District 208 Board of Education Committee of the Whole Meeting 02-25-25

001Committee of the whole and special meeting of the Board of Education District 208 I pledge to the of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you we have a roll call please miss Nery here here here here here here and Dr freas we have some recognitions this even we good evening honorable board members firstly we would like to congratulate our VAR City competitive Palms team congratulations to the Palm team for placing second in the AAA Jazz division at the 2025 Illinois drill team association state finals first we would like to recognize if you hear your name please come on up Aubrey agney Samantha bolt congratulations you going to do pictures in here or outside we outside outside

002okay Charlotte caponio Callis Avery Cavalier [Applause] Li Cen Maya [Applause] Gonzalez congratulations Isabella kers Olivia chak [Applause] congratulations Sophia Lee Sophia Miller [Applause] lanao congratulations kayn Novak Anna pinck [Applause] congratulations Emilia roer congratulations Addie seura sad towers and Ana re and now i' like to invite our head coach Miss Tia Sherman [Applause] hi thanks for having us um just a little tidbit about the weekend um you know I have a little athlete a son at home and he said and he plays basketball baseball he said Mom let me get this straight you go all the way down to Springfield and they have two minutes one shot two minutes to try their hardest and do their best and I said yep and and I thought to myself wow that you know that's pretty cool that he

003thought to look at it that way and we really do get too minut after all the hard work from starting back from May and the only way they they nailed their performance and that's because they were prepared they worked so hard and were extremely dedicated so um so proud of them we also um the Ida recognizes scholar athletes all 17 members were recognized as scholar athletes for excellence in the classroom meaning they had a 3.5 GPA or higher so that is a really and we just really thank you for your support um we couldn't do it without the support of the school in the board and and our community so thank you so much [Applause] [Music] all right folks now we like to congratulate our chess team our chess team qualified for State for the

00419th consecutive year unfortunately a lot of our chess members also multi Sport athlets and more club members so they're not here but I would like to recognize them though um first uh Mr coach Mr Monty and our student chess leads we have Ryan badani dton Campbell Joey Duff Cameron Glenny Mato Gonzalez David GLI aello Kyle H Jaden Lee Alex Perez Victoria caka N malaric and Dylan [Applause] zik now I'll be recognizing a young lady right next to me here you know congratulations to senior Emma Lopez are receiving the 2025 aspiration aspirations in Computing national award from the national Center for Women and information technology Emma is one of just 40 students from across the US ground Puerto Rico the US Virgin Islands and overseas military bases to earn this prestigious recognition this award honors Juniors

005and seniors who have demonstrated exceptional skills dedication and passion for technology while this is her first national level and ncwit award she has been recognized at the Northern Illinois level for the past 3 years Emma will be honored at the national award event in Charlotte North Carolina this weekend stay and our Bulldog I would like to recognize one of our very own teachers who I think is one of the best teachers in America please join us in congratulating Sandy cha who has been named by the Illinois State Board of Education as a recipient of the 2025 those who Excel War since 1970 the Illinois state board of education has sponsored the those who Excel and the teach of the Year program to honor Educators who have made significant contribution to our state's public and nonpublic

006Elementary and secondary schools for 20125 Sandy has received the award of meritorious service in the classroom teacher category those presented with the award of meritorious service are experienced Educators who have gone above and beyond in the service to their school communities sley was chosen from thousands of nominees across the state of Illinois to be recognized for her countless contribution to education specifically Riverside RI High School let's get up for Miss Sandy CH congratulations Miss cha yeah Miss ch would you like to share a few words you know of your of your journey cuz we have it for a year and a half right it's less than a year and a half now we're almost down to a year and a quarter but not that anyone's counting um first of all really this is an honor

007but mostly I hope people realize that this is really about all of our be um so many people here have helped me over the years um from administrators down to um everyone along the way whether it's been my department um whether it's been the maintenance staff who fix things at the last minute um we have another chair down in the computer lab please come help us um the tech staff who is always helping me with everything uh with the computers is just amazing but um some specific things I just really want to mention um a few years ago you let us start the uh peer evaluation system and I have been with um Patty sarcy and Jessica moritzen and they have been my cheerleaders and um my reality check and we've had just an amazing

008time so thank you I know that that was a really T difficult decision for people to accept and I have grown in my last years because of I didn't expect this um my department is amazing we believe we're the best department in the in the school and uh and I think that's true too um Lindsay Mina is our division head and she puts up with a lot for me me um but also always supports me Kylie linquist uh was my biggest cheerleader with getting involved with the College Board which is allowed me to bring back so much information back to RB and uh Kevin skinkis has put up with my blunt honesty um and I think 90% of the time he's appreciated it um but I appreciate that you let me speak my mind because

009if we can't do that we're not ever going to grow as a school or individually so and of course my students who are just amazing and they put up with my crazy ideas and wanting me to push them uh to try new things to be uncomfortable because if we're not uncomfortable we don't grow um and so I really appreciate that they put up with me because some days I'm sure it's hard it's like why is she having us do this now um but hearing the stories even one tonight about alums who've gone so far um and realize that maybe some of the stuff they learned actually did make a difference or that maybe may I wasn't wrong when I said you know computer science might be a really good option for you um so I

010really appreciate all of them for willing to take a chance um with Pro with a program that they didn't we didn't even have when I started here um so thank you to everyone and uh let's make this last year and a quarter the fast thank [Applause] you I that concludes our recognitions we'll be taking a few pictures with the students and staff thank you Dr fras Student Association report come on up make sure you introduce yourselves again if you could you got a fuller team today yeah not just me this right you were left solo um well good evening thank you guys so much for having us uh my name is Lucy dren I'm the executive board president my name is elero I'm the student spokesperson uh I'm Caitlyn Klein I'm the director of communications

011I'm Smitha Gibbs and I'm the treasur and then we just wanted to start off with some of like the past events that had just happened um one of them being the blood drive that happened on February 19th um we received 64 pints which could save 138 lives which we thought was really good this time um we had 53 registered donors 14 of them being firsttime donors um this brings us to a total of 92 people that have donated so far this school year with 276 lives being helped um and yeah we think that these donations have been very generous this year and we are hoping to continue them for our May 2 blood drive that's going to happen in one of the trucks that are going to be set outside of Rach so yeah great

012congratulations yeah and then just on February 13th our senior class officers organized the cubits countdown Winter Dance uh we thought the turnout was really good everyone we heard from had a lot of fun we were all there um it was a good time um and and leading up to the dance they did a snow person decorating contest um they delivered these like wooden snowmen about like this big to any clubs or individuals who showed interest in it and then you got to kind of be creative with it and decorate it yourself Student Association um made Mr divis into Mr Electric I don't know if anyone saw it um but um so we kind of took a fun spin on it and then um Sophie fingerut who's a student created an ice cream conb design that

013ended up winning first place um and as you walk through the dance they had them lined up throughout the science hallway um for everyone to see and we thought it was really fun yeah so uh looking ahead just to next week um we are going to have the ueec leadership conference here at RB uh we're super excited to have the opportunity to get to work with uh Mr Manon on this and uh us and the exec board are going to be leading um breakout groups there's going to be 11 different schools here um for our conference with over 150 students and staff can you tell us what ueec stands for oh sorry Upstate okay I haven't heard that Acron so I apologize yeah uh we're gonna have a keynote speaker um Eddie slowski we're super

014excited to have him here um so we're going to have a speaker we're going to have three different breakout groups about student voice uh building culture and climate and um school spirit that we're going to be we're super excited about the opportunity to get to lead these groups and um work with our peers and just be able to collaborate with other schools and learn about what they do um we can you know share what we do here at RB and hopefully just really you know make what we do better and hopefully share some of what makes RV so great all right since it was so successful in the fall we did a scavenger hunt around the school with and Halloween costumes and everyone requested for us to do more we're going to be doing one

015in April with spring activities like Easter eggs bunnies um flowers flow all those of things and everyone who finds one will receive a little goodie bag with sprs in uh and then Student Association we're starting our elections for next year already um we've seen a lot of like Juniors who's shown great interest that uh are going to be applying for exec board you'll see them next year uh and then we're doing like class officers like sophomore junior seniors um we're starting that next week through spring break we're going to be doing interviews for exec board so yeah and then as we do every year we have our annual um pop tops for the Ronald McDonald House Collection here at RB starting up soon we're going to we've been advertising all year but um especially coming

