001did call to order in the other room um due to as Dr skank has had a meeting with rbe so we can move on to the public hearing concerning the 2024 tax levy we did take attendance um everyone is here miss rusa is on her way and I should have a script for the public hearing oh I'm sorry okay that's okay did you email to me by any chance that from here okay had you emailed it to me mar did you email our copy or no no I did not okay do you want to move on to something else I'll go let's let's go ahead and do that we'll come back and we'll do the let's do recognition yeah perfect it's by your computer you said Maran no computer okay we will move recognitions thank
002you both good evening honorable board members first of all I just wanted to wish everyone happy holidays Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you to all of our community all of our teachers all of our staff I wish everyone a great not only week and a half left of school but a great winter vacation you know uh firstly we would like to recognize an alumni she's here and we're very proud of her congratulations to 2024 rbhs lumni Michaela an for winning first place in the short form non-fiction with with her peace time to wake up at the Ninth Annual national student production Awards presented by the foundation of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences natas this competition recognized the achievement of high school students Nationwide in film making and journalism Michaela's
003work was first recognized as a winner in the regional competition before advancing to the National stage where she was selected amongst the best in the country congratulations to Michaela congratulations proud of you okay congratulations can you say a few words and tell us what you're tell us what you're doing these days as an RB Alum yeah um sorry I'm a little bit tall um so these days I'm just kind of I've decided to take a gap here I've been working on projects like tomorrow I'm going to be doing a music video with my friend um I've been doing Zoom calls with people in the industry and I'm trying to get on some sets to work on Backstage so um it's been really fun it's been a crazy couple months since I've graduated and I'm looking
004forward to the future so well good well keep in touch and your music video if it's appropriate for the board to see thank you congratulations [Applause] congratulations recognition memorializes the work she did as a high school student first I would and next I would like to recognize uh the Chris kingle mug design contest winner Marilyn Urban unfortunately Marilyn cannot be with us right now because she's at the holiday concert at this moment it's a very busy day here at RB congratulations to ca Maryland Urban for winning the Brookfield Farmers Market Chris cringle design competition out of 52 submission Maryland's artwork was selected to be displayed on all of the mug sold at the Chris cringle Market in Brookfield this year the mugs were unveiled at fil might jar in Brookfield were Maryland Sign mugs for
005customers to purchase winning this contest is a testament to Maryland's outstanding artistic abilities in digital design congratulations Maryland and we would also like to recognize her teacher Miss Patty SAR who helped her with this project now folks um recognizing his first cohort of all state athletes I would like to bring up our assistant principal of Athletics Mr Phil [Applause] Torres good evening everybody uh thank you for taking the time to recognize three of our our student athletes uh our first one is a was a state qualifier she was a four-time state qualifier um and an all State athlete is Haley volchek uh unfortunately she's so good at swimming she is swimming at Junior Nationals right now and Austin so um so we are cheering her from afar but that's why she's not able to attend
006tonight uh just a brief bio on Haley and her accomplishments congratulations to Haley volchek on qualifying for the ihsa girl swim meet for for the fourth consecutive year at the Hinsdale Central sectional meet Haley's 200 free time of uh a minute 49 seconds and and. 58 broke her previous School record of 15050 and her 500 free time at sectionals of uh 5 minutes and 8700s broke RB School record of 506.com time of a minute 50 and 700s and 10th in the 500 freestyle uh at 4 minutes 57 seconds and 6700s breaking her former School record by 1.74 seconds Haley will continue her swimming career at the University of Illinois uh con congratulations to Haley and her family and I just want to say thank you I think Dr freas you recorded some of it and
007posted it did so I watched it it was very exciting so I appreciate you being able to share that with those of us that were home um up next is uh an all State athlete in football Max strong uh he was recognized down State uh Thanksgiving weekend he's a 6A Allstate uh athlete uh congratulations to Max strong of being named to the 2024 Illinois high school football coaches association 6A All State team this season Max LED the Bulldogs with 100 total tackles in including 41 solo tackles uh he had one interception for a touchdown he had one sack and one fumble recovery Max was the heart and soul of the Bulldog defense this year and his commitment passion and love for his teammates made him one of the best leaders RB has had in many
008years in addition to his Allstate selection Max was named Upstate 8 East Division Defensive Player of the Year in addition to being all conference and he was also recognized for being Upstate on the State all academic team um and he's also on the 2024 IA all academic team so congratulations to Max he is [Applause] here congratulations Max congrats all right uh our last one is our cross country Runner he may be in routes we'll see if he can make it here in time uh but that is Brady Norman uh he was a qualifier in our for our boys cross country team uh congratulations to Brady Norman on qualifying for the Ia boys cross country state meet Brady ran a time of 14 minutes 39 uh seconds and 600s at the Hinsdale Central sectional earning an
009individual spot at the state meet at the state meet at uh poror deweer Park Brady earned a personal best time of 15 minutes 3 seconds uh and 50 hund and he earned 77th place down State uh we want to congratulate Brady and his family and we wish him all the best in his future endeavors and we do have a coach representative here if he wants to speak any more on behalf of Brady as well Mr Jack he would have shown up I will say on behalf of Brady my kids ran with him for for four years congratulations good job I do think though it would be appropriate if the coach did stand up for one second and come up front come [Laughter] on I think now I may get some of this wrong and Kristen's
010giving me the look like Kevin don't add Li it cuz when you go off script you might mess some things up but there was a uh three or four years ago where we needed a cross country coach and somebody recommended hey why don't you give uh coach Brady a call and he's retiring and and he or was retired I was retired happily retired he decided to take over our boys cross country team and produce the first team State title for the school right if I'm not mistaken and uh some great Allstate Runners and I know a lot of people are sad to see a goal including myself so thank you for all things that you did for RB cross country over the last several years thank you my [Applause] pleasure and that concludes our recognitions
011Madam president thank you Dr for those for those students recognize that we could take some pictures okay Max and Michaela okay thank you so we are going to again flip our order and go back to the to the um hearing on the tax levy so I'll read it in and um just G if you could second it we'll kind of flip rolls here um I'm going to call to order a hearing on the 2024 tax levy for Riverside Brookfield High School District 208 Riverside Illinois the evening of December 10th 2024 read just say no oh second second so now we're officially in the hearing I know it's a bit of a formality so I I apologize um we're in the formality over to Dr spana to talk us through the tax levy if you'd be
