001I call this meeting to order. Uh, roll call, please. Brown is here. Dr. Hall here. Mr. Sales here. Mrs. Mrs. Galbreth here. Mrs. Walters here. Vice President RP here. President Albert here. Please rise and join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And Mr. Rub, would you please recite the mission statement? Sure. Our mission is to empower each student to positively impact the world for a bright new future. Okay. Uh we've got a couple of public comments that were emailed in. Uh the first one is from William Morgan. Um and the topic is the TTRO out of Sangaman County. Hello all. Uh, one of the
002most important facets of the law is the idea that it should be predictable and not prone to wild shifts. We are a society built upon laws and not upon men. This is why the doctrine of starry decisis exists. It's part of why judges look to precedent not just to ensure that we are learning from what came before us, but in an attempt to ensure that there are no sudden shifts in the law. We find ourselves in the middle of one of these wild shifts. A judge out of Sangaman County has issued an order. Don't be fooled. This case is not about masks. It is about the governor's supreme executive power under article 5 section 8 of the Illinois constitution. That temporary order does not require Cremon school district to change any policy. In fact, even
003if it did apply to us, it still would not require us to change any policies. I want to thank the district for not subjecting the children the children of our district to a seessaw of ups and downs as a result of a temporary order that does not even apply to us and a case that is continuing through the system and which has already been appealed. It is too disruptive to the learning environment to change a policy every time there's a new temporary order that does not apply to us. Thank you for taking our students and teachers health seriously and thank you for not subjecting our students and teachers to even more uncertainty in this difficult draining emotional time. William Morgan Mooney and the next is from Mary Oler um says dearmon 2011 school board and
004superintendent Dr. Caracoglanes. There is no doubt in my mind that there is still division in the community, the teachers and the staff members, the board members and the parents of Cremon 2011 school this year when it comes to health and safety guidelines in our schools. As we have all heard by now, Sangaman County Circuit Court Judge Railene Griska declared Pritskar's emergency rules for CO 19 mitigations in schools null and void. and she issued the order in a lawsuit with more than 145 school districts across the state. I know Creek Moni was not on the list, but we all know there is we all but excuse me, I know Creekmon was not on the list, but we all know as many other local school districts around the surrounding area scrambled over the past weekend to have
005emergency meetings to determine if they were lifting their mask rules. And as you know, most schools have lifted it and have given the students their right to choose. As of today 2822, some of the surrounding districts that have gone mask optional are Stagger, Mantino, Pietone, Beecher, Grant Park, Moments, Tinley Park, New Linux 122, Manhattan 114, Lincoln Way 210, Moina, Homewood, Philosoph, Frankfurt 157, Orland Park, and many more. Why was there no emergency meeting for this? You, as a school board, have had four days to call an emergency meeting. I am requesting as parent of the district that you hold an emergency meeting to discuss this more and to vote on having the school district in compliance with the newest court rulings. Thank you, Mary. Terry, was there any other public comment? No, sir. Okay. Um,
006next up, are there any board updates from any board members? I had one from IASB. Um it was a legislative report that I I as I'm the representative. Um just to let everybody know that the evidence-based funding proposed will be increased to about 350 million. Um Isby initially asked in December of 21 for 475 million for that to be increased and Prrisker agreed to 350 million. There isn't much more information other um it'll come down the road a little bit but it's good that it's changed. Ken, right? I mean that it's been increased 350 million. Yes. Do you know what caused the increase? Last last year we decreased or a couple years ago because of because of attendance. Well, again, what you have to keep in mind what Mr. Swash is referring to is the
007entire evidence-based funding fund that state for education increased by 350 million. Now, statutoily, I believe that's what they have to do. And so, what that will do for the next year is we'll also fund like $50 million for property tax relief grant also. So, what you're what you're mentioning, Mr. Brown, is our funding that we received was decreased. Uh, well, the additional money that we received was decreased. our fed our evidence-based funding was not decreased, but we became a a tier 2 school instead of a tier one school. So, instead of receiving an additional $800,000, we only received an additional $400,000 this year. During the pandemic year, all those extra funds, whether you're in tier 1, two, three, or four, were suspended. Nobody got those. So, that had gone away. But now that was back
008starting this year, this fiscal year that we're in right now. And the allocation that Mr. Swal is talking about will then u fund additional money for the schools in tier one, two, three, and four. Okay. Okay. All right. Thanks. Thanks, Bill. Any other board updates? Um, can we have a little more discussion about the uh public comments about the mask mandates? We were I was going to hit that under new business. Under new business. Okay. Is that okay? That's fine. Thank you. Okay. Um, so if there are no other board updates, going once, going twice, I'll turn it over to Dr. Cara for um administrative updates. Great. Um, I'm going to turn this over to Mr. Surma. He's going to give some uh followup regarding our capital projects that are going on right now. Mr.
