001[Music] thank you [Music] all right thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] thank you foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] all right [Music] Jasmine is logging in thank you foreign [Music] all right okay oh okay all right uh we want to welcome you to the Waukegan post School Board of Education I'd like to call to order the March 14th 2023 uh meeting Board of Education meeting if I can have a roll call Mr riddle president miss Callahan Wozniak here Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez here Miss Hannah Miss lucky summer president Ewing he go we do have a quorum all of our um members with the exception of Miss Leguizamo are present and so uh with that I would like uh the board did meet in closed session
002under exception C1 C9 C10 C11 and c21 if I can now have a motion to go into Open session so Zoom Open Session second motion by Mr riddle second by Miss Wozniak all in favor signify what I I any opposed nay we are now back in Open Session uh Miss Polk if you be so kind as to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance foreign thank you all um we now have the board president's report right if we want to go to the next screen again this is our mission and our vision putting that there as a reminder for the community as well as the Board of Education next slide please again we want to affirm our Unity of purpose uh the unique role of public education whereby each Community collectively pulls its resources for
003the common good through the education of its students next slide please these are the behavioral expectations we want to start with a common belief that everyone who does have good intentions create a safe environment for the productive exchange of ideas sincerely listen and seek to understand the viewpoints of others solve problems through a collaborative process where all participants support the decision and actively work towards this implementation board members will adhere to our board protocols and hold each other accountable and support one another the governor's team will not disparage fellow members of the board all right next slide I just want to very briefly uh touch on two uh whether three scholarships total but this is the Illinois um Illinois legislative Black Caucus Foundation scholarship um they give over 60 up to sixty thousand dollars in
004scholarships uh this information I know we have tons of scholarship information but this is one uh where they are accepting applicants through May 31st um so please please please get in then we also have our Congressional Black Caucus Foundation scholarships as well and the deadlines and timelines are outlined there next slide um uh organization that I'm associated with is given out up to eighty thousand dollars worth of scholarships um and so I want to make sure that our students here locally take advantage of it these are five thousand dollar scholarships some 2500 and some 1500 scholarships and that deadline is from March 10th until April 10th next up you can apply at bcu.org I want to highlight Trio career and internship there this is for high school students Trio is a partner of the district
005and they do excellent work this will be held at the new beautiful Lakeshore Campus and the Eleanor murky Center so I want to make sure that we take advantage of this opportunity stepping into success make sure that our students have things that they can do this summer learning skills and internships or working we want to make sure that they get exposure and opportunity next slide I do want to at this time I know we have our Oakdale family that is in the room um unfortunately we have experienced another loss as a district I feel like we've been saying that a lot I mentioned it since the pandemic and so if you guys will please stand with me for a brief moment of silence in honor of one of our educators thank you so much you
006maybe seated um one of the things when we talk about leadership has to deal with accountability um and we as the board are responsible for ourselves uh however we we do have uh our board secretary who also um is the superintendent one of the things uh I stated last uh board meeting was that as we prepare for at minimum one new board member uh we want to make sure that as a board we leave this Foundation set for whoever comes next and one of those things is making sure that we timely approve our meeting minutes um as has been pointed out we have not done that and when looking at the number of meetings that were delayed um I was surprised uh and and also disappointed um and so this is just a public acknowledgment
007that I will stay true to my commitment to make sure that every minute is done and approved and I do um apologize on behalf of the board that when it was originally brought um I did not jump on it sooner um it's because the expectation that it was being brought forward and being handled at the end of the day the board of education is responsible for itself so I want to acknowledge that and reaffirm my commitment that these minutes will be done and they will be available again we have taken steps forward to make our meetings much more accessible you can watch them in their entirety on YouTube it doesn't eliminate our statutory requirement um and so we want to make sure that we offer the opportunity for individuals to view our meetings verbatim online
008but we also want to make sure that we approve our minutes and get them uploaded so that the community can access them in a timely manner and we will make sure that we adhere to that timely that's moving forward Safety and Security is is still a concern um we I know uh as someone who has students in the district um as someone who is on the um Capital Improvement committee that Safety and Security is a focus uh one of the things that we are doing and you guys will hear more about is uh making sure that each school has secure entrances um which is currently not the way many of our schools are set up um we also want to make sure that incidents that are happening in the community we're being responsive and reflective
009and there was a situation which I know the high school communicated um yesterday related to a fight that happened off of school property and as we as an institution talk about what needs to happen and I'm sorry uh I sat with many people in this room as we talked about anti-violence dollars that were going to become an entire Community there are organizations that were recipients of those dollars there was money that was given so that we would be implementing these anti-violence efforts and unfortunately to date none of these organizations have received a die um and so what we need to do is make sure that we're working collaboratively to address the security concerns is because as we know what happens in our schools impact our community and what happens in our community impacts our schools
010and so what I will continue to do is striving to make sure that we have the resources that are needed in order to make sure our students are safe and that we improve our communication to make sure that stakeholders that feel we need to be more transparent see it in our actions we do have our budget survey which has been released that I know Miss Hannah says on the budget committee and I believe last year was Mr riddle or was it Miss Lake was ammo so uh we are in that process now um this survey helps to guide the work of that committee um which includes Community stakeholders teachers staff members administrators so we want to make sure parents please do that information is valuable you can see um how decisions are made related to
011the budget uh we also have kindergarten registration which is started parents register early get it in now let's not wait to the last minute um because we we we know we do have different software things that are supposed to make registration more manageable but I also want to make sure if you can do it now do it now so we can make sure that there is a smooth start to the school year and last thing I want to discuss relates to meeting expectations at our last board meeting we had a public speaker who came to the podium and used profanity uh directed at the superintendent and myself uh when they did it they talked about the fact that this is how students speak to um staff members some students speak to staff members while I
012100 understand the sentiment while we all want to be treated that's okay you don't start you so we all want to make sure that we model the behaviors we want to see is the point is a valid one our teachers feel like they are dealing with a lot but we should not necessarily uh mimic the behaviors of our students we should be teaching them A Better Way in the same way we want to be treated with respect we should make sure we're treating others with respect so what happened last week it was unacceptable again that's not ignoring what the point of the speaker's comments were and that is that some of our students and our teachers really are under a lot of pressure and they need supports that is something that has been of continuous
013conversation in our Zero Tolerance policy committee meetings but I also had to make that very clear for the record is we want to model behaviors we want to see and so I'm hoping that this meeting we will treat each other with Civility and respect and make sure that we're able to get through uh the work of the business in a way that um is conducive we have a student board member that sits right behind me and so it's the adults we should be making sure that we are behaving in a way that we want our students to mimic with that this concludes our uh board my board president time and now we have probably my favorite time in the meeting is our student board member report yeah this is on okay so hi everyone this
014is my third student report as of my time here at the Board of Education as always very excited to get my student board member report going so yeah let's get started we're going to the next slide as always it always starts with an opening statement old business new business Community Spotlight because of spacing I didn't put comment section but obviously board members if you have any comments on anything that was done in this presentation please let me know next slide so my statement topic this time is about change and vision there will always be a topic for my statements next slide please so a lot of people will remember this statement because this was a quote that I used in my inauguration speech so the quote basically says now let us fight to fulfill that
015promise let us fight to free the world to do away with national barriers to do away with greed with hate and intolerance let us fight for a world of Reason a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness which was quoted by Charlie Chaplin in his very first movie that in which was talked The Great Dictator which I haven't watched it myself but they say it's pretty good even though it's black and white but you know it's one of those very old movies from the 40s so I chose this quote one because I did quote it in my inauguration speech and this speech itself comes very close to my heart because this is one of those speeches that you know Justin blowed me away when I first heard it and I feel
016like it has the sentiment of the students that we are all here for a common purpose we are all here to fight for Change and reason and we are here to build a better District with any resources that we have and I feel that any student believes that we could all work together to make a better district for all of us and that's my opening statement next slide please old business next slide as always I do want to talk about the promotion and retention committee which is headed by Dr knultz and as always the objective is to review and propose a new promotion and retention policy for wfs 60 specifically policy 5215 and as always the student view is that students at walking in high school that students in high school middle school and Elementary
017School levels need to be held accountable and be supported in their academic Journeys as always that will be the view of the students next slide please so this is the principal and sbm talk this was a meeting I had with principal Ave a few weeks ago and as always our objective is to meet with principal Abe and discuss and present issues that Brookside students have I will be having I'm trying to plan myself having a meeting with doctor with Mr Hill from Washington campus next month to at least to hear the student side at Washington so we have that Equity side on both campuses it's just discussed as always was resource officers that we have on campus which is a cop from the Waukegan Police Department had a very nice discussion about safety about how
018we can make students not feel intimidated by having a cop at school and you know she's there officer Angie as she likes to be called is a very nice person I could highly recommend as a very nice person and if any student is watching and sees her at Brookside she says if you have any questions or just want to say hi just come up to her she's very a friendly person um other issue is bathrooms other issues other than that the 1010 rule menstrual products sexual protection items and the transformation plan what will I get to specifically in a few slides uh next slide please okay new business now this one's a really long one I'm gonna try to go through this as fast as I can by being able but being able to tell
019y'all what I've been having it's been a lot of meetings in the last two weeks it's been a lot of meetings um next time please okay meeting with nurse Myers which was on February 28 2023 a few weeks ago this is this isn't nurse Myers is the Brookside uh lead nurse and we had a discussion about student health which in focuses to physical and sexual health topics we discussed as always for Superior product period product concerns sexual protection items and sexual and health education next slide please now I had a meeting with member Gonzalez on March 6 2023 objective to discuss the national issue of book Banning and classroom curriculum items discussed on the meeting was book Banning and culture response responsive curriculum let's make that clear let's make that clear anti-book Banning it's just
020that you know people call it book Banning but not actual book Banning just anti-book Banning the idea of not Banning books make that clear um this is with Mrs Dobbs and nurse Jackson which is the nurse at Washington campus had a meeting with her both of them on March 8th same thing as always with nurses Nurse Myers was to discuss physical health and Sexual Health that face Husky and high school students obviously issues that were discussed were the same with nurse Myers period products sexual protection and self sex and health education K-12 next slide please meeting with Mr Weber which is a social sciences coordinator this was yesterday actually I remember this meeting we had a little trouble trying to connect over Google meets it took us a while but we took we totally had
021the meeting um our objective is to discuss the social science curriculum at Waukegan High School Milwaukee wps60 sorry and lgbtq history I had to discussed obviously was the addition of lgbtq history and the rebank of the curriculum K-12 Global Studies vision and a collaboration over curriculum next slide please meeting with aoec in Washington high school principals this was today during my lunch period um we discussed the transformation plan for Waukegan High School and the student view on it and discuss obviously was the transformation plan details Student Activities in the high school related to the transformation plan and infrastructure questions that I personally had next slide please and the meeting that I had a few hours ago I think it was like four hours ago was with superintendent Placencia which was obviously today discussion was to
