001foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] foreign thank you [Music] foreign [Music] all right foreign [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] thank you [Music] thank you foreign 15. I like to call to order the February 14 2023 uh Waukegan Board of Education meeting the board previously met in Coal session under exception C1 C2 C11 c21 and C5 um I'd like a motion to or I guess roll call please Mr riddle president miss Callahan Wozniak Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez president Miss Hannah yes Miss lucky Samo president Ewing yes we do have a quorum all board members are present if
002I can have a motion go back into Open Session show moved uh motion by Mr riddle second second by Mr McBride all in favor signify with i i any opposed nay all right and then um you'll do us the honor as our newest board member and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance thank you I pledge allegiance to the pride of the United States one nation under God indivisible um so we're now at 6A which is the president's report um I had a president's report I had a long president's report uh I'm going to be very very honest it is tonight I I actually would rather be any other place but here um it's been a very difficult uh situation I mean time right I think for a lot of people um what I will
003say is one of the things that concerns me um and I'm working on the the policy when we talked about zero discipline or zero tolerance as relate to uh student and staff involved incidents um is that when I made that statement I still believe that I want to make sure that our students remain safe right and that as The Trusted adults we have a responsibility in the same breath and I want to make that clear our teachers and our staff should not live under the constant threat of being hurt or harmed from students either and so what I do want to say is that the reports of increased violence um are something that troubles me deeply in that we are working as a board and as an Administration team in order to make sure that
004those are addressed I have a staff member and she's given me permission which is the only reason why I'm speaking on it who currently is out with a concussion right and so these are things that are happening I don't want people to feel that they are ignored I had a presentation and other things that that I wanted to speak to um but I really want to be able to get through this meeting the board will have to go back in the closed session in order to finish up some work I kept you guys waiting long enough so uh we came up and I do apologize for starting a meeting late it is Black History Month I do want to acknowledge all of the different events that are happening throughout the district as well as the
005district's black history month program which will be being on the 17th unfortunately I'll be out of town and won't be able to uh attend but it's going to be a great time and I hope those that can come out uh the last thing I do want to read a statement from a board member that wasamos uh it says greetings board superintendent staff and Community first and foremost I'd like to apologize for my absence those of you who know me know that I take my responsibility of my board membership and my duties to the community seriously I would not miss without cause as such I'd like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who's reached out to me and concerned for my well-being unfortunately I've experienced a medical emergency that I must attend to while I
006appreciate you all I ask for privacy for myself and my family during this time so that we can focus on our health and well-being so uh she she did say she'll be um unable to respond to everyone and ask once again that you respect the privacy and keep her in your prayers so our thoughts of prayers and the speedy recovery are with uh Miss Leguizamo with that I am excited to hear our student board member report I got a preview of it and so I will now turn it over to student board member henosa temptation hi everyone yeah you can hear me right okay okay there we go so hi everyone as you know my name is Victor nahulsa I'm the newly elected student Board of member um this is my first board meeting so
007you know a little nervous but yeah we're trying to get get it to it y'all let's go get it to it right so I don't want to go over like 10 minutes because obviously I want to be conscious of everybody's time obviously and you know it's late so I'm gonna try to be brief but cool but concise of what I have to say so you know this is my first report and if we can move on to the next slide we're going to talk about some of the initiatives that I want to do as student board member now obviously not everything on this document Could Happen honestly because of my timing as one year term but I really do feel if we all work together we could get a good chunk of this happening honestly
008so first page would be obviously academic issues second page would be student rights third would be health issues fourth would be infrastructure with a little emphasis on teacher rights and teachers teacher issues um on the next slide we have sbm reform and political which svm stands for student board member um ways of contact I'll get into that briefly and structuring my reports going on forward so if we go on to the next slide okay so the academic issues and a little quote that I like to say every single time with education education is a right not a privilege little issue right of the day but on the next slide these are some of the plans that I ran on in my campaign that I promised to the student population at the Waukegan High School and
009by Essence the entire students of wps60 right um I'm just gonna go briefly through them obviously if anyone has comments or questions please see me after the meeting I am very happy to elaborate on any of these so um one of them is the revision of our sexual and health education instruction from more abstinence plus to more of being comprehensive on the floor I'm in full implementation of lgbtq History K-12 um the increase and design of the graduation requirements even though we kind of already but you know I just want to you know talk about it a little bit more having more of open discussion if I may right um another one would be create academic accountability starting in the sixth grade so students starting Middle School going on forward can have that academic accountability
010so they are prepared for high school because there is the credit system in high school and many of these students don't know about it until the very last minute and they're like wait I need to have a d to pass I can't fill my glasses so like you see like having that push to understand that um the introduction of the IB Program diploma program me in the Waukegan High School I know if I'm correct Whittier is starting with the IB program the elementary programming if I'm correct I think it's Whittier and Woody and Clark you love that of starting that program out and I know the IB program is very important in a lot of places and around the world so I feel like bringing a diploma program would work very well in the Waukegan
011Public Schools um the revision of the final examination policy and that is more essence of the final I had many interesting comments with many students and going into how we could reform it to be more student oriented in that sense um establish a district-wide progressive grading system that is more efficient to the times and not just staying with its own traditional sense of grading through a through F and a GPA scale and class ranking we wanna many students want that reimagined to implement it being more student oriented and any sense of the word right um man creation of an academic progress commission which is really just a fancy way of saying a board that talks about academics and curriculum with student voice in it obviously because I'm just one person right I obviously want more
012students to get involved in this and being able to talk about their education in a sense right um mandate a banned books policy now when I say banned I meet it in the sense that it's much much much harder to band a book honestly because as We Know in some states it's getting a little crazy when it comes to what a Banned Book is and how it's so lenient to the point that any book could be banned and that's no that's just a little too much honestly in my opinion reading is power knowledge is power batting books like that is crazy in my opinion so having some outline so we know the processes of that is important um the creation of a bullying board obviously having policy that deals with bullying deals with intimidation of
013anybody should be the basis of an educational system right being able to report that stuff out so I feel like that would be important having a district-wide and having that in schools um another one with the increasing of the funding for academic departments classes extracurriculars the Arts and the sports because so many students went up to me during my campaign say we need more funding for our Sports our extracurriculars our classes all that stuff right now obviously that's more budgeting stuff and that's more of my preview but obviously I do want to work with people with that stuff and the last one would be the introduction of ethical ethnic apologies and racial studies in our education obviously understanding that systemic racism is a thing in our country and being able to understand that the world
014is not as simple as many people think and there's a lot of moving parts to it so I feel like that's very important to have that and a basis in our education um next page student rights um a little quote from this from a Supreme Court case in the 60s it has completely gone off my height of which one it was but one of the quotes is our rights shall never be shed at the schoolhouse gate if anybody remembers yeah um so next slide this one's a little shorter um anything after this one is a little shorter of like comments and bullet points so you know um creation of a student Bill of Rights honestly that's just you know you know what the Bill of Rights is honestly I want more of an outline of
015what students rights are within our district and they know that their voice matters in a sense honestly because our voice matters honestly we are the Next Generation we should be able to understand what our rights are and what we're able to do um establish the student boating Bureau which is honestly just a little arm of the district that talks about you know voting about voting resources being able to register for boating because as we all know voting is the most important thing in our democracy being able to vote is the most important thing um full aggregation of s B100 obviously a lot of people know what SB 100 is it's been a while since the law has been passed but obviously I want more of like a discussion of the implementation of that honestly um
016the creation of a walkout slash protest policy which comes to like civil engagement I know that we are talking in this board meeting about um if I'm correct attendance and there is a section there because I was reading it and obviously I want I want to talk about that more with board members obviously and people that work with this area to more implement it and know students that their civil engagement is important at their age um creation of an lgbtq plus commission or committee panel of students to recommend lgbtq policies because obviously yeah our rights are very much being thrown back in a lot of places more than one honestly so I feel like students should honestly be able that are part of the lgbtq community being able to tell the board to help policy
017makers pretending able anybody in this District to you know this is the issues this is what we want changed uh denouncing of conversion therapy obviously it is banned in the state of Illinois for minors but obviously having that as something in our district being able to like students and minors of this age should not be threatened with stuff like that because you know it's just a pseudoscience it doesn't work it isn't real um the establishment of equal rights for transgender and lgbtq students obviously that speaks for itself and the creation of a minority student commission which obviously goes down to the fact that there's a lot of minority students of different backgrounds being able to understand where they come from understanding their history as people and how we can Implement that so they have a
018home here where they don't feel threatened as anything honestly is very important next slide um health issues another quote Health Care is a right not a privilege boom um next slide uh obviously this is a very shorter one um first thing having stocked products for period products in schools because I've been having a lot of my female friends that say about stuff like that not having stocked at school which I see is kind of an issue in a sense really honestly because we should have that stuff in schools um how sexual protection products with proper education pamphlets for students because obviously a lot of schools in California do this honestly and it's very beneficial there honestly so I feel like it could be brought here establishment of a mental health committee obviously that speaks for
019itself mental health is something that really affects students has affected me as a person honestly being able to talk about it openly in a place of power and change is important uh the reevaluation of the mental health curriculum K-12 because I've been in a health class I need to take it to graduate and it's not the thorough if I have to say honestly it was like one assignment honestly that I had to do about it and it wasn't brief it was very brief and it was one assignment um healthy food initiative reevaluated our food services for students because if there's other than you know students saying about classes and funding it's food because they don't like the food at school it's something right they always talk about it they always talk about it with me
020Mental Health Centers obviously having those around the district and school so if students having a mental health crisis they have the people they could go talk to because it's not really clear who we talk to honestly either go with a counselor do we go with a therapist like who do we go to like that's not really given to us as information the advertisement of mental health days you know we are given five mental health days per Illinois law but not a lot of students know about this like I talked to my friends like you know you have five mental health days if you need a break we could talk about it and they're like oh really we have that and I'm like yeah it got passed last year and they're like oh that's cool and
021they never knew about it uh the re-evaluation of start and end time for schools is a little controversial one honestly but I feel like controversy never should never stop debate and any sense of the word and I feel like many students have talked about this of school being either too early or leaving out too late obviously that's a discussion for a different time but that is something the students want and what have expressed to me um infrastructure a new deal for the Waukegan Public School District next slide the creation of a jobs Bureau in jobs fairs in our high schools because obviously a lot of students do take Tech campus and stuff like that but after that they don't feel prepared for the outside world after getting their diploma so I feel like having a
