001[Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] all right it is 709 uh Board of Education previously met and closed session on the exception C1 C10 C5 C11 and c21 if I can have a roll call please Mr riddle president miss Callahan Wozniak here Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez here Miss Hannah Miss okisamo president Ewing here uh does believe we do have a quorum I did here from two board members Miss levels I'm a miss Hannah that they would not be able to make it this evening um with that I like a motion to go back into Open Session show moved motion by Mr riddle second by Miss
002Gonzalez our favor signifier I I any opposed knee we are now in Open Session uh next up is Pledge of Allegiance um this lensing if you be so conscious lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance okay well I'll lead us to the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible all the time all right so next up in the agenda is the president's report it's a brief one this evening um there's tons of things going on throughout the district I encourage a lot of people to go out and attend um also want to let the board know that you guys receive multiple dates for different meetings and events so please make sure if there are
003any conflicts to let me know um in addition we have scheduled our reorganization meeting for the newly elected board for April 2nd I'm not April 2nd May 2nd May 2nd which is a Tuesday which means that we will be moving and have moved our uh first budget hearing to May 3rd which will be a Wednesday so for the community and for the board I want to make sure that that information is out there we typically have always had our budget meeting on uh the first Tuesday in may we are moving that for our reorganization meeting so I want to make sure that everybody's aware um and I do appreciate everybody coming out this evening I know as a parent I'll talk about that very briefly so we've had um in the news related to the
004sharing of inappropriate pictures and photos at the middle school it's actually one of my middle school my child attends I would encourage us as a district to make sure we continue to educate our students on the importance of using technology responsibly and as a parent I also encourage you to make sure that you are following up checking those cell phones and those computers to make sure that all the information that is on there is appropriate so um did want to make that brief statement I want to defer the majority of my time because our student board member was not able to be here last week so I want to make sure that he can provide his presentation because he'll be presented on two items uh today so with that I'll turn it over to Mr
005universa is working I think it's working okay there we go hi everyone apologies for not being here last board meeting I was in Texas as I said last time but I'm here I'm ready to do my report and this time it's actually not that long shocking I know right it's not 20 slides I think it's only 10. so cut it in half I really chose to do this because there is I want to spend most of my time talking about the presentation that's going to be discussed about anti-book banning there we go said that one right and the presentation that I made that for that specifically so I'm just going to talk very briefly about my meetings and my statement obviously so next slide please next slide please okay so my topic fitting with the
006theme of today is literature next slide please this comes from a book that I read actually during spring break and my card ride back from Houston and it cut it's called suggested reading by David connis this is a book for why a readers 11 through 15 and this book is mostly about a school in Tennessee that bans a very good amount of books for very very scandalous and very arbitrary reasons and there is one of the students that actually created an underground library to fight against this type of restriction of freedom of expression so one of those quotes that really stuck out to me and this was at the very end of the book at the very like end of it was problem is we bring ourselves to the pages our whole selves every single
007Darkness every single light every single passion every single her we read with all those layers that makes us who we are acting as fillers we read with all that our eyes have seen and all our hearts have felt since birth with that much density making up Humanity it cannot be up to us to make sure people do not misunderstand a book and it cannot be up to books to make sure people don't kill themselves or hate someone or even love someone or even decide to be president what we do before and after we read is our choice and that choice is freedom and I really do feel that quote resonates to the movement of not Banning books because Across the Nation as we know School District after school district after school district ban books for
008very arbitrary very racist very xenophobic or just very lame excuses Banning lgbtq books spanning books about race about POC characters even going so far as the Banning Classics like Fahrenheit 451 um Charlotte's Web the handmaid's tale and even newer books like heart Stoppers which is a good book that I like reading a lot just because we think they're damaging to students with no actual real evidence to back it up so as a student themselves and an Avid Reader myself too I feel that it is our mission as the Board of Education as a student myself and just as a citizen of this country to fight for the basic right to read and to be able to express our opinions freely without any type of restriction just because of some arbitrary reason but that's my little
009statement for this time so a lot of the meetings I had were very old business stuff that happened in the last month or so so it's just like Recaps obviously the first one is promotion and retention committee I was sadly not able to attend this meeting because I was preoccupied with other very important meetings so obviously as always the objective is to review and propose a new promotion and retention policy for wps16 being policy 5215 as always the student view is that students at the Waukegan High School that students in the high school middle school elementary school levels need to be held accountable and supported in any way shape or form in their educational career from pre-k to 12. next slide please principal and sbm talk the objective is always is to meet with principal
010Rodriguez Gonzalez and discuss the pressing issues that Brookside students have this meeting was done before the last board meeting a few weeks beforehand obviously this was discussed more frequently to talk about a teacher survey that was sent out talking about the 1010 rule and it's merits and its cons uh resource officer and we talked with the resource officer obviously and talked about their job and an announcement that was made a few weeks before that next slide please this was also a meeting that was done before the last board meeting had two meetings with the principal wow um this issue actually no this meeting is actually going to happen tomorrow never mind scratch what I said this meeting is obviously going to be about the student results of the same survey that was sent out to
011teachers just for students and see if there's any consistencies any patterns that we should address the next one would be a resource officer presentation program where we want to introduce the resource officers to the students so they know that they're just not a cop at school but it's actually someone they could go to and talk to um obviously talk about that announcement again because we didn't have enough time and a period of products slide talking about how peer products are in the high school level and obviously how we can students could obviously get those products if they're not in the bathroom they could go to the nurse or any Avenue they see fit to get these products next slide please and this was a meeting that I just had a few hours ago with the
012superintendent and the chief of staff at the district it was obviously to talk and discuss about the student advisory Council that idea that we have and going a little further through that specifically great progress so far we are very excited to get that started and I think the next slide is q a unless any board members have any questions concerns comments any of that cert um yes could you remind me what does the 1010 rule mean um the 1010 rule is walking in high school policy that in the first 10 minutes and the last 10 minutes of the period you do not go to the bathroom or ask for a pass for that time for any statistical reasons that they have for having this policy but the main purpose is you don't leave the classroom
013the first 10 minutes you don't leave the last 10. thank you um anybody else and will you be uh sharing the results of the survey with the board in the upcoming um student board member report if y'all want to see the results I am very glad to show them honestly if y'all want them I will totally show them um anybody else no okay then I yield the balance of my time thank you Mr hernosa all right uh next up is our Spotlight on 60 and we have attendance belt [Music] thank you so I use School struggling to get your kids there this is what 95 looks like again it's great because it actually picks our students wanting to be in school to get that out my partner and I we've been into some type of
014sports for a very long time well we have spread the competition is always good yes competition brings out the best scenario I started this building this belt is for principles that win all right ladies don't you think that we should actually just have Clark Elementary School sort of engraved this is Mars already would save you so much time [Music] hello my name is Oscar Dupuis the director of student Outreach we have developed an incentive based plan that highlights our attendance Champions with that what we're doing is we're bringing a champion wrestling belt to those schools that have the highest attendance on a weekly basis in the future we're also going to be celebrating high schoolers each grade will be receiving a trophy that they could go ahead and celebrate with on a weekly basis so
015they can stand on that knowing that they have accomplished something great this is the Bell five times is cool we posted a picture on Class Dojo and a lot of parents are excited about it and you could see that they wanted to be involved and get their kids to school get ready to get cooked Andrew cooked coming for you I think the program that has been established this year for promoting attendance has been great our students love to see the belt in our building which we've had many times and it's very important for kids to be at school so this gives them another incentive on trying to be here working together and making sure that everyone's in school so they can get learning done so students and staff definitely notice when the belt is in
016the building we have a designated place that we hang it and when it's gone it's noticed so then it's important and they know we got to be here we need to get our belt back because we are the champions and it needs to be home here at Cook and I believe that we have won attendance more than any other building I lost count of how many times we've had the belt we're starting to get real used to having it around but it's motivating for the kids they see the belt they see it in the morning at arrival time we let them touch the belt as they're entering their classroom and it's just it's just been motivating for the kids and they have a lot of fun with it it is a source of Pride I
017think the kids even though there's only one belt I think every kid and every staff member in the school feels like they're they're a part of it and even though they don't all get to carry it around all day they take pride in being at the school competition here at Abbott Middle School we are a ramily and we believe the only way that our students can learn what they need is if they are here in school so as a school Community we've come together with our student support team to make sure that they are here and we get that belt each and every week so Lewis Smith Benny Juarez all the other schools can try but with the team that we have we are the best because that belt staying here all year long [Music]
018I think our chances for getting the belt next week are great 110 better than Hyde Park's chances coming for you Brian so the question is are you the next champion [Applause] [Music] uh superintendent um why is this important well we all know that if the kids are not in school they cannot learn right so half the battle is just getting them there so we're really trying to ensure that our kiddos show up every day as long on elsewhere staff so attendance is important oh sure go ahead any other questions for the board no I think this is an exciting way to get our kids excited uh in the visual representation and having them compete for the belt so excited to see this initiative and um the reaction that it's getting from the staff and the
019students thank you if I may please I also want to add I want to give a big shout out to the team the truancing team that's been out there working extremely hard ensuring that our kids are coming to school and creating new different initiatives for our kids to come to school and this week today we have Mr adenas with us as one of the torn officers actually he was a guy with the mask and he's been working really hard with us so him and the team has been doing all this not me just me thank you awesome appreciate it thank you good questions thank you thank you we also want to thank all of our schools for buying into this initiative without the building leadership I'm really taking ownership and without your team Oscar this
020couldn't be possible so I'm really excited to see the healthy competition and the student Smiles so great job you thank you all right next up is our approval of minutes so we have approval of the minutes of the Open Session board meeting from February 14 2022 we have a motion to approve motion to approve motion by Mr riddle second by Miss Gonzalez any comments questions corrections to the minutes all in favor signify what I I any opposed knee minutes are approved next up is our opportunity for public comment so this opportunity for the public to speak to the Board of Education I'm going to call a few names I am going to ask that you all uh just line up to the side so we can expedite the process each speaker will get three minutes
