um hesitant to um

051to to try to change the discourse because i think that to save you know it's always about the you know we want how we want to we want to hire the most qualified candidate or you know qualified can be a very subjective word you know we want quality candidates and um sometimes we associate these words diverse with you know a lack of quality or a lack of being qualified and if you go into an interview process and anyone who sits in front of you is qualified everyone there is they won't pass the the marks if they're not qualified so then what what do we look at after that it's the quality it's what is it that we are looking for in a candidate and if that means we want more male candidates then that's what

052we want and it's not you know people want to talk about well isn't that discriminating no it's what we want as a an organization we want more male teachers and we're going to go and hire them um and so yes we want to prioritize recruitment retention and advancement of administrators and staff with diverse backgrounds i think i mean i'm i'm biased you guys i was sitting in those rooms for hours and hours so um you know there was a lot of eyes on this stuff for months and so i i i like it but i'm just one voice the one last perspective that i would give is is actually expounding on a point that faith said and i think when you look at the team so instead of looking at the candidates when you're thinking

053about diverse backgrounds you think about the team or the school or the district and what that environment needs and if the environment is a diverse environment and then we know that we're not just talking about academics because when we talk about teaching the kids it's more than just about academics and we know statistically speaking and and realistically how much kid how kids learn and develop especially when it's someone that they can relate to and that they can see themselves in that they can aspire um and imagine themselves to be one day it matters and so i think that if we raise our consciousness when we're thinking about not just what diverse means but what do our kids need to the environment in which they'll be learning in then i think that we can reimagine what

054we need in each of those environments so that our kids have what they need in order to continue to grow and develop that's kind of what i feel like yeah that's a far more eloquent way to say what i'm kind of thinking about which is that what what the as ali said the best person for the job will be what the team needs it'll be maybe not just that it's not prioritizing who the staff member is so much as it's prioritizing representing our students in a way that's more realistic to the the people that make up our student body uh be it gender be it color be it religion whichever are allowed to be used but that's kind of the point that's the team it's not who's got the most academic marks who's got the

055highest gpa it's not just who will fit in best with the team and be able to get together for coffee going in together it might be a little uncomfortable for a team to have somebody different it's but it's what better reflects the needs of our kids but that doesn't that that says that to me what you just said oh sorry that it that says exactly what you just said that's what that says i think i guess i would like to add george to meet the i don't remember how you say that we'd have to replay that tape yeah i got i got i got a position i got a possibility we will prioritize the recruitment retention and advancement of administrators and staff with dive diverse backgrounds to ensure our team of educators resembles represents our

056student body perfect yes that's what i meant to say together i actually i see for me and i'm really struggling with this this is putting it on the candidates and the and the whoever we're hiring versus the process i have a problem i have a problem with putting the onus of the work on the candidate coming in versus our process which we can affect our what we will prioritize is that we will have recruitment retention and hr policies in place that will you know lift up these these roles but putting it on the the people that are coming in is a problem for me because it's not their not their problem it's our issue it's our what can we affect does that make sense it does but to me that's the execution of that right

057right because that's not putting the hormones on yeah yeah that's the execution we just have to ensure that the pools that we're going to recruit the people from is is based on what you said but that statement we still will prioritize it and if the pools then which we are recruiting from does not contain the diverse backgrounds that we need in order for our for our school our students and our district then we have to do more work to expand the pools that we're pulling from so that we can get the candidates that that we need to latanya's point exactly the candidates are qualified exactly so it's our process so that's where yeah exactly and not just the pools but also can you talk about it oh not just the the pools but also the

058um the decision making um teams what how what is their you know what are they reflective of in terms of their democratic uh demographics and their diversity and their understanding of what it is that is needed and their abilities to see through those equity lenses critical lenses etc so the word selection is not up there then because if you have if you don't have a group of people who are aiding in the selection process that may not understand or respect or i'll say understand i respect the diverse backgrounds that are needed then the selection the so if the selection process does not also have the diverse backgrounds represented it still may be missed unconsciously right so isn't that still a part of the process like making sure that hr or whoever the decision-making teams are

