001Roll call, please. >> Mr. Fitzpatrick. Mrs. Lynn, >> here. >> Mrs. Graome, >> here. >> Dr. Huntington, >> here. Mr. Coffee. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> present. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> here. >> Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. Our ROC forward. Oh. Inward face. Freeze then arms. >> I pledge allegiance >> to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Order arms. Outward face. Forward march. May be seated. Again, huge thanks to our JRTC. They always do a fantastic job. At this time, we would like to welcome all of our visitors in person as we see we have many and anyone watching online. Uh before we get to the consent agenda, I do want to ask
002everyone to take a moment um of silence to reflect on the passing of one of our teachers, Marie Ryan. uh I had the privilege of working with her when I worked at central and she was very very dedicated staff member. Um so if we could just take a moment to remember her contribution. Thank you. Do we have any public comment on any agenda item? >> All right, we'll move on to the consent agenda. Do we have a motion to approve or amend? >> Make a motion to amend. Remove the Hopewell check uh reg from the check register and vote separately. >> Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Roll call. >> Mrs. Stiff? >> Yes. >> Mr. Kennedy? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lynn? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Graome? >> Yes. >> Dr. Huntington? >>
003Yes. >> Motion passes. Do we have a motion to approve the rest? >> So moved. Second. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gome, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> abstain. >> All right, motion passes. Move on to recognition and awards. I'll turn over to Dr. Guzman. >> Sure. Um, it's so nice to see everybody coming out tonight. I know it's a little cold out there. Um, but I would like to invite um Dr. Markham and Mr. to begin our recognition this evening. >> Good evening everybody. My name is Steve. [laughter] >> This is it's kind of an inside joke. It happens to me every time. So I apologize. Um, [laughter] so my name is Steve Lockach. I am the building operations
004assistant principal at Joey Central High School. And I have the privilege tonight to introduce Joliet Central students who completed the teenert certification training in partnership with Joliet um the city of Joliet in particular John Lucenzac and then the Joliet Fire Department who also assists in that. So I what a little background on CERT. It is a national program of volunteers trained in disaster relief and emergency response. These students completed roughly 30 hours of training outside of school hours between September and December during the first semester of 2025. Um some of the training that they receive is um PPE equipment, disaster preparedness and disaster medic medical operations uh just to name a few. Um we are lucky enough uh with the help of the Julia Fire Department and Mr. Lucenzik. They are also offering continued education
005for all the kids who have completed the training for a CPR certification class on February 28th at station one Juliet fire department. So they are all welcome and we are going to ask all the students who participate this semester to attend that as well. So it's it's a really great opportunity and we thank John and the Juliet Fire Department for working with us and uh specifically our students. Um, do you when I call out the names, would you want them to come up here? Okay. So, when I call your name uh from Juliet Central, if you wouldn't mind please coming up here and Miss Schlushman will direct you where to stand. Beatrice Campa, [snorts] [applause] Leila Chandler, Monica Delgado, Daisy Heridia, Bri Briana Hernandez, Fernanda Martinez, Rihanna Ross, and Jasmine Tenna. [applause] >> Mr. Markham,
006I'm going to turn this off for you. So, turn it back on. Sure. >> Do we want any of our adults in there? >> We absolutely can. If our if our s our volunteers [applause] Hi, John. >> [laughter] >> family. >> Wait, you got to stay. [laughter] Another group. Our [applause] team leader was late. [laughter] Okay, there we go. Why don't you guys >> So, >> before I introduce the students from West Campus, I did want to invite John Lucansic up here because he he really does a lot of the work to make this program go and provide this opportunity to our students. So, I just wanted to invite him up here in case he wanted to share any information about the program. >> Thank you. [applause] And bring the music on. >> Yes, you're
007on. >> All right, we're on. Um, I just wanted to thank the the the staff and the school board for allowing us to bring this into Juliet Township High Schools. I have to say this is not an easy curriculum. There's a lot to this almost 30 hours of education and they absolutely showed enthusiasm the entire time. They showed teamwork the entire time. They started out a bunch of them as strangers and they all started working as a team and that's exactly the way this is supposed to go. So, I'm hoping that our central group and our west group start to get together and we can all work as a great big team as we can continue on here. So, um I thank you very much for allowing me to do this and we start again
008with uh Juliet West tomorrow with a new group and our graduates are always welcome to come back to our classes if you want to help teach. If you want to refresh, you can do that. But we encourage you guys to come back whenever you want to be part of this program. you're part of the Cert family now. So, thank you all very much. All right. So, from the West Campus, if you're here, please come up for for the picture. Marlene Aoyo, Addison Atalano, Leali Coransza, [applause] Caitlyn McDonald, [applause] >> Molina Martinez, Julia Mucha, Landon Slaybar, Llaya Thorstad and Aaliyah Wright. [applause] Congratulations. >> [applause] >> Absolutely. >> All teamship team. Uh, and girl power. [laughter] >> Just gonna say Congratulations. [applause] Thank you. Continuing on with our recognition, I would like to invite Chris McGuffy
009up. We have um some additional recognition to do. Uh, good evening. Uh, my name is Chris McGuffy. I'm the CTE curriculum director here at Juliet Township. So, I oversee a lot of our career programs. Tonight is my privilege to highlight an innovative partnership between Goliet Township High School and the Juliet Fire Department. One that perfectly illustrates the power of authentic service-based learning. Recently, our electronics and robotics students at both Juliet West High School and Juliet Central, accepted a unique challenge to bring two retired robot ambassadors back to life. These robots, Freddy the firetruck and Andy the ambulance, have been out of commission and collecting dust since the early 2000s. Under the guidance and our of our dedicated staff and instructors, uh, students at both campuses applied advanced technological skills to diagnose complex mechanical issues and
010repair their sneaky electrical faults um, and replace their some fuses. Um, so at Juliet West, students fully restored Freddy uh and his movement, his lights, his voice box while also engaging with community as they posted their progress on social media. At Juliet Central, students were engaged uh with their problem solving on Andy's voice box, his eye mechanisms, and his water squirting mechanism. Because of their work, we've res returned approximately $20,000 worth of revitalized equipment to Joliet Fire Department. Freddy and Andy are now back on active duty, ready to teach fire safety to our children at parades and school visits across the city. I'd like to now invite our students from both Juliet Central and Juliet West uh forward for that recognition. Um, and that would include um from Juliet West campus who worked on Freddy
011the firetruck. That would be Nicholas Hicks [applause] and Jose Zamoodio [applause] from Juliet Central High School. We had uh working on Andy the ambulance, Christian Torres, Jeremy Martinez Zapat, Javier Barios, and finally Greg Rosman. [applause] This project would not be made possible without the adults who also facilitated this opportunity. So, I really want to offer a warm welcome to our instructors. Juliet West uh high school instructor John Barber, if you'd come up too, please [applause] Central High School, Nicole Gubbins, and of course, the fire department. I know Chief Battalion, uh Tim Chaplain was a part of it. um as well as Eric Clem from the ambulance. [applause] >> Uh thank you from the bottom of our hearts from the Juliet fire department. Uh Freddy and Andy were a very integral part of Pubed program in
012the early late you know 1990s early 2000s until the captain of Pubed retired and nobody was there to take his place. So Freddy and Andy kind of sat in a closet literally until [clears throat] uh we brought them back. Not we, these guys brought them back to life. So thank you. Thank you so much. [applause] Uh so we have some certificates. So um >> Yep. So, we were able to bring back Freddy just in time for the Light Up the Holidays parade. So, Freddy was in the parade this year, uh, marching right along with the actual fire trucks. So, that was really great. Um, Andy was just a little bit behind that. So, um, but we have a whole we're designing a curriculum to to incorporate that into our Pubed program. Uh, once again, so
013that they'll make put smiles on all these little kids' faces. >> You guys have to get [applause] [laughter] smile. I love you. Congratulations. [applause] All right. And at this time we're going to take a brief recess to come out Okay. We're moving into superintendent reports. So, we'll turn it over to Dr. Guzman at this time. >> Thank you. Um, no correspondence or legislative report. Um, but we do have two presentations this evening. So, we're going to begin our first presentation with a parent teacher advisory presentation. This is an annual presentation. I'm going to invite Dr. Markham and Mr. Lach who facilitate the group to come up and I know that they have additional people that they will be inviting up who are part of the committee. So thank you. [snorts] Okay. All right. Hello again
014everybody. our committee members, if you want to come up and stand over here to my right along the window. >> So, as Dr. Guzman said, uh Dr. Markham and I had the privilege to run the annual parent teacher advisory committee um this past fall. It was a uh actually was was a really good time. This is one of the better uh committee groups that we have had um in a while. Attendance was great, very consistent and we got through a lot and you know a lot of the committee members we talked about it quite a few times and many of them did agree and volunteered to come here tonight to help Brett and I present to everybody. [snorts] [clears throat] So we did meet six times over the course of the fall from September through
015December. And although we had roughly 50 to 60 names, consistently we had 24 people and you can see the committee membership as far as kind of their roles within the school or the community that showed up on a consistent basis. The committee purpose, as everybody or at least the board knows, um the main purpose is to go over administrating medicine in school, reciprocal reporting by JTHs and the Julia Police Department, student behavior and intervention guidelines along with school bus safety, and then dissemination of student conduct information. So, one of the first tasks we take on with this committee each year is to review some of those things that are required by school code for this committee to review. Um, and so I'll just go over three of them uh briefly. Uh, the first recommendation that
016the committee is making for your consideration. Um, it relates to policy 7270, which is administering medicines to students at school. Um, that's a policy that that has options for the board of education to consider. Um, one of those options is undesated EpiPens and asthma inhalers. Uh, in talking about it with the committee, and we're fortunate enough to have uh one of our nurses on the committee this year, um, we felt like it would be a good recommendation for the board to consider. Um, you know, if if that's something that you all decide to approve and move forward with, Steve and I would meet with the health office at both campuses, the PPS coordinators, just to make sure that we adopt procedures that align with Isby's guidance and best practices. um so that we can do
017that to make sure our students uh are in as safe of an of an environment as possible. Um 7190 AP2 relates to reciprocal reporting with law enforcement. Um we are not making any recommendations to change that. I think that uh it might be in the board packet today, but there was some legislative language that changed on July 1st. Um we agree with all that. No recommendation to change. Uh and then one of the things we do annually and we were fortunate this year to have someone who is both a parent and a former employee of the district as a bus driver. Uh so so a pretty unique uh and interesting perspective just some recommendations for our handbook relating to language for students as it as it um relates to bus behavior. Right. So there's some
018uh in one of the uh supporting documents I think you got is handbook language about bus behavior just some recommendations for students to consider. The other thing that was nice this year that was la the last couple of years we've been working to um do leveled behavior infractions in our handbook. That's something that we adopted for this year. So that's been a bulk of the work the last couple of school years. Uh and so this year now that we have that in place, we're fortunate to be able to do a lot of data review um talking about procedures and how we're doing things in school and then just to work with the committee members on topics that were interesting to them that they think are important to help improve our school climate and culture. Uh
