001you ready we call meeting to order it is 6:30 um and at this time we will I'm sorry to have my mic on it's on now we call me to order this time what do we do call roll call yes sir hold on all right Mr Alber here president Brown sorry I should that last all right he Mr gyos here rup is here Mr swales here miss s stumbris here Dr Hall here please rise for the pledge Alex can't say the Pledge sure I pledge ALG to the flag of the United States of America to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible all right public comments do we have any public comments yes just the one right okay okay public comments by Mari I don't know how to say the last
002name I'm sorry oler oler um so it says to whom it may concern what is the reasoning behind having the kindergarten students start on Monday August 28th versus the original calendar date of Thursday August 24th if you're going to amend the calendar then why don't the whole District just start on the same day Monday August 28th what that is the public comment um yes and I responded she sent it as an email and I did respond to her already today okay thank you any board updates no board updates real quick real quick doc I would like to I'll just see if there's anyone still wanting or looking to go to that leadership class that Pastor P sorry yeah we're trying to get us to a tape I know I'm going on August 3D if there's
003anyone else in M go and just a reminder to the board members uh he's referring to the one in Moni um that is it a virtual one did we understand or no it's well you go to the it's like a off site it's virtual there but you can't do it like from your desk yeah all right yes we have separate two board members that are attending at this point okay good oh that's great that's great thank you Dr all right and just one other thing I attended a web- based class regarding superintendent EV out and it was a great it was a great web based class and I want to talk more about it because there is great opportunity to EXC excuse me yeah there's a great opportunity to uh conduct eval electronically so I'll
004share that next C maybe next week with you guys I just give you just a hits up on that that's all I have all right thank you um I do want to say that we had we um had a workshop through ISB which was the equity um Workshop I thought it was really well run it was um I thought we got a lot out of it everybody can if you want to share your thoughts on it they have offered the opportunity for us to have a followup um to the uh Workshop as well at no cost to us us um it it was insightful I thought it brought us together and I just you know I really enjoyed it so yeah I Echo those comments doc I I really didn't think I would get as
005much as I did out of that but it was very engaging very touching with some you know sharing people sharing some of their personal lifestyle and things of that nature but I tell you it was what work the day F on that court so thank you for spear hitting that Dr Hall I really appreciate it no problem thank you all right that's it for B board updates we have any administrative updates um just a reminder uh we do have a support Day that's coming up August 12th uh we'll be sending something out uh for uh any volunteers that would like to help out uh we have done this for several years and it's been very well attended I believe volunteers get there at 8:15 but I think it's run from 99: to 11: so and
006again that's where students are allowed to come in they get uh school supplies things for their backpacks ahead of time so certainly anybody in the community let us know if you're interested in helping out with that um Ken did you want to give any updates on facilities before school starts especially with the heat that might be on everyone's mind I do and so um let me let me give a quick update um hopefully quick update on construction and where we stand right now um so right now our substantial completion date is August 11th uh which is a week from Friday uh we look to hit that number that date what that means is that uh everything will be complete Enough by code that we can occupy the facilities so that's what substantial completion uh means
007um right now at CSK belmorrow in Creet um all asbestos has been removed from those facilities so that is all done flooring is going in now um and let me talk about air conditioning because those three buildings were set for air conditioning let me preface this by saying there's two separate systems in each of our buildings when it comes to air conditioning one is worked on a chiller method which is really cold water um and that's in a lot of the CL classrooms and something called a univent that you probably heard me talk about that puts out heat and um air conditioning and then we have areas in the building that have rooftop units in that uh those are our bigger areas like this room here is run by a rooftop unit our gymnasium is
008run by that uh it's just a lot more efficient the on the air conditioning in CSK Boro and cre the chillers will not be in to run the air conditioning so in essence and those have been pushed back we had the same issue when we did ELC in tala last year um so classrooms will not be air conditioned per se however the good news is is that the rooftop units will be in to provide air conditioning in areas of the building including the hallways so hallways will be air conditioned along with other bigger areas like your cafeteria your gymnasium your uh libraries there's a multi-purpose room and in addition to that we have not taken out any window units in classrooms that may have been there so those are still there also um so in
