001e testing testing one two three testing one two three e for e good evening everyone we are about to start our committee as a whole meeting for Creek mon School District 2011 today is Tuesday March 12th 20 24 6:30 p.m. can I have a I'm calling this meeting to order and can I have a roll call please Madam Secretary sure uh Mr alre here Mr gagos here Mrs rup is here Mr swales here miss site stumbris here Dr Hall here president Brown here I ask that we stand to be led by the Pledge of Allegiance by board member Mr gyos followed by our mission statement by Dr Hall Eric Eric I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
002with liberty and justice for all in our mission statement is to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright new future thank you both Dr Hall and Mr gigos all right I would like need a motion to open up I would like a motion to open up the public hearing on the closing of Moy Educational Center so moved moved by Jamie second second by Nelson roll call please secretary if there's no questions any questions Miss site sters I Mr swales I Mrs rup is and I Mr gigos I Mr alre I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion Carri do we have any public okay Jason's going to speak and I want to say this is the last of our of three public hearings on this issue correct president Brown okay um
003yes this is our third public hearing to address any uh any public comments uh desired to be made in regards to the closing of the mon Educational Center formerly uh currently known as MEC um and can do so either via in-person or written submission so um open up the time open up the floor for any public comment at this time sir my name is uh Pastor David Collins and um thank you guys for having this meeting tonight uh that closing did come as quite a surprise but I'm just hoping that that would be something that would uh replace it uh that would bring the kids some activities and uh we'd love to be a part of that uh here again I'm Pastor David Collins and we work with the children we uh fight clothing in
004security we in fact we U have partnered with you guys in your upcoming resource Fair uh for clothing for the children and those are type of things that we would love to see and help be a part of to keep some good things going in our community for our children thank you thank you Pastor Collins and I want to say didn't meet you before several months ago and I owe you something I owe you a call everything okay so thank you thank you really appreciate you chiming in on this issue thank you Pastor commin Miss Highline was anything submitted electronically thank you okay if there's no further comments public comments on this matter at hand I would like a motion to close public hearing on closing of Moy Educational Center so moved by Alan second
005second by secretary gr roll call please if there's no further questions Mr GEOS I Mr swales I miss site stumbris I Mr alre I miss rup is and I Dr Hall I president br I motion Carri I like a motion to open a public hearing on the school holiday waiver so moved by Alex second second by Jamie any questions or concerns all right go ahead Mrs ferkins yes good evening everyone um we will talk about the uh waiver to have uh the holiday for uh Lincoln's birthday I'm not sure if everyone is aware but for Illinois schools Lincoln's birthday is a public holiday and if we want to be in session on his birthday uh we are required to have a public hearing so I will share our school calendar that we've worked with um
006with both of our our memberships and administration um and then um take any comments for uh the public hearing so again um Illinois schools require that if we are going to be in session um on Lincoln's birthday uh that we receive a waver and so we work with our uh membership and each year um on an annual basis we'll decide if we will be in session or um off um for for uh his his birthday uh when we are in school on his birthday we do have to acknowledge uh that it is his birthday and have activities around it so the school calendar for the upcoming 2425 that we will be recommending next week for the board to approve will include um I want to uh first start off by thanking the committee members that
007serve this year there are many voices that go into making sure um that every uh entity receives what they need from ELC to Elementary to the Middle School to the high school uh and so each year we come together for uh one or this year several meetings to discuss what that should look like for our upcoming school year uh when we are out of construction we hope to have a two-year calendar uh but again we want to uh certainly thank all of the members for their input uh when we take into consideration again we look at that the high school is on semesters our other schools are on trimesters we have construction professional development days uh we will be putting back in since post pandemic our uh new higher orientation days will go three days
008for our staff um ELC will have a separate calendar uh our Middle School um in high school our our ninth graders start a couple of days before our 10th and 12th graders uh as well as our Ken gardeners come in a few days later uh we have Institute days uh we need to take into consideration to finish the semester for our high school students who may be transferring in or out that that is done uh before the winter break we have to take into consideration again um our my P program at the middle school in the days and hours of uh curriculum that must get in uh as well as our graduation dates for both our uh middle school and high school students and so we have our um regular schedule holidays that we um
009normally have which would be Labor Day indigenous people's day um the 4th of July Election Day this year is uh in uh school calendar um that we will have that day off uh Veterans Day Thanksgiving holiday um the winter break New Year's uh Martin Luther King's day and as you can see in the blue is Lincoln's Birthday so we will be in session is what we're asking and this traditionally has been what we've done as a district we will be in session on um February 12th uh but we will have uh I don't see that on here we will have a President's day off I believe yes February 17th we will have off for President's Day uh which is um not a Federal holiday but it is a day that we do ask um that
010we will have off we have palas day um and the Friday before uh our spring break and then we have uh Memorial Day uh we again take into the Fe feedback that we've received over the years that our parents ask that when we do school Improvement days that we consider having the days be consistent uh what has come from our staff is that uh we don't make it the same day every year so the students that are in specials let's say art um that have art or music on a Monday that every Monday that they're missing um and so we Chang that out every year uh and we use a combination of days again um the isby holiday uh requirement that we have is that uh we honor President Lincoln on his um birthday and
