001Thank you Hi, once again, I'm Rachel. I'm Matthew and we're from your field student council. So currently right now We're between the two DHS fall plays at the beginning of October 44 plays for 44 presidents happen It was a two-minute sketch about each president. It was a huge success. The student body loved it It got everyone really excited about the election coming up too And this Wednesday through Saturday, we have the production of our town Which is a story of life death and family and the school is also getting really excited about that We are currently in our second week of our annual food drive This past spring the Deerfield Township food pantry was affected by a flood in their basement So a lot of their inventory was wiped out. So this year we are
002trying to gear up even more than we have in past years However, we're stressing we're stressing that it's not only canned food, but all non-perishable items And it's really like a great scene to see Hundreds of students on the last day all traveled the athletic entrance and deliver thousands of cans into trucks cars and vans and eventually carry those non-perishable food items to the Deerfield Township food pantry a couple of announcements for athletics the girls and boys cross-country teams made it to sectionals this season and junior Emily Kasady won her sectional for girls tennis and is going to state shortly all the seniors Are excited for the grandparents day For those of you who don't know the seniors are the grandparents of seniors are invited to sit through about four class periods in the lunch
003period and kind of see what the high school spirit Experience is like for their grandchildren and as the day before Thanksgiving break a new event We have coming up this not this Sunday, but Sunday, November 13th is the Israel club is hosting a film event Featuring Mekkanen the journey of an African Jew and a concert by a hip-hop Ethiopian Israeli band and Finally, we are about a month away from school chess, which is our annual philanthropy drive this year the beneficiary is the propionic at the Damia Foundation and Currently all the school chess events are in their early stages such as benefit Which is the annual community dinner dance and silent auction as well as Some smaller events like our annual three-on-three basketball tournaments and Possibly the addition of new events such as a taste
004of Deerfield. Thank you Lauren covered many of the Highlights related to sports, but I just want to add two things We sent three teams to state this year and she mentioned that But I wanted to comment on a practice that began last year at least I think it began last year where Faculty and staff and other students will come down and Cheered the team as they leave for the meet and that happened for all three of those teams as they left for state and In a couple of instances they were leaving around 7 o'clock in the morning And there were still staff members down there and students cheering them on it's a it's a fun thing to see and I'm sure it's a Great way for the students to be sent off to their activity
005There was one other thing I was going to mention about sports and it slipped my mind But anyway, I'll move on as far as service goes This happened in early October Highwood has their great highwood pumpkin festival and They need a lot of pumpkins carved for that so one day they brought it was two to three Pallets of pumpkins these enormous box boxes so during the course of the lunch periods over 150 pumpkins were carved By our students, and that was a lot of fun to see it was done outside And nothing but smiles on the students faces and seventh period ended and there were some students desperately trying to finish their pumpkins It was just a fun thing to see they obviously wanted to keep doing it even though that the time it expired
006Rotary interact has had a very busy first quarter in September They raised over $500 for pads Lake County by participating in the Long Grove Rotary Walk two weeks later They took part in Service day at Bernie's books and then just a couple of weeks ago they hosted the area 13 Special Olympics floor hockey skills competition and DJ club also helped out with that providing entertainment and the PA system for that event as well terms of academics the astronomy students had a unique opportunity to visit the Adler Planetarium and access the Dome Observatory to view solar activity through their telescopes the astronomers there used two different solar filters to allow the students to view the Sun on a bright sunny day and In addition the students were treated to two sky shows in the planetarium's dome
007theaters 14 members of HP 3 traveled to near North Montessori last Thursday to hear author lawyer Storyteller poet member of the Blackfeet nation guy. I see Ross his performance focused on the concept of equity and Where I think it gets really interesting as he tried to help the students understand or the audience understand Why equity as a goal might be preferable to? multiculturalism or diversity and Students enjoyed hearing this this distinction about this distinction as well as the humor that he used to present the content Our math leads got off to a great season. They took first place at a competition at Wheeling High School Jeremy Burroughs was the team's The team's oralist placed third the sophomores placed first with perfect papers from Jacob Hirsch and Benny Cohen and The juniors captured second place while
008the seniors took first and then as a team overall they took first place as far as staff achievements last Friday Hbhs fine and applied arts teacher Erica Tuke was awarded the new teacher of the year award by the technology Education Association of Illinois and Erica was supported at this award ceremony by Amy Burnetti and John Connolly. I Think that's a well-deserved award if you walk into Erica's classroom It's a really fun environment to see because the students are Working away on all kinds of different projects and we worked with her a couple times with HB TV Where she's had her class create these very real-world projects for us So I enjoy working with her anyway Lisa Berghoff had an amazing opportunity to present at Google headquarters headquarters in Mountain View, California As she had done
009a presentation for Google last year and they invited her back to do an in-house presentation at their main headquarters and her presentation was a part of Google Accessibility Week and Focused on how students with special needs use are impacted by Google apps. She focused on how students with special needs use and are impacted by Google apps and She was also asked by Google to provide some feedback and she told me that Google has a hard time getting data from kids, they're not really allowed to to measure that or to research that so they rely on the feedback that they get from people in the field using their products and she indicated one of the fun things about conversing with the designers of all of these apps was they were often surprised and And And really
010enthusiastic about the ways in which their apps were being used They weren't necessarily being used in the way that they had imagined they could be but at least at Highland Park High School They are so She provided I think some very good feedback for them And finally I look for genuine moments that communicate how students feel about things in our school And a couple of weeks ago both Deerfield and Highland Park High School has got to participate in the pep rally for the Cubs and I was there videotaping it and One of my students was there Well a couple of them were actually but one of them was there and when we were in class later that day I I turned around ready to begin class and immediately her hand went up and she said
011what did you think of the pep rally today? And I I said well What did you think of it and she in this very genuine manner said how much fun she had and and it was apparent from My observations, and I think other people were that were there. It was just one of those moments that You know they don't come around that often and the fact that it was put together and there for our kids to participate in I know that some of those kids will remember that for a long time And I'm working on a little piece on it right now, and I interviewed some of the boys from DJ club that got to be in one of the shots holding bobble heads and so on and and they just They thought it was
012the coolest thing that they were playing the music that was being heard on WGN and they felt like well this will make us more well known and again That's that's one of those things that I just think are it's so powerful And I remembered what I was going to say about sports, and this will make a good concluding remark So if you if you want to know what sports mean what? Participating in a sports sport means to students if you watch our morning announcements today we included a couple clips that were shot by one of the boys cross-country coaches as the as the team realized that they were headed off to state as a team and it was just this Amazing moment in the camera camera happened to capture it, and it's it's pretty powerful
013at least from my perspective So that we ran on our morning announcements today, which you can find on our home page Hello There's a lot of great things happening at Deerfield High School Jig Vora who's the sponsor for the political club reported that on Tuesday October 18th the Deerfield High School political club hosted the Lake County State's attorney Mike Neerheim and he spoke to the group about the criminal justice system and what his office does and he spoke in detail about the heroin and Opioid crisis in the county and a number of the initiatives he helped lead to fight back against these issues the club also hosted Illinois State Comptroller Leslie Munger and she shared important information about the state's economics pension liabilities and Explained how fiscal policy works in Illinois and these were just
014two really great authentic Opportunities for kids to learn about What's happening in their community? Amy Bricker from our counseling department Shared that the departments of both Deerfield and Highland Park High School in conjunction with the Deerfield parent network will be presenting the workshop supporting transgender and gender diverse students and This workshop will take place this evening from 7 to 8 30 in the Deerfield High School library Some of the topics will cover understanding identity development in childhood and adolescence The importance of parental and adult support navigating conversations about LGBTQ issues and Creating welcoming homes and communities for LGBTQ children and their friends Stephanie Gordon from special education shared that on October 17th district 113 Along with eight other area high school districts held the choices post-secondary Secondary planning night and the choices program is for
015students with disabilities who are planning to attend college Four breakout sessions were available covering a range of topics Including advantages of starting with community college to mental health and college campuses 62 colleges were represented at the fair allowing parents and students to meet with disability service providers and admissions representatives from a range of colleges and universities The event was very well attended and a huge success Stephanie Gordon is the representative to this community or sorry this committee from Deerfield High School and Paul Harris is the representative from Highland Park High School district 113 will be hosting this event in October of 2018 at Deerfield High School And I just want to highlight that all of these kind of community events that I just mentioned really tie into The act the good equity work that we're
016doing in the district Some staff recognition Ryan Rakitis from world languages was named the Illinois foreign language teacher of the year by the Illinois Council on the teaching of foreign languages and In addition to promoting language learning in Illinois as teacher of the year He will go to Washington DC in February to meet with congressional leaders to advocate for language Teachers and language learning on the national level John Campbell shared that from December 1st through 3rd teachers Christy Lepa Christa settles and Carly it gets the K list and Daniel Ripke will be getting certified as instructors in rad which is rape aggression defense and They will be implementing this new unit within the freshman a course during the second semester of this year Robert Ruiz from the athletic department wants to congratulate Rich Grady who
017was named to the IHSA Soccer Advisory Committee for a three-year term the Advisory Committee communicates information about their area of Interest to the board of directors and staff the committee makes recommendations for changes in policy administration in terms and conditions They play a vital role in the development of each state tournament series Conducted by the IHSA Rich Grady is a professional licensed official a head coach and assistant coach a school administrator and the parent of an athlete So rich certainly brings critical experience and value to the committee from a variety of perspectives academics Hillary Quagliano reported that the AP American government and politics class with help from teachers in the social studies department is running a mock election for all DHS students and staff during all lunch periods on November 8th and Look for results
018in the DHS announcements later that week and see how it compares to what happens in real life Dan Chamberlain the special education chair shared that three students three seniors Kylie Buescher Kylie Goodman and Jane Selden all visited will not elementary school to talk to The elementary school students about their own learning disabilities and personal Successes that they've had at the high school this was for Wilmot's disability awareness week and Dan Chamberlain shared that he received extremely positive feedback from and Butch who is the assistant principal at Wilmot and the assistant principal at Wilmot also shared a video Where the elementary school students shared what that? Interaction with the high school students meant to them Very powerful and then finally the PE department is excited to share that the impact of the new facilities Within their
019programming has been huge students have demonstrated more engagement in physical activity Given that the new space allows for everyone in class to participate and not be forced to you know Sit out or have class in a hallway The perk in the weight room continued to be one of the most used spaces in the school and the impact of the new Cardio equipment has been huge and is much appreciated by students athletes coaches and the department. Thank you Oh So on Gender bias So she and I are Work on doing research of the area school of dress code and to create potential To our dress code that would be more gender neutral and be fairer for all students She reluctantly agrees that we do need a dress code, but she has some very very good points
