001Good evening. I would like to call this meeting of the Summit Hill School Board District 161 to order if you could all please rise and join me in the pledge Thank you, I have a roll call, please. Mr. Martin sure. Miss Campbell is Going to be late with notice. Ms. Burke Mr. Eno here. Mr. Leonard. Ms. McClush here. Mr. Martin here and Ms. Borges here we are going to start this evening off with some recognition the summit award and So here we go again. Good evening We at this time would like to recognize two summit award winners for April Hilda Walker music teacher Jill Luco and Christine Coffey who is a paraprofessional in the preschool program at dr. Julian Rogus school Okay, so we had to really Pair down all of the information that came
002in about these two particular people So that we could read it and finish a meeting today This was The most content we've gotten in our recommendations in quite some time. So we'll start with Jill We are very fortunate to have two summit award winners to recognize for the second month in a row Our first honoree is Jill Luco who has worked in our district since 2007 She was nominated by board member Amy Burke who said the following Jill did a fantastic job preparing and encouraging her students to participate in solo and ensemble competition Their hard work paid off in many first place rankings and medals earned More importantly and reflective of her daily work is watching the amazing positive environment and communities She fosters within her music program watching the students support each other at
003competition with kindness and Encouraging words was a proud sight to witness This is also evident in the enthusiasm of the large number of students That are excited to take part in the choir program and musical productions and I'm sure we'll get a plug tonight for that particular production and Principal more Carol adds Jill does a wonderful job of inspiring a love of performance and music in our students Also of note are the lengths she goes to to include students of different abilities in her classes and extracurricular groups She spent significant time helping to prepare one of our students to sing the national anthem in our Veterans Day presentation even going so far as to have a friend perform the national anthem as Moana a Favorite of the student as a model and practice tool for
004her to use as she prepared for her performance Jill creates a welcoming and self safe place for her students to be themselves and take risks and try new things as Performers and musicians and we are so lucky to have her at Walker So thank you for everything that you do to give our young performers an opportunity and experience and Joe we have this certificate and award for you if you want to come forward Oh Okay, our second award winner is Chris coffee who has worked in our district since 2010 She was nominated by DJR social worker Joy Galvin who has worked with Christine for seven years and in her nomination Joy said I can honestly say there are a few people in this world who exhibit the level of kindness Care and pure love for
005our students and staff as Chris coffee does to say she goes above and beyond Every day is an understatement She cares so much about every child and every person in the building that her positive energy rubs off on people every day I think she exudes the level of kindness and good character that everyone should strive for She's a special person and an amazing woman the kids absolutely love her and respect her as do fellow staff members She is the last person to ever ask for help, but the first person to offer it She is a selfless individual who is a ray of sunshine every day Tracy bolfer the AP over there at DJR says it is no exaggeration to say that Mrs. Coffee is the kindest person I've ever met She truly cares about each
006person she comes in contact with along with being kind She is extremely humble and upon hearing about earning this award She stopped by my office to say thank you and to tell me that she hasn't done anything special I hope this award helps her to realize that just by being her she has made a special impact on everyone at Rogus and lastly we let Colin get in there too. So Colin Bradley says Mrs. Coffee is the first to volunteer and the very first to donate without fail every time there's an opportunity to support others she exudes servant leadership in her role as a Paraprofessional and sets a standard of conduct that we should all aspire to achieve with similar grace and humility. Mrs. Coffee is Tremendously deserving of this award and so Chris Thank you
007for the difference you're making in our students lives if you would come forward I have a certificate for you And just for the record we keep a running list of all of our summit award winners and each time we print a new board Book we make sure that each name is added to the board book so that we just don't forget the people who make this district So special There's more Okay, this is a very difficult time for me as an administrator because we are saying goodbye to some board members And so I tried to write something down, and so I'll just read it And here we go on behalf of the entire Summit Hill School District team I would like to formally thank George Leonard Trudy Sturino and President Stacey Borgans For their service