022place where students could talk to people that in the fields they want to go into is very important so they get the right step in their education and out in the workforce if they choose that uh creation of unisex bathrooms obviously this one is a no-brainer obviously students that are non-binary and on the gender Spectrum obviously makes sense that we have bathrooms that are inclusive to all uh the creation of the Waukegan High School rebuilding committee I feel that our Waukegan High School building is really out of proportions and I really feel like we need an a fixing or any type of idea to fix our walking High School building whatever that might be honestly um the creation of a green New Deal for Waukegan High School for the Waukegan Public School District obviously we
023know what the green New Deal is and being able to be more Earth friendly being all that stuff being able to understand that our planet is in trouble climate change is real being able to implement that in a district uh the creation of board of infrastructure obviously this goes with operations and being able to bring students in and talk about oh the roof is leaking or we need new desks or stuff like that right being able to talk about that stuff with people with power is important um lower classroom sizes it reintroduce the house system and the high school obviously a lot of teachers I've talked to love the house system back then honestly I don't know what happened to it honestly I was still in elementary school so you know I don't I didn't
024know a lot back then um lower classroom sizes obviously a lot of teachers talk about it and I feel like it's important to address it and being able to see what we could do about that um creating a stockpile of academic materials like pencils papers um Printing Supplies anything that a teacher might need so they don't need to spend dimes on their dollar to buy um materials and stuff like that because it's just a no-brainer honestly you're here to teach not buy stuff honestly that just makes sense uh the introduction of a board of security obviously being able to bring the coherence idea of security to our district and schools because that's obviously been an issue and I want students to be able to understand they have a voice when it comes to the security
025and I added the phone at the end teacher pay increase obviously that's more with the district and the union but obviously I feel like students also have a voice like that because obviously if the teachers don't get paid enough they're not coming they're not getting hired honestly so it's very important for our teachers to be there and getting paid well uh next slide this one's a little shorter you know I'm talking really quickly um there's a little quote from The Washington Post that they use under headline democracy dies in darkness because it's really true um another one would be the reevaluation how the student board member is elected now it's a kind of a little eyebrow raising that I'm talking about that after being elected but this is more after I leave for more pushing
026it Forward um the establishment of a debate for the selection of student board member because I feel like being able to understand who these students are because of course I ran a campaign but it wasn't as a real campaign it's just like talking to students and then having my friends talk to them and being able to campaign in a sense I want students to know who the members are who the candidates are and who has their best interests at heart um now this one's another one that a lot of students have talked about and something that I had an idea for honestly granting the student board member in honorary on binding book obviously I can't vote here honestly that's when the state law indicates and I have been reminded of that multiple times but I
027feel like being able to have a vote even though it's non-binding it's honorary just knowing that the student voice was presented and being able like oh this was a policy about education about curriculum change that that person even after I'm gone because I don't think that's gonna happen in my turn but anything after that the student is able to understand that this is what the students want and I voted yes or no for this policy um the creation of a student advisory committee which I have no I do know in the past uh superintendent Placencia did talk about that in the past of having students coming in and talking about the issues I really want to get that back started kick that back and being able to have students in here other than me because
028I was in 14 000 I want more students to be able to be engaged in their education and their governance um the creation of the Waukegan Public School District student governmental Association obviously having a student government that encompasses which is kind of the same as the advisory committee but obviously being able to match that up and being able to have students having their voices heard um establishing of the office of the solicitor general uh so we know what a solicitor general does they investigate and stuff like that and being able to have an office that knows that investigates about issues that may be going on in the district and schools is very important if the government agency can have it so can we uh creation of the parent advisory committee obviously the parent Community advisory
029committee is the same as PTO but obviously being able to have it as one part of the district is important because parents as much as students are they a sense of this District being able to have parent voice in here as much as student voice is very important and I was the establishment the board of Innovations obviously that is how we could bring more Innovative voices more change more progress into our district because we can't stay the same forever we've got to change one day or the other so being able to have a place for that is very important next slide where's the contact there we go um next slide for that one okay so the these are two ways of contacting with me obviously students they know you can suggest in their emails you
030can search up my name obviously if any students are watching and they have comments they want to talk to me or want to just have a meeting with me obviously if you go into the emails for the district just write my name my building is a little capital building on it so you can just write in me an email and stuff like that that goes for the board members as well if you have any comments or want to talk to me and stuff like that please you know we'll get into contact that way but in general for the community I will be creating a student board member like social media account because I know esam had one in the past I don't know what happened with it but I did find it I did something
031about it about a few days ago being able for the community to talk to me and being able to understand that I am their voice as much as the students because everybody's sitting here I am also your voice so that's one and obviously Google forms if there's any students that wants to talk to me and don't have social media obviously going that so we can set up meetings um next slide and I think this is yeah this is the last one okay four months of reports um next slide obviously this is how my reports are going to go now from now on obviously I'm going to start with the opening statements whatever I come up with old business updates on projects that are important that I want to discuss with the public new business obviously
032new projects Community Spotlight I want to add a community Spotlight on this one but I know this this speech is getting a little too long so we'll add on to the next one um comment section obviously I comment on the issues of the day or stuff that students want me to discuss and Q a on the for the board members if all of y'all have any questions for me about anything that I've discussed even now if you have a comment or question I am very open to discussions and stuff like I'm being able to open criticism because that's how democracy works right y'all and yeah I think that's the last slide yes that's the last slide I talked for way too far too much but you know what I got everything I had to say
033so yeah I will hand the floor back to president Ewing obviously board members if you have anything to say and stuff like that please let me know but yeah the floor is yours [Applause] I'll say thank you for the presentation and laying out that platform uh there are many things uh that on your list that we can work together to achieve and some that we want to make sure um that you're aware of so that you can also spread that information to students so uh very very very good stuff and we are glad to have you on the team next up is our approval minutes so we have 8A which is approval minutes of the Open Session board meeting for October 25th 2022. Mr riddle I make a motion that we approve the minutes as
034presented of October 25th 2022. motion by Mr riddle second second by Miss Wozniak any comment some questions on the motion all in favor signify with aye aye any opposed name and it's our proof uh one pass this is our opportunity for public comment uh when I call your name please come up to the microphone I'm going to uh again out of respect for your time is 739 I'm going to call the names three at a time a few at a time if you guys will line up uh over at the microphone um if you need translation services translation services will be provided to you each speaker has three minutes unless they need translation server Services then they will get six minutes to allow for the translation we do ask that you referring for mentioning student
035and staff names and your remarks first name on my list of Jennifer Franklin and second name is Natalie Van Lansing van landingham sorry Natalie and then uh Catherine Peregrine so if you guys in that order uh whenever you're ready Miss Franklin your time will begin okay this thing is done it's on all right hi my name is Jennifer Franklin and I have been in the district for 20 plus years I also live in the community Miss Franklin can we start the clock Mr White oh thank you go ahead okay and I live in the community for both um and both of my daughters currently attend Waukegan High School our Waukegan schools I'm writing you on behalf of my colleagues and students at Whittier Elementary School since 2019 Whittier has been blessed to have an AP
036who has brought so much to our community I have been around long enough to know Excellence when I see it she works endless hours to make sure our students are successful and to support every staff member in the building she quickly learned our curriculum and became a member of the curriculum map team she helped train teachers on this new system so that we could better plan and support the students those are all things that made her a great AP and will make her a great IB coach when Whittier signed on to become an IB School she did everything in her power to learn what that meant this past November We unexpectedly lost our IB coach which is an acquired component to becoming an IB School while working in her role as AP she was already
037taking on the coaching role also the district has already invested in her as part of the IB leadership team she has attended conferences and made connections with leaders across the world and has learned so much doing that role that she is the perfect candidate to take over for the remainder of the year she is close to our families and Community she knows what it takes to have an inquiry-based classroom she has brought Vision consistency and morale to our to Whittier with a teacher shortage it would be a shame to lose such a passionate and talented teacher so I am begging you to think hard about the staff students and Community when making the decision and say yes to the decision that Whittier has already made thank you Miss Franklin hi my name is whenever you
038start speaking your time will begin okay all right hi my name is Natalie Van landingham I'm a mom in the community my four oldest children go to cook I also teach at Whittier I've been there for 12 years at Whittier we try to guide our decisions by asking is this decision what's best for students doing what's best for students has led us into pursuing IB authorization and we're working hard to learn how to teach in a way that promotes inquiry Global mindedness and student-led action and under the leadership of our former assistant principal we made big gains in this work she authored our IB application she helped teams dive into better understanding our content standards and was leading much of the work that we're required to do in order to become authorized by IB and
039when we learned she had to step away from being our assistant principal we all felt that loss in my time at Whittier I've never seen a harder working AP our students knew she was for them our staff knew she was for them our former assistant principal would work around the clock to do what was best for our school and if she couldn't continue in that role then all of us at Whittier were hopeful she could lend her expertise as our IB coach that position has been empty for months after all this is a decision that could be best for students it would provide consistency it would support staff in a time when teacher shortages are common and burnout is at an all-time high supporting staff should be a major concern for the district we see
040the self-care workshops but what we really need is your care we at Whittier need to know we are seen we need to know we are heard last year our building went without a principal for a whole year for seven weeks we didn't have any admin at all yet we had very little communication from the district about our situation we felt very little support we kept giving our best that was the only option we could do for our students this year our IB coach left us months ago so staff that were already over committed and stretched thin picked up the slack and kept going we kept working the district could have met our need for an IB coach two weeks ago but you deferred your vote this left to shocked and Confused someone who knew our
041school who knew our staff who works like a beast and who knew IB wasn't given a position this doesn't just hurt one person it hurts us all staff and students our only explanation was maybe you needed more time so we at Whittier could be heard maybe you needed more information so we sent it last Monday you received many emails expressing what we believed was best for our students and yet that was met with silence and now your agenda for tonight silence we haven't stopped giving our best leadership teams once again picked up more responsibility and we kept going we waited for an answer and we're not getting it if your answer to our former assistant principal is no then let it be no but please give us some information don't meet us with silence show
042us you see us because in caring for us you care for our students thank you miss van leningham Catherine Peregrine hi my name is Catherine Peregrine I'm the instructional coach at Whittier I've been in the district since 2004. it's the only place I've ever taught in that time I've worked for around 12 administrators and whittier's former AP is one of the only or is one of two people that I would stand up here for we all know our former AP had to resign as part of her settling her legal case which will be dismissed we are happy that this will be behind her but I'm here to reiterate that she is a huge asset to the students and staff at Whittier and would be so valuable as IB coach she was one of the two
