District 208 Board of Education Committee of the Whole Meeting 02-23-21

001we'll call the order do a 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 make sure we turn our telephones oh thank you all right do roll call please here please yes yes here yes here okay we got some recognitions to start with you got this yes i'm doing the first one only correct yeah i could pass out the secrets rb is proud to recognize the following regional ncwit which stands for national center for women and informational technology aspirations and computing awards each year high school students in grades 9 through 12 who self-identify as women gender queer or non-binary are eligible to receive recognition for their aptitude and aspirations in

002technology and computing as demonstrated by their computing experience computing related activities leadership experience tenacity in the face of barriers to access and plans for post-secondary education this year 40 winners and 360 honorable mentions were selected from the more than 4 288 amazing talented young applicants congratulations to desiree loroche freshman northern illinois affiliate winner [Applause] honorable mention desiree you could stay up here and we'll we'll recognize all the girls at the end again sophia arcos senior northern illinois affiliate honorable mention autumn half penny senior northern illinois affiliate honorable mention [Applause] and i probably am not i i apologize emily shoe is emily out there emily senior northern illinois affiliate rising star claudia tello freshman northern illinois affiliate rising star congratulations to all of these amazing thank you very much it's hector you have one staff recognition

003do you want to read that or you want miss towner to read that go ahead miss towner okay um i was so excited to get this email and i'm so excited to see this this award we just gave out because you know that the tech is my thing um one of our world language teachers has been selected as a lindblad expeditions national geographic 2021 grove grosvenor teacher fellow she was one of only 50 educators selected from across the u.s and canada this professional development opportunity will allow her to bring geographic awareness to rb students the girls in our teacher fellowship selects exemplary educators to embark on a life-changing voyage to one of the many remote and extraordinary environments the lin blad fleet explores around the world congratulations to jessica moritzen jessica's not here tonight right

004hector and jessica also uh spoke to the board so this is the same teacher i don't know if you remember pre-covet but came in she was doing the uni uh she asked us to remove all the furniture in her spanish class and she was doing a unique style of teaching spanish this year and uh prior to coven and that was working out really well for her so she's a she's done a really nice job in her classes and taking on some new uh new things in the classroom but also as you can see outside the classroom as well so dynamic and innovative right and uh what i had when she shared the news with the board i just said to her that i was so um excited for all of the opportunities that this will

005open up for for our students right because these kind of awards and affiliations outside of the four walls of our classroom bring so much to our so much enrichment to our students absolutely i believe that's it for recognitions all right student association report do we have members of essay here tonight oh oh they're out there oh my favorite part of the year of the meetings no no no this is the fun part right you guys are the greatest resource we have we want to hear what you're doing okay so i'm over the fast i have to introduce myself i'm amanda the forty student spokesperson for sa over the past few weeks we were collecting food and we did two separate drop-offs to saint leonard's church and berwin they have a smaller food pantry there that

006was very very successful so successful to the point where i think we are starting to organize another one and we just did that like two weeks ago um while i was there i was talking to the woman and even though it is a smaller food pantry like i met families who were coming in while i was there and it's so important and rb did such an amazing job having not just students but parents teachers bringing in food it was amazing um this week is that week this month is black history month ast and minority empowerment club have been running events for this month rv staff have decorated their doors we had they organized a spirit day where students were encouraged to wear all black in solidarity and that was very successful and thursday february 25th

007they're going to have a movie night over zoom and friday february 26th ast minority empowerment club and olas are going to be having a discussion over zoom hi i'm madison lester i'm the treasurer and exec board our second blood drive is tomorrow from 3 to 8 pm in the staff parking lot and our hope is to receive 32 donations in order to meet the number of donations we received at our last blood drive in november staff and students are both signed up to donate and we also receive scholarship money for running the drives which is posted in the local scholarships for seniors we also have did a two-day spirit spirit week that allowed for equal participants from students in person and we are planning on having our next spirit day um next month on saint

008patty's day so that's all thank you the board have any questions for student association any questions um i personally don't know but come and you'll find out [Laughter] are you guys attending in person or attending remote i'm in person i'm remote okay thing's going okay so far yeah yeah everything's good i'm planning there's a survey about going four days yeah and i think i'll be one of those students so i'm really excited for that tell all your friends to fill it out i know i get as much representation from the student body as possible please okay tell ever even you know definitely tell everyone you know hello everybody perfect [Music] discussion information items kovid 19 transition uh marianne we'll pull up the numbers as you can see things are still continuing to trend in the

009right direction as we only have uh one category in substantial that's 109 cases so we're significantly down in that category uh while we have been in blue i believe the last two or three weeks it still has not we were in orange at least once in the last four everything else is in the minimal transition level including our positivity rates both locally and in the cook county um so from our weekly uh matrix that we're following uh things are going in the right direction on the next tab is obviously the plan that has not changed and dr freitas is going to provide some updates on how student attendance is going and as well as what steps are being taken to see if we can increase the number of days for students to come uh four

010days during the fourth quarter in regards to vaccinations um we you know no new update i think we're moving around in the right direction we've had that one network with pillars we were able to get 50 staff members vaccinated as discussed at the last meeting a majority of our staff are still seeking out some appointments on their own or had already sought out some additional appointments we have about 34 people on the list so the next opportunity we get or call we get where they have vacancies uh we'll be sending that group so i think we're still on pace to have a majority of the staff vaccinated by the start of fourth quarter or at least have received their first shot by the start of the first quarter or fourth quarter excuse me um dr

011freda so you want to go into some of your points please of course good evening students parents and everybody from rb so quick update on our plan so the building admin we're finalizing the steps that need to be taken to allow up to 50 of enrollment to attend for four days you know this is a multi you know a level approach but we want to make sure we do this right we're working with our maintenance team and staff to set up 51 classrooms to ensure social distancing we're facilitating vaccination opportunities for staff we are securing and we have identified our blended learning rooms overflow the library study hall the blended room and the computer lab and more importantly we've created a survey so we can know what families will be sending their students for our

012before in person or continuing fully remote the survey was sent last thursday the 18th and now we're doing the important work which is the follow-up but if they want to share some preliminary data with the board currently as 700 and 770 students have completed the survey that's about 47 the deadline is this friday so students please complete the survey as far as parents we had a 495 parents that are registered in skyward about 30 percent on complete the parent survey and it basically has two key questions the first one for the students and i shared results um please indicate your preferred instructional model for fourth quarter 44 percent chose in person 55 percent chose to remain fully remote and then out of that group um which of the following in-person learning scenarios did you prefer

013it's about 50 50 for the students 50 would want to continue with the two-day and 50 would want the four days for the parents the same question please indicate the perverted instructional model for your student fourth quarter 62 indicated they will want this their student to come in 37 indicated they're going to continue fully remote and for those that chose to be in person 77 prefer the four days and 22 percent prefer excuse me seven seven percent prefer the four days 22 prefer the two days so quickly i don't want to respond widely to the option you know for those that are thinking about it because initially you know we weren't considering the two days but based on feedback from students teachers and families some people thought we needed to preserve that two-day option students

014and families have established unbreakable routines and have committed their to professional and personal responsibilities around the two days what's more important equity we're giving students and families what they need to be successful and that is the key in the great work we do here with equity now i wanted to dig a little deeper in the data so as of today you know as a few hours ago we had 788 responses 353 in person for fourth quarter this is students 435 will stay remote 172 chose two days 181 chose four days so so two days a week we would have max as of right now 354 students that would be our highest number but again we're only about halfway done and now comes the phone calls and follows so we still have a lot of work

015to do so what are we doing with all this data we have created an excel spreadsheet with tabs for all learners we have three tabs fully remote two days four days and we have a fourth time for the students that haven't responded at the moment we're gonna get that list to the teacher's hands they will cross-reference that list with the class rosters next we will give a google phone to the teacher so they can indicate which class period may be over capacity then we're going to continue working with burm our new facilities managers to see if we can correct some spacing issue if not we will utilize a blended space with an alpha split for teachers and class periods that are over capacity so a student may have to utilize a blended space periodically two

016days a week in some classes but should never be in the blended space for all day like the student could be there for a period if for some reason that class you know happened to be full if a student decides they want to come in we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that student comes in if the student wants to stay home again we have to be flexible the student can stay home admin will be communicating the expectation with families and students as we evolve but again guys we are in the middle of this actual work and now we have a lot of phone calls and emails and follow to make sure we engage everybody because we must know who can come in so we can plan and create the conditions

017that are safe and conducive to learning currently we're implementing targeted intervention for third quarter we're permitting students that have d's and f's and student with ieps to attend school daily so we have some students that have been coming in four days a week attendance we're still averaging just about 200 students you know daily and again some of the reasons as i mean i know the weather is a little better now right but you know temperature has been cold and it's been snowing you know remote learning you know has worked so far has worked for some um so those are you know some of the reasons there and again you know the two days have been working for some students right staffing work we're facilitating the vaccinations you know i want to say you know majority

018of us should be vaccinated by the first week of march you know including myself so that is good news for lunch we're still providing grab-and-go lunches to every student guys get your food and i want to tell everybody no one's you ever feel to ever feel embarrassed about grabbing food okay i appreciate the student that guy but no one should ever feel guys this is food for you guys okay maybe your parents are working maybe you're going through something get the food pop in the microwave and eat it because i ate it good too it's delicious activities and athletics we're currently streaming athletic contests live on two platforms all contests in the main gym can be viewed through the national federation of high schools nfhsnetwork.com i believe there is a small fee but it's kind

019of like buying a ticket and going to a game five ten dollars all contests in our other venues may be viewed at rbhs208.net slash rbhs live slash for boys and girls basketball we're currently lying up to 50 fans but unfortunately for the other sports we're not allowing fans at the moment that's not our choice right that's just based on the guide no that is excuse yeah that is another that is based on the guidelines as recommended by the state by the county and the ihsa okay um you guys know that socially distancing right that's very important kind of in this environment and of course always wearing your mask and and washing your hands so at the moment um dr skin cause that summarizes my kovi 19 transition plan report and i see you guys the

020last sentence probably a lot of parents that are watching are here tonight want to make sure they hear that last sentence under clubs what's your oh excuse me guys closer clubs are up and running and remember rb is currently working on culminating events such as prime graduation and the apollo awards guys we are not we have not forgotten about those key events we're working with parents right now we're working with the admin team to make sure that we celebrate the students the right way i know i get the calls and i get the emails guys that's that's one of our top priorities to make sure we celebrate them safely for all the parents out there and the students you guys deserve it as well thank you dr freda mr smithing that concludes our report unless

021there's questions so a couple questions takes us on the on the survey yeah and and how the administration uses that information so you indicated that both parents and students were being surveyed correct so whose opinion matters more i would ask if a student says i want to be fully remote and the family says i want my student in class how do you navigate those waters well what we call the parents we call the families i mean guys mom and dad other boss okay i want to be clear but i do i want to include the students in this conversation because i believe any good decision should be the side of the collective with their family an admin team a teacher team but no parents will have the other matures and we will be following up