019and so what we were able to do after we identified that interest from the committee is break into working groups so they can make recommendations. So um we're gonna invite different members up here to talk about some of those different topics that we discussed as a committee. >> Hi there. My name is Anna Carbine. I am a dean at Joliet West and I was part of the cell phone group. Um why does this matter to us? It matters to us because we want to um protect student focus. We think it's important to support relationships to reduce stress. That screen brings a lot of stress and then to support academic success. So the hope is that the phones are putting away. We're going to put them away to eliminate those distractions, keep the students focused, hopefully
020improve grades, support mental health, and then help develop social skills. Um the biggest thing with the policy language are two different things. The first one is the new use of the meta glasses. So, the first line I'm going to read word for word. Uh, use possession and or wearing of smart or AI glasses. For example, metagasses is strictly prohibited at all JTHs 204 facilities and events. Um, and then the next one um talks about how we'd like to remove cell phones um in academic areas. So, that classroom in advisories, uh, library, deans offices, health offices. We want cell phones put away um with the exception of at lunch and then in the hallways. Um other nonJTH's electronics, so headphones, earbuds, iPads, iPods, watches, all of those things, the hope is that they are off and
021stored in um student backpack locker um whatever they're most comfortable with at that time during classes. Um the expectation would be for every class, every academic setting, and including advisory. We hit on advisory because yes, some students are just in a normal advisor. We have some that are in those AP advisories, that MTSS advisories, some go to the learning center. So, we want to make sure that it covers everything including that advisory time. So, it it impacts all of our students at that time. Um, we talked about a level our level behaviors and here's a list of um suggested like a step by step of what would happen for a level one. the first warning, the second warning, and the third. Um, so we're talking verbal, a phone call home, and referral to the dean
022with interventions that are already being done um in the classrooms at this time. Um, they are our teachers are very familiar with this non-verbal, verbal, conversation um after class, phone call home, change of seat, and then that lastly that referral to the dean. Um, a lot of questions. So, we're we bring this up and we know the concerns. We know people what what happens if this happens, what if what if what if and we can answer all the whatifs. We can play out all the whatifs, but something's going to change, right? The biggest thing for us is that we want that student safety. It's important for us. We want that focus. We want to bring it back into the classroom. Um, we really want to support the students mental health, remove that screen time a
023little bit. I'm sure those numbers are very high. Okay. So, we want to drop it a little bit at least during the daytime that we can have that impact as educators. Um, what if my parent or guardian needs to reach me? We as a dean, my phone's always available. I always I'll take parent phone calls. Can I speak to my student? Yes, give me a few minutes. I've got to find them. I'll grab them and I'll be able to bring them down to you. Um, what if there's an emergency like a lockdown? Again, safety is first. We want those students to be safe. We want the building to be safe. Then we could talk about what's next. If we have give the ability to those students to use their cell phones to make that contact
024home, although the district's already made that contact home, a lot of ease is brought when they can make contact with that parent. We understand that, but we'd still follow the safety plans put in place first. Um, can I keep my phone on silent or my backpack or pocket? The hope is to eliminate all distractions. So, the hope would be to at the start of the class, it goes in that assigned space and we talk about at the end different what it looks like. We know our CTE program is piloting these wonderful boxes and it's going really well there. We've talked about the sleeves. Um but once if this were to go through, we have a collection of ideas where they can put them. We don't want them in backpack or pocket because that vibration, that
025noise, that ding still brings on the distractions um to the students and those around them. If a teacher wants to use a phone in a classroom, we do we have mentioned, you know, teacher discretion. Sometimes those QR codes, you can't always bring your laptop up and scan them and it doesn't work as user friendly as the phones may. Um, so we would allow for that to be if I finish my work early, can I use my phone? The hope would be no. The plan is bell-to-bell, no cell is what we're hoping. Um, if they had a medical reason, so we've got students who have 504 plans for diabetes, um, you know, the, uh, phone can read insulin levels, things along those lines. That's written in a plan. That's we are of course willing to follow
026that. We're not going to remove that from the student. We whatever is best again for their safety, for their personal well-being, we still want to be able to follow. Uh implementation. I think the biggest thing here is communication to family, to staff, to everyone involved. You flood that social media parent square the way they access it. Yes. Is it on their cell phone? Absolutely. But we want to make sure they are fully aware of everything before we we were able to implement this moving forward if that's the way the rate we go. Okay. Trust code. Any questions regarding anything that's been presented so much? >> And the reason I say that sometimes it's easier right after >> going back to the medical. >> Yeah. Um you guys specifically said epipens and asthma. >> This is
027>> Are there any other medications? I just know that um like migraines and stuff like that like I literally had one came on and took my pills 30 minutes later I feel better but the key is to getting it quick and not waiting for the test going to the nurse. Has that been under consideration or know if it's legal or not? >> I was going to say the two things that are undesated. Yeah. Go ahead. >> So so that comes down to school code right. So, like by school code, we're allowed to have that option for undesated EpiPens, asthma inhalers, and then we already have uh Narcan, right? Um at this point, we're not allowed to have undesated medicines for anything else, right? So, that's that's just school code. That's not something where we have
028that leeway. Okay. >> These are the couple of objects where we we do have that opportunity. >> Yeah. >> Yep. >> A good question. And those two specifically undesated because those are life-saving. You know, if you're having an allergic reaction, you know, an EpiPen is life-saving. So, someone who's never had an allergic reaction, who doesn't have an EpiPen with them, if we had an undesated, meaning it's not prescribed anyone person, we could use that. Uh, asthma, it's the albuterol inhaler that opens up your lungs. If someone's, you know, wheezing really bad and having a bad asthma attack, it's an instant help. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Anything regarding the cell phone recommendation, too? >> I I had one question about >> No, go ahead. No, not follow that. I had something I wanted to ask.
029Um so I know that there are students on the committee. >> So um how are students feeling about this change and um my recommendation would be that your student advisory would do a video and kind of explain this to the students. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So a couple different ways that we got feedback from students. So uh we did have student members of the committee uh and and then we also presented to Dr. Guzman's student advisory committee. Uh we have a student advisory committee uh at west campus as well who we talk to just to get their kind of feedback and the students who are on those committees uh the the feedback is generally positive. Right. I think there's a lot of acknowledgement from our students now that uh that addiction to social media and
030screen time is real. They know they're aware that they have it uh and they're willing to to kind of go with this to to address that and focus on their learning. Right. Um I I I would say that also a lot of them have shared that when they come from our center schools it's they're they're used to not having access to them. So um surprisingly uh pretty positive feedback from students. >> I have a question. A lot of the cell phone you're putting back on the teachers. Uh the teacher needs to do a verbal and then call home and then a referral. I I think that a lot of this needs to be taken off of the teachers because that's when you're not going to get as much as the buying because it's one more
031thing that you have to do on top of the targets, on top of this. Why are we allowing a verbal warning? Like they know the rules. You see it, it's gone. >> Yeah. >> And a lot of schools do that. I know where I workers do it. And I don't see a single cell phone because I will immediately call. And then it takes a responsibility off the teacher. When a kid has a phone out, I say, "Why you have to make me go call security on you?" Like, "It's not me. You made me." And you're putting all this responsibility back on the teacher. And I just I think it's I don't think it's should be on the teacher because it it can harm relationships. It's one more thing a teacher's got to do. And then
032I don't think you're going to get as many teachers buying in if they have to do all the work for it. So I just a couple things I would say with the work that we did with leveling and this is considered a level one infraction. So and I was in a presentation um I know that there were different presentations at each campus. I was in the presentation at central with part of the freshman academy the dean um and the academy coordinator were going through and talking about the different levels in the way that we're approaching them and the level one infraction it is things in the classroom. So I I think that that is something we should think about and look at during implementation, but this was considered not as severe and that's why it
033was level one with other things. We certainly could take that back to the committee to talk about that. But I think because it was level one um and establishing those rules in the classroom, those are the same same steps as other level one infractions. But the are the other level one infractions based on addiction affecting the kids learning. So I I just feel like and I would like it being bought bought back and like teachers opinions on it. If you want it to work, it's got to be strict. It's still going to be a level one infraction, but your phone's taken away immediately. Like I just don't think it should be put all on the teachers three times. Well, I I can tell you that um when you get as parents when you get eight
034phone calls in the day because you're you're you're pulling your phone out. I know that my experience has been kid goes home and the parents like eight teachers called me today about the cell phone. It's got to be away, right? So, I think you're going to see at the beginning of this implementation there's going to be some growing pains. Um but surprisingly th [clears throat] the amount of problems or the amount of resistance to putting the phones away has like will significantly decrease. I think if everybody's consistent at first >> I I think but that's the key is everyone's consistent and if you're putting it all in the teachers I I I don't think you're going to get that consistency because there's so much more that you have to keep track of tardies this and
035that. I really I really think it should be a discussion and maybe with the teachers union and stuff like that of how they feel if they teachers want that responsibility or it should just be taken away and agree it's going to be growing pains and if you're calling security to take those phones that first month yeah it's going to be a lot of growing pains but if those kids know that that cell phone's going to be taken away the first time the teacher sees it they're not going to get it out. I think we'll also have to see if if we could handle like security coming and getting all of those. Um I think that would would be something I don't know right now if that would be feasible. Um from the onset we may
036have to track it and then pivot to that after the after we get through some of the growing pains. Um I but I'm I do hear what you're saying. I don't think there's a perfect way to it. Well, and sorry to interrupt. Um, so I was on the cell phone committee the first time we had it when I was first on the board and we let it to be teacher discretion and it's and there was none. I mean, my daughter texts me almost every hour and she's not supposed to have her phone on her, right? But she still does and she's a good kid. So, I just think if we're going to come in like, you know, kind of cautiously and not so much, it's it's not going to work. If you want the phones
037to disappear, we got to come in full force and like make those phones disappear because to me I I just don't I think there's too much wiggle room. Three times you can have your cell phone out before you actually get a referral. I just I I feel like and you're putting it on the teacher. The teacher saying put it away. And then there that again there's that battle between the teacher and affects the relationships. You can't say we have relationships are so important, but then you're now expecting the teacher to have that battle of the cell phone because we know that if you ask a kid for a cell phone, like it's like part of them. They they don't like giving it up and now we're putting it back on the teacher. >> Okay. >>
038I think just a couple things. Uh totally agree, right? One of the hardest uh one of the biggest obstacles we have to overcome is getting all of our staff members to buy in and go along in the same direction, right? uh some differences this to this go around the this recommendation this working group had mostly teachers I mean Dean Carbine was here presenting right but there were teachers on this group uh they got feedback from other teachers we're at a point now where a lot of school districts have adopted cell phone policies and and a lot of what uh we shared tonight came from other school districts and things that they've been able to work through and are working well. Um, one of the recommendations upon approval is to provide resources in every classroom that
