001Yeah. Okay. I am reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, April 8 2025 at 7 11. The recording secretary will now call the roll. Mr. Nader here. Mr. Pera. Yes, please. Mr. Braza. I know. Mr. Here. Mr. Here. Here. This pack. Yeah. Mr. Walker. Here. Mr Newman. Here. This is a public hearing for, uh, school improvement day on May 28th, 2027. This is a single agenda item for a public hearing before we start our full board meeting. I would like everyone else to please identify themselves at the table. Romina Chancey, Secretary Tom Krieger, chief human resources officer. He said a lot. Go assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment. Karen Warner, chief communications officer. Tiffany Rowe, assistant superintendent for Student Services. Brian. I'm our chief operations
002officer. Ali Mohanty is in Superintendent of Finance. Hallie Fleischer, principal at Highland Park High School. Catherine Anderson, Prince Ledgerfield High School. Ron Casper, chief information officer. Mira Antti, executive director of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Shayla Holland, Superintendent. We welcome your comments and questions and give them serious consideration to pursue to Board of Education Policy 2-230. Please limit the length of all comments to no more than three minutes. Any questions may be sent via email to be answered 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. This public comment period will be for a maximum of 30 minutes. This is a public comment for only the public hearing and the public hearing topic is on adding a school improvement day
003on May 28, 2027. Is there anyone for public comment on that topic? Is there a motion to adjourn the public hearing? Is there a second? All of those in favor? Opposed? Motion carries. I am now reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 Committee of the Whole meeting on Tuesday, April 8, 2025 at 713. The recording secretary will now take the role. Mr. Shapiro? Yes, please. Mr. Brazda? Dr. Elliott-Schirmer? Here. Mr. Heineman? Here. Ms. Lupoff? Here. Mr. Nieder? Here. Ms. Newman? Here. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as presented? Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no further discussion, we'll proceed to a vote. All of those in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Say nay. The motion carries. We'll be now moving on to board reports and the
004first is my presence reports. I had the opportunity to attend the opening night of Focus on the Arts last week. It was an amazing mix of professional and student talent and I want to thank Tamara and her team of volunteers for putting on such a wonderful evening which I am sure led into fantastic educational opportunities over the next two days as well as the evening events and I know we all look forward to her reports when she comes back to us to talk about Focus on the Arts. This is National Library Appreciation Week. We celebrate our DHS and Highland Park High School school libraries as hubs of learning and community and we share appreciation for the collaboration with our local public libraries in Deerfield, Highwood and Highland Park for the support and service that they
005provide our families. Our libraries have an enduring role in the education of our students. The board also wanted to take a moment to note the passing of Margie Sandlow in March who served for eight years as a member of the District 113 school board serving as vice president and president during her various terms. According to community members, she was instrumental in the passing of the 2013 referendum during her tenure on the board. Her co-president of the District 113 Education Foundation, Yumi Ross shared, I hope she's remembered for her big heart and her passionate commitment to our students and community. Our thoughts are with her family and friends. And that concludes my president's report. I believe there is an Ed Redd report. Yes, indeed. So the Ed Redd meeting was on Friday, April 4th. The main
006discussion item was HB 1358 education waivers. Basically, what this does is enable school districts to have some flexibility regarding physical education classes and what they actually have to do and what they require in that. So over the original bill had a reference allowing waivers to the requirement for physical education. But over the past years, these have become frequent and never ending. So the legislature proposing that many limits be put on the practice. Many school districts and Ed Redd oppose this. The elimination of waivers would impact class schedules, graduation requirements, the ability of students to participate in arts and other electives. So this would decrease our ability to control our environment. Ed Redd believes that this move should not be done except as part of a full review of all the mandates for graduation, as well
007as individual mandates placed on school curriculum. Um, I most recently found out the school school district does have a position on this and maybe shale tells about that. But what they're asking for is that we provide witness slips and that we contact our legislators if possible. There's another bill that we found out that I found out about today from the I. S. B. On notice to remedy issues. Um, and for that, they're not asking for witness stuff at this point. But, um, Bob Oregon, our representative is on the committee for that. So we should probably contact him and and let him know what our position is. And at that time, we could actually talk to about both of these issues. Um, so there's that there's also a number of bills associated with adding additional paperwork
008for IEPs because we don't have enough. Um, so that's another thing was brought up at the meeting and that's something that they're going to keep an eye on and try to keep ahead of. The third major topic was the fact that the next mini summit, which was such a great experience last year, uh, is going to be June 12th, 8 a.m. to noon at Glenbrook North. The program was great last year provides an opportunity to meet people from other districts, including one or nine and 112. And I recommend that every board member and as many cabinet members as possible at you say it was a G. B. N. Yes. Okay. Great. June 12th. Yes. Fantastic. No, I get there early because there's food. Always will matter. It's the case, right? So I do want to