008to our district its students families and community It's impossible to truly understand the thought Time dedication and resilience needed to volunteer your time to serve your community in the role of an elected member of the Board of Education Unless you sit in these chairs we figured out. I think it was 14 or 15 thousand pages of information Will come to a board member in a four-year term as a liaison between the vision casting on behalf of the district and the Community it serves it can lead to stress criticism and challenges on the other side of this it also leads to a deep fulfillment teamwork and a bettering of a system responsible for educating our youngest citizens and Preparing them for school and beyond the responsibility board members have is unparalleled as we have our students
009sometimes from the age of three Three years old until they're 14 sometimes just a little older and preparing to head to high school The foundation laid here occurs during a child's most malleable and formative years and our students move on to high school and beyond Reaching success and happiness due to our board members efforts each outgoing board member has made Innumerable contributions to building a good governing board team Offering thoughts that have added opportunities for children and guiding our district to fulfill our best version of ourselves In fact, we are all better because they stepped forward and they raised their hand and they said that they would help So sincerely with heartfelt gratitude. Thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of the district We would like to offer you a small token of
010our appreciation for the time you've spent Lending yourselves to this great cause which is Summit Hill School District 161 I think we have the years, correct Service are under not just for this term But for the terms that you've served I know it's been a long time. So if we could give our board members a round of applause Thank you. Thank you. Dr. McDermott This isn't I Guess the best way I can put it goes back to you. Sorry George. It's another George George Perros once said to me that being a school board member is The most important position that you can run for that you won't get paid for because it affects the youngest of us and it Spirals on and on and you never see the end of it and I am grateful
011to him for encouraging me and I encourage those of you who are staying and those of you who are coming on to continue this legacy of putting kids first and The hard work that goes into it and know that it is appreciated even when it may not feel like it So best of luck and thank you to everyone Over the years. I've had the pleasure of sitting with all these people, you know Especially Stacey 2011 yeah, as I said, she has served with more board members and I can count on my fingers and toes But we went through some really tough times here, you know, especially with the pandemic and everything like that and it It was heartening how Whenever we came to meetings it was always focused about what do we need to do?
012How do we need to make things happen? What the best for kids? So, you know, I definitely appreciate all of you and Your wisdom that you gave in the meetings the cooperation and the way we're always Problem-solving and focused. So thank you. I definitely Appreciate everything that you've done. Thank you. Thank you. I'll go Since I'm the four-year Boardmember the youngest to come on and to leave out of the three of us I've been serving the community for a long time as a parent volunteer And someone who's championed a lot of different activities Throughout our district for 25 years. So it was an honor to be able to serve on the board and to Work alongside some really great people who have dedicated a lot of effort and a lot of time To build a
013foundation for student success. And so I made a little post today on Facebook That if you want to understand Why our test scores are the way they are Feel free to ping me. We've given you the data. It's just that no one has connected the dots But when our kids leave Summit Hill They excel at the high school level for a lot of different reasons. A lot of it is Foundation they work hard They have great educators. They're supported in programs. They get to try a lot of new things they learn how to time manage and they put a lot of effort in to being successful and As I walk away I want the parents to know Look at the metrics on how your students do at the high school level Because you would be
014amazed at how they outpace other districts in the Lincoln Way school system So I'm really proud of the efforts here, and I wish everybody the best of luck You have my number, but hopefully you don't need to use it. All right. Thank you In the in the eight years that I've served on this board I've had the pleasure of working with a lot of different people and I can honestly say that even though I haven't agreed with Everybody that I've worked with Everybody has always tried to work together like there's been people on this board that we They and I have completely different views of the way things should work But yet we've always been able to find some sort of compromise in a professional manner And that part of it's been really special Because
015I've grown as a person learning how to better work with people to make sure that we get things done for kids I hope that you know the board as a whole Feels kind of the same way where we all made each other better At different times in order to deal with some really hard challenges like Jim said you know the pandemic came out of nowhere I felt like we were really like on a good path And then all of a sudden we took like a thousand steps backwards and And it was hard but I've always said I've worked with some amazing people. I wanted to give a special thank thank you to Stacey because she's been on this board for a thousand years and So I can't imagine how many documents she's looked at over