043people who wrote and received rib candid candidacy she also has an innate ability to coach and Lead she knows our inquiry work and has helped us in unit creation and implementation we have never felt more supported by someone who modeled and did all the work alongside us we interviewed her and hired her for the IB position we asked you to please let us know either way if she would be on the agenda tonight 14 of you received many emails last Monday at four and not one of us got any answers if you were in any of our shoes you would want some clarity too we need you to hear us I'm here asking the board to listen to us when we say you are putting a burden on us the teachers by not allowing her
044into this position this position has been vacant since November it is extremely difficult as a school to take on a new initiative when key players are missing it is the teachers that will struggle the very people you are supposed to represent teachers are writing and refining units and trying to approach teaching in a new way they are working tirelessly and as the coach I can tell you it is difficult the last I checked online there were numerous vacancies across the district and you have someone in her that wants to be here and wants to do the work I really do think that it would be a mistake to not reconsider not only for Whittier but for the district as a whole she knows what good instruction looks like her knowledge of Standards is like unlike
045anyone else I've ever known and she is the energy and determination that makes a difference in ever in our days she has endured a lot over this last year but showed up every day for this District regardless of her circumstances and why would we turn our backs on her now thank you Mr Paragould the next three names are Tamara Feldman rayon Edwards and Randy sabeki your time will get whenever you start speaking Miss feltner and I too want to talk about our former AP um she was in our building for four years she was very committed actually she still is very committed to Whittier and I just want to let you know that she is so organized she is great at getting things done we are starting this new initiative that we started last year
046and we're in year two and she has been a major force in pushing us into being successful so far um we have our student board member who had as one on his plan he says that a goal is having our um the IB diploma for the high school it starts with us here at Whittier we're in year two we're on track or we have been on track to get our authorization next year and the vital component of that is an IB coach and I just want to like reiterate like where we were though almost a year ago two today we had just one admin our AP and we lost her and at Whittier we were left with no AP no principal nothing but we pulled together as a staff we kept going but it felt
047like the district abandoned us we never heard anything about what was happening we had no set person as a go-to to make decisions we had one person who was there but she didn't even have a district email so we couldn't even email her things the person who was like in our building for the longest time didn't even have a district email we would like just abandon and we pulled together we made it happen and then we got her back and now we are in a very similar position this time we have a principal but we don't have an AP and we lost our IB coach and sorry um now with your wants to hire her back we want her back and she would be perfect for our IB position um and it's again very important
048that we have an IB position to make sure that we are successful this is a program that we have a vision for the district to go all the way to the high school you can't just leave that empty and right now we have teachers who are like doing double duty doing being a teacher and taking on those roles and we are just well we are just struggling with it so once again also as a staff and as a school we have not been informed from you about what's going on we don't know and we don't know what's happening we don't know what the holdup is we don't know what any decisions are and basically my ask is please keep us informed and if no decision has been made please say yes to bringing her back
049please let her be back in our wolf pack thank you Miss Feldman good evening board community members I'm so sorry to hear that about you guys losing assistant principle um but I think we have to be honest here something happened here and we shouldn't be here um we we think this all over the newspaper so I think you guys need to think about that when you're making this decision but tonight I didn't want to talk about this tonight I want to talk about this board members that was at the city council meeting last Monday and the staff that was there you guys stood there and you guys blatantly lied to that city council and I have the video to prove it you guys have set on this board and told us on numerous occasions that
050that wraparound Center will offer service down in that basement you guys told us that y'all don't know where the funding coming from y'all sat there and told that Council and every argument and that mayor that services will not be offered down there it would only be six offices down there so my question is we put all of these millions of dollars in that Center For What for us to deceive this community because y'all want to hurry up and get that administration offices up in there because we know the owners of those Services we have made real estate representative Offices Downtown you at the courthouse downtown you have the city of Waukegan downtown you have Waukegan Township downtown you have the job center downtown you have CLC downtown and you have two staffing agencies down there
051what are we going to do with the wrap around Center what is they going to offer me that is not being offered down there and listen to somebody who lived in that area for 45 years of his entire life I know and we teach our kids not to lie y'all why and so I want to understand something because when I met the hair of this snake here as I like to call it I was told oh I brought gang members in the schools they talk with the kids I work with all type of people we have single-handed allow one person to come into our community and Destroy This District y'all are suspending people for boxing a field trip y'all had it on the agenda to try to get rid of two employees in Mr riddle
052you said an enclosed session let's talk about the real issue or why that young man was taken up out of Brookside campus you said that and we still not talking about it because I see Amy Oliva still in the doorway she's still working she took our kids and delivered him to the police and no parent was called but we're steady firing employees it's real strange to me that all the employees look like me and I don't understand what are we doing how long are we going to keep allowing this to happen the principal that high school now has a salary job in administration we took a guy out of Miguel Juarez and put him in charge without the Hillary spot is he qualified thank you Mr Edwards good evening so tonight I'm also going to
053talk about this wrap around Center good evening tonight I'd like to talk about 214 Washington Street the old Midwest Bank I and many residents would like to know why this project to turn 214 Washington Street into an administrative bill is such a high priority how does this directly help and benefit the students this building was purchased in 2019 for eight hundred thousand dollars with student funds and no timeline or information on where the money would come from to update it since 2019. when was it it was when it was purchased now four years later in 2023 it has become a high priority why we were told in 2019 this building was well maintained and heating systems were in good and didn't need to be replaced yet four years later heated systems was assessed and needs
054to be replaced so what went wrong in the four years that no one occupied the building with the heating system when this building was purchased there was no mention or idea of the wraparound Center project since the idea was presented State funding has been allocated to the wraparound center now four years later this administration building is now a top priority for the district the impression is so that we can have an excuse to move Administration into this location with limited parking we have much bigger needs in this District than an administration building we have already been told that all staff at Lincoln Center are not moving to 214 Washington Street in the timeline for this administration building being pushed fast all of the sudden because there are enough yes votes to approve it is the
055administration wanting to it approved before the April 4th election I want legal to check the law to see if this major District change needs to go to the public for a vote I expect the board to provide this information to the public within the next week if not tonight before anything is done at 214 Washington Street there should be a district town hall meeting with full transparency and answering the community's questions the plans of this building don't even coincide with the city of waukegan's plans for a downtown Entertainment District Downtown Waukegan has a courthouse lawyer offices libraries CLC campus how is the administration building going to bring these people to the downtown area to boost the businesses how do you know that will happen when the building is put down there is it open going
056to be open 24 7. the wrap around Center is going to be by appointment only per Rita Mayfield as she spoke at the city council meeting where is the money coming from to turn Lincoln Center back into a school as it will take millions of dollars to update and bring it up to code for a school what is the exact figure for the total cost of each the wraparound Center Lincoln Center wrap around Center slash administration building is the Billings going to be vacant for years as well we already have a staffing shortage in the district and not enough teachers so who is going to staff this if turned back into a school we talk a lot about college readiness and gave Miss Fulton only two employees when she asked for five of fifteen thousand
057dollars or fifteen thousand thank you uh next three names are Ray vukovic danella Villarreal and Christine lensing it's good evening uh just before this portion of the meeting uh you all voted to approve the minutes from October 25th 2022 congratulations you finally got it done they're supposed to be done you know within the next meeting there's a lot of important things that happen at meetings and they don't always you know you look at the minutes and they need to be corrected do you remember what happened back in October but the law says they're supposed to be done and I'm not picking on the administrative person that's taking the minutes I know that that person is relatively new there's new people coming and going but this has been consistent and this board I'm going to hold
058you responsible and your only two employees the two top paid employees of the district that's what you should be doing it was three weeks ago was your last board meeting you should have been working on that making sure the minutes were complete and have them ready for this they're not on here so you're already technically going to be violating it you know why there's there were teachers here there are some teachers here this was four months ago if they waited four months to turn in their uh their grades for last semester is that going to be okay no no they're going to get written up yet this board of education allows these two people to drag their feet on this and keep it going I don't know why but you you need to hold their
059feet to the fire there was another thing on the uh this evening on uh administrative resignations and the reason for the leaving was concerns this person started 30 days ago and is gone as a taxpayer I'm concerned I brought this up to you before exit interviews you know supposedly talking to your HR Director they send out an exit interview to the last known uh email address many times that's the person's personal email address so does anybody sit down with these people one-on-one and say hey you were here one month you were here 20 years and you're leaving can we just have a little time and talk about it but you got the revolving door people coming in and out and now that position is vacant again and you know why um why thank you thank
060you Mr vukovic [Music] there is so much I don't even know where to start but that's okay there's future meetings I can tackle sixty percent of our students are failing math due to mathia a program you decided you didn't even ask the students how it's working the data shows it's not working students today tell me they don't like it they hate it and that's why they don't do it but their grades are dependent on it probably not reaching our freshman on track the data will probably show that I'm sure you can't document incidents and if you can't document incidents then how can you say it didn't happen the first time it happens all of a sudden oh we didn't know about it because you can't document all the time interesting everybody should be able to
061document incidents and incidents shouldn't just go away as if they never happened person standing in the hallway there sure lets a lot of it Go by I sat and watch her I'm really good at observing you keep talking that you care about the staff and students and it's a lie it's your public relations scheme it's not working at all it's a lie what goes on in the building on a regular basis you don't want out the fact that students are literally allowed to run around the building all day long with no consequences we still got a problem with that hero system student shows up five minutes to the end of class and they're present just tardy when they were absent the entire time and then you wonder why they don't have the work done and
062you can't get it turned in on time and then you come back to the teachers and say Hey give them more time so where's the mental health I applied for several jobs in this District I've been here for a really long time had you bothered to look at my resume the few of you who got it I know several of you got it but you just didn't bother you don't think that I'm good enough well I want to know and I'm going to foia every single thing every detail that I can how many people in this District have provisional license that are working on their pel you sure wouldn't give me that but I've been here over 15 years I've been teaching classes grading lesson plans creating relationships with students being their safe space when
063they have to run out of a classroom because of the anxiety you're not protecting us what you're doing is using fear and intimidation to try to intimidate us and scare us until it's worthy adults instead of actively trying to make some change hashtag change the narrative is not a PR slogan actions are so I'm gonna be an adult and I'm gonna show up at all your meetings uh next three names are Christine glensing Calvin Mathis and Anthony McIntyre um good evening one and all today is Valentine's Day a day that has become known as a holiday of love I went to Jewel this evening and so many individuals were picking out the best cards the prettiest flowers the sweetest treats to give to those they cherish most we aren't just celebrating romantic love but also
