001and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you okay so as I said we're back in Open session we do not have any discipline motion so I would entertain a motion to amend the agenda to have us come back into closed session after the meet after we're done with the open session and uh like I said no action is taken are there any other um additions or corrections to the agenda and if not I would I would entertain a motion to approve the agenda and the consent agenda simultaneously so moved second okay um any questions comments none roll call vote please yes yes yes yes yes power yes yes motion passes 70 thank you very much um normally we would have uh public
002comments at this time but I would take the moment to uh give a shout out to the our board candidates that are here this evening who I see Dr howerin here uh Mr Chris East is Tony here no Harsha no okay would you like to stand up and yeah Dr howerin Dr Tom howerin and Mr Chris e all right good luck that's all I have to say uh public comments um I wait for you to set the clock got you um after last week I had a lot of people reach out to me and um one of the things that somebody kept stressing to me was that as a black man it's my job to protect black women and that stuck with me and the one thing that kept coming back into my mind was
003a Bible verse which is 1 Timothy 5:20 that says rebuke those who persist in sin in front of everyone so that the rest May fear and what that basically means is if you see wrong call it out so everybody around you sees that wrong and knows that it's wrong and we need to address it and I don't feel bad about anything I said last week but that person was correct because there are a lot of black women that I have failed so I wanted to come back up here and take that time to apologize to some of those black women uh starting with Miss pay because I implied last week that Kim Corley was the only person that came in our building Miss Payne had been in our building and I wanted to publicly apologize
004to you but I also want to give an apology to Dr Sharon desmon karat who was an assistant superintendent here and when the superintendent position came up last we didn't even give her an interview and now she's the superintendent of the year in the state of Illinois and one of the final four candidates for National superintendent and a couple of you were on this board and didn't give her the interview you know who you are I also want to apologize to Miss Lisa Brooks and all of the other amazing admin ministrators that we had in this District during Dr Gus's time that we somewhat chased out and we didn't stand up and speak for them in the moment and I know that there's more to those stories but those women aren't here anymore there were
005at least six seven Su administrative black women now we're down to two one who just got hired and one who's only been in her position for one year I also want to give an apology to Tiara Brown who ran for this same school board when there were two seats available and place third and then when it was time to appoint somebody to another seat she wasn't selected Elder Parks was so let's just be real there's a lot of black women that I owe an apology to also my sister Dar Hightower former president of the DEA when she ran for reelection I didn't use my voice to support her and now she's no longer president and during Allen's presidency what was said throughout all of this what was said because we waited until the teachers decided
006to take a day off and let's be honest you already had everything on your agenda that you went ahead and did see I knew what the agenda said last week but there was so much frustration built up that I felt like I had to get that off my chest but the teachers were frustrated and we had so much time to say something but we didn't so instead we waited until some random day we decide that we're not going to come to work and the only people that were hurt were our students so let's just be honest right now it is my job as a black man to protect black women and I failed a lot of black women but I promise you I will not do that anymore and I will stand up and use
007my voice and I will call out the things that I see that are wrong and I will address them headon I hope that this board has the fortitude to make the selection for the next superintendent and realize the mistakes made when they selected the last one I know some of you weren't on that board I know some of you were and some of you were big fans of that previous superintendent when things were good so don't think now that you're not a fan of hers that we have forgotten because we need a board full of diverse voices we need a board that we don't know who they're going to vote for or what way they're going to vote but if we don't stand Up and Hold board members accountable if we don't stand up and
008look board candidates in the face and let them know we will be here to hold you accountable then we have failed as members of this community and I just want every board member who's going to still be on the board to know I'm not going anywhere I won't be here to make a speech every meeting but as I said last week you will see my face and I will continue to fight for the students that I teach because I tell them every single day to stand up and speak your voice and speak your voice to power and not to be afraid so how can I expect them to do that if I'm afraid to do that so I'm standing here in front of this board again letting you know we will hold you accountable and
009when you do start the process of finding a new superintendent maybe we shouldn't go looking too far because we grow some pretty good product here in our own garden and some of them are still in our building and the last time we let one get out of the building they just so happen to become the superintendent of the Year thank youy evening God bless Mr hi Tower uh I do want to add another Bible verse to yours is H James 417 when it says it's a send to know what you ought to do and not do it so thank you for speaking from your heart um good evening board it is uh such a relief to see that chair field um thank you board for putting the previous superintendent on leave doing the right thing
010and appointing Mr Hart um I do kind of want to give you kind of a a uh reading of the community you know today um while I was out and about and all this last week I heard people like in the La mat in line at the grocery store talking about the situation with the former superintendent um and in case you aren't aware none of it was positive regarding her and some of it was a little bit of ignation at the boards um perceived in action regarding her um every single person um talked about it um in a negative aspect but I believe that you guys are going to change that and I think you took the first St up last week and I really am hoping to change the feeling of frustration to one
011of hopefulness um tonight um but I think it's also important to realize that your job isn't done is not quite done yet and um I want the community to know some of the facts about the former superintendent and some of her claims that she's made feeling threatened by the actions of others now her feelings are subjective and I can't prove that any more than she can prove that they're real but in this case some of the facts are that she was followed by a student around town in an effort to harass her and that she was also harassed by giving a solicitation to join a hate group the way that the foer reads to me that the solicitation originated from Chicago that has nothing to do with Dano not the school board not our community
012and the investigation to the student was deemed to be unfounded so isn't it isn't it the policy of the board to do investigations when we place administrators on leave I believe we've done that this past year right Mr Hart so I'm asking the board to do an investigation investigate her claims cuz in case you don't quite get it what she's asking is for money in an undisclosed amount to be paid for her because she was harassed here that has as far as I know nothing to do with her job you know her reputation perceives her it's not always a positive one so you are opening yourselves up to be paying much much more more if all staff has to do is claim that they've been harassed and you are just going to willingly shell out
013money without investigating so please just have the courage to do what is right and just investigate I could be wrong maybe she is entitled to who knows what but just investigate it please I heard a good quote this week that said if you live small you die small take that to heart have some courage do an investigation please I'm back can't get rid of me hello interim superintendent Hart board fellow attendees yesterday I received information from Human Resources Department that I was approved for the request for my sick Bank um donations to be sent out today at the high school this was a step in the right direction but I didn't take that decision for granted since I'm here again I'm appreciative truly and I'm thankful for the support of the people working to make
014the change and to see it through I also want to thank anybody who whether or not you're able to would be willing to help others in need I have been told that they're that they're still working on a greater change with the contract language and hopefully it can be more impactful for more staff and I will continue to come here to urge you to make that change for me the Finish Line has never been about receiving days for myself since I have come and I've have spoken with you it has been to cast a light on ineffective policies in this district and Leadership here I know that last week you got quite a few minutes of time to reflect on yourselves the past few years and the decisions that you've been a part of confucious
015once said there are three methods by which you can become wise the first by reflection which is the hardest the second imitation which is the easiest and the third by experience which as you know can be the most bitter I can imagine that this position of leadership has not been easy on you the seat which you SE which you hold comes with major responsibilities and will test your resolve you willingly sought this position out and you SAR an oath to uphold governance of this board many days when we teachers we go into schools with our students we're approached with dmas that our students are facing and we see those through because it's part of our job that we accepted and we embrace our ability to spark change in this community some days are tough and