009comment on P waivers. Um, our our schools do permit P waivers and I, I do think we should take the stance of opposing the bill. It does allow our building some flexibility and determining the appropriateness of when to use P waivers. Additionally, I think, um, both of our schools have done a really good job of figuring out when it's appropriate to use P waivers while also honoring and valuing the work of our P department. So I think there's always a balance there, but removing that as an option or placing time parameters around it, um, would lead to a lot of inflexibility across our, our programming in our district. So each board member does have an email that they received today from I. S. B. As well as Ed read that walks you through how to
010submit a witness slip. And so if you can take the feedback from Rick as well as from Dr Holland, make your choice. And if you'd like to please submit a witness slip to oppose. All right. Moving on to our administration reports, Dr Holland. Yes. So I also was able to participate in my first focus on the arts week. Um, it was a very exciting time in our district. Um, I was able to experience a week filled with evening community events, um, that were very well attended and very highly engaging and also attend sessions with students, staff and professionals during the school day. I was blown away by the talent that was brought to that has been brought to our district by artists of all backgrounds and experiences. I was also very inspired by our talented
011students who participated and performed with highly accomplished and talented professionals. I have no idea how Tamara Jenkins does it. It's such a huge undertaking. Um, it is also a labor of love. It was an awesome experience. Focus on the arts as I mentioned, was a huge undertaking and I want to say thank you to Tamara Jenkins. I also want to say thank you to the Highland Park, find an applied arts department, the building administrators and many other staff members. Basically all departments were on call and helping in every way. They all work to mobilize this dynamic experience for all involved. So thank you. Friday of last week, I spent the evening at Deerfield High School attending DCOMS, which was an amazing evening as well of brilliantly choreographed dance routines performed by the dance company. I
012realized that's what DCOMS means. Um, freshmen through seniors participated and I was able to witness the show first sold out performance. Woop woop. It was exciting, interactive and it was a celebration of the hard work, the friendships and relationships that have been established and the brilliance of the dance company at Deerfield High School. So I want to say thank you to Laz and Bush. I was told to say that specifically Laz and Bush and everyone who made the event possible. It was a good time for all of us in attendance. A C T testing is taking place at both of our high schools this week. The transition from S A T to A C T has not been an easy one for our state, leaving our districts with many logistics to manage and figure out.
013I would like to thank the building principals, their teams and the staff for taking an all hands on approach to managing this significant shift in required standardized testing across our district. I also want to thank, um, they thank you to our professionals who manage accommodations for our students during what can be a very stressful time. There's been a lot of time and care that has gone into preparing for this week and it has been great to see the level of communication. I've been reading all of the messages and support that our staff has continuously provided to students and families to prepare them for this experience. I also want to recognize in closing that this is assistant principal recognition week. Um, our assistant principals, um, speak for myself as a former principal. They carry a significant
014amount of responsibilities and they're also oftentimes the unsung heroes of a lot of what happens across our schools. So I want to say thank you to our system principals who work hand in hand in support of our principals and all of our students and staff for, um, all of your work that you do. I want you to know that we see you. We appreciate you and thank you for everything. Fantastic. Thank you. Moving on. I believe we have foyers. Yes. So we've had, um, we've had several foyers, many foyers, I should say this week that were received and responded to since our last board meeting. And those are posted publicly and they're also up on the screen. Moving on to student liaison reports, which would you would like to go first? Miss Peck. Fantastic. Thank
015you. DHS is dance company has been working hard to put on D comps live the show at three nights, April 3rd through 5th. It showcased 14 dances, majority of which were student choreograph. The I U academic challenge team won both the regional and sectional tournaments and will be heading to stay on April. And then finally DHS is annual jazz night will be held April 10th in the auditorium. It features the jazz band and the core leads. Thank you, Mr. Walker. Last week, Helen Park had focus on the arts. Students attended assemblies, workshops and master classes where both student and staff were able to learn and experience all forms of art this week. Junior, sophomores and freshman have like a C. T. P. A. C. T. Testing tomorrow and Wednesday. I've seen like lots of teachers
016helping students get prepared this week. And then just some sports stuff. Girls Water Polo earned a double overtime victory against Maine East on Tuesday, last Tuesday, winning in the final second Boys Water Polo defeating Warren 10 to 9 last Tuesday. Girls across one eight to one and boys baseball won their home opener Friday. Thank you. All right. We are now proceeding to public comments. We welcome your comments and questions and give them serious consideration pursuant to Board of Education policy 2-230 per policy 8-30. The use of threats, harassment, intimidation and language as profane, vulgar, obscene or defamatory is not permitted. Destructive behavior will not be tolerated and failure 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
