001Oh, no one else. Yes, please. Okay, thank you. Oh, it's not. Keep going down. Will they be able to come to all of our meetings. Your college love having that. Yeah, it's on the ground. Okay, thank you. Okay, we have to order township high school district. One 13 regular action meeting for Tuesday, September 26th, 2023. It is seven Oh five Ramina. Can we have a roll call? Please. Dr. Elliott. Mr. Heineman. Here. Ms. Newman. Here. Mr. Nader. Mr. todas. Mr. Nader. I'm Tom Krieger, chief human resources officer. Michael Oc, assistant superintendent curriculum, instruction assessment. You're in Warner chief communications officer. Tiffany row assistant superintendent for student services. I'll demand this is in school finance. Debbie Finn, principal Highland park high school. Catherine Anderson, principal at dear ability school. Ron Casbom, chief information officer. Superintendent. I'm
002so sorry. Amy, you'll leave a director security. We've got our, we've got our. I'll explain the pattern later. Amy, I'll tell you the pattern. First item of business tonight is approval of the board meeting agenda. Is there a motion to approve the agenda as listed? So moved. Is there a second? Second. All those in favor? Aye. Opposed? Abstentions? The motion carries. First, next item up is the board reports and A is the president's report. I am proud that tonight the board likely will be approving a resolution supporting the passage of Ethan's law. Ethan's law would require gun owners to secure their firearms and a secured gun storage or safety device. District 113 has been directly impacted by the failure of an adult to properly secure a firearm. Moreover, at least 80% of the mass shooting
003incidents at K through 12 schools have involved guns stolen from family members. Given district 113's responsibility to provide a safe, supportive, motivating, respectful and inspiring environment for all of its students and staff, 113 has an immediate interest tied to its functioning as an educational institution and the passage of safe firearms storage legislation such as Ethan's law. It seems as though these president's reports have addressed a good number of serious and or challenging topics over the last couple of months. Tonight, I am genuinely pleased to see the return of the passion for excellence series of presentations that display the unique talents and passions of some of our district 113 staff members. It is encouraging and inspiring to see the energy and excitement expressed by our staff concerning their unique roles in fulfilling district 113's mission to
004engage and inspire its students. Similarly, I'm excited that we will be seeing a presentation providing a report on last spring's return of a treasured Highland Park High School tradition in focus on the arts. After missing focus because of the circumstances of recent years, it was wonderful to see it returned as a core experience for Highland Park High School students. It will be similarly gratifying to see the plans for the inaugural Arts Alive at Deerfield High School this coming April. Deerfield has a proud history of engagement and involvement in the arts. And we are all looking forward to this celebration of the arts that could also become a core experience for Deerfield High School students going forward. Finally, on a more serious note, I'm going to share the following joint message from the city of Highland
005Park, North Shore School District 112 and Township High School District 113 concerning our shared commitment to working together to protect our community. And I quote, over the past week, our community, especially the students, parents, staff and administrators of Red Oak School has been the focus of a series of bomb threats. Although investigations into each threat have revealed them to be non-credible, they are no less frightening because they target our most precious constituents, our children. Following the guidance of the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI, we have approached every threat with an immediate and thorough response to protect public safety and ensure that students, parents, teachers and staff remain confident that they are safe in their schools. We are not alone in experiencing these threats. Many communities across the country have encountered the same troubling
006pattern of non-credible threats targeting beloved community institutions, such as schools, places of worship and public libraries. In fact, the FBI has stated that 6,000 school threats were reported nationwide in 2022, a 60% increase over the prior year. It is unacceptable that individuals acting with such disregard for public safety and student learning have disrupted school days, library programming and other activities throughout the nation. The City of Highland Park Police Department is continuing to collaborate with federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to investigate these threats impacting our community. We take each threat seriously. We also know that our response sets an example for our community. It is our hope that each of you has felt safer knowing that multiple precautions and have the multiple precautions that have been taken. From talking openly about these non-credible threats,
