001I call this committee the whole meeting to order on Monday May 19th 2025 at 6 pm. If we could please take a roll call. Darling here. Stacy Salt here. Julie Jetty here. Jason Janzik here. Bridget Sandling here. Katherine Potter here. And Mindy Hartman here. Okay. Next up we have the acceptance of the agenda. Items for discussion may be added to the agenda at the start of the meeting at the request of the superintendent or any board member upon majority approval of those members present. Does any board member have an item to add? Hearing none. Next up we have community input. Nothing. All right. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Uh, next up we have the approval of the previous meeting minutes. Approval of the minutes from April 21st, 2025. We all good with consent on
002that? Can we move that to consent? First up are for the items for discussion tonight are the review of bills. Uh, were there any questions for Mr. Shepard on the bills? Hearing none. Next up, we have the treasur's report. Mr. Shepard? Yes. So before we dive into the treasures report, just a reminder for the the board that at the next committee of the whole meeting, actually right before the committee of the whole, we are going to be holding a a special board meeting and hearing uh to approve our amended FY25 budget. The reason why we're not doing that the following week is because it is due June 30th, and that's going to be um quite stressful trying to get that turned in uh the very evening it is due. So, uh, we are going to
003be approving that June 23rd. Uh, let's dive into the treasures report. I do want to spend a little bit of time on the the the cash flow slide, but let's hit the highlights of uh the rest of the slides. Uh, for revenue, uh, we I I have I've been fairly happy with how the model has projected our revenues. I think we're coming in right in line with where we should be. Uh we are scheduled to receive our next round of of property tax payments uh at the end of this month which is right in line with uh what has happened in the past. Uh so we anticipate a smaller uh uh payment at the end of this month and a much larger payment in June and then a larger payment in September and that should
004uh bring our revenues up to where we uh have budgeted them uh for this fiscal year. When we look at the expenditures, uh again, uh we see our actual year-to- date expenditures, uh hovering slightly below the projected mark. Uh that's specifically because of salaries. I I will continually remind uh people that that is because of our salary acrals. Uh the fact that we pay our certified staff uh over the summer and that's backdated to FY25. Uh so again, you will see that even out after the the month of June. uh actual year-to- date other objects is another place to highlight that is above the projection. Uh we when we look at that uh that is due to O andM issues the operational maintenance uh uh issues that we've had other larger expenses especially surrounding the
005the custodial drama that we experienced earlier this year. We look at our monthend fund balances again uh we are uh higher than we were this time last year. Uh and you'll see those two lines are are getting ever closer right there. Uh but we're still in in solid shape. When we look at uh how this past month compared with the prior uh month to date, uh you can see how local resources actually was a little higher than uh this time last year. Uh and you can see how our expenditures have compared. Uh again, no real surprises here. April is actually one of the heavier months when it comes to expenses. Uh key point here with this slide is the the the variance favorable unfavorable uh specifically for revenues. Uh again we can equate that back
006to the property tax. Uh we have seen that close up uh over the the uh the end of the fiscal year once we start uh receiving those uh next round of property taxes. Uh again I I think uh we're right in line with where we need to be when it comes uh to our projections. Uh no surprises with the debt and capital other than we are starting to see more and more in the way of capital uh improvement payments uh as we start planning for work that is going to be happening this summer and beyond. All right, the cash flow uh slide there's a change here. Normally you would see the investments on the left hand side. Uh we took that off and put it on the next slide because it was getting ever hard
007to read uh as we were trying to cram all the investments on there. Um, I thought it was prudent to uh put how our operating funds are doing and where we think that they're going to end up uh by the end of the year. Uh, positives. You'll notice that our education fund is is strong. Uh, and that is by far our largest fund. Uh, and it is in good shape. Fund 20 shows a projected surplus. I can tell you right now that is not the case. We just processed a whole bunch of of payments uh in the on&m world and specifically a payment from a previous custodial vendor uh who was putsy in getting us an invoice. Uh so you're going to see this probably go into deficit by the end of the fiscal year.
008Overall, we still are projecting a slight surplus. Uh but I am anticipating that surplus probably being under a million dollars uh with our education fund uh remaining uh u strong as it is. Uh couple of notes fund 20 if the board will recall that's one of the funds that we have been challenged before for having a cash balance that's too high. Uh so not it's probably a positive that we're drawing that down. Uh and keep in mind with our amended budget, we're going to shift more of those funds to to capital improvement to bring that cash balance down. Transportation, uh we know that our transportation department has done a phenomenal job of hiring new drivers. That comes with an awful lot of training, anywhere between uh 120 and 160 hours of training per driver. Uh
009this requires someone from transportation beyond site uh to uh assist in the training. uh the fact that we were able to onboard I believe five or six drivers in a very short period of time contributed to uh a much larger larger than anticipated uh amount of overtime and salaries for this fiscal year. And finally, the IMRF social security fund. I have been trying to draw this fund down for literally 3 years. Uh, and I think we are are finally getting to the point where we're going to start drawing it down so that we shield ourselves from u tax challenges with our cash balance in that fund. Finally, our investments. You can see all of the investments that uh the the district holds. Uh we hold just under uh $10 million worth of investments. They are
010laded so that they mature at various times. Once these mature, we will take a look at whether we need those funds or whether we can reinvest them. Uh we do have some investments that are maturing, I believe, this summer. Uh and at this point, we're probably going to reinvest a large portion of those funds. And you'll see our capital improvement fund that is financed from our bonds that uh were issued. Uh we earned $52,000 of interest for April 2025. Uh, and we spent 195,000 uh on payments towards summer capital projects. Mr. Shepard, that interest just goes right back to the capital improvement fund or does that go to the general O andM fund? So that interest stays within uh the capital fund. It stays within the capital improvement fund, which would be fund 60. Uh
011we can we use those uh interest funds to help offset any anticipated increases in projects that uh we have coming down the pike. All right. So basically what you're saying is that we passed a referendum for 30 million, right? But now we're we're actually getting more. The taxpayers are getting more out of this referendum. We passed we passed the referendum for 20 million. I'm sorry. 20 million. I'm like ages. Yes. Uh so while these funds remember that was one of the reasons why we issued bonds when we did to try to maximize our earning potential uh on interest which ultimately is uh more purchasing power uh that our taxpaying base has. Thank you. Next up, we have the administrative non-union salary compensation 2025 2026. Dr. White. Yes, thank you. So, just to give some background
012to the community, um board policy 350 states, um that the board of education will consider the superintendent's recommendation when setting compensation for administrators and those other other employees who are not in a collective bargaining agreement or non-un employees. The district's goal for all employee groups is to make sure that we provide affordable, fair compensation packages that remain within the financial limits of the budget and future revenue projections while also remaining competitive within the local market to ensure that we are attracting and retaining a strong uh workforce. This year's recommendation um that I bring forth this evening is that all nine union employees who which includes our principles, assistant principles, district coordinators, accounting payroll manager, district maintenance technician, district executive administrative assistants, district office support assistant, district um sorry, office support assistant, technology specialist, um service
013support specialist, communications and fiscal specialist, occupational therapist, physical therapists, also known as OT's and PTs, transportation staff, and lunchroom supervisors. My recommendation is for each of these um employee groups to receive 3.55% for the 2526 um school year. It has been our approach to use um the guide of our um certified staff which is our largest collective bargaining agreement group um to use that as kind of the ruler to um keep our salaries in align. So again, we're achieving not only that um financial responsibility, but also that we can remain competitive in these non-union positions. Um health benefits, sick time aotment, and vacation um aotments for though all employees, I am recommending no changes to those benefits. And then the assistant superintendent group um base salaries were already um approved by the board when the
014board approved those multi-year contracts. So that's why those individuals are not included in this group. Um we also included in the information to the board and community what the average increase for Mckenry County um school districts around us and that average is 4.02%. Um the overall impact um of these for the fiscal um 26 year is when we look at our $39.2 million budget for Next year, these raises would account for an increase of $83,936 over the previous year. All remaining non-UN employee groups account for an increase of about 155,000 over the previous year. And so therefore, um it is my recommendation to the board of education approve a pay increase of 3.55% for administrative and all other non-union positions for the 2526 school year. And I'm happy to take any questions. I have a
015really quick clarifying question. When you say that for the administrative group this accounts for 83,000 and the remaining groups it's 155. Who's in that administrative group? Sure. So if we look back that would be principles, assistant principles and the district coordinators. Yep. Are we still talking about this in close session? Is this an item in close session tonight? So it is not. Okay. Okay. It traditionally was always we always did this in closed session and then voted on it in an open session. I that's why I was sure a little confused. I believe last year we did bring it to open session last year. I'm not for sure previous to me but we did bring it to open session last year. If there were no other questions, uh, we'll move on to the next item.
