001I'm call to order the meeting of regular meeting of the Board of Education District 208. these rise for the Pledge of Allegiance 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 we have a role called please counter here as a reminder Miss toner is no longer on the board of education so we do have a quorum with four members in attendance Mr Welch could not attend this evening any visitor statements tonight please come on up to microphone I'm going to read a short statement while you get yourself situated the Board of Education welcomes and encourages the participation of its citizens in the business of the school district there are two points in
002the meeting where visitors statements are scheduled citizens are welcome to raise questions or make comments at either one comments will be limited to three 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 thank you and I'll turn it over to you hi good evening can we hear her good evening I think is this on yeah yeah that's for the TV yeah you won't hear it in here I'll put my hand up when you have about 30 seconds okay um good evening my name is Andrea Crawford and during my junior year at Morton East
003High School about 20 years ago I was sexually groomed by Dallas till my student gym teacher and baseball coach after months of being sexually groomed including sexually explicit conversations medium private during school before school and after and on weekends he also convinced me to meet him for sexual intercourse after we drove and met for sexual intercourse I had the overwhelming internal sense that I was not safe and therefore I left I told my parents the details of how Dallas till was sexually grooming me and they reported it to the school administration and principal Manuela scaredo Dallas till was immediately removed from my class there was an internal investigation in the school by the administration including athletic director Richard fullready after the investigation my parents and I were told by principal Manuela scardo that the findings
004were substantiated and that Dallas till was fired from coaching and student teaching at Morton also that they had notified Elmhurst College and of this and that Dallas till was barred from completing his degree and would never be able to teach I am also in no way implying nor saying that you knew what happened but superintendent Kevin skincus you were employed at Morton East while Dallas till sexually groomed me my yearbook does list you as the dean of students at that time again I'm no why no way implying that you knew um Dr skincus and the board I implore you to please start an active investigation into Dallas too during his time here and Herbie I ask you to please take this seriously and protect your students and the future Generations from him please do not
005fail any more children I'm sorry please do not fail any more children as more it needs to fail to me and the students after me if there are more victims they may not understand what sexual grooming is or that they're even victims parents should be made aware of this pattern and be proactive in speaking with their children and that's it thank you thank you thank you for your comments thank you do we have anyone else here this evening for public comment seeing none we're going to move on to discussion information items including foia requests for a requests we got two for a requests from Bob skolnik the responses are in the request or to the request are included in your board packet any comments or questions on those breathing table thank you update on District
006goals I don't think we have an update for this meeting one of this in here is a placeholder is that correct correct that was supposed to be at the Cow meetings then whenever we do reports I think it's appropriate to keep it on the agenda that's an item any comments I'm looking to my left am I right additional discussion items as a reminder we do have one vacancy on the board of education and the application process for that vacancy is open until this Friday moving on to the consent agenda action items approval of minutes the motion Mr van horse can I ask you to read them read the message it's a very tactical first one uh the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois takes the following action on the listed
007consent agenda items approves minutes from the meetings held on September 13th and 27 2022 opened and closed and proposed course fees as presented in the October 11 2022 board agenda packet do you need a roll call yes old business action items I don't believe we have any life safety it was this evening no you know just one update the school district did receive their bond rating uh from standard and Poor's and we are a double A Plus which is the highest uh Bond rating we can receive for to go out for public bonds the highest Bond rating is AAA but the medium income for the districts we serve and the home values are not at the level to where you can get to a triple A so us having a double a uh is good
008news okay thank you curriculum guide new course proposals uh Kylie Lindquist is here tonight Kylie [Music] hello hello I will try to be um as quick as possible um so I am bringing for four new course proposals um the course proposal process starts at the building level with course proposals being brought forth by either teachers or instructional coaches we vet and vote on those course proposals as a full leadership team that includes our building Administration and all seven of our coaches and then we bring those courses to the curriculum advisory Council which currently has one board member in Mr van Horst with Miss towner's absence leaving a vacancy on that committee um the and I appreciate Mr van horse your feedback and talking through the courses with me I really appreciate you giving me the
009time for that um so the four courses that I have brought for you are summarized in the past in the packet that I gave Marianne to include in board book I'm not going to go crazy through it and read for you but I'm sure you've already looked at but I am going to try to answer some questions and give you some high level summaries one thing that all of the teachers and instructional coaches who brought these courses for Earth we're being we're trying to be very cognizant of were the new board goals um the first one being the maximization of the curricular day and uh fostering new opportunities for students and then the third one focusing on continued efforts in diversity equity and inclusion with those two Hallmark board goals in mind these proposals We
