001okay here Falk present I'm Phil yes Nolan here Hannah here rape here Gorman here I need a motion a second to approve tonight's agenda hello a thief yes bulk yes Hemphill yes Nolan yes pennar here yes Gorman yes all right please join us as we recite the Pledge of Allegiance thank everyone for coming out um first day of spring so it's pretty nice out everybody at home watching our YouTube channel too welcome um thank you for coming out tonight so we have some teachers with us tonight Administration thank you for being here um our vice president of cea thank you for coming out some of our community members and also thank you for those that are joining us remotely to move on a public comment we have a couple this evening uh first Mike McMahon
002a lot of item is here Mike McMahon yeah I don't know what else you want anything else okay all right a couple of topics the more last time I was in here I asked some money uh questions about the budget can you hear me okay okay I asked about the budget and um I'd like to get a direct answer that not sent to a website to look through everything else because I'm not going to find it I want to know about covet money and the money was allowed to you so I'm looking into it I want to find out more about that so that's another topic that I guess you don't have an answer for me this week right just look at the website that's not good enough for me I'd like to get some
003more Direction on that all right uh the culture blast oh Lord don't get me started on that first off I see that it's a mission it's a mission statement I'm going to look at the mission statement over here I went to that and I got um a lot of issues with that let me find my flyer on that there we go so I'm going to ask the board here you're incorporating more religious and cultural celebrations the school's always going we can't put religion in the school but right here it says you do so which is it one way or the other right I don't see crosses up in a building I don't see you celebrating Easter Yeah Christmas is fine but what else you're going to put in here then I have a question that
004says here opportunities to tell stories for transformation to take place what does that mean transformation of what what are we Transforming Our school to can someone give me that an answer to that when I go there I look at the booths the booths go we got this we got this we got that but there's nothing every booth there represents a country that wanted to come here for a reason but yet we don't have a booth about America and the cultures and when I ask students what it means when they say the Pledge of Allegiance they don't know so we're not teaching the kids about our culture because we do have a culture by the way okay we have a culture but if you're not going to teach that culture because what this is this is
005about diversity meaning division not Unity we don't want us having teaching diversity when it's about this that and everything else we're all Americans we believe they're same blood it doesn't matter what color your skin is we have United interest family monetary whatever it is we should be teaching what unity means that's the job of the school that's the job the taxpayers might be done okay now we can't do much about that in this election but we have board members going around the other direction we can do something about in the next election okay furthermore so let me see here so I'd like to know about to answer that why we're not talking about we're talking about division listening when I look at cities when I came from Chicago as a fireman there and I see
006that our city was so diverse but yet so segregated the more diverse these cities become and the more diverse we become in the schools the more segregated become when I was at the culture blast I noticed this group of people staying with that group of people kind of a natural thing the Pledge of Allegiance excuse me library books looks more like indoctrination when I look at things on lgbtq plus Z whatever it is I see more books there than I see in U.S history that's kind of a shame some are a lot of fictional books why are we having pornography in the libraries for kids things I can't talk about here we go and that would be oh you can't say that but yet I have things that came from the books they're pornographic material
007lbq stuff what's this all about what's going on here the citizens of this area 301 whether democrat or republican or independent are not for this stuff and this needs to change so if this is about grooming we're getting pretty darn ticked off about it a lot of things with the more I look into District 301 nice school scores you know okay you could use some improvement over there um I'm a little upset about when you don't include Township people when we're building the new school there's a lot of things we had to say about the budget because things are in that thing for the new school there's a lot of extra added costs down there staff there's going to be at a cost to the uh to the township for roads and so forth but
008we're on the table for those meetings I have questions on why we have so many new teachers coming through a lot of teachers being fired and what that's all about is that a budgetary thing what's going on there I don't know so a lot of questions a lot of things we're looking into and I'm sure there's other people that want to speak here but we'll do big things here because we should be teaching our students about becoming good citizens in a United Community not a divided community and furthermore pornography doesn't belong in our libraries thank you all right we have one more public comment Gene Meyer to think that everyone here might really know what's in the library and they still allow it so my name is can you hear me my name is Gene