016I go home and I have nothing left for for myself or my family but I give it all to the individuals who need it more than I do that day governance is an important part of this process of managing an organization or a society or even my own classroom last week I saw hope that we can get back to governance here on this board it's being accountable for your actions and owning your mistakes no one is perfect and you will gain more respect when you can admit that you've made a mistake and you can own it trust me I know I work at the high school being as transparent as possible in this regard meaning communicating what you're voting on Miss Corley you're quite good at that you need to make your individual positions clear
017for the public so they can better understand your vote and why you feel the way that you feel it's okay if we don't agree but I need to understand your positions you'll be setting the tone in encouraging good practices and in effective leadership you need to give each other respect and accept that you'll have different opinions while still holding each person accountable for their share of the the load the workload you need to act in an ethical and an impartial Manner and hold up uphold the Integrity of your position and lastly you need to manage the resources as a steward of this community to benefit the community now and for the future the purpose the people the process and the performance of the community in at schools this is what you promised to the community
018when you took this oath and that's what we're hopeful that you as a board can get back to I am thankful that you're here and I'm willing that I am happy that you are willing to dedicate your time to try to help Danville be the school district that we're all proud to be members of thank you for being willing to hear the good and the bad and to hopefully receive it with Grace thank you for hearing me and being willing to try to help me to see a change in a policy that has become very important to me today was a good day but not just because sibank was emailed out for me I saw that it got emailed out for somebody else too who needed it it uplifts uplifts me to think that we
019can get back to a point where we can encourage and support each other our District's big on Avid and collaboration so it's nice to be able to teach it as well as to participate in it thank you [Applause] did it thank you that shall bring us to item number six the Albert H Smalls Normandy Institute research Fellowship international travel request good evening uh Mr Hart and Bard um Jacob Brett's principal at the high school I'm here to briefly set the table for a uh out of theordinary travel request um before I turn it over to miss woods and DHS student bayy Easton to tell you a little bit more uh Miss Lori woods and biley Easton applied for and were chosen as one of 15 student teacher teams Nationwide um so of all the applications
020of the country there are one of 15 student and teacher teams chosen to participate in the Albert H Smalls Normandy Institute research Fellowship through George Washington University however this travel not only includes um going to Washington DC out of state travel but international travel to Normandy France um to research dday and the invasion of Normandy and so with that being quite the OD out of the ordinary request um we felt it needed to be its own agenda item for discussion and I am now going to step back and let um Miss woods and Bailey tell a little bit more about it and answer any questions um keeping in mind that brevity is always good uh we can make the motion after that we is not a discussion yet they're going to tell us you're going
021to give us information correct yes all right so then after that information we'll make the we'll make the motion and then we'll have a discussion and question okay um well we want to thank the board and Mr Hart for having us here tonight for Mr Brett's being willing to take this unusual request when we do something like this um this is very hard to get I I'm not going to lie and so you just throw you do your best you throw it out in the wind and actually it was on my birthday on December 18th we woke up and found that we were picked in the first round um to attend this um I'll be honest to do it we've already had to start doing it what this is is we work together as a
022collaborative pair um we have two agendas that we have to do this grant comes from a man Albert Smalls and his goal is that every American Veteran buried at Normandy will eventually have a biography and so as part of that and our part of the application we had to show that we' already looked we knew of veterans there it was trickier than you might think because we had many veterans at 10 dday but um in about 1948 they started a offering to let many be returned home so there was a Danville High School student who was returned home even though he died there um so and then we had to build the resume why um I looked to Bailey what she's doing is very hard you have to be ready she is writing what is
023a three 300 to 400 level term paper um on our topic um everybody has a briefing topic our briefing topic we're we're excited about because growing up in Danville and having a historic black community our briefing topic is on the role of African-Americans in the war but specific Ally their role in that D-Day and how their role kind of then LED towards desegregation of the services after World War II so Bailey um I'm her adviser on that we also have a student from GW who went through the process because they can take it as a class they run it as two different programs and so she's advising us on that then the other part of it is our um Soldier biography and so Bailey you want tell them a little bit about who we chose
024do you want me to give the name first so we had several options um Bailey's Bailey's a little nervous and and one of the reasons I'm very excited for her to do this is that it's hard sometimes for a Danville kid to believe that they're competitive and so Bailey FPS has done some a lot of work with veterans and a lot of work that it's de near and dear to my heart and we're very proud of and when her brother Isaiah was helping to design The Gardens on all of those things Mrs howerin knows um Bailey sometimes got to join us because you know he had to bring his little sister along um but she's taken that role since then too um you know help to fill the freezers that can in place and continue
025that work that's so needed for our veterans here in town but besides that Bailey was the only freshman to try future problem solvers last year and last year we knew to be competitive we had to go for it and try the new part of the competition the Excellence and project management that thing was a horror show I'm not gonna lie that was like I I was like this is horrible and Bailey with Cole Montel took it on and um we won we we co we shared that prize with a team from New Jersey but in their defense the three other teams on the podium with us last year that made it to the top four this is FPS is a curriculum and they do this has a class they have a year every day in
026class where that's all they work on is their project I always believe our kids because it isn't though does do have a level of commitment into it so watching Bailey do that um and I can share that with you later you can see the final project but it it it was it was tear inducing at times wasn't it Bailey like getting that thing together just because it was it's a professional level skill and it was a very different thing that we had ever done so I knew she had the research skills I knew she had we had to have somebody that had a big a big resume and she had the international win I mean when we talk about the kids we're competing with the one we laugh about is the girl who is I
027don't know what kind of boat she's on but it must be on a really good boat because it's gone from Bar Harbor main to Bermuda and she's just traveling and attending an online gifted School through Yukon this year with her parents as she goes up and down the Atlantic coast so some of their lives are a little fancier than our lives but you know Bailey also has has done the work and so we had to have somebody that could show the commitment to Veterans and that had that academic resume that would get it I mean that's the beauty part of our school we we have a way to address everybody top to bottom and so that she's ready for that next step and hopefully learn to believe how smart she is because I think as
028little sister sometimes of her brother who super s was super successful she sometimes worries she's not quite there but she is okay so um let's make the motion and then we can ask her some questions okay I move to approve second thank you and the motion is uh to approve travel to approve the travel request for the Albert H small Normandy Institute research Fellowship International um questions or comments folks you know after i' all I've been to Normandy and it is an awesome experience and we did find several uh veterans from uh who died from Danville so I 100% support this activity what was the name you were going to give us the name oh we forgot that so we we looked at some people who were college and officers they weren't necessarily from Danville
029but then we found um private Leslie Irvin um he was living in Danville at the time he had to it was The Depression his family were farmand workers um and he um had to leave school um so our next step we we've got his military history and all of that stuff and all of those records and that part's orchestrated actually we're we're getting ready to reach out to Mr Denman because I need somebody that understands how the old schools all were because we think we have a pretty good idea where he went to elementary school but it's very hard I mean he definitely grew up in poverty um and so I think when Bailey and I chose this we wanted him to be local because we want to bring his story back to the war
030museum and back to the American Legion but we also felt like um he was a second Battalion Ranger um he died if you've seen Private Ryan that where they storm up to break into the German that's based on the second battalions and what they did to get into the German thing he died he got offshore and he died um there's a really great picture we found where they show like his group all died like they show the whole Battalion before they went and then those four were all killed um but he they they did have his remains and things at least he wasn't missing an action but we wanted we felt like it was Dan and we wanted to kind of not necessarily represent the little guy but represent somebody that probably wasn't ever going