017to reasonable directives, which may be necessary to facilitate orderly public participation. We will go in the order of the numbered card you received when registering to speak. When I call your number, please come to the podium, identify yourself with your first and last name and city in which you reside. And if applicable, state the agenda items for which your comments is directed. Please keep all comments within three minutes. I will raise my hand at the 32nd warning and announced time when the limit is reached. You must conclude your remarks immediately. Any questions may be sent via email to the superintendent to receive response subsequent to the meeting. Handouts for the board to review should be placed in the designated space at the front desk upon signing up for public comments. Commenters should not step beyond
018the lectern. As a reminder, public participation is not intended to be a back and forth discussion between the public and the board. This public comment period will be for a maximum of 30 minutes. So I will call on the person with number one, please. You turn on the mic. There's a button at the base. Thank you so much. My name is Josh Weiner. My husband and I have been residents of Highland Park since 2018. I'm a 2006 graduate of Deerfield High School. My parents and grandparents are also DHS alum. I'm here to talk about the Arab heritage, Arab American Heritage Month display. Over the preceding decade, I noticed a troubling development in the progressive spaces where my husband and I had formerly found political alignment and unquestioned inclusion. Our credibility suddenly became tied to our
019intersectional identities and our inclusion contingent on alignment with a particular agenda. Soon, my identity became a condition for exclusion. As a Jewish person who believes in the Jewish expression of all people's right to self-determination, a Zionist, I was framed as a racist, a white supremacist, even a Nazi by former friends. I began to speak up about the perils of this direction of our gay and progressive communities, that it may in fact undermine the very rights we had achieved through liberalism. When October 7th happened, Zionists became the ultimate oppressor and through the concepts of solidarity and collective liberation, progressive and supposedly inclusive spaces had built a permission structure for hate and violence against Jews. I am blessed, dare I say privileged, to have an excellent education and dehumanization and genocide from my family history as a
020Jew and as a fourth generation descendant of Armenian genocide survivors. Equally, at Deerfield High School, I studied 20th century atrocities extensively in American studies and 20th century history and literature classes. This education and the promise to myself to be the person who does something led me to leave a successful 15-year career in marketing. With another DHS grad, I founded the Chicago Jewish Alliance to combat anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in Chicagoland as a volunteer. I joined the North American Values Institute to lead marketing and development to combat the oppressed, oppressor, post-colonial theory, critical theory, and postmodern extremism in K-12 schools, which has driven a liberal progressive agenda to an illiberal one that fuels anti-Semitism and a disdain for the West and America. Despite all of this, I come to this meeting hopeful. After a year of dealing
021day in and day out with anti-Semitic incidents, frustrated and scared parents, crying children, which has taken an emotional and mental toll on me, I finally came across a principal who acted the right way. And she is the principal of the school my family and I are so tied to and were molded by. Principal Kathy Anderson acted swiftly to remove a display that not only made Jewish students feel marginalized, but as importantly, did a disservice to Arab Americans by reducing them to a Palestinian flag and a woman in a hijab. Kathy gave me her time, her attention, and her commitment to do the right by this community and the students in her school. She took responsibility for missteps, agreed to take actionable steps to change process, and embraced our organization as a partner that can and
022will provide resources to do better. While I expect follow-through from our discussions, today I'm proud to be a graduate of this district and confident that we will be able to highlight Deerfield High School as an example for how other schools should deal with similar incidents in the future. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number two, if you both can announce yourselves please. Thank you. My name is Erin Rhodes and I'm Sumner Silver and we're both students of Highland Park High School and residents of Highland Park. We would like to direct everyone's attention to a study conducted by Dr. Perry Zirkel, a professor at Lehigh University who reported that district 113 in 2021 ranked the highest in the nation in terms of the percentage of students with 504 plans in our district. Due to this, due to
023the fact that our district is at the top of the nation in terms of students with 504 plans, we believe that it is our responsibility and our duty to preserve the integrity of testing accommodation. In doing this, we think that more regulations should be put in place in terms of deciding whether or not a student necessitates a testing accommodation. And while we know wholeheartedly that the idea of these accommodations is well-meaning, we've noted that time and time again many students have taken advantage of this. For example, some of our teachers from the very same high achieving and rigorous classes allow for students with such accommodations to divide their tests taking time over multiple different class periods, giving students break time in between periods to look up answers for tests and collaborate with other students. Meanwhile,