021if you need additional if you need translation services translation services will be provided for you and you'll get additional three minutes to allow for translation for a total of six we do want to remind everyone in attendance of our decorum expectations and a reminder to please refrain from using student and staff names in your remarks first name is Villarreal second name is gamero Caesar let me make sure if I get that order right but that's uh lamaro Caesar then we have uh Cecilia Rico demontre Hodge and Janae Canard if we'll come in that order uh Miss Villarreal whenever you're ready your time will begin problems us in our district for our students and our staff I'm actually here to address the students that I have all the students that come up to me every day
022and hug me and say thank you Miss V and we miss you in class we're not learning anything that means something to me and I see you and I hear you to my students in my math class it's not your fault you haven't learned any math all year long but man you are impressing me because you're working in an alarming rate and an accelerated rate every week you are coming in more of you are showing up and you're doing the work and I'm pushing you so fast that nobody else is going at that pace and you're doing it and I'm proud of you and I wanted to say publicly that you're doing some good and to keep it up because we have one goal in that class and I'm pretty sure that every one of
023you that's putting that work and effort into it is going to make that goal because it's not your fault you didn't get what you needed before I came along but it needs to be recognized how much work that you're putting in and I thank you because you are the reason why I come in every day you're my drive regardless of what the people behind me think regardless of the obstacles they keep putting in my path this year I'm still here and I'm here for you I'm not here for them the rest of them don't deserve my minutes thank you Miss villarreau uh no just when you come up each person will have three minutes and then we will just make sure you state your name for the record uh and I had so you good
024with going for it okay all right uh if you would state your name for the record my heart okay and whenever you start speaking your time will begin okay um so good evening I'm here with the College and Career Readiness Department as promised when I introduce myself we just wanted to pop in and let you know what we're working on and what we're doing and we also have brought some students to talk about their experience recently with the college tour that we went on I just wanted to mentioned that we are um advocating for dual credit courses with CLC and we still are able to sign students up for next year so we do have a informational meeting on April the 26th at 6 pm at the um College and Career Center space and aoec
025so any families or students that are interested in dual credit we can make sure that they get the opportunity to take a course so we'll give all that information then again so share and spread the news to any students or families that you think would benefit or be interested and we also are working on a plan for a big decision day celebration this year so decision day if you're not familiar with the term is just when all of the seniors are celebrating their choices as far as college or trade whatever they plan to do post-secondary we are just planning a big celebration for them May 1st at the dog pound so any teachers or anyone that wants to come celebrate them or you know reach out to us let us know or just come on
026by so that's all I had for my time and then I'm gonna let our students come up okay up right if you just want to state your name for the record okay so my name is Cecilia okay okay uh Cecilia Rico yes um so I am one of the College and Career managers I work with Janae and ivanda Fulton and I just wanted to talk a little bit about the overnight College trip that we were able to plan during spring break so we were able to visit four colleges in Southern Illinois we went to Southern Illinois Carbondale Southern and Illinois Southern Illinois Edwardsville um eiu so Eastern Illinois University and Knox we took a total of 32 students we had one freshman one senior and then the rest who were Juniors and sophomores which is
027huge to be able to have that large of a group on a college campus the students were able to connect with each other especially because some of them were at Brookside and some were Washington campus so they were able to connect build Commodore commodity and then also one of the things that was super important for us was to for students to learn about all the opportunities that colleges have to offer so especially for the freshmen and sophomores it's so important for them to know what colleges are looking for what gpas they should Inspire for and how to make sure they're the best candidates for scholarships so that was Major and then for the juniors and the senior one of the seniors that went with us Joanna she was on the student board she had actually
028even accepted to Knox and eiu so it was really great for her to be able to step on those campuses and figure out if they were a good fit for her she connected with admissions rep so it was a really great opportunity and I think I can speak for the team when I say that our goal is to be able to provide these opportunities to all students as early as Middle School maybe even Elementary so that they don't have to wait until they're older in high school to be able to have the opportunity to step foot on campuses so we do have two students here and then damontre who will share a little bit about their Journey with us thank you oh okay great if you just want to state your name for the record
029yes um my name is demontre Hodge I'm the trio advisor for Waukegan um so I was one of the chaperones for the overnight College Tour trip and it was a great experience um I would just say that just being with the students and all of us together it was like an opportunity for us to be like a family but also just to connect as a whole they also got to see Waukegan alumni on a college campus to connect with them too so I think for students to be able to go to a college that they never been to and also see somebody that looks like them was a you know very impactful for them I think going forward this should be like a thing that Waukegan puts on um going forward um because exposing those
030students early to these opportunities you know set them up for Success going forward um so yeah um I think all of us are working together also too just me Janae uh Cecilia just all of us working together it you know it helps them too so yeah thank you Mr Hodge all right and if you want to just state your name for the record uh lamaro Caesar all right Mr Caesar whenever you start speaking your time will begin sorry um they each get three minutes I just need to make sure uh I got the name down so go ahead uh Mr Caesar okay I'm a sophomore my name is Romero Caesar I went on the overnight trip it was a great opportunity to visit different colleges and see what different colleges had to offer we looked
031at dorms and ate the food at the colleges and asked some of the college student questions and they talk the colleges made sure they talked about like the student to teacher ratios and just different things at the colleges like some colleges or D1 that we went to we went to like four some of one of them were D1 some were D3 so it was like a different different uh ratio to colleges and we got to look at uh different things and then it was nice because after we went to the colleges we did different activities so we got to interact with people we didn't know like some of the people from Washington campus and just some of the peers that go to our school that we didn't know after the trip and that's it thank
032you Mr Caesar [Applause] if you just want to state your name for the record okay okay hello my name is Janaya Vaca Fajardo I currently am a student at Washington High School and I hopefully hope I could get the chance to go to a university so um I cannot stress the amount of gratitude I have for all the organ nicers who made this trip possible again thank you guys it is not something that our school does often and because it helped me so much I hope it could continue happening in a future because of this trip I was able to have a better view of the universities that I visited and see what fits my academic and social needs I was able to build rapper rapport with some of the students that attended this college
033when deciding on a school it is so important to just input from people who attend to having the ability and vital to my selection process Sorry by the way I'm a little nervous um but um my brother attends on Brookside High School initially he did not take his academic career seriously because of the lack of educational support but because of this trip he now understands the importance of his GPA and sorry and that makes him um understand that the GPA actually matters so hopefully he tries as fast now all in all I just wanted to thank everyone who organized this trip it has helped me gain a more a complete understand understanding of what a college career could be like thanks for listening thank you the pictures were amazing I'm gonna call the next four
034names we have uh or three names Ray vukovic Randy sabeki and Marie Bryant in that order so once again Ray vukovic Randy sabeki and Marie Bryant Mr vukovic whenever you start speaking your time will begin uh yes good evening this is from Illinois Law the public body which would be you folks must approve the minutes of its open meeting within 30 days after that meeting or its second subsequent regular meeting whichever is later within 10 days after approval the minutes must be available for public inspection this is not a new topic I've talked about it and talked about it early last year and when you all just kind of blew it off I filed complaints with the Illinois Attorney General's office and board president has indicated that by the time the new board comes in
035that'll all be rectified that that's three weeks from tonight now I noticed that later on your agenda you're hiring back an employee that left the district and you brought her back to help clean up your foia mess because you haven't been able to hire anybody for that position and now she's going to be helping with that now I've looked at the contract and it's very open-ended doesn't indicate any time frame does she know what she's getting into that the board president has promised the public that this will all be taken care of in three weeks are you aware that for the kennel calendar year 2022 there are still eight sets of special meeting minutes that haven't been approved by this board this is what the 11th day of April there are six sets of minutes
036that haven't been approved yet this year for this year now at the last meeting you approve three sets of minutes one was from last year and two were from January one of those minutes one of those sets of minutes were are posted the other one is not both approved the same night somebody should have been it's from what I'm told it's pretty much a matter of you it's been approved you click it you move it over here it's now posted well that's in violation of the law how can you expect the people to believe that there aren't problems with the diverse learners program with other things when you're too high two only two employees between them they make over a half a million dollars a year and this has been messed up for over a
037year this needs to be corrected and there needs to be some action taken immediately thank you thank you Mr bookovich good afternoon so tonight I'm going to talk about um back in June 9th of 2022 CBS 2 did a news story about uh school code and I'm specifically talking about to the doors in our buildings in our classrooms they do not lock from the inside even though Administration says our building doors locked from the inside of the classroom so they do not you physically have to take a key go to the outside of your classroom lock the door to lock the classroom door so if you we do have an active shooter in our buildings if that door is not locked they physically have to find their key to go on the outside of the
038door to lock their door to shut their door and that's in violation of the code school code all of our classrooms are supposed to lock from the inside and my son did his homework he used his good his phone for a good purpose today because he took pictures of the doors at Washington campus each one of them locked from the outside keyhole on the outside there's nothing on the in the store for example this boardroom if there's an actor shooting in this building right now these doors don't lock in violation that needs to be we talk about priorities in our district these are priorities we're seeing more and more active Shooters within our schools Across the Nation and this needs to be fixed immediately because that is an issue my second point is superintendent I
039received an email from you last Wednesday after the election I responded to your email and it is now Tuesday still haven't got a response from that email and I responded to your email and uh another thing with the attendance for the high school a trophy in that well I hope we can get the attendance right because since ever since my son has been a freshman sophomore junior the attendance has never been right he's been marked present when he's at home with coven three separate times he's been marked present so it's hard and I'd also like to see let's have Administration Trophy and a a thing so we know when our administrators and that are here let's have a teacher one so we know when our all of our staff and teachers and that are here
040let's hold everybody accountable not just the students the students can't learn if the teacher's netting here if we don't have the staff in our buildings they can't learn and I'm and I'm gonna say it out there I'm open from this election that it was a dirty election it wasn't played Fair I'm an open book you want to know something about me ask me four days before the election my court records were pulled up and yes I I didn't hide it I'm going through a divorce there's two order of protections on my record one from 20 years ago and one recently and both of them were dismissed but they decided to put that out there to make me look like an evil guy and there's a lot of people in this room that know the person
