001I am reconvening into open session Township High School District 113 committee of the whole meeting on Tuesday, April 9th at 705 they roll probably. Dr. Elliott Schermer. Here, Mr. Heidemann. Here. Ms. Lupach. Here. Mr. Nieder. Ms. Shapira. Here. Mr. Braza. Here. Ms. Dala Shahi. Here. Mr. Walker. Ms. Newman. Here. Great. I would like everyone else who is present to identify themselves. Pramina Chansky. New name. Tom Krieger, Chief Human Resources Officer. Michael Ock, Assistant Superintendent, Curriculum and Instruction Assessment. Karen Warner, Chief Communications Officer. Tiffany Rowe, Assistant Superintendent, Student Services. Holly Macias and Sue Planitz. Debbie Finn, Principal, Highland Park High School. Katherine Anderson, Principal at Jerrfield High School. Ron Caswell, Chief Entrepreneurship Officer. Mira Ante, Assistant Superintendent, DEI. Shayla Holland, Incoming Superintendent. Bruce Law, Superintendent. Shayla Spathers. Okay. Is there a motion to approve the agenda
002as amended as follows? Take no action on item 9C. Move item 9F. Approval of Highland Park School Principal before item 4. Board reports to be the next agenda item. And add a second public comment agenda item after the consent agenda. Is there a second? Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? Motion carries. First item on the agenda. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a three-year employment contract for Holly Flesher as Principal of Highland Park High School as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Good evening, everyone. Following the approval of my contract, I worked with School Exec Connect, the firm, the board engaged to facilitate the search process in hiring a new
003principal of Highland Park High School to succeed retiring principal Debbie Finn. After a review of the candidate poll, candidates were invited to a screening interview. From there, the poll was narrowed down to three candidates, all with different strengths, leadership experiences, and assets that aligned with the Highland Park High School profile created based off of stakeholder feedback. Four stakeholder groups interviewed each of the three finalists and each participated in a one-on-one discussion with me. Every piece of feedback was read, reviewed, and analyzed. Extensive reference checks were also conducted to provide an additional layer of understanding and insights into the professional work of the candidates. Time was taken to consider the feedback and also consider layers of support that are essential to plan and provide for any new leader in the district. As someone new to the
004district, I was able to clearly focus on the profile that was created based off of stakeholder feedback, my growing knowledge and understanding of the district and Highland Park High School, my leadership as the new superintendent, and the direction of the district as authorized by the Board of Education. As I continuously reviewed the 17 statements of interest outlining the profile in relation to the compilation of feedback and information gathered about each candidate, the decision became clearer regarding the leader I believe could effectively lead Highland Park High School into a new phase of excellence for each student in alignment with the vision and mission of our district. Tonight, I am honored to recommend Ms. Holly Fleischer as the next principal of Highland Park High School. Ms. Holly Fleischer has worked in Township High School District 113 for
005over 20 years in the roles of English teacher, school counselor, drop-in center coordinator, MTSS director, and more recently as the assistant principal of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Through all of her roles, Ms. Fleischer has deepened her knowledge and skills pertaining to supporting and enhancing student growth across the diversity of our learners through effective teaching and learning, SEL, and equity-centered measures. Through her tenure, Ms. Fleischer has been able to support and lead across different facets of the high school, developing a strong sense of the holistic needs of students and effective ways to support their well-being in ways that honors and considers the humanity and dignity of each student. As indicated in their feedback, stakeholders provided strong evidence of instructional leadership, data analysis, and student-centered approaches and leadership in school-wide practices. Her colleagues spoke to their own
006growth and the growth of their students in relationship to the leadership that she's provided. There were multiple remarks regarding the high expectations that she has for staff and leaders rising in service of the academic, social, and emotional growth and support of each student. While Ms. Fleischer has extensive knowledge and understanding regarding matters of equity, trauma, and crisis management and care, counseling, and supportive service, through the interview process, there were many examples of the ways her learning has been applied and used to support and transform various aspects of the Highland Park High School experience. Ms. Fleischer is relentless in her drive as an educator and educational leader. She is a mindful listener and reflective leader. She's action-oriented, using quantitative and qualitative data to inform her insights. Her will and commitment towards working in service of students
007is truly inspiring. Ms. Fleischer is actively engaged in her own learning and growth in service of the students and staff. Many have witnessed her growth and many have also experienced her support of their own growth. Known as a warm demander, strong instructional leader, and trauma-informed practitioner, Ms. Fleischer possesses the insights and care needed to catapult Highland Park High School into being a place for each student and staff to authentically engage and grow, while experiencing the care and support to experience the healing that is necessary for the collective well-being of the school community. I am honored to recommend Ms. Holly Fleischer as the next principal of Highland Park High School. Thank you. Are there any other discussion items? Great. A roll call, please. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Shapiro? Aye. Ms. Shapiro? Yes, please. Mr. Garaza? Enthusiastic,
008aye. Dr. Elliott-Shermer? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. Holly, is there anything you'd like to say? And I appreciate that your kids are in blue. Thank you. That was the first thing I was hoping you would notice. And they're sitting so nicely for two little boys for these few moments. So thank you for your kind words. I'm honored and humbled to accept the position of Highland Park principal. I want to thank members of the board and those in the district cabinet, community members and my Highland Park High School colleagues, families and students for their engagement in the principal search process. I want to specifically thank Debbie Finn for her leadership these last 16 years as math department chair and principal. You have served during our most trying times and have proven to be creative and
009adaptive during COVID and helped us heal and recover after the tragedies of July 4th. Thank you. I am honored to follow in your footsteps and lead this institution into its next phase of excellence along with our entire school community. I also want to thank Dr. Shayla Holland. The precious moments that I've spent with you throughout this process have given me a window into your leadership, which is centered in direct and clear communication, vision, reflection and clear passion. I am so excited to learn from you and from Dr. Kathy Anderson and work alongside both of you in this district. Education is a value that I have, that has been instilled in me through my entire family. My dad is a first generation college student. My grandfather served on the Board of Education for many years in
010Skokie, and my mom is a retired special education teacher who worked relentlessly to ensure that her students gained access and achievement and broke down barriers in order to do so. As a student myself, I spent my formative years at Deerfield High School, and I was challenged by excellent staff members who cared deeply for me. And as an educator, I've spent the last 21 years learning and growing at Highland Park High School. And the many thank yous I have for the staff, the families and the students who have impacted my growth are endless. And I know people want to sleep tonight, so I won't go through the list. But needless to say, I am loyal to District 113. It is my home. It is where I chose to raise my family. I promise to continue to
011lead and serve in the best interest of the richly diverse and resilient communities of Highwood and Highland Park. I look forward to working with all stakeholders to make progress towards ensuring that our students can walk through the halls of our House on Vine in the fullness of their identities, and experience academic challenges and successes, physical and emotional safety, extracurricular exploration, and social emotional growth. Speaking to all of our students, I'm looking at you, Miles, but speaking to all of our students, each of you matters to me and to our entire school. And I want to make sure that every space in which you inhabit, you feel that. And I know we have some work to do there. I truly can't wait to spend more time with all of our students to see you shine, to
012support you when you falter, and to listen deeply in terms of what you can offer to our school and to the world at large. To our staff, I commit to supporting you by taking the time to appreciate you out loud, to ask questions, to listen, to reflect on our collective progress and on my leadership, and to push us in moving forward and continuing to grow and make decisions with transparency in mind in the best interest of our students. I look forward to partnering with our community and families in service of the academic, social, and emotional growth of our children over the course of four years and beyond. My last two thank yous go to my family, my two boys and my husband. Boys, you make me proud to be your mom every day. And I
013learn and grow the most from both of you. And I love you. And to my husband, who is a lifelong learner, I want to thank you for your continued support throughout this entire process. I love you all. So thank you all again. I am filled to the brim with excitement and passion and ready to go. So let's go Giants. Thank you. Thank you. Not this picture. Yeah, but you're holding it together very well. For you, this is good. And as we said, when Dr. Holland came on board in regards to Dr. Lowe, we have a lot to celebrate with Debbie Finn, and that is the next thing that we do. Great. Okay, moving on to my presentation. One housekeeping item, the ISB self-evaluation retreat will be on August 19. Please hold from 5 until 9
014p.m. You should already have an appointment, I think, from Renina. We won't have a facility that long, but I want to kind of block that entire time. And then we'll work with the ISB facilitator to figure out how to best use it. For my presence report, I had the opportunity to speak with our staff last Monday, April 1, April Fool's Day, during their professional development days keynote presentation on social media. I shared what they can expect from us, the board, and our ask of them in regards to staff posting on personal social media accounts. I want to take a moment during my presence report to share those expectations with all district stakeholders. The board will not direct administration to discipline staff for constitutionally protected speech on personal social media accounts. We need our staff to