011that we had to post that we're asking to be in session um and have a waiver uh at the discretion of the calendar committee which we will decide on an annual basis and that we've uh handled all of our protocol in the newspaper and then notifying um both of our memberships uh we will do some additional work around this year's calendar um with communicating to our families and making sure that parents are aware if a student is um in a failing status uh we have an October records day and parent teacher conference this year which is again different than um we have been for the last several years our spring break is in March um and then um we've gone down to one parent teacher conference uh and uh have instituted another Institute day for
012professional development in January uh we are doing a back instead of doing a back to school night and curriculum night um we are now having um one night the first full week of school um for our families to come in and and meet and greet their teachers uh and then we have removed the spring uh conferences again for this year's proposed calendar uh we are asking to be in attendance on uh Lincoln's uh birthday and then we've published um kind of our notification dates of when we've let the public know about that any questions that we have so far the only one I have is is it what's the goal of eliminating Lincoln's birthday making day just another day off the end of the year or another uh professional development day for Lincoln's birthday so
013we've always attended as a district we've always attended on his day but the law requires that we come to the board and ask for that waiver so this is the first time that um you know you know better you do better so now we know and so now we're asking okay Clarity sa but there's not another day that we have to make up the the calendar committee has asked that we have President's Day next year February 17th 2025 off okay yes so you have February 25th off next year February 17th off we will take uh President's Day were you taken both no we're not taking Lincoln you taken before no we've always been a session on Lincoln's birthday we just never asked for permission so we're asking for permission yes ma'am Weir can you explain
014a little bit behind the removal of the spring conference yes so um and I can share at some uh point about the data um our uh conference days have gone down our numbers have gone down since uh inventions of like parents being able to read report cards on Skyward immediate attention um the communication that they've had with their their families that constant technology and um communication and to gain an Institute day for professional development um for staff um we've swapped one for um the other so that we can have um that time in um in session for professional development so how do how would that impact a student who is getting a new teacher that semester and if their parent parents want because they haven't had that opportunity in a fall conference and I would
015say for us it is about communication because we've used teachers are constantly now have our log and um Administration works with the the teachers to make sure that we're constantly in communication with our families um both for students who are doing well and also for um students who may be struggling okay well a couple of slides back you mentioned that ELC has its own calendar yes so um it's still the the same calendar but their events change because um they have half day sessions and they have by because of the grants they have to bring in and um have so many uh paring events so their calendar just differs a little bit it's the exact same dates same attendance dat same attendance dat days um but because of the half day schedules um some of
016their days are put in for uh paring events and collaboration with our families okay other questions going back to the state the state holiday so yes so Lincoln birthday is a state holiday correct so how how do we line up with other school districts by attending class on a state holiday what's all closed on that day is it State facilities what do we get and pick and choose from my understanding it is um it's only the public schools that are closed most schools are in session and we have historically as at least as long as I can remember um and I don't know Mrs brag or some other people may be able to help me if we've ever been out on Lincoln's holiday so we are probably one or few public schools to your knowledge
017that attend class on that day school is open most most do most do oh okay we've just never publicly asked for the waiver to be in session okay it's assumed that the other school districts did yes they do have they you'll see on their um school calendars as we look at other school calendars as we're creating ours it'll say waved and so what that means is that they've gone to their board and to the public and said um we've asked to be in session on that day and you can pick any holiday and do the same thing right if you're so true yeah we could um uh from um some of the other holidays we could come and ask for a waiver um but historically um the uh district has wanted to you know honor
018you know Veterans Day or MLK's day and not wave those holidays so we did not come to the board and ask for those waivers for those holidays is it an automatic thing once you apply for the waiver that you will get it yes so we never have to come back for Lincoln's birthday but if the committee wanted to come back and say we didn't want any of those other holidays some of them we do have to come and ask a waiver for so this is the one time show yes we never have to the committee will um as we meet as a committee will decide I mean I'm not saying that you know the following year we want to be out on Lincoln's birthday again that's a committee decision it's a year year on yes
019here on in okay okay all right thank you anybody any other further questions Mrs Highline did we get any questions from the public okay I think the biggest part of the confusion here was we're always in session on Lincoln's birthday so what are what are we asking for the waiver for now and again we want to make sure that that we're doing things correctly okay yeah no it's okay let go be nice yes so um when we go to publish when we go to publish on our isby calendar we would be declined if we didn't um ask for this in the public so thank you isby yeah and I I apologize we had a motion in a second and then you said any questions and Miss Perkins was like so excited to get up there
020that I that we never did the roll call I don't know if I could just put us all down as an ie or do I have we do the roll call right yeah I it was just it was just to to open the public hearing we did the the motion and the second and then he's had any questions and she was ready to rip and yeah I thought I could do this all over again first of all I saw I saw public comments first and I said oh she got up there before public comments so I missed that too as well but good cat just such exciting stuff yeah I I think I think for the record yeah for the record then you can do it all over again Mr Al hi Mr gyos hi
021Mr rupis and I Mr swales hi Miss s stus hi Dr Hall hi president Brown I motion Carri for the second time no all right good all right so that's it you can repeat yourself again all right well it's it's on the calend it's on the agenda again but I don't think I need to talk again okay all righty I need a motion to close public hearing on the school holiday so moved by Alex like it second by Dr Hall any questions if not roll call please Madam Secretary all right Mr gigos hi Miss rup is and I Mr swales hi Mr Al hi Miss site stum hi Dr Hall hi president Brown hi motion Carri we have any public comments in general anything Bron Cheryl I saw one I thought here all right Mary