064honoring the love we have for our family and friends why is this woman using her three precious minutes to give us a rundown on a holiday we all know you may be well asking yourself I'll tell you why because when we talk of love we must also remember the love between students and their teachers of course this should not be romantic love uh but our Educators staff and building administrators love our children well most of them there are those in this District that tarnish the relationship that District staff have with students in our buildings I have seen such kindness to my children when I come to school when my children see teachers and staff in the wild or in other words Jewel I have teachers reaching out to me after being after my kids were
065out due to covid checking in how are they do I need anything we are fortunate enough to be able to handle most of our situations that come our way and the most important takeaway is that it just it touches my heart I know my kids are safe during the school day while in their care not all families are this lucky unfortunately and even my household is not a moon to the misconduct of adults in these buildings we have different District staff that have assaulted students giving them concussions on District 60 media saying students need a trusted adult in the building we have substitute teachers getting into fist fights with middle schoolers we have individuals that are youngest most impressionable look up to only to be forcefully shoved out of the classrooms and told you don't
066want to be here go find somewhere else and it doesn't stop with the physical interactions we have teachers using racial slurs towards students we have teachers telling our children that they aren't Worth College experiences and that they can plan for the military that right there is not just high school students it's down to second graders students in this District here at plenty out in the world that Waukegan is ghetto that Waukegan students walk around with guns and knives everyone's part of a gang even my job as an adult I hear slander about our city why are our children oh from people who have not walked today in our shoes why are our children subjected to physical and emotional abuse in our schools again this is not every teacher this is not every staff member but
067what we see in the news is the violence in Waukegan that's the running headline we had a parent threaten to shoot up a school probably because she wasn't listened to probably because her student was mistreated we need to change our practices now thank you Miss Lindsay whenever you start speaking Mr Mathis um well first let me commend the student president I wasn't listening when he started but by the time he got done I was listening I it was you had great passion I appreciate your respect for time but you had good subject matter and you had just some good material there so comments commend you for that but I want to return back to uh speaking about what I was uh finished last uh session when I was here about bullying and I think bullying
068is very important to tackle and it started with you a president when you mentioned that one night I was here and it is something that you guys need to make a priority of no kid can learn in a bullying atmosphere when they got a fight now I was thinking earlier that and I commented that when I grew up we had to fight but I didn't want to I want to put a kind of correct that when I was in school we had a great school I come from Oxford High School Oxford Mississippi great High School it integrated of the first generation of integrated students we were it was a great atmosphere the teachers put all they had into us that's why I'm kind of passionate about schools uh is could make or break this city
069the school and the police department and I don't think either one is doing very great at this time now I don't really have a solution to the problem but I know it's a problem now we're talking about policy I've been trying to get data I got the data but they're looking at the data I saw that it was missing something it was missing and as I said before it was missing you guys are not when two people are having conflict there needs to be some type of conflict resolution you need to communicate with the kids communicate with the adults and everything but I get the feeling by looking at that data that this is an atmosphere of perpetration body adults that's that that's the feel I get and we can do better it's cause and
070effect somebody said fear and intimidation that's that's an elemental bullying you you fear you intimidate I believe that's what bullies do uh but an adult's got to be an adult and you got to take control of the situation as I said I don't have any solutions I I don't like talking about problems without solution because I shouldn't the solution should come to as a community as a school board the solution could to be developed as a as a family other group and that's what needs to happen speaking of bullying I don't like when people come up here and bully you guys I don't like it when I hear about you guys not doing anything let's work together as a community and get Solutions that's what I'm appealing for to edify and uplift one another let's
071get Solutions thank you Mr Mathis [Applause] so this evening I was I accepted the request of a family to be their advocate another family whose student was per a teacher assaulted by classmates at the behest of say a teacher afterwards snatched by the hair back into the classroom after they tried to get out of the class by the school teacher and now this school teacher is away from the school here at District to be investigated by a human resource department that nobody trusts you guys are opening yourselves up to a lot of legal action because I have a whole list of individuals who I am advocating for and each and every last one of these situations with the exception of a few we're expected to receive the information that comes from a human resources department
072that buy reports given by your own people I shouldn't say your own people by individuals that you all brought in to investigate there is no trust no faith in the human resource department at all I found out today that I got open for your request from November 2nd November 2nd it's open okay I'm curious to know what is the metric what is the standard by which you guys use that you put people in your website and all of your Social Media stuff to honor those individuals for things that they've accomplished what is the standard because I hope it isn't race-based and if you have individuals who are doing great things in the community they're doing great things in their personal lives they're doing great things for you guys in the school district and you totally
073ignore some but you honor others it makes me wonder why and I think that's a question that you guys need to have answered by whoever is responsible for it um that's pretty much all I have oh by the way uh on the 27th of this month we're doing uh a candidate Forum we look for everybody to participate thank you the new board is going to determine who's going to correct some of these things thank you for all of the comments uh we appreciate you all for coming out and if we can get the agenda back on the screen all right we are now at our consent agenda uh we have operations items 11 8 through c um these items uh should be non-controversial and previously discussed any board members like any items to be voted
074on separately yeah yeah I would all right if we can pull out item C uh any other letter if not do we have a motion to prove 11 A and B yes second I make a motion motion by Mr riddle second by Miss Gonzalez uh any comments or questions on the motion roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes I approved motion carries we're now at item 11 CEO I'll read those record 11a approval of the purchase of cafeteria tables for Whittier Elementary item 11b approval to purchase teacher desk for Edith Smith Middle School we have a motion or read the resolution I'm sorry the recommended action 11c it is the recommendation of the administration at the board of education to
075prove the human resource assessment proposal from the people Consulting Group to support a review of the recommendation for the policies and procedures within the human resource department at a cost of fifty five thousand dollars Mr riddle I make a motion that we approve item 11c is read by the superintendent second motion by Mr riddle second by Miss uh Wozniak any comments questions on the motion yes I have some comments and um I did forward these to the board president um I my concern with this um with us expending the 55 000 for this for another Consulting uh firm to come in and um and uh work with HR is that we already number one we've already done it we've already heard the um um the result or the conclusion of a consulting firm that we
076already paid to come in and they told us about uh what was going on in HR my questions are um how do we find this organization uh I mean where where do they come from and also in looking at the um looking at the information um that was given to us it talked about all the things that were being that this firm did but um it uh what I understand and was looking at is that the person that presented to us that she's uh never had never conducted any type of analysis like this and if if that is so I'd really like to see information so information stating that and um I believe this lady lives hours away I mean our way in Madison Wisconsin and um I know that you know I don't uh
077I I don't buy into the um the idea that we need fresh eyes because we had fresh eyes that came in and looked already and now we're getting ready to spend more money to have some more fresh eyes how many fresh eyes do we need and um and I just um I could keep going and but I'm not going to waste breath that I can't get back but uh it is my recommendation that we as a district look into and I've said this to the uh my board members that we need to look into what's going on in HR is an Administration and uh before we expend more money talking about doing an analysis another analysis now if we want to do something okay we did not look at all of the staff District staffs
078salaries but we are we're being asked to approve increase over here increase over here it's just kind of like um just kind of like uh uh I don't know piecemeal over here over here over here and that's not the way that I is uh 28 year uh senior board member am used to doing things because that's not the way that a whale run 300 plus million dollar operation works and so I think that before the board approves this that we need to look inside okay we have people that can look into the administration we should have and so if we don't shame on us but I don't think that we should spend this money at this start Mr riddle yeah respectfully um I disagree with Miss Hannah because the previous study that was done uh
079go ahead Mr riddle um the previous study that was done recommended that we look closely that it was really a study of our of our staffing uh salaries it did but they had to get information from our HR department and um they highly recommended that that we had some issues there that needed to be dealt with in this particular study that we're looking at it tells us under the organizational need that there's we you know we're asking for a performance evaluation of all our staff depending on classification processes personnel file review I mean just a whole bunch of things looking directly at our HR department we've heard from the from the public as well that there's no trust with our HR department I think this is this is timely it should be done now um
080and we're hiring an organization um the the person that that gave the report is not the person that's going to be doing the study there's two other people that are identified as and they have 25 or more years experience each one of them in HR working for uh Fortune 500 companies they have extensive experience they're going to be looking at with a fresh set of eyes at what we do here so it seems to me this is the appropriate thing to do at this time to hire this outside firm to do an intensive study of our HR and and give us some results about how they think the HR our HR department is performing so I I certainly approve uh of something like this I saw this Gonzalez and then Mr McBride I second um
081Mr Riddle's comment I think that uh an overhaul of HR has been something that we've been wanting for a really long time we've we've had discussions about it in closed session in uh at this podium I think that this only works if after the feedback we get an update about professional development that has already been recommended that we haven't had updates on and I I really want the community to just like like choose a stance choose a stance with us like do you want the professional development do you want to see HR change because we do and this is a way to get an external party that's unbiased to do the research to be like hey we got it we gotta get it together and that's what million dollar companies do they get it together
082they hire other professionals and they and they meet at the table and say what's working what's not working because there are things that are working we have really great people but there are also people that need a lot of um professional development they need cultural competency competency uh training and and this needs to happen I don't know if it can happen internally um what I want to do is I do want to validate what Miss Hannah is saying is is I want to clarify one thing is that the previous um assessment was a comprehensive Financial or compensation review right so and it was for specific categories Miss Hannah has asked and I agree that we should be looking at other categories and the administration agreed to bring back uh information on that the second thing
083that I wanted to kind of speak to is we're going out because we feel like there is a disconnect internally and these are part of the issues where what Miss Hannah is saying is is if you feel that you have the right individuals in place then you wouldn't necessarily be expending These funds and if we're expending These funds you know then it needs to come back with some recommendations for changes because it doesn't make sense for us to spend money for people to tell us what Miss Hannah is saying is we already know that we have issues so again when you look at the RFP uh I thought it was comprehensive they talked about what they'll be looking at it's processes its procedures it's making sure that we have the correct staff members to miss
084Gonzalez's Point as I've heard continually that this is an issue so this was the reason that we looked for our prfq in order to make sure that we were addressing those continued concerns so I support this but I also want to acknowledge what Miss Hannah is saying is that there there has to this has to come with significant change and Improvement we we disaster comes with significant change in Improvement so the information has been there the proposal is is for public consumption so anybody that would like to see the credentials and information on the firm um you all can do so well if that I'm sorry against McBride I skipped you I apologize well I'm I knew we had a group come in and talk to us about this very situation that we're speaking about
