Crete Monee School District 201u COTW Meeting 1/10/23

001that his father gets a room tonight and gets better so with that being said can we please call this meeting to order roll call please Brown is here Dr Hall Mr swallis here this is Walters here Mrs Galbraith president Albrecht vice president here all right thank you let's stand for the pledge I pledge allegiance one nation under God indivisible between liberty and justice for all Walters can you please read the mission statement to empower bright new future all right um Cheryl do we have any public comment s none all right great moving right along um board updates do we have any board updates the only one question I have is Ken do you have an update on the construction of not the high school but everything else that we did last summer where they're at

002with RL Soho and then maybe with CC Holdings uh I think we're good yeah I'm sorry um I think we're about probably about 95 I was actually Keith can you would you come up to Mike kind of give an update let's see uh I haven't talked to Keith in a couple days so let's see if we can get kind of an update and then uh Keith bolzon you know collaboratively on the summer projects from last year where we're at with everything I think the big piece of equipment we're still waiting for is the chiller for here I heard that it was supposed to be delivered in February it's been pushed back again I heard yeah it got moved back to late February now but I'm not holding my breath on that either because and that

003one was actually supposed to be delivered at the same time as the uh Chiller for talalo so you know ordered at the same time same Chiller basically and and for some reason that one's just they can't get it here uh all in all over the past couple weeks you know with the uh the break they did they tied up a lot of the Loose Ends um things you know we were they're actually uh Architects are in the district right now uh doing punch items especially areas that haven't been looked at so that'll be good to hear uh the outcome of that um I don't know I think Ken's probably got that 95 is a good good number um we find Loose Ends you know we hear about them certainly they did a lot of door

004Replacements over the break and that was a big one of the big holdups I don't know if you remember we had to buy a bunch of uh temporary doors and things like that so those were down to half an hour doors in and there's the doors on the uh exterior Balmoral for that the pump room so uh yeah that's all coming along good we'll have some painting to do that we can't do right now of course on the exterior stuff but all in all things are looking pretty good and we you know we really find out a lot uh once these walkthroughs are finished so you're thinking in February everything will be done except the chiller for here I'm pretty confident on that I I think the big projects that we had left uh one

005is the East Wing accrete that now is occupied tomorrow we actually have the elevator inspection so that'll be coming online then the actual uh facility itself they were able to move in back in December right before break so that's been done occupied we've gotten uh substantial completion on that they're just doing a little bit of punch list items that you know are really minor um the other one is Keith had mentioned over break uh they finished up the PPS area so that whole area has been done they're actually moving back into there starting tomorrow so that's been all done and then over break they were doing a lot of the demo of a lot of the old rooftop units that were left up there why we put the new ones in I will tell you

006that when we did our specialist abatement which is now which we finished on time everything was done over break we did run into some additional asbestos over in this gym here when they took down the rooftop unit uh uh I happened to find some asbestos come down so luckily and the good news was we had the contractor here at the time so they were able to contain everything take care of that so all of that was taken care of over break and everything is is good so on that so the all the abatements done that we needed over break and everybody's gonna be back in their building yes yep everything was done on time and everything yes and now with CC Holdings how was our schedule for the Edition uh I as far I I

007haven't heard yet as far as I know I mean they're running into some good weather now so Keith was just telling me they're planning on pouring the flooring over there in the gymnasium hopefully they pour the gym floor tomorrow which is huge because that's kind of the center of the whole project uh without that you know because that's got a um cure for over six months before they can put the gym floor in you know things like that so uh to pour tomorrow or this week is is a great thing you know because they were held up by weather um they started out good but couldn't get the rebar and then then they got the rebar and then we got weather and uh yeah so right now this will put us I think that'll put

008us back on track good good track um So the plan is on that is if you remember originally we had talked about August 3rd for substantial completion that was then pushed to the 20th so we're still stick with August 20th for substantial completion and occupancy for that facility right now okay and a lot of that's that's lead time issues still with rooftop units things like that right the other thing is that we have started the process I think as the board knows we did award the board did award the contracts for next Summer's projects already uh on everything it's at DLC Talala that one will be coming soon that'll be going out to bid real soon uh and the equipment has begun to be ordered for that stuff already too so we've done that process

009all right sounds good thanks uh just a quick question this kind of leading into not a Segway uh just Bill Bill asked that question we have about 2023 Life Safety survey coming up and are we going to have a life safety survey performed by our architect as well as a physical assessment well the physical assessment is already done so great so that was already done so they because they're licensed to do that so that's correct safety okay we're right now the architect actually right now is going through projects making sure that all the life safety items have been completed that was the last question that was my last question to make sure that if it hasn't we're able to catch that up next summer in our in in all of the bid documents and all

010this stuff let me take a step back sure you're saying that if we had not completed our 2013 life safety items right we're looking to catch up and there's a couple into the next year there's there's a couple small items I'll give you an example one of them is like a grease trap in one of the buildings that we had to had to replace that we did not get into like I forget it was either a creative Balmoral and we didn't get it into last year's projects which is the first year so they'll be getting it to this year so then it'll be completed now so by the end of this summer all of those will be completed okay and then you know we'll start the new process of having a new survey okay we've

011got a new Regional superintendent yes and the past Regional superintendents superintendent gave us an extension of some manner and obviously we're not looking to Embark upon any Life Safety surveys extension no no okay at this point at all I mean you know our plan is to make sure we have everything wrapped up by the end of this I would love to see us clean slate 2013. that has never happened not even be close yeah you know we get all that data together and one question to you Keith you said something about the gym pouring the gym floor that we're getting whether that's conducive than pouring concrete right right and if not we it's going to take six months to cure it's a response right so did we expect the poor concrete during this time of

012the year anyway I mean yeah yeah I mean you don't want to bank on it but for the past three years I think they've been pouring you know into January what they've been putting like calcium in there and yeah they certainly do and then they put down blankets you know to keep the heat in okay so we were going to go forward with it anyway right regardless on how the weather was though the one thing that would stop you was you know frosting the ground and we're having our you know we have Secor our our testing company make sure that the ground is right to put the concrete in before they do it and right now they've given the green flag okay and you're not waiting on any Edison equipment no Transformers no actually yeah

013with that we're not there yet [Music] so Mr Brown there are specific guidelines seekers in the bid documents for cold weather concrete pour yeah so those are in their specifically like Keith had said that it's in Europe with blankets down or something like that those are all in there again and so is the testing of the frost line and so all of that is in the bid documents and covered because we were planning on okay all righty so the chiller says you alluded to already that's not going to be a problem but we're looking to have those chillers whatever we need right in a timely manner somewhat well we hope so are we looking still to use our temporary Chiller rooms separate area won't come out until the chillers are in so correct okay great

014I'm good thank you can the only question I have is there any way in February when we come to the committee of the whole can you give us a list of what is left on the 2013 sure what's left when you think you have approximate dates of when we're going to satisfy that list yep and then when will the 2023 State Life Safety list uh I honestly don't know that I'll talk to the architect and I'll get an answer for you by the community home meeting in February because I'm assuming with all five uh buildings we're working on we should satisfy most of that yeah I think most students going to be satisfied you know I mean I'm sorry what was the question Bill Winston I want to just want to make sure I want

015a list of what we have left on 2013 so we can get that clean and then for Life For Life Safety yeah and then what's the time frame on the 2023 list is because after five buildings are done we should be really close and then you're gonna only have uh technically money Elementary the high school the junior high yeah but those are minimum those are some real minimums there's always something that they'll find because codes are changing all the time so and that's how what Lifesaver is all about it's about meeting certain codes of codes have changed and everything and does they'll find some things but they have a slave from the 2013 one by the end of this song and the only wild card is do do they know that we are uh decommissioning

016the old MEC when we're done so they know because we have life safety issues about 600 000 there right so so what will happen on that if the building is not decommissioned at that point when they do the survey they're going to have to do the live survey on it and so then when you once you've decommission it you don't have but again you know they they've got to do it on there if it's still considered a commission building correct and I understand that but I want to make sure that when we get through the list that should be the only building left that has yes it should be outstanding issues I definitely and when you say decommission we cannot we can save this conversation yeah I understand yeah I definitely don't want to put

017six hundred thousand dollars into that nor do I and we yeah I use it especially since we got other um I guess my question is maybe I've missed this but have is there any update on the metal detectors um Mr Tobias has been reviewing it he is looking at some alternatives to the metal detectors he's going to be presenting that I think in our district safety team meeting I think coming up in February um so nothing uh really substantive at this point they're looking at some Alternatives instead of the metal detectors from his cursory overview is visiting other buildings other buildings had issues with those and so we were looking at perhaps some other options I think we need to revisit that real quick just the fact that it all it was very newsworthy yes

018things like that and I received a few calls on that same topic sorry I think we owe it to ourselves to kind of reel it back in because I know we've lost our person that was experiating that project for the most part okay yes and like I said uh Mr Tobias it has been going out and working at all angles to to deter can you give us an update next week yes we have uh I think he's been giving some updates in his FYI but I will add that to my list okay thank you I just I I have something oh excuse me go ahead okay um you may recall last year um with the sex education curriculum we had voted to opt out of that and now you guys probably saw the iasb call