022the creation of a student advisory Council and discussed obviously was the superintendent Council tutoring program and student ambassador program which we're trying to figure out a way of implementing uh log Keegan Public Schools next slide please Community Spotlight this is a little shorter military ball this is this picture is of diakura and David Munoz the these two are very lovely friends from JROTC Dia is the drill team Commander for unarmed very nice person David Munoz is the S3 for first Battalion very nice guy too and this is their walk-in to the um ceremony for military while king and queen and I'm just gonna say off the top of my head military Bob was amazing it was a great experience um principal Ave went to go talk a few for a little bit about military ball
023it's history and all that so if any board members want to come next year as guests go talk to uh Colonel painter very nice experience um next slide please also I'm going to talk about scholarships too uh this is one scholarship that member Gonzalez has shown me which is the Immigrant process scholarship obviously this before this scholarship program is for undocumented uh students at the high school level to gain about a thousand dollars to pursue college courses trade school and other Work Force training programs applications are due March 31st at 5 00 PM I imagine that's standard time so these are the requirements on there if any students that are watching this and are interested please email me I will send the link and we'll put it on my Instagram page as a link there
024if any student also follows me on my Instagram page next slide please the golden apple Scholars which as we know the golden apple Scholars is a program made for students that want to become teachers obviously this is the time of year in which you could apply to become a scholar any student that wants to dream of being a teacher please sign up it's a great experience and would be very helpful for any student that wishes to become a teacher next slide please student ambassadors there's one picture that I got on Instagram student ambassadors is a program at Brookside that brings students that are ninth 10th graders ninth graders 10th graders one of the two well both actually that come to Brookside obviously enter middle school students that from different middle schools and charter schools and
025District to come and talk about what Brookside is all about rules regulations what class where classrooms are where the bathrooms are where lunches lunchrooms are and specifically get a hang of what the high school experience is before they get here because you know better knowing than just coming in first and be like where do I go right um I didn't go last time for some complications but the next meeting for the student ambassadors to go to show students is tomorrow so if any board members want to go to Brookside and go see that y'all can uh next slide please prom 2023 obviously I'm not going to probably because I'm not a senior yet but obviously any seniors and juniors I imagined I want to go this is the theme like the good times roll which
026will be on May 6th Saturday at 3 P.M which apparently is going to be a dinner cruise which I was very surprised by exactly that you're on a cruise ship cruise ship you got it's like a ship right that's going over Lake Michigan and all that I was very surprised by that specifically when I figured that one out so if any seniors want to go go it's a cruise ship I I don't know what else to say it's a cruise ship um next slide please q a um that was the end of my presentation obviously there was a lot more that happened in the district and Community but obviously I didn't want to make this presentation three hours long so I added some other the stuff that I saw through Instagram and the community itself
027through students parents and all that so if any board members now want to ask any questions about the presentation they can but if not I yield back the balance of my time thank you Mr hinojosa for your efforts you've hit the ground running um and we are uh and I do want to highlight him is because these student board members are not just for show they have ideas things that they want to implement um and even policy recommendations and changes and so we will be having a discussion or at least uh broaching the topic later which is an idea directly brought forward by Mr hinojosa in support of by Miss uh Gonzalez so thank you and we appreciate your student board member report we now are at Spotlight on 60. um we we had one
028Spotlight that we were going to um discuss but due to uh the tragedy that I spoke to earlier we still have our Oakdale family that are in the house so if you're with Oakdale if you guys want to stand up we had students that came out so uh briefly instead of doing it doing public comment uh Miss uh principal Catalina Kiana's Nelson and the Oakdale family uh just wanted to take a moment to recognize um our staff member and then immediately following that we have our College and Career uh Readiness Department that will be presenting um immediately following this presentation so uh Miss Catalina kiones downstairs and I was like I always say he has a full name [Music] [Applause] but yes please for the people that are online thank you so much okay I
029haven't sung in a while is it on is it on oh okay all right not that I ever could sing um well this is not one of my most favorable times to come to the board um I want to say good evening to the community good evening to the board members and superintendent Placencia um there's definitely been happier times and it is with great sadness that I stand before you today to talk about um one of our newer teachers she started in August her name is Caitlin Schoenberger and she passed away recently on Friday and um it's it's very tough news and I'm going to try to get through this without shedding a tear um we're all devastated by the passing of Miss schomberger she was someone that always came to Oakdale with a smile
030on her face and left with a smile on her face she served our community um with such honor she wanted to be there each and every day her students grew so much having her as a teacher just from August until now uh you you know I'm sure you'll see the scores that she had in that second grade classroom I had to meet with the parents of those students and there wasn't a dry eye in that library for that meeting every parent was mourning for Caitlyn you know why because Caitlyn called those parents Caitlyn met with those parents Caitlyn built relationships with those parents she loved those kids she loved them there was never anything negative that came out of her mouth if she saw you it would she would say something positive I like your
031outfit you're smart you're beautiful you're this you're that I mean just a one of a kind type of passion that comes she was an angel you don't meet many people like that and it has affected everybody once the the staff knew again not a dry eye in the house the students found out in her classroom and I want to thank just a shout out to the crisis team that came out to help us during this time and our crisis team here in Waukegan was one of my proudest days yesterday working here we had a slew of social workers and counselors that came out and talked to our kids talk to our staff and did so in such a professional way yeah that shout out to them um you believe me they they know their job
032they know their work they are professionals we know everyone loved Caitlyn um I want you to know a little bit more about this beautiful person Lee if you could show some pictures she was a colleague she was a friend um she made us feel good uh this is I would often get this lady probably had I probably have a hundred and hundred thousand texts or emails that from her because she would text pictures of her with the kids send me texts about what she could do so here you see her with her look at her beautiful group so that's just one picture if you scroll up okay if you stop there um so this was the party bus uh that we went out but it was a good time it was it was an innocent
033time but even it was it was all 21 and over um but she was there and let me tell you she can sing every lyric of lizzo that there is um there she is with her team she was very supportive of the team and even the staff members would say she was the type of person that would push them so she would hold them accountable like just go do your job and I'll help you if you need help if you scroll up a little bit more there she is with her students you'll see there she wants the next half outing because she's the life of the party to be a Drag Brunch if you scroll up you'll see that she wanted the Waukegan Historical Society to come to her classroom she was always looking for
034resources to help her students hold on hold on there wait wait bring it down um so we have portfolio night coming out she always wanted to do something special she wanted a red carpet for her students and you'll see here if you scroll up she you know she wanted to thank for the support and feedback because she felt herself growing each and every day and she finally realized her worth she had that worth all the time she didn't have to realize it we all realized it for her I met her mom she was very supportive in coming to the school as well beautiful family my heart goes out to that family um she was only 25 years old so it's a it's a really huge loss and the ambassadors have been in the classroom trying
035to help the students process so I'm going to have them read a little bit of what they have written in honor of Ms Schoenberger this is Layla good evening okay good evening Waukegan community board members and superintenders today in the honor of Mrs chamberger's life I'm going to say some lovely things about her she was a beautiful intelligent and kind person she would always hype me and the ambassadors up I really loved her smiles and how she would treat her kids like her own when I went to her classroom she was super nice she was super kind to her kids I hope she heard this up in the sky in a safe place I love you miss schumberger you will always be remembered this is Chloe good evening board members and superintendents and the walking
036community Miss schomberger always supported and cared for other people and I miss her dearly when I went to her class when I went to her classroom to help with Community meetings she always greeted me and the other ambassadors with a friendly smile and it always brightened my day when she saw me and the ambassadors anywhere she always treated us like leaders and I miss her at the talent show Miss schonberger was there to support her students and everyone that participated she was so sweet and kind we want to keep her family in our prayers and thoughts during this difficult time she always had the compliments that cheered up your day thank you for listening [Applause] sorry this is Gretel thought I was gonna kiss you hello good evening I have some words to say in
037the honor of Miss schomberger's life Miss schomberger was always a great teacher she would always greet us with a smile she was a very loved teacher her students really miss her we ambassadors really miss her too I never saw Michelle Berger get upset or mad we always saw her with a big smile she would be so loving and caring she was very pretty teacher with her beautiful blonde hair and her blue eyes we're so gorgeous we miss her very much [Applause] we have had a big Outreach from her family her friends she I feel like she was Nationwide you know I the news has has you know put put a an article out on her they've tried to reach out to us all her friends have been emailing and you know what we what can
038we do for Oakdale what can we do for those students we want to be there so some of the things I want you to know that we're going to be doing is um we're going to lay a brick in our retirement uh walk with in honor of her name um we're also going to either plant a bush or a tree in honor of her I'm asking that maybe you know some of the staff thought maybe a schomberger award um so when kids do something or staff do something incredibly but yeah it has to be really up here because Caitlyn was way up here so the criteria is you know you have to be positive you have to be giving you have to you know work hard all those things will win you that schomberger award
039um we're also thinking of like a schomberger volunteer day at the building once a year in honor of her because that's what one of the things that I've been coming to say is what would Caitlyn do what would Caitlyn do and Caitlin would find a way to continue to give and to continue to give to our Waukegan community and our Oakdale Community um so in honor of Caitlyn God bless her make sure you know you keep people like this in mind they don't come by every day so thank you all for listening um keep Oakdale on your thoughts and prayers too along with the schomberger family of course thank you [Applause] um thank you all for coming in for that uh lovely tribute um again we are reminded of the importance of our teachers with
040that we do have our um College and Career Readiness Department who will provide a brief overview an introduction to the board of education and community thank you hello everyone my name is Janae and I'm one of the College and Career managers Cecilia is not able to be here today but she is also a part of our department and she did record a quick video it's in the next slide if you want to go to that then I'll continue I would it's really quiet should be there with you all tonight um but I just want to make this short video to introduce myself and just share with you a little bit about me my name is Cecilia and I am one of the College and Career managers um I've been working with the district since November
041and I've honestly so um privileged to be part of an awesome team that works I think tirelessly to provide our students and just share with them all the resources that are available to them and just provide them with some awesome experiences and opportunities I was the first one in my family to graduate from college and I think that that's something that has really shaped me I had a lot of support um through the process thanks to teachers my college counselor and just Community organizations that really provided me the support and the resource that resources that I needed and so that's really shaped why I do the things the work that I do and why I'm so passionate about um just being a support to students who are navigating this process of high school college post-secondary
042um and so I'm really excited for Janae to share with you all just some of the things that we've been able to do and accomplish in such a short period of time and I'm really excited for what's to come and some of the amazing things that we're going to continue to do thank you so just to piggyback off of Cecilia's message she did a great job of just wrapping up what our entire goal is which is to just build a network of support for the students so that they're able to successfully navigate their post-secondary plans whether that be College whether that be straight into the workforce trade school we want to make sure that they have those options and that they're able to [Music] um really get the information and resources to get to where
043they need to be we um have a major goal of just like creating stronger Partnerships we know that there are so many different organizations in the district that have the same goals as us like Trio Avid all of those um local ambassadors as well that are here to help us so we want to make sure we're connecting the dots so that we can have this collaborative effort to build this network for the students to the next slide so just a few of the major things that we have been working on and focusing on um this past few months we both started in end of October early November so we haven't had much time but we have accomplished I think a lot for what we have been given the time that we've been given so our