039are standard that every teacher would use so that while it talks about discretion, that's not that's not something that we're recommending. We want everybody to be consistent with it. Um, because that's from the feedback from the students, if it's consistent, they just know what to expect. They're going to it's going to be easier for them, right? Um, not to say that there's not going to be hurdles, not to say that uh it's going to be necessarily easy initially for anybody. Um, but I I think it's a little bit different the way that we're hoping to approach it this time as opposed to the way we did last time where it's more standardized uh standard resources, standard expectations and it's clear uh we do not this committee is recommending to not allow them in academic areas
040at all. Right? That's that's the recommendation and and we'll see how it goes. uh and and throughout the process, this committee will come back if it's approved and review the data again next year. There's always opportunities to get feedback from everybody and and adjust. Um but I think I feel pretty confident speaking on behalf of the committee that um we feel like it's time to make some sort of effort to try to try to get out in front of it as opposed to right now where it is completely up to the teacher to set those expectations and it's different in every classroom. >> No, I understand. But I just feel like if we're going to make a policy, let's jump forward and go full in and not just have three times you can mess up
041before that cell phone's taken away. It's not even ever taken away. It's just a referral and a phone call home. Like I just don't think it's enough. >> Jessica, are we ready for Jessica? Justice. >> Uh, good evening everyone. I'm Steve Seer. I'm an academy coordinator at Central Campus. Um, I was uh one of the folks on the dress code uh committee. Um, the first part um the very the first page of the schoolboard policy 7160. It's just striking out the name himself or the word himself and putting in the student. And then the last part is a redundancy of the first part. So, we struck that out. Uh when we start talking specifically about attire, um the first recommendation was clothing and makeup may not impact on the district's ability to clearly identify the
042student and properly engage in the educational process. Um the second bullet about clothing um was not changed at all in reference to advertisements that are um alcohol, drug, tobacco related, etc. The third bullet point, students must wear clothing including both shirt and pants or skirt or the equivalent dresses, leggings, yoga pants, shorts, sweatpants that completely covers private parts in opaque material is the recommendation. Not able to be seen through striking out the last part which is the current uh re which is what currently reads in the uh board policy. Good evening. I'm Chuck Rump. I'm a dean at West Campus. Um, another recommendation uh that the committee came came up with and you can see here is um headwear uh being permitted uh but the face must be visible to all school staff. um and
043and essentially like uh identification at that point would be the big thing that we could still identify the students but um headwear uh hats and hoodies um would be allowed. So again that's a recommendation from the committee but um last October um deans from west campus, central campus and pathways we had an opportunity to do a professional development at West Aurora High School um who's already adopted a similar policy to their dress code about allowing headwear. Um, so we we went over a number of things during that professional development, but uh since they were already utilizing this, we kind of uh asked them questions about that uh to see how it would work and what it would look like. Um, so how they were able to adopt this policy is they uh just researched um
044neighboring school districts who were already implementing it and allowing headwear in their buildings. Um they they said that um [snorts] it's a it's a recent um change to their school policy, but they didn't notice like an uptick in the number of kids that were all of a sudden starting to wear hats or hoodies in the building. Um is their their um finding is that kids who would who wanted to wear them in the first place would just be wearing them in the building, but kids who had no desire to just would not um uh wear them at all. So, um, we also had an opportunity because school was in session at Westerora High School that day to kind of see what that would look like. They invited us to, uh, kind of stand in the
045hallway and kind of observe, um, how that would be. Uh, and we did we were able to do that. And, um, what what we observed was it was just a typical day. Some students were wearing head in the building. Uh, many were not. Um there were no um like interactions between staff or security uh at Wester High School like coming up to students and asking them to remove the headwear. Um there was no conflict or power struggle or um or any issues like that. It was just a people went about their day in a typical fashion. Um and it again the work that the committee did. We we believe that this uh recommendation could work at Juliet Township. Were there any cons to your research? >> Not not to our research like in terms of
046like uh anything the committee uh came up with and certainly like when we were at Wester nothing we observed. Well, >> what about in the classroom with like earbuds being hidden and affecting classroom instruction? >> That's that's actually covered in there. Uh it says that um it says that they head must be removed in the classroom if there is a concern with the obvious maintaining the integity of an assignment or an assessment. So if a teacher says we're having a test today or we're having an assignment, something that's they feel is, you know, pretty significant, they could then ask the students to make sure that all headwear is is removed. >> My main concern with that is I don't have time in the day to do an earbud check. So I can be completely talking
047and I have no idea until I go up and I get close and I'm like, "Oh my god, they have an earbud in." Because I don't have time to say, "Okay, everyone, show me your ears." Now assessment days, I do. Everyone pull your hair back. Let me see your ears to make sure. I I I just think that it does affect the learning. >> What does head gear constitute? >> Um that would be like hats or like um you know obviously now winter time winter hats. Um kids with their hoods up. Um, and again that the piece where the face must be visible like if a student has a ski mask and it's pulled over the face like where the recommendation is that is still not allowed. >> What about do-aggs and bonnets? >> Doags
048and bonnets would be considered headwear and they would be they would be they would be fine. I know a lot of students that um kind of struggle with sensory integration and and utilize like their hoodie for some of those kind of reasons. Um, I I'm more concerned about like I think what I'm hearing is is that the power struggles are leading to disciplinary consequences and perhaps maybe the deans are spending a lot of time on discipline for headwear when it's not that big of a deal or is that not accurate? Well, I going back to what Chuck said earlier about um the West Aurora and the number of students who are who are wearing headwear. Um there was a there's a first of all there's a concern about safety. For instance, >> those students are
049easily identifiable because so few of them are wearing headwear to begin with. >> Can you I'm sorry. So so few so few are wearing headwear to begin with that they're easily identifiable. Um we looked at seven different school districts and policies in the seven different school districts. Some have policies uh a couple have policies very similar to our current policy. Um some of them are a couple of them are very very very um non-specific undefined. So we did definitely steered ourselves away from those. Um but those that we talked to and I made I did talk to well besides uh Chuck mentioning West Aurora I did speak to uh two other school districts and um they said there were some growing pains at first. There was still some redirection about hats being worn in an
050appropriate way, not covering your face, students being reminded, but over time it became very we have more students concerned about the way they look. Um, so we have a lot of students, including males, who are spending more time in the bathroom trying to fix their hair and and um just look like however they want to look. They're not wearing hats in the building um as it is right now. Um we also have um situations like you mentioned where we were told by social workers and counselors there are sensory issues. There are kids who feel comfortable kind of keeping themselves covered. And so is that a problem if their face isn't covered? We say it's not a problem to the academic environment or teaching a student. the student the teachers we've spoken to and the teachers
051on the committee um have been very clear about the fact that what a student wears on their head does not influence how well I can teach that student on a given day and so that's that's all of those things collectively are the reason why we're making that recommendation >> um for me I don't think it's um the learning environment it's the safety and security right so when you turn on the news everything every time you see a criminal criminal act. It's someone with a hoodie whose head is covered unidentifiable. And we know that a lot of our students want to wear that. And I just want to prevent uh students who are coming to school. Yes, they may have their hoodie on, but they're they're being uh um wrongful t wrongfully targeted, right? I want
052to prevent that because if you see a hundred kids in a black hoodie, those are all the kids that you're going to go out and seek if there's something that has transpired in the school. And so that for me is what I want to prevent. And as well as the do-aggs and bonnets, those were created to sleep in, not to wear out in the public. And so, and I know it's uh specific to the black culture, and that is why I am 100% against wearing bonnets and do-aggs in school. So, like I said before, as someone that's currently in the classroom, I do think um the kids do wear their who don't want to learn, put their hoodies up and put their earbuds in. and you as a teacher cannot I you don't know right
053away that they have them in unless you do an ear check. So I do think it impacts the learning and then when you do have group work where how can you participate in a group when you have an earbud in and you're not hearing what people are saying >> and do rags and bonnets were specifically brought up by one of our members actually two of them on our subcommittee um and they shared uh one of the people shared similar concerns to yours. Um the other person pointed out that students on the flip side feel like um there should be some um cultural recognition of their of their choice to wear a bonnet or a do-rag um that they shouldn't be singled out or be told that they couldn't wear those things. What harm the question
054was what harm is it causing? And so it goes back to the learning environment and the ability to teach a student if they are wearing those things does affect the learning. So, I'll share that my observation with the dress code. I voted for the dress code the last time I was up only because I was against wearing the head. So, I gave them the vote for the dress code. Now, we're having significant issues with the dress code and we were told that exact sentiment what you just said. We were told the same thing and now we're having issues with the dress code because they told us the students indicated that well you're sexualizing us by preventing us from wearing what we want to wear. That is what was told to us. And so now the
055fact that you have to put opaque clothing in our dress code indicates that they're wearing a lot of sheer items to school, right? >> Actually, our our our our choice of doing that, excuse me, was just to be very clear about it. Um, some of the members of the subcommittee did not feel comfortable with breasts and genitalia because they felt that that was something very very specific that we did not find in any other policy, nothing close to that. So, what where could we find some common ground with the language? That was really the only purpose. There was no there was no that we had two deans on the committee. They were not concerned about sheer sheer uh it was just again about keeping the integrity of what it said without that specific language >>
056and the the language as a current it was making people the language was making some people uncomfortable. >> Correct. Correct. >> Correct. >> Any other questions with dress code? Thank you. All right. Good evening. My name is Kristen Challey. I'm a dean at Juliet West. Um myself and two additional committee members were the head of the areas for additional consideration. So, anything that didn't fall under cell phone or dress code kind of fell under this umbrella of items. So, it may be kind of random, but we promise they are things that we wanted to bring to the committee. Um, what we wanted to talk about were bathrooms, substance use, and intervention, communication, and awareness. Um, for each of those, we're going to talk about room for growth, student perspective, and recommendations. And then the last
057thing that we wanted to talk about was a school-based intervention program. Um, good evening. I'm Julia Tolbert. I'm a social studies teacher at Juliet Central. I'm a part of the additional group. Um, so when we discussed bathrooms, we really talked about getting the students and staff perspective either from the dean's office, teachers, and then all of our students. I work primarily with freshmen. So they're coming from a totally different kind of experience. So in terms of the students that also were on our committee, we discuss what their experience is like in the bathroom. And for them, it's a point of anxiety, friction, and in some case uh conflict, both physical and social. So our discussion was how can we remove these barriers to learning barriers for engaging with our classmates um and make sure that