016that time But when you a lot of people don't understand it But when you become the board president you take on a whole nother set of responsibilities and a whole nother time commitment You don't get paid anything for it. You don't you usually get the opposite of thanked for it and she stepped up and took on that role for the last four years and Made it so that this all ran the way that it's run and so thank you so much for your leadership your friendship and Most importantly you're the work that you've put in all these years to try and make this district better Okay, let's move on Freedom of information requests is also you So we have been very busy We've had numerous for your request some which have been extended and you'll
017see in May When they come to fruition But the ones that are listed in your board book, we have worked with each of the people and have fulfilled them Thank you Okay, I just wanted to share some of my feelings regarding the last board meeting If any of you guys are on social media, you might have seen that a lot of people in the community We're not happy with how it went It was a long meeting seemed to approve tons and tons of things. I feel like it was crammed in I feel like there there was a lack of consideration before things were passed I feel like there wasn't enough input from the community and I don't feel that there was enough Forewarning for parents specifically towards the kindergarten change and schedule I do have
018friends personally that had registered their kids and Then come to find out that there's a whole adjustment that they have to figure out You know how to get their kids on the bus off the bus Things like that. So I just felt like everything maybe was shoved through because we have board members leaving They wanted to have their say so I don't know That's a take that a lot of people have my other concern is regarding my foyer request which Stacey you always say to me whenever I'm here. Don't name names. You called out my friend Cecilia Conti before You are very brutal and rough with her But yet when I try to request you guys are more than happy to throw my name on the on the agenda Which I'm fine with because I'm
019fighting for parents. I'm fighting for transparency So I sent in a foyer request because of the nature of the controversial sex education bill that's been floating around You know will parents have in the fall will they be able to opt out of things? I don't know So I sent in a request I wanted to know What are they going to be possibly shoving down our kids throats and initially I got a response that there was over 2,000 pages pertaining to gender affirmation LGBT community Transgender topics over 2,000 pages. I almost fell over After some back and forth the final thing that I received from the foyer said we have no findings so You know I went from saying before that I have a problem with the lack of transparency Now I have a problem with
020the lack of honesty. I don't know what happened to all that information That came up. I don't I it just like disappeared all of a sudden 2,000 pages down to nothing. So I Feel like I want some honesty Another issue of concern that I have is that for the last two years? There's been a concern with a specific teacher a librarian I have sent in more than one Contacts of issues that my children have had personally I know other parents have as well and yet there's nothing done this teacher The contract was renewed at the last board meeting. I'm I find it hard to understand how you renew a contract for a teacher That's had numerous complaints This teacher has crossed the line. She's pushed the envelope as far as what is appropriate to talk
021about during library time She has fostered a negative environment in the library promoting and recommending divisive and negative books Creating racial division encouraging our kids to explore the LGBTQ books degrading our policemen and women She says that she done that she represents has books that represent all demographics and she doesn't Because she's focused on a few specific topics and a few small minority groups She has walked and stepped over people's religious and personal values in what she's discussing Some of these topics are just not even appropriate in school because they're of a sexual nature So this brings me to a request that I have and I know all of you will not be here We do have some wonderful people that coming onto the board that have been out in the community That have been
022getting to know people and clearly seem to care So I'm hoping that what we can do is there's an extensive Handbook on what a student can and can't do detailing everything and what the consequences are and after myself Personally reviewing the teacher handbook. It's so vague. It's like, you know, oh, well, you know, that's not spelled out in there Sorry, we can't do anything And so it's it seems like this lets the teachers that do the few teachers most teachers in this district are wonderful But the few that do cross the line it never holds them accountable and there are continuous issues still going on I know that's there's a current one So what I would like is that the board? Revamp the teacher code of conduct spell it out for us so that there's
023that there's clarity So we know what they can and can't do just like what our students can and can't do I don't think that's asking a lot. I think that should have been done a long time ago I am very grateful for all the wonderful teachers in our community, but I also think that Parents were asking we've asked this before we want a heads up if You guys are sending home a permission slips for our children to watch a rated-g movie at school Then why would you not send a permission slip home saying that the art teacher is going to be showing a video with Maybe they you didn't feel they were nude sculptures, but I do have pictures that I'll send you mr. McDermott that did have pictures of breasts nipples on these butts