022with the parents you know hey mary angel complete the survey so we'll be engaging the parents in our follow-ups okay thank you that's yeah i i assumed you were going to say but i wanted to hear you say no no no of course of course and then and since people were given choices of two days or four days yes is it possible we would have some students here two days and some four days um i mean what are how many there's a lot of permutations possible now with the student opinion the parent opinion some people want two and that's four how does all that get worked out and what do we have capacity for so i mean our plan has been 50 enrollment which roughly is 800 you know so capacity you know i'd say

023i mean according to a plan that we've shared would be you know 800 correct you know um yep and it might be helpful i think for those watching at home to go over one more time why lunch doesn't work i think that's that's the question i get all the time i think a lot of us get that um so to talk to why the lunch room doesn't work and especially with their current schedule and so you know the problem is right teaching and learning in this environment we have to try to avoid crowding you know we have to try to avoid you know people are opening the mouth eating and drinking and the aerosol and the particles that really come out okay it's i know it sounds silly but right eating in a restaurant which

024a cafeteria is a restaurant it's probably one of the most dangerous things you know you know that we can do you know at the moment and our job is safety we preach safety as you guys have seen we've brought more students we're strategically opening up our school and i believe that's what kept us safe we're doing it right but i mean because eating in a building eating lunch is probably the most dangerous thing we can do and we just i mean the guidelines are more than no more than 50 people in a cafeteria so we'd have to spread around the students throughout the building yeah and then they have to take off their mass to eat and so even back this summer when we met with the full committee with parents teachers students you know

025that was discussed as our priority was to try to get kids back in the building even if that sacrificed the amount of time they could be in the building um and happened for how long so that's why you know if you look at the plan the next phase is try to get students back four days a week you know based on this summer what will happen what next fall will look like will all depend on the governor and what the idph does with the guidelines unless they reduce the number of people that can be in one space we're going to have to continue to look at a half day schedule until they reduce those guidelines so we're continuing to work on that the superintendent association the high school superintendent association is working with our lobbyists

026to try to work with the idph so um we understand some parents want to be back full time like traditional we're working towards that we're just not there yet it's a difficult situation look at it we'll get it start one piece at a time right that's right we'll get once we get the four days and we can focus on next year and focus on graduation it's important we're only moving forward growing we're not going backwards we're only moving forward yes thank you dr freitas for your report and all the hard work for your team any further questions [Music] laura uh mission statement we're going to revisit this right tom yeah mr um uh jacobs had prepared this for us back last february and then and all of our attention for the last 18 or well

027it's a full year now i'm sorry a full year has been focused on covet and also i just had marianne resubmit the the mission statement uh examples that were voted on by the board and if tom wants to take a quick five minutes to just summarize the color coding and some of that it would be great thank you be happy to do it um no no i can see it from here but there's i think on my page 12 there is uh uh we should start with the existing mission statement which is color coded yup that one so you know that i think we're starting with the existing one just because we obviously need to measure it against whatever we're proposing measuring it against what we already have the idea of highlighting who what how

028why is fairly self-explanatory i think i mean in general mission statements as i've understood them are really answering the question why why do you exist but from the why it goes into these other questions who what and how now um you can see in uh i think the thing to highlight here is in the existing one it's actually a relatively balanced mix of four of these colors and that is a key starting point because as we'll see in our options there is a bit of a departure now i'm pointing this out because when you actually just a quick thing about the why if mission statements really are about y you can see there's relatively little reference to it at the very end it talks about a diverse and changing world and i actually think that

029makes a lot of sense because the why question in education is you really don't have to explain to every anyone why you have a school like that's you know in companies that's much more difficult in some organizations than in the school that's like one thing we all agree is important so there's more other colors specifically as to the who what and how and so having said this if we can go to the next page and maybe we have to we can probably uh reduce the size a little bit so that we can see maybe all of them together so we had already in last year at some point before covet hit we went through a process where we actually reduced the number of statements a little bit and we sort of took a straw poll

030straw poll which you can sort of see who was uh leaning towards which versions i would say here again the biggest difference is that there is three relatively brief statements in the range from seven to 15 words and there's two longer ones one falls sort of in the middle at 36 and then there's a longer one at 73 which goes above the 60 that we have now but i think the length is something that actually is a real discussion point should be in my opinion and i'll what i'm saying now is a little bit of my bias or my opinion but this goes back to the existing one which where we have a balance of answering these points i happen to believe that this balance is useful and important because i think no matter what

031we do there will be no student ever who will remember this and that's fine i think this mission statement primarily exists to remain to remind board members of what we've signed up for what we're here to do how we're supposed to set policy i think it's also good for administration to see and for all the teachers and so that's where the shorter statements where you can see different combinations of color one is red and blue one is red and green to the answer to these different points but in my opinion they're actually too short if we agree that schools are a good idea we already know we agree on this and then we just go with the short ones we just go a little further but to me that doesn't really give a sense of

032what an elected board actually sort of leans towards so that's where i think somewhere between the 36 word statement one and the 73 and i'll just say the 73 one was for me and it could easily be reduced to 60 or below if that's important to somebody but the what you can see in the 36 word statement is that it's a it's a good mix of colors with the exception of yellow which is how i happen to believe that answering or putting some language in that talks to how adds real flavor that's like the the spice in a meal that actually sort of shows it tips the hand over board maybe a little more towards how we see education unfolding and so specifically what i would recommend we should also talk about timing of this

033discussion you know we didn't choose that but now we're a month and a half before an election i actually think it might be prudent to continue the conversation to take advantage of the fact that all of us here who have already started the discussion i think would be good to continue pushing it however i'm not necessarily in favor of voting one in because we don't quite know who might be on the board starting april or may and because it's a mission statement i think that would actually be a good opportunity to let potentially new members weigh in on this also tom anybody running court weigh in on it i think i think it's prudent for this board to finish the work that it started two years you're talking about the mission statement and out of

034the mission statement will come your goals eventually your strategic plan which the new board then will have opportunity to craft the mission statement will stand for a period of time you don't get a new one or even evaluate a new one every two years every four years so i i think by putting it in it actually gives the current board that legacy the work that's completed and allows the next board to move to pick up and to start building on the work i i just think you know the more we we linger you know we're going to languish it's going to die on the vine and we can't evaluate the work we cannot function as a board is designed to function our job is to set the goals of a district identify the data that

035will tell us that those goals are being met we hire one employee we can't do that minus covet without getting this done so the longer we put this off the longer we're just a lame board well i don't think anyone suggested we put it off unless i think we have the discussion now for sure i'm not hearing we don't have a discussion right and i would also say i mean i don't necessarily agree with that we're like that we can't act the old mission statement is still in place it's going to be enacted until we do something different and i happen to believe that the existing mission statement is actually pretty good so you know i reign on this too and i said we have to have conversations about the future of education and of

036course we should but i'm saying i don't see i don't quite have the same sense of urgency but obviously that's up for discussion we can't get our goals for two years without meaningful goals to use in our evaluation and moving the district forward and that's really unprecedented again it's a kovid year but for any organization to just kind of be without this driving force to measure its progress um i i i just think it's uncomfortable we have goals we're just looking to re redo the goals well and we're gonna have goals we have goals but i don't i am not convinced that we are moving towards those goals or targeting those goals as we had been we're not making the same kinds of decisions for those goals because we opened the dialogue looking at the

037mission with the idea that we were going to revisit the goals well we said do you have a preference of these i mean i guess we probably need to have that discussion i mean laura do you have a preference no i think we should see them i think we should have kind of like a work you know uh the next meeting maybe 45 or a half hour before the meeting come and craft it pick it do it you know we we have to eventually do it and then it could be posted for comment say this is the one we've crafted we've got all the words you'd like it and then you can leave it posted for comment if anybody really objects to it or anybody running objects to it then we can revisit that but

038gina i mean i'm i only have a few meetings left so i i feel like so you have to add an extra 30 minutes for me right no i don't mind doing it because i think it's going to be a longer discussion than probably any of us anticipate it to be but at the same time like from my perspective because i'm the only one here who i'm definitely not coming back you know it it does seem to me that if somebody's coming new on the board it would be nice for them to be able to have an opportunity to weigh in but if they're running they can certainly win so i kind of agree with flora um to like set the tone so that the the rest like they can in essence what you're saying

039is like hit the ground running right like some of the hard work's been done now let's go on to you know i don't know i think the next part is going to be harder than this part but for the goals i do yeah i think sure but behind the goals then you're not pushed back another week do you think next next meeting maybe we come in early yeah is that it prepared ready to go you know be open it's open open session yeah yeah i think it would be open and then yeah that would be good so you consider that like a special meeting or something no you just make it into the agenda we'll work out mary and i will work on that okay and i think we've come with you know i think

040now that we're revisited i think the uh the last year is certainly uh this ever changing world right it is you know if ever we knew that that was a true statement it is today more than before right and i think i mean i think that's a great idea i'm totally up for meeting you know early and so forth we have to find a place to discuss it right that's the most important thing what i was sort of hoping to maybe gauge a little bit is whether anybody feels strongly about this balance argument because i'll just i mean i'm you know i don't know how the discussion is going to unfold but i will tell you for me to take the existing mission statement and strip it so bare that it skips a couple of

041things that it has now does not make sense and so i'm just you know i'm telling you now where i'm coming from whether you already have comments about that or not might give us a little bit of a sense of is this a 30-minute discussion or is this a couple of 30 minutes discussions which if they're really good ones and engaged and even some community members show up to talk about it and teachers i'd be thrilled right i'm not married to my you know the one i submitted or the one that has my name next to it in fact like now that it's been almost a year right like you kind of think oh oh okay but my thought process and you know i'm not sure where this comes from but is that yes every

042member that of the organization from um you know the the the paraprofessionals to the administration and everyone in between um can say it right and so when you're getting up to like i mean there's a reason why our phone numbers are only we used to be seven digits and now are ten it's because it's a memory it's a memory thing right so if we want everyone in the organization to be able to internalize this and be able to [Music] and this is like such a teacher thing to say but like be quizzed on it for lack of a better right like analogy um i mean i don't think the administration's going to go down the hall and stop teachers what is it tell me all right but um they should be able to like you

043know what the mona but but they really can't like what have you done this week that bears out our mission statement how are you living our mission statement what have you done what have you implemented how are you being true to the mission statement right like so are you saying it's more than just reger like i'm saying they should be able to regurgitate it or have internalized it and you're saying it's more the board do you do you do you want people just to be able to regurgitate it or do you want people to live it have you ever recited a mission statement yeah i can tell you mine district 100 um oh jesus no i know listen we'll inspire a passion for learning in every child sorry because it's short that does it sure