019to action because the house is trying to pass house bill 5188 which would mandate the sex education and so school districts would not be able to opt out individuals would be able to they'd be able to opt out their students but the districts wouldn't and in Illinois a vast majority of the like a huge majority of the districts opted out so it's just baffling why our legislation sure would think that they should go ahead now and mandate it so if it concerns you um as it does me you can you know just contact your legislators who would be for us mostly in Crete and Monet the state senators Napoleon Harris Thaddeus Jones is the representative and then I think for up and universe uh University Park and Park Forest it's representative Deluca and Patrick Patrick

020Joyce is the senator so um it's just concerning to me I just don't know why they feel like they have to mandate that and give us more mandates take away local control I'm sorry Dr Holland Luca doesn't have but a but a very small portion of BP now oh okay I forget her name she's just gonna redistricted yeah okay well find um find the representatives there is a way to look it up online if you don't know who your representatives are and then you can contact them just wanted to bring that to everyone's attention are there any more board updates I know we had talked about given an update for our conference if we had trip y so we can do that next week okay when everybody is here okay all right all right um

021can you remind us in here I think I think all of us has some good things to say um all right well then I had just in my bun I just had one um this was just to get some you know direction from the board as you know our board policy allows each of our board members an allocation of about forty five hundred dollars to attend professional development and Associated expenses um I wanted to find out if so if we had a board member that had gone over that allotment do I have your permission to just take um and uh adjust that with the bigger pool of money just give them her some of my money let's see I've spent 89 of that yeah so I just want to make sure that that was fine

022all right that was all I wanted to know and we'll go ahead and make those adjustments thank you just put that person in front of the firing squad nope not at all so that's all I had thank you I think then you're still up okay so let's see what we have I have invited a couple people with us today um I'm invited uh see here uh Mr Derek Watson and Mr Eric green I'd like you to come up real quickly I wanted to have them share some really exciting things that are going on in the district especially with this idea of community mentoring we had started this program I think really last spring to really address um and help support our young men and I know Sandy Walters really was the spearhead in talking a

023lot to us about this and so we kind of started this and it has built up quite a bit of momentum and of course we have uh that is now um part of the jobs of these two gentlemen for the district they help spearhead many of the programs that we have here that are going on but we have one that's coming up um this Monday for Martin Luther King's birthday that we are putting on so I'm going to let them share this and certainly any of our male board members certainly are females as well if you are available to stop in there you're going to see a really fabulous event planned so Mr Watson would you like to share a little bit good evening everyone good evening like Dr Kerry cognally said we're really excited

024and a little nervous about this upcoming Monday it's the first time uh that we can say that's ever happened in this District where we have created conference where all the different communities are involved at the table is Crete Park fours Bondi and University Park and this is this is very special us so uh on that day we're gonna the conference will run from about 10 to 2 o'clock uh we're gonna provide breakfast and lunch for the kids we've opened the group from 8th grade to 12th um the young men are going to come in we're going to have some uh performances from different different members of the community that'll be doing spoken word uh we have some alumni that could be doing uh some spoken word performance that are actually uh uh Grammy nominated performers

025so uh from Mr Brown's uh daughter's Year from 1999 and you might want to come Mr Brown I think so right so uh there'll be three uh three uh groups uh one group we're going to talk about interaction with uh with of course law enforcement as well as uh dealing with adults you know dealing uh understand how to communicate and accept Authority we're gonna have another one that we're calling Guilty By Association and speaking with the kids about the impact of peer influence and and making sure you're choosing the right people to be around uh the last one which we're which we're very proud of is the entrepreneurial one we figured that the goal is we're going to talk about problems we need to offer Solutions so with our entrepreneur program we're going to talk

026about we're going to talk with the kids about how to start businesses some of the challenges of starting a business and of course answering those questions uh one of the beautiful things are we're going to have um a uh in the that's going to be open throughout the whole time is a uh uh we call it a business showcase and so what that is is giving the students the opportunity that right now we're accepting applications but giving them enough opportunity if they have a pop-up shop or if they have a business for them to Showcase what that business is so what students will be able to as well as the different communities we have uh the different park districts and also local alumni what if maybe they're offering scholarship opportunities or work opportunities or even

027mentoring opportunities they're going to be there as well uh to Showcase those uh so throughout the day in each panel it's going to be at least pretty much two or one not correct it'll be at least two alumni in the in each panel so basically uh so each room will have panelists but us as well we'll be going from room to room building relationships with the kids and also participate in the conversation so I'm really excited about the day uh what also is uh special about we have opened up to the schools is that uh this was an alternative to discipline so if you've uh receive consequences one of the things is that we communicate with the schools that you can't use this in little suspension or in support of suspension just so we're given

028a solution so for them to go they can come we'll sign off on it to show that they've attended and you know send their account prior to their consequence um this is also also a great opportunity to lead into the program that we just recently started at the high school in Middle School we've been uh building relationships uh starting off with the mentoring programs but there as well so with us inside as well as I said there are some external programs that we'll be able to Showcase uh outside mentoring programs as well um we are still accepting applications for the vendors so I would like more vendors from the community because the goal is for these young men to realize what resources are out there we want them to realize that they're our business I

029mean there are work opportunities as well as activities that keep them engaged so if summer programs uh summer camps all those things we definitely want them to uh to be aware of those uh resources a little bit more night good evening everyone um just to piggyback on what Mr Watson was saying another beautiful thing about this event is that we have alumni from each town that this District serves to also um they went on to become First Responders and police officers as well as entrepreneurs and they are very eager to pour into our young men so we're really looking forward to that and they're excited just as well as we are so we appreciate the opportunity what did the enrollment numbers look like right now how what kind of response did you get um as

030of right now we have about 50 students that are enrolled uh we do know that there are some uh that's from the digital application we do know that uh we've asked we've also given an opportunity for uh for the schools to have paper applications so as of right now we're sitting around 50. honestly we know but like I said I'm going to emphasize again we are still accepting applications well I'm excited to hear the uh outcome after all this too to hear the feedback so thank you yeah I I just want to say great job great job and great job by you Sandy board member help driving this initiative and I always want to you always in my eyes going to be called officer green okay okay I can't get away from that great job

031and I do want to engage myself as much as possible I know you guys have the mentoring program a lot of meetings during the day which is hard and difficult for me to attend but I definitely want to engage myself both on the business side and as well as some type of board mentoring a mentor in some capacity and just a spectator looking at it from a high level the balcony too so you may get tired of seeing me so you better better be careful what you ask for you just may get it so thank you thank you superintendent and all other board members has been involved with this I know Janine probably had a little part of it too as well so thank you appreciate it yeah we're really looking forward to this and

032don't forget we'll be doing the ladies next so this is our first one yes okay I hope you all do us a good job with the ladies as you're doing better better no no seriously thank you all for all you do I'm looking forward to being there I know you're going to do great things another coach over here had my son his arms crying his shoulder popped out [Laughter] I still wanted to wrestle excellent It's just posted everywhere so the kids can't see uh at the middle school and at the high school so and as well as in the community so recently we were just we just had a meeting actually this afternoon uh so different uh representatives from the communities they're also going to post them in the uh communities just to make sure

033that everyone's aware but yes and also the Administration has been sending out School reach opportunities and uh making sure that the work is getting out as well same day right registered no but we are the deadline says on the flyer Wednesday but we are gonna still accept we're just really trying to get you know Wednesday like tomorrow but we do have Flyers we've got them at the office Mr Franklin will be Distributing them as well but we have extra Flyers at our office if anyone would like to know some people to share with anyway thanks gentlemen for coming out tonight I appreciate it thank you I'll be the first to clap [Applause] it's on their agenda more exciting you news here uh Mr kaneki you want to come on up our athletic director he's going

034to be sharing with us again this momentum to continue to unify our district very focused one message and we've got a lot of talented people here as you see that are really helping to accomplish the work so I'm going to let Mr kanicki talk a little bit about the projects that they have been working on or at the middle school yeah absolutely uh thank you very much for having me out appreciate it because it's very nice to see everyone um here to speak tonight specifically about changing the mascot name at the middle school um and we went about and we we asked these students there sixth seventh and 8th graders if they would be interested in changing uh the mascot from the Comets to the Warriors and an overwhelming majority uh 66 percent of the

035students Set uh 100 that they would like to change the mascot from the Comets at the middle school to the to the Warriors and this wasn't done um you know without input from students and this wasn't done with a lot of forethought and one of the larger things was from the messaging standpoint we wanted to get the six seven eight nine through 12 Continuum under the same sorry Banner as far as our you know our our mask I was concerned but furthermore uh from a from a fiscal standpoint we have things at the high school that we no longer use uh old basketball chairs that have warriors on them or we've already since uh sent a scores table over from the high school to the middle school that says warriors on it and it was

036just for me it was one of those things where it just made sense for me from a you know fiscal standpoint where we can just then continue to hand those things down and they can continue to be used throughout the life cycle um if anybody's ever been in charge of a program uh you know I buy a set of jerseys and my thought process is I'm gonna get nine years out of those jerseys so they'll get three years in Varsity three years with their JV the same thought process came through when it came to our our branding as far as our mask I was concerned at the middle school so uh we did ask our students and again they they responded and they've overwhelmingly uh asked that we've changed that mask out or in favor