020The data in our dean's office bears that out for every boy that is referred for dress code We have approximately three girls who are referred for dress code So like all of our data we look at that and we say we need to have it in that case here You see If our policy were a little bit different No We continue to be Absolutely And we're using the five-star system that we saw and Brian talked about last year actually track It's sort of like we have three types of students at the school those who make things happen Those who come to the events and watch things happen and then those who say wait And our goal is to find the kids who are they wait what happened and to connect them to activities So they're
021either making it happen Right now 78% of our 57% have attended two or more Really good about that in addition to all the great stuff that was mentioned about athletics what I want you to understand is that Not only are we performing at really a powerhouse level Finishing in the top ten in the state that's just in the fall what we found is that Our first priority is big numbers Before big victories we want big numbers Right now in the fall alone 514 students played a fall sport that's 25% of our student population Participated in the fall sport So we are very proud of that that entire than it was last year and the year before And what that equates these big numbers and these big victories equal big fun So things are great Oh
022Good evening everyone, so I have just a couple of FOIA updates we received a couple of foils in the last Few days on October 26. We received a request from the Better Government Association Regarding budget salary and legal information on October 26. We also received a request from the Illinois Education Association regarding non certified employees job descriptions and subcontractor contracts and The third request was received on October 31st Which is a request from Elizabeth Gordon regarding special education information We will respond to all of these requests in a timely manner with regards to our strategic plan I would like to provide an update regarding where we are at this time. We have completed the last of our remaining strategic plan workshops and sessions The sessions have included approximately 1,000 parents students staff and community stakeholder
023participants We have now begun analyzing the data and have already started working on the district's vision and mission statements as well as identifying the priority goals Underlying trends and objectives as part of the draft that has that actually started last week This ties in with our communications audit and plan and so I would like to first share that In May of 2016 and visiting staff at the High School's Deerfield and Highland Park as well as our Transportation staff and staff here at the administrative office. I shared that we would be conducting a communications audit After July and with the goal of creating a communications plan for the district We are utilizing a firm to apply their expertise in collecting data Which is a very common practice in conducting a communications audit We are at the
024stage where we want to select a firm and move forward. We do want the communications plan To be completed in tandem with the strategic plan. So the audit is extremely important that we begin that process of collecting data So that the goals align with the strategic plan from that of the communications plan. So I do want to say that I in particular appreciate as well as my staff that The Board of Education is willing to consider the selection of a firm to conduct the communications audit as both a discussion Item and an action item this evening. Thank you So at this point, we'd like to call up our fine arts and applied arts chairs and ask them for their presentation Thank you Well tonight's presentation. I'm going to ask you guys to interact a little
025bit If you could take out your cell phone, please. It's not already out. Yes, so we're going to start with Using a poll everywhere So if you could please text the number three and everybody in the room can do it not just the board 37607 and in the message type Amy Burnetti one five one and then hit send 37607 what you should receive back is a Message that says you've been accepted into this group and now anything you type from then on should come up in what's called a word Oh, which will be on the next page So what we'd like you to do is enter in the electives that you took in high school We want to see the different types of classes that you took you can either type in Just a word
026and not have a space before we just have Spanish and band. I'm glad bands up there I Well, that's I'm so glad you said that Julie because our goal was to jog your memory of your high school years and Highlight the fact that you probably remember your electives more than you remember Taking your English class your chemistry class right a lot of times This is where you find your passion and this is where it generates your career path sometimes, too But possibly this evening as you hear about the multiple offerings we have maybe that'll jog your memory of something that you did Enjoy back in the day, so we can visit it back again it because it doesn't It's not coming. Did you get that? No, I swear Lisa Berg off and I technology it
027totally worked today Christine if you go escape on that and then go to right there you go unlock Custom I thought we said it such that it would never like that it wouldn't lock Well We try to incorporate actually it completely worked today with Lisa Berg off in her office You're showing your age there Tom dance Yeah, I was just thinking yeah I don't stop What did you learn in metal shop? There you go. That's and I bet you can't picture the 40-page thesis you wrote there you go. That's our point So our point has been made. Thank you. All right. Well, we're gonna back up one step here and introduce ourselves My name is Susan Johnson. I'm the department chair for fine applied arts actually I actually Have been teaching in the district for
02822 years and coaching for 30 plus years So again, I'm Amy Bernetti and I'm fine arts chair This is my fourth year is as the department chairs my eighth year being lucky enough to be at Highland Park I'm what you call a later-in-life teacher. I have ten years of corporate experience I'm mostly at Abbot laboratories and then headed into teaching college classes that night while I raised my babies in the day and And then came to Highland Park and then thanks Christine for starting us over we just wanted to start with our tonight and Allow you to see the many experts that we have I wanted you to be able to name and a face in their area of Expertise I think everybody takes remarkably good Thank you Christine, thanks Christine we're gonna start off
029by talking about theater and dance at Highland Park Listed up are all the different classes that we offer that categorize under theater and dance I want to first start talking about how strong our acting one and two classes are and what we're seeing which is really unique We're seeing a crossover between our acting classes and actually some business. So one of our international Champions for the DECA program last year is one of the biggest acting Students and he was a board member on stunts and it was great because at the international conference He was coaching people utilizing different acting skill sets to coach people on presentation skills So we're really highlighting and making sure that students know how important it is to presentation skills to Developing empathy and to learning how to be in touch
030with their emotions so they can quite frankly hopefully control their emotions, right in different situations So that's super exciting Equus is the fall play and that is actually being Judged for potential for the performance at the Illinois High School all-star theater festival in January So that's very exciting. That's next week The tech theater is super grateful for their new shop. If you haven't seen it yet, it's amazing and it's remarkable how they Ushered in the ease to just slide things over to the back of the stage It just it looks beautiful One thing I want to highlight and talk about is our dance and acting essentials, especially dance and essentials. That's new this year Rad our dance teachers. She had experience teaching this at Stevenson and she actually volunteered to teach a sixth class this
031semester as a pilot and And not be paid for an overage And if you are free second period on a giant day will actually or a block day I highly recommend you can email me or you can you can just show up It makes your heart feel so good what she's doing with these students. And so this was yesterday She taught them thriller and it's actually a one-minute video that I'd be happy to email to you because it just makes your heart dance It's it's incredible how she transitions. She's kind of borderline bilingual and some of our students In this particular class our English is the first language and so she blends through the directions and it's amazing how Interactive and what she's doing with them and how she's getting them to to learn, you
032know connectivity between their body and their movements and stuff so Next course I wanted to highlight Throughout our presentation. We've decided to do a couple sample students So you can see how a fine art or applied art student the various course sequence that they might take And what does that look like in sometimes how that creates their career? So Brian is a wonderful example I'm sure you I think that the board has been aware of this program Brian has a nationally recognized Amazing one-man show called where did we sit on the bus? And if you're not familiar with it, it's it's he was a Latino growing up in Highwood and when he learned American history He said well, where did where did we sit on the bus? And so it's it's very moving. It's incredible
033Brian took acting one and two. He took ATP honors design chorus swing choir He returned last year to Highland Park And did a clinician clinic for the students and he performed in the evening for students and parents Did anybody attend? Looking at theater at Deerfield High School You can see the courses that we offer and I just wanted to highlight a few things what's been working really well for us There are so many opportunities for students Including three entry-level courses So students can get involved in theater through our theater advisory or Intro to theater if they're a little bit more serious and then also tech theater and an area that works really well in our programming is Under the direction of Susan Gorman and her choice is a programming. So many factors are considered It's
034not just a pick a show because that's popular right now She really looks at appropriateness of material and challenge for her students and how they're growing without that throughout the career that they are with her And then also she really looks at the significant number of roles and she wants that to be Super inclusive of all students and all levels of actors and so she wants to get a variety of them to be able to participate And be on the stage Additionally each class has a public performance in our theater area and yet students can also participate in some extra Curriculars by being involved in our fall play or our musical and not have to be enrolled in a class So we're really proud of that fact that there are opportunities in both areas And
035then lastly lastly something else in theater that works really well is that some of our classes are stacked We look at our tech theater classes along with some of our acting classes And we stack them together in a class period so that the designers get to see what the actors do and the actors get to See what the designers do and we mix them together, and it really helps develop a cohesive team So everyone understands the different roles and how they work together. I also wanted to highlight some of our set design examples One recent success in our department is Michael Clack He's our tech director, and he was chosen as the all-state tech director so for example I know we watched the Olympics this summer that would be like being chosen to be the
036Olympic coach for a certain sport area He was chosen to be the tech director for the all-state theater production and in fact tech and design is Really an up-and-coming area in our school I know you get to see if you come to a show you get to see the actors and Sort of the front side of the stage But really engineering and design goes into what's happening with the students on stage behind the stage And we also are very proud of the fact that there are 50 plus students in a club called crew at Deerfield and Those students can be in Michael Clack's in a class with him during the day But they're not required to be they can just sign up for crew after school if that's a place where they would rather get
037involved in tech We also have a couple other set designs Sorry that we just went through and I just wanted to mention here that some other resources that we take advantage of and our school is a group called friends of the arts and That group supplements and assists our department. They sponsor guest artists. They host concerts and Dessert tables at all of our opening nights, and then they support department member requests for items that are outside of our budgets next we'll see about dance at Deerfield and You'll see we have four classes in dance right now And I want to start with a big thank you to the board for the recent air conditioning that was put in I will tell you that that's been a huge Added a huge success in our classrooms We
038actually were in the studio averaging on many days 80 plus degrees in that classroom area So as you can imagine this obviously has greatly improved that classroom environment and impact on student learning Prior to this investment many days we had to relocate our dance classes out of the studio So they would be in hallways or playground areas wherever they could find a space And dance is really an area where we utilize formative assessment techniques Well a lot of constant feedback is happening with students and self-reflection and then also Technology in that area that I'll highlight a little bit later They did pioneer the use of iPads in our area and it's a basis for their SLO this year for my both my dance teachers and We were grateful that those iPads actually were purchased through
039funds from the foundation It's fun and in dance we start a new course this year that I'll highlight a little bit later as well Some of the other areas that both of our fine arts departments are able to take advantage of is some travel And so recently I just want to highlight our New York trip our dance group Allowed students to sign up for a trip When we went to New York City the students were able to take master classes at Alvin Ailey Also at steps on Broadway and also at American Ballet Theatre So we were able to reach all different types of learners and ballet or in dance styles But we purposely balanced that instructional curricular aspects with seeing the uniqueness of you know I give New York City a number of our students