058they are entitled to what we want in our strategic plan which is a high quality school with the essentials for quality life to help them engage in the whole community and having safe bathrooms does not seem like an unrealistic expectation um for any 14-year-old coming to our school to know that you know this is a place for you to just use the bathroom and you know and get your stuff done and get back into the classroom. For for us, our recommendations um and hopefully with your approval is to discuss ways for us to mitigate some of the in our case shenanigans, but also substance use that occurs in the bathrooms at Juliet Township. So, for us, we're trying to discuss, you know, what is it like for our students to use the bathroom? We had
059two students that were pretty um honest about what it's like to use the bathroom during the passing periods, and they're like, "It's not something I'm trying to do." Um they they're like, "I have to hold my breath to use the bathroom because I don't want to inhale secondhand vape. That's crazy. I'm not having to experience that in my everyday life. I don't want a 14-year-old to have to experience that. So, we see that as a problem and a barrier to their functioning. How can we eliminate that barrier? So, as a group, we just wanted to see how could we help them. We talked about some of the health effects of secondary vaping and then what also it causes pure pressure, but also just a kid should not have to hold their breath to go to
060the bathroom. And then within the bathroom on the dean's perspective, there are times where it's a point of conflict. Um, physical, social, >> um, there are times where fights start or originate in the bathroom. Um, not every day, but it does happen. >> Um, and so for us, we're trying to see how can we solve these problems. If we have an opportunity to solve it, you know, if it doesn't cost us, how can we not solve it? So for us just discussing if you know conflict arises physically if there's too many students in the bathroom then let's talk about providing some kind of limitation for the number of students in a bathroom. So if we have four stalls four students should go in um and we if that means that we discuss what it means
061to have somebody supervise a bathroom that's already going on at Juliet Central and Juliet West um to try and make sure that the students know that we are here to observe make sure that you are going in and going out um safely. Um, one of the students suggestions which was very creative. Um, she discussed that, oh, what about scanners in the bathrooms to get yourself in, she was very passionate about wanting like a very concrete system. We know that that may not be possible, but we wanted to include it especially because she she had some good points for sure. Um, and then just discussing what it means to tackle this as a group. Um, we want them to be able to, you know, use the bathroom, but also that's not something that comes without effort.
062You know, it may need additional maintenance. Um the main focus to mitigate some of these issues um was to discuss does that apply additional pressure on teachers? Does that apply additional pressures on support staff to deans? And so we talked about what would it be like to remove the doors of relevant bathrooms? Whether that's a bathroom that per the building code does not allow a ey line of students um does not impact privacy but also allows teachers to do what they need to do and deans to attend to the things that they need to do. Um, so for us, just additional resources may be talking about where our hotspots are. Could we talk about removing doors? We talked about West Aurora. Um, did they end up they ended up removing and addressing doors that way?
063>> No doors there. >> Yeah. >> And then other bath uh other school districts have a a supervisor with the one person per stall rule. Um, so those are our ways of addressing that. >> Um, are there any questions uh pertaining to the bathrooms? Thank you. >> I noticed that you didn't have like vape detectors in the bathroom. Was that something that was talked about? >> So, we did um we actually [clears throat] been researching that I would say probably for the last three years is something that we've looked into. Um the schools that we have spoken to, you know, some schools that have them and they say they're super ineffective as in it's a lot of false alarms with um perfume and things like that. And a lot of students report that when they
064go off, those students are leaving. And so like the innocent ones are stuck in the bathroom and they're the ones that are being, you know, taken to the dean's office being searched and things like that. So they say for the cost of them, they're very cost ineffective. And um a lot of schools are finding that once they had them, they were not worth that. But I know that we were trying to get that as deans for many years. And then after being on this committee and doing the research and speaking to the schools that have them, much of them were like, "We don't use them anymore. They were very ineffective and causing a lot of false alarms." All right. So, moving on um from bathrooms into substance use. Again, this was um a topic that
065many members of the committee brought up um that is an issue. Um so in talking with students and staff um parents um the student perspective was um a lot having to do with the bathrooms. The students want to be able to use the bathrooms without people vaping in there. Um so also students coming in using substances uh have an odor to them that can be distracting in the classroom. Um whether that's triggering triggering for personal use or family use. Um and then you know staff the barriers to learning if a student um is using substances and then also the consequences um for substance use in schools. You know it pulls the um student out of the classroom often. Um research we know substance use is bad both short-term and long term. Um so uh next
066slide. Um substance use considerations. So >> Oh thank you assistant. I didn't know I needed an assistant. >> All right. Um changes that need to be made. Um, so one of the big things we talked about is having more uh positive propaganda. Um, kind of like we've done with attendance this year. There's been a big push for attendance. Um, you know, on the announcements there's talking about, you know, attendance and how it improves um, your grades in school. There's posters up all around. Um, so we talked about positive propaganda and again this was um, student input that led us to these things. Um, so yeah, announcements, posters, um, different incentives. Do you want to talk about the incentives? students that were the most I would say like that contributed the most talked about how like
067they want it to be addressed and they think if we tell them another thing there's very little likelihood that they're going to do it which I think is fair. So they were like, if it's a student led campaign, art is involved, student council is involved, but also like the students decide that this is something they're going to buy into and it's something that they have to kind of take over for themselves. They think it'll accomplish more. And I think that's definitely fair, especially if they agree that it's something that they want to change because being somebody who doesn't have a fully demental developed frontal lobe, dealing with addiction is scary. You don't know what that's going to be like. But if you find out that you have a group of people that are experiencing something
068similar and your school is backing you through that um they said that they may see their friends kind of go through the journey together. So we do talked about how we have he um how we have you know pink heels or our like west versus central awareness game for breast cancer. Maybe we could do something for nicotine addiction um just so students can feel like this is something we're all doing together. And then bring your own uh turn in your vape day. They said is very successful at other schools. Um but giving students the opportunity to not necessarily be a just say no kind of culture about it be like we can actually make steps as a team. Um and they seemed really excited about it. So >> something to do. >> And then just
069one more thing um on the announcements it was a few months back uh one of the announcements uh the stat was something like less than 10% of high school students are actively using. And I had students come talk to me that day and say wow I thought it was so much more. And so I think you know our students need to know it is not everybody you know that is using substances. Um so just more knowledge for them. >> Just to um follow up to um as the board knows we do have Amber Mitchell who is our licensed um clinician um working with students that have substance abuse. She has come and um worked with the student advisory committee. she's done up that group is very um passionate about this area. So, she actually sent
070me an update today and she's working with an outside entity um that may have grant money um to run some youth mental health first aid training like this would be under that some campaigning with the students um how to get them more involved and so um she is working on those things too. Any questions regarding substance abuse? >> Has there been like an um a review of like the health curriculum and like the you know like you were talking about the education piece about other kids? Have we embedded more um substance use in the curriculum >> quite a bit? >> for substance abuse. Um that's one of the Um I would compliment our health teachers on plus remember we have that unit that we embedded in biology this um this year this year regarding or
071nicotine um and the effects on it. So we expose freshman in biology about just the physiological effects and then um health class has an entire unit on health and vaping is a big part >> and part of what um just to follow up part of what Amber is looking to do and what we talked about um is having like is it small group is it large group what do we need to do annually um because it's not a oneanddone topic um it's really something we have to do annually um in addition to what's in the curriculum to hit everybody um and what that looks like. Um and we we do think that with the incorporation of flex time, that's something where we could do presentations and such um in the future, but what do we
072do before we get to that point too? So, it's an ongoing issue. It's a growing issue. I know. >> Yeah. And when we met, I some of our deans were at the same meeting um at institute day and they're laughing because I I I don't know exactly how I asked it, but I was there with the attorney and it came up and we said, "Okay, so are any schools that have a good plan where they're working against this and the answer was no." um not like everybody's working on it, but everybody is working at it and there hasn't really been this perfect plan and it's ongoing and said, "Okay, well that's good to know, too." But also the upticks that we're seeing, they're happening at other places, too. So, we have to keep working on
073it. Um the next thing on the committee that we talked about was interventions. Um since this year we did start out those leveled infractions. So now we have like level one through level four and underneath each intervention is a behavior and then like a response. So like interventions and consequences. Our um board policy and our handbook is very long and I know it's a PDF online. Um, however, we find that the student perspective, we asked the students on the committee about our presentation as deans and what they're told and what they remember, the kids couldn't even tell me much at all. Um, so we're finding that students when we're presenting these policies for discipline and consequences and you know what our interventions are, they're not listening or they forget because it's that first, you know,
074second week of school. Um, we're also finding that students are learning about these interventions after they're doing something wrong. And we want there to be more awareness to what we offer ahead of time. Um, I always say as a dean that I want to be more proactive rather than reactive, but there's much only so much time for me to meet with these students to discuss the policy before it gets out of hand. Um, so in terms of the staff perspective, I think that having an easier way to look at our interventions is going to reduce like those questions in class and like, well, I didn't know I couldn't do this and you know those comments that we're getting from students. Um, we also feel that a digital handbook gives the parents like a consistent always
075available um like area to go. Um, and it supports our behavior management plan and I feel like it reduces that classroom disruptions on like I didn't know we couldn't do this. No one ever told me this. Those types of comments that we get. Um, we did some research. There are a lot of schools who have digital communication tools. I know that we use parent square. We are just looking to remove that barrier from parents um and allowing them to be more engaged when um, you know, we're calling home about discipline and fractions. Not all parents know our handbook. Some do, some don't. Um, and so they're taking the time to look through it or I'm looking through it in my office. I'm reading it to them over the phone, which is completely fine. I don't
076mind doing that, but we want to give them an easier way for them to get to those access points on their own. >> So, what you're saying is you want the handbook digital. >> Uhhuh. With links where parents can easily click and get that resource. Um, so that's what she was going to talk about. So like it seems kind of in terms of like it's a lot of information to digitize, but in terms of like making sure it's proactive instead of reactionary, having the list of all of our interventions, whether they're disciplinary or social emotional or academic in one consolidated place on the website, we think would be very helpful. Right now, in order to find academic, social, emotional, and disciplinary, I have to it's at least six or seven clicks for me moving through.