031to get a voice again when will this be and is are the costs for it covered by the fellowship are you needing uh the district to provide the cost are you fundraising um most of it is covered by the fellowship there's kind of like a a hotel at the beginning and a hotel at the end because there's no way we have to be out there on June 18th and there's no there's no let's just face like that that would be too iffy to try and take off on the 18th in the morning and hope life all worked out well so we need to go out on the 17th um when we return so how this works from the 18th to the 22nd we're in DC we're doing archival work and visiting different sites and working
032working as a team there and then um on the 22nd we take off on a Redeye or the 21st but we take off then and then we go to the 29th um they then take us we're staying in the medieval town of beo um and so we're there and then from there then we go out and we we just we have all of these Insider kind of tracks there's a lot of things that we get to do on this because of what the foundation is that if we just went to visit Normandy we would not get to do we get to do a lot of archival work um we will then have a ceremony at our solders grave and recognize him there and share his story and then because we don't we're not like oh
033the invasion of Omaha Beach they haven't decided yet where Bailey does her briefing but then she does her briefing it may be close to beo because we're focusing on the role of African-Americans and the development of something called the red ball system or the red ball Express um that was a very it was one of those things where African-Americans really showed a lot of heroism and that everybody oh they're just driving the trucks but you know the Germans really did not want food and water to get to anybody or ar or ammunition so it turned out to be an extremely dangerous thing that they figured out how to make happen question any more com questions comment just should we approve this Isaiah's gonna be so jealous just say I Isaiah is struggling a little bit
034maybe but you know he he had his turn at other things uh if we approve of this are you going to come back and report to us um that that is part of it that we do share and um I don't want her to say it yeah she's gonna she will do the report I step aside here pretty quick once you say yes she writes the I'm there as the adviser and then she and that's the other part I'm excited for her for because she she knows how to do it when she needs to so she'll but that's she's a sophomore I mean you have to admit like she's accomplished a lot already as a sophomore and that was why I felt like she was ready to take this next big leap great well we'll
035find out in about 17 seconds here okay so if there aren't any other questions or comments roll call vote please yes yes yes yes motion passes 7 Z good luck you can do it thank you [Laughter] she's really this is kind of overwhelming like all that [Applause] she to be selected is uh is an honor and to go should be a a a once in a lifetime or maybe 10 in a lifetime experience I mean there there's a lot of experiences in a lifetime but it should be should be a wonderful thing so yeah it should be awesome uh thank you that brings us to item number I'm getting there we just did number eight seven seven we did six you say numbers and you'll get one right uh waiver of graduation requirements hello board
036I'm still up here with with Mrs Campbell or you good evening board um and Mr Mitsy Campbell principal of Kenneth D Bailey academy uh so we have a couple items here for you to consider one um so in general revisiting Boe policy 6 uh col 300 around graduation requirements that does allow students to graduate early but does specifically state that they must be enrolled for seven semesters so the first item is we are requesting a waiver for um one of the students we listed is no longer in the situation but there are five students we are requesting a waiver for that are either at kdba or Dak Middle College who have met District graduation requirements in six semesters and would like to graduate uh this year with the class of 2025 um and then the
037second item being we are requesting a permanent change to the policy um that would not only continue to allow students to graduate early but there would be no semester expectation or minimum number of semesters they must be enrolled um only that they meet Board of Education approved graduation requirements I will add that um this is something that has become more prevalent due to the relaxed graduation requirements from the pandemic that the current sophomores through through seniors are still under I would anticipate this being less of a pressing matter when the 44 graduation requirements that were approv the class of 2028 continue to roll in and eventually all students under uh the previous requirements however um with students in alternative settings both at kdba and middle college which are more of a hybrid setting where there
038is some inclass time bound seed instruction they also earn credits uh through self-paced online and um yeah online options too so I can't tell you this would never come up again um because um we do utilize both those alternative programs and I'll say this campell's program is very helpful to the graduation rate at DHS as is middle college and so we want to continue to utilize those programs um but be sensitive if students in those programs finish prior to being uh prior to being here for seven semesters okay so what you have before your board is a waiver of graduation requirements including both of those items a list of the students and recommendation to make it a I guess policy for the sixth semester right okay uh do you have a a motion to approve
039motion to approve thank you a second second many seconds uh questions or comments you know you feel old when um you come around these issues and I remember when we changed it to require seven semesters um and we changed I don't I don't think it was on the board I think it was still on the guidance office but was changed because of concerns over um numbers of students we would lose for uh attendance and and how that would hurt our funding is that no longer an issue it's not funding used to be funding used to be based on um daily average attendance and now it's based on enrollment so it is it it's not an issue that's correct and it's an enrollment within like the first three months of school to corre right right thank
040you okay any other comments questions roll call vote please I do I just to clarify on on behalf of alternative so the students uh whose names appear before you who are from kdba um these students will be 18 this summer so a lot of times we find in the alternative setting that students have fallen behind earlier in their educational career so when they get to us um you know they might be 14 15 already in the seventh grade um and we're experiencing that in the high school um group as well so some of these students you know are we're asking that they graduate with their age appropriate peers it's not necessarily that they're graduating at 16 or 17 this is their true class that they should be a part of so I just did want
041to take a moment to clarify that again that's why um we really even have alternative at high school level is to catch all of those students so that they have an equal opportunity to graduate and that's actually a really good point and sorry to hold you up I'll add like middle college at Dak um which our guidance our school counselors at the high school use um is designed for upper classmen 17 18 year olds who are for black of a better word losing steam or are have now on the fence of whether they're going to make it or not and they just need a different setting and they go out there and they do some combination of online work and inperson college course work at Dak and so also with the middle college these are
042students who are I'm graduating age appropriate with their fears okay work call vote please yes yes yes yes yes yes motion pass is 70 thank you I item eight yeah I say where you going it is still me all right good evening board I just would like to confirm um the kenthy Bailey Academy 8th grade promotion and honors ceremony for May 28th at 1:45 p.m. in our beautifully renovated um allpurpose room gymnasium okay any questions or comments or anything okay item nine 2025 it's your head service agreement proposal good evening Board of Education and Mr Hart I'm Kelly Truex director of educational support programs and I'm here with Mrs Campbell and Hunter Lefay from it's in your head um Kenneth the Bailey has requested that it's in your head provide services to all kdba students
043beginning February 2025 through June 2025 all employees from its in your head will have a background check the cost will be 5,7 $60 that's the total cost for not weekly for um weekly sessions and it's in your head has been working with kdba students for the past two years and have had successful results and the contract will be paid with Title One funds of kdba and we are allowed to use Title One funds for this type of service with alternative school may I have a motion to approve this so move second have a motion a second any questions or comments yes um for both Miss Campbell and Mr fave um are could you please share the what the the ining your head work has done to help your students with self-regulation and any of the
044other social emotional um things that that have I I just want you to have a chance to brag on yourself absolutely no thank you um at kdba part of our mission is not to only Empower students to become academically responsible but also socially responsible we like to teach our students that although um lots of things are going on in the world that's beyond their power they do have the power to um control how they react to those things so um one thing that we've enjoyed having Hunter join us for is the self-regulation um techniques the classes he pushes into the classrooms and does many lesson lessons with our students that are relevant um that uh really focus on our student population needs um as well as high interest Hunter I'm sorry I'm just go ahead