009essence you know the only thing that that won't be air conditioned in those CL are the classrooms which are the important ones however there will be air conditioning in the hallways that can pull into the classrooms we are ordering fans that can circulate the air a lot more than than it will be circulated um and and that's no different than last year when we started that is no different last and were exactly the same position yes they were in exactly the same position in fact they were a little bit worse because we didn't get the chillers in winter time uh are these chillers are coming in in September and it it will make no sense to turn the the system on at that time because it takes them once the chillers are here it takes
010about three or four weeks to hook everything up so there's no sense in that um given those that time just in case on a odd chance is there a contingency safety plan for excessive heat days there always is that contingency uh we do have an excessive heat plan uh that we we have I will let you know that just today I ordered water bottles for all of our students uh because we've gone to bottle fillers um I thought and we thought that as an executive team we thought it was important that all of our kids have water bottles so we're ordering water bottles for all of our kids so we have that we don't have to go through the situation of having bottled water anywhere and all that stuff perfect thank you for the clarification
011yep um when it comes to tala and ELC of course ELC did not have any work done this year um so they're pretty well Set uh tala did have aestus removal in a lot of their building that has all been removed uh we were a little bit worried about the flooring but the flooring's there so that be in uh in the classrooms and that so we should be good there th that building along with this building has full air conditioning so that has already been done and all of that and obviously ELC and talo are supposed to have cosmetic construction this summer but because of it was overpriced we waited we waited so are you going to rebid that so that by4 so one of the things we're doing at our at the August 8th
012meeting is that we'll be coming and sharing with you um a summary of our life safety projects our 10-year projects that the board has asked for so we'll do that then we'll give you an update on the budgets where we're at MoneyWise um and then yes we'll be rebidding that once I see where the budgets are uh we can determine what we're going to do I know for you know like at ELC we talked about painting the facility and also trying to get rid of some lockers and putting in cubicles for the kids uh and some storage area and then we'll look at other buildings and and what we can do in that so we'll be rebidding that probably in September or October so next week we'll get a we borrowed x amount of dollars
01360 million this is what we spent this we have left because the five projects will be completed and they all have contingency numbers in them yes so we want to make sure the contingency number is either introduced back in right to work on some of the Cosmetics yes all right and then the other thing you're going to see next week on the agenda is that we do have the final payouts for the uh 22 projects uh so that'll be a final payout all the punch list items have been completed to our satisfaction so there'll be a final payout on all of those too um so you'll see that the high school addition um I will let you know um the substantial completion date has now been pushed back to November about November 11th it's been
014pushed back to uh because there uh there's a big electrical panel that we are trying to get uh it's held up we think over in China somewhere so it's coming over uh so that has been pushed back we're still still okay because our plan was to go into that building over winter break actually uh so we would start in January in that addition so we're still okay there uh you know am I confident about November 11th I I wish I had a crystal ball and can tell you but uh we'll see but the contractor seems pretty compated so August 11th you said that the buildings will be uh Boral cre and CSK is that after the Roe inspections uh that is the day of the Roe inspection okay yeah um so what we are planning
015for and I I'll let the board know this is on August 9th we're going to do a walkth through of the buildings uh we did this last year with some board members uh along with our Union reps um all of our exec team we kind of walk the building so we can see the condition of it um we will start in one of the buildings I haven't set the schedule yet but it will be August 9th which is next Wednesday we'll probably start around 9:00 in the morning um and we'll just go from building to building so I will share that with the board it'll come from Dr Cara or myself I'll share that and share the schedule with you if you would like to join us you are more than welcome to join us
016so you can see it it gives us an idea and we had this last year we worked with the Union on this and you know we had one building that really wasn't ready to be occupied but um we're in a lot better shape this year and so I don't think we're really going to have any issue with with opening up the buildings on time okay um I don't think I I think I got everything in that I don't know if anyone else has any question the last question is for Dr Carol so MEC are we starting over at MEC for half a year and then transitioning over to the new addition yes we are we the building is uh the addition should be ready in October but we wanted a nice clean break for our
017kids so we're going to start them in January so and once that happens we're going to have to re we're going to decommission it again with three meetings again right correct I believe so yes yes I think we're still to do that okay um real quick let me just touch on support day again as Dr cared mentioned that um so the public knows we'll be sending out a couple uh School messenger calls next week to all of our families and letting them know about support day but again uh we'll let our families know next week that to okay great thank you my other update just uh to let you know uh we will be sending out our community newsletter uh I think C may have sent you a copy of it so you can see
