001trustees with the held in public was start time 603 if we could begin by rising we'll ask mr hoffman to lead us in the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the united states america and to the republic for which it stands one nation thank you mr hoffman i've started our meeting this evening we have a patrons comments that'll be patrons registered to comment on educational issues i have a sign up sheet here i go down go down the list and call those that are on here to come up to the podium we have public comment uh you're given three minutes to speak on the topic that you'd like to speak on if the topics are continuous in nature you have 20 minutes total we'll also have i think mrs green in the back if
002anyone's walked in and would like to sign up there's there do you have it with on okay on the podium so we'll just start with the few that we have here um ask you when you do come up to state your name please clearly in your your address and uh you know the topic you're speaking on you'll roll right into what you'd like to say scott's gonna have time okay mr angel will take care of the timer um so see some of these are actually a little bit hard to read but it looks like chris chris likes to come forward david you also want to mention we're we're not here to answer questions yes thank you mr hoffman so the public comment we we just take the comment it's not inter we don't have an
003interaction back and forth um you know so you might listen to whatever yes you may have questions but we won't be answering those questions directly you know so it's just a comment opportunity to comment all right okay thank so my name is christine and my child is supposed to be a student here this coming year i'm sorry only because you're the first one just interrupt you for a second would you please state your address also with your oh sure 4141 augusta drive crown point indiana thank you i came to speak about the issues that will keep us from registering and continuing to be in the public school system my bra my background so you know is that i'm a holistic health practitioner and through this whole pandemic i've had thousands of patient visits maskless so
004the first issue i have is masks they're useless my child contracted covid from someone at school even though she was wearing her mask and the other child was wearing one as well an n95 mask filters particles down to 0.3 microns the virus is 0.125 so it goes right through an n95 making children who are unvaccinated wear a mask will create a hostile environment because everybody will know everybody's vaccine status they also cause lots of side effects including dehydration bacterial risk headaches sweating decrease in cognitive precision toxicity toxicity and immunosuppression the second problem i have is force mandating vaccines i used to be pro-vaccine and after my son was vaccine injured i had to research and that's why i became a holistic health practitioner the amount of vaccine injury i have seen since the introduction of
005this vaccine is insane the nuremberg code states the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential this means that the person involved should have legal capacity to give consent should be so situated as to be able to exercise free power of choice without the intervention of any element of force fraud deceit duress overreaching or other ulterior form of consent or coercion and should have sufficient knowledge and comprehension of the elements of the subject matter involved as to enable him to make an understanding and enlightened decision there is a reason children cannot have sex vote drink smoke do drugs and etc the vaccine is experimental and not fully approved you are part of the study if you take the vaccine every animal in the study died and they had to abandon the study a new
006lawsuit has been filed for forty five thousand deaths in three days the creator of the vaccine is begging the cdc and who to stop children have a 99.9 recovery of covet 19. a study done on covet patients that died were severely hospitalized had three or more comorbidities and a very low vitamin d level i personally haven't had a patient die of covid yet if a vaccine is mandated you can expect a lawsuit from myself and my fellow parents who strongly oppose if critical race theory is introduced it is a racist concept if i get a whiff of anything of this nature my child will be yanked i strongly advise the school board and staff do not support for our children to take this dangerous and experimental vaccine encourage learning about crt or encourage use of
007a pointless mass that only damages our children's health and well-being [Applause] looks like uh jamie bateman see jimmy bateman tamara bateman or tammy bateman 1211 west 129th avenue crown point indiana i have done some research on covey 19. a report from the university of louisville pronghorn mask used four hours per day promotes facial alkalines and inadvertently encourages dehydration which in turn can enhance barrier breakdown and bacterial infection rate which include headache yeast infection of the mouth spreading low blood oxygen weaken immune system and decrease degenerative disease also obscuring non-verbal communication masks interfere with social learning in children vaccines people are still testing positive after receiving the vaccine have passed away had reactions etc we are in stage three of clinical trials that's why the fda won't approve it cr crt and seo crt should not
008be taught in schools it is a racial divide and can be put in seo without parents knowing under a g rakita's parents bill of rights i am requesting from crown point community school corporation oh seo material and curriculum i am done [Applause] we have an ed finn correct thank you i just want to take a minute to thank uh the school board administration and teachers for this what you've done over the pandemic we have three boys in the school system oh i'm sorry ed finn 8241 doubletree court ground point indiana think about that but uh thank you very much for they all attended virtually it wasn't the same as being there but the teachers did a tremendous job so what i want to talk about is the choice the choice of creating a safe environment
009we know that the vaccine is not available to children under 12. i have one son under 12. so for me this is a personal thing but it's also for any child under 12. that's going to primarily affect the elementary school and 6th grade so i would encourage you to think about what has worked in the past which is masking social distancing good hygiene and even a virtual option for students who have real concerns about being in there so and making sure that the masks are mandated until not forever but until this is available to all children who want to take it if their parents choose not to have them take the vaccine that is a choice i choose to wear my mask out in public because i don't want to take something home to my
010young child i don't deny or have any problem with someone else making a different choice if they've had the opportunity to do so so for me it comes down to that personal choice aspect of it it's available my 17 year old is taking it he goes to work at mcdonald's he wears a mask most people don't he explains why he does they're fine with it i think we can be a lot more understanding than seems to be some of the the conversation happening so to me you know please take this into consideration we know masking works we know ventilation works we know that all of these precautions do work and just until we can get it to where everybody has the ability to make the choice whether or not to be vaccinated thank you for
011your time thank you ed and uh is it tim chicky timmy 13454 cardinal lane cedar lake indiana i just want to touch on the mask uh issue one of the first things i've learned in my field is knowing your pp you have to know the limitations of your pp before you're allowed to use it we all know that masks most people talking about a surgical mask are designed to stop the transmission of bodily fluid that's why surgeons wear them all these masks that people are being asked to wear whether going to home depot school the store they're asking for face coverings what does that mean what is that going to stop i can throw a piece of silk on my face i can throw a sweatshirt over my face there it's there to make people