045um yeah so we try to teach them the things that are within their control and and how to positively influence them to give them the skills to to make better choices um with a lot of the things that we see these are skills based things um when it comes around to to how they feel and how they think and how they react so we try to give them all the tools that they can to better influence the things that are within their control and recognize the things that are outside of their control how to let them go calmly and to move on in a in a peaceful way so again an example of what is the tool like a breathing exercise or something like that we use breathing exercises we use different sound techniques um
046we do tapping exercises a lot of positive affirmations we look at Daily habits uh mindset training communication skills we work to build discipline and consistency there thanks great is this open to all students at k it is it is a building wide um initiative so all students receive these services on a weekly basis thank you any other questions comments she is open to all the students yes ma'am and in fact Hunter pushes into the classrooms we'll combine classrooms and he does many lessons um as well as teaching the techniques as well and you've seen a difference in the students since they start absolutely specifically with that self-regulation they're able to calm themselves down um when faced with challenging situations um it's and the students really do respond to Hunter I think that that's why we
047keep asking him back because uh they seem to connect really well with him okay I love those kids okay you're about to vote on it's in your head service agreement proposal $5,760 correct uh not weekly correct yes not we that is the total cost of it roll call vote please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes motion passes 70 thank you very much forward to thank you should bring us to item number 10 Wall of Fame inductees yes uh good evening Mr Hart Board of Education mark basy here today as the chairperson of the Dan High School Wall of Fame committee um with our inductees for this year and um we have two one of them here Dr Ros is present today I'll start with him um and then Dr Arty Travis Lee or Lee
048Travis is um not here because he's out east working still and but he'll be back for the ceremony uh so our 61st inductee is Dr Don Ros a distinguished Alum from the class of 1968 and uh he will be inducted in the wall of fame for his recognition recognizing his outstanding achievements academically athletically medically his military service and his community leadership Dr Ros was a four sport athlete like that a varsity captain at DHS member of the National Honors Society and ranked 10th in the graduating class of nearly 700 students his leadership extended Beyond Athletics serving as president of the student council during both his Junior and senior years and his peers also recognized his character and commitment to service by selecting him as best boy citizen his senior year following graduation from DHS Dr
049rosh earned a degree in physiology from the University of Illinois he then went on to obtain his Doctorate and completed his medical training in Columbus Ohio returning back to Danville Dr Ros dedicated 26 years to serving the Danville Community as an independent OBGYN delivering over 5,000 babies in Vermillion County his commitment to service extended beyond the medical field as he also served in the United States Army Reserve before retiring at the rank of full Colonel Dr roosh's dedication to the Danville Community is evident in his lifelong standing involvement with the de uh Danville Rotary Club where he is a past president and currently serves as the assistant governor for the Danville and hopston clubs his passion for conservation and youth mentorship led him to the ownership and operation of the north Forks Lodge outdoor club
050in bismar and the Rainbow River Ranch in Craig Montana in recognition of his conserv conservation efforts and support of youth organizations he was named the Illinois outdoor news person of the year in 2016 Dr rash's most impactful contribution to the community was his role as a founding task force and board member of the ver Vermillion County free clinic in the mid1 1980s this initiative provided Medical Care to the individuals without access to health insurance and it continues today through Aunt Martha's he also worked alongside the rillian County Health Department to reestablish a medical clinic for the community we are honored to have Dr rosh's extraordinary accomplishments and lifelong dedication to his service with his induction into the DHS Wall of Fame his legacy as a leader a physician veteran and Community Advocate serves as an
051inspiration to current and future DHS students he will be again the 61st member inducted into DHS Wall of Fame the induction ceremony will be on D-Day June 6th this year um keeping that theme going uh so Dr Ros is here nominated by Mr Terry Hill [Applause] congratulations again our 62 inductee um to the Danville High School Wall of Fame is um Dr Ry Lee Travis a distinguished member of the class of 1974 his career spanned over four decades in higher education and commitment to service and a lifelong dedication to Student Success Dr Travis represents the very best of what it means to be a DHS Viking as a proud graduate while at DHS he was a student athlete again lettering in football track and wrestling as well as being a class officer these things helped
052lay the foundation for a career dedicated to education mentorship and advocacy following graduation Dr Travis also served his country in the Army he went on then to earn a bachelor's and master's degree from Western Illinois and later achieved a doctor of Education degree from the University of South Carolina Dr Travis has dedicated over 44 years to higher education serving as an administrator on eight different University campuses across the country currently at Frostburg State University where he serves as vice president for student affairs throughout his career he has been committed to fostering diversity inclusion and Student Success ensuring that every student has the opportunity to reach their full potential he has developed programs that support marginalized students improve student satisfaction and creat created meaningful learning opportunities for these students he has spent his career ensuring that
053students especially those from historically marginalized backgrounds receive the support and encourage encouragement they need to be successful at the universities Dr Travis's induction into the DHS Wall of Fame is not just a personal achievement it is a tribute to the community that helped raise him the teachers and mentors who inspired him and the students who lives he has touched his journey serves as an inspiration to current and future DHS students providing that with perseverance education and service anything impossible and again he will be the 67th member inducted into the DHS Wall of Fame I talked to him today he was overjoyed um and he was especially proud that his grandparents would be proud of him and as a lasting Legacy to them so and he'll be back um June 6th as well in case he's
054watching awesome job thank you so much thank you to the community doc you want to say would you like to say anything sure yeah go there where wherever you come on up there because the microphone will goes online the tech person said yeah go up there we don't want to miss any words well I'll try to put him together that makes sense this is a a wonderful honor Mr Hart and the board of our district district and my fellow Danville C citizens um this is an an award that I never anticipated I never expected um um uh it is you know for me uh more than more than the scope of any honor that I ever thought I would obtained uh and so I want the board to know that the selection committee and and
055my citizenry to know that but uh I became a a Dan villian uh when I was just 13 years old and my formative years uh were therefore here in Danville and I would Echo the words uh regarding the importance and the leadership and the mentoring the Danville High School teachers gave to me I am I am here you know today with whatever you heard that I may have accomplished uh uh because of those formative years and the teach and the teachers especially that were so helpful to me uh mentored me taught me criticized me told me I needed to do this told me I should do this or do that um and I followed them and I and I did it um I tried very hard to aspire to what they thought I was capable
056of so any teachers that are here in this audience today I want you to know how extremely important you are even though you may not you may not feel it uh every day um but I hope these words tell you and explain how important what you just may experience you in the future with respect to how important what you do every day how important that is to the students that you are mentoring and leading on to the rest of their lives thank [Applause] you congratulations again great decisions that was really it just when I keep thinking that they run out of people to find for the wall of fame and then like every year it gets like better and better and better and better like really cool okay enough of that don't talk uh curriculum
057Elementary and upper elementary Reading adoption adoption yes adoption good evening Mr Hart board um congratulations Dr Roos he's helped help me out with Avid a little bit too um so tonight we have for you a rather um lofty bill for um the adoption of some reading materials for all of our K through six students um as a reminder um you approved for this school year a um pilot so we've piloted the materials in our K through six classrooms for this year um and so we had investigated the year before decided to Pilot this year and now we would like to adopt those materials and the price tag before I give it to you is for a four-year adoption if that helps and it's for the materials it's for online access and some professional development um
058and I'm avoiding the price tag the price tag is for $491,000 $491,500 $125 for a 4-year adoption and those all of that will be paid out of District funding again four years and you want us to approve that I would love for you to approve that I can't do it without a motion move to approve second I have a motion and a second thank you any questions or comments how many classrooms I'm sorry if I missed them all of them so K through K through six okay K through six and it's all the materials that they need to teach reading the comprehension aspect of reading um and then or the knowledge portion and all the online access and um a few like a couple or a day of professional development for all of those teachers