044major initiative is School links which has come to replace Naviance as our um College and Career Readiness platform for the students so on the aspect of the students it encourages self-discovery it encourages career exploration and College Planning and then as far as the staff goes there is a collaborative effort there where you can access data you can reach out to the students they're Community Partners that can sign up for school links as well so overall it is a really great platform that we want to make sure to start getting all of our district students involved in and the um staff as well so that they can really use that to the best of their ability and um presentation so that is something that we have started offering to our middle school and high school so
045far but we do plan for this to eventually become something that is district-wide where we go into the classrooms um and we offer a few different topics like resumes Life After High School how to pay for college Etc just different things that students may not have those resources for it just may want you know better information so that they can use that for um whatever they need to contribute to their success so we have had some teachers set up those presentations with us and they have gone really well we've gotten to be one-on-one and interactive and meet a lot of the students that way as well and um green light match is a new program that we've worked with the counseling department to set up Department to set up for the seniors at Waukegan it's
046essentially an app but it um is like an alternative college application so the students are able to create a profile where they can share whatever information they feel is valuable they can upload their transcripts all of those details and then match with colleges and then they can get acceptance through the app they can get scholarships through the app so it is something that we think our students will benefit from just to have that option that is alternative to the traditional method of applying to school and um the College Board Dream Deferred hccu conference is um a conference that we Cecilia Yvonne Cecilia evonda and I attended last week and it just gave us a lot of networking opportunities with Nationwide teachers and hbcus just to get really a lot of information on how to address
047issues within the African-American communities as far as like the students and how we can help them to be successful how we can educate them on their history and really prevent the um the the things that we know are you know the issues like the paying for school and the access and all of those things so it was a great experience for all of us and I think we learned a lot that we can bring back to the district so that's something that we're really excited to be able to um do in the future as well and um the FAFSA completion so we started working with our counselors as well but we work with ISAC which is the Illinois but basically they really um they're like the official help they kind of come in and they
048know the details and they give um really expert advice as far as how to navigate the FAFSA which is something that can be difficult for a lot of students and families especially if they're first generation or immigrant status or you know there's lots of details that go into the FAFSA so we know that it's something that it's hard and it looks really scary when it's you approaching it on your own so we wanted to provide that support immediately because at um the end of last semester I think our percentage of completion was 20 which is pretty low for it to be this far into the school year so we really wanted to build that and thus far we've raised it to 30 so we're still working we have another session coming up March 22nd so
049um and we also are helping students every day anytime with that as well so we just really had that as a major Initiative for this year something that we felt was urgent and important and last on the list of updates is the Dual credit program so we wanted to um I know evanda was one of the reasons that we have the Dual credit so it's very important to her and it has become important to us as well so we have been working with the CLC representative to make sure she can get information to the students who are eligible and interested get them registered get them those opportunities if you're not familiar tool credit is basically a program that we have in connection with CLC where the students are able to take a college-based program where
050they take the class it's fully college-based there's no um it's not like AP where um they are in a high school setting still but they um are able to get the high school credit and the college credit that can be transferred after school without having them after high school without them having to pay for it so it is something that can be very beneficial and we're hoping to eventually build out where that's available to all the students in the district and at a large scale we could eventually have students who are graduating high school with an associate's degree so that's something that is very important to us as the College and Career Readiness um Department in the next slide sorry so we have some videos just from like we had a college fair today the
051Hispanic college fair and um that's the video here on the left side right great turnout we brought out students from other schools as well so we had um a lot of opportunity there and also Ivana and Cecilia had the chance to take the some students I think it was like almost 100 students to the Teen Summit in Milwaukee which was um at the auto show and they got to just experience um that environment as well as see how things are done I guess in that under that automotive and um I don't know what to call it but you know like with the cars and building and how those things go so I think that they had a great time um I know event and Cecilia really enjoyed it as well but that's what the videos
052are sorry I interrupted them and then um if you want to go to the next site yeah so upcoming events that we have we um we do a future you um that's what we call it it's office hours and we're also so we do the office hours every Wednesday for Washington campus from three to four Thirty students can come in and get help or just hang out we've had a lot of students that just come every week and do homework or just get to know us so it has been nice and we also have started to be at Brookside on Mondays during lunch periods as well and then next we have another FAFSA completion session that I mentioned for March 22nd and then we have our overnight College Tour coming up which we're going to
053take 35 students to Knox College s-i-u-c-s-i-u-e and Eastern Illinois over spring break so that's something that we've been really excited planning and we're happy to be able to um give those students that opportunity to visit schools so this is just our social media um we like to post what we're doing there any community events that we know about that we can share and just any um opportunities for the students Chicago and um I mean I don't know if I have a q a if you have it but uh real brief uh if there are questions we wanted them to talk about um everything that they're doing the great work I know uh these individuals just started uh uh Jasmine and Cecilia this year but they hit the ground running um and it's been very impressive
054to see everything that they've been able to achieve in the short period of time and their accessibility for our students and even they their commitment to the community these are two walking and graduates that know firsthand what it's like going to Waukegan High School and making sure that they're providing opportunities to improve circumstances for our students and make sure that they have access to resources and opportunities so Miss Anna had a question and then we okay spring break where do you sign up students to so and we actually are full I know we um we've been actually putting out information for it for a while like this whole semester so I think we filled our last spot today oh but if we have any openings we have um uh a part of the requirement since
055we are covering everything and we're bringing the students we wanted to meet with the parents so we do have a parent meeting tomorrow so maybe if we have any spots that are not going to be filled after that meeting I can get you that information okay but as of right now we have filled all the spots second question the um the Dual credits I think um the our school district we've had one student so far and I'm looking to expand that where we graduated um um with high school and with an Associate yeah so we we definitely are working on building out the program obviously there's just steps Stepping Stones to getting to where we want to be but um having met with the CLC representative who also is a Waukegan high school graduate so
056she's very passionate about the district as well we do want to get to that point where we can offer starting even in ninth grade um those classes so that they can build out to be able to graduate with the Dual right degree that's what I was going to ask yeah because I do know about the student that have done it and she actually took a lot of initiative on her own as well so it's something that we want to make sure we're able to offer them fully so that they don't have to do that right so it is a work in progress but we are we are on the same page we definitely want to get to that point okay and starting in freshmen eventually as we would like to start there but right now
057it is available to 11th and 12. so maybe at the end of the year um with more information and other individuals we can come back and get an update of where our dual um and dual enrollment enrollment stands because we do want to make sure students are taking advantage of that yeah and I I mean I my first board meeting was the last meeting and so I did have the idea I was like I would like to come up maybe every so often and just give an overview of what we're doing so we definitely can't keep in touch and I'll be back to let you guys know what we have going on thank you so much and we appreciate you coming out tonight um thank you [Applause] all right we do have uh two sets
058of minutes from July 6 2022 through approval and minutes of Open session from November 22nd 2022 if there are no arguments I'd like to take these uh two items together motion to approve the minutes as uh presented uh items A and B motion by Mr riddle second second by Miss Wozniak any comments questions to the minutes all in favor signify what I I any opposed name minutes are approved we now have our consented I'm sorry um public comment uh when your name is called please come to the podium I will call multiple names we did have students that had signed up so some of the these names have already left uh I will ask that you keep your comments to uh three minutes uh if you need translation services translation services will be provided to
059you and you'll get a total of six minutes um uh one of the things I mentioned even in my opening remarks as we talked about civility uh and so I am going to put that reminder on the table uh first names on the list are Janice and I want to say is hey um h-a-y-e yes sir perfect so I'm gonna say if you want to come up to the microphone and then immediately following we have Ben Grimes Christine lensing and krishana Hannah in that order all right Miss Hey whenever you're ready uh this is just a short um I just wanted to show the short video so that we can get um this information out of how serious multiple myeloma is gonna um talk about multiple myeloma and some symptoms and some of her experience
060with this uh Dreadful disease or cancer so Dr Caswell please so we're asking for Your sponsorship so um so multiple myeloma is a disease a cancer of the plasma cells that are normally cells that protect you and make antibodies that fight infection bacteria and viruses that we're exposed to but sometimes these cells become cancerous and start making abnormal proteins that can actually harm your cells and cause anemia and cause destruction of your bones and kidney disorders and kidney failure and so recognizing this disease early helps save people a lot of comorbidity and and help save lives if we catch it early so making sure that people are aware and thinking about this when they're told they have kidney issues or they're anemic so that we start to get people in and Screen them for for
061multiple myeloma very early it's really important multi-aloma affects about 200 000 people in the United States and and the life expectancy has improved vastly over the last 20 years due to research that's really improving the quality of life that patients who have multiple myeloma are are experiencing and and now the life expectancy has moved from about two to three years back about 20 years ago to up to six seven years and sometimes more um so we're excited that the research has really helped save a lot of our patients and and make their quality life better so they can live with this disease with reasonable quality yeah so just tell me about the research fund and this is where my organization will come in we want to support research funding we're asking for sponsors and fund
062you know doing fundraisers so how does that apply with uh with the research so so research and oncology is is so important you know we come up with new drugs a lot of the the things that we had back you know years ago were chemotherapy where people would lose their hair and get very sick and now we have pills that people can take and and injections that um that very minimal to few side effects and the only way we can get that kind of advancement in the care for patients um is through research and so the more we can get folks to participate in clinical trials and get the funding to help them um you know that's the way that we make advancements in medicine and this is a field that you know we really
063need to improve the quality of life for patients and make this disease bearable very good thank you so much for your time really appreciate it I did want to tell everyone that uh so Janice has gone she's going through multiple myeloma herself you know so that's why she wants to bring awareness to that she's someone in the community that you guys can always reach out to uh for questions uh regarding multiple myeloma and um and also we need Your sponsorship thank you so much thanks this is why I need you to sponsor thank you our organization that's all it is thank you okay [Applause] whenever you start speaking Mr Grimes your time will begin good evening everybody just wanted to give a couple updates one was something that happened today orbit Washington campus I had
064a beautiful opportunity to meet our board president over there Frank Vasquez our retired counselor and I were talking about the old days and things that we had done that really really worked and Brandon and I go way back go way back 2008 Dr Hamlin came aboard we formed a faith Council as a result of sending out 50 letters to the track community of Waukegan North Chicago design six responded from that reformed Bay Council granted his dad and others were steadfast it wasn't just faith based it was United Way Library et cetera et cetera but today we've always with the Washington champ is really talking about things that work from like Frank's perspective all the countries that are represented what we were doing and so it wasn't so on something that happened it was on a
065negative point today I happened to meet with Wow and Bam they wanted help they want to involve let's say 20 more kids they want them to intern at certain places so I talk about Miss George our assistant principal at Brookside her dad Reverend Atwater is over there he could help I treat a boy for the Salvation Army I can help we have Rick and we have a Lions Club etc etc but I was very disappointed one day last week when the head of all the social work department came over and my friend brother went from bam I introduced him to her he he wanted help they are not necessarily prepared to deal with a lot of the issues that our students are going through and and they need help it's a voluntary program and they're