012feel more comfortable it's really not helping anybody don't that even with mask wearing you continue to pass the disease and it really hasn't stopped anywhere whether you look in texas texas where it's been more open or florida or you go to california they still have the same issues with the disease uh illinois they still have high numbers and they've been as far as a vaccine goes they've been encouraging people with lotteries and things like that so i say that to say that the vaccine itself really isn't working to mandate a vaccine as well when it's not fda approved i think would just be wrong but that's that's really all i have we'll need to understand the limitations of their pp hi my name is nick santos stefano address is 3099 west 136th avenue my father
013there are three kids that go to eisenhower i'm asking if the board please consider making mass optional for everyone we were talking about cloth face coverings here just like the last gentleman said not medical masks or n95s are better none of the cloth masks our kids wear to school are approved to do anything they're not tested or ul listed even medical procedure masks say on the box they're not designed to stop or slow the spread of viruses the only specification i could find on the cdc's website for cloth face masks are that they should be made of at least two pieces of material and then held up to a light no light can show through them some very scientific standards science does tell us that a covid viron is .06 to 1.4 microns and cloth
014face coverings filter between 10 and 22 microns using those specifications a covadviron can be up to 366 times smaller than the cloth face coverings that our kids wear to school are i've read many studies that show cloth face masks do not work to stop the spread of covid and that there are many negative side effects associated with masking children some of which are they harbor bacteria and mold they decrease oxygen increase carbon dioxide intake and even cause negative psychological effects i have many research studied printed out here in this folder i can provide to the board if they're interested all of my kids got sick last year we suspect it was something they got at school even though they had masks on all day for the first time ever one of my kids had a
015cough that lingered for over two months and i suspect that masking was the cause of the extended cough the main age group i believe we were talking about here as far as masks is the two to 11 year olds that are not yet able to get vaccinated science tells us this age group tolerates kova the best of this age group that gets sick they don't get severely ill and the mortality rate in indiana since the beginning of the pandemic for all children 0 to 19 years old has been 0.01 percent that's a 99.9 survival rate i ask that you please keep face mass optional so as parents can make that decision for our children ourselves another thing i did want to ask i know that you can't answer questions is i also have heard a
016lot about critical race theory being taught in public schools i've heard very different definitions of what it is i was wondering if maybe the board can define it and if it exists in our schools thanks for your time instead of brent hold holding i'm not sure about the last name pronunciation pronunciation brent um is there okay if is there anybody else who'd like to walk up to the podiums uh sign up to okay just please state your name and address could you please yes sign it sign in thank you my name is unjin choi i'm living in monster indiana for 14-11 monster yes sorry you'll need to be a crown point uh well my daughter goes to crown point school because my daughter goes to crown point school where father resides in so that's why
017i'm here for as a mother i would say i think so yes i have an equal cost study i have joined equal custody so i think i have a right to say so please go ahead so i live in the 1411 brookside drive number one monster indiana and i have i do not have equal access to rds system it's fine mr speaker okay i do not have an equal access to rds system to crown point despite equal joint custody this issue has been addressed persistently over one year but there's no definite resolution even though i have an equal custody i only have a custody asset which doesn't know anything i don't have any assets my daughter daughter's grade anything i address also crown point school we have parent parallel parenting that means there's no communication
018between god between me and her father i have no control father does not inform me the school information um so i addressed this issue over and over and crown point system says this is a system issue unless i searching after the information there's no given also my voice has not been reflected reflected and as a mom and decision is made with my ex by a letter a union laterally for school decision without any information with me and i finally have a meeting with caucasian advocate which he used to be a principal here and no issue resolved outcome appears to be a repercussion and punishment over my daughter because i continue to choose to advocate my daughter's being as a mother thank you thank you um i think last call for anybody would like to step
019forward please sign in the sheet and then state your name and address okay um my name is kaylee chicky i live at one three four five four cardinal lane um i'm a senior at cromboy high school and i really just want to talk about more like the emotional thing with the masks is that crown point is based on like how far a smile can go and when you see other people in the hallway and you want to smile at them and like you know if they're having a bad day or make them just feel better about themselves i've had multiple experiences with like just struggling in the hallways and just how far a smile really can go and with the masks you just can't do that and it's lowered a lot of positivity in the
020schools and i've noticed the entire junior year at my school the positivity level just dropped from when i was a sophomore to a junior and i can't do that again as a senior and i know a lot of people that have said that they're going to be homeschooled if the mass continue and that's really all i have to say [Applause] i think based on our uh based on our board guidelines i believe we can take one more comment on uh that on that topic if uh sure come forward so sign in please and then state your name and address hi my name is sandy sparling i live at 13296 taft street i have a son and a daughter my son is entering seventh grade at taft my daughter will be fifth grade at lake street
021this year first of all lake street amazing we've had awesome experiences there the mask thing is an issue for us so much so that we are looking at transferring my son to crown point christian this year or possibly homeschooling last year was a rough start to middle school for him transferring from elementary to middle school as hard as it is one of the large issues that he had with masking aside from everything stated that i already agree with most of these people um swearing was horrible last year we are a faith-based family we choose not to use that kind of language and we don't believe it should be allowed to be used in the schools however when children are masked nobody knows where that language is coming from it is rampant in the hallways it
022is discouraging it is upsetting to a faith-based child it should be upsetting to anybody that 11 12 13 year olds are speaking that way not just you know under their breath shouting it in the hallways f school school this effing school sucks all these things are happening in the hallways the teachers don't know who's saying it so it's not being corrected that's just a minor issue the health thing is the health aspect is the primary issue but masking our children there is going to be long-term effects of it including emotional physical and spiritual damage [Applause] unless there any other comments on educational issues extend our time on the topic of masking this evening if anyone would like to speak on educa then please come forward yes or you agree correct it's a topic um sign
023in yes please we've closed the opportunity to speak on masks this evening but if we have other topics to comment on we could accept them so we can go forward okay so it's one one zero one five elkhart place and crown point um as of the sum i'm sorry misty olsen okay um they're saying that they're taking away the testing for covet so now are we still gonna my question is are we gonna be doing testing and then sending kids home for two weeks i know you can't answer that but i feel like that needs to be addressed it's very important they are now saying in forbes magazine just today that they are taking those pr or rt pcr cv tests because now they cannot determine between the difference of the flu and then the