009Surma. Thank you, Dr. Car. Uh, board. Just wanted to give you a quick update on um the um capital projects that are going on right now and also this summer too. So uh I put this little cheat sheet together so you have it. Um I have we have also posted this online under under what Terry what did we put this under? uh we just put it under administrative update. Thank you. So it's under administrative update. So it is on the website. It's on board book our board doc and all that too. So let me just go through this again. If you have any questions, please stop me. But I'm just going to kind of go through to give you an idea. The um the temporary cooling rooms at Belmoral Creek Scott King and Mon Education
010Center. All of the electrical work has been completed for that. Um, our next step is to install actually the window air conditioning units, uh, and fix some of the window panels that need to go in. Uh, that'll be done over spring break. Everything will be operational. The project will be complete by April 1 of 2022. The demolition of the sixth grade center and dome, as you can see, is continuing. Uh, there was oil tank results showing contamination, and there are two options to mediate. One is an option where you could drill some core uh samples and if it has not spread a lot, this is what EPA is telling us, you don't have to do anything with it. You can leave it because there was some seepage from the tank into the ground. The other
011option is you can begin digging that out and uh really excavating it and get rid of it rid of it. I'm working with uh our environmentalist to get a price on both of those options. Um I will say my preference would be to get it out of there. I would prefer not leaving the contamination there. Even though you could do that legally, I would prefer not to do that. But again, I will bring that to the board at some point. Uh you know, we'll have you guys can have a discussion on that, make a determination of that because we would have to award a contract on that. Okay. So, just Yes. I'm sorry. When you said legally we could leave it. What? I missing something there. I thought we had to do something. Well, so
012there that's why there are two options. The one option is they say you could drill down. You can drill a core, take a core sample to see if the fuel has has leeched out into some ground there in a specific area. Yeah. In a specific area where the tank was because when they took the tank out, because I was there when they took the tank out. So I'll just tell you what happened. when they took the tank out, it was ruptured on the bottom of the tank and you could just see diesel coming out of there. You know, the fuel coming out of there. Now, the good news is diesel fuel does not or the fuel that they use, the oil that they use does not spread as much as like gasoline does in the
013ground. It's basically just kerosene. Yeah. So, what what EPA is saying is that you can take these core samples and if has not spread out, then you can actually leave it. You don't have to do anything with it. All right, that that that's an option. Okay. However, the other option is you can go and excavate that dirt out of there and then you take soil samples to see, okay, have I excavated enough of it and take it all of it out of there and then once that occurs, then you just fill it in with new dirt. Okay, that's what I was wondering. So again, as I sat back and analyzed both options, I think the best option is to get it out of there because especially if you know, as we had talked about future
014fields, quite honestly, you could go by there and smell it and and you don't want to do that, you know. So anyway, let me I I'll come back to the board with this. I'll come back with both recommendations so that there can be discussion and you guys can then we can decide as we move forward. Well, just two just two questions. Why did we not drain the oil or suck the oil out before we tried to escalate? Sure, that's a great question. It was done. And so, so what happened is when they went um to when they found the tank and they opened it up, there was still some oil that was in there and what was in there was actually pearl uh that was put in there to fill the tank. Uh so it
015wasn't an absorbent. So they were actually in the tank and sucked out as much as that as they could. All right. And but you know, they just didn't get all of it. So again, they didn't know if it was going to rupture, but you know, when they lifted it out, it ruptured. And you know, you could just, you know, there wasn't a lot that came out, but I mean, you could smell it. And so it's there. And uh again, I think the best course of action is to take care of it. Okay. And the last question, do um you you probably don't know, but if you could go back and see how we handled a similar situation at the middle school when we built that addition. Yeah, I could see if the same contractor did
016that and see I I don't know. I can look at the paperwork and see if I have paperwork to address that. I don't know if we abandoned it in place, left it in place or took it out. Well, I'm sure the tank had come out, but I don't know what they did to mediate if there was any seepage or anything like that. Okay. So, you're saying we can actually leave the tank here? That's an option. No, the tank is out already. Oh, it's out. It's completely out. Okay. It's now we're just dealing with the ground and any seage that is in the ground. That's all. Okay. The the uh EPA has said that that is a very clayheavy soil. So, that helps also in that it doesn't spread as much too. So, even in excavating
017it, you wouldn't have to take we don't think you have to take a lot out. But we we'll see and that. But again, I'll I'll bring that back to the board so you can make a decision on that. Okay. Thank you. All right. The HAC electrical upgrades at Early Learning Center in Talala. Um, as you know, uh, we awarded the contract to RL Soho pre-construction meeting was held on February 2nd. The only issue is going to be uh I shouldn't say an issue, but it's something I just want to put on everybody's radar is the fact that the receipt of the chiller for these projects is about 20 weeks out. Uh and that so it it it's going to be really tight and uh I will keep you up to date on as we go,
018but uh they are ordering it now. Mr. Swall's sitting there going, "Yep, we know that you know and that." So, it it's a ways out. Now, the good news is that we are putting some rooftop units into some of our larger areas like an ELC, the gym, the multi-purpose room, we'll have rooftop units that isn't affected by the chiller, which means, you know, if the chiller doesn't happen to get here on time, those areas will be air conditioned and so that will assist. But again, you know, our plan is that we think it's going to get here by the 1 of August. It's about a two-eek connection because all the other work will be done and we'll be on schedule. Again, I just wanted to let you know that, you know, that could be an
019issue. All right. Life safety projects at HBAC Prep, both at Belmoral Creek, Kretta Scott King. Uh the bid documents will be going out in midFebruary. Um I'm going to ask and um I would like to make a recommendation and I think Dr. Ker shared this with the board about possibly moving the March 15th meeting to March 22nd. The reason for that, it gives us more time to get the bid documents out there so that we can get it at the March 22nd meeting. We don't think we, the architect doesn't think we'll have the turnaround time if we do it on the 15th. And if we wait till April to approve the contract, it's going to be too late for materials and all of that stuff. So, uh, I'm going to ask the board u, and
020to see if we can move that meeting from the 15th to the 22nd then, which is just a week later. Okay. Um, the east wing. Ken, just a minute. Do you need them to make that decision now? I think Terry I I think Terry is looking into to see if we have to vote on that. Uh, because that would not be tonight. We would put that as if we have to vote on it, we'll put it as an action item next meeting. Got it. Okay. You know that. So, uh, go ahead, Terry. I was just going to defer to our attorney. [Music] Yeah. No, I I don't think we have to take a vote on it. I think that the board can reset its schedule just like it does. Right. Because there's just going to
021be enough time. We're giving the public enough time to uh make the necessary changes. Thank you. What is the pro what Ken? What is the what is the problem with staying on course with our regular schedule and just having a special meeting for to address Well, we we could have a special meeting to do that. I I just don't know if the board wants to have a meeting just as one agenda item. That's all, you know, and then so uh I I'm open to either one, but I just thought it would be more prudent that we just w that meeting a week. I don't think it'll affect the personnel report at all. I think we talked to Mr. Deal about that. Um so I, you know, I think we would be okay. So, okay. I
022say I say we just move it to the 16th, celebrate, and then celebrate your birthday. We're good. I thought it would be key to move it a week because we're already having trouble with two meetings. Things are are busy to have like a third meeting. I prefer to not have a third meeting, but that's just me. I think if we have to take care of business, let's do it all at one time and it's only a week. Okay. So, that's my feeling on it. Thank you. Um, also then the east wing of Crete Elementary, which is the area that is nonAVA compliant, that east wing over there, um, we'll be closing that down March 25th, uh, which is the last day of school before break, spring break for the rest of the year for asbestous