037of change that mascot to the Warriors wow how was the admin and teachers and stuff were they so yeah the the admin is uh aware of it and I think it was more of they wanted to ensure that you know all you know parties especially the kids were involved in the process uh so we're not gonna you know obviously it's not going to be a tomorrow change it was our thought process means we're gonna have to roll this out slowly um so we're currently uh with my you know counterpart at the middle school working on you know working to get the Middle School teachers some Warrior gear um so that they we can you know for those and you can't you don't have to get rid of the comic gear you can continue to wear

038that but it would be a slow progression uh to you know moving to you know throughout this year and then ultimately you know switched in the 23 24 calendar year coach is that a common thing for the Middle School to line up with the high school when it comes to sports and naming and logos and mascots and all of that when other school districts have similar well where are you you're in a district right so when you look at similar unit districts and I can speak to you know some very large districts and you know just right across the border wherever you go everybody knows that they're going to be you know going to this particular school all the way to come down to their their logos and mascots that are found with that within

039the uh the school Community uh our thought process was again that we would we would move that we were all all Warriors and that way we're moving to uh the Continuum that everybody was under the same auspice as far as you know the logo or mascot was concerned okay and you're going to find out a little bit later from a recruiter is how this Warriors messaging is going to uh permeate our messaging out for Recruitment and Retention so I won't give that away but uh there is a connection with all of us and then and ultimately you know in the position that I'm in you know we want to continue to make sure that we're in addition to this there's a lot of other fantastic things to work on including adding more offerings for students

040at the middle school making sure that our coaches are working from the high school with the students in the middle school so that we can continue to uh recruit and attract you know you know our students from the Middle School into the high school and continue to ensure that we're we're keeping our students in our school district has there been any type of issues with the name Warriors given the fact that that has been a negative connotation with people of different ethnicity like you know you've got the Illini you get the Redskins the Warriors in and of itself has not been a problem you see it I'm not sure okay and honestly when it becomes a very nondescript uh sort of idea of a warrior and you know so I know that you know there

041hasn't been any issues it hasn't okay I just don't one you know if there's anything been told to you guys the board I'm sure would like to know not saying it it is a problem maybe I'm talking apples and oranges here or whatever but I thought at one time there was some relevancy with this with our mascot being a warrior Indian is okay yeah but it's indicative of Indian right I wouldn't go it to strength and courage right okay yeah School me here that's what I'm just I just those are all again I'm being very neutral here I'm not sure you know I just don't want we invest and make sure we just cover it here yeah no so we obviously we you know everybody wants to be as sensitive as possible sure when it

042comes to The Branding as far as your mascots are concerned at this particular point in time um you'll feel very confident to say that you know the messaging that we've went forward with is extremely neutral and as no uh connection to anything except for a generic Warrior that you know might have at some point in time participated in any number of things throughout the history of the universe okay great the consistency is good because you're right going from eighth grade to high school we are losing kids one way or some you know to Brother Rice or to Montini or to Providence or to wherever so it is good to meet kid consistency and he and sharp bringing them together if they're going to come together in sixth grade bring them all the way through the

043high school right it helps us as coaches at the high school level and and throughout the state it's nice to be part of of that you know that you're part of the the entire School community and you're you're you're you're a warrior as opposed to being you know which is a fantastic mascot logo but now you're a warrior at starting the middle school and you're working your way all through the all the way through the high school yeah they have a goal like they you know they'll set themselves a goal I want to do this when I get to high school and thanks yeah yeah I'd heard teachers that were all for it too um prior to this discussion even happening a while back and I think it's great for the kids I think since

044we are getting into the middle school and and really being inclusive with them with the sports so that they are feeding into the high school probably gives them an excitement to be called a warrior so I I think it's a great idea I'm happy to see it done so thanks well thank you very much thanks Mr kaneki for sharing that tonight go Warriors yeah there you go so now enough of the fun stuff we're going to go right into business before pleasure so I don't know uh Mr surma Sure good evening board um Dr Cara um first item on the agenda is discussion of purchasing the property at 690 West Exchange in Crete I think as everyone knows this is the property where we have moved our administrative offices uh temporarily due to the asbestos

045of pavement and uh remodeling that we're doing in our offices here so we're over there so there has been some discussion about the possibility of purchasing that building I have attached into the documents for the board the recent appraisal that was done for that building that appraisal is at 750 000 it came in there so in conversations that I have had with the president of the bank you know he said he cannot take a loss he's not looking to make any more on it but he can't take the loss of that he's got a uh get what it's been appraised for so uh but we were looking at at one point about 680 000 somewhere about that that was based on an estimate that or an appraisal that was done in 2018. of that so

046over five years it's appreciated uh you know his bylaws state that he has to have an appraisal within one year of selling the property being sold okay so that's that's the the reason for the new uh appraisal we wouldn't need it anyway so it was the other one five years old uh the other thing as part of the purchase he would credit us back any amounts that we paid in rent there as I shared with the board we're paying five thousand dollars for the two months that we were there so 2500 a month is what we're paying and grants over there right now so we're getting credit for that money also so the only question I have that purchase was part of another plan and idea so if the the idea is to buy that

047where is that coming from and how is that going to change our our balance and our where we're at by June I mean we're going to have to talk about that just because I'm not sure how the next phase of the plan is going to go if it happens soon or later and obviously if this is an opportunity we we want to take advantage of it but we also got to be aware financially where we're at yeah the money for this purchase at this point will come out of our fund balances and that uh that's where this purchase would be we do have an opportunity if down the road if you remember when I gave a presentation about purchasing this property as part of another plan that we had we would sell bonds for that

048now again we could take it out of fund balance the money is there for that uh and we could reimburse ourselves in the sale of bonds if we wanted to in the future so you could do that um it is going to take us the reason we're bringing this to the board right now is there there's a couple reasons why we're doing this what I went to a little bit and I know Dr Carol wants to talk about this is looking at the expansion of the ELC program in order to do that we're going to have to vacate here now there is an opportunity we have found to get grant money for the expansion uh there's called a pre uh a preschool Grant expansion grant that will allow you to do that and I know

049Dr Carroll share some information on that at least what the thoughts are on that of expanding that program but in order to expand that program we have to have more classrooms in order to have more classrooms we need to vacate out of there and that so I can't say that we'd be guaranteed to get the grant money but it would pay for I'm estimating that we're probably going to have to have insurance let's just say we're at fifty five thousand dollars a teacher uh plus some benefits such as 660 000 that's a hundred eighty thousand dollars um and then probably a TA or two that will pay for that the grant will pay for some supplies uh you know things like furniture and that um again we'd have that money in some discretionary funds that

050I could I could do that uh in vacating this building we would not have to put a lot of construction really none at all because into this building get them the additional classrooms because where Miss Chester's offices that's a classroom anyway where their main office is that's a classroom that's been converted as part of our construction plan our short-term facility plan we're planning on painting and putting in new car new flooring in there anyway that will all be done and that so there's really no additional cost at all they'll be able to pick up another classroom in some of our office area Mr gennados Gennaro's office that we had could become a classroom the actual or board rule that was here the conference could become a classroom too so there's enough areas to do that

051I think the only construction I would do over here is I've taught I thought about were my office is that butts up to the kitchen area maybe putting the doorway there so a nurse's office could go there with access to you know the next area have it sink and all of that you know that that really would be the only thing that's kind of putting the doorway so so that there would be medical minimal construction here over at the new building facility over at the bank you know we're in there now and it's comfortable right now I think in the future we would talk about maybe putting an addition on over there that will allow us to have a boardroom PD room like room 35 here right now we're utilizing for that but again if

052we put on addition over there in the future this becomes another classroom then and so um but that's something that in the future you know we can we can talk to the board about uh because I think our goal would be eventually to add a Kitty room boardroom there and then move out of here technology and registration over there and we would we would all fit over there so it would be truly be a central office over there and then ELC would occupy this entire building right the other area we have here is technology storage and we have downstairs at the bank building is two vaults that we can store things in so there's no need to add storage over there for that at all too is the grant a one-time thing or is it

053reoccurring uh have to find out details of that bill I'm not sure yet Gentile do you know if it's recurring um I think reoccurring it's a competitive yeah it's a competitive Grant so um I believe it's every five or six years we have to reapply but it goes in conjunction uh collaboration with our current preschool for all grants so you'll get a you get it for a period of time and then we have to read it yeah I guess the concern just want to make sure that if we're going to commit to that and we commit to the teachers and the Tas and everybody involved we just wanted a one-year deal and then can't afford we want to make sure that our if we look at a five-year or ten year financial plan where are

054we at so that we can maintain yeah and I and I agree with that bill that's something that we're looking at I I think uh you know the other thing is I think if we're going to do this we can just start it slowly you know and you know slowly build this as we go excuse me um so I think I think that's the other thing the other thing that happens with preschool is so we have a preschool for all Grant right now now that amount is only about 440 000 that's all we get from the state of the grant for that and then there's and then there's we have a small piece of idea yes twenty thousand it's thirty thousand forty forty so it's really I mean it's a lot of money what kind

055of budgets and all that so so what's happening with the state is they're postponing reapplying for the 400 and some thousand dollars they're gonna what they calls are going to open up an RFP in a couple more years so that we'll be able to apply for more money there on this expansion grant that if we get it it'll probably be for four or five years but that some of that money can maybe be transferred over into this new RFP Grant this new preschool program that we could get on looking at what you know Governor pritzker is talking about he's talking about if you read you know he's talking about providing preschool for all you know Pre-K I should say for everybody you know now I don't know what that means and that that's a huge

