Jan 21 2025 Board Meeting

001here. Waller here. Henshaw. Wesley here. Moore here. Bundren here. Flyer present. Miss Hods, we're going to see if you can remember your younger years in early years, I should say, early years in education by leading us in the pledge of allegiance. Early years. given me a little bit of warning. Yes. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all. Forgot one. Thank you. Moving right along. Uh, and you did a very excellent job. Thank you. Um, come come come to our meetings while I won't pick on you. See, uh, moving right along to example of education excellence. You're up or something. Are you gonna I'm sorry. You're going to introduce them. We have Mr. James is here

002with the building trades department and we have Haley Meldder who is a junior at Marian High School and she's been involved in our Midway Court project that we're um partnering with the city on and she's got a great presentation for us all tonight. She presented this last month at the city council meeting. We're a lot nicer than the city council. Thank you much. Good afternoon. My name is Haley Maul. I am a junior at Marian High School. Um, I've always been interested in architectural stuff. Um, I Sorry. I have been taking the drafting and CAD classes at MHS and doing so I have had a much greater interest in architecture. Um, I have job shadowed at Bay Singer Architects under Jake McCann and I I'm sorry. I've I've in I hope to intern this summer

003there. I have also represented MHS by participating in Skills USA drafting competitions placed first this last year and I hope to place again this upcoming year. Mayor Abshire invited me to join the design team at for the midway court reu rejuvenation project. After meeting with Mayor Abshire, Cody Moes, and Jennifer Olsen, they shared with me their inspiration uh from a South Alton neighborhood in terms of community building, safety, budget, and aesthetics. We also toured two homes in Williamson County that had the curb appeal, trim level, and fit the budget. Over one of those homes is the first picture in your packet. Is that the same one up there? Yes, sir. Okay. The city's desire to establish a community of complimentary designs guide me to the two exterior elevation pages on two and three of your

004packet. Both of those have a small front porch to foster community and recessed doorways for security, convenience, and energy conservation. These designs provided curb appeal while also staying within the target budget. Taking into account the interior features wanted by the city and and the layout of the actual lots to be built on, I designed the floor plans on page four and five of your packet. These plans provide an open concept for shared areas, separation of the master suite and guest bedrooms, and minimal hall space. I would like to thank the city for allowing me to be involved in this community project and also the Marian school board for supporting vocational classes that allow me to take this career path. Thank you. Thank you. Hey, Mr. James, are we ready to start construction down there? Midway.

005That quick, huh? And then what I mean just for the public. How much do you expect if you can break ground on Monday? How much what where will you be at the end of the school year regarding the house? Well, we're doing two houses at one time. Okay. Thank you very much. Moving right along, the next item on the agenda is the audience to visitors. Got a big crowd, bigger than normal tonight, but I don't see any unfamiliar faces that want to stand up and give us an audience to visitors. Hearing none, we'll move right along. Anthony, you're next on the dang. Okay. I've been asked number one. I I know we're all dealing with the cold, but I've been specifically asked by my members on multiple phone calls today to remind you that it

006gets a little cold in some of our rooms here. I got a text message today showing me a temperature of 43 degrees in a classroom. Um, it's warm. Yeah, toasty. Okay. Um, I know that, you know, I was talking to Aaron beforehand. I know a lot of it is things that aren't always within our control and we're doing the best we can. Um, but again, it's just something to remind you of that it is there and anything we can do in the short term to alleviate, you know, 60 degree temperatures in a classroom. It's a little hard to teach a group of fifth graders when they're in mittens. So, you know, that's just a point to be made. Again, I do know that there are limitations. Our buildings are old. There are all sorts of

007things. You know, like I said, I was discussing with Aaron, I do know there are limitations, but whatever we can do in the short term would be very helpful. Um the second thing is in about a week or so I'm going to hand over our demand to bargain. Um I don't know if all of you realize that it is a bargaining year. It's been a few years. We last bargained in 2020. Um the I guess the biggest message I have as I hand into my bargain is I always tell people in my job here as a union president is to be a facilitator. And I think we all go into the process knowing we can work together. that the problems that we have that we need to work on, whether it be, you know, last

008month talking about potential discipline issues or salaries or whatever it is, I know that we as a union will come at it from a point of view as we're all working together and we're hoping to find a solution. But obviously, it's been five years, so there's going to be some major issues on the table. And I just want you to know that we're going to come in there with the best attitude that we possibly can and try to solve our our problems and work together. Thank you. Thank you, Anthony. Next item on the agenda, Miss Hodge. For everybody that doesn't know her, she is the director of the Williams County Education. He's going to hand out some folders and nothing. So, um I probably won't use the microphone because I have zero volume control on

009or off usually. And so, if you guys need me to do that, I can, but I'm pretty loud. Jerry, can you pick her up without I mean, the only reason we use the mic is for the picking up on the Would that be better if I didn't? I mean, I can, but you guys might have to be like, you know, so I still uh run cafeteria volume usually all the time. So, um I have provided you guys are just like a little packet because there's some um specific information that I don't think is appropriate really for um an open session in a in a board meeting with community involvement. Can I Jamie? Can I interrupt because last month we had some conversation about some discipline things and then we decided to bring you as the

010director of this Williams County special ed and then Miss Moss and I were talking that we decided to let you speak during this portion in the public portion. I'm just telling everybody that's watching on Facebook or here present because of the limitations of privacy issues, she can't get into specific details about a specific student or specific incident. She cannot mention names and things of that nature. So, I just want to let everybody watching on the Facebook and hear that uh you know, she's here to tell us kind of give us an overview of how you run the special education because the last couple meetings there's been questions about I think last week or last month we had about how discipline is affecting some of the lower grades and how we cooperate with the special ed

011to you know educate all the children that may have needs in our building, but sort of to speak to your responsibility, but and so we decided to have you come to just kind of give us an overview to give us what goes on, how these students are placed and things of that nature. And I just I know you know what you're going to talk about, but I wanted to tell everybody that's watching the purpose of having you here and try to answer questions that been given to us by the public and the teachers and let everybody know that Well, she didn't say anything about so and so. You can't speak about specific persons. So, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but I want to let everybody give that introduction for you before someone says, "Well, they

012might pop a question say, what about so and so?" So, yeah, go ahead. I'm sorry. Well, thank you. No, and we, you know, I appreciate given the opportunity to address the board because, um, just a word of caution, you know, after the last couple of board meetings here in unit 2, um, I did get calls about exactly that. Um, and so even, you know, just like I said, a little word of caution that when you do start talking about specific situations, um, and even though you may or not may or not say the name of the student, uh, when you're into small schools, especially neighborhood schools like Marian has, personally identifiable information is easily to figure out and then you're just as guilty as violating confidentiality without saying that kid's name. And so, you know,

013word of caution, you know, and you guys might want to talk to your board attorney, not Mr. BL or your your school u board attorney um about that because that has been brought to my attention a couple of times after your past meetings um that they felt like personally identifiable information was shared um and that is strictly against confidentiality of students. So, again, I appreciate the opportunity. Um, I'm a data person, like I can spit out numbers and, you know, comparable information. Um, I'm confident in in all of this. And so, you know, happy to I'm going to try to condense it because it's a lot, you know, and it's kind of specialed 101 jammed in there as well. Um, because it's complicated, you know, and so, you know, I want to first start by

014saying that, you know, we are a special ed cooperative. It's recognized by the state board of education. Um, we're a district. Um, we're not a school district. We're a cooperative and so we um have an intergovernmental agreement with the five school districts of Williamson County. So we have a board just like you have a board. We have monthly board meetings just like you do. We have to follow open meetings, acts, agendas, post that all of that. We have to put our budget to ISBY for approval, financial audits, everything that you do, we do as well. Um Superintendent Moss serves as a voting member on that. And so, you know, each month we go through this data, we talk about this data and so she's provided with that information and she absolutely can share that at

015any point. Um, on top of that, we have what's called a governing board. So, we have a governing board um all cooperatives in the state of Illinois have to have a governing board. And what that means is that um twi at least twice a year. So, we meet in September and in March, all five superintendent attend as board members. And then each of them has a board of education member that attends their schoolboard member. So it's varied, you know, it it does vary. And usually it's the new guy that gets that job to be honest, you know. And so um I've never been on it. No, no, no, no one wanted you. Um so hey, you're not the first one to tell me that. Right. So um Cindy Gibbons was on it for a while.