007to conducting building searches with bomb detecting dogs, to increasing patrols by Highland Park Police and enhancing public safety measures at schools throughout our community. We are proud of the partnership our governments share, made possible by close collaboration, ongoing communication and trust between our elected officials and administrative professionals as we all work towards the same goal, protecting public safety. We are united in our commitment to overcoming this challenge and working together to protect public safety in our schools and neighborhoods. This message was co-signed by Nancy Rotering, Mayor of the City of Highland Park, Edan Newkirk, City Manager for the City of Highland Park, Lisa Hirsch, President of the North Shore School District 112 School Board, Dr. Michael Leubelfeld, Superintendent of Schools for North Shore School District 112, me, Dan Struck as President of the Township High
008School District 113 School Board and Dr. Bruce Law, Superintendent of Schools for Township High School District 113. Let me just say on behalf of 113, District 113's response to any threat will be immediate, thorough and treated as credible until or unless law enforcement determines otherwise. District 113's commitment to this response to act upon any threat, whether reported to another public entity or received directly is shared with all of its constituent communities, school districts and public safety agencies. These threats create uncertainty and potentially fear in our communities, families, students and staff, and they disrupt the education our students so greatly deserve in preparation for their futures. Speaking bluntly, this kind of threat, regardless of the nature of one's disagreements or grievance is never appropriate or tolerable. These threats are not a joke, they create uncertainty and
009disruption. As a school district, we are resolute in stating that we will continue with firm commitments and resolve to serve and respond to the needs of all of our students with compassion, sensitivity and respect for their unique journeys. As they grow into young adult citizens of our communities, our nation and our world. So ends the president's report. Other than to note, go Giants because it's homecoming weekend. Next up is a report from our diversity, equity and inclusion committee. Jody? We met earlier today. We met earlier today and it was just so enlightening. And I think really empowering to hear all the wonderful work that Mira and Marcellus and Holly are doing at both schools. Marcellus reported that this year, they really want to focus on capitalizing on the great work that has been done in
010the past and really building upon that in multiple areas, including curriculum and instruction at Highland Park. Holly reported that they're really looking at the different systems that are in place and ways that they can really increase access for all students to really be able to access education in the best ways possible. And we're looking at issues like culture and climate for both the staff and the students. Mira spoke about having different interviews with students and staff and using those interviews to really drive the work that they're doing. We talked about hiring and retention and they built out a really detailed specific process that they're going to be using with this upcoming hiring season and one that can be repeated for years to come. Does anyone have any questions about our meeting? Hearing no questions, thanks
011Jody. Sounds like some great work is being done. It is. Next up are the administration information reports. First up is Dr. Law. Thank you, Mr. Strzok. Just one thing to share with the board that had got some good news. The Illinois chapter of the National School Public Relations Association announced award recipients for the 22-23 school year and District 113 won two awards of excellence, which is the highest rating for their award system. And the first one was under the category of special purpose communications and it was the schools serve as the heart of the community responding to the July 4th mass shooting. And the second award of excellence is for the video series that we started last year, Passion for Excellence. So I wanted to congratulate Karen on all the work that she does and
012the people she works with. She doesn't do it alone, although it's almost alone to do this. And I know that we're all grateful for that. And INSPRA has recognized it as excellence and we wanted to share that with the board. Thank you so much, job well done. Also, do we move on to focus on the arts and arts alive? So while Tamara is getting set by, you all know Tamara Jenkins, she is the director of the art special projects. So trying to figure out exactly now what her title would be. So she's ready to go, I'll stop talking. So Tamara, you can. Thank you so much. I'd just like to start out by saying thank you to everyone in this room for supporting the arts in this district. And I'm very excited and honored to
013be in charged, I guess enlisted to develop a new program at Deerfield, as well as taking focus of the arts further into the future as we did with 2023. So thank you for having me here today. I'd like to start with the report for focus on the arts 2023. We did have a full focus on the arts in 2023, despite having a very short planning period. We had a bunch of very dedicated volunteers, parents from the community that helped me pull it off. And I'm very grateful to the hours that they gave to focus and the value that they put on the program. We did have two days of 320 individual workshops and presentations for the students. This year, it was new that these two days full of workshops were not open to the public.