040had never been there So we were able to also video visit for example Radio City music hall to see the girls on stage that Typically does not happen. You're not typically allowed to be on stage for photographs But then they also got to meet with a member of the company and that was really exciting for our dancers And then we balanced that was seeing the 9-eleven Memorial and Central Park and the Statue of Liberty as well We're going to move to visual arts at Deerfield So another area in our fine arts is visual arts You'll see all of our courses listed there And I just want to remind you that in the appendix of your packet you received our course enrollment numbers over the last five years And I just wanted to highlight that both
041Amy and I color-coded those Numbers because that is to help you understand the stacking of our classes so sometimes we do stack classes and What that means is different courses will be in the same class period with that teacher and although this can be challenging for teachers Due to the variety of levels of differentiation that has to happen We believe really that it can work well for students one example in the visual arts area would be our graphic design That's stacked with our advanced graphic design and here students really see the development of skills And how they build over time as they're in those same sections Additionally the only AP offering that we have at Deerfield is in the visual arts area so in your appendix You'll you receive their AP scores, but some background
042that you might not be aware of Typically our students will take at least two years of AP curriculum before they will submit to AP to the College Board because they really want to build the breadth and the depth of their portfolio to Then be successful in the end as Amy shared earlier. I also have an example of student programming at Deerfield This is Sarah Kenward. I believe you heard about her last month. We highlighted her to the board from the high school and You can see the courses that she has chosen During her four-year career at Deerfield. She actually submitted artwork 3d artwork to the Deerfield Fine Arts Commission 15 people were chosen and she was the only student and then her work was on display at the Deerfield Public Library So we love that
043connection to the community with the Fine Arts Commission and as you can see from the courses that I listed there Sarah really was able to make fine arts a priority in her high school career and make those choices that worked for her Taking a peek at visual arts at Highland Park first off. They are also super grateful for the new spaces They are very envied in the building those spaces ended up being incredible I think that science is very sad that we're gone And I wanted to also just do a shout out because I think my teachers were incredible with some of the temporary spaces that they Had to work in last year the new MacBooks for graphic design and for photo Has led to a lot more interactive? So because the kids can move
044around so there's a lot more collaborative working going on in those classes our 3d classes Ceramics, especially metal and glass is probably where we've seen the biggest increase in the last couple years for visual arts And I will quote Jess Virens our ceramics and metal and glass teacher. She said the students Consider these classes a break in their day and as noted in student reflections. They are so proud to see Their own artwork, so it's just so much to have something in their hands physically 3d that they've made The new darkroom is the bomb that calm It will produce amazing photos And I just wanted to talk about because I think there's been some debate about well Why are you building a dark room still and what's the point of it? It's funny because um
045I? was discussing it with somebody and then we had a speaker from National Geographic come and And I asked her and she said oh, no, you know it you have to learn it To learn all the elements and to appreciate the digital part and then a week later. She forwarded me a Job application for a government photography job It was six-figure salary starting off and one of the mandatory requirements is that you had darkroom experience a significant amount of darkroom experience so Again, I just appreciate the board Listening to what we wanted with their new spaces and allowing that to be created, so we're very grateful for that One question that was asked and we see it for us at Highland Park We see it quite a bit in our visual arts is how do
046you do the stacked classroom like what is it? What does that look like right and so I could think of a couple analogies have you ever been to Perkins? When somebody tried to carry out for omelets and for pancakes? I had to do that in college um It's not that bad We've actually fine-tuned our systems and our programs such that and again This is just how administration works at Highland Park Patrick Sassen and I sat in looked over and tried to figure out the best way that all like the majority of ceramic one Classes go in one section and then the advanced so if you've got a couple stragglers of twos and threes and fours them They all go in one section Occasionally that doesn't work because the student schedule is booked and so you
047might have three or four of them in with the ceramic one They all work at one area, and they're working on more challenging projects obviously right and they're being guided by their teacher and also If you look at Danielson and distinguished those students then turn around and can help the ceramic one students, and we see that all Seamless quite frankly in the classroom, so it's pretty cool Amy, and I both wanted to highlight these numbers in the music area for you To help you understand a little bit about what happens So the numbers might look simple, but that first one the nine represents nine months in our calendar year where we schedule events The 25 then are the actual scheduled performances, okay? So if you get one of our flyers you'll see that there's 25
048events that are scheduled there But actually that equates to 41 actual evening performances due to productions that are more than one day But then on top of that we add in things like Community parades school assemblies grandparent's day performances visual arts openings honors night athletic contests and pep rallies open house the foundation's pizza bowl ILMEA festivals to name a few and for this school year at this point in time before any new requests come in we're already up to 96 performances, and that's on average for an average year in both of our schools now That's in addition to all these directors doing their day jobs of teaching in the classroom, so it's interesting to note For us how public their course outcomes become and how public their student skills are so these 96 events are
049assessments They're not just performances And they demonstrate student growth and what's happening in the classroom and after each event as a class they review their performances And then the students are taught self-reflection and goal setting after that so lots and lots of teaching and learning going on there I know we were asked in this presentation to highlight some current challenges for us, and I think at this point Tom I just wanted to have to say that some challenges defending the field trips of the fine arts classes The you know as noted so many of them are satisfying community requests Which is you know essential and really important the other part is providing exposure to create access for all Our elementary program and our middle school when we bring those students in we do have to
050call out the Highland Park students from class But it is so essential and so important for students that might not ever see a performance like that And then to see and see the connectivity of how they could be involved in that in future years We're moving on to highlight music courses at Deerfield, so you'll see the courses that are listed there and As Amy mentioned our community connections are huge for our performing groups And we're very fortunate to have outstanding artists in each of these areas that are leading For example both of our choir directors are members of the CSO choir out of Chicago Recently they were recognized again for a Grammy Award That's happened multiple times, but both Shari and Alicia were in the group that was honored for that And they both have
051strong networking throughout their professional community and that pays off for our students in our classrooms One outcome of this was when both groups were invited to perform Last year at the home alone chorus with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Orchestra Hall, so that was very exciting Another area. I just wanted to highlight is dr. Dan brain He was recently recognized with the Chicagoland outstanding music educator award a very much deserved award. That's only given to a small group of people and Dan's definitely a you know distinguished teacher in his field We are super lucky how well our music folks work together We also again have a very strong music program wanted to highlight guitar. It's our entry-level class It does not it's one of the classes that does not have any previous experience requirement And
052in an effort with the growth mindset to continue to grow our guitar students We are recommending guitar three and four for the next coming school year It would not be something that would add an additional FTE It would probably be something that would go along lines of a stacked classroom Our wind Symphony was selected to perform at the ILMEA all-state And as similar as we spoke it's similar to you know a team going down all-state So we're super proud of them, and they're going to be performing at the Symphony Center I Think one challenge right now that has my music teachers very nervous is what's gonna. What is that? What is it going to look like for d112? And what does that mean for their music program and for their music teachers, so that's one
053challenge that they're struggling with Amy and I both wanted to just highlight one area that that we do have in common, and that's with our marching bands and In both these areas you can see that this now becomes a co-curricular So with our marching bands there's curriculum that's covered in the classroom But then they also cover curriculum in rehearsal and in performance outside of the class time As an extension of their class, and then they do receive a grade in those areas and it we just Love and value how it really integrates into other areas for it with exit this example You see both of them performing at football games this fall and at the Cubs, Riley. That's true They they did which we thank you Christine for to Our next slide moves into the
054applied arts areas we begin with communication technology at Deerfield So you'll see again the courses listed are probably more prominent ones are archie engineering and our woodworking class our classes in archie and engineering are stacked classes and we Really value that they it creates access to curriculum for students We have over a hundred students enrolled in archie and engineering classes and the way those classes are stacked That's a little different from others is we stack our honors and our regular level students in that classroom So if Amy and I were both in architecture one and she wanted to take honors And I wasn't sure if I wanted to I could try out the honors curriculum and by mid first quarter decide if that was right Or not if I decide not to take honors and
055she stays we still stay in the same section And I don't have to have a cut like a schedule ectomy to change everything else So that's really important to us and really we really value that in our building in archie and engineering that Any student enrolled in that class can access that and then decide if it's right for them, or if it isn't really going to work Another area that we wanted to highlight in this in communication technology is related to the Perkins grant dollars that we get So as a district we are averaging probably about twenty five thousand dollars, and then that's divided Accordingly between the two schools, and then we also have access to a CTEI grant That's about ninety five hundred dollars and both of those reduce the impact on our budgets
056By allowing us to utilize that grant money to get innovative cutting-edge equipment and supplies etc to support our teachers in the classrooms Perkins really helped us Get our the kits and the setup for a PLTW project lead the way the national curriculum that we have at Highland Park You'll see the the boxes this classes with a little PLTW are the PLTW classes obviously And there are two Introduction classes two specialty classes in our our capstone class As mentioned earlier today. We're super proud of our Erica to being nominated awarded as young teacher of the year Another thing that Erica did was found this mentor matching program, and it's very reasonable very nominal fee to provide all of our Edd students a Connection for their capstone course so in the next coming months each student will
057be paired up And they will basically have a mentor as they go through and figure out their their The answer to the problem that they came up with for their capstone class And they actually just observed her one one of the Proposals was a student that was trying to create an app that would somehow automatically if you were under sexual assault That you could click on it And it would record everything and send a message to where your location was and so really thought-provoking great great ideas are coming out Another thing to highlight with PLTW is the connection with the University of Iowa so a student can take Any of the PLTW classes and if they get a six or better out of ten at the end of the year class They can receive three
058credit hours from yours. I would that can be transferred anywhere else So a student can come out with an entire semester of school for six hundred dollars. It's pretty amazing right So how do our kids do last year we had 152 kids take the end-of-the-year PLTW test out of ten the average score was seven We only had five students that received a basic rating we had 68 receive Proficient and 78 receive advanced so out of the hundred and fifty two students about seventy four percent Qualified for the college credit. This is a a grid that we use PLTW can be very confusing at first so one idea That came out of Eric and I attending a national conference was to create a PLTW night And we're reaching out to the theater schools the STEM programs
059in the theater schools and inviting them specifically to come So that we can explain when you can jump in you know where you can jump in and how This is something that we developed PLTW does not administer the plan You know black and white Schools can administer it and and deliver it different ways that they want to so this kind of came out of trial and error Couple couple years of experience and talking to some folks at the national curriculum I think it's a great graphic, and I think it does a wonderful job Explaining to our students so that they can plan Our next area that we want to look at in applied arts is our business area And so the courses are listed there and what I'd like to highlight tonight is just one
