00113, the most time-sensitive matter, is planning for our complete ownership and oversight of our transition program. While this is a significant undertaking, it presents an opportunity for us to reimagine our program, maintain the aspects of the program that makes it special and a great learning experiences for our students who are 18 to 22 years old, and it also creates an opportunity to address needs and challenges of the program. More immediately, we need to identify a location that can appropriately support all of our students in the program. We also need to develop an organizational staffing plan that adheres to our collective bargaining agreements and staffing requirements in District 113. This past month, we hosted two parent and caregiver informational and feedback sessions to ensure that our families with students receiving services and supports from True North
002are informed about discussions regarding the cooperative, and also we provided a space and an opportunity for them to partner with us and to provide feedback and insights into our path forward. We are also working with the two new interim superintendents at True North to ensure that we collaborate around efforts for changes to our program and other services and programming for our district. The reorganization plan and necessary changes to the bylaws and agreements to support the plan will be discussed at the next leadership council meeting, as Jenny mentioned, on October 15th. All member districts are asked to declare their direction by November 15th, and by that date, we will need to be ready to share as a district whether we will support the plan for reorganization or move forward with our intentions to withdraw. So this
003discussion, again, and our decision making is going to be important at our October meeting. The last thing I want to mention is connected to something Anne mentioned. This is Hispanic Heritage Month, spanning between mid-September through mid-October. This month-long celebration honors the histories, cultures, and contributions of Latinx populations, and I would like to express my appreciation to our staff, students, and our larger school communities for creating thoughtful and meaningful learning and engagement opportunities for our students during not just this month, but beyond and throughout the school year. Thank you. I believe FOIAs are next. Yes, posted on the screen and also in the packet are the FOIAs that have been completed since our last meeting. Moving on to the rest of your administration reports, the first is strategic plan goal updates, goal three and four. Yes,
004so many of you know that we have adopted a new strategic plan as of June 10th of this year, and we are utilizing time at each board meeting to provide updates regarding our progress. So with this plan more recently adopted, our updates might not seem very grand, but we are making progress because our focus is really on the implementation process right now. So we have presentations, brief presentations regarding goal three and goal four tonight. All right, Ms. Anty and I will be presenting goal three and four this evening, and I will be starting with goal three, strategic staffing. Goal three is centered around strategic staffing specifically to hire, retain, and support a diverse staff to cultivate innovation, collaboration, and shared accountability. This approach not only enhances workplace culture, but also strengthens organizational performance and community
005connection. Goal three consists of two strategies. The first strategy is to enhance staff capabilities through focused professional development initiatives, empowering them to cultivate inclusive and engaging learning environments. For reference, this slide includes the overall goal for goal three, the first strategy, the SMART goal for the strategy, and the key performance indicators from our previous presentation. All right, to date we have successfully delivered an administrator academy for district administrators focused on evaluations with 92% attendance from administrators. For those unable to attend, they will be engaged in separate training. We also launched the school leader evaluation plan training for assistant principals and principals to build shared understanding around evaluation expectations. Our para-joint committee, which consists of licensed staff members and administrators, continues to have productive discussions helping us align evaluation processes and policies. Additionally, we have broadened
006engagement by recruiting non-licensed staff members, non-LSMs, to participate in a committee related to evaluations and professional development, which is fostering diverse perspectives. The impact is already clear. Our principal team is fully engaged in using the common school leadership evaluation plan process, which strengthens consistency across the schools. Licensed staff members and administrators are actively discussing the three-year evaluation cycle, the updated Danielson rubrics, and identifying ways to best support LSM development. Moreover, there is growing interest from staff and non-licensed staff member roles to review and update evaluation and professional development plans with evidence of cross-functional collaboration and commitment to improvement. Looking ahead, our next steps focus on deepening administrator expertise around common evaluation practices, improving iterator reliability, and fully transitioning to the Danielson 2022 framework. We are prioritizing stronger evidence collection and domain forward to better capture
007key professional responsibilities. The principal teams will continue engaging in training and processes to prepare effectively for their development conferences, and our para-joint committee will address dual reporting roles and continue to review efforts for Danielson 2022 adoption. The non-licensed staff member committee and focus groups will maintain momentum on evaluation and professional development plan enhancements. The other strategy for goal three is to develop and implement staff mentorship programs to foster retention and encourage adaptability, learning, and growth. Like the other strategy, this slide shows the smart goal for this strategy as well as the key performance indicators. In terms of staff mentorship programs, so far we have conducted a review of the licensed staff member mentorship program to understand its current structure, resources, and impact within our district. We are also researching mentorship models used for non-licensed staff
008to explore best practices that could support those roles effectively. To gather firsthand insights, we have developed interview questions and are preparing to conduct support staff and administrator focus groups. This communication effort aims to give both groups a voice in sharing their experiences and recommendations around mentorship for new staff. In terms of impact, we are actively collecting data and evidence to evaluate how well the current LSM mentoring program supports participants so that we can ensure that other mentorship programs can emulate this experience. We are also compiling research on evidence base and other districts mentorship models to build a foundation for program improvement. Our preparation for the upcoming support staff and administrator focus groups are ensuring meaningful and focused discussion that will guide our next steps. And then looking ahead, our next steps include analyzing outcomes, participation
009rates, and satisfaction data from the LSM mentorship program to identify strengths and areas where adaptations may be needed for non-LSM groups. We will conduct the plan focus groups to gather qualitative insights directly from support staff and administrators. And finally, we will review both internal findings and external research to develop recommendations for mentoring programs tailored to non-licensed roles. And now I will turn it over to Ms. Antti to speak about goal four. Okay, good evening, everyone. I am excited to talk about goal four again. And as you can see, it is focused on family and community partnerships. One of the things that we're thinking about here as we share the progress is that the first strategy is really centering on creating meaningful opportunities for input and involvement. And what you hear as our smart goal and
010our key performance indicators will be kind of explored as we move through these slides. I don't know what I'm doing, but please tell me if I can do this better. I also want to point out that I'll be going through the same format as Dr. Anderson. We're going to look at areas of what we've learned, the impact of that learning, as well as those next steps. So what we're seeing here with strategy one and what we're learning is that having a shared understanding and common language has been critical around our goal. Sorry, clicker. Okay. I'll move the clicker over here. Sorry. Okay. Maybe I'll give you a thumbs up. Thank you. Okay. We've started tracking engagement events through district forms and calendars, and we've learned that translation, timing, and flexible formats are key to meaningful
011participation. All right. Is that better? Thank you. As if this isn't enough, right? I'm already nervous. So given that what we've been learning, the impact so far is increased awareness of opportunities for families to connect, along with a clearer insight from the RFP process and really thinking about which strategies are most effective. Through mapping out our current partnerships, we're also beginning to address gaps and strengthen connections. So just in the initial steps, we're learning a lot, and the impact has created deeper awareness. Our next steps include working with a communications firm to conduct an audit, continuing to build systems to monitor engagement, and refining translation, scheduling, and event design to make participation more inclusive. The next strategy, creating and promoting high quality multilingual culturally responsive resources for parents and caregivers to foster engagement and enhance
012family school partnerships, is another key area that we're working in. What I'd like to say about this is we're really focused on resources, and when we think about that, next slide please, what we are learning is that we already have a strong foundation of multilingual and culturally responsive resources. That said, it's essential to listen to our caregivers and stakeholders to learn what they most need and value, and so we need to make those two match. The impact so far includes new approaches for reaching families, centralization of resources to make them easier to access, and greater cohesion in how these efforts are carried out district-wide. Our next steps are to expand input through additional focus groups to establish a leader action team or essentially a committee that can look at the resources, review them to assess
013and continuously improve them, making sure that they stay relevant and accessible, so that body is going to be really important as we move forward. The last strategy is a part of goal four, fostering and developing strong community outreach and partnerships. It means really recognizing that sometimes outreach alone is what's needed, and sharing that information, raising awareness, or inviting participation is also critical, but other times serving our students well requires deeper and really a two-way partnership where there's more give and take in both the district and the partner we're contributing and learning from one another, so that distinction is really an important piece of the strategy. What we're learning is that collecting structured data, like attendance and satisfaction, is essential for measuring impact, but we need more consistent systems across the district. We also know in
014that collection effort, we also know that partnerships are strong in some areas, but uneven overall, which underscores the need for greater alignment and equity. The impact so far includes creating a catalog of partnerships with staff liaisons identified and a stronger recognition of where equity and alignment need improvement. We now have a clearer understanding of the purpose and the multiple purposes and the opportunities within our partnerships, and you should see the catalog is, and I'm calling it the community map, is quite expansive. In our communities, it's kind of amazing. Our next steps are to continue to map those partnerships and understand the purpose of each one, beginning meeting with those partners to strengthen that existing relationships, and there are a lot of people already in our communities meeting with our staff and our students, but we
015want to strengthen those relationships and build new ones and identify any time-bound opportunities to elevate the partnerships across the district, especially as we think of our career pathways and other elements of our work with our students. So in sum, goal four is moving from early learning into stronger structures and systems. Across all three strategies, we are working to make our family and community partnerships more accessible, more equitable, and more sustainable. So thank you. Thank you for working with me through this, and I'll now pass this over to our principals. So we're moving on to school improvement plans. Is there anything you wanted? Oh, I'm sorry, of course. Before we move on to that, just a question on the goals. I'm sorry for rushing you. Yes. So this is maybe for you, Dr. Hauner, really all
016of our goal champions, not just the ones that we heard from this evening. We've got some milestones we want to hit this year, right, as far as moving the strategic plan along. I know we're in early stages. We're in early stages, but I guess my question is, do you feel like we are on track at this point, and has there been anything early on that you've learned or seen or observed that you have found has been interesting or helped inform the process in a way that you didn't expect at this point? Well, I'll just say, I mean, we are moving at an incredible clip. The rate of progress is breathtaking in some ways. So the first answer is yes, but you're asking for specifics. And I will just say, and please, everybody else jump in,
017but one of the things that I'm really impressed with and thinking about a lot is how we branch out into our communities and the ways in which we are forming those partnerships. And when I've listed out all of the areas in which we could have partnerships, and then when I find that we actually do, it's really beautiful and something I hadn't cataloged prior. So that's just one thing that's top of mind that I'm thinking about, but I'm sure there are other examples. I would say that in terms of goal three, what has been so impressive is the amount of staff who have volunteered to be a part of this process. It isn't something that they're getting paid to do. They truly want to be involved with making sure that who really wants to develop their
018own evaluation process. Like, nobody really wants to create an evaluation tool, but people are willing to do that because they know that it is going to highlight the amazing things that they're doing and provide opportunities for them to receive professional development, that it's aligned with their roles. And I think that specific focus on everybody's role in the district is so important. We have licensed staff members and non-licensed staff members and really valuing what every single staff member does, I think is what is at the core of goal three. And that speaks to our mentorship programs as well. We know that the mentorship program for LSMs really came out of a grassroots effort from our licensed staff members to develop this amazing program that we have today. And all other staff who are not a part
019of that mentoring program want something for themselves too. And they're not even thinking of that as new staff members, they're thinking of that as for everybody that we'll be welcoming in in the years to come. We know that we have many retirees, so they're really looking at the future of our district and how they as veteran staff members can help bring in some new staff in any single role. So it's just really been a great way to look at how incredible our staff are and willing to really make our district the best possible. I'll just add that as a reminder, we adopted this in June. It was first introduced to all of our staff in August and it's September 30th. So while there has been progress made, I think the important part of what I'm
020seeing is even the purpose for having a strategic plan. It provides clarity and direction for our district. It allows us to say yes to priorities and no to things that are no longer a priority or serving our district in time sensitive and meaningful ways at this time. And I think that's why it's important to continue to always engage in continuous improvement and we're going to be at a different place in five years. So we may now be able to pick up some other things or move progress forward, but I think that clarity and transparency regarding our direction and making sure that it's not just a district a board conversation. This is actually impacting our next topic, our school improvement plans, which are directly aligned to what's happening in our schools. It's connected to the departmental
021improvement plans and actually the experiences that students will have in the classroom and across all of our extracurricular activities. So this is a district wide effort and that alignment has been essential in providing guidance and direction for our entire district. And there's appreciation. I feel like if anything I'm getting hearing about the gratitude of knowing the direction and having it clarified for all of our staff members in the school community. Great. Sorry, I didn't mean to. I wasn't trying to rush the process. I just wanted to see if there's anything here at the outset that we're observing that was of interest. So thank you. Any other questions about goal three and four? Moving on to school improvement plan update. Yes, good evening. Dr. Dwyer and myself, we are excited to present to you our unique
022updates to our school improvement plans for 25-26. This evening we will be talking about first revisiting the concept of what is a school improvement plan. We'll also speak to the intersection between the school improvement plan and the strategic plan. We'll be discussing both Highland Park High School and Deerfield High School's academic goals and the targeted instructional plans we've created in order to make those goals happen. And Highland Park High School and Deerfield High School's sense of belonging goals and the targeted action plans we've created in order to actualize those goals. What is a school improvement plan? It is literally the blueprint of how each school will make the goals and ambitions of our strategic plan a reality and how we'll do so in a flexible and responsive manner. The relationship between the school improvement plan