016U Mr. Garrison, you know, has been on it for last year and this year. And so um again, this information the new guy. The new guy. Yeah. that's typical of the districts. Um, and so again, you know, this information is shared there and they're more than, you know, willing, I think, to to come back and share the information that they received at least twice a year on that. So, you know, there are some other forms of communication and oversight. I think that, you know, that that community should be aware of. Um, we also run u not only special education, but career and technical education and preschool for all and early childhood. So, we're the financial and administrative agents for those entities as well. We don't employ people for CTE. Um, but we kind of manage

017the funds, manage the grant, make sure that all the compliance um is done. Um, that's because it's just easier because that same board was the same five superintendents that were having three different meetings. So, they were had a prek meeting, they had a CTE meeting, they had specialed meeting, and it's long before me. So, I don't I don't know when this was decided, at least 18 or so years ago. Um, they said, "Let's just do all this at once." So they changed the intergovernmental agreement to have all five entities so that they only had to come to one meeting honestly. Um and so it used to uh be a different director for CTE. Um I came along I happened to have a CTE certification and so it just worked out well. So hey Jamie you

018can do that you know other duties as assigned. So um I took on CTE at that point. So but for the purpose of tonight you know I was asked to talk about special education. Facebook plan. What CTE is career and technical education. Thank you. Um again, we don't employ anybody for that. So, you know, old school vocational trades, uh business, all of that. We don't employ any of the teachers. Um all we do really is kind of the financial agent of that. So, we manage we manage that. Um federal grant, which is Perkins, and the state grant, which is CTEI. Um we just make sure it's spent appropriately and then make sure all the appliances the compliance is up to date. Um, and so, you know, I was excited that uh the construction trades I

019know. So, I love Lester James, just so you know, guys know. Like, so happy that that that was in there. And, um, I'm excited because I'm going to steal one of these packets and I'm gonna try to, you know, promote you guys with Isby with a little bit with that because they do some great things. They really do. Um, so again, just kind of wanted to, you know, talk about what we do. Um, so much of what special education um is made up of is federal and state mandates. So I think a lot of times people think um that's WilliamC County rules. They're not our rules. We don't even like them most of the time. So um they are federal and state mandates that we really um take great pride in making sure that the

020districts are compliant in that. Um and and I you know we do a great job of that. So many of these um requirements, mandates, whatever you want to call them, um are set forth to protect individuals with disabilities. And so that's a hat you got to wear for just a second because I think a lot of times we get caught up in special education. We want to help the kids and you're not helping them. And that's not what it's about. So when I mean it is what it's about, but when we refer students for special education, we are determining if they are an individual with a disability. And so that that's a little heavier than just needing some help with reading. And so um it takes time. There are timelines. There are compliances. There are

021all of those things that have to be addressed in certain order and certain procedures have to be followed. So we're kind of the police in that m in that regards. We make sure that all of those things are taken care of in the appropriate ways and in the appropriate, you know, timelines. So a little bit of data. Um so our budget is about a $19 million budget. So, it's big. Um, we employ about 370 people. Um, I think people don't realize how big we are. Um, about 70% of our budget comes from local funds. So, little bit of a mythbuster. So, some of my data is like, you know, I love the mythbuster aspect of it. And so, you think that most of special education is paid for by state or federal grants or or

022things like that. And that's not true. So only about 30% um is paid out of that. The other 70% um is from local funds. Um and I think that surprises people a lot of times. Um the other part Do you mean local funds? Your this school district pays your the budget. The bulk of the budget. That's correct. All of the the schools in this county are supporting you with your budget. Yes. Correct. Okay. Yes, that is correct. And so, um, you know, the other thing is is that it's not my budget. You know, it so the requirements are the school district's requirements. We're subcontractors. You know, we're the we're the middleman technically, the cooperative um is. And so in Williamson County, you know, all cooperatives are set up differently across the state in how they're

023funded, how how do they receive the local funds. So that 7030 split um is is common across the whole United Sta or across Illinois I should say. Um so at the federal level IDEA which is the um individuals with disability education act. So when it was implemented in 1975 believe it or not it's not really been reauthorized funding wise since then. Um it was meant at the legislative you know point to be funded at 40%. So 40% of the cost for educating these students um was supposed to be paid for by the federal government. That was its intent. Um it sits at about 14.7 14.8%. So it's not fully funded by the federal government's budget. Um therefore there's a big gap, billions of dollars gap, you know, across the nation. Um and so that goes

024on the backs of school districts. It absolutely does. But I'll say that lightly because they're your students. you know, so I mean you should pay for the education of your students that live in your district. Um, so a little bit of common, you know, misconceptions about funding. Um, the other thing is EBF. So we hear a lot about, I'm sure you guys have heard about evidence-based funding and new money and there's 350 million new dollars in Illinois um, you know, that that went towards EBF. So that doesn't come to spe to cooperatives. So I shouldn't just say special ed. The state ISBY sees the Illinois State Board of Education sees like ROEs and special education cooperatives and other intergovernmental agreements as cooperatives. It's not just special ed. Um and so we're part we were assigned

025whenever they assigned tiers, you guys have jumped between tier one and tier two a little bit. Um so all cooperatives are assigned a tier four which means we don't get any new money. So our state reimbursement is frozen at 2017 levels. So in 2017 when EBF was voted for and approved, they said all cooperatives are assigned to tier four and you guys get no new money. So um we no matter if you have more students or less, no matter if you have more staff, you have more personnel, it doesn't matter. We get the same that we got in 2017. That is the only money that comes directly to the cooperative. Everything else flows to the districts. So the grants, the idea grants, all of the funding flows to the districts, then you pay us through

026that local contribution. Um, and really how we figure it in Williamson County, um, this is as simple as it gets, but um, this is how our intergovernmental agreement was set up in the 70s. And so it's basically like what does it cost to run this show? all the salaries. We're almost all people. So, our budget, you know, is a little over $19 million and 87% of it, about 85 to 87% is salary and benefits. So, we're all people. We don't have buildings. We don't have operations. We don't have any of that. We're we're people. Um, and so it's salary and benefits. Um, so we say, what does it cost to run this show? How much are we going to get in um state and federal money? Subtract that. What's left? and what's left it divvies

027up based on your percentage. So there's not a tuition, there's not an assessment, there's none of that. Some other cooperatives are set up where there's a tuition. So you pay the cooperative for each kid or each service. It's almost like a barcode at the grocery store, you scan it, you know. Um and so that's how some are set up. We're not set up that way. Um we're set up in a pretty simple financial type of kind of reimbursement model. Um so This past year was our and I'm going to get to the data in just a second. I promise I get a little longwinded sometimes, but um you know, this past year was our biggest increase in budget. So, we saw about a 20% increase in our budget this school year. Um and that was

028a big jump for us. And so, a couple of factors contributed to that. Um we hired eight additional teachers. So, I'm talking countywide. remember like I my brain works that way and so I've tried to track it down to your districts that's was important to you. Um but to know why our budget went up eight additional teachers and additional um speech and language pathologist they are high they were highcost people too. So the days of having people retire and replacing them with a brand new baby teacher that doesn't cost as much. They're gone. Those don't exist anymore. And so we hire people in and we pay their years of experience and their years um you know even instate or out of state. Our contract does do that. Um our contract is mirrors Marian's not exactly

029but it is high. So our salary schedule is high is what I'm saying. Um in comparison to other districts and definitely in comparison to other cooperatives. Um so we're we attract good people. Um but we attract expensive people. Um and so our you know budget definitely went up from that. Um we also employ over 160 para profofessionals and so paraprofessionals aka teacher assistants. They are slightly above minimum wage. Um but the minimum wage increases caused us forced us to jump high a couple of times to get up to to minimum wage. That number includes the 370 number you gave us. Correct. You're just breaking down that number. Okay. And it's in that packet. Yeah. Yeah. Um and so those are kind of the main things. Um we also had um so essentiers money. Um we

030had some Essers money that we carried along for a little while. Um and so that was we kind of see that as a loss of revenue because we didn't get it anymore. Um and so that contributed also to that 20% increase. Um, so it it did cost quite a bit more um this past year. So let's just talk about um the data for a minute. So I think this is important. Um when I when Mrs. Moss asked me to um report tonight, I was excited of course and I have most of this data ready easily attainable. But then a little bit after noon today, I got a list of questions that um I had already prepared this presentation. And so I'm like, okay, well, most of those I are answered in here. Um but there

031were some that I felt like are a little more specific. And so I just provided that the answers to that in your folders, too. But I'm more than happy to answer some more questions about that if we need to. Um but the first one is child count. So child count is that first one. This is the all mecca of numbers for special education. So child count means butts in seats on December 1st. How many students have an IEP and are enrolled on December 1st? That is the magic date of all time. And so child count is what determines your entire funding for the next school year. So the number of students in December 1st, last month, determines how much money we get next school year, 2526. That's also the number that we use to determine

032local contributions. So I know it's crazy. Um and Bryce is looking at me like what? I know, right? It doesn't seem right, does it? Um and so really what that means is students that are referred or become eligible or move in or move out um from January till May, they don't count in funding. Now they count for us as far as um you know when we look at uh staff that we will need we obviously look at real numbers you know so for next year um we don't look at only this number but this number is very important. So, I love trend data. And if you kind of look across the trend data, you can see um that if you look at the second to last column, it says FY24. So, that's our funding that

033we're receiving right now for is the kids last year in December that we're receiving the monies for this school year. That's a low number. When you look at the bottom total, um 1663, that's the lowest we've been ever actually since I've started tracking any data. Why is that? You know, just wait. Don't steal any fun. Yeah, of course I have answers. Joe, I want to look behind the curtain. Yeah, right. Um, but you can also look at at unit two specifically. So, that's why I kind of like these data because they do break it down by district so that you can see your, you know, your accurate numbers. Um, and so, uh, Maryanne was sitting at about 637 students. Um, those are resident students. So, just you know, students that live in Marian residency. Um,

034I can pull preliminary data because December has already passed for this year. So, we're starting to verify that data now to make sure we haven't missed anybody. All the paperwork's turned in, all of that stuff. So, I can see that I think preliminarily at least your number is going to be fairly close for next year. So, right now you're sitting at just about five or so more kids than last year in December. That honestly doesn't surprise me. And so because even though you feel like a lot of students move in, a lot of students are referred just as many move out. And so, you know, we'll kind of get to why that feels different in a minute. Um because the ones that are moving in um maybe feel like they count for a little more