012so kind yep good evening uh if you could go to board book page 10 um the proposed Levy for which I'm asking the board to take action on tonight uh was reviewed with Finance advisory Council on November 7th The Proposal is to approve a levy increase of 4.95% in order to capture the maximum amount of taxes on new property uh district 28 is tax cap by the pel limit for the levy year of 2024 at 3.4% um so the proposal is to approve a levy at 4.95% in order to capture uh the extra percentage um on new property only um all existing property would be taxed at 3.4% um the new property trend has shown an average increase of about $1.6 million in New Growth for the past 3 years so if you look at
013the chart in board book page 10 which I know is very difficult to read uh you are not zooming in but column C is the extension from uh tax year 2022 or what we are entitled to receive that year column f is the extension from last year's tax uh year 2023 and then column J uh which is the uh almost the last column a gray column on the uh towards the right of the paper is our tax levy for 2024 what we are asking for again it's 4.95% of what we received last year to capture new construction Cook County will come in and adjust it down to the limit which is 3.4% so column K is the new money that we will likely receive in the operating funds which is uh roughly around $23,995 which
014requires us to disclose our fund balances in our operating accounts which we do at every board meeting anyways um but it's important to include it as a part of the hearing uh finally included in the board packet tonight is the state Levy form along with the newspaper ad which is published in the landmark on November 27th which shows that we've met the requirement for truth and Taxation in order to have the public hearing tonight and were there any questions from the board or any questions this evening from board members and did anyone from the public want to comment on the tax levy this evening from a hearing perspective seeing none I believe we can take a motion to close the hearing on the tax levy and we'll come back and vote on it later on
015in the meeting so this is a motion to close the hearing on the 2024 tax levy for Riverside withfield High School second all in favor I okay thank you everyone for your cooperation and taking that slightly out of order um we took care recognitions that Student Association is not here this evening and we can move on to Dr skinkis superintendent report than [Music] you is board book page 14 I believe yes okay the East gym the work uh the repair work on East gym floor has been completed the gym is still closed as the floor is in the process of curing and expected opening should occur a light opening the week of December 16th so we can get some practices in there and then hopefully the floor will be prepared for the holiday tournament uh
016over winter break uh culinary lab is completed Dr sman is finalizing punch list items but students have been using the new lab since mid November uh tonight on the agenda You'll See Vision 2030 the education agencies in Illinois the iasa IB iasbo IPA have all come together again to set a vision for the next decade if you if you remember um those of you that were parts of the school board uh for vision 2020 uh it was a similar project this plan prioritizes future focused learning with shared accountability and predictable funding key points center around student safety um retaining and attracting high quality teachers uh postsecondary success and accountability measures uh to measure schools and and to provide that data in a Time Tim L manner so schools can use it uh to make improvements
017so later tonight you will see in the the item on the agenda for a first read school boards across the state are being asked to review the vision 2030 plan uh and adopt a resolution to show their support So when um those School agencies bring it to the governor and the legislature um they know that school boards across the state are in support of it as well uh the curriculum guide Amendment as discussed uh in November uh for the semester credit that was shared shared out and a Friday a draft of that was shared out in a previous Friday update is also included in tonight's packet the language for the curriculum guide um if approved this language would be added to the end of the applicable courses uh the course descriptions in the curriculum guide
018and it allows for a student to request a particular course be taken for semester Credit in the event of a scheduled conflict um as far as superintendent advisory councils are concerned uh the facilities advisory Council met Wednesday November 20th and we discussed annual qbr or the quarterly qbr from aark which just is an update on the projects they completed employee um uh different landmarks or benchmarks that their employees have met safety standers that are being met and projects they want to focus on in the future uh we also discussed the uh emergency repairs to the each gym uh the school maintenance Grant the HVAC repair to the Fieldhouse and the potential f future projects uh to the cafeteria student CA faculty cafeteria excuse me uh conference room area and finishing out a science lab um
019the policy advisory Council I'm probably going to like we talked about tonight a little earlier in one of our previous meetings but the way Thanksgiving and the holiday break is falling uh we'll probably do our policy advisory council meeting uh after winter break and then bring the changes to the board in January the requirements for p press packet 117 do not require to be approved till February so we have time but we'll accomplish that in uh January and that concludes my December superintendent report any questions or comments no okay Dr Matana uh good evening uh tonight I'll provide the Board of Education with financial information through the month of November which represents 42% of the fiscal year on board page 17 you'll see the total operating revenue for the month was $64,800 with 50% from
020evidence-based funding which is State funding 16% from local sources and 15% from property tax the total operating expenditures for the month were 2,62 854 with 72% towards salary and benefits 7% on special education tuition and 6% on Transportation uh on the next set of uh reports you'll see the monthly Financial uh statements the summary of revenues shows that the district has received 47.7% of Revenue of budgeted revenue for this year um this percent is higher than this time last year significantly all just because of the timing of property tax uh the summary of expenditures shows that the district has spent 43.6% of our budgeted expenditures which is pretty similar to this time last year 44.6% uh as always I included the statement of revenues and expenditures both for the board accounts and for the activity
021accounts as well um I have two other informational items tonight uh the first as uh Dr skinkis was mentioning about a marks uh their business review I included that entire um packet for the board's information uh so you can look at uh as when you have time um but I want to take them a minute just to thank Aramark for all that they do for the district um you know they work really hard and often don't get their recognition but um you know they often work a lot behind the scenes to make sure that the building continues to function and and looks as nice as it does so I just want to thank uh Burham and his staff uh tonight and then lastly uh just an update from the liability insurance um I touched on
022this a little bit at the last board meeting but the district has completed its fourth year with Alliant for liability insurance uh our insurance was due on December 1st so we will continue our coverage with uh Illinois County's risk management trust um which is an increase from uh last year's premium of about 36% uh due to the reassessment of our property uh values by 62 million um and so there were a few cost-saving potentials um but the the risk didn't really outweigh the the savings and so we we decided to uh keep the coverage the same uh for the next year and then in the new uh calendar year I'll begin to look at Insurance Cooperative options to determine if there's any other cost savings that the district could take in the following year thank