044but i think it's important to split hairs a little bit and we had some discussion we have the iasb person and there's vision statements which are right future and inspirational so district 100 that's a vision statement that is a vision statement right this is a mission statement this is how you operationalize it i'm sorry this is how you live it and then the goals are how you operationalize it and i'm sure there's professionals who can say that a lot better than i just did but i think um i think it's a great idea to have a focused discussion on this absolutely i would like to start better than where we left off a year ago though like instead of having all five options can we somehow get some yeah guide rails here that we can

045when we meet next time we know we want to go with um start with one and then we could say i mean i love your conversation about the balance having a little more than one loss i definitely appreciate the color coding and all of that so i think maybe we start with one that's fuller yeah because you can always what i've learned as a data person never collapse resolution in the beginning so you start with your more fuller mission statement and you have lots of room to call sure agree it would just be interesting to know i mean i've been in education 27 years i've had lots of mission statements i couldn't tell you any of them anywhere i worked except the district that it was a shorter one and we lived it and we

046knew it and it was on everything it was that was what we stood for that is why we were there that every day we woke up in the morning because we were bearing out this mission like this is why we were there so it was really powerful yes we take the fuller one and then we say these words aren't adding anything and you can trim that would be starting with 73 then yeah yeah yeah if you don't mind why don't tom and i work on this over the next two weeks that will come with two we'll we'll kind of figure that out and kind of start there and move yeah right and we'll kind of have a plan of where we want to go and kind of directly actually if you don't mind time we

047can work on that outside of this over the next two weeks so now it's great and then you have your colors so that way it does show the balance and anything fuller can be called as opposed to having to find out what's missing and put it back in no i totally agree and actually and gina your point is that's you know the best work that i've seen in this thing is that you quite literally you say the same thing it just it's longer or shorter for different purposes and so sometimes you know there's maybe a time where you have the medium one or whatever the longer one but then whether it's a vision or a mantra or you know those are the times when you actually know you've really discussed it through because you can

048do that relatively easily and say out of however many words those are the five that are the most important that we want people to remind so that i think that would be great if we end up there and i think um one of those words should be an ever-changing world i think that's really important for that one because i see that in almost every single one of them and i think that one's really important to have in there well yeah right this past year yeah well it's in our old one and it's in a couple and three of the new ones right so it's definitely in we just lived it we are living it right now we're you know hector just gave him you know 15 minute speech on it the changing world lily and

049michael we would expect you to be involved in this discussion as student advisors students that are graduating in two months or three months right yeah and i also think i mean i think that 30 to 40 range is pretty good um because you don't want to make it too long but it's also like i agree with the vision statement versus the mission statement too because i think having it be a mission statement as in we don't have to memorize that but it's like a culminating way of saying what our mission is versus a vision statement where you could live by that so yeah i agree with that too i mean i'm at a current place where it's innovate collaborate elevate that's the vision statement that's like the three words right and there's a longer mission

050statement about transparency and accountability and all of those other government things so i think there's yeah start big and go and then shrink it down that seems like a good pad well and when we look at the words i mean you don't want to come you know constrain yourself by saying only four words you start to look at it and say is this redundant is there any redundancy you don't need to say anything twice and you'll find out that there are sometimes sentences or phrases that are repeated and then you can take those out too it's like reducing fractions like in the current statement um i didn't like how it said partnership twice within like three sentences it was a little so that's that's a perfect deal thing to call you know we only need

051to say it once maybe even more succinctly and that's how you start to trim it well we're moving that's right the main thing right like we're keeping now we put it back on the table right we're out of trauma mode put it back on the table we're moving forward like that's the most important thing right and i have to say uh uh slide 18 who doesn't love a good jim collins quote like i was like oh i love him 6 30 march meeting right yeah and so i mean maybe at the end of that time if it's not done it just moves it to the next meeting and it will continue but at least you're not yeah just you know getting some committee work in before the actual business of the board we would be

052at that meeting too right right please yes so 6 15. all right um going to discuss the student advisors so i thought we were doing that at the last meeting yeah this is just a placeholder because it was advised and then more discussion would occur as we got near the application process okay we wanted to put it on there as a placeholder that was asked for a future discussion i know october 11 hector's going to work on that with the student body correct that's a placeholder to get some more feedback to the board so a little history for the board um there had been a board member that said there are oftentimes ideas that we wanted to work on and then they would fall off the agenda and so he wanted to make sure that

053they would be either retained as new business or under discussion and even if we moved them to the next month we didn't forget about them until we intentionally said we just don't need to talk about that anymore so yes with so many things to keep track of that's awesome yeah so that's why you know those you know can be there and you well just like we did with our student advisors you know it was on the agenda for a while and until we finished getting through it yeah i was gonna say like one example i know we talked about the ski and snowboard trip which i don't know if there was ever a decision put on that um but like that's one example that i think was falling off but i don't know if we

054made a decision on that we had to make a decision on it because the uh chalet was not open and we did not could not accommodate the safety guys [Music] it was kind of well it wasn't it didn't come back to the board because it was kind of a right attack within the administration it didn't come back around the focus of the we didn't mention it i believe all right visitor statements you know we have some visitors here this is great we always encourage that i'm going to read this statement the board of education welcomes and encourages the participation of the citizens in the business of the school district there are two points in the meeting where visitor statements are scheduled citizens are welcome to raise questions and make comments at either one comments will

055be 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 accounts 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 all right so we have a less head uh doc dr freitas who's going first okay so you have three minutes i'll wave my hand when you're on your last 30 seconds okay so you could wrap wrap-up how's your name uh my name is noah briones and i'm a junior here at rv and um i'm here tonight to offer some comments in support of our school's orchestra program and of our music teachers more specifically i would like to speak in support of

056making sure that we in the orchestra program can continue to have the same teacher mr matthew loeb in the next school year and beyond so i've been playing the violin for six since i was six years old and in that time i've only had four violin teachers that is 11 years and four violin teachers i think that much of my growth as a violinist is due to the stability and consistency in instruction through these many years of course i know that my progress also depends a great deal on how much i work how much work i put into my own practicing but i also know that it inspires me more to practice when i know that my teacher is someone who knows me he knows how far i have come and how much more i

057need to do to get better that strong relationship that i had with my teacher was built through several years and many lessons and so i can rest assured that he has a solid plan for me going forward however our rb orchestra has not had the chance to build such a relationship with our teacher um i've been in rb's orchestra program since i was a freshman and in these three school years we've had a different teacher handling the orchestra every single year this may not sound like a big deal to some but to musicians it makes a huge difference in our playing learning and growth as individuals and as a group when we are given a chance to build a relationship the more time and consistency we are given when we play our music the better

058we play this applies with our instruments with each other as students and with our teacher um i'm very thankful that i'm here at rb that i'm studying here at rb and i'm especially grateful for our music programs uh they don't there are not a lot of schools that you come by with the kind of music programs that rb has while things got a little challenging for orchestra players during the pandemic i knew that there was still a lot to be thankful for i know our music teachers worked hard to keep us all learning and still somehow able to make music together having a teacher like mr loeb during this time it truly did make a difference mr loeb didn't shy away from making the most of technology especially to help us make music together remotely

059and to stay engaged i'm looking forward to learning more with mr loeb in person and to seeing how much progress our orchestra can make if we are given another year with the same teacher and so um i would like to ask you to please help us please help us make sure that we are able to keep our orchestra teacher so that we our b string musicians can have the same stability that the band choir jazz band and rock band students have been able to enjoy that's it thank you thank you noah i'll give you the wave at with 30 seconds okay thank you hi i'm victoria barrera and session and i'm the mother of sophie ranceson a junior and very involved music student here at rb i understand that the board is considering cutting mr

060matthew loeb's position in half next year this of course means that mr loeb would be forced to seek a full-time position elsewhere i'm here to speak not just about mr lowe but also about the rb music department and the impact that cutting mr loeb's job would have i understand that enrollment in music is down for next year and that this cut is being made entirely due to that but i feel this is a very short-sighted move especially in this case first mr loeb is an exceptionally talented and outstanding music educator my daughter sophie who is in the wind ensemble has him as her band teacher ever since he began last fall sophie has found him very encouraging and inspiring my husband and i also find him enthusiastic and dedicated i'm a professional musician i was

061educated at the royal academy of music in london and then at cambridge university in england i've been a professional pianist florida singer conductor composer and music tutor for 30 years i recognize an outstanding musician and music educator when i see one second mr lope has been transformative for the rb music department in the short time he's been here he's made a big impact on the students and the staff he's been especially ingenious in creating new ways of helping music students learn grow and feel included despite the pandemic for example the virtual winter concert that he helped produce was an amazing testament to this mr mob has been transformative for the rb orchestra program as you heard it seems strange and sad to me that the rb music department hasn't been able to keep a permanent

062orchestra teacher here but has had to find a new one every year for the last five years it's so unfair to the orchestra students and makes the music department weaker and less well balanced mr loeb has really strengthened the orchestra this year he's encouraged the orchestra students and is poised to build a very strong orchestra program going forward to lose him now would be devastating for the rb orchestra and for the future of the rb music department as a professional musician i've always been aware that music education can sometimes be undervalued but i can tell you from experience that having students learn practice and perform music together is highly beneficial for psychological mathematical social emotional and physical development and self-discipline all students no matter what career they end up in benefit from a strong music

063program practicing and performing music together has long been proven to develop essential skills for any workplace and for life in general it develops team building cooperation compassion sensitivity towards others fine listening skills creativity emotional regulation mathematical awareness pattern recognition the list goes on therefore i beg you to reconsider mr loeb's position he is a rare gem thank you my name is adam bowen i have a child who attends the school i also coach the robotics team but i'm here tonight to speak to you on a similar topic with regards to mr loeb it was made brought to my attention that there was some consideration given to either cutting his position or cutting his position to 50 which would potentially allow him to leave um i thought it would be useful not to really share my

064opinion on that such as others have but maybe to just introduce a couple of data points that you might consider when you're thinking about that decision the first study that i'm going to reference is from the journalist psychology it was done a couple of years ago i'm happy to share the studies i looked at the performance of about a hundred thousand uh students that participated in music and that found that they scored significantly better statistically significantly better in math and science exams than their peers the second data point from a different study students who achieved higher scores in music achieved better scores on standardized tests in all subjects my sense in learning this is that we don't need less of mr loeb we need more mr loebs as a as a parent i'm critically aware

065of the the the benefit i saw the mission statements i think every single one of them was related to academic performance and so i would look at the i would look at the connection between uh music and overall academic performance um one other one other data point i i thought was kind of interesting this was from the same study the the the academic who did the analysis on average children who played instruments for many years and men continued to play high school or orchestra were equivalent to about one academic year ahead of their peers with regards to english math and science skills again i think the data is fairly conclusive strong participation in music leads to strong academic performance so while we can have a conversation about the quality of mr loeb which i think