035than the ones that moved out. Um and so that's just kind of the trend data. But if you look back five years, I think that that's the most telling. So if you look back just five years at like FY19, um you're almost a hundred kids less than the school year that ended in 2019. So lots of things happened in our world, right? Um in 2020, um many students left, many students didn't return. Um lots of things happened. But that's true across the board because when you try to figure out why, you need to look at your enrollment. So go down to the next one and this is how many kids period. So public school enrollment how many kids are in Marian. So if you really want to look at that if comparatively um from FY19

036the the five-year comparison you know you're about 400 kids down. So to be hundred kids less special ed really isn't that surprising you know um when you're 400 total down. So, uh, that, you know, really doesn't surprise me much at all. If you look in the county, even the county, our enrollment's dropping pretty significantly. And so, you know, we're about 800 kids down in the last five years in the county. So, um, lots of things attribute to that. Um, I've been on a roll lately of, like I said earlier, I love data. I look at this stuff. This is literally what I read at night. Not kidding. Um, the birth rates on a decline. there's lots of things happening right now. Um that definitely proves to be true in our area and in our data

037as well. Um so that's I think important. Um we're really kind of at an all-time low for enrollment. Um across the county kindergarten enrollment is drastically down um to the compared to last year this year compared to many many years. Um, and again, I think that is um attributed to that birth rate that people aren't having as many kids. That's true. Um, and so that shows up in our data as well. So, I know that some of our neighboring districts, you know, are considering um not replacing some retirements coming up in K1 levels because their numbers are are quite low. Um, and then you know, time will tell with kindergarten registration coming up. Um, but I can say that in prek, so I'll just throw in pre-k a little bit. So in prek, we see

038that as well. So we, um, typically in the past have run about 600 kids in prek in the county. Um, we struggle to find about 450 right now. So I I don't think that we can't find them. I think they're not there. And so that's that's what's coming, you know. So I think enrollment's shrinking um for whatever reason. So co a lot of people stayed at home and people would make reference to there would be more children. Yeah. Down the road. Not true. And that's that's not true. Nope. Um, and also, you know, what was said is, you know, when when COVID happened and a lot of parents, a lot of families withdrew their kids from public school, they're like, "Oh, they'll be back, right? They'll be back. As soon as we're back to full-time

039and we're not remote, we're not wearing masks. They'll be back." They didn't come back. So, that data proves it. Um, and so I I think that that's interesting information, you know. So, we'll scroll up a little bit. Um, so when you talk about percent of enrollment, I again want you to put the hat on. We're talking about your percent of disabled humans, okay? Not kids that need help. Don't say that to yourself. We're talking about disabled human beings. And so if you think about that percent um as a whole, you know, um you can kind of look at your percentages. And so what's I'll kind of call your attention to the bottom first because the state average is 16%. Um and then national average is 14%. Then go back up and kind of compare yourself

040in the county. Um you know with that being said, Marian's not bad. Like that that's not that's not a slap. Is it higher than the state? A little. Is it higher than the national average? A little. Not significant. Um you know so so that's okay. Um, but let's go back and compare it to FY19 for just a minute because we talked about that five-year kind of thing, you know, right? In FY19, we were sitting more at 21% closer to the 20% marks. Um, I'll tell you that in that time period, the national average was 11%. So at that point in the world, um, Illinois really started looking and monitoring special education a little bit more. So the state board of education like what's going on? Why are you saying 20% one in five of your

041children are disabled? What's going on? Are you overidentifying kids? Are you not providing those services at the gened level and you're just dumping everybody into special ed? And is that what's happening? So the monitoring really got tight about that time. Then COVID happened and we're like, "Woo, we got to buy," you know, because nobody was nobody was watching. Um, and so we're kind of back on track now, I feel like. And so we'll kind of get more of the monitoring in in a minute because we'll I'd like to continue with a little bit of mythbusters for a minute. And so, um, a lot of people say they say, "Well, the reason why we're so high is because we have low income. We've got a lot of poverty around here or we have a lot of

042housing or we have a lot of supported living or we have a lot of homeless shelters." And that's very stereotypical because you're saying that you think that that's what identifies you as special education. And that is so not true. That's very stereotypical. But I like to mythbust it a bit just because it's fun. And so, um, when you look at the low income, um, it's really not that bad. So, and it really hasn't increased like it feels like it has. It has not. So, if you look at low income, you know, the state average is right around 49 50% or so. Um, and you can look at where Marian sits and you can look at where Marian sits compared to Heron and Johnson City. Um, surprisingly, Crab Orchard is much lower than I think most

043people would assume. Um, but we certainly don't have the most poverty in the region. Um, there are districts with that are much um higher percentages of poverty level. Um, so that's kind of like, you know, one of my fun little mythbusters, we'll just call it. Um, so the next part though, can you scroll up a little bit, Gary? This is the most telling. So I think when people say why and why does it feel like a pressure cooker or why does it feel like what's the narrative is a word that's used a lot of like what's going on then Jamie if you say we got less kids what is going on so this is what's going on so what we call specialized programs so those are going to be your most significant students that require

044more specialized instruction so they're going to spend the majority of their day in special educ education or self-contained classrooms. They're going to need additional therapies like medical therapies, occupational, physical therapy, speech therapy. Um have much more cognitive delays. Um and then I'll throw in the the dreaded word of behavior. That that's who we're talking about. So these are specialized programs. Um this is the most telling to me. And so if you look at the number, this is just Williamson County and you can see Marian's um in the last 10 years, less than 10 years, we've more than doubled. So in 2015 there were 29 specialized programs. Um and this school year we're at 62. Um you can see Marian's jumps from 14 to 24. Um and so that's the that's the most telling. So really

045what I'm saying is we have less students that are eligible for an IEP, but the students we have are more significant. Um, they require more services. Um, they require more people, hence why the budget has went up. Um, and the biggest barrier is they require more space because those classrooms, those programs are limited in size, in age range, in in what students can be um, you know, educated in the same room. Um and so and s you know I think Anthony said this earlier um we have older buildings um we we're running out of room and running out of space and so that's one of our you know biggest problems. Um the next one scroll up again Jerry we you have a you have a district that has zero specialized programming in that entire district.

046Yes. Yeah. Crab orchard. Um yeah I I'm assuming unit two is Marion. Yes. Yeah. Um I work in numbers a lot. So like one is Johnson City unit one, unit two. Yeah. Yeah. Um and so this is the other good narrative piece. So I kind of chunked these together. So these are early childhood referrals. So it that takes a little bit of explaining. So let me just explain for just a second that um you know when we when we ask ourselves where are these students coming coming from? you know, um are they move in some? Yes. And actually the ones um that are moving in aren't necessarily within the transit of the county, which is surprising. We have a lot of students from out of state. And so a lot of Florida, a lot I

047mean it's surprising. You're like, what? Why? Why? You know, I've asked before, why did you come here? You know, um and really it's a compliment. You know, we have several school districts. Marian's one of them. Cardell's another one. You guys have great scores. you attract people attract people to the area if they're going to move to Southern Illinois because they want to be where there's a good school system. They want to be where there's good services and it's a compliment really to both us and to you that people choose this over other counties in southern Illinois because of the school system. Um and I've been told that time and time again, you know, on why people move here. Um you know, but the other thing is um what else is going on? Because really what's

048happened is there's a train. So you're feeling I think someone said this earlier um at a younger age, the primary, the kindergarten, the first grade, the second grade. Um and we've been warning about this train for a couple of years. And here's why we know about it. Because um of early childhood. So early childhood referrals um come at age 2.6. So when a child is 2 years and 6 months old, they can be referred to the local district from medical providers, early intervention, all of those types of things, early head start. Um, and so that's because it's then the district's responsibility to provide services for a child on their third birthday. So again, that's technically your requirement. We do it for you as the subcontractor. Um, and so where do we get these referrals from?

