001okay I would like to call the Board of Education meeting of August 21st 2017 to order don't call please mr. Castelo here miss Sonia Ella's here miss Kurt miss Nolan here and this is Rory here better president here and I'd like to acknowledge that Casey cheers hard sword student board member is also with us if everyone could stand for the Pledge of Allegiance the first item on our agenda is the strategic plan before mr. Sanders thank you madam president members of the board our first is a back-to-school update I'm going to ask members of cabinet to step forward and sit towards the front but presenting with me will be Melanie my dell from human resources and dr. Jeff King from our chief operations officer just to give you a quick update so we did it
002it's amazing overnight suddenly 40,000 feet show back up between our doors and we accept them and all the teachers replace all the principal's were in place and by all accounts it was a really good first day of school on the vaccination front or exclusion front for vaccinations and physical exams the leading up to the start of school there was a point in time where we had I think 1,200 students who were still awaiting their physicals and immunizations and would have been excluded we had a health fair we had additional communication so at the end of the first day of school 702 students still did not meet the requirements we still allowed them to come to school but they were told that you could not work they could not return on Thursday by Thursday that was
003down to 332 and we're still collecting numbers from today but at this point we are well below 200 and I expect that we'll have those wrapped up in short order so that's what we're on the health health and immunization front miss my don't happen ok staffing update so the focus this evening is on 830 Elementary general and dual language classrooms our district average is at 23.2 and our building averages range anywhere from twenty six point three to 19 right now we have what we call our watch list of 30-plus or more and in kinder we have four buildings that were watching already have deployed para educators for grade 1 we have one building also deployed a paraeducator grade two we don't have any sitting in that range grade three we have two buildings grade four
004we have nine buildings grade 5 8 and grade 6 12 buildings so they're grouped together even though they may be on the 30-plus watch those buildings have elected to not do splits or have done another configuration and that was with the teachers and the principals working together in their SD committees school department teams so depending on those scenarios again if principals are looking to add either support for Paris and/or FTEs full-time teacher they are to submit an appeal which some have some of those appeals have already been addressed and part of the staffing process and then we are we are sticking to our paraeducator deployment as aligned with the ETA agreement with the numbers transportation our first day was a little rocky most of our concerns came from the end of the day where we
005have unfortunately building still putting students on buses they shouldn't be on so that creates challenges for us at the end of the school day fortunately we were able to recover from that the following day I don't think we had any of on the second day and the school I was helping out at I know we were our release we were probably 8 to 10 minutes faster the second day than the first day and that's that's the typical progression for transportation as we start the school year we did end up closing the call center I guess I should back up I don't know if you're all familiar several years ago we decided to establish a separate call center to route transportation calls through from buildings and parents so the office staff can focus on the drivers
006and the equipment on the street during the first couple of days what we've typically done is run that for about a week actually we closed it early on Friday in the third day because of the volume of calls was so small by Friday that we didn't need that extra support for the office so that was a positive thing for them in food service if you recall we moved packaging back into our facility that went really well to production lines were up and running and food was distributed to schools in a timely manner everything went really well with that restart their plan operations obviously their summers very hectic with the work that goes on between cleaning the buildings completing the construction projects amongst many other things that occur during the summer that need to be addressed
007again they did an outstanding job getting the schools ready I asked the same thing equipment is still coming in because some of it was ordered later some of the title one equipment etc so that's still being distributed to schools and then purchasing and warehousing several compliments from a lot of areas regarding the service they provided getting teachers moved at the last minute that needed to be that were changing locations and distributing all the materials that we purchased science program Yoel etc there was a lot of materials that went out hundreds of pallets so kudos to have all the folks and operations they all did an outstanding job doing what they needed to do to make sure everything's ready for the kids to come back you know great teamwork it was great teamwork yeah yeah all
008the way around it's been a great opening to the school year we had a little bit of a excitement today with apparently there's an eclipse or something that hit so a lot of our schools participated in students were able to go out and observe the Eclipse depending on the local school with that though that concludes our update on the opening of schools okay are there any questions Casey not a question I just want to say I want to give a shout out to everyone in transportation because I I dragged myself now but I was on the bus for a long time and my little sister takes the bus and I know that it can be a struggle at the beginning of the school year so I can only imagine how hard it must reach trying
009to get almost 40,000 kids from one place to another so just that that's a lot of work so good job guys thank you anyone else okay please send their thanks to everyone thank you thank you our next strategic plan report is the family community engagement update I will let Mary Fergus introduce you to the presenters this will because now I think I'm an annual thing we're doing isn't it Mary yes so our second annual family community engagement update good evening madam president and members of the Board of Education thank you for this opportunity tonight to update you on the work of school and community relations and how we try to meet and eclipsed the goals and priorities of our strategic plan I'm Mary Fergus I'm the director of school and community relations and I'm honored
010to be here tonight with Karla Jimenez our family and community engagement coordinator with Oak Hill elementary school principal Laura Alegria and Oak Hill parent Phil Novello as well as Karen Stephen I'm sorry Sahra stephen i have a friend named karen stephen farah stephen who is a u46 parent leader we are going to talk tonight about some of the family and community engagement strategies and how as you know the district strategic plan measures our work via the five essential survey as a department we also look at participation numbers things like clicks and downloads and participation numbers at events as well as engagement in traditional media and on social media our presentation will offer just an overview of course of our work it doesn't encompass all that we do or the times that we're we put everything
011aside to work on a safety issue or school or a district crisis I will let Carla continue with some highlights from our family engagement work so as we know much of the family and community engagement work takes place in the schools schools continue to host our back-to-school events their literacy is the parent universities navigating the American education system workshops and many other events that support our parent involvement last year we worked with our assessment and elementary teams to integrate family engagement strategies with their school improvement plans this is existing work and we're very thrilled to support our schools as they implement these plans in a district of 28,000 families of course we can't do it all alone we rely on some very good and new long-term partners the Citizens Advisory Council Family and Community Engagement
012committee continues to do an excellent work and identifying ways to increase family and community support in our district in schools they've held multiple parent group networks events to provide a venue for our PTO or PTA and our booster clubs to come together and share fundraising ideas to network and of course to get more information about the district we also continue to host our african-american parent Leadership Institute and our Hispanic parent Leadership Institute the commitment of the participants has exceeded our expectations with a combined a hundred and seven graduates since 2010 and twenty participants moving on to the second year of the training the school year recruitment is currently underway for this year's cohort graduates and current participants have committed to represent their communities in district and school groups such as the districts such as the
013Citizens Advisory Council the u46 instructional Council and our Board of Education as well as local government with our newly elected city Elgin Council member and they also sit on state-level councils the work of the parent Leadership Institute has been sought and presented at state-level conferences and national organizations such as the association of Latino administrators and superintendents with us tonight is African American parent leadership participant Farrah Steven she is currently part of the sixth cohort and will be going into her second year of the program in October she is a Bartlett in a Kenyan woods parent Farah is going to share with us tonight some of our experience through the parent Leadership Institute and how this has encouraged her current role in the instructional Council hello my name is Paris Stephen thank you for having me
014here tonight as Carla said I am the parent of two students in Berkeley high and one in canyon woods when I heard about the program APL I last year I was very excited to be a part of it because I knew it would give me where I thought it would give me an opportunity to learn more about the district and to be more involved in schools that my children were and and as it was it was very educational for me the things that I learned I was able to meet a lot of administration some of you guys I was able to meet at some of the meetings I is also able to meet some of the other school principals and some of the teachers that are part of the district as well another exciting part
015for me was to be able to meet some of the parents of the community and to just throughout the programs on Saturday we were trained on how to speak in front of crowds on how to put programs together and that was just very engaging and learning for the parents as a part of the program throughout the program I also learned about the instructional Council and opportunity came up one of the members had to step down and an opportunity came up for me to become a part so I chose to become a part of the instructional Council I was very impressed I didn't know that there was even an instructional Council I had no clue of how curriculum was picked for the schools so I got to sit in and learn and see get presentations presented