059that they're reflective of what we're what's needed it is it's just the word selection is not if i'm recruiting i'm not necessarily in the room selecting the people who are being hired so i'm just saying that so what about that last part that you had on their faith so as it is written in my handwriting right now we will prioritize the recruitment selection retention and advancement of administrators and staff with diverse backgrounds to ensure our team of educators represents our student body yes great i like that i love it i like it a lot very good that's that was a that was a good process we just went through right there it was it really was so that we have we have nine statements and we mentioned a couple others so what other ones need

060to be uh or does the board feel need to be wordsmithed or changed i i'd like to add in here um we do talk a lot about um the marginalized identities um i do feel that i want to make sure that we're distinguishing between marginalized identities and marginalized systems of belief for example at home one of the unfortunate um realities is that we can't all agree on what is marginalized what does that mean does um and what my concern is particularly in an area of just how a family chooses to particularly qualify lgbtq plus in in some families they feel that that is and i i'll be the one to see that some families feel that this is not something that children should be exposed to this is part of our student body as well

061so how do we maintain a safe learning environment for all children and how can we address in there that some families have a fundamental it's not as simple as religion or race it's sometimes a family basis and what do we mean when we talk about that um i want our lgbtq plus students to feel safe and included and seen i want our students of color i want our students of a variety all of our religious backgrounds to be able to be seen but i don't want to trample on another group's beliefs as well because to prioritize one over the other is how are we how are we maintaining that even for families that feel that this is not do you know what i'm saying i i have to say this this is part of our

062community how do we how do we act in a way that respects all religious beliefs and keeps out political beliefs i think that was the whole purpose of this exercise i mean i hate to really state the obvious but these are the people that haven't been seen right and the whole purpose of this exercise was to show them that they are seeing these students that have never been seen before because of the generalized way that education has taken place so i like to use and talk about the deaf hard of hearing because i'm part of that community and i know that they've struggled here in oswego and never before have i heard it talked about until the last two years so it's about seeing people and identities and communities that have never before been seen

063and so i guess that's the purpose of this exercise if you don't agree with that i i respect that and i understand that you wouldn't join that club or you wouldn't be a part of whatever is being fought for and that's fair so i i get what i i don't think we're trying to um go against anyone's religious or family beliefs but to create a safe environment for all kids regardless of right you know or well so i'm hearing people come to public comment and have concerns yeah over over some of the things that may be at odds with with their identities and their beliefs so i guess my thought is 110 have we had marginalized communities as part of our school district and that needs to change we need to see all of our

064students but we need to not create a new set of marginalized students who also don't feel heard in the meantime so i guess that's what i'm trying to speak to make sense along that lines so this slide says we will not remain silent and we'll actively speak out and address injustice's dismantle structures so my first question is who is we yeah are are we talking as a district district are is the we to to your point there are going to be people who in some of those communities are not going to want to be heard or speak out or address or you know what i mean so i guess my fear with this is a pretty bold statement for me to say that you know i mean when i first read that i was like

065oh we're going to teach kids how to go be activists you know but like that's a that's a pretty bold statement irregardless of what you're talking about just to say that we're not going to remain silent we will actively speak out and address injustices i don't know if that oversteps what our position is as a school district like i hm do you know what i mean like i can appreciate that we want everyone to be seen and i can appreciate that kids should be able to feel confident speaking out should they choose to but making a statement that says we will not remain silent and we will actively do this is that a lawyer thing too maureen is it what kind of well how do you quantify what i just you this is a hard

066issue and this is again what they've struggled with i'm assuming here's the thing when i look at a committee that creates this and all the passion and i am so grateful for all of this i also know that people that choose to be part of a committee like this are are part of this committee because they will naturally want to speak out and and address things and this is why they've selected to be on a committee or like all of us here have selected to be in this position where we get to to create a vision for education in our community but to me marginalized identities also is the people that aren't going to do that i yeah like i almost would say um we will create a structure that ensures inclusive and equitable school

067communities for people of all identities yeah i mean i just i mean again i'm only one person but that to me is a really bold statement i think the the statement is based on the district and not not the the individual who is speaking out right but as a district i don't think that's our place but i think so i'm let me give an example if if if if a marginalized and i'm not please faith uh jump in if i'm stepping speaking out of the term but this is how i interpret this um if a if a specific group is feeling marginalized is it the responsibility i'm asking the question this way is it will it be the responsibility of the district to ensure that we are speaking out and addressing the injustice and dismantling