0165.4 vision 2030 resolutions. Dr. White. Evette, I'm going to need you to unhook. She's really excited about she is excited about her adoptions this Thank you very much. Me switch to my notes. So this evening um I'm bringing forth a recommendation for the board of education of Kerry D26 to approve the recommended resolution um from the Illinois State Board of Education that outlines what is called Illinois Vision 2030. Um this plan represents um a collaborative effort. This is the second time that it was done to um make sure that we align several organizations um across the state to look at what are those common issues that are facing the majority of the districts but also what is the common thread and so we're on a have a consistent focus and coherence regarding what our efforts
017are in regarding improving instruction across the state. So, one of the things to note is that since 2020, so over the past 24 years, Illinois code has actually doubled. Um, and so one of the uh main tenants of vision 2030 is to ensure also that one that there are some opportunities and efforts made to streamline Illinois school code. Um, because keeping up with this can is u multiple full-time jobs. Um but also a lot of the new mandates over the last 24 years have come with no additional funding. So when we look at the overall plan, it has three main areas. Future focused learning, shared accountability, and predictable funding. When we look at future focused learning, it is to ensure that we're promoting future-driven skills and giving students the opportunity to explore both careers and
018college opportunities. Make sure that we are doing um and not only um consistently um ensuring that our students are safe and their well-being is um of of the utmost importance to us. is also continuing to enhance those offerings that we currently have that we want to continue to um work towards attracting and retaining more highquality and diverse educators um into the pipelines both for both for teaching and administration. I'll be honest, I get a little nervous when I see the numbers coming out of colleges of teacher programs are very low in consideration to when we look at the amount of educators that will that will be retiring over the next 10 years or so. And then we want to make sure that we also um have some flexibility around um curriculum so we can ensure
019that we're meeting the needs of our local community. When we look at shared accountability, um looking at a reform to the Illinois assessment system, some of that is already starting when u Miss Rivera presents the um AR results there. There will be conversations around the change in cut scores. We still don't know exactly what that's going to look like. So, that will be an interesting conversation. Um, also then looking at how accountability, um, how we're held accountable and making sure that there's also some lo local flexibility in that. So, not only are we using AR, five essentials, those those statewide, but how are we also using some local indicators so we can get a full picture of our students growth and success? And again as I mentioned um under shared accountability is um reforming the
020mandate process to ensure implementation procedures that are flexible and also um don't leave out local decisionm and then predictable funding um Mr. Shepherd's um favorite area um to make sure that we are protecting the integrity and ensuring that the promises made at the state level continue around evidencebased funding that we ensure that we have equitable statewide funding sources for our capital and safety needs. If you remember um when we were going for the referendum, the referendum option is really one of the only options that school districts have in regards to ensuring that we have funds available for our capital and our safety needs and giving districts more financial flexibility at the school at the district level. So those are are summed up. So when you look at all of those points under that, you come
021up with four areas. keeping our students safe, ensuring high quality educators are in front of our students and that they have um opportunities for um postsecary success by enhancing the opportunities that we're providing in PK through 12 education and then also looking at how we're held accountable and exactly making sure that we're um taking a measurement of exactly what is working. And so there is a QR code here. There is a website that the um that the state has put up all around Illinois Vision 2030. You can go to illinovision2030.com. There's lots of additional materials. There's a much longer PowerPoint presentation um that goes into a lot of kind of the way in which the the plan was developed. But between this PowerPoint presentation and the um recommended resolution, it consists of all of the
022information that the um that the district would be in line will aligning itself um to these goals. I did want to ask Mr. Sheepard if he could talk about one um piece in particular that I know he um and other um financial officers across um across Mckenry County have had conversations about. So, if this is in regards to to capital improvement funding, one of the the issues that uh um or one of the the ideas that we've discussed at the county level, and I know we brought to the board before was the idea of a countywide sales tax. Uh part of vision 2030 is uh making it easier for counties to implement this. Many of our counties down south in southern Illinois have this idea. Um it was uh probably it was estimated that had
023there been a county uh sales u sales tax in place uh Kerry could have gotten about $1.5 million annually uh that could have been devoted to capital improvement. That's a steady fund uh a steady supply of funds that could be used uh to pay down uh debt payments that are related to capital improvement to help fund capital improvements year after year. Uh so one of the big components of vision 2030 is ensuring that stable uh funding resource for capital improvement and also looking at those mandated categorical such as transportation funding. Uh we know the state has done a nice job funding EBF. They have not done a great job in funding transportation and in fact we're anticipating that next year's budget's going to take about a 20% hit uh in uh funding for transportation. uh
024and that that's statewide across the board with the transportation claim. So, uh the two components of this plan that all the associations will be working towards is that steady reliable funding source that makes it easier for school districts to budget for in the future. Thank you. Um, so would this be something similar on the along the lines of the what the mental health board just went through with having to have a referendum to create that sales tax and then that does that then take away funding that we get from the county to replace it with that sales tax like it did with the mental health board tax. So this countywide sales tax is something completely separate that you go to the voters for in the entire county. uh and it has to be um if
025it's approved then it raises the sales tax by a certain percentage uh of whatever the school districts come together to agree upon. Uh that those funds then uh are new funds that are allocated per student. U not uh it's per student by district. Uh and then those funds can be used for capital improvement or mental health needs. It does not replace or take away from funding. We don't receive except for property taxes which are funneled through the county. We don't receive a whole lot of funding from the county directly. If if we approve vision 2030 aside from letting all of these associations know, what work or burden are we putting on administration by doing this? Uh I don't believe there is a lot of burden on our part. It's our associations that are working on
026our behalf that are lobbying our legislators in the state. Thank you. So, similar to the safe zone resolution that we did a few months ago, it's really just articulating that um these that we believe in these um goals um and that we support and understand that these will have a positive impact on our district as well. So, no additional work for us necessarily. Um, I find this a little um I'm okay with all this, but I was reading about a district in Ohio that um took out memberships with some other types of educational groups that are totally different than this. And they passed a referendum in which they were eliminating social emotional learning. all classes needed to be taught only in English and um there was nothing to do with any DEI. So, I mean,
027this is this almost seems like a blue versus red type resolution. And I just wonder how many counties or districts down, you know, past Kanga Key are are signing this just so you can see once we um once a board does um approve to um align with vision 20 30, it is posted. I will try to see if I can get that information for you of what districts have um approved the resolution um so far. Um but I will say each of the organizations that are involved in vision 2030 we're members of. So for example, Illinois Association of School Boards. Um I almost said Dr. Shepard. See I'm putting in atmosphere. Um Mr. Shepard's a part of the um the ISBO. I'm a part of IASA. Our principles are part of the Illinois principal association.
