001Welcome to Township High School District 113 regular meeting Tuesday, September 27, 2022. And a roll call please. Mr. Shapiro, yes please. Mr. Strzok, here. Mr. Braza, here. Ms. Elliott Schremer, here. Mr. Heineman, here. Ms. Newman, here. Mr. Fishery, here. If everyone else on the table could identify themselves please. Mr. Secretary. Tom Krieger, Assistant Superintendent Human Resources. Michael Locke, Assistant Superintendent Curriculum and Instruction Assessment. Karen Warner, Director of Communications. Tiffany Rowe, Assistant Superintendent for Student Services. Brian Amher, Chief Operations Officer. Holly Montes, Assistant Superintendent of Finance. Debbie Finn, Principal Highland Park High School. Katherine Anderson, Principal Principal at Dearfield High School. Ron Casbom, Chief Information Officer. Mira Ante, Director of Equity and Inclusion. First Law Superintendent. Oh he's so great. Ron Casbom. It's always great. So a motion to approve the agenda as listed. Second. Second.
002Any discussion? A roll call please. Mr. Strzok, aye. Mr. Braza, aye. Ms. Elliott Schremer, aye. Mr. Heineman, aye. Ms. Newman, aye. Mr. Shapiro, yes please. Mr. Fishby, aye. Motion carries. Item number four, recognition. Woohoo. Let the music play. And Fetty Cannons. National Blue Ribbon School, Dearfield High School 2022. Yes, this is quite an accomplishment by the Dearfield students, staff, and I would say parents who all work together to earn this amazing award. Not the first time for Dearfield High School. Just wanted to congratulate them and also want to turn it over to Kathy to do the honors for her school. Sure. So thank you so much for the recognition. We were proud to have been recommended by the Illinois State Board of Education for this recognition. We went through a process to apply for the
003honor and were notified now, what, two weeks ago, that we had received this award. Last week we spent time with students and with our staff to kind of honor everyone in terms of their role that they played to make DHS, the wonderful place that it is, and as Dr. Long mentioned, this truly is an award, a recognition of the entire school community. We simply can't do it alone and I think that it shows how it is necessary to be collaborators and leaders within our school in so many different ways. So very proud of everybody in terms of attaining this recognition and I often get asked now, what does this award mean for your school and did you get money? We don't get any money, but I do think that we do get a plaque and
004a flag that we're able to fly, apparently, but I do think it is something that just continues to move us forward. How can we continue to improve and meet the needs of our students? So I think it's just an acknowledgement of the hard work that everyone is putting in, particularly during the pandemic. So I think it's just a reinforcement of continuing to move forward in the best way that we know possible. One thing I would add is that part of this, there's a two-day conference, there are activities over two days at the beginning of November, so Kathy and a teacher will be going and I'm also invited as superintendent to go to Washington, D.C. to meet with the Department of Ed to get this amazing award, this one, and as part of it. So they
005will represent proudly and I will also represent the school, the district, proudly. Yes, represent us in Washington, D.C., very cool. Any other? I'll be honest with you, this is such an extraordinary thing and obviously I'm a Deerfield resident, Deerfield parent, all those things, but more importantly, to be recognized from this, which in one of the years that was probably the hardest year in the world of education, is an extraordinary thing. And when we sit there and discuss which we are still in COVID recovery, we are still in COVID learning recovery, COVID emotional well-being recovery, and to be able to be recognized, to say that we have all these wounds right now, but we've got a pretty big band-aid, or at least it shows that we're, that we were able to come through it and what
006an extraordinary thing to everyone in your building. I think what you said was so beautiful, it's about the kids, it's about the staff, it's about the parents that make sure they're there, that people showing up and I think that's an extraordinary thing. So thank you and everyone there for showing up for our kids and thank our kids for showing up and allowing your teachers to do those jobs that they do. And I think it's just another thing for us as a district to say yes. Yes, we are. He queued it up. It was like an underhanded thought ball pitch. I couldn't resist that one. Come on. Very good. Okay, let's go on to board reports. I'll start with mine. July 4th. So there was a interagency debriefing session a couple weeks ago that I attended.
