001good evening seven o'clock let's come to order for the district 208 Board of Education I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all is there any can you do a roll call please here here yes here do we have any visitor statements this evening seeing none will move on to discussion information items and foia requests one foil request we had a request for one of our videos related to an accident that occurred on First Avenue so they submitted a prayer request we ran into our attorneys and responded accordingly and it was not related to the one with the sign it was something from a different day noted any other questions we can move
002on to any discussion items Mr van horse do you want to raise the issue uh just curious if we needed to have a discussion on the process for replacing our wonderful seniors that are will be moving on next year and just checking to see if we need to discuss any things on committee or applications or anything like that I do think we need to identify members of the Board of Education to interview the next applicants but Dr Freitas can you give us an update sure so the deadline is this Thursday April 13th we're still accepting applications I know in the past depending on the number of candidate we've extended the deadline a week or two after all the applications have been have been collected we sit down and we interview the students myself superintendent and
003a board member you know of the board's choice and once the interviews happen we recommend or we've recommended to students to be student board members so still accepting applications with the interview process next and then once all that's taken care of we'll and hopefully unto finalists so at this point does the Board of Ed need to identify it's um I think this is also your question right identify the interview candidates or we have another meeting and for that to occur I'm just I'm fuzzy on the time frame when did the new members don't start to the fall the room members don't start technically their first meeting is the the first meeting of August 10 June or July um last year um Mr van Horace and Miss gaska were the interviewees if if they can do
004it or if the board wants to select somebody else it's good to have two if we don't have two and we can only get one because of work schedules that's also okay as well we could do it via Zoom or they can come to school now we I think that we do it in person yeah so if we could you know if they could spare a half a day and we can there's a short 20-minute interview probably with each candidate and depending on the number of candidates that apply and that's in we would want to do that in probably the first week or two of May so that we can approve the board the new students the final deadline should be approving the Student Association of the student advisor to the board uh by the
005may cow so that would be the 23rd of May so you have the April 28th meeting I would say that's probably just to give Hector if he needs another week or two to extend the deadline and so the goal would be to try to do the interviews within the first week or two of May so I guess I would open the discussion we can have this discussion now um if Mr van horse and Ms gaskare are still interested does anyone else want to be part of that interview discussion I think you guys did a good job I am I am happy to do it but also happy to pass it if someone's interested so I'm I'll put my name out there to to do it if needed and otherwise happy to let others get involved
006okay happy to do it as well um because I have a new job this time around it really truly will depend on dates I've got a couple of things happening in May and I don't want to hold up the process but I I really did enjoy the being on the interview panel so I can probably go okay okay great so Carolyn's our alternate uh well once we get the number of candidates I should know by this it closes Thursday so I'll know about a Friday update I could update the board Marianne if you can make sure that we put that header in so I could update the board once I get the information on whether or not we need to extend it further I believe we're at two or three candidates right now uh four
007candidates okay great so and then um when we get to we would ask the departing members to do the kind of the exit survey they did we had something similar done last year and it was helpful information we could dust off that document have you guys fill that out it'd be very helpful okay and um Paulina Asia do you remember did you come to the make how I know we swore you in at the may cow meeting um where the other student board advisor is there at that meeting I believe that's kind of when we do our farewell to them when we say a couple kind words and wish them luck and that's their last meeting I think I remember it being warm out I think it may have been like later in May because
008I remember sitting here with my mom and then watching and that would be the last but you watched the last minute the other the two board members ahead of you were still there yeah but only Claire was here that day I don't know yes she had a badminton match I think you weren't correct right okay so we'll plan on your last meeting being May 23rd okay so you have tonight and three more okay what is Graduation May 26th okay so do we is May 23rd a cow yes May 9th is the meeting where we sit the new board members so then it would be the 16th would be the week off and the 23rd would be the new would be the cop May count yeah I just don't remember our student advisors going all the
009way to The Bitter End right before graduation okay all right yeah because it was such a Cold Spring last year it didn't warm up really until May okay we'll be very briefed at these things we can all promise that we'll try to be very briefly okay that was helpful thank you Ryan um moving on to consent agenda do we have any other additional comments on consent um I'm ready to vote on that but I do uh on the student handbook there are some things that I you know like to throw out there to think about I don't think they can be resolved down so let's move student handbook out of the consecutive calendar then so you want to make a motion to do that remove it from consent okay so I move that we pulled