068the the structures that lead to those inequities and if and because this this statement is a district statement not an individual or student or so the answer would be yes it's our responsibility to do that and even to your point all of the groups that may feel marginalized because of this they're now included in this statement and we would have to make sure that that we are doing the exact same thing for any group that would feel marginalized but i think from what i heard on the call is that this statement was put on because there are groups that feel unseen and so you have to put this out there and there are a lot of students that feel unseen because they've experienced from from the district from students and and from staff and so

069now they're they want to ensure that those who are in power will not allow this to happen in the future i would just feel more comfortable if it said we would be able to but that's that's kind of that's that's coming from the individual's perspective and not from the district's perspective right i mean i hear what you're saying and i appreciate it i just huh sorry can you say the whole sentence of what you um what if i missed it sorry they would be able to speak yeah just we i'm still struggling with who we is i understand where you're coming from like i get a i have a different perspective of it now hearing you but i like i i have some concerns maybe we will be able to actively speak out not remain

070i think actively speaking out and not remaining silent not remaining silent is would be actively speaking out to address injustices dismantle structures that lead to inequities so do i hear you say it saying ali that um we will actively speak out and address injustices well i think we would be able to i don't know without like meaning it's the not remain silent but i just i think we i think i think that you should have the opportunity to do it should you choose to do it but that's again from well if i could just point out when you look at the nine statements all but this one and the racism one are we will statements all the others are we will statements and i think it would make sense to make them all we will

071statements yes and so i think it's appropriate to define who is the we and then and then perhaps go from there on these two slides well i mean this is this is coming from the board the board had the opportunity to write this statement they punted it to the committee and so we're finalizing it here but this is a statement saying we as the board of education will support this for the district and so i think that's something that we have to be very cognizant of this group of people um came together and did all of this work hours and hours of this work and i and again it started with the prior board but that's that's what that's what it came down to this is what they distilled and said was important so if

072ali if you can't support it i totally understand that but this is the statement that they worked on and what we had what we had planned and decided last year was to create a board advisory role for equity committee um to advi and actually in our from what i understand from our board agreements was that we had created this committee in order to review topics we're working on as a board and provide an equity lens to those topics there was never a discussion about creating equity statements that my understanding was that was solely the will of the the committee at the time so what is the committee doing the work for well i guess for now for for this board but this wasn't something that had been begun at the board level this was brought

073up from the committee as the committee's desire to have the board look at this not anything else i mean so now but if the so if these are can i can i finish yeah um my thought on this would be that part of the language one jen i think i hear you saying that you think that the wii reflects the board and uh the i've heard from some other people that that reflects the district are you saying that it's the board in it as part of the district yes yes that's what i wanted to clarify yes one that was the one thing so the we will i think the standardization of language i agree with worrying on that the we will statement i like the the concept that it's consistent from statement to statement because

074each of them is equally important i do feel that we could probably address the topic and kind of take out some of the subjective nature because all of these are subjective let's be honest the seven people that sit on this board do not have the ability to know every single action of every single staff member or student to each other we we direct the vision and so maybe what we say is we will just take out the will not remain silent and will actively speak out and and just say we will address injustices we will dismantle structures that lead to inequities and we will work to educate and change behaviors maybe we just take out the remain silent and actively speak since that seems to be an area and maybe i'm missing something very important

075on why that needs to be there and completely allow for that but to me it seems like if we take that portion out it is more consistent and it more um at a board level speaks to the vision that we're trying to create um and obviously for addressing injustices it might be by speaking it might be by doing it might be by many other things but we don't necessarily need to state that because that is inherent in addressing the injustices that's the mechanism by which we will address the injustices the mechanism is what tell me again the mechanism would be not remaining silent and actively speaking out that's how you address injustices one of the ways so i would think that um our role would be to make to govern and make policy right that

076is consistent yes with these statements right because we are uh leading the district um so we we want to make sure that the decisions that we're making are seen through an equity lens so that we are consistent with what these statements say yeah that's what latonya that's what i'm asking i'm asking for you to share with me since you've been there does this statement not remain silent and will actively speak out and that portion of the statement does that need to be in that statement for that statement to be i think whoever the we is needs to well we we should probably know who the we we are the week okay so we are we then are we saying that we govern and make policies yeah i think that's right we will we will govern