007I don't know, it must have been, you know, 40, 50 people. And this is a normal process of emergency preparedness that you then come back and you debrief everything from the event, the actions of the police, fire, the counseling centers, the highwood, everybody was there and we, you know, it was tabletop exercises and we did a really thorough debriefing. And I just want to recognize, let you know how, not surprisingly, how well Highland Park High School, District 113, all the staff were recognized, their role. It wasn't, what you learn from these kinds of things, it wasn't the role of District 113 and our staff wasn't part of a pre-planned emergency preparedness plan, right? But everybody responded well. There was, I mentioned that as we look back on it, the high school as a site became
008a good site. It was a good location for the community. As importantly, if not more importantly, it was the response of the people. And that was both Highland Park High School and Durfield High School staff, the volunteer counselors, the teachers, the volunteer efforts, the security people. I did sing you up, Brian and the logistics and Debbie and the work your staff did. So it was a great conversation. There was lots of, and it went around for obviously the fire department, everybody else too, but I just want to share with you how I recognize. I did say this is not unlike all the other people in the room, but people who work in schools are wired for this. They're wired to respond to unusual situations. They're wired to care for people. And so it was well
009recognized. And that'll continue. There'll be more and more debrief to kind of fine tune this because we have to be prepared should things happen again. So I want to give you that feedback. Um, post switching your Illinois association, a school board conference is in November. Um, and I think if you haven't already have all signed up via Romina, uh, to do that. Um, Dan has volunteered to be our delegate. Um, um, so for those of you who are new, so there's resolutions. So there's a resolution session where then the school districts vote on resolutions. Um, we I think we can, I think it's online now. I think we can start to take a look at those, but if you can kind of guide us, uh, rather than us, yeah, rather than us, my thought is
010rather than us going through all of them. If you can just kind of guide us as the ones you want us to kind of review, discuss beforehand so we can, um, kind of let Dan know how to represent us in those as our delegates. We should put that on a agenda then. And yeah, October. Yeah. Yeah. I think that strategy is better than going through them all. Correct. Yeah. Yeah. So, um, so Dan will do that for us. Um, and the only other, uh, thing I've got before we get to the board. So, um, oh, looking at the calendar, I think, um, probably December. I always tell you guys to keep Tuesdays, keep Tuesdays open. Uh, right. And I think looking ahead, it might be December six is a Tuesday where it's not a regular
011meeting. Uh, kind of keep that as a pencil. Then, um, our experience has been through the years that come the end of June, which is the end of the fiscal year and the end of sometime in December before the calendar year, things come up and we just end up with things that we have to get done by the end of the year and, um, may not happen, but I, I just, I'm just trying to think way ahead that there, um, there could be something where they're going to the administration, particularly might ask us that they may need some action items or to get done before the end of a calendar year. So, um, I would be prepared that that could be a date that we'll keep. That's it. Uh, five B, the board self-evaluation report.
012So we had a workshop, um, not a retreat is workshop on September six, 14th, 14th. Um, and it was facilitated by a member for the Illinois association of school boards and, um, she was very good. I thought, um, um, and, um, covered a lot of ground and it was really, uh, um, we learned a lot and we had good exchange. Um, do we, there we go. So up on the board. So one of the important things we use as a guide post was this, this, uh, graphic of, of whose responsibility and, um, board responsibilities and staff. Um, I'll stop there and just kind of open it up to people of your thoughts about the conference that works out. Um, okay. Well, so I'll give you an example. So I try to think of examples where
013we kind of write and, and last summer when we did the, the life skills lab and saw all the work that went into that. And looking back on it, I think it was a good example of the board's role of, we've understand that there's a need there. The board's role is equity board's role is recent priorities. So the board set a priority for this service. The board said, yes, go forth because there's an equity issue. Uh, the administration then designed space that designed services, designed the scope that's for us to be interested in. We, and we are genuinely interested in that may have some comments about that, but not our role to do the specifics of that and, um, maybe come back and say, are you on budget and are you on time? And is
014it, is it fulfilling the goals that we would see are needed by the staff and those students? And are you, are we seeing that and to stay at that, at that part of the board role and not get into the weeds of the, of the, of the administrative role. Always one of the important things in a board evaluation process is us also being reminded as what our roles as individual board members are, that we speak only as a board. There are not factions of the board or wings of the board. We don't walk around and say as a board member, I think when we talk to people and that's a particularly tricky balancing act when there are important local issues coming up. And as a, as members of this board, we don't, you know, we
015speak to our duties together on the board and we don't get involved. We try to stay non, we don't, we agreed as a board, we reached a consensus that we don't jump in as board, as board members to get involved in local. Oh, I don't know. Maybe there's something up for election in November that we, as a board, we stay on the sidelines and as board members, we stay on the sidelines. Well said there. Yeah. Um, so Laura, the, uh, yeah, the, the facilitator from the association of school boards, um, uh, gave us, you know, some pretty good guidance about that and best practices. I, I certainly know from, and me being very specific to a referendum, I know that in my own experience, um, I've been on the board a while, uh, that for