023abatement and mechanical room. We talked to the principal there. We also talked to the staff in that area because it'll give us a jump start. That part of that area is going to become our new mechanical room uh for the building and then we're redesigning the rest of it for some office space and all of that as part of the project and there is a lot of asbestous in there. So this will give us a jump start on it. Excuse me. And of course the asbestous cannot be done with children in the school. So this will give us the opportunity to get the asbesus done. So, are you doing that only during the week that they're on break? Only during the week. Yes. And then after that, it's just regular construction. Yes. Well, and and
024let me clarify that, too. So, the regular construction will be after hours because I do not want construction going on while the school is in session. So, we're working out that and so has agreed with that. Okay. Uh Belmoral Elementary will see a new main office do the installation of water storage tanks. So, what this means is because that building is on a well and we're putting in a sprinkler system, then we have to put in water storage tanks to hold the water uh in case a sprinkler goes off. And you have to hold enough water to sprinkle the entire building. Now, I'm laughing because these tanks are probably 15 to 20,000 gallons of water and we got to put two in. We're actually putting a small addition onto Belvor of about 1,300 square feet
025in order to fit these tanks in. Uh but we just have to do it because it's on the well. Where are you? It's it's taken over part of the main office that is there now in that area because that's going to connect into uh and I can bring clients to this or if you like to see them I can I can share that with them. And so then it'll connect into the mechanical room that is there. now also. Okay. Uh and re we're kind of rebuilding that mechanical room too. Thank you. All right. Sure. Uh and all of these buildings along with ELC and Talala uh will be closed for the summer on the last day of student attendance which I believe I think is whatever that Friday is March May 25th or 27th something
026like that. So at 3 p.m. those buildings are shut down and construction is moving forward. LED lighting uh at Creek Ele or at Creek Mooney High School. Bid opening was the 24th. The project came in uh approximately $50,000 under budget um due and uh due to some incentives we were able to get. Um I will be bringing that to the board on the 15th. A recommendation to award the contract. I did put information in the FYI for this Friday for you because this was a little bit late. I couldn't get on the docket here to discuss it. But that information is in the FYI that you'll get on Friday. Um, and actually the savings, I will tell you this because I wrote this, but I just got done looking at everything, doing the figures. Um,
027the savings is actually going to be about $150,000 under budget from what we did. So, and we also think we may get an additional some additional incentives from Kameed because, you know, certain board members work for Kameed. I did all I could. So, uh, but there are there may be some additional incentives we get which may make that even better. Um, and that does include the use of the $50,000 uh project grant that we applied for and we received too. So, so that that's some good news. Um, the addition at the high school programming will start with the architect uh in March of 22. That will really that programming will really be it'll start with Dr. Cara and Miss Perkins and that when they start looking at programming and then they will begin to involve
028people however they see fit and all of that. So that will start construction looks like uh we're kind of setting that for fall of 22 with the opening of fall of 23. Okay. On the back are a couple of things that I'm also working on some other capital projects as I gone around the buildings and time to do some evaluations and that. So one is electronic signs and mares. Um, as you know, we have those at the high school and the middle school, but our elementary schools still have the oldfashioned. We got to go out, put up the letters, and they're falling apart. I'll just tell you that. So, um, I'm meeting with a contractor this week. Keith and I are, uh, to kind of get some pricing on these buildings. And these are the
029buildings. So, every one of our schools would have electronic marquees that would be able to be controlled from the school. So everything would be wireless the same way we have at the high school and we have over at the middle school on that. Um we may phase it in. I may be able to get some stuff done this summer. Um I probably you know I'll let the board know what funds I'm going to use. I'm going to talk about some funds in the next project. Um but you know possibly use of some construction funds or as I mentioned the next one playground construction at ELC. Um ELC is in desperate need of having a playground that is ADA compatible and that um it it kind of is now. There's a ramp out there, but one
030of the problems we have in all honesty is the grass out there. Uh we have to bring lawnmowers through the building to cut the grass. Uh and it it you know it's just not conducive um a proper playground. So, I'm I'm working on a design with a company to actually put rubberized concrete out there and astroturf, all new playground equipment and all of that. Um, in order to upgrade what is out there and to make it maintenancefree. Um, we have been allocated uh $1.2 million in IDEA carryover money that we found out about. The other thing that I will tell you is that uh FEMA just authorized and gave me another $31,000. Um and then I just got another $87,000 from uh emergency connectivity fund. I've gotten a bunch of money. So, um, while I
031can't use a lot of this idea money, I can use some of our current expenditures and have them allocated in this IDA money that frees up some money for the playground construction. So, again, it's a project that I'm working on that I will bring to the board and share with the board and then the board can make a decision on that. U, it will probably be, I'll be all honest, it probably is going to be up in the $250,000 range. Pardon me. Yeah, you got 150 from your other one. Yeah, I know. No, I know. And that that's part of it. And the other thing to keep in mind, too, is is the uh projects for ELC and Tala came in a million dollars cheaper in the bid, too. So, you know, again, I I
032just think there's some opportunity that we could do a few little things here and there as we go and put those on our plate. Uh and then I would bring those to the board as discussion. Ken, what what is IDEIDA carryover money? I'm sorry. IDA carryover is special education money, okay, that in the past we did not use fully. Now, I will I will share with you if you remember back a couple years, our audit hit us for some money that we did not utilize all of our money. So, give you an example. Let's say we are allocated in special ed money, which is IDA, a million dollars and but we only use 800,000. That money carries over. 200,000 will carry over. It can carry over from year to year. Well, we found that over
033the years now uh because of a consultant that that Miss Perkins had brought in and that we found that there's $1.2 million sitting there uh that we need to use or else we're going to lose it. And what types of things can we use it for? Um anything regards to special ed, but it has to be only special ed. Like, and I'll give you example. One year we purchased a the one of our white buses for transportation with IDA money, but only special ed students can use that. You can't use that for regular students in that. But what I can do is take some of our expenditures that we use in special ed like teacher salaries for special ed, get it reimbursed through here, and then use that money that I was going to use
034for salaries for the project. So, it's just I mean, in all honesty, I'm juggling things. just moving around. That's all I'm doing so that we meet the As long as you have the receipts to prove that it's IDEIDA, you're fine. You don't have to use Exactly. regular funds. So, okay. Yes. [Music] when the board approved borrowing money for a certain project and the bids come in less than first thought. So you already capture the money but you spend less. What do you do with the rest of the money? Rest of the money just sits there. Uh I I I don't spend it. It sits in whatever fund it was in. So let's say it was working cash bonds, Mr. Brown. it'll stay in working cash bonds until such time as I would come to the
035board and say okay here is it okay if I go ahead and use this money for this project. So looking at it from the outside, just say a bid came in, you you borrow money, the board approved to borrow money for $10 million, right? And the bid came in at $5 million. Now you have five million, for lack of a better phrase, disposable income, disposable money here. So what's the cut off? I mean, how far can that gap be before we say as a district, hey, we need to relinquish this money back to the taxpayers? Yeah, I think that's a decision that the board makes, you know, and and and what, you know, what their comfort level is and again, you know, do you look at some other projects, you know, capital projects that you