077and make policy to address dismantle structures we will create is dismantle structures like are you just like the status quo like so we want to this whatever the status quo is like so a structure is the status quo yeah something that is that is that is resulting in inequities policies practices as you know procedures things that are happening in the school buildings um or are even at this level that are that are resulting in inequities foreign totally get it just falling um trying to make sure we're falling where we're falling in the line of creating policy versus process yeah but the words i'm sorry so that's what i think i was hearing so i'm just making sure that everyone is clear including mostly me so can i assist so we say work to educate and

078change behaviors to ensure an inclusive and equitable school community isn't that isn't the dismantling structures that lead to those i mean isn't that what that is so when you work to educate and change behaviors to ensure an inclusive and equitable school community don't you do that by dismantling structures so the goal is okay i don't want to spend a thousand hours myself on this so i apologize i don't want to belabor can i try this we will acknowledge the existence of biases and inequities of marginalized identities in our schools and community we will address injustices and work to educate and prioritize work to educate and change behaviors addressing injustices to ensure an inclusive and equitable school community for all people and all identities i feel like it just rearranged everything that was on there so

079i don't know if it matters i took a little bit of what you're saying um so if we went with we will acknowledge the existence of all that is the same schools and community and then we will address injustices that lead to inequities and work to educate and change behaviors to ensure an inclusive and equitable school community for people of all identities yeah let me ask this to maureen though because i think like we are we where are we at with that we acknowledge the existence in our schools and community well if you say we will that is saying where we see it we will acknowledge it and address it yes that's do that's good okay that's better than just saying we acknowledge the existence right now so we will okay we will ignore okay

080yeah okay and i think as long as it says we will acknowledge because i was having some exception with taking out actively speak and i guess the subjective nature is how will we acknowledge it but that's something we can put in a policy or procedure later but i think well i don't want to take something out that is meaningful i i think that out is meaningful but i think we will acknowledge is the same as speaking out but how will you acknowledge it is the question does this go back to the committee right and the the training and the things that you know i think led to a little bit of the uh statement here is that we really want to have our administrators and i'll even throw myself under the bus being more comfortable

081to like oh there's nine out of 10 people in this room that feel good about this and i i have concerns to go ahead and say let's think about all students right now and to have those crucial conversations and to have that even when it might cause more change it might cause a little bit of being you know all this was almost done and we need to go back and do this but to have that um stance of we need to have those difficult conversations we need to be comfortable with you know wrestling with our own thoughts and reflections and maybe even you know learned behaviors that have been there for a long time and being able to say let's talk about this um and a lot of that is the foundation of relationships and

082trust that makes all of that happen but i think that the group felt strongly that we need to enable more people to tell their stories and to listen to stories and then to possibly change our our practices based on that that conversation and the learning that happened so i 100 agree with that so where i was coming at this from was there was a certain book that was read in a fourth grade classroom that was in my opinion more of a middle school text and it did not address equity equity it addressed one side of the story and i i guess my concern with the way that was written like i like the way that it's worded now but i would also maybe educate our staff that like while those conversations are extremely important they're

083also you know a lot of times based on the kids ability to empathize and you know what they can actually think about right and also extremely important is showing both sides right right to every story no matter what the story is so i guess when when i first looked at that was the first thing that popped into my head so i guess another piece of this that we didn't really address in here is i i mean training of staff is kind of in here but i would maybe ensure that when these conversations are happening that they're seeing it from not just my side and your side but what about you know with so-and-so's side and how are we choosing the committees to to form these trainings and and you know how do we hear a

084word of a direction to our administration to include like what ellie is saying i just i want to include what latonya is saying and to include what we are all as a group deciding that we want for the vision for this district when it relates to equity and i think that i fall at going back to the language of we prioritize recruitment selection retention i would fall toward that sort of language rather than dictating what should be taught specifically to teachers because i feel that that's our administrator's role but ours is more to say that as a district we prioritize but i don't we're i think i think it's i think that the older the kids get the more able they are to see you know both the light and the dark if you will