060of our department members His name is Jonah Vigas He's been working over the last eight years I believe with the College Board as well as high schools and universities across the country For numerous years on what's called the accounting bridge pilot that seems to have kind of stagnated And so now with the support from his department members Joe is Highlighting a new focus This year this fall with a recent curriculum proposal, and it's a program called incubator and basically it's an entrepreneurial curriculum that connects the students to community business leaders and This proposal was proposed this fall through the committee through our department last spring and then through the committee So we're hoping to see some support there for that course for next year And then also we're proud of in the business area that
061we have a couple of opportunities where students do not have to be in class But they can access our teachers and so one of them is our investment club that Joe runs And then another is our DECA enrollment. We have strong DECA enrollment in both buildings Deerfield We've got 200 students right now And again they're not required to be in a class to be able to participate in this activity and our teachers are actually the ones That are running it So Highland Park in Deerfield I think ping-pong back and forth and who has the largest DECA chapter in the state and it's really fun to see our name And big lights at the opening ceremony So business at Highland Park Our entrepreneurship class has been running strong for the last couple years It didn't run
062for many years, but now it's some really had a resurgence And so and we're doing it kind of like a grassroots kind of homegrown So they are modeling the the Barrington incubators program actually in January the week of finals the Thursday night of finals week We will be hosting a shark tank event in our auditorium. It's where our entrepreneurship Students will be presenting their classes our marketing class is about to embark on a real-life marketing program with the Schomburg Flyers So excuse me. I think they're the Bombers boomers yeah Yeah, and and the accounting program has a dual credit with CLC so students can earn four to eight credit hours Through the accounting program and our accounting program has become so strong that the the double course the sequence of courses is accepted at U
063of I and People can waive the accounting requirement for the introduction to the school of business One other thing I wanted to highlight was our business law classes that stay really strong Jeff Champney just got back from his annual or excuse me the semester course so twice a year He takes the students to the courthouse the coroner and the jail he's actually connected with an alumni from Highland Park who's a judge who takes our kids aside and Speaks to them specifically and make sure that they see a really good case. So that's pretty exciting Our next one is FACS at Deerfield and that stands for family and consumer sciences so another area of the applied arts and At Deerfield we offer three different child development courses and then also a course that's titled contemporary living
064Contemporary living as well as our introduction of business and our consumer economics class all fulfill the state requirement for consumer education And I just want to highlight our district child care center It's called Deer Park TLC and you'll see a few pictures here with our high school friends are in the classroom Our program is a lab school and actually there are seven sections of child development this year And our lab is DCFS licensed, and it's an on-site child care program 26 and a half years ago staff members actually approach the Board of Education and said we'd like to have on-site child care for our children and the board approved it and With their support in the fall of 1982 we opened and now in 2016-17 school year We're celebrating 25 years of providing quality early
065childhood education where high schoolers and preschoolers get to learn side-by-side On our next slide you'll see an example of programming of three different students who have taken a number of courses in the applied arts area So over four years you can see that students are able to access multiple courses in our areas Based on interest as well as exploring new opportunities Many do lead toward a career path so students can students can test their interest and abilities And I recall one student I had that took child development with me Never really wanted to work with children just thought it would be the best way to get his requirement done He actually is a middle school teacher now came back to thank us later, so he discovered an interest and a career path actually So family
066consumer science at Highland Park. They also are very grateful for their new spaces, and thank you so very much One question For the requirements for the presentation was how does technology and incorporate into the different classes? And so I love this story because it's kind of like if you build it. They will come type Many of our family consumer science classes are Multi-level from the standpoint of you've got sophomores and juniors and people Rolled out the Chromebooks, and it was only one year each they the teachers got very panicked That they weren't going to be able to incorporate technology And how are they going to do this if half the class has a Chromebook and half doesn't so with the Perkins money? I was able to secure a classroom set of Chromebooks that second year
067And had it organized and nicely so the Chargers because that's a big issue We have a set if you've ever had to replug in after 27 students leave So it's all set and and what then happened was these two teachers took it upon themselves and did a ton of summer work and by September they had Google site, and they had all kinds of technology incorporated this goes back a couple years But I just think that that's such an important story To tell so you can see how they adapted Preschool is just on fire We're doing awesome and our preschool works a little differently to remind you our students come on the lab days So they come the little kids come on giant days, and then the block days is when they plan so We have
068five sections next semester. We'll have five sections of preschool So how are we going to incorporate in you couldn't have a teacher teach five sections in a row? so what we did is we're doing kind of a hybrid where we're calling it HPHS primetime and It's going to meet on a block day, so they'll be it'll be flipped the students will be Planning during the giant day, but on the block day is when they'll have the students It's geared towards four and five year old so older kids, and it's going to be content focused So like mad science you know will be one unit or love reading and stuff So it'll be it's a great opportunity for our high school students to continue to grow and develop those skills So although our programs are both
069unique and similar We wanted to answer your question on the outline about comparing contrasting and just offer a few highlights So here you see we chose a picture that has like slight subtle differences But they're noticeable if you really look closely We chose a food example because Highland Park does have a strong culinary arts program, but Deerfield does not There's similarities and differences between the Highland Park preschool as Amy said they have lab school three days a week and the high school child development staff member coordinates that program and The Deer Park program at Deerfield which is a lab school five days a week We're open seven to five and child care staff run that program And then they closely coordinate their programming with the child development teachers so unique and similar Another highlight is
070project lead the way that Amy spoke about and at Deerfield we have Arkean engineering both are preparing students for futures in science technology engineering math Okay, if anybody looked through their board packet and saw this slide and questioned it Like maybe somebody didn't do it was put in on purpose And it was put in to show you kind of the breadth of what fine and applied arts covers quite So I'm not sure if you're aware, but there are ten different teaching endorsements that encompass fine and applied arts 49 different classes so very distinctive Information to to make quality decisions around the table So we wanted to start tonight as we did with a few key With explaining our programs and then come to a few key pieces of data for you On these slides you'll
071see that enrollment is averaged because we do have semester courses So we just averaged them on each of the years where the data comes from and then registrations are a total for the year So for Deerfield in the applied arts area although our enrollment has increased 2.75 percent our student Registration is holding steady according to those numbers, and I'm really proud to say actually through this project. I'm pretty excited I didn't realize it that as you'll see on the on some of the data on this slide, but Information that you receive in the appendix that applied arts has actually grown 41 percent in five years So the enrollment and the applied arts classes 2011 to 2012 was about 11 to about 10 1046 This year we have 1496 Total number of students registered for an
072applied arts classes the majority of that growth is project lead the way preschool and our business programs and then here are similar for Fine arts while enrollments up a little bit our registration for first semester at Deerfield is up 3.5 percent in the fine arts area and And our fine arts have grown a little bit a lot of that is our acting and our design classes as we spoke of earlier The other area or another area that you asked about in the outline was to ask us to talk about our special and innovative programs So we have a few highlights that we would just like to share my first one is mindful movement That's a new course for us here at Deerfield in dance, and it involves dance choreography skills Improvisation and mindfulness, and it
073did fill this fall with three sections So we're getting lots of feedback from students that they are allowed to be creative and have fun But they're also learning techniques to reduce and manage their stress and so it's creativity and social emotional wellness Training that's happening the other I mentioned earlier is our incubator course proposal So we're hoping to get support from that As these real-world entrepreneurs and business experts will serve as coaches and mentors Guiding our students who really think that's the way we want to move in the business area And then lastly just a couple of interdisciplinary projects that have been going on So in social studies and ceramics Jerry Lavin and social studies and Tim Black and Mike Moran Combined to do a project and so the students in the social studies class
074were able to create a 3d representation of what they were studying And it was awesome to be in that class and observe what was happening and the teachers working together and then also with English and photo We had a huge impact on the building last year Elliott Hurtig from English and Chris Sakura in our visual arts department worked on a project called humans of DHS So it was modeled after humans of New York or story core some of you may have heard of those and bold images combined with Insightful text tell stories so last year the walls of DHS came to life With pictures of students and staff telling their stories and having their photos displayed Very cool as you can see some that I listed I've already spoken to to a couple of them
075highlighting quickly playback theater So exciting. I think we are one of the most unique very rare playback theater groups and in a high school area tomorrow on students from Oak Park River Forest for the second year in a row will come and And do a seminar with our with our students and that was based on a request of them of the Directors from Oak Creek River Forest, but that's very exciting You also asked about professional development and so Obviously you can see the list people are in my department are taking advantage of district workshops and outside of our district Offerings as well as presenting at state national Conventions and workshops, but the one area I just want to highlight has really been our growth in assessment literacy I think that's really been important for my
076department, and we've really focused on target work What do we want the students to know and be able to do and then our grading policies? What are the effective zeros for example and really looking at mastery learning with multiple attempts and allowing students to? Have do-overs and and really figure out what they know and really focus on how teaching and learning should be and can be recursive Only thing I want to highlight in professional development is collaboration So when we were asked to incorporate para last year It's difficult with that the department with that many that many horizontal Classes as shown in that slide so we kind of did a Noah's Ark theme where people buddied up And walked through the process together And it really worked well and nobody felt like they were alone
077and what they were doing and then in relation to technology Certainly we have lab-based courses so at Dearfield we have a Mac lab for photo and then a CAD lab Which is our computer aided drafting design for arcane engineering? And just as a highlight for example the iPads that are listed here in child development They record their teaching and then they do some self reflection by being able to to access that and self-evaluate They create digital portfolios and also this year knew they're creating literacy Portfolios for the young children to be able to have in dance same thing with the iPad although we use a coach's eye there To record and then students are self Being self-reflective and then their peers are able to also offer feedback so wonderful Our band recently skyped with composer
078of a piece that they were learning and that was super exciting the kids loved learning More about the composer talking him live and stuff so that was a pretty cool day For cross-district collaboration Amy and I continued we meet and talk typically at least once a month And then we also attend the conference has fine arts chair meetings four times throughout the year So we're there and we collaborate with others outside of just working with each other I am very proud to say that we are a team that did something nobody else has done and we shared a teacher a couple years Ago Michael Curie. We also share have shared Alex Pataki who returned from a leave and was able to fill a visual art spot for us so Our staff goes back and forth.