036can utilize uh the money for or do you keep it in fund balance? So, I think I think that's just a decision the board has to make. And it would be a timing thing, too, because as cheap as the money we got, we're getting it for. Yeah. And and again I there's some of our bonds and again I I some of the I I'd have to get through my notes to explain this but there are some bonds that we have to use within three years. You know I don't know if it's taxable or non taxable. So there there's some of those things that we you know have to abide by that we watch so to make sure we pull from the right pool of money. But it's a good question on okay you know what
037do you do with that money. You know, my recommendation right now is again, you know, let it sit. You know, maybe utilize it for some of this or if I could, you know, again, like the $1.2 million in ID, I could I can juggle some things. So, I'm not using that construction money. But again, we don't know, you know, like we saved a million dollars in ELC and Tala, but I don't know if the other one is going to come a million dollars over, you know, and that. So I think right now we sit there. But I think in a couple years, but at least Yeah, I I agree with you. Until the smoke clear, we got everything. Yeah, I think in a couple years then we take a look and see what the funds
038are and and then making the board makes determination about what they want to do with that excess money. Um either, you know, either abating it back to the taxpayers is one thing. Um whether you want to use it for part of a preventative maintenance program is another thing. Do you want to apply it to uh you know, athletic fields or addition at the middle school? Is that that's another thing? So there's a lot of different options there. Absolutely. I think it just lends itself for a conversation with the board at some time. Yes, it does. To say how we going to do it because again as a taxpayer looking out from the outside look it in say you you know you put out a resolution to borrow x amount of dollars and have the taxpayers
039pay x amount of dollars for this and now you did not use x amount of dollars. you only use right a half of that. So what do you do? You know, I agree. So I agree. So I think I think it does for a future conversation. Okay. Thank you. Y okay. Thank you. Thanks, Ken. So uh next up, um press plus updates. Yes, thank you. Um as you know, this uh press plus was large. We've divided it into two parts. Uh I've asked you to review part two. I reviewed these with Mr. Brown at a meeting and I did create a cover sheet for you to kind of look through. Um again, the majority of these were some small legal references, some language changes, and for the majority of them, we would just just go
040ahead and accept as is for what I uh indicated on the chart. There are a few that I'd like to draw your attention to. Um the first one is item 660 which is the curriculum content. These are questions that they ask the board. Um the number one is does the district provide antibbias education? And our answer is no we do not. And so in that regard once I tell press plus that we are a no they then go and adjust some of the other policies. So just referencing that. Question two, does the district offer sex education? Um, here's a correction on here. I listed it no, but the answer is yes, we do. So, just make a note of that. And, uh, the third question, does the board offer a unit of instruction in grades
0419 through 12 on naturalization? And the answer is yes, we do. So, we will forward th those um answers off to Press Plus for them to make those adjustments. The other item was number 7160. Again, there was a board question for student appearance. Uh, press plus wanted to ask the board, does the board wish to expand the laws requirement of race, ethnicity, of hair texture? And we are recommending that we do incorporate that language to make sure that there's a broader term um for accepting student appearance. What does that mean? So basically if we take a look at that the um the student appearance basically allows you know a kind of like a dress code. And so what this is saying is we are uh expanding our dress code to include for example if students
042have certain hairstyles. we would broaden that term um to include um hair textures or ethnicity to include um you know as long as it wasn't overly distracting. Does that make sense? No, that's okay. Okay. So, uh why why are we adding that part? We're just expanding it to include those words of uh ethnicity or hair texture. It broadens the um the definition for what we will allow for student appearance. So again, these are press question, do we have um something that says people of certain hair texture or ethnicity? I I I guess I'm I'm wondering like what circumstance would that be? But if I'm correct, so Press Plus comes out with updates, periodic updates, and these are kind of option optionality that they've built into this this update. So you can kind of go down
043one of two roads in some of the different language they just wondering what that there would be that we would say somebody, you know, that I don't know that a a child a student couldn't have with their hair texture. I mean, how could we have a policy against somebody's hair texture? I guess that's what I'm not understanding. They're they're just broadening it because, for example, if it was um for example, some of our ladies, you know, they'll have uh you know, special hairstyles and so forth. And um this policy um doesn't discriminate for those kinds of Okay. of um I just I guess I didn't read it well enough to know that we have something that says you can't have a certain hairstyle. It does not discriminate for it and that's why we wanted to
044broaden that. Yeah. Yes. He doesn't have here. Use mine. I apologize. I was losing my voice all day. So, I saved it for the last couple hours to talk to you guys. There's a new there is a new law board member group. There's a new law. It's called Jets Law that was passed um because There was a there was a actually there was a private school near the city of Chicago that was um forbidding certain hairstyles textures that were associated with traditionally African-American hairstyles. Um and so the legislature took it took action brought to its attention that schools had policies that were restricting certain hairstyles. Now we have this new law in place that forbids school districts from prohibiting um hairstyles that are traditionally related to African American hair. And so I am anticipating that
045what's going on here with the press policy is the implementation of the law through policy and making sure that school districts are following the law. I I just was hoping that we didn't even have a policy that said somebody can't have their hair a certain way. It's it's unlikely you did. This is this is likely making it more explicit are not prohibiting both certain. Thank you. Um there is another item uh 7190 for student behavior. Uh this one I wanted to have a particular note to because um I am adding some language to the um suggested policy. It says our cell phones required to be out of sight. We are suggesting yes absolutely out of sight. And there was another change. It says unless otherwise banned under this policy or by the building principal, all
046electronic devices must be kept powered off. Now they're suggesting or silenced. After speaking with the school, they would like to omit the word silenced and just have them be off and out of sight during the regular school day unless a supervising teacher grants permission. B uses the device in which is used for a student's IEP. And then C, and this is what we wanted to omit, it is used only during lunch periods. The school would like to have the cell phones not used during lunch periods. So that would be one um change that we would recommend uh to this. Again, we've been having difficult time with cell phones in particular um you know, certainly after the last two years and so there's going to be probably more explicit movement next year to make sure that
047cell phones are turned off, you know, all day. I have a question on that. Why are we wanting them off and not silenced? I'm thinking in an emergency. My phone takes I have a random phone. It takes a while to power up. If they're if there something going on, it could be a few minute delay. I mean, I don't quite understand. Do they think that because it's silence, they'll just turn it on and start using it. I'd like to know the reasoning behind that because if it's on, you're going to use it to you're gonna even if you have the ringer off, you're still going to use it to text or go on social media or social. I can't do anything on my phone when it's silenced. My phone is silenced right now. I can't
048do anything. I have an iPhone 13. It cannot do anything. So, I I guess what I'm asking is what's the difference? I mean, and there are many different phones, many different operations of phones. I'm just curious why we want to make them off instead of silenced. That's all. Again, I think the the I the spirit behind that is that we do not want students using the cell phones at all during the day. And so, I I can tell you that well, I guess our question, why do they want to fight this battle again? Because they were here before when it was challenged. And when I look at fighting this battle, are they going to enforce it? Probably not. That's an aspect. So why I mean you have a few people who and and it becomes