059or some professional development for all of those teachers so there's a training component for the the staff any followup beyond that one day um we probably I probably will be back to visit you with some followup PD as well okay mhm it's rather expensive okay never mind mhm we'll be back do you know if this payment is a one-time payment or like a yearly payment um we typically they we we will do a one-time payment it's generally um Believe It or Not beneficial to us to do a one-time payment sometimes they will break let us break it up we'll do it over two fiscal years but that just means we pay one time in June and one time in July um over two fiscal years but this is a one-time payment but generally we get
060a little bit of a discount if we do that um where it's really interesting is the shipping costs which used to be a lot less than they are now they have really really gone up roughly how many students will this serve then um I usually what the way that I always look at our numbers is we take we look at I think it's usually November December is our official counts um but we always do a little bit more because students these materials now are consumable and so they're not sturdy like they used to be so we don't typically get the hard textbooks like we used to um so I usually do about 450 per grade level so and then you get the online access with that and then plus that's all of the teacher materials
061too so with a pilot we had a significant amount of our teachers piloted and so we won't have to replace those teacher materials in those cases but we do have to um purchase for the teachers that did not pilot so 450 per grade level approximately and that gives us a little cushion for um it as students move in and out or you know in just in case students were to lose their materials or misplace them so 450 per grade times seven grades times four years so it's plus the teachers so you're saying it's kind of a bargain sure yes yes but I won't be back for four years to ask you for more materials for at least reading I was going to say that yes I'll be back don't worry yeah okay Bard you have
062before you a a motion for approval of uh reading materials for period of time 49100 , 65125 is the uh dollar amount that you were voting on for approval here if there are no other questions I do have one more question you may ask it thank you um so this was what we piloted did the teachers love it um mostly yes so we this is always a tough question when you guys ask that um we are never ever going to love anything 100% um they loved they loved this the most um I think our school that probably loved it the least is South View um however there is nothing there isn't anything out there that they loved we can't find anything else that there this is the best that there is for what like this
063we are the happiest with this out of everything that everything that's available to us okay so why would why would you say s was the least happiest I mean what was it about they weren't as happy as other buildings um I think they it's just so whenever you get a new curriculum too so when you think about South you they've got the fifth and sixth graders so when you get a new curriculum yes they um it's there's a lot of new pieces to it so like if you're a kindergarten teacher you expect that the students are going to like everything's new to them so a second grade teacher by the time the kids get it they've seen it like it it doesn't take as long for the curriculum to um it doesn't take as long
064for the second graders to get used to a new curriculum because it's only a year or two by the time fifth and sixth grade it takes a long time for the fifth and sixth graders like for that curriculum to kind of matriculate up to them so it's a little more of an adjustment period for them so the same thing happened when we adopted um our math series and so we're going to we will put the supports in place to really help them and really work with them but it is it South views are really tough like that's a tough age for um when you've got a k through six curriculum that you're looking at yeah like that's a tough they are in a tough spot but they always always work hard they just know what's
065coming and they always really work hard but they're always really good to communicate with us about what is frustrating for them and what they need support with and we've got um Angela Wilson and Mr Kiff and Nicole zoyer that really support that building um and getting them what they need to get those to get them the teachers where they need to be and what they need so and they they're good at communicating with us okay any other anything else I'm not going to say anything I'll just call for a vote roll call vote please yes yes yes yes motion passes 70 thank you no thank you good luck with that thanks May our scores sore has success at the upper levels on the interface of the new curriculum okay uh that brings us to item
066number 12 operations I love operations uh resolution authorizing the interim superintendent to enter negotiations and provide employee health insurance premium relief it's a long one yeah yeah uh good evening board uh Board of Education Mr Hart Seth Oldfield director of operations and I'm before you tonight to present this resolution uh if adopted it would authorize the interim superintendent to enter negotiations with the Danville Education Association and the international Union of operating engineers local 399 uh which represents our custodial and Food Service staff uh for the purpose of providing employee health insurance premium relief it would further authorize the interim superintendent to provide premium relief to all employees of the school district over three years through expenditures not to exceed $462,000 in calendar year 2025 and 22% of individual independent employee premiums for calendar calendar years
0672026 and 2027 We Believe relief over three years is necessary to allow the health insurance committee time to address the issues with the district's health insurance plans in a thoughtful and responsible way Cost Containment is a process that requires time patience and diligence what the you board anyone want to make a motion to approve this motion motion to approve I second I have a motion a second questions or comments I'm sure we should have some is this to enter into negotiations or are there two parts to this resolution um entered negotiations and authorizing the superintendent to provide relief through those negotiations so there are dollars attached to this resolution not to exceed right 462 I do a thousand so this ultimately do you anticipate this would end up being an amendment to our our bargaining
068agreement is currently in place that there would be a I'm sorry yeah memorandum of agreement for both un could you just kind of bring us up to speed made the community just how we got to this spot this place long story yes um I've been on the insurance committee I think for three or four years now um every year there's an increase we always anticipated something in the neighborhood of 8% um we were able to head off a significant increase I believe in 2023 by um narrowing our provider Network and entering what's called Blue Choice select with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois and that um ended up being an 11% reduction in premiums that really helped us out that year um then we got our renewal for 2024 and I think we were looking
069at 25 26% increase then um and this year our increase started out at uh I want to say it was 43% um so we split up some plans um offered more options so that um everyone you know had a price point that they felt comfortable with in the coverage but um until we a lot of this is driven by costs and our um subscribers our employees habits and going to the doctor and we really need to look at putting some preventative programs in place to help contain these costs and so uh part of this behind the scenes the committee is looking at um a new broker and consultant um to lead us down a different path would you say that this is um kind of indicative of the insurance World everywhere we were told by
070our broker that uh 43% was pretty common with groups our size this year that's a big pill to swallow it's huge okay I mean you know and and that's okay and that's why we're here because there's only so much that was in the Insurance Fund to be able to fund this uh and it it seemed to exceed that by by those premium increases so there's only a couple ways to make the improve to to make the Ping balance it's put on the backs of the employees okay and have rate increases by uh to everybody out there or come up with more money okay so uh our part here is to we come up with a little more money but in the future we have to um readdress the insurance situation because we can't have this
071we we've already talked about this okay but this is for the public so that the public knows or not the public the staff knows okay we're aware of the situation okay and it's not like we're just shoving it under the door we're working on it and trying to trying to come up with something that's sustainable instead of just a Band-Aid every time that that that this comes up which will be work for the future board uh you know seriously and it's it's a big thing so um working on it this is just to help okay so that's why we want to put this in place it's some help it doesn't solve the whole thing and it doesn't pay all the premiums for this year by a long shot so um but it's helpful 100% it
072gives us time to explore Cost Containment strategies um look at other carriers get creative either with self-funding or you know remain fully insured there are a lot of almost everything needs to be or should be on the table so yeah but that'll be an interesting discussion including looking at a new broker okay so we're just voting to let's have the talk let's have the thought talk and we've authorized a number here I actually have a question for Miss P um and that is as far as um when we're recruiting people to come to our to come and work here at our district as I understand it our our our health care benefit is it's very strong part of our package that we that we offer um and it's very helpful for people to come here
