001Good morning, tech team. We are ready to begin. President Harden, before you begin today's public hearing, I would like to read a few announcements. Good morning. and welcome to the October 23rd, 2025 physical education waiver application hearing. Before we start the hearing, I would like to share a few safety points and next meeting announcements. Please note that the primary exit and entrance to the boardroom is the door which you use to enter this morning. If you are leaving the room, please use this door. The restrooms are outside the boardroom doors to your left. During the hearing, we ask that you keep all aisles and exits clear. If you need any assistance during the hearing, please wave the attention of one of our security officers. Following the hearing, please join us at our regular schedule board
002meeting today at 10:30 a.m. The board meeting will be held at 42 West Madison Street Garden level boardroom. Once the hearing has concluded, all speakers and observers must clear the boardroom and should you wish to observe the board meeting, please check in at the main lobby before returning to observe the board meeting. The next agenda review committee meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, December 3rd, 2025 at 10:30 a.m. The meeting will be held at 42 West Madison Street Garden level boardroom. For details on how to register to speak or observe at the board meeting and to learn about speaker lottery process, please visit the Chicago Board of Education website. If you have any questions about registration or public participation, please contact the board office for assistance. Thank you for joining us today. Good morning everyone. I'm
003President Sean B. Harden and on behalf of my fellow board members, welcome to the Chicago Board of Education physical education waiver application hearing. Today is October 23rd, 2025. Thank you for joining us today. We're holding today's hearing in the boardroom at CPS Loop office, 42 West Madison Street, Garden Level. I'd like to note that the board members and senior leadership are physically present in the boardroom. Registered speakers may join us in person or virtually if they've opted to do so and register observers are joining us in person. The purpose of this hearing is to comply with the school code provisions regarding the physical education waiver. Assistant secretary, please state for the record the notice procedure for this hearing. >> Thank you, President Harden. Notice of this public hearing was published in the Chicago Sun Times,
004a newspaper of general circulation in the city of Chicago and posted at Principal Office 42 West Madison Street lobby on October 21st, 2025. Notice was also posted on the cpsb.org and cps.edu websites on October 8th, 2025. I will now read into the record the public notice as published. The Board of Education of the City of Chicago notice of public hearing on waiver application prior to the regular Chicago Board of Education meeting and public hearing will be held at 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. on Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 at 42 West Madison Street for a waiver application to allow the Chicago Public School CPS students in kindergarten through 8th grade to engage in a course of physical education for a minimum of two days per 5-day week instead of three days per 5-day week. CPS seeks
005to apply for a waiver of section 27-6 of the Illinois school code, which requires that students engage in physical education for a minimum of three days per 5day week, except for block scheduling and appropriate excuses. CPS policy requires students in kindergarten through 8th grade engage in a course of physical education for a minimum of three days per 5day week for a minimum of 120 minutes per week. CPS is proposing that the student in kindergarten through 8th grade in 120 minutes of physical education over the two days per 5day week for this public hearing. Advanced registration to speak will be available beginning Tuesday, October 21st, 2025 at 9 a.m. and will close on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025 and 9:00 a.m. Anyone interested in speaking can sign up. After the 24hour registration period, a lottery will randomly
006select a set number of speakers for those who register. For example, if 100 people register, the lottery might select 10 of them to speak. The process gives everyone a fair chance to address the board. Advanced registration during this period is available by the following methods: online and by phone. The public participation segment of the public hearing will conclude after the last person who has registered to speak has spoken or at 9:30 a.m., whichever occurs first. Staff members are encouraged to participate to ensure e equity of access to address the board. An individual may not speak at back-to-back meetings and more than one meeting per month. If you register for back-to-back meetings and more than one meeting per month, you will not be included for that meeting. In the event an individual registers to speak at