024covid so now that these tests are no longer going to be used this is my problem with um wanting to know if they're going to do any kind of virtual learning if my kid doesn't want to take a test can she be at home for two weeks and then how does that you can't answer questions um basically i need to know if there's a way that we can address it going forward for her not to miss school she's got a 4.0 i don't want her she's a virtual learner as well me and my husband are here because it's the first time we've actually been here i'm shaking very nervous but um we this is very important to us and we are looking for other options for schools so thank you so much [Applause] any other
025comment this evening i'd like to pause comment for a moment i'm reading our guidelines i just want to stay true to what we have downs for guidelines so our guidelines state that we'll take 20 minutes of public comment it's not specific to a topic um i'd like to make a motion that we extend that for 10 more minutes if necessary second second by mr baby all in favor signify by saying aye aye aye aye opposed that moisture it's five zero three [Applause] if if we were to continue we're going to ask that so we extended it for 10 more minutes we're just going to hold true to that for the 10 minutes so anything that was repetitive we could refrain from that that's all yeah just okay thank you uh good evening i haven't been
026to one of these meetings that my name is christopher sparling um i'm at 13296 taft street crown point um i not exactly sure who to go with two with this so i guess here we are um we are considering homeschooling my children like my wife said and this isn't about masks i know we've gone away from that even though i agree with everyone um we've been going to different sources within the middle school community for my son and daughter trying to determine um if they are eligible for extracurricular activities or classes at the public schools such as band and sports and other things that we've heard that other states do for example if we were to homeschool our children um you know i've been in band my whole family's been dad band michigan state and
027everything else played we'd like to find a way or get some information whoever that might be from to allow our kid our son and daughter 10 and 12 to be able to participate in band as homeschoolers if we do decide to go over that route i've served my community in law enforcement for over 20 years i'm a taxpayer i've had over sometimes four or five jobs at a time i pay my taxes um i'd like that opportunity for my children we raise them right respect their country their town even though we uh disagree with a lot of the politics happening right now so if someone could please help me address that because we've heard other states and other schools have allowed that to happen for their kids so they can continue to learn in other
028ways other than musically i think there's no need to argue what that can do for a child in how they're raised and their cognitive skills and abilities and what have you um so uh i keep wanting to talk about the mask right now we're down there so yeah we so i just you know and i and there's so much divisiveness regarding all the mass thing and i'm not going to go down any kind of roads or studies or anything but i i personally you know would be okay with the option to wear one i think it is harmful to children i don't think it is wrong however if someone wants to allow their wants their kids to wear my ass is fine i do not want my children to wear masks so maybe that's some
029kind of compromise we can come to i don't know i'll let you folks decide that but my main thing was um the band question and like sports and that sort of thing um but i just want to echo uh what my wife said about 30 seconds the cursing and i know that a lot of folks here like whatever the kids know better okay well working the streets there isn't a thing i haven't heard and i haven't seen but i'm telling you my son who's straight a student i have never heard and seen those kind that kind of language the things i've heard that come out of the hallways you know and it's it's unbelievable and i understand the teachers hands are tied to a degree but there's got to be some kind of discussion about
030this at some level thank you so much william pierce 138308 court crown point we could spend days talking about masks and treatment of covid they do this every day we need experts to tell us what our program should be there's some humorous things if you want to protect your your backyard from mosquitoes put up a chain-link fence that's what basks are worth i've worn a mask for about 55 years i wear a mask dial when i need to i go in the hospital every day we wear a mask we are protected we protect the people around us if people don't want to wear a mask it's their choice they want to be vaccinated it's their choice the options are available but we have many people in the community infectious disease doctors pulmonologists and uh epidemiologists
031that can tell us what's best for us i don't believe a word that comes out of cdc [Applause] plenty of talent in the neighborhood that can help us protect our children grandchildren and ourselves so consider that please thank you [Applause] do we have anybody else okay we're going to close patron comments and uh i believe dr terrell has a comment of his own thank you this is a little out of the ordinary but i want to make sure that we seize the opportunity tonight to make some comments to all of you first i want to thank you for coming on both sides of this issue the one thing that i would encourage that i think we're missing greatly in our country right now and that is civility as we talk through issues and i and
032i appreciate i appreciate the way that this community has come around and supported our our kids ultimately our schools yes our teachers yes but ultimately our kids throughout the last year and the challenges that have come with that i encourage you to wait around until you hear my recommendation for what we will do moving into the school year something that's not on the agenda tonight that i want to address and i ask you to just bear with me i'm going to read some statements here regarding critical race theory and social emotional learning and i want to get this information out there to you so that you understand as a school district here in crown point schools where we are on this issue crown point community school corporation does not teach critical race theory critical race
033theory is not a topic that we feel belongs in the k-12 classroom we do i'm sorry please plea it's a little bit of a list here please let dr terrell read through it we'll be here all night we do teach indiana state standards for u.s history courses those standards sometimes include topics about race and the history of racial tension within our country none of these standards are taught in a way that uses or promotes critical race theory we have an existing board policy number 2240 which limits discussion on controversial issues and topics related to curriculum of a particular course that same policy reminds teachers to consider the influence that their role holds before expressing their personal opinions social and emotional learning is another topic parents may have seen in the news recently social emotional learning
034or sel is required by the state of indiana but it's important to know that crown point community school corporation does not use sel for teaching what some people might call social justice topics our social emotional learning program is about helping students build their social and emotional skills some of us previously know them as soft skills or even employability skills things like working as part of a team not letting your emotions get ahead of you when you're dealing with a problem or having grit and a positive outlook when faced with an issue these type of skills not only help our students in the real world but usually have a positive impact on academics as well sports and other curricular activities are great examples of how social emotional learning has been around for a long time but
035we didn't use the term social emotional learning when the student is on a basketball team they're not just learning about the fundamentals of basketball there are a lot of other positive life skills and student gain the student gains and the best coaches help their students grow those skills we are applying those same concepts in the classroom level with our social emotional learning we aren't teaching anyone's children what to think we feel confident that there are no hidden agendas in our social emotional learning anytime a parent wants to discuss or examine social emotional learning teaching and materials we welcome that conversation parents are our partners in the educational process they can start those important conversations by reaching out to their building principal and we can work together on what they feel is best for their child