077I've seen other schools where it's just consolidated into one place. But in our case, having an understanding for staff but also students some continuity so we can be very effective of what is the description of the intervention, what are the qualifications in order to get into that intervention, whether this is a precautionary intervention or this is the result of some actions, who are the providers at the schools, and then how do you access that? If it's a is if it's a QR code in a Google form, they need to know that that's available to them. But also if you're on the phone with a teacher or parent, I'm clicking it with you. We're going through it together. But just making sure that it's always something that's available, but also that's something that again you can
078go through, you know, during your advisor or sip talking about that these are the things that are available to you rather than, oh, I didn't know that this is what gets me into this specific set of, you know, situation. Um, so for students not knowing that there's a tier to this and you're not just randomly put somewhere. Um but also like the parents then get to know who's providing services to their student um after an event or even just for academic support. >> And I think too I know that when I just spoke I focus more on consequences and interventions from a dean standpoint but there's also those tier 2 tier three interventions that we have for behavioral health and a lot of students don't know what we have because it's hard to find. Um,
079and a lot of students are so grateful when they come to our office and we're giving them these options stating like, "I wish I would have known you would have had this." Like, "I wish I would have known ahead of time. I could have gotten that support before." Um, instead of them, you know, having to kind of figure it out by maybe not going through some great things in their life. Um, so if it's more accessible to parents, but also to students so that they know the supports that we offer. Um, we do a great job in our BHT team to come up with these support and get these outside providers. um we just want to make sure that parents and students have access to that as well. Um and some easier links that we
080can sort through would really help with that. So not only behavior but also those tier three, tier two, tier one supports that we offer um in terms of behavioral help that you know some people don't know that we have. And the main thing it would require is us just getting together and talking about what we offer and what and who's involved in that to get a consolidated list. >> We would really need technology. >> Oh, for sure. Yeah, definitely. Any questions? All right. So, this last um item that we wanted to talk about, um this is something that came out of looking at the data in our committee. Um it also aligns with action plan 2.2 and 1.5. Um we want to provide supportive programming that improves the success of all students. um and we
081want to increase that graduation rate and post-secary um success. Currently, we do not have um an in-house kind of area for students that need some additional support. Um we do have our Pathways Academy who have Bravo and Alpha, but we're looking to bring something inhouse. Um what it would look like is a self-contained area, but it would be multiple classes in one area. So, students may go from three to four classrooms during the day in one part of the building. Um, this would deter wandering. They would also have them enter through a separate door. Um, we know that our students who struggle with certain behaviors or that anxiety of being in a building with a lot of students, um, this would be something that would ease anxiety. Um, [clears throat] and let them not have
082to be around everybody else if that causes, you know, some anxiety with them. Um, the classes, we would utilize teachers for the core classes, which is why students would be, you know, traveling between three to four classes. Um but we would use Apex for those other classes or those electives. Um it would be a shortened day and we would want to open this to all fifth year students and other students by referral. Um I think that we have seen in data that unstructured areas are obstacles. Um most of our outside most of our severe um incidences happen outside of the classroom. So in the hallway, in the cafeteria, um items like that. Um we've also had good data with Gateway 2.0. 0. Um those are for students with a certain amount of credits to kind
083of make it through the day and get them to graduate. Um however, there's a limit to how many kids can be in that program. So this is an additional support to student that would open up more opportunities. Um there's a lot of students who after their fourth year, if they have additional years, they're not going to come back. They don't want to. Um it's too much work. They're embarrassed. Um but also students who may not go do their GED. So, this is a way for students to have a place to go where they feel like they can um you know graduate and it would help them out with their post-secary whether that's getting a job or going to school. Um this is something that we know more research and work has to be done but
084the committee wanted to bring it up to the board um as something that we're hoping to look into a little bit more in terms of our strategic plan um that would help you know meet the needs of more of our students and keep them in school. So, how many students would this support at each of the buildings? How many staff? Like, is are you just throwing it out there and then we're going to get more information? >> So, I think this the this comes from this committee out of uh reviewing our data and looking at number of students who are repeating severe incidents or uh looking at ways to decrease out of school suspensions, decrease expulsions. um trying to be creative uh looking at what other schools do. Many other schools have uh programming beyond
085what we have with Catalyst um before they go to that expulsion level. Um so this is really just from the group some things that they'd like to see us try to be more supportive of students. There would be a lot of work still to be done on the administrative end to make this happen. Uh, >> I mean because it looks like a self-contained special ed program and so you're you know to me I'm concerned about procedural safeguards and rights of kids that aren't like I'm assuming this isn't for students with IEPs, >> right? No, that's that's not what this group was talking about. >> So I mean there's there's no >> right >> guard rails on that. >> Lot of work to do, right? a lot of work to do but but you know again
086this is just from the group based on the data something you know it does none of us are here to expel kids and suspend kids and that's where the concern comes from is what what more can we do to give kids different pathways and opportunities to graduation. Uh and of course there is still that concern uh that you bring up of does it become a place where we just push students uh who are unwilling and that's that's some of those procedures that we'd have to work through uh to make it happen. >> I um just to know I I called and asked the same a similar question. Um what is in your board packet for first read are the um things that are for the board to determine if you're approving for next year. The
087the part that was just talked about like with bathrooms with interventions with this example. These are things for awareness as we're planning um and maybe moving forward to consider. So there's not an approval for this. It was more of like this is what we're seeing. Is this a consideration uh as we're working through the strategic plan that we could work on? So there wouldn't be necessarily something that's in the works or being planned for next year for consideration as we're thinking about um what how to improve things in the future. >> It's more the idea stage. >> It it really is. So more of an awareness. Um this group is committed to looking at data on a yearly basis um as part of the work they do actually twice a year. You were talking about
088it now >> in January and presented first semester data and kind of uh I think for the group that was there you know that looking at first semester data just reiterated some of these things that came up with substance use and bathrooms and the needs for additional programming. Uh and this is like Dr. said there's no recommendations or action items in this whole last section under additional considerations. It's just a lot of the conversation from the group. >> So, so to summarize the the really the changes that the board would look to take action on next time and it's approval or not, you can take these separately or together. That would be the board's decision, but the undesated medications because that's a change to board policy. And then upon that, procedures would be developed. um
089and worked with with our nurses and with our staff to make sure we're in compliance. Um cell phones um and electronic devices because that would also impact um board policy. And then attire, correct? Those are the big things. And then there's there's some grammar and suggestions there, but those are the three big recommendations that the board would take action on next time. Um the other things are for more awareness >> since we are looking at making taking action on certain things for next time. Uh do we have an idea of what kind of containers that that cell phones would go in yet? How much they would cost yet and to make sure that we had enough containers for every single cell phone and not just like half the class etc. >> Yeah. So the group
090did they gave us a a plethora of options, right? and that would be one of the next steps. Uh we didn't want to invest a lot of time and energy into that until we we know it was something we were going to move forward with. And that's the benefit of of you all making a decision at the February board meeting is that then we have time to go look at that. So we have those options. Um Mr. Lock and I have those. We would have to meet with Dr. Hampton uh to talk about how to get that. But the intent would be to provide every classroom with a resource to hold all of the devices in the classroom office spaces as well. Right. So, there was uh an example of a a cell phone locker
091for like the new PPS office at West Campus that where students could put it uh to hold everything in the office. >> And I believe Miss Tolbert, you've implemented your class. >> Yes, I have the cell phone. >> It's not optional and they've been doing it since the first day of school. >> And you have enough room for all of them? >> Yeah, the pouch holds 35 cell phones. Um and I have the most students I have is 33. Um the only class that doesn't use it is my advisory. Um, I have a junior advisor. If I had a freshman advisory, they would be using it. >> Just want to make sure that when we do implement it, there's room for everybody's >> calculator is probably the most popular use. Uh, 35 teachers used for
092calculators, but teachers I've observed that also use it. Did not observe Julia's class who have had success over the last couple of years. 35 the students come in um, they either drop it in immediately or as soon as attendance is done, the teacher says, "Okay, cell phones up." They get a they get up without cause, put it away, pick it up. >> Is there going to be uh what if a kid does not put their cell phone in there or says they don't have it? Like are we going to um push on that and will they be allowed to use restrooms if their cell phones aren't like in there? I I just kind of want to know too that like it's going to be like that follow through. >> Yeah, I mean for sure anytime
093there's a rule and you're working with teenagers, they're going to try to find a way around it, right? So I think that um by making it a common expectation by providing every classroom with that resource to have it when a student's not following those it would be like any other behavior that we see in a classroom where if it rises to the level the teacher feels like they need support then then the deans would support them. It also says we didn't talk spec we didn't read through every aspect of uh that those slides but it does talk about when students go to the restroom they leave their phone right they don't take it with them. Um, so those are all things that uh they're in there that should help with most students. We know that