010Believe speak to careful consideration of both student opportunities and broadening student opportunities as well as continued efforts in diversity equity and inclusion by targeting populations of students who might not be represented in different programming that we have uh within the school so the first course is Advanced Studio music production I call this a proposal for a course within a course this is a course that perhaps will be a designation for a handful of students who have taken Studio music production and wish to continue on in that pathway the way that this proposal was written there is already some alignment with composed curriculum in music 101 at Triton College so the intention is for us to put this course up for dual credit so that students who are going to take this course again for that
011advanced credentialing could have a dual Credit Opportunity in the Fine Arts which is a place that we don't yet have a dual Credit Opportunity and that really speaks to something that we're trying to do at the building level by expanding those opportunities for students I don't see this impacting FTE coming out of the music department because like I said I believe this to be kind of a niche market so I think it's going to be a handful of students within an already running Studio music production class we run several sections of that class a year and I see students being able to fold into that class already in this particular course um the next course the second one that I brought to you is also a fine art Fine Arts course um and this one
012is Bulldog buddy Choir This is actually a course that was brought to us a few years ago under a different name and um what we thought at the time needed some more details fleshed out and really some conversations between the fine arts department and the special education department to really make sure that this course was well thought out if you look at the accompanying material this is modeled after New Trier High School's high five choir which is a partner choir between special education students and general education students the name for this in terms of bulldog buddy choir we have such a strong best buddies program here Nationwide recognition and we're so very proud of that and we see this as a very similar opportunity students partnering together and doing so in an elective course that
013can offer Opportunities For Speech Pathology geologists for OT and PT to access special education students through a mainstream curriculum offering and also give students an opportunity to partner with special education students maybe I'm a student who foresees going into special education as a career or maybe I've really thrived in best buddies and that's really a partnership that I want to keep going because I really appreciate um you know what that does for my life and we see a lot of special education students accessing our Fine Arts offerings all the time we see students in Ceramics we see students in choir right now but what we're finding out is that the choir offerings that we have because they are curricular predominantly performance choirs sometimes students who can't read music or students who have some difficulty with
014vocalizing or need a little bit more movement don't necessarily find a niche there and they're maybe trying to fit kind of a square peg into a round hole and we think that this curricular choir offering could be an opportunity to bring Fine Arts to students who maybe didn't think that was possible before or in a new way one of the things that that we talk about always is what kind of FTE impact might something like this have this is the second Fine Arts offering the second music offering this is definitely something that should this class run and it would be on the 40 to 1 ratio as all of our choirs and performance ensembles are this would impact FTE this is this would be a point too this is not something that would exist inside
015another choir it would be something that would stand alone so that's certainly part of the impact that we would need to consider um the third offering is a unique offering in that we are kind of doing two things with this and it doesn't necessarily say it right here um we currently have an offering in our curriculum guide called Dance three so our student dancers who start in dance one go on to dance two then there was a dance three offering before honors Repertory dance and what we were finding is that that really narrowed down the opportunities for dance for students because you have to have gone through dance one you have to have gone through dance three and said I'm gonna keep going and I think I'm gonna try to hit that high level performance
016um ensemble what we're looking to do is take Dance 3 out of the mix and rename it hip-hop dance and make it open to any student who wants to take it um this offering is an offering that we were very excited about because it speaks to um what students appreciate about pop culture when they are looking at their tick tocks and when they're looking at their reels on Instagram they are seeing dances that are influenced by the hip-hop culture and that excites kids of all backgrounds of all Races of all ethnicities of all colors of all socioeconomic status it's something that they see they understand and are like I want to do that we've noticed that our representation in our dance classes is very skewed female for example we've had a couple of boys take
017our dance one offering and there's something about the idea that we would be doing hip-hop dance that for some reason guys go oh I can do that that's different because Dance Dance one has this stigma or this perception of traditional western dance um and one of the the questions that was submitted um wanted to make sure that we weren't kind of pigeonholing the students to whom this class is offered right we certainly noted in our rationale that our dance proportion our dance classes are disproportionately white um they're disproportionately female and we make an assumption with the dancers that we know that are coming in a lot of kids even though we say you don't need prior Dance Experience see the kind of dance that gets put on in a typical school performance program and think