009Meyer and I'm a Burlington residence I'm not a Burlington Burlington School District resident since 2018. but anyway just starting to get involved in the school district and it's unbelievable that if I stood on a street corner and I asked a young person hey look at this picture that I just handed you all that I would be arrested I would be considered a pervert and yet most parents I would say would not want their children to have access to this material because it is pornographic it's sexually stimulated that and that's its purpose I don't see that it's helping anyone um and yet it's on the shelves that any student other people's children can see and so these schools belong to the people and we need to respond to the will of the people if those books
010are going to be in the library and I certainly hate our money to be spent on that kind of book it should be segregated on a shelf that a parent requests not a child that a parent requests for their child thank you so the politics and activities recognition um director Jessica is here uh is he yeah sir yes sir so um good evening great to see everybody again thanks for allowing me to come up here and uh kind of showcase some of the great things that are happening here on 301 in terms of recognitions uh tonight we had a math team that advanced to our state competition on April 22nd back in February 25th they had two individuals that took third in algebra fourth place in geometry and they had four different teams that either
011finished first or second in different categories like algebra or a couple other eight piece or eight-person competitions and then another team that took third in algebra two that those individuals will be representing Central High School down at the state competition on April 22nd the next group I'd like to recognize is our skills USA team we had four individuals who qualified for State uh as part of our skills USA both with a job interview category and a couple that based off career Readiness exams and like I said a lot with those job interviews that kind of have a skillsusa has a wide wide variety of different areas and methods that they can compete in these two in particular are more uh the video production and like I said the business interview phase so we've got some
012individuals going down there like to thank uh Mr Loomis Miss green and Mr billing with those individuals and that should be coming up here in April as well and then uh the last one we had members of our FFA again uh kind of the last time we were up here joked around FFA Supremacy here with uh Central High School kind of rain strong here uh they finished uh in the vet science they actually won the vet science and career development that was hosted down in Champaign uh back in early March so um out of 2019s and 110 individuals and competing our FFA program ended up uh taking first place overall so you know a lot of credit uh Mr Robbins Mr Robinson Mr dalen and Amber Ballard and a lot of the individuals that were
013here couldn't make it today due to scheduling conflicts but uh short of kind of mispronouncing some names I didn't want to take that and you know do that faux pas there so a lot of it is in there uh in that Port packet there with you but uh again can't thank you enough for providing these opportunities for our for our students not just Athletics but extracurriculars as well um and we look forward to seeing that continue and hopefully I'm back in here in April and May give me the results of some State competitions we'll actually ever leave Ted because I see you at the high school every time I've been there and I'm not there that often but you're there all the stinking time I mean are you living up over where seesaw was yeah
014I know we took it off maybe that's hopefully that was in your package when we hired yeah no I appreciate you know I'm in chat I appreciate all your time you've been spending here it's been great to see you and great to see all the Athletics that I've been attending I appreciate it feelings mutual and like I said if you ever need anything please don't hesitate to ask but again thank you for uh let me come up here and share this with you awesome thank you you can say all this because I'm almost done thank you the motion a second to approve the consent agenda you have your revenues and expenditure report revenues are currently at 43.35 compared to 42.53 a year ago expenditures are trending at 52.13 compared to 49.63 um a year ago
015impact fees we got this month was 36 518.5 Cents for six home starts and then the bills payable reports for both Northern Canyon Central are typical through March three questions sorry baby bulk yes Hemphill yes Nolan yes Hannah yes rape yes a thief yes Gorman yes next emotion second or needed for the Baseball spring trip second March 30th we skip forward policy and personal report of course yeah um I will ask athletic director jusky since we do have a motion a second correct yes yeah we have um athletic director Jessica talk about the baseball trip because um in a conversation with him found out a little bit about a softball trip also so I want to make the board aware of this yeah I apologize not getting in there here as we kind of came