016about and the instructions that the district was going to choose from so I was very impressed with how that was done and I was happy that they did open the door to community people and I was happy to be able to give my voice as an african-american parent to be able to just our school district is very diverse so to be able to know that they want to get a wise for a diversity of input on the curriculum was very encouraging to me so I'm just excited for next year's program and I look forward to it starting in October Thank You Farah last year we also wanted to we launched a new communication campaign we wanted to seize the opportunity that came with 2600 full time full-day kindergarten errs so we lucked launched a year
017long multimedia communication campaign that was aimed at increasing parental engagement among those families the campaign featured monthly bilingual newsletter a dozen a dozen videos fact sheets and emails that were sent home to families for the class of 2029 they were posted on our website on social media and sent home like I said via email we also as part of that campaign set and surpassed a goal to persuade at least a third of our full-day kindergarten parents to sign our fdk promise which is a pledge that they would spend at least five hours at home school and or at the district to support their child's education nearly 40% of all the full-time full-day kindergarten parents signed the promise and that's a tool that we will continue to use at the kindergarten level also as part of
018that campaign we piloted and promoted a program we call u46 engage it offers a 90 minute overview of the district and the many parental involvement opportunities and benefits more than 100 ftk parents attended those sessions one of those eight bilingual sessions that we offered and again we will continue to offer that to our full-day kindergarten parents this year but also to our first grade parents those class of 2029 students additionally in u46 we're lucky to have a Educational Foundation the u46 Educational Foundation continues to support various projects and events one of the one of those is the annual superintendent scholarship and last year we were able with lots of collaboration to break previous records and were able to award 35 scholarships to to first-time college bound students and as many of you know this is
019not just a monetary prize but it's really an opportunity to support these students as they make a new path for themselves and their families and so we have a wonderful reception each year for the donors and you'll be sure to invite you to that event it's just a really heartwarming event a great time to meet students and network with them and we thank board member ownio lawless for teaching them some of those networking skills Carla is also going to talk to you about principal for a day so since 2009 we've held this annual principal Friday event which welcomes our community leaders into our schools to help them get to know our schools and to better understand how they operate guests principals shadow a school for half a day and then come together for a lunch
020conversation on their morning experience and what makes the school work this past school year we move the annual event from the fall to the fall to allow time in the year for participants to come back to their schools and continue their partnership with them this past year nearly 80 leaders from various sectors of the u46 participated and more than half of these principal guests principals were first-time participants in addition we were honored to have a Streamwood High alum john garcia of channel 7 returned to his high school and have and then share some reflection on his u46 education as our luncheon keynote speaker this year Secretary of Education Beth Purvis has agreed to join us our event this year is going to be on Friday December 1st 2000 something and we invite you to save
021the date and hopefully you are able to join us that morning the district continues to provide opportunities for individuals and organizations to be involved in the school life and district decisions the CAC committees as well as the bilingual Parent Advisory Council African American Advisory Council or clergy Advisory Council just to name a few continue to grow in membership our partnerships and community groups in community group and organizations they continue to build our CEO Tony Sanders board members and several u46 staff continue to represent the school district in our communities by serving on local chambers and other community groups as well we're also here to support the board's goal I in the strategic plan of engaging with the community outside of board events and we know that board members attended 23 community events last year and
022we are here to continue to support and promote that participation we have as I said several events coming up in principle for days one but one that's coming up sooner is the annual Expo at ECC that's a career in curriculum Expo and that will be on October 14th at ECC as a Saturday we also host a volunteer reception every year that's to honor all the volunteers in our schools and at the district level and each year we name one group - who's done it you know who's gone above and beyond and the past spring we honored kids hope USA that's an organization that puts a hundred and thirty three mentors into 17 of our schools across the district to give them one-on-one time and additional support we also named we added a new category last
023year to honor volunteers who make a difference in one school and so that meant honoring three women who knitted more than knitted caps for more than 500 students at Hillcrest elementary last year the school and Community Relations Department as you know we're talking about how we're trying to make a difference in family engagement and we're in where that the metric for that is the five essentials so we really have worked over the last couple years to increase participation in that survey among parents the report requires at least a 20 percent participation in order to generate a report about each school so we worked really hard to increase participation in that survey in 2015-2016 school career relations our department worked very closely with the assessment office to encourage parent participation in the survey we provided principals
024with a communication tool kit which contained a timeline sample messages and ideas to promote the survey with their families parents received multiple email and text messages reminding them about the survey and we also declared a 5 essentials week shared a video about the impact of the survey and posted on social media our efforts worked we went from just two schools a prior year which was 2014-15 to 96 percent of our schools meeting that 20% parent participation threshold this past school year 2016-17 there was a slight decrease in the number of schools who that threshold we had 86% of our schools that have received a report of the results we implemented all the same and probably more communication tactics but believe that the decline may be due to the change in the timeframe of the survey
025delivery from spring to the fall based on this past school years five essential survey results the parent assessment of involvement in schools did increase from thirty five to forty percent the parents who responded favorably on the parent survey in terms of how welcomed and respected they feel within the district also showed an increase of five percent this past school year and tonight here we have principal Alegria and parent Phil Novello from the Streamwood elementary school which they will tell us a little bit about how they use those five essentials survey results to develop their eagle-eyes program Noda so thank you God so as part of the responses to the great efforts of our district in in promoting the five essentials we are until we reviewed the data on a monthly basis so that's our common
026practice at Oak Hill we share our data with parents and families and in our data enough monthly share we included the five essential responses and data last year as part of our five essentials it revealed some concerns so through a couple of coffee you come up with the principal meetings with parents and PTO and several other meetings we discovered that it was the the concern that came was more in relationship to morning and afternoon supervision so the perception of our families was that there wasn't enough adult supervision in the morning and afternoons so we created that's in action or Oakhill evils that's in action and that was in collaboration with our leadership team which in in order to meet the need that our parents perceived we had six members and join in right on board
027and we created schedules so the members will volunteer morning and afternoon either way that worked for them and with the opportunity for them to go after they have help with the supervision they will go into the classroom with their child and experience the class with their child for a couple of hours that was in response to our five essentials and we heard we have heard from parents that they really like this this club and this opportunity for volunteer and we have one of our Eagle dads here to share his experience Thank You Lera I'm my name is full of all this was a really great volunteer opportunity for me I was strongly urged by my wife to volunteer for this and this was definitely one of the best things she's pushed me into it's just
028it's very nice to be out there with the parents to see the kids and the parents faces when they know you're out there we're out there we're wearing very bright yellow t-shirts they know we're out there for safety and it seems like they've really taken to this initiative that Oak Hill has started the big bonus is being able to go into the classroom with your child just seeing their faces light up when you get into the classroom with them I was able to read a book in my daughter's class I was able to interact with with my son's class it's just a great opportunity to be a part of your child's education while helping with the safety at the school like I said our main purpose is welcoming parents and students in the morning and
029sending them home safely in the afternoon so it's a great program and I hope it keeps bowling support and getting more volunteers thank you Thank You Phil and Thank You principal Alegria we are also going to just give you a few highlights from our communication efforts for the past year our departments responsibilities include issuing press releases about various district programs events and news and we issued about a hundred of those press releases last year and they generated nearly 200 media stories we have increased our likes on the U 46 Facebook page we have about 12,500 more than 12,500 today from a couple years ago when we were around 7,000 we produce and publish about a hundred and five videos a year that was last year and that works out to be about three per week
030and that includes the live stream of these board meetings our videos we have a list of the top ten here but they really try to highlight district-wide programs but a few gems within our schools a few great stories so we highlighted our Dual Language Program in a video last year but we also went in and highlighted those lovely knitters that knitted all the caps at Hillcrest elementary so we try to do a mix we also send out lots of messages our schools and our districts use a mass notification system that sends out that sent out about 11,000 a little bit over 11,500 messages last year we're also we also launched a mobile app in 2016 and that has about 12,000 app downloads if you haven't downloaded it I recommend that you do it's free and