073um I think and so I just wanted you to be able to speak to to um what what having a strong healthc care package does as far from your perspective um from being able to both bring people to the district and also have people decide to stay with us maybe I wanted you to have an opportunity to speak to that could you say to the community because they really need to be done thanks all right good evening board Kimberly peps Director of Human Resources um just came from a recruitment fair today Miss mares I eiu um is it important absolutely it's important um and obviously depends on who we're talking with we do stress it to um potential applicants when we talk with them um is it currently what it used to be a year
074ago no it's not so um is it where we want it to be personally no it's not um we are competitive we look at the other counties around us we look at the districts our size around us um those that have packages that are somewhat better than ours right now it's a very minimal time frame that they will have that type of package but we do do our research on what other and the whole committee does of what other districts are offering compared to ours and we've been very competitive this year has been difficult it's it's difficult very difficult and it's very difficult for to keep keeping the employees that we have I shouldn't say very difficult it's difficult to keep the employees that we have it it's hurting people are these the premiums that
075went into effect one one yes ma'am yes well I would like to say I'm sorry to the staff that it took us two months to get this on the agenda yeah it's definitely it's a lot of premiums out of two months checks and I do we have as a team I appreciate the feedback that we're getting from employees um so it's not just those that we're recruiting it's those that are here and a lot of us are on different pay scales and a lot it hurts a lot of us differently I mean we have a lot of employees that work for the insurance that this affects big time so so do you anticipate this I don't know who this question is really too all of us do you do you anticipate that should um Mr
076Hart be able to um get this T adjusted and I'm sure he can um that do you anticipate that those premiums will go down or do you do you anticipate that there's going to be yet in different cycle how is it going to affect our staff our hope is that it will go down you I mean I can okay go ahead um so our hope is sometime in March preferably the first pay cycle in March but it's really going to depend on how quickly we can get numbers entered into um our accounting system uh but provide immediate relief uh to the staff through a reduction in their premiums so this is going forward no retro correct no retro correct for so long three what we say three for three years I mean we're gonna face
077this issue time and time again it's not going to stop but I mean I want that to be known too like this is not something that's going to stop and it's not just here unfortunately but if we can give some some relief for the next few years and figure out what's next um that's the step in the right direction and where we need to go we're just asking for money and time we'll get it figured out money money mainly money just let me get money but I do want to um to recognize um DEA president Mr Rivers for bringing awareness to this at the meeting um it was needed and so thank you for doing that he has been there every step of the way reminding us okay any other questions or comments see none
078we're voting on uh premium relief uh 46 up to $462,000 auor right to be able to Neo shate that roll callot please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes motion pass is 70 thank you very much good luck with that um item 3K expansion at North Campus good evening board Mr Hart Chris Rice directive Early Learning joined up here with by Mrs Bailey Mr Oldfield we want to take the opportunity this evening just to provide you a status update on our North Campus facility which is former Coral Clinic up north oh just a reminder like we started the year 24 we entered to into the lease agreement last spring and as we've entered the 2425 school year um the facility first was used for housing our students from kdba and our lur Lee program as
079Renovations were being completed um at the K KDA building in the fall wasn't quite ready to go at the beginning of the year so from August to December KY Bas staff and students attended the North Campus as Renovations were completed and then we really got into like phase one of our North Campus facility in January our birth to three program transitioned to the north campus that program consists of eight home visitors and two intake coordinators they're in all of our birth to three um Outreach programs community events you know in the past those staff members were housed across the street at the Jackson building have been able to transition as the first phase of this new facility as well as our operations Department who transition their offices to the north campus in January as well
080you can kind of see here we just included a couple pictures um so as you enter the the north campus this is just the lobby area as you walk in and you can see there all of the pamphlets of information where we provide a lot of resources to the parents and community outreach groups and probably the the girls have done a lot of work just in addition to their offices which they're proud to have their own offices uh but this is our event community room uh for our events that our program hosts as well as just the outreach program so you can kind of see this used to be the pharmacy area back in the day um but this is everything that the girls do as far as bringing in networking providing a lot of
081supports to um not just the families enrolled in our program but to different um events and Outreach programs that take place as well so this is where we're kind of currently at with the upgrades you know moving forward um you if things go our way our hopes are to beginning with the 2526 school year to move four of our halfday classrooms that are currently based at Southwest Elementary um to the north campus so that would serve approximately 160 students um reason being the half day programs it's your traditional prek where we would have students there in the morning a new group of kids there in the afternoon um the needs are a little different than those that are enrolled in our full day programs you know which exist between Southwest and Edison Elementary schools that
082would leave um if that transition happens for that group of students that would leave three special education classrooms still at Southwest along with five full day classrooms those will remain at Southwest Elementary School as as well as um currently we still have two full day classrooms uh as part of Edison Elementary School Mrs Bailey has some updates as well I have a question yes you now the Laur Le students still at because I didn't see listed yeah so our lower Le students we had approximately eight to 10 students that were going through Laura Lee um you know and those students we monitored the progress they were making and it just kind of worked out that they were ready to transition either to kdba back to the high school so we thought the semester break was
083the perfect time for those students to make that transition as we started second semester so currently those students have just transitioned into other alternative platforms okay thank you good question um so good evening B uh one of the things you know when you ask special ed to dream big we dream big right um so um our 18 to 22y old program is currently housed at Danville High School um that's not the most appropriate placement for them um so one of the things that we have the ability to do if we're looking at some Renovations is to provide them a space that makes sense for them and um we we kind of coined um Trails as that program and we could look at adding a kitchen and other life skills vocational work areas you know these
084are the kids that are working on vocational and life skills like making a bed cleaning a kitchen and those kind of things we'd like to set up like a mini apartment and also just looking at you know if space allows um we have a lot of students um and I know um that Mrs button has talked to you about the need for virtual opportunities and things like that we have a lot of kids um that need something different so we have a lot of kids on homebound home hospital right now so a space where tutors teachers can meet with those kids doesn't have to be big but you know the the library is not always the best place we want them um in our own buildings and then one of the things Mr rice and
085I are talking about is just um making sure that the preschool area is the best place that it can be um our prek team fits into all kinds of spaces at Southwest to do assessments we're bringing parents in we're trying to do the best we can but the space that we have there that was not designed for preschool to do play-based evaluations that our team has been trained to do we don't have space for that so building a dedicated space for that would be um um amazing and I think a recruiting um tactic as well hello Seth Oldfield again and uh I would just try I'd like to give a few highlights of the lease that we will present as um part of the resolution that you will um possibly vote on as the next
086agenda item uh before I go into those details i' just like to um recognize Mr Marty Smith with Carl Health uh the real estate finance and legal teams at Carl and the Carl foundation for their kindness creativity and flexibility throughout this process um as many of you know Carl really came through for the district by providing us with additional space at the north campus to temporarily house kdba during their renovation this enabled kdba students to begin their classes on time in August of last year year Carl provided this additional space at no cost to The District in addition they've been been wonderful to work with Marty especially while we negotiated terms for a new lease to allow us to occupy the entire facility um so thank you again uh the lease that we we will