028So we've been connected to these organizations long before this vision 2030 as well as this comes from the Illinois board of education. Okay, I'm fine with I do have a question. So Mr. Shver, are you saying that if we if they do implement a county sales tax, all of the revenue would go for schools in the in the county? So it yes um it would be divided up it's it's an allocation per student which is why the the amounts vary per district. Currently what the process is is I believe um a majority a simple majority of school districts that represent at least uh 50% of the county have to approve this uh ballot measure for it to go on the ballot at the countywide level. And then from there you just need a majority and
029then uh the the funds that are produced from that are then dispersed to each school district. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Thank you, Mr. Shepard. Uh next up we have uh UFli phonics and I Ready benchmark assessment. Miss Rivera. So, at the beginning of the school year, we did share with you that our teachers were um going to be piloting UFly and benchmark phonics in addition to us creating a committee uh that would be evaluating our benchmark. Today, I get the opportunity of sharing with you the outcomes of that year-long process. First and foremost, I just want to remind uh the community that what guides our work are our strategic planning goals. And so specifically this presentation will hone in on goal number one, student success. And then also you'll see goal number five,
030fiscal responsibility. So first we're going to start with the UFly early literacy phonics program. That was out of the two early literacy phonics programs, Benchmark and UFly. Youly was the one that wound up being voted for and I'll share more about that in a moment. Um we're bringing this to you not for financial reasons. You'll see the quote is $1,000 and some dollars. We're bringing it to you because it is a core curriculum that we are looking at adopting as a um we haven't had a consistent literacy early literacy program. This would be the first one. So this year our K2 teachers all K2 teachers piloted either UFly or Benchmark. Um we recognized that we needed an explicit and systematic program to teach students those early foundational skills in order to ensure that proficient reading
031down the road. Um, we also know that research shows that having a solid foundation in early literacy helps close the achievement gap and helps address uh the needs for students who are either lagging behind in developing reading skills um or also come from diverse um backgrounds. In addition to the pilot, we also surveyed all teachers K2 in order to collect feedback on the implementation process and we also engaged teachers in uh professional discussions throughout the piloting experience on some of our institute days regarding how the pilot was going, what their thoughts were, how it connected with uh SAVIS, my view, because those are two things that they're going to have to do in conjunction. It's not one over the other, but how do they fit together? the reading comprehension of SAVIS curriculum that we have
032in addition to the early literacy whether it was UF fly or benchmark. Yep. Uh just maybe for the audience or parents when you say um SAVIS is on reading comprehension that's a different part of of reading. Yeah, I got a slide for you. I got a slide for you. Okay. Okay. Hang tight. I got a slide for you. Okay. So, we surveyed the teachers and this was some of the feedback that they uh provided us. But before we get here, I'm going to skip forward. Here were the results. The results were 73% overall total K2 majority was um in favor of UFly. The one group that came close would be kindergarten. They were 50/50 splits, but overall K2 together it was a 73% towards UFly. So what we explained from the beginning is we were
033going to be using UFly. Then whichever one was voted their their top one that would be the core instruction um early literacy program that we would be using. The other one in this case benchmark we would then regroup and then redistribute to our interventionists next year to use for intervention. So those students who are really needing that extra dose of support, they'll have UFly as their foundational early literacy, but benchmark we already paid for. We're going to make use of it. It becomes our tier 2 intervention for those students who need an extra dose of literacy instruction, literacy foundational instruction. So, back to what the teachers had said, some of the common threads were it was super easy, that they love the routine, that they saw a growth in their students, that the students could
034verbalize um why something was spelled a certain way. It wasn't just about memorized spelling, but they started to understand the nuances and rules that go into spelling. Um teachers voice that there were many resources, support groups, that it was interactive, there were games, it was hands-on. In addition to this, we did also purchase blending boards, magnetic letters, whisper phones. They're actually pretty cool. You have a little phone you talk to. The kids read to themselves and then they can hear themselves reading um versus just reading out loud like this. So, it just gives them a little bit more uh personalized experience with hearing how they're saying things and decodable books. um we provided that the teaching and learning department provided that using grant funding that we were using up with ESSER in conjunction with the
035literacy program and that's what the teachers have been implementing. So it's been really fun to see uh in the classrooms uh sometimes I don't even think they recognize that they're learning they think that they're playing having fun but actually there's a whole lot of learning that's going on. Um, so there's more uh feedback, but to your point uh next steps, we do have professional development or we had professional development for teachers on May 9th. It was optional. Those that couldn't make it, we did post what you're seeing right here is a screenshot of our teaching and learning staff site that our teaching learning department has created for all of the district. It's a one-stop shop for all things curricular. So that way any new teacher that comes in, they say, "Well, what am I supposed
036to be teaching?" under curriculum resources, they can go to their particular content area, their grade level, and right there the curriculum maps will pop up for them. Um, so that way it drives that cohesion across the district. So we provided a new page under professional learning. It says what's coming 2526. And so what you're seeing are links there available to all the teachers that give them access to start learning ahead of time for those that want to learn ahead of time. Those that do not, we will make sure to provide professional learning when they come back. But we're trying to uh fit the needs of both teachers. So to your question, Miss Jelly, the image on the right explains the difference. So when we talk about early literacy instruction, we're talking about phone practice, decoding
037automaticity, decoding and encoding practice, being able to connect the text to practice. And underneath each of those, there is a definition of what that means cuz I understand that if I just throw out the word decoding and encoding practice, that may not be our everyday vocabulary. So when I say decoding and encoding, it's reinforcing that sound letter relationships through reading and writing. So really when we talk about SAVIS we're talking about here is a book we're reading for the standards the state standards main idea um analyzing um let's say character perspective we're comparison comparing the perspectives maybe we're analyzing the character dialogue maybe we're summarizing that happens in savis you're reading a book and it's what we do naturally when we read our brain just starts processing seeing the information and picking out the main
038ideas and the details. This comes before all of that. Students need this strong foundation in early literacy to be able to understand, okay, I see this letter. This letter goes with this sound. These sounds together make a bigger sound called a word. And that's we need to ensure that our K2 students have a strong solid foundation with early literacy because that then translates into comprehension. So, in the beginning years, it becomes you are, let's see if I can get it correctly. I always flip-flop it. You are learning you're learning to read K2 and then third grade you're reading to learn. I always flip it. Um, and that's what tends, right? So, it's like we're teaching students how to read and then it clicks and this beautiful thing starts to happen and they start making sense
039of the information, right? And then now it flips over and now we're actually now registering trying to teach students to comprehend what they're reading. So that's the difference between SAVIS the reading and then this the early literacy phonics. Okay, did that answer your question? Okay, see I knew I had a slide for you coming. Um, so our next steps for teaching and learning is going to be to organize all the instructional materials. We will distribute that before the school starts of 2526. Materials will include a UFly foundation teacher manual. Hold yourselves. That's a total of $1,280. Um, and we will be creating a binder which will include all the principal resources needed for the lessons and games. You can always say anything. I just wanted to kind of explain why it is so um cost