022brags and and the topic is which I love congratul ations I love congratulations too good evening ladies and gentlemen of the board and administration and our public guests I wanted to take a moment my name is Mary brag president of the Creet mon Education Association and I wanted to take this opportunity to congratulate our Special Olympics athletes who our team in the Special Olympics high school basketball tournament um made uh first place um gold medalists and they are state champions so kudos to them we also had uh two of our individuals um place in the skills basketball tournament um that same weekend so we want to congratulate our athletes and our coaches Michelle gardo Michelle calron and Tyler Gunther and then we also have our cre Moni Middle School band that has a first place
023designation at contest and will be going to state so we want to congratulate all of those musicians and uh Tyler Gunther under his direction for getting that accomplishment and qualifying for state and I can't tell you how many years that has been since that has occurred so very proud I know it's been 12 years for our Special Olympics basketball team to be State uh champions so kudos to all of our students and uh coaches on their hard work thank you thank you thank you Mary absolutely it's very commendable and Dr kogan I don't know I know we kind of gave a special moment maybe that was for a different reason for our high school state championship in track I know we kind of missed the opportunity or whatever I'm sorry where we're going to acknowledge
024them at the April board meeting okay good yeah April committee the whole we've got several we have a group of accomplishments for for that day yeah okay thank you I knew you was a one step ahead of me thank you can you hear me mam secretary I'm a little little Whispering okay don't sound like my loud voice let me move up a little bit testing testing thank you all right do we have any board updates and thank you again Mary for those comments I just wanted to oh go ahead um I was just going to say I attended the First Responders meeting this morning um and uh the main topic was that um as you all know the valve units are going to go live in the high school they're going to be installed on
025March 19th and 20th and they'll go into use on Monday the 25th the full week before spring break so um anyway so that's good news that I think it'll be good to have a week before spring break and then if we need to adjust any kind of you know procedure or protocol um they'll have the opportunity to do that um and then I asked Robin um or Dr Cara maybe you can at one of our April meetings give an update how it's working so okay yeah so um and then the other the only other thing that came out in the meeting this morning was um some plans and Dr kagin is maybe you can elaborate but the to use uh MEC as a training site do some some uh Public Safety Training there that would
026be with our First Responders so often times we used to do it in the dome right and the old high school since those facilities are no longer here um our First Responders would like a an opportunity before um you know the district releases that to uh do some training there so yeah they were looking to coordinate that with um any summer work we're we're using it right now for storage um while we're getting a lot of the construction and uh cleaning down in the rest of the district so um we'll work around that okay let make sure the training is not no no they were excited excited to be able to do something here in East will you know among kind of coordinate among all the first responder units instead of having to go over
027to Lincoln Way North MH so yeah we don't want anyway so that's great that they can do that so that's all I have maybe some guidelines um I was going to say we had this past weekend the jrtc ball it was really in um Mr Brown cut a rug but I I cut a rug yeah in my seat no it was really nice well put together um we were able to go last year as well um the LA the last couple years from what I've seen um pretty really good really nice yeah very impressed very impressed with those kids and Dr Kishi just said it's the difference with these kids with Tuxedos and Suits on they look like grown-ups right so old yeah so very very good I'm so proud of the junior RC program
028and the leadership and just fabulous job and there was there was that's was my first time I think a couple board members went last year was great MH we kind of shared shared the wealth with Bloom is that bloom High School yes Bloom high school yeah so it was the 20th year the 20th year wow I missed the last 19 for for their group as well really very good okay any other board updates uh Jamie and Alex I need to get with you guys we need to see what's needed for you guys to be on track to obtain your master board position okay so we don't want too much time going by before you take the next Le the necessary courses and whatever so I need I'll get with you guys offline to talk about
029that okay yeah so this this year is going by really fast but we want you guys to be on track to get your master position board membership uh board member position so Dr kogin Le could present you guys a plant somewhere down the road it's a beautiful thing to have I'm still waiting on mine it's been 16 years or 15 years or whatever okay so I might join you with a class at two okay that's all I have on you Dr kogan from administrative updates yes I've got several and I think some people have already shared some of the good ones I've got a couple left um at your desk uh I wanted to just highlight this mon brochure as you know mo is working on celebrating their 150 years this is going to be
030uh presented out into the community on May 11th but what I wanted you to notice is take a look at the artwork in here this is all done from our moon students AES so they submitted all their artwork and so has all been put together in this so I wanted to make sure that uh we highlighted this um for you to take a look at so that was kind of fun that they had that opportunity wow Prett nice uh the next thing on my uh list today is something I'm really excited to share this evening um with us today we have two of our high school seniors that are here uh with their families and they have a very special recognition very prestigious they are scholarship recipients of what we call the Golden Apple so
031let me tell you a little bit about what the golden apple is um these students participate in a rigorous interview process um for this scholarship the golden app Apple scholarship program in Illinois is a teacher preparation and teacher assistance program for high school seniors and freshman and sophomore Illinois college students who have the determination and drive to be effective teachers in Illinois so we're really excited about that we prepare um aspiring teachers for immediate and Lasting success in the most challenging teaching environments so the scholarships Scholars receive up to $23,000 total in financial assistance for college extensive classroom teaching experience academic social and emotional support job placement assistance but we already know that they're going to come back here so we're going to help them with that and mentoring from our award-winning teaching faculty so