018what's coming out uh it's going to print and uh it should be out in family's mailboxes uh probably early next week so um it gives an update to all of our community members about the things that went on over the summer the buildings and as well as some of the things that we're going to be doing next year with closing out our strategic plan uh trying to find people that would like to participate in that process as well as some other goodies so uh don't do a spoiler alert but look for that newsletter uh coming up all right I'm going to go through I've got we've got about three things under administrative updates the first one is press plus it's a first read it's issue 112 um I did meet with Miss rup uh several
019weeks ago as we went through this um press plus always does just a really good job of working with the attorneys to fine-tune any of the language so uh the sheet that I gave you my cheat sheet basically kind of outlines many of these updates most of them are just legal updates based on new legislation uh wording changes uh in item 4.45 on insufficient fund checks there was a couple questions that the district needs to respond to um which I can take care of and one of them was has the board adopted the policy language regarding regarding the local debt recovery program the answer is no to that so they will just be eliminating that um one question um and then the other one um no I think that was it the rest of them
020as um as presented if if there are any questions on those okay like I said this is a first read then this will be moved to the August 8th uh to be uh in our consent agenda okay all right back to business do you want to talk a little bit briefly just about the adjustments on the purchase agreement I do um as as everyone knows we haven't purchased the building yet so um our our attorney Bill Gleason has worked with their attorney and so we do need to adjust the uh purchase agreement the two main adjustments that have been made are on dates in the original agreement it said that the closing would be by June 30th now it's August 31st so we've had to make that change in there uh so that has been
021done Bill also said there were a few minor changes in due in due diligence section in order to move the dates from April 30th to August 11th so that has also been done so those are really the only changes there are no changes in the financial uh situation or any of that stuff it's really in the dates that we're in there okay great thank you so that's it moving on to personnel and culture uh Dr melan chenko I don't know if you have want to say a few words about the discussion of the guest rate changes sure um so as you see the proposed rate changes there um we received some information from 18 surrounding districts and found that our daily rate was substantially lower with most districts adopting $150 per day starting this school
022year so that's our proposal for that as well as ramping up for Subs that work more days throughout the the district um also just eliminating some of the from experience there's been some confusing language surrounding what's a permanent sub what's an a long-term leave sub permanent sub thinks that because I work every day I get the higher of the rates but that's not the case so just some language tweaks around that permanent sub becoming a Cadre teacher meaning that you're working every day in support of wherever absences may exist in that building or wherever the building needs are um and then designating our long-term subs for positions that where a person is out on a leave of absence or any unfilled positions those would would be the only ways we would designate somebody as a
023longterm um and then with the guest Personnel rate changes we're looking to eliminate the related service one as if we need if a related service providers is out on a long-term um leave or it's an unfilled position we would reach out to a contract agency and then we'd be subject to the terms of that versus uh a a daily rate and same thing for an administrator um I've never seen anybody sub for an administrator so if we we're in a case where again somebody was out on leaveing we needed somebody there would be a contract that' be brought to the board for approval on that um Additionally the Food Service custodian secretary and student workers would be brought up to minimum wage that will be in effect for January 1 of 2024 at $4 an
024hour thank you okay that it yep okay um now consent agenda can you yeah before we go to the consent agenda I just wanted to take this opportunity to have Miss Perkins maybe just elaborate a little bit more on the uh approv of the amended calendar especially since there was a public comment on that tonight I think it's good for the public to know um some of the exciting things that we're actually doing this year that a little bit different regarding our kindergarten friends so in listening to our uh kindergarten staff and in sending 130 students from our ELC program into kindergarten this year that is the most students we've sent in seven years um to our kindergarten classrooms uh we typically have about 260 students in our uh kindergarten program um we are doing
025a pre-screening of those additional 130 students uh and so we are asking parents on August 8th 9th and 10th to bring in um those students so that we can give our kindergarten team time to um uh look at their data and get to know those families and so those uh two additional days um where uh other students are starting those kindergarten teachers are going to um meet uh with those families and uh again kind of review that data of what we found out about their kids before they start with us so those are new to the family um that we're offering that to uh get to know their students better yeah we're hoping that this personal relationship right at day one in kindergarten will really help set the foundation for their their careers here uh