041I am and can speak for that thing but those other people didn't have nothing to say Thank you Mr Becky greensborg I'm Marie Bryant and I am a resource teacher okay and I come before you I'm gonna read um the statement that I have so today I come before you to speak about the important issue in regards to employment and the hiring process for positions which have hindered my faith in upward mobility in the school district I didn't come here to be in trouble or get in trouble or to even make trouble but in case I do I come to make some good trouble I am a bit disturbed about some of the experiences that I have personally had and it have affected me in regards to either acquiring a position or even holding a
042position I have been involved in not one two but three occasions at an interview that I recently had an experienced it felt like I felt and I know that it was biased uh two of the persons that were there there were three people in that interview two of the persons we don't even get along and we know each other personally and I thought that was a conflict of interest there was one person that was a neutral person within that interview also with the scoring there were like I said it was biased so when it comes to that scoring the weight of those two to that one neutral will have that scoring to be off of that position also um every uh when I attended College I said I wanted to graduate and I wanted to
043go back to my community I want to make a difference in my community since I have been in the district four different positions I have observed the behavior of people getting hired not for what they know but who they know I've seen individuals assist to get rid of those who they didn't like and keep those who they like not because of the person's lack of knowledge or experience or a position but because they don't know how to get along to get along so if you don't get along either we're going to keep you if you if you can't get along with us you got to go we want growth and change in our district one thing we must do to get to get along to get along we want a lot of we want to
044grow one thing we must do is place a halt on going on with the flow or moving along with the same status quo with the experiences that I have had I have been told to keep quiet about things I can no longer keep quiet it took a while for me to even get a position here in this District I had to know somebody which is very sad with my experience and that that bothered me thank you Miss Bryant next three names in order rayon Edwards Christine Lindsay and Y Gina Briscoe good evening at the last board meeting um we had to director of special education up in here talking told a lot of people he was going to call us back I have yet to heard from him talking about a kid that's 17 years
045old they have a hearing impairment that have had no help throughout this District been in this District his whole life and I still haven't heard from that as I'm looking at this board doc um I see we're getting ready to extend a contract for Deputy councils 199 thousand dollars 199 000 we pay firms to come in here to do work but we plan 199 thousand dollars the council that we already got I mean I I you know I I I I like to believe I ain't the smartest guy on Earth but damn y'all we ain't learned nothing you know I remember when we years ago we did an election and we talked about the millenniums how we need to put millenniums on the board we talked about the importance of having people that look like
046me on the board but every boy need not come through people like me is crying they're going through something and ain't nobody hearing them we replaced Dr Hillary with a Latino now no the black kids don't have no Department that same God that stood up here still harassing people in the community that supports Dr Hillary I've just now met this man For the First time seen them in my life first time and y'all seem to not be doing nothing Mr figuero still running HR you hired a firm to come up here and he told you that whole department is trash terrible so I want to ask you boy president what are we doing when are you gonna do something when are you going to do something because you're the leader of this here thing when
047votes is God you should advocate for those votes I'm asking you publicly when are you going to do something when are we going to stop playing politics when are we going to stop rubbing elbows we downgrade requirements for positions we downgrade those requirements for positions so that we can put certain people up in there and y'all act like we don't know what's going on if I know what's going on I know y'all know what's going on I've spoken to you a million times when I talked about staff being locked in rooms downstairs you did nothing zero I had proof I gave you proof we still did nothing and now we got two employees y'all have two two that's it and you can't even do nothing with them sad thank you Mr Edwards thank you good
048evening everyone I would like to express my excitement that the school board is going to collaborate with the Waukegan Stars team on how to best incorporate our platform into making this school district better but there isn't time I'd like to speak on the 214 Washington items ensure we understand how the listed contractors were vetted what were the bid specifications and why it appears we are going with con with a company that's two years old no Better Business Bureau profile that I can find over a local waukegan-based company with over 20 years of an experience and an A plus rating and I have community members that are experts in this field flagging me down at the gas station to talk to me about concerns on how this District does contracts but again not enough time also
049the face department has no employees left the prior coordinator left after her District paid trip to the port to Puerto Rico the manager left for another organization months ago the facilitator was unsupported handling more than his plate could possibly allow and was ultimately harassed and now he's gone too adding to the trend of black employees being forced out of this District directly or indirectly who's taking over the face responsibilities it was already too much for one person again no time I'm going to touch base on the same topic I spoke about the last time being a parent of a student that was grabbed pulled pushed pushed harder forced out of the room and verbally abused in first grade that is a lived experience the response from the associate superintendent of HR was shameful that sometimes
050teachers need to do these things implying that it is okay for a teacher to not even give verbal redirection before putting their hands on a student a first grader at that and forcing them out of the classroom saying you don't want to be in my class so go find somewhere else closing the door with no supervision three weeks later the same teacher shook another kid in that class causing another investigation the parents are constantly being told this won't happen again three times I've Been Told yet we blink and it happens again at what point does this become negligence by the administration and the district at what points does this become child abuse by the administration and the district I hope parents read that article on nbc7 about what's happening over at Eva Smith because that's
051downright horrible this HR department is going to cause more and more lawsuits during more and more funds from the budget having the taxpayers covers these costs that they didn't incur themselves what's going to be the last straw does someone have to die get maimed plenty of people are already traumatized get it together thank you Miss Lindsay why Gina Briscoe um before I actually get into what I want to talk about uh for those who don't know I actually sub in the district and um I must admit that I have met some good teachers in the district and I just want to take a moment to say that we do have some good teachers we have some that are not but we do have some good teachers in the district I'm amazed that when I talk
052to them there are some teachers the longevity is here in this district and I just want to recognize that uh and and put that out there some teachers are here and they're here for our kids and they they stay because of that even though they're not the morale's not that good but they're they're here so um over the last I think it was last week or a week ago I was actually subbing and a couple honors class and always take like the last 15 minutes just to kind of ask the students questions what what are concerns what what do they want to say or whatever so I and I always come up to the mic and I tell them that I'm going to to the board meeting I'm going to speak on their behalf these
053are words from them and if you notice I use these stone hall passes that's all I can find to write within in the classroom so they had said that um they have come into situations where there are no subs in the classroom teachers don't care the black student says that their racism with the white teachers they said that there's a lack of concern about their learning they said that as some of them I said okay if you were to rate on one to ten where were they where's the school district twos and threes these are honor students twos and threes there was there was one one person that gave them eight and I was in quite a few classes that day um they had said that um there are too many Subs in this District
054they said that the teachers need to change the method of teaching that the way that they're teaching them they feel like it's being dummy down for them that they're not being taught at a level that they should be being taught at in order to succeed in life and in order to go to a university and they said that they don't believe that this Administration understands that they realize that that they believe that this curriculum has been dumbed down there was a teacher in the hallway when I was in and I kept noticing every time between classes she was standing in the hallway so when my classes were over I want to talk I said why why do you come inside the hallway she says because there needs to be more adults standing in the hallways
055in the school and she felt like because of that it would help as far as a lot of things that happen in in the in the school this was at the Brookside campus last thing my last couple of minutes um I'm not sure who was going to get back with me about um providing some type of onboarding for substitute teachers and talking to substitute teachers everybody's concerned there's no onboarding process for the substitute teachers and there's a major concern out there thank you Miss Briscoe this concludes our public comment time we do appreciate all of those who came and spoke out uh superintendent took notes and I do expect that you follow up with all those individuals uh next up we have our consent agenda for academics there are no items I am going to
056ask that we vote on item 11 a separately but if there are no uh objections then I would like us to vote on items 11b and C uh do we have a motion to approve items 11b and 11c still moved second uh motion by Mr riddle second was Miss Wozniak any comments the questions on the motion uh roll call vote Please Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes item approval motion carries uh we have approval of the professional development for 2023 ndu nuco HVAC training for four maintenance staff members and see approval of asbestos abatement lower level Washington High School uh HVAC Pathways program now we're going to go back to 11a it's the approval facility rental waiver request for the celebration of life for the
057wreath the Monk it is the recommendation of the administration that the Board of Education affirmed the administration waiver a facility use fees and insurance for the celebration of life for Dorothea monk that took place on April 1st 2023 at the Jack bunny Middle School Mr McBride second by Miss uh Gonzalez um and I do apologize I know we wrote a resolution and so that was my confusion with getting those mixed up but uh again I do just want to say thank you that we um were able to do it uh and kind of call that out she served this district for decades uh with that there are no further questions roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Caroline Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes I improved motion carries now we
058have item 12a approval of bid for 214 Washington Street district offices and wraparound Center renovations it is a recommendation of the administration that the Board of Education authorizes superintendent to accept the lowest responsible and responsive bid based in alternatives for 214 Washington Street district offices and wraparound Center Renovations from Construction Incorporated located at 2 East 22nd Street 101 Lombard Illinois 60148 at a cost of 9 million three hundred ninety eight thousand dollars and an architect fee payable to Wold architect Engineers located at 220 North Smith Street Suite 310 Palatine Illinois 60067 at a cost of 704 850 dollars is that okay an advertisement advertisement Norse hold on I lost my placement advertisement cost of 342 dollars Information Technology allowance of nine hundred thousand Furniture allowance of four hundred thousand and a project contingency of 10
059percent of construction costs valued at nine million 300 900 300 939 800 for a total project budget not to exceed 12 million 992 dollars just a real life so I make a motion to approve motion about Mr riddle second second by Miss Wozniak any comments the questions on the motion um go ahead can we can we can Mr Mountain speak to um the grievance that was just shared about some of the companies why are we going with these bidders and have we partnered with them before please yes good evening members of the board superintendent staff and Community thank you for the question I've asked Mr Wen from World Architects to come up and talk about the review process to ensure that Construction Incorporated is the lowest responsible and responsive bidder according to the con contract