015adhere to policy 5-125, ensuring their social media accounts follow the definition of personal, as outlined in that board policy. This includes not allowing current students on their personal social media accounts and communicating with students exclusively through the approved district communication tools. I also want to remind everyone of the board's expectation for respectful and civil communication from us, our staff, our students, and our community members, as we outlined in our February email that is now posted on the 113 website. Why is talking about social media expectation and civil discourse so important right now? And why is it critical that we clearly and consistently communicate the guardrails? Because educating our students isn't done in a vacuum. It occurs within the landscape of local, national, and global events. And now more than ever, we know we have students
016and staff directly and indirectly impacted by these events, whether here in Highland Park while we await the July 4th murderers trial to begin, or in our nation with the immigration crisis intensifying and the U.S. presidential election unfolding, or globally with both the Israeli Hamas and the Ukrainian-Russian wars continuing. This is just what we know can impact our community. And we know our students are native users of these social media platforms. They are connected to the world in ways we never have been. We are their role models. They are always watching. So I appreciate being given the opportunity to share the board's perspective with the staff on April 1st, and I look forward to continuing to have that opportunity with them. And that concludes my president's report. We now have a policy committee board update. Thank
017you, Madam President. On the 2nd of April, the policy committee met to review policies that are slated for review as part of an ongoing update that we receive from Pat Press, given new suggested updates to our policies. You'll see later on in the agenda, agenda item 8 has first reading of those policies that were reviewed. We did take time during the policy committee to review each one of those policies that are presented, as well as others that aren't being presented tonight as we further investigate, not investigate, review the policies and the policy recommendations. So what you'll see tonight is the policies that are moving forward with suggested changes in lieu of reading through each one of those policies. What we'll do is ask if there is any question on policies, the policy as a board
018of education is one of the most important things that we do is we set policy to set the course for the for the district from a policy perspective. So if there are any questions at that time, we can review those suggestions that have been done in conjunction with the superintendent cabinet, as well as our attorneys. I do want to quickly thank Dr. Law, Tom, Romina and our legal counsel. Meeting typically every year is can be very laborious because there is a lot of approval of contracts. There is a lot of individual staff members that have to be walked through for employment for next year. And as well as having 37 policies at first reading. And so I really appreciate the time that they took to figure out how we can use this time effectively and
019efficiently and still make sure that we're meeting all the needs. So you'll see that we can actually move through several of these items relatively quickly and efficiently. Administrative information reports, Dr. Law. Thank you, Mr. Newman. Three things under my report. First, I'd like to underscore the importance and of what you said in your report about the about social media. All District 113 staff have at least one thing in common, and that's we are here for all our students. But all staff members also have identities outside of their role as staff members in District 113. And in those roles, we care about our families. We care about our pets, sports, our sincerely held religious beliefs, politics, et cetera. The list goes on. And there are some District 113 staff who may choose to express their views
020on personal social media accounts. And these views that are constitutionally protected speech, these are the ones I want to talk about. Not everyone may agree with those views. And as you said, the need for civil discourse is so important and card rails are so important. District 113 is a great district. I mean, we all know that. But that's only true because we are good at certain things. You know, we are good at academics. We are really good at the arts. We're good at sports. We're good at the things that we do. Reflecting on the fundraisers that our students hold at each school for charities, thinking about the work that our students do for genocide commemoration days. I think one of the things we can say about District 113's greatness is it's great because we simply
021have great students. This is a very difficult time in our history as a country. And I'm not the only one who's worried about it. And I can't tell if these difficult times are made worse by the fact that anyone who wants it can just get a megaphone and start shouting. Or if these are times are difficult because anyone who wants a megaphone can have one and start shouting on social media. But these are difficult times. And then you said all these things are happening in the world. I'm worried about those. I'm also really worried about what's coming. And so that's why I say that when we say District 113 is a great district, we should include civility as one of the things we are great at. We should hold ourselves and each other accountable for
022civility. We're going to see views on social media from staff members posting their personal social media accounts we don't agree with. Those are the times when we really have civility tested. There are going to be decisions that are going to be made that people are not going to agree with. And we should be able to disagree and air those disagreements and the reasons for our views and do it in a civil way. So I would really, really encourage and even challenge District 113 to be an oasis in this world of civility when it's tested. And of course, it's going to be tested moving forward. And I have no doubt about our ability to rise to that standard and really be a place that's known for civility, even when we disagree with each other. So I
023really appreciate your coming to speak to the faculty and thank you for sharing that. Secondly, our students are successful in all sorts of areas, in the classroom, in the arts, on competition fields, but they are also engaged in this world. This year, Genocide Commemoration Day programs will be held at both schools on Tuesday, April 16. This event honors victims, survivors, rescuers, and upstanders of various genocides with a variety of experiences that are intended to offer meaningful remembrances, inspiring stories, and awareness of current issues that may move many to take action. And if you've ever been to one of these events, you know how deeply, deeply meaningful it is. This year with the Sport District 113 Foundation, our student teams have created a full day of speakers and other experiences. Students will have multiple opportunities at
024each school to be immersed in Holocaust and genocide education, a program that goes way beyond the mandate of the Illinois State Board of Education standards for Holocaust and genocide studies. Something to be very proud of, particularly because all these events are student-organized, student-led. I'd like to thank the students, of course, for all their work and then the faculty sponsors who work with our students to make this possible on the 16th. Okay, you know I'm not going to not talk when we talk about it. What I think is extraordinary about our Genocide Awareness Day is that it started with a student whose family was Armenian and realized that we never learned about it. And it has continued to grow. That student is now a college graduate, and yet we are continuing this. We are continuing this
025discussing many genocides. And unfortunately, there's still many going on, but what I think is even more extraordinary is that one student starting it at Deerfield High School, it is now in 11 schools around our area here because one student used their voice to say we need to learn, we need to do, we need to continue the education. And so I look at all of these students out there and say one student, one voice. I think we're on your eight or nine of it, and 11 other schools around us have followed our lead to do this. That's a pretty powerful thing you all possess. Don't let someone take it away from you. Thank you. That is one of the things that make District 113 very special. Last thing is tonight the board will be considering procedural
026motions for reductions in force. So really this is the culmination of two months, at least two months, of staffing season. It's so difficult. It takes dozens of people working collectively, thousands of hours to take all the course requests that are made by student, make sections of classes from all those student requests, and then determine the amount of staffing that's needed to teach the courses that we offer to comprehensive high schools. So staffing season this year actually began in January, as the board will recall, when we share with the finance committee and the board our five-year financial projections and the recommendation that we made that we solve projected budget deficit for FY26 and FY25, which means the upcoming school year. And doing that will allow us to take advantage of the many retirements we have at
027the end of this year. The board agreed and we went to work. The reductions in force for recommending the board, as painful as they are, this is a very difficult thing, I know, for everyone involved, including the board, including the administration. But these reductions are due to low enrollments in courses, and we know that enrollment over time, especially at Deerfield, has been going down. And that reduction in enrollment over time is beginning to have its, it's not beginning, it's having its effect in the number of students who are available to take courses. And remember that the staff recommendations we're making, the staffing levels we're recommending, that's a function of student interest, but also of the overall student enrollment. As we said to the board at our first staffing presentation in March, staffing recommendations are the
028minimum staffing level that we need to teach classes students have requested. The Illinois state statute sets April 15th as the date for determining the minimum number of teachers school districts need. We can always add staff, we've talked about this before, it's worth mentioning again tonight. We can always add staff as needed after April 15th if circumstances arise, but the staffing number can never be lower than it is on April 15th, which is why it is, it's a minimum numbers. So tonight's the first step of the, the final step, sorry, of the staffing process, but it's not necessarily the end of the work. You know, circumstances may change, require us to add staff, and then of course we come back to the board, we explain those circumstances and request the addition, and it often happens that
029teachers and specialty courses add additional endorsements to their teaching license. This is an ongoing work for a lot of teachers, it goes on spring and summer, and that can also have an effect. So this is a last step in the staffing process, but the, it doesn't mean that that is completely the end of the story. There's, there's usually more that happens and we'll let the board know when those events arise. And that's all I have for my report. Maybe unless... I actually had a couple of questions. I know one of the questions, which is one of the reasons why we have a full audience tonight, is around the choir curriculum at DHS. And I'm not sure Dr. Law or Dr. Anderson, if you might be able to shed some light to myself and fellow board