010a student handbook out of the consent agenda that's that's fine we don't need to vote that's on a member's discretion so we can go ahead and do that and then we'll go ahead and do consent on the minutes that way we can kind of keep moving in we'll do that we'll take out the handbook okay are you in a hurry okay no I just think we could take care of the consent matters that we we had agreed to so minus the student minus the student handbook the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois takes the following action and the listed consent agenda items approves minutes from the meetings held on March 14 2023 open and closed as presented in the April 11 2023 board agenda packet second we have a second
011from Ms Locke and then we do need a um actually all in paper I apologize all in favor yes yes hi okay so that is approved and then we can move on to any discussion about the student handbook matter okay so you know I I went through the changes um changes are fine I saw that there's the cue codes up front and again yeah I know we're heavy technology but that those don't always work and sometimes you got to insert the flash you know and I pulled it up on the tablet didn't work on the tablet so then I have to use the phone but I understand you could also pull it up on the web so then I had to go pull it up on the web you know do we does it come
012out printed also yes yes and that information that's in the Q code is you know is that also part of the printed version it's part of the it's online and it's included in them it's a quick reference right yes the QR codes yeah correct yeah and what about um another language so I know we're we're having it in English but is it available in Spanish right now it's in English yes um there's a way to translate the online version so I mean if we could have something available online in well our whole website is available in multiple languages there's a button on the top that you could trick and it'll translate it to any language so that would translate a PDF book have we have you reviewed that make sure the translation because that's a
013long those that need to generally know that exists on pages but not always certainly to ask the questions we'll communicate we can we can communicate I mean I've translated sentences we can go to Georgian Pashto uh you just pick your language here okay so I think well and like I said it can't be done this year but I think that would be something that I would want somebody who's a native Spanish reader to say yes the PDF handbook translated well because that's like an 80-page book and that doesn't always happen so we do use Google Translate yeah it doesn't always translate because I use that when I visit my relatives in Mexico or we'll include in the uh and I'm not saying that that has to be done now but next year I think something
014to look at that we do a drive run and somebody reads the whole Spanish PDF to make sure I'm saying we're going to include a notification that other languages are available so parents know how to exit it online okay at least some notifications for this round okay Dr Freda yes you okay at that expectation of course um convince that and I would have to look at it you know short phrases translate well but I I don't know well I mean we brought this at the last meeting and so I'm not saying we do it now but you know as I'm looking at this and I'm I was looking at it online but I think in the future we do need to have something um viable for Spanish-speaking families and I would want to verify that
015the PDF has been translated in its entirety wow okay because um another kind of what I was looking at it I see the early graduation which we spend time talking about you know it's in there briefly the Dual credit and our internships are those in the curriculum book because they're not in our policy their student handbook okay okay so we don't put curriculum in the student handbook we just would put like the process and we're still finalizing some of the process on how we're going to provide transportation for dual enrollment or dual credit which I think was a Lorena question at the mat last meeting so that wouldn't impact this document so remember this when the curriculum guide comes out then the curriculum guide the board already approved like in the fall because we had
016to work on it before so yes the board approved that their what classes were dual enrollment and now we're getting more approved we just got seven more classes considered for approval so that will all be updated online okay so I think we do not give a hard copy of that to any family it's all available online so it's easy to update once that's finalized and so since we do put in our student handbook to graduate and this is something for next year as I'm looking at it and I you know I'm at other high schools you know we do post the graduation requirements in this book and we do say that you could graduate early I think a sentence or two to direct somebody to the curriculum guy you know like a link or a
017direction like an arrow next year when we do the student handbook I felt like that was missing you know for more information on classes because I think somebody could see that see the graduation credits and not realize that there's a lot more information in the curriculum guide okay um our dress code uh being in a high school for the last two years I think next year um I felt like the dress code wasn't descriptive enough for me um at what you know at what point like what's not acceptable you know there was things that had writing on that was not but what outfits are not and being in a high school for the last year I've seen many outfits that really shouldn't be out in public and so I'm just thinking how do we handle