016in and we heard coaches uh I did not get the softball memo in at the same time about our baseball and softball teams are going down to Jacksonville Illinois kind of same place nearly identical itinerary they've got some turf fields down there that's hopefully far enough South that we get some warmer weather and be able to get out there and play some games same weekend obviously staying two different hotels but I will get that I'll get that memo to you next time but uh that's that's an error on my end I apologize uh for not getting that in there but it's going to be very similar to that with baseball so next time we meet I'll have that information for you but uh an opportunity for our kids to hopefully get a few games in
017down there over break much like soccer goals and plays on a lot of turf around here just one of the closer areas to get on some Turf and hopefully allow the time to dry out and have some warmer weather so appreciate it as for approval for the boys Baseball spring break overnight trip and we'll be bringing the girls softball trip forward to the board I want you to be aware of that do you want us to approve both or just can't approve that all right rape yes a thief yes bulk yes Gorman yes are required to discuss and approve the aces team overnight trip second uh there is a memo on your board packet of coming out of covet it's kind of refreshing that our students are going to be able uh to do an
018overnight State trip for our academic challenge team we typically perform well at that level and looking forward to getting back in that state competition highlight um our academic abilities as well as our athletic abilities all right Nolan yes henr yes Ray yes a thief yes bulk yes and Phil yes Gorman yes Lexington motion second to approve the chs's ihsa membership still moved second again this was an annual renewal that comes forward to the board typically in in March or April to allow us to continue in ihsa scheduled athletic activities and events if there's any questions athletic director Jessica is with us all right Henner yes Rabe yes a thief yes folk yes and Phil yes Nolan yes Gorman yes election in motion second to discuss and approve the joint agreement between Fox Valley Career Center
019and Central School District 301 until moved second so um currently serve on the board of directors for the Fox Valley Career Center and as you know where the fiscal and administrative agent for our cane our Northern Kane efe 110 for vocational education um just like we had to update our joint agreement to meet new requirements in the state code for our Northern cane now this agreement is coming due um at one point we thought about withdrawing from Fox flight career center but meeting with other directors talking amongst our cabinet level team we currently do not have any students participating in Fox Valley but as conditions change in the future we may have students participate so we are updating the bylaws so that any school district if they're not sending students in a given year they
020would be a participatory board member but a non-voting member in that year and so it is that the board continue to approve our membership and Fox Valley Vocational at this time and there's no Financial ramifications for us if students do not attend correct all right rape yes a thief yes bulk yes and Phil yes Nolan yes Hannah yes Gorman yes we need motion a second to prove the contract between Central School District 301 and Erickson engineering so moved second good evening much like our last athletic director I get to provide the boring stuff and he gets to do all the exciting stuff um so we decided that it was in our best interest um to look at hiring and partnering with some um engineering firms with all the growth and opportunities we have moving forward
021this seemed like it was a good opportune time to do this so we vetted out we did an RFQ process vetted out multiple civil engineering vendors and selected Erickson engineering um as our our best partner moving forward with whatever we may may be doing so our recommendation is to move forward with their contract how many did we receive we received four and we interviewed three I was working with Erickson Engineering in the past yep yeah um Ericson's been a good partner to Batavia school district and head of goods has a good reputation in Kane County worked with the County of Kane on multiple projects so I think moving forward for what our needs are moving forward they'd be a good partner great any other questions thank you Dan a thief yes bulk yes Enfield yes
022Nolan yes henar yes Ray yes Gorman yes well um just as director business manager fluke spoke about earlier with home starts and housing permits would continue to grow as a district from this point last year until today we're up 134 students and that report is included in the board packet and that's kind of typical for every school year we've been up 100 and something about three percent annually three percent annually and then so there's been some concern that we're building something that's not really required but 100 students and that's been ever since I've been on the board we found a quote from superintendent uh what's his name um add something in 1970. no no that was Aldrin that's the mayor percent every year since 1979 okay we have found that since 19790 now we're still