085right now uh and it's all about I don't think how much how much more they can tell us about professionalism in terms of our staff they may come with us and talk to about money and how to move it around and how we should move it around but my what I'm looking at here is that uh we're taking millions of dollars and giving it to somebody outside when that money could be uh dismissed around the district our own self to correct some of the issues that we even got to this point about uh unfairness with how we're treating our staff uh from a financial perspective and I I just think that money could be used uh in a way that we could use it we could do it our own self that's right because of
086the fact that uh once again when they tell us what we ought to do they're going to take the money and they're leaving here and when we come back you're still going to have problems with individuals want more money more money raises and this and that so I just take that money that we're trying to give to them we need to be trying to figure out our own self or how to disperse that money with our staff to make things right that's just my my thought on this because like I say they're going to leave they're gonna they come they're going we are we they're going to come here and we're going to have a contract with them they're going to come and give us a a nice field about this and this and that
087then they're going to leave then once again when they leave the problem's still going to continue to pester this because you're going to always want an individual saying you're making more than me and we're gonna always so the only thing I can see is take that money and try to correct what's going on uh within uh the district right now to make things uh pretty much uh satisfactory for all staff and we know we know as a board already nobody has to come in and tell us what's what's wrong and what's right we had a firm come in and talk to us already but we even before the firm come in we as board members we understand that uh if you uh got this status or you got that status that you should be you
088should be paid uh fairly and we use metrics about who's got the best education who's been here the longest we know that we don't need anybody to come in and tell us that we just need to do it we need to we just need to do what we know that's right by those individuals already here in the district that's my take on that thank you Mr McBride and I want to just uh State and then I'm um for time I am going to call it a question go ahead Miss Anna and and um Mr President you you made the statement about um about the administration if you have to expend money to go out we should have we we we have uh we have uh individuals in the upper um Administration that um that together
089the um their salaries are almost uh almost close to a million dollars and you mean to tell me that nobody can go in and look at um look at things that are going on or not going on in the districts uh human resources department so why why are we expending that money when we supposed to have leaders that that that that we're paying all of this money that's what I'm not understanding sir I think it's a fair question what I will say is to kind of reframe that part of the conversation is if somebody else takes this task on then it's up to the board for us to say what else is coming off of their plate so while I do agree with you that individuals probably could do an assessment we are talking about
090curriculum we are dealing with staff and concerns we are talking about financing budgets and SBB and so who on the staff is going to do the evaluation and what thing are they going to remove off of their plate I think I'm a relatively smart guy I use consultants in my job all the time so I don't want to get into just like with we have a extremely capable and competent maintenance team that doesn't mean that we also bring in outside contractors in order so I do I don't want it to be as people for what I was saying is if I have a and I guess I want to be respectful of staff so it's a Personnel conversation which is why I want a state of private publicly that's what my concern is um and
091so without calling out any names and going into specific detail I will say um we can have that conversation offline I do apologize Miss Hannah outside of your email previously I hadn't gotten any other questions so I do apologize if if you send it or um what what happened to that yeah I do perfect so I I don't have it outside of what was asked originally so I want to make sure I have the most recent ones if you can report that to me um I do want to correct it's not millions of dollars it's 55 000 that we expected all money is is important um this is also not a compensation review uh I will share this scenario because it was a real one we were at risk of a teacher that did not
092um have almost had to repay loans right we're a high these District we're looking to attract teachers we had a teacher who submitted information to the HR office that information was not afforded to the appropriate parties so they were at risk of having to repay those loans these are things that we are unacceptable in any organization ours included and so when things like that happen it's a process issue so this is really looking at process and procedures to make sure that those things are done and so those are the things that I want to correct the compensation review review is an important conversation um and and one that we will bring back but I do want to make it clear for the record and the board members what we are talking about is overall assessment
093and it's 55 000. no I know you do yeah I'm just making sure that everybody knew because it was stated that it would be millions of dollars roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride no Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah no president Ewing yes I have to approve motion carries we now have uh two contracts that are there before us um unless there's opposition I would ask that we take those two together uh told do I have a motion to approve items 12 a and b i motion second motion by Miss Gonzalez the second came from Miss Wozniak and he comments the questions on the motion oh I'm sorry um read the read the recommendations it is a recommendation of the board of edu to the Board of Education that the
094Board of Education accept the recommendation of the administration to approve the ratified contract with the Waukegan professional support staff Union and to authorize the president and Secretary of the Board of Education to sign the agreement on behalf of the Waukegan Community Unit School District number 60 Board of Education it is also the recommendation at the Board of Education except the recommendations of the administration to approve the ratified contract with the Waukegan psychologist Union and to authorize the president and Secretary of the Board of Education to sign the agreement on behalf of the Waukegan Community Unit School District number 60 Board of Education we had a motion for Miss Gonzalez in a second for Miss Wozniak any comments or questions on the motion my only comment is we are past the deadline that ended July 1st
095uh so there were a lot of efforts I want to thank the union and our negotiation team for the conversation um these are two very uh important bargaining units and so I'm glad that we have a resolution I'm glad that these uh contracts extend for an extended period of time and so I want to again thank those all involved and appreciate the union membership for supporting these agreements with that uh roll call vote please Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride yes Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes item approved motion carries congratulations yeah [Applause] all right we have item 13A um superintendent that needs to be an adjustment uh do you have those notes on um the section g 653 um we should be holding over the retirement um with
096the first name the first name yeah Alejandro not the name but the number the number G what is g653 correct uh Miss Wozniak yes so item number one or name number one first individuals g653 yeah 653 first one g653 the first name hold over you want me to read it Kathy are you writing something up go ahead this is a recommendation that the Board of Education accept the administration's recommendation to approve the appointments and accept the retirements and resignations as fondant schedules f995 g653 with the exclusion of the first name of first name and l942 also approve the retirement extension request is to riddle ISO move that we approve this as recommended by the superintendent motion by Mr riddle second second by Miss Gonzalez any comments or questions on the motion roll call vote Mr
097riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes I am approved motion carries uh we are at Financial reports 16 uh a ratification on the first processing of February 2023 board bills manual check request payments Old National Bank insurance payments for the period of January 18 2023 through February 7th 2023. it is a recommendation with the administration that the Board of Education ratified the first processing board bills for February 2023 and manual check request payments in Old National Bank insurance payments for the period of January 18 2023 through February 7 2023 the accounts payable board January 18 2023 through February 7 2023 payments total 3 million eight thousand six hundred four dollars and eighty cents the mayor check request payments for the period of January 18 2023
098through February 7 2023 total 2 million one hundred seventy six thousand three hundred thirty three dollars and five cents the Old National Bank insurance payment for the period of January 18 2023 through February 7 2023 total eight hundred thousand seven hundred seven thousand six hundred and eighteen dollars and thirty three cents Mr riddle I make a motion that we approve the recommended action as read by the superintendent oh about Mr riddle second second by Miss Wozniak any comments or questions on the motion roll call vote Mr riddle yes Miss Callan Wozniak yes Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah yes president Ewing yes item approved motion carries uh we are at committee reports I am going to ask unfortunately that we hold those due to time until our next board meeting and um February so
099please come prepared with a report uh same thing for delegates report Miss Hannah and then I'm going to go with the superintendents report at this time I like to ask Miss Patty and the high school team to please come up for a presentation okay it's a delay they should come they'll see it foreign can you let them know please okay wow that's different director of the student Outreach wow thank you Lee thank you hi good evening superintendent president Ewing members of the board members of the community and colleagues congratulations on your contract extensions um I know that you have to do a lot of great things for our students and staff so congratulations on your contracts thank you I'm here tonight to represent with the high school team to go over some celebrations also go
100over some of our interventions and our discipline data that has been a request of some of our board members over the past couple of meetings and wanted to make sure we brought forth that data with me I have an alphabetical order by last name Miss Flora Carter principal of aoec Mr asker Dupuis director of student Outreach Mr Daniel Hill principal Washington campus and Miss abilira Rodriguez Gonzalez principal at Brookside next slide please just as a refresher we've presented this back in the spring on our five-year transformation plan and just as a revisit we wanted to make sure that we gave just a synopsis of the areas of work that we have spelled out and have been implementing over the past year and so the real purpose of the five-year transformation plan that we are in
101just finishing up semester one and now into semester two was to establish a long-term vision for the district's work at the high school to increase collaboration and Alignment across the campuses to ensure that school Improvement efforts are focused on high quality instruction in every classroom every day and to improve the overall performance of the high school and just as a reminder we have five pillars of work that we have carved out that we have presented on prior they're listed on the bottom of the slides I'm going to turn it over to principal aveira from Brookside to go over some of our celebrations and I'll turn it over to her good evening everyone Rodriguez Gonzalez over at the Brookside campus and tonight it is my pleasure to share with you the board in the community our
102celebrations for the Waukegan High School community you can look up on the and follow with me with the presentation as well as see it up on the screen we've had the privilege to start this year something called the student positive referrals these are referrals that are issued out by our own teachers we've had the opportunity to automatically send them via email not only to the student but to the parent and the teacher is able to nominate and present 300 we have had 312 positive referrals so far over at Waukegan High School this year staff recognitions these are shout outs that happen within the teaching community staff Community we've had 250 staff recognized within the Waukegan High School Community 380 student restorative mediations have taken place in our buildings 68.44 of the Waukegan High School students
103do not have a behavior incident logged in Infinite Campus for the first semester we have issued a total of 623 939 hero points hero is a system that we use to recognize any student that's exhibited their pride our positive behavior second semester so far we've issued 127 083 positive points weekly teacher recognition for PBIS points awarded we've had an opportunity to work on paraprofessional access to Hero points coming up very soon with these points students are able to visit our pride store spin the wheel incentives among other things this past semester we were able to celebrate 333 students that did not have not one tardy during first semester 812 students with 85 percent or higher attendance 524 students with 95 percent or greater attendance we've had an opportunity to celebrate most recently took a picture
104with the Brookside students this morning and I know last week Washington did the same as well as aoac 39 students with perfect attendance during first semester 48 Lake County substance abuse referrals took place during the first semester next slide please for credit recovery over at Brookside campus we've had the opportunity students that have had recovered 78 courses each are worth half a credit for Washington we've had students recover 730 courses each worth half a credit and for aoec they've completed 802 courses each worth half a credit for the first time we've been able to put in place a student unification panel 75 students were nominated 50 students are participating and they meet every every month rather during late and Wednesdays to discuss successes and things that we can continue to work on honor roll in