056ticket on the state but again he's looking at putting more financial resources into that in the future um you know that's his goal you know he's got a democratic glad Congress down there so you know uh you know so far even so good on a lot of the other school funding so again uh you know I think I think starting it slowly is the way to go yeah so is it too early to make that call without knowing that or if we move into the three classrooms I just want to make sure that we can financially sustain that right and still retain everybody that we have here right that's the key retaining all of our employees yeah I I I think we're at a we're at a crossroads right now because if we want to

057go down this road we've got to start applying for this expansion Grant because it's for next year and I forget when the deadline is when they do that I have a feeling this deadline is and I and I and I think it's important because I know we've talked about it I talked to Mr Brown about it that a lot of the kindergarten kindergarten teachers have have had concerns that kids come in and they're not prepared it's because let's if the number is 400 kindergarteners we only have 200 preschoolers if the idea is obviously to get every kid the opportunity to come through preschool so that when they go into the five elementaries they are prepared absolutely and I'm gonna chime in when doctor needs speak a little bit because this goes hand in hand with

058the DLC program it does and in some news that that I was able to obtain this hot off the press just a couple hours before this meeting but I would like to share some things yeah I was going to actually continue the discussion under old business but if we're here we can just finish it you know why we're on because it really it's these two things go hand in hand we can't do one without the other and originally again this was about expanding the ELC program um we and talking to my buildings this year we are seeing more and more of our our little ones they're five years old they can come into school and they are not ready post-pandemic children are different than they were pre-pandemic a lot of them families were not sending

059their children to school in daycare at two and three years old they were keeping them home so a lot of our kids did not have those opportunities to be in those settings and so we're seeing more and more of in all my buildings all my Elementary buildings a lot of little ones that need additional experiences and we do not have the programming for that so really offering a train I call it a transitional kindergarten program for your five-year-olds that were not ready that might give them that extra year would really help um in giving them more play opportunities a lot of our little ones you know they need to play they need to have um you know the kitchen setups they need to experience all those things those are all kind of preschool those are

060pre-school skills that need to learn the other piece that we're looking at and this was from our parents uh Miss Joseph did a survey probably pre uh covet as well to find out what the needs or the families are the people in our community as you know they are crying for full day preschool programs here now many of our we would not if we would started small and we started with two and just offer just like CSK first come first served we can act 60 slots per se and start small we could offer that full day program we would offer it to the most needy students so the ones that really need to be here longer but it also gives us an opportunity later on as we're looking to recruit and this comes in with

061our recruiting model is how are we going to recruit staff to want to come and work here if they could have their children here in a full day preschool program so there's a lot of benefits to moving in this direction you know as we look at the cost benefit analysis on this again starting the small seeing you you know seeing how that plays out but very possibly you know the vision would be to turn this building over to completely a daycare a daycare and preschool program for our families as well as our staff we are beginning to look at a program down in Naperville our consultant Gail Wallin has connected us with a consultant and uh Ms Perkins I would be going taking a road trip down there with Miss Chester to take a look

062at what those programs look like very successful programs down there and I had visited that before when I was in another District doing similar kinds of things and uh Ms Perkins if you want to add into anything else the that I've added here about really the benefits for staff and our families for going in this direction I think the only thing that I would add is rants um if we're able to offer um to get the grant it's all based on weighted criteria and everything that we're saying that we're going to offer uh giving this program to our students who are most at risk so this would be students who are at risk for academic failure we do a lot of screening um at ELC students who are speak a parents who speak a different

063language students with IEPs these would all be criteria that would push us towards the top of receiving these Grant funds and just like our preschool for all grant that is a competitive grant that we've received all of these years that we've been able to offer the program and so they look at what our population is and what what our community needs are and what our parents are telling us and they await all of those items to say your school your district is in need of these funds currently we serve about 200 students in different programs at ELC and so we would be able to support that more should we get the Grant and be able to expand the program with very minimal think of renovation here very much can you do you know how many

064kindergarteners we have total in the district yes I can give you account currently rain all kindergartens and just kindergartners in the district right now we're at 254. so we're almost serving we're but 80 percent roughly so if we're at 200 just a ballpark number you know a round number so 80 percent of the kids are going into kindergarten are coming through here but if we could move it into a full day program that would be even you know more advantageous well I am we have some gaps obviously and we can't expect to play catch-up with our kids in the sixth grade the seventh grade the eighth grade when they are a year and a half two years behind I think everyone know that prior to coming into the district and I think that I think

065this is the right thing to do to get more kids into our ELC program I think everybody knows that I think everybody is in agreement with that right and just how we do it and with the addition of possible building I don't know exactly where how that's going to fit in but something's going to happen take advantage of the opportunities with the grant money and how that's allocated to the program and you said you was looking at going to Naperville taking a road trip yes they have a very assistant superintendent yes they have a solid program okay and I think I mentioned a couple meetings ago the possibility of a partnership with Governor State that family educational program there so I don't know if you had a chance to look at that or whatever but

066I talked to the new director over there today and I'm telling you this person was so excited that she got a call from me for the opportunity to partnership with us like no tomorrow not only three-year-old and four-year-olds but prior to you know two-year-olds and one-year-old because I mentioned before that it's been documented that a child or anybody would learn more in the first five years of age the first five years than any other time in their life I believe that so if we're getting these kids that's behind coming in to our kindergarten and then trying to play catch-up and I got uh well that's a whole nother thing that's for next week from the conference I went to back in November from another superintendent from another District about learning so this young lady from

067Governor State was so excited for the opportunity she said bring the whole board over set up a meeting with me tomorrow she's ready to come here next week she's waiting for an email from me tonight to share to share what she has to offer to us and there may be some limitations there may be some barriers financially or what have you but again we need to look at opportunities too find a way to make this happen as opposed to finding reasons not to make it happen so with the board be interested in hearing from her the director either bring her here next week or I'll have you and our assistance we can certainly follow up with her can you do that I'll give you the information and you can bring it back to the board

068next week because I think there's a sense of urgency needed here if it's agreed upon with the board she was just I mean I was I was saying hallelujah for the last two hours just I you know what if she was a car salesman she sold me okay the the worst car money could buy but she had all the answers all the answers maybe I didn't have all the questions but she had to only answers just looking for a partnership we partnership with Kankakee for different things we partnership with Prairie State for different things we partnership with speed and all of that so if our needs or if the parents needs for getting our kids in the ELC program our net not met here somehow we can connect with the program at Governor State in

069some capacity yeah again there may be some limitations Transportation so on and so forth but let's see let's see where it goes she was excited and then certified teachers over there so I don't think there's going to be butting heads and conflicts and things of that nature I just think it lends itself and it behooves us to have those robust crucial conversations with the powers to be over there okay Mr Brianna I will add that I will I'm a predecessor uh director Chester had been working on that Governor State partnership because we have lots of Partnerships with Governor State and so I believe the young woman you're speaking with her predecessor Chester had set up a couple of uh things with um that program and part of this expansion Grant is a parent initiative right

070now our ELC program we take students as young as three years old but part of this expansion Grant I believe there's a parent initiative where we could hire staff that would be birth to three that would go to homes not here on site but we would partner and do home visits and work with those students and again screen them through our process so that when they reach age three we're able to fully support them that's you know that's where I want to go with this I mean it's early as possible again we're not in no babysitting you know we're not here to babysit but there's a big element of social economic issues you know it's you know being caused by parents who are not caused by the parents of what have you the end of

071the day a kid that's born in our district more likely is going to come through our district so the earlier we can get to them best we could the better and I think that is going to be one of the ways we can start monitoring once we get our hands on this you know we can start monitoring where these kids are with the achievement Gap again a quote from a young lady at the at the conference that I went to in November that most of us went to she said all of her students will be at grade level reading by the third grade all she said all of her eighth graders will pass algebra all that was a commitment that was a goal and that was in her strategies can we say that you don't

072have to answer that's a rhetorical question can we say that we proudly said it but can we bring that to fruition I just say it again this is something here I don't know if we ever Dove that far the ELC program is is great here is great that's why so many people want to get into it and we should not be able to shut anybody down and what we cannot bring in let's go out and reach out to the other powers to be as a partnership that's all sorry I was long-winded but no no as as my mother used to say it's not that I talk so much just that I have so much to say [Music] um no that was good information Mr Brown uh my question is it sounds like with the Grant

073and you can correct me if I'm wrong it's key to have some things in place so and know where you're going so that you can be in a better position to get the grant yes and you're saying purchasing a bank helps us move this along to get where we need to go for this correct okay yeah we can't apply for the grant if we don't have the space please say yes you so if we keep you central office in the building can you how so here's the question if it's due by the end of February even if we agree to this how does that timeline affect the grant how long does a grant take to get I believe that the you have to apply by the end of February that they will let us know

074probably I thought it was April I have to look it up in isby and I think they let us know in April if we have it for the next year then so am I assuming it's kind of like you have to submit a plan to them of what you have here so it's not that you actually have the space because you're not going to implement it immediately you're gonna have to implement it probably for next school year right you're gonna have to submit a plan to tell them what your next school year is going to be about yeah no the plan would be that's what I mean it's not going to be an immediate thing so regardless we have time to apply for the grants make the move do we need to do but again