023you Kristen any questions from the board there were no questions nothing here I think it's Dr freas Dr freus you wanted Mr Tores to go first because we have a girls b yes if it's okay with you madam president I I would love our assistant pres to present the fall summary first so he can go back to supervising the athletic contest this even sounds good Mr Tes you're up S whatever you're comfortable hello everybody again um I shared the fall Sports summary that breaks down records and everything on there uh overall though our student athletes and coaches had a very successful fall season it was a very uh welcomed transition to the new conference um and our student athletes and coaches were able to secure and win five conference championships those five conference championships were
024in girls volleball girls tennis uh boys golf girls Golf and boys soccer uh some recognitions for our student athletes in the conference we had 40 students earn Upstate 8 All Conference honors this fall um we also had 99 uh student athletes earned academic All Conference which is a 3.5 GPA or higher that is unweighted so uh they don't factor in the weight on that um and it's only a varsity award um some other highlights incl include obviously we just talked about our state qualifiers uh but our boys golf team qualified for sectionals as a team um so they had a really successful year uh we had a girls golfer Lucia vasana qualified for sectionals um we had two boys soccer players that were named all sectional by their coaches association that was Diego Vias and
025uh Tomas kikas um and then our All State Rec uh recognized students that we have already discussed wonderful it's good to know that the transition to the new conference it's been a very healthy good transition um it's very similar schools in terms of being all public schools and they don't want to uninvite us cuz we won too many things no not yet so we'll see but uh but we're looking forward to the we're looking forward to the winter um as we transition here and um but yeah it was at our conference ad meetings when they hand out the Plex I brought all five stacks back so that was nice is there um can you are you missed there should be participation numbers for each sport and pay to participate numbers and all that is that
026not in this recort or did you and Dr feris can send that later oh I can send that later I supposed to be included in so in the future I know it's your first report so the board likes to see e sport the four-year breakdown of participation if it's up and down by sport okay and then to pay to parti I do I do we we had 478 student athletes in the fall uh that's up from $459 last year but I don't have the specific go through those tables with Dr Fred us and then once you guys finalize those uh you could send it to me tomorrow or yeah tomorrow and I'll send them out on Friday is this when we get it or do we get during the the culture update no they'll get
027it each end of each season they'll do it each team's numbers and so it's okay I'm sure there was they'll get that and then just send it out I'll put it in the Friday update okay okay yep thank you thank you thank thank you thank you [Music] for okay I'm up so uh welcome again folks so under teaching and learning just a quick quick update here so RB prep which is free test prep for juniors this information just came out so I'm sharing it uh session start the week of January 12th and run through the first week of April stent must sign up by December 20th the information is available online so if you have a junior or or your neighbors have juniors you know please share the word um we just had last week
028our first fast for completion night it was a success there was absolutely no glitches with the fast for knock on W D jams this year it opened on time December 1st it was nice to see I had a two frommer students of mine that work for Isaac were facilitating one from herb and one from Chicago when I was a principal there so it was really nice to see that two former students assisting our families and uh again it was well received uh you know like to recognize Mr Emerson Miss Guzman our counseling department you know our student services department Miss Beth Augustine did a fantastic job you know the the 30 40 plus families that came there were at help they all completed it again no glitch no issues everything went completely well the same
029evening we also had college night for juniors and parents and again uh we had three uh College Representatives here you know assistant Deans Financial experts and they provided you know great information about what to start doing you know as you go through this journey and and the key take was right visit the schools find out what's find out if you like being there you know find out if they have what you want to study so again a big shout out to our department our student services department final exams is Among Us right next week you know it's upon us so we have a week and a half we open up on the 17th on Tuesday so that day uh are the we take the first 7eventh period final from 12:30 to 2: and students are
030dismissed at too and then the next consecutive days we run finals to um 11:15 then students are dismissed but students can make a final from 11:30 to 1 throughout those days so final exams are upon us folks um if you folks have had an opportunity I do want to share that we do have a new app now please download it is absolutely fantastic we have it for iPhone right and for Android and Apple it is great you can see the events you can see schedules you know I mean for from the parents that I've engaged in they absolutely love it it's fantastic what's what's it called Dr F RB Bulldogs it should have a it would have it has a black background and it has Rouser or mask out there okay on the school coach
031and operations um and our superintendent poble we're excited that the East gym will be opening up right in next week or two so we're excited to have it you know all of our gyms you know available once more um we have winter break coming up from the 23rd to the 3rd and then classes will resume on Monday January 6 is that a late start I'm sorry yes it will be a late start yep on December 19th we have packed to place basketball Special Olympics basketball 6 p.m. in the main gym be there it's always a great time I will be there as well and with that said I would like to hand it over to our student advisor to the board of education for her report good evening honorable board thank you so much for
032your time I know isn't here so I'm going to go ahead and fill in for both of us today um so to begin with teaching and learning for December like Dr freas mentioned we do have final exam so I just kind of want to talk a little bit about that preparation and things that the students are going to be going through within this week as well as the beginning of next week in preparation for finals um so I know personally like even a lot of my friends and peers um at school are going to their teachers figuring out what assignments maybe they need to make up or maybe asking for help like with an extension and things like that um as well um I know NHS is also hosting a study table tomorrow actually after
033school so for students that are thinking are like they need some extra help you know before those finals some if there's something that's they're struggling with in a class they're able to go um and talk to NHS tutors um after school tomorrow so that's another thing that um can help students with finals all right and then moving on to school culture and operations so for December on December 6th rbtv hosted um an annual toy drive um and they had that with uh w GN TV so they came did a little segment about um their tour Drive um and everything so that was last week and then on the 31st of December will be rbhs senior yearbook ads due so if any family would like to put in um an ad about their loved one about
034their senior that's graduating um they more than welcome to by that December 31st deadline moving on to activities in athletics so in December um December 4th we had the Rd showcase which is the reparatory dance ensemble show um this was from 7: to 9:00 p.m. and this was in the auditorium for $12 for adults and then $10 for seniors um and for students and then on the 10th and 11th was is the holiday um RV concert so um this also took place yesterday during school like during school hours for students during their classes to go see as well um and it's taking place tonight as well and tomorrow um so we highly encourage those who are able to attend to be able to come out and support support the RV music department like the choir