079We have very successful in service Collaborations we're really lucky and then the discipline based partnerships are very important Especially when we only have a director in an area where we only have one orchestra director etc So we're working together as we mentioned earlier. Here's some photos of Holland Park and Deerfield Doing the combined choir performance for home alone on the next slide You'll see about our district 113 visual art show that we're very proud of takes place in a professional gallery here in Holland Park every year and Our staff are able to showcase our students in our classes and work together the teachers. Yeah, they work together Coordinating who's gonna Have the music who's gonna bring the food. What spaces do they cover? What spaces does Highland Park cover? You also asked about articulation with
080our center schools, which is huge as Amy referenced earlier some concerns But it's very important that we have that articulation each one of our music area hosts a music festival And so our middle schoolers will field trip over during the day for a rehearsal and then we'll share a meal and conversations together And then they come back in the evening for our performance. So here you see our combined bands with district 109 There's 170 kids there and our combined choirs on the next slide You'll see our theater also participates in this and as well as our orchestra this past week our orchestra held their Festival and then in addition to that and related to our visual arts We also have started hosting a middle school visual arts show so we get artwork from the students
081And then we display it at the high school, so that's another awesome connection to them So how we support our learners with our diverse programming offerings. I think one thing to note. That's important is Because our curriculum is so personal so passionate any course changes It's not something that's taken lightly for us. It's something we think Long and hard about our classes our kids enroll in our classes based on the reputation So there's always a lag time when you start a new class So it's not something you take lightly when you're thinking about you know changing someone's Curriculum and our programming is accessible to such a wide variety of students So all grade levels all learning styles many times are in the same section Transfer students ELL students ELS students are all welcomed in our
082classroom No matter what their levels are and our teachers are really highly collaborative and our kids really connect with these adults They find a passion they find joy in their day They find outlets and many times we hear if it weren't for Subbing any fine art or visual arts class there the student wouldn't come to school. They wouldn't have friends They wouldn't feel connected to any adult And we allow our kids in those classrooms to create and experience and be surrounded by beauty and really express their souls Class I Realized there were students in there that were at a very different level than the other ones that were in there and some of those kids were there just to fill a space, but they worked with each other and It is amazing to see this
083and they and talking to them. They tell you that they had no idea They just wanted you needed a space you get to be there You did a fine art scene something and they wound up learning going over and observing and working with the students At the higher level to get some ideas and you see it play out a lot And they wind up getting very involved so it's As you were speaking I was thinking of that experience as well as again like you asked us remembering about high school Experiences I don't have any questions. I also want to know I think the fact that And just I think our district does a lot with the resources and the size I Mentally The question I have Those courses So So your question is how is
084cross-disciplinary Working between applied arts and maybe some of the more core content classes um oh gosh. I gotta think Pltw does quite a bit of interaction with on science At the top my head. I'm trying to think of other examples with family preschool and creative cuisine Work with some of the world languages And there's some and some cross curricular projects that are done I know visual arts actually Alex Pataki just told me today that she's combining a field trip with a special ed science class down to the I know that's visual arts not a fly, but Yeah, they're gonna coordinate. They're actually going to Travel together on this field trip. I can't remember so I was busy doing this a little bit today She was talking I was like oh And it was something long
085lines of their fabric. Yeah, no, that's okay I'm just trying to think of I mean that's just amazing and I think I think one of the challenges is the you know It's time in our day to try and create those spaces for people to be able to do that So when I highlighted those couple examples with visual arts There was a lot of asking for time for staff to be able to have common time during the day to do some creating And that can be difficult because our staff are at such a high level and they are busy and they're not sitting around doing nothing You know but I can think of a couple examples in our area with child development in particular Will combine with music classes so that the little ones get to
086visit you know those areas and be exposed to that But then also those students get to see the child development children on a little bit more formal basis I know we worked with child development in the past with English when a certain English teacher might be writing Children's stories and so as a teacher I would go into the classroom and present the curriculum about you know How do we look at? Being sure that we're inclusive in what kind of language and being able to write at that level so that would be interesting for children So I mean off the top my head. That's just a couple examples I Know I don't know obviously the answer if I had a crystal ball would be great to be able to look I can tell You what we
087do, and I think we both do it well is that although. I'm not endorsed in music In my opinion and danielson has helped us define this good teaching is good teaching So I can be in your classroom And I can help you define that and see where that's happening to help you grow as a teacher But the other thing we have to rely on is that our teachers are experts so each of our I don't know if you know This but each of our visual arts teachers are artists in their own rights and so We have to be able to support that and they know what they need and so they just have to be comfortable asking You know I need to go to this workshop to help me get better or for example my
088ceramics teachers wanted to Do a workshop with a certain artist and that was kind of outside the box But we made it happen because that helped them grow to be able to grow in the classroom But I wasn't given that workshop because I'm not a 3d artist myself So I'm not sure if that answers your question, but I think I do like the way it's set up I do like when we meet separately sometimes and together because I think something that's Happened at least in our building, and I don't know if this is true for you But we've become so departmentalized that we are in our own little silos sometimes And so we don't get to see what others are doing in other areas and so at least for us and fine applied arts We
089have that crossover right there And then I do think we are some of the leaders that are trying to get out there and reach into other areas Not necessarily for a full class, but in particular for projects or interdisciplinary approaches, and I think that's important well, I would say that I Think that everything that we're trying to do with steam that if we were to separate them It would just be counter to it to all the efforts and energies there Yes, it's a really big Job and and I would I would I would echo Susan in the sense that we know what good teaching looks like and Danielson has assisted us and many people in this room So have some in particular Teaching us how to critique and learn You know what looks what is
090good teaching look like I would say that the evidence especially in applied arts Does not support that thought I think it is the exact opposite I Think it's just essential. You know to keep these departments together One thing that I would note and and again I've only been at Highland Park as far as a high school teacher And I've only been in the fine arts, and I actually did not have a department chair For most of my time which was kind of interesting, but Ended up itself My point is that because I'm not a content expert The relationship that I have with my teachers is one very much of a servant leader as we've heard a lot about lately But it's humbled It's a humbled one because I have to rely on their content level
091of expertise and I have to rely on their peers So the music teachers kind of check each other a lot of times if I'm struggling with one music teacher I'll talk to other ones I'm sorry. I'm like I'm losing any water In any most the time when I sign things for our department It's FAA MILY because we are a family and we're highly dysfunctional like anything But we are a family nonetheless and and I will say that Might I can speak to my department and the connectivity and the way that people interact And care deeply about each other is very true, and it's and it's super important and to separate those You would take the technology and the business people that are more inclined to to to go straight and Take them away from from
092the arts. I Couldn't see that happening, and I think that we've demonstrated that it works very well, and it's super important But I will say that I would like to be on the search team to replace this amazing woman Because it is you have to have a special person You cannot come in to lead this group with a big ego You just can't you have to be able to humble yourself because the content and the knowledge and the expertise on your teachers is Way surpass anything that anybody who led this group could have But if I could just add on onto your last Comment there David. I think one thing that that at least in my tenure at Deerfield That's always interesting is we're such a small school And so Amy and I have talked
093about that and when new courses are coming up like this incubator course that we're proposing That's like a lot of time and energy and trying to decide where we want to put our energy Because there's only so many students to choose from and then when you look at how high performing we are and where these kids want To go on if they want to go on you know in post high school It's really tricky So we feel that you have always valued the electives and I've seen that support and we hope that continues because they can get really tricky You know in those areas because there's only so many Class periods and only so many courses that they can take and we offer a ton You know as it is right now, and I just
094quick comment about a traditional and non-traditional I have supported Remington Clark as he has worked very hard to teach The students to play by ear he has a personal philosophy that big large huge Orchestras are a thing of the past that the money's not going to be there for those He also has a personal belief that he really wants kids to always be able to pick up an instrument and play and So at our music showcase Last year he played had one piece that the students played by ear and this time all the pieces they played by so we're doing some We are doing some cool and innovative stuff, and it's Supporting two teachers Josh is very traditional his father was a band director at Temple University He he he you know and balancing the
095two of them But that's the beauty of it You know and keeping their relationship pure and honest and true so that they can work together and feed off each other is my job And that's and I know that and that's the most important thing You're gonna get a unanimous thank you from Board members staff everyone Presentation you know the numbers were great. I think there was a lot for us to take in so you know some of these questions That's why we shared in our packet and we hope you can follow up I do want to thank you because you all are the first department really Incorporated a lot of the work that's been done in the referendum And and how our buildings have changed and how that's changed the way you're teaching or using
096the space And frankly having spent a lot of time knowing for example Dearfield lack of a dance studio or one that was usable by anybody who wanted to change her clothes or not It's wet to death within the first 15 minutes You can't think you know from mentioning it because you know we work on these projects But then we don't get to hear the end users and another one talking about the teachers We're trying to implement, but the kids who then are in the classroom So we thank you so much for bringing that back to us So there's this plan as a district going forward and as a board it really helps us to look at that in terms of a long-term So thank you very much. Thank you Go Cubs Right along and actually
097pretty much on time I'd like a motion to approve the revised minutes for the October 17th special board meeting and the October 17th regular meeting and session All right, and a second all those in favor There's actually should be one other correction on the Second page it says mr. Calentis. I know that he achieved a PhD So which out probably should say dr. Clintus okay, and then I am curious as to why under the schuler program that the sentence is being Eliminated when she did say that she does say that and it is part of the schuler program So but it was our understanding that it's one criteria But that someone might not meet completely that criteria and because it doesn't meet all the criteria We didn't want it as an absolute and that's the
098way it read so it's a criteria Here's my difficulty if that is what is set at the meeting and you're putting the minutes to reflect the meeting that it's not An idea that's expressed. It's actually what took place So that's why it was expressed if someone goes back and looks at the minutes ten years from now and says oh This is a requirement of the program or is it just one of the things that could be in it That was why it was taken out So if we want to adjust it we can do that, but thank you for noting that any other comments Okay, hearing none So all those in favor Extensions And we're going to move on to discussion items 7a is canines on district property talked about great timing We have some