040effective. Um, I was about to get there. Okay. No, you I'm sorry. I don't want to say No, you go ahead. It's a perfect time for me to go. Okay. There you go. Um, so this comes from the University of Florida UPLY was developed and so all of the resources um the the slide decks the they have um web-based applications for kids to slide in and make words. All of that is available for free. The only purchase that the district will have to do is the actual teacher manual which is a spiralbound book. Those are about $56 I think a teacher. Um, so that's the only thing we have to purchase. All the other materials um are out there and free for us to use. So, and their manuals come with K1 and two within
041the one spiral bound. So, if you have students who are, let's say, behind, you can actually drop down to kindergarten to see what they would have learned to try to close those gaps. If students are performing beyond, they can skip to second grade to see what they can do to extend the student learning within that tier one instruction. So for more information about UFly, there is a link here for families that want to delve deeper. You just click on it. It will take you to the University of Florida Literacy Institute which breaks down some more information regarding like how does this work? What specific skills are targeted in the program. Um and as you continue to explore the website, you as well will be able to see the teacher resources. They're all available on this
042website right here. There's no hidden secrets. Um, so you would just go here and then all the resources are under resources. So what I just did, okay, we're going to continue forward. I'll figure this out. Um, any questions about EUI before I transition into benchmark? I'm I'm just confused on the cost. So, the total cost for this K2 program is $1,200. You got it. But what about the $50 per manual? Oh, 50. So, half of our teachers have the manual already because they uh piloted the program. Okay. We have to buy the the remaining teachers. You got it. Okay. Thank you. Well folks, looks like uh we are we are done here. Are there um were there scores or anything collected from this the piloted program that were compared to student source? Yeah. So we
043didn't have a program prior to so there would have been nothing to compare it to. Okay. Um what we have are the student uh like student work samples or the student um like in classroom formative assessments that were taking place that were just like the everyday interactions that they were having with the students um or translating seeing how they were doing with their writing. For example, um one of my favorite stories is I walked into one of the kindergarten rooms and um the teacher was very excited to share the students writing and she literally held it up and the students had had multiple sentences and she was like, "I've never seen kindergarters kindergarteners writing like this." That would be the evidence. That would be the data, right? It's informal data that we're collecting which is
044going to come in the form of how are they reading their books, how are they writing, and then are they making sense of the concepts. But if you're asking if there was data last year, there was no program last year. I meant like if there was data between the piloted group and like a control group, but I I understand what you're saying. Um are there any like what goals are the is the district like have have we set any goals on what we're looking to achieve with this? So the data will be collected through I ready which is what I'm going to go through right now. So I will assess that early literacy component which will give us a data point. So I think what you're thinking of maybe is let's say star the CBMs
045would be the benchmark that would translate into benchmark data. It would be the CBMs that the students did with like letter naming and letter sounds. That would have been the data piece of it, right? Um so we'll have to see how their CBMs turned out at the end of this school year with STAR um after them completing a year of these uh phonics programs. Okay. So, okay. I wanted to share also to Mrs. um Potter's point and this hopefully kick up um kick off Miss Rivera's next part of this. One of the things that we also knew we needed to do is look at what we were assessing. So, right now STAR does not assess I would say deep enough within those foundational skills. Um, Miss Potter, so we've not had a true assessment of
046to identify CBAMS um or STAR. I'm trying not to use acronyms all over the place. STAR, the STAR assessment that we currently has um only has kids identifying letter names and letter sounds. We want to know can they blend? Do they can they start to decode? So, Miss um Rivera talk about the assessment switch over that we are going to um that she's going to talk about next. So, I just wanted to caution when when you look at the STAR data, I still don't know if it's going to give us a true accurate measure of what our students are able to do because it's only measuring those two areas when I would really want an assessment that looks at all of the foundational skills to see how students are progressing. We'll have that if the
047board approves. I ready as the assessment, then we'll be able to be able to do that. But we don't have we didn't have that data point to start out with. So, it is going to be hard to truly see all of their growth. Um, but it will be captured in possibly those two measures um that that star was already um measuring. Um, Miss Rivera, the the tier 2 and tier three instruction for benchmark, is that going to stop at grade two or the interventionist going to have them in the building? Let's say we have a third or fourth grader who's still struggling with reading comprehension or phonics, right? Would they still be having will they still have access to that plan? Uh, or would the interventionist have access to that plan even though they may
048be outgraded based upon the the the plan here? Yeah. So the interventionist will still have access to that. And again, we would look to see what does a student need. Um and then also what's age appropriate, right? When you have a student that comes in, let's say seventh or eighth grade, that's different than a student that comes in at second or third grade. Um and so we would look to see what is it that the student needs, but yes, they would have access to benchmark phonics as a tier 2 support. Perfect. Thank you. I tried to buy you some time on the presentation here, but uh can I share it with Shephard and then Well, thank you. Just so next up is um benchmark assessment. Currently this year, uh, we have had Star Renaissance as
049our, um, yeah, I guess I could have it up here so that way I know what I'm talking about, right? Um, we've had Star Renaissance as our benchmark assessment. Um, we did engage a committee to review uh, STAR, I Ready and MAP NWEA. It was very evident from the very first meeting. The entire team unanimously said was not meeting the criteria based off of the rubric that was generated which I'll share the rubric with you in just a moment. So then that narrowed down I ready um and MAP NWA. In addition to our committee which I will share what the committee results were, we also engaged teachers in a survey regarding the benchmark assessment. A survey was sent out, as you can see on the right side of your screen, a survey was sent out
050that included links to the specific information for both MAPN NWA and I Ready, so that way they could see the information for themselves and make an informed decision. On the left side of the screen, you'll see the benchmark review rubric that we utilized. So, it wasn't just, hey, do we like this or not like it, but we had certain categories that we were evaluating such as um the data in reporting. What type of reports was it going to generate for our teachers to help inform their instruction? What was the impact on instruction in instruction? Does the platform offer lessons or strategies or tips that could directly translate and make the teachers lives a little bit easier when it comes to teaching students? One of the things that I heard from here as well was the
051parent communication. What was the platform going to provide us to ensure that our parents were feeling informed when the students reports went home? We also looked at Spanish language availability. Um, and then we looked at that early literacy phonics. Is it going to assess that early literacy phonics? Because up until this point, as Dr. White recently just said, we haven't really had an effective benchmark to assess those components. So we drafted a rubric and then from there evaluated the two. The results were as follows broken down. The very first part was the benchmark review committee 7 67% were in favor of I ready. Grades K2 67% were in favor of I ready. Grades 35 74% I Ready. And then grade 68 56% I Ready. So across the board the majority vote was for I Ready.