018that as a community as a school again that's something we can do now but as we're looking at our book we've actually taken steps in the last year or two to loosen our own our dress code due to some of their advisement from our diversity equity and inclusion coordinator I'm just looking for my students and I just wanna we did have a board member on the handbook committee correct that wasn't you though okay right so I guess again I'm thinking ahead to next year I hear you have a list of ideas but we should be thinking about how we engage early enough in the process yes meaningful discussion about it yes and so I'm saying because you know now that it's summer I I see students in other high schools and they're coming almost in
019Beachwear and it's uh quite distracting you know like how much clothing is necessary to come to school you know it's almost as long as you are safe it's considered acceptable well okay um there might be some of us that might agree to disagree on that um so the students you're describing violate the clothing dress book dress handbook in your schools that you're describing uh it's kind of like ours and there's several there's and there's the school you're teaching and you're describing kids you say are unacceptable yes according to that school's handbook it would be yes and it's not being enforced and so I'm kind of curious yeah have you have you pushed forward that it's not being enforced to that school yeah with other teachers also yeah um but you have nothing you've not in
020this school to know or say well that's why I would like to have a meaningful discussion next year because we're not going to change anything today I you know I'm comfortable voting on this handbook but next year I'd like to have a conversation on how we're handling that so I hear you I think right we should make sure that you're inserted at points in the process that make it meaningful right whether it's when the administrative team is here and presenting the handbook that would have been a good intersection of some of these I think they could probably give a lot of the internal history as to why things are the way they are but everyone certainly open to changes yeah yeah and what's it would have the feedback on what's being followed or not followed
021or what could use in tightening or or loosening yes it's a living document it's an annually updated document it's an annually updated document and going back and then the last thing um I saw a lot on the cell phone and which is great because the cell phone misuse is egregious especially in the high schools you know our students are watching whole movies during class but when I read ours it looks pretty thorough like they're not supposed to be out they're not and about and so I didn't like that as we move forward I'll probably when you ask for future items of discussion either sooner or when we're doing this the student handbook I'd like to know if we're actually enforcing what we say we're enforcing in the handbook so we had a very thorough update
022on the the cell phone policy in last year September we had a committee from um yeah well what's written is good and so maybe we it would be good to hear if you know teachers are actually able to do this so maybe we could ask Mr mannon as part of his regular culture update safety and culture update to incorporate something about the cell phone policy and how well I think the data that's reported at the end of each semester would tell you how many distractions were getting different things so you get that each semester well not yes and no students still have it out uh you're in a high school students are still listening they're still watching TV they're still glued to that phone well different teachers might have different levels right it's red yellow
023green or whatever so the infractions are the ones where they broke the policy and it wasn't when the teacher allowed it so that is working that's the teachers enforcement in their classroom I would kind of like to know our teachers do they feel like that this policy is supporting them do they feel like the cell phones are not a problem uh talking to several teachers at other high schools they feel they're not getting the support from their board to enforce more strict cell phone rules and they feel the cell phones are a problem so I'd like to know if our teachers feel supported and they're able to implement this policy and cell phones are not a problem because so my suggestion we can break that part of our agenda with our Bea and we meet
024with them biannually that would be in a completely I think appropriate agenda item for that discussion that's a that's a nice place to go ahead and if I could briefly add you know our cell phone policy was co-created with teachers we support our staff and we have held students accountable who violate our policy but our our structure was built together with our staff [Music] I'm just hoping that it's implemented um I know in a lot of my classes the first day of school we went over all the policies like homework um what you're supposed to do in class like um in class testing and then the phone policy came up a lot of my teachers either had it in red or yellow but some of my classes had it in green but when it's green
025it's almost like if if you're going to learn you're going to put it away like the teacher's not going to like be hounding you the whole day about putting it away it's about your own Integrity like if you're trying to learn you're going to put it away some of my teachers have like phone holders so we get extra credit for putting our phone in there and I mean it's not everyone does it because we know we're getting extra credit for it but like we don't even need it in the class um but some of the classes our teachers are more lenient on it like if we're done with our work we could take it out but at the end of the day it's it's just about the student like if they're here to learn they're