030members as to how is the actual choir curriculum being impacted next year? So, one of the classes that we're having to stack is Bel Canto. So, there are four different choir classes that students enroll in and Bel Canto was a class that enrolled seven students. And so we had to make the difficult decision of, do we cut a class or do we stack it with another class? We have nine classes this school year based upon course enrollments that were actually cut. And that's because we had less than 10 enrollments for those classes. We take careful consideration to see what that impact is on all the classes that students might be taking. For example, creative writing was a class that couldn't run because it didn't have enough course enrollments. It is not a requirement for students
031to take that class, nor is it going to prevent them from taking the next level class. For Bel Canto, that's not the case. That is a class where we want students to be in that class so that they can move on to the next class, whether it's chorale or choraleers. So, Bel Canto was a class that we really wanted to ensure that could still run in some capacity. We have very difficult decisions that we have to make for some classes like that. Architecture one, two, and honors are all stacked together. Engineering one, two, and honors are all stacked together. Chinese three, four, and five are all stacked together. There are different curriculums, and Bel Canto is a different curriculum as well. But what we are trying to do is to make sure that we can
032still run classes and still ensure that our students have an opportunity to take those classes. We have to make difficult decisions to combine them sometimes with other classes. So that's what we've done for choir in this case based upon the total numbers that we have. We did not want to cut that class, but instead stack it with another one. So it is a very difficult decision. Nobody wants to make that, but we also don't want the alternative where we're eliminating it completely. And that's what we've had to do, and we'll see some of those in other subject areas. Find and applied arts, world languages are often the ones that have the most impact because we have individual teachers. We have just one Chinese teacher, just one French teacher, just one choir director. So those are
033very difficult areas where we know that we really want those programs to thrive, and so we'll make some difficult decisions with stacking when we have to. And so that's how we're in the place that we're at right now. I just want to ask one clarifying question only because people hear different things. You said the total of 10 classes cut at DHS across all of the curriculum. You're not saying 10 classes in fine arts. Correct. Yes. Date the obvious. It ranges from every subject area, from English to science to social studies. So that's that disconnect or that disconnect, excuse me, but an FTE's position can go from 1.0 to 0.8 or lower because of the number of classes, the periods that they are teaching, because a full-time staff member, except there's some exceptions, but overall, as
034five class periods that they're not teaching, not five individual unique classes, but five class periods. So that's where they can lose their, they can lower their FTE, but that doesn't necessarily impact the curriculum that's being taught. Okay, I guess one other question as a parent whose children always took early birth because they use every single period available to them and make sure that they use that they always had a full E period date. Oh, thank you. Push the button that might help. As a parent whose kids always took eight classes and that is how they were, you know, we built that into their schedule in order to continue taking fine arts and other passionate courses that they were passionate about is priority given to early birth admission for those children who want to take a
035full eight period class versus saying I'd like a free period. I'd like an early dismissal. Will that be going forward on the 24-25 school year that if you are someone who is requesting eight periods, you will be given priority for early birth versus someone who's not. So when our master scheduler begins to look at where we put classes, a lot of the times it's based upon rooms, right? So early birth science is the big one that our people are looking to take. We only have so many teachers and so many classes. So a student wouldn't be admitted into early birth science if they're only taking seven classes. Correct. So well, so basically, yes, that is correct. So that way that it works is that when we determine the number of classes that we have available
036to students, our master scheduler goes through and looks at the roster of the students who have who have registered for early birth, the first students who are no longer able to take early birth are those students who do not have a full schedule. After that, then it does go to a lottery. But those who are not taking. But I want to take a moment to identify that by doing that, there are students who absolutely want to be able to take an early birth class. And we really, you know, we plead with families of if there is if you are doing this and are just going to drop a class like in the summer and know that you're going to do that, that's really not fair to those students who really try to set this up
037in their schedule. And we really try to have those conversations with our students. Of course, there are things that might come up. And if we're able to, when we're building the schedule, we can make those adjustments and reach out to, you know, the next student who might have that available. But that is I think it's a really important thing to say that there are students that they really are wanting to have that full all those periods. And if, you know, a student, if you know that you're not going to need it, we would love to work with you so that we can ensure that we can fill your schedule during the day. Right now, the way that our science classes work is that our students do have that study hall that happens, you know, two
038days a week so that they're able to use that. And we certainly want to work with our students if they feel so that they need some more support that we can provide that to them. But, you know, make sure that our students, as many as possible, can take advantage of that early birth science. Thank you. I also have a question. So the the stack class, basically the curriculum for both classes still exist and are still taught. So the students still have the opportunity to take the full class. It's just that they're intermixed with these other students and the teacher is challenged. Absolutely. Make sure that both curriculums are taught in a way that that is sufficient. Right. It's always challenging for the teacher. There's no doubt about that. Whenever you combine classes that you have
039to make some difficult decisions about how you're going to run that class. And so our department chairs meet with our teachers to determine how that might be possible, how that might be feasible, because for some teachers that might change from year to year what that looks like. It really just varies based upon the enrollment. I can just say for world languages, for example, we might only have 10 students enrolled in a class one year and we're going to combine it with another section. But that that group of students is going to going to continue to go through the curriculum. So it might be two and three combined one year. And then the next year, it's three and four. So how do you as a teacher develop that curriculum to ensure that all of your students
040are being supported for the curriculum that meets their needs? So it is a difficult thing to do. And that's why it's so important for our department chairs to work with the teachers to make sure that they receive the support to develop a curriculum that makes the most sense for the students that are in their class. We have a course that's stacked one year. If there are sufficient students to run them separately the following year, that could very well happen. Absolutely. So it's all about people wanting to take the classes and signing up. And just thinking, you know, based upon and these are conversations that I've had with the choir director as well in terms of, you know, specifically talking about that. Like when we're when we're planning ahead, we know that where our population is
041going to continue to decrease at at Deerfield High School. So what can we do to be proactive to plan for this? And she's doing a great job of thinking outside the box of maybe an early bird option or maybe other opportunities to how we can, you know, whether it's running Bel Canto or Corral or whatever the case might be, our students have some great ideas, too, of what that could look like. So I think it's, you know, when we're working together to really try to come up with some solutions and, you know, provide opportunities for our students, they're so amazing. I can't sing worth anything. So they're they're so phenomenal. And to provide them with a program that they deserve is important to us. Thank you. And I think, as you had said, you had
042said, too, I think it's really challenging when we're talking about a decrease in FTE in math or English or one of our core classes. You're talking about a team of teachers that need to manage and balance that when we when we go to things like fine arts or applied arts or the languages, it ends up then almost being this personal conversation about an individual staff member. And that's really hard because that's not what this is about. This is literally about numbers. And there is a whole, as I understand it, there are a whole various reasons why, you know, a staff member needs to be at that 1.0 versus moving just to 0.6 or 0.8. And so it's all that balancing and figuring out how it all works. Any other questions? I just wanted to confirm
043that with the stacking option, every student who registered for choir is able to take a choir class that there's nothing been set aside for that. No one's been told they can't take choir. Correct. Okay. Great. Thank you for walking through that. Okay, FOIA requests. These are the four FOIA requests received and processed since last week on the screen. Tonight, my second favorite part of tonight, since the first was putting our new principal in place, are our student liaison reports. Who would like to go first? Who went first last time? Okay, I can go. And there's one thing I forgot to put on here, if that's okay. Of course. These are the ones that came to my head. The mathlete team had their state sendoff on Friday and they came back already, but they went to
044state. And so many warriors gathered to display their pride at their sendoff, which was really cool. It's always nice to see how many people gather in that sense of community. Dance companies having their show on Thursday, Friday and Saturday to showcase their hard work from this season. And yesterday was the solar eclipse. So everyone gathered outside to see the rare event, which is not going to take place in the United States for another 20 years, according to ABC. I don't know if that's true. And after a really successful regional and sectional competition, the EIU academic challenge team is also heading to state. And another thing I thought I put on here, but wasn't, but like right now is in the midst of post-secondary decisions. And it's just really nice to see everyone getting excited over
045that. And just because I'm a senior and seeing my peers deciding what they're going to do in the future. Fantastic. Miles? We also had yesterday, the eclipse is really cool that we were able to all go outside as a school. I like to see this like once a lifetime event or like, I guess once every 20 years. But that was really cool that the school was able to let us do that and take some time out of our day. And then last week we had a few students from Taiwan come visit us and with the Chinese class, I think. And I even had a few of the students in my gym class and we were able to play basketball and really just connect and it was really cool. And then one last thing, it's our