075this is going to happen tomorrow it's going to be applied for the 23-24 school year yeah it's for the 23 24 place I mean again on the purchase of the property you know that whole process is going to take three or four months is it going to take that long well I think so you know lawyers are lawyers you know [Laughter] so my assumption is you're you're you're making a cash purchase be a cash purchase just like we did with Burger correct so with that being said that should not take that long I don't think a little detail like you know you know I want to talk to the president Bank you know if the board is okay with that I'm going to talk to him about including all the furniture There you know and

076I've got a couple other ideas that I may want to include trust in but so talk about that I guess that's what we need to make a decision we need more information because at first we were brought up to light that I think it was the value was at 680 now it's at 750. and remember it's on an appraisal in an inflation time right so that's a concern for me is that you pay for that and then in three years what I just want to make sure that our value for what we're getting is sure because I know he says whether he works one way or another but the building's sitting we have to make it work for both parties not one I I agree with that 100 so I mean we could have our

077own appraisal done I would just Gary say did all board members get a chance to go over there's a nice building every board member got a chance to walk it down Dr Hall I don't think are you going tomorrow okay [Laughter] some of that due diligence if the board wishes I can go ahead and um get an appraisal on it and again we're not negotiating in public so we still get that we still get that that's correct so I guess the point is before you get an appraisal a sheet email just there is a conversation that needs to be had okay and and that and I think you stay where you're at right now but there's a conversation that can be had and I think it's going to be done the fact that it's not

078going to run through bonds and financing there's something to be said there and if we're going to expand that then the other thing I would like is a timeline uh and and a forecast of what our costs are going to be because if we're going to do something we need to make sure we can maintain it it's the same thing with the buildings right you said you set aside two million dollars for preventative maintenance I want to make sure that that is followed in in retrospect because the condition of the buildings is because we never followed that before sure so going forward we want to make sure that everything that we're investing in that we maintain it and that includes our employees so I want to make sure we don't expand and then say oh

079my goodness we don't have what we need to continue so what's the timeline for this because it sounds like you need to right purchased this bank so that you can start with the Grant and do we have a consensus from the board that we want him to get our own appraisal how long it depends how much it costs I mean I mean we're talking 670 to 7 was it 670 to 750 about 100 Grands the 8800 Grand over and it's 70 it's 70 000 is the difference and my point is it's worth a conversation you might not even have to get an appraisal so that that's all it is it's just a conversation but we definitely don't want to lose out on grant money but I think this is this is I believe and again

080don't let me speak for the entire board but I think this is high up on the chart as far as the ELC getting our kids and expanding this program and trying to make things happen and there's no reason why you can't move forward with writing the grant while we're making this decision yeah you're exactly right that's correct which keeps our timeline and the same thing you're you're submitting a plan and then and then if something for crazy reason falls through we revoke our well again I mean if they don't they don't say okay you've got the grant but we'll do it correct so I would say I know that I know that but it doesn't felt like this is so if you need consensus to move forward I I agree we continue to move forward

081with some of the information you provide us we can make a decision then sure that way so with conversation not necessarily an appraisal yeah so just go forward with some conversations and bring us back more information definitely I would change the phrasing a little bit as the district purchasing a bank sounds well it doesn't have any money but people don't know that perception is reality you know yeah the district just purchase a bank well that's right there you go what would you like us to bring back for next week's agenda to put on the agenda and answer okay here here's what a good answer they will have that discussion by next week okay I'm just trying to plan my agenda I think let me let me take some time and I think what we can

082do is come back that Community as a whole February I can have that discussion by then by that point it's Perkins and I could sit down we can talk about yes that gives you a month to figure out the conversation what our costs what our forecast is going to be and then we'll have a better information we'll get out right and then discuss the committee of the whole and then we can make our decision and then if if there are negotiation things you want to come say is there any specific you can do that closed session or excluding okay got it thank you all right I'm going back you said at least expire end of January you can extend it yeah not a problem we're covered okay oh yeah candy really wanted number two I

083think they're always ready number two uh discussion on a resolution providing for abatement of 2020 lovely adjustment if you remember we did this last there's adjustments that are made it's a new state law that came out beginning last year adjustments that are made to 11 we can recapture those funds if we wanted to uh last year that amount if you remember we have made it back 300 degrees I haven't gotten this year's figure yet um I think it's going to be about the same my recommendation would be to evade that and not ask for that money from the taxpayers [Music] well when one of the one of the problems it was not a qualm abating the money but it was a crime broadcasting publicizing right I think Bill brought it up that you know this

084is a good thing it is this is this is very unusual that we do this especially a financially challenged School District to do with your raise they have something no um uh yeah I think I think one of the things Mr Brown is that we need to do a better job of marketing marketing that and getting that out to the public show uh that'll follow me and I'll work on that with Dr Karen we'll get that out so we broadcast that out you know what's important this would be the second year so to to note that and the other thing is I'm I'm I would like to know how many other taxing bodies did that it would be very interesting so as much as we as much as we take we do take a lot

085of flack because we're at 66 67 percent of the tax bill but for the second in a row we'd be doing that that would be huge news to our to our communities well Monique is definitely doing something like this but it's for Moni yeah yeah Monie did it well they didn't well they didn't you have a data debate this right not this but they did a 50 property tax uh from their portion now could you tie into this it's not the same money but they did a different type they did the different right right and it was well publicized it was yes so or maybe we just need some simple talking points I know I had trouble explaining it so you know how like in politics you turn the station and you hear the same

086message from every different news program maybe we just need to be better at that I should do that yeah umala and I think I don't know if you have number four on yours they might be the same thing actually to be honest with the discuss your acceptance for for a total contract of 394 to Midway Contracting so one of the things if you recall one of the things we did over winter break was we abated the cafeteria areas in Balmoral and Crete so we could utilize those areas next summer to move furniture in so we're going to do the same thing over at Talala over uh spring break where we update their gymnasium so we can use that for storage there is a asbestos under the tile there so it's going to need to be

087done so maybe we can get it done Keith has already checked this out the contractor uh environmental Specialists and they said we could get it done that'll come before the board uh you know here which is uh on next week with this being it with abatement this was part of your presentation though this was one step of it leading into the summer because you're going to do more there but you're clearing areas in Christmas break and spring break to move furniture in to do the rest exactly right okay so Mr Brown I'll just share this real quick and then we'll have almost all of their flooring is asbestos fits the glue yeah that's yeah and so that's what's going to be going to be over the summer clean yeah the whole building this whole building

088is clean okay yeah and that's just a sign of the times back when they were built that's what they were using there's nothing and we're not doing anything as long as it's not Disturbed and we're not tearing up anything it's okay right now but we are addressing it which is important as the word is used non-fryable right okay okay okay thank you you're welcome do we have to applaud for Ken [Music] you're the money man all right we're going to move on to our personal and culture we have a special treat for you tonight um we wanted to highlight for the board what we have been working on with our recruiters the board has been generous in letting us really focus on listening to what our staff has been telling us they have been struggling

089with lots of open vacancies of unfilled positions as well as struggling with not enough guest teachers and you know the staff has shared with us that they they have been working past their their 10 days as far as doing internal subbing and it's becoming exhausting for them so we have been listening to that and have been working quite aggressively to um to understand the our our own data understand uh what we need to do to go out Market it and then really focusing on you know this recruitment piece so today we're going to have Miss Trish she's really responsible for the certified recruitment she's been doing a lot out in the fields at universities and making connections and then more recently we have Christina Griffin she's really been focusing on the non-certified so they work

090as a team and tonight they're going to share a little bit about what they have I've been working on so I'm going to turn it over to you ladies I like the clap before well first of all happy New Years it's great to be back um so we're excited to share with you the board and our school Community um what the recruiting department has been to since its Inception the presentation that you're about to hear um will help will give you information and we'll help alleviate some of the concerns that our teachers have about the guest teacher pool shortage and also this presentation will help inform the public of the recruiting efforts for certified staff non-certified staff and our guest teachers so we'll talk about Guest teachers our target audience on onboarding practices certified teaching

091alumni okay and we are creep money we are here to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright future Christina good evening we recently launched the campaign Be Our Guest in response to our teachers expressing their concern about the guest teacher shortage as well as the issue with internal subbing initially we were well first we were able to identify several support staff who are non-certified who qualify for internal subbing it was a total of 29 throughout the district in each of our buildings they're spread out throughout throughout our building so we were able to confirm the credentials and then provide a list that will be maintained by the person on the culture Department moving forward so that way they're not completely relying on our teachers um this was also an opportunity for

092us to support our teachers by increasing Our Guest teacher pool in October of 2022 we reported that there were a total of 54 active guest teachers who were um wishes listed not include the permanent guest teachers since then we've added a total of 23 guest teachers so we've increased our pool to a total of 77 and our goal is 100 by Joan that increase was of 42 percent since October um and again we've recruited 23 new guest teachers we're also actively still recruiting at this time um we've increased by doing so we've increased our daily fuel rate of from 60 to 65 percent to 85 to 93 percent in that sense that's the short amount of time it's just been since then of November December yep Okay so what are we doing and who are