023and our strategic plan is really that they're two sides of the same coin. They work together to guide student success. The strategic plan allows us to have a long-term vision for the entire district. It outlines our big picture goals and priorities for both schools. It answers the why and what of our district's vision. In contrast, the school improvement plan, as we call the SIPs, focuses on yearly hands-on implementation of that vision. They're school-specific, action-oriented roadmaps that details how each school will contribute to the district's long-term goals. A SIP is a practical short-term document that uses our school-level data to set measurable goals, define specific action steps, and identify who's responsible for implementation. While the strategic plan sets the overarching destination, the SIP provides the detailed yearly directions for how each school will get there. School
024improvement plans have two distinct areas for improvement. They are academic targets and sense of belonging. Each of these areas has different subcategories. At each campus, we are focused in on these areas and subcategories. We have four subcategories under academic targets. They are our ELA and literacy benchmarks, our math benchmarks, college and career pathway benchmarks, and district alignment. In the area of sense of belonging, we have three distinct subcategories in sense of belonging, attendance benchmark, and district alignment. Highland Park High School, we have three main areas of focus for academic improvement. First, literacy and numeracy, as evidenced by the ACT, our state accountability testing. Next, we have language acquisition for our students who qualify as English learners, as evidenced by access testing. And finally, post-secondary readiness, as evidenced by AP and dual credit enrollment. I will
025go through the baseline data, last year's attainment, and this year's goals for each area. The class of 25 took the SAT during their junior year, school year 23-24, and this became our baseline data before implementing our SIP. This data showed that 50.5% demonstrated at or above proficiency in ELA and 48% at or above proficiency in math. We found that 0% of our students who qualified as EL from the class of 25 met or exceeded benchmarks in ELA or math. We use this to set our goals for last year, which as discussed, we exceeded. Last year, 70.4% of juniors met or exceeded benchmarks in ELA and 67.8% of juniors met or exceeded benchmarks in math. In regards to students who qualified as EL from the class of 26, 2.5% of students met or exceeded in ELA
026and 0% met or exceeded benchmarks in math. Based on the Illinois State Board of Education ACT benchmarks, we've adapted this year's goals and increased expectations to challenge our students and drive greater achievement for the entire student body. For the 25-26 school year, Highland Park High School has two main ELA literacy goals. First, 72% of all students who take the ACT will meet or exceed ELA standards, and the percentage of English learners meeting or exceeding ELA standards will grow from 2.5% to 10%. For the 25-26 school year, the school has two main numeracy goals. 70% of students will meet or exceed math standards, and the percentage of English learners meeting or exceeding math standards will grow from 0% to 10%. Next, we took a closer look at progress toward proficiency using access scores. The access test
027measures language proficiency in four domains, speaking, literacy, oralsy, and listening. Our school is using a more micro view of each of the domains to measure individual student growth and our instructional efforts. For example, last year we targeted instruction in speaking, and we saw a 20-point surge in just the speaking domain between the school year 23-24 and last year. Using our baseline data, students scored a mean of 367 in the school year 23-24. Last year, our 172 EL students scored a mean of 377, and this year we're looking to increase that to 390 for the scale score, continuing to target instruction based on each domain sub score. Lastly, we have AP and dual credit enrollment. In school year 23-24, the class of 25 registered for their classes, and 75% were enrolled in at least one AP
028course throughout their four years at Highland Park High School. In looking at our second largest demographic subgroup, and one that had been disproportionately enrolled in the past, Latino students were enrolled at a 68% rate. 25% of our students enrolled in dual credit for the class of 25. Last year, as discussed at the end of last year, we saw a tremendous increase for this year's senior class after registration. 90% of all students enrolled in an AP course, and 90% of our Latino population also enrolled in an AP course. 40% of this year's graduating class also will have enrolled in at least one dual credit offering. Thus, we created goals for this year that look at maintaining this high percentage of AP enrollment to ensure that this increase was not anomalous, and target an increase in dual
029credit enrollment to 45%. So how are we going to get there? Great question. First, based on these goals, we have created an instructional action plan that will help target through rigorous improvements. We're going to establish PLC structures. We're formalizing our professional learning communities to align with school goals, organize teaching teams by content area or focus, and set consistent meeting times. We'll also develop norms for data-driven collaboration. We're going to analyze data, which means providing training on how to analyze all types of student data to inform instruction and monitor and encourage growth for all of our students. We'll make collaborative curriculum adjustments. We'll empower our professional learning communities to use the four critical questions to drive their work, from refining curriculum to developing common assessments. We will embed, we will implement job-embedded professional development by focusing
030on high leverage practices and coaching that will come directly to the professional learning communities. We will expand AP and dual credit access by proactively identifying students from underrepresented groups and provide them and their families with the support needed to enroll in these courses and remove traditional barriers. We'll also use multiple measures to streamline the registration process. Strengthen leadership. Department chairs will work together to ensure a consistent approach across the school and be sure that they are supported to lead these significant instructional priorities. Lastly, we will work to improve intervention efficacy. We will establish clear goals and a consistent system to track and improve the effectiveness of our academic tiered interventions with a specific focus on culturally and linguistically sustaining strategies. We will focus on push and intervention to bring resources and intervention into the classroom
031space. Dr. Dwyer. The slides for DHS show the same data as Highland Park but with a slightly different breakdown. So this slide is entirely dedicated to English language arts. At DHS, the same class, the class of 2025, our base year for data, saw 71.4 percent of all students meeting or exceeding ELA targets on the SAT while 23.4 percent of our students with IEPs met proficiency. The gap between those two groups was 48 percent. Last year, the class of 2026 saw a large jump when we transitioned to the ACT. 86.4 percent of our students met or exceeded with 42 percent of students with IEPs meeting but the gap between the two did grow to 51.7 percent. Our goal for next year is to increase our overall achievement by at least two percentage points to 88.4 percent
032of all students meeting or exceeding while also growing the percentage of students with IEPs who are meeting by five percent to 47.6 percent and thereby shrinking that achievement gap to 48.7. So when you look at this graph, the goal is the gray and the red bars grow and the black bar gets smaller. That's our overall relationship that we are looking to create. As you go to our next slide, for mathematics target, we've taken a very similar approach. Again, the class of 25, again on the SAT, 66.8 percent of students were meeting or exceeding on that exam with just 16.8 percent of our students with IEPs meeting standards and the achievement gap between the two was 50 percent. The past year, the class of 26, again on the ACT, saw 86.4 percent of all students meeting
033or exceeding and 38.9 percent of students with our IEPs meeting but again the gap grew to 53.7 percent. So between those with and without IEPs. Our goal again for this year is that we grow overall achievement in math by two percent to 86.4 percent of all students meeting or exceeding. We grow our achievement by students with IEPs to 43.9, thus again shrinking that gap to 50.7 percent. As you can see that overall trend again, growing the two bars on the left and shrinking the bar on the right. Moving on to AP and dual credit enrollment, we also have an ambitious goal to increase our enrollment in AP and dual credit courses to 80 percent of all seniors in at least one AP course before graduating and 30 percent of our graduates taking at least one
034dual credit course. And as we think about this goal in relation to all of our subgroups, the overall goal will be that the population within our AP enrollment is within 1.5 percent of that subgroup's enrollment in our entire school. So continually growing both but making sure that it still stays statistically similar to the overall student population. These will be ambitious goals and they will require that we continue to prepare students for this rigorous level of coursework while also supporting them as they take on challenging courses. So same question, how do we get there? What do we do? We are also laser focused on implementing a PLC culture and framework in our school. We're using this framework to center our work around what students are learning rather than what is being taught. Our department chairs, our
035PLC leaders, and staff members are very deeply committed and involved in this work, which includes using the four PLC questions to change the way that they're approaching instruction. We're also very deeply growing our ability to analyze data. The process of training our leadership team and staff on data analysis will be a focus this year and next year. We have great data but synthesizing that data into usable information can at times be challenging. So in order to prioritize our focus we are learning more deeply about how to do that work. Also we're working on our professional development frameworks and we want to expand beyond professional development that is in that traditional workshop or standalone institute day format and into that job embedded structure. Meaning building that space for our instructional coaches, our department chairs who are
036instructional experts themselves, and others in our building to engage staff in learning that's embedded in their roles and not just a standalone experience. These cycles of inquiry really are what are at the heart of our improvement planning process. We also want to continue our work to expand access to all students continuing to make sure that rigorous and relevant offerings are available to all of our students and expand our net of those who take AP and dual credit courses to be more representative of the school's overall population. And last but not least we want to make sure we strengthen our leadership and improve our interventions. All of this work flows through our department chairs as Dr. Holland mentioned our department improvement plans and also working to expand the knowledge of our department chairs that expands all
037of our PLC groups and it's equipping them with data analysis and change management skills so they can continue to lead all the important work that we're doing. And a lot of that work really centers around improved interventions using our MTSS structures to efficiently and effectively support students who might find struggle in their work. Our goal is to proactively identify students who may have challenges and to make sure that we support them at the point of instruction when and where they need it. Next both schools are looking at student engagement through two different lenses. First a sense of belonging is evidenced by the panorama survey and attendance is evidenced by on-track attendance meaning students who are attending greater than 90 percent of the school year. Last year Highland Park High School was looking to ask a
038more targeted question to measure belonging as opposed to solely focusing on student to student or student to teacher relationships. Thus we added the belonging question to our panorama survey and at the beginning of last school year 61 percent of students who took the survey responded favorably to feeling a sense of belonging at Highland Park High School and 55 percent of our Latino students responded favorably. By the end of the school year we surpassed our goal with 75 percent of students responding favorably while 70 percent of our Latino students also responded favorably. This year our goal is that by the end of this school year 80 percent of all of our students will respond favorably by the end of the year and 75 percent of our Latino students will respond favorably thus continuing to increase sense
039of belonging amongst our entire student population. We're also looking at attendance so again we determined our subgroups based on those most discrepant from the aggregate. In school year 23-24 our baseline data we found that 78 percent of our students were attending greater than 90 percent, 70 percent of our students who qualify for EL services were attending greater than 90 percent, and 75 percent of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds were attending greater than 90 percent. Thus we set our goals and last year we made very slight improvement in the aggregate finding that 79 percent of our students attended greater than 90 percent and unfortunately we fell short of our goals with two subgroups with 56 percent of our students who qualify as EL attending greater than 90 percent and 64 percent of students from economically disadvantaged
040backgrounds attending greater than 90 percent. Thus we've set this year's school goals to be 82 percent of our entire student body attending greater than 90 percent of the school year, 65 percent of students who qualify as EL attending greater than 90 percent, and 70 percent of students from economically disadvantaged backgrounds attending greater than 90 percent. So our action plan in order to be sure that we can attain these goals is to build a stronger, more inclusive, and joyful school culture. Our foundation is truly our Be Giant framework that include our core values, and if I asked Sophie what they were I'm sure she could say generous, inclusive, accountable, nurturing, and teammates. Okay put her on the spot. Teammates. We've integrated these values into our daily routines and school-wide assemblies to ensure that they truly guide
041everything that we do and help us to be a community of learners. A key part of our strategy is supporting our students also with purpose. Thus we have implemented a freshman advisory program and we're using the Wayfinder evidence-based curriculum for our freshmen to build community and a sense of belonging right from the start. We're also actively looking to increase student voice in our decision-making processes. We've enhanced our principal advisory committee to get direct feedback from a diverse group of students on school climate, culture, and instruction, and we've created multiple pathways for students to be involved in giving feedback in their athletic and activities programings. We've also worked to expand our restorative practices knowledge with a multi-year professional development plan led by Dr. Ritter where ultimately we can integrate and grow restorative circles into classroom management
042and enhance current disciplinary approaches through the restorative model. We're also using data to drive our progress. We are monitoring attendance and belonging data to identify needs and use an MTSS system for proactive intervention. This allows us to make sure our efforts have real positive impact through an evidence-based intervention called Check and Connect. To support consistent attendance and focus we are working to improve school-wide protocols. This year we will maintain and enforce strict hallway management as you heard from Sophie in the last meeting during class time to keep students in their designated learning spaces. We are also consistently enforcing our cell phone policy which you heard from both of our student liaisons last time to minimize classroom distractions and increase student engagement in academic activities. Counselors are proactively working with students between 85 to 90 percent
043attendance rate to understand barriers and then remove and seek deeper connection. Lastly we're including regular communication to staff and families regarding student attendance both individualized and whole school attendance. We're working to partner with our caregivers to remove barriers and help support positive student attendance. We're focused on making sure every student has a place in our school's extracurriculars by strategically increasing all school participation, diversity, and retainments in these efforts. Retention. Lastly we are leading initiatives to celebrate diverse identities through programming for identity months, curate affirming visual spaces, and use social media to tell an inclusive school narrative. Our work is about building a culture where every student feels they belong and every student can truly be giant within our school. I want to also give major thanks to our staff who are passionate about this work
044and working every day to improve help to grow our students skills and sense of belonging. At DHS when it comes to sense of belonging we are taking a cohort based perspective when we measure the questions pertaining to sense of belonging and our panorama data specifically about supportive relationships we see that the class of 2024 grew from 91 percent of them responding favorably to those questions as freshmen to 96 percent of them responding favorably as seniors. The class of 25 had a very similar amount of growth as well so our goal for the class of 2026 and our continuing cohorts after that will be a five percent to have five percent of growth in this area from the fall of their freshman year to the spring of their senior year the goal being to keep it
045in that mid to high 90 range. I also want to note that we have adopted that same sense of belonging and explicit question that Highland Park adopted last year as this is the first year that we've asked that question we're going to be using this as a baseline year and include growth in that question over the coming school years for additional cohorts. We may oh there's a screen back fantastic. Moving on to attendance as you can see we have seen growth as well and our goal is to continue our overall attendance growth so looking at the 23-24 school year we saw 81.6 percent of our students attending 90 percent of school days and we also took our two most discrepant subgroups our African-American students and Latino students and looked at their attendance specifically as well.