016our own reference, that's not that the board puts forth the referendum and then the board is, is stays on the sideline. That is what boards do. They stand aside. We represent the entire taxpayer base. We then, um, as a full board and as an individual board, we stay on the sidelines and we had, so we reached a consensus as Dan said that, that should there be a referendum of other schools, a referendum of other taxing bodies, um, because we're listed on that same list that, that we would, we would stay in a, in a sideline position and not actively work those. Um, so that was another good example. I like this diagram to help illustrate our role because it really speaks to the fact that we're at the foundation and really the, the big picture
017of, you know, values, mission, vision, and not in the weeds, not in the details, not in the how, but in the what. Um, and so I think if, you know, I, we've talked about the fact of really keeping this visual ever present, moving forward now, um, in our meeting so that, you know, as we are getting presentations, as we are figuring out what goes on our agenda, even as a board, we are making sure that it falls with, from superintendent goals down to values and beliefs. Um, so that it's always through that lens. Um, you know, we're always interested in, in hearing the, the great hows of what our buildings are doing. Um, but that is not in our purview. That's not where we should be exercising our energy. I was thinking about this when
018I saw this in our agenda, that I would love to have this possibly on our board of education page. Um, because I think it's a really important thing because people in the, not only we, but people in the community at times don't know where our roles are. And, you know, and someone will say to me, well, you hear about X person, why don't you do something? That's not my job. That's none of our seven person. That's none of our jobs, et cetera. And I think it's an important thing that lets people in our community understand if you have a situation where that, where you talk to people and how you go about doing those things, that call isn't to a board member 99% of the time. Um, so I think it would just be a
019good thing to have there visually so people can understand how the alignment works and what different responsibilities are. I'll, I'll ask, um, ISP that because I got permission to, they wanted to know what are you doing with it? I said displaying at the meeting because obviously it's, you know, their, their property. And so they sent me this and then said, make sure it says copyright, you know, but I'll ask because as long as we say we don't own the copyright, you know, they're reserving their rights. But I'll ask, you know, the thing that about this, the thing that we should just also keep in mind is I think what's this image is trying to do is make the distinction between what is board work and what is staff work. But there, but the, the boards
020were, this is not the sum total of the board's responsibility. So, you know, can, you know, to your point when there were spaces in the, in each building that needed to be renovated because they weren't supporting the instruction that was going on inside them. So we come to the board and the board has to approve the expenditure of funds, right? So, but then, as you said, it's not just, oh, this room needs to be renovated because, you know, the, the district goals, you know, having to do with equity, supporting all students to be successful academically, those renovations fell under that. So for the board to be asking those questions about, you know, how does this support our goals, I think is really, really helpful. Field trips, you know, the policy says over 150 miles overnight
021has to come to a board for approval. So there are these other oversight responsibilities the board has, but when those, those field trips come, as the board has, I think at the last meeting was asking questions about, well, will all students be included? You know, what, what about for, what about the students who may not financially be able to afford this? What's the plan to make sure this is not an exclusionary activity? It's in fact, you know, it's an inclusive one. All those are great, great things, you know, I think for us, you know, to share with the board. My question though, in response to what Ann said, is if it would, it seems to me then it would be helpful if, as administration, we're thinking about this is to start asking ourselves questions. We
022know the board has to approve levy and budget and employment and contracts and all those things are certain things that by law the board has to approve. But if we ask ourselves, you know, does, is it, does this item that we're bringing to the board, does it fall under district goals? Is it part of the vision? Is it part of the mission values and beliefs? Then I think that gives us a way to start thinking through this. Is it an informational item? For example, there's a report that we'd like to get in front of the board, some meeting about the adult ed program. When I heard this, I had no idea all the things that we did in our adult ed program. It is great information, but it's just that, you know, is this informational
023for the board or is this something that falls into the board's responsibility at some point? I think that would really help us as staff try to navigate, you know, agenda items that should come before the board, need to come before the board, or we think the board should know because maybe you all know about how many great things our adult ed program does. I did not. So there are things, you know, the transition program, I talked to Kurt Schneider, as I mentioned at the last meeting, that we would have a presentation from True North and the Highland Park Chamber of Commerce on the transition space. Information for the board, right? I think those informational items are important, but for us in administration, to have a way of thinking through this would be really, really helpful.