016back from break and the days before break we're going to push it um real hard because what right as soon as we get back from break we're going to start our collection it usually goes for about two to three weeks um we're hoping to have record-breaking numbers this year last year we had a ton um I think we had over 200,000 200,000 pop tops collected um so yeah we just really look forward to being able to get all of ourv together to work on this there's going to be prizes gift cards um and stuff to the students who donated the most so we're super excited for that and to be able to give back to our community um so that's all we have do you guys thank you guys so much for having us do

017you have any questions any questions from anyone no you guys are very when are your elections yeah um when are the elections um we're collecting the rest their pal packets after spring break and then we're doing it through like April late April I think we're doing election interviews like April 10 so I I remember do we I I'm trying to think about this I know we'll you'll speak again probably in we won't see in March right cuz that's only two weeks from now yeah I probably the April meeting might be the last meeting we'll see this group of senior then yeah I believe that's the last one we'll be here for and then by May we'll have the hopefully the new board to be introduced okay okay great great enjoy your last few months okay

018Dr skinkis moving on to the superintendence report thank you uh resident alist let me just unlock my computer here okay um superintendent report uh 2526 Staffing the administration and division has are revie student course requests and assigning Staffing allotments uh currently and sections to the Departments for the master schedule of the board will receive their annual Staffing report at the March meeting there is a Personnel advisory Council which is Mr Durkin and Mr venor uh scheduled for the first week of March uh alard Park as the board previously approved uh We've start to make subtraction the village of Brookfield is on a different budget cycle than us their budget calendar uh is is on a January 1 I believe cycle so they did uh approve to match our up to $100,000 with us to re

019uh to fix up the renovations at the Eller Park which is what we use for JV and varsity baseball uh it's anticipated the work will start in the fall of 2025 again most of these were safety related and defensing dugouts um and a back stop uh k9's for Comfort looking to have a little discussion here tonight just to kind of get the pulse of the board but Kines for comfort the building Administration for several years now has regularly invites therapy dogs from k9's for Comfort uh to visit RB uh k9 for comfort is a 501c3 that provides trained dogs for mental health treatment and wellness there has been some discussion between the administration and our student services team about exploring the opportunity for for RB to have a permanent therapy dog uh the team is

020in the preliminary stages of planning and Dr smana I've had her check with both liability insurance and legal counsel but I wanted tonight just to have a brief discussion uh from the board uh what your pulse on this and also from our student board members maybe they can share the students experience with the therapy dogs Kines for Comfort does all this is at no charge to the school eventually we would have to have a line item if we were to secure a dog um you know for regular Health appointments and uh the food is covered as part of the package several you know tens of thousands of dollars that covers the training is covered in the package they are looking for you know um Personnel to take care of the dog so we have identified

021three employees who would be willing you identify three employees one is obviously lead and then there's a backup and another backup um um and there have been some other schools that have done this so we're doing some site visits and discussions with them Mr Manon who you'll actually hear from tonight about the handbook uh is planning this out a little bit so if we start to get into some questions I could ask him to come up but I just wanted to let the students kind of give their background on what it's like to have the therapy dog dogs here and then just see if there's any issues or concerns from the board's perspective lady I can start off but I think the um addition of dogs and The Morning has been um again incredible um

022opportunity for students I think that students love having the dogs um in the morning and um interacting with them I always see people petting the dogs and um interacting with them and so I think um having a permanent um dog would definitely be beneficial for students who um experience um um health related issues as well and so I think having um a therap dog would um benefit the student body here right kind of going off of what Emma said I feel like especially having the therapy dogs here during times that are stressful like finals weekend AP exam season I feel like is super beneficial because I think um I mean as we probably all know having pets does help mental health and I think that's kind of a big thing that um is recognized um

023like coming from someone who like I do deal with anxiety like during school and during testing cuz it's a very big stressful time especially like for students who are like in their junior year and dealing with um all these circumstances that they're going through I think having a permanent K9 dog here and having a permanent therapy dog here would generally be beneficial to students who do struggle with anxiety who do struggle with depression and maybe even have difficult times getting through school days just as it is um which I think is a big part of the conversation too that um kind of like of what Emma was saying that it will help students kind of get through those days that maybe are just rough in general and kind of just aside from testing as well

024now the dog would not just so that's the record straight the dog would not anytime outside of the main office or the student services office would be uh with a Handler and on uh its training vest in in leash it's not something that's not like we're just going to have a dog roaming the halls I want you to be clear about that but we also thought about it from the Dean's office perspective sometimes when students are in been through trauma and uh traumatic event or are in a situation to where they're um sharing some stuff or it just uh it provides somewhat of a release somewhat of comfort um you know in our small group sessions in student services uh our social work sessions uh just uh having that and the reason we've been bring

025we brought this up is it's always been kind of like you get on a wa a weight list and one of the dogs that we that frequently visits our be maybe a for adoption as well or to where they could be assigned so that's why we wanted to we've hashed this out before and now we're hashing it out again and I wanted to get where the where the board's at with it when I was on the kar board um Dr Ganon we did have the school nurse she it wasn't through canines for Comfort but um or com whatever it is um but she the school nurse had a dog that was trained for that and she would bring it in I don't know if if they still do it anymore um but I know that

026it was well received um for that and I think uh for a while Riverside um how just doing a temporary program like we are right now okay so but it was well received okay is there a novelty to it that that spikes when it's infrequent and wains I guess that would be a question for any out just in case there's some questions but when you say like a novelty at the beginning and then it becomes kind of there's a dog here I'm curious like maybe that's and that's what I'm asking is is is it something where there ised benefit I can only say in my setting we've had them during High uh stress situations but not on over the long term I understand it in that um capacity I guess I'm more Curious uh if

027you have I guess we would call it a permanent installation um if it becomes something that is uh taken for granted and not not utilized in that same therapeutic way or is it it's an open question so it's a valid question I've been in talks with um should go back and give you some little quick background on this so I came into contact with k for Comfort um through one of my programs that I'm involved with at Western Illinois and the principal that is in my cohort had one at her school way back in 19 um and that's when I started kind of like investigating this organization which is now for-profit and their sole purpose is to provide k9's for Veterans for school entities for a lot of police departments in our area actually are

028are utilizing dogs now as well through that organization so they're they're really branching out and actually have an extensive weight list at this time um and to your point um you know I followed up with another school Diamond Lake School District uh the last couple days and what they do to make sure that it is effective is they have an ongoing survey and benchmarks that they want to view and see in regards to social emotional support where we at with that is that still a vital thing that's um good in the best interest for students and so that's been a beneficial thing for their school district I think with any program it's good to have benchmarks and to see where you're at um with the uses and one of the things that they really lean

029on is not only for the social emotional but also for speech therapy um for events and also the connection with the community so those are like the thir three big areas of the and just to add you know I think in our building and in any school right there's we have tough moments daily right a kid goes through a Christ on a daily basis so having it available for that moment could only be helpful you know at the tier one level and uh thank you Mr Man for all the work you've done because we've seen it I've seen the smiles on our students face I've seen their anx their anxiety levels lesson you know and their smiles grow you know when the dogs are around so you know at least qualitatively you know I will

030say they're effective and it works we've also received some positive feedback from staff members oh yeah of just having a different impact on them in the morning seeing them here and having a few minutes to be with the dogs or pet the dogs are there multiple dogs here when we we do it on like a busy day like finals or we usually have anywhere from 2 to three so when we would get this one we only have one then bring that would be the primary focus is to have it here all the time but if we you know that doesn't mean we couldn't stop bigger event to possibly have a second dog show up or have them come into a check on a busy week so that it's they're here on but the focus would

031be to have the one for sure all the time do the multiple dogs help you guys or is that not I would say yes because I think typically like well anytime someone like walks into the building and they see a dog they're going to gravitate towards it so I feel like having multiple dogs helps kind of balance it out so not one dog is getting overwhelmed I think by multiple students and not kind of being like towered over by like 10 students who are wanting to pet it so I think it does definitely help in kind of just kind of with the congestion mostly of it the difference between that Mr Novak will be like on those days when we have the multiple dogs that we have them usually right out here at Dora so

032when all the big traffic comes in for final exams or if there's been something going on uh right it's it's the initial walk up but we have not tried them yet to where they've sat in on a therapy session or a one-on-one session when the kids in the Dean's office or in their social workers office or going through some we haven't been able to kind of get to that next phase yet um question so if we decide to move forward with this and then the benchmarks that we set after so many aren't being met like how committed are you to having this dog it's it's a district dog so the district would belong to the school and and um haven't seen any returned you know in my um that's why we have to have three