052And that was based on all of the teachers uh input that submitted their vote. So some of the things that they had shared uh teacher feedback was that it seemed very studentfriendly. Uh that there were support materials, a personalized learning path, which I'm going to explain in just a moment, interactive lessons, um that it placed them exactly where they needed to be. Uh and we continue. Um it goes into how there's it can serve as a replacement uh for other tools that we have which would make this a little bit more cost effective. Um so what I included on the next slide is a page specifically for families to learn more about I Ready. I Ready consists of two parts. Think diagnostic assessment star, right? Kind of what we have is a diagnostic. Students will
053take the assessment and get a score generated and within that score are different subdomains broken down. That information is fed to the personalized platform learning platform. Students work out of this personalized learning platform platform throughout the school day throughout the week and there are lessons that are generated and created specifically based on that individual student and how they performed on the assessment. So if I am a student and I am struggling in let's say numbers and operations when it comes to mathematics when I go to my personalized learning platform it's going to generate activities that focus on numbers and operations because that's been identified and flagged as something that I need help and support in. Furthermore, the teacher will be able to go into the data platform, the benchmark, the diagnostic, and say, "Okay, not
054only is Evette needing help and numbers and operations, but so is Dave, right? And I can create a group now for them." And then it generates a lesson plan. A lesson plan is created for the teachers that can get printed out. And right there, that is something then during win time, our teacher will be able to support us with. They don't have to create the lesson. The lesson is generated right there and it's tied directly to the assessment which feeds into the personalized learning platform and it becomes a way for us to triangulate data on students and really keep our instruction flowing. Right. Um if you want to learn more if you click on where it says explore math personalized learning I'm clicking like it's going to pop up. That's that's that's you. Sorry. Why
055isn't it working? Right. Oh, because I was presenting through Canvas. Sorry. It will take you to a video where you can actually see as a parent and click on it. You don't click on it right now, but it will walk you through what that personalized platform for the student would look like in math. The link right next to it is the ELA personalized learning platform. You can click on that and it'll take you right through what the students would see, the games, the activities. There's also an FAQ, a family guide, and an understanding your students I Ready diagnostic results. So when those results go home, we'll have that document also available for families. So that way they're like, how do I even read this? I Readyy's already done the front work to help break down
056what that looks like. The student I Ready diagnostic report will show you where the student is. Actually, can you click on that one for me, please? It will show you how your student is performing in comparison to the grade level. So, if they're supposed to be at fifth grade, it will tell you that they are approaching fifth grade or maybe they are working beyond fifth grade. Then it also gives you a national norm reference which means it compares it to all fifth graders across the nation. So if they're performing at the 73rd percentile you will see that what that means is that that they lined up a 100 students and your child has performed better than 73 of those students. So it gives you information for your child at grade level here in district comparing
057to other students in that grade level and then it gives you information comparison nationwide uh because it is a nationally normed assessment. Can I play a short video? Yeah. So in the top right hand corner is a video that I linked if it likes me. It is short, but it'll just help show you and explain to you what is I Ready. Hi, my name is Mark Bernstein. I'm a national director at Berkeam Associates, and we are the Ready people. For the student, I already studied that pinpoint math and reading skills down to the soft skill level. And number two, it's online learning that specific needs whether those needs are on, above or below level. I'd like to share four things you need to know about. Number one, the online. This means that students do question
058how to perform. If a student struggles, the questions get easier. If a student, the question becomes more once a student completes the diagnostics, the teacher will know exactly what the student needs. So, it eliminates the necessity to over test their children, thus allowing more time for teaching. Number two, the online instruction is personalized to the individual. Once a student completes the diagnostic, his or her deliverance, so we give each student their own pathway based on diagnostic results. that the student that we will get left to help that student will receive that's above grade level support for those who have gaps to fill and for those who are exceeding grade level expectations number three I is not a grading tool your child will get an A or C minus based on how they perform at I
059support students countable students gives students math and reading content that is right at their level. I help children to grow but is not used to assign grades. And number four, I is not designed to oppose the teacher. In every school district, teachers are your school asset. I support by helping students with similar needs for targeted instruction, what we call engagement. Once are established, IR's teacher toolbox is just one of the many resources that teached instruction teacher. Thank you very much for watching this video and look forward to seeing your students succeed without um for families that want to delve deeper. Like I said, I tried to hyperlink what I could. Um, but you're welcome to go to the family center. The I Ready family center is linked at the very bottom of that page. So
060to wrap up, sorry to wrap up, um, I just want to share some next steps. Um, again, teachers were provided initial information to support awareness and learning. Um, similar to uh the UFly information, we created a section that was specific for I Ready. the teachers could go in and learn more about I Ready. There are some teachers that are like, "Let me add it. I want to learn throughout the summer." So, we tried to provide something for them. We have other teachers that say, "Don't talk to me about it until we come back in August." So, we have training ready for them in August. So, it's a way to try to again meet the needs of the varying uh what teachers want. When staff come back on the institute day, we will have a kickoff
061implementation. That is the first training. There's a second training that will take place if you approve this um after the fall testing window. I Ready will come here and it's school-based. So, it's not everybody in one location. They will have one for Briergate, one for Three Oaks, one one for every school. Um and they will come after the fall window to teach our teachers how to pull reports, analyze, goal set, and how to use that to drive instruction. Then they'll come back for a third training at the end of the winter window in January. And the intent of that one now is to learn how to cross analyze beginning of the year data in the fall to middle of the year data in the winter in hopes that they can translate that then to the
062end of the school year. And now we're looking at long range cross analy cross analyzing analysis. Thank you. I was like we're shutting down. Shutting down. Last part is what does I ready replace? In conjunction with all of this, our technology committee was also evaluating all of the different platforms. So, a lot of moving parts here, a lot of different committees then coming together all at once. In addition, we had to make sure that these all the platforms were in alignment with previously adopted materials. So, Andy, thank you for reminding me. I'm going to give credit where credit's due. I Ready integrates very nicely into branching minds as well. So all this information will feed overnight into branching minds. So teachers have that at their fingertips when they pull up information on students and branching
063minds as well. Um but what does I Ready replace I Ready and teachers were informed of this plan yesterday at the end no Friday at the end of the day. Not yesterday was Sunday. Friday at the end of the day they were informed of this uh discontinuation plan. So EXL for grades 35 will be discontinued at the end of the school year. Moby Max for 68 will be discontinued. I station will be discontinued in K5 duel and then Star Renaissance discontinued. Total spent in that category was 83,853. No. So the first three that are listed there are basically what the personalized learning platform is going to replace. That bottom one star renaissance is what the diagnostic will replace but it's now all in one platform communicating to each other. At the end of next school
064year 2526 we will look at discontinuing then math seeds and reading eggs and then Alex for 68. So all together is 121327 is what we've been spending on these math and reading platforms where now we're able to bring it down to 92,330 cuz that 345 is only a one-time fee for professional development which we were able to use grant funds for again pending approval. The grant funding would cover the professional development. So the only thing really coming from the district would be the I Ready Diagnostic benchmark assessment and personalized learning platform. Are the numbers on the left here, are those nearly plus? Yes, ma'am. So, what we're saying though is next year will be slightly more expensive because we'd be doing I Ready plus math seats plus Alex, but after next school year it would