087we will present tonight as part of the resolution to expand prek space in the district will result and no additional rent due from the district so no additional money instead we propose the district assume responsibility for facility maintenance and other relevant facility expenses the new lease incorporates the entire facility at 2300 North vermillian Street and will allow us to serve the community Through the many programs outlined earlier the proposed excuse me the proposed lease term is uh 9 years five months with the option of purchase at any point during the first term of the lease and I would strongly urge the board to exercise that option when funds are available for it thank you did you tell us the cost of release earlier uh there's uh no additional rent due hey hang on because if
088we're going to talk about the leas let's please have the motion and then we can ask that question okay I hate to do that to you every time on this Al but he just gave us the information if we're going to question the information we need to have so would you like to make a motion president would you like questions on 13A first I'm sorry what would you like questions on 13A first to 13 we we can go back and do both okay so I have the motion do you have a second second I got a motion in a second okay any questions on either the the uh the information you given on the space or the lease open to the floor go ahead Al that's the same question uh the cost of the the
089lease you pay for 10 years every year oh for the entire lease for the space we are already leasing is that your question no the amount is my question the amount um I don't have that figure in front of me but I think it's $56,000 per year okay it increases I think by 3% every year okay um the first year I think you gave it to us earlier but I didn't bring that with you okay thank you I can definitely get you the exact number um yes um I actually had a question for um Mr rice um that first of all the pictures of the play area made me want to go play there I looked really it looked exciting to see what you've done in that area is there a plan um like in
090the bigger plan to at some point have all the prek Under One Roof because we've got now Southwest and Edison and now the north campus yes so we talked about you know this is kind of like phase one we wanted to get a program there you know definitely heading into next year where we looked at the half day programs definitely will be a process um with Skip and Tyler who are working with us to you come up with those plans to go long term but definitely the end result of all this has always been have a birth to five Center so when when things you know evolve we will have you know 15 to 18 classrooms um a cafeteria a sensory room motor skill area two playgrounds so we'll have all the bells and whistles
091and can put all of our students in one facility you know our goal is to be able to serve because we have a program now that houses a lot of kids we're about 280 just at Southwest some of those full day some uh you know half day sessions plus our kids at at but we I mean we do have a lot of students on a waiting list that just there is no place to put them you know in a program right now follow question there's there's a massive need in our community for for for zero to yeah we continue to do screening students continue to qualify um we just don't have the space to house additional students and it's not just a Danville problem that's across you know our program also you know funds and
092maintains the entire Vermillion County so this is a need all across the county our our vision when this is complete is we would be able to house approximately 500 students prek at the north campus and as far as recruiting that Miss Bailey said um that it's the facility itself is going to be a the we anticipate it's going to be a draw for the the the the staff that would be love to work in a place like this yeah how much more staff do we think we would need to have our big vision of 500 students I mean you're talking adding some additional classrooms we've been really good I was just going through like our staffing today and we've got some people that are already applying and interested I think it's going to be a
093huge recruitment um Resource as far as people are just going to want the opportunity to be a part of it so I feel like it's gonna serve a lot of our needs um and really don't want to speak for Mrs Bailey but when you have students at several different entities different buildings you're trying to spread your resources we got serve students here we have students there if we have everything under one roof it makes us a lot easier to staff and meet those student needs what last question I'm sorry M um the coffee truck will it be up there or will where is that what you're envisioning it's going to move there not necessarily some of the students that stay um in the 18 to 22 year program are um some of our most um
094High need students and so the kids that are really running that coffee truck for trying to get from across the board you know from um students in general education and in some of our self-contained studing so um these kids right now a lot of them we um partner with Cross Point and send them to Cross Point for the for a big portion of the day just because not to reinvent the wheel and for spacing at at at Danville High School um we have a really large population and and a sta you know we're working on Staffing but if you have a dedicated program with a kitchen with different things like I said um people um the special education department even just hearing about an assessment room they were like oh that's so cool you know
095nobody else thinks that's cool right that that's just what who we are so um I I think you could you could draw staff and that really want to work on that program and get those kids out in the community so it' almost be like a hub for them as well to be at you know could we get other Partnerships with the YMCA and those things to get them those skills to to get out to in the community as much as possible but I agree with Mr rice in terms of the Staffing special education Staffing you might even be able to do it with a little bit less because right now they're split spread across three buildings that's travel time that's a lot of different things if they're all right there it makes it just that
096much easier thank you is okay The CARE program that's is that part of this too or is it separate you go combine them it was it's just the first phase of it so the goal is when we say a birth of five centers being able to serve our our newborns and young parents as well as you know once students turn three years old to help transition from that program right to preschool in the same building okay y sounds good are we still looking at a daycare facility in this building yeah so one of those phases when it's complete that we we've tossed around is we would really like to offer that opportunity to staff in our district to provide a a a daycare program um on site as well in the district and I think
097that can probably be one of the biggest recruiting tools as there's a lot of different regulations that would go with that it's not so preschool based so there'd have to be some planning in that but definitely that's been one of the early uh goals when we went to this idea I think because of our numbers uh that you said how many students we hope to serve how many students are on a waiting list um I can say from early meetings with the committee that uh that was what appealed to Carl officials the most they saw a need uh to service the youngest in our population and they also expressed wanting to have a footprint in the community beyond the new facility uh at the riverfront um and so they're very supportive and will continue to
098be good partners I think yeah the one thing I've learned from stepping into this role you know three years ago was a lot of the community resource Es are fading away you know a lot of different organizations that were targeting that you know birth to three group for example and uh helping you know families in our community and there's just not as many resources available so I feel like this is an opportunity to kind of you know take the lead on that and be able to bring some of that back for sure any other questions um for the daycare like it's in the future I mean we're looking like it's not in phase two no but it's it's uh definitely on the radar okay yeah that I mean because that was one of the initial
099when they talked about it it said that was one of the big sellers to me on it wases you are knocking down walls and turning preap so we probably need to get that accomplished first and then but it's happening and and our sign is out in front you don't have any idea how many what's District 118 doing and they going where have you been you know we've been talking about this for a while but then every time we go we explain oh that's good um you're voting on the uh lease for the um building for the Carl building it's starting at 54500 th000 right um I'm no so we're going to do that as part of the resolution yeah so um and it goes up um so if there any other questions say none if
100I could just answer Miss Payne's question about the rent real Quicks I have it the rent schedule here I don't know for um 24 25 because Carl offered it to us at half the rental rate um and I think Frank can can get that number for us but for 2526 it's 5 4,500 sorry that's what I just said and why I said it there's a number okay any other questions if not roll call vote please Ash I'm sorry I want to make sure I am on the same one as you guys is the exhibit a Danville School District the commercial lease the lease agreement the landlord in tenant is that the one we're voting on I only ask because Dr Gus's name is still lease agreement I didn't know if that matter uh the lease
101will be updated with the correct contact information okay thank you I just wanted to make sure we're not going to sign this one tonight okay anything else okay roll call please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes motion passes 70 thank you guys look forward to the progress as I drive by you busy tonight Bard uh Transportation bid I Am Number 14 good evening board Mr Hart D1 18 family I am nissus Rankin director of business and finance and this evening Bo I am here because my um transportation agreement with her student will be coming to an end at the end of fy2 so I am asking permission to go out to bid for transportation um for a fiveyear bid beginning with FY 26 and ending fy3 so I'm just asking for permission to put