066is exceptional i have a child who participates in that as well if the mission of the organization our school is to encourage strong academic performance i think one of the critical ways that we do that is through strong music performance the last thing i'll share and i think it's an interesting anecdotal because i care about it from a robotics perspective the robotics team the music the drama programs we tend to work around the fringes right of school right where we happen in the off hours and and i think what's interesting about this there was some information there were there were a couple academics that studied this and they talked to i'll read the quote right before the school bell right we treat students as passive recipients of knowledge his interest matters little right after the

067bell in athletics debate theater and music we treat students as people who learn by doing people who teach as well as learn and people whose passion and ideas are worth elevating so and again i'd ask you to consider the the choices that we're making here and the impact that a vibrant academic contributor like mr loeb could make not only on the music department but also on the academic performance of the school thank you good evening good evening thank you so much for allowing me an opportunity to speak my name is tayda lester and i have two children at rb as a mom i like to think that my children are pretty well-rounded you met my daughter today madison who was on student association she is also a basketball player a tennis player but one of

068the things that she loves the most at rb is the music program um so i'm also here to talk about that this year when people talk about a loss of education i understand that i'm an educator myself but one of the things that people talk about is that there's not as much connection with covid and with virtual learning my daughter has had the opposite experience this year with the music department um three weeks ago mr bum surprised us and dropped by the house a base bass clarinet for my daughter to learn and she has received one-on-one lessons from mr loeb for the past three weeks learning the bass clarinet improving on her skills one of the things that would be nice for you to hear was that he's been encouraging her to play music in

069college he's had those conversations with her that's really important as an educator myself and as someone who has gone and gotten my masters and believes in education he's been pushing her talking about his experiences things that he's done i don't know if you guys have heard him play his instruments but he plays multiple instruments and he plays them really well he has encouraged her not only to play in school but her and her friends have been playing outside of school which is something that as a parent is really interesting to hear the other day her and a friend during their breaks in school were actually like playing their instruments and working on um the performance pieces that he gave her so um that was really interesting um the fact that she has two teachers this

070year and they're taking virtual and in-person and kind of balancing that which is a hard thing to do i'm really impressed with it and i think they've done a really great job they've given her a lot of personal um attention i also know that rb when we looked at places to live you guys have a huge amount of children that take ap classes and one of the classes that might you know not have such a great chance of continuing is the ap music theory class which is really important for kids that are musical i know for me when we looked at the state report card i looked at how many children took ap classes at rb that was really important to me as a parent and so he has become an integral part of this

071music program and i implore you to please try to keep him on for next year we know strong schools have strong arts they just do and so please continue to support your music program at rb thank you of course [Applause] hello my name is carrie felix and i'm just a member of the community and a musician um been a resident for 26 years and like the other people that have spoken before me i'm here to ask the board to reconsider reducing the size of the rb music department staff having a strong music program has so many benefits for the students as others have pointed out research shows that students who who have been involved in high school music programs are more likely to graduate less likely to abuse alcohol and drugs do better on their

072sats and are more likely to attend and graduate from college i can also tell you from my personal experience the performing music helps people to express emotions deal with stress and inspire others which i think is important during this time i can also say that we owe it to the students to rb high school at our harvard high school to provide a strong music department and all the benefits it can provide so please take this into account and reconsider reducing the size of the music department thank you [Applause] all right hi board thanks for having me um my name is anthony perry i'm a student at rb and i play the cello i'm actually one of mr loeb's students i'd also like to talk about why i think we should keep mr loeb on as

073a teacher for rv music so i'd like to start with an anecdote about my personal life i teach swimming lessons at the pool um it's called the max aquatics so sometimes one of my co-workers will have something to do so i have to take their lesson i have to take over their kid for one lesson and so when i take over this kid this new kid i've never met before i'm spending most of the lesson like assessing him trying to figure out how to work with the kid and so by the end of the lesson right i haven't really done anything to benefit the kid i've only assessed the kid and then same thing at a new session i'll get a whole group of new kids it will take me a good few weeks to

074actually get to know the kids get to learn how to work with them and get to learn what i can do to challenge them so i can teach them to be better swimmers i think this also applies to the to the orchestra at rb right if we have a new teacher every year that teacher spends the entire year trying to get to know each student and he's not just getting to know one student like i am he has to get to know multiple students in multiple bands and orchestras that he has to figure out how to work with so by the end of the year when he finally figures out all right this is the orchestra this is how i teach them this is how i challenge them he just leaves and then he doesn't

075actually get to implement all the challenges the ways he sees to make us better because he just leaves and then we'll start the next year the same thing the new teacher will try and assess us and figure this out but by the time they figure us out it's over um and so that's why i think mr loeb if he gets another chance to go this year all right sorry another chance to go next year he's going to implement more things to help make us better right um and i think mr lowe more so than other teachers actually really cares about our students getting to know us like even though i've been remote i feel closer to mr loeb than i have to any other my teachers and i've only seen him twice a week for

076like half the school year right so that's why i think it's really important we keep in mom thank you nice job [Applause] hi my name is david renses i am a phd mathematician and i am also a musician who benefited greatly from attending a high school of similar size to rb which had a music program that positively dwarfs what we have at rb at this time in terms of student enrollment percentage and staff i'm here speaking on behalf of the students i guess as parents and in support of maintaining a full-time status for mr matthew loeb's position in the music department so let's start with reality i'm going to make a bad analogy if you wanted to hire someone to clean your home once a week and then every time you went on vacation for

077three weeks two weeks or whatever you decided to fire them and start all over is that actually good practice is that something that you would practically do all the time i mean generally in my case not that i um i would i'd like to have someone that i could trust to come back to continually and not have to restart the equation similarly in business we don't hire for a full-time position and then spend six months training them knowing full well that it's highly likely that we'll just let them go after a year has gone by it doesn't make sense it costs money to hire people it costs money to train talent it takes time to build relationships with students and it's even more expensive to hire someone after the fact who isn't a good fit

078and it's all too easy to derail these investments in people in teachers in students by having a short-sighted outlook or by not understanding all of the costs involved in a decision or by not taking them into account we either value these investments or we do not i i'd also like to say i very much appreciate it and fully support the statement that was made referring to the research and such um i think that's very important to understand we value this i think we should all value this and i feel in summary that the proposed cut in music staff that is put forward that i understand is simply put pennywise and pound foolish thank you thank you hello i'm leticia level um i am a parent of uh two 10th graders that are very involved in

079the arts clue and right now the musical that we're very excited for and also the music program also a co-president of music sponsors i am going to read a letter on behalf of julie and michael lowby because she was unable to be here tonight a dear district board my husband and i are the parents of matthew lowby a junior who attends rb arby's hybrid model and is an rb athlete matthew has been part of a string orchestra since freshman year he began playing at blyth park and continued for three years at hauser while enjoying playing as an eighth grader with the rb orchestra matthew plans on continuing an orchestra his senior year and using what he has been taught to continue playing outside of school we also have a seventh grader at hauser who looks

080forward to playing in the orchestra during his four years at rb we are invested in the rbhs music department and its orchestra for the next five and a half years i am writing to you on behalf of riverside brookfield's newest orchestra teacher mr matthew loeb who was hired this past august mr loeb had little time to prepare for classes while also preparing to instruct both hybrid and remote students it is an understatement to say mr loeb stepped up to the challenge and tasks up before him he rose to and far exceeded the challenge and tasks set before him taking the bull by its horns and has been a great asset to rb's music department mr matthew mr loeb is matthew's third orchestra teacher in three years mr loeb has continually engaged matthew and his fellow

081orchestra students and has taught them new skills and techniques which has also led them to being outstanding musicians matthew and his friends have spoken highly of mr loeb and have enjoyed this year's orchestra immensely with the amount of enthusiasm and love for music that he has demonstrated each and every day to students both hybrid and remote he is very engaging and a professional at parent-teacher conferences in october and has been nothing but a positive asset and a shining light to rb's orchestra students as he is easy to communicate and work with mr loeb has continually motivated students to learn and excel at music he has already made a favorable and lasting impression on rb music students parents and staff for exceeding what anyone would expect a new but experienced teacher to do mr loeb has

082shown his dedication commitment and love for rb music and bulldog community by working endlessly to only make it better and to bring stability to the orchestra program the winter concert although done virtually this year is a favorite event of families in riverside north riverside brookfield and surrounding communities as and is enjoyed by both young and old alike mr loeb stepped up to the plate to help produce this beautiful concert which is still being talked about as it has truly brightened many lives i urge the board of education to develop a long-term plan in lieu of a year or two year mr loeb has exceeded the expectations of students parents and the community with his experience and true appreciation for music the district 208 board of education should offer mr loeb a permanent position in the

083rb music department and let him work at rebuilding and strengthening the rb orchestra program and the rb music department i strongly urge the board of education to invest in mr loeb in the future oh it's she said it twice sorry thank you for your consideration respectfully julie and michael lappi thank you thank you hello [Music] my name is lisa swissionas i'm just a continuation of this effort i'm one of the presidents of the parent music group here at rb and i have a sophomore who's in the music program and loving every minute of it has mr baum mr loeb i just want to say generally that we are concerned about numbers going down enrollment numbers going down in the music program but we feel like it's such an unfair year to base it off of

084because all of the fun that comes with music has been mostly eliminated this year so i feel like kids are kind of using that as a basis to make their decision for next year and it just it seems skewed because we're limited to the pandemic and i just it doesn't seem right but we're very proud of the music program we have here and we'd like to keep it going so this is a letter from matthew lowby who couldn't be here tonight my name is matthew louby and i'm a junior in the string orchestra and have been since freshman year i also attend arby's hybrid model and i'm on the rba cross country and lacrosse team mr loeb is my third orchestra teacher in three years and has made orchestra fun while also imparting new skills

085and knowledge to us whether it has been through zoom or hybrid mr loeb has continually engaged my class even when most of the students are learning remotely as i am one of two who attends the hybrid model i always look forward to orchestra and seeing mr loeb he always exhibited he always exhibits enthusiasm and love for music this year while sharing his immense talent with his classes mr loeb has always been available to assist us during class and office hours mr loeb has continually motivated all of the music students this year and continuously gives the skills we need to learn so that we may excel and make ourselves better in all aspects of our schooling it has only been all uphill with mr loeb and an enjoyable year i am gaining new skills i need

086to play outside of school as i volunteer to play violin at my church i asked the board of education to offer mr lowe a permanent position in the rb music department and let him work with me as a senior and then with my younger brother who plays the viola viola in the 7th grade orchestra and chamber orchestra at hauser he'll continue to have a positive impact on my fellow students and me in the time we have at rb thank you thank you lisa [Music] [Applause] what claire i know i'm not on the list but mr man oh yes of course i was that rehearsal yeah we just used the list to like make it more orderly but yes of course we'll put our hand up but when you have 30 seconds left okay hello my