033caretakers correct the list of thre so that there's always someone to take care of the dog take the dog home at night take it to its fat appointments F training it is assigned to the caretaker or to the district not the caretaker so if the caretaker moves on finds another job stays we have to have and is the primary Handler in the counseling office or are they in the math department right so it would be we have some identified in all those are not in the math department but in student services and in the main office okay and the um the certification is a lengthy process so if it's one that's not available right now let's say we get a puppy it is a year process to like on board get that dog through the

034training there's weekly mandatory training for the handlers to go to and then quarterly trainings after that once the dog certified so it's an extensive program that K ask for Comfort solely taks on themselves with no cause of the district whatsoever um but they want to make sure that that dog's vetted out and certified and ready to go um before implementing them in a school district so um I think you said an outstanding issue would be the the legal review and liability I guess I would add to that um any extra contractual hours that would be required from handlers for training they how would they be covered still part of our plan okay so I think that thought we we for sure have already talked about the grooming in the vet and that would be covered

035by the on behalf of the district um they would just leave and take it during school hours we were thinking that could be like you know right no different than attending a workshop or a conference or comp time type deal okay does the dog go home then with that staff person yes and so it is that considered like work taking care of the dog or is the dog just part of their like little family that becomes part of their family that's what we discussed if we don't think we have the three caretakers willing to make the commitment we would not do it we think we have more than three that are with at this point in time I've asked us those same questions I've been drilling down on this for a little bit now um

036and I can assure you my assistant soup of compliance has been buil so we're at a point to where we could be at the The Tipping Point of like this may work but I wanted to get the board's opinion at the end of the day you know uh to see if if there were any major concerns on I mean I think of it benefits the students that's always our our goal so is there any option of um sharing a dog with one of the feeder schools not a typical thing that this organization would do probably um what we've done the last four or five years actually it's end of the fourth year would be this year is oook terce is um their primary Handler has three dogs he takes on two that are at his

037station he's one of the Deputy Chiefs there and um they utilize it for the community events but they also have been gracious enough to come out and they we originally used them for senior Sunrise out of the stadium and so pickles now is going to be a senior graduating with her our seniors this year but he's been great and like every year he'll bring another dog he's training one because pickles and Kane are already already trained up um and so that's kind of like how we've been progressing with this and then we utilize them for finals for uh before breaks or tense times within the Academic Year so um I don't see a shared thing from that organization and probably most likely here um from what if we can't find three committed handlers I wonder

038if that would be an option but you feel you need three handlers in the building yes and Dave has volunteered to be Handler number one this is it's been a passion of mine for a while and so we've done a lot of a lot of research and a lot of conversations with it and I think what to your point you know we always look at what's in the best interest for students and seeing all of our kids gravitate to these dogs in beginning of you know the school year or during those stressful times it's it's amazing and opening up not only releasing that tension and stress but also opening up conversation and engagement with other kids for kids that maybe not have those skills ready or available and so I think it's it's a whole

039bunch of stuff that could come out of this but um you know there still a lot more to do in regards to research and and seeing where we're at with it but that's a start and as far as allergies go I know dogs are not typically the the major trigger but that hasn't been an issue with this organization or from what we see the type of dog that's going into school districts from the ones that they have it they're like the non allerg you know the hyperallergenic dogs at this point but that's definitely a question that we'd have with them and then if we end up getting to the point where we are looking maybe to move forward we could have come out from the organization and speak to the board and give you more

040of an insight as to like who she is why she founded this and then what is the future of of dogs as schools going forward because that could tell you the the Poli departments are moving less I think towards K9 drug sniffing dogs and more towards social emotional dogs um you know from St Charles they have adopted one from k9 for comfort and it's in the school settings and it's not hyperic but they don't seem to have any problems right those the dogs will you bring now are not hyper labs and there's been no no concerns from students at this point I don't imagine that's a question I think from from a liability pers we want to explore right there's there's workers compensation impacts there's liability the dogs are trained but they're still an animal

041right so I think um I sound like a dog non lover I do love my dog I just know I've seen this on my professional side that there are some limits to um how a program like this can be put into place I'll be curious to see some legal assessment of that again therapy so not a service so like we're not opening up to them we're going to have employees bring in service dog this is strictly a trained dog will be a trained dog for school for therapy purposes really you know um okay so if I'm if I'm if I'm getting the feel from the room of course ly it's not stop it's continued to investigate know the next time I would bring this to you is if we have an opportunity to secure a

042dog and we have to make a decision okay that could be soon that could be long I don't know how this will work with um with with the organization but at least you know so if they ask well yeah right like so they had like one of the processes to to do the final adoption is board approval correct um but so I didn't want to just drop in front of you and be a board appr approve I wanted to make sure it's okay to proceed with this to put our names on the list um and to proceed so unless Kristen comes up with a major roadblock which I'm sure from an insurance or legal standpoint they're going to point the finger at each other and make up some kind of waiver um but again it's

043it's similar to you know we still it's it's similar to allergies that we deal with in the cafeteria we have some events you know things that we put in place to make sure those students are safe and Confunction so we could do that with this as well well what what kind of insurance do we need when they're here like for a week or we haven't done anything you haven't done okay we don't have any additional we don't need any additional insurance from a preliminary conversation with our liability insurance yeah I would say as long as there's nothing Insurance well I mean so so they're a non for-profit but on on a rental basis I mean I think that I'm just curious to have like to have a law firm look at the draft agreement and

044WR us some feedback not that you need an additional Rider I don't know but I do think there an indetification issue you're dealing with a trained animal right and if there's some flaw in the training where does that liability sit that would be my question and how do other schools handle it right cuz they are in other schools so that's why Dave's continuing to pull more schools and talk to more schools yeah and schools that do have these dogs um they are more than willing to share everything and anything that they have from the start of the process to the board presentations to all that so um Diamond Lake has been great we've had some talks with them actually today and um yeah they're they're more than willing to give us what whatever they have

045so okay thank you thank Dave you have a a part while you're here would the board president be comfortable if we just have Mr Manning cover his point of the agenda so then we can send him home sure can I ask you a quick question on the alert field uh before we do that one so we don't the uh from my report yeah from your report okay so when we do that does the public then have access to those improvements on that field like when there's no school I believe the field is secured so that it's RB Western Conference and Brookfield Lally get use that field only I I I'm not I don't have access to that how they secure that okay my understanding those are the three entities that are the primary tenants of

046that field or users of that okay so but like the public wouldn't be like oh this is a great field and want it well we put up we put over 100,000 over the last two projects at North Riverside and those are not secured so the public uses them and we're not using them okay and they're still in good shape that's no different and nothing happens them okay and they're still fine yeah okay so is there um leave to take M Dr mannon's presentation on the border not yet Mr not yet Mr still Mister is everyone okay with that yes please sir and this is only the first read on student handbook correct David correct yes okay okay well good evening tonight I'll present the summary of the proposed changes for the 2526 student handbook uh

047this process was Guided by our students our parents uh staff survey responses as well as discussions held within our student Equity leadership team and our building leadership team as well as our Board representa of Miss laack um changes to the handbook are a direct result of these conversations and this is the first read of some of those proposed changes um the first item in this report outlines changes to the academic dishonesty procedures um it's more or less a lot of formatting than language changes but I'll go through what the team added here um last semester Kylie linquist our assistant principal of curriculum and instruction met with our divisional heads to review the Acy procedures um through those conversations uh within their departments and Kylie has reshaped the academic descience procedure with the purpose of condensing

048language to make it an easier and more understandable procedure um much a language within this academic diseny section stay consistent however as you can see in the first box the team expanded language related to plagiarism um and presenting material from other sources without citing and we're seeing this more and more in regards to documents created using like artificial intelligence um or using like unauthorized notes um AIDS or materials uh during quizzes or tests so that language was included in that box there uh the second box under page 32 in the handbook refers to responsibilities of Staff when they suspect or become aware of potential academic dishonesty uh this could happen if a students in class uh sharing answers to a test or something along those lines um the procedural change here outlin steps that our