094we're going to have some students who we still have to work with to address behaviors when they happen. Uh, and the intent would be by adopting just a common expectations for all staff, it's easier then in the dean's office when referred to to have those common expectations and support that expectation. >> One more thing, I just want to bring this up. Is there any way to separate headgear from this vote at all? >> Yeah, the board. >> Okay. Because >> so that that's been done before. So um the the board can amend anything or we can um set up the agenda to have them be separate action items that the that the board takes um out and so we could work on that. Absolutely. I I like the idea of the separate agenda items because
095there's some aspects that you know >> Sure. >> in and exactly it will be provided exactly how it's going to be worded in the handbook too. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> I also need to I think we need to you know this is this is my third year on the board and every year headgear is is brought up by this committee who works really hard on it. So, I I would like the board to really consider that they're in the buildings and and they're they're saying that this is something that they're recommending and I understand that the board votes on it, but you know, I I just think like how many times do they have to keep asking us? We can say, >> you know, I'm just saying like >> I I Well, I'm just
096saying I wanted, you know, I want their work to be acknowledged and to actually pass and I just feel like some some folks are not going to pass the whole thing. Um >> the handbook and the policy changes are all in the board packet though for first read. That's what is absolutely in there. Um, and then we can um separate the agenda items by memo. What I'll do is I'll work with um Dr. Markham and Mr. Lock to organize them and we can send them out um prior to the board packet so that you can look through everything, but we can organize [cough] them. There really would be three separate recommendation undesated medicines um dress code and cell phones or electronics. Yeah, >> I should say electronics. I mean the meta glasses are an important
097part of that, right? So like as you as you read through >> every every recommendation is there's multiple parts to it, right? So I would just hope that as you review it, think about those parts separately if if you can because you can always amend and change it. >> Uh we've done that before, right? Where we've presented things and you all have changed them and uh oftentime that works out well, right? I think about changing rel language from disrespect to non-compliance. That's been a positive change for us and that's something that came through this conversation, right? So, um, you know, I I think that's important because those meta glasses really are becoming more prevalent. Uh, Dean Challey had a pair, uh, a week ago and just what they do is I mean, it's scary, right?
098Like you they talk to you. Nobody around you can hear that they're talking to you. It's crazy. And they're affordable now. So, um, even if even if we decide not to move forward with cell phones, hopefully you would consider that because bathrooms, locker rooms, having cameras, like it's just problematic, right? It's scary time to exist in society. >> Tony Stark for real life. >> Right. Right. Absolutely. >> Can Could we also separate I mean, I know like you guys there's part of the cell phone aspect that I agree with the putting it in. I just I personally don't agree with like putting it all in the teachers. So if there is a part to vote on like yeah you know to put the in the bins and stuff like that but like those >> concept
099that's really procedural. So if the board were to direct I think the board can always direct um me on a procedure of any kind. So if the board majority of the board feels strongly on that, that could be a recommend that could be an approval. >> For what it's worth, my recommendation would be if that's the way you want to go where you want it to automatically be a referral, instead of calling it a level one behavior, call a level two behavior because level two behavior is a referral to the dean, right? That's the cleanest way probably to do that if you want to. Now, as we talk about because we're here talking about these things and and when you look at them independently, uh it's very easy to to say that that we don't
100want the teachers to address it. But when it when it's referred to the dean now, we're talking discipline, right? So, we're talking detentions, ISS's, out of school suspensions, and those are things that we want we want to avoid. Uh I think you all want to avoid them as much as possible, too. So, you just have to be aware of that that if we make it a level two, that's where it heads. Same thing with, you know, when we enforce the the head covering rule now, that's what it leads to, right? We have suspensions for headwear because students just refuse to take take head coverings off. So, like it's that it's that balance, right? And a lot of times the deans are very and the social workers are able to work with students and avoid that,
101right? They come up with a plan to support the student, but sometimes students just refuse, right? So all of that can be weighed, but if you were going to if you were going to try to take that out of the classroom, that would be the easy way to do it is to make it a level two. >> I want to be as fair and objective as possible when it comes to the head gear. Do we have any data to support one way or the other? Like what's the data with the headgear and the consequences and suspensions? Yeah, we can if you can. Yes, I would appreciate that so I can take a look at it and make a determination. >> Absolutely. Now, it's not necessarily it falls under hallway conduct, right? So, so it's lumped
102in with a lot of other behaviors, but we can we can definitely have a breakdown for you. I'll send that through Dr. Guzma. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And and I I appreciate that question so much and I know we have different ideas on on this particular subject. Um, do we have any data regarding like why a child if they're getting in trouble for the do-rag or the bonnet? Would we have any even anecdotal data as to why they chose to wear it that day? That's one of my concerns. >> I mean, so what talking to the deans who intervene with it? Uh, they're not I see them nodding back there. Uh, I mean a lot of it's about like I'm not comfortable with how my hair looks today. It's all anecdotal though. So, like
103there's no there's no quantitative data as to why students wear head coverings. Sometimes it's it's the look. Sometimes it's anxiety, right? A lot of kids with hoods, it's anxiety. Uh there's a lot of reasons. We've done some I think not recently, but over my past couple of years, we've done surveys. I'm looking at Challey. I think we've asked kids, but but it's just a range, right? >> I have another >> individualized student. >> I have another question. Uh based off what you just said with the level one versus level two with the cell phones, can it still be labeled a level one? But this is what we've because it is, you know, a minor behavior, but at the same time, it's affecting learning where it's level one, but we automatically and it doesn't have to
104be referral. Phone could be taken away and things like that where there is consequences, but it's not necessarily like automatic referral. like do we have to label it level one, level two, and it's just kind of like this in between, you know, >> the level one and and I'm gonna go off of the training I just had because there's so many experts. So, if I'm wrong with this, you guys need to call me out on it, okay? But through the training that I sat in the when they were talking about the different level ones, it was talking about how teachers respond to things. And so for level one, it's things you can handle within your classroom without involving additional support. And there were examples on there. Then we get to level two and and you're
105asking for support because it's either more severe or it's pervasive where it's happening. Did I get it right? Okay, good. Where it's happening every day. So the purpose of that was to really differentiate you know um what the teacher is and empowering teachers to handle that too for building community. It's really aligned to what we've been doing with restorative justice and practices. So that's where the training was. So level one was really more about this. This is still a problem. It's documented in the PL log. Um, sometimes there's a call home, but the teacher is taking care of it and it's not going someplace else. It's okay if it needs to go someplace else, but at that point, it's either more severe or it's pervasive because the students not being compliant. Is that fair? >>
106Yeah. I think Miss Lynn, you're you're asking though about just if if a student can't control it, just remove the the cell phone from the equation, right? >> Yeah. And I think that I don't know that's something where we'd probably have to work with the district's attorney and the bargaining because which bargaining unit employees are going to confiscate the cell phone and take responsibility for it. So there's I I I know that there are schools who do it, right? So does Right. It's just a matter of uh if that's the direction the board would want to go. We just have to work through those procedures. >> I just know I personally do not have to deal with cell phones. We also have packet or pockets and my kids don't they don't put them in there
107but I also don't see cell phones. like the expectation is you put them in there, but we can't force them to. So then they don't put them in there because we can't force them to. >> Um, but then at the same time, it's not a problem because they know if it's out, they're going to be called and it'll be immediately taken away. We don't actually take it away from students. The students walk it down to the dean's office and I believe I don't know exactly what happens in the dean's office. Either the students put it somewhere then it can then be picked up after school or the parent can then pick it up. But it actually never goes into the bargaining. I mean, we could make it to the point where it never actually goes
108into any bargaining person's um hands where it would be the kid puts it in there and >> yeah, we would just have to work through it, right? So, like I think I think the important thing that came from this working group is that >> uh you know, we we did we had that cell phone committee. I think it was like six it was pre-COVID, right? >> Yeah. No, it was it was right when I got on. It was right after. >> Yeah. Okay. So, it's been a couple years. Uh I think there's a strong desire from staff and and that's supported by the student feedback to try something different. So whatever that looks like uh where whatever direction you all decide to go uh we will make it happen. Uh we just think it's important
109to take some sort of step to address cell phones. >> I just see it as I don't see it as a level one or level two. It's like a kind of like an it is it's an addiction issue >> and um you're asking teachers to handle something that's an addiction in the classroom, you know, and it does interfere with learning. Whereas if you're worried about bargaining units, there's ways to prevent that. But that consequence, it doesn't have to be referral. That consequence is automatic. The kids aren't having their cell phone with them. Like to me I don't see it has to be necessarily labeled into that level one or level two uh criteria but we can I mean we'll vote on it. That's just kind of how I was wanting to see the thought process.
