001Right to bring the meeting to order. Ask that >> call here. >> Here. Pretty tight ship. We run here. I'd like to ask everyone to stand for the pledge of >> allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationisible and justice for all. >> The board will now move on to the public participation portion of the meeting. Dr. Dearman will begin with the superintendence report. Nick Okay, you're on speaker. >> Okay. All right. First item we have for your request. We've had received six for your requests since our last meeting. Mr. Mini has completed all of those requests. Uh the one request that was outstanding last month was also completed. Uh some general information uh groundbreaking ceremony for Wilder weight for the great
002education uh groundbreaking ceremony for our new Wilder weight schools going to be held this Friday, April 17th. It'll begin at 11:15. There will be a live feed of the ceremony on the district's YouTube page for all those who wish to see the ceremony are unable to attend. If you're planning on attending, just park in the back park building and we will see you there'll be area set up your private season. Uh we also have a live DJ Star has a live channel that you can pull up and watch them do their work and I know several of the teachers have access that interesting share with their students. Uh we're at that time of year graduation. So, uh, Don High School graduation will be at Grand University, May 17th at 12:30. The DMS promotion ceremony will
003take place on May 18th at 700 p.m. in Don Valley on the 19th at 7 p.m. as well. Sign up sheet was sent to our share with the board. I believe I haven't checked today confirmed. I believe we had six board members signed up for high school. Last check, but I think we only had one each for middle and day. So, we can do it with one, but it's easier if we have two. So, if you can check your schedules and help with one of those two, that would be appreciated. Um, and that concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you, doctor. This time we'll move on to public comments. Is there anyone who wishes to address the board? If so, please raise your hand. This concludes the public portion of the meeting. Board will now
004move on to the information discussion. School activity reports included packet. Is there any discussion? And next, Vic Zimmerman from the IASB will present information regarding the superintendent search. >> Welcome. >> Very good. Thank you very much. Good to see you. I haven't been here in person. I think when ISB originally came to see our director, Jim Helton was was the guy and he's passed on to me. So, I'm Vick Zimmerman, uh, Illinois Association of School Boards. I've been doing searches for four years with the School Board Association. I was a superintendent for 19 years, retired in 2022. So, that's my that's my story. That's my history. Uh, two things we want to go through tonight. Um, we want to go through the results of the survey that was administered uh to stakeholder groups throughout the
005district. We'll talk about that. And then the big piece, the bigger piece is we want to finalize the announcement of vacancy, which will be the document that is sent out to all of the uh everybody in our in our email database of over 7,000 emails and potential superintendent in the state of Illinois, also around the country. It's also the announcement that will be posted on our website where potential candidates will get a lot of information about schools which will help them decide if they want to uh apply for the position. So specific to the announcement of vacancy there are some questions that I'll ask of you. I have some recommendations and some thoughts on direction I I would suggest that you you head toward in the announcement of vacancy. We're going to talk about those
006things and get back to me in the next couple days with with how you want those listed in the finalized announcement. So, first, so you've got both of these documents in your uh board docs or board packet, I believe. But I'm going to talk about the uh this one. I hand out a copy of this to everybody. So, that's the first one we're going to take a look at. So, we uh we want to get to know uh your your school district and your stakeholders as much as we possibly can. And one of the ways we do that is through stakeholder survey. So this was out uh through links on through email probably on websites and those types of things. We ended up with an excellent rate of return. We had 582 complet of the
007survey. That means they completed all of the uh questions on the survey. I think we had over 800 people access the survey, but that's pretty typical. about twothirds of the people that access the survey actually actually completed. So the the information is broken down uh by different uh categories or stakeholder groups. So there are seven board members that completed the survey, 13 administrators, 144 faculty and staff members and 418 parents and community members. There's probably a little bit of overlap between those. We provide the results of the survey from each of those groups. And then the main purpose of the survey is to develop what we call a uh an ideal candidate profile uh which is which are the characteristics that Dunlap 323 is looking for in their next superintendent. So if you remember taking
008a survey, there were 15 items on the survey. It asks you to pick as a survey taker the five items that are most important to you. are most important to the survey taker when it comes the characteristics of the superintendent. And then we uh we break those down into each each uh each of the categories of groups that took the survey. And then I I analyzed those groups by using a weighted average of the responses from different groups to develop six or seven of the ideal characteristics that were were common to all groups with the greatest weight going to responses for board members because at the end of the day you're all you're set members and it's your job to hire the superintendent. So that's why we put the most weight on the board of
009education responses. So as I said, 582 survey completers. I won't go through uh every the results of every group, but because you have those in front of you, they're also up there on screen. Kind of hard to read what you have in front of you. You have a copy as well. But you can see the format that it breaks down in first table there on the page after the cover are the board member responses. And then you can see the top talk the the responses are ranked in order of the number of board members that selected each of those individual items. So when it comes to a consensus of the board based on the survey, the four most important qualities that they're looking for in their next superintendent is one who develops and works collaborative
010collaboratively and effectively with the board of education. Has excellent written and verbal communication skills and is collaborative, fosters, develops with stakeholders strategic goals and a strategic plan and fosters a professional culture of educators. So he can look through the other stakeholder groups and see each group has a slightly different take on what they're looking for in the superintendent and you can see that as you read through the uh the results of the survey. Also included in the survey after the uh the 15 ideal characteristics are several open-ended questions asking about what are what are your thoughts on the requirements for the position of superintendent in lab 323. Uh do you think it's important for the individual to have previous experience as a teacher, have pre previous experience as a principal, have previous experience as a