066very very serious about it so we're going to help and we're going to do a lot of positive things and it was one of the things before I go I went to historical blight College University of Maryland Eastern Shore in Princess Anne Maryland and we were required to take Air Force ROTC as freshmen we all had to go to church on Sunday and other things required now with the ROTC program last week it was amazing if you had been there I guarantee you those students told the line you wouldn't need safety you wouldn't need a lot of things so that's something we might want to consider I know it's an alternative now but if we required all our freshman students to take ROTC you would see a world of difference think about the Total Line
067where the uniform conform but there's so many positive things that can happen we don't have to reinvent the wheel we can go back historically and I know thank you for your time thank you that's right whenever you start speaking Miss losing your time will begin good evening board members superintendent district staff and Community my heart and condolences go out to those who lost their teacher their friend their family last week um I'm here tonight to speak on the HR department the same Department that we heard on January 17th that needs to be looked at end to end Mr Harris was very clear in recommending is a great thing to do and as I quote there's opportunities as it relates to competence capability and capacity and while his context was relating to the pay structure for
068employees of this District I'm going to extend that to assessing what is appropriate for the interpersonal expectations of District employees I will hopefully play a clear picture that brings you concern of what is happening in our schools without mentioning names imagine a young student in our district early in their years of learning self-regulation so a kindergartner first or second grader is your child your child comes home and tells you that in class the teacher without using their words to redirect you grabbed your child's arm dragged them out from underneath a table and push them toward the door your child demonstrates that they tried to resist the teachers pushing and the teacher pushed more once outside of the classroom the teacher tells the student something along the lines of you don't want to be in my
069class go find somewhere else and closes the door leaving the child crying as a parent what would you do what would you feel what are your expectations of what happens next you bring this information to your principal your area superintendent and they get to work investigating the situation when you are contacted by the head of HR you are told that the teacher loves your student and was well intentioned in their actions they want to issue only a verbal warning for closing the door on a student leaving them effectively unsupervised the grabbing pushing pushing harder and harmful words that your child experienced are of no concern to the HR Director and after returning from recruiting in the Philippines with no notice to those with open cases they imply they are ready to close the issue what
070as a parent do you do next raise it to the superintendent that fails to Garner trust with staff parents and community members of this District raise it to the board doubting something will be done about the culture of this District the only people working hard to ensure this is appropriately addressed are the first two individuals you contacted and they are swimming Upstream because of this same scenario sorry if the same scenario were to happen in any affluent Community I'd like to know if any other HR Director would handle it with such negligence these are core memories being built what will their future attitude and interpersonal skills look like if we educate them in a climate that says this is okay my teacher can grab me and say I should find somewhere else this is normal
071they are right I don't want to be here this is unacceptable and we deserve better thank you Miss Lindsay whenever you start speaking your time will begin Miss Hannah so my name is krishana Hannah and I'm coming to the board to speak about some issues that were brought to me and they're very kind of disturbing I don't like coming to the podium at all but I don't like coming to the podium at all with negative things but the district has this saying if you see something say something it was brought to me by several of the safety officers um that work within our district and we all heard about the fight with the two pairs that were in the school in the hallway that were recorded fighting that was unacceptable but what led to that
072was even more disturbing that one of the pairs that was involved in this altercation took some concerns about the other para to an admin the admin in turn turned around and went to the person that this was about and told them when this para came from the bathroom or wherever she was coming from she was attacked how can we expect the teachers and staff to see something and say something knowing that confidentiality was breached it's very disturbing so not only did this lady take her issue to a higher authority like you guys say use the chain of command right um not only that she was attacked and then she lost her job unacceptable um that's something that needs to be looked at the next thing I would like to talk about is um there was
073an email that was sent out from the principal of Brookside campus it was disgusting it was condescending to students it was saying that the students had um there was no leeway for to be late or anything well the bathrooms aren't even open in the classroom in the school so they may have to go from one end of the school to the other and God forbid females having to go and handle female problems it's unacceptable it was disgusting the last thing I would like to talk about is something that the Board needs to address with their superintendent it was brought to my attention that the superintendent is not only campaigning for people to be on the board she's calling and asking for donations which I've never heard of that as long as I've known a superintendent
074how can you be non-biased when you're campaigning for somebody to be your friend on the board you guys need to address that the board and the attorney thank you Miss Hannah next four names are Randy sabeki Ray vukovic and then it just uh has Jennifer okay good evening everybody I got some good news tonight so we talk about you know we look at the test scores we talk about let's F you know find solutions to help our students right so by an act of God and they must have been listening uh one of my co-workers actually delivered to a spot and he overheard the managers there talking and said oh we'll just just get rid of them they don't want them back just throw them away so he found out what they were and then
075came back and let me know the next day and I drove over there and I talked to the business that uh it was at luckily they still had them they didn't throw them all away so I asked if if they can give them to us and it's for the students so he said absolutely so on behalf of myself Christine lensen and Christiana Hannah uh we were given 900. of these flash cards for our students and we'd like to work with the school and get these distributed so these get in the kids hands starting with our most underperforming schools for the students for math each one of these cases have addition subtraction Division and multiplication flash cards in them and we have I have 900 of them in my garage so we would like to donate
076them to the school for the students that's all I have tonight and we did bring one for each one of you so you can brush up on your math skills thank you Mr sabeki and uh thank you for that donation uh superintendent I'm sure somebody will coordinate receiving those um Mr volkovich we're next on the list and then just remember to order was uh Jennifer Diane brag and then we have sir Ian thanks yes whenever you're ready yes good evening uh when I'm done talking tonight or when other members of the public are done speaking I'll be leaving but that doesn't mean I'm not interested in the meeting I do go home and watch it we watch it on YouTube and are very aware of what's going on that at your last meeting you had
077two items under uh number 13. had to do uh with the high school and there was uh let me get this out just a minute approval of high school assistant principal benefits and it was a long conversation with that and all of a sudden it was it was tabled and going to be discussed at the next meeting it's not it's not on tonight's agenda should be there under old business I hope this item will be coming up and discussed in the future at a public meeting and not just those fairy dust sprinkled on it and swept under the carpet you know a few years ago under this superintendent you had a principal that was reprimanded for spending money hiring some teachers to work the lunch duty and it was a big deal made about that
078most of you are on the board at the time and now you know if we're going to have rules we have to have rules for everybody so I hope that comes back out uh the next item was number 13c had to do with the settlement the next day I went and filed a foia as I do every time you have a settlement and I did get to foia back and uh the name was redacted and it was it's according to Illinois Law in that point you don't put the employee's name because of an EEOC complaint however at the meeting at the end of the meet or at the end of that comment the board president stated the former employee's name so you're afraid that a member of the public might do something with it but
079you let the fuse Yourself by by saying that and you know as far as the acknowledgment about the uh the minutes you're welcome for a year I've been telling you about this I've been coming to this board I've had to file two complaints with the Illinois Attorney General's office and you all just kind of sit there and you know board president has acknowledged it I've heard some Rumblings from some people saying oh there he goes again but it's the law that's that's the rules that's how you know you can go look at it on YouTube but you might have a grant you might have a bond issue you might have something that they require the minutes of the meeting and it's August and you're all on summer break and you can't approve minutes you may
080lose a grant so you know again you've got two employees both of them are responsible to for this thank you thank you Mr vukovic yeah so um right now we have Miss uh Diana Viagra for the record or how would you like it you want Jennifer first no no is that okay if we switch it up a little bit because it should be Jennifer yeah I had Jennifer first so you want to go now yeah and then we'll have gotcha correct go ahead um Miss Viagra whenever you're ready your time will begin hold on Chicago maybe you want to come over here can we restart yes yes thank you okay hold on let me get myself yeah he likes to take Harmony to Chicago y'all okay so good evening everybody School Board the council school
081board members president uh Patrick Ewing president Brandon Ewing and everybody Waukegan Knights my name is Diana byerga I'm the mother of Sir Ian Leroy he is an awesome eighth grader and on April 2nd we are going to light it up blue the partner uh part of me the Waukegan Public Library is sponsoring this event I had this Vision to create awareness and enhance awareness for autism in a community we're gonna have some food I'm just gonna read the fryer real quick Light It Up Blue Autism Awareness fundraiser hosted by Diana Gallego resident Advocate and Mom on April 2nd from 5 to 8 PM join us for food drinks Raffles and a student art show local support groups and social service agencies will also be on hand to share information there's no admission for this great
082cause the funds will uh funds raise will be used to create an accessibility collection of learning materials and sensory friendly tools it will also allow us to remodel a kids meeting room into a friendly Chill Zone for students and families so like um a therapy a sensory room you know a Chill Zone where they can have a space to just be free and be themselves for many years I'll just share a little bit of my story with sir Ian I know everyone is pretty much uh you know no sir Ian um love them to life he's a great young man he is thriving very well shout out to Mr Eduardo cesarios I love you Dr Eduardo Rosario's you're very always Hands-On whenever I reach out and I appreciate you for that um sir Ian is
083what they his IEP would read non-verbal but he does have verbs words and the library has been a place where he goes and um they know him the staff Miss uh Mr Patrick there's they have a great new director Miss Tiffany awesome uh lady uh Miss Jennifer has been knowing us for years along with some other team members Ruby who used to actually be his um para in the special uh recreational camp so this is a great cause I know I emailed it to you Mr Brandon I send it um you know I would really love for you guys to come out show your support and again all the proceeds are going to be going right back into the public library for uh people and persons with autism so that they can use these materials
084on loans some of these items are a little expensive and I know for me and Sir Ian uh sir Ian and I I'll buy something he might be interested he might not and autism is different for everybody you know it doesn't look the same like just because you know a person one shot with autism you really just know that one child it's different it's a big Spectrum as Serena is doing great you see sometimes he got up you know he had a little bit of words Outburst but it's okay they're part of the community and when we're able to know what it looks like we can be more compassionate as a community and and you know let them know that they're welcome and not you know maybe be staring or thinking hey what song that
085that uh child is like inappropriate no it's a sensory overload and it can be a number of other things so I appreciate you for hearing me out and now come on it's your turn next name is Sir Ian Leroy all right [Applause] okay here you go oh wait first of all what is your name join us on what is your name sir Ian how old 40 years old I go to school what's the name your new school new school cash it cash at school yes yes yes yes join us on April the 2nd to light it's uh blue let's celebrate together plus I P.S I don't have a distract despicability I have a different ability [Applause] everybody let's put your hands together and grab hooray [Applause] thank you all right okay I listen let's see
086if there's all distracted autism United States United States some characters of a person with the artistic differences challenge challenge and social and success inside three three it's some kids my seat a person respects it and three Behavior but it's okay okay but it's right because yeah if you oh you are for me he promised [Applause] so he's he's come a mighty long way any of you all lovely people I mean miss Catherine there's many of you all who have watched sir Ian grow even in the audience he's come a mighty long way and it takes a lot of factors from the library School teachers administrators um Community Church members uh you know bus drivers uh people at Jewel the people through the drive through and you know um we just have to keep on advocating
087for all children again it's not just about Sir Ian it's about all the children obviously inspired by my son and for me I'm just gonna keep on you know keeping on and uh fighting this good fight for uh children their education love spread love peace and joy and that's just the main thing all right so now Miss Jennifer so let's say something please very briefly yeah um uh you know what I just want to say he has come a long way and I also would like to give kudos to an advocate of yours that helped you with this Dr harleen Shipley and would love to give her accolades in your journey with your son sorry yeah harleen Shipley uh Dr Waddell Kirkwood and Shira shorts have all three been major pieces in my son's uh