035orchestra um Etc so this will be it started at 7:00 p.m. so it start at 7:00 p.m. today it start 7:00 p.m. tomorrow and it'll be in the auditorium it'll be $10 for adults and then $5 for students and then from the 10th of the 12th is the winter Art EX exhibition so RV students in art classes were able to Showcase their own art from first semester ranging from Ceramics to photography so this began today and will continue until this Thursday so it began at 6: p.m. today and it'll go on for 600 p.m. for the next 2 days and it will be in the AR pit right outside the room and then the 10th through 13th is the shenanigans winter show so this will be from 3:15 to 5:15 p.m. so this will take
036place after school up until that 5:15 Point um and if you are looking for a laugh just come support the RV Shenanigans crew and it'll be in the little theater and then on the 13th is going to be the claring hard copy distribution so this one is something that me and Emma are both involved in Emma and I both have a managing roles that class I'm editor and Chief and EM as a gen General managing editor so we're very proud of this hard copy that's going to be coming out on Friday we just submitted to the printer today so that would be something that you know we're very proud of very relieved to get it off our chest big accomplishment right yes yes so it's our second hard copy of the year so we're excited
037for you guys to be able to read some articles about what's been going on at RB and and things like that so that'll be at 7:15 door A&G um but I know we always keep some extra copies in the office and things like that for you guys to read so that it'll be this Friday and then finally um on the 15th rbhs dance is going to host a breakfast with Santa so this is going to be from 9:00 to 12:00 p.m. so it'll kind of it'll be in that morning time for those um who want to bring their kids um bring family and things like that and that'll be in the student cafeteria for $12 for adults and then $10 for students and that concludes my report thank you great thank you thank you for
038all the holiday updates as well it's appreciated Dr fre I'm next with our academic updates uh tonight I will be providing an overview of interventions at RB critical in helping us maintain High freshman on track and graduation rates and whose purpose is for students to improve their reading math English skills along with credit recovery opportunities for seniors and literacy coaching for staff at the Freshman level if you look at the document we have four current interventions we have reading pre-algebra extended algebra and algebra academic support so the goal is the purpose to support students reading and math and we use resources such as read 180 fast Bridge teacher created curriculum or standard curriculum Etc at the sophomore level we have sophomore reading again the goal is to improve students reading proficiency we use read 180
039fastbridge and I exog and digital learning platforms that monitor and support students acquisition of math and English skills at the junior level we have cap which which is college admissions preparation it's a test per class so to speak to improve students the goal is to improve student Proficiency in English reading math and for the following year science we use retired standardized test and teacher creative materials we have a tier three pull out Intervention which I will speak more in detail again we provide intervention based on Star assessments we use Albert class work from English and algebra to trig and teacher created we have RB prep which is a before and after school kind of test prep course again the goal is to improve student skills in English reading and math we use retired tests we
040use teaching creative materials and for the seniors we have Apex which is the online platform we use for digital recovery that has worked well and then for all teachers we have literacy coaching if you go to the next page I just wanted to add a little more details on our T3 pullout intervention so the criteria for receiving intervention must be at the junior level Genet students and this is for students scoring below Benchmark on the star which is an interim assessment taken four times a year and P scores the population of a junior is receiving intervention the total number of individual students in the Target population in in need of intervention based on the criteria that I just mentioned is 96 45 to 96 are in currently in cap the College admission preparation course the
041number of students identified in math support based on St course fall was 57 15 out of the 57 are in cap the number of students identifi for ELA support based on Star and PS go 87 37 of the 87 are in cap class and the number of student receiving pull out interventions support doing the semester in semester one is eight these are the students who are not in cap class each of the students is in need of intervention and math and Ela and we have a certain group a number of students that are not receiving an intervention due to to scheduling and limited access 43 out of 96 or 45% could unfortunately are not receiving any intervention we do have a gap that we are attacking and supporting you know if you look there um
042you know uh on average Hispanic students scor 27 less points on the ELA uh sat than whites a blacks score 41 points on average less than whites and then if you keep on looking to the right there you have the Black and Hispanic comparison but two numbers that also Stand Out is students with an IEP diverse Learners and Genet students that Gap is minus 27 and the low income to non- low income ratio is min 16 so you can see there are several factors that impact or have systematically impacted you know students of our background of students of certain backgrounds um you know the the Gap is there but again you know we're working hard to close it we're looking at this data all this is found on our Illinois report card but we're looking
043to close it and we're working hard towards it pull out intervention progress 100% of our students receiving pull out intervention show at least uh one area of starter math with Positive Growth 100% of students receiv receiving pullout intervention past the English class in quarter 1 88% of student receiving pull intervention pass their math class in quarter one 80% of student receiving pull intervention pass all their classes for quarter one so what does this tell us intervention supports are robust at that freshman level at that ninth grade but drops off as students progress throughout the year the current structure doesn't allow for enough access point to reach our students in need of intervention you know our teacher that does the the intervention has one course of one class scheduled this this semester and to next semester
044so there's some access issues that we need to work with and some other Ro blocks you know and students need of intervention access points um currently we're using study H and academic support to pull some students there's some students that don't have a study there's some students that are credit Def and don't have study H at all they have 7even full courses um there are students that are invested in the world languages Fine Arts applied arts and dual enrollment that likely do not have room under schedule for the intervention and at the end of the day you know we do recommend students you know however there is some student and family refusal because they choose to do other classes and out a certain intervention we see that a gap we're committed to we to addressing
045the Gap we're working with our multi-tier supports and defention team to move that forward and to close the gap again it'll it'll take some time but we are on it because we want to make sure that this school supports everyone and gives them what they need it so questions on this for Dr fras I think none were submitted beforehand um always a always a good sign but I appreciate that the comprehensive nature this obviously supports one of our our goals from the district um I like seeing it spelled out in such detail I'm looking though to my left and my right wonder if anyone has any comments or questions I me obviously you know addressing that remaining 45% that does not have an intervention right now is a is a shared goal right yes that's