087name is claire harrison and i am a junior i spoke a couple months ago about why i have chosen to remain remote throughout the whole school year but i'm here for a different reason tonight as some of you may have remembered i am heavily involved in the fine arts especially band unsurprisingly i was outraged when i heard about the recent developments involving one of my band teachers since the first minute i met mr loeb i knew he was exactly what the music department needed he is a positive talented and kind leader who helps us not only to grow as musicians but as human beings i think a lot of us can use more positive and kind people in our lives right now i spent a lot of time in the fine arts whether that be

088painting stage managing or playing in the band because of this i know the profound impact a good fine arts teacher can have on one's life please know that i was not sent by anyone tonight and that i truly stand by everything i have said please do not take away opportunities from take away opportunities from fine arts students i know that i speak for many of my classmates when i say that the fine arts are more than just a class for us these teachers are more than just people who teach us scales and the right notes these are incredibly influential figures in our lives know that the decisions the administration and the board make do not go unnoticed by us please think of more than logistics and money when it comes to making this decision think

089of the joy we get from music think of those of us who only made it through these hard times because of people like mr lope when you make this decision think of us thank you and i yield my time good job thank you good job claire all right dr freitas anybody you have any other participants okay okay all right we want to move on without everybody getting the chance okay we'll do additional discussion items at this point the meeting board of education members may request to add an additional discussion i don't look all right okay we'll go to the reports uh president's report i do not have one student advisor report anything from student advisors yeah so i don't know i just wanted to mention this from last week when we were talking about the

090yearbook that i think the decision should be left up to the yearbook and rouser which i think is i think what we've mostly decided on for jostens um in regards to the survey i spoke to mr manon today and like they said it's been like 47 percent um i also saw that there were like we had time to do it second period so everyone had the chance to do it so if they didn't do it i mean every teacher in second period gave us the chance to from what i know and there's also been maybe a couple misconceptions with the wording because some people told me they thought they didn't have to do it if they were in person or remote and i didn't understand where that was coming from but there could be a

091misconception there um but yeah i think everything in school has been going well um like dr freda said it could be just the weather that there's a little bit less students here but from being in school versus home i'm much more productive obviously it's really easy to go to bed during class and then i don't know but compared to when i'm in school i have to get work done it's just a much more motivating environment yeah i didn't know the survey was sent out during second period i'm pretty sure my second period class did not do that so if you guys are trying to get the survey out to more students i would just you know really try to enforce that teachers you know inform their students about the survey and where they can fill

092it out but i agree with everything michael said and i do think that the weather plays a big part in the lower numbers of students coming in because i go on tuesdays and thursdays and last thursday it was snowing in the morning so i decided to stay home but you know it's getting pretty nice out you know it was really hot today and yesterday compared to last year oh my gosh so hopefully things will start to turn around and yeah yeah i feel like the calendar is on our side right like hopefully it's coming all right anything else maybe for the student advisor but that's later on i have a lot to say for that so okay when we get to that michael maybe talk with dr freitas in your meeting before the board meeting

093so you guys have a couple points you want to share for that okay okay yeah just think about the mission statement for next time right some words smithing pull out that thesaurus or something right superintendents report uh curriculum advisory council won't be till this spring to review class offerings for next year also to discuss foreign language facilities advisory council will have the first read tonight on the life safety handrails finance advisory council met prior to this meeting you'll get the financial projections um for the next three to four years uh this this evening you'll see some of the some of the deficits that have been discussed at previous meetings we'll be explaining a little more detail by miss matana personnel advisory council ramona and mr durkin will receive a copy of the staffing report of

094any classes that are under 20 and that information before um next meeting works well i'll send that out to them and we'll do a quick zoom on that but that is not scheduled yet and then there's no update from policy and there's no update on purchase or lease of land an additional communication was sent to the zoo to see if we can get feedback on the drawing that we met on in october and we have not received any feedback at this time so we're continuing to pursue that that concludes my superintendent's report [Music] for the month of january which represents 58 of the fiscal year the first report is on board book page if you could go to board book page 25 here i am please uh the total uh the monthly summary report has

095uh the total operating revenue for the month which was nine hundred and seven thousand uh six hundred and forty one dollars with sixty three percent coming from federal and state reimbursements twenty percent coming from evidence-based funding which is our state funding and then eleven percent coming from property tax and cpprt primarily that corporate personal uh replacement tax the total operating expenditure for the month was two million six uh sixty nine thousand five hundred and eighty eight dollars with 72 percent towards salary and benefits eleven percent for special education tuition and nine percent for operations and maintenance and that was primarily uh to pay our liability insurance premiums the next reports are the monthly financial statements the fund balances summary shows that the district is deficit spending in its operating funds of two million two hundred

096and fifty one thousand seven hundred and fifty three dollars [Music] this will continue uh for the month of february as well until the district receives more property tax uh which will get a large payment in march um and then this year with kovad we anticipate uh not getting all of that and some of that trickling in the summary of revenues for the district shows that the district has received 51 percent of our budgeted revenue for the year so similar to this time last year we were at 49 percent but we were very conservative in our revenue budget this year and then the summary of expenditure shows that the district has spent 56 of the budgeted expenditures for this year and this amount is down from this time last fiscal year which is at 60 percent

097also uh for the board's information like i do every month i've included the statement of revenue and expenditures report along with the student activity account summary for the month of january my next report begins on board book page 49. and this is the financial projections for fiscal year 22 through 25 as dr skink is referenced annually i provide the board with financial projections for the next four years in order to make these financial projections we need to enter information or assumptions into the software some of these assumptions have changed a little bit from previous years due to kovid so i'd like to take a minute just to highlight some of the bigger ones i'm not going to read all of them uh for you but the first one on the revenue side is the property

098tax collection for next fiscal year fiscal year 22 we have it remaining at 97 of collection uh typically we budget 99 percent for property tax collection and then in fiscal year 23 we uh move that up to 98 percent and then back to 99 for the last two years corporate property uh taxes were decreased from 375 000 to 350 to reflect not only a more accurate three-year average but also the impact due to covid we know the consumer price index that we'll use on our upcoming levy in december and that is dropped significantly from 2.3 this past levy to 1.4 um and then moving forward for the assumptions uh we have that set at two percent for cpi and then evidence-based funding we have held flat um you know governor pritzker has said in his

099proposed budget that he's committed to maintaining that evidence-based funding uh we'll see if that holds out in the actual budget but that's why we have left that flat uh for our assumptions on the expenditure side steps real quick yep with the revenue property tax collection so like under the consumer price index you put every one percent is approximately 210 000. so with the revenue with the property tax collection every one percent is roughly um 210 to 220 000. um on the expenditure side staff salaries increase for next year returning certified step staff salaries increase at 3.87 percent please note that doesn't factor into the retirement savings which are noted later as well as any staffing changes which we call fte either reductions to that those are also factored in later and then our contract our

100cba is up after fiscal year 22 and so we've put a placeholder in moving forward at 3 percent administrative contracts we have an assumption at increasing at 2 percent for next year and then 2.5 percent for future years as a placeholder non-certified staff we typically make an assumption at 3 percent staff hiring projections are based off of enrollment projections so fiscal year 22 next year we have a decrease of 1.3 fte fiscal year 23 no change and then 24 and each year would decrease by 0.6 due to a decrease in enrollment and then the retirement savings is the other big one um that i would like to touch on and that significantly varies from year to year based off of the number of staff members that we have retiring so you can see one year

101at zero in terms of savings and another year it's 273 thousand dollars um so moving on to the next page the actual projections um um is there a way that you get 3.87 as a staffing increase can you run that to also incorporate the retirement i know it's not fluid for multi-years but i think it'd be helpful to know what the actual staffing increase percentage is for next year yeah sure i can do that separately wait say that again instead of just showing 3.8 3.87 percent for fy22 and then have footnoting that no retirement savings what's the actual percentage i think it's going to be a little bit more um yeah that's not um that's not a number i can pull from the program but i can calculate that and and share that out with

102the board thank you um so looking at the actual assumptions i know it's probably incredibly hard to read if you're just looking at the screen can you blow that up to like 200 and if you scroll down i'm going to start in that i'm going to start in the budget the black column all the way on to the left so this is where our current budget is at and you can see the deficit the projected deficit for this year has decreased a little bit from what i presented in the initial budget i haven't changed the budget but i have decreased that number by 150 000 dollars because at the start of the school year we had two retirements that were unexpected and so we had some savings there and the way this program works is

103the staffing numbers are then used uh to make the following projections or the projections for next year so it was important that i corrected that before moving forward um so that's why you can see that adjustment there next if you look at the row going across so everything highlighted in yellow those are the projected deficits for each year so you can see that first number for fiscal year 22 next year the projected deficit is 998 thousand seven hundred and two dollars fiscal year uh twenty three is five hundred ninety seven uh thousand five hundred and seventy two dollars you can see uh the next year fiscal year twenty four is a little bit over a million dollar deficit and then the following year is a deficit of 200 000 roughly um and so uh one

104thing that i'd like to note is that these projections have increased from what i had presented last year and i'm sure you know last year was a little bit of a blur but if you remember i presented these projections last year a week before we went on quarantine and so we really had no idea how cobid would impact us financially at that point or if if at all and so the red box on the very bottom if you could scroll down marianne includes what the projections were at this time last year for the upcoming fiscal years and then why they are significantly different and you know the the main difference is that we are losing revenue in many areas decreased revenue for property tax collection interest on investment food service commission building rentals and local

105fees and then increased expenditures in regards to both operations and maintenance for ppe and cleaning supplies as well as an increase in special education tuition and then the last thing i'd like to highlight is right above that red box is are the blue numbers and so there are two sets of fund balances the black numbers that are above the blue numbers are fund balances that include the 2.9 million dollars that we have reserved in working cash and so it's really important to take a look at the blue numbers instead because um that backs out that 2.9 million that's reserved for the field project or land acquisition and so looking at that it's concerning that you know if you look the first year and fiscal year after fiscal year 22 we would be at a fund

106balance of 39.21 percent um and if you look all the way to the right you're at you know a 30 fund balance and that means that the district can operate for 3.68 months without receiving any additional revenue and if you remember to my presentation earlier how we're how we've been deficit spending for a few months because we're waiting for more property tax to come in that's why it's incredibly important that we have that fund balance so that we can operate in the months that we need to deficit spend in order for that money to come back in so we will certainly need to keep an eye on this you know we update projections every year and things will certainly change with covid but it's important to keep an eye on that fund balance i have

107other items in my report but i want to pause and answer any questions that you may have in regards to the financial projections i i don't i have some comments i think right sort of um back to i guess i was going to bring up too what you just said right like if we go back to the pie graphs right like basically our expenditures were double our revenue this month right about 900 000 and about right so uh when does that next big chunk of money come from the state uh it won't be from the state the next big chunk of money will come from property tax in march okay so march okay although i think it actually has a delayed collection now they did a delayed collection right so like what people don't understand