065all come I Ready, right? Correct. Okay. Yes. And I correct. Yes. Can I say one thing, Mr. River? Um, one of the things that when we were I I was on the committee for the assessment pieces, one of the things that I kept saying to the group, they I probably got on their their nerves. The personalized pathway I recommends that a student is not on there longer than 30 minutes a week. So, this is not something that a kid should be sitting in front of an iPad or in front of a screen clicking away every day. It is not to replace. They should be on there long enough to get practice, get instruction and to then also it's almost working like a progress monitoring. So, so the I Ready assessment suite along with um the
066path can continuously assess where the student is giving another data point to see okay the student may have been in the fall on the benchmark here but you it will basically do a growth trajectory for each individual student. So each time that student is on the individualized pathway, they should be moving along and you want to see them staying along their growth target or exceeding it. Um, and it will make adjustments or it will give the teacher recommendations that they should also be doing in small group. So I that was one of my things that I drove home a lot was like I like the small amount of time throughout the week that kids are actually using um pathways in comparison to Moby Max Ice Station don't give any guidance about how long students should
067be on those programs. Um, and so therefore, I think our teachers, no fault of theirs, they think the more students is on it, the more helpful that is. But what we know is kids get burned out on these just like on games or any other thing. If we have them on it every day, it gets boring and now they're not trying their best. And so that's why I Ready is really key about not having kids on it a lot or often every day so they can continue to be engaged with it. So those lessons update themselves. So if you have a kid that's right below benchmark, right, and within two or three sessions he or she achieves that, the next lesson they take in week four will be enrichment essentially, right? So that automatically happens
068without any correct. So in the personalized platform, they have to pass and show that mastery in that lesson in order for it to go up to the next one. So it's not just like a click click through type of experience. It it is differentiated to meet the needs and level with the student. So there's an incentive to actually engage. I guess you could call it a bit of a game, right? Yes. Right. For the third I mean third graders are like right. Exactly. Level up, right? You got to use their term. That is the phrase. I appreciate you finding this program cuz you and I have had discussions about the communication home and like we get the star reports and it's like if you're not in education, even if you are in education, you probably
069don't even know what it means, right? This is going to be incredibly helpful for our parents. Um, the one question that I do have is, is it multilingual? So, if a student is Ukrainian or Spanish speaking, they have the ability to adjust the language. Yeah. So, any student regardless of language when they come in here, they take the assessment, the benchmark in English regardless of that native language. However, for the dual part within the program that we have here, they have the Spanish version in order to help track and monitor. So, like the same way star, we had star math, right? They have math in Spanish as well. Awesome. They have the reading part as well in Spanish, but we are using last links to monitor the four language domains uh throughout the language development
070of the dual program and and the communication home if English is the primary language. Oh yes, there are multiple languages. Yes, it's looking at data score data in the different languages. Yes. Yeah. I thought you meant the actual set. I apologize. I wasn't clear on the but the communication communication can be adjusted to the parents native language. Awesome. Thank you. The other benefit is that currently our students take STAR as a benchmark three times a year, right? But it's also used as a progress monitoring tool in between those. So students essentially get starred out and the weight of the benchmark is not really there because they've been taking this assessment even throughout in between benchmarks. This now I ready diagnostic truly can only be used three times a year. The personalized platform will be that
071progress monitoring in between but looks different than the diagnostic. How long how long is this exam? Yeah, that's a great question and I have um research to back up what I'm about to say because I asked this exact question. So, it is um I believe they said for the younger ones in K2 because it can be broken up over a course of a couple days, not taken in one sitting, which is what they recommend. So, in K2, they're looking at um let's say the math test would be like two 20 minute sessions, so over two days. And then for our 38 group um we can split it over two or three days and it could be like a 20 minutes or it can be like a 15 15. So again looking at 40 minutes is
072it 40 minutes math correct 40 minutes reading. Correct. One assessment would be 40 minutes. There is research that demonstrates that shorter does not make it better. So what we've had currently with STAR is short, but we did not receive the results that we needed to accurately assess and understand where our students performance was at. You need an assessment that is longer that has the longer passages in order to get a more accurate read on where the students are actually performing. It's a diagnostic. It's like when you go to the doctor, you can get something very quick and easy or you go through the process of that longer lengthy diagnostic in order to get a deeper read. The benefit is they do not have to do this all in one sitting which we will create parameters
073around that. We don't want them to do it one sitting but they have to do it three times a year. Right. Correct. And then also the state testing. Correct. Okay. Just checking. just just seeing because I don't want to we talk about burnout and stuff and I don't I just wonder I'm thinking about I'm thinking about the psychology I'm trying to get into the head of like students um they're taking these tests this test is going to put them on a path. They really have to not slack on this or else a student is going to be put in down um an educational path until the next, you know, exam, right? On the on the No, because there's professional judgment. No, there's professional judgment that comes into play, right? We're not robotic. like the student
074takes the assessment, we look at the score and if the student let's say delve their score dropped because something was happening at home or maybe they were sick or there's many different reasons why a score could drop. It is not going to be a oh okay this one score that explains who you are and that is your trajectory in education. No, as a teacher, our teachers look at that and they will be able to differentiate still based off of that. Can the teachers see like what questions that the students got wrong? No, because you're we don't have access to all the explicit because then that would take away from the diagnostic part. But you but you will see the standards that the student show that they were struggling. The other thing if when they engage
075with the individualized pathway, if let's say they didn't have a good day testing, if they engage with that pathway and they're mastering those the the the lessons, the program continues to adapt and adjust when that student is on that program. So yes, those first few days or um times that they're interacting with their individualized pathway, it may be at a lower level, but if they start to show mastery of those, it's going to move them up to those other levels. Um the other piece that I would say that I like about I Ready is right now we have this huge focus on percentile, whether I'm above percentile or below percentile because each student has their own individualized growth path. Now we talk about growth. So all students feel success no matter if I'm at the
07620th percentile or the 30th percentile. I am now looking at am I on my growth target or my trajectory versus I'm below this this percentile or this mark. So, um I think as far as like our students and think about their own like responsibility and ownership of their learning, it allows you also to have conversations with the students about their growth path and what they can do and why they're in small group instruction and why they're doing this to help their growth, not to be past fail, which which kind of we talk about now, not without saying past fail, but that 40th percentile thing is a huge thing, especially when we look at our students who are serviced with IEPs and other things. They, you know, ideally they're probably not going to get above that
07740th percentile. So, they feel that constantly versus now they can say, "I'm over my growth target and and be celebrated for that versus this this percentile thing we play now." And it's adaptive, right? So, in the video that I showed, if you rewatch the beginning, it gives you this chart. It it it adapts to the student. So it's not it doesn't pigeon hold and track a student. The student is always demonstrating. Does it like understand that student or is it like input? I'm just asking because I'm trying to understand like does it have the student data of the students with disabilities? Is it does it know if a student is dyslexic or if a student is an English learner? I'm not saying that's a disability, but I'm saying does it know what a student is