011district or central office administrator, previous experience as a superintendent? And is it important for the superintendent to reside in the district? So you can see uh the results of those also in regard to uh board of education. So that those are there to assist the board in making some final decisions on the criteria and the requirements for the next superintendent that we're going to put in the announcement advance. If you go to the second to last page of the document, um this is a this is the weighted this is a weighted look at the four different stakeholder groups based on the top five most important characteristics that each group selected. And out of those that weighted group, you can see on the far right there what the X are the my recommendations for the uh
012characteristics that we include in the announcement vacancy. Those would be developers collaborative collaboratively and effectively with the board. Excellent written and verbal communication skills. Develops with stakeholders district goals and a strategic plan. Add financial and budget expertise. ensures an inclusive and safe school environment and uh fosters a professional culture for for educators. So based on the survey, that's what the survey tells me that we should include in the in the announcement of vacancies for ideal characteristics. When it's all said and done, this is your district. This is your search. So So the board, if there if there's something if there's one of those that you don't want in there, you can certainly take it out. If there are other ones that you want to include in there, we can certainly include them in there. So,
013the idea is we're telling our our potential applicants, these are the characteristics that we're looking for in our next superintendent. So, again, you've had this in your board packet when you get a chance to look at it closer. If there are any modifications from the six that I'm recommending, you know, let me know probably by end of day Friday and we'll get those updated for you. In regard to the other questions uh related to uh criteria or experiences that you want your next superintendent to bring in uh previous experience as a teacher that's pretty typical as a as a yes we want that previous experience as a principal or district level admin yes it's pretty pretty common to include that previous experience as a superintendent. So some some groups would say yes, some groups would
014say no. I think what we want to do is make sure uh that we don't include anything in the announcement of vacancy or the requirements that would limit uh our pool of of applicants. We want to try to maximize our pool of people who will apply for the position. Uh so that so to me I would suggest that we include not previous experience as a superintendent but previous experience as a as an administrator at the district level as a not a requirement but a preference of the board. And then the last last one is residency in the district. Um so majority of the the responders said yep we it's important for the superintendent to live in the district. I I'm going to recommend again when we look when we look at the idea of trying
015to maximize our approval of applicants that we that we may not want to say that residency is required in the district. We may want to say that it's preferred but not required or just referred or we just leave we just leave that out. Again, we want to maximize our approval of applicants. Now, that being said, if there's no way that the board is going to hire somebody that's not going to live in the district, to put it in a more positive way, if the board is going to require your superintendent to live in the district and there's no way you're going to hire somebody that's not going to live in the district, then we need to include that in the announcement. We need to be fair to the applicants. We don't want to say, you
016know, it's referred but not required. Then you get down to your final, your candidate, your you know, negotiate the contract and say, "Well, we're going to require you to live in the district." That wasn't part of the deal on the front end. So, you guys as important are going to be to talk about that, make a decision on where you want to go with that residency piece as well. The last page is uh so there are some some additional open-ended questions. What does the district do well? What can the district improve upon in the future? And and what other comments may do might you have regarding the superintendent search? So this the summary of the uh of those comments to the open-ended questions are kind of all over the place you know sometimes so that's
017an anonymous survey right so so we have no way to know who you know who responded sometimes there's a little danger in that so you know if somebody's mad at somebody they you know get in there and make a negative comment really I didn't see very much of that at all from your survey so that's something to be proud of as a business so any questions on the survey results. All right. So, now we go over to the uh the announcement of the vacancy. I think pull it up. You also have it I didn't bring a copy of it for you, but I think you have it on your on your laptop there. You can see the first thing I'll say is that so this is a draft, right? So, the spacing, the fonts, all
018those things, they're not like perfect. We just piece this together. But once we have a a final announcement of vacancy, after I hear from you on exactly what you want to put in the announcement of vacancy, we send it over to our our graphic design and communications department. They pretty it up. It looks, you know, it looks awesome. So, don't worry about the spacing and the fonts and those types of things in this draft. So, a couple things we want to take a look at. I want to go to the fourth page. Actually, the last page first because that's that's the easiest, right? So, so in the upper right hand corner, you've got the uh board members names and uh years on the board. Okay. So, take a look at those. Make sure that they're
019spelled correctly. You know, if your name is uh Andrew and you go, you want you want to say Andy, you know, just let me know. I will make that modification. So, we want to make sure that those names are correct and uh and those years are correct. Okay. below that the ideal candidate profile. So those are the the uh the selected ideal characteristics we end up with seven in the in the announcement of vacancy. So those are gleaned directly from the uh stakeholder survey. And I will say in regard to those ideal characteristics um we don't stop using them by just having them in the announcement vacancy. When I come back and bring you up to six candidates interview for your first round interviews, we'll talk about what to look for in your candidates based
020on these ideal characteristics. We'll also provide a a couple of rating sheets. So when you're interviewing those candidates, what you're going to do is during that interview asking those questions, you're going to rate each candidate on each of these ideal characteristics that are included in the announcement of vacancy. So it's not it's not just smoking beers. It doesn't just stop in the announcement of vacancy. We're actually going to use that going forward throughout the entire process. I from time to time I'll get a call when the board is having a difficult time when they get it down to their two final candidates. They've completed the first round of interviews. They've done the second round of interviews. The board still can't, you know, still can't quite figure out whether they want candidate A or candidate B.