024This is what these students were looking at and I'm gonna say it because that's what they saw So if it's not appropriate for them to be wearing shirts with those graphs graphics on it Then you need to tell the parents what their children will be viewing. It's plain and simple. So Thank you so much. Have a good evening Next on to the consent agenda Can I have a motion that we approve the items on the consent agenda for this meeting as presented? For a 1a regular session meeting minutes of March 15th, 2023 For a 1b closed session meeting minutes of March 15th, 2023 For a 2 approval of March treasurer's report financial report For a 3 approval of bills list of April 19th, 2023 for a 4 approval of resignation or retirement of staff Diana
025Wagner effective at the end of the 2022-23 school year 45 approval of family medical leave employee 2689 For a 6 approval of employment of staff Audra power special education teacher at dr Julian Rogus for the 2023-24 school year Melissa Gehrig FMLA teacher at Hilda Walker school Amanda Park summer academic bridge teacher Todd Fitzpatrick Yes, why paraprofessional Adriana Acevedo? Yes, why paraprofessional Denise Vaughn payroll clerk at Mary Drew administrative center and Megan Schlatterbeck FMLA paraprofessional at Summit Hill jr. High So move can have a roll call, please. Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin. I'm ms. Burke. Hi, mr Reno. I mr. Leonard ms. McClish. Hi sportions. I motion carries the second and final reading of board policies Can I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the second and final reading of board policy to call
026in 20 to call in? 30 to call in 50 to call in 100 to call in 105 to call in 210 to call in 250 to call in 265 3 colon 10 3 colon 50 3 colon 60 4 colon 10 4 colon 120 4 colon 140 4 colon 165 4 colon 190 5 colon 10 5 colon 20 5 colon 120 5 colon 190 5 colon 200 5 colon 220 5 colon 250 5 colon 270 5 colon 280 5 colon 290 5 colon 320 5 colon 330 6 colon 15 colon 20, 6 colon 50, 6 colon 60, 6 colon 60, 6 colon 65, 6 colon 160, 6 colon 250, 6 colon 255, 6 colon 260, 6 colon 270, 6 colon 280, 6 colon 340, 7 colon 10, 7 colon 20, 7 colon 50, 7 colon 70,
0277 colon 100, 7 colon 180, 7 colon 190, 7 7.250, 7.270, 7.285, 7.290, 7.340 as presented. Wow. So moved. Second. Can I have a roll call please, Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin, aye. Ms. Burke. Aye. Mr. Reno. Aye. Mr. Leonard. Aye. Ms. McClish. Aye. Ms. Borges. Aye. And the motion carries on to the action items of the new business, the authorization to develop a tentative budget for the 2023-24 school year. Okay, and so we have put in your board book the tentative dates of April 18th, 2023. That's a purchasing cutoff communicated to the admin. April 19th, authorization by the board to start the budgeting process. May 17th would be technology and summer purchases approved and if those are necessary. April 1st to June 30th would be revenue and expenditure. Budgets are compiled. July 23rd, or July
0282023, preliminary budget will be presented to the board. In August of 23, the tentative budget presented to the board and then the final adoption by the board for our budget for 23-24 would come at the September board meeting. Okay, based on that information, can I have a motion that the Board of Education authorize the superintendent to begin the process of developing the tentative budget for the 2023-24 school year. So moved. Second. I have a roll call, please, Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin, aye. Ms. Burke? Aye. Ms. Torino? Aye. Mr. Leonard? Aye. Ms. McClish? Aye. Ms. Borchans? Aye, and the motion carries. Next is the approval of the Summit Hills School District 161 non-certified fiscal year 23 compensation. Okay, so I'll read through this and see if there's any questions in the event there are or we
029need to move into closed session at the end of the meeting, we can do so. If everyone feels comfortable, then we can go through with the motion. As noted in past updates to the board, Julie and I have been working and looking very closely at our non-certified pay, the increases that were offered last year and geographical comparisons. We've done a really nice job of pushing away from our dependency on agency employees, namely in areas of nursing and paraprofessionals. This occurred because of the strong message sent last year by the board and just how critical our non-certified employees are to the proper functioning of our school district. Included in your board book is a copy of the work done last year and our recommendations for this year. This is a reflection of the depth at which
030we work through the process and in reflection of how deeply we appreciate the work of our non-certified employees, who often act as a lifeline to our students, support our teachers and administrators and who we simply could not operate without. Based on the continued need for additional non-certified employees, this year we are asking the board to approve a 5% raise for the medically licensed employees, which would be equivalent to what was passed in the teacher's contract and a 5.5% raise for our non-certified employees. The exceptions are the clerk position, which we would offer or which would receive a 22 to 23 cent market adjustment and then the 5.5% raise. This would take the starting salary to $15 an hour and the district office staff, we would recommend a dollar per hour market adjustment plus the 5.5%.