023growing at about on average three percent every year so it's been a very long talk that we've been seeing in central 301 so and do you know of any other districts what their typical growth is where the largest right so what part of Luda okay and we fall only behind Springfield uh which is growing in a larger rate Champaign champagne sorry um otherwise we are the only one growing at this rate so Luda is just so I know what it is just for everybody in the area school district so we belong to what other schools or other districts are in that 50 54 school districts in the state of Illinois so the state of Illinois has like I think around 847 school districts total okay um 54 school districts educate over 50 of the students
024in Illinois so that's not incredible that's correct pardon that doesn't include CPS so the Chicago Public Schools so it's everything but then no CPS is now part of Luda oh since when a couple years ago okay gotcha okay cool we're consistently if you would look back from it was interesting a superintendent reached out from um East St Louis area and he was doing demographic studies because of their growth and found that um actually were were like one of the fastest growing Unit School District in the state between 2018 and today okay for international buttons and seats as well and then the data you use as well to project that is what is like from what I remember I'm just doing this for the audience projections conservatively we we use 0.8 for household so every new
025household that we receive we found that a 0.8 student per household it's a pretty good indicator and it's been uh has worked really well for us for the last 20 years so that's for new projects for new new um houses that does not include anybody who transferring in we really don't have account in that that's what you're seeing here some shifts from individuals moving into the district as well as new houses so that is just for our new enrollment new enrollment three percent has been what we've seen um overall I just got the quote from Mr roadwalk so we've been growing that better than three percent for each year for the past 20 years that was to buy at stocks superintendent of schools back then so January 27 1979 so it's been a consistent pattern
026we've seen we consider it like last last year as you can see we were at almost eight percent uh but on average we are at three percent I think that was due to covet and some of those so that's the tool you use for New Homes Construction new homes for increasing uh student population is live birth then right I think basic live birth is what we use for kindergarten so we monitor live birth data that's happening in the county by a zip code we also have data that we can monitor by ZIP code but we don't really we know our average has been three percent for new houses just to kind of project forward with new houses that we know will be built or are on their Horizon yeah okay and so years ago when
027when Naperville bloomed in the Plainfield area boomed and their statistics when they were looking at their growth they were averaging about 1.2 okay children per household so back in the early 2000s when our district started to grow the assumption would be made that it would be similar to that and it actually has come in lower okay and it's been consistently point eight okay so you're not just spitball and stuff no you've got actually data you're looking at yeah originally they originally previous superintendent they were thinking well it's going to follow that same pattern as Naperville playing field and it was even though we're seeing a lot of Home growth number of students coming out of those homes was really 0.8 instead of 1.2 okay so you're relatively conservative in comparison but you are forecasted in
028terms of where we've been at um I think our growth came in much quicker here since the 2016 referendum that we had where we are today but when you look at the housing patterns it takes about 20 years for a subdivision it looks like for our district to fill to come to fruition so you do have some time to plan and make some adjustments along the way but usually when you have a subdivision opening up it's about a 20-year role correct to be able to get that to fall um you know be sold out completely okay so the gestation period essential is that and we look at that as well as we're kind of projecting out and so then the kindergarten so about to put you on the spot again so the kindergarten numbers is
029the live birth and then you know they typically are going to stay here you know a percentage of you know kindergarten classes that are here now are going to be seniors you know graduating in 20 years and all every class you're over here is about okay so whatever that starts at it's going to be three percent so we know that information and it's going to be three percent which is which is faster than anywhere around us yes cool thank you all right next we'll move on to Mechanical Electrical Plumbing engineer contract so I'm actually going to have Mr Polly come up there as well I'll talk a little bit about that process we went through we went through a little bit more of a detailed process here for the mechanical and we'll talk about why
030so um kind of like we we did with the civil engineering um having mechanical electrical and plumbing Engineering Services typically came through Larson and Darby they had their own in-house staff that took care of those Engineering Services for us they since no longer have that anymore so we've been Outsourcing that for the last couple projects not that we've had a lot of problems but there's been issues that I think we can forego and and things moving forward that would be better off if we had that partnership um directly with us again so we underwent the same RFQ process and we had four firms submit um and did final interview with with two of those um so we will have we will have a recommendation coming forward for an engineering service but I I think it's