014So we did put a lot of emphasis on the community facing events. You can go to the next slide. So that was the 300 and the next slide again. So the three evening events, opening night, art night and dance night were the community facing events. And we will continue to emphasize the community aspect of those events as the daytime workshops have been closed to the community members. So that's how we're trying to balance out and maintain the same support from the community. I have a video that Bitter Jester was there, the days and evenings of the event, and they created a wonderful recap that does a much better job than I could do in sharing the feeling that was created for focus. Isn't that great? Yeah, so that's Bitter Jester, alumni of Highland Park High
015School and alumni of the Focus on the Arts program that developed that video for us. I'd just like to say that we did have some success in solving some longstanding problems such as the student registration portion, which I think Debbie would agree went surprisingly brilliantly. And we also addressed some of the issues that IT, difficulties that IT had had in the past that we seem to have solved this time. And we made significant progress on our diversity, goals, we still have a ways to go, especially on the front end with planning, but in certain spaces, we reach those goals and in certain spaces, we still have a ways to go. We also were able this year on the inclusion front to make all of our workshops and performances, all access for the special education student
016population. And so that was a big step forward. We have some bumpy processes to professionalize this year. We've already begun meeting, planning, and I will be creating an entire catalog of videos and trainings and timelines and directions for our community committee members moving forward and that work has already begun. Now I would like to turn towards a very exciting announcement, which was alluded to a little bit earlier tonight, but we do have a name for a new Deerfield High School Arts Program. And that name is Arts Alive. I'm very excited about working with Kathy and her team, the Fine Arts Chair and feedback of the Fine Arts staff have also informed the development of the program that we're launching this year. You can go to the next slide. So based on the Deerfield High School,
017what do you call this, Kathy? It's okay, the theme, the theme of Care Connect Community. We've tied in the different aspects of this program. The first is to care by increasing our student exposure to the arts and artists to connect by exploring how the arts intersect with academic subjects. And we're building community through offering community facing arts events open to the public and free of charge. This is a starting point that we feel we can build in the future, we can build on the structure that we're implementing this year. And it does take a village to make something like this happen. We're in the process of sort of assembling the players and assembling that village. It includes the staff and the student voice, Friends of the Arts, which is an integral part of the arts
018program at Deerfield High School, the PTO, other parent organizations and the community at large. So we're really at early stages, building this community, messaging the launch of a new program at Deerfield, but we're excited to start this year in 2024 April, the month of April dates still pending. What is this gonna look like at Deerfield? So again, based on that feedback, that discussions that we've had with Kathy and her team and the fine arts staff, we have come up with a week long event called Arts Alive Week. You can move to the next slide. I'm falling behind on giving you your cues, thank you. Okay, so we will be bringing art and artists into the classroom. Year one, we're starting with the fine arts staff, but in the future, we can expand this next year
019or next time we're looking at maybe the applied arts, English, et cetera. So what this looks like is rather than having a completely new schedule for the event, artists will be brought into the classrooms as they exist. So it will not disrupt the normal school day and it will be incumbent on the staff, the teachers to come forward and say, I would like to bring an artist into my classroom and then working together with myself and the committees that we form, we will bring artists into those classrooms. So this year, we will start with what looks like artists in residence at the fine arts level. So we will have workshops during the week of Arts Alive. These fine arts residencies can start in advance of the program, but must conclude during that week of Arts
020Alive programming. In the future, we can bring artists into any class, any space where a teacher wants to explore this intersection between whatever their subject is and the arts. For instance, obvious easy example would be English teachers bringing in Shakespeare, poetry, a novelist. You can have DPE teachers bringing in dancers or the anatomy of dancing. We can have a science teacher bring in a sound engineer and study the physics of sound. There are so many ways to tie in the arts to different academic disciplines. So this again is looking to start with the fine arts, but to move forward based on the interest of the staff. And we're hoping that the students will start to really drive their teachers to, we wanna bring something in. Hey, what about this? What about that? So you can
021go to the next slide. In addition to those workshops that will happen in the classroom during that week, we will also have a Friday assembly, which will be for the entire student body. And that will be a mixture of professional artists and the culminating projects from any of the fine arts residencies. If they have a project they would like to perform for the students with a professional artist, then we can program that into the assembly period. I just wanna state that the Deerfield student population, it's about 40% that are in the fine arts. So this year we're looking to reach about 40% just in those classroom workshops and then the full student body. So 100% would be touched by those assemblies. And we also have the Saturday community, what right now I'm calling Art Expo.