099guest speakers here today, and they've been invited Just so everyone understands, but the genesis of this discussion tonight the Police chiefs sent a letter to me as board president that letter was shared with the district administration and the board And there was a follow-up from CTAD all community the anti-drug supporting statement in the letter so We as a district wanted to understand more and the board actually had some questions that I believe were shared with you From the letters and so we just wanted you to come in it Let us know what you're thinking a little bit more in depth than simply the letter so I don't know how you want to present, but I'm going to give you the floor and Then if the board is questions we can do that, but there's no
100motion before us This is not a discussion item on our formal agenda. It is your presentation. Thanks. I didn't prepare a special presentation I thought that what you would want is exactly what you said Basically us to kind of paraphrase a little bit about what's in the letter and explain some things to you before I get started Let me introduce the people that are with me today Gita Newkirk our city manager from Highland Park Will speak about a few words from CTAD I'd like her to come up and talk about that and chief ones from Highwood is here and chiefs leosis from Deerfield My other colleague is two colleagues are absent this evening So they couldn't make it for coming on a Cubs night, too By the way, we appreciate and they did want me
101to remind you that the game starts. Yes, you did already That's why we which is what you've heard frequently. I'm sure Yeah My end in mind today after sending the letter is just that you consider what we've given you and give us an opportunity To meet with school staff to discuss this further in detail as to how this could be applied in your school district our school districts Which we represent protect as the law enforcement arm of that and succinctly in the letter We just suggest that you consider this we feel strongly that this is just one area of security That's missing in the high schools that we have and we do have some drug arrests in the high schools I'm here to say I'm very happy. It's I'm not here because of that because
102it's a it's a frequent problem It is a concern of us, you know that in the county we do have Affluence of heroin we are concerned with that and where it's showing up I'm happy to say I've not seen that yet in high schools here But we are aware of it and we believe that providing a safe environment in the school is extremely important And we believe that having a program like this is important to providing that environment It's not dissimilar as my colleague chief Salios has said is having checkpoints when we go out and check Establishments that are selling alcohol making sure that they're not selling to minors We don't get complaints on that, but we do routine checks to make sure that they're not doing that So in a similar fashion we feel
103that using a canine in the schools in an appropriate fashion Is appropriate for keeping that safe environment because every school is its own little community and we feel strongly about that Having said that I know that we've done a recent survey of parents in the community through CTED and I would ask Gita to come up And just mention that and we'll take some questions. Okay. Thank you chief. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen Well, first and foremost, I do serve a city manager for the city of Highland Park and in that capacity I have talked to chief Schaefer about this initiative that is before you for discussion this evening I wholeheartedly support the statements that are drafted within that letter I do serve also. I volunteer on the executive board of community the anti-drug coalition I
104know you're very familiar with the nonprofit organization, but very briefly for other audience members CTAD is an organization That's whose mission is to reduce the use and abuse of alcohol and drugs among young adults in the community We represent five communities those five communities that are served by school district 113 so bannock burn Deerfield Riverwood Highland Park and Highwood and I serve as the treasurer on the executive board. David small is also on the executive board Superintendent Dingham is on the board of directors and the organization is made up of Educators school board representatives law enforcement professionals municipal representatives faith leaders really everyone that makes up the communities that we serve and And together we have a very aggressive action plan, which is located on our website. I'm sure it's been shared shared with you
105at the September board meeting the Executive board did consider the chiefs letters and the majority of members were in support of establishing a canine program within the school district and something very specific is their Interest was establishing a program that would work for the school district So having the law enforcement professionals as your resource Establishing a program that worked with the students and worked with the educators and everyone within the district. We did review 2016 survey of parents and where the majority of parents did support an element of This nature and not so much to be reactive and punitive but more for to be Educational and just to let the students know that randomly these searches would be conducted on school property and Really? The purpose is for the school district as well as the
106community to provide aid and support for students First and foremost in terms of their health and safety is really what the aim of this program is for and so I believe you Received the survey results. We're happy to provide them to you again if you're interested Well having said that I get questions from the board Debbie you want to lead off again? Okay the over the the years That I've been a board member and then I think before that When I was a parent going to the I was a 112 board member going to a 13 pto meeting There's been discussion about this and the letter surprised me greatly Because well, it didn't it didn't as I read it over again because it didn't talk about deterrents in the past when the district has gone
107to Police chiefs for their opinion because certain certain parent segment of the parent community has come to ask about canines for drugs it was The data that was given to us was that it is not a deterrent so my question is what has changed and And I guess because you maybe because you didn't mention it. Maybe I'm answering my own question because you mentioned it as a deterrent But the letter just surprised me because it has been so consistently the opposite from the law enforcement Officials or at least as it was presented to us in the past and now It you're saying that it's something we should have in the schools Is the dead have letters on file from 2007 which I sent to the school district with regard to this issue in support of
108it Oh in support of that support. Okay, I have not specified deterrents. Okay, okay, but I have it's not made it to the board Okay, okay But as a matter of fact the letter that I sent to you is very much the same one that I sent in 2007 In support of that and the reason I know that's okay and the reason I felt that way I've always felt that it was it was something good to do in the schools from the jurisdiction that I worked in previously We felt it was good for creating a safer environment. I don't have statistics under deterrents in terms of that Okay But the issue that concerns me at times is is it safer to keep your drugs in your locker at school? Than it is in your room
109where your parents can go in at home. Okay, and I that concerns me I didn't come up with that that came in, you know to my office from people that we've had contact with And I also felt pressured by the public because they felt that the police chief has never taken a stand on that so when I did send a letter I made it clear that this was my position in the matter I Each of the chiefs seated here and the chiefs that signed the letter fully respect that this is a board decision Okay, this is not being presented to you in a fire and brimstone manner We respect very much your decision in this matter we respectfully are presenting it to you in that manner And that's why we also thought that it's a
110good way to work it out with the school district if there's an interest in this It's not pleased dogs that are being recommended. It's a private one because we're we know the sensitivity to this also Well, we would take if it's contraband such as cannabis or Prescription drugs or obviously the dogs now are trained to locate firearms We're going to obviously follow up is that with the police department and it depends on the magnitude of it, too And that's something that we could work out with the school because frequently we had they have administrative Restrictions in school that the police department is very satisfied with we would not want to leave contraband though with the teachers So that a student would say hey somebody took my dope and they're using it for personal use So
111we would want to protect the teachers in a fashion and those protocols would be very simply The school officials have the right to open that locker based upon that That's correct It's done and then it would be up when we establish protocols It would be up to the school their decision to notify the student that that locker had been opened and here's why There's an issue too, you know One of the things that we talked to different superintendents who've instituted these in similar jurisdictions is it's a good way to get some confidence In the process by doing it after school before you engage in going further with it You also you can advertise the results to the students and keep the students informed as to what's going on and the parents To get support from
112this type of thing. That's why we suggested that this was a good first step in the right direction It's not disruptive to the school day either, you know again, we are looking at a very respectful approach That would be up to you. You know, we have two semesters. We do different drills, etc You know my suggestion probably to each semester that you have to understand to the dogs can't do a lot A lot of distance in the school they get too tired from what they're doing So you select a hallway and they go, you know in there depending on how many dogs they will bring and that's something that could Be worked out, but it would never be the entire school. It would never be doing it. It would be selected random I Concur with
113that I've never been involved in a serious discussion Oh Different steps that are actually in a long-term effort to reduce them And I'm in favor of the I'm in favor of the way in which you describe this So slowly, but I'm also in favor of let's not put too many dollars In other words, we're going to do this in a thoughtful fashion The district is important that we make certain that we do it carefully and thoughtfully that we fully and carefully communicate what our goals are But expectation on their students have learned to know that this is going to be ongoing And just like many workplaces in our country My I like the idea Well I Well my purpose in being here is to start that discussion on what our procedures would be with using
114this type of a Search in order to get to the point where we are Okay, keeping in mind that most of the kids that very few are going to be over 18 Under 18 is now juvenile So station adjustment is certainly an opportunity for us depending on the quantity now keep in mind There are times where the kids have brought cannabis to school or selling it to other kids That's a that's a violation of a higher level Okay, we've also had prescription drugs being sold at the school where they've taken from parents or grandparents Which is why we stopped the started the drug program to get rid of those prescriptions that are sitting in there These violations that based on the circumstances can come higher than that So they with that there has to be
115a more severe penalty with that Chief schaefer i'm gonna um pull the board for a quick moment because I think this is a really good discussion But I think that we have a lot of levels of questions and answers and it's a much broader discussion I also don't think it's appropriate to voice something on the district And so in the same way as we set up a few meetings ago a small committee I was wondering if we might and this is a question i'm asking of the board to set up two board members administration someone from each building Someone from your departments and perhaps either ddu or someone from cti So that we can sort of flush through some of the questions to see how it works best with our policies The way you run
116our buildings and everything else but so that some of the questions that the board did raise And and frankly the more discussion we have the more questions I come up with So my list was getting longer and I thought instead of doing this in open session and taking all of your time perhaps if a committee could kind of Be put together if you would be willing to one of you would be willing to serve on that because Some of my questions go to you know, we have our two cultures at island park in the high school But yet we are one district and so I want to know you know how the different communities react And that's why you all have this specialty And a knowledge that we don't have and then there are different
117positions that have been voiced by previous boards as well as administrators So i'd like to pull the board and ask you if you'd be willing to set up such a committee And if you all would be willing to work with us to perhaps come up with some Concrete suggestions as to either how to go forward with this or not Okay, I don't want to voice anything on anybody But to come up with a way of doing this that kind of satisfies all our branches Here in the district. We're certainly willing. That's why we're here David would you be interested in doing something like that going forward? Julie I think the discussion needs to be had. I don't know if I agree with the whole committee process I believe that this is something that is I
118mean, I understand everybody's time is very important. I get it But I think because it's a community wide issue I think we have too many small groups having too many discussions So I think the discussion has to happen, but I do think it should be a whole board discussion Oh, absolutely I'm only suggesting to do some of the research and then perhaps to come back to the board And report out and then obviously if we go forward with this this would be a discussion item and an action item So i'm not limiting it But I I just think that rather than saying for example We'd like to go forward with a third-party company and we want to definitely do this in our schools I would rather have it flushed out at a committee level Report