060documents good evening it's part of the bid process we had six bids we received construction and was the low bid we had on bid day so we then Embark upon a scope review process with them it is typical that we uh communicate with them we talk about the project scope to make sure that they have everything covered in their bid we talk about project schedule to make sure that they understand the critical dates the substantial completion dates that are laid out in the contract documents we also try to get from them and we did in this case understand who their critical subcontractors are so they're mechanical they're electrical the elevator Subs we've got all that information and we have worked with all of those subs before and we feel comfortable proceeding with them lastly we
061asked for references from them and so we have references from other public entities that they've worked with in the last few years we have a couple different school districts that they've worked with Plano cusd 88 Downers Grove st58 are a couple of them I spoke with facility directors at both of those school districts and in our conversations um they did not see any reason why they could not fulfill the required requirements of this contract they spoke very well and highly of Construction Inc um and so as part of the review process like I said we did get references from from them we checked those references out no information surface that pointed to them being disqualified or having an unresponsive bid so at this time we are objectively recommending that we proceed with awarding them a
062contract for the project and um Mr Moten this these payments are installments or they're just how do we how do we pay this money out as work is completed correct so in case they are unresponsive we you know we're not giving them the whole pot yeah so as work is completed what we ask for them is work that is completed today and Equipment that's been purchased we do what we call pay applications so we ask them to itemize the information we also have documentation I don't know if I heard Mr wind State this but we also want to ensure they're paying prevailing wage so as they're paying subcontractors storing equipment progress payments or progress invoices will be coming to the district to process payment we're not going to pay it all at once or quarterly
063or anything like that typically for a project of this size you might see a monthly billing that itemizes the items of where we are to date of the invoice okay thank you and uh just for my information um Mr Winn you did state that you uh have worked with constructiony previously or at least the fire Mass I have not personally worked with him no and that's why it was important to talk to the references and then I just wanted for clarity to Mr Deputy Moulton is legally we're required to take the lowest responsive I want to clarify that I have worked with their subcontractors before just not that company gotcha yes so we did review this with the legal team and I would ask if Mr vanderbrock is comfortable to speak to that but we
064did review that based on the contractual documents and the AAA documents that the contractors were responsive to in their bid um legally you are required to provide it to the lowest responsible and qualified bidder um that is presented thank you for those questions uh and then the other thing um we're going to ensure that they meet our minority participation standards yes that's always aspirational now obviously if the board take cash in on this this evening we're going to follow up with the vendor as well as our architect to ensure that's all complete and the requirements the aspirational goals the district has and has had in the past so to answer your question yes but we will definitely hit the ground running once action is taken yeah I know we use the term aspirational I know
065that you've made it rose with wdzc as well as the other minority contractor networks so I want to make sure that we we don't make it aspirational but given that this is supposed to be impact in the community and we talked about the benefits of the community I want to make sure that uh we don't wave or that we meet our our contract uh and our minority participation number percentage goal all right roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss kellyanne Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes I just like to make a comment Miss Le Baron uh I appreciate your work and uh ever since uh I watch you do what you do and your your your position uh I have great respect for you and I'm sure not just respect I I have you have great
066integrity but I'm concerned so keep doing what you're doing yes Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes item approved motion carries we are now at uh item 13A for personnel from 411 2023. it is the recommendation that the Board of Education except the administration's recommendation to approve the appointment's retirements and accept the resignations as found on schedules f99 l946 corrected g657 Mr riddle of motion to approve as read by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second my Miss Gonzalez any comments or questions on the motion um I I did have one I don't see Mr Figueroa so I don't know Deputy molten if you can speak to it uh but obviously there were certain concerns that were raised during public comments so I wanted to know if we'd be able to address those Mr picarella Mr
067Figueroa do you need me to re-ask the question yes sir there were uh an issue raised as far as concerns is the actual hiring process at this point are there any recommendations based on that feedback well the hiring price process take place at the schools or with the supervisors we do the onboarding process in HR so what that means is when we post position no matter what position we post and you're approving some tonight there is a supervisor a department that is involved in the hiring process when that candidate is selected then that candidate is referred to the human resources department we just do the onboarding as you know that will include verification of identity legality in the country documentation fingerprints etc etc so at this point now you thought I would proceeded some other
068school district they have a huge human resources department and they all and all the hiring is done in that place that's not the case in Waukegan we're decentralized completely decentralized teachers for example they're hired by the principals they postings are directed to the supervisor so I get that uh the conversation doing I guess public comment and I don't want to spend a ton of time but it's continued to come up and I get what uh you're explaining Mr Figueroa and your role as the Director of HR as you process uh the recommendations you don't lead the actual hiring um is that that is correct a hundred percent unless it's someone that I'm hiring for them so the the only concerning question I had is there was uh allegations that there was bias in the hiring
069committee and what I'm asking is that are you both comfortable with us proceeding at this time or would you want to take that back and review it missions that we have coming forward as far as administrative appointments I do not see any biases I do not sit on the recommendations and the recommendations as far as I don't see anything controversial here at all no it's not necessarily controversial I'm saying that it was it was it was raised at public comments so uh I wanted you to give I guess my concern as the board president is not with any of the appointments I believe that all of these individuals are competent and capable to do the job I think what we hear is that they're individuals who feel that the process and the hiring process is
070not necessarily clear or fair and that it is not based on I think the exact quote was uh what you know but who you know I don't know that to be true I know that it was raised at that Podium right and so that is what I'm ask him but if the rest of the board is prepared to vote we will be in a better position if anyone with social allegation bring the allegation on a timely basis so we can look into that excuse me I'm speaking and I'm speaking excuse me I do apologize so what I will I know I don't get it I know I don't want to break pulled across I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry I mean the assistant are being recommended um the individuals are being recommended the supervisor basically
071are being told to them tonight that they are being biased just because someone come and use the Second Amendment the First Amendment rights here to speak I don't think that we should stop the process now I will be in the district and the legal office The General Counsel can look into any allegation of that but I think that we require a minimum of due process at at least someone come and bring such concern in writing and file a complaint so my my recommendation would be that we move forward I do see that we do need our director of wraparound we have where um we're we're also appointing our coordinator to pre-k these open positions um one the Pre-K position has been open for quite some time and we haven't been able to find one and
072we do need to get moving on the director wraparound Services um I did make a note here um when Miss Bryant was speaking to set an appointment with her to have a discussion um to look into her concerns and I will be reaching out tomorrow I'm sorry I do apologize because we already have public comment um I I do apologize I need to hold the item over at least for two weeks go through so there is no more of what happened to me thank you Miss Bryant and Miss Brian I will reach out with you we will meet this week so I did make a mentor I wrote that down in my notes it will not be here it is a board decision so I know Miss Gonzalez was asking my recommendation is that we
073hold it for two weeks we haven't even started like this is not related to the wrap around saying I wanted I know I know okay but we we have head wait for the summer let's just clear all this up this is why we get in trouble with HR stuff I don't like this I just don't and I want who are on our but I it's about the process these are procedures it's our policies right so this Gonzalez can I have Miss um rice De Los Sanchez I do believe you led this interview process um am I correct can you please speak to the process regarding the um Pre-K manager I think that's the position that's in question good evening Board of Education board president superintendent colleagues and Community um yes we did we had um
074two rounds in which this position was spoken for we had I'm we had a panel of five I wasn't there the leader of our Early Education was there the system director Miss Crowell um so not to mention any names right but what we use is we use our form of 10 questions and all of our questions are on a rubric one being didn't answer the question specifically to four answered this the question specifically gave relevant answers and examples and so all of that is weighted I I personally don't know in listening to public comment who any candidate wouldn't get along with I I have no idea um who we choose our teachers we choose leaders that would be a part of our program um principles and our external Specialists that work really closely with the
075manager and so that would be specifically for our first round may I can I ask another question the candidate that is being recommended today were they the number one candidate in the interview process yes ma'am this is not on this topic but I'd like to acknowledge Mary Olson who's in our audience today for her 34 years of um service to the to our school district she's retiring this year in May thank you so there was that we do have a motion in the second on the table I don't know if any board member is withdrawing their motion which is what it would take in order to resubmit and exit that item be held over I do want to be clear as my issue is is not with any individual that's getting the position is with
076the the process I did hear what Miss Bryant did say which is that her issue is not necessarily with it's she's not saying that she wants to held over that is a board decision so does anybody withdraw their first or the second I think I was the second you were the second woman I just need one person over here I don't think you made a motion she just she just automatically said hold it over you didn't make no motion no I didn't make him what can I hold it over as a single like can can we wait two weeks and figure out the procedure because if something is put in writing and we didn't address it that's that's what I'm having a problem with here and if if the board feels comfortable holding it over
077the admin will hold it over it's the will of the board so I'll let you guys discuss and we'll take your lead on it yes can I ask a question just hold all the HR items today they're grouped together that's how I looked at it so so miss Gonzalez is is the request to hold over the one position the Pre-K position is that the one I'm not gonna hold the resignations in the return so we have a motion for the full um scheduled to be done so you would have you would have to have those motions withdrawn and then a new motion issued okay I withdraw my emotions and I withdraw my motion part all right do we have a motion a reference to the number that is on the schedule yes the current motion
078has been withdrawn okay we need a new motion that would exclude the one position but I don't know what it is I motion to approve all appointments and resignations except for a one A1 would it have a number because it doesn't really have a number okay I got a comp A1 item two all right I got to get a second first yeah second the second name under A1 yeah it doesn't have a manager of pre-K pre-kayment so we got a motion do we have a second second by Miss waziak Mr McBride you had a statement or a question Miss Gonzalez in the process we talking about the process the process you're part of the process not Angel Figueroa like he said once the process is complete it comes to him now my question is you