032anyway I'd like uh to have Casey Berkeley stand she will be she will be attending the University of Illinois at Urbana champagne coming up this uh fall so keep standing and our other young man over here is Joshua malberg would you stand please he will be attending the Illinois State University in Normal Illinois and as we had said both of them have said that they have intentions on returning here and we definitely will have jobs for you when you get back you're hir you're hired already right now so we're really proud of you this is just an amazing thing that you've accomplished and we look forward to the next next four years to having you back here on this other side of the uh the street we'd like to take a couple pictures so um
033and then we'd also like the families to come up so we can grab a couple pictures um Miss Perkins is going to be the honor um where would you like them to stand up come up the I can tell you all about that you if I had three kids go there okay are we taking pictures with them that's probably a good idea we'll do some of themselves we'll have yeah we'll do a couple with just them and then we'll do the whole board wait what and we'll have these on our website and then don't go too far we get you in a minute everyone else y I'm on up yes br [Applause] yeah one thing I know about the ufi stay off Green Street you'll be okay okay going on to the next item discussion
034of 20245 Board of Education meeting dates yeah we want to table we're going to table 12 Alpha 2 for later date uh this is a calendar items uh every year we take a look at the calendar for the next year to look at the board dates um generally we try to look to make sure it's not around certain holidays and um and sometimes certain days uh are interfere with sometime so anyway that's what this calendar is for and Mr Brown I think you said you wanted to table it so we had some more time to take a look at that okay guys go with that just kind of hold on off on yeah from what it's worth I'd be open to it okay just having one meeting in July again so or not or not
035that's a whole another topic I'll be bringing to you guys okay yeah we have two well not to have a committee of the whole is last year we had this past summer we had one yes this past last year and we just came in to approve the bills and that worked okay MH so and there was a couple years we had none that worked better all right is it so next it business I guess we've got some heavy business items yeah you doc Mr okasinski is going to be taking this okay I'm sorry good evening again um let me get my agend first order of business under uh business is to discuss the approval of a resolution declaring the intent to sell to issue bonds an aggregate principal amount not to exceed $35 million uh
036these will be alternative revenue bonds to improved sites of and alter repair equipped school buildings and Facilities including renovations to Creek mon High School athletic facilities and creep Moni middle school with additional classrooms in addition a discussion take place regarding holding a Bina public hearing which stands for bond issue notification act that notice the notice of such intention will be published per law um for 30 days after uh set approval if the approval happens so um we'd be looking to have the binding hearing I believe April 23rd would be the uh board meeting to act on that if the resolution is approved on the 19th of March um there any questions regarding the resolution um we've heard a lot of about the um high school and the facilities can you talk a little bit more
037about the middle school classroom situations and what's going on there yeah we're looking to uh add additional classroom uh classrooms to the Middle School um that is to do address capacity issues that we currently are facing for the staff as in attached to the building or um we're going to be giving an update to the board a thorough update to the board finishing talking with the administra right now and so I think Mr Brown wanted us to a comprehensive okay everything included in that time and so we'll be able to get a little more specific okay and I will say also want the board to know that you know as best as we could we're going to try to do these projects in parallel we're a little bit ahead of the game because of the
038planning and the design of the football complex and all of that so there's still work in progress with the middle schools and just how many we need and how we're going to go about constructing these but we're but this money right here consists of both projects okay and then they're guaranteed to complete the middle school with this we that's what the same time I don't know about the same there's no guarantee in that no we we guarante we don't even have the study yet we guarantee to have this money for both projects okay and we're not going to let it fly off the radar the middle school I promise you that correct it's not going to fly off the radar no so it's just right now we just are hit of the game with the
039complex because of the design and all of that so the scope is even though MoneyWise proba is more but we just that much more hit of the game with making that happen correct I guess I guess I'm just asking for clarification like with this money once the study and everything is completed the the the the Middle School whatever it needs will and it is defied will be done and guaranteed along with whatever yeah it and like it may not happen before the complex okay but this money this money right here is allocated for both projects correct we are going to get those rooms with this money so when we go to sell the revenue bonds and all of that that I just kind of want to make sure that's that's clearly defined somewhere and I
040haven't really seen as much that way so I guess that's why I'm concerned guess public for the purpose of this money for the purpose of these bonds these revenue bonds you're going to state is to do these projects right correct that's why we uh we actually receed that that holds us account for that reason perfect and the clarity you're looking for is just to make sure that we actually doing something in the Middle School it's not about a time frame right correct that like as long as this money that we're doing is done for both like that's cool and we know just so you're aware before we can do anything like that it has to be spelled out yeah so meaning meaning it we couldn't that's the idea of when we did the first uh
041time we did that two three years ago okay we had to spell that out and make sure that if we're saying we're going to do something for when we did uh tala CSK ELC uh Bal moral and cre sorry I had to think back for a second um we had to spell that out to make sure that that actually so when you vote on that that's what that money is going to be allocated for we're not the finance department will not be able to take that money and really do anything else with it which which is good so that'll give you the idea when you're voting for that that that's what it's going to be for okay for sure like you said hopefully we have more of a concrete plan when Dr cogin is report