105high honor roll student celebrations this past semester we recognize 1139 students that qualified for honor roll and high honorable students student ambassadors a new program that we're implementing over at the Waukegan High School the students are able to apply and be part of that to be leaders in on campus we are piloting a program for tutoring reading and math 12 of our Brookside students travel every Thursday to Oakdale Elementary and they have been issuing and working with our babies over at Oakdale on reading and math we have celebrated 44 aoec graduates and finally CTE we are celebrating 286 students attending Tech campus and that is the highest enrollment in Lake County next we have a couple of pictures that we are celebrating just showing you a couple of the things that we have done so
106far this year Waukegan High School students come and spend their hero points with us at the PBIS store on both campuses we've had an opportunity to celebrate them next slide please a couple of more pictures of the students actually cashing in those hero points in our PBIS committee putting together these goodie bags for them next slide please more wonderful pictures thank you on to the next for parent and Community Support increasing the activity with our parent volunteers next slide please we're going to hand it over to my co-principal Daniel Hill for semester One updates thank you very much you can ask the question on that part yes clarification question yes for Mr yes ma'am okay you stated about the uh the 286 students attending Tech campus yes ma'am that we we got more seats out
107there I believe we do yeah so we can Circle back if that's a question that we'll come back to at the end of the presentation so if you write it down I didn't know that I'll look into it yeah because um Dr null and Miss Fulton have been working really hard on this metric and so I'm sure that Ms Fulton could add additional information I do know just from recent information from Dr not that we have an increase in enrollment this year I think it was 83 if that's the right number Miss Fulton okay yeah at the Tech campus yeah yeah what Miss hand is asking I think is like do we have 300 seats and are we only utilizing two A6 that's that's one question but we do have 83 additional students enrolled this
108year sort of increase in enrollment so it's a really positive thing Mr Hill thank you yeah because that's a okay good evening everyone continuing on with the uh some of the celebrations and uh going pilling back some of the data um a couple of the key metrics that we're looking at with this High School transformation plan again it's a five-year transformation plan we just completed our first semester we're now in semester two uh one of those key data points that we're looking at is our on track numbers um and that is the number of students that are on track to graduate high school um in four years and so uh what you see on the screen there's a breakdown of our 9th 10th and 11th and 12th graders last year at the same time middle
109of the Year versus this time middle of the year you can see with our freshmen we had about a 14 and a half percent increase from this time last year with our sophomores we've increased the on track numbers by 12 percent our Juniors um almost seven percent more students than last year on track and then with our 12th graders we have almost 12 percent more students that are on track some additional data points that are on the screen in terms of the accomplishments with the work that we're doing um has to do with the number of classroom visits and feedback we've been able to provide teachers 711 of those have been documented within our monitoring system we've also had as mentioned before over a thousand students that were celebrated this semester for achieving honorable status
110uh We've also been working uh very diligently with the new administrative team on learning the uh multi-tiered process systems for supports so it's our problem solving process and when we see a problem um going through an actual process to validate the root cause of those problems prior to taking action um we've been learning and doing some work to move forward in that area next slide please I do apologize I just know it's going to come up so I do want our board members to hold but if we can go back to the slide because I want a clarification is this is comparing different classes correct uh principal Hill so like the 61 61.4 percent of freshmen's now we're saying uh this year those are 10th graders and 69.36 of those are on track and that's
111on track in 10th Grade correct and and why I want to point that out is I think it's a bigger celebration than you all are giving yourself credits for it's because if all we had 61 percent of students that were at on track as freshmen and increase that to 69.36 that are on track as sophomores that's actually a bigger increase it's because you had to make up the credits that were deficient for those students that were freshmen so I just wanted to make sure I understand and then I want to hide like that is it's not just a comparison because these are different freshmen you guys taught me that so comparing these freshmens too but you got to look at it diagonally so thank you yep um and he saw the slide regarding attendance um
112so in terms of the number of students that are attending um we set a goal this year both uh Washington and Brookside to be at 85 percent uh we based that number off for how we landed ended up last year um and then aoec being at 60 as far as our average daily attendance uh which you know they're in green are those areas that have met metric exceeded to go for the middle of the year um at Brookside we ended semester one with 86.26 percent of our average daily attendance at Washington it was at 83.3 um under Brookside 68.41 um going across it was the same time last year uh what the attendance rate was the average daily attendance and then the last two columns represent um The Chronic absenteeism rate so the goal with
113that number is to go down and we've been making progress so the last slide shows last year we were at 17.6 now we're 14.4 at Washington and Brookside and then aoec went down from 58.85 to 36.26 again a couple of notes there uh We've recently celebrated our notes Hardy what they call a no tardy party we had students that had no tardies during first semester uh we celebrated those students uh another 25 students that had perfect attendance um and then with our PBIS store we do have a group of a subgroup of parents and community members um that work with us they've been giving us a tremendous amount of feedback and ways to really get PBIS to be a more integral part of the high school uh with better offerings and and our goal here
114with all this work is to celebrate and feed those areas of the school that we want to grow and then starve out those areas that we don't want to have so again part of that narrative shifting in terms of some of the things that we're doing good evening in terms of interventions like Mr Hill just pointed out we've done a lot of work to identify root cause and with that root cause analysis we've been able to identify what interventions will be most successful so here you see a list of interventions that can be found across all three campuses what we'd like to highlight rather than reading all of them to you are the ones we find um the most success and pride in so we have restorative conferences taking place with Cyn we have an
115academic Resource Center taking located in the library where retired staff is coming in during the school day to provide additional support academic support to students in various content areas so when because there is a bit of a staff shortage teachers aren't always available for extra help they're taking on additional assignments we have retired staff coming in to provide that additional support to students as needed another one we'd like to highlight like Mr Hill just stated was PBIS and the support from the parent committee that's providing additional support and input on how to continue to promote the positive behavior and reinforce that so we're very proud of that as you noted it was seen on the last slide currently hero points are not utilized at aoec but that is something that we're exploring and looking into
116how we could apply that at aoec to increase our PBIS system PBIS systems that we currently have and then restorative justice is taking place at all three campuses um and we are finding with peer mediation and restorative conversations that we are able to prevent altercations and certain things from happening before they take place so those restorative conversations and then also after something Tate does take place we're able to repair the relationship and those conversations are not only held from student to student but also if there is some an issue with a staff and a student member next slide please before we go into looking at the specific data we'd like to highlight at this time that only nine percent of students have had an out of school suspension to date 91 of students have never
117earned an out of school suspension at Waukegan High School all right thank you so the next slides are taken directly from our database through Infinite Campus and our visualizations through Tableau and so these are screenshots from our system the first on the left hand side is the data from the whole entire school year for 2122. it's not just semester one it's just making sure that that's that's known and then the right hand side is the data as of February 2nd so a couple weeks but we've been working on the presentation for a little bit so you can see by grade level the number of out of school suspensions which are coded in red and in school suspensions which are coded in yellow and you can see that broken down by campus and by grade level
118on the left hand side that did include summer school there so if you notice what that SS means that was that included summer school which we have not yet had so that data has not included in this comparison next slide please again this is another comparison last year full year to just semester one data that we have right now again the red is out of school suspension yellow is in school and you can see the various breakdowns of the event types so you can see the types of things that are happening that are causing for students to be suspended either in school or out of school next slide please we also did a breakdown by gender and race ethnicity and so you can see the comparison of last year's suspension data race ethnicity and gender
119versus this year race ethnicity and gender next slide one of the things that Mrs Carter was referring to in terms of the success of some of the interventions that we feel have a great success are indicative of once the student has had to go through a suspension which is obviously something we don't prefer to do but we do utilize in significant situations once they have received a suspension 75 of those students have not had a situation where they have earned another suspension next slide please and this is Mr Dupree thank you good evening everyone some of the behaviors that we're seeing in our schools may be a reflection of our community the community challenge that we're facing according to if we could go to the next slide please the Waukegan crime analysis says 12-month Trend
120report there has been an uptick of offenses including the ones that you have before you um that's something that just to keep in mind what's happening in our community itself when you look at the 12 months that happened last year however um if we go to the next slide please I want to just make sure that I share with you guys this is my first time sharing with you and I want to make sure that we're all on the same page when I speak and these are some of the things that I want to make sure that you guys know there are short-term goals that I'm attending to in the immediate that is I'm establishing communication lines with multiple stakeholders I'm meeting with many administrators across the board I am conducting a needs-based assessment on
121the support of climate of elementary middle and high schools around restorative practices Community engagement positive behavior interventions and supports PBIS and also traditional consequences in addition to that I'm also retraining our staff members and what it is to have do data analysis and their roles in our department that's short term long term goals that I want to make sure that you guys are aware of is that I want to make sure there's trauma and forced education trainings throughout the District staff trained staff and students on mediation practices utilizing the International Institute of respiratory restorative practice questions um in collaboration with other departments I want to make sure that we develop a district-wide supportive attendance framework that would assist schools in addressing chronic absenteeism and truancy in addition to that we also in collaboration with other
122departments want to put together a district-wide supportive climate framework that would address behavior infractions in an equitable manner incorporating restorative practices traditional consequences Community Partnerships and PBIS supportive Behavior interactions and support and lastly but not least in collaboration with other departments I want to make sure that we develop an equitable alternative to suspensions not just for elementary and middle school but also for the high schools thank you in line with Mr Dupree's conversation and bullet points of work that he's doing short term and long term we know that there has been an Express desire to Think Through creative ways modeled through the regional office I know there's been board members and community members that have also really been thinking through how we can Implement something where we are looking at alternative to suspension and so
123one of the ideas that we are working towards that are as a draft currently that we are still getting input and collaboration through is the idea and this is a draft name but thinking through how we can have students gain more restorative opportunities in Waukegan next slide please there's a lot of research out there about the frequency of suspension and how it can have long-term impacts on students just entire life and and where they can go beyond our 12 years of schooling and so there's linked research here but really the opportunity here is to Think Through what are alternate ways that we can support students who may have a cause an infraction that may have a suspension but what are some alternates that we can provide to them slide please again the opportunity the overarching
124vision of this program would be to surprise supports in either an academic SEL and behavior in exchange for their removal of one day of out of school suspension this is modeled after the regional office program that they have out in Vernon Hills they also have it in the State of Florida there's there's a lot of different communities and states that do a model similar to this next slide please and so this winter we are identifying space within the district identifying instructional and social emotional supports for students when we are able to implement this program identify Staffing really identify those outcomes and objectives so we can set measurer goals and monitor progress over time and also hear from staff students parents community on their perspectives on what this program can do for students and what it