049um discriminatory. I may not like this person and I might like the or I may feel more comfortable saying something to Janine, but Mr. Brown because he may have an attitude. I'm not gonna they're not they're not it's going to be like it was before. It's going to pick and choose and they're not going to fight time fighting. I mean, I I guess I just don't understand the the thought behind it. And I agree with you. We're going to waste more time enforcing some of it and not all of it. And then we're going to have PE other kids taking video saying, "Well, look, this one got recommended and this one didn't." And then we're going to play that game or certain teachers allow allow it and then certain teachers don't. So, it would have
050to be there'd have to be training with the teachers to and and I guess even repercussions with the teachers because there's no way it's going to work unless it's consistent across and you're going to have to take that through the union before you do any any disciplinary. I mean to me it's just snowballing into agree and we I mean a few years ago this was moved for that that reason and and I've I mean you know I work at schools and I've seen where now it's to the point where it's not even a a real issue. Most kids I observe class after class and I do not see an issue with kids in class on the phone. All right. The biggest thing is recording fights, but I bet you your deans appreciate it when they
051need to see the fight firsthand. And it's not the I mean, no, it's it may not be right, but it's probably help as well. It harms. There's some good and bad. It's kind of like social media, I guess. But how? Yeah. So, I don't really agree with that. Yes. So, what do we want to do to have hold off on this one? Well, are you saying you want me to leave and uh powered or silenced as as the language was um first um introduced in press? I say take the whole thing out personally. Oh, I don't know. I'm not I mean you could say that but they've been doing it and then even before they continue they're going to it's going to be the same issue. it's going to come back up and you'll have
052some will say, "Hey, we need to get rid of them." Some say it's not a big deal. Um, it has has it been a big deal? Have you had to discipline people because of their cell phones or lack of response to their cell phones? Are students have we done a study to show that students are failing because of and doing worse in school because of their cell phones? because we don't have this rule. Because at the end of the day, kids are going to have their cell phones out just like they did before we took it took before it was taken out. Now that it's going to go back in, it's going to be the same results because they're everywhere. You you can't get through the mall, you can't go get through a ride down
053the street without seeing somebody with their cell phone. We can say we're going to teach them. But when they go to class, when I observe students in class, they don't have their cell phone out in the lunchroom. Yes. Walking down the hall. Yes. In the classroom, it it I I saw a teacher, she she had a rule. Her rule was if you have an A, you can have it out at any time. If you have a B, and she created a chart as to when you can have if you if you were failing the class, you had to put it in in a cell phone locker she had. And it it worked. And so different people have creative ways but to eliminate it all together say you cannot uh have your cell phone uh I
054don't know I I don't know that that high school is going to be all they do yeah I mean to me I think we're creating a monster so let me go back to this uh the first question was are cell phones required to be out of sight so let me go back to that we had suggested said yes. Um, what's your opinion on that? Are you saying yes or no on that one then? I I say no. No. Meaning that they may have them out. Um, what? Because teachers will set the guidelines within their classroom. So we may say I don't know how we can word it to still empower the teacher within their classroom. So a student can't say I can have my phone in a class because we still we do have to
055word it because so that the teacher in the classroom can be empowered. But I I think the bigger thing for me is in in the in the lunchrooms and the in the hallways and things of that nature. Now teachers should be empowered to say, you know, you can't have your cell phone. I mean, you wouldn't want that, but um to just say otherwise, no, you can't have it and it's just banned and you can't have it in the lunchroom. It has to be off. We could we could try that. It has to be off and in your locker if if we want to, but it's going to be in their hands, right? It's going to be it's a bigger headache. It's it's been very difficult to have policy. The policy is where some are doing
056it and some are not. That's why we've been running into problems. Our social media stuff has hit the roof. The videos are hitting the roof. They're doing it in the hallways. They're doing it at lunch. They're doing it on school grounds and this is not being monitored. So, we are having to almost look to do something more of a an all or nothing on this. the gray area is what's what's really and I think it's driving this it'll it'll still happen if you put the policy in at least it gives us some backing I think to say hey you know this is the policy otherwise you know there is no the only spot that you can put cell phones that are required to be out of sight is in a classroom that's the only thing
057you can police the only other alternative is is kind of an incident that happened earlier the year that you know that I sent you if someone's filming a fight and they're watching it. They should be just as they should be get in trouble just as much. It's like instigation. I could I mean again that's that's the way you're going to fix it. But the videos are already out of the damage is done. They're already on. But I don't think you're going to stop that. The only thing that has been kind of talked about are these yonder bags? You know the yonder bags? Are you familiar with those? Those are the bags that uh some districts are using that um they're in the students possession all the time. A yonder bag is like a little I
058don't know it's like a little tiny bag and students when they come to school they put it in the yonder bag they magnet and it and it closes it and it's in the students possession all day but they do not have access to it until the end of the day. So all of this that the administrators and the teachers are facing with the students having these cell phones and taking inappropriate pictures so on and so forth and all of us know that's the wrong thing to do. And our superintendent is here saying you know we got a problem with this and then we have the board for the most part is saying taking away the phones is not the solution. So what is the solution? What is the solution to help our teachers out, administrators
059out, an environment of better learning? I'm not saying that policy is the best, but I'm saying I don't think the board could just walk away and say we don't agree with that policy, leave it as is, and do nothing. I just don't know how you're going to police it. I don't know either. So, do do we say we're going to come back as a board and talk about this? I was around when we went over this policy over and over and over. It was exhausting. It's just exhausting. So I I would say the solution is like anything else in this within discipline is to teach the students how they're supposed to respond and react and behave. For I always tell people when it comes to discipline, I can assume that you've taught your ch child
060that profanity is not correct. Well, if I hear your child using profanity and I don't want it in my classroom and I say, "Hey, didn't your mom teach you better?" Like, we use profanity all the time at home, but that's what they've been taught. So now I have to teach this child that this is what you do. This is how you act in my in my classroom. I could assume that you're taught not to put your feet up on the furniture, but hey, I do it at home all the time. Well, I have to teach you that in my classroom, you don't put your feet up on the furniture. I could assume that you're you're taught not to take certain pictures and you're like, "Hey, I'm at home taking these pictures with my mom all
061the time in the mirror." It's about teaching people this the students what's expected of them and not assuming or putting in place a rule and then when they get caught doing it or or something. So, and um that's why it's good to have meetings with students. It's good to have um this embedded in your curriculum that we're going to not only expect you to know, but teach you. We can assume just because somebody's in high school and they're 14 or 15 or 16 that they're mature enough to know this already. But people don't know it because people adults don't even know it. Um one of things that's most irritating to me is somebody walking around with their phone while I'm say in a doctor's office talking to another person. That's irritating, right? But guess what?