031in our best interest moving forward to have those direct Partnerships like we have a construction manager like we have an architect to have those Engineering Services they're so important to what we're trying to do and moving forward and even going back even to have those resources to review our buildings make sure all the mechanical systems electrical systems roofs all that stuff is up to par so we're not for go you know see missing any issues doing anything as we're going through our capital projects that capital projects book that I I brought to the board when I first started that's our Bible I mean I'm going through Crossing those things off and making sure we're staying on task with those and these Engineering Services can just support that so I think it's in our best interest
032to have a direct part partnership with them too in lieu of subbing those out through the architect so when you head forward You released two from the process we went three first the first we did a first round with three of the four vendors and of those three two of them piqued our interest not just for mechanical but also from an educational standpoint we recognized that the mechanical individuals Engineers could do a lot for us in terms of the educational realm and we could part with partner with them in some of the elements that we feel we can bring to our students to actually improve some of the academic elements of could be solar energy it could be Alternative Energy it could be some of the ways that we're seeing us shifting and so as
033we looked at two of them we found them to talk a great deal about how they could bring that to us we brought them back for a second interview and so we're currently still talking through those processes but two of them had a lot of potential in terms of really helping us increase our knowledge base bringing it to our students to make sure that it's relevant to them as well for their life and how you can incorporate that into some of the things without a great deal of costs incorporate into some of the pieces of any building to help kind of students learn about energy in a very kind of open uh realistic experience great thank you any other questions all right thanks Dan thanks Dan we're moving on the committee reports so first CCC
034I was out here today so we'll actually have Shane berkmeyer stuff forward and Stephen uh Stephen here I don't know yep move forward CCC good evening so we started out actually I'll let you go ahead and start off with that what you talked about first so we uh letter we talked about the name change that's happening with our physical education department we're having co-ed 11th and 12th grade occur uh opens up an opportunity where our students are trying to get more classes not locking in certain hours where that limits their ability to take an elective of their choice or some option that really is restricted because we can only offer so many sections of each by doing this if you think about your 11th and 12th grade you're able to offer possibly one every single
035hour providing a lot more flexibility within the building we also then listen to a proposal about our fine arts department being able to make a recommendation to adjust some of the lengths of their classes from uh entirely year-long course options to semesterizing some of the courses providing options for students that don't have as much room in their space given the nature of freshman sophomore years restrictive on all the requirements that you need to meet to meet that graduation requirement this will open the door for some of those students to have an option that they didn't have previously curriculum wise it is not a really a major shift we're taking classes that may have the exact same intro class so for example you might have an intro and Ceramics class that is a year-long you might
036have an intro and then photo class that is year-long well the intro class is the same so providing that option where kids can have an intro class and they don't have to repeat it if they then choose to go into Ceramics provides them opportunity to explore those different areas in the art media sector without repetition which we don't want our students to be forced down the same exact thing stopping them from having a experience before they leave our doors better preparing them to make life decisions here versus delaying them which is a financial burden on our our stakeholders in the community so that was the uh kind of kind of how and why lastly it allows our students to reach that AP level our courses in a capacity that we can offer that course sometimes
037we struggle having the ability to have a singular course right so that could be like our 3D AP course or our 2D or now we're going to have a a combination where those classes can come together it's it's an Open Class where it is very student driven but specific as they're building their portfolios these are our students who are really have a a passion to go down that and go into the curricular area of some type of professional career in the art industry therefore this will allow them to continue down that achieve at a higher level offer them not only intro classes but all the way through to reach that higher level capacity and that way they are better suited to have what a portfolio is what they use actually for entering higher education it's