042out in a in a month or so a couple months the consultant was not available till May okay and that's fine I just wanted some clarification making sure it's all gonna I think I think the bigger issue because you're voting on it right yeah yeah yeah I think I think part of your issue though too is that Middle School's been an open issue for as long as I've been on the board let's make sure we resolve it once and for all absolutely okay so so that was a conversation I've had with Dr kagon the biggest thing here is when we did the middle school edition before and I'm going to say it publicly it was awful it was a nightmare between the school board and the construction company and the architect it was terrible so
043if we're going to do something there and I've made it very clear to to Dr kice that we're going to make sure it's done correctly so I want to make sure and it's good you know again you're voting on not this week but next week you're going to vote on that so definitely ask the questions that that concern you because that that's exact in the past we want to make sure that when we're voting on you know when you're voting that that's what it's there that's what it's for I just want to make sure that the students educational space needs will be met and we're making sure that the middle school has what it needs properly and based on that thing before like we can guarantee that happens out of this funds yeah all right
044cool we are so but Jason next week what we're going to approve is just our we're just declaring the intent to do correct we're not voting to issue the bonds we may not even do that until Jan December Jan we were thinking January or February of 2025 so this is just to kind of get the process rolling correct and this um this resolution and also the results of the biner hearing stay on record for three years so we don't have to revisit this again and uh Mrs SC zus just to reassure you that it is specifically spelled out in a resolution um along with the amount uh for the intention to address the classroom issue at the middle school no and I do understand it's just that we had seen so much of like and
045gotten packets before on the high the football and like the stadium and athletic complex which is great I just wanted to make sure we were going to make sure you'll see those as well yeah you're the best those would be forthcoming that that's all I was thank you you're welcome yeah so I'm not sure if you finish I I did want to comment on one of the items here when we when we go to and I don't know how far we are with creating this pickle ball courts the pickle ball I just heard there's a lot of nuisance with these courts and we got to be strategic where these courts are being placed right because of the noise uh president Brown I think you jump into point two um I thought you was on point
046point four so no I was really just still waiting for any more questions on point one but I'll be glad to address no go ahead go ahead don't let me stop you but that's you know speak on that okay oh no I was just wondering if there's any other further questions regarding the resolution with the intent to sell the bonds okay thank you so that'll be on a uh regular board meeting for next week right yes sir all righty item number two under business discussion discussion to accept and approve a letter of intent to award the project of creep Moni High School renovations to burn and Jones Construction to include a new multiports stadium new baseball and softball fields a practice field renovate tennis courts create pickle ball courts and new asphalt to all existing
047asfa at the high school in the parking lots this was part of the short-term facility plan presented by Mr serma on February 13th and uh it's also part of old business that was res revised uh for the February 20th meeting um any questions regarding so what is a letter of intent do the letter of intent locks in our prices um at a maximum of 7% increase and then it also allows them to uh begin the design phase and start working on the project um now because we need to do that to meet our deadline of constructing the football stadium so do we do we approv money to pay them for the design phase at this point or does that come later no that would be the letter of intent there's a amount for Burns and
048Jones the design fee is I think roughly 3% yeah 300 and some thousand L yeah it's in the letter of intent okay and after we pay that we do then own the bloom prints and the design in the event that we don't you know decide to move forward with the project but this allows them to begin the process kind of secure the the the job start scheduling all the all the necessary uh contractors and subcontractors they need to do and uh yeah just helps us out with our time frame to meet our goal okay and when we come to the point of the general contractor I I I think we need some verbiage to state that we will seek local contractors best we could so if you can talk with with Ken or the powers
049to be behind Clos doors and say you know we need to put some verbage in there we did that to previous contracts you know to the general contractor to try to hire locals best they could I don't want to put a number but I think we owe that to the community absolutely and I completely agreement with you regarding that okay okay now the pickle ball yes sir okay do you have are you taking that into consideration you have people that live close here and again never played the game I heard it's very popular but I've seen on the news about how the sturing neck game can be in certain communities in proximity to people homes um the existing existing uh tennis courts will uh not all of them but um I believe there's two sets
050of tennis courts one of those sets will be dedicated for pickle ball so that's the location that it's at at the high school I would say do some type of analysis on that though what what what's the issue I'm just noise but it's a lot of people like older people PL making like I don't know like I I mean I'm just saying no it's no I'm saying that's a popular game yeah and playing I don't know if you're going to be lights people going to be playing at at night you have neighbors here whatever I'm just saying buyers beware people it's been all on the news about the noise and noise and more than one session on the news okay I don't know anything about the game but just the noise it's a popular game
051everybody likes to play it and people it all I think it'll all Dem matter on where they're located that's my because if they're if they're on Sangamon where the old tennis courts were yeah people are going to hear it no but if they're if they're in the existing location where they're at if I had to guess that's 700 to 1,000 ft away so but you're right if it's on Sangamon it might we ow that to you know if it's to you know what if I was I I will show some empathy just saying hey let's consider that hey we're going to place these is it going to affect do some analysis with that I don't well the the location that we have identified is the one Mr swales stated it's it's behind the high school