031it really gives you quick access in your hand to district contacts and school context the lunch menu the very popular lunch menu the school and district calendar and and lots of other news last year we also launched a parent newsletter it was a weekly bilingual apparently newsletter and we will continue to send that out this year and for our efforts and communications we were honored from the Illinois chapter of the national school public relations association last year with seven awards and we recently learned that we've earned another five for work that we did in 2016-17 but we always want to improve and there's lots of work to be done and we're going to talk a little bit about what we're working on now we will continue encouraging participation in the five essential survey you know
032among our parents or students in our staff and we will work with our schools to provide that additional support around their family engagement efforts sharing best practices and providing a tool kit with research-based resources we'll continue to roll out the new 46 engage program we will also continue to provide the pledge or the promise to our full-day kindergarten classes this year and continue to support our full-day kindergarten parents with lots of communication and again continue to support that a class of 2029 now first graders with with more information and in the u46 engaged sessions finally we are in the middle of overhauling our website our school and district website as you can see it's going to look I think it will have a much sleeker look it'll be easier to navigate it's a very intuitive
033website platform and we hope to introduce that to all schools and the district by the end of this calendar year certainly before Santa Claus comes to town so that that should be a nice face lift for our website and we're certainly open to any questions that you may have varying questions yeah I love the idea about dads in action that is fabulous are there any plans to expand that to other schools we have not talked about that but we certainly could that's a great idea yeah I love the program too and I had another question about the Hispanic American or the Hispanic parent Leadership Institute in the african-american parent Leadership Institute do we have any plans maybe of combining that into the parent Leadership Institute in sort of targeting all families in u46 we haven't
034talked about that but certainly could yeah we certainly could we've seen you know the success of the u46 engaged so it's it's something we could look at again any other questions comments okay thank you for all your hard work thank you thank you thank you all I think by the end of the presentation you had another 200 likes I think on Facebook but double check next item on our agenda is comments from the audience good evening and welcome to the Board of Education meeting we are not the public comment period of the meeting when the board listens to issues and concerns but does not respond to statements as stated in their board welcome fire we ask that you complete a request to speak card each speaker will be allotted up to three minutes a tone
035will sound when your time is up if you wish to have a reply to your concern or question please check the box on a card in a written pie will be mailed to you muy buena noche en donde la faccia vidoe corriente say snow in Contra Mo's durante la portion de la unión de una cultura de un comentario der heul ik o durante este tiempo de contas cuchara su commentary on o con tus terasu pregunta Rivera comment I come when the governor for it to the women a Latina goes completely forget that personas and retinal disparity be hip synthetic Kunta kuchinashi and the Brackenridge documentary Thomas pronto posible he said they say owner exposed to strong Takahara in other places okay our first speaker is can't read the first name Joe mag Nami Jim Jane
036it's Jane Jane okay all right good evening members of the board my name is Jane mignon II I am a junior at Bartlett high school last year last year I helped rewrite our school dress code I organized the small but effective protests that ultimately caught the attention of our new arm our new principal mr. dumansky if you work with me and others to create a new and improved dress code that addressed student needs and created a positive environment while the tang students look and feel great I spent a lot of time dedicated to this cause writing researching interviewing and speaking and in the end it was a huge success BHS has now implemented the new dress code and has seen great results so far a copy of this dress code will be handed out to
037you after this I'm here today to talk about the importance of this dress code well it was not while it was implemented at BHS I do not think this is sufficient due to the large number of students who are facing body shaming disrespect on an unfairness due to the way they choose to dress I know the students parents and teachers from several other schools have responded to me saying they wanted at their school as well I believe the school boards existing dress code policy consisting of the items will sit on the back of the handle you will receive is a good starting point and should not be changed however some schools have overly restrictive just code interpretations some schools have no written interpretations and some schools and plenties implement these interpret interpretations unfairly therefore I
038would like to suggest that each middle and high school form a team composed of students staff and teachers and develop a simple and fair dress code interpretation for their unique environment let me tell you why this change is necessary right now in our schools we are experiencing unequal and unfair implementation of this code we are experiencing body shaming we are experiencing disrespect research has proven that school dress codes are primarily geared towards females and that females are two-thirds more likely to be dressed hooded the males males are also filled in the stress coat system by implying that their eyes and their minds are incapable focusing on their schoolwork rather than a classmates clothing research has also shown that during these high school and middle school years it is crucial to provide a stable healthy environment
039in school where kids have self-expression but also are boundaries on what is and isn't acceptable if students aren't provided with this kind of supportive environment they are more likely to look down upon themselves and others and often those negative views could have even more negative actions we need a dress code that allows expression of self while still setting boundaries for what isn't isn't acceptable BHS has tackled this issue head-on pleased members of the board if you believe in your students like I know you do if you want them to succeed please encourage the middle and high schools to rewrite their individual codes with student support and as the quote on the wall leading those boardrooms says human diversity makes tolerance more than a virtue it makes it a requirement for survival thank you for your
040time thank you our next speaker is Angela and McManus month um hello my name is Angela McMenamin and I'm here to talk about the dress code as well I believe that my school's dress code is unfair the dress code limits students from fully expressing themselves through their clothing and accessories almost every student I know feels unflattering a glee wearing shorts past their middle finger tips it also represses the students who are taller have longer legs fingers or arms because it makes the shorts appear shorter I would also like to mention the fact that the phrase boys will be boys is often used as an excuse for why girls can't wear clothing like tank tops or shorts above the middle fingers well I think that we should start teaching boys to stop sexualizing girls bodies I
041mean what is so sexual about girls shoulders many of my female friends are very angry about the fact that shoulders cannot be uncovered I and many others believe the new dress code we are trying to get enforced is much better and fair some of the most absurd rules included in my middle schools dress code are leggings yoga pants tank tops and the finger length rule these rules are unnecessary they stress and provide an unneeded source of humiliation and embarrassment this teaches children they can't make them in their own decisions overall students should be able to feel comfortable and safe just as we teach students not to censor ideas why would you why would you censor clothing thank you the next speaker is Megan Larson I'm here to talk about the dress code - but I
042don't know if I can be as eloquent as these two young ladies were of the lessons my child and all the students in this district are learning there's one I fear there are internalizing all too clearly the Student Code of Conduct calls out disruptive clothing or appearance as an infraction this is dangerously vague and provides no standards or guidelines for teachers and administrators to apply a fair and consistent policy to all students in the district without bias enforcement of student dress codes disproportionately impacts girls when the size of your strap is more noteworthy than the framework of your argument and the revelation that you have shoulders is more groundbreaking than a successful thought experiment education is failing instead of teaching students that girls bodies themselves are distracting we should be teaching students bodily autonomy by
043towing boys they're not responsible for managing their own thoughts and actions you are enabling rape culture and teaching generations of boys that they don't need to take responsibility for themselves and that they can't be expected to this is unfair to girls in demeaning to boys allowing yourself to be disruptive and distracted means that you're viewing a girl is an object instead of a person sexist dress codes that disproportionately impact girls students of color and LGBTQ students is the true disruption students will either rise or sink to our expectations these types of dress codes teach girls that their bodies are shameful and wrong we need to unequivocally send the message that girls and boys in this district are distinct individuals worthy of respect and not objects up for study or discussion we need to explicitly state
044that natural hair braids or other expressions of the ethnicity are not disruptive we need to provide clear guidelines to staff that individual implicit or explicit biases will not be tolerated and rule enforcement no one is petitioning the district to traipse naked down the hallways or wear a swimsuit in chemistry lab students should be allowed to dress in a manner that's comfortable appropriate for the subjects they're studying and allows them to the opportunity to feel confident and in control of their own bodies I'd like to leave you with the sobering statistic one in four women will be sexually assaulted while in college college doesn't trigger a magic switch for 25% of our daughters leave high school full of dreams of the future and return home survivors the thoughts and behaviors that enable such stark reality are