049instructional staff must take um if the student denies the alleged academic misconduct so a teacher sees a student potentially engaging in academic misconduct asks that student hey are you cheating or are you using someone else's notes they say no the next steps who are they are already identified in our handbook we're just making it an easier view for students and parents to read so um built within that procedure there are supports from the divisional head which with the adoption of the division heads we wanted to include them in the process along with the assistant principal of curriculum instruction to conduct that investigation um if the investigation leads to a positive finding that there was academic misconduct um the steps were included uh for the STA member to follow such as notifying parents um of the

050investigation findings documenting in Skyward and working with the Deans Division and uh Miss linquist uh for Associated consequences that's um the next section and that's under page 23 so a lot of those procedural steps are already included we just wanted to break that out in more of a condensed version um language in the consequence category stayed consistent as well the reformatted steps were more in a bulleted format with specific actions for each offense so that's under page 62 in the handbook uh excuse me and before I go to page 62 um the process on page 23 under academic con uh academic misconduct consequences or just more of a bulleted format like we just mentioned um and just an easier read and it's directing more the the conversations back to the divisional heads and dis linquist

051rather than just a teacher and the parent and trying to unfold all that and what that looks like for us sometimes when we get into these misconduct um actions it's it's a process and we want to eliminate any confusion for the parent um or the staff member and really make that clear and transparent going forward so that's what that is there [Music] okay the next box under page 62 in the handbook refers to the National Honor Society application based on conversations with our National Honor Society sponsor Miss Thomas um and reviewing handbook language in her surrounding High School Districts The Following language was added or is proposed language we would like to add is students involved in documented incidents of plagiarism cheating or have a gross misconduct violation will be denied the opportunity to apply

052for NHS during the current school year um as it stands there's no language that guides us to deny an application based off a behavioral infraction and so we want to make sure that that aligns with um kind of our expectation down in our office as well as our National Honor Society applications students are welcome to revisit the application if they're a junior and then into their their junior year they have that incident they come back their senior year they can reapply and then the uh National Society Council will review that application and then vote on that going forward but we want to make sure that's spelled out there in the handbook going for so that would be new language that we if the students already in National Society in this car there are steps within

053NHS that potentially would remove their their membership so quick question on that same matter um there's other honor societies does that apply oh yeah the music one and all that there's music there's language I believe there the Spanish an Society NHS music yes so I mean this is a first read tonight but I I shouldn't put you on this I I could have submitted that earlier but I didn't um if you could look into the other honor societies and maybe that's a yeah I mean anytime you know student breaches their ethical you know standing you know there's a potential being removed from an activity you know but of course and maybe that's a club thing not here I don't know yeah I don't I don't either I just since NHS was called out specifically yeah

054it's part of our plagiarism and academics conduct um and so we want to make sure that that goes along with the procedures that we just outlined but I will Circle back um and when we come back next time make sure we identify what the application process is for for music things like that well thank you um finally the last section of the report includes the addition of an attendance handbook uh which was developed through the Dean's office to provide parents and students with an easyto read guide that will be placed in the first couple pages of the handbook uh the attendant handbook includes attendant expectations uh Office contact information and instructions on how to report planned absences or to report a day of absence um this information is already included in the handbook but again

055we wanted to make sure that we are transparent and clear with how this information is um put in front of our school community so we created an absence chart um that highlights types of absences as well as attendance and tardy interventions which are currently going on through our Dean's office in kind of like a nice easy to view manner so um part of my con concerned with this one um you know again it's my you know my bias we have a short school year and you know the idea is that students would be in class every day but there are occasions when they can't and I think that list are the you know those are the events that would be reasonable for an excuse to not come in you know illness doct appointment de worries

056me is when there's five allowed then they sound to me almost like personal days in an office you know you got your five personal days and now people think well I got five days I can use ideally we wouldn't want a student to use any days and and assuming they didn't have any of those events we would hope that they would be in school every day because it's a short school year and um you know we've got the college visit which is kind of an extension of school we've got the Civic day hopefully somebody will be working elections in April and that's kind of a extension of school um so that's what makes me nervous there by having a number because I think when people see a number they use it are you talking on

057this on this particular page when it says they have up to five days what that's a law those are mated those are state where are you saying it the first word says students are allowed five of these absences per are allowed five of these absences okay I got so the state yeah the state uses Crow gas and teas and they talk about percentages a lot at the state level which is confusing I think for parents and students and so that's why we wanted to put it in front of them as a number instead um chronic aism so if you take 10% of like the 185 days it's like 18.5 days um excuse or on excuse it doesn't matter and that's the only metric that the state uses for um summon of designations for school districts

058and so instead of parents trying to Cipher okay what is 10% I have no clue we just try to split it out and say five and five per semester and then you have your five um mental health days on top of it so really then we're under hopefully if we do that then we fall under the 18 days um which would then place a student in it's a chronically absenteeism rate um our rate as we presented out previously is like 19% um is which is lower than State average I think that's around like 24 so we're doing we're doing pretty good with it obviously like we said there's a lot of improvement that we can do and hopefully the is by spelling this out in an attendant handbook that it like the the end result

059is a more efficient office which lends us more time to make those calls get those interventions in place so on and so forth um and so having this Upfront for parents to see as like here is the five that you can do um I can see your your your viewpoint on that as well like okay well now it's like a give it like I can just take five yeah they're like my personal days um the other side that we see is like if we don't say that that is just an open-ended number but you have two charts and I'm just wondering and you know they five in the first box if if a student has surgery it could be more days you know or if there's a serious event it it could be more sure

060um so I'm just wondering if it's even necessary you know to put an exact number in the first box but then you have a table and the next page where you do have the numbers that I thought you know spell it out for your parents what the 10% is in there so it talks about the various consequences that will be applied right so it's just so that a student understands if they I mean if you think about it if you look at even to 10 it's a letter posted to the Skyward family exit it's just written communication home to the family you really don't start getting into hallway restrictions and activity restrictions and field loss of field trips still 15 absence of it's a lot this is not a question that we asked on the

061survey when we sent it out um we could maybe Circle back with our parents and come up with a couple additional questions to see if this is something that's valuable for them if it's confusing language or something that maybe we can look at taken out so as a par and I can tell you I appreciate this breakdown um I wish I would have had this when my kid started here as a freshman um he has gone through concussions he's had a sprained ankle he had Co he's had the flu he's had strep so we have taken full advantage of the amount of days he's able to take right this school year he's had a spring ankle he's at 7 now that he's been absent and in my mind I'm like holy crap he's only got

062three more days that he can be absent with right and I'm constantly after him don't get sick don't get sick but then I'm like oh wait he's got those five mental health days we could access if we had to right so I think that um things happen and absolutely abolutely I would love for my kid to have perfect attendance I never had perfect attendance I always had STP throat so you do what you do you you know as a parent my responsibility is to then ensure that he's doing all the makeup work and communicating with the dean and making sure that the counselor knows what's going on not I've got the doctor's not right like come on let's go the nurse was in constant communication with me when he sprained his ankle cuz it happened

063here at school the trainer was in constant communication with me when he had a concussion so I think again as a parent I appreciate the breakdown thank you so much and looking at the data too I don't think it's being abused by our students um looking at our College visit which was a question asked you know we've had 174 students take at least one college visit from the start of the school year till now so that's yeah see because you have the numbers here and so that that's why I think the numbers here are perfectly fine but I think it's helpful to List It Up Above So that just have that as the more you can put it in front of them I think the better educated they are um like I didn't realize when

064my son was competing for a full ride scholarship that we could have taken that as a college visit day um so you know had we known that we would have done all the paperwork ahead of time if it had this been clearly laid out um just like when we we went to go visit a college as well like oh I didn't realize that he had two of those for and those days are specific my only concern was that first box to put the five in there because I think the five is kind of irrelevant if somebody is surgery it's going to be more than five or I I think the five in that in the box that's located are very serious matters right right and so the five is kind of no no so my

065my point is um it's helpful to to have some some context to it you don't wish anyone having a death in the immediate family five times right um I I I would actually mirror what I said this is a really helpful tool overall I think having it as a as a new parent especially to the school to understand how attendance works and then the part about tarties I think is really helpful I mean I think it's a good addition to the to the handbook and I think it's a good Improvement and it's something that should be implemented and then reviewed next year to see like okay where was their confusion what can be tweaked um those sorts of things and remember the purpose of putting this stuff in there is just to overc communicate parents