088you know active uh advocated with me so yeah absolutely absolutely thank you yeah and uh Miss Jennifer if you will state your full name for the record Jennifer Cordova Cordova I knew that all right uh and if uh whenever you start speaking your time will begin hello everyone my name is Jennifer Cordova Communications and community outreach manager at the Waukegan Public Library we are really thrilled to have this event in partnership with Diana here at the library you know we're going to start a new strategic plan and one of those is having more accessibility to all in Waukegan so we really hope you can come out Diana will be passing around flyers and um it does come in um our newsletter right here something I want to talk to everyone about is the library plus
089connect Lake County I don't know if anyone knows but connect Lake County we are Partners partnering with them to distribute devices that the library received with grant funding Chromebooks laptops and tablets are available for free for those who qualify and do not have a computer at home so everyone in Waukegan all you need is a library card and you can have a tablet laptop or Chromebook with internet hookup for free at the library connect Waukegan is at the library on Mondays Wednesdays and Fridays from 10 to 1 pm and on Wednesdays from three to five all you need is your library card and it is free of service we hope you can all join us on Sunday April 2nd from five to eight Diana will be passing out flyers thank you thank you thank you
090thank you [Applause] all right the next names in order are ghouls Granda jermell Pope Anthony McIntyre and Saul Corrales yeah for sure so uh they're leaving stacks of the flyers in the back for anyone who wants to grab it on that table all right if we can get six minutes on the clap to allow for translation and Miss gronda whenever you uh start speaking your time will begin so um I'm gonna be reading she's gonna be reading parts of the letter in Spanish can we restart police interpreting in English Mr White sorry they haven't begun yet she was just giving us okay you changed it okay when noches School is Middle School foreign good afternoon members of the tonight I am here to bring forward to you some um worries which focus on the deficient
091communication that we have um here with the parents in the school John Lewis Middle School on behalf of the administrators Escuela Ocho de Mars okay so in the parent and student handbook of Rights and responsibilities on page 18 it says the expectation of the administrator to notify immediately if there is a condition that exists that could affect the health or the security of the students in the school on March 8 2023 the school had a threat that would have caused harm to the school Middle School notifications respondero so the same threat was received at the Brookside um campus and the principal there did notify a day beforehand which I think is correct but a John Lewis Middle School um they did not notify us until the end of the school day um and even then
092I did send out an email to all of you sitting up there as well as the principals and they did not respond Tepe is expectation so the only person that responded was Miss TP and I do ask all of you what importance is this manual for all of you since you are the ones that approve it I meet the expectations my children meet the expectations but what is going on with the administrators sentido is important so it doesn't make sense um don't give this a handbook if the principles are not meeting with the expectations and it's not clear to me if this handbook really is important tampoco gregar Senora is and I would also like to add that Mr EC also did not respond to my email and you are probably asking so if the
093if the um if the woman or if the Mrs is not happy um it would bother her well of course it would it would make me mad because nobody is listening or taking into account this book I think that's a good communication with the parents makes all of the difference with the students and it makes things a lot better oh we joking yes so I do want the best for all of the students at John Lewis Middle School I am very tired of seeing all of these fights that are going on and I would like to ask for all of you to explain to me what is your each of your function and what are you representing to the community of Waukegan Public Schools and also to the two individuals that responded to my email
094saying that I am bullying I am not bullying I am only worried um and do not tell me that you are scared of me coming here to make a public comment thank you time gracias thank you [Applause] is really important I know I'm out of order but can just real quick like one minute not even um so we're accepting our work from any of the children on a diverse level in schools so like I said if they want to turn it into the Milwaukee Public Library there's a number there so any Educators if your children in a special education department having hard work they could turn it in okay sorry thank you it's important but I want to be respectful to everybody else's time um and I'm sorry the the Jamil Pope was next then
095Anthony McIntyre and saw uh Corrales uh and Mr Pope whenever you start speaking your time will begin all right um I had a little speech to put together but I uh decided not to read it uh I'm coming to the board on behalf as a guardian of James Doherty um situations keep and I apologize uh we haven't started time I forgot to mention I asked that we do not mention student or staff names I know that this is your student but I would uh I wouldn't mention this name or if you could refrain from mentioning the student name for privacy reasons well I'm on half of my nephew um I'm coming because uh it'll come to my attention several times where the safety officers at the facility are not using that CPI training as they're
096supposed to use when um having escalated situations they're not de-escalating situations on behalf of my nephew where he was choked and picked up off the ground and then slammed To The Ground by four different officials of your staff kind of made me kind of feel like he's 120 pound less than 120 pound individual why to take four people to choke him and slam him to the ground and escalate the situation further after it had already been de-escalated and he had already calmed down it was already in the office under the supervision of those staff members but he still was choked and slammed to the ground and yet and still was expelled from school and moved to another school for the purpose of the incident that happened that they escalated him to do on top of
097that with the CBI training that they're giving I was questioning questioning the principal about it and she and herself at the time admitted that he was lifted off the ground at the same time would not give any reprimand to the individual that did it or wouldn't give any statement to the fact that they did it for the assistant principal to do that and that's why I become to this meetings because normally I don't come in these board meetings but when it involves my nephew being slammed to the ground it's better me come here than me sawing it myself because I feel that it's very disrespectful before you take 125 or and slam them to the ground especially as my nephew so on on behalf of that and behalf of his other Guardians auntie I came
098up here to tell you guys that you guys need to investigate the situation you need to look into the situation further and stop just throwing it on the rug because these kids are being heard in school because individuals are getting upset not just me as a parent but other parents are getting upset other kids being beat down by by safety officers protect them and if they can't get protection then what's the point of them being there if they're not being protected so I'm asking you guys to investigate situation like this further in order to discipline those or reprimand those or get rid of those that are doing these actions because these actions are ridiculous there's no reason for kids to be beat down when they have enough problems dealing with teams on the streets at
099home and it's for as far as my nephew's concerned he was dealing with something that the school wouldn't even help him with counseling with even though we filled out the paperwork to help his mother passed last year right before the school year started we asked for help there was no help given the paperwork was filling out no help was given so why are these programs put in play and money give into these programs if they don't give any help like we're just waiting on a chance for someone to help if the school says they wants to help then let them help if you're not going to help then tell us you're not going to help don't just sit there and lie to us every board meeting or every newsletter you put out and tell us
100that you're going to do something because eventually parents going to stand up for their own kids and that's not going to be good for the school board at all so I'm asking y'all respectfully to look into these situations thank you thank you very much I am the advocate for the student that you guys were just hearing about um the situation with this kid is is just insulting it's just bad to have a person who has his mother died at a very early age and to get no supports in the school is sickening um it's not okay um it seems like there's a picking and choosing of those who receive assistance and it's not it's not okay um I I tend to hear a lot these days about how strongly I advocate on behalf of these
101students if I was an attorney they probably would call me a staunch Advocate and it would be a compliment but for whatever reason as I advocate on behalf of students I'm the boogeyman um well it's going to be a lot of nightmares because I'm not going to stop it's the right thing to do the kids need the advocates in the wealthier communities these are just normal things to have happen on another subject because Mr Pope spoke very well so I don't need to go too much deeper into it this seems to be an attack on black women in this school district staff members I feel it I'm not just talking off the top of my head right now it's coming to me from more and more black women in the district who feel under attack
102unappreciated disrespected and if I happen to be the person that they come to to speak on their defense to speak on their behalf I'm going to do it for those people who mistake me as the person who only speaks for students I don't care who it is if you come to me with a problem and you don't feel like your voice is being heard I'm going to speak up that's not just specific to black women right now I'm talking about black women across this District School teachers doesn't make a difference to me social workers safety officers whoever you are there is an undercurrent in this district there are people who are sick and tired I don't know if y'all could hear what Mr Pope was just saying there are people who are sick and tired
103and at what point in time does this board recognize that this starts at the top this is an election season right now we have three board members up for their seats well miss Wozniak isn't coming back by choice and we need to address this so I'm telling you the current culture in this District starts with the superintendent because it seems like everybody else is following her lead and I just wonder when you all will pay attention thank you Mr Corrales whenever you start speaking your time will begin how y'all doing my name is Mr crowleys I'm here to represent my kid I've been having a lot of issues I already raised the bar with the superintendent and Brookside campus about safety concerns you know we told about it next week happens that same month people
104are getting flagged down you can't drop your kid off here they got cops on the road on Brookside scandalous you know but I let him know um anyways I had an issue same issue with a security guard asked for a video I had my son was in it got treated a certain way in passing period go this way go this way in passing period right got treated a certain way these security guards you know it's like and then I go up to them take the time of my day come to the Lincoln Center try to talk to the superintendent again you know try to do things the right way sometimes you know but things ain't working um but anyways now that I got the attention I'm gonna go off subject a little bit it's a
105lot of things going on around here we're being attacked in a lot of certain angles ain't no more covet no more so what they gonna use next they're going to shut the school down they got lockdown right schools get locked down kids can't even have the time to ask the girl for a prom date hey get a class let me see your ID you know where's the social they talk about all these programs all this stuff you know all this money that they want to come in but ain't nothing happening why because the kids don't want to come to school look in the morning how long that line is look like a concentration camp sad sad right okay what are they teaching I wonder what they're teaching in China right tick tock right different over
106here huh wanna wanna want to take it out why because it's exposing everything it's not because they want it because they got on our information they already know who we are they're exposing them at the same time my conclusion not every kid's gonna graduate not every person is going to go to heaven because there's a choice that we got in life everybody wants to pray and say things we've seen sad things today things get real when somebody passes away I'm here live today I'm alive I feel good I'm not here to talk negative I'm Waukegan I always said it's my third time coming here why because I need the attention of Tony Sanders Mr Sanders what's up man you just got in Illinois state board that's why I want to bring my attention to this
107school in Brookside just take a look how sad the hallways look I went to school to pick up my son to deal with that situation I'm walking around nobody's laughing nobody's giggling nothing sad but what am I here to say just you know it's my last time I'm gonna be here one thing we have a choice we aren't all going to heaven thank you Mr Corrales next names are Calvin Mathis rayon Edwards and Victor Felix uh in that order oh so Mr Mathis Mr Edwards Mr Felix whenever you start speaking Miss math is your time again okay well Mr Ewing I was just thinking have you ever been robbed you ever had that emotion after you've been robbed you're just angry you want to fight you know and that's what I feel like these children
108are going through they've been robbed and then we turn around and blame them because they want to fight because they've been robbed been robbed of a good education a good environment that's what they're talking about here these kids are in a bad environment you can't learn if you see in a fight in the CL in the hallway if you subject to a fight that's a bad environment just in general you you can't even get off the ground and then and worse than that the data indicates that the kids majority looked like to me as we say not College ready or that fancy terms we use but you can't read to the aptitude of what they should be sir Ian did you see that Joy when he read well there was no anger there if you
109read it brings Joy me this and we can't even do the basics here but black abolition movement for the mind we're not about just talking about problems we're about talking about Solutions in a solution that I have is to build a better environment start there the environment is bad now uh corrected you Mr Ewing last time you know you misunderstood me when I was talking about the building and you you were and I thank you for that feedback you know that's what communication is at the end I stay to the end but I wasn't saying patch up the buildings I'm saying tearing them down these buildings are too old for modern day things that are happening in the world you're not going to be able to compete if you don't have the infrastructure and you're