024And I think that's the key, how they come before the board, because those two examples are, they're coming before the board as informational content, and it's clearly denoted as informational content, where there's no action from the board required. I always hate to like promote my own, the committee that I chair, but- Would that be the policy committee? Yeah. On consent tonight, we are approving a new policy 1-30 school district philosophy, which will embed within it the district mission statement that we created in 2020, and the district goals that were approved by a previous board in 2017. I would like to see that be incorporated more into our discussion as a board, that part of the presentation of discussion items is how does this relate to what the district's mission is? And I was going to
025mention this under my report after this discussion, but there is a feature in Board Docs that would allow us to say this agenda item aligns with this district goals, or this agenda item is information, that way the board, the public know, we're getting this in front of the board as an information item. It's not because we're looking for direction from the board for the adult ed program, or using that as an example. It's just purely information on the board, of course, ask questions, but we'll take those questions as questions. We won't take those questions, and so now we've got to change the adult ed program. Because I would like, one of the things that I hope that would do is also create respect for the other functions within the other people within the district. The
026board's here to talk about it in a general way, but we're not to get involved. What we do is pales in comparison to what the professionals in this district do every day, every night, and all the time, every weekend, that what we're talking about as a board, we're not in the weeds. We're not in the details, actually. It's not weeds, it's details, but we have an incredible staff of professionals who are in those details all the time, and the details are providing education to kids. That's not the board. The board is this big picture vision, but we have to always respect the work that our teachers and our guidance counselors and all the other professional staff do in the buildings. That's where the real work is done. But I think then to Anne's point, if
027we have more informational sessions, if we have people presenting, and they will do most likely an excellent job in presenting details of what they've done or what is to come, it can get confusing, I would think, as someone watching the meeting to distinguish whether or not what's being presented is specifically for informational reason or if it is something that the board is going to then take an action on. And so I would hope that when those occurrences happen that we are very specific in saying this presentation is for informational purposes only, just so that there isn't any expectation that we are in the weeds or that we are in the details of whatever program it is. Because that's exactly where any board gets in trouble sometimes. Great. Color coding always works. My kids are color
028coded. Yes, that is especially an important point. Because I think there's just this like, if we're presenting something to the board, it's with the idea that the board is either going to be approving it, changing it, giving us direction on it or something along those lines. And the board might ask a question and we think, well, we never thought about that. That's a good idea. But that's different from saying we're coming to the board with this informational item that needs approval. There are so many other points you're making. So many amazing things are happening in this district. Historically, I think, you know, my understanding is it's been a little challenging to get these things in front of the board. But it may take some practice and some time just to say we're presenting a report
029on a goal update, for example, because we have district goals. You know, we share these with the board. We're adding one tonight and we're going to be bringing updates on those goals. I think that's appropriate. I think it's not right for the board to say here are the district goals. Now you just go work on it and never come back. That doesn't make any sense. And the board might say we're reporting on district goals. The progress here is great. It's not fast enough. It's not good enough. I think that part is up to the board because we're trying to accomplish through the work on the district goals that the board has in mind for the district. This will be a big this will be a work in progress. But I think, you know, I've already
030talked to Kevin about this and we're all very excited to start thinking like this and then working in this way because I think it will be great for the district. I think it'll be great for the staff. And then that means it's going to be great for the students because now we're we're all focusing on what we're doing. So this agenda item ties really, really nicely in this discussion into the next item, which is the DEI committee. And as we talk about what we talked and not that I'm suggesting that we move there now, but the discussion of goals and it's a good example of where that where that fits in as we talk about goal setting and mission and values. So just to stay tuned, maybe, or a preview where the overview of the
031most recent DEI committee really, I think, is a good example of this level of this level of work, this level of discussion. And I think one of the things we haven't talked about tonight is the board committee work and how the committee structure, which is, I believe, fairly new, really lends itself to being able to get that work done around the values, beliefs, and the meeting of the goals of the district and the superintendent. And occasionally the necessary things, levy, you know, budget where the audit reports coming back, we're getting we're we're close to levy season. And so we'll have a finance committee meeting, we'll, you know, get really deep into into those details. So all of that, you know, I think that all this makes sense to us. One comment following up on what
032Dan said. The mission statement that we have is not something that the board just did itself without input from stakeholders. So just because it's our responsibility doesn't mean that we didn't include stakeholders in writing that document. So don't get, you know, no one should get the idea that we're just, you know, we created a mission statement and that said, no, that's developed with input from all the people we need to get input from. Right. And when it was voted on, it was unanimous vote and by the board of education, not this board, but it's still exactly still standing. I think I'll add to that risk, Rick, is that the district goals that are on the website, that was a very big discussion with with the board, with the DEA, with department chairs, there were there
033was a lot of back and forth in establishing what those what those big goal categories are that Dan said now will be be in policy and that we're working toward making progress every year. So all of those all those things are important. And the other thing I should maybe clarify, one of the things this is trying to also say is that the superintendent goals, district goals board and and staff, I think that is probably getting at what what you're talking about, that the expectation should be that when we're bringing district goals to the board, that there is going to be this collaboration. So we're not just saying here are the goals, you know, get to it, which really so we need to work on together. But I assume staff is the superintendent goals. This this
034staff member, I don't know why they said that. I think that one staff member of one in the superintendent goals and the board. But otherwise, the is I think Jody was alluding to in blue, that is, is this board work or is the staff work there's and Dan said so much of what's really important and what really creates value for students is the staff work that happens every day in the schools. And we want to share that great news with the board as information, not because, you know, it's out in these other categories of work on this healthy discussion with board work. And so it was good. It was a good agenda item for us to do that. I took the next step on the on the self evaluation to I sent an email back
035to our facilitator the next morning, I'm thanking her and telling her that we came away a little smarter. And, and we thought, I thought she did a good job. And I felt confident I was speaking for all of us that we had that each of you got a survey tool to to submit a survey. I did ask her to reserve. I looked at the calendar and I asked her to get a place because she gets booked all these facilities get booked way far in advance. So I asked her to book January 31. I'm just, I'm just, I've just got your guys's Tuesdays just all all boggled up, but just as a placeholder, because I thought it was really good session, and it had been I think I made a point I had been a long
036time, I mean, I don't think we had one since you've been on the board, and we shouldn't go that long. And so it gets on the calendar and have her come back, because I think there was some things that we would have liked to continue to get. So I got that date. Alright, so as we move from this topic of the board self valuation, before I introduce the diversity equity inclusion committee report, I had another example of board work. And, and the other one that I thought of it was the so we get from the staff, the staff produces a student discipline report with data. And it shows us how many disciplinary actions were done by with no names on it. Correct. There's no names, there's data, no names, but there's data, and the type
037of action and how many and those kinds of things. And it's been a long time, but I thought it'd be worthwhile to kind of look thinking about the board role, what's what the board mission and values are around that topic and what is happening and what the outcomes are and the work that's being done towards that. And I thought the diversity committee would be the right home for that. I've spent a while since we've done that. So I asked Tommy to kind of take that also into your growth of your committee. So go ahead. Oh, that makes that makes sense. And it ties into the discussion that we had at this past meeting a week ago, and then the previous meeting last month, where we talked about goals, and we talked about areas of focus.