045taught and reinforced here in the rules policies hallways and classrooms of u46 I urge the board to re-examine the dress codes and create a district-wide policy that treats all students as independent individuals worthy of respect and bodily autonomy and explicitly protects girls and students of color from bias punishments or enforcement thank you thank you and our last speaker is Piper McMenamin good evening I'm Piper McManaman once again please have a seat because otherwise we can't hear you on YouTube so that was a use the microphone and even mic thank you microphone good evening I'm Piper McManaman one of the organizers of the free tank top dress code boycott on September 16 2016 I and a friend of mine were inspired by the suggestion of a student who complained about being dress coded for wearing a
046tank top though I personally haven't been dressed coded because I wear a gravity in gym shorts pretty much constantly I've seen its effect on others unfair dress codes are an issue that students around the world experienced in high school and middle school restrictive rules banned things such as shorts tank tops yoga pants and more however in u46 a lot of places don't have really like a set dress code rather it's up to teachers and staff to judge what's appropriate and what's not this may seem like a step in the right direction but it allows sec sexism fatphobia transphobia and other prejudices to affect which students to go about their day normally and which are punished for their bodies many staff members especially men and older women can be not for lack of a better term
047but for lack of a polite or one old-fashioned the dress code Jane proposes finds middle ground between those who believe dress coats should be abolished and those who believe that a strict dress code is necessary to control the children the code is easy to adhere to while still allowing personal freedom and not sexualizing the bodies of children however some might argue that the stress code is bad because of its leniency there are several reasons that some people might give against this dress code and I will provide a simple explanation for each one a dress code in school prepares students for the workplace many students already are employed at least on the high school level are we going to be required to wear McDonald's uniforms the school next because that's what we're expected to wear to
048work to the exposed bodies of young girls can be a distraction to boys in class and male teachers if teachers are too distracted by the bodies of young underage girls to teach and that's not the young girl's fault maybe the teacher should be more secure in sexualizing minors being too busy staring at a child's body to teach a class if a student has an issue with being distracted in class they're welcome to complain about it and tell somebody about it chances are not many wilkes nobody's gonna be distracted by a shoulder and three finally the students should be doing their homework not protesting unfairness and discrimination just because adults are unable to multitask between sexualizing teenagers and educating them doesn't mean we're unable to multitask between fighting and justice and filling out non-educational standardized stress
049getting sheets of paper but that's a problem for another time basically the current state of dress codes is laughable and I support students taking a stand in opposition to it I also believe that Jane Beck nannies proposed dress code is the answer but I would like to share the words the former BHS student who was personally victimized by the dress code he said the dress code affected me when I was publicly pulled aside in the middle of lunch by a Dean to take off what she figured was inappropriate for school though I was still following the dress code and a tank top I wore was not revealing at all I was embarrassed and frustrated for the rest of the day her interruption about my clothes cost more distraction in my day than the shirt I
050wore would have student who witnessed this event stood up for the dress coded student and was immediately shut down and disrespected by the administrator situations like these are why I believe we need change thank you for your time thank you and thank you in response to the public comments today I'm certainly aware of the yelled in high school discussion on Friday and over the weekend I assure you I'm going to bring it actually forward to my student Advisory Council I think they'll be a good place to at least start having the conversation and figure out a way to roll it out district-wide and Jen don't be reaching out to you to find get a copy of your dress code if you have it great we'll follow up do you have several copies sure thank you
051okay the next item on our agenda is other business board member and CEO update does anyone have anything to share yeah yeah I wanted to just make a few comments about the the dress code I I also share your frustration as a mom of some middle schoolers well one middle schooler in fact a new middle schooler this year and my younger one is in elementary school and we were shopping and what are we going to buy because the shorts have to be down to the fingertips and we can't wear tank tops and so we're thinking well cap sleeves I mean I I think we need to look at this because if we're gonna send kids to school in summertime August is summertime they ought to be able to wear tank tops so III think it
052is something that needs to be addressed and I've felt your frustration shopping with my daughter's Casey so I have two things first of all I was able to go out and see the Eclipse today and that was more awesome than I expected it would be it was so cool we had the special glasses and everything and we were able to see like more than going right over it son that was awesome that said it was very hot today so the new BHS dress code was awesome because I didn't have to wear jeans or long shorts I was able to wear my regular shorts which was nice so I wasn't spending the entire time so yes the new dress code is very freeing and to my knowledge has not caused any distractions to any other students
053okay thank you anyone else okay yeah I have a short update actually I did today and I showed it with dr. King the only Department of Revenue had just come out with a personal property replacement tax estimate for 2018 the takeaway here is that the district will lose about a million dollars and I think more ominous is the fact that the state continues to lose business I'm not going to translate that it just is a sign of the times that I think we all need to take note of I just learned to say to the Huff community of elementary school they did lose a staff member yesterday and our thoughts and prayers are with that community I know what we're doing it's a moment of silence that the next board meeting for the employee who
054there's no longer with us but I hearts out to that school community anything else all right next item on the agenda is for your requests before the border to Freedom of Information Act requests that were responded to since the last port meeting those are now available publicly on the board's website as well as will be uploaded on the district website tomorrow any questions all right consent agenda Mr Sanders on the consent agenda we have personnel report in workers compensation cases minutes of the special board meeting June 13 2017 minute to the minutes the board meeting June 19 2017 district title one plan school resource officer contracts for all secondary schools with Bartlett Elgin South Elgin and stream with police departments a proposal for curriculum and instruction for read 180 coaching a contract renewal for curriculum
055instruction with read 180 new generation licenses a contract renewal for educational support programs and alignment for avid and finally a contract renewal for business services financial operations for Microsoft Dynamics GP 2016 ok are there any items on the consent agenda then board member would like removed okay hearing none could I have a motion to approve the consent agenda of August 21st 2017 so moved Melissa seconded any discussion roll call please mr. Ellers yes there's Nolan yes who's orange yes this is ward yes mr. Costello yes madam president yes approve 16k discussion action Mr Sanders on first item under discussion action or itemized bills for August 21st twenties 17 administration recommends the Board of Education approved the listicles in the amount of five million two hundred and twenty five thousand nine hundred and seventeen dollars and
05622 cents and of the board has questions mr. Cornish can respond okay could I have a motion to approve the bills of August 21st 2017 in the amount of five million two hundred twenty-five thousand nine hundred and seventeen dollars and 22 cents second any discussion roll call please there's no lead yes it was always yes this is a word yes mr. Costello yes miss O'Neill Ellis yes madam president yes group six here our next is board policy update section 7 / students portion this was on last work session of the Board of Education is coming back tonight for a final adoption okay could I have any motion to approve board policy update section 7 students so moved Nosa Tracy any discussion quick comment I'm gonna be voting YES with the understanding that we're gonna revisit
057the first day exclusion policy next year to further hopefully match what the state allows which is October 15th and I wanted to just point out that um I I see that that section is not here which is good that part we're not updating now I'm also hoping that we could look at that section before the end of the year before the normal time because we need time to you know if we were gonna make any kind of a change that would have change a lot of the work that's done before school year so I'm hoping in October or something like that we'd be able to look at those sections once we have all the results of this year and I think Miguel and I have on our notes that our miss Rodriguez and I have
058in our notes that by October we will start that process correct anything else glad to hear that good suggestion roll call please miss Owens yes mrs. ward yes mr. Costello yes mrs. O'Neil Alice yes mrs. Noland yes madam president yes approve 6-0 last year at this time Ellen the Board adopted the policy they also adopted the student code of conduct in prior years up until last years the administration would provide the board a copy of the code of conduct that was attached the board Doc's but was never officially approved by the board until last year for the first time this is going to be an annual event before you is the Student Code of Conduct there are some updates to the Student Code of Conduct but nothing that has does substantial in terms of how
059it affects our day-to-day processes here to present if you don't mind them giving a quick overview is Luis Rodriguez and John Hyde rachet hi good evening and thank you just a quick overview what were what were attempting to do with our Student Code of Conduct is two years ago we pulled it from the handbook so it was own separate books so we could really hone on in the transparency consistency and clarity of our discipline procedures and policies and then share that on the web so all of our parents and students could access that anytime and hold us accountable to our own rules and and and and with consistency so in this guide what we actually did and we responded to a parent parent comments student comments staff comments as we added things like a preface