062If that person was sitting right next to me and we were talking, it wouldn't be so irritating. But it's it's really no no different. But so but it's all about how how you do things and what you teach or what your perception is. The perception is we put this in place. We have something to hold them accountable to. But then when it's too many and people give up, yet the first thing that's going to happen is he's going to say administration doesn't care. I think we have to teach them it starts with them, right? So, and I'm not blaming them for anything. I'm just giving examples. So, because the I would I would ask everyone to go back and read the policy that it's here 7190 specifically item number five and I think you get
063broader context than what is just on this on Cara's cheat sheet. So, maybe we can revisit that before if you want. We can come back. We can hold this this one up. This is the one. Let's hold that one off. Okay. And then Yeah, it's going to come down to enforcement. I mean, we had a policy before that wasn't enforced and then we had we did a policy with with stronger wording that was going to solve it and it didn't because it wasn't enforced. So now we were going to have another policy with stronger wording, right? That's not going to be enforced. Well, what we noticed was the big change. We did see some good results when it was first instituted. We heard from uh teachers and even students that they were more engaged when
064those cell phones were put away. They were engaging with one another. Well, we seemed after this co for two years, students have been at home on these phones and have gotten really attached to them emotionally uh and using these for support and they've learned how to use them, you know, maybe in not such good ways during that two years. So, that is why this has gotten way worse than it was before CO. So, that's what we're struggling with. uh to be quite honest and you know I wish we had some solutions. This is a societal issue and we're dealing with it in the schools and it is causing a lot of discipline issues. So what what do you mean causing discipline? Like what do the numbers show? What statistics show that it's that these cell
065phone not having a policy to put your cell phone away is causing more issues? No, I'm just saying the amount of referrals that we're getting, you know, regarding the posts that are out there, they they're have increased this year. Can you bring the numbers? You know, in my opinion, one time is too much. Where some kid that took a whole collage of pictures, inappropriate pictures, deplorable pictures, racist pictures, and put them out to the public. That in and of itself is enough. So, they shouldn't have a cell phone at home either because they can take those same pictures at home. They can go We can't We cannot control what goes on in a person. Go back go back and read read the whole policy in the context and let's talk about come back next week.
066Come back next week but I would take this one off next week. Absolutely. Okay. And the last one I just wanted to reference was 7 uh 315 restricting of publications on high schools. There was two questions. Um this is regarding high school publications. Um, would the board like to provide student journalists more flexibility um in using their voice? We are recommending a yes. Um, and right now we have uh our high school does uh put out one um publication that is done um with our high school and I wrote down the title of it on my other piece of paper. um Heather Galpa they do that with their uh language arts and they I think you've even seen that. So they they do do a publication. So we were looking to say yes on that
067one. And does the board want the student media advisor to provide student journalist with written justification prior to limiting materials and we said yes. And the reason why we're saying this is we are looking to give students more voice. Um, we believe that that would uh align to that. If you have any questions on that. All right, those were the uh the policies that, you know, needed to be looked at, I think, a little bit more carefully as we were reviewing these. I will pull this uh 719 for this time and bring that up for discussion uh for our next board meeting. And that is all I have. Okay. Uh any old business? Okay, let's move on to new business. So, one of the new business items we'd like to discuss tonight, Eric, is about
068this temporary restraining order in Sangon County. And I thought maybe if you could just give us some background who sued kind of just kind of explain to us what happened there. Sure. Okay. Yeah, you're on. It's totally user error. Okay. So the background of the case is that um uh plaintiffs, individual families um sued about 150 school districts throughout the state of Illinois uh and Isby and the department of public health and they were seeking an injunction against three executive orders that the governor had issued. Executive order 18 which required school districts to u require masks for students and teachers. Executive Order 22, which required vaccines or weekly negative tests. Executive Order 24, which prohibited admittance to school buildings uh for specified periods of time for close contacts of of confirmed or probable COVID 19
069cases. Um, and essentially the getting down to the nitty-gritty, which I'm happy to go through for you, um, the plaintiffs argued that wearing a mask and getting a vaccine and being um prohibited from school if you're a close contact essentially amounted to a quarantine or or a modified quarantine as that term is used under the Department of Public Health rules. And um the uh section two of the Department of Public Health Act in statute says that if someone is going to be subject to quarantine or modified quarantine, uh they get due process before they're put into a quarantine. And what due process means is a person can object. And and by the way, these rules have been in place precoid Right. Um the definition of quarantine or modified quarantine and the department of public health
070act has been in place for a long time. And so the plans are sort of saying subject to that act if I object to being quarantined, if I object to wearing a mask or I object to being vaccinated, get a getting a shot, um I get due process. What does that mean? Well, I get the right to object and then the state as the entity that's enforcing the quarantine on me has to go to court to convince a court of competent jurisdiction that I should in fact be quarantined. And so the argument they were making that that the plaintiffs made successfully in front of this judge is that when the governor made these uh executive orders, he did so in a way that avoided the rules that were already in place with respect to quarantine,
071modified quarantine. um and that these folks were deprived or they weren't deprived due to process but they were deprived the opportunity to have due process by virtue of the fact that these executive orders were thrust upon them. And so the court said the governor can't make public health decisions during a time of emergency independently without coordinating with department of public health in some way to modify the rules that were in place with respect to quarantine or modified quarantine. um and that is with respect to its rule on vaccines that ISBY doesn't have the authority in any way, shape or form to um pass a rule mandating vaccines that was isb's rule of vaccines that if anyone has the authority to pass a rule with respect to vaccines, it's department of public health. So, um, in
072essence, it comes down to really a rather boring issue about whether the state properly, um, use the rule making process to change the rules as it as it relates to quarantines. and and the judge says, "No, there is a proper way if if the state wanted to go through the changes the way that quarantines were done, modified quarantines were done, there was a proper way through the rule making process that that could have been done. Um, and rules are are passed subject to public comment and the legislator's ultimate approval of those rules. that was done here because the governor himself put these executive orders in place and essentially had the agencies implement emergency rules that were not subject to public. So does this ruling apply to all districts? No, it does not at this time
073apply to all districts. What it applies to is ISBY and Department of Public Health's um they are now prohibited from enforcing those rules with respect to the districts that are named defendants and the name defendants also cannot u uh mandate masks or vaccines right now. Okay. Um the current state of affairs is that the state has requested um a state or a hold right a hold of the judge's ruling so that the appellet court can consider the issue appellet court can then make the decision um I don't know whether the uh the judge is going to issue that stay if the judge does not issue the stay and her ruling stays in place until until such time as the appellet court considers the issue takes oral argument or just decides on the briefs um the