038And we talked about talked about what does the what does the committee do? And please any committee members, if I either mess something up or misrepresent, please let me know. If I leave something out by accident, or add something in that wasn't in the discussion two months ago was around what are what's the direction of the committee? What does the committee do? What is the committee focus on? And last week, it was here are the buckets. Here's what we here's what we look at. So we had two agenda items. One agenda item was the equity journey continuum, which we'll hear more about. Another agenda item was about the committee goals. Those came under three different buckets, one of them being recruitment and hiring, and what is related to recruitment and hiring with a diversity, equity
039and inclusion lens, the equity journey continuum, which we'll talk about in a minute, and then student engagement. And what is in student, what does student engagement mean? And what are the goal areas around student engagement? Obviously, each of these goal areas are going across different or all of the organization, not just the the committee, but this is where as a as a board, we could get some additional information and additional reporting information items on the progress of these goal areas. One of them being the equity journey continuum. So equity journey continuum, we are going to hear more about in a subsequent board meeting. I believe it's fairly new for the state of Illinois. And it's something that is published for each school district by the Illinois State Board of Education, where they take a look
040at our district data. And they take a look at how are we doing on a variety of factors, not to go into it tonight, but that's something at a later board meeting that we will discuss. So we came away from the meeting with here are the goal areas. Here's what we're going to look at. And here's some rough timeline of when we as a committee and we'll look at those and when they will come to the full board for a full board meeting. Anything that I missed from any of the committee members? Solace committee. That would be me. It is. We met with Pepper construction management team for our auditorium improvements. It was a great meeting. Once again, we were kind of putting into their word. What does our DHS auditorium need in order to
041continue it being a learning space for our students? It's not just a performance space. It is a learning lab. So we are working with our team on that. And there will be action taken tonight on those ideas, et cetera. The other thing I will touch. Oh, and then we also did our summer 2023 capital improvement project discussions. Once again, it's an actionable item tonight. And we will go through with that. But I think what's really important, I think Jaime, you said it well, was that our committee work is a really good way to structure this in the sense that we as board members, we divide ourselves up into committees that we can kind of go deeper and then present things to the whole board later. I've also been asked a number of times, what goes
042on in closed session? Why aren't they closed sessions, et cetera? An example of facility closed session is security improvements, et cetera. If we made them an open session, they wouldn't be very secure any longer. Hence why we do those things in closed session. There we go. Did I summarize well? Jody, they're not on for action tonight. The next morning, sorry, discussion night. Thank you, Brian. Their discussion tonight, action at our next meeting. The cadence goes committee meeting, board discussion, then board action. I got it. Thank you, Brian. Back to you, Mr. President. Anything else for facilities? Item six, public comments. For policy 2-230, at each open school board meeting, the board of education has a public comment period for a maximum of 30 minutes. And we're ready to listen and we appreciate your comments and
043we recognize it takes time and effort to prepare an under three minute statement. 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. And we don't have any public comments on speaking. Okay. All right. Administration reports. I think I'll do that after yours. Okay. Yeah. So in my report, I just wanted to advise the board that we will starting in October, we will have alignment with reports that we're bringing to district goals. And those will be public facing so that the public can see this item is being brought to the board for discussion or report or whatever. Because it aligns with this specific goal. If it's an information item, then
044I think that's indicated in the agenda. But alignment to the goals that will start in the next meeting in October. Okay. And that's it. FOIA? These are the FOIAs we received in process since the last board meeting. Okay. Before we go to discussion items, I left off a part of my report and the board's salvation report. Just to toss it out to everybody. So prior to the pandemic, the regular, make sure I got this correct, regular board meetings were recorded. And then during the pandemic, all kinds of things happened. We were setting up things to live stream. So do we want to go back to the way we had it before that regular meetings are ones that are recorded and they're up on, where are they? They're up in YouTube. YouTube land. What's it called?