031Lastly, with the bookkeeping position, we recommend based on recently being in the market for a payroll position, that we offer $2.64 cent per hour market adjustment and the 5.5% raise. And again, the information that you'll see in your board book, the first bullet point are the adjustments that we made last year and then the bolded second bullet point is what the raise recommendations would equate to for this year. And so I just wanted to open it up for questions or comments or see if we need to head into closed session at maybe the end of the meeting to discuss. Personally, I don't feel the need to go into closed. I think you guys did a really nice job of laying this out and the justification for all of those, especially the market adjustments because people
032can leave to go elsewhere now. I mean, we have to be competitive and it's been a lot of years since there's been inflation like this and it's changed the game. So the work that you both did in laying that out made a lot of sense to me and I'd be fine voting on it in this open session. Thank you. And just for clarity, I would just, obviously this is within the budget, right? Yes. More than happy to vote on it right now. Are there any other comments or questions? Okay. Based on that information, can I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the non-certified pay increases as presented? So moved. Second. Mrs. Campbell, I'm gonna leave you out of this since you missed the discussion. That's fine. Yes, that's fine. That's okay. Thank
033you. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin, aye. Ms. Burke. Aye. Ms. Torino. Aye. Mr. Leonard. Thank you. Ms. McClish. Aye. Ms. Borges. Aye. And the motion carries. The approval of custodial cleaning services. Okay, so the public bidding process for these services began in February of 2022. The bid specs disclosed a one-year contract with the potential for up to two one-year extensions. Four contractors submitted bids at the April 11th, 2022 public bid opening. The lowest most responsible bidder was Alpha Building Maintenance Services. They are the incumbent vendor for this contract and have been working in the district for many years, though not consecutively. The results of the bid are below so you can see what was listed in your board book of each year. And so for year two, the extension
034into FYE 2024, Alpha Building Maintenance Services came in at $486,860. Citywide Building Maintenance came in at $588,431.80. Smith Maintenance Company came in at $661,786.01. And GSF came in at $699,249.57. So this bid packet, among other specs, added service at the Mary Drew Administrative Center versus paying the extra duty rate for services needed at this location. The cost of the contract back in 2021, 2022 totaled $428,862 plus the extra duty at $25 an hour, which added a considerable amount of money to that contract. The bid opening revealed one unsigned page from the Alpha Building Maintenance Services, Inc. The board allows and recognizes that Alpha Building Maintenance Services signed that one page that they missed of their bid document at a date subsequent to the bid opening. So we would make the recommendation to go with Alpha.