079only one person who else is involved in the process yeah well that's what we can come back yeah many many people are in the interview panel yes and when it's all said it done who else is part of the process we need to who else should we blame this on yeah I think I think because it's a Personnel issue I believe that we should go back into closed session Mr Big Brother I think those are relevant questions no no I'm being transparent because number one you didn't make this decision by yourself no personally no and so therefore uh we are telling other people that made the decision with you they didn't make a good decision no I'm not saying that that's not yes we are seeing that because I made a decision already so we
080going back now to review the decision that they making don't tell me we're not doing it that's why it's a recommendation Mr Mr Price I get what you're saying but we need to we need to discuss it in closed session discuss what what they made discuss the process that you and whatever Team interview these individuals man what are we discussing for we're not there we they bring the recommendation to us they and we we approve that we don't prove it so what we're going to go back and discuss well tell me what we're going to be discussing the issue of bias the issue about are you going to say that how are you going to discuss that yeah I'm serious how you gonna just I heard what you said I heard number one the main
081thing I heard you said somebody you didn't get along with somebody but that has nothing to do with the three people made that decision so now where are we going we're going to go back and we're going to go back and hold this over and discuss uh two weeks and two weeks two weeks yeah but still what are we discussing I think she just made us we had an allegation if we acted there's nothing that we can do at that point right like and then there was a conversation that should have been had by both sides those that got it that that didn't um I don't have all the details but miss Bryant came here out of frustration so every time our staff go and do an interview and interview somebody we're gonna come back
082and hold something over but no yeah I don't know what we're looking at be honest with you no more to the comments that you made that's the only thing I knew that we're looking at I don't see nothing else we're looking at yeah you had you you and two other people made the decision well the team makes the decision and there's yeah there's so I'm not discussing whatever needs to be discussed about where the team didn't do this right or the team should have looked at that that's that's where I'm at we're not saying anybody was done right or wrong what we're saying is that based on the timeline and the approval someone came to the microphone and said they felt like they were and you held it over you she held it over because
083of that I've been holding it over yes you did order those that's what she said because of the comments she made okay can I think we've in another thing let me finish let me finish we bought Mrs Lebanon over there because the comment somebody else made that's the game you want to play keep playing it but number one the bottom line to it we hired Mr Levin to do a job and I'm not going to come and come by and undermine him everything that he does I'm not going to do that yeah I don't believe questions are undermined and especially when you have capable competent staff that can speak to it I thought what Mr figueroy said was very appropriate he's just processing um the application I think we just heard from Miss rice de
084la Sanchez that she didn't actually sell on the committee so there's nobody in this room to your point that was on that committee that can address it I said on the second round on the final round president a lot of Administrators come to that Podium sometime and sometimes we act like they're incompetent yeah I I I don't want that to be my message I apologize if that's how it's coming off that's not the issue in question right yeah and I want to be clear because I'm like Miss Brian I don't believe that the person who's getting the role shouldn't have it the point is let's take two weeks get everybody's questions I'm not being bad I know you very well and so that's all it's because I think the individual is going into the role
085to the superintendent's Point we've been waiting to fill this position I think that was our urgency as we hear from the community to get these positions filled we do have absences so I always will own that this is being held over to the superintendent's point at the boards there's not Administration that's saying that they want to hold it over this is us making the decision so with that I like a roll call in a second yeah Mr riddle you said yes or yes yes Miss Callan Wozniak yes Mr McBride no Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes item approved motion carries we are now at item 13B HR recruitment travel authorization it's a recommendation hold on yeah we approved everything except for one position yes okay sure okay now let's do this second a got it
086at this time I'd like to introduce Miss Bridget Dotson who previously served as the coordinator of social work she will now serve as the Director of wraparound services with the starting salary of 125 000 please meet our new director of wraparound search wraparound Center services thank you all right um congratulations uh and again I want to be extremely clear is I don't believe that the board is going to change what the recommendation is for the committee I believe that the individual that is getting that role but we do want to make sure we go and we review the process and we respond um we have item 13B HR recruitment travel authorization it is a recommendation that the Board of Education authorized the travel human research Department staff for the purpose of recruiting teachers for bilingual
087diverse Learners Math Science and other hard to feel vacancies in a variety of job markets travel may include but not limited select selected Regional job fairs Regional colleges and universities historically black colleges and universities hbcus as well as colleges universities and recruitment events in Mexico Puerto Rico Spain and the Philippines Administration is asking for authorization up to thirty five thousand dollars motion to approve the motion as read by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second second by Ms Wozniak any comments questions on the motion roll call vote Please Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan wazier yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes all right motion approved item carries we are now at item 13 you see Deputy general counsel contract extension amendment number three it is the recommendation that the Board of Education
088to proved the Third Amendment to the contract of Deputy general counsel Joseph Clary as presented presented extending the contract reaction retroactively from January 23 2023 to June 30th 2024. motion to approve the recommendations is read by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second second by Miss Gonzalez any comments or questions um well I guess I will go ahead do we want to explain the amount because it's for two years a year and a half yeah a year and a half so it's part of it is prorated but also um again we talk about bringing in individuals but I also say let's look at totality at the legal department expenses and costs and so um there there has been cost savings based on some of the different decisions that we've made we've been able to look
089uh more extensively at contracts uh there have been times where we've been able to make sure that the district is better protected I will say that uh this individual has acted as a Title IX coordinator was also one of the people who had the initiative which got us to uh state law which said that for what was it three years uh miss vanderbrook that we would hold whatever our attendance was uh whole funding at whatever our attendance levels were the day that schools closed and um in March of 2020 so for those efforts connections Deep Roots his commitment to Waukegan I do believe that it's warranted this is about just just maintaining so as an extension um by a year which runs into the same as your contract if I'm not mistaken uh Miss vanderprock
090to keep those two in line I just want to clarify there's been no change to the economic package the dollar figure there is what his current base salary is yeah all right any other comments questions roll call Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes I improved motion carries uh we are now at item 14 a approval of renew America School Grant opportunity submission it is a recommendation at the Board of Education approve the application submission for renew America's School Grant and authorized superintendent to sign any and all documents associated with the grant submission Mr will make a motion to approve the uh the recommended action as read by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second by Miss Gonzalez any comments the questions on the motion uh
091I'll say is I'm excited um funding opportunities right for energy improvements we want to be as green as possible to reduce our impact and so I'm excited to see us going after these dollars if there are no further uh conversation roll call vote Please Mr riddle yes Miss Miss Caroline Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes item approved motion carries we are now at our financial reports so I know 16a want to open the hearing of the approval of the resolution to reserve funds for project commitments and transfer of funds from the education fund operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund to open it yeah we need the recommended action it is a recommendation that the Board of Education opened the public clearing hearing on a request to approve
092the resolution directing the school district Treasurer to reserve funds from the education and or operation and maintenance funds for future transfer to the capital projects funds in the amount not to exceed 35 million dollars motion um Miss Gonzalez were you motioning I motion to open the meeting oh the hearing motion by Miss Gonzalez second second by Miss Wozniak any comments of questions on the motion all right it's opportunity I guess at this time it is hearing is now open this poke is walking to the podium board president board members superintendent community members colleagues um the presentation is as presented we've spoken about this before doing the operations Services meeting where we propose to reserve the 35 million dollars for capital projects that were identified during the capital development committee meeting the list of those are
093denoted in the board agenda item we have security uh entrances we have the parking lot replacement fire alarms of course we have 214 Genesis street we have the roof repair of which we had a lengthy conversation at a previous meeting and then the its air-conditioned closet uh these monies would be reserved for Capital Improvement how be it if other priorities happen to arise then the board is granting authorization for the superintendent and uh the treasurer to remove the money from reserve and to reallocate for other things that is deemed important are there any questions saying this is a public hearing so uh at this time are there any questions from the community go ahead Mrs Becky I just have one question for clarity we did not receive a grant for the roof replacement at Brookside
094campus correct that is correct all right I just wanted to make sure because at a forum we did Mr riddle did state that we received a grant to cover 90 of that roof at the building and I just wanted to clarify that at a college to Career he stated that and that was a shock to me because I didn't hear no about no Grant so I just wanted to make that clarification I think what he's referring to is we came to the board and said that we would increase the capital Improvement in the sr3 grant so there is a possibility that we may move some of those costs and to Essa 3 but we did not get a grant that specifically for it all right that's why I just wanted to clarify because he did
095state that we did get a grant so I just wanted to clarify it yeah yeah Sanders there are no further questions than I would go to item 16b do we have a motion to close the hearing on approval of the resolution to reserve funds for project commitments and transfer funds from the education fund operations maintenance fund to the capital projects fund so I moved we got to read second hearing a motion to close yeah it's stated as the reaction so we got a motion for Miss Wozniak second from Miss Gonzalez um all in favor signify I I any opposed Nate uh hearing is now close now we have item 16c request to approve the resolution the reserve funds for the projected commitments and transfer of funds from the education fund and operations and maintenance fund
096to the capital projects one no the recommended action so that recommended action yep okay it is recommended that the Board of Education approved the resolution to reserve funds for project commitments and transfer funds as outlined in the attached resolution and the amount Nots to be greater than 35 million as required by Statute of public hearing was conducted prior to the adoption of this resolution do you have a motion so moved motion by Ms Wozniak second second by Miss uh Gonzalez any comments or questions on emotion um just for clarification vestibu is our entrances yes okay so uh two points uh that I want to raise is I am excited to see a lot of these projects done um this is more than just 214 Washington this includes uh security injury vestibules we've heard about that
097this is parking lot Replacements North High Park Benny Abbott cook and Glenwood so I want to shout that out because I know I hear from teachers and parents related to the state but many of our parking lots and these were the worst I got a shout out our finance team it's because uh when Brandon goes and through the strategic budget process right all these items are placed me and Mr riddle on that committee along with parents is we would start going through what we needed and by the time we got down parking lots were always important but it was more important to get rid of the asbestos or it was more important to replace a roof or what's more important to do other things and so through that conversation Miss Polk we were able to