026starting in kindergarten so uh we're excited about uh moving in that direction thank you Miss Perkins all right I think we're now we're ready for consent all right we are on to consent agenda and Dr coges can you read I sure can under superintendent item one approve regular meeting minutes of July 18 2023 item two approve regular meeting close session minutes July 18 2023 under personnel and culture to approve Personnel report would include approved certified staff employment re reassignment resignation and intent to retire and educational support staff employment and resignation um then item for B would be the to approve the 2324 student handbook underneath teaching and learning would be to approve the amended calendar for the 23 24 school year any discussions any questions about uh the consent agenda yeah I just uh one
027comment I looked it on the um student handbook it didn't look like there were any changes to the cell phone policy no but I just want to reinforce that our buildings enforce that policy the especially at the beginning of the year you know every year it seems like we need that comment so we will reemphasize that uh with our middle and high school okay good thank you doc we may want to get a motion to approve the suspended for well that's that's what I was going to do next after oh so we do the okay so um I think nobody wants anything pulled from the consent agenda all right um that being said can we get a motion to to approve the consent agenda yeah that's that's what I was saying oh you say that's
028what I said I Mo I didn't know oh I'm sorry friend I motion to approve the consent agenda a second motion by zit s somus did I say it right you're good yes okay and Mr G goes mhm and second by Mr G we ganged up on you there with the names huh sorry that's right that was me going slow can I get a roll call sure uh Mr gigos I rup is an i Mr swales I miss s stumbris i Mr Alber I um Mr Brown hi Dr Hall I motion carries all right motion carry next is our action reports and do you read that usually you do but I can if you'd like I mean action reports under business we have approved 2324 kids count contract and under personnel and culture approv administrative
029contract I think we have to do those one at a time right one at a time yes yes okay so first we'll do business which is approve the 23 24 kids count contract so can you have a motion can I get a motion moved second all right move by R second by alre can I get a roll call what do we have any questions first any discussions yeah n n can I get a roll call sure um Miss site stumbris I Mr swales I rup is and I Mr gas hi Mr Al hi Mr Brown hi Dr Hall I okay businesses approved next is personnel and culture approve administrative contract I get a motion to approve administrative contract so moved moved by gyos second second by Z somus any discussion on administrative contracts none can
030I get a roll call please sure Mr Alber I Mr gy Eagles I rup isn't I Mr swales I miss site stumpers I Mr Brown I Dr Hall hi all right that is approved any old business any new business yes Dr car I was just wondering the school year is approaching fast do we have or do we have plans in place for um kind of like mental health support for our staff so as the year goes on we'll get here two three weeks everybody will see each other but then quickly um besides going to work and and doing what they do they got to go home there's families but they're going to be in the schools all day are we prepared for um for them you know to be there for them for everybody the
031staff teachers uh secretaries food and Food Service custodial um you know anybody that's in our buildings um we've actually made quite a few um adjustments to our Administration and our restructuring and some of the programs that we're going to be offering for next year um I'm really excited about what we're doing to move forward we've done a lot of time listening to our administrators and more importantly listening to our our leadership at the union level to hear what's going on with teachers um so I can share a few things off the bat of what we're planning to do and welcoming folks back um in working with our Wellness we have a new Wellness uh Direction with Dana hullman and currently we used to have something called a comsite it was staff could access uh Services
032through our employee assistant program and that offers three to six sessions of mental health to staff we've had that before now we're expanding it even more so we're looking into also offering something called perspectives it's staff will be able to work with the health Mental Health Service again for three to six sessions for staff as well as for emergency responses in the event of a crisis Management in some of our buildings and is that for everybody MH that's good okay good yeah and uh if there is a crisis in our buildings we can rely on this support system so we don't have to use exclusively just our staff in case they're feeling burned out we've got another support team to bring in so we're working on that we're also looking to bring a biometric screening
033in health is very important to our staff especially as we're going through our insurance committees and seeing you know a variety of of health issues so we want to keep our staff healthy make them have them come to work every day and feeling good when they're here so we are looking to offer uh well-being biometric screening in October November uh this will offer flu shots blood testing for staff to allow for early detections or any medical concerns so those are some of the newer things that we're offering through our benefits coordinator um I've also reached out to the uh Community Partnerships Creek Park District I had a conversation with them back early in Spring to see what other kinds of things that we could do to offer for our staff and so they have put