108is that we are heavily dependent on property tax collection so the fact that we're going to 97 instead of 99 [Music] is is roughly a half a million dollars right there so if you look at kristen's projection just for fy 21 in that red box we were supposed to finish this year around 574. the board has made a conscious effort to try to do these as close to real as possible because in the past we've always uh you know done conservative projections like worst case scenario which is kind of what you're supposed to do so you're preparing for the worst but i mean you know there were some years where we would project a million dollar deficit and we'd come in with a surplus of 300 000 right that's a 1.3 million dollar swing in

109layman's terms so i think the important thing to highlight is you know that delay in property tax collection and the impact of covit is not only going to impact us just this year it will impact us in future here because you receive your tax dollars in the rear right and so you can see like just that half a million dollars in property tax collection that's not even counting like the lost commission from rentals the lost commission from student fees the lost commission from cafeteria not being open uh you know so those there's a lot of impact that we have to plan for for probably the next two years until we're fully out of the impact of coven um you know so and that that drives a lot of our decision making if you look at

110next year the deficit was supposed to be around 273 because we had a lot of retirees coming off the books and it was that was supposed to be kind of like our swing year and now it's closer to a million dollars uh and so it's important that you know i know we had talked had many discussions in the last few years about fund balance and people's philosophy on fund balance but i think you're starting to see like when county comes out and says hey we're going to delay plop you have an extra two months to pay your property taxes what we basically then take out of the bank or this fund balance an extra two months of bills that have to be paid in payroll and lights and gas and and so that yes that

111will that money get replaced it should if we get the property tax collection we're expecting but if somebody takes three months or four months to pay their property taxes we don't we don't get a chance to recoup that the county doesn't give us that money as a front and take it back so we also know the state is not fully funding at the formula that they promise us for one that we also are what i'm hearing is ebf is dead in the water right that it's i haven't heard that i think our bigger we budgeted flat for ebf correct like that's not a game changer for us no it's not for us but the game changer for us is if two or three points we come in two or three points lower on property tax

112collection that's anywhere from a half a million to 750 000 now you already were expecting cpi's down okay that's new money so you're you're not getting the past few years it's been over two percent so you're getting 1.4 which is you know it's an impact of about 190 to you know 210 000 like kristin said um but it's the property tax collection that we are heavily we're 90 reliant on and and in the fall we were at about 95 percent of our property tax collection which obviously is significantly lower than the 99 percent that we use every budget i would also like these this assumption of back up to 98 and 99 i mean if we historically look at what happened after this school district didn't feel that until 2011. so really i'm worried for

113three years down the road what that means for not only rb but all the schools in the state i mean you know um yes certainly certainly now with covet it's hard to make a very accurate projection you know four years out so we will revise those as we go sure sure because yes we could be experiencing the impact of cloven much more than two schools you know these more fiscal years the fact that cpi is going down you know um i think i you know i mean i've talked about this before at the board me like ebf right like they put there are three buckets of money that they where the state could put their money right pre-k k-12 higher ed and they've basically abandoned the other two systems just to put all their money

114here i don't think it's just in my opinion i don't think it's sustainable so like when you look at those first three indicators for revenue in the future in this state it doesn't look very good it does not look very good at all like i it i'm i'm very concerned about our financial picture for the future and i think we've done a great job of balancing and maintaining the level of service in in this district but i know just it's my opinion i agree with that 10 years ago right we had that recession we had just many many foreclosures in the neighborhood sure many um and that's probably when we had some of the you know the biggest deficits and that's when you remember we caught just when kevin was coming on i remember coming

115in this room speaking to that board about those cuts everything uh we cut all the you know the musical this we had to cut everything just to save the academic programs and like like you're saying i'm seeing unemployment numbers still increasing i'm seeing you know colleagues are not returning to work we're in a reassessment tax year i know my taxes are at the attorney's office you know it's with everyone else fighting for that um i think we need to buckle down i think you know as a board we probably want to start to say is there anything we don't have to spend money on you need to save because i think the storm is still coming i i would agree isn't there a moratorium right now on foreclosures anyway so we wouldn't even know that

116no there's not yeah but they still don't have to pay their property tax which we wouldn't get so right kristin the state recommends 33 fund balance correct correct so if this is true when we continue on course by 2024 we'll be we'll have used up our savings that we've taken 10 years to [Music] build well it doesn't deplete the thumbnail it doesn't deplete it it would just be well it would be loaded threshold right at the cost but no but it's uh i mean absolutely i don't disagree i just think it's important to not and i i want to be a little bit pollyannaish about evidence-based funding because of the um the governor's address this week talked about using federal cares money to actually get to the ebf numbers for this year so i think

117i missed that so i think that some of the the concerns about evf i think you're spot on but it may not be in this fiscal year maybe in the future sure i mean it's an area of alarm i just think everyone is trying to balance and respond to covid um we also have to think about ebf to us yeah we don't get it it's 75 000. that's not like some of our neighboring districts that get 2 million million every year that's not us we're like 75 80 000 you know we'll get back we'll get some bump but it won't be the same as like loss of for every loss of percentage of property taxes yeah yeah so they think the percentage what are we 93 property taxes um 93 of our budget comes from

118property tax uh i don't have that i can pull it up it's in our budget uh i don't have that number it's within the ninety percent right unlike all the money that in the state of illinois that's reserved for illinois chicago that district takes about 75 percent of it the collar suburbs in southern illinois we split the remaining 25 percent if 93 of our budget 22 million dollars is coming from property tax and people's income and people jobs are on the line paying this tax it's about eighty percent that comes from property tax and then seven percent is other local revenue um eleven percent is state and three percent is federal okay so that seven percent is like the rental commission commission cafeteria commission some student fees registration fees okay to participate those kind of

119yes exactly well you know the idea of projections is to prepare the board in the community so they understand what goes into some of the decision making and i know we dealt with a little bit of that tonight you know we had parents concerned we've tried to in the in the past coming off of one recession back in 2008 when i when i put some of this stuff in place in 2011 with the board was just to try tie some of our largest expenditures directly to student requests and and enrollment and those types of things so that you know um we can try to manage within this range the one thing i want to be prepared so kristin like you know in three or four years none of us have a crystal ball so the

120biggest thing is how close are we gonna i mean right now with this 1.4 at this fiscal year how what are you what are your what's your best and i know you're not a fortune teller you're not whether we get a huge payment from this but boy that would be good for the county or whatever like where you think we're going to be finishing at if you had a guest today will it be 1.4 million deficit will be closer i mean we haven't used all of our transportation for some sports right we had some stack you already lowered it to account for some staff that re retired or left and we didn't replace but uh that um i appreciate you putting me on the spot it's an incredibly difficult answer right now because um what's

121really going to drive that is our property tax collection in march and how much we get initially we have been saving some money on expenditures but i do think we will come in somewhere around a million dollars in terms of our deficit because we're chasing from the fall collection an additional two points correct we were at about 95 property tax collection when we budgeted for a 97 for that period i certainly though after you know after the month of march i will have a much more accurate answer but if you ask me right now for you know kind of just where i see this coming in at uh i do think will be around a million dollar deficit this year i was hoping you'd say like five hundred thousand well it all it really i

122mean i it really depends on that march property tax collection i was not anticipating the fall being at 94 to 95 percent uh we've gotten a little bit of that trickling in since since the fall but i mean it's really going to be driven by how much we collect in march as well as where some of those expenditures are going to hit in june for athletics because we've never had a june athletic season and i think some of those expenditures are going to be pushed into our next fiscal year um and so there there's also a timing issue uh for some of that um but like i said after if you ask me again at the end of march i'll be able to give you a much more accurate picture this is kind of my

123point it's like it's so it's so unpredictable right right cadet your deficit projection for fy22 is 900 000 roughly almost a million dollars correct but those expenses that will help lower the deficit for 21 could then for the summer sports could actually drive up the deficit for 22 because that money that we have allocated to pay for the sports this year and we're not going to receive those transportation bills and official bills until july 1 which will atta impacted a different fiscal year correct and we're also going to and then if we assume sports get back on the track right if sports are bad so what i'm saying is you're going to be paying for sports at summer of 21 fiscal year or this june and have to be ready to start paying summer fall

124sports again in august so we're going to have some correct almost like double work hard to try to get all those june expenditures as much as we can in this fiscal year but to your point there is going to be especially due to covet there's a there there could be a lot of things that change between now and then that could drive up that that deficit projection for next year um or you know there could be some miracle and it could it could be significantly lower we could have we could have some staffing changes maybe more people decide to retire um but overall i i feel that you know it will likely stay around that number i think you know things usually tend to wash themselves out you might have some savings if a staff

125member decides to retire but then you might have the athletic expenditures so certainly that number is not set in stone um that will you know vary as we go through the budget process and it's just that it's a projection so the board should be aware the community that's watching should be aware it is just that it's a projection it can fluctuate up it can fluctuate down so that's a million dollar difference than we've had every year we've come in a little bit above we're now definitely looking to come in under and we are looking to come in closely to a million dollars behind what we have in the past ten years yes yes a million dollar difference the alarming thing is is if you when you when you st every 200 000 roughly like kristin

126said to keep math easy is roughly a point off your fund balance so you go from 43 to 39 pretty quick you go from 39 to 36 35 really within two years you know and so um that's a huge change in one year for us for a district we're a small district yeah we have us there's one smaller budget on the smaller side right right it's the covert effect and and deanna and wes are around the finance community both have a strong finance background i mean i think they're i think i'm covering all the stuff we discussed right is there any other way i mean no i think it's right it's the right doom and gloom though i mean i think it was a very good report and i think our colleagues here have quickly

127identified this is not a problem that's going away or with a resolution that's around the corner next week we have to kind of think through the ramifications right cares money i know there was a question submitted oh i'm not done with my report i have other i guess we're just stopping to talk about this okay we're ready to move on um sure the next item is on board book page 51 i've provided for the board uh kind of ties into financial projections but this is a calendar for how the budget is built for fiscal year 22. um nothing has changed in regards to the timeline but i wanted to provide this to you so the board had a reminder of the overall budget process and when you'll be seeing information like last fiscal year you

128know we'll continue to refine the budget as we get closer and closer to that final budget in september so the board will see the budget multiple times and we really start to dive into that process beginning in march next month um then the last item in this report i wanted to give the board a heads up that in march or april the board will see a large bill for 136 540 to purchase chromebooks for next year the district has chosen to purchase these chromebooks now to ensure that we have them at the start of next year we're a little nervous because due to cova there's a shortage not only on chromebooks but on processing chips and so we want to make sure that they're ready to go i bring that to the board's attention because

129this is not a budgeted expense in this budget we usually would wait till next fiscal year and this cost includes not only the chromebooks but the google management which is required for each chromebook cares act money will be used to offset this purchase and cares act so there was a question submitted about this um so our initial cures act funding is a hundred and sixteen thousand three hundred and three dollars um we've already been reimbursed for the lunch cost from the spring which was roughly around 26 000 and we'll use the remaining money of the initial funding to purchase these chromebooks and what the new funding will pay for the rest of these chromebooks in addition once we receive the new money um we will also we also plan um to use a large portion