110not teaching the kids what they're in what's in store for them in the coming years the technology is all about is changing faster than you can blink an eye where did you get the money at that's the big one that's the one you mentioned you would love to have the money to do that well the first thing you got to do is propose oh the money is there you got this is one of the biggest recruiting places there is from the federal government for the military I'm sure it is in the state of Illinois ask them for a little money you got the state and of course you get my tax dollars so be creative think outside the box but that's what the problem if you want to just start the solution is terrorists these
111buildings down build a whole new one look at what they're doing in North Chicago right across City Hall that's what I'm talking about you've got to have a good environment thank you thank you Miss Mathis I don't normally always think before I speak but I've been kind of irritated all day right and I don't want to take it out on nobody Mr Grimes thank you for all that you you do thank you for being willing to help bam but I say to y'all we pay bam too much money for them to be disturbed and our teachers asking for help remember they was the professionals they don't know how to recruit no kids in the building that where they where it's kids everywhere you telling me they can't recruit them are you kidding me that's bad
112y'all Mr McIntyre said it's an attack on black women in the district it's even one on I only black woman board member and it's disturbing to me that I still haven't seen the statement being made that a board member is being named in a lawsuit when there's seven board members and don't tell me oh it's in the court and we got to let the lawyers handle it cause some things just common sense and so when we say that the community needs to stick together that's kind of hard for y'all to say when y'all ain't even sticking together because I ain't seen no support we're talking about black women being attacked well I don't know if anybody know it and I ain't gonna even say no school but at one of the middle schools a Latino
113woman slammed a knife down in front of a black woman another black woman go and do a conversation and she was suspended yesterday without pay mind you this black woman that's been in our district for over 10 years and not one right up you telling me there's no difference here I'm sorry y'all but enough is enough you see the parent come up in here tonight very angry I'm telling y'all some things that's happening and y'all not even paying attention and as a God that identified with the lgbtq community whatever letters it is sometimes I'm confused right I'm okay with some things being talked but we are infringed on the rights of parents when we put that into grade schools in them junior high schools you ain't putting no statue up in there with no human
114hanging with no thing they ain't able to see that we took church out of the schools for a reason because there was a difference of opinions y'all better be mindful I'm telling you what I know you're gonna open the door for something that you're not even ready for that's right we don't have social workers y'all cause you're not paying enough money and the ones we got all of them ain't even qualified we need help thank you Mr Edwards and it's the correct title Alderman elect Felix all right congratulations sir and uh whenever you start talking your time will begin okay so uh today I'm representing a non-frofit organization called community outreach Waukegan we're actually going to have a job fair this weekend on Saturday and the reason I wanted to mention it today is because
115um we're gonna have Six Flags so they hire 15 plus which is good because not not all of our children do Sports let's keep them busy make sure they're out of the streets especially in the summer and Starbucks is going to be there as well so we're going to be offering jobs they're going to be offering jobs as well so uh part of um you know going against gang violence and you know let's keep our kids busy you know please take them you know they're going to be offering jobs for the for the for the Youth also adults you know they're going to be offering jobs for adults for people that need them employment so I want to make sure I mention that we also at Community are we talking and we also have a
116youth group that uh helps our teens develop uh we you know take them to the coroner's office we they actually help organize these job fairs and men they get the ability to speak to business owners and develop themselves as a young students and this is for anyone any color any you know it doesn't matter English Spanish it's for the community um I do want to mention that you know Brandon mentioned how much how how can we get more involved with our organizations that are currently there there's a lot of organizations that are doing a lot of good things um you know I didn't want to mention a few uh like uh Angels boxing Academy I was a coach there before they helped the youth part of boxing is not learning how to fight but also
117how to discipline yourself as a person not to fight um there is Uma centers they do a lot of help they help a lot with education as well with the people that are not going to be able to graduate they'll help them get their their high school diploma and also for the Hispanic community that are don't have the time to teach their kids Spanish they also offer Spanish classes because we don't want to make sure that you know they they don't forget the the language also vertical encounter their Church in Waukegan that uh also have a lot of programs especially for the Youth keep them busy communities Waukegan also um they you guys are able to reach out for us for any kind of violence School violence and outside of violence because we help out
118with that as well um our number is 877-523-0061 I am running for Alderman in the fourth ward so feel free to reach out to me my name is Victor Felix part of one of the things that I a simple fix in our community is that if you see a light bulb that is not working in your community please let us know let me know easy fix lighting helps prevent against violence as well as visibilities out there so again thank you feel it next three names are Clyde needs are the final names on the last Clive McLemore the Nella Villarreal and brother blanks in that order I think Clyde Clyde left Mr McLemore left so uh Miss villaril and brother blinks time again whenever you start speaking Miss villarreau Senora it's typical okay no response they
119mean I will not apologize John Lewis said speak up speak out get in the way get in good trouble necessary trouble and help redeem the soul of America ruido continuous estate distrito in literasgo can we pause Villarreal if you need I didn't know if you were going to be translating if you want to do your remarks totally in Spanish I would then bring up a translator and you would get six minutes so are you going to do self-translation and get that all in three minutes or were you going to do your entire remarks in Spanish that's why I stopped the cup translate okay so if we can get six minutes on the clock and if we can have a translator come to the podium please and Miss Villarreal I know you have written remarks so
120I'm going to ask that you start uh from the top so you get the full time sometimes you have to make noise and be impactful to make noise the district keeps failing and Leadership your data is not exact Los estudiantes your students are throughout the building not in classes some of them are the same students every day La sistencia in Una taranza the assistance will not will not show that because it is changed into a tardy explicas consequences there is a lack of expectations and consequences and it is noted when it is um the same students every day we do ask for help but it doesn't come the teachers are always being threatened all of the time one moment oh insulted and threatened no estamos agudos is we are not safe in our um in
121our places and in our hallways the students come to me to tell me about the fights that are not um looked upon and then and they tell me that they are scared I peleas there are fights going on all the time this causes uh stress and causes anxiety the students are always vaping in the classes how can you uh affirm that that this is important to you foreign you talk a lot but you don't do a lot of things the teachers are giving um grades but they are not learning skills is very embarrassing what is also very embarrassing is the discrimination skip that is perpetuado El estado actually is antes Saki since you since you arrived here you have removed the administration the teachers and the discipline you have perpetuated the actual estate we will
122have a great plan one which in few words will be the same that we had before you had come before you had come here however even after you leave what will be left behind will be our students and staff um after your consequences please vote on April 4th one two and four we need a change so I say to you don't give up don't give up on the things that have great meaning to you don't get lost in a sea of Despair stand up for what you believe in because we are one people one family the Human family we all live in one house the American house the world house we are black we are white hispanic Asian American Native American We Are One People John Lewis thank you Mr the real final name on
123the list is brother blinks okay brother blanks black abolition movement from the mind sometimes referred to as bam and I hear a lot of people say bam and that's not to be confused for the becoming a man that is in the school district this is black abolition movement for the mind just wanted to make that uh clear um also Mr Grimes I heard you speak of the faith faith initiative I mean the faith-based council I think one of the solutions as we speak a solution is to I don't know what happened to it let's start it back up let me know what you need to support to make that happen because it was working it was effective last but not least let's do it here at this mic four months ago and I brought it
124to everybody's attention about the issues that was going on in the uh the issues that was going on in the human resource department at that particular time I named the head of the department I'll refrain from doing that at this point in time however at that time I asked you guys and I asked you all to seriously take a look into the issues Ed the human resource department apparently we still have issues there so today I'm not asking you all to take a look into it superintendent board members I'm demanding on black abolition I'm demanding on behalf of black abolition movement for the mind we're demanding a change immediate change at the top of the human resource department we cannot we would not take no point else on that too many problems been happening so
125I asked you four months ago I'm standing here tonight we're still human we're still hearing issues on that so apparently the only way that issue is going to be solved is that there is a change at the top in the human resource office as no taking the woman thank you brother blinks um this concludes our public comment um I do thank you for all of those remarks it was lengthy but it also underscores the amount of interest and the care from the community I do want to say that you were heard one thing that I also want to repeat uh as a board member has often reminded me is one of the other things John Lewis had is is you you yell so loud I don't hear what you're saying um and so I think
126oftentimes we need to uh talk to each other is because what I know from every person that sits on this board is they do care um I've served with these individuals most of which for at least I mean at least uh two years um some more so we all want to see Solutions and we want to see this District changed and and for the better so the superintendent took studious notes and I'm sure that we will be coming back to address these issues so thank you for all of those who spoke uh it is nine o'clock we do have important information to get through um what I'm going to do is try and ask because I did not receive um any real questions outside of some communication things so I'm hoping Board of Education that
127we're able to get through the business of the board because we do not have a very extensive agenda um so there are no academic items we have the consent agenda on the higher operations any board member can vote on any item separately are there any letters that we'd like to um hold out and I do apologize I did get one question so that's why I don't want to hold any questions out I just would like to see I'm sorry that when the um uh cois come in that the name on the COI matches the name of the organization it it's not good practice that they don't could you tell us the CEO um Certificate of Insurance sure that's right yes we're asking for certificates of insurance and I know as a businesswoman that if I
128don't have all my T's crossed and eyes dotted they will not let us in that building to do to deliver a package so I we need to have those individual or those organizations make sure they have everything aligned perfect so if we're not holding any of those items out then we are looking for approval for items 11 a through e do we have a motion and make a motion that we approve uh the uh consent agenda as um as it is presented thank you Miss Adam motion second by Miss Gonzalez uh seeing as there were no questions uh roll call all yeah roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Callan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes items approved motion carries I'll read those into the record uh
12911 a approval facility rental waiver request by Jocelyn B approval facility rental waiver request for community outreach Waukegan see approval of ADA signage purchase and installation the approval purchase of teacher desk for Jack Benny middle school and e-approval purchase the cafeteria tables for client magnet school we have item 13A Personnel for 314 2023 the recommendation at the Board of Education except the administration's recommendation to approve the appointment's retirement and accept the resignations leave of absence as found on schedules at 997-0944 g655 and n796 Mr riddle I so move that we approve this item as read by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second second by Miss Gonzalez any comments or questions on the motion Mr riddle yes Miss Callan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes item approved
130motion carries we now have 16-a the ratification of the first processing of March 2023 for a request manual check payments and Old National insurance payments for the period of February 22nd 2023 through March 7 2023. it is the recommendation of the administration at the Board of Education ratified the first processing of board of bills for February 2023 and manual check request payments and Old National Bank insurance payments for the period of February 22 through 2023 through March 7 2023 the accounts payable board February 8 2023 through February 21st 2023 Pavements total one million 462 970.40 the Mayo check request payments for the period of February 22nd 2023 through March 7 2023 total 572 664. 40 cents though National Bank insurance payments for the period of February 22nd 2023 through March 7 2023 total 2 million
131one hundred twenty two thousand seven hundred fifty five dollars and ninety seven cents um do we have a motion Mr riddle I'll make a motion that we approve the item is read by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second second by Miss Hannah any comments questions roll call Mr riddle yes Miss Callan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes I am approved motion carries um I am going to ask unfortunately that we do you have a superintendent support thank you yeah it's 9 10 what was uh um because I know we asked for that updated report at our student achievement I am going to ask that we hold and presenting that to student achievement yes ma'am all right so we have those three um items uh we do