049So I like this data because this kind of shows you and I put the the nasty words of COVID up there on purpose. And so if you look at the first column, those are total early childhood full case. And when I say full case, that means that they were referred to us from out of nowhere. Like we don't know these kids typically. they they came to a screening, a doctor called, the parent called, grandma called, somebody called and said, "Hey, you need to look at this kid." And so, um, when typically those run precoid, they run, you know, 30 to 40 a year. Um, the right column is strictly out of early intervention. So, um, not added that those come out of it. So that uh you know the 19 comes out of the 32

050that's not plus not not in addition to. So there were 32 in 2014 2015 there were 32 full case studies. 19 of those 32 came from early intervention. That means a medical provider of some sort referred them. Um so just look through that real quickly. Those numbers didn't do anything crazy until 2020. That's COVID. So we have a jump there. Um we had a little bit of a fall back kind of or steady in remote doesn't surprise anybody I don't think because people weren't going to the doctor, they weren't making referrals. Early intervention wasn't going to the house. Um but then we start seeing the explosion, right? So those are students that um were born in COVID, students that were born during remote, you can kind of see them falling off. And so that has

051certainly impacted our number of referrals. So we know that there's going to be continued, we're going to call it the train, continued concerns, continued into kindergarten and first grade for a couple years, guys, because we saw them at two years and six months. And so they're going to continue, you know, to come to come through. Um again, people say, "Why? What do you think that's what do you think that's about?" Uh I'm no doctor by any means. Um, I think that I but I like research and so there's a lot of research and information out there now about processed foods, about screen time, about immunizations, about like you name it, you can find it out there. Um, and so I don't know. I can just tell you about what we're seeing, you know. Um, it's

052certainly not tied to drugs. It is certainly not tied to poverty. And I think those are mythbusters as well because these numbers are coming from all walks of life, all demographics, all across the board. So I there is not one thing I can say that I could point to in our area. Um and I think people are quick to blame it on things that they probably shouldn't. Um so if you go down a little bit more, Jerry, um yeah, right there. So, that's kind of the why. And now I'm going to get into real quickly. These next two are really more about compliance and monitoring and procedural violation type of things. And so, Jerry, can you pull up the other um one, but still I'm going to come back to this so don't get rid

053of it. Like, is that possible? The other the other attachment. Yeah. Because I think that'll help if we kind of just throw that in there real quick. because there were some questions about this that were given to me today. Okay, so this is compliance. So this is um are you meeting timelines? Are you um in compliant with IEP rules and regulations? This is basically the report card of special ed um that's issued by the state. So it's done by district. Um it's sent to Mrs. Moss. Um, I just get a copy of it because I am the state approved director. And so, um, Marian meets requirements. That's good. Like, that's good job. Like, that that is really good. Um, not everybody meets requirements. So, not even in this county does everybody meet requirements. And so,

054if you go up a little bit, like to the next page, uh, keep going. I guess it's the third page technically. This is the actual scorecard. Um, and so this answers some questions that I think um, Miss Moore had sent about compliance. And so here's how you read this. If you, this comes from, all of this data comes from what's reported by the school. So you guys have probably heard about CIS, the student information system. AR is kind of the the sister of CIS um, that enters special education data. They talk to each other. They communicate with each other. It's uploaded from schedules from um what do you got? Infinite campus from I had to think about what you guys use. Um and so that's where this data comes from. I don't enter this information.

055This is pulled from the state reports. Um so really you look at the score on the right. So I'm an A+ type of girl. Like I really want an A+. Um and so threes are A+es. So three is the highest score you can get. Um, two means that you um didn't meet the target, but you still did better than you did the year before, so they give you a two. You get a one if you met the target, but went backwards from the year before. They kind of slap you a little bit. You get a one for that. You get a zero if you didn't meet the target and you did worse than you did the year before. So if you look at what we consider compliance are what we have complete control over the

056people we hire the teachers that are in the rooms the um timelines procedures meeting those deadlines and needs they're all threes they are all A+'s um where we have gotten zeros in this district is about least restrictive environment that's um the bottom one what's that mean that is too many kids and too much special ed. So students, we're going to get to that in a minute where you can really see some good data, but students are required to be educated in their general education environment with non-disabled peers and only a small small small percent is supposed to be pulled out into what we were calling specialized programs. We get slapped for that. There are too many students in those programs in a specialized program. Yes. Yeah. That's least restrictive environ because you're putting them in

057a more restrictive environment which is the specialized programs. So, um, good or bad? I mean, is it seems like we're trying to help them more? I know, right? It's hard. Yeah, it's a double-edged sword. It's a double-edged sword for sure, you know. Um, and so, uh, regardless, they have the right to be educated in the least restrictive environment, which is general education with supports rather than pull out. Um and so that is an area that Marian got a zero on um because they didn't meet the target and they went backwards. Who determines the target? And this reporting to for compliance, we are self-reporting that. Um so it's entered into um CIS like so when IEPs are written, there's a tracking sheet um that pulls the percents and then it's uploaded. Are we self-reporting? I mean,

058where are they getting they're getting that data from? So for example, like we're doing this, you know, I don't know, pick one of these disproportionate disproportionality on IEPs. Yes. Who's determining whether or not there's a disproportionality? The state. Okay. Based on information we're giving them, you're giving them, we're giving them based on the IEP data that's submitted. Yes. Okay. Yes. through student information sis through the student information system which in turn uploaded us I wouldn't say that's them or us that is so as district we are providing that we are we are self-reporting on compliance no we just turn to IEPs and then it's uploaded and they take the data that we prepare from the IEP it's no self-reporting let me give you let me give you an example so Um, and I'm going to

059ask a lot of questions that I don't want you to take because by far the most calls I get are about students under that have services with you. So, I really want they have services with you. Yes, they do. But I don't those aren't those aren't the calls that I get though. Yeah. Um, so, for example, a student has an IEP and the IEP says they have to have an aid. thus and such amount of the time or however that's that's spelled out. And I get a call from a parent that says they don't have an aid. I was told there was nobody to be an aid and so you my IP is not compliant. I I they're not doing what they are by law required to do. If I get a call like that,

060who am I referring them to? Well, I think you first refer them to the building principal. Um, because they're going to know what's accurate right now, okay? You know, um, and then the building principles and I have this whole row are mostly coordinators, special ed administrators. Um, and so they have a principal certification as well. So, they have the same certification that the building's principles have, all of them. Um, and so then they have the additional layer of what we call an SEA, special education administration. Um, and so I they all work very closely with with building principles, you know. Um, I think that that maybe is not always accurate that you're being told. Sure. You know, and so but as an elected official, as someone who's getting a complaint from a parent in the

061community, it's very difficult to sort out Yeah. what that means, right? And I'm here to look look out for the students. Sure. So, I'm trying to understand your collaborative practice with the building principal because sometimes maybe I don't understand who's doing what and who the point of contact for the parent is, right? I think they always start with the building principal. Um, and and it might get farmed out from there. I'm not going to say that it's always that the building responsible sole responsibility, you know, it may get farmed out from there. But like for example, if um if the aid is absent, let's say, um you know, and so we wouldn't necessarily know that immediately where the building principal would, you know. Um so I definitely would would say that that would be the

062the first thing. And we're going to get to staff here in a minute, too. Um and so that might answer a little more more questions. Um the only other um score you're marked down on, again, remember as a whole, you met requirements. So I'm I'm not sure anybody in the state gets a perfect scorecard. Okay. So I'm just pointing out where where we were deficient where we can improve, you know. Um and really it's two areas that's still this is still an amazing meets requirement high score. So I don't want it to to sound like it's it's not. Um the only other one is graduation rate. And so really as a whole the graduation rate was not very good at as a whole at Marian High School. Um and so then that percentage of students

063with an IEP graduation rate was also low. Um that's something I know the high school's working on as a whole, you know. Um and so that's also a very common uh markdown in our in our county. Um, and so that's kind of the um compliance part of it. Um, again like your bottom score is 82 83. I can't even read that far. 83. 83. Um, that's a good score. So it goes down to needs intervention at 79. So everybody asked me where's the cut score. The cut score is 79. Um, I think that this will improve because I know that um the principles and the coordinators are working on that least restrictive environment one. Uh sometimes it's hard discussion to have. Um and not everybody's on the same, you know, field with that. Um but

064those are discussions we're trying to move that needle that direction. Uh okay, Jerry. So now go back to the other one real quick. And I promise I'm about done. So sorry that this is a lot of information packed into one. Uh yeah, the LEA determinations go a little bit further. So this is not any information that's different than what you just looked at. I just wanted you to kind of see a county snapshot, you know, so you can I mean it's it's good to see a comparison to neighboring districts. Um and so that's why I did that. Um you can see that so all of our districts actually met um requirements this year. uh that's not always been the case and so they have met requirements this year. Um the additional information that's on this

065DLM so I this needs a little bit of explanation. So um state and standardized assessments so SAT ACT whatever it is I A whatever we got going on each year um there are there is a very small percentage of students that are allowed to take an alternative assessment. So, this is where the state gets heavily involved. Only 1% of your IEP students can take an alternative assessment. If you go over 1%, you get hand slapped. So, in other words, it's just an arbitrary 1%. I didn't make it up. I don't know. I know that, but I mean, yes. Regardless, if you just have an over Yep. abundance of children that need help, nobody cares. No one cares. Nope. If you got We're letting them do that. Are we letting them do that? Well, it's the

066state. We don't have a choice that we can't let any more than 1%. So, um if when we go over 1% would rather get the student what they need and be over. So, when we go over 1% over it. Yeah. And you can see that that um several of the districts in the county are over it. Um Marian is one of those. And so that puts you into um basically a remediation type of plan with the state. So even back with this state, you have just since you're a number person, if you have 10 students, only one student Yep. can take if you have 10 students in the school, only one of them can take the test. And if you have two of them that need the test and you give them two, then the

067state comes in and says, "You got to do something about letting the second kid take the test." Well, you have to provide a remediation plan. And they let some of it a justification. You're supposed to say even garden what the attitude or the makeup of your student population. They say we don't care about that. You just got to comply with the 1%. You have to justify it. So that I do that. I justify it for the district. So we go through um and say, well, we had, let's just use that example, the 10 students. Well, we had two students that legitimately met the criteria because there's a strict criteria. IQ is one of those criteria. Um, and so we have to justify it. And so they you they will typically accept your reason, you know,