098find some additional not fine but allocate some additional funds and earmark those specifically towards the parking lot and so I'm excited to see these projects because it is a safety issue and in that entire thing it talked about 100 and I think 16 million dollars that we need in estimated repairs but this does put a big dent into that and I want to keep us chomping away at that so I'm excited for this I do want to acknowledge uh again comments that were raised during public comment and want to get that addressed I also I want to revisit a situation is it also is training is if we're paying to have these secure entrances we want to make sure that the entrances are indeed secure so to have two sets of doors and to leave
099another set of door propped open defeats the purpose of what we are spending to do on one school for example four hundred thousand dollars to do right so as the board makes this investment for greater security I also want to make sure that we provide the training to make sure that it is used to actually keep our students safe so we got a motion in a second seeing as there are no further questions roll call vote Mr riddle Bosnia yes yes right Gonzalez yes in Ewing yes I don't approve motion carries we are at item 16d ratification the first processing of April 2023 board bills manual check request payments on National Bank insurance payments for the period of March 22nd 2023 through April 4th 2023. it is a recommendation of the administration that the Board
100of Education ratified the first processing of board bills for April 2023rd and manual check request payments and Old National Bank insurance payments for the period of March 22nd 2020 through 23 through March 4 2023 the accounts payable board March 2023 through April 4 2023 payments Total 1 million 838 871 the mail check request payments for the period of March 22nd 2023 through April 4 2023 total 2 million 217 116.38 though National Bank insurance payments for the period of March 22nd 2023 through April 4th 2023 total 2 million 22 611.90 Mr riddle of motion to approve second motion by Mr riddle second by Miss Gonzalez any comments questions on the motion roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Callan Wozniak yes Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes item approved motion carries uh do we
101have any uh committee reports at this time I do have one but we'll be updating uh on our Zero Tolerance committee um at a future date Miss Hannah is not here to provide a delegates report so we're at 17c which is a superintendent's report at the fact that I like to come to the podium well we will be presenting on our district PE waiver hello good evening everyone superintendent board president members of the board and Community Ms Wozniak you correct Miss Olson Mary Olson's with me this evening and she is retiring in how many days I have my ducks in a row it's 30. okay um congratulations yep um so this evening we are providing the information uh providing the board and Community with information on a public hearing um that will be coming up
102at the end of the month where we will be seeking renewal of a previously approved waiver uh the PE waiver requests so tonight's pre-presentation we're going to give you a quick background of kind of where the district has been as it relates to this waiver rationale for our requests as well as kind of our plan um our alternative plan uh for the PE waiver requests so as you'll see on this slide it kind of gives you just a history of where we've been for the last nine years I want us to start by saying it's not uncommon for districts with elementary schools to request this waiver there are multiple districts um that do it do this so this is not just the Waukegan request you'll see here our history dating back to 2014 2015. where
103we requested and is to be approved a two-year PE waiver we've made the same requests again in 2016-2017 as we approved that two-year waiver as well and then most recently there's a five-year waiver that was a PE way where that was requested and improved by ISB for the 2018-2019 through the current year so our ass is going to be requesting another five-year waiver from isby which would take us to from 23 24 through school year 27 28. next slide so our rationale for the waiver there's a wide range of reasons and part of the reason Mary is here is because she she Witnesses it firsthand in the schools all the time so she can speak to some of the details if you have some additional questions about that but uh long short of it is
104we we want to maximize instructional time in our core subject areas especially in the areas of English and math um so offering PE daily is going to eat into some of that core instructional time when we look at our buildings and some of their capacity you'll see a list here of the following elementary schools that currently use their gym and their cafeteria they serve the same purpose right so I'm not going to read through the schools there but essentially trying to feed students and provide jim on a daily basis would be a huge obstacle for a lot of our elementary schools given the limitations that they have with just uh infrastructure in general offering PE daily to all students which substantially also increase the number of FTE that we would have to hire in our
105elementary schools offering PE daily would require the district to also lengthen the school day which is currently prohibited by Provisions within our teachers union contract um next slide in terms of our plan so we are going to request districts are allowed to request waivers that limit physical education through the waiver process just to be clear PE will still be offered to students it'll be offered to students weekly on a four day rotation in which they would have PE for 46 minutes in addition to that PE class that they would have weekly elementary students still receive 30 minutes of recess per day for a total of 150 minutes so elementary students have acts in addition elementary students have access to after school clubs activities and sports that also contribute to physical activity so there's additional opportunities
106there for students to be active and be physical outside of the regular school day when we look at the current structure that we have students receive about 196 minutes or three hours and 16 minutes of physical activity per week and that's if they're not involved in collector Sports any activities they do on weekends home after school Etc on their own time as well so that is our alternative plan that's been the plan that's been in place really since the approval of the last waiver as well so the next steps for us the public hearing is scheduled for April 25th it'll take place prior to the the regular schedule board meeting on that evening we will be publishing public notice of the hearing on the district website 14 days prior to hearing so that would be
107as early as tonight or first thing tomorrow morning we will be publishing public notice hearing for a waiver in local newspapers record for at least seven days prior to the hearing Mr Alex jackass will be handling that we'll be sending notice of the hearing to the district's marketing units at least seven days prior to the hearing we'll be sending notice to the district's legislators at least seven days prior to the hearing and then after the hearing takes place on the 25th we will be submitting a renewal waiver application to SB for approval so that's our timeline to get this PE waiver approved for the following school year and Dr now are you looking for a head knot from the board at this time um we're actually just looking giving them information that the public hearing
108is going to be forthcoming and that it'll be taking place at a future board meeting we will get all the as I stated the next steps we'll get all the information out to the public uh to the the media uh in a timely fashion per the guidelines and then we will at the conclusion of the public hearing will submit the application to SB for the waiver request no thank you I mean uh this is routine I think we've talked about some of the restraints uh due to size and the fact that we I know some school districts don't offer PE every day and that was one of the decisions that District 60 made before the Law changes that we've been doing PE every day uh we do have five days of gym at the middle
109and high school levels and so this is just affecting our elementary school buildings is due to Staffing and size and we're going out for what is the maximum of five-year approval is that correct thank you Dr now yep can I say something go ahead Miss uh Gonzalez um I think this is just one of the and maybe because this is the first time that I'm seeing it and and you know that's on me a little bit but this is inequity as well because we would want more space we would want more teachers at even at the elementary levels and our kids they can't compete at the level other kids in other districts can compete when they get to middle and high school because we're not even giving them the chance to to practice every day
110and that's you know a stronger point to reach out to those partners that do want to help these kids whether it's boxing whether it's soccer whether it's basketball and I know a lot of our schools do do that but you know this is just the reality but you know if if we could get more people on the ground you know in those Partnerships so that the students can do it outside of of school time that would be the best because they need their academics first but you know we would want them to be athletes as well sure and most of our elementary schools do have some type of after school programming that is either Grant funded or sports sports as well that kids can participate in so it's not just about sports it's about just
111the physical activity physical education in general right just getting kids more active and everything so yeah thank you awesome all right uh information items have been there we now have our own business um to the policy 6025 reporting suspected criminal conduct and police interview second reading it is recommended that the Board of Education approved the amendments to board policy 6025 reporting suspected criminal conduct and police interviews as set forth in the second reading a motion to approve the recommendation second motion by Miss Gonzalez second by uh Mr riddle uh any comments or questions um I just want to say this policy was a long time coming we started on this policy uh uh last year right uh and through conversations and committees and groups uh we we have something here but similar to what caused
112us to click this policy the policy doesn't matter if we don't follow it so we got a motion in a second any other comments questions all in favor signify what I I any opposed nay the policy is approved okay we got item 28a which is professional service agreement uh with Kayla wolf amendment number one it is recommended the Board of Education approved the First Amendment to the Professional Service Amendment with Kayla wolf as presented by The General Counsel so moved second um we got our first Bob Mr riddle second was Miss Wozniak any comments for questions on the motion um that was the opposite I've reversed it so yeah first riddle second yeah any comments or questions on the motion um I am going to vote against this just because I'm not not you know
113I I have personally volunteered to help out with the minutes I you know I know that people need more support some people are stronger typers than others but at the end of the day like your scope of work is your scope of work and if one person can do it in a professional setting you don't need two or three people helping you do the job that's just my opinion and I'm an executive assistant thank you for that Miss uh Gonzalez and I do also thank you is because that was one of the recommendations um that we brought forward was for assistance uh the Administration has assured me uh in the board that they have a plan for completing it part of them completing the minutes would require uh what we're doing here this evening and
114so um I will be supporting it is because I I did state that we would have the minutes done and I do expect that to be what we do uh prior to the new board being seated so um there are no other further questions or comments roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Kellan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez no president Ewing yes item approved motion carries uh we are now at uh the proclamation ban books so what I've asked Board of Education um I actually do there's no motion it's just a discussion item um so what I did ask was Mr him I also has a presentation um prepared uh I wanted us to be able to look at what it is that he's proposing and then to provide direction to uh Administration
115if we see fit this was brought forward by Mr Mr HOSA what I will say very briefly is that while there are no plans in District 60 to ban books is we do see this movement happening throughout the nation and just like we you know saw at the previous Tuesday and as we know life goes on so this board will not be here um forever and so putting a proclamation or our stance or beliefs could be warranted to making sure there's put in policy um and so I want to turn it over to Mr hinojosa who will walk us through a brief presentation uh yeah so as I said previously in my student board presentation that obviously this is something that I gave time for and I feel very passionate about specifically about the book
116Banning movement trying to ban books for very unlegitimate reasons in the eyes of the people that do this so I want to start this presentation obviously with a video if we go on to the next slide and the next slide that's just the table context and then the next slide there we go okay so this is a video this is a 15 minute video I'm not showing all 15 because this is like an interview type of video I'm not showing all 15. I'm showing the first five ish minutes before the actual interview so if we could start that video YouTube premium subscription needed two weeks on this show I reported that we had reached the book Banning stage of right-wing American authoritarianism one of my producers has suggested that we make a rhetorical point back