046We set the goal last year that 84 percent of all students would attend 90 percent of school days and fell just short of that coming in at 83.7 percent. We did also see though decreases in the two subgroups upon which there is focus of 57.9 percent of African-American students and 72.8 percent of Latino students attending 90 percent of school days. For this school year we have set an ambitious goal to grow to 86 percent of all of our students attending 90 percent of school days 73 percent of African-American students and 82 percent of our Latino students again with all those bars growing toward toward parity in the future. So how do we get there in terms of sense of belonging? First is using our freshman advisory the full implementation of the Wayfinder curriculum is going
047to be essential. It allows us to deliver a curriculum that is research-based and designed to create strong belonging in our ninth grade students during that really critical first year of high school. We're also going to be focusing very intently on the warrior way spending time this year with all of our stakeholders students included discussing what the warrior way is. We're going to use this dialogue to create a shared set of values that align to our strategic plan and give us unity and cohesion as a school community. We also will be increasing student voice opportunities which I'll be talking about later tonight in my excellent and effort report but we'll be utilizing current structures and expanding offerings for students to share their voices on the direction of school and expanding the principal student advisory group as
048well. Also analyzing our extracurricular involvement one thing that we see at DHS is a very high percentage our students are involved in at least one or more activities sport or team. We want to make sure that we find ways to continue to make that involvement robust but also make sure that that involvement is creating a sense of school connectedness and belonging and we'll be using our internal survey data as a starting point to determine how we are doing in that area. When it comes to attendance increased communication is going to be our first really critical piece. This year we are both intentionally communicating more information to our staff and families on a macro and micro level. One way will be quarterly letters sent by snail mail to families showing plainly how many days their children
049have missed by each category meaning excused unexcused or absent by period and more importantly how that compares to the average child in the same grade as their student and we'll also be including monthly updates to staff and family in our regular newsletters about where we are as a school on our attendance goals. We're also going to make sure that our structures are effective and what I mean is not only do we affirm and codify some of the best things that we can do around attendance at the tier one level but refining our tier two offerings to make sure that we support attendance. All of this begins at identifying what the root causes of absenteeism are and then supporting students and families around that root cause area. I also want to note that we'll be focusing
050much greatly on our data. I want to take a moment I really want to thank our tech department and specifically Ron Casbaum he's the wizard behind the curtain over here but they have done a great job. Every school has got an incredible amount of data. Ron and his entire team they have given us the ability to see that data in real time distilled into information and analyze those patterns identify individuals and really make sure that we target our efforts accordingly. We've been able to make various attendance reports across both campuses and it's increased the dialogue between DHS and HP to make sure that we're using the same data protocols but also sharing effective ideas across campuses and then finally we're really targeting our interventions. What I mean by that is that we're creating those more
051intensive supports for individuals because what we learn is that each student who struggles with attendance has an individual story as to why and our goal is to understand that story and then be able to respond accordingly. So we're focused on a year of continuous improvement and I heard Dr. Holland talk about that earlier. Our school improvement plans are dynamic not static so we've updated you this evening because we've made adjustments based on the progress that we made last year. Our approach is really the four A's of improvement. We're looking to be adaptive, accountable, action-oriented and really be all-inclusive in that we're ensuring that we're taking in information from all stakeholders to make adjustments as necessary. It's important to note that why that we do have department improvement plans and you heard about those this evening
052that ensure every team and every individual sees their direct role in our collective success. This shared ownership transforms school-wide goals into meaningful department-level actions which makes improvement a true community-wide effort and we're grateful for both Deerfield and Highland Park communities. Also as you heard Dr. Dwyer mention the level of communication and alignment across the highway has dramatically increased and we're both very grateful for that for towards collective efficacy. Thank you. Any questions? I'm curious how many school days it takes to drop below the 90% attendance rate like how many days would a student have to miss? For the entire school year 17 or more is going to make you so sorry 17 you're fine on the 18th day you would be considered chronically absent. That's 10%. A question about the data. Tonight was just a
053sampling of the data that you're looking at. You're looking at broader swaths of data but this is just part of the overview correct? Teams yes that's correct. So these are the major points of targeting of target goals but our teams are looking regularly at for example star data. As I mentioned the four domains of access scores we're looking at IEP goal improvement and so teams of professional learning communities are also looking at formative assessment data regularly to drive instruction and then to increase achievement before the summative assessments. Yes they're looking granular to the more macro level data that we discussed this evening. How did you determine the percent increases that you're looking for when you determine what your goals are? We both probably took slightly different approaches but looking at what previous growth had been
054in other years and some of that had been SAT but looking at what's a realistic amount but also looking at what do some of those percentages represent in terms of number of kids and then looking one of the great things about the ACT data that we've got from this last year is we can see how many students who might be they haven't met standards yet but they might be approaching so trying to look realistically at how many are in that approaching band and then can we put over that line into meets? And really also thinking about going beyond expected growth so we're trying to beat the spread in most areas through our targeted interventions we're looking to make more growth than expected. Any other questions? Okay moving on to D113 safety and security update. Dr.
055Holland? So we have prepared an update on safety and security just to provide an overview for the board regarding an update based on previous conversations of what's currently in place for this year. I know Dr. Anderson has been working closely with our director of safety and security Lane Linder who will lead this presentation. Thank you and good evening Dr. Holland members of the board. Thank you for the opportunity to provide this update for you and talk about the great work of our district 113 safety and security teams. Topics we'll be covering tonight is our K-9 team deployment, the randomized weapon detection program, our standard response protocol, our geocom digital mapping project, the advisory committee and other initiatives. So the K-9 teams are back for the 25-26 school year. We have Isaiah Britton and K-9 Sue
056at Highland Park High School and Melody Weathered and K-9 Sierra and Clue at Deerfield High School. Both the teams went together to Virginia this summer in August and went through training and certification through the American Man Trailing and Police and Work Dog Association or AMPUTA and both received their certifications for working in our school. For the 24-25 school year there were a total of eight K-9 alerts in our buildings. All of those situations were investigated and evaluated by our administrative team and no safety threats were identified. The K-9 teams have now been deployed at extracurricular activities. You may have seen them at our football games as well and then interestingly enough other districts in the area, Glenbar, District 87, Hinsdale, District 86, they've also adopted weapons detection K-9 programs in their schools as well. Randomized
057weapons detection program if you recall we instituted that about halfway through the school year last year. It's an operation of both schools for the 25-26 school year. We've seen the students adjust very well to the process as they enter the building in the morning. As a result of this adjustment and the expectations it's significantly reduced secondary screening meaning that the students come in they go through if they're selected for weapons screening and they get through the system quickly and on their way to class. Once again all visitors and students arriving at school after the first bell are screened through our weapons detection program. We are looking at acquiring additional weapons detection devices for a phased-in deployment at large-scale school events. Obviously if we move in that direction we'll have to communicate that and we'll be
058working with our school administrators to communicate with our visitors and spectators regarding the expectations. Local law enforcement has also been engaged in this process and they will be supporting the implementation of this expanded program. The standard response protocol that was implemented at the start of the school year briefly the standard response protocol was developed by I Love You Guys. It's currently in operation in our feeder schools. It's actually in operation over 50,000 school districts around the world and a number of municipalities, houses of worship, higher education. It emphasizes an all-hazard response protocol with five key actions hold, secure, lock down, evacuate, and shelter. It provides universal framework and a common terminology between our families, our students, our staff, our first responders are all operating with the same language and expectations. The implementation plan for the
059start of the school year involved training all staff and institute day. In addition we prepared training videos for our students in both English and Spanish and those were presented in homerooms and then the standard response protocol is now being implemented with our drill schedule. So as we practice our drill schedule throughout the year this is the framework that our schools will be operating under. A geocon mapping this was initiated by Deerfield police department received a grant for GIS based mapping at Deerfield high school. We had a conversation in the spring about this process. I actually went and toured their communication center and spoke to the commander there and learned more as to why they wanted to do that and the grant was received by them and so we're moving forward with GIS mapping of Deerfield
060high school. We also are planning mapping of Highland Park high school as well. That will be done at district expense and it can also include any auxiliary buildings that we decide like the admin building, Walters field, any other facilities on our campuses. So what are the benefits of GIS mapping? It creates highly detailed building and campus maps. It also provides real-time integration with 911 systems and it provides first responders with tactical location based intelligence before they arrive on scene. They know exactly where they're at in the building and what assets are there for support and then because of that it improves the safety outcomes by ensuring our first responders have current accurate and reliable information. Our advisory committee kicked off in March. We had four quarterly meetings with a group of volunteers who signed up
061to be participate in the advisory committee safety school safety. Our first meeting we talked about an overview of school safety, what the channels are and what our goals are. We talked about parent perspectives and how that impacts everything from our procedures and allocation resources. In May we had our second meeting and we looked at the students perspective and the impacts of school safety for students and that also impacts some of the other data that was presented in the school improvement plan like attendance and stuff like that. Certainly we know that students who don't feel safe at school may not attend school. We also looked at school violence data and different studies and then our threat assessment and mitigation program. In July we talked about our teachers perspectives on school safety and security and how that
062impacts our work. We talked about incident management and how we handle situations that occur in schools and then we covered the Illinois safety drill act and then our most recent meeting shared a member survey to get a more detailed perspective from the committee members on what they learned, what they'd like to see more of and we covered the standard response protocol and also our revised emergency operation plan. Other work that we're doing we're currently working with the Highland Park PD to address some of the complaints about morning and afternoon traffic around the school. I've had a lot of conversations with Highland Park PD on ways that we can work together to mitigate that. We're also in the final phase of review of our new district emergency operations plan. I rewrote that plan over the summer.
063It's brand new and so it's requiring not just a brief review but a review from front to back of a new plan that is currently at both police departments and fire departments and being reviewed. Our 25 and 26 security and site assessments are being completed by the building security managers. I should have that data this month. We went through a reprogramming of all our district 113 radio systems and what we did was we added an emergency operations channel for both buildings. The purpose of that is that if the staff are operating on various assigned channels during the day sometimes they don't hear emergency traffic so we now have a dedicated overriding emergency channel in both buildings so if there's something that comes up all staff will get that message and there can be two-way communication.