060kind of talking about this document there's a book we added a section on how to report a concern based on parent comments that their discipline policy is fine but what if I do have a problem who do I call if I don't want to call my principal or something on that nature so we added that our coordinator of student discipline we edited the disclaimer section we really didn't add this section this section was just pulled from the handbook so essentially we were pulling things from the handbook to the Student Code of Conduct and making those separate documents even further and then adding board pile see into the Student Code of Conduct that would lend clarity to your policy and make that more of a public accessible document in context with our discipline procedures so that
061was really the the lion's share of the effort here that does not substantially change anything that we that we've been doing or are doing with their discipline procedures the one change is we've added a system of minors and majors and the the driving force there was minors and majors the driving force was our mt SS collaborative collaboration that was formed last year with their ETA led by tricia shroud and and I'm also in Randy Randy Ellison's on that committee is really driving at miners are and can be managed by teachers and really Drive clarity at that and majors are things that should be managed by administrators and sometimes occasionally there will be some in-between areas some gray areas or articulating that in our code of conduct so we have more of a clear established guidelines
062on what we're doing and how we're doing it we did X add the section in the appeal process from the handbook brought that into the discipline procedures we also believe articulating the things about searches it's more transparent and what we're doing random searches on how we're managing those situations and if there's reasonable suspicion and in the conclusion we've added the things there in the glossary and our titles title nine section into the into the Code of Conduct and in our in the state law on isolated timeout restraints it does require that the board informed the public our parents our families I'm sorry of our board policy about isolated timeout restraints and the reporting requirements to parents so we felt it was important to put it in this document so when we publish it it is
063done in in their hands within the 15-day requirement of the school year sorry could I have a motion to approve the Student Code of Conduct tracing second any discussion or questions yeah so this is the first time that the board is seeing this document know normally we get it we get to look at it for a cycle before we vote on it and I posed this question to mr. Sanderson and he said that there weren't substituted changes but I think that 24 pages out of the thirty four page document have changes in them and to me that's substantive I'd like more time to look at this and would like to move that this be removed from tonight and voted on next time I would second that motion there is a motion or identity but I
064mean if I'm one thing with you do is proceed with the motion to see if it if it fails or if it so Eve yeah and then if it fails and we could you can entertain that the second motion that was the order more recommended okay is that we're still in the discussion though of the first motion is there some urgency for why this needs to be approved today it's to begin a school year quite it's we got late and long we had some pretty trying times at the end of the school year last year and our ability to get in front of parents the CAC parents most importantly through that process got into late June and by the time we did our review process we are here now so it's it's the urgency in
065my opinion was it is beginning the school year although unplanned that's the way it happened this year so definitely not my plan to have it happen next year like that but I also can't account for all the things that can are possible in our school lives but you did mention that most the information came already from existing policies so if we didn't vote on it for two weeks there would there really be confusion can I can't address that so then what mr. Irish head was addressing is that there is that urgency of putting and given those the the handbooks do the students and educating them on the handbook and doing the same thing with the parents so it's always a requirement that you know not just to publish the Student Code of Conduct but actually
066to disseminate it to students and make sure the students understand and in understand it well as well as the parents is that correct is that what you were interesting yes and most your high schools middle schools are in that process right now and we certainly don't want to put a code of conduct out there does not have been approved sword it's it were in a tight spot have we I thought mr. Sanders said that we have not approved this in the past though last year was the first year when section 7 came forward that you also approve the Student Code of Conduct and for that it was a memo provided to the board with just here's the updates in last year there were very many substantive collections that the law required it it was a
067very very different process as many of you will recall there were implementations for public act 4 5 6 and those would have been the substantive changes and while your points extremely extremely valid board member award the edits proposed to this document their pages of edits the substantive results the students and staff doesn't really change so I think that kind of addresses your point miss board member Noland okay if if we're gonna vote on the motion that was made then I have a number of questions and comments I'd like to make so I had asked the question can SROs interview students without parents present and the answer I received was that SROs stand in loco parentis with the students at the schools they are assigned in loco parentis refers to the legal responsibility of assuming parental
068status during the school day on behalf of the students assigned to them SROs which is student resource officers they're the police that are in the schools just for the public's benefit like other administrators can interview students without the parents being present while performing their duties so I had a comment or a response to that I don't agree that police should be able to interview students without parents present or at least an attempt to contact the parents I have instructed my children that I am to be there if they are interviewed by the police or even the principal and I encourage other parents to do the same could we add some clarity so I think the question kennesaw Rose interview students without parent presence I think the answer that you just read out that addresses part
069of the issue because if the SRO is acting in their capacity as a law enforcement officer we have a board policy where the board has created promulgated policy 7.1 99 which refers to it you just discuss and that would typically be in a law enforcement capacity however there are discussions that SR ELLs have on their day to day they're walking through the hallway excuse me young man what are you doing to dispel whatever may be going on in that in that context they're not necessarily acting in the law enforcement capacity would be as an SRO and their day-to-day duties furthermore SROs and mr. hydrozite can elaborate they'd also they don't implement the Disciplinary piece and the building that's typically school staff however if they're a witness and for example that expulsion hearing then they'd be
070called in to testify as to what they may have seen okay so we just wanted to distinguish that as well those are it really does depend depending on the facts so to clarify then if an SRO is interviewing interviewing a student on a law enforcement matter then parents are called yes seven point one nine nine when the law enforcement officials find it necessary to question students during the school day or periods of extra code or activities the principal designee will be present so we'll have an administrator present during that questioning the officers responsibility is to notify us that they're doing a lawn for investigation on the student then the school administrator serving in local paren died at that time and then the board policy further goes on that we make every effort to notify the
071parents immediately upon that investigation okay well that I'm glad for that clarification that's that's helpful okay so um I have a list of questions and comments I don't know if you want me to continue or if anyone else has something to add on that particular topic does anyone have any questions on that part okay so my next question was please confirm that that student subjected to de facto coed restrooms and locker rooms because the gender dysphoria ANDed access to the locker rooms and bathrooms of the opposite biological sex who requests a private locker room or restroom would not be deemed as bullying a person based on gender orientation and the answer I received was confirmed pursuant to board policy all students have equal rights regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation board policy equal
072educational opportunities the board's policy is reflected in the school district u46 guidelines to support transgender students under the guidelines and I'm still quoting from administration any student who has a need or desire for increased privacy regardless of the underlying reason should be provided with reasonable alternative arrangements reasonable alternative arrangements may include use of a private area or a separate changing schedule or use of the single style restroom so now my response Minnesota just released a toolkit for ensuring safe and supportive schools for transgender and gender non-conforming students which states schools should work with transgender and gender non-conforming students to ensure that they are able to access needed facilities in a manner that is safe consistent with their gender identity and does not stigmatize them privacy objections raised by a student in interacting with a transgender
073or gender non-conforming student may be addressed by segregating the student and raising the objection objection provided that the action of the school official does not result in stigmatizing the transgender gender-nonconforming student my question then is what if a gender dysphoria stigmatized by another students request to use a separate restroom now granted were not under that Minnesota policy but policies like that are becoming law across the nation so to reiterate what if a gender dysphoria belen another student wants separate changing facilities so and then so this does not fall under the student to call the conduct it falls under the guidelines to support transgender students and I think I think a board member Howard it just clearly quoted from the from the guidelines that we support every student and and it all depends on the circumstances
074and so far we've been very successful in addressing those issues I don't know Co centers usage rating is you like to add no I think you covered it I think it is covered within our the guidelines will be established well more more to the point then why not just prohibit bullying period instead of naming certain classes of people who shall not be subject to bullying this document names several of those why not just prohibit bullying per se if I'm a bullying is prohibited by the district it that is actually defined in our code of conduct however if an action is actually bullying is a fact-specific analysis so in the question that you asked the original one that pertained to bullying John's school staff all of us depending on the level of severity would scrutinize that