093we targeting with our recruiting efforts we are targeting our our local communities we are targeting alumni we are targeting local universities we are targeting universities that are out of state we are leaving no stone unturned we are looking everywhere for teachers so we're willing I'm going everywhere and doing everything I possibly can and you'll hear a little more about that as we look for teachers to help us with our teacher shortage oh I'm sorry in addition to that with our advertisement if you look at what you have we've started working on a district brochure because when I go out it's helpful to have some information that's neat and packaged to give prospective employees right so the first one we worked on and this was myself in Cala Erickson our new marketing person um and so

094we we worked on the district brochure not only did we work on it before we had it published we talked to Dr Cara and we did a focus group with the students at the high school they gave us some feedback on some of the things they thought were helpful um and so we made those adjustments we took it back to Dr Cara and then we went to the printer and so this is the result of the high school I mean of the district brochure in addition to that out of the Press today we just received the brochure for the Middle School because obviously we're not just looking for one school we're looking for all schools the goal is to have a brochure for each school um by the end of this week I will be

095sending to the press the brochure for the high school and then we'll start with each Elementary School we'll just go alphabetically to get those done and brochures are really important so that the message is consistent about what our District offers okay this is a career page so we want to talk about our expedited um pipeline so recently there have been some changes to help this whole process go along and streamline the processes with background checks the automation of the entire employee packet um the employee packet process and being able to streamline the efforts with new employees getting I.T devices and access access we're also being very transparent about the hiring process we know in education globally there are a lot of second career Educators yeah a lot of people entering at the education field as

096a second career and so they're unfamiliar with how school districts work we hear this question a lot when we're onboarding after the interview what's next and so in school districts a standard is that you have the interview you're recommended for hiring because we are a uh we have a centralized hiring process everybody has to come through HR um once the job is is extended what's next so we have the final approval by HR the onboarding process involves the fingerprinting and background check several appointments but we've streamlined that process as well by just allowing access for our entire department and we're all able to fingerprint at this time um and then the next part is the board approval and a lot of our educators are just not familiar with a lot of our new hires are

097just not familiar with how long that takes so that timeline gives them some anxiety but this will allow for some really fair and that's just part of our website can you scroll down a little bit please we've moved from a landing page where you're only able to do you were only able to go in and say okay what position am I applying for to a to this website and so it's going to tell it's in progress It's not complete but we want them to know why our current team members work have chosen to work for Crete Moni we've highlighted some of our alumni we've highlighted some of our community members you see here we have uh Karina who is willing um to be the first person and she said I'm a true warrior she sleeps

098and breathes all things creep Monique she represents the community as an alumni as a parent as an employee and she says she's seen this District through several lenses and she know that this is where she belongs we know that belonging starts with connection and so this is part of that connection how do I become a guest teacher several things have changed over the years with how you can they become very creative with how we are able to get our guest teachers license in the state of Illinois and so this is letting them know how do I become a guest teacher where am I on the Spectrum so if you were to it's a link there if you were to click the link you're able to go in and see what is being saying now as

099of January 1st they're saying that if you have 90 credit hours complete in the Illinois approved State program you're able to become a guest teacher and so that's already increased our pool we've been able at five just since January 1st five new guest teachers and then it gives them the contact who do I call if I need assistance we're still building it out but this is just the start we wanted to share with you because we're really excited about for staff and we just wanted to highlight that currently for the 2020 to 23 school year we only have we have five certified open positions um they're currently being filled by guest teachers some of which are two of which are licensed teachers operating in a capacity of guest teachers we are anticipating um for where

100we're planning forecasting for our retirement pool as well we have a total of six leaving for 2020 to 23 school year so we're focusing our efforts on securing placement collaborating with our building administrators so that we can find out where they are if they're going to be reassignments to fill those positions if so what help what support can we provide to them um we have six we have 29 in the pipeline overall over the next four years for resignations we're forecasting based on the well actually we're looking back at data from the last five years we had to go back a little further we were thinking three years but five years would give us a really good idea um of our averages for resignation so that we can plan and fill our pool with talented

101um professionals who fit the warrior profile which we'll talk about that in just a second um for the reassignments we talked a little bit about that and then for the hard to feel Physicians we've identified those as your science your math bilingual education foreign language we know that the technical theater director has been posted for a while so we have a few leads on that we've been able to feel in just a short amount of time the Adena student position at the high school with an African-American who's going to be joining us he's currently in a very competitive program one of the top 10 in the program at for UIC he's going to be joining us in January so our team is our greatest asset we strive to build a strong smarter team by hiring

102people who fit our Warrior profile so what is our Warrior profile our Warrior profile will represent not only our existing staff we created a standard we worked uh we've had unofficial focus groups we've collected some information and insight uh from several of our district office uh staff as well as our team members outside of district office and what we identify as a warrior profile is five characteristics that each person who we have here now currently employed and those who we are looking to attract and retain of five character races include they need to like children this is education yeah you have to like children um it's not optional you need to be a professional and we found that that word is very subjective and so we took the liberty to actually uh identify what a

103professional is for Crete Moni which is holding yourself accountable for your thoughts your actions and your words it's being reliable is someone who demonstrates that they care about their job every aspect of their jobs we know that you won't love every aspect but you need to at least care about it because it is affecting our kids you need to be collaborative because just by Nature this is a very collaborative environment there's no way nowhere in Crete money that you can work along um you need to be empathetic and that's simply understanding another person's experience by imagining yourself in their shoes and then the last thing which is really really important that there to us is embracing diversity because we don't just have race as a diversity here we have people are coming from all different

104places and backgrounds and situations and so you need to be able to embrace diversity so that we can maintain a healthy culture here okay so a certified teacher recruiting what type of teacher is an onboarding designed to develop and how do we retain them so when I'm going out to these job fairs when I go to universities when I'm sending emails when I'm making phone calls when I'm returning returning phone calls this is what I'm thinking about right so onboarding is just not the process that starts once they're here once employees are here during orientation it starts with our website it starts with communication it's so those are the things that I think about so we have I'm in preparation through partnership so some of the things that I'm doing is establishing Partnerships with colleges

105and universities and or re-establishing those Partnerships that we've had in the past there's a chance to overcome the teacher's shortage so what's the solution to actively recruit and select teachers so what am I doing I'm going to recruiting events job fairs mock interviews I'm looking at student teachers and I'm looking at how to retain them so with recruiting events some of the things that I've done is that I went to Indiana Northwest University and they had an event I went to the event I had a good time I asked me to be a part of their book club right so do I mean it's okay yeah but what does that do that gives me an opportunity to opportunity to make connections so while it was there another event I went to at Indiana northwest University

106was because they received their Hispanic servicing institution designation which is a designation because of the amount of Hispanics that they service at that institution they are the second one in the state of Indiana with that well why would I go to that number one I was interested number two our focus is also to create and I'm sorry to recruit a diverse working population so it only made sense for me to go there so then after that what do I do I go to the federal um State Board of Education and look at this designation because I wanted to know how much money did they receive well they've received three million dollars in Grants to do what to help support students those students who could eventually become teachers who could eventually come here and then we'll

107talk about why Indiana is so important a little later so those are some of the things that I've done I go to job fairs I've been to job fairs and I will continue to go to job fairs no matter where they are if I'm invited I will go mock interviews some universities that I've reached out to um have shared with me that we're too far for student teachers to travel and so I've said I'll do anything that I can to support your education program let me know and so I've had Aurora University reach out to me and I spent the evening there assisting them in the education department doing mock interviews with students um yes I did pass out business cards and yes I did follow up with emails to them um and I also

108did the same thing with Northwestern University they reached out to me to help them do two sessions um in addition to that Northwestern also called me and asked me would I be a panelist on discussing the teacher shortage and doing the so I am I've actively out there cold calling and doing whatever needs to be done so that we'll have the best opportunities we have to service our students and then again part of that is the marketing I have to have something when I go out there so that's part of a presentation that's part of brochures Flyers all those different things mean something as far as marketing you have a Be Our Guest flyer you may have seen this on our social media Outlets or on your community posted as well um that's part of

109our efforts and we also had an um for one specifically for our retirees and for retired Educators we've been able to obtain or to secure um employment with six new retirees just over the last couple of months with those flyers so you'll be amazed by just the message when people know what you're looking for they're committed to helping you fill those gaps okay alumni I'm not this is a great one so we're building a powerful Alumni network and this was done through stages um with Dr Cara and um Carol Erickson who who's not um and so I'm stepping in to assist so stage one was the preparation building a strong Alumni network stage uh I'm sorry stage zero stage one was activation a campaign launch completing alumni profiles identify active alumni the campaign launch will

110start tomorrow that information will be going out there will be a survey that will go out to all alumni alumni out in the public and alumni that are working within the district asking them their thoughts and ideas in addition to that we will make active the new website and I'll get to that for you um stage three is the engagement so once we launched a campaign we'll have people sign on complete the alumni profiles we want to be able to identify active alumni right the only way we can do that is if you sign in and once you get to the website you will not be able to see anything until you sign in um stage three is resource and mobilization we want to be able to build professional groups and mobilize resources for our

111alumni which is going to be important right um and eventually when it we want to start looking at alumni giving programs because they want to give back and then to make sure that we're doing a good job with the website and with the program we want to be able to measure our engagement right so we should be able to look in you know the last 30 days the last six days UH 60 days the last six months how many people are active not just how many people but who are active and what are they active addictive in doing on the on them so that's important so why would people someone want to join this well for nostalgic reasons reasons you're a graduate you know you went here and so you're interested in giving back and