034together three three major activities that we will be supporting and sending out to the buildings we will be having adult sports Gauntlet they are going to be organizing friends and family so we were going to work on getting schools perhaps to participate schools against schools for uh for five weeks five games of soccer flag football Ultimate Frisbee kickball and whiffle ball so those will be starting in September so we're encouraging staff to get that physical exercise and enjoy themselves our theme this year in the district is supporting you and so we're really focusing on health life balance here in the district we're even starting our Institute day with that theme and we've got a couple little um surprises there at Institute day to really support that so everything that we're doing this year is about
035that Health life balance putting in fun watching your health watching your stress level uh these other things that cre Park District is doing is a pickle ball tournament in September and they're starting evening yoga we certainly want to encourage those that need to de-stress and compress after a work day uh working with our students and our families and so forth to relax with yoga so we're starting that as well some other focuses that we've worked on in talking with our teachers and our administrators last year is again focusing on the well-being of our students our classrooms teachers did feel burned out last year as well as a lot of our other workers with just the demands that are coming to us and so we were listening to see what we can do to uh better
036support staff so our central office team is going to be out in buildings next year uh we with the restructuring we will be having them out um you know 40 to 50% of the time so you'll be seeing people in classrooms out in the buildings and supporting and listening you'll even see our HR sitting in the lounge I said he got the best job by the way uh he'll be sitting in lounges from time to time our HR team will be out there once again to help support with benefits with enrollment we did that this year to help reduce the stress of filling that enrollment changes so again more of the Personal Touch is where we're going for for next year um like I said we've added Our Kind kindergarten transitional program we help support
037our little ones uh and also supporting our families like you heard with the kindergarten screening that we have we are actively looking for a music and art at at the elementary buildings as everyone knows we have not had enough enough music and art in our elementaries for quite some time our students deserve access to those Fine Arts programs and you know it also gives our teachers some time to work together in their teams so we're adding that as well we are also focusing again on Elementary with supporting our teachers we're going to be we've hired or going to be hiring a team of four guest teachers that will be coming to the buildings covering classrooms so our teachers and at a particular grade level can now work together together on instructional strategies teaming uh we're
038going to be focusing on Cooperative learning really focusing on social skills again and giving our our teams time to do that so there's a lot of things these are just a few things to mention but it's a holistic approach to well-being trying to get it from all different angles and uh and again with a lot of listening and refining and reflecting um as we go through the year we will always continue to adjust to the messages that we're hearing from right and we always worry about the the students but our staff is just as important absolutely absolutely I mean at all levels so to make sure that they stay and they don't get burned out right and I think you know we've learned a lot with our recruiting practices we're doing exit interviews with all
039of our staff members we're taking the data from that and we're trickling it back through the system to see what areas that we need to do uh Miss Perkins has put together a really a fabulous um PD program for those that can volunteer here for it on that Monday coming back um we usually get you know a nice showing of Staff members that are ready to come back so again we really don't invest in our employees that's a good tool to have because we lost all four of our high school Deans and we wanted to know why so we can figure out how to fix that yes and we did so thank you for asking we got do Dr care those are Comm men Chang not no thank [Laughter] you I also wanted to mention
040you know as you recall a few meetings ago uh Mr Brown was really encouraging the district to focus on ELC and our little ones uh we are now putting out a program sure that we'll be going out and hitting our libraries um all of our vendors in the area about preschool strategies to do at home for our families will be reaching out to some of uh the owners of the apartment complexes to put these in their hallways and reach out so we're really um putting our wrapping our arms around um you know and getting into the communities for this and I could go on but let you I notic no I I love what we're working on that's all I love it I love it too um no so that's new business and that's it
041so close session this is closed session um a motion to go into a Clos session now this is why okay I'm asking for a motion to go on to close session um for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees and L ation when the public U body finds that an action prob is probable or in amended so move moved by Mr Al second second by Mr Dio gagos roll call please okay um R is an i Mr sish hi Miss site stumbris hi Mr alre hi sorry Mr gagos I Mr Brown oh he say I thank you Dr Hall hi all right we are going to close session do we have any more business after this no we do not okay so after this we will adjourn that and that will
042be the only business that we will have so we will thank everyone who tuned in and good night had a great