036and i want you to know that that's not new because of mr akita and what he's come out with that has been state standard here within the state of indiana for as many years as as i've been involved in education here in indiana as parents you always have the right to have those conversations but again they need to begin at the building level that is our stance on critical race theory i read it intentionally because i once i wanted to make sure that we covered the necessary points please hear me and understand that we do not have a hidden agenda with critical race theory this is our stance with it this is truly what we believe and we believe that this is what our teachers our partners in education our parents our staff members and
037community as a whole want from our schools for our kids thank you [Applause] thank you for addressing the topic for us dr terrell and we can move forward to 3.01 is the three consent agenda dr terrell thank you for your consideration this evening for our consent agenda we have 3.01 which is our regular business meeting of the board of school trustees minutes from the 7 15 minute or meeting also we have our personnel agenda 3.02 and then 3.03 the voucher checks as listed in your board docs thank you dr terrell you've heard the recommendation i'm sorry you've heard the consent agenda as presented we have a motion to approve so moved second moved by mr angel in second by mr hoffman any questions or comments on the agenda if not all those in favor signify
038by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero and we go to um item four action items we have 4.01 the back-to-school plan for a 21-22 school year dr terrell thank you it is my recommendation that the 21-22 school year start like a normal school year as we begin the school year we will follow these covid protocols please note these policies and procedures may be changed if we have an increase in positive coveted cases in our schools or are given new mandates by governed by a government organization masks are optional in crown point community school corporation facilities with the exception of buses if your child rides the bus they will have to wear a mask have a mask with them and wear it each and every day and again this is a federal mandate please
039screen daily for covet symptoms anyone who is sick student or staff must stay home any student or employee who tests positive for covet 19 must complete a minimum 14 day quarantine and may not return to school until symptom free if a student in your child's class or who rides your child's bus test positive for covid19 you will receive a call from the school so that you can continue to monitor their symptoms cleaning and sanitizing will continue in our buildings and on our buses hand sanitizer will be available in all classrooms and common areas good hygiene like frequent hand washing is important crown point community school corporation will not require the proof of vaccination for any student or staff members we welcome visitors and volunteers back into our buildings but visits must be scheduled in advance
040field trips may also return to normal we will continue to monitor multiple daily points and recommendations as they are made from our local and state health organizations as we make the adjustments as needed and we will make the adjustments as needed throughout the school year finally to allow the school corporation to be responsive to fast changing developments the board authorizes the superintendent to implement changes to the plan should changes need to be made in responding to new information regarding coven 19 in our country state and community in the superintendent's best judgment that is my recogni my recommendation for our beginning of the school year plan thank you dr earl you've heard the recommendation as presented for to approve the 2021-22 back-to-school plan as presented we have a motion to approve so moved second moved by
041mr smith and second by mr hoffman i have any questions or comments i um i believe everyone well maybe not everybody but i was asked online mr smith do you have anything to comment on this evening yeah i just want to say thank you to all you that came out today i like dr terrell said the civility was great so i felt like our community has always set an example even through the difficult times last year so one thing i would say is that these are always difficult circumstances that you can't accommodate everyone but the data points seem to suggest that the school should be open and no mask and so i feel like we've always done the best job we can as a board as an administration based upon the circumstances that we had
042to deal with and we'll continue to do that and put the children first and so i am in full support of this plan moving forward and understand that you know factors and circumstances could change and so but as long as we can continue to move forward safely and we should we should continue to move forward so uh i'm in support thank you thank you mr smith oh mr patrick anything yeah i support the plan as proposed by the superintendent also um i do want to make sure that we're clear on a couple of these points the phone call that somebody might receive about a positive either on a bus or in a classroom is just a phone call for informational purposes is my understanding that is correct at this time we do not plan on
043starting with the full-blown contact tracing requiring you to quarantine your kids okay and i i believe the board you know i won't speak for everybody i'll speak for myself but i am i am touched by the people that showed up today because you're showing an involvement in the community it's a shame that it takes a pandemic to uh to fill this room uh but it is one of the more exciting topics obviously um because it affects us all so deeply and um i'm just glad to see people involved and people show up and state their opinions and take that podium i know that's not a that's not an easy thing to do and you guys put time and effort and and research and your comments and and that means that means a lot uh to
044me to and i'm it's a pleasure to hear those comments so thank you thank you mr babjack mr hoffman would you like to contribute i would like to echo the sentiments of mr smith and mr babjack this is a an issue that has created a lot of divide in this country um i would echo the sentiments of the gentleman back here talked about the stopping mosquitoes with the chain-link fence but i would encourage everyone to consult your local experts and make your decisions that you believe are best for you and your family members but i also would encourage you to take into consideration the effect of those decisions upon the people around you or around your children and the rest of your families these decisions have been extremely difficult over the past year and a
045half it goes back to when i first ran for school board nearly 20 years ago i asked the superintendent at that time how do you be a good school member school board member and he says it's simple you do the right thing and what we are trying to do based upon the information that we receive sitting in these seats is to do the right thing for the great majority of our students families community members and the educational process thank you mr hoffman mr angel um sentiment's exactly kind of mr huffman uh explained them um every decision i've made here my time on the board has been what's in the best interest of students first our faculty taxpayer dollars things like that if you make that decision for students first the decisions are pretty easy and
046at this time based on all the facts involved i believe that this plan is the right way to go just like that could change but as of right now and today that's the right way to go to get these kids back in the school classroom thanks mr angel um for myself i probably i think i sit here more on the fence than any of the board and it's it's very difficult um i think that from a corporation standpoint community school corporation want to make sure that the attendance issues don't cause any problems to families who you know we want to encourage if someone's not feeling well we want to encourage them to stay home promote you know push them to stay home give them all the help they need to stay home we need to