046a that's a significant number it is that would be my only question is why is it just scheduling or 43 seems like and 45% is a lot for such a small nice intimate school so just curious if I seven like we talked a little bit about we know why they're not seven classes so and then uh not having a study hall not having a study hall line with the same time period the teacher has off yes um and so that's what we talked about last in our meeting with the Union so maybe it's helpful up those 43 to understand the specifics to each is that what you're kind of asking right that's what I'm kind of touching on that a lot of them have seven classes or they don't have a study hall um that
047aligns with the teachers off period and currently we do not pull a kid from their PE class to go in and get help for another class so that's what we were talking about with the board like we think we've identified a way to get one more kid scheduled for cap and two maybe there's a way that some of those students may be able to qualify for a PE way or uh the state requirement of 3 days a week of PE so that they can fit into their schedule some intervention next year so we think we've started what's what if what I hope you're taken away from this we're nowhere near where we need to be but this this is a good starting spot of like the divisionals the principal assistant principal like and they're starting
048to bring to me now like okay here's our okay well now we go to the board and we talk about amending board policy in regards the Pu wavers or we talk about how we're going to use the Staffing allotment to increase interventions at the same time I push back to Dr freedos and say like you need to start pulling numbers with your team because if I look at this right we're still kind of missing a sophomore math if you look at we have three interventions for the juniors even though the RB prep is for everybody yeah and the cap is is more for below Benchmark but we get students we still don't have a sophomore math we have sophomore reading mhm but but um you have a we have academic support for freshmen but we
049don't uh algebra academic support but we don't have a geometry right no so I mean there's a couple things that were identified and that's the good thing about the bore go right the bore goal was first approved in August so I mean we kind of had an idea of some of these things but this is going to be one we're going to need to work on for a year or two like re reshaping some because when you stumble upon these things in you know September October and you start running these numbers you start to identify okay we got to do some things different for next year as we're starting to pull kids schedules and kids are starting to pick classes for next year mhm I just did have one more question on the number so
050it says the total number of students needing intervention is 96 and then you break it down math and Ela I don't know why in my mind I thought they would add up to 9 can you some of them overlap overlap right need that's it some that just need the they need total identified total identified so some need both some need one yes yep okay but yeah you know I'm excited I know you know we're coming up right Staffing and and I know you know the district always you know you know right gives the charge to the building right we need to you know look at you know our staffing numbers and and possibly re repurpose you know some of the FTE given to right that's part of the conversations that you know we are having
051we will continue to have with our division heads building administration because there's definitely some there some gaps there of supports that we need and then are you able to group them as a cohort and see where this Gap starts to widen because why wait till junior year if we can maybe catch them right off the bat freshman and sophomore I think the target was junior year right because the test is this year correct you're going to filter down but it should I understand what you're saying if you're following the Freshman on track there's no better test prep yes then actually learning what you're that then actually meeting The Benchmark freshman and sophomore year because if you're below Benchmark I could give you all the test prep in the world and if you're scoring a 15
052you're only going to go up to an 18 and yes I understand what you're saying makes sense so that you start track those those students that are at the ps8 would hopefully be of some type of intervention as freshman after the ps9 they sen students have some type of intervention as a sophomore so that hopefully by the time the number of the 96 should decrease by the time they're hopefully Junior if we're doing the interventions correctly I'm sure you're going to be diving into this with your team and your division yeah Dr SK all right thank you thank you for thank you for saying yes absolutely like let's not wait till J let's catch them yes Madam Vice pres got here thank you okay thank you everyone um moving on to discussion items do just
053Cas we had three foer requests I believe yes uh Maryann what page are those on okay we had request for emails in regard to the semester long classes uh from a Maggie white Sher re smart procure which we get on a regular basis and then Melissa Le legal Women Voters was looking for the contact information of the candidates those are the three four requests submitted since our last meeting thank you do we have any other update on District goals or that was the academic intervention was really okay um so we are at visitor statements Mr Monty I'm going to read a quick intro paragraph while you get situated if that's okay uh the Board of Education welcomes and encourages the participation of its citizens in the business of the school district there are two points
054in the meeting where visitor statements are scheduled citizens are welcome 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 the meeting to the superintendent and Mr Monty did follow that process so he does have additional time this evening thank you thank you so much um I hoped to spoken to you all for the last time in October when I gave that RBF report but here I am once again to inform the the district 208 school board about the consistent lack of leadership in this
055building after Dr skinkis Dr Matana and Dr fros all violated District board policy 4160 on Environmental Quality of building and grounds and more importantly Illinois code 820 ilcs 255 which is the toxic substance disclosure to employees act on Thursday November 14th I left an annual IEP review at 12:30 p.m. in room 170 in the special education hallway which is in the southeast part of the building upon opening the office door I was immediately hit by an OD that smelled like very strong spray paint I walked to my classroom in the science hallway which is in the Northeast part of the building and I didn't smell anything after I taught my fifth hour class I opened my door to stand in the hallway to greet students and I was again struck by the odor it was
056much stronger now and smelled like gasoline um my 6th hour teach students enter and immediately began to complain about the odor after teaching that class I opened my door again and stood in the hall for the All State swim parade and the smell was even stronger a colleague walked by and said they were sealing the East gym floor after teaching 7th hour my ecology Club students began entering my room for our weekly meeting they too complained about the odor after 45 minutes I ended the meeting early as I now had a severe headache and my eyes were burning I went home and sent an email to at 4:30 p.m. to members of the administration my division head the union president and the head of Maintenance no one responded I didn't feel better until about 700