085like here's you know one perspective here's the opposite perspective and either one of them is wrong no they just each have their own perspective but i you know again i would be careful because you can't really do that with a nine-year-old in every instance well sometimes so at this point are we yeah are we saying we want to wordsmith this ourselves are we saying we want to kick this back to the committee i think i'd like to have mourinho take a quick pass at this with faith if maybe the two of you could work together on this one because faith has taken a lot of good notes and maureen you've got a little bit there to make sure that we're talking about what we're going to be doing um as a priority um would that

086be something that would make sense to have you guys work with absolutely yeah i think that's a great idea and i do want to acknowledge how much time and effort the committee put into this i mean i was also on those calls and you know we have we're here jumping in after the fact and i i do feel a little bit badly about that because they spent so much time and really excruciatingly going through every every word but we we do have to make sure that that it feels right um for the board for the school and the community so i would be interested to hear what they said after the wordsmithing though i'm not yeah yeah yeah just i think it would be i think i think um i think it'd be good yeah

087because like i was saying in here i i don't necessarily know where something that i think we better not risk it so to speak is actually the key point of it i i don't know that i'm this is not my area of expertise well i'm sure that's you know that's a piece of it is not dancing around the subject and being direct but i i agree let's let faith and maureen work on this and then we can take a look at it again as a board and then decide if we're ready to vote on it i think we should also let the committee see it one right before we vote on it faith because otherwise because otherwise we may lose the spirit of why it was it was done maybe you have it for information

088and then have it go to the committee for a pass through and see yeah and then come back can i also morning sounds good this is a big deal i don't want to rush through it exactly yeah but they don't work during the they don't meet during the summer correct no they do not so this process would take us through september yeah can i ask maureen when you guys take a look at it just in terms of adding policies i can we just add our own policies do they have to be approved by i mean you know are we talking about the isbe type stuff are there some new ones that come down to address this well you already have policies 5.20 7.20 the equal employment uh equal educational opportunities so we're just talking about

089tweaking our policies not creating branding i think it's just more of a vision statement yeah i think okay yeah i i don't know maybe i'm missing it but i think that that's what it would become a guy not just the vision statement but it would become the guy the guy for how we yeah i think the next steps would be one once we have something that we approve to bring that into in vision 308 and what those strategic goals are and how you weave equity and these statements into into our long-term goals can we send those out to the board can we send out all of our current what we have just in terms of policies just kind of where we're at or just the numbers of them we could look them up ourselves policies

090for which policies would be affected is that what you mean more to the point of where are our diversity and equity policies right now but i think this becomes a lens for everything yeah like i can think of an example and i don't know what your policy on this looks like but just i was working today on dress code and hair discrimination right and if you have a dress code and grooming policy that says students must have hair looking like this or that cannot look like this um that's a policy that looking through this lens could be problematic yes right so you have to reconsider that potentially um yeah so you're right it could be any and all policies yeah i don't know that we could easily identify so that would probably be then the

091next work of the equity committee would be to with the policy policies somehow i don't know but it seems like that would have to fall next so we will uh we'll tweak the wording we'll bring it back to the board get the board's approval we'll take it back to the committee get their approval and then we'll bring it back to the board for final approval yes yeah okay yeah sounds good yeah all right so shall we move on we've taken good notes so i think we've we've heard where the board's coming from here we record these things that's true too thank you ursula so all right item 7.5 as regards to graduation requirements so the following information was presented to the teaching and learning board advisory committee and is now being brought to the board

092as information tonight we have our executive director of accountability in high school education heather kincaid and the oswego high school principal mr chris crays here to present so heather chris thank you for both for being here tonight and the four is now yours good evening thank you dr sparlin so i'll start us off um so we um met as a committee um a proposed to propose some high school graduation requirement changes that will go into effect for the freshman class of 2026 so that will be the eighth graders that will be starting next school year so it won't impact any current um high school students but it will impact the class of 2026. that's a pretty futuristic date if i can say so myself there um so we're going to go ahead and get started

093with um the actual committee members so the committee membership so we thought it was very important to include a variety of different stakeholders in this committee here so we included teachers from a variety of different subject areas including special education english language learners we also included department chairs members from student services building administration assistant principals and principals and then also mrs kinkade as well from the district office um lens so i thought it was important to get the perspective of a variety of different areas and the the committee did a great job so i'll start off by talking about our current graduation requirements and as i'm talking about our current graduation requirements i'll be sure to distinguish between our sd 308 graduation requirements and state graduation requirements so of course all of our sd 308