117then about book burning the stuff of fashionism and Fahrenheit 451 but I laughed let's not be hyperbolic I said nobody's talking about throwing books on a fire well tonight it is my duty to inform you that we have reached the book burning stage of right-wing American authoritarianism as well I think those books I don't want to even see them like I think they should be thrown in a fire people just cooperate with me I'm sure I've got other colleagues here I'm sure we've got hundreds of people out there that would like to see those books before we burn them but uh uh uh just so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating uh this bad stuff you just had two members of the school board of Spotsylvania County in Virginia at their
118meeting on Monday clamoring to use library books as kindling in that meeting the school board voted six to nothing to audit every book in every school library collection for quote sexually explicit content so that they may be banned all of this was spurred by two parents whose high schooler was given a digital library app that app gave them access to a lot of books including one that the student's mother described as lgbtqia fiction to have something like this that could really traumatize a kid if they just check out a book because it looks cool and then they open it up and start reading it and to some of the things that they'll they'll come across is just shocking yes that's what's shocking and not the school board members seeking to burn that book that digital
119online book why one board member explained it like this I guess we live in a world now that our Public Schools would rather have kids read about gay pornography than Christ right [Music] let's talk about the world we live in on Monday the same day those Virginia school board members were rhetorically reaching for the gasoline and matches the Human Rights group pen America released a new report citing 54 bills introduced Nationwide this year to limit what teachers can teach and students can read 54 bills targeting discussions of race racism gender and of course American history Pan America says those bills 11 of which have already become law are educational gag orders and even that doesn't capture the insane Zeal that the American right now seems to have for Banning books and viewpoints that don't reinforce
120their own biases in Tennessee one School Board member wants to ban a national book award-winning novel about a kid who escapes foster care and a bestseller about a black student in an elite mostly white Prep School in Kansas a school board has banned 29 books by writers such as Margaret Atwood Tony Morrison Alison bechdel and Sherman alexie all books that explore race gender and sexual identity and in Texas the first black principle of a mostly white high school was just forced to resign this week after he was accused of pushing critical race theory he didn't but the Lone Star States ban on CRT goes further than most it restricts how teachers can discuss current events bars them from teaching that slavery was anything other than a deviation from American principles and Concepts that cause discomfort
121guilt anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of the individual's race or sex how stupid does this get just listen to this discussion between a Texas school official and some confused teachers make sure that if if you have a book on the Holocaust that you have one that has a closing that has everything how do you both sides the Holocaust how indeed we are so far over the rainbow here American parents are being encouraged to see Educators writers journalists as the enemy to demonize the people who do the work every day to try and Enlighten and inform the participants in our grand Democratic experiment and don't take it from me take it from a leading conservative thinker who's running for a senate seat in Ohio and there was a wisdom in what
122Richard Nixon said approximately 40 50 years ago he said and I quote the professors are the enemy in the week since that speech bomb threats were called into Ohio University Miami University Cleveland State University Yale Cornell Brown Colombia and the University of Chicago the FBI continues to investigate look at where we are in America right now Republicans are making it harder to vote trying to overturn elections glorifying violence against protesters threatening civil servants scientists doctors and teachers for doing their jobs and now we have the Banning of books and even a threat to burn some of them this isn't supposed to be Hungary where right-wing demagogue Victor orvan took control of the universities to install political cronies and crack down on dissenting knowledge this is America where we're supposed to give a damn about I
123don't know freedom of speech and thought an open Society [Applause] GoDaddy is a partner that always puts you first start today at godaddy.com but hey Welcome to our growing authoritarian nightmare joining me now to discuss all of this challenges director of free expression and education for pen America and Okay so as y'all could see that was a bit disturbing in more ways than one in my opinion and to contradict that Senator that was elected professors are not the enemy they are the people that teach our students they are the people that bring light to these students that work day and night day and night trying to get an education and those people that work day and night to give them that education and I feel that there are little school boards that are asking to
124burn books burn books can you imagine something like that this is not Fahrenheit 451 where we're Banning burning books with actual flame to flamethrowers this isn't some dystopian nightmare but we are seeing slowly but surely that we're masking it in the sense that we want to protect our kids because of sexually explicit content so you're telling me that the handmaid's tale Fahrenheit 451 and a story about two gay teenagers trying to find themselves in the world as sexual explicit content that sounds very stupid in my opinion and has no place in a school board or a discussion for that matter for the Merit itself and I feel that any school board should be ought to be ashamed of themselves to bring something like that not obviously our school board here today has not brought that
125up and I would imagine ever in the future that would ever come up as a discussion topic and I give thanks to the Board of Education today bringing up this discussion as something that needs to be addressed so obviously this is some of the data from the organization to discussed called pen America where I got the video from so thanks to them and bringing up the motion itself obviously this data says a lot first off the types of books being banned the type of material itself is 75 fiction non-fiction being 24 and poetry being one percent chapter books adult books middle grade and picture books give around the 51 52 percent and then young adult is 49. next slide please now these are school districts by state being banned as you can see Texas and
126Florida being the most amount at over 2 000 bands of books in their school districts combined give or take a few I can't do math in my head like that that quickly but as you can see that is a lot of books being banned for who knows what reason other than their sexually explicit yeah okay and in our home state of Illinois one to ten books are being banned in our own state which is even zero should be the number not one or ten and that's a lot just saying um next slide please now the subject matter which is what really fuels me a little bit infuriates me is that over 81 percent of books are about lgbtq plus themes protagonists and characters of color so you're telling me that the hate you give is
127corrosing children is my question how that somehow means you should ban A Book Like That now that's just my opinion right but to some of these Educators and board members from other states they say burn them we could also see that 22 percent is sexual contact I imagine that is in the regards of like obviously Health classes and like sexual education in that sense obviously the rate the rest are 21 10 9 and 4 all being between race and racism rights and activism biographies autobiographies and religious minorities next slide please now the policy themselves that I look at specifically when I was looking at this next slide please is policy 5233 which is Library material selection and policy 5201 which is the curriculum and I chose you to policies themselves because obviously 5233 goes into
128the heart of what library books are getting selected obviously this is the main governing policy itself obviously if I'm wrong on that someone correct me right but from my own research that's the main policy that chooses books and what happens if they were supposed to be challenged and I feel and some other board members uh board member Gonzalez who I talked with and collaborated with this specifically is that we believe that this type of book Banning shouldn't occur in the first place this shouldn't be a topic of discussion at the minimum at least in my opinion about books that they consider sexually explicit and 5201 calls back to the video itself that talked about States themselves Banning teachers and students and Educators from learning specific things because they also fitted within that framework of sexual
129explicit exploitation right and I feel that with obviously board member Gonzalez and me feel that teachers themselves should be choosing books that not be taken out of their curriculum just because of X Y and Z reasons but rather be put into the curriculum because they have a majority minority District of students there should be books in their curriculums social studies like comp and any type of literature critical thinking ideas should fit with that idea of equity equality and justice next slide please now the proclamation of self I don't know if we're reading that or not but obviously the proclamation next slide please the main purpose is to reinforce the commitment to the anti-book Banning itself so this District obviously has that idea that we are not going to align ourselves to that idea and rather
130choose books that encourage students to find who they are to think critically and go outside that box and obviously set up the basis to review policy but obviously those are steps after the fact next slide please now next steps in cells obviously would be I guess the discussion itself the proclamation if we were to read it and whatever happens with that specifically tonight and after that fact talking about the next steps when it comes to policy and any type of discussion that needs to be brought up so forth and that is it and we could start discussion if you should choose right now the Proclamation was included as an attached item uh part of why we brought it forwards is we wanted to give direction and make sure it was coming forward from the board
131so one of those uh we had a couple options we can review um the two specific policies as recommended and bring those back through policy action we could ask that the equity is it the advisory committee Kathy we can access the equity advisory committee um prioritize those policies as part of their uh policy review we can vote on the proclamation um as a standalone without addressing the policies and placing that in our student handbook for example similar to the safe schools oh the sanctuary School movement is yes whatever it was called safe passage yes um with Dad I guess those are the the three so Board of Education would you like just a standalone Proclamation policy would you want to look at the the two policies policies individually as a board or would you like
132to make those uh send those policies for a uh prioritizing in our current review yeah Equity review all of the above I wouldn't do I would be above I would I would focus on one of those at least as a next step if I can to just um clarify the look at the policies now we have stand or move it through the equity review process the equity review process contemplated after the original policies that were a pilot were taken through on an individual basis we would start to chunk like policies so multiple policies that impact each other would get an equity review at one time pulling these two policies out of that chunking process would be one way to address this either as a specific Standalone Equity policy or we could address it within the
133policy now without the equity review and then bring the policy back during the equity review chunking process or you could act on the proclamation now and then allow the policies to come up within the equity review process they have scheduled so for me without the proclamation um I would encourage every board member to read it before they vote on it but I believe that as a position statement if this is where the the board of education is in Waukegan that would be my recommendation but I I wanted to hear from the entire board and it would just be the vote for the policy that would go in and then um as the I'm not the policy the proclamation and then as the policy went forward we would um review it through the current policy process
134and they would have this resolution as a guide I I didn't I wasn't clear on what your your recommendation is board president is it is it too too I've read both the policy and the um Proclamation agree with both of those I I thought our policy looked pretty good but it would be some areas that might need to be looked at through an equity lens and so that's my recommendation as we vote on the proclamation now and let that process with the specific policy uh move as it currently is instead of pulling those out that we vote on the proclamation is presented okay well it's not up for first reading but now that we have that direction it's the first reading no we wanted to have a discussion oh so that now we will bring
135It Forward um I'd support sure if to bring it for first reading so that we could vote on it in the future well they have to come twice twice healthy or can we it doesn't yeah it's a resolution it's written as a resolution yes it's written as a resolution so I think we'll change it from proclamation to resolution and we'll bring it uh for our board action if there are no further word of language changes recommendations that come to me right I was wondering if maybe the um it would be wise to have our student board member take this to the students first it's a it's a very nice Proclamation or what what was the term resolution resolution and and let some discussion take place among our student body first um I'm just wondering you