066are going to call their kid out they're going to call their kid out uh I think we're just we're not trying to encourage that behavior we're just trying to like clarify put some guard rails on it yeah Emma Olivia from a student's perspective any any feedback on this um I definitely think that having the set list of um what days you can like what's available and like how it's broken down um um in the hand um here in the um uh handbook the handbook so I definitely think that for me um like acknowledging what set days that um I can in school would definitely be helpful I haven't missed a DAT school yet but um I think for me and my parents I think it it's a very beneficial tool that would allow us to

067break down um when I can and cannot be absent and um work um through the days when I have to be if I have to miss school for um a dentist appointment or I have to um attend a conference and such and so I think it really allows me to um deliberate with my parents and um work alongside the school to um establish the times where I can schedule um my absences if anything comes up or um whenever I'm sick and so I think having this breakdown in the handbook will definitely be beneficial to um families so I'm assuming that I'm sorry um do these categories track exactly with those in Skyward when you go into to put an absence request sort of there's codes and types and so you excused is like your code

068but then underneath it are different drop downs okay I can't I can't recall it but the the closer you can make the categories here to what people see in real life would be obviously beneficial I'm sorry no no no worries I just want to say I completely agree with Emma so like well my mom is a teacher she's an educator and so she she knows like you know everything about like the excuse un excuse and she's also like very much on me about like making up work and everything so but like on the other hand I also have my dad who's not an educator and so sometimes he's kind of like oh like what does this mean if you have an excuse absence and sometimes he's confused about those things and even not just like

069in my family too but I know my friends too some of their parents who like for example only speak Spanish and don't really know much about like um you know just even how like an absence works and how like you can get called in and things like that so I think setting everything out in a chart like this is extremely helpful for families kind of like Emma was saying as well um just because I feel like it kind of clears that confusion for people who don't really like understand like okay like I know that this is an excuse absence I know I can call my kid out for this or like I know like oh I can go through a certain process to get this excuse like with the doctors know if it's a college

070visit you get like one of those firms from the main office which I think is extremely helpful as well for students and like Juniors and seniors who are looking to do those College visits so I think um having a chart like this in the handbook is extremely helpful not even just for students but also parents who maybe are unfamiliar with the process of going through it as well and just add there are other schools in the area in the area with similar statements that kind of give a number of excuse that's preferred so to speak right you know of course we went in school every day so we're not alone in this there are other you know very successful schools of where they have very similar statements You are not alone in this when do

071we review the absence it's at the end of the year that you we did it a few week in January we do we just did it last month where we need the report the first semester then they'll do the second semester report and the second semester because it's one of our marks too I think right we talk about attendance the overall average daily attendance that's why they're putting so much time into this to try to make sure we continue to work towards that right and the more the more our parents and our students understand the attendance procedures and what they can do what they can't do um it really it's all about efficiency for our office our office so if we have our attendant office that can get through all the excused assens calls now

072the next half of our day might be focused on making sure we can get into like interventions that Interventional piece um with our Deans and so it's the byproduct hopefully is more conversation with parents about what's going on here once they understand what this is and this will be presented to parents at residency just like we did last year but now maybe an easier format in various languages for them to see as well if I could become a are we done there I I think need to do I'm going to become a copy editor the final sentence in the bottom box bottom left box on 176 students who do who do submit makeup work by the deadline are not eligible for full credit that is a conversation that we have a lot in regards to

073what's acceptable what's not acceptable um it's dependent on a per class basis so maybe we can revisit what that looks like that's the current language in the handbook I guess I'm I'm confused by it it lays all of the information out and I I saw it the other day and I just didn't understand and and it sounds like you're you think it's a double negative and it shouldn't be you think it's a negative no right now it says students who do submit makeup work by the deadline are not eligible for full credit so there there is a reduction if they take an excused absence if they have an excused absence there is a reduction even if they get their work turned in on time that's if they don't submit it by the deadline but that's

074not how it reads the makeup deadline am I reading it wrong students who do not submit makeup work by the deadline not eligible forit you're missing a knot there should be a second knot in there or remove the other not right it's it's not coming to the correct conclusion okay yeah I'm okay I am I'm reading copyeditor students who do not submit makeup work by the deadline are not eligible for foot credit yeah okay that makes sense to me students who do not submit okay we can correct that out don't do that that'll be for the that be for final approval thank you David you thank you m okay we've got a little bit out of order there uh Dr skink we were in the middle of your report going through the advisory councils I

075believe yes uh there's just a personnel number six and then the finance advisory councel met this week uh this past week to review the financial projections that the board will receive tonight and that concludes my uh superintendent report any questions or comments for doors kinkis okay um Dr good evening uh tonight I'll provide the board uh with financial information for the month of January which represents 58% of the fiscal year and I have a lot of other additional reports uh for you as well tonight um I'll begin on board book page nine the monthly summary report shows the total operating revenue for the month was 1, 55648 with 48% from federal and state Grant reimbursements 20% from evidence-based funding uh s State funding and 20% from interest on investments the total operating expenditures for the

076month were $2,473 429 74% towards salary and benefits 15% on operations and maintenance uh which is primarily our liability insurance for the calendar year so January through December and then 4% on special education tool um next set of reports there was a question submitted about the working cash balances on page 10 through 13 um so I will do my best to answer them but uh if I miss something please uh let me know so we received $2,361 15 from our bond proceeds uh by state code that had to go into working cash and then we had to transfer it to capital projects um so that's why you see uh that high Revenue and high uh then expenditure on page 10 was that for the kitchen correct okay and so then that money got transferred to

077capital projects and then you'll see in the subsequent Pages uh to dat we've spent about 1.8 million um of that and we are in the process we have one more payment to make um on that um and then the other Revenue uh from working cash was due to interest on investment so that was about roughly 300,000 so on this slide here Dr just mat the work the budget for 2324 the working cash is down to 61,000 I think that's what threw me off why was there such a dip there like I wasn't I guess and I was wondering if I was confusing our working cash that was last year's the where do you see the 63 I see 61 70 down yeah 61114 working that was last year's budget 2024 and then really on a

078typical year the only Revenue that we get in working cash is from our interest on investment oh so what new Revenue would be coming in that year but this year we did the bond and that's where we got spiked the revenue um but really when you take out the roughly $2 million that we got from our bond Pro it's roughly about 300,000 that we got from interest on investment and that's typically the only Revenue in a typical year that we get in our working cash fund okay so that's okay yeah that clears it and that was relatively a high point for investment income correct we won't be seeing that in future years uh we did well so far in the first half of this fiscal year um we are not anticipated to do as well

079uh in the second half of this fiscal year but overall we've done well and then we do anticipate next year interest on investment going down so okay thank you okay um so on that page uh the summary of Revenue shows that the district has received 53% of our budgeted revenue for the year and this percent is slightly higher than this time last year almost 50% on the next page a summary of expenditures shows that the district has spent 60.3 4% of the budgeted expenditures for the year and that amounts pretty similar to this time last year of 60% um as always I included the statement of revenues and expenditures for our board accounts for the month of January and there's a question submitted on board book page 21 which was why was one Municipal Retirement

080account over budget by $471 or uh you can see it was kind of flags it's 158.3 per of budget uh that fund is primarily budgeted as a whole so that particular line item uh we added a position last year um and uh that person's uh Municipal Retirement is being charged to that account um is it just one person or is it like a a collection of like multiple people uh well the reason it's over over budget is of that particular line item is it's we added one um we added one position and that's the account that it's hitting it's new um so it's new uh and I didn't account for that when when doing the budget but the budget overall for a whole for that account will be under budget um so it's just that

081one particular line item so it'll be adjusted for next year's budget so is that kind of like a we're catching up because it's a new person or we're adding more in that is that why it was so much higher no we no it um so the budget's kind of arbitrary like it's it's a guess depending on which account you're looking at because if it's a salaried account you can calculate it and it's pretty straightforward but if there's any extra work or um it's a you know account where you're doing stens out of or things of that nature then it's a it's a guess um and so that's why we budget more for that account fund 50 as a whole and make sure that we're um on track for that budget does that make sense yeah

082sense um and then I also have included uh our activity account summary for the month of January as well um new this month I include on board book page 28 our Board calendar or sorry our budget calendar for fiscal year 26 um this is the timeline that I use uh to develop the budget it's in line with previous years um so you can see you know not much happens in February but we start to ramp up in March um and the process really continues uh throughout September and the board will see the budget several times um before the final budget um next uh the financial projections for fiscal year 26 through 28 um along with the revenue and expenditure assumptions used to create the projections um I'm not going to go over and read the