130of it to get reimbursed for a cost of our error mark which is our buildings and grounds as well as some additional technology uh purchases this is important to note that it's a reimbursement grant so the best approach is really just to try to get that money in the district's hands right away by utilizing things that um are easy to get approved in the grant but also that are items that you know we know will get pushed through and that are purchases that we have already made so the new money like i said the application process is not out yet so we haven't been able to access that new cares act money because there is a second round but once that comes available we will apply for that and get that we also still need

131to work through with our auditor in terms of using the grant for aramark because the the grant money comes in on the educational account but the expenditures on the operations and maintenance accounts we just need to work through that issue with our auditor as well but i'll provide a comprehensive report on how all the care exact money was spent when on that kovid tracking document when i uh report out again on that um towards the end of the year is there a good chance that that cares money even if we're trying to reimburse for something we paid for this year to open school and clean school and do those things we might not get that until after july 1. um it is possible that's why i would recommend that we use it for aramark purchase

132because as soon as uh that grant comes available i can apply and then i can immediately apply for the reimbursement so there's a stronger likelihood that we would then capture that money this fiscal year um if we if we tried to identify something that we would want next fiscal year um then we would we would have to wait to get reimbursed for that so that technically by reimbursing us for the error market expenses used to open school and the extra cleaning and ppe and all that stuff that technically could if we get reimbursed this fiscal year could help offset some of that lost revenue from tax collection correct because at the end of the day uh it's it all comes into the one you know the same pot of money it all comes into the

133district okay another question [Music] no but thank you for put for putting the uh the budget calendar back in there i appreciate that there's no is that it for your record that concludes my report yet okay all righty um principal's report can we already do that hector i know you have a few other points you want to touch on but mr manning's been sitting here for a while should we let him do the handbook so he can get back tomorrow morning yeah sorry mr manning mr man is the assistant principal of student affairs and he's here to address the uh handbook where mr which miss sierra volunteered to be on as the board's advisory person for mr manhattan thank you good evening board this is the first read um last year we we had two

134reasons established that i think that went well to have a healthy discussion with the board on current topics and changes for the next school year so dudakovit for this year our annual report will look a little bit different um in regards to our expectations uh the major changes that we typically include are condensed due to um we just don't know where isb is going to be at with the learning requirements for next year so in regards to like final exam exemptions and language like that that we typically look at um we more we had time i guess more to address a couple things so i'm going to outline one dress code in an updated language that we'd like to recommend and then just some formatting things that we're going to do to increase uh student

135accessibility and the easiness to read and access our handbook so um in preparation for this report i solicited feedback from parents students faculty and staff as well as the administration this year i also worked with our student leadership forum that met three times and just to solicit their feedback in regards to areas that they would like to modify or enhance in our handbook before we begin with the report i would just like to point out that these recommendations will uh create what we believe is an equitable handbook procedure that is inclusive to all students um updating our current dress code language will decrease the learning loss due to hat and hood enforcement limit unnecessary power struggles and microaggressions with staff and provide opportunities for student individuality um our goal next year is to welcome students

136that either have been in a hybrid situation and or in a remote setting in personal remote setting we want to welcome all back and we know that there's going to be struggles with students that have been learning in a remote setting coming back and so the last thing we want to do as soon as they walk in our door say hey take your hood and your hat off we really want to make this an environment that's inclusive and enhancing their individuality and i think the language that we recommend today will do that it also provide confidence within our students in eliminating our gender and cultural biases and that goes along with the equity work that we've been doing this year okay so this time we're going to look at the report that we sent in

137the board packet so the recommendation with the dress code is to eliminate the itemized procedures that we've had and just align our file the the handbook procedure with the board policy which is 7 colon 160. that procedure basically states that a student's appearance including their dress grooming must not disrupt the educational process interfere or uh with maintaining a positive teaching and learning climate uh or compromise reasonable standards of health safety and the decency as directed by the administration any clothing that's deemed inappropriate or goes against that board policy those students will be required to change and then the recommendations that we're looking to for the board to look at are having students wear a hat authorizing that and hats facing straight forward or straight backwards and heads must be visible to staff and not interfere

138with the sight line of any staff or students students may continue to wear it for religious reasons headwear not limited to head scars or bandanas hoodies sweatshirts the wearing of the hood is allowed but the face must be visible obviously footwear it would be required at all times and then wearing the hat or hood in the classroom or instructional environment will be at the soul discretion of the classroom teacher questions on that before we go to the second item the second item that we're going to address is just proposing to add a building directory on the front page with associated qr codes and building contacts that were never included in our handbook before we just think that and this was a recommendation from our student leadership forum just to have like a top 10 list

139and then we sorted through a conversation of what those top 10 things were with our students and then also with our deans and so we came up with that list that we included here in the board packet we just think that if we can have a top 10 list with associated links that'll just be on the front page or you know inside our front page of our handbook kids can just hit that with the camera go right to that link and then see what they're looking for instead of kind of sift through everything in the handbook we do have in a physical handbook that we provide all of our students during our residency events also as a planner um as we're in the remote you know we've started in the remote setting now we're bringing

140students back and have you know been been on that train for a while um we need i think eventually look at maybe an online handbook but at this point when students come back we want the school next school year to be as normal as possible given whatever mitigations are in place and thus we want the handbook to reflect that and also provide some opportunities for individuality for our students dave i did not receive any questions from the board so unless there's something that came up during dave's presentation or that you read on the packet i think but you did have one question and i guess how you would consider or address or think about mask wearing as a safety element or otherwise yeah that was a good question it's something that we originally thought of

141i think we need to get this into the editor by next by i think march in the middle of march so we can get it printed and ready by residency so i think what would be easiest would be provide like a little um box that would just outline our pp expectations for students for next year hopefully we have some more um information from the state and some guidance on that as to what next year will look like it's either that or we could do a sticker that we can add later on so we're currently looking at those two options but either way there will be something on our front page that'll outline our expectations for next year with ppe i mean i think it's generally covered because you mentioned safety just not explicitly called out

142which is why i guessed it yeah that was a great point thank you dave if we just altered a verbiage minimally to say in the event we are still dealing with the impact of cover 19 social distancing masks may be required yep right i mean there's something generally you could put in the front page yep that's easy yep other questions that's good no question all right thank you for the job dave sorry appreciate you so you're looking for approval next meeting correct yes so if the board does have any other questions that come up and or come up and pass it please send those to me right away so we can remember dave or hector can address those at the next minutes we can get this approved thank thank you so much you're happy with

143everything that's been discussed right i mean that's kind of why we have the bit like that right yeah i think we just have one and i don't know if it's in there i gotta check and almost slit my mind if you remember it was something we had the discussion with miss augustine about [Music] how many semesters they need to do or that's in the curriculum guy but it also tagged to the curriculum guide that we couldn't make the change from the curriculum committee until the new guide came out the new guide comes out came out in october right so i think we adjust i think we adjusted that yeah so i want to double check this we got to check those notes from that last curriculum meeting yeah you wanted i think you wanted to

144to have a reference page in there so parents could see how many semesters uh a highly selective university college internet is that what you're discussing no but then there was also language so now a student technically could graduate in three years yes i understand okay early graduate i'll check on that yes and so there was some language that we talked in the curriculum committee that needed to be caught in this version of the curriculum here dr frase can you also make a note to look at that i think it says early graduates have to complete three and a half years yes but i thought we were adding a sentence that in the event it could be what the principal could something there and i want to make sure during that meeting there was one or

145two things that we had to close the loop on this current edition [Music] okay are we coming back to principals report all right guys i'm back here we go guys tuesday has become one of my favorite days because of these long meetings but tuesday is also a time where we have a professional development here at rb as you guys know our staff we have nationally board certified teachers we have ap teachers teacher of the year we have entrepreneurs we have coaches we have an amazing staff but more importantly on tuesday we have an opportunity to learn from one another today during our tech talk we reviewed flipped classrooms so let me tell you what it's not in a traditional classroom you get the lecture you get the presentation in the class and do the homework

146and you do the homework at home right the practice at home when a flipped classroom students learn the content independently or do the print independently and in the classroom they apply the content and practice the skills so i'm really proud that we had a great group of teachers represented that are doing the flipped classroom and others were motivated and inspired to follow that methodology so that's why tuesday has become one of my favorite days here at rb you know really proud of my staff and everybody to put it together bridget wilma michelle keller kevin davis and of course kylie link who's my assistant principal for curriculum and instruction i want to give a big thank you to la doctora and she's our partner in our leading equity work here at rb at our press institute

147day we worked on equity 101 learning what is equity and we got trained on implicit bias she has a series of 10 sessions that i'm hoping to continue you can google dr veduviel she is in almost every major district throughout the state that is doing work and equity she's a fantastic presenter and i'm glad that i was able to build that relationship because i want to continue partnering with her as we move equity forward at rb you know i'll read you here a few of those sessions that she has microaggressions culture responsive practices social constructs fears of interest teaching and classroom assessments stereotype threat and coded racial language by standing up standard responding to incidents of hate and proactive solutions things that could only benefit one's pedagogical practice so i'm really excited to have dr

148reed devil on board and working with me and our staff here at rb guys remember for athletic events i get this all the time anything in the main gym nfhsnetwork.com it does cost a few dollars and for any events in any other venue go to rbhs20.net slash rbhs live slash black history month has been happening the entire month of february and we've had many events um open mic night um we've wore black in solidarity today ms lowe just gave some really commemorative lollipops celebrating black history month they're lovely we have this thursday coming up virtual movie night i don't know what movie we're watching i will be watching it with everybody um you must register all this information could also be following our website and then this friday we're going to have a joint meeting

149with all the other culturally based clubs to talk about the vision and future of clubs um here at rb so i'm really excited to that we brought this together big shout out to dave mann and my assistant principal student affairs my deans and miss loges our student services page you guys got to check out our website okay there's been a transformation a student services page has been updated with a plethora of information about union trades apprenticeship and internship opportunities how do you get there it's only three clicks away student services college and career planning and then you select the union trades at rb we believe education is for everybody but it looks different for everybody so i want to thank miss beth augustine my assistant principal of student affairs mr david wyshar and ms kerry

150one of our counselors for helping put this together and of course one of our board members mr durkin for connecting us with many directors of apprenticeship outside our community it's really special you guys please check out our website share this information we'll be sharing in the building with the community but it's really exciting to see and students we have information for you there all right guys if you want an apprenticeship you want an internship go to our website it's only three clicks away student services then click on college career counseling and then you click on union trades okay guys check it out office hours with the principles the time for students and and myself to me it'll be this thursday at 1 15 okay guys come hang out for a few minutes you're going to