078where they're already having those issues addressed? Yeah. No, that's a great question. So, it is a nationally normed assessment, which means that it is comparing students in that grade level that all of the nuances and individual pieces of the student. That's where we the educators come in. What it does do is it will say, okay, the student is taking the assessment and there's they've been in school X amount of days, right? That was something that they had shared. Um, it does take that into account. So that way you are being compared to your peers, not just that are in third grade, but third grade that have also had 60 days of instruction. So, it's not a comparison point of like let's say you came in later in the school year and they're comparing you to
079other third graders who've been here from August to sep or August to let's say January and then I'm a new student who just moves in January like they're basing it off of how many days of experience you've had in that grade level. So, it adapts in that way. But to get to the specifics of like the IEP or whether you're an English language learner or whether you are dyslexic or things of that nature, it's a nationally norm diagnostic assessment. So does Wait, is it Did you already ask it? No, but I've got a followup follow up to that question. But wait, if you want to get your question for the Okay. Yes, it is. Gotcha. So if there's a student with an IEP or 504 with extended time or time and a half, right? Get
080that. We get that and and they know that. So instead of 20 minutes, it's 35. Okay. Yep. Yep. And there are and that was also part of the rubric. If you kind of peek at the rubric, it was what are some of the features, the accessibility features. Um we wanted to make sure that the accessibility features were within this as well. So the ability to like blow up uh the the t the text, the font that was in there. Um and so there were other accessibility features that were available. Whatever is on a student's IEP, they will receive that on this. No different than what they would do for the AR assessment or a classroom common assessment. But again, that's us as the individual educators that ensure that those things are in place. I'm going
081to reiterate exactly what he said, which is why I really like the video. This does not replace the teacher, right? This does not replace the teacher. The teacher is the one that then takes the information that's provided. Similar to a doctor will take the results and has to analyze it and has to delve deeper into that and has to look, okay, does this student have an IEP? Is a student an English language learner? Does a student have dyslexia? Right? Like this is one data point with so many others that we have to take in consideration. Students are by far more than just one data point. I have a question about the discontinued um applications. Is the data from that going to be extracted or accessible because isn't STAR um showing benchmarks from previous years? Yeah.
082So we just recently adopted uh this past year, right? Uh branching minds. All that data is already populated and generated in branching minds. It is our data platform. So all the data that we are currently have up until this point with STAR is already in there and will continue to remain in there. And so then as I Ready populates, they'll have that for longevity purposes to compare to. But again, it's apples and oranges. They're not the same type of assessment. Okay. At all. But yeah, we will have that information. to piggy to piggy back off of that question. Um, I guess it's we're we've implemented a lot of new initiatives in the district and we've we've been using star data and collecting star data I think since prior to uh even me being on the
083board. So, we have a lot of that and we've been comparing the cohorts and we've been watching them um and watching the students especially after COVID and coming back from that. Will we be able to compare to keep watching those cohorts grow um with the star move and then moving to the I Ready? Yeah, that's a good and then how do we know if we move to the I Ready? This is this is like my I have these questions, but then my main concern is is that we've got um we've implemented all of these new things, the frameworks and um professional development and the curriculums and the and if we switch the way that we are tracking um progress and students and seeing how they grow, how do we know if what we're implementing is
084making a difference if we're just starting out with a brand new set of information and data. That's that's why I think that that was a good question like do we have what will we com compare it to to know that what we're implementing is going to work otherwise it it could I don't I'm not saying this is going to happen but it could be a case of well we don't know because we don't have all the data yet but yeah no those are great questions and either way we would be in that boat this coming year because star has reormed their assessment so you can't even compare this school year's assessment to prior years. I would imagine we could look at the AR scores too over time, right? So like as we make all these
085changes, I think if we still watch the I scores because the star and you and not you fly, sorry, I ready will not be reported to the state. The only thing that's reported to the state is I right and so aren't they reoing I A too? I hope not. But they're reorming. They're reorming it. Okay. Correct. So there you go. Another point I wanted to just bring up when we talk about data if the district I mean since I've been here the past two years if you look we have a huge disparity between our star data and our AR data and that let us know that the STAR assessment is not aligned to the standards or the or the level of mastery that students need to demonstrate. That's why we have such high numbers of
086our students being able to demonstrate that they're over the 30th percentile. We also lowered the benchmark to 30 rather than 40. But what what we should see and another piece of the I Ready data is we'll be more predictive. It is not predictive but it was should be in it is more closely aligned to what our students will demonstrate on I AR. And so that was another big piece about the why I felt that there was a need to do the assessment is because we would come before the board and present these huge you know 80% of our students are over the 30th percentile mark and yes that is good for that assessment but when we really look at then the AR data we're in we're below 50% in each of those categories. So I
087want to I believe the data that is presented at beginning of year, middle of year, end of year should be able to be a good measure along the way of where are we progressing towards and where our students most likely going to be at and be ready for AR. Right now it's kind of we give star and then we only give really we only have any measure for AR once a year. And so that was another reason why we really felt and I believe why the teachers immediately were like we need to do something other other than STAR because they've seen that disparity year after year as well. I think I think one of the things that we're overlooking with this program too is like as we walk into our classrooms we see a wide
088variety an increasingly diverse uh set of learners not just in language but just in learners right and this takes it helps a little bit um helps with our teachers to differentiate for those learners right and if we can make our job our teachers jobs just a little bit easier um and get them ready for state assessments and communicate better with parents and engage parents better with with their students uh test scores. That's a win. Um so I appreciate you exploring this and bringing this to the table. Thanks Job. Bottom line, it means year one we're paying $43,500 more. After that we're paying $28,996 less for every year after that. Any other questions? Thank you. Uh, next up we have the D26 policy manual review section five. Yep. Um, so I can kick it off and
089then I'm gonna pivot to Mrs. Potter, who once again has done her homework and has um dug into the um the policies and um set forth some things. Um we've collaborated also um and she has some great questions prior to bringing these to the board. Mrs. Potter, I do have one idea for you all when you talk about the first one 5:15, but I'll let you share and then I'll share my idea and then the board can kind of decide where they want to go with that. Well, go ahead and share your idea. Okay. So, M I I want I I didn't want to steal the your thunder, but Mrs. Potter um raised a great point. So, um the the district previously had policy 515, which dealt with employee um situations of nepotism. Um and
090in our new policy manual, that language does not exist. So, originally, Mrs. Potter had recommended that we add that policy back in. And I was trying to think of a way that if you added the policy back in, it would be a custom policy, meaning someone on the board needs to remember to review that one each year or so forth. Um, because we would not get updates automatically from press. I thought though, I did find policy 520 120. I'm sorry. Policy 5120. Thank you. I see. I see. I see that. I was wondering why that was there. Yep. Policy 5120 is employee ethics, code of professional conduct and conflict of interest. So when I was looking at it, I was like, well, what we could do is take the language from 515 and put a
091new section in 5120 labeled nepotism. That way 5120 would continue to be brought up in revisions from press and then you all could review that language when it's brought up. So that way no one has to monitor that one custom policy and the language still gets in policy. So that's what um I just wanted to bring that up and I didn't have a chance to talk to you about that one. I forgot. So I apologize for not bringing it up sooner. I like um I like it. So I guess um the issue was is that um nepotism this this paragraph that you'll you can see there that was removed from the um board policy manual in the new manual and my suggestion was is that we really needed to have something on this. Uh Dr.