045Vimeo. And go back to that process? Would we also be recording our special meetings? Because I think that that's something that I think at times people are like, why can't we see special meetings? If we're going to do it, let's make sure we encompass all meetings. Yeah. I think that makes sense. If it's sometimes we have a special meeting just to remember that, you know, you can only define board meetings three ways. This immersion meeting is a special meeting and it's a regular meeting. The special meeting might be just to vote on the pavement. You know, we have to pave the driveway because it was just came off, off of the time. So I don't know for that, but obviously if it's a special meeting. I just think in terms of transparency, anytime we're meeting,
046we should have people be able to watch it. Have that one recorded. Okay. Those two things are different senses. If you're suggesting appropriately, there are instances, even especially court. She's saying all. Okay. We can make it all, you know. Yeah. I mean, anything that's in closed session, we don't think about the staff time, but yeah, we could, we could say, we could say we would record special meetings. And this would be helpful to us because I think before the pandemic, you know, my understanding was some special meetings were recorded, some, some were not. And I, so if we were able to say all special meetings, all regular meetings of the board are going to be recorded and posted. That's, then we know exactly. That works for me. I tend to fall under the, the, if
047it's open, it's recorded school of thoughts over committee meetings as well. Yeah. Why not? I don't see why not. And make it clear that there's a distinction between recording and open streaming. Yeah. Right. Yeah. We are recording ratings. Okay. Yeah. If it's open, it's open and should be, should be documented. And someone should be able to pull that up in case they can't be at our meetings. They should be able to pull that up and say, yeah. Okay. So we record the committee meetings. Yeah. Good. Yep. Makes sense. Recorded open meetings to the board and the public body basically. So what, what are we, what are we going to stream? Are we still live streaming or are we just recording? Well, this is, yeah, we're, yeah, this is what Ken was saying before the pandemic.
048My understanding is we didn't live stream meetings. Then when the pandemic came along, you know, there was a requirement. Yeah. So there were all kinds of things or habits with it. So that's another question. Does the board want to, um, live stream, you know, all meetings, some meetings. I think I don't know. Let me start by saying, I don't know if there's a cost to difference between live streaming and recording. Um, so to me, that might be a consideration to say live stream and record versus just recording. Um, if we're no longer taking public comment during live streaming, then that, which we are no longer doing as my, I think we're doing, um, then there's not as much of an issue for me for live streaming. Um, you know, but I guess part, like I
049said, for me, a big part would be, is there a cost to live stream versus just recording? Is there a cost difference to those things? No, I mean, uh, the cost would be, obviously we need to have staff. So it's, you know, there's an indirect cost overpaying someone over time. Of course there's direct cost. Okay. And the other thing to think about the live streaming too, is that it is, that's something to set up. So there are a lot of times when we were, um, running zoom, you know, I, for committee meetings, I was doing that. And because it's, it's, it's, it's a lot. And so the, for committee meetings was just easier for me, since I'm at every committee meeting, you know, to run zoom. I don't know if I'm setting up, if I'm
050able, I can learn. I said, I assume, she set up live streaming for the, for the all, every meeting. Um, but recording is one thing. Live streaming is, is another, is another thing. So why don't we, we can always, let's come back and visit, revisit the, that topic. But for now, going forward, all regular meetings, all committee meetings, all special meetings, all open meetings will be recorded. Okay. But we're not live streaming though, at least for the next meeting. Cause we'll have to know how to, on the notice, we'll say, this is how you can, if you want to attend the board meeting, this is how you do it. And they can watch it on recording. Okay. Okay. Thank you. All right. Thank you. To be continued. All right. Um, discussion, district goals, 2022, 2023,
051item eight, a re Bruce, adding recovery. Yeah. We, uh, August 9th board of education meeting, uh, presented, uh, goals, uh, for this year, just, um, keeping in mind that the board has goals on the, uh, website and about to be in the, in policy, we will always be working on, um, student outcomes and we will always be working on climate and SCL, all those things. But what we do every year is we say within that, this is what we're trying to accomplish this year. Um, so when, uh, presented that to the board on August 9th, this year, um, I didn't, I was trying to come up with a, you know, to keep this in parallel structure. So recover, you know, recovery is not parallel structure, but we talk about recovery. Uh, we're responding to the
052mass shooting that happened in, in Island park and to add that as a goal that then we would, we would be reporting back on, uh, it seemed like there's such a major area of, of endeavor this year that it makes us to add that as a goal and then report back to the board on it. So just to comment on it. So I just want to remind everybody that, um, so August 9th, you know, good reporting, good transparency. We had these goals, talked about them in public in this meeting. They were all listed. Uh, this, these were the result of a collaboration with the board and the superintendent. Um, I thought it was helpful, but they, they hit home there and it's a, they are all big important issues, but it's not 17 goals. Sometimes
053boards and superintendents kind of get caught in too many. And actually, when I looked at the back of the August 9th, um, agenda, we had a couple sentences of the preamble to the four goals that said, in addition to that, we're dealing with the recovery. Um, and so then I, when Bruce did that, I thought, well, that all made sense. Cause we talked about it on the day that we were doing the goals last, uh, in early August. Um, and then we will continue to get reports and, and we will, uh, this will be on an ongoing basis to, um, work on these goals. AB Deerfield High School Auditorium Improvement Projects, Instruction Manager Approval. Bruce? This is me. Um, unfortunately, uh, the person who was going to be here for Pepper Construction couldn't be here