068your justification. Um, but you do have to complete it. Um, they let you they accept your justification for one year. If you do it two years in a row, your um, intervention gets a little heavier each year. So for example, just worried about numbers, not about the kids. It is correct. What's what are the consequences for being over two years in a row? So you go into what's called needs intervention. Um and then that requires building principles and myself coordinators um to do um three annual meetings with the state and come up with kind of like a school improvement plan about like how you're going to do better um and how and so I've lived this but a different agency. Go ahead. Yes, ma'am. I mean, we've done it and we've done it. Amy and

069I have done it together. Yep. Yep. And so that that's your consequence. Yes. There's no financial punitive anything. Well, not yet. Let's talk about those myth busters. So, year two is needs intervention. Year three is targeted intervention, which means you go from three times um a year to monthly. We have a neighboring friend that's into monthly targeted intervention. um they're not fun at all. Um it's a ton of paperwork. If you go into year five, then there's some financial. Okay. I've never been to year five, so I don't really So if you have one year that happens to work out that you're you're 1% or under, then you start over. Yep. Okay. It's a game. This is like that other agencies. It's a game. Yep. It's just like the other agencies. Yeah. Okay. Um so

070that's what that DM is. And then the graduation rate. I tried to put the graduation rate for all just because sometimes I think special education gets pulled out and targeted and looked at when really you need to look at the whole picture. Um and so that kind of gives you a little bit more of a whole picture. Um you can see that the state graduation rate for all um is at the bottom and then the state graduation for IEP is at the bottom. So we're not terribly or significantly off from the average threshold DM is what we were just talking about. That's the that's the alternative assessment. That's that one number like I that's where you got one's the number. Yeah. 1.0. So even when you're 1.18 I'm like well that one 18100. So that

071kid needed some help. So can you give me a break? You know. So um yeah it happens a lot though. Okay. Um, luckily Marian, this is her first year of being uh a justification in a while. They've been they've met for a while. So there's that. Um, so then the last kind of mythbuster, will you scroll for me, Jerry, please? And thank you, is staff. And so, um, it's concerning that statements are made about, um, noncertified staff, um, basically on our payroll or, um, open unfilled positions because that is simply inaccurate. It's not true. So, uh, we have no open positions in Marian, none, zero right now. Um, every teacher is certified appropriately. their um all special education teachers have an LBS1. That's what it's called. Learning and behavior specialist. That's what it stands for.

072They all have that certification, the same certification. So, nobody has any more behavior certification than somebody else. That's what special education is. Um there are two, so full disclosure, there are two teachers in Marian that have a PEL. So they have a teaching license and they um met the criteria for emergency approval. So about three or four years ago um the state because there was such an extreme shortage especially in special education related services they kind of opened a window and said well if you have a teaching certificate in let's say elementary ed or a high school certificate then as long as you have at least two classes in exceptional children then we're going to give you an emergency approval and then you have three years to complete the rest of the coursework. work. So,

073there are two teachers in Marian that are employed by Williamson County that fell under that. Both of them have already completed all of the paperwork. Um, all of the coursework, I should say. And so, they are certified. The piece of paper is not here yet because one of them just finished in December with her last course. Um, and so regardless, an emergency approval is still a certified and appropriate and acknowledged certification. You know, they have three years to do that. They have three years to do that and so they're teaching for three years. Are those particular ones have got taught for three years and uh no I mean they give the state gives you three years to get it done. Both of them got it done in one year less than one year. Okay. So

074it can be done way quicker than that. Oh yeah. Okay. Yeah. There are um as long as you have a teaching certificate first, right? You know there are kind of expedited programs online everywhere. Um we also through our um teachers contract have a re tuition reimbursement and so if they're working on that we help them we assist them in payment for that for those courses. Um so that's that's fairly new and this is only maybe our second year of doing that. Yeah it is our second year of doing that. Um so you can kind of see that there are um a ton of people employed in Williamson County. Um and pair of professionals have now exceeded our number of certified teachers. So in the past, so we're one big happy teachers union all together. So

075our teacher assistants what are non-certified and our teachers are all in one same contract. Um for since the beginning of you know time we've had more teachers than paras and that has shifted. We have more paras than teachers now um in that union. And so um that's interesting dynamic you know really it is. So, if you kind of flip up a little bit more, you can kind of see the total. Um, now this does include preK, just so you know. So, any of those things that say PFA. Um, if you want to really see isolate special ed out of that, you'd have to take the PFA out. PFA. We do hire pre-K teachers and just not CTE teachers. Um, and so you can see that in the last five years, we've increased by 60 staff

076members. That's a lot. a lot lot uh and many of them are uh you know highly certified. So when you get into school psychologists you know they have um master's 32 um when you get into speech pathologists you know they have specialist degrees and so you really get if you think about a salary schedule you really get people that are far to the right you know in education. Um so you can see that that's kind of a mythbuster I like. Um and and we get a lot of questions about that. So, I don't know why where that came from or why that came from. Um, but we're fully staffed. We've been fully staffed. Um, there were a couple of years that we had a few more of those emergency approvals. That was right when they

077kind of first let those floodgates open of that. Um, but we've never had more than six or seven total in the whole county. Um, we attract staff because our salary schedule's high and our benefits are good. Um, we also attract staff because all of our programs are within regular school buildings. So, um, there are cooperatives that run a lot of special schools, right? Separate schools. Um, and they really struggle to, um, keep staff because people go into school to be a teacher, to go to be at a school. They they don't feel like a real teacher when you're not in a real school building. Um, and so I think that really helps us maintain and recruit and, you know, retain teachers as well. So that's kind of the staff part of it. Um, there's a

078little more information in the folders just in case you need it. Um, I try to answer all the questions quickly this afternoon. if they weren't addressed in that. I don't have a specific question, but I'm just some of the questions come up and maybe give us the 30,000 ft overview of I've heard people ask questions about, well, so and so this is behavior or they need a problem. The timeline, I mean, you just someone just can't walk in say Johnny or Sally's a bad boy today and so he needs to get need to take him out and need special program, right? Just kind of give us a highlight because it because is this one outlines it there's so many days and it's just because we've had some questions about there are he was I shouldn't

079say he he that student was referred and nothing tapped. Yep. You know, so I mean can you just kind of give us the in closing just a little highlight? Sure. So I did put the kind of the timelines in there because I do think that um general public just for people. Yep. Yep. So timelines are again not our rules, not our policies or procedures. These are specific timelines. Most of them are through IDEA which is the Individuals with Disability Education Act. That's federal. Um and so when you violate those rules, then you're violating that child's civil rights. And so that's that's a lot. And I mean I I want people to understand the seriousness of that. um because there are very specific timelines and parent participation, parent consent, parent involvement is a huge part of

080that and so we have to give 10 days notice some and you know before we can even talk to a parent. We have to provide a draft um we have to um allow 14 days in between this time period and that time period. Once they are determined eligible, we have to allow another 10 days um for the parent to kind of um let it sink in, you know, to to to really provide that consent. It can't start until 10 days later. The whole evaluation process is a 60-day timeline. It's 60 school days. And so school days or it's school days. School days. So that's that's a lot. Yes. Um and so third of a year. Yeah. to go to school 180 days. Yep, it sure is. Um, and really those protections are put in place

081on purpose. So those protections are put in place for the student because it then allows that student and that school supposedly the appropriate time to provide interventions, accommodations, make adjustments, differentiate the instruction in the general education setting before you pluck them out. Um that's the purpose of the timeline. Um the other thing is scheduling to be honest. And so you know when you're talking about an evaluation that involves a school psychologist, a speech therapist, an occupational therapist, a physical therapist, two coordinators, a teacher, that's a lot of schedules. Parents and the parents and the parents. It's a lot of schedules. Um once they determine um what we call a grid, so once they meet and go, okay, yes, this looks like a student that might be eligible. What areas do we need more information? Testing,

082right? So, mark this, mark this, mark this, mark this. Um, then that person has to be available to go do it. When they show up, student may or may not be there. Um, there might be five e-learning days when they were scheduled and now we got to rearrange everything. You know, you got Thanksgiving break, Christmas break, all of that. And so, it takes time. Um, but I'll go back to we got an A+ in compliance. So, we have never extended that timeline or deadline. We maybe not have moved fast enough as other people wanted. Right. That's that's why you for the explanation. That's true. I'm sure. And it's not on purpose. It that's scheduling, you know, when you're trying to balance eight people's schedules and they have other duties as well. It's it's hard. And

083I think it's hard sometimes for general education staff and sometimes parents to be like, well, my lens is right here. I want this kid needs help and our lens is here because you know that school psychologist has already started a 60-day clock for eight other kids in eight other buildings that we're trying to test and keep and meet that timeline. Um because that's not just initials that goes for every three years you have to re-evaluate students. Um every single year you have to do um any medical evaluations again OT, PT, you know, nursing. Um, you have to have annual meetings within 365 days of the last meeting. Um, and then we any day of the week might have 10 parents call and say, "I want a meeting now because my kid just got suspended, got

084whatever, you know, and so it it's scheduling. It's a scheduling nightmare sometimes." Um, and I don't think it's from being understaffed. It's just the nature of the game. It's the number of students. It's just a numbers game. It's a numbers game and you know your num again I want to compliment the district your numbers are good your compliance is within meet standards you know um the DM we can justify um none of your special programs are busting out at the seams um you know those are those are also monitored how many kids you have in there what are their age range in there you've done a great job at that um and it's it's not been easy so that's for sure you know I think that um listening to talk through some of this I