047be very careful that that's not ever an issue for those that you know any help that can be given i think it's still still very important to you know help where we can to continue to moderate data points we're going to have in in dr terrell's recommendation was that we you know give him the uh as as it was worded the authority to implement changes to the plan as data changes and i i think that's very important that their the data is continuously monitored um and i i i've had people that you know her close to me with uh a child that was affected um you know i think in the room we all have heard of unfortunate situations of people losing life um and uh i you know so i i have great respect
048for anyone who is vocal or wants to wear masks or supports vaccines i i i respect it greatly um and going back to being a school board member now for eight years as mr hoffman said i think you start off down this road of you know you you believe in what's right for your family and your child but then there's a whole other large large large population of children that we try to think about as well it's not always what's best for us but we're trying to make it you know for our individual family but we want to make these decisions what's best for the entire school corporation and as i said i was probably probably on the fence a little bit but ultimately i'd want my children to be in the school without masks
049on and as hard of a decision as it is for me and it's kind of it's difficult to say that i i understand it's not actually a popular thought but ultimately it's what would i was told before this well what would you what about your kids and you know there's a good chance my kids will go to mask at some point time during the year if we feel like you know we're watching that's what the choice the idea of choice is all about and um so a little bit of rambling there but i think it's uh some thoughts that wanted to be shared and ultimately for me it's going to be how would i you know want to take care of my own children um who are in first and second grade and you know
050i have the choice of doing what i what i like them a the if i if i'd like to so anyhow anybody else have uh any other comment if not you've heard the recommendation to approve this 20 21 22 back to school plan as presented all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 item 4.02 this evening is approval to apply for and receive grant funds from the crown point community foundation for the winfield elementary steem club and robotics team is that step supposedly stem club there uh yeah that's a great idea good idea mr hoffman yeah we you're you're more than welcome to stay but there's nothing more exciting than what we've already covered at this point you can hit you can stay for us approving the textbook rental revisions
051to uh the middle schools if you want that'd be good [Music] that's terrible repeat 4.02 as approval to apply for and receive grant funds from the crompton community foundation for the winfield elementary steam club and robotics team mr mears thank you mr president and school board members administration is seeking to apply for and receive funding in the amount of one thousand dollars from the crown point community foundation for the winfield elementary school science technology engineering art and mathematics club and robotics team we have a kindergarten teacher who would like to apply and introduce and integrate developmentally appropriate stem education and steam specifically coding and robotics into our k2 student body mr ramirez would you explain the difference between stem and steam sure steam adds in the a for art which then kind of encompasses all
052of our learning and incorporates the liberal arts in addition to science and technology mathematics that is a valid point yes okay if you heard the recommendation for mr mears to prove to apply for and receive funding in amount of a thousand dollars from the crown point community foundation for the winfield elementary school science technology engineering art and mathematics club and robotics team do we have a motion to approve so moved second that's moved by mr hoffman second by mr smith any questions or comments from mr mears not all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and we have 4.03 as permission to apply for and receive grant funds from the crown point community foundation for birth to school programming mr mayors thank you mr president as you shared we have
053another request from the crown point community foundation for us to be able to apply for and receive grant funds from the foundation for our birth to school program we would like to apply for and depending on the crown point community foundation's review receive funding in the amount of seventy three hundred dollars to expand the birth to school programming focusing on kindergarten readiness sorry thank you mr ramirez you for the recommendation to apply for and receive funding the amount of seven thousand three dollars from the crown point community foundation to expand birth to school programming good motion to approve second move by mr angel in second by mr babjack any questions or comments from mr mears i don't have any specific information but my understanding this has been a very effective program over the past many
054years is that correct yes we have seen this program grow most recently we applied for crown point community foundation grant in 2020 and that allowed us to expand our kindergarten readiness programming to begin in september as opposed to february and that expanded into all of our schools offering kindergarten prior to that it's only been offered in our title one buildings and we were able to see essentially um fourfold of our families participating this past year because of the expansion into all of our buildings so we are serving over um 200 families in preparing for kindergarten readiness i'll just comment to save mr angels some breath and thank the crown point community foundation who have been huge supporters of our school system through the years so we appreciate it what was in favor saying by saying
055aye aye opposed motion carries five zero and 4.04 is the student handbook revisions and additions we have mr g and fermi uh thank you mr president in your board packets you have the updated student handbooks for the elementary schools middle schools crown point high school and our new preschool student handbook most of the updates and revisions are just names contacts and basic information some branding updates that have been provided with new logos from mrs allen a couple items worth noting prior to covid we were working on some tobacco and vaping policies the board actually had some administrators in here right before all that hit us um happy to report that we did update that section for to including the consequences some uh educational sessions that a student would have to attend through our sro program
056at the school so we're happy we were able to put that in there and hopefully i'll make a bigger impact on those kids making those choices also this just another thing to note that this is our first preschool student handbook for the new program so good job for all the folks that worked on that with that being said the administration would like to recommend to waive the reading of the handbooks and approve handbooks with the suggested additions and adjustments thank you mr g fermi for recommendation to approve to waive the reading of the handbooks and prove handbooks would suggest suggested editions and adjustments we have motion to approve i will move to waive the reading of the handbooks and approve the handbooks with the suggested additions and adjustments second that moved by mr hoffman and
057second by mr angel do you have any questions or comments from mr gene fermi i'd like to thank all those involved that's not an easy process with all the changes that have taken place thank you for all your work on that all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries 5-0 and we have 4.05 dss contract for summer school denim mr g fermi the second session of summer school began today in our elementary and middle school buildings the corporation will have a need to continue to utilize ess our third party contractor who supplies substitutes for our schools substitutes utilized for summer school will be paid the same rates earned during the 2021 school year so the administration would like to recommend the approval of the ess 2021 summer school addendum which is
058attached to your work packet thank you mr g fermi for recommendation to prove the ess 2021 summer school addendum as presented in our packet we have a motion to approve it's removed second moved by mr bab jack and then mr smith or huffman sorry second by mr smith any ques questions or comments from mr dean for me i was in favor signify by saying ai all right opposed motion carries 5-0 we have 4.06 policy revisions additions and deletions the second reading and adoption mr gene fermi uh last board meeting mr akiwa had provided all of us with the annual neola board policy updates and revisions the updates included new state federal law as well as revisions to existing board policies in addition to neola we also utilized policy advisor from isba in this updating process