112contributing and perhaps mentoring all those things are important and we have a really large alumni population here whether you graduated which we've identified 50 team members who graduated from Korean and curly employed and then we haven't even launched a survey yet that's just Word of Mouth pay up I graduated from Crete but we also have individuals who attend decree and who know people who attend accrete so building that builds our community okay thank you and so the survey will go out tomorrow and for the first 100 people to sign up the district we're offering them a welcoming gift for all of our um alumni and Friends alumni let's go go up a little bit well down scroll to the top fourth please yeah scroll to the top for us all right so you see the

113little emblem up there isn't that cute you you have two people you have one with a grad with a graduate uh graduate cap on and then another person so this is our new alumni website creep money Warriors and this is for the alumni and friends look like you might have to change a mascot [Laughter] you're right um and so is you click on when you click them so once you sign up the site is active and that keeps people from just going on and looking at things without being a really a part of it you can join there's a directory we'll have news there we'll um Spotlight alumni so there'll be alumni stories there'll be events and opportunities for you to give back and with the upcoming 30th uh year anniversary um for the class

114of what is that 1993. this a lot of excitement is being built around alumni so they're actually anticipating the alumni and Friends in addition to this I just wanted to say um the district was able to secure 8 alumni contacts of that 8 000 we were able to secure 4 000 emails so of those 4 000 emails went out to alumni and um so we're excited about it I hope you are and we're looking for a great response oh done yeah go back yeah you better do that okay if we can just go back a little bit with the certified recruiting um done I don't like it I got it okay we we know that we currently have 309 certified teachers we know that less than 40 of our teachers represent the African-American population um

115so where urgency and and being strategic about really recruiting uh in their pool because African-Americans represent 61 a little over 61 percent of our student population um so we want to better align ourselves with those numbers um in addition can you can you repeat that again what teacher said we're going to be very strategic about attracting um a diverse pool of African Americans to better align ourselves with our student demographics uh here in addition and and I was just saying that we have less than 40 African-American teachers 309 total certified staff and only or less than 40 identifiers being African-American and we we're just going to be very strategic and intentional about recruiting in that area to better align ourselves I have a question about that yes so when you go to the universities do

116they have a number to say how many African-Americans are actually going to school to be teachers so is the pool that where we're missing the Mark or is it just that small and in addition to that many of these uh teachers or student teachers are getting their jobs when they student teach and because we're so far they're they're not choosing us for student teaching I've had instances where I've worked with um administrators at universities and I said well just please just try to just give me one and they say okay here's one and we'll go through the paperwork and they'll say you know what they decided that it was just too far to travel you know so they're being recruited before they even graduate we we have had some success with our Partnerships I know

117Oto built the infrastructure for um the teaching to learn transition to teach program and then also introduced to the district the paraprofessional to teaching uh we have in November we had two paraprofessionals who went through that program graduated from my program and feel unfilled positions over at Early Learning Center we also had uh two listed on the December Personnel report who are African-American and they came out of our student teaching program so those connections are there we're going to expand those connections we're going to be very intentional about it we're going to let them know exactly who we're looking for I guess and and that's great and I guess the question is when if a university has 100 students uh going to be teachers you know or they're going for that I guess the question

118is because Mr Brown brings it up a lot you know how do we uh change that ratio but the difference is I think if teachers come in here let me be honest if 10 teachers walk through the doors and they were certified we'd hire them right I mean everybody's in a shortage but is there not enough African-American students going into teaching to fill those to fill those roles I mean I'm just wondering if in college are enough people are those not are they not feeling those seats you know or it's somebody else we'll have uh the data for you um yeah I'm just wondering because you guys go to the university and see I'm just wondering out there who is actually uh going to college to be a teacher I can tell you and there

119were 67 students on there and there was not one African-American that's the so that's the question so we struggle here Mr Brown brings it up all the time was how do we attract African-American teachers if they're not there to get how do you attract them because that's the question is if 10 African-American teachers walk through the door we would whether whatever nationality or race they are we would hire them but the fact is I don't think they're there that's the question you know 67 and there was none that's a that's a concerning um I guess number that they're not going into that field interest in statistic is that we had 253 applicants for High School teaching positions between March of 2022 and December 2020 until 73 identified as being African-American so we have African-Americans who

120are applying petition positions you say they apply that's why we're going to be collaborating with our administrative team our hiring managers to see yeah and I do understand what Bill's saying you know if you don't have a pool you can't get any from a pool but I recall just years ago that we had multiple teachers within our school district being African-American and other nationalities of the minority status apply for the district Physicians as a certified teacher and unbeknownst to me really did not get higher for reasons unknown to me put up like that so and I know again a few years back that the bar was raised in The Matrix for hiring and I think Lyle can speak on that so I don't know if that was something that the minority certain minority teachers wasn't

121able to adhere to I don't again I don't know the reason so it is this is very disturbing to see these numbers I'm looking at the student body has really drastically dropped the enrollment from 5 000 to 4290 we promote 5 000 on our website I don't know if we changed that but 5000 has been there for a long time and and I think you mentioned it that 10 of what we have now of all of our staff roughly 600 that we have roughly 60 African-American staff just the staff not teachers not certified teachers right less than 60 teachers teachers okay and the demographics of African-American students is 61 percent in a district but I think it's like 75 percent in the high school and I think we only have what one two three African-American

122teachers at the high school certified well I was going for for a while I don't know what it is now and even looking at Hispanic we got 17 of a student's demographics are Hispanic and yet we only have one percent and you mentioned that we Embrace diversity and again I'm not and I give kudos to you the gallon effort and trying and I just think I don't know it's hard enough at this time these are very trying times it's hard enough at this time just to get any type of certified teacher out there let alone let alone African-American or other minorities I just wanted just doing good business what other things did it bring to have more minority teachers and that's kind of what I was bringing up is that I know you you talk

123about that a lot which is important very important but if there's no pool to get from that that's what it does as at a barrier it makes it hard I will tell you this is something we haven't seen I don't think we've ever done this in our district have we this is great I mean I'm thinking that you know and I use the word that in in 2022 and even part of 2021 that I meet to death was communication but it is so important that your communication to those schools whether they um send anybody or not we're on we're in the back of their mind like they have we've hired that's correct African-Americans over the last so secure I also have a dean of students a position that was just hard to feel with anybody

124for a while due to um we had three African-Americans who were um recommended for hire and we're excited until they learned about the salary so in a good way or bad way in a bad way because they were coming from CPS and we know that we don't compete with CPS in terms of salary and it's a non-administrative position so um but we were still able to secure Edina student who is uh African-American and again coming from one of the top 10 programs so before you say that I just want to make sure we get it on air is public and yes well you can vouch for this we are paying our teachers for the most part Market salary are we are we not whose Market are you looking at really difficult it's difficult to answer

125that question because there's so many things that go into uh no that cannot be difficult because that's what happened well you have brought that to us and and you've brought evidence and you brought data and says hey boy you know you need to get it up here you need to get it up there you need to get to Market salary until we said okay we was there well what a change what I say is from what my understanding but when you start looking at the high school level because we are you in the district that's the that's the answer it's not uh it's so normal High School District could get 120 000 whatever the number is right maybe 920 after some time it could be correct depending on where you are and it all is

126relative to the district that you're a part of but the truth of the matter is as a high school our high school teachers may not be as competitive as surrounding High School Districts Elementary wise we're we probably are we're there so right now the one thing I wanted to say about the recruiting of since we were talking about it of African Americans um I think it starts at the school at the high school level the elementary school level and why do I say that because I always tell people when they talk about the shortage of African-American men why do I want to be a part of something that treated me so bad I wouldn't want I don't want to be a part of that so and whether people believe it or not or think it's

127fair or not the perception is that one you can get more money make more money actually doing the job instead of teaching a job or they say those who can do those who can't teach um and then the other thing is if you felt like you had a bad experience why do you want to go back into that field so that's why I say it starts here so it's so important who we put in front of our kids to make them think wow I remember my third grade teacher or I remember my principal from high school I remember this or that and and make you excited help make you excited it's like I I love I love watching Michael Jordan I want to be a basketball so it's no different so that's the one of

128the biggest things now what they're doing I love it I love the brochures I love the creativity I love the the drive it it makes me excited to to see the serious yeah so that's very very good so keep doing what you do keep going out keep being seen um and it's gonna happen with one of the other things I wanted to add is so um to answer Mr Brown so I have to go where our minority candidates are so that is your HSI your Hispanic um servicing institutions and that was part of the reason why I went to Indiana northwest and that's part of the reason why I joined your book club and then there's your historical black colleges and universities right so I have to actively um seek them out we don't have

129any here in the Midwest right but I am still in communication with them online and if there's a job fair um that a collective group of hbcus are having I'm sure I wouldn't have a problem I wouldn't have a problem going um as long as I'm able to go I will travel and do whatever I need to do to get what we need here at this district and Mr Brown we want you to know that um we're vested we're vested in diverse diversifying our pool i i attended cream only I had from eighth grade into high school I hit zero African-American teachers um and so it was really important to me to come back and that alumni connection all of these moving parts are going to play into how we're going to be able to