085I want to give you sort of sort of an analogy because there is a disconnect and I'm thankful that you came in here and I'm know for and these metrics I mean that's a good question um you know I feel like you know we employ social workers that meet with parents um they any initial meeting uh referral meeting has a social worker involved school psych apologist involved. Um I feel like they are highly trained in explaining parent rights and discussing it. You know, parents come to our office and meet with these people um meet with those professionals, you know. So, I feel like we we do a good job of communicating that. Again, I don't know that we always jump as fast as people would like. Um and that's not on purpose. Um that's truly

086a scheduling thing, you know. I mean like so nowhere does anybody say okay 60 days from now that's when we're going to meet. Nobody does that. You know they get together as a team and they schedule and they go okay you know what number one what's the last date we can possibly meet and like let's back up. How quickly can we meet? How quickly can we get this done? You know um and then life happens and things change and then we we show up. School psychologist shows up with all our stuff but the kids's not there because they were sick that day. Happens all the time. Um and then it's not like they can come back tomorrow because they just scheduled 18 other things, you know, and so then then you're pushed off another two

087weeks, you know. So I think it's just complicated. Um and the more people understand and the more we can communicate it, the better off we are. Um it just doesn't always get communicated very well. What doesn't get communicated? Uh the the procedures, the timelines, you know. Do you understand as as a care that's their baby? Maybe it's unrealistic expectations of the parents. Yeah. And I think that that is um the I think that the parents that are the squeaky wheels Yeah. do know their rights and you know they're the ones that are hey you're supposed to be doing this, you're supposed to be doing this and that kind of thing. But there are plenty of parents that don't they kind of I think that the impression that I get from some of these parents is

088that I'm waiting. I'm waiting. I'm waiting. And then then they're they're upset because they don't feel like they've been made a priority. And again, it's this disconnect between we've checked a box and that felt experience. It's different. And so, um, I just don't I don't know. I think is that that something to look at, something to think about as we're educating parents or educating them in the very beginning when they get into this program or they think that there's going to be a specialized um service that their their student is going to need. Um do we have parent liaison? Well, I think these ladies on the front row right here, that's exactly what they do. Okay. Um, so you know when a referral happens whether it's a parent request, a school referral or whatever, the

089first thing they do is meet with court with administrators and they go through their rights. They go through the expectations, the timelines. Again, I'm not sure everybody likes it, you know. Um, but I I think they do an excellent job of that. Yeah. Go ahead. And that's kind of part of our process. You know, whenever we have a a student that's in the referral process, we have a checklist we use as a Part of that checklist too is that like the principal or teacher makes contact with that parent and just kind of explains the process like um about and some of the expectations and that first meeting comes from the district office from the principal's office like this meeting is set up by the school district and then we kind of that's when the paperwork

090is kind of handed over to county. Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think even just even in that education I mean we were always trained that if I was if I was going to create content to be educated it had to be at a fifth grade level and you have to not communicate often and in various different ways whether that's by writing or a phone call in order because that the one time doesn't necessarily we want to say we we communicated and I'm not I'm not I'm just saying I'm just thinking in my own you know my background just in terms of that communication sometimes well I told them we check the box yeah I mean I just want to say too like nobody's just checking boxes this is a very thorough process Oh yeah. No,

091I absolutely absolutely it's very important to acknowledge the fact that we as a district, Mrs. Watts, myself, the principles, and these ladies on the front line here. Uh, and I just want to introduce them because I want you to put a name. Yeah. Melissa Cochburn is a coordinator for our high school. Jodie Warner is Adams and Jefferson and junior high. Uh, Liz Hine is Washington and Longfellow. And then Amy Richards is Lincoln. So, and all the deaf and hard hearing programs. But you understand my analogy with like that nurse. She delivered the medicine on time. But you know, I've been involved in IEPs tangent. And then you have two different people and it was very you were very forthcoming in what was how would I process and and I can't I mean I don't know

092if these people that talk about whether they push the button the two I've been involved in they weren't my kids but I was involved in the process and from the very beginning and one of them the parents would one parent was gone and the other one was kind of trying to maybe not get there. But I think everything was very upfront. I don't know where you get these people think going to push the button and they got two hours. The two and I'm just two I'm sure out of how many but the two I mean no one had an unrealistic expectation. it was explained to very at the beginning everything went down and you know I think if these people are calling you or telling you this process is from the from my looking at

093it and being involved in this process twice it's either they didn't pay attention they didn't want to listen to what they were being told or they didn't hear what they were being told but the two I've been involved I couldn't have asked for the process to go any smoother than than one one was one wasn't so I mean seen both one IEP and one got didn't get it. So, well, and I understand when you're a parent or you're a gened teacher or a special ed teacher and you're in the trenches day in and day out and this is these things are happening quickly. Um, you want that quick fix. You want it to be like and I'm not saying that anybody's doing anything wrong. It's like it's that felt experience versus like we've done, you

094know, because what wasn't good enough, right? Do you know what I mean? And and it's for me, it's how do I um do anything but say I'm sorry that that wasn't legal to them everything we're doing everything they can to trust the process because ultimately I think it works. Yeah. And I think that's the really and truly you coming and speaking to this and being heard by the community goes a long way into like this is not that is, you know, by the wayside. We're not ignoring students. We're not ignoring parents. We're doing the very best we can. We had our union president step up and say, "We're all working on this together. Everyone's working on this together. Who's doing best practice? We don't know. Everyone's trying everything." And so, I want the community to

095know that we all are working together, trying to do our very best. And if you get a question like that, you should tell them the process. You know the process. Yeah. Well, yeah. A lot better now. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And you know, the building principles here in this district absolutely understand the process. You know, I mean, just last week we had our um Williamson County board meeting um and I asked Miss Moss to share Marian's process with all five other districts because your process works. It's very streamlined. It's very like, you know, I mean, there's there's no holes in it. um it works, you know, and you kind kind of were the exemplary, you know, at least in Williamson County. And she shared all their all your documents with them. And I think that a

096couple of our neighborhood friends are going to kind of pick up that um process because it's it works. Yeah. And it took time to get there. Yeah. But it over time it has it's they do a good job. You also remind the parents that I mean all of the kids are priorities. Oh, I do. And everyone who does this, yes, has the best interest of the kids at heart or they wouldn't be doing it, right? I mean, it's terrible to have to follow all those damn rules. Ridicul I mean, sometimes ridiculous guidelines. Yeah, it's terrible. Yeah, I try not to roll my eyes when I say them out loud, but that's why I explained last meeting. I said there's federal rules that it doesn't matter what hell we want to do, the rules tell us

097what we can and can't do, right? Oh, and we really take a lot of pride in being compliant and and you know, honestly, that's the first thing to go if a parent has a, you know, due process type of hearing, the first thing they look at is procedures. And if if you've messed up a procedure, like they don't care what you did. If you messed up a box, yeah, you're out. And I would say another mythbuster I'd like you to address for us and everyone on Facebook, Joe, Facebook, um, book fake someone. We don't we don't get services because it looks bad for the district if we have too many IEPs. So, they just deny them because it negatively affects us financially. I just have never seen any data. It doesn't. And I've said that

098I I just have never seen any data that does that. That's why I asked you specifically that question about does it. Nope. So, it does not. Not at all. I'm looking at Facebook. So, not at all. Yeah. No. And you know the the threshold for eligibility, we'll call it, you know, hasn't changed. That's that's the same. You know, right, Jamie, it was long. I'm sorry. No, it was necessary. It was very educational. Yeah, I'll come anytime, guy. I like and I'm a available by phone, email, like whatever. I'm pretty approachable. I think the only one you can't come is July because that's when we like to have about a 12minute meeting. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not allowed to come to those meetings. I can't contain myself. Wow. June in July, we like 21 minute meetings.

099So, you're not I bring an entourage like Cassie. Other than those two months, you can come any time you want. Well, thanks. And like I said, anytime you guys have questions, don't hesitate questions before we let Jamie go. Let my people go. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Building trades, Mr. James. I want to share it. I guess you're going to be like everybody else and every other meeting. Oh, you're okay. I thought everybody's going to get up and leave. Okay. Well, thank you very much. And I know we've had a lot of discussion the last couple meetings about that and some other discussion among board members. And I think it worked out well having you come to it's a sometimes a thankless job that the five of you have to deal with,

100especially if you're dealing with parents that think want their and we all want the best interest of their children and you know they think my child's not getting what he or she needs. And I can assure you that as far as the board is, we appreciate everything you do for the students and the kids and try to make the educational process better for each of one of them. So, thank you for hopefully it answered a lot of questions. And I would like to just say real quick, they are all our students, not just special ed co-op students and Marian students. We they are our students. I just want to say that out loud multiple times because I well I say it every year on opening day but I just I feel like it doesn't sink

101in totally. So I want everyone to understand that we are serving all of these children and it's not them and us. We work together. So that light at the tunnel, that's a train. Mr. Blair, can I backtrack just one second? What's that? Maybe Haley, was that a pocket door you put in that house? I loved that. Thank you. You did a great job. I bring pocket doors back. Okay, moving right along. Mr. Garrison will make motion on a consent agenda and Jamie will just make know on the record that this is going to be one of the longest meetings we've had for a while. Just just saying just just saying just just saying as I think you're welcome anytime. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mr. Harrison. Mr. President, thank you. I'd like to make the recommendation

102that we approve the consent agenda as presented. Minutes from the December 17th, 2024 public hearing, regular meeting and the December 18th, 2024 public hearing and special meeting the December supplementary bills and the January bills for payment as presented. Donations will let Mrs. Yes, we have Breakbrush Brothers Incorporated to Marion High School 2025 summer sports valued at $60. Breakbrush Brothers Incorporated to Marion Junior High School 2025 Summer Sports at $120. Break Brush Brothers Incorporated to Adams 2025 summer sports valued at $35. Jim Parker to Marion Unit 2 school district donation valued at $1,000. Reading for education to Lincoln Elementary, supplies valued at $7469. Marian Aldersgate to Marion High School Friends in Christ Club, a donation valued at $200. And SI Community Foundation to the Marion Unit 2 Foundation, a donation of $297.80. I have a second.