021I direct them to go back to those ideal characteristics and really have a discussion as a board on which candidate A or B actually meets those ideal characteristics the best. So, we're going to use use those characteristics throughout ourselves. Okay. So, now we'll go back to page two. this page right after the uh right after the cover. So, so one of the things that is is required that that only started last January 1 or two January 1 ago is when we post the position, we have to have a salary range for the position. So that's that's like a fair wage act legislation that was passed in Springfield. So we have to have some kind of range. So, I've included a range of 225,000 to 250,000. That's that's more of a placeholder. That's probably a little
022high when it's all said and done. Um, what we want to do there is again, we're signaling to our applicants, this is what we're thinking about paying, right? So, you want you want the bottom end of the range to be the uh so the bottom end of the range is let's say is 195,000. So that's the lowest you're going to pay, okay? If you decide that that's the bottom end of your range, 195,000. So if you get a candidate has no experience or was maybe just a an administrator in a very small district, no no superintendent experience, but you think they're the best fit for your district, that's that's probably going to be the number you're going to offer 195. From there, it goes up. So whatever your top end number, you don't have to
023your top end number. So let's say that you end up with a range of say, you know, 195 to uh you know 230, okay? And and you go through the process, you got a candidate, you know, they they have, you know, 15 years of superintendent experience kind of kind of similar to Dr. Dear. I think overall you're going to end up with 15, 16, 17 years of experience. So very similar to Dr. Dear. So you can expect to probably pay about the same thing that you're paying Dr. D salary. So by the time he retires, that's typically where I suggest you put the top end of the range. Um you don't have to go all the way up to the top end of the range. And there have been some cases in the last couple
024years where the top end of the range wasn't enough to get the candidate that the board wanted. So I will say that in the last couple of years, salaries were starting off superintendents have really increased. So the market is such that we do have quality candidates, we just don't have a big quantity of top quality candidates. So some districts find themselves competing against another district for their final candidate. So sometimes they end up going over the over the top of the range. So you guys will need to talk about exactly where you think that range should be. I think a fair range is probably, you know, maybe 195 to maybe one or 240, that type of range. Feels like a big range. Uh, but you want to talk about that and let me know how
025you want that to end up playing out. Um, any questions on that? Okay. Uh, so then the the requirements for the position, um, previous successful teaching experience is required. I think that makes sense based on the uh survey results. Previous successful ad administrative experience is referred but not required. So you may just want to have it say it's preferred or you may want to say it's required. It's up to you. Again, I think that most people understand that, you know, Donald's got 4,600 students. It's big. It's a big district. Um if I'm if I'm a teacher, I've never been an administrator. I should probably figure out that I don't I probably shouldn't apply for this position. So, I think that if you were to list previous successful experience is referred. I think that that's that's
026a way to go on that one. Residency, I talked about that a little bit briefly. You're going to need to decide if if you are absolutely going to require residency, then that's how we need to list it in the announcement. I think it's if if you are soft on that a little bit and you can deal with somebody that that may not necessarily be moving into the district for one reason or another, then just put that you that residency in the district is referred but not required. So, so you can state that in in a number of different ways. According to the ISA attorney, Chad Watkins, who who helps all all the superintendents in the state with the with their contracts, I asked him a couple of months ago, how many districts are requiring residency?
027He said about 10% are requiring residency. That doesn't mean that the superintendent doesn't move into the district. It just means that it's not they're not required to move in the district. I would certainly think and I talked to Tom about this a couple of months ago. You know, Dai is a great place to live. I would certainly on the superintendent, I probably won't live in D. But, you know, if you have a little flexibility, let's say that you know that that your your final number one candidate is lives on a family farm just outside of Princeville, which is very close to them, but it's not in your district, right? So, do you want to eliminate that person just because you're going to require to live in the district? They're living on a family farm. So,
028you need to kind of think about how you want how you want that to play out. Um and then um the timeline. So uh we will post the position and send it out to all of our uh interest potentially interested applicants uh the first week of July. Uh that the position will be open until September 21st. Uh so it'll close on September 21st. Uh then at at that point myself and two of the other consultants will do a screening of all the all the applicants and we'll decide which ones would best fit with Dunlap 323 based on your ideal characteristics. We will take those candidates to the next stage. Next stage would be a Zoom screening interview. So that'll be with myself and two of the other consultants. We'll go through the Zoom screening and
029then once we get through the Zoom screening, we'll pick what we believe are the top six candidates to bring to you to interview for for a first round. >> Curious how many you get in that first round 140. >> Yeah. So, so I'm expecting uh 25 to 35 applicants for this position. So, so that seems like maybe it's a little bit low, but if I'm a board member, I think, man, I was expecting you threw out 100 maybe as a possibility. Maybe we get enough. I don't know. But it's a big job. Not everybody's going to apply for this job because they know they know it's a big job. They know it's it's probably not for them. So, I would expect legitimately 25 to 35 applicants. I will tell you this. So, on July 1st,
030uh that's when superintendent turn over. There'll be districts in the state about 100 districts in the state who have a different superintendent starting on July 1st, this July and the next July. That's been the average over the last seven or eight years. Out of those 100 districts, 75 of those superintendents have no superintendent experience. So 75% of the superintendents that are hired are first year students. That's how it's been over the last seven or eight years. I don't necessarily expect you to get somebody as a first year student, but you certainly may. And there's certainly nothing wrong with with with somebody who doesn't have any superintendent experience. You know, if you if you get some some candidates who are in some bigger districts, maybe some assistant soups who haven't been soups, they've been pretty close
031to the soup chair, but they haven't had the soup chair, that's that's perfectly fine. And the ISA and the superintendent association does a great job of supporting our first, second, third year superintendent. So they almost have to want to fail to fail. Okay. So again, when you're when you're thinking about who you're going to end up with as your final candidates, 75% chance that they may not have any superintendent experience and that's that's okay. What questions do we have? Yeah, for the res% are required to live in where they have to live in county schools or >> so. So, we've had some postings where they have to live within 20 miles of the district or you can do a county that would be fine. You can list that however you want. You know, if you