052so it's well away from any residential area okay but still you know factor that in in your study just Factor it in sir shouldn't take nothing you know how is it how will it impact noise how many DBS or whatever you know decibel sounds I mean even with come with Transformers we have certain sounds we could put out with the Illinois Commerce Commission if we exceed that we we we violate the noise level from that point so uh homeowners taxpayers could probably if it's a noise level that we exceed they can probably go to some government entity and say hey they're violating the noise level just go check it out okay absolutely I'm not trying to solve anything now but that's just something I ask you to uh check out for yeah we'll definitely look
053into it okay and I never played it but I will be looking to play this okay and uh so this says here the uh new asphalt to all existing asphalt uh that's talking about the parking lot correct yeah yeah any piece of asphalt entire parking lot of the high school the uh area in which the food truck are currently located for the old you know the current football stadium where the concession stand used to be in addition it also includes the parking lot uh on Sangamon the old existing parking lot there so okay the goal is to make that that uh you know the sports facility a very nice it's worded facility it's worded weird it's worded weird but that that's like uh it's going to be brand new right we're not doing like patchwor
054no no no I believe Patchwork is what was done I think what he's trying to say is it just should have been we're replacing all the assall it's just weirded it's worded wrong right no problem it's weird right well as Miss Perkins said now that I know better I'll do better Mr gyo so I'll be glad to take care of that for you in the future okay anything else no any other questions regarding item number two just say again and uh go ahead P up number three I'm sorry okay uh item number three under the business discussion discussion to accept and approve a letter of intent to award the project of the Creet Monon High School athletic building to Bear construction that would be the concession stand to coincide with the football field and the
055baseball field and the softball field so um yeah to be U north of the football field per the plans so this bur Burns and Jones Construction in Bear construction are they in Partnership no these are two different companies correct and we did not have to bid out Burns and Joan construction through some co-op some entity that K was able to go through they pretty much did the bidding so is that the same with bear construction did we have to bid that out or no no it's uh similar as Burns and Jones in fact both companies are members of the tip Cooperative got it a tips I'm sorry tips Cooperative okay I don't know exactly what tips stands for but I can get back to you on that also if you like I I'll save that
056for you for the next time okay okay okay all right so that's that's answer my question any questions guys I just do we know has burn Jones and bear construction have they worked together on projects before I don't think so no know don't not necessary uh I think it'd be a great experience to be honest with you um kind of similar what I'm going through right now with RL Soho working on elementaries and then CCC at the additions you know it will take some collaboration between the two companies because it's very close in proximity but right I'm faithful and I'm fully confident that they'll be able to work together it's been nothing but a good experience from the beginning working with both of them in terms of getting documents and plans designs meeting deadlines and
057things along those lines okay okay and I just reiterate you know if you can share that with the construction companies to seek local contractors if all possible absolutely okay absolutely any further questions thank you Jason if no other questions thank you Board of Education thank you doc thanks Jason Dr melan chenko will be presenting our um retention attraction and retention retention PL so but first I have a surprise for you yes and I want to share this with you uh we are about to debut the new cm2 oneu teacher recruitment video this is the greatest School District that I've ever been in I just feel like I belong here I really feel that in this District we're making an [Music] impact the way I would describe cre is very diverse you have people of all
058different walks of life all different talents all different FOC cabs all different personalities all in one big Melting Pot and everything kind of finds this way of working together in tandem they think of it as like the three C's in the D so culture climate and community and then diversity all of that together is here and if you want to be it a district that makes it a priority this is where you need to be it's about the key it's learning and when they leave our classrooms preparing them for everyday life to be successful as a teacher you want your vice principal your principal you want your division leader to support you and give you the things that you need to succeed and that's what I feel here I have a really heavy hand in
059the curriculum and if there's something that I want to change or alter then you it is a team decision as long as I'm teaching the materials that we've decided are going to be the curriculum I can teach them any way that I need to in order for it to work for me and my students we have things like Flex Friday where the teacher will pull you out of your specials class just to give you some extra time to review over things or to make stuff up I feel like it makes me really comfortable talking to them because it gets the teacher to know more about you and what you're interested in so it can make learning easier for you [Music] the kids here are very conscious about their education the curricula is prodigious there's just
060so many courses offered I never been in a school where the technology was so Advanced this is a great District especially for beginning teachers because you have some autonomy here and you are able able to really figure out who you are as a teacher a teacher that comes to our district will be thoroughly supported in every way they will not be left behind you have to look at the name it's cm21 you and that you for Unity really means something I feel like a part of the family not just a teacher you're appreciate it I love what I do come to the cm21 you I think You' like it I think you would [Music] all right I would just probably do an edit of including board members they tried to add me but I cost
061too much oh we couldn't meet your uh Green Room demands you know well we got to let Alex Alex uh what do you think uh I saw my kid in there so yeah yeah so we you know we made sure all the kids were able to be in our video same thing with the teachers and um you know it turned out really well um you know it most of the footage is at the high school and the middle school but we had the elementaries represented by Dr Canon some of the pictures in there um so the the videographers the company that we utilize for this only had so much time probably changed the date the year up there the fiscal year or school year maybe cuz that's like now right do you want to oh