046spring spirit week this week and we've had some really cool stuff happen. We've had, yesterday we had like a bouncy house in the school at lunch and today we had like arcade machines in the hallway so the kids can play during lunch. And I had a chance to play a few of the games and it was really fun and we're all looking forward to what's coming up for the rest of the week. Oh, one last thing, my bad. We love having it. We were, March Madness just ended, obviously. We did have HBHS alum play in the women's March Madness and scored 17 points against Duke in the first round so it was really cool. I saw that. That was, those are the types of things too that are so interesting so thank you for sharing
047those points. Great. Okay, so our next element of our agenda is public comment. Before I walk through my spiel I have to give, I just want to ask if there are any students are speaking for the first time, if you can raise your hand. Awesome. Okay, so what I wanted to say is that this is education, just like you receive in your classrooms. So in a minute I'm going to walk through the process for public comment. I also want to, we hear me when I say, we love to have students here. We take what you say extremely seriously. You guys are walking, living, breathing your academic day, every single day. And so we really do want to listen. I also want to say that if anything of this conversation has changed what you were going
048to originally say or modified it, you don't have to speak, we want you to speak, but you can just bypass when your number is called. Okay, I don't want you to feel this pressure that you have to do something. We, you'll notice those of you that have been around for a little while this time when I set up public comment it's a little bit longer. In our efforts to kind of reset expectations from the board's view, I want to take an opportunity to speak a little bit about public comments, so that we can be successful tonight. We welcome your comments and questions and give them serious consideration pursuant to Board of Education Policy 2-230. We realize public comment is an important element of our meetings. When a parent, staff member, community member, or student is
049speaking, I believe you are always speaking from an advocacy lens for you, our kids, your fellow students, and potentially from a place of frustration, anger, and sometimes fear. Our board meetings are open meetings, which means you can attend, listen, and participate through comments during the public comment time. These monthly meetings are not town halls whose structure is more of a dialogue, a back and forth between the audience and the panel. Because it's an open meeting that you attend, you stand there and speak, and we sit here and listen, and I believe this us-them structure inherently leaves all parties feeling dissatisfied. So we've adjusted our public comments in the following ways. We've moved it to before discussion. Tonight it's before action because there isn't discussion. If we can address a comment or question about an agenda
050item during that item's discussion, we will. However, any questions may be sent via email to be answered subsequent to the meeting. We also want to give everyone a voice. The public comment before discussion will be for a maximum of 30 minutes. This means that 10 people about will be able to speak. If more than 10 people have signed up, we're at 19 here. We amend the agenda and add a second public comment time after our consent elements on the agenda to make sure that everyone who has signed up for public comment has the opportunity to speak. We will all model respect for each other and for this room. This means your name is a part of who you are. My mispronouncing it doesn't set you up for success. You took a number when you signed
051up to speak. That is the order we'll move through speakers. I'll denote the number we're on and you'll say your full name and state if you know the agenda item to which you're commenting on. Please limit all comments to no more than three minutes. Students do this extremely well. At 30 seconds remaining, I'll raise my hand as a visual cue. At three minutes, I will ask you to conclude your remarks, irregardless of whether or not you're a student or an adult in the room. I ask that you do your part and keep to the three minutes out of respect for your fellow community members who are also wanting to speak. Finally, we all have a choice of our mindset, anger and resistance or curious and collaborative. The reality is that each of us is concerned
052with the education, emotional and physical safety of our students and our kids. And with that, I will open a public comment to public speaker number one. So number two is on deck. If we want to try to get through, you know, 11 or 12, if number two wants to be standing over by Mr. Grubb, that's helpful so that we can just cycle through, but you don't need to. Go ahead. Good evening. My name is Michael Everts and I'm a junior at Deerfield High School this year. I brought some of my friends with me today in order to make our stance clear. We are against the upcoming changes in the DHS choral program, including but not limited to the transfer of Ms. Anastasia Ballmer to Deerfield to Highland Park High School, excuse me. I've been in
053choir for all three years of my high school career and I've even had the pleasure of holding leadership positions in the groups I've been in. I've been a part of the DHS Choraleers, our premier choral group for two years now. This group represents Deerfield High School at the middle and elementary schools as not only a way to recruit members into the choral program, but also represent DHS in incredibly positive light during the holiday season. It exemplifies the happiness that high schoolers gain while being in a choral program led by Ms. Ballmer and shows the younger students how one day they too can be on that stage and having that much fun at DHS. That happiness is what I need the board members here today to enable and uphold. In other words, my fellow students, parents
054and members of the broader District 113 and Deerfield community are asking for a change in the personnel notice of the consent agenda, which is item 10D. More specifically, we're asking for your support to allow Ms. Ballmer to continue her success as the full-time choral director in the DHS Fine Arts Department. But most of all, we know that there are alternate solutions to keep Ms. Ballmer at DHS, which is what she wants to do. Today, we ask to make the changes necessary to this resolution to allow us time in order to generate a solution to keep Ms. Ballmer at DHS that benefits the students, the district and our amazing choral director, Ms. Ballmer. Thank you for considering our request. Thank you. Number two, and then number three will be on deck. Good evening. Tonight I will
055be discussing agenda item 10D. My name is Gavin Meyers and I'm speaking by proxy on behalf of my brother Hayden Meyers. Board members and friends, there are two things I believe in standing up for my beliefs in the impact a great teacher can make on one's life. Ms. Ballmer is that teacher and she's greatly impacted not only my life, but also my older brothers and countless others. It is a fact that the Deerfield Choral Advisory Programs numbers have been decreasing over the past years, and with every effect, there is a cause. The advisory program is made up of freshmen and those students currently coming from the middle school. Thus, it is evident that the root cause can be traced back to the lack of interest cultivated during middle school years. Speaking from personal experience, I
056was initially reluctant to join choir due to negative encounters with my middle school music teacher. My older brother assured me that I would really enjoy Ms. Ballmer's class and that I would thrive. I am grateful that I listened to my brother because choraleers and just being in our hall is the best part of any day. Ms. Ballmer doesn't merely teach choral music. She fosters a creative space where students are celebrated for their individuality and empowered to conquer challenges both within and beyond the realm of course. Her dedication to nurturing a supportive community has transformed countless lives, including mine. Knowing that the chorale program needs to shrink right now, I am asking that we find a temporary place for Ms. Ballmer at DHS until the program fills up again. She belongs at DHS with her chorale
057family. She has invested so much in us and we want to show her the same strength, dignity, and positivity that she models in the chorale department on a daily basis. In order to keep this culture we have created, we cannot just remove an essential building block unless we fear the entire tower backing over. Thank you for your time. Three and four is on deck. Hi. Glad to be back. I'm Susie Wall. I'm actually the president of Crescendo, which is the parent choir board at Highland Park High School. I work very closely with our choir director Maria Barnhill. The proposed change would be devastating, not just to Deerfield of course, but also to Highland Park because as we've mentioned, it necessitates our choir directors switching places. This is a problem on many levels. Deerfield and Highland
058Park High School choir programs are structured very differently. Deerfield's choirs are all during the day. There's no extracurricular. There's one audition-based choir. Highland Park High School, we have three daytime choirs. The director teaches music theory. There's one extracurricular choir. We also have devoted choir modalities. One is fully a cappella and one is a jazz swing choir. They're very different programs with unique instruction needs that actually take a lot of time to learn. Consistency is so important for our kids. The choir director is supposed to be a staple in our kids' lives for all four years. If this happens, my daughter, who will speak later, this would be her third choir director in three years. She's a junior next year. Oh my gosh. Consistency is vital for musical growth. I know, Dr. Highland, you're a musician.
059A good choir director knows your vocal range. That takes months to learn. Sometimes years, actually, but Ms. Barnhill's done it in a matter of months. Kids are growing. Their voices change. Imagine the voice change from age 14 to age 18. A good choir director has to have a deep knowledge of every child's voice and how that voice is growing. Ms. Barnhill has that knowledge. Our last choir director, Mr. Alombreros, was let go after two years at the end of 2023, which was a surprise for all of us. This change is also a surprise and not a welcome one. You may know also that Ms. Barnhill is co-producer of our annual musical with our new drama teacher, Ms. Harmon. They effectively, working together, replaced Scott Schellenberger, who's really an impossible act to follow. I think we
060can all agree. But the two of them working together, they hit it out of the park with The Little Mermaid. And if you all saw that, I think you would agree. They're already planning for next year's musical. And with their planning, keeping our kids' talents and their voices in mind. That's a lot of planning. Morale. After Mr. Alombreros left, choir morale was at an all-time low. Ms. Barnhill has brought that back. Thank you. When Ms. Barnhill started, I had the wonderful chance to get to know her. Many of you may know her mother, Mrs. Brown, is retiring after 24 years. And when Ms. Barnhill told me that, she told me that her goal was to be a lifer, just like her mom at Highland Park High School. I do hope we give her that chance.