038not just the same process and this will support them on acquiring those skills and the physical portfolio needed to kind of meet what other schools offer which we need to be able to do here um we're also so we're opening the door to our Eighth Grade Center so our intro class that normally would be ninth grade only is going to be moved and have an option in our eighth grade year so that students will have the capacity to maybe uh dip their finger into that intra art class and it won't need to be repeated at a high school level of like oh you're now interested in it now you need to repeat it no it's going to be the same course uh provide that option so that kind of that exploratory that starts in that
039eighth grade year seventh grade you know as you're going down to that eighth grade year we'll be able to dovetail that in so that then again you're not actually having to start there which will also provide a different on-ramp for access in the kind of Fine Arts area of media and we'll be be provided them High School Credit at the eighth grade level and new course and of course the new the new course is a digital art class so we have uh some of the classes like we're combining the art the uh AP courses but also there's multiple digital classes in photography as we ramp that up and change things and kind of stay up to date with current careers and Pathways and education and software and all that kind of stuff we're having one
040of the photo two classes actually uh will be replaced by a digital art class uh being able to support a wider variety of media instead of it being singular on Photo this will open the door so that our students can cross over you think about our you know not to go off Ted's speech earlier but you know we have kids being successful in Mr Billings video production courses this artistic area can also be supported through our art giving those kids another step up and leg and that skill set so we can go down different uh areas you know business has marketing there's there's lots of different ways that we're able to navigate instead of creating that strict pathway of you're only going to stay in one Silo and really get those students to understand as
041it could cross in the future great more opportunity and then our last component that we talked about was continuing the conversation on grading practices that we had started out a few months ago in this um in this realm uh we focused on seven different questions really only got through one or two with the biggest component being on the impact that our grades have and so our consensus from the committee was really to um survey our staff and the stakeholders at the table to whether or not what direction we want to go on is it an opportunity for us as a district to land in what do we feel like ours our consensus or grading practices we'll gather that feedback from our committee members bring that bank when we meet again in May so that we
042can figure out what is our next step in that process but there's been a lot of conversation in the last couple months and wearing the crossroads really what direction do we want to go in so we'll gather that from our feet from our stakeholders bring it back and figure out what direction we're going to go in at that point any questions for us I guess when that decision comes down is that a decision that you will bring it to you following our conversation with the state plan or roll out where we think we should go we'll bring it to you as a recommendation and then you can take action if it's a change in the way we go about grading it comes to the board for a board decision okay [Music] so we have Dei
043and the culture blasts and King County culture blast I want to hear more about that it was so talked about outstanding I can't wait come on in come on up here so Kane County was on the third and we really was a group effort from from the direction that the students that we got brought in and Dei committees on Wednesday mornings that came to fruition then we kind of tackled it on our end for Kane County lens and it was a phenomenal day yeah off we did four different rotations uh Dr Bolton Dr Nolan was there Angela McDonald was there and then had our student panel did a phenomenal job of rotating our staff through a variety of different activities lots of great learning yes I'm sorry I was coming so uh Dr paulus and
044then Mike Doyle two of our instructional coaches also led a session for our staff so very interactive there was food from all different locations that was great feedback regarding the food people had an opportunity to try something they hadn't tried before so it was a really really great day we're still digging in from the curriculum lens and student services uh what is the feedback we just received that again from staff so we're digging in we'll take some additional time to spend and dig out what's our next Lane and where we go next for that um I don't know anything else to add on that from what feedback did you get from that teachers and staff and faculty that would attended overall this is a broad stroke but it was the best best Institute that they've
045had to date um in fact we opened it up for all staff including our paraprofessionals and various staff members and so they were all there so it was really very positive feedback I think the next Lane that we will want to approach is what's the next step so here we learned about it we got to engage in some of those conversations but what do we do tomorrow and what can we continue to do what are some resources and tools that we would want to expand upon would we do tomorrow in our classrooms what do we do tomorrow when they're in the lunchroom what do we do tomorrow when they're sitting on the bus so those will be the next steps that we'll kind of dig into and what will be our plan of emption into