057p.m. that night the next morning Friday November 15th I entered the school around 6:30 a.m. and I didn't smell anything but as soon as I started walking down the science hallway I began to smell the odor and it grew Pro progressively stronger as I walked East towards my room I sent a text about the smun administrator at 6:42 a.m. and sent the first of several emails to the administration and staff starting at 6:56 a.m. I sent an email to Dr skinkis stating that this would be a good time for an e-learning day 3 weeks earlier he had told all the staff to have our e-learning lesson plans ready because an e-learning day does not always have to be weather related not one administrator or supervisor responded directly to any of my emails or texts not
058even a thanks Dave we're looking into this right now by 7:15 a.m. my headache returned and was quite severe my eyes were also very irritated I had an important lab ready for my first and second hour classes for that day so I stayed and I did the lab multiple students complained to me before school and I told them to see the nurse if they were not feeling well while doing the lab second hour I received an email from Dr smana at 9:15 stating that the second coat planned for later that same afternoon was now being pushed back to 6:00 a.m. Saturday morning another administrator sent out an email to the staff offering the option to move your class to another room if the me if the smell was too strong after second hour I put
059together sub plans for the rest of the day during my third hour prep and I left uh around 10:15 a.m. I did not feel better till around 1:30 p.m. throughout the morning other staff messaged me or talked to me in person about their concerns and their symptoms including nausea but when I asked them to tell the administration none to my knowledge did a few told me they they wouldn't because they feared repercussions I do not have any health conditions outside of arthritis and back pain from two previous back surgeries I don't have asthma I don't have any heart conditions or any other respiratory conditions but a fair number of our of our student population do and so do some of our staff and the smell source which was the East gym was closest to our
060most vulnerable student population because there was no communication before this work was done to the east jym this Administration recklessly endangered the health of the entire student body and staff and the plans for this refinish were first discussed over the summer and then again at the October 22nd board meeting by Dr skinkis but in clear violation of both the board policy and state policy no one was was informed of when this work was going to be performed and the hazards involved as the senior staff member in this building who's experienced at least two similar events to this in the 1990s I would have definitely said something if we had been properly informed but we weren't what if a student had a bad reaction what if a staff member was pregnant this was something several female
061staff member asked me why was no one informed before this happened so that necessary precautions could have been taken the fall play was that weekend as was an age group swim meet both of which have been on the calendar for months where is the forward thinking I have said this countless times both to the board and to my students a School's number one responsibility is creating a safe learning environment that was definitely not the case starting that Thursday afternoon almost all those sealants are petroleum based which are quite toxic and can be carcinogenic even water based SE sealants have volatile organic compounds or Vox in them the containers were in the hallway near the training room by Door L until December 5th and the labels have multiple warnings which I took photos of the label
062warnings included skin irritation drowsiness dizziness and organ damage through prolonged or repeated exposure there was also possible use restrictions due to local air quality Vox regulations both sealants have a maximum Vox content of 500 G per liter I have not yet been able to find what the acceptable Vox level for sealant is in Illinois but in 2008 the federal government capped the Vox content and paint at 250 g per liter for flat finishes 380 G per liter for other finishes like low luster and semi gloss many states have passed laws that are even more stringent and again both sealant used on the gym floor have a Vox rating of 500 G per liter I finally found the MSDS sheets of the on the products own website and under hazards identification the first line States osak
063says these products are hazardous under code 29 CFR 1910 1200 and they give the same identical warnings that I just mentioned that were on the labels with the prolonged exposure being the first the worst one it also states that workers must work out Les when applying this chemical and they should be in well ventilated areas several colleagues told me the workers in the East gym were wearing respirator masks yet your students and staff were breathing those hazardous Vapors over parts of two days as were hundreds of student athletes in the youth basketball tournament the following weekend I could still smell it at the East end of the school on Friday evening November 22nd and there were extra fans helping with air circulation and Heat this Sunday afternoon I was in that area getting ready for
064an Eco Club workday I could still smell the toxins in addition not one member of this Administration followed up with me about the fumes or even asked how I was feeling until Monday nov November 25th When Miss linquist who had been out for the week inquired about my well-being on Tuesday December 3rd I arrived to school around 6:35 in the morning to get ready for the day shortly before 7:30 I walked out of my classroom to go to the copy room and I noticed a new smell in the hallway it wasn't as strong and it smelled much more like tar and not gasoline at 7:31 I returned to my classroom and I emailed the administration and the head of Maintenance over the span of the next 30 minutes three assistant principles a chemistry teacher and
065my division head all came down to my room to investigate they all agreed they could smell it and the smell got stronger as you moved East towards the the Fieldhouse and at 8:55 a.m. during the passing period the head of Maintenance questioned in the hallway he said the roofers were here at 7:00 a.m. that morning but they weren't doing any repairs yet he also said he didn't smell anything then or now I also received an email at 8:47 from Dr sman while I was teaching that stated we switched to a water-based coating which is odorless it is also green and Lead certified as a result we didn't feel the need to notify staff as it is compliant with all environmental gold standards my response was then what did we smell this morning I still am
066waiting for a response this blatant disregard for the well-being of students and staff is not only unacceptable and unethical it violates Schoolboard policy and state policy and there's a ridiculous double standard here what would happen to a staff member if they ignored an email from a parent or a board member or an administrator they would face disciplinary action and be marked down on their evaluation but for some unknown unknown reason it is acceptable for RB administrators to not inform students parents and staff about something that will significantly impact the school day and it is also acceptable for an RB administrator to never respond to an email from a staff member almost every week we hear Dr freas say here at RB we love you we care about you we got your back but this isn't
067true these are meaningless empty words if there's no action taken to back it up lastly I was docked 6 of a six of a sick day when I went home ill that Friday I was only ill because of the actions and inactions of your Administration I thought you would all like to know what transpired on these two days and how poorly the situation was handled and maybe uh the board might want to speak about what transpired with the district's legal council thank you for your time in the extension I appreciate it very much thank you than [Music] you do we have any additional discussion items from anyone on the board for this evening future meetings Miss rusa if we could take a few minutes you know we came back from the conference if anybody has