061She is beyond fantastic. Thank you. Number four and five is on deck. I'm Adelie Gallinopoulos, a freshman at DHS. As a student of Ms. Ballmer's chorus advisory class, Ms. Ballmer has been a crucial part of my adjustment to high school. From day one, she has expressed genuine care about each of us and our well-being. She has said multiple times that if we need to talk, she's always there and frequently checks in on how we are doing. The way that she combines our passion for singing with the normal advisory curriculum is unique in a way that gets us to take a break from the day to do what we love, but also ensures we are well-informed about the aspects of high school. Those things include the arc, where the arc is, or guidelines of the upcoming
062PSAT. She has truly set me up for success for the next three years of high school, and I have been anticipating to get to continue to sing with her as a constant throughout this period of my life. Not only that, but she has also given me some remarkable experiences, such as the success of getting Mean Girls to Theater Fest. A huge amount of choir kids are also in the musicals, and her role can just be replaced. She was basically one-third of that whole unforgettable journey equivalent to a sport-making state, and I feel she is a part of the foundation of the fine arts community. I am so grateful to have a brand new renovated auditorium right as I come to DHS, but you can't take away the bow to the brand new violin, the very
063thing that makes it shine. There is no one better than Ms. Ballmer to not only get things done and make us proud of our work, but also always be there when we need her. I know that I feel prepared, and high school is that much less overwhelming because of her. The impact Ms. Ballmer made, and hopefully can continue making for future DHS students, will forever follow me and the other freshmen. Thank you for your time. And seven is on deck. I'm fine. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm not even doing this. I so apologize. It's okay. Please, I apologize. I'm Katie Everts. I'm a parent, and Mikey, my son, was the first one to speak tonight at Deerfield. Ladies and gentlemen, as we gather here today to discuss the future of our beloved choral program
064at DHS, I want to stress the importance of a patient and thorough approach. We are not here to ask for financial support. We're asking for something equally valuable, which is time. Ms. Ballmer, our esteemed choral director, has become an indispensable part of our community. Her dedication, passion, and commitment to our students have left an indelible mark on all who had the privilege of working with her. It's clear that both Ms. Ballmer and our DHS students wish for her to remain a cornerstone of our program. However, we find ourselves facing this FTE gap in staffing. In addressing the challenge, we must proceed with caution, ensuring that any decision made preserves the continuity and excellence of the program. This requires time, which is a precious commodity that allows us to explore all available options to find a
065solution that benefits everyone involved. In her brief tenure of two years, Ms. Ballmer has also already made remarkable recruitment progress, increasing freshman advisory enrollment in the arts. This achievement is a testament to her dedication and her effectiveness of her initiatives, such as the summer camp for choraleers and her community outreach programs, which do require time to yield full impact. Therefore, I urge all of us to exercise patience and understanding as we navigate the challenge. Let's support Ms. Ballmer in her efforts to find a mutually beneficial solution that ensures her wish to remain at DHS becomes a reality. Let's give ourselves the time needed to explore alternative solutions and ensure that any decision made reflects the best interest of our students, the community, and our dedicated educators. Thank you. Thank you. Number six and then seven
066is on deck. Hello, my name is Billy Bear and I'm a sophomore at the chorale program of DHS. Since Bel Canto will be taken away if this goes through, I want to emphasize why it is valuable to have a class like Bel Canto. It is a small choir which has its values not only to the class but to the program as a whole. First of all, being in Bel Canto allows for individual development for every voice to be heard. Learning music in a large choir class can be overwhelming and will have a lot more sitting than singing. Since there are a smaller number of hands, that means that every member's question can be answered. Bel Canto is a group with harmony. Its small structure allows the group to be comfortable around each other which not
067only boosts our singing but gives us a safe space, a community. When we are not singing, we are deep diving into our music and connecting into the emotional spirit behind the songs. It is not about the size of the class but the passion that the students have for music. And if you take away Bel Canto, you are taking away an outlet for people to grow at something they love. Thank you for listening. Thank you. Number seven and eight is on deck. I'm Chloe Lewis and I'm yielding my time to Jayden Cohen. Hi, my name is Jayden Cohen and I'm a junior at Deerfield High School. I'm up here today because I can't imagine a DHS program without Ms. Balmer. Ms. Balmer is one of the rare teachers at our school who is irreplaceable. No one
068can accomplish what she has in just the two years she's been choir director. She's made a community within our school that I didn't know I needed until she provided it for me. I don't know how I could finish high school without her and what she has brought to DHS. I came into high school choir terrified to meet Ms. Ager and Ms. Balmer because I was worried they would be like my middle school choir director. I went to Sheppard Middle School and honestly, Dr. Prince made middle school choir a traumatizing and scarring experience. Due to this experience, I have never thought I would have the confidence to try out and make choraliers. Ms. Balmer has opened up so many new hopes and possibilities in choir for me that I hadn't even dreamed of because I didn't
069know they could be possible. Having Ms. Balmer as a teacher has not only grown my confidence in my singing performance, but my confidence in everything I do in other parts of my life. I am forever thankful for the incredible impact Ms. Balmer has had on my life and I don't want this to be the end to it. DHS needs Ms. Balmer. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Number eight and then nine is on deck. Good evening. I thank you for the opportunity to speak this evening regarding the choral changes at District 113's high schools. Tonight, I speak not only as a parent of a Deerfield choir member, but also as a choir director myself, a 26-year veteran teacher here on the North Shore. Particularly for a choir program to grow, students need to feel
070comfortable, connected, and confident with their director. It's important for students to feel safe so they can open up and sing from their hearts. The numbers are a bit low at Deerfield, mostly because the middle school theater programs are almost non-existent. It's obvious that current students feel a connection with Ms. Balmer. I've seen it firsthand from the concerts that I've attended. We see it by the attendance of her students tonight. Last summer, Ms. Balmer led a middle school summer camp to begin building connections, and this year has attempted to foster community by putting prospective choir students in touch with current choral members. There are some invested kids entering the choir program for 24-25, and I urge you to give Ms. Balmer, who will be entering only her third year, a chance to continue to build her
071community. In Highland Park, the directorial changes of the choir position have been numerous. Very talented choir teachers have entered Highland Park over the past few years and left because of the struggles to make connections here. As I understand it, you are pleased with the work that the Highland Park director, Ms. Barnhill, is doing. And simply moving her to the lesser position, as she has less seniority than Ms. Balmer, it doesn't make sense. Moving teachers from one school to another just doesn't improve that teacher from their program. It disrupts the entire community they have been fostering. Teaching is different these days. COVID has had an effect on these kids, and I have to teach in a totally different way than I've done before. My program is strong and alive, I feel, because of my connection with
072students and their trust in me. Choir needs community, and I urge you to keep each director within their respective communities. That is the way this choir program is going to build in both schools. Thank you. Number nine and then ten is Anda. Hi, my name is Cecilia Naylor, and I'm a junior at Deerfield High School and a member of Corral and Corlears. I just wanted to say a few words about how important Ms. Balmer is to the DHS Choir Program and to me personally. I've been a member of the choir since my freshman year and have seen up close her dedication to bringing out the best in us as a group and making choir an extraordinary experience for every student. With Ms. Balmer's encouragement and guidance throughout the past three years, my skills as a
073performer have developed exponentially. We've all grown in ways that we never imagined, not just singing, but performing, and built our public confidence, which is one reason I'm able to stand before the board this evening in support of Ms. Balmer and her program. The members of the choral program at DHS are more than just students. This is a community, one that has only grown stronger with Ms. Balmer's guidance. Ms. Balmer is a teacher who inspires excellence, regularly going out of her way to create new experiences, new experiences for her students. From getting choraliers the opportunity to perform at the Chicago Symphony Center last winter, to organizing for chorale to perform the Salt Shed, to helping bring our musical to Theater Fest, Ms. Balmer is constantly connecting us with opportunities that provide us with the chance to
074grow. A part-time role will not provide us with the community we have built or the attention we need to thrive. We deserve a full-time, dedicated person, and we know that Ms. Balmer is the only person for that role. Thank you. Number 10 and 11 is on deck. Good evening, my name is Shana Wolkenberg. I'm a current junior at Deerfield as well as the junior president of Balcanto. As you heard from the students who spoke before me, being in the DHS choral program under Ms. Balmer's leadership and guidance has been essential to our high school education and experience. To switch our leadership for the second time in three years, in addition to decreasing our funding, is detrimental to our program in myriad ways. By decreasing our funding, by lowering the number of our classes, we will
075lose all of the growth and success caused by Ms. Balmer and her new programs, many of which my peers mentioned previously, to be essentially reversed. I have sung in every choir offered at Deerfield, from advisory to Balcanto to chorale and choraleers. Every single one of those courses is a unique stepping stone for budding choral vocalists. There are multiple potential solutions to the issue we face that do not involve removing Ms. Balmer from her full-time job at DHS. It is concerning that alternative solutions were not considered before this abrupt decision was made. It is also concerning that the narrative communicated to the community by the district detailed that Ms. Balmer chose to move to Highland Park as if there was some lengthy and thought-out joint decision-making process and conversation prior to this choice being made. In
076reality, Ms. Balmer was given about 24 hours to make a life-changing decision between career stability and her home at Deerfield. That is simply not enough time to make such a large choice. Furthermore, the district mission statement states that we solicit, listen to, and respect multiple perspectives. Yet, in Ms. Balmer's situation, no time was directed toward or given to her and the Fine Arts Department to develop a different perspective and come up with a creative and alternative solution to this problem. This rash decision-making process does not exemplify our community's shared desire to listen to and respect multiple perspectives. With both Ms. Balmer's invaluable dedication, creativity, and significance to our core program, as well as the district mission statement and my peers' words in mind, we urge you to make the changes necessary to this resolution to
077allow us time to generate a solution to keep Ms. Balmer at DHS, a solution that is beneficial to the whole community, student, teacher, and district alike. Thank you for your time and consideration. Eleven and then twelve is on deck. Am I correct still on my numbers? Okay, so we can keep, right? You're eleven, correct? I'm eleven, yeah. Okay. Hi, my name is Ryder Toplitsky. I'm currently a tenth grader at DHS and a proud member of the choir community. I wanted to speak to you tonight to let you know what an incredible teacher Mrs. Balmer has been to me the past two years. When I recently heard the news that she was leaving DHS, I was completely devastated. She's an amazing teacher and the thought of our fine arts community losing her is unimaginable. This isn't
078the first time in the past few months that the same group of students have had to face the reality of losing a teacher who we admire, respect, and cares for in a way that is difficult to explain. I'm a theater kid and I'm also a choir kid. Not only do these roles define much of my high school experience, but the teachers, like Mrs. Balmer, are the ones who have created such a great high school experience for me. Last year I was in the freshman choir advisory class and learned so much about music and singing from Mrs. Balmer. When I was making my schedule for sophomore year, I realized I didn't have enough room in my schedule for a choir class. I was so disappointed but promised myself that I would find time for it again
079for my junior and senior year. And then I went to the choral award night in May of last year. Unless you've attended a choral award night, you can't even begin to understand the magic that exists in the choir community. While I was only a small part of that evening, I remember the feeling of warmth, excitement, and love that Mrs. Balmer created amongst all the students in her classes. Not only does she create a connection with every single choir member, but she fosters a community in which everyone feels supported, celebrated, and loved. When I left choral awards last year, I knew I had to find a way to make time in my schedule for a choir class this year. I couldn't possibly miss out on one year or even a minute of being part of Mrs.