022We're still searching around for names on a lot of things. But what that will be is a sort of art happening during the day where the public will be invited to come in, District 109, the feeder schools, senior centers, the parents and students of DHS to come into a space where about 25 different visual artists will be exhibiting works and doing hands-on demonstrations. So they're creating art in the space. It's an open house. And there will also be pop-up performances of music, dance, maybe some theater. So it's gonna be a really exciting few hours of all kinds of art happening in a very intimate space. And again, family-friendly, open to the whole community. So that's the space that we really hope to bring the community into the high school and create that bridge between the
023students and the school and the community at large. So that's a very general overview. I just wanted to ask if there were any questions of any sort on either what happened with Focus this past year or our plans moving forward with Arts Alive at Deerfield? I don't have any questions. I just wanna thank you. I think that we were so excited to bring Focus back to HP. I was thrilled beyond thrilled to hear that we finally allowed our students of different abilities to be able to access every program there is there. That was a very necessary change. So thank you for making sure that that happened. And the ability to bring it to DHS, we've been talking about it for as long as I've been on the board that it's time to bring it there.
024And really super excited for April. So thank you for all your work. Anyone else? Now, just again, to say thank you. It's wonderful that there are going to be unique experiences at both schools that for Highland Park preserves the tradition and for Deerfield creates a new tradition. I mean, that was the goal and sounds like it. Thank you. It was important that Deerfield has its own identity with its own program and therefore its own name and that the program reflects the values and the community at Deerfield. So that's what we're working with and towards. Last slide. They're coming soon. April, 2024 Arts Alive, Focus on the Arts. I'm sorry, 2024 Arts Alive, Focus on the Arts, 2025 April. Can I just say, Tim, before you sit down, I also want to thank you because I
025mean, when I got here in 2019, I was able to see opening night of Focus on the Arts. I was just amazed that such a thing existed in public school. And then I began to learn more about Focus on the Arts. It started in 1964. It's got this incredible community and school tradition. It's so valued by the school and the community. My question at that time, which I thought was reasonable, but it may be, I said, well, what does Deerfield do? And that has led to a series of discussions. And now this is what Deerfield is going to do. So thank you very much. We're all so excited. And I just want to say how impressive it is and how smart it is that Deerfield is really making its own dent, set it perfectly, preserving
026the tradition of Focus on the Arts at Highland Park, creating a Deerfield tradition at Deerfield all around the arts. As you said, the arts are extremely important at Deerfield High School. There are a lot of students involved in the arts. They have a very strong arts program. So the fact that they are now creating this arts festival that is their own, is now going to be part of this tradition, Highland Park one year, Deerfield next year. Very excited. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Let's see, next up, we have our award-winning passion for the excellence series beginning again this year. Yes, I need to tee this up, Ron. So hang on a second. So I can't remember if it was two years ago, but in any event, we had
027goals. We said we needed to expand the media we use to communicate the message of all the great things that are happening in District 113. And this particular medium we're very proud of and very happy about because it allows us to tell the story of District 113 person by person through their eyes and their experiences about why they do what they do and how they contribute to making us great. Last year, we had all teachers. This year, we have teachers, but we're also starting to expand this because there are a lot of staff in District 113 that make this place go whose commitment to District 113, its students, its mission, its values, all of these people who sometimes are behind the scenes actually are very important to the work we do. And so tonight, we're