064I also added district-wide emergency and security-wide channels which allow us to communicate with both buildings simultaneously on our radios as necessary. We have a new Raptor kiosk. Some of you have been at the admin building know that we now have a visitor management system check in at the administration center that resembles what we do at our schools. I'm currently working with the Deerfield police department on review and alignment of our memorandum of understanding for the SRO program. There were some recent changes in Illinois law that's requiring us to take a look at our MOUs and make some adjustments and then lastly we're sending out a safety and security survey to all of our staff and students and I would encourage everybody when they receive that to provide us with that feedback we need so we
065can continue on with our goals and objectives. Thank you. If there are any questions I'll be glad to answer some questions. Anyone? Thank you very much. Thanks Lane. Okay moving on to excellence and effort from the two high schools. Once again so Holly Fleisher from Highland Park High School. This year is in full swing and our students are performing, competing, learning, growing and laughing along the way and it is my privilege that I get to bear witness and participate in so many moments. Just to name a few of these vignettes I think about our football games right now, marching bands, student section that's popping, grandparents who grew up going to games as teenagers and now are cheering on their grandchildren, palms performing, little giants and little giant sideline cheers and so much more joy under
066the Friday night lights and watch for this Saturday we have a game not Friday night but Saturday seeing the brilliance of you can't take it with you this weekend, a volleyball teacher appreciation night, the serenade of the mariachi band celebrating Hispanic heritage month, math team hosting an epic tournament, paint the town blue organized by our amazing PTO that truly spread giant pride all over Highland Park in deep blue. It is my joy and privilege to just watch Highland Park students and staff thrive and I really appreciate how our community cheers us on. While Sophie's going to provide more updates regarding our athletics activities and culture and climate I'd like to highlight two additional curricular updates this month. In the science department our biology team is at work implementing the professional learning community using the four
067questions to improve student outcomes in scientific writing and communication. The team is currently implementing a common assessment using a claim evidence reasoning assignment to assess student understanding of how the reintroduction of wolves at Yellow Stone National Park had impacted every aspect of the ecosystem. Crucially the team of teachers led by Kate Silber they're focusing on inter-rater reliability by agreeing on a common rubric and engaging in a process of blind scoring student samples. By analyzing the work where the scores differ the team is calibrating their grading to ensure equitable and reliable data. This data analysis then drives their instructional planning ensuring they effectively target interventions and enrichment opportunities to increase student achievement in scientific communication. Our new AP networking course in our career kickstart cyber security pathway has gotten off to an exciting start. It's amazing
068to just sit in this class and listen you feel like you're in a business and or you're on a college campus. Students have quickly jumped into this collaborative course. The initial task that students have engaged in has been to build their own computing devices as well as maintain and then troubleshoot those devices. They have also started to use the command line interface to learn networking commands. Next they'll be building small local area networks to learn network to I'm sorry local area networks from scratch starting with cabling all the way to securing their own switch. Students are wrapping up their first unit and they'll be presenting on configuring and securing a device in class and then they'll engage in a peer review process where they will be assessing their own each other's devices their own devices
069and they're also going to assess each other on levels of collaboration and professionalism. Highland Park High School AP networking teachers Deb Wilson and Jonathan Hagberg have been working closely with Deerfield teacher Derek Tivron with support. Again another shout out from our IT department to build engaging relevant lessons that truly can be practically used and implemented in business settings and help all of us on days that we need troubleshooting. This is an exciting new course and pathway and it really brings relevance and rigor with five sections of the course running this year. I'm proud to be HP and grateful for our hard-working staff, talented students and incredibly supportive community. Good evening for tonight's report I want to focus on three areas of pride for Deerfield High School. The incredible work our science department is doing, the
070impressive early performances of our fine arts program and the expanded opportunities for student voice that we are building. This fall our science teachers have taken full advantage of the great outdoor weather and the outdoor learning spaces available at DHS and our surrounding community. These environments have provided authentic learning opportunities for students to apply classroom learning in real world contexts. In AP environmental science students have explored the ecological succession by walking the path through our back 40 to the prairie wolf slough observing firsthand the effects of human disturbance on the natural ecosystem. They also studied our outdoor prairie garden cataloging plant species with the iNaturalist app and calculating biodiversity indexes within the restored prairie habitat. These activities not only deepen student understanding of ecological concepts but they also emphasize the unique value of having accessible outdoor
071learning spaces on our campus. Beyond our AP environmental science class other classes have used the grounds in multiple hands-on labs as well. Early in the year students work directly in the middle fork river putting on the big rubber boots and waders and getting in to measure stream flow test the river chemistry with a spectrophotometer I had to practice and study how erosion affects overall river health. Later those students participated in an orienteering activity where they learn how to navigate with compasses not the ones on their iPhones and also locate benchmarks such as sewer drains on campus. These experiences highlight the creativity of our science department in making learning tangible rigorous and engaging and the students are not only building great scientific skill they're also developing a deeper appreciation for the natural space that surrounds them.
072In our fine arts department they're off to an incredible start and they've already hosted two concerts with our first play happening next week. On September 17th our band choir and orchestra presented the annual potpourri concert. This event showcased the full breadth of our entire music program featuring creative programming and seamless transitions. I've never seen so many groups switch amongst themselves in the span of just 45 minutes. Last week the band program held its band-a-rama count concert. It was a collaboration with the band programs of Shepard, Caruso and Bannock Burn all under the direction of our warrior marching band. It was both inspiring and energizing to see so many current and future warrior musicians performing together and really performing so well this early in the school year. And next week DHS drama will stage the play
073Puffs featuring students who are either brand new to the program or stepping into the spotlight for the first time. The production is a wonderful opportunity to experience the emerging talent within the program and celebrates the tradition of building student leadership on stage. Last I want to talk about the expanded student voice opportunities we are creating. This fall the fine arts department under Dr. Russell's leadership has launched the student artist leadership team or SALT. A new initiative designed to amplify student voice within the arts. SALT brings together student representatives who meet regularly with the fine arts department chair to provide feedback, shape initiatives and contribute to the department's vision. Already SALT is generating ideas for Arts Alive, our semi-annual fine arts festival and developing a student survey to inform faculty discussions on recruitment and retention. Through
074this group students are actively strengthening the fine arts experience at DHS ensuring their perspectives remain central to program growth. Next is our principal student advisory group. I am pleased to announce that the final selection of the principal advisory group took place. Applications opened three weeks ago and closed a week and a half ago. We received many outstanding responses and ultimately 32 students were selected representing all grade levels and a broad cross section of our school community. Our first task will be to engage in dialogue around the values that will define the warrior way. This important values driven discussion is going to help us guide our shared efforts as a school community and ensure that student voice remains at the heart of our decision making. In closing I just want to share that DHS is continuing
075to shine through excellence of our faculty, the talent of our kids and the intentional ways that we're building spaces and student leadership and voice. Thank you. Moving on to student liaison reports. Ms. Montefias. Good evening everyone. I'm so excited to share some updates about what's been going on at HPHS. Recently we kicked off our Hispanic Heritage Month by bringing in a mariachi group to play during all launches on September 19th. It was, it brought a lot of energy to the cafeteria and was such a cool way to celebrate and honor the beginning of Hispanic Heritage Month. In the CRC college visits have been happening pretty much every day. Seniors get to meet with reps from different schools and I have gotten the chance to attend a few myself. It is really awesome that we have
076the opportunity to learn more about colleges directly. Homecoming is coming up soon. Our dance is October 11th and spirit week will be October 6th through the 10th. We're all excited for the dress up days and our homecoming game against Now's North on October 10th. Kicking things off, Paint the Town Blue took place on Saturday, September 27th with our athletic teams and clubs helping bring giant spirit to downtown by decorating storefronts. Speaking of sports, all of our teams have been pretty busy too. Girls flag football had their senior night tonight. They were winning. Girls tennis had their senior night on the 25th and our boys soccer team has their senior night on October 6th. Last Friday our varsity football team had a great win against Vernon Hills, 35 to 7. Girls golf are conference champs. Boys
077golf got second in conference. Next our debate team also got their season started by traveling to Glenbrook South for their first ICDA tournament and in the arts the fall play You Can't Take It With You ran September 25th through the 27th. It was a hilarious classic play and people really enjoyed it. Finally I want to mention the CSL inclusivity workshop. We sent 20 students, a few coaches, and our athletic director to take part in important conversations about leadership, equity, and community. Also my cousin Jayden Corchado attended and he shared something really meaningful that he learned. He said there's an infinite number of emotions someone can feel when something hurtful is said and there's an infinite number of ways to solve what was caused whether you did it or not. I thought that was a really
078powerful takeaway from the experience and I'm glad our athletes enjoyed their time at the workshop. That's all I have for now. Thank you. Thank you. Mr. Polanski. Good evening everyone. We have lots of good things to report from this past month at DHS. We had our homecoming on September 13th which was a huge success. There was lots of student participation. 1,200 out of 1,400 students were attended. Our homecoming football game that Friday against Buffalo Grove was close. We did unfortunately lose but it was only by three points. Our phone policy is holding up well. I personally have experienced some students using their phones in homeroom but that's not really in any other classes. Additionally we moved towards the second half of first semester. I want to remind everyone the importance of keeping up grades and
079taking advantage of the arc. Seniors are starting to commit to colleges and we encourage everyone to maintain their grades even as they finalize their post-secondary plans. For those looking to apply to colleges you can always visit the CCRC which is a very helpful tool for figuring out those post-secondary plans. In terms of athletics, Deerfield and Highland Park had a very eventful boys hockey game where we did win. This fall more than 600 student athletes which was over 40 percent of our student body are competing in warrior athletics. We're also starting up with a bunch of clubs like Movie Club, DECA, Earthworks, Medical Careers Club and if any parents are interested in getting involved DPN, Deerfield Parent Network is a very good opportunity to learn more about things like what to do when your teenager becomes
080an adult. That is on October 15th, I think it's 7. We also want to remind people about the safe usage of e-bikes which are a big thing this year and motorized vehicles on school grounds and you have to have a valid driver's license to operate one of these vehicles and they are expected to be driven on the streets and abide by all traffic laws. Overall it's been a good month and we are looking forward to the rest of the first semester. Thank you very much. We will now proceed to public comment. We welcome your comments and questions and give them serious consideration pursuant to board policy 2-230. Per policy 8-30 the use of threats, harassment, intimidation and language that is profane, vulgar, obscene or defamatory is not permitted. Disruptive behavior will not be tolerated and
081failure to adhere to these policies will result in loss of speaking privileges. All speakers should recognize the authority of the board president and be respectful in response to reasonable directives which may be necessary to facilitate orderly public participation. We will go on the order of the numbered cards you received when you registered to speak. When I call your number please come to the podium, identify yourself with your first and your last name and city in which you reside and if applicable state the agenda item to which your comment is directed. Please keep all comments to three minutes. The vice president, thank you Mr. Barraza, will raise his hand at a 30 second warning and announce time when the limit is reached. You'll see the timer up on the screens. You must conclude your remarks immediately.