068some highlights to share you know at the end of you're refering to the Illinois Association of School Board conference sure go ahead oh this is the time we we'll we'll do it now because we can I you know I just really want you know appreciate the opportunity the you know the board spend some money on our professional development and you know um that conference is a nice opportunity to talk with people all over the state and you know hear what other people are doing in different districts around um I always love the plenaries I didn't get to spend as much time this year as in past but really was blown away U the school board board member who was recognized came from Westmont tiny little school you know the high school's like down to 500
069and um was a physician who got roped into being a school member and thought well how hard could it be and you know she kind of gave her story and doing some really novel things um this for my point I always try to pick up a book or something that they're you know the point of the year last year there was a nice emphasis on diversity and Equity this year um they had some more uh information on the indigenous history you I picked up that and then one of the plenaries u i put this book on my Christmas list for the kids you know so I'm easy for them to get uh probably and you'll probably Dr skinkis and um Dr sman probably know them Mike lelt and Nick poak they they gave this really
070compelling um um talk their books are the unfinished leader the unlearning leader and you probably heard those books and they you know they the two men presented together they were very funny and engaging and they had asked everyone what color is a warning sign and a road you know and everyone's thinking well yellow and black and they're like well it hasn't been yellow and black in years but that's what you learned and Driver said and you haven't unlearned it and you know it just went through all these incidents of things that we've learned and even talked about the Nobel Peace Prize winner trying to get people to believe that a pylori CAU you doers and started to apply that to education what we're doing with education and I thought well that's certainly going to be
071one of my highlights this year but you know I appreciate so much that opportunity to hear something that you don't get because you can be in your career and you have that and then to think about what's changed and things that we used to do that were best standard we're like yeah I ain't best there anymore you know let reverse all that it's pretty good and it was great to hear what some of the districts around us were doing so I'm just really grateful for that opportunity it was a nice nice conference good thanks thanks for your feedback anyone else um I attended as well and I would like to just report that a lot of the sessions this um year focused on diversity equity and inclusion again and I attended um a session on
072budgeting through the lens of equity um it was interesting I'd like to say that I think we're in many regards we're ahead um of the of the game so I it felt good to be able to sit there and actually know that we're doing a better a better job um and the other two workshops I um attended dealt with um recruiting leaders of color which I think that as part of the um Equity committees that we have here at the school that's been touched on as well so it was just a really great opportunity to connect the trends that are out there versus what we're doing here and we're we're doing we're doing a good job overall thank you thanks for bringing it up thank you thanks for everyone who attended um moving on to
073consent agenda I think we have two items on consent Miss gasa yes um the Board of Education Township High School District 208 C County Illinois takes the following action on the listed consent agenda item approves approval of minutes from regular meeting November 12 2024 and the Life Touch contract extension um as presented in the December 10 2024 board agenda packet second second for Miss lock and uh we need a roll call please Mr yes yes Mr durin yes M gas yes M yes Miss yes and yes uh old business do we an update on the solar panel project yes we do okay uh the Administration has been in communication with the new thirdparty consultant mark puit from the power Bureau Bureau LLC uh the attached contract has been reviewed by District's legal council exhibit a
074in the contract outlines the scope of work to be provided by the power Bureau uh once this contract is in place we can begin to work on revising the RFP uh and being able to issue that we did have a preliminary meeting uh yesterday which included myself uh Burham and uh Tony Rossy who is from Nicholas and helping us manage the project um and we discussed um submitting a pre-application to ComEd to add solar panels to the grid to make sure that they have ComEd has enough uh space and capacity to do so um the process for reviewing uh the draft RFP uh creating a timeline for the project um setting up weekly check-in meetings and then how to post the RFP on the Illinois solar energy association website and how to send it out
075directly to all of the solar companies um so hopefully we can hit the ground running um once we have this in place it is a first read um it would be helpful if the board could approve it tonight but at the same time um Mr puit understands that school boards uh sometimes need a little extra time and he's he's okay with that as well I appreciate you working through this I know it's been a um a bit a bit of a heavy lift to get us to this point so thank you what does the board say about approving this this evening any objection thoughts I don't have a problem moving forward I did mean to submit a question and I won't put you too far on the spot but is this structure looks like it's
076set up slightly different than nania where this is pay for consultation and that's it there I didn't see it so Nas was set up as a portion of uh production this one is just straight fee yes um and it's not to exceed 6,000 but he will uh as you saw in the scope of work he will do um he will get us completely through selecting the yeah selecting the vendor um and going through the whole RFP process he's very familiar with Illinois procurement laws um and is very familiar with the design build process which is what we're going out under the RFP for okay was there an estimated RFP issuance date on this and I there's not uh we just like I said we just met yesterday and it really um we have him put
077together he has a timeline uh put together and then I need to try to drop some dates on to see if it makes sense but um the RFP needs to be reviewed by the district as well as the district's architect as well as the district's attorney and the Insurance Consultant so um given that and winter break um you know my goal would be to try to issue it sometime in February okay so it would be helpful for us to approve it now so that you can get started on some of that yes it would be um but give you a little more time and the district's attorney reviewed this that was going to be my followup question as well just the contract initiated from The District's attorney there are no changes or anything to this
078is final this is final so quick question um we're stepping back and redoing like the contract that that doesn't knock us out of any other rebates and everything no we've already um it's kind of complicated to explain but you kind of have to put yourself in a queue with the election results and uh a different party taking office uh we wanted to make sure we put oursel in Quee for those rebates so that um we were still eligible for them in case they changed uh once a new party took office um so we've done that so um between that and then filing uh with ComEd for the pre-application will be in a good spot okay so any concerns about moving forward tonight from anyone I don't we can okay um the Board of Education Township