130build our African-American pool and diversify so that our students can um have people who look like them yeah and it's more dangerous and I'm definitely not not driving down the path of trying to have a quota system no no no no I think there's an element of again as Dr Hall alluded to about there's just a piece that maybe many don't understand that uh African-American teacher can give African-American student not in its entirety of the educational process but there's just another added element and we need everything we could get we see the team the gap and what's bringing that about you know what demographic is bringing that about for the most part so yeah we need the best teachers for who we are trying to cause the students to learn that's that's that's all I'm

131saying here absolutely and again diversity is is that's not just a a name throw on or a term thrown out there in the world that's that's just good business in the corporate level the school level and all factors of life so it's just a good business and jumping on that the students in our district I think have a great opportunity to be in a diverse situation so that when they're going on in the workforce it it it it's life it's real life and I think marketing the district is so huge because we talked about the dominant group do you remember when we talked about how that one high school or one District in Wisconsin was lower and then they marketed themselves and they'd be it became you know uh not that the best but they

132moved themselves up into a great position where they attracted good uh you know good staff and everybody to be able to retain that and people wanted to come there and stay so it's really important yeah I'm just looking at too at the Hispanic you know we talk about 17 of the students demographics is our Hispanic students and yet we only have a staff demographics of one percent and just that for a Hispanic student could at whatever given point maybe it may even speak Spanish or something for for whatever reason a personal reason could communicate with that student in on a different level whatever that adds value that adds value it does so I do take my hat off to you I know you're not finished your presentation but you just had a segue open for

133me to talk about this because this is what I've been driving and and Lyle you did a good job and you was out there by yourself now you got help okay and we even got a title director recruiter and non-certified recruiter good teamwork okay I know that um of personnel and culture has in sured that there are no artificial barriers that are uh that will keep African-Americans from being part of our team we're adding that personal connection we're connecting with them 101 that was huge in our recruiting strategy for the dean of students we spoke with him over seven times and anything that he thought was um that he had a question about Iberia into coming into cremonie we were able to inform him we were able to answer those questions eat some of that

134anxiety he is excited to join us and he is going to be a lot of other people in the near future so we will diversify the school and let me just say so there's one thing to talk about onboarding this is another thing to talk about hiring so what do we do and how do we treat people while they're here right and so those are some of the things that we're looking at as well so at the beginning of the year I spent my time going around to all of the different buildings greeting our teachers initially right hi I'm Marjorie Trish I'm the new District recruiter just to make sure everything is going okay is there anything I can help you with and some people have some concerns or some questions and I was able

135to direct them to where they needed to go and then I went out again um a couple of weeks later hey how's everything going those are the things that are important because like um Dr Hall pointed out we are competition with your high school districts right you can go across the street and make 15 to 18 000 more so what sets us apart is that connection our Warrior Pride right we have to have something that people want to come here and be a part of I heard I heard you mention everything except a dynamic board in a dynamic that goes without mentioning but we don't have a conversation of things that we have to look at so it's a a huge Continuum from the beginning all the way through and so how do we retain

136them right sometimes being at the high school you know I looked at it as the minor leagues people come to our district to get the experience and then they go on to the high school districts so we have to figure out how do we prevent ourselves from being a minor leagues so is it salary is it culture is it pride so that's what we're here to do we're going to figure it out okay okay uh so in addition to some of our accomplishments that we share with you here um we talked about analyzing the data because the data will drive all of our efforts we talked about uh building so building our professional development we have an upcoming professional development schedule um as early as February 6 3 sessions coming up for our guest teachers

137we're building new connections uh Marjorie talked about the connections to she's been able to build at the Collegiate level uh we're building the infrastructure for the warrior profiles so that people know these five characteristics regardless of where you come from regardless regardless of your race um we want to welcome you here so we're building that out and then we have a a very effective recruiting plan um like I said that personal connection is everything in order to increase our African-Americans and our talent pool so I know there's less than 25 nationally African-American educators whoever fits their profile and they're within our reach we will connect with them and then we'll connect and we're networking we're expanding our Collegiate connections and connecting with our administrators to find out how we can assist to fill these positions

138and we're forecasting for the upcoming fiscal year as well and Beyond so we're excited about the work we know that you're very excited so thank you for having us today we appreciate it excellent thank you so much great presentation great job thank you guys so much that was insightful it's exciting you've done so many great things um just from what you started out with the whole guest teacher thing that's just incredible accomplishment so thank you very much I mean even though it was longer than 38 minutes no I've I've failed miserably at keeping this meeting to 38 minutes but we're it was great information yeah we can't thank you enough if you don't mind me asking what year are you an alumni from okay great job great job great presentation thank you don't worry we'll

139let somebody else run it we're going to let somebody else run it next week of that um let's move on so is there anyone who has any old business I do not anymore okay good I had one question for Ken Ken one more um yeah so Tiff closing dates in moaning up in your uh uh is is the fiscal year here at The District's June 30th or May 31st June 30th so my understanding is that you is your you're retiring so June 30th of 24. yes all right um are these tiffs the one eMoney and up the paperwork started uh January 1st of 24 or January 1st of 25. would that be before after you leave the the tips will dissolve in 23. this year they design however the municipality has a year to file

140the paperwork with the county of the dissolution so a year from the date today resolved so okay normally it happens is the by calendar year so it'll dissolve at the end of this year 23 then they'll probably they have to the municipality has to vote by resolution uh to pass a resolution dissolving the tip and then that is sent to the county clerk that is usually done at the end of the following year so in 24. so that'll be done those resolutions will probably be done I would say October November of 24. all right after I've evolved okay yes Monie has asked for an extension they uh we are setting up a meeting they want to talk to us the Dr Cara and I uh about that along with John Izzo our lawyer we've shared

141with them what the view of the board is and has said we're not interested but we will cordially well they've notified us at least through our attorney that they've won and if they would like to have an extension so both The Villages no not only oh only money [Music] again we've responded negatively towards that and but again they've asked to meet with us to do that originally I will share with you they wanted me to do this uh not only us but we wanted to bring some of the companies that were in the tip here to meet with us and I advise Dr Cara we should not do that not has nothing to do with the companies it has to do with it yes so I agree and if they don't file the paperwork and

142they don't do it are we at risk we are okay so so I guess we have to figure out the process and the plan because we have to stay on both now obviously modi's going to go one way or the other right they're aware they know what's going on but we have to stay a prize now we can't now Eric if I understand we can't force anybody to file any paperwork right okay so that's the question we have to because we've been questioning our John has been questioning since January of 21 you know what they're going to do on a resolution that they have passed on on funds uh University Park but there is some concern right now of of what of that there is and I I will say this not to speak for

143John at all but really we we hold there's nothing we can do to force them to do that you know that that's life but if they don't mean to our board it's saying I want you to do this but if they don't the detriment to the district is huge oh yeah yeah okay I just want to make sure we're on the same page because I I just want to make sure that we're we're on point but if something happens because the financial uh fall out of that could be well we we have one shot at this massive we've got one shot at this that's it so that it is very important and both ways so that's why monitoring money and yes right because they both expire higher at the same time yeah so you know

144on each of those you know we've only got one shot at this if you lose that is there any way of getting the the expiration date on both of them well according to the county they expire in 2023. but is there a date oh that I don't know that that would be a gender okay you know to be what month so then we know that the clock starts ticking yeah yeah okay thank you and uh this may be a journalism question too the extension typically is for 12 years so initial 23 years an extension for 12 years that's what they're seeking or can it be less I did not know that the photo but have they requested Monique requested they just said extension we extending one day to let us know that we're not going

145to extend again as I shared with the board my response to them is my starting price is that's over the over 12 years yeah yeah we'll we can talk yeah show me the money okay we're still in Old business any other old business all right other than Mr Brown is there any new business It's Gonna Give You Kudos like it's no get out okay all right do you have any new business great president but now I'm second guessing that I have no new business I did I do have one item if no one else does it's a it's a positive item buddy okay you got the floor um this just came on to my desk today so this is a good news item uh as you know we've had some issues with Skyward the last

146couple of years you know decades yes and as you know we have put a lot of energy and time into putting in professional development to our HRM business offices in the last couple years especially as we've gotten some turnover with the queue so I wanted to let you know that today I received a note that um Mr Ken surma has been awarded the Skyward 2023 leader in excellence awards are you kidding me so get this he received he received a nomination from District peers at Skyward it says his stood out because of the success you're experiencing with Skyward and you're there to inspire people with new ideas so he's going to be honored at The Icon conference in Saint Pete Florida in March one through third that's what I said so I think so there

147you go so just wanted to share that that was certainly a nice all right I take back my part of the forty five hundred dollars so so I could go yep [Music] so anyway congratulations and obviously this is a team event here we've had our staff has worked really well together in in pulling together on this and they've done uh really fabulous jobs so thanks for the cause of that program that could have actually expedited his retirement to possibly extended his retirement now with a bonus check which is really really cool I I really appreciate it but again it's good so thank you all right maybe your next career right right oh yeah all right well congratulations and thanks for your tenacity with that because I know it's not fun um any other new business

148all right well we do have a need for closed session um so let me get this right may I have a motion to go into closed session for Collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees so move second okay roll call Dr Hall aye Mr swallis hi Brown is an eye Mrs Walters aye aye president pro team I I will be going into closed session um am I correct in saying then when we come back the only thing we'll be doing is adjourning so we're going to stop the video right okay so uh we'll be going into closed session and we will not have any other business after that except for adjourning