018oh I gotta have training for that I have to have been paying for dance lessons for 10 years or I'm not going to make it and so we want to make sure that we are saying to all of our students Dance is for everybody Dance is for if you have been dancing for 10 years or if you don't have the money to access that for 10 years or if you're a guy or if you're a girl whatever experience or bad background you have and so this class is not just to Target a very specific population but it's designed and it's written to be broad enough and sort of relevant enough to Target as many students as we could possibly imagine um the interesting thing about this is that it won't add FTE typically because it's
019a wellness course so kids are going to be taking this for a wellness credit so whether students Take hip-hop dance or not they have to take a wellness class right so in the event that let's say um a hundred kids decide that they want to take hip-hop dance instead of group fitness okay we can shift that FTE and Madeline doll will be hip hop dancing her way all day uh long you know because we can shift how we're allocating that FTE um I think that gets at the question that was was uh asked of the board but if not just let me know and I can certainly come back um and then last honors creative writing is another course within a course so this is about student opportunity for our students who see themselves wanting
020to move forward in writing as it pertains to presentation as it pertains to spoken word publication um so we've noticed in our creative writing class that we're excited that has been running the past couple of years that there are students who really have a knack for this who really have a talent for writing and want to kind of take that to the next level and so our creative writing teacher along with our instructional coach for English thought that giving the ability for a student to be able to to earn a designation they don't have to take the course twice to earn it they just have to meet those specific curricular expectations that I outlined for you and they can get that honors designation because it means they've gone that extra mile this is the first
021time that we've we've done something like this where you can you have kind of One path for the Gen Ed and one path sort of for that honors curriculum but when Mr van Horst and I were talking we were talking about the fact that in some schools that is how classes get off the ground or that is how opportunities Open Up For Students because we are working with such limited resources at times and we're being cognizant of where our FTE needs to fall all and wanting to make really smart decisions about this so we think that this opens up that opportunity whereas we would probably never get 25 kids who want to publish right off the bat but we can service those needs within a course that already exists for us so those are the
022four okay thank you any questions Mr Durkin Kylie you need these approved tonight though correct I would love it but I am not going to pressure the Board of Education to approve them uh my comment really just goes back to fifth grade me and the Bobby Brown dance that I did at the talent show and how excited it is so it might be slightly trouble uh trouble to convert it but um very good I love it and I agree that's one of the things people are most excited about is that we think this might be the way to get some of our male dancers um to come out and that will be really exciting okay I don't have any objections to approving it this evening unless someone else does yeah I've seen them in detail
023I was comfortable somebody read a resolution Mr Durkin it's under a curriculum guide curriculum guide new course proposals Board of Education Township Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the four new course proposals for the curriculum guide for the 22 2023 2024 school year as presented in the October 11 2022 board agenda packet we do need a second second from Miss gaska and a roll call please yes thank you thank you thank you very much did you want me to yeah payment of bills Dr Smithtown I don't think we received any questions on bills do you have any there are no questions submitted um I did not submit one Mike I had one question the there was a charter bus uh opportunities for two different groups I was just curious what what qualifies
024them as uh groups to get a charter bus as opposed to and is there a big cost difference in that we're using them for first everything and the other part was is that because of the necessity right we're using Windy City we're using yeah okay every student is are always our go-to at first but if there is an event where they can't either they can't fulfill it at all or they can't get here early enough um that's when we will then try it and that was my other alternative I meant it was on page 90 I meant to send in a question I figured it was an easy answer it was the last shortage and that's their our backup option to do so we also had two mini buses uh that were out of service
025for a short period of time so that put a strain on uh the boys uh both the boys and girls golf programs we now have one of them back so that certainly helps as well any additional questions we have a resolution Miss gasca hey the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the payment of bills as presented in the October 11 2022 board agenda packet second from Mr Durkin and this is a roll call please yes yes yes yes parameters of the bond resolution I apologize I lost I could my computer froze up here real quick book page 162. thank you um included are is the life safety parameters Bond resolution with which authorizes the issuance of proposed uh Life Safety bonds for replacing our two large area handlers both
026the cafeteria and the library so this resolution reflects specific parameters governing the manner of sale the length of maturity the rates of Interest purchase price and tax levy for said Bond the parameters authorize the Board of Education to move forward with the sale and delegate that authority to the board president and the superintendent or the Chief Financial Officer the administration we would recommend that you this be approved tonight so that we can move forward with the remaining steps prior to issuing the bonds this is a standard protocol for issuing public bonds due to the fact that it often will happen outside of a board meeting there's a very strict timeline that needs to be followed the last time the board approved uh parameters Bond resolution was when we issued Bonds in 2017. I didn't have