079High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approved the agreement with the power Bureau LLC as presented in the December 10th 2024 board agenda packet second second for Mr V hon we do need a roll call Mr yes Mr yes yes M yes yes yes yes uh moving on to the adoption of the 2024 tax levy lots to read here any more questions I know we have the hearing this evening we've seen this a couple times I think we're probably comfortable moving forward whereas the Board of Education of Riverside Brookfield Township High School District number 208 Cook County Illinois has determined the amount of money that is necessary to be raised by taxation for the year 2024 and whereas the board of education has has heret for adopted a budget resolution for the district for the
080fiscal year commencing July 1 2024 and ending June 30th 2025 and whereas the Board of Education disclosed at a public meeting its intention to adopt a levy and whereas the Board of Education provided notice of its intent to adapt a levy now therefore be it and it is hereby resolved by the Board of Education of Riverside Brookfield Township High School District number 208 Cook County Illinois as follows one that there shall be and there is hereby levied by the board the amounts set forth on exhibit a attached here two and made a part of this resolution which is the certificate of tax levy for the year 2024 and two that the board president and board secretary are hereby authorized to execute the certificate of tax levy and supporting forms and certifications and the District administration
081is hereby authorized and directed to file the certificate of tax levy and all supporting forms and certifications with the county county clerk of Cook County Illinois we have a second please second second for Mr Ben H and we do need a roll call Mr yes yes yes yes yes yes yes um thank you everyone press plus policy issue 117 I think Dr skas you referenced that earlier correct so that is U nothing to the meeting will the group will meet in January if the board has any questions please submit them wonderful school calendar 2526 this is a second read for adoption I believe this evening that is correct if uh if the board is comfortable I'd like to approve it any objection any questions I think we're none we're submitted if you don't mind please
082thank you the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois adopts the 2025 2026 school calendar providing for the opening day of school on Tuesday August 12th 2025 and the ending day of school on Thursday May 21 2026 if no emergency days are used for a total School term of 186 days as presented in the December 10 2024 board agenda packet can someone second please second aome I have second from Miss lock and we do U that's an all in all in favor I any objections hearing none pit cat passes excuse me uh under new business we have payment of bills this evening there were no questions to no questions so then we can move ahead with that please the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves
083the payment of bills as presented in the December 10 2024 board agenda packet second second from Mr Durkin we need all in favor I'm Sor this is a roll call I apologize Mr yes yes Mr no yes mror Mr dur yes gas yes yes then we have the amended curriculum guide language that Dr skinkis referenced earlier and we had discussed it our prior board meeting any question on this or any more comment from the administration no uh no questions were submitted the board has seen this since uh November I concluded in the Friday update I think this clarifies where we were going with a discussion at this point so thank you for for getting back to us um Miss gasa the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves a curriculum
084guide language change as presented in the December 10 20124 board agenda packet second second second from Miss lock all in favor I I I any objection motion carries the delt Equity definition so Dr Fred has touched down last week the uh the Del plan and all the different strand teams Dr smana myself Mike Ryan ruber John Eiger and Wan tanoko are part of the system strand which is really the uh District SL board operational level um working with the school board if a policy needs to be adjusted or uh anything at the overall General systems or operating procedures um and one of the recommendations was uh after we adopted um the res uh the new mission statement for the high school was to have the district adopt a definition of equity uh how we would
085define equity and so after looking at several examples and doing a lot of research and collaborating with our group um you know this is the example of the definition that we would like for the board to consider adopting this is a first reading the definition is equity is having high expectations for every student learner and providing the support and resources so each learner can develop to their full academic and social potential okay well I appreciate their work on this I know these committees can take up a fair amount of time and effort Dr Freight Tas thank you um do you want us to do a first read on this or do you want does the board want to look at it and think on it we sent it out to staff as well and staff
086students and parents and we got 72 responses and from the feedback this is the definition after we got uh stakeholder feedback concise it's cinct m yeah I think it's clear I I would have no objection moving forward if that's what the group wants to do is that I'm looking down here I think I I appreciate again the feedback and their inclusiveness to the to getting to this point um Miss gasa the Board of Education Township High School District 208 C County Illinois approves the equity definition as presented in the December 10 2024 board agenda packet a second second from Mr Novak all in favor I any objections that carries thank you madam president I could I believe at the last moment it was an inquiry if we're still working with Dr doel we're working with
087drel we actually had her here last week and come February for uh uh come March we'll be supporting our newly hired staff in the last 3 to five years we want to cast them up on the Dei work so we are continuing to work with theel she's very busy now she's an assist Su we go leading Dei out there we we are working with her to move our professional development forward thank you than for the update um Vision 2030 call to action Dr skinkis yes as I previously described during my report again this is just a it's kind of a formality um it's a suggested motion um that the board uh consider approving uh it would be a very general motion just that the board you know approve supporting Vision 2030 as the members of
088the groups that we support Dr f is part of the IPA Dr sman is part of I asbo I'm a part of iasa I sit on the state directing board for that organization and obviously the school board is a part of the iasb so um if we can consider adopting that resolution maybe put it on the consent agenda in January um and we don't have the there was a motion that was included in the paperwork I don't know it's not included tonight so we'll adjust that and uh we can put it on the consent agenda if the board's okay with that I think that makes sense to put on the yeah this is um I mean the the committee members for this is an impressive assortment of people who've come to this Vision 2030 and
089and advocating in Springfield takes a lot of voices and a lot of um cooperation so I don't think we'd have any objections but we can do it in January as part of consent thanks thank you uh visitor opportunity no okay it's the second opportunity we're going to move on discussion items we took it slightly out of order we had Miss rusa speak at the time um any consideration of items for future meetings from any member of the board looking to my left looking to my right and matters for closed session we do have appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body we have student discipline individual student matters why I went purchase sale or lease of real property probable imminent or pending litigation Collective negotiations school safety and confidentiality
090of closed session minutes the Board of Education Township High School District 208 C County Illinois enters Clos session for the purpose of considering the Clos session matters as presented in the December 10 2024 board agenda packet second second for Miss lock and we need a roll call yes yes yes yes yes yes okay thank you everyone it's 821 we can move to close session