028starting with one of those persons. Good morning, District 113. This is Kelly. Can I help you? I studied biological sciences and chemistry in college. After I graduated from the University of Missouri, I then went into the field of zookeeping. I started my zookeeping career at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago with their Marine Mammal Program. From there, I moved to St. Louis, Missouri to work at Grant's Farm, where I participated in their African Elephant Program. And then my last stop on my zookeeping journey was at the Lincoln Park Zoo, where I worked in the Regenstein African Journey Building, the Bear Line, and the Kovler Lion House. Working with large mammals primarily was different every day. No two days were the same. It was always exciting and thrilling, but also a lot of cleaning and scrubbing and
029food prep. My favorite part of working with the animals was the actual training process and watching them progress. After about 10 years in the field, I decided my time was up. I was ready to go. Emotionally was probably the hardest part. You do become attached to the animals that you work with. You do grow an attachment. They get to know you, you get to know them. But a time for a change, and then I moved on. My husband and I decided that we were gonna move to Highland Park. I've always felt that working in your community is a really good way to contribute and to give back to the community. My name is Kelly and I am the District 113 Registrar. I felt that working at a school would be nice because I wanted to
030start a family and the schedule would be a little bit friendlier than the zookeeping field that I had come from. A position came up at Highland Park High School in the Dean's Office to work as their administrative assistant. I applied and was lucky enough to get the job. Shifting from the Dean's Office to the Registrar was probably more dramatic for me. It is very behind the scenes, kind of invisible position. This wall of filing cabinets is all transcripts for students from 1964 to 2010. The Registrar bookends a student's career at the high school. I'm there for when you first register and enroll as a freshman, and I'm the one who sends your final transcript after you graduate. It's very much like a time capsule. Microfilms? I really enjoyed working at District 113. It is welcoming
031and it is friendly and understanding. My children have attended the preschool here in the building. You may see me walking out to the corner every morning at eight o'clock to put my kids on the bus because they get picked up from the high school itself. The understanding of what it's like to be a working parent, and especially in communities where you could have two working parent households to be able to do that is just such a weight off your shoulders. One thing I also really love about working in this district is that I get to see my children progress through the educational system. I am so comforted in knowing that when my children get to the high school level, that they are gonna be in great hands. Our job is to prepare students to go
032into that adult world and teach them those adult skills that they need. And I think District 113 does this. Besides being award-winning, these never cease to amaze me at some of the things that our staff has done. It's fascinating. Yeah, it's always interesting because every one of them thinks that they have nothing unique to share. Oh my God. So Zookeeper was the first. I think, yeah. I was gonna say, I wanna see how that resonates Right. Let's get back to it. That's a little bit of a pivot. Team Lions, you can team us. Teenagers, Lions. Or parents of all the forms. That's right. Huh? That's true. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Fantastic. Thank you. Super, thanks. So next up is the always highlight FOIA requests for the last couple of weeks. This is the FOIA we've
033received and processed since the last meeting. Ready? Moving right along. We move on to public comments. Per policy 2-230 at each open school board meeting, the board of education has a public comment period for a maximum of 30 minutes. We are ready to listen and appreciate your comments. We recognize it takes time and work to prepare a three minute statements. Public participation is not intended to be a back and forth discussion between the public and the board. Questions asked during public participation may be sent via email to be answered subsequent to the meeting. We don't have anybody signed up. Does anybody want to make a public comment? Please, please don't look at me. Hearing none, we'll move right along to our action items. First up is resolution concerning Ethan's law. It is recommended that the
034board of education approve the resolution concerning Ethan's law as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? I'm gonna give my two second discussion here. While I would spend every single day I have fighting for Ethan's law, I have a hard time as a school board. We are an apolitical institution here. And so I will be abstaining. That does not mean I don't support this. I just think when we use terms about getting our government and our this, that, and the other involved, there's just a part of me that says it's a little, it allows the groups to work against what we're trying to do. And it gives people ammunition and therefore, and I didn't mean to use that term and I apologize. That was a bad