032want wanted to say Poria County, you know, that would be fine or or you know, within one county of of uh your current county, that type of thing. Good questions. So we go through the applications to the consultants and then we do a paper screen read through all their applications. Then we take them to the next step which is a zoom screen with the consultants and they we will bring you the top six candidates. We do not share the the whole field with with the board for confidentiality reasons. And that that's that's important because you got you're probably going to have some sitting superintendent apply for this position and those sitting superintendents probably don't want their current school boards to know that they've applied for another position because if they don't get it then they
033got to go back and still be the superintendent. So confidentiality that's one of the one of our big pillars with ISB. uh we tell our candidates that that we inform our school boards that confidentiality is a must through the first round of interviews. So when we bring you the six first round candidates, you will interview them just as board. So only you will know who those candidates are. Keep it, you know, confidential. They'll all be in close session. But once you decide how's going to go to the next to the second round the finalist either two or three finalists then we tell the candidates all right so now you need to let your boards know that you're finalist in another district all bets are off confidentialitywise if you make it to the final to the
034second round >> I don't know if you said this at the top but what u so I'm sorry if I missed it but what what is your uh like market saturation in terms of all the superintendent searches in Illinois, do you have a sense of what percentage IB does versus the others? >> Yeah. So, so out of those 100 districts that end up with with new superintendent, about half of them use a search firm and we do over half of those searches that use a search firm. So, we do more searches than all the other search firms. So we'll do typically between 25 and 30 searches a year that I ask a lot. >> Thank you. Other questions? >> All right. Safe travels. I'll give you a call when I get some feedback from the
035group. >> Yes. Let me know in regard to the so the the salary range, the requirements, the idea of characteristics, and if there's any the board member names and numbers, those if there's anything else in the announcement vacancy that you want to have changes on, just let me know. Make sure we get that. >> Very good. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, sir. Great job. Okay. Uh, information regarding the OSF athletic training agreement has been included in the board packet. Is there any discussion? >> I think it would be beneficial for Mr. homes to kind of just give a brief overview of past, present, and future uh needs if you could because I'm not sure the board is aware of some of the things that have transpired and what we've done and where we're
036at now and where it potentially could go. So, Mr. Holmes, if you don't mind and you might need to come up to the mic because we do have speaker, please. Thank you. So three years ago we had no athletic training. Uh they resigned I think January of that year and uh we went a full semester out of athletic trainer as a as a whole three years ago June 30th or July 1st secured at a one FTE one full time. They found out pretty quickly as far to satisfy the need of the student athlete and the sustainability of the trainer. So he gave.5. So we're 1.5 the last two years. So that's we had three trainers in four years and 1.5 the last two years at no cost of district. So we went from one to
0371.5 year two and then 1.5 year three with no cost additional cost. district. But and then this though is is the the suggestion here is to go from the five to the two. But the additional cost of the district 101 >> from 1.5 to two. Yes. So 11,000 more if you think it's 43,000. If we go to a 2.0 it's the 53,000 or 54,000 that's mentioned. >> It's 11,000 to get the extra half. >> Correct. >> You think that having two will guard against some of the this burnout of having the three and four years? >> I think one will help serve student athletes. You look at football in the fall, they consume the majority of that train, injuries, preventative, rehab, you name it. It's a big strain on the other sports we have during
038the fall. Winter isn't as bad. But during the winter, those four sports are centrally located. Get the pool, the gym, the rest of the area. So, one person can in many cases control that. Then you get the spring and you're spread out again. You got girls soccer at Valley. You got stadium, you have baseball fields, softball fields, track, then boys and girls lacrosse. So those fall and spring sports, the one most stress on that train 1.5 you might make that work. The problem with 1.5 is we're sharing that with somebody else. Friendsville, Fremont, you know that locate those.5 that You might be meeting cover the sports the soccer game at the same time as a volleyball game, but you're still not given that trainer any additional time off at six days a week. It's two
039about 9 two in the afternoon they show up if they 9 or 10 their odd hours, their evening hours. So the number the quantity of student athletes that we're trying to support, but also sustainability of athlete training have that individual will be able to survive that type of workload hours the need they need to serve our student athletes >> Mr. Holmes they you know as I believe they did give us if we went with the 2.0 know the true individuals could be or will be and can you speak to that? >> Yeah, good point. So, right now we have a individual who's at Bradley for a number of years. He's done pro sports. He's at collegiate level. He's phenomenal. He's doing a great job. Um the other individual is a former friend that we have
040who own recovery. A lot of our families go to who have confidence in who they send their student athletes or her uh daily and owe us a secure as a second trainer that they provide us and uh she's phenomenal as well. So two that we would be getting are experienced. They know what they're walking into. They know the time constraints. They know the workload. They know the understanding and they know our student athletes. A big piece of typing two as well. I might be slightly off on this but minimum war has their four or five not total four or five different knowing that that burnout factor is there. So never start back from you know hire a new trainer get them approved the volunteer process get their background checks knowing the student athlete knowing where
041the student athletes struggle where the injury is. Um when our trainer left in March and we brought in Mark the new OS it was a three four week period we students learn during their injury or in their rehab learning their their needs. So, um, if we had two, if we were to lose one, we're not we're not start over every year. I think we had four trainers in three years and they all left because we see a better place. >> We help Midwest the lead or the bees for the previous supplier of our trainer three years ago. There were some struggles with that piece of it. Um, bringing a trainer in, working with the school, I was ad piece of it, but I know there was some some friction and OS took on the contract
042in 2023, July 1, 2023. And they've been very, very fair. Dr. Corpus is a big piece of this. Dr. Corpus is a orthopedic that we now have and we had his number on speed. There's a student athlete at Pure High School girls basketball player for ACL during Christmas break. She went that following year. She couldn't get MRI until the middle of February. All the referral processes, the weight lines, all the things that we all struggle with. We get our student athletes in our eyes the next morning and that's a complimentary purpose of his team and making sure that we need an X-ray a cat scan you name it they're on that's a big a big advance right now we've seen with >> part of the advertising yeah for example we had traffic so 50 yard