083assumptions in detail but um it is important to note that the projections are snapshot in time and it's really subject to the information that we have available um there are a lot of big items that are beyond our control and um some of which we you know don't know at the time that we do assumptions for example CPT Still Remains higher than pre-co levels it did drop from fiscal year uh 24 to 25 a little bit there's some speculation it might drop again this coming year um but we won't know for sure in a until August um our state funding is another big one uh that we don't find out until August so we've had to make some assumptions and so that's why I include the list of assumptions um but as you can see

084on uh the next page uh you'll see that the district's budget for this year was anticipating a deficit of roughly $1.2 million that was in the budget that the board approved that's that First Column going down on the left um but um primarily that was uh due to some uh capital projects the biggest project being our solar panels um due to the delay in the solar panel process which I'll touch on later in my report um financially that really won't hit until next fiscal year so we will finish our uh fiscal year this year with close to a balanced budget um but then obviously that will result in a higher fund balance than you know what's listed uh as well um but then that project goes into next fiscal year which is why there's projecting

085to be a deficit uh for fiscal year 26 and then the main main reason for the slight deficit in fiscal year 27 and then the Surplus in fiscal year 28 is due to the decreasing debt payments in Lev year 26 um and so all of the debt payments will be closed out in December of 2027 so if the district is going to issue any bonds it should be in done in advance of January of 2028 to avoid a a dip and then a spike in property tax for um the homeowners any questions on that before I move on I thought that's what we were doing or that was just the we did but this this next set would be all of the debt completely for the district comes off and the district would have no

086debt um and so then anytime you issue any debt for Life Safety capital projects or anything then there's going to be a a spike to um the homeowners so that's 26 27 it's l year and so the district would have to issue bonds by January of 2028 for there to still be like we just did this time for there still to be a significant decrease to the taxpayers but um you could still then issue um bonds for example R come and do a 29 so if we're going we're going to try to have a plan in place so we could take the bonds out before 28 this way we avoid a steep Spike to and then another Spike back up but the way property tax are collected it's a timing issue that's why you see

087a deficit that one year and then you know uh a surplus that following year because it's it's just because your debt Services payments are changing we talked about this with the last one with the idea was hold hold our Levy as steady as we can so that people aren't seeing spikes from us and making sure our projects are timed out that we're not getting into if you've been in a condo association or anything like that A special assessment we're not we're trying to hold so that we're paying ahead or planning ahead so that anyway correct so we did that with the culinary project and we would need to do that again if the district wants to and we also discussed that with the solar panels it was the same thing it was we wanted to

088do that it's a long-term savings but we would need to take the initial Bond we chose not to do it withit right um so I was just calling your the board's attention that that that will be coming up um in the future um um I do have an update on solar the solar RFP was released on February 18th with pre-notice which is required uh given on February 4th uh we have both documents posted on the district's website under Business Services B- RFP um there is a mandatory site visit tomorrow uh for anyone who wishes to submit a bid I anticipate at least eight vendors showing up uh tomorrow there may maybe more um and then bid proposals are due to the district on March 20 or sorry March 12th you have to give 21 days

089um from when you issue the RFP to when you can have the deadline uh for the design bid process so that's why there's that are we having anybody here for that site visit like is Nick or we'll have our um we'll have Tony Rossy who's with nich to be there as well our solar consultant won't be there um there's really not a need for him to be there tomorrow um it's really just showing vendors the roof and the location and the electric much better weather this time correct previously right correct but we'll have like our uh construction so they can ask some questions about the roof or whatever and all questions uh also have to be submitted in writing and then I have to issue an addendum um on our website so that all vendors

090have access to all the questions that were uh submitted so that will be taken care of as well okay moving on uh facility project updates uh so uh what the first item is of grand piano so the current grand piano in the auditorium is used for performances throughout the year is roughly 102 years old um and it's in rather poor condition um it is not something that uh can be fixed it's not worth the cost to refurbish it at this point um we've had two different people come out and give an assessment uh on that as well um so the music department has asked to replace the piano with the same Mak model of the current piano which is the Steinway and Suns model B um I believe the estimated cost for the new piano

091will be around 200,000 I don't have an exact cost at this point it would be subject to the traditional bid process um since the solar panel project is not being paid out for this fiscal year we discussed with the finance advisory Council um to use some of that budgeted money to purchase a grand piano this fiscal year um I did receive a few questions about it uh um so the the just to clarify the board has not approved this purchase yet that's what I'm asking uh the board tonight is to make sure that the board is comfortable uh with moving forward with that um we would try to sell the old piano to recruit some of the cost um I don't know how much money we would uh receive from it but we would certainly

092try um and then the last question that I received is if the music parent uh group is going to contribute to a new piano like boosters contributes to uniforms and other supplies um to my knowledge no uh theyve offered to try to find uh and apply um for Grants but I'm not aware of any progress in this area or grants that are available at this time how much is that piano used for the courses I mean how um like if they didn't have the piano for a while while we were looking for Grants or some other money to help fund it would courses be a deficit well we I'm assuming we would keep the old one until we get the new one yes we wouldn't get rid of the old one until we had the

093new one in hand and we've been budgeting for this this is something that's been on a 3 to 5e plan it's part of a curricular class so we talked with the board previously about P you know there's three that are going to be there's multiple Pian right correct one would be the most expensive that would be our concert one for all of our performances in the auditorium when we do um anything related to performances from class concerts classes or uhal musicals and then the other two will be refurbished steinways we're working there was a three to five year plan at Christ has been working with Mr Bal and uh representatives from the music department to put this in place with us not doing the allert project till next fiscal year and not having the solar

094taking place this fiscal year it makes sense to try to advance the the the more expensive purchase this budget cycle instead of pushing it off and all three pianos that they are looking to replace are all over 100 years old so are all three pianos equally so is it 200,000 time 3 no he said that some will be refurbished so the practice pianos in each acquire room will be a refurbish stand we still expensive will be under 100 or close to 100 will not be the $200,000 correct but once you buy it it's it they will last well it last 101 Year yes this amazing right yeah and then moving on um I have some updates on our school maintenance Grant uh project updates uh the starting blocks on page 31 uh I included some

095pictures for the board on the new starting blocks for the swimming pool they were installed prior to AR hosting the swim Conference meet for our new conference on February 8th um and obviously uh you know all of the swimmers uh were really excited to have that especially for the first conference meet um the diving board and stand the administration is in the process of receiving uh one additional quote we have three already for the new diving board and stand uh the estimate is probably around 20 to 25,000 depending on lead times we hope to install the board sometime probably more realistic this summer um and then lastly on board book page 22 sorry 32 and 33 uh is um some information on the weight room floor um as the board recalls uh last year received

096a donation from boosters to um replace and get a lot of additional equipment that was needed um and so uh the district has decided to uh replace the floor that is uh very needed and so we are working with a company called eore athletic uh and Direct Fitness uh to review the design materials and installation plan so what I included uh was not very exciting but the overall view of what the weight room floor would look like we would do um some Turf down the center um cuz right now um when um students are using the sleds to push they do them in the hallway um and it's not uh the greatest setup or the safest setup so this would allow for them to do it down that strip of turf um the plan is

097to install the floor in mid May the estimated cost for this purchase uh which I included for the board is around 100,000 um we're going to do it through a purchasing Cooperative so we do not need to go out to bid um and I'm in the process of trying to finalize the included quote to see if we can negotiate that price a little bit uh as well as finalize the design and did you say we're getting some support from boosters for this no we got support from boosters to do all of the equipment last year so all the equipment it was well over 20,000 they we implemented the equipment over 25 right it was close to 30 and then we were going to match that and then when we realized when we moved out the

098old equipment put the new equipment in how bad the floor was right how old is the floor is it original flooring it's from 2009 was the last time it was addressed but there's been some issues with flooding and and things so we're going to have to relevel the some of the areas to concrete and grind out a few areas to make it all my my only and I'm sorry I didn't bring this up before is the timing of it is that's right during finals and AP if it's going to be disruptive it might be better to wait no that is the timeline that they that the teachers and the athletic staff have asked for so that it's ready for summer lifting and summer camps okay it's actually not utilized during those two times during panels