026going to put it away anyway yeah and um for me my teachers that do uh that really care about the phone usage they enforce it but like Asia said more teachers are a little bit more lenient and they just leave it up to the student to kind of be aware of when they're supposed to have it out or not I would imagine especially as seniors you're in a different space than a freshman right yeah my son who's a freshman told me all about the phone holders and he said mom don't worry I put my phone in the phone holder so I know that he again self-regulation learning how to control his actions his behavior knowing that having the phone out during class time has implications allowing him to express his you know again decision making
027but he reassured me that phone holders existed so okay any additional comments no I mean I'd like to hear from our teachers because what I see it's just it's it's really a hindrance I you know um but again different School a different school and I I would hope that's not happening here as a parent it would infuriate me if that was happening here because we pay a lot of money for an excellent school and so I think we have to path forward to get some feedback and and we will do that any other comments on the student handbook no anyone else and can we move forward and take a motion on that if you could do that yeah please at Township High School District 208 Cook County the Board of Education Township High School District
028208 Cook County Illinois takes the following action to approve of student handbook 2023-2024 school year Edition is presented as presented in the April 11 2023 board agenda packet second um Let's do an all in favor on this yes yes yes yes yes any opposed we can move on old business we don't have anything related to Life Safety yeah we had our fir we have our first construction meeting coming up is it this week or next week oh we had a preliminary meeting the preliminary meeting and the zoo was this week tomorrow about the crane okay supply chain issues are we getting equipment delivered uh for the most part yes because we pre-ordered through the purchasing Cooperative the units uh there's one part I've heard get exactly which part that is delayed until the fall but
029the units will be running and fully operational and once that Park comes in we'll be able to swap it out um and then we'll be completed at that point very good it's good to get on top of that yeah that worked on purchased through cooperative new business we have payment of bills are there any questions submitted there were none it's here this evening and go ahead the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the payment of bills as presented in the April 11 2023 board agenda packet second we have a second from his lock and we have a roll call please talk yes yes Mr Wells yes yes and we have uh as a first read the next couple of items can you talk us through these uh press policy
030111 I'm still trying to get a date that works for my policy Council so that's we've been working on that for a couple weeks the goal is to try to have some edits to the board by the committee of the whole meeting in April um multi-function school and activity bus excuse me Consolidated District plan this is an annual requirement that the Board needs to approve so that Kristen can begin to file all our paperwork for the different state grants and state fundings that we receive from isbe it's more of a format I would say it's more of a formality Dr smetana would you like to add anything uh there really have not been any substantial changes since the last time the board approved this in September which was late last year because the annual board
031requirement was new last year so that's why we're trying to get a jump start on it and do it in April of this year and then most likely the board will see this every April so we could theoretically move this to consent calendar for next month for the next meeting okay assuming there's no additional questions submitted if not if there's uh no substantial changes is there do you need something would it help you to have it approved tonight so that you can start submitting grants um before summer or is that okay there's no rush none of the grants are open yet so we can okay take a second read on this thank you for asking I did have one quote why is it called consolidated because it's a Consolidated application for you to fill out
032a lot of the same so what the history behind it is a lot of the grants title one tail 2 title three to four idea they were making you fill out uh either the same or very similar sets of questions so the word Consolidated comes from they threw them all together into this huge document that you've seen in your board packet to answer all these questions and all these it's like the Common App yes but then you only have to do it once so it's a Consolidated application it's not the district so that's what threw me at first I saw the Dave District if there were multiple schools you wouldn't have to do one okay to school it's just one for the district it's a very confusing name yes thank you for that girls cross
033country overnight trip Dr Freda submitted yeah so every summer uh coach Jensen takes a girls cross country team to a NIU the Laredo Taft campus out in Oregon Illinois be a beautiful Town there's a lot of trails there they can do hiking team activities this is a first read there will be male and female chaperones as well and the cost is very modest it will only cost an athlete 85 dollars for this day this has always been a proof it's a great trip great team building experience for our girls cross country team so same question is there any urgency to do it tonight or it can wait till consent calendar at the next meeting no fundraising needed so they don't need to start now we're okay consent for April Kyle Chris and I think I