059uh the revisions were provided last month for a first reading since there's been no additional changes the administration is recommending the board waive the second reading of the policies and adopt as presented thank you mr g fermi good recommendation to prove the way waived reading of these policies has adopted and adopt them as presented a motion to approve so moved second moved by mr hoffman and sacked by mr babjack need questions or comments from mr g and fermi all those in favor signify by saying aye aye opposed motion carries five zero and 4.07 is the 2021-22 textbook rental revision for the middle school mr g and fermi at last month's meeting we approved the school board approved the 21 22 middle school textbook rental feeds through some diligent work of our staff here in central
060office we worked with a company zello who provides our middle school college and career software we're able to move the fee from four dollars per student to three dollars and 25 cents we'd like to pass the savings on to our parents and are recommending the board approve the textbook rental and supply fee for zello college and career software be moved to the rate of three dollars and twenty five cents thank you mr gene fermi for the recommendation to approve the 2021-22 middle school textbook rental and supply fee zella college and care readiness software to three dollars and 25 cents do we have a motion to approve moved by mr angel second sent by mr hoffman any questions or comments i was in favor signify by saying i oppose motion carries 5-0 and 4.08 award of
061bus bids mr reese thank you mr president members of the board the transportation department received bids for five new buses and five trade-ins to not enhance the staff but just to replace those buses that are old and aging this is in accordance with the bus replacement plan for the 2021 budget it was done to the cie ciesc cooperative purchasing program that we've been a part of for quite a while and happy to report that uh we'd like to recommend the awarding of the bus bid to curl and bus sales for a total net cost of 570 thousand 728 and 30 cents thank you mr reese for the recommendation to prove the award to approve the award of the bus bid to lowest overall bidder that was kirlin bus sales for the net cost of 570
062728 dollars and 30 cents do we have a motion to approve some move second moved by mr hoffman and second by mr smith any questions or comments from mr reese welcome back to mr reece thank you yeah welcome back any other comments questions all those in favor signify by saying hi hi opposed motion carries five zero and discussion report items now at 5.01 is the ilearn report mr ramirez and mr gene fermi thank you mr president and board members thank you for this opportunity to give an overview of our ilearn results from this past administration in spring 2021. i think in looking back a year ago to where we were at many of us were uncertain about what the ilearn administration would look like if it would even occur and really as a true testament
063to the deliberate work that was done at the building level with involvement from our parents and our students we were able to administer the ilearn assessment this past spring and i'd like to share briefly an overview of the elementary ela and math outcomes from this testing we are pleased to share in comparison to 2019 that we are seeing in general a five to ten percent decrease in proficiency when i say that we are pleased to share even though i'm saying that we're showing a decrease in comparison to 2019 we believe that a lot of the instructional practices implemented throughout this past year which include videos chunking content very engaging instruction and multiple opportunities for our students to demonstrate their understanding did result in our students continuing to do well and to perform and demonstrate their
064understanding of standards that we are assessing and skills that we are targeting we do look at this year as an opportunity to close some gaps and when i say gaps i don't believe that these are insurmountable gaps through the monitoring of learning collaborative instruction and planning as well as growth focused practices we believe we have many opportunities this year to identify and support the needs of our students in looking at our data again we do believe that our teachers and our students continued throughout the challenging year of covid to really pursue rigorous academics and to provide instruction and intervention as needed so the overview again does show the five to ten percent decrease but we view this as a positive for us as we move into this school year to continue to very intentionally meet
065the needs of our students you know i would add that you know at the middle school level um going back to 2019 i was still the principal at colonel wheeler it was that was the very first administration of the ilearn test when we switched over and it was difficult it was just difficult even just to administer it for the kids it was all computerized it was all new so across the state uh test scores came down and so um going into the covert period and then trying to administer this test and navigate through all that it was very difficult to mrs ramirez's comments on it was just um it was a heavy lift just to get all the kids in there and get them tested and they did a really great job of that so
066it did remain uh very similar results we we did see decreases across the board uh english language arts and math by five to ten percent in our middle school scores one of the things i think we we were already had some momentum in working on that because we weren't satisfied back in 2019 what our scores were at so we had um adopted more than just one we adopted a new curriculum in science and a new curriculum in math that was all being implemented throughout the course of last year and what was really was really positive is this summer our teachers at the middle school level have had a chance to sit down and build that curriculum and work together to hopefully implement it at its fullest capacity when we when we move into the next
067school year so as mrs romero said i think there's still there's still a lot of positive momentum a lot of things that we have learned that hopefully we will help to close up these gaps um remaining 10 to 15 percent higher than the state average is it's kind of not what our what we expect here you know we expect a lot more of that and our kids are are going to get there for sure because they're great kids and we have great staff and we'll get there thank you information items this evening we have a star 6.1 superintendent discussion groups um dave can we go back real quick i just have one question on the island if that's okay um was that testing administered while the children were in school last year it was right
068it was in this yes the buildings worked especially with the distance learning students to create schedules so that they were allowed to come into the building when their students were not present or at specific times that are allowed by um ilearn so that they could be administered the test in a safe environment gotcha thanks so you had to round up a significant you had to round up a significant group of people work with them get them into the buildings well we actually do we utilize the wednesdays when right yeah yes but the building principles and the staff the teachers really did band together to find ways to make sure that they had testing assignments groups support for students who were coming in on a non-traditional day to come in for testing so it was quite
069a heavy lift and really a lot of work and reshuffling so they did an excellent job of making sure that all of our students had that opportunity is this is this were you kind of expecting this or were you really not sure what to expect with all the variables that were in place i don't think anybody was shocked right and it was it was consistent with what everybody experienced across the state um again very new test and and going into the second year in that atmosphere it's difficult right very difficult and i think to mr g and fermi's point with the first administration being in 2019 we didn't have any comparative data from 2020 and then we have a very abnormal year as well so to compare the data is also very challenging given um