007a consecutive meeting, the individual will not be called to address the board. However, if less than the allotted time of speakers register for a meeting, the limitation of speaking at consecutive meetings and or more than once within a month will not apply. And for those previously ineligible to speak will be reinstated in the lottery and may be eligible to speak. Members of the public may submit written comments related to the waiver application via the written comments form on the board's website or mail 242 West Madison Street Garden level. Written comments received between the day of public agenda is posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the board of education meeting will be submitted to the board and posted within five business days of our at our website. I would like to note for the records
008the members present today here today is board member Smith board member VZ, board member Bole, board member Wallace, board member Pope, board member Rivas, board member Rio Sierra, board member Biggs, board member, board member Blae, and board member Sakort and B and board president Shawn B. Harden. I would also like to acknowledge Elizabeth K. Barton, acting general counsel is here today. >> Thank you. We'll begin with today's public comment segment. Thank you for joining to share your comments with the board. In compliance with the Illinois Open Meetings Act, public participation, sometimes referred to as public comment, is a portion of the board meeting or hearing that grants district stakeholders the opportunity to address the board with their concerns and comments. Note that public participation is a time for the board and CPS senior leadership to
009listen and hear from you rather than a time for dialogue with board members during or after your remarks. While we can't discuss personnel matters, public participation is a key component of transparent governance and it provides us as board members as well as senior leadership an opportunity to listen to everyone who has signed to speak. The board takes equity of voice seriously. While we may not address your comments directly during public participation, CPS leadership is always present at our meetings and are able to address concerns as follow-ups after the meeting. As a district and as a board, we also have many other spaces for authentic dialogue. For example, each and every one of the board members hosts board office hours so that we can have a conversation. Please use our website cpsbboe.org if you want to
010meet with a board member during office hours. We encourage you to take advantage of this opportunity to be meet with board members outside of a board meeting. Thank you for your attention and consideration. As a and as a reminder, union representatives will be allowed at 5 minutes to speak before public participation and any elected officials will be allowed to speak 5 minutes after the conclusion of public participation. Assistant Secretary, please share the rules of public participation. Members of the public who registered to speak were given the option to attend in person or via an electronic format. For those who prefer to attend via an electronic format, they were given information to access this meeting by dialing a number and using their phone. We did this so that speakers with limited or no access to the
011internet or who may have a weak internet connection could still participate using their phones. Also, members of the public may submit written comments for the board of education hearing via the written comments form on the board's website or mail 242 was Madison history garden level. Written comments received between the day the public agenda was posted through 5:00 p.m. the day after the board of education hearing will be submitted to the board and published within five business days on our website. Speakers, please listen while I provide directions for public participation. I will call your name and number when it's your turn to speak. For speakers joining us virtually, as a reminder to unmute, please press star six. President Hardin, we are now ready to call register speakers. We will begin with Mark Bracken, speaker number six.
012Please press star six to unmute. Uh, good morning. Can you hear me? >> Yes, please continue. >> Okay. Uh, sorry. One one. Um, good morning members of the board. For the past 10 years, I've had the honor of serving as the director of production at Shy Arts. In that time, I've watched more than a thousand young artists grow from novice freshmen unsure of their voice to competent seniors ready to take the stage, the canvas, or the world. Each year, we produce about 65 performances from creative writing readings to concerts, musicals, dance showcases, and visual arts exhibitions. That's more than 650 performances over my career, and I've had the privilege of seeing nearly all of them. I've watched students discover confidence they didn't know they had, find their voices throughout, and inspire audiences again and again.