034skipped on your minibus I'm sorry Mrs interesting so yeah our current uh uh mini buses and they were previously a three year lease we extended them two more years due to covid um because there was an extreme shortage with mini buses there still is a shortage we were trying for the past two years to get a third minibus and lease that and our current company has not been able to come through with that even though we've been on the list and so as a result I have been exploring other mini bus companies in the state of Illinois the only two other ones that exist and one is in Southern Illinois and there's quite a drive so Central States bus company is the other one and we completed a site visit to the facility last week
035and tester of the minibus district award receive it's almost identical to the ones that we have except it's a slightly bigger engine the plus about Central States Bus Sales that we currently don't have is that they have a facility that would be able to service the boss both mechanically and you know if any body work needed to be done they would be able to do that right there and they their supplier comes directly from Canada and so they've been even when they have had experience delays during covid they were still getting buses except they were maybe just a couple months delayed so they have assured me that they are no longer experiencing any delays and have been regularly delivering buses so that's where um we feel really comfortable with them I've completed two reference checks
036already which came back very positive so I provided a three and five year lease option um I would recommend the three-year lease I'm not looking for the board to make a decision tonight but I would recommend a three-year lease since it's a new company that we're going with also I think you know the five year lease worked out with what we have now because we had two years where we really weren't using the buses and so I would be hesitant to jump into a five-year lease with a new company um also I just wanted to throw it out there to the board I have been and continue to explore green options so they do have an electric mini bus um the only option right now is lease to own and is a rather pricey um
037option but I did want to at least include it for the boards the board could decide or see that we're at least trying to explore those options unfortunately none of the incentives out there apply for us because they only apply if you're replacing a diesel bus with an electric bus which we are not so we wouldn't apply for any grants that may be out there is that bus able to be recharged with what we have yeah um it it wouldn't be the greatest spots we would look at at moving um the parking spot because the buses that we are looking at are three feet longer which are nicer because um uh they uh hold all of the equipment clubs and Equipment much nicer so just the location alone would be a challenge but we would
038we could easily move that from a charging standpoint yes they would be able to charge the bus um I I thank you for including that the price tag is definitely a little a little steep but I also wondered with the lease to own um is there an Outlook we don't know it's too young to know what the real expectation is but between mileage driven on one bus consistently daily is there something where that monetarily could make sense in a long run obviously in the short term it doesn't but the life expectancy for a minibus typically around 10 years so even considering that the electric option would still be more expensive but then you're looking at 30 a year as opposed to 25 with no fuel so I don't know what the trade-off is that's assuming
039that we get 10 years out of it yes the warranty on the battery is eight years so that would be something to consider the other thing to consider that I found out when I was doing the site visit is at least from Central States Bus Sales we would be the first district to jump into this and with electricity yes I don't know if that's really the best option they have they have sold and are doing a lot of the larger school buses that are electric because there's a lot more incentives for those so they have done quite a few of those but this would be the first mini bus okay so that's definitely a pause it would be piping and it would be different if it was just a lease but it's the only option
040is a lease to own right so that's what gives me pause is that we're not leasing it we would be owning it and so there are hiccups and it's three times as much as the correct I mean that cumulative cost is amazing on a lease to own I I think but and there's no lease to own options on the regular Mini Bus um there are not my knowledge it's either lease or buy and again with the first time going with this company I think it'd be wiser to do a three-year lease and see how things work out with the company and what the buses and then explore those options um at the end of those three years so your recommendation will be the three year not the five year and we can ask any more
041questions before the meeting the next week okay okay they're still currently having our attorney review the lease even though we won't sign in until next year just so that's ready to go because at least language won't change when would the equipment be ready um so this is uh currently 11 to 12 months out and so we're looking at April of 2024 and our lease is up in June um and so 24 of 2024. so I've talked to them that way even if there is an extra month or two delay we'll still have buses um because we'll have our current buses through June of 2024 that's why I want this uh the board ideally to approve it at the next meet so we get our order in and then we have three months wiggle room and