110>> Yeah. Thank I I appreciate that. Thank you Christine. >> And if that's the direction we go you know that we're not uh above borrowing from any other school districts including [laughter] so >> like I said I don't know what happens beyond at the dean's office. I just know as a as a teacher what happens and um the support I feel as a teacher not having to deal with that issue on my own. >> Very fair. >> Any other questions for the committee? So to summarize, we're going to work on three separate recommendations memos for discipline and then we'll get those out to the board. Um and then a breakdown of headgear data um prior to the next board meeting so you can have that information. And then I just want to say thank you
111to the committee and for presenting. [applause] >> Thank you. >> And to the subcommittee people too. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Um all right. Our next presentation is educational services update. Our multilingual services uh program update. This is associated with uh strate with action plan 2.2. And I'm not going to take any more of their thunder, but we have some representatives from the team here this evening. >> Well, good evening everyone. Med Palas, director of multilingual services. With me today is Susie Montano, director of English language arts and yeah, we are here representing uh strategy 2.2 and we're excited about the updates that we have since we last met. Um we have been tasked with uh supporting a the work that started prior to my arrival in the district. Uh and that is to create
112a system in a program that is fully welcoming and supportive of our students. Of the 1500 students that you see on there, it's it's important to note that 167 are newcomer students and those are students that have entered our system and our school and our country in the last three years. 253 are those duallyy identified and the reason why I put those numbers there is because a lot of our program focuses on creating an environment for all the students. So you see that the large majority of those students are what we would call our sequential eelss. Those are students that have learned a language at home and that have learned uh u English in during their school system and those are long-term eels. Um, so when we are talking about revising our assessments and our
113curriculum, which has been a big part of our focus this year, we are constantly aware of the needs of all those 1500 students that we are uh we're highlighting for you. Um, one of the examples that we have on there is the the creation of our newcomer literacy course, which is basically the the the the creation of teachers and contextualizing uh literacy and in in in the focus of uh uh C uh CTE, which is the orientation class. But a large part of the work that we do with curriculum work is also centered around the literacy framework that was adopted by the uh by the state of Illinois which basically states in order for students to get to the mastery of the of the content in literacy, they need to have a strong oracy in
114those classrooms. And when we are redesigning any curriculum or redesigning any assessment, we want to make sure that our teachers our teachers are fully supported as well. And so one of the big thank yous that we have for the board is that this year we added an additional uh instructional coach at West to be able to support both uh both both campuses because we know that when we talk about tips and strategies for our teachers, they need that partnership in order to make things like TPR, total physical response or uh word walls or or or um sentence stems come to life and and increase the engagement of students. We need that partnership. the partnership where they have the ability to uh lean on a instructional coach to bring those strategies to life. In addition to
115that partnership, we have also continue the SCUP uh work with uh with with our uh staff specifically our new uh our new staff. I believe this is the seventh year that we have provided SCUP. We are also working with our co-teers. We we have co-eing uh models at both uh uh at both campuses and so we started the work of uh redesigning some of the assessments and and kind of looking at the best practices that we could have when you have two teachers in the classroom. We are also uh partnered with uh University of St. Francis for those teachers. I I believe we have 14 teachers now that are uh continuing their education and getting their ESL endorsement. We are in year one of a two-year uh cohort with our CTE teachers. We want to
116make sure that they are aware of the uh the variety of learners that they have coming to them. And we want them to be aware at least of how important it is for that continuum of uh of learning that our students have. And when they enter those uh those courses, we want to make sure that they are well prepared. So there that's in year one of two. And obviously anytime that we do work with our teachers, we want to make sure that they see how all these initiatives are braided with uh with our instructional norms. One of our newer initiatives too has been the placement of our students. And so and when when we receive any student whether it's from another country or from our feeder schools, we want to make sure that those students
117are properly placed. So having a placement criteria where we are establishing how many years they've been in the program but also how uh how their test results indicate where they need to be placed and lastly where their language proficiency is in terms of whether they are sequential or simultaneous EL or they're newcomer and making all of our staff and and our uh administration aware of the needs of those students. ensuring that we are well aware of their needs when when they're entering our system and then for for the articulation process making sure that those teachers that are receiving those students are well aware of their educational needs as well. We also know that um we that we have students that have some credit recovery uh uh needs and so subject.com is a platform that now
118we are in year two and we are instituting that for our students that a have come with some gaps from other countries but also from uh from our current students who need a few extra credits in in in any any of the content areas. Here's another addition to uh to this uh strategy as well. Uh we have added an additional social worker at uh at West Campus. They have been phenomenal in creating uh identical programs uh for for our students but connections also for our families. They offer individual uh uh attention to our students but also groups. uh and they are been phenomenal with with the connections to our parents too and just bridging that that language gap with them. And lastly, this is another uh continuation from last year and that is our ala.
119We are in year two and we've been pretty successful with bringing families in just highlighting all the different needs that we have in in in in our programs, but also letting them see all the resources that we have as well. We've had them tour the our facilities uh see where our social workers, our cool down rooms uh are are at work. Some of our new additions uh like the culinary labs and that has generated a lot of trust between uh between the staff and and and our families. So, we continue to provide those opportunities for them because they've been extremely successful and we know that in order for them to feel like this is their home, we need to continue having those uh those connections. We also want to thank uh to those of you
120that were part of our newcomer parent night and an excess award night. I know that our staff is uh very appreciative and our parents are appreciative of your attendance as well. So we are really excited about the progress of of this program and we hope to continue that uh that these initiatives in in the years to come. Questions? >> I just want to say Oh, go ahead. Thank you to all the the staff that's part of that because I know it's it's the teachers, it's it's Margie, it's just the entire district comes together um for everything from the family nights to the awards ceremonies and their recognition and it's very wellreceived. People talk about it them all the time. So, thank you for all your work. >> Thank you. >> And thank you to the
121team um there the I think the ILT working this year um and everything. I know that has been a major focus too. Um and it's thank you to the board. I know this was highlighted but um having the same structure at both campuses. We were able to pilot a lot at central through the title 10003 grant. Um but seeing the the support was very helpful and then being able to do that at West with our growing numbers. So thank you to the team and their leadership and I look forward to what we accomplish in the future. So thank you. >> [applause] >> Um the last part of superintendent's report is the winter credit recovery report. That's an annual report each year. Um Dr. Mc or Mrs. McDonald is is happy to answer any questions if
122the board has any. But as you can see um continued success that um is aiding um students to be more successful. Um, as we shared earlier, we have seen and I shared the same data with um, staff at the beginning of the year that students the next year from the credit recovery um, are showing that they're successful at a higher percentage rate in their classes. So, um, we're we're just happy we're able to continue this initiative, but again, happy to answer happy to answer any questions. I'm just double checking. So they just retake a test or two, right? >> It's It could be. Yes. >> It depends. Um so like say for English, if I have a missing like there's with English, it could be there's only three papers for the semester and they have
123one paper missing. So they may spend that time obviously that one paper missing would cause them to not pass the class. They would come in and work with the English teacher to complete that missing assment. Um math they have um isol they have recommended modules within ISL based on what the student has missed um for math most students spent um four entire days going through the modules um so that way then they're covering their deficiencies from their assessments but it then helps them get ready for second semester um same with biology it's usually missing um missing assessments or labs >> and to your to your point, it's it's really geared for kids that are within like that 10 percentage point of of about to pass. So, it is not for students that have a very
124low amount mastered before that, but they spend the four days. So, yes, one or two assessments or maybe a unit um depending on the class. It's it's for more >> it's not for the significant deficiencies. That's what summer school or the GAP program the um sophomore year would be for. >> Did we answer your question? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> And and the only reason I asked is because I I had this idea this year where I was working is if we can catch the kids before it did it and have run these programs like the week or two before finals so that way they can run them after school, work on have the rest. I I it was just kind of something I had thought again is trying to be proactive versus that. >>
125And I will I will say many of our teachers if not most of our teachers already doing like those remediations for unit that's part of the plan too. So they're doing those types of things too. And then this is identifying and that's where it's like all hands on deck and the curriculum directors as soon as grades are coming in >> they're making the phone calls. So, a lot of that has already occurred, too. This is where it didn't work or the kids didn't do that final unit. Um, where it's that extension of the semester. >> Okay. >> So, >> thank you. >> Yep. Thank you. Um, that concludes superintendent reports. >> All right. We'll move on to action items. Start with action item A, action plan 21, administrative structure recommendations. Do we have a motion
126to approve? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. second >> discussion. >> Um we're the administrative team um looking at this being an extension of action plan 2.1 where annually we really look at how do we be how are we most effective or efficient moving forward. Um and so that is where this recommendation comes from is our agreement to make sure we're looking at that at an annual p uh basis to support staff. Any further discussion? >> Roll call. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gro, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Motion passes on action item B, agreement between Juliet Township High School, District 204, and Juliet Township High School's Council 204 of American Federation of Teachers Local 604. I have a
127motion to approve. >> So moved. Second >> discussion. I just want to say thank you to our union leadership. I also um we had board members that were part of the negotiation team. Um the work I think was exceptional. the product is exceptional and I could not be more excited to see how the school day changes um and the things written into the contract um move us and propel us to the next level. So, I just want to thank everybody who is involved with their hard work because this is not easy work um but it's necessary and we're very appreciative of our union leadership. Any further discussion? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lind, >> yes. >> Mrs. Guare, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes.