062this is next this is the presentation I'm about to go into oh I'm missing something sorry Mr Runner is very he's he's like Chop Chop here all right so yeah so uh what we'll do with that video we'll display it on the website all of our job postings we've already been utilizing it at job fairs to show to perspective candidates um so we're in the thick of it we've got um we hope to have a couple more candidates for the Personnel report for new hires for next school year and we've got a bunch of offers and things happening right now to get all of our vacancies filled up for next year so kind of going into what do we do for folks that are are here already and with um teacher retention so I wanted
063to share this graph this is our retention rate of our district versus the state the state being in the red line and then our district is in the blue line so as you can see we're trending a little bit below the state average in teacher retention but what we can see is our rate has improved in the last five years and last year we were just under a 2% difference between the state um the state does have a consistently higher average and a less than 90% rate in HR is typically a good measure of a good retention rate is about 90% so we're close we were at 88.5 last year with the state being at 90.2 so we're hoping to continue to close that Gap uh moving forward so this is some information that was
064shared with me about what we've heard from staff in the past um regarding some concerns that might have led to people leaving so we've got the last kind of three years of information there and things that we've done to address some of those uh situations with 2122 we started transitioning again back from uh remote learning back into full-time learning so the concerns might not have been as great then they kind of picked up in 2223 and especially then what we've added in in 2223 going into this school year um and then in this current school year we've added the diversions program and the Family Outreach specialist so what we've heard this year again is issues concerning around teacher workload um some health insurance cons concerns around premiums and coverage and then pay in some instances
065mainly being at the high school so so some of the things that we're doing to combat some of these things are around the teacher workload we've through the teacher vacancy Grant have provided interested teachers that want to take on uh elll endorsement or bilingual endorsements we've provided the opportunity uh through Governor State University for those teachers to go take the coursework to get those endorsements to better support those the students that are in our elll programs and also the classroom teachers um so we're using teacher vacancy Grant funds to do that as well as books and testing fees that the state requires people to do for those endorsements we launched this year a new employee assistance program perspectives it's available 247 365 live online app text um they have counselors we've utilized counselors on site
066numerous times this year with uh different crises um from our uh High School situation that we had earlier this school year with our false alarm um to staff members unexpectedly passing away we've had support here on site from perspectives um they provide telea Health they also provide inperson options they also provide followup if they if they're expertise if someone needs the expertise beyond what they can provide they will put people in contact with uh additional providers um their resources are vast it's not just around mental health it could be around I need some I need to figure out how do I set up a will there's uh resources there financial assistance healthy eating all all kinds of good stuff is within the employee assistance program we also launched uh biometric Health screenings this year um
067so people can get to know their numbers and share them with their doctors um we actually through this experience had one person that was contacted by a nurse because of their numbers who then went for follow-up testing and found out that they did have some pretty serious medical stuff going on unbeknownst to them and that was caught because the person participated in our biometric health screening so we had 92 uh 92 employees participate um this fall um we hope to increase that number through our work with the insurance committee and future with the uh with our new broker we've been really aggressive in recruiting guest teachers so again to reduce that teacher workload of being pulled away from their plan time where they're really working to plan lessons or analyze data for their students so
068we've increased our guest teacher pool by 30% we've increased our Cadre teachers by 70% and our guest teacher assistants by 25% we've created the new SWAT teams for the office of teaching and learning and special education to again relieve classroom teachers to have the opportunity to meet and discuss plans discuss data and figure out ways to better service our students and then last if you recall last month we approved our new insurance broker Gallagher um we we are we met with them about two weeks ago to kind of get our ball rolling on getting underwriting going um they're in a thick of underwriting for our new premiums they're looking to develop uh premiums around our current plans and then we offer many solutions to either increase benefits or reduce cost to our employees so we're
069excited to work with them just because also they have those all of those um supplemental service you know the Identity Theft Protection the uh rebate through the wellness program and all of that good work that we're looking to hit the ground running with them very soon this year also we launched uh employee climate Employee Engagement surveys through Satchel pulse so uh the surveys are given to all of our staff about six weeks apart um where they're it's not the same question it's the first survey was a little longer than a six weeks after that it's a condensed version it really is just trying to get a feel for uh what's happening in everybody's building all of our principles have been trained on how to pull their reports and they're actively responding to some of the
070concerns that are coming up um you'll also I'll go into a couple other things that we're seeing on a more District level um and how we're responding to that and this is one of them is recognition on a global level we're seeing our employees would like to have more opportunities to be recognized for the hard work that they're doing so we're in the process of launching an employee recognition platform through nectar um what nectar is is instant non-spot recognition there's also Awards and challenges that go along with that but the the real uh core of what nectar will do is all of our managers administrators all of our staff are assern assigned a certain number of points per month and as we're acknowledging each other for the work that we do we issue hey uh