102the bid out there this is just for the request to go to bid for transportation do I have a motion for that please so move second have a motion a second any questions or comments either one do we have is there another company around here besides first student so we usually do have uh two to three bids but last year did we have two one or two years ago we had two so it just depends on who and I think sometimes they um transportation companies don't like to be for shorter agreements because they have to move you know their buses and their like that's a transition for them so maybe with a fiveyear arm request we might get some more Fitters is um working with a leasing company more beneficial than owning our own Fleet
103and doing it ourselves you know what I would have to look into that I'm not we've always um had a third party was I've been here um vendor so right now employing drivers is very difficult bus drivers they work brok broken days um so the hiring the firing more insurance licensing um right now I believe it's most beneficial for the district to remain in the lease I'm sorry on the spot about this ranking because I had a feeling that Mr Hart had the answer he knows I think we need our own fle but I do a lot of districts employ Transportation companies and for that reason for that reason it's really difficult and uh at the Schoolboard convention yeah there's just a plethora of companies out there and the districts are are availing themselves to
104their services so and I can say been there done that we have done that yes we have and it was difficult so but you it's always good to ask the question and reevaluate perhaps the climate change is that's something that you can take up in the future um but for this evening we're looking for a request to go to bid for five years for uh Transportation any other questions or comments okay see none call please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes thank you Mo from pth 7 Z thank you very much appreciate it um informational items congratulations guys thanks Doc bye t what do you have for us some information yes good evening Mr Hart and Board of Education I'm Kelly Truex director red support up again it's hard to believe that we are
105starting um summer opportunities already well I mean we've been working on them for a while but um we will be offering the University of Illinois summer engineering camps these are residential camps um for our soft our incoming Danville High School incoming sophomores Juniors and seniors book one which is the engineering booklet has already been mailed out on February 3rd we had this year eight applications which is more than we've had actually it's three more than we've had um we submitted them today so the applications go to the U ofi then the U ofi will let us know we almost always have our applicants get accepted so I'm excited about that and we just sent our book two which is our Fine Arts camps um to the printer today we have separated out like the music
106and and we invited Brian clet to um go around and talk to the music teachers we now have 21 people interested in the music camps so we should have close to 35 or 40 people this year um so I'm very excited about that and this is all paid for using title four funds so just yes title four is our um Fine Arts and well rounded so we used I put that in title four so this is just informational only that these are mailed to families um they can get help at the high school from guidance counselors filling out the application they can call my office um but this is I believe our third or fourth year we've done this so people are expecting it just wanted to put that out there so all the students
107at the high school get these yeah okay all well incoming sophomores Juniors and seniors it's a residential Camp right so so we don't have freshman day but we've had very good luck um our students have represented as well and it's been a really good program so any questions and it's nice and close yeah it is and the people at the U ofi are great to work with so it's um it's growing our program is growing thank you very much okay uh that should bring us to adjournment oh no superintendent and what do you have for us um first of all I'd like to mention Southie upper element and the students there I don't know if any of you follow Facebook have been out to the school but for Valentine's Day the staff shared the uh
108or or taught the students how to do the Cupid Shuffle was pretty awesome um kudos to them um we've also had four me Park students um honored at the verain County Museum for winning placing in the Abraham Lincoln um birte poster Serenity Austin Casas Valdez humph sincere Perry and MZ Williams um congratulations to DHS students Tavon Dil and here we go I'm gonna tear up this name J joak Harris um received the Martin Luther King Junior scholarship um usually there's one recipient this year they were two so congratulations to them who said that thank you um so for to just to highlight the staff for a minute again we had um at Markman Elementary Mr Bodine and Mr lockart for Valentine's Day serated the students um it was pretty awesome to see um the staff
109out there having fun with the kids so they really enjoyed that and then Mrs Frasier I know Mrs Bailey where she go she's somewhere she just talked about her Mrs Fraser actually started a new program or once a week she's making um or she's not making and the students at Danville High School and special education department are making snacks coffee lunches they've had um soup and salad for lunch um and it's been very well received by um all the staff but especially the staff here right so um just wanted to say kudos to them um the last thing I have is just an announcement the five essential survey is out um please parents make sure that you um look for that it's on every school's website their Facebook page I know schools are sending gold
110Flyers make sure that you um take that survey um the information that we get is very valuable to School District thank you that's all I have thank you let's go from left to right today always left um I want to congratulate U about the Albert H small Normandy Institute um they are going to be so overwhelmed and appreciative once they see the American uh Graves um Kudos who that K Bailey leaving early graduating uh the larly kids uh uh have been weaned from their program back into uh the regular classrooms um I always appreciate the public uh comments uh we don't always like what's said but sometimes it's necessary to say it and I'm looking forward I want to look at reading new reading materials um that we are uh purchasing for four years and
111that's all I have oh and kudos to uh Mr Hart as our interim superintendent I don't know if I said that last time but I'm I'm very uh thankful that you are at the HM thank you uh I'm just gonna say ditto there I'm almost going to say ditto but not quite uh kudos to to Bailey and Miss woods they are going worldwide with what Danville has to offer and that makes me very proud um thank you to all of you that came back took my Challenge and came back tonight we still had some empty seats but thank you for showing up tonight I appreciate it thank you to the Hall of Fame committee and the work that you did I know a lot of work goes into that thank you and the prek team
112uh for all all they're doing to prepare Carl North I'm sorry District 118 North I got to get used to saying that so uh thank you for all the work that you're doing I I did get to visit and I did want to stay and play um it really looked like a lot of fun and lastly um I want to recognize that our seniors DHS seniors who are daily receiving letters of acceptance to some remarkable outstanding schools we have good kids going good places and I'm so proud of them so I just want to say thank you to the teachers who helped get them there and the counselors and Kudos kids go make us proud wait go ahead okay perfect um I want to say thanks to Mr Hightower Miss Rothwell um for your comments
113thank you for coming back um thank you for caring um Miss Kelly thank you um and I'm so happy for you that you're um getting some relief um yeah just really happy for you about that um and and thank you for being a Trailblazer um to Miss Bailey Easton and Lorie Woods um wow that thank you for making us proud and um uh to Dr Ros and to Dr AR Lee Travis um it's very exciting to have Dr rosh here and he's such a humble person that he used his time to honor our staff did you notice that he's what a guy um so deserving and then lastly um um to our um birth to three and pre I've said this many times I think that's of us kept secret in Danville we are so
114good at what we do there and we are just thank you Mr rice your whole team we're so good at what we do and um very very very happy for the vision that you all are causing to be created here and well done thank you I want to say ditto to the remarks of sister Shannon um again thank you all for being here tonight I am overwhelmed and Overjoyed um for Mrs woods and Bailey uh I'm looking forward to um when they do return and sharing with us what they found as they um search out the contribution that the African Americans made during that time uh in our history so again uh I am truly looking forward to that uh so again God bless each and every one of you I do agree with everything
115that they said about our district and our staff um a lot of good stuff going on I also want to thank all the parents the DHS archery teams and the jrtc they had a 3D competition at the Fieldhouse for the archery and it is a huge undertaking we co-hosted it with Armstrong it's the second year that we've done that we had a really good turnout so I want to thank all the parents all the volunteers it takes everyone pull that off we have three more we are hosting State um for jrtc 3D and state for the nas so we have a lot a lot going on in the archery world for our district and I think we're making a name for ourself so I'm very proud of the students we've been to Nationals twice and
116we may be invited to world this year so I think that's huge for our district I'm very proud of them I want to tell for sergeant pal just thank you he has taken on a lot and um really appreciate the dedication he spends a lot of hours at the school so just want to thank him for that and with that that is all I have at this time thank you thank you everybody um everybody's been thanked and appreciated I agree with all of it um we will be going back into close session to take care of some of the business that we still need to take care of we will not be coming back into open session for anything um so so U there's nothing to be uh worried about there and with that we
117will adjourn this portion of the meeting thank you very much [Applause]