151stay the whole 30 minutes come hang out i want to know what's going on with you okay so again office hours with the principal will be at 1 15 this thursday february 25th and that concludes my principal's report miss augustine is scheduled to come to discuss staffing with ms lindquist in march and she's also going to do a presentation on the website that you received in the friday update and we've been in the progress of the work that her and mr durkin have been doing about bring up the trade so i just want to make sure the boards within two weeks you'll see that presentation thank you hector thank you very much whole business life safety capital improvement sustainability uh no update at this oh no no update at this time i think you're going

152to see the first read for the guardrail handrail life safety project later in the agenda yearbook contract miss montana this is the second read no questions were submitted we are in the process of finalizing the contract language with jostens so the board if the board chooses they can improve it tonight pending uh finalizing contract language with a legal counsel or we can hold off on this and bring it to the march meeting [Music] does the board have any concerns about allowing just including in the resolution with final approval from legal counsel really that's something we've done in the past same question any thoughts here okay well ramona your book thank you the board of education township high school district county illinois hereby approves a three-year contract with justin's pen being reviewed by legal counsel as

153presented in the february 23 2021 board agenda packet second second by mrs here and it's a roll call mr durkan yes yes mr jacobs oh sorry um sierra yes miss towner yeah yes mr smith yes all right this um we did student handbook so this is registration fees under new business christian brief update please uh included in board uh packet uh begins on board pack uh board page 93 is a list of proposed registration and participation fees for the 2021-22 school year this current school year there was a reduction in pay to participate fees due to covert 19. the administration is recommending that the district return to the previously established pay to participate fees that are outlined in the attached chart no other changes to the registration fees are being recommended for next school year

154and we did the board did pass the cap so that it would be capped at 350 so even if we return to the you know our regular fee schedule for uh pay to participate there is still some a safety net there for some families and we still offer the payment plans okay that was that was my question yeah the cap's still in place kept still in place correct especially in this cove at times correct this is a first read it is a it is a first read the reason that we bring it at this time of the year is that ultimately it goes in the student handbook um and uh you know we typically advertise it then certainly we may change last year at a later date and time but that's why we bring it

155at this time of the year so similar to the handbook if you if there's any other specific questions you have i'd ask that you turn them in for the next meeting so we could address them and try to get this improved for the timing of the printing of the handbook if possible so possibly the handbook could go on a consent agenda because there's no questions right either way i'd like to have it approved because there's only one meeting in march remember because of spring break is that a regular meeting or a business meeting okay okay uh guard rail and handrail life safety project so this is one of our remaining life safety projects which is to replace several guard rail and handrails throughout the building to bring them up to code this we plan this

156work to be completed throughout the remainder of the 2021 calendar year so hopefully beginning during spring break and then going throughout december once primarily when students are not in the building at various points throughout that time the district went out to bid on january 27th and we held the bid opening on february 11th the submitted bids are summarized in the chart that is provided the dis the administration has contacted the lowest bidder which is grounded industrial services to review their bid we also independently reviewed their bid to make sure they uncover they covered all the requirements um and then finally we contacted references for grounded industrial services and receive positive feedback so the administration would recommend that we award the bid to grounded industrial services you'll notice there's a discrepancy in a cost right cost

157significantly it drops off and a lot of the more expensive companies are involving a contractor of some sort so they're outsourcing the work to be completed whereas grounded industrial services they will they will do the work in the manufacturing themselves this bit is outstanding so we can it's only a first read and if the board wants more time they can review it we did not receive any questions if the board chose to want to approve this tonight that could help expedite the schedule to try to get them into maybe start doing some of these repairs at the end of march during spring break um with there any questions or issues from the left side of the table i guess last i don't have any issues i you answered the question i had a question why

158it was significantly different but i i understand the piece of they're going to do the work instead of so there is some fabrication included with this from our facilities meeting this morning with joel and and so the longer we wait to approve it just the longer it's going to take for them to fabricate some things and eventually install it but the money is allocated already in our life safety so it's not necessarily coming out of budgeted items inside of our life safety dollars so are you asking us to approve it tonight i'm asking if the board has any questions or concerns if they don't and they don't think any will rise it could help expedite the process to get you know from a contractor's perspective then you they basically submitted their bid and now they

159would be waiting four weeks to find out if they got the you know from knowing they were the lowest bid i have no objections but i have no idea objections on the right side okay can you read the motion um yes sorry um is one included no there's not one included that's hard to do um read the intro and just say approve is it is it is there any pending review no no okay can i just go off the last one and instead of saying jostens just say the name of this company approved well it's not three-year a life safety work proves the life safety work on the guardrails and handrails as uh presented and discussed in the board packet okay hang on rails handrails okay and then just read the company's name right after

160right got it okay okay the board of education township high school district 208 county illinois here by approves the life safety work on guard rails and handrails performed by grounded industrial services llc as presented in the february 23rd 2021 board agenda packet second second by mississippi and this is the roll call load mr yes all right copy your contract it's always fun the current four year lease agreement uh for the district's copiers with gordon flesch will be expiring june 30th uh 2021. last fiscal year we spent 73 dollars and 484.50 cents on copiers and that usage was down a little bit due to the lower months in april and may so a request for proposal was sent out to six different copier vendors and we received proposals from three of the copy vendors that are

161listed in the chart uh the district currently has 13 copiers in the building and so the chart and a lot it then captures well there the copiers are various sizes so there are small ones and then we have very large copiers the chart below includes not only the lease but also the operating costs for all 13 copiers and what's included in the cost per copy is any service for the machines that we may need throughout the extent of the lease the administration recommends choosing the four-year lease agreement with proven i.t for the toshiba copiers and we're recommending the four-year lease to ensure that the district can keep up with the current copier technology as well as the district's needs we don't want to necessarily lock ourselves into too long of an agreement references for proven

162i.t have been called and are positive and a site visit has been completed at proven it's headquarters to evaluate the copiers that are included in the proposal we currently have canon copiers and so we would be changing brands to toshiba this will we do anticipate this being a cost savings to the district uh this is a first read and we will be seeking the board's approval at the march board meeting [Music] so i guess my first reaction you said 13 and i i think it was mrs towner's too is have you done an assessment of all 13 are required or will this group come in and do an assessment about we looked at usage of all 13 okay and felt that they they were still needed um the cost is the cost is really driven

163by um the very high functioning uh copiers so you can see like uh there are four i believe off top of my head everyone in the building uses on a regular basis well sure because they do more than just make copies but we also eliminated in classroom printers yeah i remember we scrubbed this pretty good four years ago tim and i we eliminate a lot a lot of classroom and printers and stuff so the copiers are also service printing hubs for departments and and we're also even still by by going with proven i.t and moving we we currently don't have um the 95 copies per minute machines so by not only upgrading our machines for our heavy duty ones um but also switching to proven i.t we're still saving money sure so i think that's

164important to note too we're we're getting faster machines for some of our heavy-duty machines and we're still saving the district at least thirteen thousand dollars a year will you do you think you'll have an update on the toshiba devices uh for the march meeting what updates the change over from the canon machine to the sheba that's already we've already completed the site visit okay all right what's the first three till we don't need to rush into that one i think the cost savings obviously is is a positive i just think as we're talking about these budget constraints it's one of these things to look at so you're saying there was a thorough assessment done a few years ago that that's a possibility well we cut we cut quite a bit down a few years ago

165and i think that's something we really got to think about is what's the next level of because you know when we went we weren't all we weren't totally on the one-to-one initiative at that point we are now so we you know what could we take virtually basically now that we've had a whole year of virtual what what are we not going to go back to that we were there i'm just going to think about what's the new normalization's a good idea because after teaching virtual for a year some teaching practices may change but they may stay well one thing i would i would point out to you yes we i would agree with continuing to monitor this um if you when you walked in today and you got your temperature scan there's a bunch of

166tables set up to your right as well as the left where are a lot of printed materials that students are coming in to pick up and as michael and lily have mentioned it sometimes it helps having some printed materials even though you're a one-to-one school there's some courses where kids still need to you know they want to print out a paper when they're doing edits or they want to you know have some paper pencil copies when they're doing math or working through various problems or graphing and charting and some of those things so yeah i mean we want to we want to meet the needs of all learners i think the concern among the board is like a few quick if we're talking about budget constraints is this a place where we can have like

167a quick win i guess right well it looks like we have i think we're doing a pretty i mean we're saving 20 grand right close to 20. so that's awesome we have a quick win it's just can we do can we do more in the future right yeah then we take it you know is there what is the walk if we do 12 or right and i i don't i don't know that answer i don't know that answer yeah i can provide that at the next board meeting i i don't think it's going to be significant because we would be cutting the the smallest copier right um you're not cutting the business office business officers there you go the cost is the cost is driven by those really high um you know quick machines that

168all of the staff use on a regular basis um but i i mean i can certainly i'm not i can certainly provide that cost savings uh to the board at the next meeting my recommendation would be to hold off and do an assessment at the end of this upcoming contract to see how the proven impact has played out we still don't know what next year is going to bring so i would be a little hesitant to take resources away from people if it's not going to save the district a lot of money um and and look at how how the use of copiers has changed post covid because of you know the relying on technology that's a good idea thank you kristen thank you chrisman for sure okay drs supplemental savings plan it's formality this

169is a lot of uh rapidly changing information um so last week the illinois teachers retirement system sent out forms and instructions for its new supplemental savings plan um and uh it's basically requiring every district to pass a resolution so that trs can set up this 457b and trs is required to offer the plan to eligible school districts employees due to an amendment in the illinois pension code which became law in august of 2018. so trs was requiring that school districts participate in this plan and uh have the every board take action and return the documents uh no later than march 31st as you can imagine this created a big uproar among school districts because we had no advanced knowledge of this prior to last week and so a lot of different legal counsels got involved

170and reached out to trs including our legal counsel which is forensic um so we heard back from forensic today uh through an alert and they shared that trs will be making modifications to address uh a submitted question which was a lot on operational details like how is this going to play out when is it going to be rolled out what are districts responsibilities things of that nature and so legal counsel imagines that in about a week they'd have a better sense of the process and the and the changes that trs is going to make and they feel pretty confident that the march 31st deadline will be revised and that will be pushed back to give trs time to address concerns that legal counsels had in regards to all of these requirements so i put it

171in today as a first read because when i had that information last week i know it's important for the board to have two reads and so i wanted to get it in today um but since then a lot has transpired so i don't anticipate bringing this back in march i think it'll come back in april or may for the board to take action and i'll have some additional information at that time you can leave it on the agenda and just in the action sheet next week or next meeting just say no action at this time and then just update the background so the board gets a short synopsis of what's changed okay all right okay matters for close personnel purchase sale lease real real property probable imminent pending litigation collective negotiation and school safety at

172this point there's another chance for visitor statements no one's coming forward uh discussion items any requested i didn't get any consideration of items for future meetings closed session body or available counsel for the public body purchase sale or lease of real property probable imminent or pending litigation collective negotiations and school safety second this is here is the roll call [Music] yes yes mr smith yes all right we're adjourned you