071great job on your lesson today the kids were really engaged and we offer a certain number of points those points can then be cashed in for a number of things swag uh with our district logo on it uh gift cards they could be taken out for um you know if somebody's little low on funds and is they can take it out as cash and help pay you know day-to-day things they can also give their points to somebody say you know I really want to make sure I acknowledge this person so that's something that we're looking to get going by next month uh we're just building out all of our different rewards and challenges and getting our staff uploaded in there you can also use your points to buy things directly from Amazon too which is
072which is pretty cool so you don't have to go through and figure out how you're going to do that and then we've also built a partnership this year with the cre Park District um in January we started uh offering yoga and taichi classes for our staff for them to take advantage of of those at the in park district rate for anyone that was interested kind of moving forward uh one thing that my team is looking at is building a more comprehensive Wellness Plan for the district um especially with the opportunities that we have with our our new broker we're going to be looking at putting together a wellness team and wellness Warriors at each building to kind of help Champion um Wellness at each building um we're hoping that it's going to increase participation in
073several of our Wellness efforts like the the park district offerings like the biometric screenings and then help build some consistency across the district in terms of what we're doing for everybody as Wellness is concerned um and then again with our new broker we do have rebate opportunities depending on how things shake out with our Wellness efforts too so that would be a nice win for us to kind of get some money back from our our insurance premiums too that's takes me to the end any questions about anything yeah so for the uh employee uh like recognition program and stuff like that yeah um it's not [Applause] adding uh stuff that the teacher has to to it it no we're not adding like hey you have to give out your points you have to go find
074somebody and recognize somebody no it's going to be completely up to any any employee that if you don't have if you you know you're just going through dayto day and everything's copae great but if somebody really goes and steps out above and beyond and you want to recognize them then it's you know log into nectar you could do it through the website you there's also an app that's available so it's super quick and then give them some recognition through there uh so not only teachers uh but like admin admin would be uh involved with that too yes absolutely okay yeah um because just what I didn't want to do is is add more stuff that takes them away from teaching you know right no no it's one of those things and it doesn't even have
075to be on the spot so if it's at the end of the day and you're you know somebody's reflecting on their day like man you know somebody really helped me you know earlier this morning and I want to make sure I give them the recognition they have the opportunity to go back and do that okay y Eric going back to that the graph you had the slide I just yeah so I I guess I'm surprised even on a state average basis that you know the teacher shortage has exacerbated over time MH but yet the retention is going up I would think there would be more opportunities given teacher shortage for people to hop to a you know a different it certainly School District certainly is um a couple of things that I think could have
076contributed to why we don't see that is certainly covid people didn't want to jump ship um and also with some of the ten tenure Law changes how people could have been granted accelerated tenure or tenure portability people might have you know just not wanted to jeopardize or or they might have gotten year early and have said okay I'm this is where I'm going to be okay I think I saw in the news this morning that there's is it in front of the legislature to offer um student teachers to get paid yes that's already in in law that we we can offer student teachers to be paid yes okay that's great y any other questions I like the recognition portion I really do because it's been proven you know people get recognized they feel better about
077themselves they do better jobs and that can even just kind of go along with just I know we're not talking about the students but just the fact that I read that students grades have substantially turned around just for the mere fact that they were recognized and they were given Awards and things of that nature so I think that's a that's really a plus just the recognition and the awards and things of that nature so agreed agreed and with you know locally it's nobody is doing something like the platform that we're about to embark on so we'll be Pioneers yes good job good job okay thank you thanks sir all right Doc is your last one here teaching and learning yeah anything for teaching learn any additional stuff for the calendar 2024 2025 good with that
078good do we have uh do we have the uh summary of like summer school um do we is that available yet uh today the summer school positions were posted so they did go out um this afternoon for positions from our coordinator to teachers to um tutors and teacher assistant so that was posted today so we know what the calendar looks like the dates and stuff like that for summer school yes that that is that's in the the posting for our staff we have not reached out to to our families yet um but we're in the the process of building what that capacity looks like okay cuz I I I I remember looking at other schools in the in the area and they uh have their uh summer school and actually next year's calendar like already
079set and waiting uh to to yes so normally um we would publish our uh school calendar usually it's published in February but we made quite a few changes and it took a couple of extra meetings this year so we're publishing in March um but we've been working with our local communities in terms of like Creek Park um District to make sure that they had those dates as they publish their summer dates um and then summer school is usually published by us in April um and so we've started um publishing um in March yeah because April's it's it's pretty late to yes so we we've pushed it back a little bit and started in March and so perhaps um you know we have to again look at our funding sources of you know how we're going
080to fun our Esser funds are drying up and so um you know we had to do some Blended funds and find a way to to make sure that we're able to offer at least at minimum what we've been able to do in the past okay other calendar questions okay thank you thank you thank youc back going to all right do we have any old business if not do we have any new business hearing none we do have a reason to go into close session and that is for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees can I have a motion to go and close session for those reasons given so moved move by Nelson second I'll second second by Jamie roll call please okay Mr swales I miss sters I Mr Al
081I Mr gigos I miss rup is and I Dr Hall I president Brown I motion carry and we will be in close session for about 30 minutes and we will not be taking any further action after that so thank you public for joining us that conclude our meeting for today other than closed session thank you have a good day