024students with 504 plans aren't required to indicate this accommodation on college applications. This fact gives a blanket of credibility to these students' applications and their grades and standardized test scores even when loopholes, like I mentioned, are consistently being leveraged. Lastly, we've noticed that many of our classmates received their 504 plans in middle school where that's able to be attributed to their early struggles to age-related attention span deficits potentially. And those same 504 plans now persist in a high school environment with entirely different demands and potentially different motives. Right. And additionally, the researcher who I referred to previously noted that the correlation between our very high percentage rate of students with 504s with our nationally standardized test scores is so profound to suggest an over issuance or a misimplementation of 504s. Due to this, we propose
025that there's put into place a more holistic approach to approving or denying a student's eligibility to use their 504 plans at the school. This could look like looking at a student's standardized test scores before they receive their testing accommodation to evaluate whether or evaluate the extent to which they need that testing accommodation. Thank you. Thank you. Speaker number three and I'm okay. Okay. Gotcha. Okay. Sorry. I missed that. I didn't see the names. Great. Fantastic. That concludes our public comments period. Moving on to discussion item. One discussion item for this evening, textbook adoptions for the 25-26 full year. Dr. Holland, would you like to start? Sure. I'm going to ask Dr. Delacqua to kind of provide a very brief overview of the textbook that's up for adoption and how it will be used. Sure. So
026and this will be the the first time that we are doing like a district-wide adoption. So we have English language development courses that are running at both Deerfield and at Highland Park and so we have had both schools come together to pilot a resource this year and that resource is up for recommendation to the Board of Education for approval. That is National Geographic's Lyft program. So this program is a program that is used with students who are English learners and who are working on improving their English language development through a variety of levels. This is an iteration of a program that has already existed for quite some time and so we are excited to have the newest version to be able to recommend for adoption in all of our levels for English language development at
027both schools. Are there any questions from the board regarding this textbook selection? You say this has been used for quite some time within our district? No this is this will be the first time that we'll have an evidence based an evidence based textbook actually used in English language development courses. So before we have always had teacher created materials the courses are relatively new so this will be a shift to something that has has an actual evidence and research tied to the curriculum and the standards. So the efficacy of using this textbook within these courses. Yes. Okay any other questions? I wanted to just make a couple of quick comments. Was there anything else you wanted to add? Okay one is it's my understanding that as we move through the rest of this school year and
028this fiscal year there may be additional textbook adoptions that come to us as the various curriculum groups within our buildings are finalizing any suggested changes or additions. I also felt that it was important because of the climate we're currently in in our world to articulate the board's role in the selection of textbooks. Textbooks and curriculum adoption is through a multi-step district process involving teacher reviews, pilots, and committee evaluations. The board's role is not to select specific books or lessons plans but to ensure the process is rigorous, inclusive, and compliant with education standards and aligns with district goals and that role is fulfilled through the board's employment and oversight of the superintendent. Our ultimate goal is to improve material that supports high quality instruction, reflects diverse perspectives, and prepares students for life after high school. Great
029thank you very much so we look forward to this being an action item at a future board meeting. Moving on to action items. The first is the McClory bike path easement. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the HPHS McClory bike path easement as shown in the attached document. May have a motion to approve this recommendation. Is there a second? Okay. Is there any discussion? Dr. Holland? So Brian Armour our chief operations officer is going to speak to this. Yep so this has been brought to the board before with an existing bike path that is Highland Park High School and a bridge that crosses over Vine Avenue. This is just cleaning up some paperwork from the late 90s 97. Lake County is repaving this area. This easement allows them to do some of
030that maintenance work. So nothing is changing structurally to Highland Park High School. It is just cleaning up some things from the late 90s. Great thank you. Any other discussion on this action item? I did mention this to Brian. I've been talking to a number of people who are very excited about having bicycling good bicycling stuff going on in town and one of the things that they've requested or and it just began the process of requesting it is that this path be extended along railroad tracks further south towards Highland Park the city the city center. I have no idea if that's going to happen or not but I think that the district should be aware that that's a possibility so that we don't build something on the path that they're seeking to create. So it's just
031a matter of relaying the information to the community so that we're aware of it and take that into account in future plans for that property. Thank you. Thank you. Great. Okay. Hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please. Dr. Elliott-Shermer. Aye. Mr. Heineman. Aye. Ms. Lupa. Aye. Mr. Nader. Aye. Mr. Shapiro. Yes please. Newman. Aye. The motion carries. It is recommended the Board of Education award contracts to trade contractors for the district-wide summer 2025 improvement project bid period number one after due advertisement pursuant to the school code the board hereby elects alternative one two three four and five a finds that the following contractors are the lowest responsible bidders and accepts the proposals of the sorry of and makes an award to the following contractors subject to the legal review of the district's council