075and see if the action that occurred actually fell within the definition of bullying which is in the existing code of conduct so it depends on what occurred yeah so my point is I don't think it's necessary to call out bullying for this and bullying for that in all the categories we put in this document I think bullying per se ought to be prohibited bullying is prohibited and the codes that you see are required by state and federal guidelines so those are not by our that we have to have those codes what what policy is explicit of the bowling we have a bully policy that's very explicitly and a definition I think with John saying is I gotta play page 12 of the Student Code of Conduct balding based on disability bullying based on gender following
076based on race color national origin those aligned to state and federal codes we have to enter the data of for any occurrences under those sections correct yes I have a number of other issues which I'm not going to go fully into detail but but but my biggest issue is the random searches so I had asked and made the comment that I believe random searches section is incompatible with the reasonable suspicion language of the searches section I do not agree that students can be subject subject to random searches when no reasonable suspicion is present random searches do not quote respect all students individual rights to privacy in my opinion random searches do not provide protection of constitutional rights in my opinion when random searches occur can the board be updated about when it occurred and what
077was found and this was the response of administration random searches are authorized by law and board policy provided such searches are truly random and do not target any specific individual which requires reasonable suspicion that the student has committed an offense random searches are conducted from time to time in our schools administration will follow the direction of the board as to whether all searches along with the results will be shared with the board my follow-up comment is that I don't agree with random searches period regardless of case law and current policy I personally believe our founders did not intend us to give up the privacy of our children or ourselves in exchange for security I have a philosophical objection to random searches attending public school not to mean that Fourth Amendment rights are weakened or forfeit
078and for that reason alone I'm going to be voting no on this policy I would like to propose to the board that the board be informed of when random searches take place and the results of those searches [Music] okay just a minor comment I'll be voting against this too and it's for the first of all I applaud the fact that you're coming to us with this and that we've had the chance but I don't believe it's been a reasonable discourse and I think that's what's lacking here and I appreciate that that the district does have to go and get this done quickly so it's kind of the that approach I believe we just need more time to to look at this okay see just a question I don't know if you can do this since
079you know it will change but if you are able or willing to get more time to look over this which I would understand um we are putting in all of our like MTS s stuff right now especially in high schools and middle schools so would we be able to put the I guess the current version of the code of conduct like online and have our teachers say yeah everyone like take 10-15 minutes to kind of look over this and you know what's going on and then when the official code of conduct gets approved then we get the handout yes so the code of conduct is still in place from last year look at that one and then once anyone gets approved we get it later yeah you could look at both of them you can
080look at the one right now it's in the parent student section of the website and we have what's called an administrators guide to the student code of conduct that we passed out last year to administrators to again drive a consistency clarity and transparency this year we're going to have the staff guidelines to the student code of conduct which strives and information and get it in hands of teachers and any staff that are interested the idea is full transparency not the idea the purpose is full transparency it's not an idea if I may just respond to to mr. Costello I do I know we do have it to the point that this does not receive appropriate amount of scrutiny so far can you please walk through here the steps we follow to develop this and then
081also to remind the board that this is not significant changes to the policy the policy for four also provided for searches there isn't there's not any significant changes to how we actually handle student discipline has just updates to it that brings over some more stuff from the handbook sure so there's a core of elementary principles that dr. Shaw and mr. Brewer have me work with about vetting any any changes so there was vetted through that committee than the deans in Middle School assistant principals who deal with discipline were involved in that review of the document and any suggestions and any changes that were recommended in our process and our procedures the CAC was given the document as they worked last year in the same format and process comments came in from parents digitally and were
082able to respond to that in conversations with parents students were given the opportunity to review it with discussion for mr. Ellison at different venues and in different places and asked to take a look at our Student Code of Conduct so they're there there are multiple areas of multiple views of where we have this vetted and looked at by stakeholders I'm my intent was to make that even broader this year and and quite frankly just did not have the time to make it broader than that but that's certainly broader than we have ever before any other questions ten minutes Anika I just I want to say that I appreciate the thorough explanation and efforts to date and the effort to get all that input and sometimes that effort for getting that input will sometimes create more
083hurdles and that's not my intention here so given the fact that there really isn't substantive substantial I can't say that we're changes here you know the it I'm inclined to vote for this and that this I'm assuming is going to be a work in progress every year right I mean this is something that we can look at again in a couple of months if we wanted to if we asked for that but I don't want to hold things up and I she ate all your efforts and I'm gonna vote yes Nigerian like mr. Irish shot we will have it back earlier next year yes I met Mr Sanders anoles called you doctor say and relate on the way that happens I know it's been a long day the the the intention was last year and
084we we didn't do this last year but as a connected to all families and all parents is to send this as a connected as an attachment and a link to where it is once we post it on the website I'd like to get that done this year in a meaningful way that looks like parents say hey when we have our stuff together here it's only a week in the school year and it's been published that's the urgency and we really want to make that I really want to make that happen this year and then I'm bold ly gonna go into the area of asking our principals to be able to send this to all students in our high schools and middle schools and and just send them the link and have them look at it
085and then accept the comments which but that's where I'd like to go that's where I intending and going to share and that's the ask for doing this faster later any other questions comments come please this is worried no mr. Costello no mr. Newell yes who is Noland yes always yes madam president yes approve for two and I withdraw my previous motion because there's no point in voting on that now thank you okay the next item on our agenda is other business CAC but just one comment I did ask the board for their opinion about whether we could be informed about random searches so it would be nice to have a response from people okay let's let Lisa and then we'll go back to them sorry I forgot about I could no go hug good evening
086I'm Lisa hop and this year for the 2017-2018 school year I am serving as the chair of CAC the citizens of three counsel for anyone who might be unaware or unfamiliar with our organization we are a district wide group of parents and members of the community who represent our schools and we work very hard to learn more about district operations and come up with ideas and recommendations to the board we serve as an advisory council to the board we've been busy the summer planning and I was also very excited to welcome some new faces to our leadership team to our executive committee this year we have Kate Thomas who's joining a longtime member sarahx Thompson and Rebecca Miller to chair the specialized student services committee Anjou Giza is also joining a long time CAC member
087Mary von slick to head the curriculum committee and then you met this gentleman this evening he was one of the Eagle dads from Oak Hill Phil Novello has stepped up to work with Matt javi to chair our Family and Community Engagement committee Larry brewery is serving as vice chair and I have to give a special shout out to our secretary Dana YB she has kindly accepted the position again this year and I can't do it without her she is learning the website and getting up all our dates and meetings up there and helping me keep on top of not only my deadlines but everybody's deadlines so yay Dana my new best friend looking ahead we have all kinds of events planned for the coming year the committee's are putting on several special events and I
088could honestly stay here for like 20 or 30 minutes but then I had nothing for next time so just looking to the immediate future our first general CAC membership meeting will be held on September 7th at Alton high school we usually have an informational presentation and that night it will be the state of state educational funding whatever that happens to be that day we also will have our welcome and orientation for new members next month on October 12 our presentation will be about grading and report cards and standard standards based learning we thought that this would be a very informative in time for a parent-teacher conferences that usually start around the end of the month for the elementary school kids I encourage everyone to come out all our meetings are public and if anyone's interested
089in representing their school every school in the district can have five representatives plus two at-large members please contact your principal if you're not even sure if you want to commit just yet come out to the meeting and see what it's all about thank you okay thank you [Music] okay before we move on to work session um I guess to Jeanette's question don't we get updates when we get the security it's John he had to step out but during the annual report not on that that's watching the random searches you I'd have to go back and look at the pattern powerpoints this is just a question I couldn't remember those who are including so I guess what does the void thing okay what was your question are you asking us usually something from yeah I'm asking