074um the state and the indiv school defendants. Certain of the individual school defendants have already filed their appeals um to the cir to the appellet court on a temporary restraining order. Things move very fast. Um that's why their their appeals are already in. The plaintiff's side families now have an opportunity to respond and uh and the the court has five days from the filing of the plaintiff's briefs to make a decision. So we've calculated that we expect that by probably next Wednesday at the latest we'll have an appellet court decision. That appellet court decision will be significant. If the appellet court adopts the rationale and the decisions that was made by the circuit court and publishes an opinion um that published opinion, it can be considered binding on the whole state of Illinois, right? Not
075just with respect to the individual presence. So, um you guys were not in defendant, but if the appellet court even though it's in the fourth circuit, it's down there. The law in Illinois is that um appellet court decisions are binding on the rest of the state unless there's some decision in your court of appeals district that conflicts. Um so as there is not one that decision would be binding on on your board on your district. If they regardless really of what they do if they uphold the circ decision then you will uh no longer my my interpretation is you will no longer be permitted to um continue to implement your return to school plans as you implemented them at the beginning of the year. with respect to um masks and tests. However, um there is
076the opport there is the chance the federal court will will reverse. Uh and if that's the case, then we go back to where we were on Thursday with masks, vaccines, etc. I expect that the litigation will continue to get played out probably going to Supreme Court in one way shape or form, but we'll get more definition. You know, it'll probably be a day or two after we can meet next week with the appellet court on a fast track to make a decision on this. And if it does hold in favor of the district court, does it is it the same time frame for the appellet court to the Supreme Court if the state decide to take it to the Supreme Court? Is it a fast track? Right. Right. Right. My understanding is it's not um
077that the the the TTRO a TTRO is a fasttrack adjudication to the C to the appellet court, but I believe it is not as fast as a Supreme Court. Okay, good report. Thanks. Are you thinking by next Wednesday at the latest is what you guys are assuming that you we'll have some sort of a ruling on whether we're going back to last Thursday or we're moving forward and then every district will be in the state of Illinois will be haveing to address that. Correct. Yes. That's our prediction. One of the question if the appellet court uphold the district court decision and you know I was just looking at a I was looking at a survey was kind of split on how certain employees sees it you know the last bit just like the whole country
078so what what the word I'm looking for what options does, you know, do a parent or employee have to say, I don't feel comfortable coming back with the options of the families, you know, for their kids or whatever and employees for that nature. What options do those who decide I want to continue wearing a mask, but we know that the mask that I'm wearing protects you to to the most higher degree as opposed to protecting myself. At least that's what the pundit says. So what what options do we I don't know if we talked about that parents say you know what I I don't want to send my kids to school or employees or teachers say I don't want to come to school in this environment. So is it like either you do it or
079you don't come to work or see your kids? I think I think that's right. I think either you do it or you don't really because at that point the state a state court will have said to us we don't have the authority but the school board does not have the authority. The school district administration does not have the authority to mandate that you and your classmate wear a mask. Right. and and but we also had we don't have the authority to tell somebody they can't wear a mask. That's correct. Right. So making it optional based on a parent and child's decision is is appropriate. Absolutely. But I'm saying that it could be a handful. Again, again, I I'm not trying to predict or put a hypothetical situation or question towards you here, but I I'm
080for sure there's going to be people out there that says, "I don't feel comfortable coming sending my child to school or coming to work here." And what options, if any, do those people have? Do they have to, you know, the superintendent is going to say, "You know what? As an employee, you got X amount. you're going to abandon your job if you're not going to be here by, you know, three days or whatever. I don't know. Have we talked about that? I I don't know. Are we ready for that? No, that that's why I posed the question yesterday of what is the staff. Did we get a read on, you know, Acme in CME because we have a a contract with them, right? So, and again that was the reason why I asked what is
081their leadership telling you where are we at because we are and the seven of us have to make sure that the environment we provide is safe whether you believe one way or another we have to provide that safe environment for our employees and the kids and everybody as you can see in that survey was totally split like you're right like the country but the question is once it comes down next Wednesday we then we don't have a choice And then after that we have to come up with how do we you're right how do we approach what if the the the number would be 16% of the employees whatever they are said we're not coming in at that point we don't have an option right I mean we're our school district will have to accommodate
082or adjust itself to figure that out and I don't think anybody has the answer to that but I but once that ruling comes out I think that's going to really set the tone of but which way everybody goes We ought to have some type of plan something. I just don't know if you can plan for that because you don't know could the number be 6% or could it be 46%. You don't you don't know cuz if it's if it's a higher number. Yeah, I agree. There there's no options. I agree. I mean every school district in this country is on life support with mental status of their absolutely of the kids and the teachers. What do we do if if a high number says we're not coming back? Right. We don't know that. I guess
083the biggest thing is finding out exactly that ruling because once we change now, say we change then in uh nine days, let's just call it that, they change and they say they go back to last Thursday, then we change again. Right? So I guess that's a question for us is do we want to do that or do we wait to hear that court and then call a meeting and it'll be after our monthly meeting we call an emergency meeting and we do what we have to do. Has it come? I I I think you're right, uh, Bill. Um, I think the question is is that Dr. Cara said that if we get to that point, the board needs to pass a resolution. And my question for maybe Eric is what goes in that resolution? What
084would how what would that resolution look like if the appellet court upholds the the uh TTRO and then kind of applies it statewide where we can no longer as a board enforce mass mandate? Then what are we really as a board what are we resolving? I'm not sure there's going to be much resolve at that point to be honest with you because the board is essentially saying we're right above the law and we're we're going to you know we're going to implement our own quarantine pattern. We're implement our own quarantine rules which will get thrown out of court as soon as we do that. Well, you would you would subject yourself to litigation and yeah and you know would not pay out in your favor, right? you know, it would be a bverse to with
085the ballot parties. Yeah. So, resolution would not be a prudent way to go pending what's coming up with the ballot. It seems to me that only decision would be if we wanted to do anything now, which probably we don't because we don't want to flip-flop, but then after next week, we won't have a choice. We'll have to do whatever the decision is. And then after that, if there's people the same way where people were said were for said you have to get a vaccination or you don't have this job and they had to make a decision. I guess it's going to be the same way reverse for other people that they'll just have to make a decision and then we'll have to deal with that. But I don't think there's anything we could plan for
086or do before that because we just don't know how it's all going to play out. No. Correct. But I think again if you have 25% of the teachers say I don't feel comfortable coming back especially if you have another spike comes you know nobody knows right but we won't we won't be able to do anything anyway. We will not but I'm just saying that's not you know that's out of the board's hand at this point but I'm just saying how would our superintendent handle a whole slew of teach students not coming a whole slew of teachers or staff not coming? I would I would assume the same way last year when we you know when the out when an outbreak happened you know I think it was somewhere between January and March where we had