032bid package number one structural steel miscellaneous metal bias construction steel fabrication a hundred and eighty one thousand dollars general trades pepper self-perform group 146 164 roofing Bennett's and we say for so 1 million four hundred sixty one thousand dollars plumbing DeFranco plumbing three hundred thirty nine thousand nine hundred mechanical Sherman mechanicals seventy nine thousand electrical power link electric one hundred forty seven thousand four hundred paving site concrete abbey paving one million one hundred and eighty six thousand ninety five dollars site utilities burger contractors eight hundred fifty six thousand four hundred dollars masonry Raskin Mason contractors two hundred and the trade cost subtotal is four million six hundred thirty one thousand nine hundred fifty nine dollars may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion again
033dr. Holland is there anything to add so I'm gonna pass it off to Brian again to see if there's anything you want to share yes so these are just the trade contractors that we we brought out to bid these are items that we reviewed before so there's two motions here the first is to approve the trade contractors and then the next motion is to assign those contractors to cover so that's why there's always two but that's that's what we're doing here my question is we approve this we assign this those are our prices we're paying no matter what happens in the next 48 hours so the paperwork says yes absolutely and so I'm just that is majeure that is the paperwork and there are and and we will abide is what we are paying and
034that is and we will we have a contract yes thank you okay any other questions or discussion hearing no are very worried about money hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please I motion carries has recommended the Board of Education approved project authorizing exhibit number six for construction management services related to the summer 2025 improvement projects for which pepper is requesting a 2.1% fee plus cost of the work including reimbursable costs for a total award including subcontractors of five million nine hundred eighty eight thousand five hundred and forty dollars subject to the legal review and approval of the district council they have a motion to approve this recommendation is there a second second is there any discussion so this as Brian that's mentioned it's a additional part to what we just approved hearing no
035further discussion a roll call vote please the motion carries is recommended the Board of Education approve a one-year employment contract for Jennifer Jenna Wagoner as special education coordinator at Highland Park High School as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation is there a second is there any discussion so I just want to mention that in a previous board meeting there was a resignation and the personnel yeah go on no it's okay and the personnel section and this is we've hired for this position so this is in a new position it's filling a vacant open position any other discussion hearing no further further discussion a roll call vote please motion carries it is as required by law we are presenting our annual reduction in force which must be completed by April 15th each year
036this process is not performance-based but rather a necessary alignment of our staffing with our current FTE allocations this the resolution will honorably dismiss or reduce hours for the following licensed staff member from employment in the district at the end of the current school year for brief reasons and the stage of Balmer Anna Barnhill Jeffrey Collins Riaz Hovoday it is recommended the Board of Education approve a resolution for honorable dismissal reduction in hours of teachers as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second second is there any discussion so I'm gonna ask our chief human resources officer Tom Krieger just to speak a little more about the process and actually what this means because I could I'm assuming that it may be misinterpreted in some way it's gonna ask
037you to provide clarity regarding what this means for staff members thank you yes what this means is that has everyone I'm sure will recall in March of this year we set our final FTE numbers for the for next school year for the 2526 school year and then after that happens it is the work in the human resources office to make sure we match up the available approved FTE by the board with our existing staff members by seniority and by their endorsements that the you know endorsement is what the state approves them to teach and this process is very highly regulated by state law and we go through a seniority analysis of our existing staff to allocate our approved FTE at the end of that process any of our existing staff who we are not able
038to accommodate with existing existing excuse me FTE we are required to go through this annual exercise to reduce their FTE for next year this year we don't have any teachers being fully reduced to no FTE but we do have the four teachers mentioned being reduced from full-time jobs down to lesser FTE for next year and again I would like to stress this is not for performance-based reasons any other questions or discussion great hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please mr. Nader I miss Shapiro I dr. Elliott Schermer I mr. Newman by the motion carries it is recommended the Board of Education approve a resolution for the dismissal of support staff employee Jarrett last Perez as presented may have a motion to approve this recommendation so moved is there a second is there any
039discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please yes dr. Elliott Schermer I mr. I 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 have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented so moved is there a second second is there any discussion hearing no further discussion a roll call vote please dr. Elliott Schermer I mr. Heneman I mr. I the motion carries there being no further business may I have a motion to adjourn the meeting yes please is there a second
040all of those in favor say aye aye all opposed say nay the motion carries this concludes the business of the township high school district 113 board of education for this evening at 7 48 thank you for your time and participation good night everyone