094graduation requirements encompass the state graduation requirements but we have some additional graduation requirements so as we hit those additional ones i'll make sure to differentiate so you guys can have that for your um knowledge so as far as english we require four credits in english two of those credits um have to be in writing intensive courses math three credits one of those credits must be in algebra one of those credits must be and include geometry content so in science and social studies the actual state graduation requirement is 2.0 however ours is 2.5 for both of those the reason for our social studies is because the civics was added and so we incorporate the civics graduation requirement which is a state graduation requirement into our social studies graduation requirement and so going back up to science

095there um one one credit must be a biological science and one credit must be a physical science um and then when we go into physical education that's actually an enrollment requirement so students have to be enrolled in a physical education course each semester that they're in in school so it's not a graduation requirement it's an enrollment requirement if that makes sense all right now as far as driver's education um half a credit in driver's education is our one of our current graduation requirements um half a credit in health is also a current graduation requirement half a credit of consumer education is also a graduation requirement now we go to our core selective and open electives these are school district 308 graduation requirements the only difference is in our selective electives graduation requirement it does encompass

096a state graduation requirement that's one year of a career techno technical education fine arts world language um designation so that's encompassing one credit of the state's graduation requirement but other than that the rest of those the 1.5 um course uh credits for core electives the additional one for selective electives and the 1.5 for open electives are all sd 308 graduation requirements the total required credits to graduate is 22 and as you see in the notes and the categories you can see the electives the for the course the selective and the open electives you'll see exactly what those encompass so these are our current graduation requirements and mrs kincaid is going to go over our proposed recommendations for the class of 2026. so as we start to look at what possible changes we can make a

097new public act for this year we wanted to share these three elements from that information so first of all starting with uh 2023 our students need to earn one credit in intensive instruction and computer literacy now the key thing with this requirement though is it's similar to the writing intensive courses under the english credits so this does not have to be an additional credit so we are not looking to increase our graduation requirements what we will be doing is um curriculum review where we will be embedding these standards within courses so the committee had discussed the curriculum rewrite of our modern world so our social studies for freshmen and then potentially infusing some of the computer literacy into freshman math and freshman science the next two are actually things that we are already doing here

098in sd 308 so by 2324 all students have the opportunity to take at least one computer science course we already offer a variety of computer science-based courses with computer programming one and two ap computer science principles and ap computer science they are open uh to students in grades 9 through 12 and do many of those courses do not have a prerequisite so it's truly open courses the last one starting with 2425 students have currently are required to take two years of science by the state of illinois the change is it would be two years of laboratory science our sciences that create our two credits of science are already all lab sciences so we have already met these two requirements so what we are looking at for proposed changes as chris had mentioned there is no

099change for english we currently require four years the state requires four years two of which must be writing intensive as he also mentioned the state requires three years of math we require three years of math there is no recommendation for change in math so what we are recommending as chris mentioned we currently require one credit must be in biology and one credit must be in physical science so we're looking to bring some flexibility for our students currently science is aligned to the ngss standards of which the three domains of ngss is biological science earth and space science and physical science so instead of one credit in biology and one credit in physical science we would like to propose that two credits be in two of those three domains so it gives the students the opportunity

100and flexibility to do one year of bio or one year in earth one year of earth or one year physical so again we're not looking to change the number of science credits we're just looking to provide some flexibility for our students social studies will remain the same we are looking though at some curricular revisions throughout next year to start for the fall of 2022 physical education would not change as chris mentioned it is an enrollment requirement so that would remain the same what you can see is missing though is driver's education so we would no longer require a student to pass driver's ed in order to graduate we would still offer driver's ed as an elective it would become part of the student's gpa just like any other elective but we are recommending that removal

101as a graduation requirement health and consumer ed stays the same they are required by the state of illinois and then our last area of restructuring would be electives when we met as a committee what we heard from both our core and our elective departments is that by the kind of tri-level of electives that we currently have it restricts some students we have some students that want to take all of their electives in the music and arts we have some students who want to write on the yearbook participate in the newspaper take creative writing and all of their courses are in effect in core departments so what we are looking with the exception of the one credit that mr grows mentioned that is required by the state of illinois in cte fine arts and world language