046next year you know I thought the um the panel that you had of the students like there were two parts and um uh being able to listen to the kids speak to the issues that they've experienced and then answer questions from the teachers and the staff was so insightful it was so eye-opening and the juxtaposition of that panel with the culture blast the next day it it just really resonated it was an aha moment of yeah this is this is a great first step to building this even bigger and better in the future so I thought it was fantastic and really the day um for those of you that were there to be a part of it the the building was transformed so not just what it looked so there was Flags throughout the the
047various locations that staff were interacting and that set the whole tone for the day including our breakfast and our lunch and our snacks were very very wide stroked um and we're very purposeful in what the intention was to start this movement and start these opportunities so we will continue to expand upon it as we're digging in and side by side with the curriculum student services and it's also the Dei committee will continue to expand and plan those components moving forward and a big thanks really needs to go to our student population who they created displays to really get an understanding from other perspectives and Views that really is driving from them which started in the DI but then they they were able to identify our cultural makeup that's in our district and what needs to
048be like you can't do every single country that's represented but they were able to highlight some of the major areas which really got them to to kind of feel that sense of that Central 301 is not a district that does a one and done talk but they're invested and actually what's their culture because they aren't members of our population these are not you know one-off students and so I just I got to give credit to the fact of for those people that came and saw the hallways and some of the spaces and honestly the booths and all the things that that that's really students that put in time and effort uh researching uh backgrounds and creating those displays and and some of those very significant things that that had an impact and we were able
049to benefit that both on our Institute day on the third with our faculty across the board but then also on the fourth when it was open to the community and the community members were able to come in um we do have to give a lot of credit to the students because they're talking about themselves as members of our community and that's them that they're they're not talking about others they're they're they're taken to Heart what is really deep to them and so it was really nice to see their passion and hear some of their stories um that was open to all students right yeah any student in the high school could have done that so the what was displayed was the students that were interested in that yeah and some students even tackled areas that
050they didn't know but they wanted to know more and just see that passion of somebody who's at a high school level still exploring and looking to go you know what I want to know more I want to be a better person in the world in society and have them dive in for as deep as they did with not just table displays but like actual presentation type material and that type of stuff it was just a very impressive thing to see our students really stepping up at that level oh I agree I apologize but I was able to attend the Friday meeting and then also the cultural blast and it was amazing I mean I would have Nev you know lunch on Friday I would have never imagined myself trying a lot of that food from
051different nations and it was good I mean we plan to go to a couple of those restaurants for sure and you know it just opened it was an opportunity to open everybody's eyes on that and the same with the cultural blast I mean the food was great there and just a great opportunity to just open your eyes onto what else is out there and you know not always go to you know Burgers and Fries type of thing and being able to understand you know it's authentic foods not just Chinese Food and Pizza you know there's all kinds of other opportunities for it so I thank you very much for that I appreciate that and I think not only staff are excited to see what's next but the kids are too you know going to the
052meeting last week and the week before what what's going to happen next in the building so what can they types of displays or artwork or murals or anything to help kind of liven up the high school a little bit more so I know they're excited to see what the next steps are as well and perfect information for culture blast number well it's estimated at around a thousand people showing up we know for sure that uh just by the ticket numbers there was a ticket process that anybody that came a lot of donations came in to create these raffle uh baskets and stuff um not trying to raise money but really just still cultural awareness we were able to track 840 40 tickets for sure of individuals but we also are aware of a lot of