128>> Motion passes on action item C, school maintenance project grant. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> I'll second it. >> Discussion. >> Uh, yes. the Illinois State Board of Education uh released um revenue for the maintenance project grant program for this fiscal year. It's a $50,000 matching grant. Um we are determining to utilize those grants to um abate and remediate and restore four classrooms at the central campus. >> Nice. >> Any further discussion? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Mr. Stiff. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Granome, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Motion passes on action item D, disposal of equipment. Do we have a motion to approve? >> I make the motion. >> Second. >> Discussion. >>
129Roll call, please. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Geron, >> yes. >> Motion passes on action item D, donations. No, E. I believe I said D, but it is actually >> donations. Do we have a motion to approve? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> Yes. >> Uh yes. I would just like to uh first of all thank everybody that made donations to our Juliet West annual cookie wars. Um especially um Culver's Mr. uh Sub uh Duncan Sugar and Spice and Cheesecakes by James. And then the MLK Day of Service, which we are very sad, um had to be cancelled or delayed. Um so we want to thank JJC's, Carly Ringo, Harris Casino and Hotel. I'm sure I'm
130forgetting somebody because I didn't write all this down because I thought my computer would not let me down. Um and we want to thank there's one other person for the uh cookbook donation to Joliet West. Oh, one second. Don Dusk. >> Duger. >> Der. >> Duke. I'm sorry. >> Yes. That Can you say his name again, please? >> Don Duger. >> Don Der. >> Yes. Thank you very much for the for the donations. We appreciate you. >> Absolutely. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Guerrero. >> Yes. >> Dr. Huntington. >> Yes. Mrs. Stip. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kennedy. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lit. >> Yes. >> Motion passes on action item F, street dedication approval. Do we have a motion to approve? >> Amen. Second. [laughter] I'm excited. >> Any discussion? >> I just um
131this doesn't mean anything's final. Um this is just that one next step um to conclude or to help conclude the finalization with the city. Um I talked to Miss Clark. She is very appreciative of um you know looking at this as an option. Obviously I shared that there's no concerns that we have. Um I think that it's the best place possible. Um also if and when this is approved we'll definitely have um an announcement for that. >> Awesome. >> All right. Any further discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Guano, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. Mrs. Tiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. Motion passes. on to action item G subsection 1 through >> to approve the second reading of these policies. >> I'll make the motion.
132>> Second. >> Any discussion? >> There's a lot of them. >> That's right. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Guerrero, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. Motion passes on action item H. Second reading of policies, five-year review, grading, and promotion. Do we have a motion to approve? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gerono, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Action item I. Second reading of policy rewritten 7150. Agency and law enforcement request. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. Second. >> Second. >> All right. Roll call, please. >>
133Mrs. Tiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. Guerrero, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Action item J, personnel reports, uh, subsection 1 through 11. Do we have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Have a second. >> I'll second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Stiff, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lyn. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Groare. >> Yes. >> Dr. Huntington. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. I will pass it on down for action items K and L for student discipline recommendation approval exclusion for district property to step. >> Action item K. After receiving and deliberating the information contained in the hearing officer's report, the board of education is charged with deciding one whether removing child from his or
134her learning environment is in the best interest of the school. Two, what the rationale is for specific duration of the recommended expulsion. Three, whether all appropriate and available behavioral and disciplinary interventions were exhausted. And number four, whether the continued presence in school would either a pose a threat to the safety of other students, staff, or members of the school community, or b substantial substantially disrupt, impede or interfere with the operation of the school. The board of education must then convene into public session to formally vote on the motion to expel. If the expulsion is the consensus arrived at during executive session, case number C252613 is being recommended for expulsion until January 2027 with a placement at Lincoln School. >> I second that motion. Roll call, please. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Mrs. Stiff, >>
135yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Mrs. square mayor. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Action item L. After receiving and deliberating the information contained in the hearing officer's report, the board of education is charged with deciding one, whether or not a policy was violated. Two, whether removing the person from all Joliet Township High School properties was in the best interest of the school. Three, whether the specific duration of the recommended no trespassing was appropriate or other discipline should have been applied. Number four, whether the continued presence on district 204 property would either a pose a threat to the safety of other students, staff, or members of the school community, or b substantially disrupt, impede, or interfere with operation of the school. The board of education must then convene into
136public session to formally vote on the motion to no trespassing if no trespassing is the consensus arrived at during executive session. The case for Mercer Sammy, no trespassing upheld. No tres no trespassing upheld. >> I second the motion. Roll call, please. Mrs. Guo Numeare, >> yes. >> Dr. Huntington, >> yes. >> Mrs. Tip, >> yes. >> Mr. Kennedy, >> yes. >> Mrs. Lynn, >> yes. >> Motion passes. That concludes action items. Move on to unfinished business. Does anybody have unfinished business? Hearing none, we'll move to new business. We have our first reading of the recommendation of our student behavior and recommended handbook changes. I think we went through that pretty thoroughly, unless anybody has anything else. >> No. So, move on to board reports. Does anybody have any board reports? >> Um, I've attended a
137couple basketball games. Um, it was a great game. Uh, Juliet West against Bowlingberg High School went into overtime. It was quite the game. Um, I was trying to cheer for both teams, but I was told by my daughter I was not allowed to. So, um, it was a great game. Thank you for to the coaches and you know not just basketball but all the coaches and making in the west side was very crowded too. So the for the fans to come out and support all of our kids. >> Anybody else have a >> um Yes. I would just like to um thank uh Dr. Carla Guzman and everyone that attended the African-American Business Association MLK uh brunch and celebration. Dr. Guzman had a great panel with her. um including Jesse Jackson Jr. and um she
138held her own and one of the things that um that I had shared is Dr. um Guzman inspired the crowd when she asked all of the JTHs partners in the room um from staff and students, board members, elected officials, coaches, etc. that were there to stand. And then after everybody stood, she said, "All right, well, if you didn't stand, that means you're not a partner yet. So, you still have the opportunity to find a way to partner because our students do better when our community gets involved and supports them. And um everybody was kind of talking about that afterward just it was a moment a call to action which I think um is what MLK um day should be about. Um with that said, I I just want to read a quote actually that was
139said by his wife um Ketta Scott King. Poverty is violence. Starving a child is violence. Suppressing suppressing a culture is violence. Neglecting school children is violence. Discrimination against a working person is violence. Ghetto housing is violence. Ignoring medical needs is violence. Contempt for equality is violence. And even the lack of willpower to help humanity is a sick and sinister sinister form of violence. Thank you. >> I'm just going to correct it, Lorraine. [laughter] It was Jonathan Jackson. >> I apologize for that. >> You know what? We talked so much about Jesse Jackson during that thing, you know, which was also really exciting. Um, and then we even said a prayer together collectively for him. So, I think that's where that came from. Um, but yeah, thank you for that. Sorry about that. >> Anybody else?
140>> It was a great event. I attended as well. >> Okay. She actually sorry she did the introduction um and then the the welcome and we appreciated that too and she was also giving inspiring words and quotes so I apologize for leaving that out too. >> Nice couple more quarter reports. Um I just want to we start off the semester with a two-day institute. Um I was able to go to multiple sessions. So I just want to thank um everyone involved in planning that and implementing that. that it was a great way to start off the year. I also want to thank um the majority of the board was able to attend um our ribbon cutting um at Juliet West. So, I want to congratulate and thank our buildings and grounds and our construction management
141team um because it's a big part um and if anyone hasn't seen the amazing space, you should. It is beautiful. Um, I know that we have so many more things that we'll be um celebrating in the next couple years and in the future, but it was truly amazing. So, thank you to our staff and our partners um that made that happen. Um, also um I it was it was an awesome event by ABBA. I'm very thankful that they asked me to be on the panel. Um, I'm also very thankful for um our board members who were able to attend and our staff members and we even had one of our CEO students. Um, and I made him stand too. Um, and he may or may not be mad at me about that, but um, he
142came and it was so wonderful for a student to be able to experience that and he sat at our table and it was wonderful. Um, I lastly I I want to thank Christine and the MLK Day of Service team and the committee. Also, ABBA, I know it didn't come to f fruition, but that doesn't mean there wasn't a lot of planning. Um, I still saw that some independent projects occurred yesterday. Um, so that was wonderful. Um, it is really unfortunate that the weather does not comply with us. Um, and so we will be talking about that, but that doesn't mean that thanks aren't due. So, thank you. [snorts] >> Thank you. >> Um, Dr. Guzman, can you just We have uh an event coming up at the end of January, correct? >> Yes. So, we
143have our state of the district on um the 29 the 29th or the 28th? >> It's the 29th. >> The 29th. Thursday. >> So, it's Thursday the 29th. It is at Joliet West this year. Um the presentation begins at 6:00. It's 6:00 to 7:30. Um we will be looking at incorporating some of the things that didn't happen on MLK. We had to do that a couple years ago. So we will do that as part of um that celebration too. But um also there are some networking and some vendors and things that begins at 5:00. That's really a great opportunity for all of our community, our partners, our students, our staff, our families, um to come and hear just where we are at as a district. Some of the um topics that will be uh discussed
144are our finances, safety and security, where we're at with our master plan, academic progress, um obviously school report card. We also and my most uh fun part of the evening, we have six students um slated to share their experiences. Two from West, two from Central, and two from Pathways. So, it's an outstanding event. Um we're very excited about it. So, thank you for the reminder, and all are welcome. >> Have our freshman night tomorrow. >> We do. We have We are so busy. Thank you, Board of Education, for knowing all of our events that are coming up. I appreciate that. >> Keep up. We got a lot. >> We do have a lot. So, from 6:00 to 8 at both campuses um tomorrow, it's our freshman preview night. Um and so, it's an opportunity and
145we have um worked with our center schools um to get the information out. It's been on social media. Um, but this is an opportunity to come in, learn about um, how to transition effectively into high school. Also, and I think a really important piece is how you can get engaged in the various athletics and activities and opportunities. Um, so that is very exciting too. So, both campuses tomorrow 6 to 8:00 p.m. What else am I forgetting? Board of Education, >> we'll let you go. >> Okay. No, I appreciate the reminders. >> Do we need to announce committee of the whole? >> Um, committee of the whole is next week, but um most of it probably is close session. So, >> just in case anybody was interested. >> Yes, absolutely. And all of the board meetings
146are posted in advance if anyone um would like to take a look at the date. I know we have a lot of people here right now. Um but but streaming wise um there's people on. And then two, I just thought it was so great that all of the students that were recognized were basically here tonight. So that was very exciting. I do think >> a single certificate left. So >> So that's exciting. So thank you. >> All right. Now for the most important part. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> We'll do it by unanimous consent. Hearing no descent. Mitt St.