103Second. Right on. Any further discussion after we let Miss Moss read the donations before we had a second? So, don't anybody tell them don't tell those federal government That any further discussion hearing? None. Madam Secretary, will you call roll? Wesley? Yes. Moore? Yes. Thunder? Yes. Garrison? Yes. Waller? Yes. Wire? Yes. Mr. Wesley, can we move on to new business, please? Personnel recommendations. Yep. Mr. President, I'd like to make the recommendation to approve the following personnel recommendations as presented. Employment Brett Leaper, maintenance department, effective February 3rd, 2025. Deborah Parks, Cook, assigned to Washington, effective January 21st, 2025. Certified Andrea Fuge, kindergarten teacher, assigned to Longfellow, effective 2025 2026 school year. Sheldon Steig, social worker, assigned to Adams, effective 2025 2026 school year. Lauren Brown, elementary social worker, assigned to Washington Lincoln, effective 2025 2026 school year.

104Coaching, Jana Elwood, Marion High School volunteer girls track and field coach, effective 2024 2025 season. Alicia Stacy, Marian Junior High head girls track and field coach, effective 2024 2025 season. Reassignments. Jamie Bush reassigned from Mary Junior High School. Cook to second Cook at Maring Junior High School effective January 21st, 2025. Resignations. Diana Hok assigned to Mar Junior High High School effective January 31st, 2025. Jamie Swan Cook assigned to Adams effective January 31st, 2025. And a leave of absence, Bailey Anderson, third grade teacher, assigned to Washington Elementary. a maternity leave of absence beginning approximately May 19th, 2025 through the end of the 2024 2025 school year using accumulated sick leave and documents. May I have a second, please? Second. Any discussion hearing? None. Madam Secretary, will you call a roll, please? Moore, yes. Bundren, yes. Garrison,

105yes. Lawler, yes. Wesley, yes. Wire, yes. Sherry, can we have a Marian Community Unit School District number two in the city of Mary as presented. Second. Second. Miss Moss, can you tell us what this is? Uh, this was the agreement between the city and our school district in regards to the Midway Court Project. Keep with that explanation. Any other further questions? M hearing. None. Madam Secretary, will you call Ro? Bund. Yes. Garrison. Yes. Waller. Yes. Wesley. Yes. Moore. Yes. Flyer. Yes. And Miss Hodge, you got me thrown off and I forgot to do the introductions after we hired people. Because I was just still mesmerized by your presentation. That's what I mean. I just lost track, you know. I was like, I have that effect. Mine is a bad thing to lose. So, hello Mallerie

106Wilson from Longfellow Principal. Um, I want to introduce Andrea Fujier. She was just approved to be our new our new kindergarten teacher for next year. Um, she is not a new face along fellow. She's worked through Americanore two years previous years while Mrs. Watts was there. Um, she's done her student teaching with Abby Childers who is a current kindergarten teacher and she'll be taking her spot as Miss Childers moves to fifth grade. Um, she also had student teaching experience in England in the fall as well. So, some good experiences. We don't have coffee in the afternoon. She said she stopped her coffee habit while she was over there. So, we'll see how long that lasts though once she gets started next year. Um, when I checked with references, um, they all spoke very highly of

107her, said that she, um, was well respected by everyone and took the time to get to know her students and they all enjoyed having her. So, um, we're thrilled to have her officially join Long Bellow for next year and she's actually going to be our kindergarten aid for the remainder of this year. So, we're super excited about that. So, welcome. Welcome. You better run a gauntlet. Welcome. No, the record should not she's got blue and gold sweater on her own blue and gold sweater. She's my new friend. Good job. Maybe make some for the board. Okay. Um, my name's Ashley Vincent. I'm the principal at Washington Elementary School and on behalf of Mr. Fletcher and I um we have the privilege of introducing to you Miss Mrs. Lauren Brown. Um she's actually a Marian native,

108grew up here in Marian and graduated. Um kind of did a little bit of practice in um DCFS and Lutheran Social Services um where she obtained her master's degree during that time and then uh the past couple years has been at West Frankfurt um at their school system. And so we're we're so blessed to have her here. Her references were of course glowing. Um some things that were noted, they said that she was very kind, um compassionate, um very patient and phenomenal with the younger students. Um one said, "Our loss your gain." Um just wonderful things to say about her and just how great she is to work not just with the students but with adults. So we are very fortunate to have her and we're looking forward um Washington and Lincoln to have her

109as as their home schools. Get rid of that red stuff. unable to make it tonight. She's got a ball game down at Adams. But it is my priv privilege to introduce Sheldon Ste. He um is no stranger to all the information Mrs. Hodgej shared earlier. He spent three years with Franklin Jefferson Specialized Co-op um as a school social worker and for the past 10 years he's been at North Side Primary Center in Heron. So he has worked with the Littles and he's seen a lot of really probably interesting things and behaviors for the past 10 years. So we're very excited to have him join Marian. He resides in Marian. So it just it just makes sense for him to be here. So um some of his references described him as someone who truly cares about

110the students and makes a great connection with all the students. Um data driven and has a great understanding of all the systems with MTSS and PBIS. Um he's a team player and always willing to help out. So we are very excited to welcome Sheldon um to Marinator 2 and to Adam's school. Sheldon. Sheldon is also a disc golfer and an orphan at heart. Yes. Congrats. I got the last name right. Thank you. He say or heart. An orphanate heart. Australia. You know, all these years I've been on the board, I I think we do a great job of hiring people because everybody introduced them always talks about every all the glowing references, all the people we hire. I'm not going to hire you. I'm not going to hire. Okay. Never mind. Okay. Okay, moving right

111along to graduation. Speaking of graduation, may I have a motion on the uh Shannon? May I have a motion on the graduation date, please? Sure thing, Mr. President. I make the recommendation that we approve the Marian High School graduation date of Thursday, May 15, 2025 at the Rent one park. I have a second. I'll second. And before we have discussion, we'll just get the cat out of the bag. We've got an emergency plan for next year. talked about it today. Miss Moss and I will not be sitting down there in the pouring down rain. Wear the same dress though. If it rains, we will we've got a contingency plan and I'll go to my grave saying it was most of the problems from this year was this stadium keeping us from starting, not not the

112school district. Of course, it never be our fault, but anyway, but we do have a contingency plan out there for everybody to know that uh we learned a lesson last year and we going to make changes. So, so Aaron, just remember that I'm not going to with that said, any other discussion? Hearing none, Madam Secretary, you call role, please. Yes. Yes. Wesley, yes. Moore, yes. Thunder, yes. Flyer, yes. Patty, can we have a motion on the bids and proposals, please? Yes. Mr. President, I make the recommendation on the bids and proposals as presented. Award the bid for Washington Elementary School to Barber Masonry Masonry Incorporated in the amount of $96,540. Award the bid for Marian Junior High School roof replacement. Roofing Company Incorporated in the amount of $384,000. Award the bid for Marian High School

113in Washington Elementary roof replacement to de Martin roofing in the amount of $1,287,34. Have a second. Second. Any discussion? And I think I had a discussion beforehand. I think Miss Watson or a Heron. I just had a question. Why are we having a new roof for Marian High School? Can you explain what it's part of the old system? It's out of warranty. So, right now we have sections of Wilson Gym and surrounding areas which was not part of the new high school. Correct. And it looks like the other part was over what used to be we called the boys and girls gym that's now the cafeteria. That's correct. And those are parts that were not constructed with our new high school. They were the old stuff. Yes. They're out of warranty. We're having some issues.