082Any questions may be sent via email to the superintendent to receive a response subsequent to the meeting. As a reminder public participation is not intended to be a back and forth discussion between the public and the board. With that I'll invite the person with number one to please step forward and the person with number two is welcome to be in a holding either behind or just be prepared to go so we can move efficiently through everyone. Thank you. Hello I'm Amy Stolarski, a resident of Deerfield and a parent of a sophomore in her second year with the theater department. I am here tonight in support of Brittany Kenyon. She is a valuable inspiring educator and has suffered enough as a result of the district's mistakes. I am asking you to settle this so that Miss
083Kenyon can focus on her students and their school productions. She did not deserve the public backlash she has endured. If parents object to content Miss Kenyon assigns they may ask for alternative texts for their students but we should not allow those parents to speak for all parents. Teachers across the state assign material with violence trauma and abuse. They select that material because the content is real. High school students can handle it and the lessons about humanity are vital. I teach at East Lydon High School. We do not censor texts. We mark band books week as a celebration of our freedoms to read. We do not allow a group of parents to change the curriculum for other parents children. When a parent questions the content in a course we listen to the objection and then we
084provide an alternative for that parent's children. If parents are upset about content Miss Kenyon posted online they have blown that out of proportion. Whether I agree with her words or not I support her right to post a reaction to the news. Her actions were not unlawful or immoral. I would argue it's actually healthy for students to see ideas they disagree with but that's besides the point. What's at stake here is Miss Kenyon's reputation and career. I am disappointed that parents involved an outside agency and are now misrepresenting Miss Kenyon's words and actions. She did not threaten students. She expressed an unpopular opinion and rather than address that disagreement civilly some people created a public witch hunt. It was wrong. It was unfair and it should be over. If the school board is persuaded by this
085angry mob I fear for what's next. Will this group defame the teacher who has a Trump sticker on his car or the teacher who has an anti-Trump sticker on his car? Will they defame the teacher who marches in support of immigrants or the teacher who marches in support of ICE? We live in a politically charged environment. We are all learning and relearning how to navigate this. Defaming an effective educator who we disagree with politically is not the answer. I am asking the board to see beyond this noise. Miss Kenyon is an asset to our district. She gives our students confidence and the space to explore content that broadens their understanding of the human condition. Please settle. Thank you. Thank you. Number two and number three will be on deck. Brian Rice of Vanikburn, Illinois. Here
086to just speak unequivocally in favor and support of Brittany Kenyon. Two daughters of mine have gone through the Deerfield High School R-Hall program. She's a hub of it and just having had so many teachers she is one of the good ones. And definitely want to thank her for her resilience and for not giving up on this community. R-Hall would be way worse off without her. And secondly just reach out to the folks that are maybe not seeing it the same way I am and say you know I think you're in the right church but at the wrong pew. You know in the right church you're concerned about anti-Semitism and so am I. So a lot of us are. We're flooded with it. It's overwhelming. So in that I thank the folks that are concerned about
087it. I thank the folks that are speaking up and are vigilant about it. I would lock arms with them just not on this issue. I think they're barking up the wrong tree here. Thank you. Thank you. Number three and number four is on deck. Hello my name is Jamie Toplitsky and I'm speaking on behalf of my two boys who were unable to be here tonight but felt so strongly about speaking up about their very favorite teacher and I'll read you what they had written. My name is Casey Toplitsky. I'm a sophomore at DHS and I'm speaking tonight on behalf of myself and my older brother Ryder who cannot be here tonight. Ryder and I have been extremely lucky to be students of Miss Kenyans for the last few years. We are the lucky ones who
088could speak to her character, incredible leadership, and amazing teaching abilities. I feel sad that so many people have been quick to jump to conclusions about Miss Kenyon when they don't know her in the same way that we do. As we all know we can't believe everything we see or read online which is why we wanted to come here tonight to let you know how my brother, my family, and all of the students we know feel about having Miss Kenyon as a teacher and director. Being Jewish is a large part of our identity and my brother and I have always made that clear and have never hidden our beliefs or where we stand. Miss Kenyon has not once threatened our Jewish identity and has only supported us as Jews, people, and students just as she supports
089everyone in her classroom. Being a part of the theater community allows for a special kind of connection that many students do not get to experience on a regular basis. Miss Kenyon cares not only about our theater education but about us as human beings and high schoolers living in an often complicated world. She gets to know each one of us as an individual from the first moment we walk through her doors. I wish more teachers would take the time to make such strong connections with their students. I love going to school each day and a majority of that is because of the connection I feel in Miss Kenyon's classroom. She'll always encourage us to talk about what's going on in our own lives and is a constant sense of support during the ups and downs of
090high school. While she supports us as individual thinkers, I have so much respect for the fact that she never pushes her own ideals onto us. The only thing I know she believes in more than anything in the world is that she believes everyone should feel welcome and included in our tight-knit theater community. I'm grateful that Miss Kenyon allows for such open and honest conversations in her classrooms that are relevant to the curriculum in our own lives. I found that theater is a way to bring people together despite differing views and ideals. We have the opportunity to step in someone else's shoes. We form a greater understanding of where they may be coming from and in turn hopefully we'll have more kindness and empathy in our world. It's devastating to read and hear the things that
091some people have said online about someone who has been nothing but a positive force in our lives and is the best theater teacher and director we've ever known. I can assure you there's no educator who cares more about the well-being of their students and the betterment of our world than Miss Kenyon. She is by far a teacher who has not only taught us about Meisner, Stanislavski, and Laban but has given us the confidence to speak kindly about our beliefs without judgment from others and has taught us to use theaters and avenue not for divisiveness but for understanding compassion and to make the world a better place. As part of a high school theater department we will inevitably encounter controversial themes but we always have the opportunity to opt out and Miss Kenyon makes sure we're
092always fully comfortable with everything we're reading, discussing, and performing. There's never any judgment just listening and understanding. Our school, our students, and our world will be a better place if there are more teachers like Miss Kenyon. Being in our class has been a blessing that is the bright spot even in the hardest of school days. Thank you. Number four and number five is on deck. My name is Paul Dombrowski. I'm a retired teacher and currently the tech director at Rolling Meadows High School. I've known Brittany for over 10 years. I've closely worked with Brittany at Rolling Meadows, Theater Fest, and Deerfield High School. I've seen her develop meaningful relationships and build trust with all students. When I think of teachers who change lives I think of my friend Brittany. Brittany is a Golden Apple finalist,
093a fierce advocate for underrepresented students not just in word but in daily practice. She opens doors and pulls up extra chairs and reminds every student your voice is heard here. To hear Brittany, to hear tonight a member of the audience describe Brittany as an anti-semite is truly disturbing. Brittany is passionate about the arts and making brave bold choices. In her rehearsal room all students are safe to take risks, safe to stretch, safe to fail because she understands there is no growth without struggle. She pushes past performances that look pretty towards performances that speak the truth and she encourages theater to leave us with a full range of human emotions. Even when that means we leave a little bit uncomfortable. Brittany knows that discomfort is often the first tug of transformation. She models by how she
094lives, she shows up and speaks every time for her students and her friends. When you need someone in your corner Brittany is there sleeves rolled up ready to work and listen. Compassionate and loyal she is a friend, she is the kind of friend that we all wish we had. In our society we thank military and first responders for their service. I think we should extend the same respect to teachers. Instead of respect we often hold teachers to the same harsh magnifying glass we do for celebrities and politicians. Teachers don't sign up for a life under public eye. They should be held to standards inside the classroom, school hallways and rehearsal spaces. Outside of school teachers are people. They are our spouses, our friends, neighbors and citizens. Like you or I they deserve free speech and
095a private life outside of work. Protecting those rights isn't about endorsing every opinion they have or decision they make. It's about preserving the open democratic culture we want our students to inherit. When teachers can speak, worship, volunteer and advocate in their off hours we without fear of reprisal they model civic engagement and critical thinking. Drawing boundaries, evaluating educators by their professional conduct in the classroom, not their lawful off-duty lives keeps politics from policing people and keeps great teachers in our school. Remember the minimum our community owns is respect. Thank you. Thank you. Number five and number six is on deck. My name is Billy Bear and I'm Cameron Handmaker and we are two Jewish students of Brittany Kenyon at Jekyll High School and we're here to support her. Wednesday January 31st 2024 was one of
096the worst days of school we've ever had. No this was not the day after the Instagram story was posted or the day after we got an email from the school board saying our teacher was a threat. It was the day we found out that our favorite teacher was leaving. It hurt our hearts to know that she was going through something terrible and there wasn't anything we could do about it. This resonated with the entire class who looked forward to drama every day because we knew that no matter what was happening in our lives we had a place to escape and a teacher we could turn to. A teacher that had never once made us feel unsafe. I had been told for years how incredible the theater department at Deerfield was and how lucky I was
097to have a teacher like Brittany Kenyon. I was just a freshman and had only known her for a few months but her goodbye shook me to my core. I remember telling my mom I will never get the chance to get to know her. As someone who was her student for the a year prior I had experienced more growth than I ever have and I was passionate about school for the first time since second grade. Every year we take a panoramic survey as was talked about earlier asking us questions about our lives at school. For the first time since starting high school I really questioned whether I could respond to the prompt do you have a trusted adult at school with an honest yes. Losing Brittany for months threatened our experience as both students and actors.
098People questioned whether to pursue acting in high school out of fear of being bullied and the examples set by the school board and people online only showed us that even our teachers are not exempt. Even in the face of cruelty and hatred Brittany showed us what true strength is. Our our hall model is the most important thing is the way we treat each other and the people online and members of the board failed to exemplify that. I hope in the future they've all learned their lesson about how people deserve to be treated because they are the ones setting an example for students and their children. Wednesday January 31st 2024 was one of the worst days of our school experience. Please settle this so we don't have to go through it again. Thank you. Thank you.
099Thank you. Number six and number seven is on deck. My name is Pam Handmaker and I'm a very proud mom of my daughter Cameron there and my son Max is here as well who is a sophomore at DHS and both of their kids are very both of my kids are very active in the theater community. Before I dive in I also want to say I'm so excited to see all these parents and students here to support Brittany including her parents and family so thank you for being here. I'm curious about those of you opposing the settlement. How many of you have students that are actively involved in the theater program and have actually interacted with Miss Kenyon? I've been trying to think about how to really start my comments here tonight. Do I start talking
100about the scary decimation of the very concept of free speech that we are experiencing as a country and is heightened locally by this very issue? Do I start talking about the incredible overreach that former president of the school board Dan Strock took when he sent out an email to the entire district to alarm them about the severe damage that the Deerfield High School drama teacher was doing to the entire student body after one Instagram story? No. I'm going to start by thanking Brittany Kenyon for the role model that she has been to my for my children as you just heard. Thank her thanking her for her bravery, kindness, and resilience. Thank her for teaching her students that even when you are faced with the incredible challenge of dealing with adversity you keep going. Thank her
101for creating a community of kindness, inclusiveness within the theater community and beyond. It's funny if that's even appropriate. I've been reading on Facebook and articles you name it how awful Brittany is. My name's even been out there. How dangerous she is for our students. She's a threat. She's an anti-semite. Maybe it's because I've only been a parent in the high school for almost three years. I've yet to see it and I don't actually believe I will. What's the threat? The threat are those here and on Facebook that are trying to cancel her because they disagree with what she reposted once two years ago. Those that call her filth who docks her by posting her name, school info, maybe her home address so she can be bullied. Those that call any Jew who supports her an
102anti-semite. The fact is as I know them we wouldn't be here today if Dan Struck didn't overreach. If Mr. Krieger didn't drag her through the mud while questioning every Instagram post she's made. If one or two obsessive parents didn't decide to make it their mission to take her down and call it anti-semitism. You want to talk about voting against the settlement? The fact is we shouldn't have to even have one. She isn't being paid off for being an anti-semite even though that's what the Jewish Chicago alliance wants you to believe. This shouldn't even be a discussion. Freedom of speech doesn't come just when it's what you want to hear and supports your own narrative. Online harassment isn't covered by freedom speech. She shouldn't have had to take the time off for her mental health but
103that's where we are now and because of that we need to support the settlement. Thank you. Thank you. Number seven and number eight is on deck. Hi I'm Mickey Bear. I'm a parent of a DHS senior who spends her days in our hall. I felt compelled to speak tonight to combat the inaccurate hurtful depiction of Brittany Kenyon that has been spurred on by a mob mentality on social media. Brittany Kenyon is an exceptional educator and I am grateful every day that my daughter has the benefit of experiencing her as a teacher and a theater director. The environment that Brittany creates in the theater department at DHS is one of inclusion and respect where students feel safe and supported. She inspires her students to bring their authentic selves to class and does not lead with judgment.
104She allows for rich intellectual conversations in which students can practice critical thinking and respectful discord. Anyone who claims that Brittany creates an unsafe environment has not spent much time with her or in her class. It is deeply disheartening that some have so much trouble recognizing the nuance in this complicated conflict in Israel-Palestine. I often think about how all of this would sound to someone who lives in a more diverse community. I imagine how students of Palestinian descent feel when they are faced with such a one-sided view. There are many of us who support Israel and question Israel at the same time. I so appreciate Brittany's empathy and I as someone deeply connected to my Judaism could have just as easily shared the same social media post. My Jewish values teach me to question and also
105teach me that it is okay to respectfully disagree. You can be devastated about October 7th and be devastated at the death and destruction in Gaza. You can hold both truths at the same time. Expressing heartbreak about what has happened to the people of Gaza does not make you an anti-semite. I am heartbroken to see how Brittany was hurt last year with the initial response and how she continues to be hurt by those determined to discredit her and tarnish her reputation simply because they disagree with her. I hope the district can see past this and recognize Brittany for the treasure she is. Thank you. Number eight and number nine is on deck. Good evening. My name is J.R. Willard Rose. I live in Flossmoor. I am a 24-year theater educator and I'm here tonight in support
106of Brittany Kenyon not only as her colleague, her co-producer of the 2025 Illinois All-State production of The Prom, most importantly as her friend. I have had the privilege of working alongside Brittany and I've seen her leadership, her compassion, and the safe creative spaces she builds for young people and I wish I were here to celebrate all that work but instead I'm here because of the cruelty that has been directed towards her. In December 2023, she reposted a message from Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist, a title that was the subject of a professional book study right here, District 113, organized by Associate Superintendent of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to her private Instagram story. Brittany wasn't grabbing from fringe voices. She was engaging in the very ideas her district had elevated for professional learning.