080Balmer's choir family. I'm so glad I found time in my schedule to continue choir this year under Mrs. Balmer's leadership. Her constant positive demeanor is contagious in our classroom and on stage. She has created opportunities to make learning fun and meaningful and incorporating her own unique ideas into everything she does with us. Mrs. Balmer is such a crucial piece to the lives of so many fine arts students at Deerfield High School. It would be a huge loss to not only me, but our entire program that she has worked so hard to build over these past few years. We hope the board is able to find a way to create a space where Mrs. Balmer can remain the full time at DHS and continue to fill our lives with music. Thanks for your time. Thank you.
081Number 12 and 13 is on deck. Hi, my name is Lily Dombs. I love singing and I'm a proud choir student. Singing is my passion. Last year was my freshman year. We had Mr. Ollembrose as our choir director. He was a great teacher and he taught us very independently. Then he unfortunately had to leave. This year we have Ms. Barnhill. Immediately right away when I walked in the room on the first day of school, I could tell she has so much passion for her job and so much love for it. She brought up our program this year so well and all the choirs are like at their peak. She taught us amazing vowels. I'm amazing at sight reading now and I'm honestly at my peak myself. She is not just a teacher, but also our
082best mentor and well, our best friend. I'm in swing choir and we only have about four girls there and I can't count the amount of times I've laughed from my stomach in that class. I love Ms. Barnhill so much and I love everyone in that class and I just love choir. She also during the musical, she would braid all of the girls' hair to put our wigs on and you can tell she loves us too. She puts up pictures on the huge choir wall of us singing at our concerts and I could just be myself when I'm in choir with Ms. Barnhill. I understand you're trying to increase both programs, but from someone who already experienced a choir reboot, this will only damage our choir program and D-Fields completely and leave us on a blank
083page. We need a full book to structure and supply our choir program. I know after all said, you can still switch Ms. Barnhill, take away our beloved teacher and have a start all over again. But just know you are not only sacrificing my education of my music, my passion, but taking away mine and all of the other choir students' best friend. We want Ms. Barnhill. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Number 13 and 14 is on deck. Hello, my name is Lauren Tenenbaum. I've been a resident of D-Field for 13 years and have three children in the D-Field schools, including a daughter who is a sophomore in high school. Since my daughter entered high school, I've seen what made the District 113 education special get slowly eroded. Summer school was cut, survey classes were
084cut, science labs are being cut, sold to us in the way for students to be able to take electives. And now our choir program will be cut down too. District 113 is getting the reputation of the district that takes away instead of adding beneficial and supportive programs. What brings me to speak today is the fact and fact and handling of our choir director, Ms. Ballmer's position, a dedicated and passionate teacher who goes above and beyond for her students. We should be doing everything in our power to keep a teacher like that. Enrollment changes over time. Showing support for Ms. Ballmer and helping find solutions to keep her at DHS should be our top priority. She was told her position was being downsized one week from today, one week before a vote over her future and
085the future of all the students who rely on Ms. Ballmer. We were told that she volunteered to move to Highland Park. What's voluntary about doing whatever you can to avoid losing your job? Face potentially relocating. The schools and district are giving no time to find other solutions. My daughter is in Bel Canto and I may be biased, but they are a magical sounding group that doesn't need size to make impact. She also made choraliers for next school year, something that she has wanted to do since she was in elementary school. She was devastated at the thought of not working with Ms. Ballmer next year. My daughter has found her community and adores every class she has with Ms. Ballmer. Ms. Ballmer, Ms. Kenyon, Mr. Clark, and the Fine Arts Department serve as role models and
086are inspiring these young men and women to find their voices and giving them the courage to pursue real careers, dreams in a field that they love. Our hall is a very special place. It's a place of empowerment as well as a safe place to many students. Taking Ms. Ballmer away will disrupt our hall as a whole. I think it's time to stop making huge decisions with so little time to explore the consequences. Thank you. Thank you. Number 14 and 15 is on deck. Hi, my name is Kimberly Barkmeyer. I'm a Bannockburn resident. I'm here regarding the lawsuit. For continuity's sake, it might make sense to listen to David Cora, who has number 18, if you would want to allow that. So you're both speaking on the same subject? Correct. Okay. Yeah, but we're trying to
087thought it might make more sense for David to speak first. Okay. Yeah. Yes, that's fine. First, may I say extend the congratulations to Principal Fleischer. And these kids are all stars. I graduated high school 55 years ago, and these kids are outstanding. And I want to adopt Ms. Ballmer. Unfortunately, I'm here on David Cora. I'm a resident of Bannockburn. I'm also a village trustee of Bannockburn. And unfortunately, I have to speak tonight about a lawsuit that the DHS 13 has thrown our way. I'm going to have prepared remarks from our village president, Frank Bud Rothing. Bud is away this morning. He had to go out of town. I will deliver the remarks. But I guarantee you, I speak for the collective will of the board in Bannockburn. This is not, you know, so let me
088just read the letter. Dear President Newman and members of the school board. I rate you as president of the village of Bannockburn regarding the above-reference litigation that Township High School 113 has filed against the village and now against a number of residents and taxpayers of the district. Originally, we were named as a defendant. As of last week, your attorney has seen fit to now name multiple homeowners in our village as defendants also, which means they have to defend themselves at their own expense. Okay. But let me go on. The essence of the lawsuit is that a 270-foot segment of storm sewer located entirely on the Deerfield High School campus needs repair. And the district is asking a court to have the village of Bannockburn pay for it. Nothing under Illinois Drainage Law requires the village
089or the taxpayer defendants to make repairs on the site storm sewer of the downstream DHS campus. It is located entirely outside the corporate limits of the village of Bannockburn. Even though the district's lawsuit has already been dismissed twice, the district has continued to pursue the needless and wasteful lawsuit of devoting its resources to fixing the storm sewer, a problem that the district could have addressed when it previously made comprehensive improvements to the athletic fields on the DHS campus years ago. Frankly, the village is concerned that the district board has been misled by the advice of an attorney who has misstated the facts in both pleadings filed on behalf of the district and its taxpayers, of which I am one, and in arguments before the Circuit Court of Lake County. For example, in the district's most
090recently filed second amended complaint, The district alleges that it is suing its own taxpayers because the village contends that they are parties to an alleged mutual drain. I take personal offense to this claim, and it is not true. The village has consistently argued that there is no such mutual drain. Moreover, during a court hearing on December 19th, 2023, Circuit Court Judge Judge Barones asked the district attorney, the district's attorney, in connection with his mutual drain theory. Sir, I'm going to definitely need you to start to wrap up because you're out. Unfortunately, I will ask your indulgence, since this is a large, before you shake your head no, why don't you listen to what I have to say. Right, and I understand, but we have hundreds of thousands of dollars in litigation. Yeah, I understand that
091the point of public comment is that let me finish up. I'll finish quickly. That was obviously you don't want to hear the rest of it. But fortunately, I made copies on your own. Thank you. Okay. In closing, I know that even though the village has no obligation to assist the district with repair to the storm sewer. The village has nonetheless done good done so as a good neighbor, in particular, the village reached out to IDOT in 2020 to help your district expedite a permit for drainage work on the DHS campus. Similarly, the village assisted the district in securing a 2022 grant from Lake County stormwater management commission for the DHS campus. I am I am disappointed that the district has shown that no good deed goes unpunished by not only continuing to pursue this repeatedly
092dismissed lawsuit, but also by drawing in taxpayers of both the village and the district. So they must incur legal fees personally, as well as taxpayers on behalf of the village and our mutual residents and taxpayers, I urge the district to take responsibility for the storm sewer on the DHS campus and withdraw its lawsuit. Thank you very much for your time. Should I leave these with with Miss Warner is fine and then we'll hand them out. Thank you. All right. So, Ford, we are at 31 minutes, but we have five more to go. So I'd like to keep going since most folks have been very judicious with their time. Okay, number 14. Yep. Okay, Kimberly Barkmaier in Bannockburn, although I, when we first moved to this area, it was to Deerfield 61 years ago I went
093to Shepherd for kindergarten, which grew. Anyway, So I, you know, I've witnessed growth in the town and, you know, a lot of things and I've sort of had an ear to the ground with stormwater management over the years. And this is the taxpayers worst nightmare to see two taxing bodies on my property tax bill bickering, and then an attorney, you know, running the meter over things that should have been resolved well before now. Bannockburn residents are after Bannockburn village officials about maintenance of stormwater inlets and outlets both sides of walk Eagan Road and the railroad. And I'd like to know that your group is doing adequate maintenance of things on high school property. And, you know, if an agreement isn't being reached between the parties that are talking now. I would like to see a
094different attorney, because I don't know if he's thought there was an agreement, or if he's just trying to play one side against another to get it paid for, not by 113 but still by, you know, we're already paying a tax bill. But, you know, if these parties can't get it done, then get a different attorney or different spokesperson and on the Bannockburn side, please work with David Kohrer and not Bud Rothen, because I've had experiences myself where Bud thought there was an agreement about something, but it wasn't in writing. And, you know, my recollection of the conversation was different from his so maybe we just need new faces, starting from scratch. But to learn that there's county resources and stormwater management grant monies that have not been used is very frustrating. So, please consider withdrawing