027any questions I thought the write-up was very good thank you does anyone else have any questions no questions Kristen the resolution should just be I mean they don't need to read the entire which part do they need to read I believe it's a couple Pages no I think well isn't it just I think it was a summary perfect I think it's just a preamble piece then that's why we put it on the agenda as well I think that's what I posted it um yes thank you resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed two million three hundred forty thousand dollars General obligation limited tax school bonds of Township High School District number 208 Cook County Illinois for the purpose of altering and reconstructing school school buildings and purchasing and installing equipment therein for fire
028prevention and safety energy conservation and school security purposes providing for the levy of a direct annual tax to pay the principal and interest on set bonds and authorizing the sale of sud bonds to the purchaser thereof second Bill Durkin yes moving on to the out of state and or overnight field trips uh Dr Freitas is sick tonight but so the these are the three two of the three trips that you heard about last week and then model the UN as a first read uh the model un was adjusted to reflect some of the cost coverage by uh the activity account Mr Manning gets the general activity account to help offset some of their costs um so this is a second read for a wrestling team and skiing snowboard Club it's the board decision if you'd
029like to approve the model you ran tonight or bring that back again in October any questions on any of the overnight field trips uh there was not I know we had discussed the ski trips previously do we want to discuss the model U.N or any questions or we want to go ahead and move forward and let people plan let's move forward okay I would tend to agree any objection no no Mr Durkin could you read that one please out of state and or overnight field trips 2022 2023 school year the Board of Education Township High School District 208 Cook County Illinois approves the trip requests for the wrestling team Ski and Snowboard club and model un as presented in the October 11 2022 board agenda packet give a second I think Ms gasket was quicker
030on the draw we do need a roll call yeah yes yes the iasp resolutions this is for board member research and review we don't need to take action on this before correct until the next meeting so which meeting would that be that would be the uh October account yeah take time to read through those correct School maintenance project Grant first read um the school maintenance project Grant is a dollar for dollar matching grant program providing Awards up to fifty thousand dollars to school districts exclusively for maintenance and upkeep of buildings and structures for educational purposes applicants are required to provide a match from local funds to equal the grant amount requested I I attached in the board packet our Grant application for upgrading the lighting in the auditorium to LED lighting which is included in
031our approved budget the districts we most recently received this last year in February for the bathroom partitions and electric charging stations for the cars and then we also received it in 2020 when we were doing some replacements for roofs this is not a grant that is offered every year so those are the last two times it was recently offered um we are requesting the maximum of 50 000 for our project the grant requires uh board approval before I can submit it but the grant is not due until November so this is just a first read I don't think there are any questions submitted so we can move on I mean I'm always in favor of you seeking out different additional grant opportunities so thank you you're welcome and we'll approve at the next meeting I
032would assume does the board want to send a consent I'm comfortable without any objections okay Marianne can you please note consent agenda for the school maintenance Grant thank you working cash enter fund alone this is also a first read I think we talked about this quite a bit last meeting yes this is a first read uh so that the board could see the language associated with the inner fund loan um but this is a language to loan money from working cash both to our education fund and debt service accounts or funds I put in a preliminarily what I think the amounts will be but I will review again before I bring it to the October cow for approval okay so no additional action there required this evening thank you and moving on to the final
033item under new business is election of a board of education vice president so I'm going to ask for interest from the Board of Education and serving as vice president for the remainder of this organizational term and I'd like to offer to serve as vice president okay I think is anyone else wish to second if that's okay required we do need an actual motion I'm going to look make sure you're looking at Mr van Horace and Ms ruska made the record reflected wow Miss Prescott is here so thank you um do you have any other comments or can we go ahead and move forward with George gaska as vice president okay I think she would do a wonderful job um we need to take a vote on it actual emotion no offense okay be nominated for
034vice president for the remaining term of the organizational term of the support determine okay is it on here it is on here that was sufficient it covered it covered the appropriate points oh good okay second by Bill Durkin Miriam okay thank you and we do need a roll call yes yes with pleasure okay congratulations Miss gaska thank you [Music] a visitor statement second opportunity I see no additional visitor statements and public comment in the room there were no discussion items requested or do we have any consideration of items for future meetings from anything matters for closed session appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees in the public body student discipline individual student matters purchase sale or lease a real property probable imminent or pending litigation Collective negotiations and school safety um we
035have a resolution for that please miss Gasco closed session 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 October 11 2022 board agenda packet and can we have a second second a second from Mr Durkin would you need a roll call please yes okay yeah yes and and time 7 30. we're gonna move