099and the week before yes I was surprised by that but that's they decided so that's they're in on it so that's fine thank you and that concludes my today thank you Dr sman absolutely any more comments from anyone questions looking you guys won't get to use your Sleds on the new Turf FL um you are principal principal's report yeah Dr Freight good evening again honorable board members uh here's my principal report for teaching and learning third quarter concludes next week on the 7th of March and then we'll begin fourth quarter spring break is uh towards the end of the month from March 24th through 28th in April we will you know Implement act digitally for the first time on the 9th all all School testing grades 9 through 11 the seniors will have a colleg

100in career day the test will be approximately from 8:00 to 12:30 location our classrooms for school coaching operations uh the five essential survey just opened so to all the parents please take the survey students and staff have been taking it as well it runs through the end of March on the 27th we will have the plumbers Bridge graduation ceremony for the last few years we've had students graduate from the pre-apprenticeship program thank you Mr Durkin for that connection many years ago and it's been fantastic our students are pursuing careers in plumbing and other vocations I will personally be there on the 27th as well we will have our parent University number four communicating with adist and teens so we've partnered with nami and the love some local organizations that support mental health the will be

101here from 6:30 to 7:30 in the little theater on March 13th we have our trades and career fair 8: to 1:00 p.m. in the East gym and for activities and Athletics on the 26 tomorrow we have boys basketball Regional 7:30 p.m. we host Oak Lawn and when we win then on Friday we will see the other team from the ins side of the bracket so boys basket regionals coming up and that concludes my portion of the report doing advisers um all righty well thank you Dr freas um and good evening honorable Bo thank you so much for your time to begin with teaching and learning for March um like Dr fras mentioned next week Friday the 7th is the end of the quarter um so since the quarter ends next week Friday we just want

102to make sure that students are expected to and also recommended to complete any missing assignments make up any extra work um before quarter 4 begins so you can kind of end um quarter three on a good note as well then moving on to school culture and operation for February uary um on the 18th was the Brookfield Zoo job fair so this was held um they had information for students I know they were passing it out during lunches as well um who are looking to work in either food beverage um retail face painting custodial Warehouse ad missions and more at the Brookfield Zoo so for anyone who's possibly looking for a job for the summer any students who are interested in working over the summer um they have the opportunity to uh find more information from

103the Brookfield Zoo so that was on the 18th this was from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. so this was during all lunches in the cafeteria and then for March on U March 3rd is the liance township um college fair so this is from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. and this is at lt's North Campus um so this allows for students to be able to talk to any college Representatives find new schools that they may want to apply to um and find more information about schools on their list I know uh I attended last year it's ex extremely beneficial college fair to go to because they have so many schools there and I actually discovered like one of my top schools that I ended up applying to there so it's extremely beneficial um event for students to

104go to and so I definitely recommend the students take advantage of that opportunity that they have all right and now moving over to Emma right thank you Olivia so for activities in athletics starting in February on the 10th boys wrestling had a their Regional competition so Regional was held here at RB and the RB wrestling team was named ihsa Regional Champions um in addition to this um senior Edam muscara qualified for State at sectionals and he was named fourth in state in class 2A um on the 15th the chess team um also um went to State they qualified for State for the 19th consecutive year and the team was led by Captain Z malar and Dave um G the team finished 69th out of 128 teams moving on to the 22nd the boy swim and

105dive team had their sectionals that occurred at Fenwick High School and seniors nck kle and Aiden panr were named to State qualifiers um and we're wishing good luck to Nate and Aiden this Friday at state in Westmont um on the 27th as Dr fre has mentioned um there will be a mental health resource event in the Little Theater or parents communicating with adolesence and teens and it will be presented by Trina bakas who is part of the Nami Metro suburban and in the month of March for the 6th through the 9th we will have our spring musical Rock of Ages um the spring musical is about two young lovers who try to save a venue in Los Angeles and that will occur on Thursday Friday Saturday at 7:00 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. the

106location will be in the auditorium and it'll cost $10 for adults and $5 for students and seniors so we ask that you come and support our our Hollywood and sunset cast and that concludes our report for tonight good job Emma good jobia thank Youk yes thank you for all the information there a question can yeah I was going to go back to the career fair uh the trade yeah that's March 13th that's a Thursday that's a late arrival day is that already planned in students yeah um okay moving on to District goals I don't think we had a plan discussion much to update to board on just the you know the finance one where to review and update the curriculum guide now that we're wrapping up Staffing the real deep dive we did the initial

107dive to make sure uh some of the list things and of course selection sheets were cleaned up but now the um division heads and the ad building Administration will start doing a deep dive to see if there's any class that need to be rewarded removed uh some things like that so it will it will eventually bounce to the curriculum advisory somewhere at the end of this school year or over the summer um but we'll have to see how that all plays out with after the results of the election if we redefine those advisory councils and that was really the only update everything else is moving as planned any other comments or questions looking looking um visitor statements are you here for visitor statements this evening at a little plug foric sure let me let me

108read a a statement if I could the Board of Education welcomes and encourages the participation of its citizens in the business of the school district there are two points in the meeting where visitor statements are scheduled citizens are welcom to raise questions or make comments at either one comments will be limited to 3 minutes per individual and cannot be combined please note the Board of Education will not answer questions or engage in dialogue during visitor comments if a person would like additional time to address the board such a request should be submitted in writing 48 hours before meeting the the meeting to the superintendent so okay J xers where are my gen xers at this bring this musical Rock of Ages for those of you who like quiet Riot Journey Foreigner that whole era then

109this is for you so come on out it's music from our era uh it's going to be really fun these kids are working really hard so come on out and listen to some good uh head bangy big hair music that's it thank you man I'm working on it yeah get ready to get the gel out to do that little additional discussion items does anyone have any uh request to add additional discussion items not seeing any um under old business I don't think we have anything specific to Life Safety Capital Improvements or sustainability no correct and student registration fees is this a first read do no this is a second read second read okay there was one question submitted about apsy uh Dr fre that's under textbooks that was under textbooks yes so I don't think

110we had any questions submitted okay so we're okay we can move ahead with um approval yes ma'am the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the student registration fees for the 2025 2026 school year as presented in the February 25 2024 or February 25 2025 board agenda packet second you me make Mr venor sorry would you need a roll call please Mr J yes yes M yes yes yes yes yes and just for the record we did correct that to February 25th 2025 yes okay wrong on the sheet just making sure that I had my notes correct um thank you textbook adoption first read under new business yeah the attached report details the updated three-year textbook adoption plan summarizing past expenditures for the current school year textbooks request for the

11125 26 school year and the projected request cost for textbooks for the 26 27 school year and 27 28 school years detailed textbook requests for the 2520 school year are also provided for a first read and uh I will tackle the first question so the first question that a board member inquired would the fees for AP second social thinking need to be increased increase over time so it's a feast question and really you know um for social thinking the cost is under dollars 20 textbooks you know it's you know the cost seems negligible it's a resource that they'll be using for you know many years and as far as AP I know AP I mean the the cost is significant but you know we haven't ever passed on any kind of fees textbook fees to

112students you know the only fees in the AP World usually has to do with the AP exam itself but nothing like that has ever been passed on to students so hopefully board members that that addresses um that question there and then I did have um another question here regarding our Carnegie um books and the saas and really the questions were a very series of questions um are we facing in the new curriculum is there feeder school on board does the new curriculum offer all the same things that Carnegie the current resource that we have so um yes so we have a Houser does use Carnegie you know carneg is pretty good for the Middle School level um but for the needs for our students in our sequencing courses we have found that carneg zooms prerequisite

113skills that aren't even in the Middle School curriculum so our teachers have have had to create a lot of additional practices you know it's it's a little incomplete um this year here at RB we have conducted a pilot of s Savas and five sections of algebra before making the determination that a switch would be best the pilot group and the car group continue to meet in plcs throughout the year looking for the pros and cons of each curriculum we are not phasing it in we would like to go in fully with algebra 1 geometry and algebra to it makes sense to have the students who piloted the saas continue in that curriculum so we would we would have so we would have needed to do algebra and go next year for the purposes of the

114pilot students at that point rather than just change two or three of the classes we felt it would be better to go in all in with the new research for the Department collaboration and vertical alignment purposes so we kind of we want to streamline it and how about you know our other feeder school you know Hower will continue to use Carnegie Kamar uses um the Savas curriculum that we are proposing girls uses their own curriculum and it's and it's tough you know the three fitter schools kind of use different curriculum but at the same time we're able to work with our kids and their needs you know but we believe for us the Savas curriculum would be the best um and as far as the gaps question the new curriculum addresses gaps in ways that