070both sets of kind of circumstances that occurred when it was administered off the top of your head do you guys know what our participation rate was we were well into the 1990s so again thank you to our teachers administrators parents for really working to make that happen as well any other questions thank you uh superintendent discussion groups mr smith anything to report out of cedar lake nothing from city like anything mr hoffman would you like nothing new to report let's move forward to 6.02 director of elementary education mr ramirez thank you mr president and board members i would just like to kind of summarize where i think we are at when we look at where we're at in the summer and you hear and you talk to teachers and staff many will share that the
071summer is going by very quickly we have approximately three weeks until we get to start working with our students and re-engaging with our colleagues which is a really exciting time there's much work to be done and i think that both on the professional development side for our teachers as well as then on the side of welcoming back our families and helping our students transition back into school whether that's through summer learning open house kickoffs that may be happening in different buildings it really is an exciting time and is a true reflection of our staff and our teachers and really their desire to make relationships with students and to kick the year off on a positive note so there are many wheels in motion right now and things are just gearing up for a great school
072year so it's an exciting time and a very busy one thank you mr smears uh 6.04 no i'm skipping 6.03 director of secondary education mr g furby um this i mean for secondary education this is about as quiet as it gets i mean we do have uh the middle school starting a second session of summer school but the high school is looking forward to that last week in july when they can actually say hey something's going to stop here a little bit but i just want to mention that we did complete an administrative retreat over the over the course of last week and it was really just an exciting time to get together with our new administrators our our seasoned experienced administrators and just to see us all kind of coming together and and this
073crowd would have been happy to see that you know looking forward to some kind of normalcy for our school year planning that way it wasn't all about you know where we're going to put up a plastic shield or you know what are we going to do with stickers to stay apart it was more about talking about instruction and learning and team building so it was an exciting time and we're just looking forward to the upcoming school year and it's coming quick thank you director of exceptional education ms pasquez good evening president morney and board members um the exceptional ed department has staffed about 18 positions this summer with some of our additional positions we've added along with the bulldog buddies preschool program lots of interviewing and hiring which is a great feeling last week as
074a result of the retreat and i won't steal any of dr terrell's thunder we had the opportunity to have all of our building administrators under one roof so we were able to provide them some training with procedures for special education evaluations and referrals and what that process is supposed to look like as well as their role in the case conference setting as the public agency rep so there's a lot of particulars with special education law that they need to follow during those conferences thank you miss passage just have a question mrs pascus after it's been about 15 months 16 months special at audit where would you say we are with those items on that [Laughter] more degrees than i'll ever think i could ever have and that person literally got stunned by that question so
075no but where are we at with it for the majority of the issues okay great and once again the board is here to help if there's anything that needs to be done to finish the review of that so we thank you for your efforts and moving forward with that thank you director of communications i almost brought my name tag with me but i thought that might seem a little we would like to see that so i loved it diana could you hold up brooke's name tag she's official now it does exist registration opens wednesday through friday this week depending on a student's last name and parents will notice a few extra steps unfortunately i apologize however we are required as a school district to make sure we inform parents of certain rights at the beginning
076of every school year before we just posted those documents on our website they were there and a parent had to go search for them we have changed that now and they are part of the annual registration process just not really doing our due diligence before to make sure parents receive those so there's seven or eight of them just some information and parents will click to acknowledge that they receive the information okay nobody will probably need a name tag when they find out you're responsible for the newsletter that went out because uh based on me being around town it's been nothing but a hit and so we greatly appreciate your efforts with that and helping out the rest of them get the information across i've heard nothing but compliments about that newsletter items that were items
077that were picked to be highlighted you know whereas the calendar registration ideas i mean things that you would normally have to pick through an archaic website that you've also done a great job of uh yeah the feed it's been pretty pretty pretty good news yep several positive comments people that have mentioned it so thank you yeah business department mr reese thank you mr president i uh i want to thank uh dr terrell on the board for having the confidence to allow me to give this a go again um i i i think uh the administration team that we've worked with just for me two that two days and a couple hours has been really rewarding to get back in the swing of things here in the crown point community schools and the business office staff
078has been super in working with the new arrangement and i couldn't be more excited i think everybody's really i think everybody's really excited about what we're going to do here in the next next few years so i want to thank you all for that that confidence in me thank you glad to have you back and superintendent of schools dr terrell so there's a few things that i'd like to just bring to your attention in public i know that i've already shared with you as well before this summer has really been a great summer for us to work through some common language issues as you've heard from mr pascus as we're dealing with some of the results from the special ed audit a year ago or a little more than a year ago but also carrying
079that on even beyond just the exceptional ed part of our school situation or environment that we have here that team building that camaraderie that's coming around our administrative team we're making great strides there i would like to thank our cabinet publicly for the amount of work they've put into this it's been ambitious summer in light of covid and everything we dealt with last year to all the additional changes that are coming be yet to continue to develop our our staff here the amount of professional development that's gone on the number of days of professional development that took place over the summer and have are yet to come even before the summer is over has been amazing and appreciate so much the the teachers willingness to do that as well i also would like to bring
080up something that i feel is a great accomplishment and is in partnership with our teachers association with mrs jansen being here this evening we've been able to participate in a couple of pre-bargaining sessions which uh has not happened here in our district before and i appreciate the way that the the association has come prepared and bringing things that they'd like us to look at and review we believe crown point schools is a great place to work as well as a great place for kids to go to school and we're just really interested in trying to do everything we can to reward our our employees not just our certified but also our non-certified staffs as well so thank you and we look forward to that also want to invite all of you and and have you
081put the date on your calendars the monday when kids come back to school on wednesday we'll be having a back to school meeting with all of our staff members in the morning at crown point high school in the auditorium i look forward to a very upbeat informative meeting there as we kick off our school year really missed out on that opportunity last year and so i i'm going to start it by introducing myself because i feel like even though i was in a lot of buildings and tried to be out as much as i could you know one of the things that was consistent as as i met with our cabinet members this year this summer to reflect back on last year every one of them brought up the fact that they want to be