125should look like for students explain please again just a sample schedule this is still just high level really thinking through how we can bake this out with collaboration from Community Partnerships as well as staff voice and student voice in this process but providing opportunities for students to arrive at the location of the program when they're ready usually students don't typically want to talk about the situation in the moment they want some time and space to kind of process through the situation on their own and then potentially come to the next day and say okay now I'm ready to kind of talk through what happened um be able to develop a restorative commitment so not only process through what they're part of the situation was but how can they go back and try to repair what
126had happened help support and pinpoint an SEL lesson for them so if there's a specific issue with an SEL competency that they need they would get a specific SEL lesson obviously lunch and then time for academic supports and lessons and then one of the bigger pieces at the end is that reflection and goal setting so how will they set some goals to re to re-engage in the next time the next day in their local school community so that way they kind of know what their job is moving forward into their regular environment next slide our goal for this year is to potentially open up one classroom for high school students we're looking at space and opportunity for that again with feedback and input from community and staff and administration next slide please next fall we
127would like to be able to open up two additional classrooms depending on the need and how it goes in the spring and looking through the logistics of that but we would like to be able to open up additional space for this next slide please depending on how this goes and seeing in the impact it's having on students potentially opening up an opportunity for middle school students to also have a similar program and then last slide again coming back to that reflecting and adjusting thinking through what's worked what hasn't what challenges are we seeing and what adjustments do we need to make thank you for your time um the questions uh go ahead and let the questions first I got a statement what's the difference between the in-school suspension and the out-of-school suspension that's in this
128other classroom yeah so one of the the main pieces is that currently our in-school suspension rooms are staffed with um very diligent long-term substitutes and so they don't necessarily have all the resources within that room to be able to go through the curriculum that they may need or the social emotional skill set that they may need and so really thinking through how do we staff this room to best support so it becomes more of an opportunity to reset and reflect rather than just have it be an in-school suspension where there's they're not having all the staff available for them Miss Anna yeah okay um I want to go back to uh superintendent you said you give me some information about the 286 seats I'll find out how many how many states we have at the
129Texas okay now the program you were just talking about this growth or whatever it um this is the program that I have been following um with um with Mr McIntyre and uh with uh the regional Office of Education this is the same program and so I did are you using Mr McIntyre oh we have we have just begun the conversations and how we can look for Logistics look at Staffing look at Partnerships look at Community uh look at all those different pieces and so it'll definitely be an element that we would want to incorporate to make sure that we are fully planning and aware of all the resources that are out there because it was it was uh being being discussed that is that this program called the base program was going to be um
130supported by the regional office and that um the um the facility when students get suspended that they would go um directly over to um the Atma uh location and get all those things that you were talking about and so I'm just kind of wondering uh did you collaborate with Mr McIntyre so I can help with that so this is an in-house because I want to be completely transparent this is an in-house program that we will be handling with our own staff through our high school it will fall under the basis of the Continuum of services that we have the best program um here so this is something that will be located at Brookside the room has already been identified one of our teachers will be leading the program along with the principal's climate and climate
131and culture so I would ask that you do you know um what's at the board just left me um that you do um reach out to Mr McIntyre um but I mean if there's another program we need a lot of programs Miss Hannah but this program will be this program will be an internal program handled through District 60 for our students so I just want to be completely transparent in that yeah because it sounds like the same exact program yeah Mr McIntyre had devised and worked with Dr um Turner out at work yeah and I can say I've not been contacted by Dr carner or I mean so this is an internal plan I'm I'm sure that they're looking at where does zion go where does North Chicago go but this isn't an internal plan
132for a full concern Continuum of services for our Waukegan Public School students Mrs Gonzalez Miss Gonzalez um uh thank you all for presenting um I appreciated the data for the celebrations I think it's really really important that more people understand what that means because where you know we hear that we're failing kids we're failing kids we're failing kids and we you know we're trying our best to freaking get them out of the out of the river um so that they could swim but I think um I I have I'm gonna make my comment concise because my my worry with this plan is that it's still not addressing like the systemic issue like if if our teachers and our staff don't understand that maybe like in school suspension or out of school suspension shouldn't be like
133the Instinct then our reaction shouldn't be to make that experience for the students more enticing you know like we need to serve those students that get them anyway but I think that um I want that piece to be embedded in this transformation plan as well as like how can we educate staff or you know the people who walk into our communities to know hey like this intervention is not working out and I appreciate the research because we know that like and I know you guys know that but um I know some of our staff has a little bit of trouble with that um because the the students can't um make up for the negative interactions right they're only 50 of that interaction and we need to solve the other 50 because those are the people
134that we actually can hold accountable right so I wanted that to be in this plan as well but I appreciate the you know the whole Vision I see it thank you I comment is simple um I want to First say thank you for the work that was done um I want to thank Mr Dupuis for your first presentation and you talked about how the things that are impacting the community or happening in the community are impacting schools and I would say vice versa we in October um and forgive me if I get the date wrong but there was an exchange in which the superintendent well actually I won't even go back there was a student that was shot the question was was this student in out of school suspension the answer was yes now because
135of that in those efforts Mr McIntyre who had a relationship with Dr Kerner and even when we brought it up principal Hill was exploring um bring in this program and so I'm sorry to say names and I do apologize for my demeanor but I'm telling you all is that this is a very difficult night for me what I will say is when we talk about engaging the community things like this go a very very very long way to continuing to feel distrust and I don't know how clear to say it yet we continue to do it now what I will say is I think this is an excellent program right it's why I supported it it's why I thought that we needed to bring it here when Dr Carter talked about how those students were
136coming to base and the supports that they were providing those students we still have a very significant amount of students that serve in school suspensions I also have been at the high school when you guys have told me how we don't have space and so now we had an alternative with the community organization that was looking to partner and it feels like we are undercutting um those efforts and I must say it it's pleasantly not not to any part of you all that's why I'm trying to be very very careful but I cannot on the board sit here and say that I don't feel the frustration of community members I don't personally feel the frustration it's because on opportunities that we have to collaborate we need to work to repair a repeal Trust and what
137I will say is as we look at our uh out of school suspension data I believe that this program implemented in order to redo that program which is something that Miss Leguizamo has pushed for her entire time on this board I feel like that's where our efforts should be spent internally let's start there that's a majority of the students that are impacted and then we bring the individuals to the table who have been here at the table who called this out as an issue and who wanted to be a part of the solution I appreciate the celebrations I thank the principles because these were things we heard from parents wanting to recognized honor roll perfect attendance using the hero system so Kudos but I I would like us as we bring this forward to consider
138going back not to the drawing table because again it's a very similar program but to have a conversation on how we can collaborate and what that would look like so can I respectfully um I just want to add some comments for the team here um so I hear this planning and I'll alternative um suspension program but as the superintendent I have not heard anything of this you 've not signed it too to your team here in the public meeting oh wait can I can I please finish so um with the with Dr carner or Mr McIntyre so what I've heard from the board is that we need a program to help support the suspensions that are happening in the district as a result the team went to work to come up with the plan that
139we could provide a full Continuum of services and that is what we're bringing to you tonight so in the spring we will be launching this to see how we can support the suspensions that does not mean that we cannot have ongoing conversations but the program I mean I do know that there's an alternative suspension I'm Miss lensing mentioned it at a meeting we looked into it and then we said instead of looking out at row we can do this internally where the kids know us and they would be in our buildings and that's why we made this approach um so Mr McIntyre we will reach out but this is so that we can house the program within our building and rooms have been identified for the location as you see we're only starting with one
140room we're not starting with 10 and it's a very short launch just so that we can see how we can better support the suspension thank you uh Mr riddle no no go ahead vice president riddle if I can can I have a quick comment and one quick question that I have for the team real quick if I can sure go ahead is the mic working because I don't know if it is yeah it doesn't sound as loud it doesn't sound like it yeah does it work now okay um honestly for what I've heard so far honestly sounds like a really great program honestly it pushes that idea that students can do their best that they can go forward even with out of school suspensions and ISS honestly and I feel like this program could really
141work even if the program was here originated in another format honestly and I feel like the work we're doing here is really going to work here for the Waukegan High School honestly because obviously I go to The Walking high school every day I'm a student there so I see all this stuff happening right and the out of school suspensions the ISS I have friends that go into that stuff and talk about it and to the point that board member Gonzalez said that we need to talk about that restorative justice how can we apply that to a system that works well right and how we could make the system better for the students because at the a we're here to serve the students and honestly this seems like a really good idea the data seems to
142support it and um one quick question for Mrs Patty or the superintendent whichever um was there any student stakeholders in these conversations at any point in time for the creation of this those are our immediate next steps and so the the initial plan was to kind of think through logistically where could potentially this work within our current buildings and now that we're able to kind of Identify some spaces with the input of the principles um we know there's a lot of people that need to be a part of this we need teachers we need students we need parents we need community and so we are we are nowhere saying this is done this is our decision by any means we want to know from a student perspective what would help them the most in a
143program similar to this from sorry sorry um from I'm just trying to make sure I can see I don't know I don't like talking about I can't see people I'm sorry um you know really hearing from from teachers who have um seen success rates with students who have gone to in school or out of school suspension hearing from teachers what what academic supports would be helpful hearing from um other staff what kind of social emotional supports would be helpful hearing from Community Partners around what they what services they could potentially push in and provide so this the initial planning that we have done so far really was take the idea logistically can we pull this off and now what are the next steps to get all the people around the table yeah thank you thank
144you Hannah I think you had a comment how many sessions are going to be um in the spring it's about what 30 28 30. it would be one one standard classroom size right so that does not mean that there may not be opportunity for more Partnerships absolutely this is only going to affect 30 students and you can see our suspension rates right but to do nothing now when I keep getting emails about suspensions and what are we doing that's what we're trying to address here go ahead yes um what what when I think that was Mr Dupree Maybe they talked about traditional um traditional consequences that is correct at the present moment could you could you please explain or you're fine sure what you were talking about please yes at the present moment according when
145I say there's traditional consequences we look at our handbook and we have traditional consequences like many of us have probably happened why suffered from it detention um in school suspension um out of school suspensions these are all punitive measures that I think we could improve on and however um I understand also these there's some times where some students need to need an alternative placement somewhere else as well so those are just common traditional consequences that students have received and so we need to look at it that yeah it was there for a reason but we need to go ahead and I don't know if there's a better way of saying it morph it so it could be more effective just because a student is getting detention doesn't mean they stop learning from why they're even