043line they had their tent set up you know great planes and I was thinking contracts might have last you know if there's any background check requirements that the school requires on these things. >> Yeah, they go through they go through the volunteer piece of it. So the background check, everything that a volunteer teacher would do, they go through as well. I always had some pri as well. >> Yeah. So 2023 for January until June 30th. We were just plugging in. >> Right. There was a six month rest when we were may have walked out, but there's always been Yeah, in recent member history this century bad tra Okay, >> any other questions or comments for Dr. Dr. actually comes out. Okay, thank you. Uh, next Dr. Andrews, Mrs. B will present information regarding artificial intelligence
044educator policy 6.26 All right. So, we are excited to share with you the work that we've been engaging in over the course of the school year. It was backwards design that we be here tonight at the April board meeting to present this to you. So, we're excited to show you what we've done. Uh but before we go into it, because we're going to go into an overview of some of the nitty-gritty because we were as comprehensive as we possibly could be when developing what educator and student guidance would look like for AI in the district. Um what you're approving is the policy that's on the slide here. It's linked. It's the proposed board policy 6236, which is heavily modeled from the NEA model policy for artificial intelligence consideration and implementation in a school district. Um
045we're not going to go over that verbatim, but we are going to touch on a few of those. So hopefully by the end of this you'll have an idea of what that policy looks like and what the guidance for uh students and educators looks like as well. Um, if you were to take a look at board policy uh 6235, it um and look back in your board history from earlier this year, you did approve um some updated language to our existing policy or access to electronic networks that included some information about what it was that a district would need to do as it relates to AI implementation within the school district. So, um you can see items one, two, four, and five are items that we are covering through policy. really the actual practical guidance
046about how AI will be used within the district. So we're calling that our educator and student guidance handbook. Um and then number three which is ensuring that AI embedded enabled tools comply with state and federal law. That's where our dental left EPA's come into uh come into uh play. So again our initi our initiative timeline and compliance um review for this year to make sure that we are again setting the stage for the implementation of AI. So currently the state of Illinois is finalizing their implementation guidance that they're going to provide school districts here um likely this summer uh probably at the start of it. Um other state education agencies, other states have released their guidances, their guidance documents to their states uh their state school districts um as well as other other entities such
047as Common Sense Media that have toolkits for how districts go about that process. They're all very much similar. if you look at the root of them, I very much anticipate Illinois being uh the same. So, we're a little ahead of the game here. Um but as the policy um or your laws are going to inform what that guidance will look like, we've just made sure we've checked all those things, which is kind of how we've organized the presentation here tonight. So, a little bit um ahead of the game. Uh but this school year for all of our SIP days and our um our full institute that's dedicated to professional development has been focusing on AI either entirely or um a good portion of it um so that we could be here. So um for our
048school improvement afternoon, so our half days um have student attendance days for both secondary staff members and elementary because we have um we see at the district level we trade off with buildings and we see elementary teachers for one school improvement afternoon and then uh then the other um the other times we see secondary so middle and high school teachers. So in the fall we had engaged in professional development about how AI could be used with what we call for our evaluation purposes the off-stage domains um trying to relate how this professional learning could be complemented and used for evaluation purposes and how they can see the impact on their pedigogy their craft um and so that would be anything from planning and preparation so again it's off stage students aren't there um planning and
049preparation to the pref the professional responsibilities um for uh to go along with their position. So that included not just teachers but other certified staff members as well. So things that it could help with in terms of like streamlining communication, parent newsletters, things like that. Um with that they developed a goal about how they would foresee the different AI tools and strategies we showed and highlighted during those sessions. A goal to use that throughout the next couple of months to then provide feedback about how that ease of use went. Same thing in the um in the spring semester in February and in March. just now focus on the onstage demands uh domains. Uh so again when the student instruction is actually um occurring. Same goal there. We will get some finalized uh feedback here before
050the end of the year. Um but continue to engage in conversations as we are seeing how that would look. Um again to make sure that we are meeting the foot of all different types of legislation that govern most recent being SOAPA which became effective in July of 2021 for all of our online applications through which we roster students. So any sort of student information goes into they have to have a data privacy agreement signed with us. Um, we have not entered into data. Uh, we have not renewed or gone into agreements with certain companies because they either were taking their time to try a DPA or just did not choose to engage in uh in um sign one. But in order for uh an online resource to be used, we make sure that we have
051a a DPA in file. These are things that um for any application the teacher may want to use whether they're going to use a free version or they're going to ask PTO's to fund something where they found a need because of course we want teachers to have that choice to supplement in their classrooms. There's a process for them to go over that um and request anything that's not on there. But we make sure that that's there because within those DPAs it make sure that it lets us know why they need that what information. So they have to disclose it up front. Let us know what their safeguards in place and what they will do should there be a data breach. Unfortunately, they have not. Um, next, um, highlighting stakeholder feedback. >> All right. The development
052of our AI policy and guidance was a year-long journey, um, rooted in collaboration with multiple checkpoints from our Dunlap educators. This process ensured that the final guidance is reflective of Dunlap elementary and secondary classrooms needs. Beginning in the fall, um, at our SIP days, the first step was establishing a baseline where staff stood regarding AI. We collected feedback from elementary and secondary teachers um on their AI knowledge, their professional development needs, and overall vision of AI within the district. Teachers expressed a desire for hands-on uh learning and ongoing professional development. In regards to the policy and guidance, clear themes emerged that the staff wanted a policy providing concrete definitions and examples of um of accessible use and guidance on maintaining academic integrity. Once we understood the staff's needs, we reviewed published policies from other districts