092White agrees. So I guess the suggestion would be uh does the board wish to maintain this expectation outlined in policy and would you like to include it in board policy 5120 under the heading nepotism? My immediate thoughts are it's a good policy. So it yes it's kind I I think it's probably a good thing. I think this certainly um if our lawyers were looking at it would also probably be frowning upon us if we did allow some of this to happen. So that's a good thing. Um I also had a suggestion that there should be a hyphen or a slash between supervisor subordinate relationship but that's minor minor details. I do like the idea of sticking it in a policy generally on topic and that keeps it updating so that we'll know that this is
093our policy. The rest of it is under it. So 5120 sounds great. Is that like an official We're not voting tonight, but I I would certainly back it. No, I meant like the hyphen. Oh, yeah. That's That's a mean nitpicking. I like it. It doesn't mean everyone does. It must have been left off of the off the notes because it did exist in 515. So, there was a hyphen there and 5:15. Um, so yeah, we'll make sure that hyphen, if the board decides to move forward in that way, that that hyphen between supervisor and subordinate is there. I didn't even notice that that I didn't know you had a printed one, but no problem. You know, I like being extra, right? Thank you. I support it going to 5120 also. Okay. Any questions or anything
094else? Okay. Um 5100 is uh staff development program. I was just going to ask if the board would consider adding the additional training requirement for lunch supervisors to at the very least review the technique for Heimlick maneuver um prior to supervising students um in the cafeterias. And I just believe that this I know it's not a state requirement, but I do believe it is the community's expectation that the people in the cafeteria supervising our students know that training. But um Dr. white. um let me know that this is the pol all the requirements that we're seeing in the all the trainings that we're seeing in policy 5100 that those are state required trainings for staff and um so he was recommending that it just be written into the AP manual and the AP manual um
095is out of date but it'll be updated because it's already in um the district has already decided to implement this training. It's just not in policy 5100. But right, so Mrs. um Potter brought this up, which was a great idea a few months ago about u making sure that those individuals working in the lunchroom had CPR and Heimlick maneuver training. And so, um, the team got to work. And so, um, building administrators, office staff, PE teachers, coaches, social workers, um, psychologists, um, teachers, ECE staff, as well as lunchroom supervisors will be receiving that training. Um, I just explained that um, to kind of keep it organized, the um, as Mrs. Potter mentioned all of the required staff development and 5100 is related to some type of code or Illinois law. Um and since this is
096not I think put placing it in the administrative manual and it would be basically 5100 AP. Um but and then it would exist there because that's the procedural we list like how much it cost which ones they should do. We can do that there versus putting all of that in policy. So, I just wanted to update you guys. Hey, breaking news. We are training on that. It's just it's just not a state requirement and um that's why we're not seeing but thank you for um doing that and getting that in place. And then um I just kind of wanted to go over then policy 6270 which is guidance and counseling program. I had um there was an optional language that we could add. Oh, yourself. Item 5.7 is D26 policy manual review section six. Oh,
097yeah. Sorry. We skipped one. We that one you just were not Oh, we're not going over all of them because what I they just they've included this is these are questions that I was asking admin not necessarily that I was bringing towards for the board. I think that third one was 5120 and that's we just had that on there because we wanted to see show the board that that would be the policy we would be adding the nepotism piece to. Ah, okay. Yep. So that's section five, I think. Yeah, I already said it. So now go ahead to section six. Okay. Um I we are will not be covering the all of the policies listed here in section six. I just want to look at um have the board look at 6270 and that's the
098guidance and counseling program. Um, and we don't, the district doesn't necessarily employ guidance counselors. That's more of a high school thing. Um, so I felt like um I had asked, well, what about [Music] adding social workers and psychologists? And Dr. White agreed. So, um I guess I'm going to make the recommendation or for your consideration um that the first sentence of 6270 um read as follows. The school district provides a guidance and counseling program for students which includes school social workers and psychologists. Period. Is this a press? Yes, this is in our board policy manual. Would it be easier just to say mental health professionals? But there's so much more than mental health professionals. All right. Education. I don't know. That's Dr. White. Here's my thought. just I would say social workers and psychologists. I
099would name them because those are the current positions in the district. But then if you wanted to add in other mental health um staff in the event two years, three years from now the district decided to add counselors or therapists or other positions that may not be named, it would still be inclusive of anyone working around mental health for this policy. But I do agree that they probably should be named currently because those are current. And let's be honest, those positions probably aren't going anywhere because they're also tied to IEPs and other things like that. So those those social worker and psychologists, I would say, would be good to name and then maybe add the mental health or andor other mental health staff in the event the district ever added a different position by a
100different name. Okay. So, I'm asking the board to consider just adding to that first sentence um which includes school social workers and psychologists and other mental health professionals and potentially other mental health professionals. But no objection from down here, right? Well, I felt this was necessary because it has it states that each staff is going to be responsible for guiding these students and supervising and identifying and all of this stuff. And then who they go to are the counselors for those additional assistance. But we we would call them social workers. We would call them psychologists. Was that the only policy for six? Yes. Okay. Perfect. All right, then that brings us to close session for the purpose of the discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purposes of
101approval by the body of the minutes or semiannual review of the minutes as mandated by section 2.065cs120-2C21 ILCS120-2C21 student disciplinary cases ILCS120-2C9 collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees 5CS120-2C2 and the employment employment compensation discipline or performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body 5CS120 20-2 C1. I have a motion to adjurnn to close session. So move second. Any discussion? Hearing none. Take a vote, please. Stacy Saw, yes. Julie Jetty, yes. Jason Jans, yes. Bridget Sandlin, yes. Katherine Potter, yes. Mindy Hartman, yes. Darling, yes. The motion is approved. Open session ends at So 7:28 p.m. Thank you everyone.