146there um just the kid just because a student is being suspended doesn't mean that before they get suspended there wasn't a huge amount of tier one interventions in place before they even got to that they got there and when they're there there needs to be a process of intake and how can we better equip the student and support the student and their families that is something that I'm really looking forward to engage yeah does that answer your question uh yeah but well only thing I I know is that some students respond to some people and some students don't respond right to some people and so hopefully okay that is why I thought okay that the program that Mr McIntyre had been working on because see once students have lost trust in the system the system
147is not going to help them because they're not going to be able to hear from here okay what you know what I'm talking about yeah no I and they're not going to trust and it has to be somebody and so you know I mean I'm hoping that this can get worked out because I was really open to work in with the program with Mr McIntyre sure okay and you know I work with you with the reprimands and some kids are going to respond some kids are not and so it should not be just this in District thing because it's not going to be as effective as we want it to be yeah so we so there's just not one approach as you can see there's many um restorative practices that they showed this is something
148that we are putting in place to offer a full Continuum of services and you're right Miss Hannah there may be some kids that don't want to go to that place they want to go to a different place but in the meantime there may be some kids that say and parents that say I feel more comfortable with my students being at the school I mean it's both ways but I agree there should be multiple approaches yes it wasn't yet you sort of touched on this when you were speaking Mr Dupree um that the we also need to make the detentions and the in-school suspensions more robust and not ignore those students before they become out of school suspensions correct you know that they yes and if I could add to that I think we need to
149do um we need to be even in proactive and engaging the students in relationships that actually matter before we get to that point so that's part of what we want to really work on and um this all the collaborative efforts that I'm doing and creating this these bridges that um that need to be rebuilt all that comes into play because we have a lot of work to do in front of us and I think these steps that we're taking are good um and I'm looking forward to working on it but we got a lot of work to do so superintendent stated that she hadn't seen the plan so if a plan exists I would ask that it'd be forwarded to the superintendent for a review um I do appreciate very much you all taking the
150time um I do agree that we can't do nothing but I think the word that keeps going in my mind and it's actually one of our core values which is collaboration it's something that should be embraced so thank you all for presenting the data I want to celebrate the fact that only nine percent of our students have had out of school suspension I think that is something that should be celebrated and and is you know when we go to the community I thought the statistics at 75 of our students did not have an out of school suspension so that was also another really uh good statistic but I want to make sure that as we move this program forward that we do so in a collaborative manner um we go and and I'm using that
151term because I do want to state is I I I I don't know how else to say it I am very frustrated well um and and I'm frustrated because while we have these efforts that are improving and change takes time um my inbox is inundated with issues pictures of fights right we know we know and we know our students but it and I want to give kudos to the high school team for what you guys are doing to change the narrative uh the social media is some of the best that it's ever been I think that is the true story about what Waukegan is but what people often say is we celebrate the good but we also gotta look the ugly in the face and say this is something that we gotta change and people
152will respect it if they have a seat at the table if they feel heard if they feel valued and if they feel like they're part of the solution so um thank you to the board for your questions and thank you all for your presentation thank you hmm we have information items for the sake of time I I am going to um or just going down to Old business so in Old business we have 19a policy 6010 attendance and excuses second reading are we discussing uh yeah if you have questions both we need a motion they can be their information right now their own business own business um I will say that they are policies and we we don't have to do them right now but my second time my point is I didn't receive a
153single question I didn't see any I mean I they're carried over from the previous meeting so one of the issues is I'm perfectly fine with um having extended conversations around policy I think that's our job but we also have to be conscientious of time is there's a committee that looks at these it's staff times that's expended on it and so one of the board's jobs is to make sure we review it and come with any questions because that's information that can be corrected or decided in between the board meetings so um I don't know if you guys are ready to vote um I I I I want to I want to there there's uh there's been a very um personal reason uh uh for president that I have not concentrated on board docs okay that's
154why I did not get a chance opportunity okay to look at this and because I'm really concerned about concussions because there's been um there was a there was a really big um I watched a television program about concussions and the longevity that a concussion goes and there's things in there that I would like to make sure we're covering in this policy um vanderbrook are there any um time considerations that the board should be aware I've been reviewing these uh policies these are policies that is B is auditing and I believe they are coming into the district this month and we have it timing correct for when the Auditors come in and we've not made the technical changes in order to be compliant with the law correct these are some um policies that the law changed
155in the middle of covid our Focus was on managing covid and so now we're trying to get these policies up to date to support the audit review so what I would suggest uh board member Hannah is if we approve in order to be compliant with the the audit if you review them and you do find any changes you know that you always have the power to bring the policy back and we can make any additional alterations at that time with that um do we have a motion approved items 19 a b and c still moved second motion about Miss Gonzalez second uh Mr riddle yeah reverse it's good what Mr riddle was the first uh Miss Gonzalez was the second if we can do a roll call vote please Mr riddle oh I'm sorry read
156the recommended actions you gotta read the recommended okay it is recommended that the Board of Education approved board policy 6010 attendance and excuses as recommended by the administration and presented for a second reading it is also recommended that the Board of Education approved board policy 8002 2021 as recommended by the administration and presented for a second reading it is recommended that the Board of Education approved board policy 6038 concussion management and 3701 safe schools as recommended by Administration and propose for second reading so he had a motion for Mr riddle a second but miss Gonzalez any comments questions on the motion yeah I just hope that it's being um it is being um approved now and I certainly hope that with this approval that that the audit goes through because there has been some updates
157with the concussion and and that's my point if any board member wants to bring any any policy for for discussion if you got questions concerns want to make additions or deletions you have that opportunity at any time yeah but this is the second time that we are looking at these items I did review them I don't have any issues with these and if there are technical changes or things that you want to see again our vote today does not mean that we don't look at these policies so maybe kids be maybe is Bill audited and then they'll find what's wrong with them so do you believe that there's something wrong with it I'm that that's why I told you I didn't get and that's my point so I read it and I did not get
158the opportunity but there has been there has been updated information that I just saw last week so what I would say is that we vote Yes in order to be compliant with the audit and then if you still want to make alterations to policy 638 you can bring it back and we can review that policy and Miss San I would ask you to provide me with the update information that you saw last week and I can address whether that's in the policy rojavo Mr riddle yes Miss Callahan Wozniak yes Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez yes Miss Hannah I pass president Ewing yes and which all right item improve emotion I mean motion carries item approved we are now at uh board member time um I'll go first I passed yesterday second I passed Indian just a
159Happy Valentine's Day to everyone Miss uh Hannah um I got a lot to say but because the time I passed uh Miss Wozniak um I just want to say that there was multiple events going on over the last couple of weeks including the grand opening of CLC if you haven't been there you should go it's a beautiful new facility and it's excellent um Harvey the play was put on by the high school students they always do a fantastic job the scenes were just great The Valentines for vets the drill team did an excellent job of JROTC of getting people out to um write the Valentines and I don't know if anybody knew this but last uh the last home basketball game was last week and it was senior night but it was also principal appreciation
160night and I I didn't know this beforehand but it was very fun to see all the principals get out there and be honored so um so before we close I just want to make a couple brief comments is one of the things that bothers me instead of asking for clarification we talked about I keep using this word collaboration and collaboration is a two-way street um I like to consider myself to be a collaborative person I work with people who I agree with who I disagree with one thing that I I don't appreciate especially in this community and especially with the dedication that that so many on either side of these issues gives is being referred to as a liar so I will clear up what was stated at the city council meeting I attended the
161city council meeting because there were commun local and when we say local there were three business owners who had started to Lobby aldermen that they did not want to see a wrap around Center because they were afraid that it would bring and I'm going to quote undesirables into downtown Waukegan and so anytime that residents are referring to other residences undesired Bulls I take umbrage and so I attended that meeting and what I could clearly see is that there was confusion as it related to what was happening with the wraparound Center so one of the questions was was there going to be a food pantry there was not one of the questions are we going to be doing giveaways which will create backups because parking is going to be an issue we are not and so
162I believe in answering that question what was stated is that Services won't be presided at the building and what should have been stated is those specific services will not be provided at the wraparound Center what services will be provided are Professional Services we've talked about mental health but no one of the rumors was that we were going to be doing a the entire building was going to be converted into a homeless shelter again so I want to be very careful is the reason that I was there and what I stated and what we should have stated more clearly is that it will be Professional Services and it will be by appointment only because we want to respect what the community members and business owners are saying is that they don't want to create a complete
163traffic jam and they want to help to reduce any type of loitering and so if we have a buy appointment system it helps address our concerns related to parking it also helps correct some of the misconceptions about what the building will be used for and so I I want to go on record after being called a liar and the staff being called a liar in order to make sure that I am explicitly clear we also invited reached out to make available to all of the aldermen the opportunity to represent the plan so that that will provide additional Clarity so that they are 100 percent aware of what they're voting for when they vote for it I'm not trying to pull the world on any over anyone's eyes I did not agree with the purchase of
164this building however I do believe that this wraparound Center is needed and I do fully support uh the the wrap around Center and what it will bring so I I restate that if we need to do another town hall and suggested I think it's a great thing we started this process four years ago well 2019 yes four years ago and we um in April received the first outline of the plan so the deadline is not to fill out any type of rules or regulations is to continue with the project so with that I like to go into code session under exception see what wait wait wait wait wait wait I need to clarify something Mr President in 2019 it was not discussed wait a minute let me just speak this it was not discussed as
165oh having a wrap around because it didn't have one nobody has said that in 2019 it had a wraparound Center I did not support it there was an opportunity to make sure that this was a building which benefited the community and that's what I've worked to do so again you are correct Miss and I don't think anybody said it was originally a wrap-around Center in the basement but thanks to state representative Rita Mayfield thanks to seeing what was going on in Peoria and also thanks to the money from the state which gave us the resources to be able to do it I think it's the right thing for our community so with that uh and what I hope is some additional Clarity I like a motion to go into closed session not the exception C1
166specific Personnel exception C11 thread into actual litigation and c21 approval of previous closed session minutes as well as C5 uh the discussion on the purchase of lease all right I'm sorry no purchase C5 uh the discussion of lease for Real Estate used by a public body uh motion by Mr riddle second by Miss uh Wozniak um Mr riddle yes Miss Caroline Wozniak yes Mr McBride Miss Gonzalez Miss Hannah yes yes president Ewing yes we are now in closed session uh the board will adjourn uh after closed session there will be no further action that is taken I will ask for a quick five-minute recess for anyone who has to go to the restroom and if we can reconvene um in our Board Room oh