102is that we would then take our remaining electives and just tag them as electives so it would really be students choice in order to align their elective choices with their college and career pathways so we believe that kind of restructuring our electives will give our students more flexibility as they think about and plan for their future we are not looking to change the total number of graduation requirements so in summary these are the main areas that we are proposing changes to our current graduation requirements and as chris had mentioned this does not impact any current student in high school so nobody needs to hurry and make any changes the reason why we're looking for our incoming class of 2026 is because we select our classes in the fall so our current rising freshmen have already

103selected all of their courses so we want to make sure that our graduation requirements any change is approved made publicized prior to course selection which happens in november and december primarily so the four main areas that we're looking at is science so again the flexibility to earn your one credit in two of the three domains biological science physical science or earth science no change to the overall number of credits the removal of driver's education as a graduation requirement again we would still offer any student can take drivers ed as an elective and it would be counted as the student part of the student's gpa and then our electives we do have to retain the one credit of cte fine arts and world language because that is a state requirement but the remaining electives would then

104be student choice within any department um that we offer and then just the computer literacy that will be something that we will be working on throughout the next year to put in place in fall of 2010. sorry at that point that is the end of our recommendations for graduation requests heather chris thank you very much uh very well done does the board have any questions in regards to the changes or the summary of changes that we are proposing yeah i just have a question so regarding driver's ed currently are there are do students get any benefits um like fee waivers or anything like that because it is a graduation requirement are there students who are eligible for fee waivers or anything like that currently so students would be eligible for fee waivers regardless if it's

105required for graduation or not okay thank you i along those lines what type are you is that going to be just straight elective credit or will they count that towards pe no we do so in order to count drivers and as a pe credit you have to have a waiver with the state we do not have a state waiver regarding driver's ed so it would be a just a straight elective it would not count as a kinetic wellness the only as you could see for kinetic wellness it was 3.5 the only other thing that we kind of put in the physical education umbrella that counts as the enrollment requirement is health so a student is enrolled in either help or a physical education course all right and then another just clarifying question so biology would

106be obviously biology chemistry and physics would be physical science physical science just to clarify because i know there's some people out there who didn't want to take chemistry um and then my so my it's an eight period day at the high school right correct so then i guess my only just you know point of reference for parents because we do have kids who struggle across all kinds of buildings all over the state is on a you can take six classes right correct with lunch and a study hall and as long as you're passing all those classes you can still get early release or late start your senior year absolutely because i know that matters to people six times four twenty four yeah yeah and you only need twenty two so i appreciate you yeah i

107wanted to echo that i've had a lot of experience with other districts where we work on graduation requirements and i think this group really took seriously amplifying student voice and giving students and families selections um to make the right choices for them and i really want to commend everybody in heather's leadership on this yes thank you heather yeah i think it's a great improvement i think it's a really great improvement um i wish it was starting next year thank you i i don't wanna i i also appreciate greatly what you're doing i have one concern that has remained for me in that consumer education doesn't really encompass anything related to financial literacy and as we know financial literacy is pretty much a determining factor for how people can live if they know how money works

108um has there been any discussion surrounding why we we don't do more with financial literacy i know that that's not covered well enough in consumer education which is state required course um can you share mark yep actually um our cte departments were working recently with first allied bank they have provided us additional supplemental materials uh primarily focus on financial literacy for next year so um the two high schools have been working together to incorporate additional financial literacy that's also part of our c308 goals and objectives so that is something that has been discussed over the last couple months of building the experiences and the information that uh students will have access to into what building it into what into the curriculum for our consumer education course so what will you lose from consumer education if

109you put that in yeah it would have to go back and so and look okay so my concern is that um we have so many different five and a half credits for electives out of the 22 required graduation credits why are we not having a half a credit on financial literacy separate from that and that's one and two i do get concerned when an institution that's a sponsor of the community would be providing the literature for students when there is so much free literature that's available that's not biased or in no way shape or form looks like it's promoting one particular company or another so if the allied first bank is providing the comp the financial literacy documentation that that's great for allied first bank that's now all over all that but how is that