087huge issues and it was before we had vaccinations you know I mean it was it was tough it was trying to figure out what building and what classroom and what we're going to do I just don't think we can answer those questions because we don't know we don't you know but I think we can plan best we could I still think though whenever the ruling comes down we probably should have whether we have a meeting we should just to at least announce and let everybody know what what's happening and what's going on. I mean, I think we should be doing that. So, I you know what I mean? It's not that we don't want uh Dr. Cog used to do that, but I I think for us being the board, if it comes out Tuesday,
088not that we can announce, but if we have to have a special meeting, we just come back here for for a short time and we announce it and let everybody know what that is. But that would give Dr. Chicago n and her team a little bit of time to figure out you know you know statement and put it out and we should do that. I mean this is I guess it's just my opinion. Yeah, I agree. I mean I think if everybody can keep their calendar open for next Wednesday night. Yeah, if we have to have a and if it's not Wednesday and it comes out late Wednesday, we do it Thursday. I mean I just think that we should be open and available for that just because I don't think this is this is
089obviously something that's going to affect the entire state one way or another. And again, it's not our if it goes back to Thursday, then we just imply and we tell everybody that's exactly what we're doing. If it goes the other way, then we tell everybody it's masks that we're taking that out and we don't have that right to enforce that. And but we got to give Dr. K, you're going to have to come up with something. I think that if it goes the other way, how we address, how we inform the public, like we want them to know. I mean, what we want to make sure that when the kids go back to school the next day, the ones that are watching and if we can get something out right away, we just got to
090be have a plan to say that if it goes this way, this is what's we of expected. We're going to go back to, you know, we're going to stay the way we are. If it goes this way, this is what we want the students and you guys to know that and the and the staff, this is what we expect just so that everybody's on the same page. and and how like will we continue to proactively work those CO mitigation plans continue social distance cleaning and all of that those things will still be in play right if it goes the way as the district court depends some of it may change other than we're asking a lot of hypotheticals we can't make decisions until we have the facts in front of us and then we will
091develop a plan but what I'm saying the lawsuit was only on mask square. Noac [Applause] and vaccination and uh quarantine time. So it's three levels of of change. Okay. So that's and again social distance. It's not an easy thing, right? It's not. But that's why I think we should be once we come up with that we should meet a little bit before the meeting should you know if we can and or I don't even know if we can but I think we got to be in public otherwise we break law. Right. Just so we understand, we're on the same page and we are communicating that out to everybody so everybody knows what's going on. I guess I have a question. We have districts that have just gone and done it. How are they handling it?
092H how are what's going on in their schools? Do they have a bunch of teachers who don't want to come in? Are the students being kept home? I mean, I think we could get a feel for things. And I don't know that you guys have heard anything, but there's a lot of districts who just went with it. Said it pertains to everybody. How are they handling it? I mean, are they having issues? If they are having issues, how are they handling it? I mean, I think maybe we need to network a little bit here. Um, because that may may at least give us some idea which way we may be wanting to look at. I mean, I haven't heard any I I'm watching the TV like crazy trying to keep Dr. updated when I can.
093And not one newscast or any of these legal councils have come on and said ex uh district 000 had 50% of their staff not come in today because of the change. I haven't heard any negatives. Now, that doesn't mean it couldn't happen in this district. I'm just saying is there a way for us to figure out how to talk to some of these districts and say now that you've gone to this what's it like s student attendance what's it like for your staff because the only interviews I saw people were just people being interviewed said we didn't take your right away to wear a mask you can still wear that mask we are giving you the option and that's the only thing that I get any any people saying about anything that's going on in
094the schools Well, when I heard those districts, I I thought I only heard one district, but you named all those districts, right? No, there's a whole bunch of districts. I thought you named some 150 that filed the lawsuit. Yeah, but the only one I thought the only one I heard that was kind of close to the demographics as ours was like homeless floss. But I'm talking about all the schools that just have automatically done it now. They've all said it pertains to us and we're doing it. There's lots of schools. I just haven't heard. Let me share what he previous district Hinsdale 181 did. They went into emergency session. They came out and so what they're in what they did was they said students have the option of wearing a mask. Staff is required to
095wear a mask. You still have to wear a mask on the bus. And I think and again, you know, you you have an option to wear a mask. And so I think, you know, we have to be careful sometimes with our terminology because again, I think, and and Eric, you can correct me if I'm wrong, they're not saying don't wear a mask. They're just saying you can't mandate that you have to. You can still have an option to wear a mask. And I think that's how we present it if if the ruling goes that way, you know, and that. and um that that individuals still have an option to wear that mask. Now, I don't know what to do about the bus. I I would just tell you that I'm in charge of transportation. I
096don't know what to do on the bus because, you know, that's a federal mandate, right? And you know, it's it's required to to wear it on bus. So, you know, there's no way we can police them either, right? And I think that's the one school is saying you still have the option to wear it. My my question would be even though you have that option, are they seeing students that aren't coming because they're afraid because there's people not wearing masks, are they seeing staff not coming because not everybody's I have not heard any of that. I'll be honest with you. I haven't either. That's what I have seen and the the stuff that I've looked at and researched and all that. I have not seen that's exactly what I'm think are just all over the
097place. Right. They're all over the place. I am I am hearing the few districts that I have uh had some information on the districts that went in that direction, the majority of the community supported that. So that's why there wasn't so much of a push back. That's why they went that direction. And that's why I said the demographics, you know, again, it is what it is. I just haven't heard too many demographics like ours that says, you know what, we have um accepted and for the district to have options for the kids or the employees. I just haven't heard that other than I heard Homer Fostmore. Not saying that's right or wrong. I just haven't heard it. And I think it makes a difference where that school district is located at. I think it make
098a difference in the in the de demographics as far as community support, too. I mean, again, I saw with the survey that we just saw with employees, 50-50 split. Yeah. Yes, she did. 5050 split. No, she was going around showing all the board members before the meeting and you were talking. Well, well, I say I say this. If if we do have a majority, a a good number of staff members who resign, let me know what buildings you all are going to be teaching in so I can bring my observation to. So, all right. So, what do we need to do now? anything going to wait until when's it we find out from the court? Is okay. Okay. Any other questions for Eric? Okay. Does anybody have any other new business? Um, okay. Okay, we
099do have a need for close session. Can I get a motion to go into close session for the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals for service, independent contractors? Uh, we can go on. I think that's it. So moved. Second. Roll call. Um, Brown is an I. Mrs. Galbbert, hi. Dr. Hall, I Mr. Sales. Hi, Mrs. Walters. Hi, Vice President RP. I, President Albert, I. We are in close session at 7:51. Eric, thanks for coming. Okay, we got four. That's good. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Hold up. Bill, Bill, Bill and a second. Second. You do realize that we're being taped. So, Bill, you I want no part of this act. Let me turn. Okay. Second is sure. Okay.