132have our information I don't know for a report is there for review we do have old business these are second readings um we did get some Community feedback but we did not get any board member questions uh I keep coming you gave comments um where Miss Gonzalez's comments implemented or were you looking for direction Ms vanderbrook uh gave me feedback there weren't there were not changes that were made to the policies based on the comments I did explain uh to miss Gonzalez why the language was what the language was so at this point I don't know Miss Gonzalez if you are still requesting further modification um in those policies that can be discussed with the board and we'll take the direction of the board so uh Miss Gonzalez for the entire board what were your
133recommended tire boarding Community what were your recommended changes for 60 26 the CFS interviews I had asked if we could consider language around providing interpreters or anything related to translation services General counsels um feedback was that you know that are in our translation services aren't um specific to the language around DCFS interviews um I would kind of push back on that but if there was some way that we could communicate to the agencies that are requesting to meet with students that they have a disability that they have a you know they they only understand sign language or their Spanish speakers or you know Tagalog like whatever the case may be in case that you know they they may not know um right obviously that's not the responsibility solely about of the district but of the
134agency requesting to me with the student but that was one of my comments and then the second suggestion that I had made was around um immediately notifying the parent if the parent didn't question or is not a subject in question in relation to the investigation um and then that raised issues in regards to you know alerting adults that may be in the student's life who are abusive or negligent but I think if we're taking if a third party is taking a student out of the classroom a guardian needs to know from my perspective that's up to the discretion of the board that's right though and I guess unless that Guardian is the one that's named right and and there's language around if it's not that person yeah yeah it's because that's yeah I won't I
135won't believe at that point so uh the request is that we look at adding language related to um making sure that we inform DTF interviewers of students language either I don't want to use the term disabilities but I'm going with barrier barriers is this the concurrence of the board that this is something that we would like uh included uh in the policy I would like to look at look at it so we're not going to approve it tonight right I mean again she uh Miss Vandenberg brought it back we have one board member that made suggestions so policy would dictate that looking for concurrence so if board is saying that this is something that we would like to incorporate then it would come back as a third reading with the election I think I would
136like to look at it and because I I concur with what Miss Gonzalez is saying you know so the only thing I can add is I've not been apprised that DCFS workers are not aware of that when it is applicable the only thing I'm aware of or that is ever come to my attention is if they haven't been able to have an interpreter present with them for some point in time but it's not been an issue in rescheduling those to the best of my knowledge and belief so then there's little or limited risk to us added in a policy is that a I'd rather have it in there if we we already do that right the issue with putting it in the policy is if the individual who files the report does not know whether
137there is that communication limitation Sometimes they come to the district without District staff making that call frequently I don't know the frequency but that certainly can happen so they just show up and so what I don't want to do is put our staff in a position of violating a board policy potentially when they don't have that information I do believe and if any of the administrators have any further information please speak up that that I I've not heard that there are any issues that have been occurring in the building with the ability to communicate and get the interview information they need with the students so that would just be my caution but it I mean under rules and regulations that would be able to be incorporated okay it you know I mean I I I
138understand exactly what you're saying and um furthermore DCFS is somewhat uh they're Limited anyway in dealing with things that go on in the schools even though I don't agree with that but um but it it could go in under the rules and the regulations and you know so you know we don't we don't own this off right the the staff right but it's still incorporated into the uh content of that policy and for the sake of time I think um I think what makes Gonzalez are saying is we speak through policy and so it can go into regs that is 100 appropriate but we want to make sure that the the well the board is reflected through policy at this point we have the recommendation um we do have I know Miss Hannah Miss Gonzalez
139said that they would agree um I will just get consensus Mr riddle clarification of what the recommendation is the recommendation that's being asked is to clarify the policy that we notify DCFS if there is a language if we can't consideration yeah if there's liability issues of owning it they shouldn't be informed that this these are the needs of our students and and uh and even before that it I mean if we are going to deal with DCFS okay these are our our students okay and we should set forth what that third party can and cannot do in the school with our students and so to uh basically send out a memo to DCFS and let them know that this is what we're going to do that that that's not science Miss Wozniak how often is
140dcsf coming into the district once a week once a month I don't have that information and he's an interview so these aren't necessarily related information yeah these aren't just related to I don't think they heard School related events right so the interview may be taking oh I know I understand what I understand that they but are they coming I'd like to know how often this yeah so that is a like to know if we can um just generate that report um okay so yeah we can look into it got you you know there's we're still discussing this right uh I'm looking for consensus so if okay either support bringing it back or no um we can bring it back that's not bringing it out I'm looking at consensus Miss Hannah to instruct Miss Vanderbilt because
141if there's not a majority that believes that this should be added we don't want to instruct staff to expend their time yeah board president I hate to mention this but there wasn't there was a um the Community member that that had some critique of this um and and I looked through what those recommendations were in that very last line about check-in she had a question on the form you know the it said you know Kathy I miss vanderbrook it says on the very last line there that on a form to be provided by the office of the general council do you know where I'm talking about that last paragraph on check-in yes that she said that that's supporting that do we have that form is it available in the district the form that we have
142um that's being referenced there um I believe um when I'm gonna make sure I'm talking about the right form okay ready to check in at the very last page please check in the last line if student is to be interviewed not pre-arranged principal is to be notified certification that information is necessary shall be requested of the investigator on a form to be provided by the office of general counsel that was the part that she was recommending to strike so what I what I what we what we have in place is a process whereby when they come in for investigations DCFS investigators and staff are concerned about protecting their confidentiality because of the sensitive nature and sometimes very emotional um in nature of the business that they do so we have an agreement with them that
143we have a running list of who are authorized individuals from DCFS that we check their IDs against right the form that we're talking about is if we are going to release student record information the school student record acts would say we can do that without parent consent as long as they certify they need it for their official business um and and that it is is tied to That official business so that's what that form is and they do have that form and you have that for the schools have that form yes oh okay great that's what I want to make sure all right then I have no issue with this um so I'm fine with the current policy are you agreeing with Miss Gonzalez recommendation I'm fine with Mrs well actually I I guess I'm
144I'm more with Kathy I would have thought that we should leave it on the agency if they but but this this puts the pressure on on the school then to notify if they have a student that needs translation or is disabled then you would have thought that DCFS would bring the proper you know credentials I I don't know if we should lay it on the school when we put it in the policy I think General counselor was saying then now we're laying that responsibility on the school to do that that's why it goes into rules and regs yes and not so much the policy yeah but we don't do this in rigs in the rules and regulations that the rules and regs still apply to staff and are still looked at in terms of Staff
145compliance with the directions and procedures I guess I don't want to get staff in trouble if we have a special needs student or we need something you know and the investigator comes in and oh my gosh this student only speaks Spanish you didn't tell us that and now we've got District not following policy okay so let me get consensus versus debating this right now so Mr McBride Mr McBride to me it's a no-brainer uh that uh if somebody from DV DCF comes in here and we got a student that has some kind of disability especially they just say bilingual we should have somebody to sit in that room with DCFS to uh help them intermediate help them intermed which we wouldn't be doing Mr McBride but we would be notifying the agency that they need
146somebody that they need to do because our staff might not be available and we our staff doesn't have like the translation capacity what's the problem we put it in the policy but if before they get here we know that we just called them and tell them so you agree with Miss Gonzalez just let them know and then they they should take care of it right yeah okay let's see I guess I go with Kathy's I I just say because we know our students the best or we should and we just say hey keep this in mind that you're like talking to our student in this capacity you need to be prepared absolutely right to accommodate them anyway right okay so pause uh I want to have a clarification go ahead Miss vanderbrook if it's something
147you'd like to add so I was asked to make a clarification DCFS comes to us sometimes when we call when we call I suspect I don't have first-hand knowledge that we are making that known right that the student speaks Spanish perfect as long it right though but there are many times DCFS comes and we haven't contacted them and when they when that is learned and I do believe they're asking and are saying they need an interpreter do you have an interpreter if they let us know ahead of time that they're coming which is our preference and our preferences also if it's not immediate investigation that these interviews are taking place outside of the school day so that we're not interrupting instructions so um you know okay as I said it is it is the board
148it's the boards why can't we just send a letter to them letting them know that this is what we're gonna do I mean yeah it's not about that I think right now what we want to do is just get the board concerns is that we want to add it to the policy so I wanted to add it to the policy thank you Miss Hannah Miss Wozniak yes please add it to this house okay all right consensus thank you all right um yes all right so that is majority so then we have uh 19. I have a comment about two it was very small go ahead uh 19B UH 60 31 administering medication to students this one um toward the end of the policy there's language around parents absolutely have you know their primary care for
149the student they can administer medication without us giving them permission per se um as a student's Guardian but there was language around um if if they're administrating medication on school grounds to have it be with the knowledge of the school nurse and I just I didn't it was unclear whether like the parent or the guardian has to notify the nurse and then do it or have the help of the nurse or supervision of the nurse so just to say oh you know make the nurse aware that medication has been administered so there's no I think there was like a verb or an adjective missing there I don't know sorry it usually historically the parrot would notify the nurse and if just say if the parent came in right to administer the medication they would then
150go to the nurse nurse's office and do it in the nurse's office it's not like they can go to the classroom or in the hallway they have to go in the nurse's office okay well I think that needs to be specified there because the way that it's written with knowledge of the school nurse it made it seem like the school nurse has to be a part of it uh if the current process Miss vanderbrook is that it be administered in the nurse's office no I'll have to check with Ms Dobbs we weren't able to touch base this this inquiry came in yesterday so perfect so that information has been provided um if there are no objections we'll bring those back both back for third readings um we have new business um this was policy 5201
151related to curriculum policy 5233 Library material section due to the time I do want to make sure we got this on the agenda Mr hinojosa and this was to address some of the comments and recommendations that have been put forth by our student board member uh related to um exploring upgrades to to this policy which would address things similar to anti-book Banning uh in District 60 and language around um how we make sure that we are inclusive of our lgbtq Plus uh communities and so um we do understand the difference of opinions on the issues uh my stance is that we want to be reaffirming to all students and we do have LGBT plus Q Plus students in our schools and so we want to make sure that we are providing diverse curriculum um and
152and are putting that out explicitly so that is my opinion I cannot say that that is the opinion of the board but the way that we speak is through policy and because our student board member was the one who made the recommendation again I don't see this student board member role as symbolic this is supposed to be us being reflective and listening to and including the voice of our student board member there was a recommendation to consider uh putting these in um what was it the Miss Gonzalez helped me out there was maybe a recommendation to run this through the oh the equity Equity advisor Council committee and we can talk about what this looks like but I did want to um I did want to make sure that we were calling it out to
153make sure our student board member as well as community members know that we are bringing that issue forward I did want to have some conversation uh but due to the time um I'm going to ask that we uh Mr hanahosa actually has drafted um want me to say it or no my name is yeah so um I think at our next board meeting we can a bug where is it Amazon yes all right thank you Miss Lindsay all right so we have that we are now at board member time all right so we are at board member time um what I want to do is um to do I'll start uh this way with Miss Gonzalez um I'm I'm gonna just go down the line of meetings that I've had that I think um have