136know the educational process there um to really hear from the students as we because I think this could this could have generate some um thought uh and general you know consensus from our student body I'd like to hear from them and maybe they would then make a recommendation to the board if if um they voted out I'm just board a president or student board member I don't wonder what you think of that um I have talked with students specifically about this because obviously I brought them up to them a few of my friends a few of strangers that I just said what do you think right before I brought this up because obviously if I don't have support of students I'm not bringing something up right and most of them when I said book bending
137is like what you're Banning a book and they're like why why are we doing that and I'm like we're not actually Banning we're just reaffirming that we're not going to do them they're like yeah that sounds like a really good idea we should have something like that we may not be through a resolution may that be through Proclamation may that be through policy whichever or all three right but they said specifically from the people I've talked to and I imagine if we were to bring out some sort of survey or something like that that would I would back up that specifically with at least a plurality or majority of students saying that this is something that we should vote on something that should be done in the interests of students and educate leaders I mean
138we've we've heard it in some of you know some of our school visits where you know even our staff are like I I don't feel like some of our materials really connect with the students or I'm I'm being given this can I can I switch some stuff out and our I mean our curriculum folks um Dr Cesario and his team have been working very diligently to make things more diverse but at the end of the day I think teachers teach what they know and um you know we're not saying that any of our teachers are necessarily hostile I think you know our our community is very welcoming and trying to understand like different identities um but we as a board supporting a proclamation like this just real like reinsure them that like we are hearing
139what they're saying our books have to relate to our students um and not everyone has the same experience but that we wouldn't shy away from it if ever you know we we want to put that on the table for them to have to like to read as an option right so I guess my concern is as our current policy when I read it it we're not about to ban books I mean the policy looks pretty good the way it was stating and I'm just I'm I know this is a hot button subject not in our community so much as it is in places like Texas and Florida but I I want to stay away from creating more controversy I guess among among our population in our community I don't know I did I just I
140think we as a board certainly support this Proclamation I I don't think any of us on the board would would say we don't but I'm just wondering what is you know you're saying that we need to come forward with it um and maybe look at our party that's my opinion yes yeah that's true I'm I'm looking at if I could respond to that real quick I guess I'd like to talk about what's the benefits that we see of of signing on for a proclamation like this when we signed on with the sanctuary policy it was to assure our students that they were safe in school and so would we say that the same thing here is happening we're assuring our students that we support um diverse library and that we just support we're certainly not
141about Manning books and we're not about we're I guess for that reason I guess if that's I'd like to hear the discussion I guess I'm on the board yeah I want you to and uh hop in Mr Hill so I'm gonna ask you to uh be specific and succinct and then for a time check board it is not 15. um so I do know we got very brief things that we needed to wrap up in closed session so I would not want to be here past 10 I actually want to be out of here by 9 30. so keep that in mind okay uh yes I will keep that in mind um to vice president Riddle's point I get what you're saying that specifically that it is a controversy and I get that specifically and
142we may not want to more or less bring something like that if it's not asked for specifically right but I feel that to rebuttal that just because it's not technically a controversy right now who's to say that in one or two years depending on the situation atmosphere that is something that is going to be brought up and then we regret ourselves later or later on be like why didn't we do that I feel that specifically just because something is controversial does not mean something that should be brought up controversy Sparks up debate if it's contained moving the parameters of respect and critical thinking and I feel here that the if the board chooses to approve something like this that we are here specifically saying this is not going to happen we respect our students and
143that we will not be making them fight for the right to read That's I feel like a basic level of responsibility for any type of Board of Education in my opinion and if we do choose to do this we be saving ourselves probably more controversy down the road when it does become a hot button issue when a parent or a student or some sort of organization comes up to that Podium right there and says this book is a sexually corrosive material when it's legitimately not and we have nothing really to back it up or no promises other than a big thing done maybe two years beforehand so you see how in my mind that's what's saying myself specifically not obviously if we want to discuss that really that's under which sorry but that's what I
144guess a rebuttal to what you said a little bit in my opinion so um what I will say is that what we've seen across the nation uh mentioned is I had a teacher who we read the autobiography of Malcolm X right uh their experts excerpts in there which deal with some really heavy issues I read uh chinway achieved Things Fall Apart I did that as a freshman it ends with individual committing um self-harm right and so these are Topics in which students are dealing with and figuring out how to wrestle and it's important that they be guided through it because what I the other thing that I don't want to have is going to be consuming this content and having nobody to bounce ideas off of right is our students have access to everything just
145because we don't allow it in school doesn't mean that they don't and I go back to same thing we did with the the the uh safe passage I believe that's what the we caught it but with safe passage is it wasn't to reaffirm any new direction of Waukegan Public Schools it was to speak to a specific part of our community to say you're seeing you're validated and we've heard your concerns and because this is coming forward from our students to me it's a non-issue because we support it and so coming out and saying I support you I see you I value you I validate what you think I validate how you feel and I want to make sure that if this brings you any modicum of comfort and security that we do it I do
146understand what Mr riddle is saying is sometimes just like the school renaming right we didn't think that was going to be a huge deal and I got interviewed on CNN right so unintended consequences right to some of the things that we do but I would agree with Mr hinojosa is it's always a good time to do the right thing for the right reasons right so right I do support this resolution I do think that it uh it pushes the envelope past what some people may be comfortable with but um I do think it would be important to do Mr McBride I'll give you final comment you know uh you said you uh going to allow every board member to kind of operate on off their own mowers and values in terms of what we're talking
147about and uh I remember one time we did have religion in school they took that book out but today I feel like they need that book and ain't nobody gonna talk about that but uh for the most part that's my book and whatever that book say that's what I'm gonna follow the rest of my life that book right now still stand the test of time when we get done talking about books that's my comment I would agree I think when we take religion out of schools it is that we do not lead uh students in prayer right we should not force our religious preferences onto students if I have Muslim Students which pray to Mecca I believe that they should be provided the space and the opportunity to do so when I was at Waukegan
148Public Schools we had uh I mean the Believers club we met in the morning before school started we had prayer around the flagpole so what it is saying and what the law is saying and I want to be clear is the law around separation of church and state and is it's that a teacher can say all right guys stand up we're all going to pray right but if a student on their own says I want to pray there's nothing and so we want to make sure that our students do understand and know the law and their rights to your point Mr McBride is because as we live in this uh uh what is it polytheistic society in which there are varying ideas and beliefs is we want to make sure that they're all represented in
149the school Square uh so to your point I don't want to say yeah if if my son decides to bring his Bible to school I want him to be able to do so and he should be and I don't believe that this policy was stopping doing so well I just want to make the comment that's my appreciate that and then not only that uh we may not we might have not had the books in public school but I guarantee you in private schools those books are being talked about and sometimes when you look at those private schools and you look at uh the kids behavior and whatnot it's a little different than public school because of that book so that I'm gonna just leave that alone and leave it right there I'll let you think
150about that Mr boy president thank you Miss McBride boy president I just want to say I I liked what you said it it um resonated with me the the point of this Proclamation or this resolution would be that some of our students will feel comforted by us as a board saying what this says in in this resolution and and we've got one of the things I like about it as well is is the fact that Ray Bradbury and foreign Fahrenheit 451 one of our own um brought this whole possibility up in in his book and because he saw it happen if anybody's going to say this block even should be saying this you know look where we've come well and uh so yeah I see some value in a resolution like this um and even
151if it is it is does cause some more controversy I think it's it's well written I appreciate it yes it is our board member our student board member for bringing it forward to us thank you and I know we're going to wait on this a little while yet but so thank you Mr hinojosa thank you for the conversation Board of Education um are there any legal reports Cassie uh board member time um it's 9 22. uh Miss Wozniak I want to mention that the mask project is coming up um April 24th through the 27th and they need some more volunteers uh training is tomorrow evening and there's another one I believe Thursday during the day if you can make it if you need information please reach out to me I can give it to you
152there's also Earth week in Waukegan coming up with many events including tree planting at Robert or at John Lewis Middle School from one to four tomorrow and on Saturday the 15th at 11 30 at Brookside the whs environmental Club tree planting or walk zero tree planting dedication will happen then um also Seussical the musical is happening on the 20th through the 22nd at seven o'clock at the high school and uh the Mikvah challenge will be on the 21st of April Friday 9 to 1 30 at uh main gym in Washington campus so lots of lots of things coming up in the next week or two thank you Miss uh Wozniak Mr McBride no comments Mr riddle just want to thank Ms Callahan Wozniak for all of her noteworthy reminders that are happening um we are
153certainly going to miss her in the months ahead but um thank you Miss Callahan Wozniak and those I just to stress again Earth week is something we all want to be involved in um you can do it you know alone you can do it with a group but there's many activities in Waukegan this week in the Mikvah challenge is really terrific so I certainly encourage you as Miss Callahan Wozniak said to to attend that I've talked to some of the students who are doing projects there and this year we're inviting other schools so it should be an excellent uh event so try to make it thank you Miss Gonzalez um yeah I just wanted to recall um I think the student's name was uh Navajo um I can't remember her full name but the student
154who talked about her brother you know going on the on the trip and realizing how important the GPA is um to get into schools um I try to stress the students that you know it's never too late to switch it up and you know it may not be tomorrow but at the end of the day you can you can go ahead um go to CLC transfer to University um you know take summer school and then make it to the next grade um you can make it happen and I think that we should remind our students about that all the time that it's never too late um and I will be gone at the end of April um for my College reunion and my five year reunion um and I just want to remind students like
155how possible it is like I never thought I would go to school in California and go to my dream school but I did um and that's what our students deserve to if they want that option so wonderful thank you I appreciate all those who came out this evening the board will go into closed session under exception C1 Personnel matters CD 11 actual threat and litigation and c21 approval previous closed session minutes um motion to go into closed session don't move second motion by Mr riddle second by Miss Wozniacki Gonzalez I look right at you roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan wozni yes Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez yes president Ewing yes Board of Ed if you need to use the restroom do so and meet us downstairs so we can get done quickly thank
156you