053to help uh to serve as models when crafting our own. Uh this work with our curriculum councils focused on iding common language in terms of um around academic integrity and safety protocols. Curriculum council also provided feedback on this initial draft before we took it to the stakeholders at large. The final step involved bringing um this initial version back to staff um to see if it resonated with teachers. They were encouraged to provide feedback to ensure this policy is a resource teachers have vetted and refined to meet DLAP's needs. We also held twoformational nights titled community conversations. One for parents and families of elementary students, one for parents and families of secondary students to ensure this vision of AI aligned to Dunlap families. We were able to paint a picture of current AI use within our
054classrooms due to the help of Charlie Blanchard at Dunlap Middle School and explore teacher and Caitlyn Morrison um a Dunlap high school teacher of psychology who explained how they are currently responsibly and ethically implementing AI within their instruction to make sure that we reached stakeholders who were not able to attend. We also emailed the draft, the presentation, and asked for feedback as another opportunity to provide input. When looking at feedback, there were common themes that emerged as you can see listed on the left. Um, these themes included common language across grade levels, schools, and content areas. Uh, teachers were very concerned about having critical thinking still being at the forefront of the education we're providing in Dunlap. Uh, there was also a theme of wanting um instructional guidance and consistency. So what is the expectation
055of AI use within classrooms and then of course how do we build transparency and citation um methods within our students. >> All right. So within the proposed policy whenever we are of course doing anything we want to make sure that when and ever possible we are tying things to our mission and vision. Right? We had stakeholders that convened came together and talked about what it was that we envisioned our district to be. And then in terms of what we believe that students needed in order to be successful post uh their their foundational experience with us here uh within our system, what that what a graduate would look like. So making sure that's in line with our mission, our vision, and our core values and beliefs. Uh making sure that the purpose statement that's included within
056the document is in line with that. Again, we want to make sure that we are um preparing students for a future that is going to be nothing short of adapt adapting all the time and changing all the time. Um which does exist within it within the actual policy itself too. You'll see that it um when it comes to the use in the district again setting the stage what the policy does and the guidance is going to be something that's going to continue to evolve as technology does and as we get feedback about how best um everything looks within the classroom and works in the classroom. Um you have guiding principles and they are all very important but really if you look at your um your book ends here your first students and educators remain at
057the center of education. That's something that we heard resoundingly from all stakeholders um from staff members and from parents very much so worried um about what it could potentially mean um if over reliance on AI um became um something that students would suffer from and its impact to critical thinking. um when it comes you to the use of either providing different resources um and what its actual practical application would look like. Same thing too about making sure that we are ethically otherwise promoting and using it within our system. So again just again all those are equally important and have good reason to to tease them out but just drawing your attention to those two because they do actually kind of sort of interrelate there. Um within the policy as well it lists what our commitments
058are going to be. So starting about starting off with equitable access. So regardless of a student's um specific needs, regardless of of their level, it's going to be something that's developmentally appropriate and fits the need for a task. Um, of course, we're going to make sure that we are being good stewards of information and protecting student educated educator data um and responding appropriately if we ever need to. But again really the foundation there is making sure that we have those DPAs on file. Um of course um in through an auditing process taking a look at algorithmic bias and fairness. That's done by taking a look at what how AI is being used. Different um applications do have reports that you can um take a look at the different types of queries and generations that are
059being done and making sure that you don't have favor less than favorable or one-sided or partially sighted sort of information that's being presented to students. Of course, when we are taking a look at vendor selection and tool selections that we would be appropriate, we want to engage with um the with the appropriate stakeholders to make sure that what we are choosing is appropriate. Um whenever trying to take a look at something, if piloting, we always try to start there to actually get to see what it looks like before then truly buying it and making it part of um our repository of of tools available to us. Of course, we want to make sure that we are continuing to be devoted to professional learning opportunities. It's great to get things but we need to make sure
060that we understand how that practically um and feasibly works within the classroom on top of everything else. So our approach this year has been very much about again maintaining that the students stay at the center of instruction along with of course the guidance of teachers facilitators of learning and then making sure that um the use of AI is enhancing and transforming. So that was um a focus in the spring when we talked again about those onstage uh domains and that would be continued uh conversations moving forward. AI literacy and curriculum integration is when once we actually we have our feet um our feet very much entrenched and we're understanding how this would look and work continuing to evolve about how very intentionally across curriculums across grade levels developmentally appropriate of course that would look and
061then continuous improvement that's the dedication to making sure that each year we're taking a look at that guidance and we're evaluating what's going well uh what are some considerations we did not have within this first ready to go draft um and adding that to it. >> As Dr. Andrew said, the policy connects um the use of AI to our core um beliefs and identity as a school district. The policy is anchored in Dunlap's mission and mission for every student, and it strives to ensure that this technology enhances rather than replaces the high quality instruction Dunlap is known for. The guidance also adopts that um continuous improvement model utilizing some of the systems and structures we already have in place such as PLC's or curriculum councils so that we can respond to Dunlap's needs or ISB's
062guidance and the rapidly changing landscape that is artificial intelligence. Um we wanted to highlight a couple of the key pages within the guidance um and handbook. So on page 11 there's um the policy outlines Dunlap's expectations for what AI instruction should look like um and the focus is at different ages. This uh the way a freshman is going to interact with AI is obviously going to be very different than perhaps a first grader. Um, the instructional guidance uses a scaffolded approach to build towards AI literacy with the incorporation of those guard ra gu guard rails such as keeping a teacher in the loop or what discretion um needs to be uh what students need to uh explain and how they used AI. Um, beginning in kindergarten, it's much more general with the focus being on