107To her, it was a reminder that artists have a responsibility to bear witness to human suffering. That atrocities must be remembered, not erased. It resonated with her as an artist, as a storyteller, an educator, and a Jewish woman. But her repost was twisted, taken out of context, and turned into accusations that she was anti-Semitic. That's not only false, it's the opposite of who she is. Brittany has devoted her entire career to affirming the dignity of all people, to claim that her compassion for human suffering equals hatred is just wrong and it's harmful. And then came the harassment, words and actions so cruel that if our students said them to one another, we would call it bullying and step in immediately. Words and actions that not lofted to critique or voice concern, but words attempting to
108erase a teacher's career and worse a person's humanity. And here's where I want to zoom out. Look at the state of the world. We live in an age where facts have the lifespan of a fruit fly, a post, a screenshot, a headline flashed before us, stripped of context, and vanish. And what lingers is not the truth, but outrage. And in that moment of outrage, too many of us become digital vigilantes, quick to share, quick to accuse, and quick to condemn. But what when we do, we don't just spread inaccuracies, we spread hate. And once hate has oxygen, it spreads like a fungus. It multiplies in the dark, feeds on fear, and suffocates compassion if we allow it. And in its wake, people suffer. She is not the monster these comments suggest. She is the teacher
109who embodies compassion, the director who insists every voice matters, the leader who shows young people what it means to build community across difference. So the question is this, what lesson are we teaching right now? That compassion is dangerous, that disagreement must be answered with destruction, that if you speak up for human life, you'll be harassed until you fall silent. Theater has always been a mirror for showing us who we are when fear and falsehood take hold. Samuel Beckett said in Waiting for Kado, we are all born mad, some remain so. And he wasn't talking about mental illness. He's talking about our human tendency to cling to illusions and to refuse to admit that we're wrong. Please conclude. To let pride and spite carry past reason and not long from each other along the way. Please
110settle. Thank you. Number nine and number ten, excuse me, ten is on deck. I'm Alan Murdoch. I am a retired special education teacher. I've taught severe and profound behavior disorder to adolescents 18 to 21 years of age. My wife, married for 35 years, taught deaf and hard of hearing students at John Hersey High School for 35 years. We know controversy, we know parental difficulties, we know the issues. We brought together two families together and took in a boy who was 12 years old. We had five adolescents that grew up in our home. We know goal setting. Problem solving arises through many things. Nurturing and supporting my own children created many problem solving scenarios. Too many times emotions occupied the top. Never was a correct outcome produced from emotion. When the original goal was masked, an
111alternative goal took center stage. Nurturing and supporting sometimes may be difficult. Sometimes pain is experienced when an appropriate conclusion is reached. Sometimes we must deny our emotions to offer nurturing and support. When behavior is getting us closer to our goals, we're being supportive. Danger is submitting to our emotions. Pleasing my child replaces reasoning. Avoiding disappointment at the expense of reaching the goal creates an alternative goal. My comments reference a decided issue. Presumably the original goal was to improve the educational process. It would address objective and measurable concerns. It would recommend adjustments that would increase support and nurturing for all students. The outcomes solved the original question. Consensus was reached and a resolution noted. Today, an alternative goal is presented. The alternative goal fails to address safety or health issues. The alternative goal does not reference
112nurturing, support, or educational processes. Many of the things you all spoke about here today. Objective and measurable. The alternative goal is to exfoliate a nationally recognized superior professional educator. The alternative goal is personal. Alternative appropriate alternative and appropriate venues are available for personal goals. School board meetings are for legitimate issues pertaining to mission goals of education. Personal issues are not issues for school board meetings. Thank you. Thank you. Number 10 and number 11 is on deck. Sorry about that. My name is Lena Goretsky-Winters. I am a Deerfield resident. I'm a Jewish mom of three Jewish daughters and for the last six years at least one of them had been involved in the theater program at DHS taught or directed by Brittany Kenyon. And this is my fourth time addressing this board in support of Brittany
113Kenyon. But most people here today are fresh faces. The kids have come in front of you today and these are all new kids. These isn't just two children supporting her and these are the voices that you should hear. Because who better to talk about whether they've been injured or hurt by Ms. Kenyon's words, performance as a teacher or anything else than the very children that she teaches. These kids are lucky enough to have an adult in their life, a teacher in their life for whom they will sit in their chairs for two or three hours after a full day of school and activities and skip dinner to tell you today about how happy they are to have been touched by her. And her parents who are here in front of you today should feel nothing
114but pride. She's a huge asset to this district. Thank you. Thank you. Number 11 and number 12 is on deck. I'm Ali Long-Rouche, owner of Toolmaker Productions, former associate director of outreach at Columbia College Hollywood and longtime friend and professional colleague of Brittany Kenyon. I've known Britt for over a decade and she is someone who is passionate about advocating for underrepresented voices in both her personal and professional life. Brittany is an innovative leader and has dedicated her life to opening young minds to the power of theater and the ability to affect social change through art. She not only cares about her students in the present but she deeply cares about the young adults they are becoming and she acts as a guide to help them hone and use their voices as the next generation of
115artists and as humans. Brittany has welcomed me into her classroom on multiple occasions, dating back to her time at Rolling Meadows when I was able to speak to her students about pursuing the arts in college and giving them the opportunity to unlock the idea of working in a creative field. More recently at Deerfield on multiple occasions, Brittany welcomed my company via Zoom to host our workshop that was voted most useful at the 2022 CCLC Summer Symposium for Educators hosted by the U.S. Department of Education. Our director and producers show a film that explores how personal biases can ignite conflict. Following the film, Toolmaker's Resident Educator in the areas of diversity, equity, and inclusion lead the students through a workshop and talk back entitled Our Society, Ourselves. There she encourages students to dive into a discussion
116on societal constructs, ideas, and identities. Through this we explore how art can be used as a tool for social change. Now we have presented this piece to high school students, college students, and educators across the U.S. and I can tell you in our talk back, her students went above and beyond expectation. They were so insightful, brave, creative, compassionate, and vulnerable in the sharing of their truths. Now if you know high school students, especially those listening to very excited and eager middle-aged-ish guest speakers, you know that this is something special. This is directly related to the educator and the space that that educator creates for her students. As a parent, we all know how wonderful our children are, but it takes a special educator to encourage them to be themselves inside the classroom. Brittany allows a
117judgment-free zone where her students know that they are safe and their voices matter. Make no mistake, she created the space for these amazing young people and the proof is in the pudding. This evening I urge you to stand by the terms decided in the settlement that have already been agreed upon and to protect and maintain a safe, welcoming, judgment-free work environment for Brittany as she continues to protect and maintain a safe, welcoming, judgment-free educational environment for her students. Thank you. Thank you. Number 12 and number 13 is on deck. Hi, my name is Emily Modaff. I have known Brittany Kenyon for 20 years and I am a fellow artist and before I continue, I really need you to hear me when I say I am anti-violence. I am pro-peace. I am in support of ending
118the by legal definition genocide in Palestine and I am pro-returning of hostages both Israeli and Palestinian. Now, as you know, Brittany Kenyon shared a quote by an award-winning historian, anti-racist activist, author, and professor well respected. The quote that she shared states the following. When people are ethnically cleansed, the perpetrators usually come for the people's writers. That's a fact. What would you do if American journalists and writers were systematically being targeted? What would you do? Would you remain silent or would you advocate for peace and free speech? Because that is what Brittany was doing. For 24 hours, this quote was visible on Miss Kenyon's personal social media and the chaos that has followed has been absolutely disturbing to witness. I have watched one of the purest-hearted people suffer for over two years at the hands of
119adults who have twisted a quote about peace and the preservation of history into a statement of anti-Semitism. One viral article claimed her post disparages the personal beliefs and human decency of a substantial portion of our student body, and yet we have all failed to consider any of the students who are in support of Miss Kenyon. I urge you to have the bravery to defend an innocent teacher who daily fosters a safe and creative environment for young people in your school district. I won't name names for the safety of students, but I know for a fact that Brittany has changed young people's lives for the better. She has uplifted kids from all races, genders, socioeconomic statuses, sexualities, and religions. I am frankly scared. I am scared because I fear we are losing faith in each other,
120and I am scared because this is what's wrong, not sharing a post about journalistic integrity and saving history and art. I'm scared because adults are bullying adults. There are threatening emails, threatening calls, doxing, emotional abuse and harassment, spreading false information, and spreading hate with the sole purpose of causing suffering to Brittany Kenyon. Brittany has not done any of those things I just listed, yet here we are displaying her life in this room for everyone to see. So I please ask you to consider, will you bend a knee to a group of bullies, or will you uplift and support a kind, caring woman and the people who support her? I am unwavering in my support and I will not remain silent. Thank you. Number 13 and number 14 on deck. Hello, my name is Janine Fah.
121In December 2023, Brittany Kenyon, a beloved teacher and finalist in the golden, excuse me, Apple Award, reposted a post by Dr. Ibram X. Kendi, which highlighted the impact of the war in Gaza. The post did not sit well with some members of the community, who in turn instigated a campaign of hate and bullying towards Ms. Kenyon online. The school board president took it upon himself to send an email to the community claiming that the teacher was anti-Semitic and harming students. Although Ms. Kenyon was not named in the email, it was clear to anyone with the knowledge of the situation that the teacher was in fact Ms. Kenyon. The situation escalated rapidly on social media with posts that were targeted attacks on the character, belief, and moral behavior of Ms. Kenyon. These posts were not based
122on facts. I viewed many of these posts. They were horrible. The names these online instigator called Ms. Kenyon are in my fact liable. As you know, on September 16th, the United Nation Commission of Inquiry stated that Israel has committed genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The report states that there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four or five genocidal acts have defined under the international law have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023. The post by Ibram X. Kendi was a warning of this. It was not an anti-Semitic post. The NEA has stated that most political posts on social media have first amendment protections. Ms. Kenyon's post should be protected under her first amendment rights. I believe the school board of district 213 has an opportunity to make things right
123by agreeing to the settlement terms and I encourage them to do so. Thank you. Number 14 and number 15 is on deck. My name is Josh Weiner. I'm a Highland Park resident and chief strategy officer of the North American Values Institute. My comment comes with support from a number of district parents, future district parents, and community members as was submitted to the board via email. While discourse around whether the district should settle this lawsuit is important, Ms. Kenyon's anti-Israel social media reposts happened within a school culture that results from a set of divisive ideas that the school has embraced. The district DEI office specifically organized a book club and promoted Ibram X. Kendi's How to Be an Anti-Racist. This book teaches that the remedy to past discrimination is present and future discrimination. It explicitly stands
124for unfair treatment discrimination against a group of people based on their identity and associated equity gaps. Kendi's worldview which minimizes individuals and sees only power dynamics between groups fuels a school culture of division and dehumanization where we no longer see a person before us but a member of a collective identity group that is either intersectionally oppressed or part of an oppressor class. It's no wonder that teachers believe that Kendi's anti-Israel repost and other board policy misconduct are not only permissible but welcomed in this district. We are asking this board and the administration to take a hard look at teacher training and diversity, equity, and inclusion programming to ensure they are not fueling division in our classrooms and community by deliberately or inadvertently promoting discrimination. If books like Kendi's and others remain part of training and
125DEI programming then a proper critique or an inclusive and respectful alternative view like that of Coleman Hughes's The End of Race Politics should be included. Thank you. Thank you. Number 15 and number 16 on deck. My name is Shauna Rybak. I'm a Deerfield resident and a parent of a senior at DHS who used to be a part of the theater program. I'm here to ask the board not to pay the settlement to Brittany Kenyon. The situation she finds herself in is one of her own making. She has violated district policies, proven time and again to be irresponsible, and she has harmed students. The Instagram post that started this is just the tip of the iceberg of a pattern of inappropriate behavior that extends into the classroom. Connecting with students on social media, sharing her personal
126cell phone number with students, posting TikToks mocking students so specific that my daughter felt targeted, showing favoritism to select groups of students which is obvious to those students who are not in this group. Those that are will obviously defend her until the end but if those are the only voices that you're listening to you are not getting the full picture. It is great that so many have had positive experiences with Ms. Kenyon but that has not been everyone's experience. It certainly wasn't my daughter's and it is not an experience she's wanted me to share because she wanted to leave it in the past until I saw that the district was about to pay this settlement. Ms. Kenyon sends unhealthy loose boundaries with her students. She has assigned wildly inappropriate and sexual materials to students not
127only to read but perform in front of each other. Some of the materials were so shockingly graphic I can only call it straight up pornography. I have shared these materials with the board and I can share them with anyone else who would like to see them. I'm happy to share them. They've been shared with the board and with DHS admin. Some of the texts were some of these texts were alternative assignments requested by kids because they were uncomfortable with the originally assigned texts. Kids have had to leave class because they were so uncomfortable. My daughter made the decision to drop out of theater all together to focus on her own mental health because the emotional roller coaster and constant feelings of anxiety confusion and discomfort and the deterioration of her self-esteem as a result of
128Ms. Kenyon's negligence as an educator took a toll on my entire family. I'm sorry she's directly responsible for driving my daughter away from the thing that she loved doing the most kind of a message is the board sending to students and families they serve by paying her off if she has harmed children she has demonstrated a lack of pedagogical knowledge thank you and any a lack of pedagogical knowledge on any basis of understanding what the role of a teacher entails. Beyond the classroom teachers have responsibilities to the communities they serve. I am a teacher myself and I understand that there are boundaries between myself students and families that must be maintained for me to be able to create a welcoming safe space for all and I want to emphasize all of my students to learn
129and thrive. This includes understanding the larger community. The post that was that started all of this was tone deaf to the feelings and concerns of this community. I personally don't have a problem with her posting it. I am not saying I agree with it. I'm saying she has a right to post it but just because you can do something doesn't mean you should. As a parent and a taxpayer as a voter I ask the board to reject the settlement and pursue disciplinary action. Thank you. Thank you. Number 16 and number 17 is on deck. Hi my name is Leslie Williams. I'm from Evanston, Illinois and I'm a member of the Center for Jewish Nonviolence and Ceasefire Evanston. I've never met Brittany Kenyon but I really wish that I had and I really wish that I
130had a teacher like her when I was in high school. So recently I've been to school board meetings at Main School District, Oak River, Oak River, Oak Park River Forest and my own community Evanston Township High School and I'm getting tired of defending wonderful public school teachers like Brittany Kenyon who speak up for human rights. Many of these attacks have been led by the Chicago Jewish Alliance whose mission is attacking any teacher student or library that supports Palestine. Among some of CJA's achievements were attempting to censor public library screenings of the film Israelism and a program on Project Esther, attacking students at Stevenson High School for their poster about Palestine for Arab American Heritage Month, posting an Instagram photo of a Palestinian child at his kindergarten graduation and calling his keffiyeh a weapon supporting terrorism.