119it back and it may be two or three discussions before the board But i'm suggesting it as um the first vehicle to move forward with additional discussion and who does the research? Well, well, that's one of the reasons the committee would need any questions. Yeah, I think so michelle and then david Um Well, and we can also ask frankly we have the police here it'd be interesting to ask what the negatives would be of doing such programs or if you've seen any negatives in the There's a little thin ice up here I think you need to hear from the superintendent. I would I would say one thing is that we have not had a chance to hear what our principals have to say about this because they work with our deans as well as Students
120and staff in the buildings and so the committee actually I think in looking at what the negatives are I think we need to be a little bit more informed as to what This structure would look like if we were to move forward with it Or you know the information we have we didn't want to do that but I think that we need that perspective as well because um This is a very important issue And uh, I I don't know if we have enough information from the schools at this point to say what would be the negatives of doing this All right, david I don't know In other words So for example Uh Really What Is Not being Right What I'm suggesting is that this committee basically works in the industry comes back with all of
121these things What what is the administration's recognition? What what is the proposal about? and by the way But is making a recommendation back to the district if we were to go back to the board if we were to proceed with a test What are these different views now? Let's have a discussion about it I can clarify that so I think that The discussions i've had and and one of our principals and I were able to have lunch one day with chief sliosus I've also been to almost all of the ctad meetings that have been available I Personally feel that the way that it's been presented and what I had already known about this Is something that I believe the schools and the board of education would be highly involved in what the structure would look
122like And um, I have already asked our principals what the perceptions are of deans and others we've had discussions on this I do believe that if it's something that is in place that We can create the structure and we have a new communications director. This needs to be communicated effectively I do believe it would be very productive. Um, and it would the way that we structure this and communicate it would Be productive for our community And so I I think that In moving forward it would be Um, it's to our advantage to have this committee to come back and say this is what if we were to go forward with this This is what this structure Would presumably look like So how about if we for next meeting ask and this is one of the
123reasons I asked about a committee if we are directing our superintendent to come up with a proposal either for or against Doing this type of thing And and with some reasoning so that we can have a further board discretion And then at that time should we in fact decide to go forward with this That in fact we would put together a committee that would then basically Involve all the different players to come up with the best structure I think well, no, no, no, I think that he will come back with his his um recommendation And then at that point the board will vote on it. Yes or no if we totally disagree or we want to go forward Whatever it is the board will have to vote I don't think we should What All right,
124so then Yes, I was talking and um, I will i'll pull this board right now because um, I I think it Well Unless chris you at this point want to make a recommendation on behalf of the buildings and you're you know fully on board with that I think that Well, you know what when we do a motion the motion is what the superintendent recommends and then we vote one way the other and so I think at this point, um, Unless we are prepared to go forward with that. I would rather hear more of a discussion Which is why we divide it in two cases So at the next meeting I think administration should present one way or the other what they believe And um, then we can either decide to go into committee at that
125point And flush it out further before it comes for an actual vote So there would be a discussion item at the next meeting based on whatever You want to propose or you are in favor of and we would take it from there gita I I see your hand up and since you're a guest speaker tonight And and this actually david this is why it goes I think a little bit deeper So for example, I had a bunch of questions just on first amendment rights and privacy rights And and there are things that i'm sure you've considered and in districts where they've already done these kind of programs That's fine But I would want those questions answered if I before because whether or not in theory I agree with this as a board member and others
126do I think we'd want to consider some of that information before we vote so, um I actually like gita's suggestion as part of the recommendation for a discussion item for the next meeting. So this is not going away We will have a discussion item and a presentation set by you. Dr Grignum after you know with how you'd like to proceed on it And um, I think if we could get some input or question to answer in terms of support materials for us in our packets That would be very helpful And then we can take the next step frequently as like an faq So, um, I've told you to say can we direct our superintendent to do that? It sounds like we can are people in favor of that? So we will move forward with this
127for recommendation Is he supposed to then come back with a recommendation that says No, I think it's much uh He may but I think part of it will be the very basic question of whether this is something that we even And and so I do think to your earlier question that we do need to address that as a board And so based on that recommendation I don't So what I would ask That rather than it's you know, the next step is I would suggest that if you come back with a structure of how we're going to address this issue That's going to include If we were to proceed all programs So that when the board is making decisions we're getting a lot of different data points we're not just getting You know the superintendent doesn't
128want to Okay, so Point will take and stay similar colony But I do want to add one thing before we go forward on that and that is that um, I still think there's an overarching question I actually like the structure that gita suggested in terms of the frequently asked questions the pros and the cons Um about the program and then you know chris if you want to include some of that, um Some of the rubric that's great But frankly because one of the reasons I suggest the committee is because I would like board members and and other members of the community Involved in structuring the way this program would work assuming we go forward with it So yes, I am still advocating for the two steps Um, and so I just want to be clear
129on that stacey I'm putting something together that actually and so I would rather have a group of Debbie i'm not counting the steps. I'm just thinking of process And from my perspective We will ultimately accept or reject I imagine a recommendation but the recommendation is ideally supposed to come from the superintendent um Which is theoretically and is in fact a recommendation from administration and representatives from administration and information gleaned through Discussion with the parties that are here and then from that is a creation There's a recommendation Then a creation of policy and then procedures from that. There is no reason why all parties Can't participate together in all of those steps. However, it has to begin as any other initiative or curricular decision it has to be a recommendation from administration because the board We
130are servants We are not educators and we do not know every day what goes on in the building and I believe the administration will Will dictate that so however many steps it is. That's the process that should be followed as as I see it We brought them in and I thank you Specific questions or we'll rely on Anything No It's i'm sure the results are going to mirror what a crime rate looks like for a different community based on the makeup and socio-economics so It's not difficult that you can expect that in some places it may be higher results may be higher than in other places I mean that would be my expectation from this and if I can say I just want to take a step back Thing that distinguishes this request from something
131that we're already doing each high school has an officer in the school We have established protocols. We deal with these types of things Absent this type of ability to get into the locker the use of the dog is what distinguishes this okay? And that that's really the focus of what we're looking at and we know that this is out of the box Because it's not been used here before so again, I stress we come here respectfully saying that this is something should be considered We've taken a careful look at it and said we'll walk very slowly with this before we run We respect your position as well as the superintendent's position and we've accomplished our goal by having this dialogue And knowing that we're going to be talking to the superintendent I You're welcome, thank
132you Um So we have a Uh Um So the process we've engaged in we started last may we formed our committee and we had meetings in spring to organize our work Um So There have been 321 surveys submitted from the staff these Gave a survey to all highland park and gearfield students. There are And we have sent the survey to our parents and guardians as of this morning we have 529 responses And the parents survey guardian survey is open for the remainder of this week Um We will be looking at that but in addition to the surveys we've also been doing research on area schools You can do research in the summer camp We've been looking at the Different ihsa rules around calendars and kind of analyzing different aspects of it So all of that
133work is going on that takes us to our next steps by december We anticipate using the stakeholder feedback and the research To create some graphs of some potential calendars That we would then get different constituents to provide us with feedback on Ultimately, this is not a decision-making group. This group's job is to submit a final report to dr. Vignam in january of 2017 Kind of laying out the questions we asked the information we gathered some of the pros and cons of some of the calendar changes that we Could create as well as the feedback we've gotten from the various stakeholders The final calendar Decisions would be the board of education Normally, you make that decision in february each year and that is for Usually two years out. So the calendar is set for 2017 Most
134likely the board Choose to make any calendar adjustments The earliest we would probably do that would be for 2018 and 19 But you could certainly say these calendars only will affect in 2020 or 2021 The committee is focused on providing a full comprehensive report to dr. Vignam in january, which then the board would obviously work with dr. Vignam to determine Work in february And I think my last slide Uh, it's just a quick review of the survey. So again kyle park and gearfield students The parents and guardians were emailed a survey to the campus. We're also going to have that annoying red pop-up on the website It says now that the board meeting one can be taken down We'll put the new one I was recently at a um, i was recently at a couple
135of 112 meetings and one of them um Was well part of it was highly publicized but the other part Um was a discussion regarding columbus day um and What is the high school doing relative to columbus day? Also, because they asked the people asked about uh, some of the board members asked about that Issue and how we align with their Uh calendar there was a discussion about the disparities in our calendars Um The this the changes should one district decide to have snow days And the other district not decide to have snow days because of the age of the students, whatever then that Throws that off is that are those sorts of things part of your discussion that take place at this or is this more an overarching Trying to make them similar as similar
136as possible. I guess is what i'm trying to figure out Well, okay And there is discussion about do we want to have the same calendar the challenge with that is you well understand Is their teachers in 112 and 109 have different contracts than our correct? So it may be in some ways impossible To create a uniform calendar with all of the sending districts. It may not be okay, but they're um, the sending districts are applicable And then they're respected for Shortly Okay, thank you Survey I was just make a quick comment I think there was a great point debbie that was regarding the schedules and the sending districts and it's something that i've had two meetings with our sending district superintendents as well as other superintendents in the county and We would still be locking
137stuff if we have a snow day or a very cold day and we have to close That lead would still come from district 113 and then they would follow suit With Well, I don't it Probably not just one problem. The the issue is that students Have their finals after they come back and so there's that downtime. They've also been given a lot of Many students are given homework or other projects to do over the winter break which causes issues for the students The social emotional wellness of students is probably at the top of one of the concerns And so that I think there are a variety of those I would also say from some some staff or some students that there's a concern about the you know, you have two weeks where You are not