063awareness and observation before it develops up through high school where we're focused on that career and civic readiness. Um, on pages 13 to 14, you will find the AI usage levels. There's one for elementary and one for secondary. These levels explain a clear framework for how AI is to be used within classwork. Um, the default for all grade levels is a level zero. No AI use at all unless it has been explicitly stated otherwise by your teachers. Um, then builds to have AI be a thinking partner, specific tasks, or co-pilot. Again, you'll notice on the right there's that explanation for how students need to site or disclose that they had used AI, which will again prepare on for the future. Maintaining academic integrity was one of the most prevalent feedback concerns and so common language
064was included in the form of academic integrity statements. At the top you can see the syllabus statement which is to be used across courses and this creates that mutual agreement um between students, families and staff um when students sign their syllabus. We also have included assignment statements that can be used um according to teachers professional development and the requirements of the assignment. And then finally, um, as a result of stakeholder feedback, there was specific guidance included in our revisions, uh, for world language courses and what AI citation should look like. For, um, on page 19, you can find information about word language where all student work must be 100% original. It cannot use AI for any written or spoken work. And then on pages 20 to 21, there's examples and explanations for how to develop
065um, students ability to site AI in their own work. Um, of course, this is important to communicate to staff members, the Dunlap community at large. So, this version of the AI policy will be uploaded and placed on our district web page. Um, so that we can uh continue to communicate that with staff and as it's updated based on, as we said, ISBY guidance or what changes in the AI landscape, we will continue to update version. >> What questions may you guys have? >> I have a couple. >> Sure. >> Um, there's two uh four hours. >> Yeah. What was the attendance like? >> Um >> I would say that attendance was not perhaps >> not as much 10 people. >> Um >> secondary was uh was more well attended than elementary. I would say there
066were probably about 20ish secondary. Elementary was maybe around 10 to 15. However, when we did email the form out, we got more stakeholder feedback. So once we were able to push that out in another way, we were able to get some of that extra input into how we can shape our policy. >> My second question as you mentioned on the next slide, you got feedback and stuff just all responses back to you basically >> Google form collected the survey collected all the feedback. Yeah. >> And then towards the end here did I hear you say that kids are referencing call kids They u these guys are they're using AI as part of their bibliography part of their if they're if they're going to use it they're going to disclose it. So based on the levels
067so if we go back to the example here of the levels for middle and high school students um if they're going to use it they do need to disclose that. And so how that looks is just like you would have to do within a college course or of course if you're ever trying to be transparent about work that you've produced how what your sources were then we provide that framework for an MLA citation >> what would be acceptable answer from AI I don't understand how they could use how they could source that >> um so an example could be using it to help um generate an idea So, they they read a text and they're trying to think about how to and um how to evaluate the the author's use of characterization and and they're
068they're they're stumped on on what critique pattern they want to take with them. So, AI could help them understand the writing patterns of, you know, someone very dry that they didn't engage with like Henry David Thorough. And so, AI would help them develop what they might uh use uh within that analysis. And so then they would take and create a citation which would include a link to their their chat interaction and then that would be included with their submission to their teacher if that was allowed. >> And that would be done before and again that was resoundingly what um every everyone has been talking about for some time not just before this year. We've had of course instances of suspected cheating or known. Um so making sure that we're being very clear and um um
069well again it's all all about the final work and if it's a creative work they have otherwise done on on their own and what's the purpose of the assignment. So um we really see and have heard more of the use being more for that idea generation at least through conversations I've had with teachers throughout the years um if they are going to allow because again it's otherwise going to be used. So this is just our way of otherwise engaging in a responsible way to use it when we're using it. We need to be intentional and upfront about it. And if we're trying to create a job or build a profile and build a name for ourselves, like we need to make sure that we are keeping our integrity at the forefront of all of our
070actions. So disclosing it and using it appropriately. And these are the different ways in which it could be used. >> Other questions? >> Yeah. You can put basically any paper in word place that will allow you to understand when and how they use it. >> So there are a few um first and foremost the the easiest thing that does not cost extra is taking a look at the version history of a Google doc. So more than likely um especially since our students use Chromebooks uh first we do have things filtered. They're on our network using our device whether they're using it at home or here at school or our our content uh our content filter um is in place. So um that's something that can easily be tracked. Um the version history within a Google
071doc is typically the link to the document is submitted. So that way a teacher can take a look at um how quickly an assignment was made. Um if it's done within five minutes and it's a fivepage paper and you see that it went from blank to everything's on the page. There could be that it was done in a different document. Okay. will then provide that document and I'll take a look at that version history to make sure that that is indeed an original an original submission of your and creation of your own um to other different uh applications that are used that help to summarize keystrokes the length of time um and do that for teachers um over the years we've take the past couple of years we've taken a look at applications such as
072turn it in turn it in's been around for a long time that has otherwise scarred the internet and it flags what has what is otherwise potential plagiarism use. They've obviously incorporated AI now into that. It then gives you a rating score within that. That's something that would require further conversation with the student about whether or not we have an original submission. Uh I mean I'm sure we could always be better but I feel that teachers have obviously adapted for for essays for example or for some assignments where there are going to be high stakes. Um as the the use of the Chromebook was never to 100% replace paper and pencil right um we then just revert to more traditional methods for writing this in class. either you're going to work out on it entirely in
073class or it's something that you're producing on paper. um are ways that we've saved off where students the thought has been that perhaps there might be some dishonesty um occurring um in that but a rate I couldn't give you a good accurate number I'd be comfortable with but >> I do know that it does happen and teachers of course go and investigate and just ask for things like it's the access to the ver to the Google doc so they can take a look at version history things like that. If there is that suspicion, >> they absolutely could. >> It reminds me a little bit of like dating myself here, but like 30 years ago when the internet started taking over, right? There's a lot of oh my gosh, what is this going to do to