131Always the same baseless accusations of bigotry, the same smear campaigns, always against life-changing and beloved teachers like Brittany Kenyon and courageous students. I urge you to listen to your students rather than an organization that described Arab American Heritage Month at Deerfield as fueling disdain for the West and America. Teachers deserve better than this but so do students. Teachers have the right to express their opinions outside of the classroom and no teacher should be facing death threats and harassment for speaking out. All students have the right to hear different sides of challenging and painful topics even those that make them uncomfortable. As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote of parents who wanted to pull his books because frank discussions of racism made their children uncomfortable. He said it is neither anguish nor discomfort that these people were trying to
132prohibit. It was enlightenment. I urge the District 113 board to support Miss Kenyon's settlement, to support her against this cowardly and cruel harassment and to encourage robust engagement with the uncomfortable. Thank you. Thank you. Number 17 and number 18 is on deck. Hi my name is Lisa Meyerson and I'm a resident of Evanston. I'm a member of If Not Now and Evanston Seas Fire and I want to place Brittany Kenyon's situation in a larger context. Across the country leaders, students, and whole communities are being targeted under what is known as Project Esther, a campaign authored by the Heritage Foundation. I've been teaching workshops on Project Esther in the Jewish community and other communities because it is in many ways a new McCarthyism. Its goal is not only to punish educators but to intimidate communities, narrow
133public discourse, and silence anyone who questions U.S. or Israeli policies or who affirms human dignity. Project Esther's reach is so extreme that it even labels respected public officials, including our own Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, as part of a so-called Hamas caucus. And now the same movement has launched a new initiative aimed at attacking the trans community. It's only a few weeks old. Project Esther is about three years old and it's part of Project 2025. These are coordinated efforts to pit people against one another to weaponize fear and to control what can be said in schools and public life. Brittany's case is a perfect example. A repost of Dr. Ibram X. Kendi's words, Calling for Peace, was twisted into a campaign to end her career. For years, one family has used disciplinary process about her teaching, her
134casting choices, even her personal Instagram. At one point, investigators even cited her survival of sexual assault as grounds for discipline. This is not about student safety. This is targeted harassment amplified by a national agenda. Project Esther thrives on fear, fear of teaching, fear of speaking, fear of affirming the humanity of Palestinians, LGBTQ people, and others. If we allow these tactics to succeed, we repeat one of the darkest chapters of American history. I urge this board to stand by the mediated settlement, to stand by truth and fairness, and to show that District 113 will not be complicit in this new McCarthyism. Thank you. Thank you. Number 18 and number 19 on deck. Hi, good evening. My name is Andrew Ginsberg. I'm from Evanston, Illinois, where I am a history teacher. I teach civics, which is a
135great thing to teach these days. I teach humanities and I also teach emergent multilingual learners. So first off, even though I am interested in statistics and pedagogy around multilingual learners as a teacher, the students who stayed here till, what time is it, 9 15 p.m. in what could charitably call a pretty dry meeting, I just want to salute you guys for standing behind your teacher. That is so amazing. So I also haven't met Brittany, and just like Leslie, I really wish that I had based on what I've been hearing. From all accounts, it sounds like she has been attacked, not in spite of being a good teacher, but because she's a good teacher. She's a teacher who stands up for humanitarian causes in her personal life. She's a teacher who assigns cutting edge and thoughtful
136material that students really connect with that may offend some in the community, but enliven the experiences of the vast majority of students. She also builds relationships with her students that obviously create a very loyal following. So that's kind of what I aspire to do as a teacher. The reason that I'm here, why am I here from Evanston, Illinois to talk at a board meeting in Highland Park? Well, a very similar thing happened to me that happened to Brittany Kenyon. I am a Jewish educator. I'm a subscriber to a magazine called Jewish Currents for their Hanukkah gift. They have a poster about Jewish acts of dissent by an artist named Leora Ostrov. I put that up in my classroom around amongst hundreds of other posters. The school received an email from the Chicagoland Jewish Alliance and
137supported by, I think, one or maybe two or three very aggressive, litigious, and just frankly cruel families. The district, without consulting me, a respected nine-year educator with, I don't know if I have this big of a following, but you know, I in liked, I would say, amongst the students. Without contacting me, they immediately told me to take it down. When I asked them why it was different than other posters, they wouldn't tell me. When I stood up for myself, I was immediately censured. The vote took the Chicagoland Jewish Alliance, an organization that seems to only exist to bully teachers and fight cultural wars in our schools, over the word of a trusted educator and dozens of my colleagues, dozens of parents, over 60 people who spoke up for us. It sounds like, at first, your
138board displayed the same cowardice. So what I'm asking you to do is to go with the settlement, but do more. She deserves an apology. She deserves to be honored. Please remain quiet while the public is speaking. A vast majority of the DHS report was about the theater program, which I imagine she has a lot to go along with. So while you're censoring her, you're also taking credit for the great work that she did. So again, be better. Thank you. Thank you. Number 19 and number 20 on deck. Hello. Let's see if I can get this mic working. I'm Daniel Schwartz, the president and co-founder of the Chicago Jewish Alliance. I'm here tonight for the children and the students who cannot speak up out of fear of being ostracized. A teacher can be beloved and still
139cross a line. Letting minors follow her on social media, where politically propaganda is mixed with sexual explicit material is not mentorship. It's misconduct. And the real question is why there's no policy with the district to prevent it. Minors are minors. When I first heard what was happening here, I was concerned, but when I learned more, I actually got alarmed. As a Deerfield High School resident myself, who graduated, I'm an alum from Deerfield High School. I went here. Many people in this room went here. Parents I know from the District 113 family are here and just not speaking tonight. That is why we're here. I've already heard the argument my child loves this teacher, but that misses the point. This isn't about personal disagreements or politics. It's about boundaries. Standards don't exist only for the children
140who speak up. They exist to protect the children who feel pressured to stay quiet. The one who don't have the words or the confidence to object. In the past week, I've spoken with mothers, with friends, with kids themselves who quietly thank me to bring their voice. I am here for them, the voiceless ones who still deserve protection. Which brings up the settlement. The problem really isn't the payout. It's the secrecy. Taxpayer dollars are being used to bury misconduct rather than confront it. That is not accountability. That is capitulation. And it tells every teacher that misconduct will be rewarded. Every student that propaganda carries no cost and every parent that their concerns comes last as we saw this lady just walk out crying. We didn't arrive with slogans. We arrived with facts. Parents told us the
141same story. Explicit material in classrooms, political indoctrination outside the classrooms, repeated boundary violations. Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of consequences. Teachers hold unique authority. When that authority is misused, when personal politics and explicit content cross into the space that students inhabit, the district has a duty to act. To shrug it off as private opinion is not neutrality. It's negligence. We are not here to muzzle voices. We are here to demand accountability, transparency, and protection for our children. Because once secrecy replaces truth, decline is inevitable. And Deerfield deserves better than decline. Thank you. Thank you. Number 20 and number 21 on deck. Hello, my name is Sean Jacobs. I'm a DHS Class of 2007 alum and I am Jewish. I'm here to support the Jewish students. On October 7, 2023, 1,400 people plus people
142were murdered. 5,500 were wounded. 242 hostages were taken to Gaza Strip and more are still missing. Brittany Kenyon shared three Instagram posts from Ibram X. Kendi. There was omission of Israel and the Jews when it came to the chronological timeline of the October 7, 2023 Hamas attacks, which also omits the Jewish students. In reference to the amended complaints, I'm going to address statements 21, 22, 95, and 132. The Instagram posts that were shared involved interfering with and detracting from her employment at DHS theater director in reference to Brittany Kenyon. These expressed her political reviews, compromised her capacity as DHS theater director. These were disparaging the personal beliefs and human decency of a substantial portion of the student body characterized by harassment and bullying. And this harassment and bullying was a substantial portion of the student
143body that it was directed towards. I'm here tonight for an additional thought. Are we at a point where we're taking steps backward in history? Are we going to allow educators that are racist towards black students to get a settlement? I'm making the recommendation at this point. Either the District 113's board members and the staff members directly involved with the settlement either don't pay a penny plus of the settlement to Brittany Kenyon or if you're reluctant to not pay the settlement to immediately step down effective immediately. Thank you. Number 21 and 22 is on deck. Number 21, number 22, and number 23 is on deck. Okay, I'm back at Keen I'm back at Keen from Deerfield and I go to DHS and I participate in theater. I'm just a freshman so I haven't been lucky enough
144to know Brittany for very long but my older sibling is a senior and I have heard for the past three years how amazing she is and she has lived up to and beyond those expectations every moment I've known her since I started at DHS. And I was going to say more beyond that but I guess I noticed that I think we're forgetting that teachers are supposed to be educators and engage in dialogue and set precedence and an expectation of caring and interest in the world and not just like kneeling down to whatever might be the most popular opinion at the time and the board persecuting Brittany Kenyon for this is not only hypocritical and absurd but really shameful and I just strongly encourage you to uphold the settlement and again she's owed an apology and
145much more. Thank you. Number 23 and number 24 on deck. Good evening I'm Beth Gray. I'm a resident of Highland Park. My father started teaching at Highland Park in the early 60s so I probably have a longer connection to this school and to District 113 than many people. I can only guess because my father's no longer around that he would be appalled that we even are at this place and I guess like others I would like to say that I'm here I'm speaking as a taxpayer as a daughter who watched how my father was so kind to students and kept a line a very strong red line he didn't bring his private views as far as I know certainly not political views into the classroom he didn't speak to his the kids about it because
146I think that he knew that they wouldn't have the ability if they disagreed with him on something so volatile to point out that something that so many may have reposted isn't true. A repost of something that Kendi said that accuses Jews or Israel or anybody of ethnic cleansing is not true it's a blood libel and I can't believe that a 14 year old or a 15 year old or 16 17 year old or 18 year old most would not have the wherewithal to debate that it's it's not appropriate in a high school setting to require Jews and and to create that kind of environment I think it would be a very difficult hostile environment my dad would have understood it as a taxpayer I don't I hope that we will not be funding something that
147would promote this kind of thing or allow it I don't want to see my tax money going to anything like this and I hope that this will stand as some sort of reminder that we have to keep that we're at a high school and we have to keep that very separate from the public sphere students it's a different it's a different environment and and teachers you know have to keep their private and public views separate thank you. Thank you. Number 24 and number 25 is on deck. Hey everyone my name is Juliana Zasovsky I am a Deerfield resident I did hear about this meeting through the Chicago Jewish Alliance and I was nervous and I really don't have anything planned here but I want to say as a Deerfield taxpayer and as a Jew and
148as the granddaughter of four Holocaust survivors and my father is a refugee from the Soviet Union so this anti-Zionism you know thing is not new for me that's why my father's here he had to flee the Soviet Union because of the anti-Semitism from anti-Zionism I don't know if any of you know that this whole thing is not new I will say Ibram X. Kennedy has been himself accused of being anti-Semitic I find his work to be anti-Semitic I do believe that anti-racism leads to prejudice against Jewish people in what it is and I it sounds like you guys had that as a book that the children were reading that the students were reading it's okay please continue okay cool again I I'm just this is pretty new to me but it is it is alarming
149you need to protect the Jewish students it's not about the kids who have good experience with the teacher it's about the mom that's crying about her student that's what it's about it's not about it's not about the people have good experience it's not about who's clapping the more and I mean this with all due respect my sister's a teacher I it is not about the teachers it is it is about the comfort of the students and if teachers can't take a step back and recognize that it is making students uncomfortable and take responsibility for the fact that it's making students uncomfortable there's a huge problem that means that the teachers are not caring about the students enough right I mean it is not okay to have a mom sitting here crying about her student about
150how she was treated by this teacher and then to even fathom giving her money for I don't really know what particular reason that you would have to provide funds for this person but I don't know how you can do that and how you can rationalize it with yourself and you have a mother here crying about what her her daughter went through and I will say also a problem that I see with the social media posts is that they're just not true and so when you're a teacher you have a responsibility to speak the truth and if you have students following you your material that you're promoting on your social media needs to be true and honest and if you as and students as as I believe the mother was saying or someone else is saying
151they don't necessarily have the tools to combat this disinformation which I believe is disinformation and I know a lot of Jews agree that it is disinformation too that's really all I have to say I really urge you guys please do not use the taxpayer money in Deerfield who Deerfield is a big Jewish population all of them agree with me except for a handful of people please please and they can laugh I know what I'm saying all right thanks thank you number 25 I believe is the next number you know I yes someone jumped ahead of me are you number 25 I'm number 24 24 excuse me good evening thank you for the opportunity to be here and to speak to you my name is Barry Feldman I'm a resident of Chicago I live in Rogers
152Park I'm retired I'm a member of Jewish Voice for Peace which is how I heard about this event and I felt compelled to come to support Brittany see what this was about and to offer a few comments like to read you two short poems letter or spirit cross of technicality tight mentality sweet land of liberty of this I sing let freedom ring Brittany Kenyon proud stands ground under deadly cloud all should know her name denounce this techno witch hunt game stop wars stop war on Jews we're against war crimes thank you thank you number 25 and number 26 is on deck my name is Judith I'm from Evanston and tonight I'm going to be reading a statement on behalf of Nicole Dobrin who is a Deerfield high school alumna dear Deerfield high school school board