138in the course, but then you come back and you have these finals So is there a performance issue then that if they could impact your grade so they're all they all tend to be tied together So that the last Weeks on that Just out of curiosity there was a period of time when And I know there are some districts in the country. I don't remember which states that have One in illinois that have a year-round calendar and that they have Maine has it now that have like two week breaks in there Which would solve all the problems would necessarily be something that everybody would love except that you'd have smaller breaks For the students and they and less lead time Of Kick-in time necessary to begin the year. So I just wondering if that was
139even discussed at your calendar committee I'm not going to hold you to it. Don't worry about it Okay I would have loved it So Understanding And the students stay in the homes of And then they also take a day trip to dublin where they go to I was a sponsor of this trip Entirely Well I think dave benet Well, we had soccer students in 2000 But I I don't I think dave benet may have gone with the group before that. I mean certainly Such a So this is in line with our summer travel experiences Students they are usually targeted from And wants to go on the trip The focus is on Chinese culture Chinese history and practicing their language in an authentic setting It is a pricey trip We traveled to china is obviously the
140airfare But it was also because they go with an outstanding tour company and they have a hand packed schedule Try to bring For safety Whatsoever Our teachers And I was just going to say number one Procedures are never voted on they are always available to anybody At the table anybody in the district anybody in the community procedures are always published and when there's a policy that requires procedures They are on the policy website. They are also referenced and there's a link at the end under references To those procedures the only procedures that the board votes on are procedures related to discipline and we have added No, anything related to the discipline policy those procedures are voted on otherwise The board and it's dictated that's actually part of the school code The board does not vote
141on procedures. That is those are arrived at in conjunction with Personnel and staff and given and they and Those are the people that should come up with the procedures So the procedures are there if the policy requires procedures and that is discussed at the policy committee level then Procedures and and the board members that are representative on the policy committee Will bring concerns from the board to the policy committee if someone feels that we need to have procedures, but then it is also Reiterated back to us whether it is a Procedural or whether it's In the best interest of implementing that policy. So number one they are available to you to look at Always they're always there They have to be if a policy if a policy has procedures They are on the website And
142if you look at the end of any policy if there is a procedure that goes with it They are underneath the references and there is a link to those procedures to look at in depth and the entire list of procedures Whether and it's procedures exhibits appendices And all of those things are not voted on by the board except what as it relates to discipline. So They're on the website You've never been told The Yes And and it also relates to what we discussed at the policy committee was A good example our grand time um when when there is any member of the community that interacts with the students and is part of the curricular day or the Curricular period am I right? That's what we talked about that they there is I think there's a
143requirement That when they if they interact with students that there be uh fingerprinting background checking grand times as a as a group I think they are all um checked As part of because they are participating with students on a regular basis That is my understanding. Am I wrong? Of a teacher Right, then they don't have to be okay. Sorry This is Is I would say also just again, this is my Issue all the time at any time it says certified teachers. We should change them to licensed teachers You know any of the policy timeline So as part of the rfp, um all of the firms were asked to submit a proposal that fit our timeline so that it could align with the strategic plan And in order for us to begin that timeline, we would
144need to know You know in the next few weeks which firm we'd like to go with and so the firm would start by Determining what the scope of the project would entail. So essentially they would tailor the proposal more specifically to the needs of the district And in this case, we'd be looking at The timeline in which they would survey all of the stakeholders in different community groups our staffs our staff our students and our parents so that We can determine all the information in regards to the analysis of our current communication practices and methods from that point on the firm would work with us to Develop some recommendations so that we can essentially create our own communications plan Based on what they've come up come up with them the analysis of the data one
145of the things I know Some of them are incredibly expensive But I will say that the two that were that expensive Spoke about doing a an audit and then doing the communication plan So the clarification here is that we are looking to hire someone to do the audit to give you the the The information and data you need to then in-house do the actual communication plan, correct? So we're not going to be asked to come back and look at another group to do a communication plan No, I just want to clarify that We you know, we don't we don't have a communications plan already so we're not revising it And so since this will be something that we own for the first time I think it needs to reflect, you know the values and the
146strategic plan of the district and so By this time we will have a very strong framework of what the strategic plan looks like And make sure that the communications plan is in line with that other questions Well, okay So I can I can address that Our website is a great example a great great amount of resources have been put into a website, but You would normally have an audit Done before you would do the website because the website should be done hand in hand with the communications plan because this we don't know what our community wants in in the term in terms of the way they gather that we Gather information and provide it to them where they go for that information whatever information they want how they want they communicated Uh the ways when
147they visit our website, for example, or if they want to learn about our schools David they have an example of going to find a policy Um, and until you do the audit, you don't know what people are looking for and a lot of times now with communications People are looking for that communications to come to them rather than them going to that And so that we have never performed this function. So we just don't know What our community what our community is expecting and when we have, you know, having a communications director or communications office You would have a communications plan which does not exist I'd also like to I'd also like to add that it'll allow us to maximize our efforts So while it looks like it's a lot and a want right now
148At this point We're spending a lot of our efforts and you know with the case of the website money in areas that we don't know are most efficient So doing this will allow us to tighten the belts in the long run Is part of this audit? internal communication Everything as you and I discussed That is a an issue I think we have got we have had a number of instances Opportunities where the community as a whole the great the greater community could come in or could share with us how they wanted to get information but I think there is a desperate need for internal a look at internal communication And from my perspective it is Where we should start but you know, but you said this is part of it I want to say yes,
149that's my hope and goal But again, we're going to define the scope of it and based on the budget that we want to allow for the research component If if it is something that we're for whatever reason not able to include in this specific audit It's something that we can look into internally and perform our own mini audit just for that specific target group I They did crisis management for this district in one instance and then in another instance They advised on how to do a campaign just to clarify david. You are correct Correct, so, you know the Is Okay, well this is also an action item But at this point as far as discussion if you have additional questions I'd like to bring them up now since we have everyone here to respond. So
150does anyone have any other questions? Based on the one you did recommend They are local They have worked with this district twice before And frankly, I do believe they mentioned all the different stakeholder groups Because that was important and one of the really the one out of la did not and I was just shocked For that kind of money that it wouldn't have been in there. But anyhow, i'm sorry christine. Did you have I just wanted to add a quick comment that the The recommendation the firm that we're recommending has done communication audits for other districts who spoke highly of the audit work So while they haven't done it with us They have I think they were the only one that actually had experience during a communications audit for a school district Personally Spoke to
151those districts. Yes, I spoke to the superintendents and the communication directors that worked with those They worked with the firm that we're recommending Okay, if there's no further discussion, we're going to move into action items and this is our only action item So at this point i'd like to um Give me one second. Oh, I thought we were moving. Oh, no, there's several action items Sorry, but this is the neck the first one on there. Excuse me. I was just reading it wrong. So The uh, what i'd like to do right now is read the motion The superintendent recommends that the board of education accept the communications audit proposals submitted by just school term and strategic communications Chicago, illinois in the amount of twenty thousand dollars So first of all, is there a motion? Is
152there a second? Is there additional discussion? Hearing none i'd like to ask for a roll call vote, please I motion passes Thank you for correcting me. Um, we will move to 8b legal firm for property tax appeals Just one sec The superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the law firm of hodges louise eisenkram erotic and cone To be the legal representation on behalf of township high school district 113 for property tax appeals. Is there a motion? second Is there discussion? I will note that we have used h lurk for this and in this capacity for the last several years If there's no further discussion, this is a roll call vote I motion passes We move to hc board of ed policies discussion item at the october 17th 2016 board of education meeting The
153superintendent recommends that the board of education dot policy two dash 70 vacancies on the school board filling vacancies And policy four dash 15 identity protection as presented. Is there a motion? Is there a second? This is a roll call vote. Is there a discussion, please? David Tom do you want to respond to that because you were at the meeting and we talked about commercial reasonable versus reasonable Would you mind addressing that? Make it green um, I There's really not much to respond to we remembered That The word commercially had come up during the board meeting, but we weren't sure of our final guidance on that so We because we weren't sure that it was to be included. We did not include it And we thought just the word reasonable covered it It also makes it
154sets a My recollection is that to have commercially A reasonable also Leaves it a little bit ambiguous and it is it is subjective what commercial you know what how commercially What commercially are you talking about financially are talking about? based on um You know corporate reasonableness. So reasonable is we are giving notice that we will do the best that we can within our Limits and that was there was a discussion We all can't remember verbatim what the discussion was but it was decided by all at the table that the word reasonable was sufficient to cover That area that actually is half. Well, my recollection is that we wanted to limit it We agreed with the idea of limiting it and reasonable was at least giving some standard but um And the reason I called on
155you tom and i'm sorry to put you on the spot is because we talked about Commercially reasonable and you distinguished between the private sector and the public sector and that's why we decided we did need a Some sort of a limiter and so reasonable was the standard we wanted it But we didn't want to hold it to the commercial standard and so in private and public that's why we distinguished So I didn't mean to put you on the spot and but that's my recollection at the meeting I don't know the answer to that and I don't know if it's Necessary I don't think we did And I don't you know, I I do think that commercially reasonable is a term of art. And so I think david is correct I've never heard of one in
156the public sector. So if you feel it's Reasonable no pun intended to check that would be one way of handling it But I do think that reasonable is a delimiter and it did make it smaller Than what we did so I at the committee This is the recommendation and it was discussed in the context of commercially reasonable and reasonable And decided to add the word reasonable, but not commercially. Is that correct? So, um, there's a motion on the floor. There's been discussion and so I'd like to call for a vote Um, and I believe that this is a roll call vote Hi Hi motion passes We move on to the consent agenda. Is there a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes a personnel and financial report? Oh Were they separate? No, they're both
157together. Yeah I think i'm following. I wasn't for a while there, but thank you, too Okay. So, um, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes personnel and financial reports? Is there a second? Stacey, can you provide a report on the bills? Is there any further discussion? Seeing that there is no further discussion a roll call, please This my My motion passes Um, are there any citizens comments? Okay, seeing that there are none. Um, is there a need for closed session tonight? Is there something that there is one very very brief item? I need a motion for the board to meet in closed session. There will be no break. I'm going to kick everybody out So is there a second? All right, um a roll call, please