035one there. But like I said, I would spend every day fighting for safe gun laws and getting rid of our guns and this, that, and the other. But because we take an oath to be apolitical and all those other things, I will be abstaining. But I don't want anyone to think I abstained that I don't believe that this is important. Thank you. Any other discussion, any further discussion? Yeah, I sort of said what I had to say about this in my president's report. So moving right along, can we have a roll call please, Romina? Mr. Henneman. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Nader. Aye. Ms. Shapira. Abstain. Aye. Mr. Strick. Aye. The motion carries. Action item B, engage Baker-Tilley for Inflation Reduction Act credit professional services. It is recommended to the Board of Education approve the
036engagement of Baker-Tilley for professional services to assist with capturing a direct pay tax credit that is available for the solar improvement project through the Inflation Reduction Act. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Okay, hearing no further discussion, a roll call please. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Nader. Aye. Ms. Shapira. Yes, please. Mr. Garaza. Aye. Dr. Elliott-Sherbert. Aye. Mr. Henneman. Aye. Mr. Strick. Aye. The motion carries. Approval of settlement agreement with Altria Group Inc and related defendants. It is recommended that the Board of Education approve the settlements of vaping litigation with Altria Group Inc and related defendants in the amount of $23,884 as presented. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Hearing no discussion, can we have a roll call,
037please, Romina? Mr. Nader. Aye. Ms. Shapira. Yes, please. Mr. Garaza. Aye. Dr. Elliott-Sherbert. Aye. Mr. Henneman. Aye. Ms. Newman. Please. We now move on to our consent agenda. A Board member may pull any item for separate consideration. Does any Board member wish to pull an item off the consent agenda for separate consideration? Hearing none, it is recommended that the consent agenda be approved as listed. Board of Education Committee of the Whole meeting minutes for September 12th, 2023. Board of Education Committee of the Whole meeting, meeting closed session minutes for September 12th, 2023. Approve Illinois State Board of Education annual administrator and teacher salary and benefits report for school year 2022-23. Policy 7-180, prevention of and response to bullying, intimidation, harassment. Memorandum of understanding with the DEA, provision of physical education to students at Highland Park
038High School with medical excuses. Memorandum of understanding with the DEA, retroactive pay for past coaches and activity sponsors. Cash flow and treasurers report July, 2023. Investment portfolio report, August, 2023. Monthly cash summary, July, 2023. Accounts payable, payroll and personnel notices. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. I see that Jaime is the lucky Board member who can provide a report on the bills this meeting. Yes, thank you. I did have a chance to connect with Hallie. Thank you for providing the documentation and backup for the items that were pulled. Everything was in order. All the questions were answered. So appreciate the help. And I'm happy to report everything was in order. Is there any discussion? Hearing no discussion, can we have a roll call for Ms. Romina? Ms. Shapira. Yes, please.
039Mr. Barraza. Dr. Elliot-Shermer. Aye. Mr. Heineman. Aye. Ms. Newman. Mr. Strzok. Aye. The motion carries. That concludes the open session for tonight's Board meeting. Tonight, we are going to be moving into closed session for additional discussion. It is recommended that the Board of Education move into closed session to consider information regarding the appointment of employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreation or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body determined of validity. However, a
040meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the Local Government Wage Increase Transparency Act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and held in accordance with this Act 5, ICS 120 slash two. See, that's the only public, the only open meeting exception. Is there a motion? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Can we have a roll call, please, Ramina? Mr. Baratha? Aye. Dr. Elliott-Schimmer? Aye. Mr. Feynman? Aye. Ms. Newman? Aye. Mr. Nieder? Aye. Ms. Shapiro? Yes, please. Ms. Shapiro? Aye. Okay, we're going to close session. Once we conclude closed session, we will go back and to reconvene and to open and no action will be taken. And so that ends open session. Thanks.