153I'm writing to express my deepest support for theater teacher Brittany Kenyon as a former theater adjacent choir student many of my friends were privileged to be involved in Brittany's productions her passion for her work and her students is clear for anyone to see and I know all of her students are extremely lucky to have her as a Jewish alumna it is my moral obligation to condemn the weaponization of anti-Semitism to suppress dissent particularly when it comes to addressing the genocide against the Palestinian people being committed by Israel per the United Nations the International Association of Genocide Scholars Amnesty International the Lemkin Institute for Genocide Prevention Israeli human rights groups and many others throughout the country we are witnessing constant attacks on freedom of speech particularly as it relates to Palestine and the ongoing genocide as
154an academic institution which prides itself on critical thinking and productive conversations the silencing and smear campaign against Brittany and others with similar views sets an extremely dangerous precedent of free speech suppression within our own community I'm grateful to have attended DHS an environment which harnessed my passion for social justice and critical thinking my most memorable teachers challenged the status quo and prepared me for rigorous courses and discussions in both my undergraduate and graduate programs I implore you to continue this legacy of academic excellence at DHS and refuse to adhere to the wishes of those who call for the termination and ostracization of Brittany and others like her who dare to speak out in support of our shared humanity thank you for your time Nicole Dobrin thank you number 26 and then number 27 hi everyone
155my name is Roy I'm a member of Evanston ceasefire and a college student at Northwestern University I began organizing and engaging in political activism because of educators like Miss Brittany Kenyon who not only acknowledged social equity passively but also engaged in promoting human rights discourse through their personal actions at this moment in time taking a stance in defense of Palestinian and Palestinian American students and families is nearly impossible I have been harassed on the sidewalk I have spent seven hours in a Chicago jail for protesting corporations that fund climate change and that fund the Israeli military alongside my peers in college and yet despite all of this every day I remain grateful that I have the role models and community around me that support and sustain me beyond and through my political work I am
156grateful that I have my life and my freedom in this country for the movement it is because of fearless and conscientious educators who go the extra mile for their students that I have been able to become a well-rounded and socially conscious person in this increasingly ruthless and fearful society I am a Chinese American student and I've lived in the North Shore suburbs for four years let me ask you this if I was a teacher and I posted online about the genocide that the Chinese government is perpetrating against Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang would your school district issue a reprimand of my behavior claiming that I am being anti-Asian and xenophobic and harming Chinese students with my rhetoric or would you be readily able to distinguish between my personal political beliefs and versus anti-Asian rhetoric that
157is bigoted and discriminatory why has a double standard been so callously applied in this case and in such blatant disregard for professional ethics today we live in an American political climate that echoes the era of McCarthyism when conservative and authoritarian voices silenced and imprisoned thousands of American citizens under the auspices of promoting democratic American values let me remind you that I wouldn't need to be here expressing my concern for the safety of your educators if it wasn't for the loud right-wing forces who drew the spotlight on Miss Kenyon in the first place and who escalated this situation to a point of harm I've been to several local board meetings that the Chicago Jewish Alliance has attended and everywhere they go this group spreads hatred violence and calls to ban books and DEI initiatives even though
158I work tirelessly to fight for Palestinian human rights in my free time and even though I have paid dearly for my political beliefs I am not asking you to adopt my political stance all I am asking you is to allow your teachers to express themselves freely in their free time I ask you to support the settlement and to issue an apology for the way that Miss Kenyon has been treated thank you thank you and our final speaker of the night number 27 my name is Hayden Myers I am a senior at Deerfield High School here in unwavering support of Brittany Kenyon but not only that I am a theater student what I want to make very clear is that what I believe in more than anything is the power of self-expression what I've learned from
159my theater department at Deerfield is to stand up for what I believe in and to stand for what's right no matter the circumstances the motto of our hall says that the most important thing is the way we treat each other and what I believe in tonight is the right of free sweet free speech without fear of retribution the ability for those to voice their opinions whether I agree with what's said or not I am a proud unwavering Jew and an even prouder supporter of Zionism and my own homeland of Israel where my family and friends live and where friends of their own have been murdered in cold blood just because of who they are but a difference in beliefs shouldn't matter and it hasn't civil discourse is a healthy part of society what's happening tonight
160with my teacher Brittany Kenyon is nothing short but an escalation of jealousy harassment and absolute intolerance which must be settled we as a community cannot stand for this targeting we must stand on the side of a genuinely good person and a great teacher and stand on the side of freedom of speech I urge you all to fight for truth justice and a better tomorrow or maybe just give her the apology that she definitely deserves thank you thank you and that concludes public comment for the evening we'll now be moving on to discussion items the first item is asset management software hard pivot yeah so this is the follow-up on previous conversations regarding some of the steps that we plan to take as outlined in our strategic plan to really look at our assets and to
161engage in processes and procedures that help us understand the current state of our assets as well as develop effective ways to to manage them and to ensure that we are good stewards of if we can please be aware we're continuing our meeting so please exit quietly if you are leaving yeah keep going that we can be good stewards of our resources so included in the agenda item is a memo just outlining what we are recommending for action later in the board meeting as well as a rationale regarding the adoption of the software i believe this was also discussed in our last finance and facilities meeting as well so this has been discussed a couple of times now jose medina do you have anything or ali that you want to add no i just was wondering
162if anyone on the board had any questions about the asset management plan or any concerns i had one question when i was reading through the material i just wanted to understand in layman terms how the master library interactive maps would they enhance the geocom that lane was talking about how do they work together i know they didn't necessarily work together but how do they layer on top of each other as far as safety would go for this would it be like our assets for like pool stations it would identify where the shutoff gas you know for the shutoff valve is for like gas the major components for cameras it's mainly just to identify where they're located and also to a lifespan for those assets so if we know that we're purchasing a camera or a
163camera system we know that the lifespan of that will be in the next five or six years and they need a replacement so it's mostly just locations of the area whether i'm here or or dr holland or whoever they will know the exact locations of each asset so but so from an emergency perspective they're going to rely on the geocom locations this is really about useful life and understanding location from that perspective okay did anyone have any other questions regarding the asset management and as dr holland said this will come up later for action item tonight the next item is infinite hope agreement so additionally we have a memo that includes and outlines a recommended contract with infinite hope i would like dr carter maybe to speak more about this contract and why it's up
164for a recommendation for approval okay infinite hope provides in-home support and crisis intervention and mentorship for students in the district who have been unresponsive to traditional in-school interventions they specialize in supporting students and families who are facing significant mental health and trauma and family system concerns and this partnership will provide the district with high impact individualized care for students who are at risk i also just want to add that the district there's been some work behind bringing this contract before the the board we are looking at this as an agreement currently or to put in place formally to put in place but we're also examining our internal capacity to meet the needs of students okay alongside this contract as well as it's an ongoing conversation regarding our capacity as a district to meet the needs
165of our students versus contracting out so that is a part of what we're examining as well i know it has come up as a conversation at the board level in the past so make sure i understand that that commentary we're putting it in place now we're evaluating whether or not we can do this work internally we haven't determined whether we can you know so it may be that this is a process that continues with this contract it may be that we bring it in house it may be some combination in the future yes any other questions regarding this agreement um and i does this this is also action later in the agenda as well the next item is the morningstar behavioral service agreement from a discussion perspective okay morningstar behavioral services delivers professional individualized assessments
166for annual and tri-annual ips we currently have a staff member who is out on leave and we still have these evaluations that are due and we don't have anyone internally who could take them so this is just temporary to cover our evaluations through december until the staff member returns and this would be then voted on at our october meeting correct okay any other questions okay next item is the intergovernmental agreement for gis school safety mapping so earlier in the safety and security update this was included as our director of security safety and security lane linder mentioned there has been a partnership form with deerfield police department who has been looking at this mapping opportunity for a while and has also secured a grant it's also something that i want to mention that mapping efforts were
167also included in the next one of the next phases of our work around safety and security so this isn't a new conversation for the safety landscape we are fortunate that deerfield police department has secured this grant and we're also fortunate that there's a plan to not only engage in mapping service mapping for deerfield high school but also highland park high school so this would be allow us to move forward with that goal that has been previously discussed regarding an effective and well-known mapping service across our district to increase and improve our response for emergencies one question i had was if the three years subscription we're paying for the highland park high school contract is included in that deerfield grant can you hear me now so we get the one year subscription fee with the deerfield
168grant okay and then it'll be reevaluated after that year and deerfield can choose to step away from that agreement at which point we would assume that's six hundred and fifty dollar a year subscription fee but the highland park mapping and subscription services separate from the deerfield okay okay i just wanted clarity on that so the good news is is my last conversation with them they've come down significantly significantly in the cost of what they initially proposed okay any other questions okay the last discussion item is the mercury public affairs agreement for communication audits yes so when we previously presented our strategic plan we discussed the need for communications audit specifically in relation to all of our goals but also highlighted in our family and engagement community engagement efforts and so this is one of the
169action steps outlined in our strategic plan it was also planned for and budgeted for to engage in this work and to also i mean part of what you see in the memo is that there's a desire to help us better understand our current communications landscape something that consistently has come up as a point of conversation in our district to identify what's going well but also opportunities for improvement and to implement those i do think the timing of this audit is essential considering the work ahead for our strategic plan and any other efforts we we may want to engage in the future to make sure that not only we're engaging in outreach but we are open and accessible to serving the community in ways that they need us to rather than assuming that our efforts are
170reaching them sort of similar to what was discussed earlier allows us to better understand how we can better serve our school community and the current community and versus kind of using our more historical ways of communication yes any questions and this will come back this is on this evening's agenda okay moving on to action items it is recommended that the board of education approve the allocation of eighty thousand dollars from the capital projects fund for the implementation of a district wide asset management system using master library as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation is there a second is there any discussion i view this as the last steps in a journey that this district began in 2011 when we had no idea what our assets were we had a terrible system for
171trying to track even work orders and we had no overall management of our buildings each year we have dramatically improved our capabilities and i'm really excited to see this next step hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please aye the motion carries it is recommended the board of education approved the infinite hope contract as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so is there a second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please aye the motion carries it is recommended the board of education approve a notice to remedy for tenured licensed staff member britney kenyon as presented may have I have a motion to approve this recommendation. Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. Aye, the motion
172carries. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the resolution to settle the pending litigation with Brittany Kenyon as presented. May I have a motion to approve this recommendation? Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. The motion carries. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the statement of completion for the 2024 Health Life Safety Amendments for Deerfield High School and Highland Park High School as presented. May I have a motion to approve this recommendation? Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. Aye, the motion carries. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a memorandum of understanding regarding DEA class size grievance as presented. May I have a motion to approve this
173recommendation? So moved. Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. Aye, the motion carries. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the Mercury Public Affairs Agreement for the communications audit in an amount not to exceed $30,500 as presented. May I have a motion to approve this recommendation? Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. Aye, the motion carries. The next item is the consent agenda. Items included in the consent agenda were provided to all board members in advance and made publicly available as part of the meeting agenda. A board member may pull any item for separate consideration. Does any board member wish to pull an item off the consent agenda for separate consideration? May I have
174a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented? Is there a second? Jenny will give the report on the bill. I had the bills and super exciting. I asked Ali to pull three bills for me. They all came back from, sorry, excuse me, repairs for freight elevator testing, water rental, cooler rental, and the other one was for insurance and dental benefits, but everything was there and accounted for and unsurprisingly, so thank you. Hearing no further discussion, a roll call vote please. Aye. Aye, the motion carries. There being no further business, may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Is there a second? All those in favor say aye. All those opposed say nay. The motion carries. This concludes the business of the Township High School District 113 Board of Education for the evening at
17510.02. Thank you for your time and participation.