035Are there any questions or comments? Based on that information, can I have a motion that the Board of Education approve a one-year contract with Alpha Building Maintenance Services, Incorporated, for custodial cleaning services in the amount of $486,860 with supplemental services at $25.50 per hour. For the school year ending in June 20th, I'm sorry, June 30th, 2024, the board allows and recognizes that Alpha Building Maintenance Services, Incorporated signed one page of their bid document at a date subsequent to the bid opening. So moved. Second. Can I have a roll call, please, Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin, I am Ms. Burke. Hi. Ms. Torino. Aye. Mr. Leonard. Aye. Ms. McClush. Aye. Ms. Borges. Aye, and the motion carries. On to the DC trip for 2024. Oh, this is exciting because we're about to head to Washington, DC in
036the coming days. And the interest in this has really swelled. This is the first time in many years where we'll have to have two flights to get all of our students out to Washington, DC. So I'll pray for the sponsors and that everything goes well. But because this is out of state travel, we do bring this to the board for approval. And so this is for the 2024 trip. This is for next year's eighth graders. So we will once again like to offer the DC trip from Friday, April 19th, 2024, until Sunday, April 21st, 2024. The trip will be supervised by junior high teachers, but managed by School Tours of America, a company that specializes in these trips and that we have used in the past and have been happy with their service. Are there
037any questions or comments? Sleep optional on this trip, right? This is the cost TBA. Yes. We can't lock in a flight rate right now. No, there's not, no. Maybe on Southwest. Right? We want flights. We want them to come back, right? Can I have a motion that the board approve the Washington DC trip for the eighth grade students who elect to attend. The trip is scheduled for April 19th, 2024 through April 21st, 2024. So moved. Second. I have a roll call, please, Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin, aye. Ms. Burke. Aye. Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Torino. Aye. Mr. Leonard. Aye. Ms. McClish. Aye. Ms. Borges. Aye. Motion carries. The approval of resolution to declare unneeded items as surplus. So we have oodles of items that are surplus. So we have obsolete special education resource materials, regular education
038materials, furniture and technology equipment that are no longer needed for school purposes, and we are asking for approval to remove these items from our inventory. Are we asking for volunteers to put some of the new stuff together? Just kidding, from the other day, sorry. Based on that information, can I have a motion that the board of education approve the resolution for the removal of obsolete special education resource material, regular education materials, furniture and technology equipment from Summit Hill School District's inventory? Don't move. Second. And I'm sorry, were there any questions or comments? Okay, can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Martin. Mr. Martin, aye. Ms. Burke. Aye. Ms. Campbell. Aye. Ms. Torino. Aye. Mr. Leonard. Aye. Ms. McClish. Aye. Ms. Borges. Aye, and motion carries. On to the enrollment and staffing report from the
039superintendent. So my report will be quick this evening, especially with no closed session. And so kindergarten registration for next year currently sits at 161 students. So that is the number that we're watching very, very carefully to determine if and when there's a point where we need to add an extra section of kindergarten. In the meantime, we are currently moving very quickly and efficiently to fill openings. We've had a lot of internal movement. And so it takes a little bit of time to shift people and then repost and open those positions. But we've made a lot of progress recently. And so we're just keeping an eye on next year. That's all you have for us. Well, and historically, what we'll see is once we get into the summer, when we look at those numbers, we usually
040grow by 40, 50, 60 students. So those are the numbers that we're watching. Sure, and when the buses start roaming the neighborhoods. Correct, yes. All right, so I guess we are on to the 843 report. Mr. Martin. I was not able to attend the 843 meeting. So there is the agenda in board book. And I recently just got the minutes from that meeting. It was a very minor meeting, nothing really of any consequence that came up. The one thing that did come up is I brought up last time about the busing. And right now, the governing board members that were there represented did not choose to go out to bid for the larger group. So I'm sure there'll still be more to come on that, because there's more things to figure out about transportation. But
041that initial proposal was voted down. Thank you very much. Again, thank you for handling this, because I know it's not an easy thing to do and it's an extra task. But it is certainly appreciated, because these all of our kids are important, but this is very important. The former special ed teacher, I mean, I really enjoy doing it. So thank you. Well, it's appreciated. I appreciate it. So thank you. Do we have any further public comments? No further. Future meeting dates, which I will not be attending. May 17, 2023, here at the Mary Drew Administrative Sevener at 7 PM. And if we have nothing further, I would like to move that we adjourn. So moved. Can I get a second? Second. All those, oh, did you have something? The date about the conflict, is that
042the updated date with the May meeting? Real quick? Not yet. We're going to have to do that with the new board members, too. Yeah, we did, good. Yeah, you did say that you were going to talk to, OK. So based on the motion and the seconds, all those in favor of adjourning this meeting? Aye. Aye. Aye. The motion carries. And George.