110great for us so it's a separate curriculum and it was reviewed by both high schools so it's not created by them it was just a resource that was funded and provided to our students and while it's not graduation requirements part of the new illinois social studies standards is key to financial literacy and i know we have been putting that off for budget hudson for other reasons but financial literacy standards are now in elementary and junior high at the state level and part of our work next year is to incorporate that in the social studies curriculum prior to the consumer education class on a regular basis on those understandings i would argue too it doesn't have to be just consumer ed like when we do our roller coaster project we you know we give them salaries

111and they have to pay for their materials but there's nothing yes that happens in your class and it happens in a lot of classes but it's not a formal program and that that doesn't that tells them about salaries that doesn't tell them about the entirety of what what you need to do with money in your life so if we're trying to prepare students for success past high school with whatever kind of role they have either in the career technical arena in the military where in college whichever we we've done them a disservice in my opinion if we haven't taught them how money works and i don't think that it's consistently it is done piecemeal but i was more looking for what faith was saying which is that it's being coming part of our curriculum in

112somebody's responsibility it's not just yeah we kind of do that in physics it's it's no this is part of social studies and what that means for our students thank you all right anything else excellent all right so thank you both thank you can i get a motion for item 8.1 approval of bills for payment i make a motion to authorize the payment of bills in the amount of 3 million two hundred and thirty one thousand one hundred and forty seven dollars and eleven cents presented second dr marino aye mrs johnson aye mr gateswood aye mrs swanson aye mrs doyle aye mrs simultan hi motion passes uh 6-0 sorry 6-0 um can i do i have to ask for a motion for 8.2 okay can i get a motion for 8.2 approval of 2122 board of

113education meeting calendar dates and times i make a motion to approve the 2021-22 board of education meeting calendar as discussed and presented second mrs toriel aye mrs swanson aye mrs simultan aye mr gatewood aye mrs johnson aye dr marino aye motion passes six zero can i get a motion for 8.3 approval of resolution and request for release of kendall county land cash funds i make a motion to approve a resolution and request for the release of kendall county land cash funds to oswego community union school district 308 in the amount of 13 427 dollars and 13 cents second mrs swanson hi mrs simultan aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mrs toriel aye mrs johnson aye motion passes six zero can i get a motion for 8.4 approval of students rights and responsibilities section in

114student handbook i make a motion to approve the student rights and responsibilities section in the student handbook as presented second mr gatewood aye mrs johnson aye mrs doyle aye mrs swanson aye dr marino aye mrs simultan aye motion passes 6-0 okay 8.5 right okay can i get a motion to pass uh for can i get a motion for 8.5 approval for boulder hill and long beach school-wide title 1 plan i make a motion to approve the boulder hill and long beach school-wide title 1 plan as presented [Music] mrs johnson aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mr storial aye mrs simonton aye motion passes six zero 8.6 can i get a motion for approval of building administrator contracts i'll make a motion to approve the building administrator contracts as presented second mrs

115simonton aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson no mrs doyle no mrs johnson aye motion passes four 4-2 8.7 can i get a motion for approval of district administrator contract i make a motion to approve the district administrator contract as presented second second mr gatewood hi mrs johnson hi mrs doyle hi mrs swanson hi dr marino aye mrs simultan aye motion passes six zero eight point eight can i get a motion for the approval of personnel report i make a motion to approve the personnel report as presented second gotcha mrs johnson aye dr marino aye mr gatewood aye mrs swanson aye mrs doyle aye mrs simonton aye motion passes 6-0 8.9 can i get a motion for the approval of the negotiated agreement between community unit school district 308 and the oswego educational

116support professional association i make a motion to approve the negotiated agreement between community school district 308 and oswego educational support professional association second mrs doyle aye mrs swanson no mrs simonton aye mr gatewood hi mrs johnson aye dr moreno aye motion passes 5-1 can i get a motion to adjourn well do you want to go into closed session oh we're going back into oh yes we are going so a motion to return to closed session i make a motion to enter close session under statute 5 ilcs 120c 122 c10 the placement of individual students in special education programs relating to individual students a second mr gatewood hi mr stoyl aye mrs johnson aye mrs simonton aye dr marino aye mrs swanson yeah what did you say ally what'd you say i wanted to say no

117[Laughter] okay so we'll