074our students and their learning and our education process? I think it's important. Thank you for getting ahead of this as much as you can. I think it's a free process protocol now. It's very important. It's going to change so much obviously year to year. But we do know all of us in our professional lives, whether it's college or whether it's the trades or what have you, like our students right now once they get out of high school, you know, potential employers are going to want people that are wellversed in AI, have experience with AI, and use it as a tool to help their businesses be more efficient >> and that sort of thing. So I think it is important to embrace it, engage it, do it in a responsible manner. So >> I have noticed
075that he educators themselves, >> right? So um and I should have maybe given some more examples to the use of how AI could be used to supplement. So part of that those fall SIP days, those were part of that discussion there about how AI could be used to help supplement the the existing curriculum that we have in place. Uh but in terms of it being used as the major and only resource, you know, we talked about ways it can help to differentiate, how it can help to um change the text level difficulty so that students who are like multilingual learners and lower proficiency can access text. Those were the the conversations we had about how it can be used. Um it's also very good and helpful when if you do have to retach a lesson
076and perhaps you don't, you're a math teacher, helpful at helping you to create um uh practice problems for students to you know repractice a skill that you had already used what you had ready to go. So things like that a good question. >> Y just one more this uh the policy guidance document I know it's going to be on the website. this be something we would email to the district. >> Yeah. After everything's um approved, we would do that. Um again, resoundingly um not having a whole lot of safeguards in place and um very strong language out there about how what the expectation is. I think we all know that academic honesty that's been in our handbook for forever. Um but this is something that's been out there that has been desired by teachers. So
077if we of course want to be transparent with parents as well, questions. >> Good job. >> Information regarding the federal grant consolidated district plan has been included in board packet. Is there any discussion? Next, we'll move on to the consent agenda. There any discussion regarding items on the consent agenda? Can I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> I move to approve the consent agenda. Is there a second first? Thank you. Hi Paul. >> Hi >> motion carried. >> The bill list treasures report district investment report and bank statements have been included in the board packet. I have a motion to approve payment of the bills. Nick, any discussion? Call >> I motion carries. Information regarding the administrative contract rules has been included in the board packet. Could I have a motion to
078approve the contracts? Is there a second? >> Any discussion? Call >> I motion carries. Information regarding the 2026 graduation contract with Bradley University has been included in the board packets. I have a motion to approve the contract. >> Teresa, is there a second? >> Andrew, is there any discussion? Call >> Hi Paul. >> Hi Information regarding the trade contracts and assignment of those contracts has been included for package. A motion to award trade contracts for the new model weight grade school to each of the lowest responsible biders identified on the attach reported by PJ hair and assign these contracts to PJ hair construction manager pursuant to an assignment of contractor agreement as set forth in the board's contract with PJ hair trade contract Great. >> Is there a second? >> Any discussion? Hi. >> Information.
079Motion carried. Information regarding guaranteed maximum price agreement with PJ hair has been included in the board packet. I have a motion to approve the agreement. Is there a second? Any discussion? >> I Okay, motion carried. Information regarding the resolutions to intervene in property tax appeals has been included in the board packets. Do I have a motion to approve the resolutions? >> I move to approve the resolutions. There is a second. Any discussion? >> How many? How many dollars? >> I don't know. I can find it out. Just a standard thing whenever we're looking at the possibility of >> it's come forward. We don't always intervene in even these you know they you know after negotiations and looking at things but sometimes we do and or most of the time we do some of these like
080the new mall one is perennial it's every year it seems like we have them the other ones like the Francis house I didn't hadn't even heard of that looked looked that one up so um uh but yeah we do this as routine and uh then I talk to the attorneys and we look at the numbers and decide what you know what we're going to do. Uh sometimes we do appraisals, most of the time we don't, you know, if it just depends on how far they they're the they want to push it to. So, uh >> yeah, these all just came out from the county in this month. I mean, just in the last few couple weeks, huh? or resial. Uh these are all commercial, but uh but yeah, if we if anybody did a residential
081that was $100,000 or more, we would be informed >> and then we >> assessment. >> Um I I don't think the bills have gone out yet. So, I don't but they're probably on the they're probably on the website at this point and you know and all the well actually what happens is I guess the assessments went out in the fall and then all the appeals went through and now we're to to that point where the final appeals went through and now we're at the final amount. So, I assume that's why we got a bunch of >> Yeah. So, it's a lot of them. There's six of them actually at this time. There's five on the list, but the new mall one is two has two in it. But, uh uh so this is more than
082we normally have but and and we we go back and forth and the attorneys, you know, it it's it's a process. But, uh, but how much this represents as far as a dollar amount, if they were to win what they wanted, the answer is I don't know. But that's not reasonable either because they, you know, there's always a negotiation. You know, it never goes to where they want it to go to. So, or not never, but usually not. So anyway, if you want me to do some calculations, I can, but it's probably not worth uh uh putting a number on it at this point because it's not realistic. So, >> okay. Other uh questions or comments about this motion by any other call? Hi >> Sarah. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> Is there a
083motion to adjourn to close session? I'm going to move to adjourn to close session for purposes stated in the open meeting act. appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance or dismissal of specific individual want to add to that. Anything else off that list or anything else comes to mind? Okay. Is there a second to my motion? A second. Thank you, Andrew. All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Those opposed. Nay. Motion carries. And the time is 7:17. We won't have this close session. So you Tom's going to call you. >> Thanks. motion. I have a motion to return to open session. >> You is there a second? >> Second. >> Andrew, is there any discussion? All those in favor say I. Those opposed? Nay. Motion carries. 7:59. Can I have a motion to approve the
084human resources consent agenda? >> Thank you, Jim. Is there a second? >> Second. Andrew. Is there any discussion? Roll call. >> Hi. Is there a motion? Motion carries. Is there a motion to adjourn? Is there a second? >> Andrew. All those in favor say I. >> Post say nay. Motion carries. The time is 8.