095the lawsuit and starting over because you've been kicking this around for years and nothing's happened and everybody's unhappy, and the meter is running. So, thank you for listening. Thank you. Number 15 and 16 is on deck. Hi, my name is Sarah London, thank you for letting me speak tonight. I am a 22 year resident of Deerfield, and I have two current students at DHS who are involved in both the choir and the band programs. I want to reiterate what all these children have come to tell you tonight all these students and ask you to work to keep Miss Balmer at DHS. As we've heard tonight from the students, choir is a community, it's not just a class, it takes time to build a program and each time the choir director changes, there's a significant step
096back to the program and community building. Unlike other subjects, choir students often stay long term and build relationships, both with other students and with the teacher. As you can see from the turnout of all these choir students from DHS and their words tonight, changing the choir director has a huge social emotional impact on these students. And I think we should value that more than just class. We're asking the board to consider this disruption, the swap of choir directors would cause to both choir programs and to the social emotional well being of choir students at both schools. My understanding is that there may be other possible uses of Miss Balmer's time at DHS for next year that could keep her full time and I'd like to have the time for the appropriate people to consider that.
097So we're asking the board to at minimum table this vote and give that time. It should really be a priority to keep consistency in these fine arts programs. Thank you. Thank you. 16 and 17 is on deck. Good evening. My name is Alex Bender. I am not only a mom in the community but I'm also a DHS alumni. All these students behind me are incredible. I'm happy to be here as an alumni who actually went to school with Anastasia Balmer. Let me tell you that what they're saying about her now is exactly who she was back then. And she was an incredible part of the choral program back then in the 90s, not to age myself. Anna has been an institution in the choir program at DHS for so many years, going through the program
098herself, being an accompanist for many years, working alongside the legend Alicia acres, and then becoming predecessor to her mentor, just two years ago. Anna embodies the DHS choral program and carries on a long standing tradition and legacy that was started 30 plus years ago. I will not only speak on behalf of Anna as a former classmate, but also as a mother of a child who will be participating in the DHS choir program beginning this fall as a freshman. I've been waiting for the day for my children, for them to attend DHS to be able to experience the warmth, care, and magic that is the DHS fine arts department. I was excited to know that Anna would be my freshman daughter's advisory teacher, and that my daughter would always have a safe space and an advocate
099in the building. Myself and many of my friends who have children in the same position have been looking forward to this just the same, and we have been shocked and devastated to just hear this news this weekend of moving Anna to Highland Park. Anna has gone out of her way to get to know this incoming class. She started a show choir camp, as you've heard tonight, last summer, which many of our children attended. She continued communication with the parents and the children throughout the year, and invited them to concerts and shows. She's also created a big sister, big sister, little sister program for the incoming freshmen and they have all already heard from those students. She cares so much about her students and the program, always thinking of ways to expand enrollment, and always making
100her students, even the future ones, feel special. Not only is it shocking to lose such a wonderful and dedicated teacher who is adored by all, it's kind of unfathomable that a high school in a community such as Deerfield would need to acquire directors position. Obviously, I've heard what you guys have all said tonight, and yes, enrollment is down. Regardless of that, I can tell you personally, there are many, many talented freshmen coming in this fall, and they deserve the best of what a school of our caliber has to offer. Cutting a program will only decrease enrollment more. The less opportunities there are for these students, the less interest there will be. I finally remember. If you could just start to wrap up. I apologize I did not raise my hand. I finally remember my years
101at DHS, being in our hall, four times a day, and I just really hope that both my children will have that same opportunity. So, just, you know, obviously, as everyone has said, we're just hoping that you will reconsider, find other alternatives, because we all love Ms. Palmer. Thank you. Number 17 and then 19 is on deck. Good evening. My name is Tali Goldberg, and I'm Bannockburn resident. Speaking regarding the sewage drain and the piping under Deerfield. I want to preface by saying to Principal Anderson, I appreciate yourself and your staff and your educators, you do a great job and this is not directed at the education in the high school. To my surprise and astonishment. I've been named in a lawsuit, a lawsuit that front that the board approved to sue residents, a handful of
102residents, knowing that there was an issue with the pipes and sewage system for many years, and having the opportunity to remedy the situation. But for whatever reason you chose not to do that when you redid the football field in the track, being a penny wise a dollar foolish. And now I find myself in a very precarious situation of having to hire legal representation for a lawsuit that I have nothing to do with. I am very resentful and instead of feeling that you have sending out goodwill to your residents. It leaves a very bitter taste in our mouth that now we are taxpayers paying for the high school that we are being dragged into a lawsuit. I want to know why, why are a handful of residents being sued by the district for piping and sewage
103system under their property. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Number 19. Hi, I'm Audrey Schaub, a junior Highland Park High School. First off, I would like to start by saying that Mrs. Barnhill, our choir director has created a wonderful community at our school. When I first heard that she was leaving after Mr. Alombroso's only second year he was dismissed. Mrs. Barnhill somehow managed to make me feel somewhat okay about this. She managed to make me feel as if there was a new hope for the choir community. And she made me feel that there was a way for us to grow again, even after our choir director has been changed for the third time. However, now that I hear that she is leaving, our choir director will have changed four times within the span of
104five years. I believe that this is a very, I believe that this decision has not been thought through. And given the fact that she has only been given that the teachers have only been made aware of this a week prior. I feel that there are beings that there is not a lot of attention being given to the teachers perspectives. And although our district says that they support perspectives and aims to help people and values everyone's opinion, it seems that our teachers are not being heard. And not only the teachers, but our students, parents, community are being neglected by this impulsive decision. I would like to ask one more time for us to reconsider, to take a step back and think about everyone impacted by this. Numbers enrollment will go up and down. That's just how
105it works. I just want to ask if we could take the time to reconsider this. To not just look at one number, but an entire community. Thank you. Thank you. That concludes public comment. Before we move on to the reading of our policies, I want to thank everyone for the time that you took to prepare your comments and to be succinct in your communication. We were able to move through 19 public speakers within 40 minutes. It doesn't matter. What matters is that you gave thought to what you were going to say and you came prepared. So thank you very much for doing that. All right. Moving on to Board of Education policies, first reading. Jaime, do you want to quickly set this up? Yeah. So as we discussed at the beginning of the meeting, these
106are the policies that are up for first reading as part of procedure when there is a policy adjustment. It does go to first reading before a vote. The board has had time to review the proposed changes. I believe all of these are amendments to current policies with the possible exception of one, which is 4-190. But the rest are minor adjustments, mostly clerical or mostly in response to some of the changes in legal references. So if there are any questions in lieu of going one by one through each one of the policy changes, does any board member have any questions after having reviewed any of the policies? I have a comment. First off, this is great work. I read them and the changes are what we need. Take your attention to 6-3-10. There's a lot of
107new stuff in there, which I find to be very interesting about the kinds of course credits we're going to have and the different kinds of programs that are available. I know that some of the stuff already exists, but now we see the policy and it feels more real. And so I think that I just want to say how important I think this is to the district that we provide these kinds of opportunities to our kids for dual credit and credit and other different kinds of experiences. And I like to have confidence that we will communicate adequately to our student body that these opportunities exist. I'm going to piggyback on his because this was the only one that I was going to speak about that we speak about post-secondary plans. There is not a policy in
108our school that speaks to the idea of post-secondary working towards that while you're in school here. The ability to be getting credit for apprenticeships, the ability to get credit for volunteers, for students who want to live a service minded lifetime, and the ability for us to be able to look at these things and say these are what some of our students choose to do post-secondary and we are making a policy to make sure that that is a real possibility for them. I think is another way that we are really looking at our whole students every day. So I thank you guys for putting those in there because I think they are vital to who we are. And I'll stop saying that comment. So yeah, in that policy, there's a section on registered apprenticeship programs, which