054due to a, due to something to do with at home. So I'm going to take the lead on this one. And so what this is, is this isn't designed, this isn't, um, anything like that. This is strictly, um, part of the process of bringing the construction manager on board. So, um, our delivery model is to have a construction manager manage the projects. And we've seen success in that model, um, cause they're able to get in ahead of the project, um, figure out what we need to bring forward for early bid packages, bring those forward. So long lead items. So this is our pro, this is our part of our process. So there's not a, uh, a fancy presentation on this because it is, it is strictly an addendum to their master agreement to manage these
055projects that were, um, approved for a couple of board meetings ago to design these projects. Um, and this, I will say as a note, um, these are, we, we will pay for what we use. So for some reason, if we didn't go forward, we would only pay for what, um, the hours that we've gone through in the design process or in the construction management process. So if there's any questions, I'm glad to answer them. And the next one will be, uh, the same exact comments from me. Okay. I won't, I won't do it unless you don't listen to me too. Okay. It is recorded so we can see if it's the exact, um, any questions, any questions from board work of questions because board work will be next meeting that we will take action on
056it to allocate the resource. Yeah. I mean, this is simply part of the normal cadence for as every project comes on. This is the way it's done. Uh, and yeah, it's consistent with how we've dealt with other projects. Uh, engaging the construction manager to work to be, to manage those projects. So yeah, no questions. It's okay. All right. Item eight C summer 2023 capital improvement project, construction manager approval. What do you have? Great. Same thing. Same exact thing. Bring in part of the process. All right. And we will take action on that next, next meeting. Okay. Moving on to action items. Nine a, um, it's recommended the board of education approved the resolution to receive, rescind the COVID-19 booster requirement and testing requirement as presented. Is there a motion? Second. And discussion. I'll have a
057two second discussion. We met with our DEA a few weeks ago. I don't even know how many weeks ago, but it was a really good discussion. This gave us a lot. It was nice to sit down with our DEA representatives and talk about what the theories are and the thoughts are behind all of it. And I think the two things that came out of it was that everyone on that table really agreed that the intent behind this was to keep teachers and students in school. Um, and things change every day and we listened to each other. And this was a way that we could really work together and do this resolution. So August 29th, there you go. Wow. It was like a month ago, but once again, it was just, it was nice to sit
058down and be able to have a discussion. And, and it really was that it was a discussion of let's see where you're all feeling and this is how we get to places. So thank you to Mr. Oscar and the group from DEA who sat down with us. Unfortunately, the world today is far different than it was at the end of February. The CDC is changing as it continues to issue new guidance that that lifts mitigations or suggests the possible lifting of mitigations or is appropriate. The governor has pulled back on some of these things. Even Canada, you know, no longer requires they've lifted a lot of their requirements. So it's, it's taking accounts of where we are at in the world right now. It seems appropriate after a night, a good discussion with our, with
059our partners in the DEA to, to, to move forward. And the governor recently, I forget the date, I'm sorry, but the governor recently said the vaccination and testing requirement for school personnel was no longer, and it's because of the change in conditions that have happened since, you know, we were dealing with that. But I had, I'm going to throw a little feather in our, in our staff's caps for a minute. We had an extraordinary group of people who came out right at the bat and continued to do so through all of this to tests, to booster, to get vaccinated, et cetera, where other districts were having to drag people along to do those things. We were very fortunate that our staff was that day we opened ready, willing and able and standing in line at
060six AM to get their vaccines. And that was something that we were very fortunate as was, were many people in our community, which also allows us to do these things because we have those wonderful rates. Anne, is your light off? Sorry, I was just, as we've had these conversations, both with the DEA and among ourselves, I think it's just the next logical step. You know, as we know more, it makes more sense to evolve. Yeah, I'll just echo what everybody said. Actually, the, I've got the resolution, it's hard for you, but I've got it off my computer and, and, you know, resolutions have to be written with whereas's. But the whereas, the whereas says everything we're just saying that, you know, back in January and, and whereas says in response to the COVID pandemic and
061with the intent to maintain in-person instruction for its students and reducing the number of staff subject to exclusion for exposure. That was the intent. And things through all the steps that we went through for the initial vaccine, the vaccine event in that February, that we found that things worked well and people responded well, people just worked for them. And, and there, the result was good outcomes that our students had in-person learning that we didn't have spreader events. We stayed, schools stayed open, teachers were present and it worked. So since things worked, we know that COVID has its own mind and its own pathway, but since, but things are working well and therefore, no, we don't need the requirement of the rule on the mandate. And so that's good. Can I have a roll call, please?