053the students and and staff that were there they didn't all go and get a ticket to put in a lot of volunteers came in to make this actually happen it wasn't a easy task and so um by just doing a quick estimate we were able to figure out we're roughly around a thousand people for the first time happening awesome it was a very powerful event a very powerful event the culture blast brought my family up to it I want them to experience it um I can speak from my experience with our students that our faculty our community our students we're proud Americans but we're not indigenous I'm not an indigenous American my family came from Germany and came from Czechoslovakia it was Bohemia at the time and came from Sweden and I'm proud of that
054Heritage I'm proud of the students there that were celebrating those Heritage as well but I was also very impressed as I went around and I talked to our students I talked to the family and I shared this with a cabinet Maine last week about the journey about the Journey of how did you get here you know out of all the places in the world and just listening to different things and different things these families overcame to come to America and to live the American dream very very powerful and it's a I think it's a great thing that you can Embrace being an American but you don't give up I mean I value my family traditions and my family history and they value theirs and I just found it I found it very powerful and very
055meaningful spending time talking to them and listening to their story and and their family's Journey so it was great I'd recommend it to everyone um just uh it's very just insightful and I hope our district does it again yeah yeah very very validatory that was the theme from the Third on into the fourth in the afternoon and um we will continue to conversations dig into feedback and continue to collaborate with the Dei committee as to next steps and things that we can continue to expand upon excellent thank you I do I think I'm going to take advantage of the opportunity here and share a little bit about the feedback so I was very fortunate honored to have been able to speak to all of our staff and faculty from our school secretaries by the way
056to our parents and our teachers and our principals so as I for those of you that saw me I think we had a couple board members that Esther and Todd were in there um you know the idea of having the ability to be in front of an entire school districts uh staff employees teachers is something that Angela and I have been doing this for seven years so we've never been able to do this specifically to talk about creating safe and supportive classrooms for LGBT plus students and faculty and so I think what was interesting that each group we had different people communicate with us and since I have so many administrators right now take advantage of having you all here and saying that for those of you that might not have heard people feel comfortable
057talking out loud what was consistent and we provided this feedback to Sarah so I'm hoping that people were honest about this that to distill a lot of this into pretty simple language there felt like a lot of language that was coded language stay in your lane Don't Rock the Boat tone it down was one person a quote from somebody about that tone it down just for having a a gender I use she her pronouns like it was just a like being told that implicitly or explicitly by the way and then I think from our teachers feeling is it the building administrators who are unsure and that's coming do they feel like it's coming from do that's something for you all to figure out that is not for me to figure out for me to bring
058it out and for everybody to sort out how can we fix the communications that there is Clarity how do we know how to support these students I have four Librarians come up to me and talk about concerns about one of them getting stalked on LinkedIn by a family who wrote an email that was not so nice to her who then found that the parents who had written this email were following her online there is real concern on the part of some people in this in our buildings about their own safety real or perceived about whether it's books or about what if I use these pronouns or the parent and I really want to support the child but I'm not sure how somebody's going to respond we need to make sure that our teachers feel supported
059there was a lot of anger too after some of these um and I was very clear with Todd in the room with our high schoolers about the fact that again we are still the only High School in the area that does not have a specific Saga sexuality and gender Alliance Group of sexual age or whatever you want to call it specific to that Organization for those of you who are not on the board here we're not in we're not able to join us on Friday there is a very clear protective Factor so the presence of an SGA in a school even if a student is not ever attended is a protective Factor against suicide for sexuality and gender minority it's significant and it is real so I'm gonna stop there so thank you very much
060for allowing me to be a part of that and asking me to do that so I appreciate that thank you any other questions for us no just thanks thank you thank you awesome we received one foil for any and all communication continuing to work backpack backpack rules including not limited to all staff Board of Education emails from d301.org and we just assumed that meant um Central 301.net from August 1st 2022 to March 8th 2023. we did respond uh rejecting the request not that I mean we could provide it but it was just so large that we're asking them either to limit the search or to limit the time frame uh just because of the you can imagine number of Correspondence they have a word backpack in it so yeah they're welcome to resubmit all right
061second concludes the Open Session um