082in buildings more and and with the situations we faced last year that just wasn't the top of our list for a lot of different reasons and so we all look forward to being out there and being able to support our teachers our administrators our students as well as we continue through that last thing i'd just like to continue to recognize and while they've got a ton to do before the students and teachers report back to school that is our summer employee maintenance custodial group and the work that they're doing throughout the summer has been a heavy lift and continues with several things that they've got to check off yet but uh our buildings will be ready to go and one field as you saw in the update is in a great spot and we'll be
083ready for our kids when they return out there as well so i know the teachers and principal there are looking forward to having a normal year not just because of covid but because of construction finally coming to an end and wrapping that up so they look forward to that as well thank you thank you dr terrell other business the board of school trustees have put on other business do we any other business out there that we'd like to discuss dr terrell we heard anything back about possibly working out with the city the addition of a new building there has that gone anywhere no we met with the mayor several months ago and we haven't heard anything beyond at this point in time thank you yep i'd like to acknowledge dr terrell and his what did
084you call it the the family fun night or something the bullying get together last wednesday at here at the crown point bowling alley was a great opportunity for administrators and their families to get to meet the rest of their families and besides the coworkers and comment was made several times that these people work together and talk about each other but because of covid they never had the opportunity for their families to know who they were talking about so it was a great opportunity for that it was a great opportunity for me to be able to speak with our administrators freely and openly and got to visit with several of them and eat a lot of pizza so it was i think it was a wonderful event at a at a very modest cost and and
085uh great teamwork building the event and if mr hoffman's looking to come out of retirement he could be a pizza cutter i saw him out pretty well yet he still beat you and bowling i believe there was no effort on that says the guy who competes at everything have any other other other business if not let's move on i would just add um thank you for meeting with the with the teachers and starting that process of the preliminary negotiations i know that's something that you guys have wanted for a long time and so i'm very very grateful to hear that that finally happened and hopefully that makes the process and sets some you know tone eases some minds um relieves some stress all that good stuff so thank you for setting that up anyone else
086move to adjourn let's go to uh how about board statements for statements appreciation and recognition mr smith i don't have any statements of appreciation i do have a comment i just want to say that you know this year is a very exciting year from the from a board member's perspective from the administration perspective teachers just as it's the first year that we've had dr terrell and some of the policies he's putting in the changes he's made where we have some normalcy to it and although we've been you know that the glamorous conversations have been covid mask red yellow green schooling things like that i think the general public needs to know that the train has never stopped and it's continued to roll and there's been a lot done that i think we're going to reap
087the benefits from this year as a corporation and so that excites me i'm excited to see what that looks like and where we're at in the year and i'm excited to see where the test scores for ilearn are next year and just to see the progress and the improvements have been made so i think the expectation in the bar is high across the board but that that's extremely exciting to me to get back to school function and some normalcy so i want to commend all those people that poured into those behind the scenes not only were they dealing with the interruptions of covid but they were working their jobs and then also having the foresight to implement all the changes the board was doing and recommending and the administration was recommending and i think everybody's
088adjusted well and done a great job so i i think this could be one of the best years we've had in a very long time and that gets me very excited so just want to thank thanks to everybody that's worked so tirelessly to do that thank you mr smith jack yeah i boy there's so much to look forward to i can't wait to watch the the uh dirt start to fly at all the different schools with the improvements that we have planned as far as classrooms and new schools and playgrounds and all the stuff that's going to happen uh in the next couple years is going to be amazing and then i just i just want to say again like you know there are a couple people that that stayed around for the the rest
089of the meeting but that was a good thing that we had that many people here today to to show up and speak their mind and um that's not an easy thing to do and i'm glad to see our community involved you know with this process helping us get we're all in it together and so they showed that tonight in a very peaceful and um you know effective effective manner i think we've all seen the highlights of uh some of these meetings not going so so well and i never wouldn't expect that in crown point and it was demonstrated tonight so that's all i have thank you mr robin i have nothing further mr angel uh just one time for the crown point uh football moms uh they provided they have a watermelon night where they
090provide fruit and other things to the players after practice and some hot practices they provided a snack meal for the bus trip to northwood for their scrimmage last thursday so one of those underlying clubs behind the scenes that helps our football players when you're dealing now with from what i hear over a 120 players total but like somewhere near uh over 100 just on the varsity level from 10 through 12. so um just thank you the moms club for what they do for our players and help with the coaching staff so that's one less thing they have to worry about as we make the transition with a new head coach thank you mr angel for myself not not so much i know there's there are good things taking place that uh i don't have on
091the tip of my tongue to recognize but uh to take a step back for the other business of the board i did want to go back to that we've heard a couple comments while up here in the last few months about um the name of taft and i'd just like to ask our administrators or maybe dr terrell to consider whether or not um you know at what point in time that might be a discussion that with the for the name i'm just speaking on just the hearsay i don't know if we you know why is it still going to be the same name is it going to be the same name it's uh just something interesting that we mentioned before that i think we would want to discuss um also a fall conference is coming
092up i'm not sure if the board members saw the email um you know i think we would encourage each other to try to get down there if we can so just throw that out there i know i've i've waited till last minute a few times to set up hotel arrangements that's not a good idea i didn't check the schedule to see if the cults are playing but they're at baltimore on monday night so they're not in town okay all right i already looked after i saw the email from diane yeah because yes so you got to jump on that right yeah i've been there i've been with somebody waiting way too long um but i don't have anything else i just want to actually show some appreciation towards fellow board members when things come up
093and uh we have our potential maybe a one-on-one conversation or a breakfast that we get together with one another and you know kick around thoughts and ideas and can be honest with each other in how we feel about different things i think we have a nice understanding and relationship with each other and it's appreciated so thank you to you guys um anything else if not we're looking for a motion to adjourn so move second moved by mr angel and second by mr hoffman all the favors signify by saying aye aye opposed no documents right you