114So that's when everybody like me says, "Why are we putting a new roof on a school that's that young?" And so we're not putting on the new construction. We're just putting on the Wilson gym and the cafeteria. That is correct. Any other questions? Hearing none. Madam Secretary, you call roll, please. Waller, yes. Wesley, yes. Moore, yes. Yes. Garrison. Yes. Yes. Mr. Garrison, can you move on with our use of facilities, please? Sure. Mr. President, I would like to make the recommendation that we approve the updated procedures for the use of Marian Community Unit School District number two facilities as presented. Have a second. Second. We had some discussion about this last month and we've got a new Is that on the decide anybody wants to look at it or well the policy is not changing

115just our procedures are changing and that will be explain to us we will be implementing that after you approve this if you approve this tonight um so we'll be uh getting that to all the buildings we talked about it at our last principal meeting uh but we have some new forms some updated forms that we will be uh putting into place and so we want to make sure that every building is very consistent when it comes to um facilities use and that's outside school organizations using outside school organizations using our facilities mostly gyms mostly gyms yes see those have any question form that we'll use does that get sent to get the building principles and then do they share with yeah so we have we have said that in order to make sure like Kim

116and myself are always the you know, in case there is an insurance claim or something of of that nature that the principles will um be in charge of, you know, approving or disapproving of someone's use, but they will always make sure that the forms are sent to myself and Kim and of course Aaron is included in that too as far as who's using it when. Any other questions? Hearing none, the secretary, you call roll, please. Wesley, yes. Moore, yes. Thunderre, yes. Garrison, yes. Wallard, yes. Wire, yes. Mr. Wesley, since you're on the finance committee, can you make the next motion? Yeah. Mr. President, I'd like to make the recommendation to approve the substitute pay increase from $120 a day to $125 a day effective January 1st, 2021. I have a second, please. Second. Any discussion?

117Did we run you off? Okay. Can't spend time. Okay. Uh, is that the going right now, Miss Boss? We're doing that to Yes. to make sure we have enough substitutes. That's correct. We always try to make sure that we're um the same as others in the county. So, this puts us with everyone else, too. Any other questions or discussion hearing? None. Madam Secretary, you call roll, please. More. Yes. Yes. Garrison. Yes. Waller. Yes. Wesley. Yes. Wire. Yes. Cherry, will you make a motion regarding the vision 2030 board resolution, please? Mr. President, I make the recommendation to approve the vision 2030 board resolution as presented. Have a second. Second. Any discussion? That's in our packet, right? It is. Can you give us a brief I can. Yes. So, um there was vision 2020. Um obviously that

118has passed. Now we are on to vision 2030. So um this is basically just saying that as a school district we support what um the various organizations and there's a in your packet you will see or in your folder tonight there's a list of all the people that are serving on this committee. Mrs. Hajj I believe is on that committee as well. So we have some representation representation in our uh lower part of the state as well. But the main the main center of um 2030 is keeping students safe, keeping high quality educators in front of our students, enhancing postsecary success and improving measurement of what is working. Um and also to make sure that everyone knows or ensuring that EVF stays in place and everyone knows what they'll be getting. So any other questions?

119Hearing none. Madam Secretary and call role, please. Bundance, yes. Harrison, yes. Waller, yes. Wesley, yes. Moore, yes. Yes. Jerome, normally I don't have anything additional to add, but since it's been such a short meeting, Mrs. Moss has asked me to read some minutes from our technology committee meeting we had last week. So, I'll try to get through them quickly. Unit 2, technology committee update. Our newly formed technology committee met for the first time January 15, 2025. Committee members present were Becky Moss, Lindseay Watts, Jerry Stanley, Kendra Wolfford, Jess Landis, Carrie Young, Steven Pugandorf, Christy Pierce, Jesse Wallace, Cody Ms, Joel Williams. Jared Garrison is also a committee member but was not able to attend due to previous obligations. After introductions, the group agreed that our initial focus needs to be on AI for classroom teachers.

120solely at this point. We want to be thorough and well prepared. So the group decided a target date was August of 2025 when school starts. With that in mind, the group reviewed some draft policies for the for unit two. The document has 12 sections. We spent some time discussing the first four sections which are section one purpose and the scope of AI. Section two definition of AI terms as artificial intelligence, artificial intelligence tools and data privacy. Um, part three, general principles, educational equity, data privacy and security, transparency, ethical use and professional development. Uh, part number four, AI in the classroom, support for learning, student privacy, assessment and evaluation. Uh, we spent some time in question and answer to get the feel of our direction. It was a consensus of the group that we would try

121to choose four AI applications that would be available for the teachers in August so that we could get the best use. Those would enable better understanding of the application by the staff, allow more concise training. This would help reduce stress and frustration among the staff that sometimes comes with introduction of a new application. Our group will meet again on February 12th, 2025 to start modifications of the draft policy and review potential AI products. Did you draft that or did they? Actually, I wrote this myself. He actually said that. He said that when he and he came in and said, "Hey, this is what I'm planning on sharing." I actually wrote it. Yes. Some of the some of the draft policies that we re that we reviewed I wrote AI helping me. Yeah. But I actually

122wrote this myself. No. Anything else to run? Uh that's all. Thank you. A Ron. I don't have much. Um I just know anything with the teachers. Um I you know I apologize for anybody not having heat. Um you know we were hit pretty hard these last two weeks with this ice and snow. So the power didn't help at all. Um we are continuously working on stuff like that. So um it concerns me that there was a classroom that was that low in temperature. So my phone did not go off today. So that also concerns me. So other than that, I don't have anything else. I just want to say thanks for all the uh staff who helped with the ice and snow removal. Um other than that, I'm I'm glad to see a graduation date

123that lets me know that warmer weather's coming. But other than that, I don't have any. Thanks. Sure. Can we say which school had the cold class? Um, that was a classroom in Marian High School, the new building. In the new building sent me a picture of a thermometer in their room. 43 degrees. Was that getting too deep? Was it just the unit not working in there or I'm just going to be 100% honest. I looked at my work orders. I didn't get a work order on it. That was the first I even heard of that. So I was not aware of it. He and I talked beforehand just like you know like I said before I mean I understand we have some older buildings. It is a little frustrating I'm sure for you and me

124that we have a brand of what we consider that's why I asked about the roof with some issues like that like so was the whole wing cold. So um it's it's way down on one end of the building. So I really wasn't down there. Um I know that it was a particular classroom on the far end of like way from me like more down towards the auditorium. volunteer let them come use your room. Well, they didn't let me know until later in the day, but you know, I I I do tell them just as a union person, I always tell them if it gets significantly bad, they should ask for a potential to move somewhere else in the building if at all possible. I mean, that is a recommendation. If it gets too hot, if

125it gets too cold, don't be afraid to say, "Hey, is there somewhere else I can go at least temporarily?" You know, because again, I do understand there are things that do not get fixed immediately. They take time. may take energy, but you know, on a day-to-day basis, having a kid in a classroom, like I said, that's 43 degrees, you're not getting much done in a classroom at that temperature. So, you know, those are issues we just got to try to figure out. Again, it loops back to what we said before, working together. And if someone didn't inform them, they need to inform them. That's something they also need to do. Miss Moss, um, I don't have anything else other than I just want to say again how much work the maintenance department did to make

126it safe for us to return uh to school. And I know it's cold um but the sidewalks and the parking lots were cleared for staff and students. So, thank you to them. Miss Watts, Kim, it's all yours. No extra money, no extra program. So be sure we're done with this. Thank you. M OS, did you do monthly eser reports when you had your monthly board meeting? We do financial reports. Me? No. Monthly esters. No, we spend dollars on salaries. It went out the door quick. I can't use my phone. Sorry. That's my fault, too. For all you non-regulars, the inight. Yes, sir. Appcate is putting together a portfolio for college applications going forward. So after meeting if she can get a picture with you that would be wonderful not just me I wouldn't I wouldn't

127admit her if I saw a picture of me on the application throw him out. Yes. Well whatever kind of photographs you want. I'll either be in it or out of it. Oh did we get to see your password when you put it in? I hope I just remembered. Oh, you need your phone. I got to go to the bathroom. Seriously. One by one. Right on. There we go. All right. December 31st. 24. Uh we finished at 38,177,679. We're 50% of the way through the fiscal year. Uh revenue is at 70.97% of budget. We still have one more tax payment and interest coming in um from our extensions. Expenses are at 44.91% so we're doing good within budget. Uh we did receive our second payment on December 9th uh of the tax property tax. It was

12811 million 513,84616. So we have received 86.02% of our extensions. Um as of today they are having the tax sale on January 23rd. So I anticipate the last payment interest being sometime in February. Any questions? Yes sir. The only thing I want to point out to you we're talk about this budget and the growth in retail. Uh we you know Hartland Regional Medical Center was not a was a for-profit hospital contributed to the school district for property taxes. Deaconist Hospital has now filed his application for a nonprofit. How much did theos Heartland pay us last year in Texas? Tell you exactly. We'll be paying this year $822,38852. So when they become a nonprofit, see $800 and some odd thousand No power plan hadn't follow and they wouldn't file on property. They would just have for

129reassessment but they haven't but the hospital is see $850,000. That's our share. That's not how much the tax they paid. That's the share from that was seven partials that they applied for. That's what I always say. Every time SI buys something, it goes off the tax, but Deaconist is not SIH. I don't believe we have any reason for closed session tonight, do we? One tiny thing update in close session. Okay. Well, make your motion. Okay. Mr. Mr. President, I make the recommendation we go into close session to enter into close session for purpose of personnel, the purpose of the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees for the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee for the of the public

130body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity and litigation. When an action against, affecting, or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and pending, court or administrative tribunal or when the public finds that an action is probable or eminent in which the basis finding must be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. I have a second. Second. Madam Secretary, will you call roll, please? Garrison, yes. Waller, so enthusiastic. Wesley, yes. Moore, yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you all for coming. We will not be taking any action as we come out of close session. Thank you all for coming, Miss Odds. Seriously, I know we get around. Thank you for your presentation. anytime. And we will see you all here next month, February 18th at 6:00