109is not something currently in-house that we offer. But putting this into policy is something when we look at policy, looking at the future facing this of a policy, if we were to approach that in-house in the future, this policy allows us to be able to do that, which is important for the reasons that you've stated. Other questions? Thoughts? So next meeting, we will then move on action on these amendments. I would say one more thing. Another thank you to our superintendent and the cabinet and all staff that were involved in the review of each of these policies, implications for that policy and any of the changes. It is quite a massive, massive undertaking, also underscoring the work that had been done previously to get our policies up to date so that the reviews are in
110the wonderful spot, the wonderful spot that they are in now. Great. Thank you. We're moving on to item nine, action. This action is all that work of the board that comes at this time of year when we are moving through how we're handling our FTE resources and renewal of contracts. I did want to ask Dr. Law before we move through the actual action items. Can you, I know from what the students were commenting on in regards to looking at ways for these specific choir teachers to be able to retain the schools that are currently in and a 1.0 for the Just Choir Director. What kind of time frame are we on to figure out solutions? Yeah, Tom, if you need to step in, please do. But yeah, this is one of the challenges. In the
111state of Illinois, all school districts, well, except for CPS, they have a different set of rules. But outside of CPS, by April 15th, that's when if there's going to be any reduction in force, teachers have to be notified by then. It is a very time consuming process to go through all of the changes in staffing to determine who will be affected. But what the reason for the staffing recommendation calendar and then the timing of this meeting, normally action meetings take place the second meeting month, not the first. But the reason we're asking the board to take action tonight is because we are literally out of time. A week from yesterday is our deadline. So if I'm missing something, please correct me or add to what I'm saying. No, that's absolutely correct. April 15th is the
112legal deadline. And board approval is a step towards that legal deadline. But still, after board approval, there has to be the official notice to the staff members. Which is why we need a little room between the board meeting and the April 15th date. And the whole schedule is backed into, correct? Yeah, we back up from that date. So if they're able to come up with ways for current staff members that are not 1.0, but maybe need endorsements to take on other classes, that can all still occur. Sure. OK. And often there are changes. There are changes. Some things happen. Can't say that it will for sure, but it's not unusual after you get past this minimum staffing recommendation and the board approves it. And then one of the outcomes of that is, well, if there's
113a reduction in force, then we have to take action on that. But after that, things often happen. So if tomorrow things change, if next week things change, of course we'll respond to that and we'll make adjustments. But as Tom said, not only are we up against April 15th deadline just looking at the calendar, but there are procedural steps that have to be taken after tonight before April 15th. And that's why I think it's true to say we are literally out of time as far as this step in the stage of the process. OK, thank you. Items 9A and 9B are honorable dismissal or reduction in hours due to economic reasons and not due to performance. Decreased enrollment in the schools and in classes has forced us to consider the budget. And we've concluded that is
114economically necessary to reduce teaching FTE when enrollment is insufficient for as many sections of courses to run next year as ran this year. Item 9E is due to restructuring, not performance. 9A, this resolution will honorably dismiss the following teachers from employment in the district at the end of the current school year for RIF reasons. Tariana Bland, Brianne Del Easy. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a resolution for honorable dismissal of teachers as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Is there any discussion? Roll call please. Mr. Heidemann? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Schimmer? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. 9B, this resolution will honorably reduce hours for the following licensed staff members from employment in the district at the end of the current school
115year for RIF reasons. Anna Barnhill, Cody Ferrick, Emma Harmon, Sehu Chang-Sawyer. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a resolution for honorable dismissal reduction in hours for teachers as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? I just want to reiterate what has been discussed earlier. I think it's really important that we look at some of these things and see whether there is ways to having, I know we've had in the past teachers doing advisories or things like that while they are getting licensure for certain subjects. We've had teachers teach things probationary for a year to look outside of the box to be able to keep Ms. Barnhill and Mrs. Ballmer, if there's a way that we can make it work. I mean, I think
116it, once again, I understand fully it's about the position, not the person, and that's really hard. But I think if we look at advisories and things like that to try to keep both of these positions full time at full schools, not the people, the positions. Actually, I think what you mean are the people. Because the position is the choir position. Full schools being full time. Right, but let's be clear. The choir position at DHS right now based upon student enrollment is a .6. I'd like just to see if we can figure out a way to make that a full time position, whether it be through other ways doing. Right. There's a couple of things that we can do that tonight. I'm not asking for tonight. First thing and second thing, I think we need to
117take into consideration other teachers who are also being reduced due to enrollment. I mean, it should be the case that if there are teachers in the math department. I think we should be looking for everyone. Absolutely. I'm just saying that it shouldn't. There are other teachers who are similarly affected who are not here tonight. What really needs to be pursued is any of our teachers earning as many endorsements as they can based upon their interest, based upon their availability. And so that's how moving forward, some of these decrease in enrollment will need to be solved. That teacher, obviously a teacher that teaches potentially some of the more core classes has potentially some more flexibility. A teacher that teaches more of these specific fine arts. Yeah. Finding ways for them, finding ways to increase their endorsements
118so that they can pick up. Giving those people the times to do. Yes. Yeah. That was a better way for me to say it. Giving them the time to pick up those endorsements in order to get that flexibility. Right. Okay. Any other discussions? A roll call, please. Ms. Lupa? Yes. Ms. Shapira? Yes. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a resolution for dismissal of part-time teacher Kyle Harris for reasons other than reduction in force as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? A roll call, please. Ms. Shapira? Yes. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. It is recommended that the
119Board of Education approve a resolution authorizing reduction in force for the position of outplacement coordinator as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. A one-year employment contract for Danielle Escalante as assistant principal at Deerfield High School as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a resolution approving one-year administrative contracts as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is
120there any discussion? Roll call, please. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. Nine, aye. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a multi-year employment contract for Dr. Catherine Anderson as principal of Deerfield High School as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? A roll call, please. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. It is recommended that the nine-year employment contract for Dr. Catherine Anderson as principal of Deerfield High School as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? I like seeing Dr. Anderson on it this year. You earn
121it, I say it. A roll call, please. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. Nine-L. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a multi-year employment contract for Brian Almer as chief operations officer as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? A roll call, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. Nine-M. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a multi-year employment contract for Ron Pasvam as chief information officer as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion?
122A roll call, please. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. Nine-M. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? A roll call, please. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Mr. Shapira? Yes, please. Mr. Braza? Aye. Dr. Elliot-Shermer? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. Nine-N. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a multi-year employment contract for Thomas Krieger as chief human resource officer as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. discussion. Roll call please. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Shapiro? Yes please. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Schrimer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. 9-0. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a multi-year contract for
123Dr. Tiffany Rowe as Assistant Superintendent of Student Services as presented. Is there is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? A roll roll call please. Ms. Shapiro? Yes please. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Schrimer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. Ms. Lupa? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Motion carries. 9-P. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve a multi-year employment contract for Mira Ante as Assistant Superintendent of Diversity Equity and Inclusion as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Roll call please. Ms. Shapiro? Yes please. Mr. Barraza? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Schrimer? Aye. Mr. Heineman? Aye. aye aye aye motion carries item 10 consent agenda next to next is the consent agenda a board member may were you okay okay sorry you went through
124that really 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 can Jenny vote on everything okay okay it is recommended that the consent consent agenda be approved as listed is there a motion so moved is there a second second there any discussion a roll call please mr. Braza Dr. Elliott Schremer aye Mr. Heideman aye Ms. Lupa aye Mr. Perra yes please Ms. Newman aye motion carries last item is adjournment it is now 854 is there a motion to adjourn the meeting so moved is there a second second all of those in favor opposed abstentions motion carries thank you everyone thank you