062Mr. Braza. Aye. Mr. Heidman. Aye. Ms. Neumann. Aye. Mr. Shapiro. Yes, please. Mr. Strzok. Aye. Mr. Bishopane. Aye. Motion carries. Item B, the FY23 round one. Can we, can we talk for a moment? I'd like to ask the board also about the vaccination testing requirement that the board passed in August of 2021. Cause this was just presenting the, the booster requirement, right? Let me pull up the resolution. Yeah. The testing is not required. Right. But the, but in August of 2021, the board passed a resolution requiring all employees, either to be vaccinated or, or test. And I just think that this is also something the board should consider at this time for variety of reasons. I'm happy to share those, share those reasons. I thought it was, I thought it was in the resolution. I
063think that this one is just for the, now the motion that, but the result, Mr. Bishopane's the motion was rescind the booster requirement and the testing. But I think that I think because there was a resolution passed in August of 2021, so requiring that, I think the board has to unwind that. Sure. As, as well. So I'll bring it just to make sure that, yeah, bring it back. Yeah. We'll wind wind to that. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. So I thought I covered, I thought I covered it with, I'm concerned that because there are two, it's a resolution. They're not in the same resolution. And let's clean up, we'll clean up the resolution. And also everybody has to understand that, you know, that, that the, we've always honored the medical and religious exemptions. We always have, we
064will continue to do that. Right. And the testing is not required. So yeah, so there was a cleanup on resolution. I thought I covered on the motion, but let's go ahead and, and I may have, but I have them, yeah, go ahead and have them drafted up and we'll, we'll rescind that. Right. I think the, I think it's in there. It's in there. I thought it was in there. No, there's a separate resolution. All right. Yeah. That's it. Okay. So I, I move that we accept this resolution. Yeah, we already have a motion. We already accept. We already have a motion for this one. This, but not for this resolution. This resolution is, that's what I'm saying. Right. The one on the screen is unwinding. Okay. Second. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Thank you,
065Bruce, for catching up. Ms. Elliott-Shermer. Aye. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Pirro. Yes, please. Mr. Strickland. Aye. Mr. Fishby. Aye. Motion carried. I should have jumped in before the, the vote and discussion to say, I thought I had, yeah. We have like 98, 99% of our staff fully vaccinated. Right. So this is. All right. We got it. We got it. Okay. Okay. Item B, FY2020-3 ROM1 School Maintenance Project Grant Application. It's recommended the Board of Education authorize administration to apply for the School Maintenance Grant. Is there a motion? So moved. Second. Second. Any discussion? Brian, do you want to. Yeah, this is. Before we can apply, we have to get board approval. It's the $50,000 grant. I've checked in with my peers. Everybody agrees that they receive this every year. We've received this
066before. It's just a process. I've checked into this. We do need to come to the board every time. We can't just pay approveness for the next hundred years. We need to come to you. So assuming that the board wants this grant, we would need your approval. Yes, please. Roll call, please. Ms. Elliott-Strummer. Aye. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Pirro. Yes, please. Mr. Strickland. Aye. Mr. Braza. Aye. Mr. Fishby. Aye. Motion carries. I'm AC. Recommended Board of Education adopt the resolution approving TRS SSP employer participation agreement as presented. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. Discussion? This is what we discussed last time. Yep. You guys all remember. Good. Roll call, please. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Pirro. Yes, please. Mr. Strickland. Aye. Mr. Braza. Aye. Ms. Elliott-Strummer. Aye. Mr.
067Fishby. Aye. Motion carries. 8D, it is recommended Board of Education authorize FGM architects to move forward with a security assessment of various district facilities as outlined in FGM's August 22, 2022 proposal. May I have a motion? So moved. Second. Second. Discussion? Roll call, please. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Pirro. Yes, please. Mr. Strickland. Aye. Mr. Braza. Aye. Ms. Elliott-Strummer. Aye. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Mr. Fishby. Aye. Motion carries. Next to the 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? It's recommended the consent agenda be approved as listed. I have a motion. So moved. Second. Second. Discussion? Jody DS. You have a report on the bill. Congratulations on your first bill. Thank you. So today Ali and I
068met and I reviewed three bills, Gallagher, Hodgeson, Luizzi, and Talos. The bill amount matched the payment which reinforces that we are being fiscally responsible. Very good. Any other discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Pirro. Yes, please. Mr. Strickland. Aye. Mr. Braza. Aye. Ms. Elliott-Strummer. Aye. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Fishby. Aye. Motion carries. Is there a motion to adjourn the meeting? So moved. And a second. Second. And a roll call, please. Mr. Strickland. Aye. Mr. Braza. Aye. Ms. Elliott-Strummer. Aye. Mr. Heidemann. Aye. Ms. Newman. Aye. Mr. Pirro. Yes, please.