042then I've also talked to Central States and they're more than happy to delay the delivery of the buses so they can hold them if they do come in on time they can hold them for a month or two if we wanted to so that we don't know that we don't have a huge overlap and we don't have to pay for double the insurance and things of that nature and we wouldn't have any added cost for them doing that and the same certification CDL or whatever it is to drive this is the same as the current correct yes there's no certification uh after the school day it's just during the school day if we're driving it for curricular purposes okay I still feel like if you told them we were definitely looking at it and because
043we said we've wanted to do a green initiative if if they knew that we are serious about leasing if they might not work with us in some way and to be the school it's kind of like Model Homes you know somebody's got to live in the model home so they can build more model homes so if they want to sell more of these buses they've got to have a school that's using one and so you know if we talk to them and say we're willing to share our story with that and then you can be able to sell more of these sure I've already tried that um I told them we were serious I told them we had a green initiative we already had chargers they let me tour the electric big school buses because
044that's all they had on facility [Music] um I can certainly go back to them um but these at the time were the best prices uh that they could do we also it sounds like you did your diligence and it really does so 64 000 times five years is 323 000. 32 000 a year if you get it through the 10 years correct expected life right and if it fails before then you have a batteries the price popcorn stand the battery is only good till eight that's usually the first thing that goes on the electric chairs I think I think it's definitely something to keep our eye on and maybe after you know the next three years um when especially when the uh bigger buses have been on the road that are electric and we see
045how well those are faring um that would be a better time for the district to explore an electric bus we're also still looking at doing um enjoying an electric driver's ed car and that's something that has a much lower price tag and I think it's a lot less risk for the district and so that might be a better jumping in place into the electric vehicle space for the district I'm happy that you're exploring it I will continue to listen and be an advocate but as Mike said uh being that first person known I did not own it the first flat panel TV because there were about twenty thousand dollars but now I halfway on the 400 one so yeah all right five years for a bus is 95 000 five years for electric tone is
046323 but we start over again in five years with uh regular as opposed to three years yeah right sure you're also getting in Boston issues absolutely until until the price comes into yeah that's that's why my TV analogy good job Chris okay yeah thank you very good if we do have questions that we need to get them in before the meeting so if we have to go to the company or thank you oh okay well so we'll have a copy of the actual lease and the next board packet but we need to get questions on the substance of the lease in Prior that makes sense in what meeting are we voting or 25th is that 25th [Music] um moving on we don't have any additional visitor statements the discussion items we addressed earlier related to
047the student advisors do we have any items for consideration at Future meetings I would like to throw out it's time where the school districts are all doing the standardized test and I would just like to hear more of our standardized tests you know from one of our you know Administration or faculty I know we switched to the s.a.t are we liking it how well is it going are we using all the resources well I would like to know I mean some schools how are they been dividing it do are they coming in are the results coming in like they anticipated some schools use three standardized tests we're using the SAT so I would just like to hear about the standardized our standardized test process it's a huge investment it's a big deal and that's when
048we give the the fall report when we give the scores from 9th through 11th grade on the SAT and their growth um so maybe Hector we can include in that the process we're using to you know issue the standardized test we also issued it we also issued this good State mandated science exam okay SATs tomorrow correct yeah and the school did two practices for the SAT so some of the logistics is that the dress code for the tests have been amended and the Boost in the Wi-Fi in the areas where they're doing it has been implemented they told us that right so that when they do the test they're not having Wi-Fi problems and the dress code is addressing certain things so that they make sure they get a good testing environment with Comfort comfort
049and minimal minimal distractions or yeah so is that does this Dr skinky says suggestions satisfy your request are you looking for something different I know I'd um I think you said what fall with the results but also implementations which should also go through the process and the tests were given any comparison because I know some districts do more than one test why we choose to do what we do so you know maybe they could just expand out their presentation a little bit okay there's some feedback um anyone else consideration for future items no thank you matters for closed session we have appointment employment compensation discipline 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 including litigation update
050for social media lawsuit we have Collective negotiations including an MOA school safety and superintendent evaluation the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois enters closed session for the purpose of considering the closed session matters as presented in the April 11 2023 board agenda packet please yes yes yes yes yes yes