090if if we can agree as a board to be informed of when random searches take place and the results of them are you yes you know what happened each turn yes I don't do these go on all the time like every day regularly weekly I'll defer to but Ryder how often do you come back that person again I'm sorry we're back on random search Oh how often are you those schools to conduct random searches are they still doing them on a weekly basis so so what know what of what the procedure calls for is now this is high schools and then I'll talk middle schools if that's ok that's ok to be very clear on what we're doing in both places the rant that's called the random and it's weapons prevention program is what it's
091called that's weapons prevention program and what we're doing in high schools this is only high schools for the weapons prevention program is there randomly selecting six classrooms and we use the Excel randomizer that's actually an add-on we purchase a license for the Excel program called randomizer the administrator enters every classroom in every hour so every classroom in every hour and then the randomizer selects that you know that combination so that room at that hour and then the administrator must go to and find out if there's actually a classroom during that time and then use they can use up to six the now it says a maximum of six per month unless there's something happening like there is frequent weapons coming to school and then we would ramp that up by procedure and actually do more
092to prevent weapons from coming to school so it's that's again the randomizer there's no human intervention except for adding the room numbers and the hours of the day into the randomizer they hit a button they keep that they keep that program print out that they file them to file and then that administrators go to the classroom they announce to students why they're doing what they're doing what's the purpose of the random weapons checks and that's to prevent weapons from coming to school that's the purpose of it the first year we instituted this we saw a 48% drop of weapons coming to our secondary schools that was from 68 down to 40 sorry 35 and it sustained around there last night last year was 29 so 29 weapons came to school whether that are that was
093a pocketknife a knife of some sort or a BB gun or something like that I can be more articulate on those on that data for you so that's the that's the procedure there one administrator would then take students out into the hallway and each one use a handheld metal detector that they're trained on and wand it around the physical presence of the person without any touching going on if there is some type of a metal hit then that student would in private then be checked by the administrator and typically 99% of the time our checks are do you have anything in your pocket why is that hitting metal and the student would comply with whatever's happening there so that's our weapons checks they're officers are not involved with those they're sometimes asked to be present
094down the hallway but we we don't want any officers involved with our random searching it is for as far as for weapons but they are in the area just in case if you will for that purpose questions do you get reports from every school every time that there's a random yes I'm sorry I should have said yeah that return there is a random search we have a standardized ISO form search report and that search report would be for the random searches if the principal decided there was cause and suspicions and need to search a room on a wide scale and many students and there was cause to do that they would do that search form for that also or for our drug prevention and deterrence program which is our canines we also use that form
095for the same purpose and those forms are submitted to my office for review and to end tracking do you use the same randomizer for the can't for the drug one so for drugs its we use the canine but you use the to identify which classrooms and the students yes the same yes excellent no I'm sorry what we do in that case is that we use the randomizer for areas of the building for hall lockers okay we limit that to hall lockers we have not moved you know there's some that wanna that believe that we should do this and that we should do classrooms and have kids come out and sniff the backpacks we have not done that or not at that place yet that I believe would be with your authority not my under my
096authority to do something like that and then and so but we use the canines for lockers so what we use the randomizer for selection if there is many lockers like 3000 lockers they'll select an area what the procedure calls for is that search is done within 20 minutes that canine in Lourdes the law enforcement canine would come to the building and during a classroom period the canine would come to the within the administrator would then court in the area off were called a hole in place and a temporary hold and that that would happen within the 20 minutes of that search that's what we allow and allow only for that so that would mean my dog could probably search about maybe for hunt sniff and they'd get tired of sniffing for 20 minutes but that's
097their job and they would sniff probably about 3 to 500 lockers during that time frame and the SRO office was not involved in any there are only as a monitor only as a monitor in that situation so if there is a sniff and the sniff indicates the canine officer would would advise us where the dog indicates and that that would be as very specific indication not arranged we don't go ok to lockers left to lockers right no it's only that where that indicates we would mark that locker than a school administrator would search that locker for any possible contraband if there is contraband found at that time we would we would obviously we would report to the officer if it was an illegal contraband of drugs or a weapon that's the way we would handle
098that but we would first conduct our own investigation I can't recall hearing about a time that a room was searched and backpacks were specifically searched her backpack now I don't want to go into specifics like can you describe perhaps the circumstance under which that might occur under a weapon searches we do check backpacks so I failed to leave put that in I'm sorry I didn't mean to do that the when during the weapon search not the canine start to put the weapon search when we're scanning students on the outside the administrators monitoring with the teacher the backpacks in the room and then when the student comes in the backpack is also checked for weapons while in the stew his presence even if there was no metal found on the student yes we check backpacks we
099check that that's also have a problem you ask a question you're talking about with the wand right you check backpack with the wand to that we physically check the backpacks because all backpacks have zippers and metal buttons and I mean what the wand would always hit on a backpack unless the backpack was made of plastic and it didn't have a button or a zipper sorry I'm being a fool so maybe we could get a summary it's not in detail but a summary of what random searches took place and when and in what was found maybe a spreadsheet something like that oh it's possible yeah what do you currently interim it to a spreadsheet or you just collect the forms revealed we started to implement something that's going to generate a lot more work for John
100who's already very busy it would I don't have any interns last summer or this summer we're not hiring anybody but I have a couple of volunteers I might you know so that we stack the reports up and we put them in a file so I could translate that data into a spreadsheet it will take some time yeah I'm reluctant to create more work to I was sort of hoping you might be doing that already but is there an easy way for you to make a summary that wouldn't require a lot of extra work no without being accurate I would want to be very accurate okay how does the rest of the world I'm assuming that I'm sorry I'm assuming that when we're talking about and I'm this Ward is that we're talking about historically that
101these random checks would be taken that you would find out or that we would find out about that yes yeah so I mean I'm not speaking make a make a spreadsheet of what took place in the past I'm talking about going forward of course oh sure okay going forward that that's a little bit different well as long as it keeps the element of the determent of randomness and the surprise factor I get that's what you're trying to accomplish by saying you mentioned the statistics where it went down from I think 50 percent or whatever down to 30 percent give or take and that's the fact that there is gonna be random searches and I think that's a good thing and we we just can't be forewarned about that nor can anybody and still have the
102same impact and yes I believe that exactly in human behavior when you are more random in those cases they more of a person might make a decision not to do something to get caught that's not going to catch everything by any means your alternative is having metal detectors at the door and every kid searched every time with 60 doors in the building your cost factor is gonna go up quite a bit so if mr. Hirsh a you've given updates to see AC before this is not the first time that I've heard you speak about how random searches are conducted because you've given that presentation to us I think a couple years ago at CAC and you've also updated the board I think with a very similar kind of presentation that you gave to CEC I
103don't know when the last time that was but this is data they when you did have interns I'm assuming you did collect this data and you had statistics that you gave us about what you know how the the the number of weapons had gone down when you first implemented the program so you were keeping statistics at that point correct what the stats I'm recording are the information the student information the Infinite Campus reports when a I want a behavior event of weapons is entered okay so when that behavior event of weapons is entered in the student information system yes I tracked that very closely okay the weapons mean all kinds of things most like well mostly and weapons can be an indication that there's a lot of bullying going on in school so kids are
104self protecting themselves for some reason in their minds so I'm very watching that closely but those are information though the weapons offenses themselves the searching and how often we're searching it has been sporadic where administrators and schools aren't doing the six a month and they didn't do it this month and they didn't do it this month and maybe that month they've done three so and then and we actually see the numbers actually kind of increase that you see a few more weapons we're talking ones and twos and threes and the numbers and changes in difference in each year okay so those when you were reporting like when you gave the report to CSC was that just weapons that were discovered in school because there was an incident or were they weapons that were discovered during
105a search they could be either either I can't either so I mean I'm I'm comfortable with the fact that you are giving these reports you know on a fairly consistent basis right it's as to the board and to people that asked you for it to parent groups that asked you for it so I don't see the need to get a report from you every single time that there's a search I think that that's a rather cumbersome approach to what we're trying to do here and the results that you're trying to get from doing those searches familiar with their reports you're referring to that that might be fine and I'm not suggesting every time either I'm sort of asking for a summary of this many we're done at this school so if that exists that would