115we do have to the supplement practice for each topic so they're very built in there are skills checked that offer opportunities for reteaching and enrichment uh more uh there's a more direct tie between practice and the textbook in general to allow for student examples and ACT prep it's a more of a digital resar students for a digital testing environment so that helps and there's uh there's more connection to family engagement in every unit there's an there's access to additional videos and practices as well as links for parents you know that's what's nice about you know they make Cent a stakeholder in the curriculum as well so that's why we would like to move that again this is a first read and then our assistant principal Miss Kyle Linkus will be here on March 11th for

116any additional questions board members so just a a quick question on that so does this math curriculum does it go through algebra geometry Advanced algebra correct yes it has it yes yes and so when I asked like if we're phasing that in if we just flip to to the new one does it for somebody who took algebra with Carnegie and now if they get this curriculum for say Advanced algebra is that going to be an issue or is just changing kind of Midstream will that create some problems well I I I would say this you know you know this being brought by our teachers Ved by our division head of math department you know they they've identified any potential issues and are ready to take this on to support students you know our staff believes

117this is the best to get the kids learning and engage in math you know and we would like to support that and they're very well aware that it could be some gaps but they're ready for it because they already have to do things because carugate doesn't fit needs correct correct so then they would just do the whole program into the new curriculum yes and Kylie's uh linquist will be at the March board meeting to do Staffing if there's any other additional questions this is only a first Reas nice okay sounds good uh we have a lease agreement for copers address Matana um good evening this will be the first read of probably three um I want to gaug the uh board on moving forward with the vendor uh tonight so the current fouryear lease agreement

118for the district's copers uh is currently with proven it will be expiring June 30th 2025 annually we spend approximately 60 to 65,000 on copers depending on usage um sent out a request for quote to copy your vendors on January 24th with a due date of February 7th this is not subject to a traditional bid process this is exempt um from bidding so we are able to go with uh any vendor uh that we so choose um vendors were told to supply four and fiveyear lease options and we received uh proposals from three vendors uh we currently have 13 copiers in the building next year we uh are choosing to go with 15 um and the reason we're increasing is because we currently have um three uh largest models and those are the models that break

119down the most so to get um in doing an assessment of our existing copers uh it makes sense to remove those models um and add to additional smaller copers um that can handle uh the volume um and we would replace those uh in we would place them in science and English offices which currently don't have copiers because we did an assessment of um which departments use the most copier uh copies and then uh the location of the copers and So currently those are kind of voids within the building and so moving the large copers and placing smaller cop in there um would accommodate the needs um so the chart includes the lease and operating cost for um all of 15 copers um and then we've included the cost per copy um which also includes the

120service for the machines um the overall cost is going to increase because we currently have Toshiba copiers which um are not functioning great for us um and we are moving back to Canon copers um they've been the most reliable brand of copiers in the building for the past 15 years it's the only time we had received complaints about the copiers is when we had Canon copiers so that's why we have decided um that we need to move back to Canon copers um so due to um some installation and service and functional problems with our current copiers the administration recommends choosing the four-year lease agreement with Canon uh The copier um like I said Canon is slightly more expensive um however they exclusively sell and service their equipment um which we believe will help expedite service

121calls that should resolve um any service issues immediately their warehouses also located and their office is located in close proximity to RB so they won't have problems getting parts or coming out to Service uh the machines uh we also called uh references uh for Canon as well as some other districts that we know use Canon um and they've not reported any issues uh with their Ser level of service um so we would like to be able to move forward with negotiating a contract with Canon um and then at a subsequent board meeting um I would be bringing the contract for approval off from the board and you said the 48 month option not the 60 we want to since we're going back to Canon we want to do the 48 month we we're we're a

122little nervous of locking in that fifth year until we have canons and we can see if they're if they would hold up for five years um we're a little nervous about locking in that fifth year and why why is this and I'm not oppos to go into C but why why didn't we have to bid this out or do like a compar to bid uh per state code it's exempt copers are exempt oh okay I believe it's because there's a technology component to it which is why it falls under the exemption would do you perceive I saw I mean that was probably a very thorough rendition I can't make almost made me want to go out and buy a cannon you know in their brochure um do you perceive that uh the school district would

123start to use some some of the additional Services you know there's the laminating the color some of the brochures I mean they do so much more now we do a lot of that in house um certainly we'd be open to that if that opportunity arose and it made Financial sense for us um but we uh we are not planning on it at this time um to go back to the four and five year I see some looks um on some people's faces we can certainly call reference and see how long their leases are and see if they have had cannons for 5 years and if they've held up um our concern is at that point usually our cop years are pretty beat up by the end of four years like our current cop years wouldn't

124make it for the fifth year um so I would want to call references to see if that um if if they made it through the fifth year before we locked that in I mean just the cost savings is considerable um and um they would be obligated to repair they would they would just be from our experience in the P the longer they are uh or the older they are um the more often they break down um and so like I said uh I certainly um we'll explore the five years and call call schools and see what their experience are and if it's positive uh we can certainly go with that option you want to talk about a need for a therapy dog well watch teachers when a c are down I'm sitting here going I'm

125all on board for a Canon and then when you said the four to 5 year difference I went yep okay I get it so um there's nothing more frustrating than needing to go get something ready and you might be on a 10 minute I got 10 minutes to get it we're also adding two more machines so we have additional capacity in different locations right so I think some some of that is oh I'm I'm on board with the price of the five year I'm also listening going yep I've been in that situation and don't want to wish that on anybody so but everybody's okay if I I um move forward with negotiating with Canon at least no I don't see any objections here at all thank you for doing all that effort so that was

126we'll see that again in a few weeks um Cheer Camp cheer Varsity Cheer summer camp what do we know about this this Dr free test I'm so this is an annual trip that's been approved for our team we go to carthus college um in Wisconsin usually beginning of July and I do have the questions here um and we do we always have a you know an adult or supervisor or a parent you know of of both sex is usually a company the question was inquiring uh we do have a male athlete and we'll definitely have you know a male chaperon or a parent or a parent because I think it listed the two chaperon and you didn't have somebody for your mail correct we're in the process but we will have a male sh or

127a parent correct um the student athletes they do stay in the dorms okay I'm currently we don't have a bus contract what we've done is the parents have taken the girls they've dropped them off or excuse me the the cheer athletes they have dropped them off you know and then they come pick them up on the final day that's what we've done oh so they have to get their own right out there correct correct yes that's what we've done yeah usually the parents drop them off I'm sure there's car pooling out yeah yeah car pooling yes and again this this has worked with a hitch it's it's wor without a hitch yeah over the last few years it's been fine okay um and then I had one final question is about chaperon paying their own

128combinations you know the the coaches they're responsible from their state you know at least they've communicated with me and again they've done this you know over the last years so the coaches are responsible for their own State well so they so um the coach the club or the sport is not providing for the coaches okay yes the coaches will the the responsible for y I do have a question the coaches are not driving the girls right no no and if there are any Stu or the the student athletes and if there are any student athletes who cuz I'm looking at 19 19 athletes that's a lot of car pooling yes um maybe explore Amtrak because I know that Carthage is super close to the and that's one of their selling points is that they're close

129to the m so as a as a backup to car pooling you might want to look into okay supporting public transit I can get behind yeah do do the students drive themselves or this first it's to my knowledge it's been parents you know dropping them off or or car pulling a community of parents coming together yes do you need us to review this or approve this tonight would that be helpful or you could put it on the consent if there's any additional questions I there quite a few questions on it so why don't we move it to consent for the next meeting if that's okay with everyone fine okay and student handbook the board got their yes first read on there so that will go for approval in March can we move that to consent

130um I'll look around do we want to are we a comfortable moving the student handbook yeah okay and if there's questions we could put themad can always be yeah yeah we can always pull something out of consent too if just ask a question and still voted in consent if there's a question um visitor statements second Vis second Pitch for Rock of Ages no okay uh discussion items we didn't have any requested any consideration of items for future meetings from anyone here this evening not seeing any matters for close session we have appointment employment compensation dis performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body student discipline individual student matters purchase sale or lease of real property probable imminent or pending litigation Collective negotiations and school safety the Board of Education Township High School District

131208 Cook County Illinois enters close session for the purpose of considering the Clos session matters as presented in the February 2 2025 board agenda packet we have a second sry second from Mr vanor and we need a roll call to go to close please yes yes yes yes yes yes yes okay it is 8:44 want to convene