013But every year, one challenge never seems to change. A shrinking budget. We've stretched every dollar, written every grant, and fundraised for things that make Shy Arts what it is. The leotards for dance class, the MIMA for percussion, the voice for the voice lessons, the scripts, the canvas, almost all of it privately fundraised. What's not privately fundraised come from you throughout our academic day. Yet, what amazes me every single year is that our students never stop showing up with passion, creativity, and heart. They work hard because they believe in their art and their community. Let's be clear, students don't come here for the academics. Students come to Shy Arts because it offers something rare, the chance to be taught by working artists who mentor, challenge, and believe in them. Our conservatory model reflects the diversity, resilience,
014and creativity of Chicago itself. So, as you make your decision next week, I ask you to remember what makes Shy Arts extraordinary. Our teaching artists, our dedicated staff, and our students who give everything they have to make the art that reflects this city. Shy Arts changes lives. I know I've seen over a thousand of them walk across that stage at graduation. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. For the record, I I would like to note board member Bannon has joined the hearing at 9:31 a.m. We will continue with our next speaker who will be joining us in person, Demetrius Anderson. Speaker number seven. >> Good morning. My name is Demetri Sanderson. I'm a retired police officer. Um I primarily have worked with the University of um Illinois Chicago and in and around the
015area. Um in my retirement though, I've now consulted rather converted over into consulting. And what I basically do though is I speak and I meet with other um likewise size uh school districts, communities and areas. And the thing that I do is I try to go ahead and integrate some of the new ideas such as Alyssa's law and make sure that they are looking in different ideas to go ahead and provide a safer learning environment through that doing real-time notifications to 911 centers and making sure that our students are safe. As being a product of CPS school systems and I also sent my kids to CPS school, I'm actually coming to you today though more as a concerned citizen. Um, now that I've had the opportunity to go to different states, different cities, and see
016what they're doing within their school systems, I'd like to basically bring and hopefully advise the board on different things I'd love to see happen here in Chicago. Again, with over 30 years of service in higher education, I've seen security paradigms um evolve. Today, school districts face an emerg challenge. Um, many, of course, like the city of Chicago, have invested in a huge infrastructure. I understand that back in February of 2020 or rather February of 23, uh, CPS invested almost $76 million within upgrading security. >> You have 30 seconds remaining. >> Um, moving right along. One of the things I'd love to see though is with the new HB um, bill 1705 of Alyssa's law, many schools right now are basically integrating real-time alerts. In other words, taking the time to go ahead and use actions.
017Whereas an event happens, an event is reviewed, an event is also sent immediately over to 911, which allows people that are on the ground to react, move instead of being the witness and having to do everything at once. >> Thank you for your time. >> President Harden, this concludes public participation. We'll now proceed with the P waiver application presentation. Uh Mr. Hughes, please proceed. >> Good morning, board members. Brandon Hughes. I'm the director of PE and health um out of the office of teaching and learning. So basically what this hearing is, you know, we're recommending that the board authorize a waiver um um for the ISBY school code 105. As you heard about this waiver is just so that we can drop the days down from 3 days to two days so that we're in
018compliance um with the state. Um this this adjustment is just mainly just so that we're crossing our eyes and got our tees so that they're aware of what we're doing in this district as it relates to our P waiver. Um as you see right there, physical educ waiver seeking to allow the district to permit students in kindergartens through 8th grade to engage in physical activities a minimum of two days over a 5-day week. Students will still receive the 120 minutes of PE each week. So that's not changing. Um this is just the regular law stating it right there where we required to do a minimum of three days. Um the physical waiver impacts section 276 of school code. A school board may determine the schedule frequency of physical education courses provided by the pupil engaged
019in the course of physical education in a minimum of two days of what we're applying for. The rationale for this waiver um physical education waiver would allow the district to address facility limitations as well as scheduling constraints um which I did a conducted a survey with all our teachers and I asked for their feedback of if they're meeting these um mandated days of three days and majority of them a lot of them responded like no we're getting two days some of these scheduling constraints right here many elementaryaries um are not meeting it due to certain facilities ities conducting physical education at alternative cert um locations which can lead to a liability issues. Um some of it is due to the spacing, some of it is due to other constraints of some of our buildings are
020older especially our elementary schools. So the um so that the gym room is not that big. It's not it's not a serviceable area. Um scheduling issues. Um that was a big thing that happened too of why there are other constraints because we majority of our we have a 60-minute block um and for prep time for our teachers. So that causes that causes an issue of trying to make it three days a week. So dropping it down to two is more feasible and it matches up with our 120 required minutes. Um current class size plays a major part due to CBA size limitations and other districts and PE offer 30 to 30 to 40 minutes. So that's how they're able to to offer these three days out of the week. Um, and this is just a
021other district waiver request. This just showing other districts that have applied for this waiver. This waiver has been submitted over 900 times over the duration of PE. Um, but I just want to give you all just a a breakdown of like some of the districts that are showing up right there like Downers Grove School, Hery Community Union School, Rantul City School. Um, one I didn't list it is I met with Elgens. Elgen is in the process of doing the same exact thing of submitting one too because they only do PE for two days out of the week. So that's my presentation right now. >> Thank you board members. Are there any questions or comments? >> There being none, this concludes the P waiver application. Thank you. >> Thank you.