154just been very influential to me the past two weeks um a lot of what I've been talking about with um different folks is often related to Invisible work um I'm not a very loud person I'm not extroverted I can be if I'm required to be um but a lot of board work isn't sexy it's not it's literally going through things and and giving instructions so that people do what they need to do and that's what I care about the most up here um but you know it's not like we publicize those things so um you know on the first we had our Equity advisory council meeting uh later that uh Monday the following Monday last week I met with Victor to talk about his policy recommendations the very next day we had our anti-boasting committee
155meeting and we went through examples of what could qualify as bullying or what we need more information on to the cases that we were looking at the next day after that we had our Lakes division meeting and what would have been our Waukegan schools Foundation meeting and then the the next Thursday was our PTAC meeting and then Friday morning before I started work I did my first board reprimand with a student who has incredible potential Mr Dupuy would say that and all the people who were part of that meeting but that moved me in such a way that made me realize that like we really just need to connect with students and the more that we talk at them instead of with them and we scold them and we yell at them which is part
156of the reason why we were so upset this past week with some of the communication that went out from the schools it's like you're only going to provoke them more that doesn't condone any of the actions that the students have been making um and and I don't at all wish you know the culture of the school to remain the way that it is things need to change but we need to meet them halfway and if we treat them like adults and talk to them like adults I think that our students would perform and we'd see a change um just yesterday I met with some old teachers I I won't say no previous teachers former teachers um and and they talked about how this transition has been hard for them they they've gone through so many
157phases of restructuring and they keep reiterating as long as well as other staff that communication is the most difficult thing and it's like well if we can't even communicate internally and externally with our partners how do we expect to reach our kids like absolutely that are learning how to communicate themselves with older adults so I I just want to put that out there that you know we can't respond to everything that doesn't mean that we're not we don't care and that we're not hearing you guys out it's just that some things have to get done and that that part is the gritty work um and we need to do a little bit of everything in order to get this done um so yeah I I just wanted to put that out there I mean we've
158done more than volunteer our time and I've I've put myself in the running for certain things that just haven't gotten done and and I want to trust that the administration can handle it but there's also people that want to help and I don't think that we should be butting heads if people are giving feedback that really needs to happen in the schools that's all that's the riddle right um as Mrs Gonzalez says we've been busy as a board um many of us are on committees different committees Ms Hannah and I are on the wellness committee as as one of the Committees we're on we've had meetings just about every Monday we met on the 6th of March we met again uh this past Monday yesterday um I wanted to thank um our student board member
159Victor hinojosa who I reached out to him because our board felt that we our Wellness committee needed some student representation so I reached out to him and the very next day he was able to get me not just two names we wanted one student from each campus he was able to get me four names two names plus two alternates if in case those children those students weren't interested and very quickly we reached out to those students um Ashley Velasquez at Washington campus and Mr Hannah Espinoza from Brookside campus and both of them readily agreed to be on our Wellness committee and they have been a great asset to us let me thank you very much for your help in finding those students because the topic that we have been working on for many uh weeks
160here for a few months has been what are is the wellness committee what is one of the most important things that we should be doing this year and um we felt it was vaping that it's been brought up in the community it's been brought up by students we know it's a big problem in our school and in many schools across the country and it was uh having these two students on our committee was also just reinforcing in what we already knew and we reached out to the health department to see if they could help us with a an educational program they do have a program but unfortunately they're not able to get it to us probably this year and their program focuses only on Tobacco vaping and we know that many of our students are
161not just vaping with tobacco unfortunately they're vaping with marijuana so um you know and and I've been in the schools and other board members have been in the schools and we know that the the alarms go off in the bathrooms children are vaping we asked our student board members our student wellness committee members what can we do about this so they were a great help to us one of the things that the committee is looking at right now there's only a few months left of the year but just to get students thinking about this and and have some education and maybe not make it too difficult the committee is looking at having a um a poster board contest poster contest where students would not only talk about it but design some posters you know that
162would be put up so anyway that's what we're talking about right now whether it actually happens um but it gets students talking about it and it would also get get them um you know designing something you know that they could be put up in the school to to encourage others um not to do this and of course um you know one of the ideas is to work with the younger kids because some of the high school kids are unfortunately already you know hooked on these drugs and we we are looking at bringing in nikasa and some of the agencies that can work more intensively with the students that really need it so that's just one committee that I'm on that's that's working on something but but again I thank you for getting um the students
163volunteers who are working with us we're meeting on Zoom like you said we're pursuing this topic and seeing what we can do this year to help our students that that have issues with this or students that they're maybe thinking going in that direction um also attending the lake center the board president myself and Miss Gonzalez were there and the speaker um this featured speaker was a Courtney orzel who is the associate director of professional development for the Illinois Association of school boards she's been a superintendent she's been a teacher for many years she's now on that and her topic was was very well presented and she talked about districts like ours she worked in a district that had a lot of problems a lot of concerns and a lot of negativity and she told us
164how she was able with the help of the students and the teachers and everyone to turn that District around it wasn't an easy job it took many years in fact when she went into it people told her don't go there it's toxic um and she said she really wanted a job like that she was going to take it up and um she said what she did is she elicited the help of everyone in the community and let them tell their stories there's in any District there's always great things going on and so what she did is she let them tell their stories and she said this is so important when you have student we have students telling their stories in fact she even brought a student in when she started her presentation and she said
165you know doesn't that help when you have a student talking about something exciting something that they're doing in their school and she said positivity brings breeds positivity as well negativity breeds negativity and so she turned that District around I can't we don't have enough time to talk to you about all of that she told us about but some of these ideas I think we want to bring into our district because she said every district has great things going on and what happens is as you as you start telling the story of things that are happening um the the tone the atmosphere of the district starts to change um and so she's a resource we could use she's with the iasb now we could reach out to her so those are two two things that I
166attended recently that that I thought was really you know could be helpful to our district thank you very much everybody have a great night thank you Mr McBride yes pass Mrs Hannah um a couple of things um first I wanna just say I um my condolences go out to Caitlyn's family and her school community at Oakdale um and it's just an unfortunate um tragedy for those students and I was sitting here watching One the I don't know if she was a parent or a or a staff member but she was almost in tears just sitting here and so um I'm glad that our crisis team has uh was there and I certainly hope that just because it happened on Friday and the crisis team was there Monday I hope that it's not over because grief
167you know that no there's no specific days times or whatever that you grieve anyway um also um you know I am I'm concerned about the um the vaping that students are doing I am concerned because I don't know what has happened to the schools adhering to the law and the law says that there should be no tobacco products on school property drug free schools and so why are we okay with just casually saying oh well the kids are vaping oh the kids are in the bathroom vaping well the kids need to understand that they're breaking the law we and the posters that was one thing when I was talking about that at the wellness committee yes but I also was talking about and you have heard me superintendent has heard me talk about getting visual
168posters in the schools their posters are already made up and the um it was just a supplement for the students to do it but we need to put posters in our schools that are that are positive for the students that tell the students that they cannot do this you know we I don't know if uh maybe the teachers can tell me if they're still the teachers store where they used to get the posters and so forth to put in the school buildings to put up around the schools I go to the fluent schools and I see posters of all kinds throughout their schools and the only thing we have up in our schools are the walls so we we need to we need to be creative okay but my main thing with this stuff we
169I don't know what we need to do people because it's against the law for the kids to have tobacco products in school now whatever we have done okay I think we need to look at it again to to let the students know you cannot have this in school you know I mean we're we're looking at it as oh well this is just something that we have going on no they're breaking the law and we need to let them know that maybe that would stop them you know and to walk into school and be hit in the face with marijuana smells and stuff like that come on now um the other thing you know we got we we downsized our staff um some years ago and well it I think that we made a mistake at
170doing that because now we're at the point where we're having to Outsource people to come in to fill the places that staff was removed I'm there there's uh I can't remember the term um staff reduction I guess you could say oh whatever it is okay but now we're at the place now where we're Outsourcing and there that's one thing that I vowed when I sat on this board that I will not Outsource our work here in District 60 because we have people that has made their um their livelihood within our school district and so I think we need to re-look at that okay and lastly um oh the gentleman talked about tearing down buildings and rebuilding them if we could do that man that would be one of the best things in Waukegan that could
171happen however the cost of just one building would be over a hundred million dollars just one one building and so we have to do what we can do with the monies that we have now and it's not about um it's not about us having the money it's about where we're spending the money and if we are being creative in spending our money it's not going to last forever and we're going to decrease our budget okay back down to pre-covet Sue and so we need to be careful but other than that you all have a good evening and thank you all for coming talking and all of those listening have a good evening well I'm excited to announce that the Waukegan schools Foundation had um a stellar um response to our scholarship applications we it's it's
172144 pages of reading that I have to do sometime soon it's like over 20 applications that have come in and I'm really excited about this and I hope to announce that in a couple weeks thanks wow terrific awesome um I do want to say thank you to the community that came out um I think you heard it is there's a lot of work that is happening we need to do a better job of communicating as a board maybe some of the things that we are doing um what I will say is that these issues as they pop up are not being ignored and one of the things we have to figure out is how to be more effective at how and when we communicate I think one of the things that and again we attended
173the Lake's dinner but nothing was said that we as a board of education haven't said before and that's related to the fact that one of them and we have amazing secretaries so I always want to preface that because people oftentimes misquote me and what it is that I'm trying to say is when our parents and our community members come into our buildings that front office staff those safety workers those teachers that is our first line of defense I work in retail banking I deal with individuals that come into multiple branches that call the call center and there's a level of customer service respect and expectation that I have for each and every single one of my employees is because at the end of the day what I know being a credit union is that we
174are member owned what I know about working and being a part of public education is that we are taxpayer on and so as we talk about how students are treated I 100 understand and empathize and sympathize with how our staff are treated me and Mr riddle both sit on the Zero Tolerance committee that have been having conversations and one thing that we do know is that our teachers are under pressure and they don't have six weeks or two more months to to discuss an issue they need Solutions now they're telling us they need Solutions the incidents that we heard where teachers are snapping is not normal right that is not something that I've experienced on the board of ed in the six years that I've been there and so I do want to say is
175that we are should be leading with respect and that we do want to make sure that even though we are frustrated even though we may be tired even though individuals that are in those offices have a very tough job that we're making sure that our families feel welcome that we're making sure that our students feel welcome and the only way we can do that is by making sure that our teachers feel supported so it's not an either or it's a both end and so I just wanted to to state that for the record I appreciate everybody for coming out we did ask there was not a real legal update it's now 9 51. so with that I'm going to call for a motion to adjourn so I moved motion by Miss Wozniak second second by
176Mr riddle all in favor signify what I I any Nays you can stay meeting is a jar foreign