106be helpful why don't I just don't I - I've seen it yeah he's come to CAC I think you've come maybe once every other year you've come to CAC to give a an update on on safety and security what you're referring to is the incidence of out of school suspensions and behavior events that are entered when a weapon is at school it's not the number of searches we've conducted random searches that were conducted in schools and how many at the school and I mean Eskil it's been incidents behavior instance when it occurred there was a weapon found in school by an administrator and a student was involved with that offense just right yeah yeah I bet thank you for that clarification because it's not we weren't getting statistics on you know we did a search
107this week and that week and this week at the school I don't know that that information I don't know what it serves they have that information out there if we're consistent on our we're intent on doing random searches then you know we need to have that randomness protected I'm suggesting after the fact not predictive but after they were done and I guess I'm I'm questioning what is that information in the tell us because we know they're being done I'm more concerned with the results of them and how they are being effective in accomplishing what we are going trying to accomplish and I'm not sure that I know that you know Elgin High had this many and Streamwood had this many and Bart looking at that I'm not sure what that information is gonna help me
108with as a Bourdon and I would agree I mean I I'm interested to know the results of those on some summary level to see if our safety program is doing what we needed to do but I don't need to be notified every single time that we do a search I'm not I don't I wouldn't gain anything by that there's no valid information there for me well I think from what you said mr. heiderscheit that we're not getting a summary of those either so I think correct a summary of the searches themselves no you're not getting that so my xoans you're saying you would like a summary a summary of the results of so on a yearly basis you know in 2016 we found X number of weapons on 2017 you know there were so whenever
109X either way that's been a generate work for John he's got to go through him so I have a tracker site but he's got to go through every report other than just skimming it he's got it you go through it he's got to disaggregate it is plug something into a spreadsheet to say okay this weapon was found on this date in this school and that's the reason why and Infinite Campus had notes that a weapon was found here otherwise it could just be that they students walking into the school and solve reports on their person which was also entered intimidate and we've had situations where a student will say that when we come in for the classroom search they'll kind of excuse themselves and say I need to talk to you out in the hallway
110hey I think I have a pocketknife in my backpack I forgot it because I was out last night something like that and that's happened that that's factual so those those incidents are there so if we want to write down the data we actually have to have somebody I mean John would actually have to take time to figure out how to filter through the forms that are reported to him and and provide the board some sort of that update that I am talking about creating more data no I'm talking about what he's already updating us on and I know that isn't specific to random searches but it does include random searches well and that's what I mean yeah I have one question though so one of the things you said was when you started random searches
111you had a 48 percent drop in weapons being brought to school yes so how many years ago was that was that that was 2009 210 that was actually I'm sorry 2007 8 to 2009 because I would hope that there is some way to measure its effectiveness is it something we still need to be doing now I don't want to create more work but if there's not a some type of evaluation built into this process at least even if it's every few years of some type of evaluation of is this still worth doing or do we are we having a steady decrease in weapons that were you holding it flat if we stopped doing random searches is it going to go back up I mean you know we can say anecdotally what we think it might
112be but if we're not measuring and it's been seven years that's something to consider I don't mean that I want you to do it and I want you to have all this extra work but I would want to know that this is still valid I'd be happy to report whatever you at the board what pleasure to report and and and it's not urgent for me it's more of just thinking being prudent thinking down the road the only way to see that is to kind of go back and measure all the other searches to compare it to the data that you see in the and the behavior events each year to see if those you know the number of events so what you're asking for it is quite a bit of analysis what happy you know
113so maybe it's at the 10 year mark we decided we're gonna do that I don't know I just I don't I'm not a fan of continuing programs without some type of evaluation or at least getting some measure of our weapons numbers of weapons going down up or staying steady and you have to measure it somehow and I'm assuming you anecdotally had that I do report that to the board when I read come to the board I report the behavior events for weapons and you see that Europe was 45 now it was down to 38 last year was down to continues to go down I'm good I mean that's I would want to know those numbers yeah right and that's the numbers I report to you the behavior events of those incidents if you'd like me
114to combine that with the number of searches we do broken down by school you know that extra work I just I would like you know as long as I hear your mesh you're measuring it in some way and you're seeing positive results I'm okay with that and I would agree with that that's it's the behavior incidents that I want to see it's that number that I want to see I don't I don't need to see the individual search data that's not I want to see the results you know I want to see what is ultimately the goal is to bring weapons the number of weapons brought into schools down right and I want to make sure we are exactly so I want to make sure that we are on track to do that that's what
115we are you know that's that's a goal we need to measure that goal thank you okay so are we kind of okay with the reporting as it is okay okay thank you thank you next is work session Mr Sanders our first item under work session our bids and proposals the vs. a proposal for curriculum instruction with St math Gen 5 software licenses administration recommends approval of the proposal with mind Research Institute in the amount of five hundred and seven thousand five hundred and four dollars a request authorization for district administration excuse later documents this expenditure we've charged the title one funds and it is included in the budget for the 2017 18 year and if you have questions mr. Phelps is joined at the dais as well as wish would are there any questions Sara
116login for this so I can view the curriculum or view the resource sir I can I believe we included a login it's on the board that was out of under executive content thank you sorry I didn't see that any ordered list your hair to be frustrated miss board there's no words it's not language dependent I had trouble using Gigi when I first started okay is this to help with Eureka myth actually it's an intervention and/or an enrichment for math in general so it aligns it would support Eureka but we tested several different math interventions last year and we have a couple schools that have been using s TMF and had some really good games and so it can be used as an intervention and/or an enrichment and is it the like touch math because I
117know we voted on that before it's another inner intervention in addition to touch math so this map actually goes all the way up through algebra where as touch math tends to be much more computational based it's it's very similar to fast math and then it helps kids that aren't necessarily great at computation addition subtraction multiplication and division the nice thing about s T is it goes all the way through algebra okay that sounds good yeah any other questions okay thank you our next under work session or contracts over 25,000 the vs. a contract renewal for human resources with I met vision insurance administration recommends approval of the of a four-year contract renewal with IMed combined Insurance Company of America in the total amount of two million three hundred and sixty four thousand eight hundred and
118sixty dollars and request authorization for district administration 2xq related documents the expenditure will be charged to the educational fund the annual cost of five hundred and ninety one thousand two hundred and four dollars will be included in the budgets for the 2017-18 school year 2018 2019 20 19 20 and 2020 2021 school years and that's a tongue twister if you ever want to try are there any questions I assume this is required by contract with our employees yes it is currently part of our full benefits package but it is a separate policy from the mental health okay since this is a four-year contract how much has it has there been any escalation from a prior contract period six point three percent increase but we did have a four year rate guarantee so it hasn't gone
119up in the past four years and we have had it's a fully insured product and we have a very high utilization among our employees so any other questions and I should have noted that Burke joined bruce phelps of the dais thank you for being with me okay thank you our final contract over 25,000 is a contract for specialized student services with gourville behavioral consulting Inc administration recommends approval of the contract who knoweth horrible behavioral consulting Inc in the amount of $75,000 and request authorization for district administration to accumulated documents the expenditure will be charged the federal IDE a grant funds and it is included in the budget for the 2017-18 school year that the board has additional questions joining mr. Phelps is dr. satellite are there any questions looks so I had asked previously to
120the meeting because this is for a organization that provides a B aid services are we is this for an actual consultancy so that the people are going to come in and work with our staff members on different techniques or are we actually going to be having the people from Gorbals actually working with the students they will be working with our staff on the difficult Ike sneaks but they we'll be modeling with the students so the staff members will know what strategy C is in reference to behaviors okay okay and that's a new thing that we're modeling with our we're being a little more proactive this year around some of the students that have exhibited some significant behaviors and this is just another way to support those students within u46 as opposed to sending them to
121private placement thank you mm-hmm any other questions okay thank you and can I have a motion to adjourn so moved second did mr. Costello just miss on you Louis yeah where's Noland yes there's Owens yes missus word yes madam president yes we're jerk