001Good evening. The CCSD21 October 16, 2025 regular board of education meeting is called to order. Carrie, would you please take attendance of the board and student representatives? >> Yes. Jessica, >> I'm here. >> Debbie, >> here. >> I'm here. Arlin >> here. Leiana here, Bill >> here, >> and our student representatives, Selma is absent, Alex >> here, >> and Fared here. >> We have a quorum. Okay, great. Would everyone please rise for the pledge? I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the republic which stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you everyone. Welcome to our board of education meeting. I'd like to welcome Sher Clump from the Wheeling Park District. We love seeing you here every month. Uh you what? Thanks for the warning.
002Um, any individual physically present at the meeting wishing to address the board must complete a comment card and provide it to Miss Del Royale. Any written public comments may also be submitted by emailing us at district21cccsd21.org. So, our first order of business tonight is to uh fill the appointment uh to appoint someone to fill the vacancy on our board. With the resignation of former board member Dmara Kalinowski, the board accepted applications to fill the vacancy from September 3rd, 2025 through October 1st, 2025. The board considered all applicants and conducted interviews in close session on October 6th, 2025. First, I would like to thank everyone who applied. We had 12 excellent applicants. To the other 11, I encourage you to continue to be involved in your children's schools and where opportunities exist with district 21. With
003that, may I please have a motion to approve that the board of education appoints Angelico Husman to fill the vacancy of the community consolidated school district 21 Board of Education created by the resignation of DGmar Kalinowski for the remainder of the term which expires in April 2027. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Take the rule. Arllin >> I. >> Debbie. >> Yes. Bill, >> I vote yes. Jessica, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Missman, would you please come join us up at the table? [Applause] This is a very exciting moment. And I think I see you have some fans in the gallery. Welcome. Welcome. We're so excited. To officially take your seat though, we have to swear you in. Uh there's an oath of office. Uh the very very lengthy piece of paper in front
004of you. Um if you would please read that. Any other board member is welcome to read along if you'd like to refresh yourself. I think this is going to be a you show though. I, Angelica Husman, do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of member of the board of education of Wheeling Consolidate Community Consolidated School District 21 in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability. I further swear that I shall respect taxpayer interests by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets. I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board
005while respecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. I shall abide by majority decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designated to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through
006a sound organizational framework. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement and all conditions affecting the education of our children in compliance with state law. I shall serve as education's key advocate on behalf of students and our community schools to advance the vision for Wheeling Community Consolidated School District 21. And I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision the board has created, fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. >> Congratulations. flying qualities. We are so excited to have you join the board of education. Uh I think maybe we could take just a quick minute to do some photos with your family. >> Absolutely. >> Sounds good. >> Um since I think little
007one probably has bedtime before we're done. >> Um Andy, I'll let you and Cass direct us how you want to do this. Not to put you on the spot or anything. And that's why we do this. >> One, two, three. Awesome. All All right, thank you all for your indulgence. It feels good to have a full board again and we've got lots of fun stuff ahead of us. So, let's get into our meeting. Um, all right, awards and recognitions. October is National Principles Month. Our 13 principles are the backbone of our schools and captains of the ship for all of our students and families. They fearlessly lead our buildings and they care for all of our students. And honestly, with all that's going on in our world, it's comforting to know the 13 of them
008are the steadfast leaders of our schools. Dr. Connelly, >> I yeah, I couldn't have said it better. Um I what I will say is is that um you know, principal outside of the classroom is the most difficult job in education. um they are having to um manage um multiple multiple uh functions and constituencies on a minute-to-minute basis. um they have to deal with people like me uh and also um meet the needs of of their students and their staff and their parents and and um it is um really a role that is has just exploded in terms of responsibility um over the past uh 25 years or so. Um, I was a principal 20 years ago and when I look back at what my responsibilities were as opposed to now what principles have to do
009in their roles now, yikes. Um, and I know there are times when when I have had principles say to me, I don't want your job. And I kind of sit back and go, I don't want your job. um you know so uh we really are uh amazingly lucky uh to have the the uh dedicated professionals that we have um that are willing to stand on the line um every single day day in day out uh and do so with a lot of grace uh and really a commitment to our students. So, um it is a welldeserved um honor um to have be recognized uh in in the month of October. Um but this is something that they um make schools work day in and day out. So, uh we are very lucky to have all
01013 of them. Thank you. And I do have one announcement. Um late announcement uh but very exciting. Um so uh I am very very pleased to announce uh and to inform the board that Holmes Middle School um has been awarded a $20,000 uh creative learning grant um from the Illinois Arts Council. Uh and that that grant um is going to be utilized to launch a new mariachi band um program um over at Holmes Middle School. Absolutely. [Applause] Uh and so those those dollars are going to be used to um acquire the the equipment uh the instruments um and instructional materials and for compensation for um uh our our adult leaders of that um that have mariachi expertise um to be able to launch that program. And I'm sure you're aware of the fact that um
011Wheeling High School uh has an outstanding um mariachi program. Um, and so this is something that we've been looking at for quite some time to try and uh get a program here launched um as a uh uh a feeder into the wheeling program. And again um this is being made possible by a grant that was given to homes. Um but we will continue to pursue um opportunities uh for these types of of program enhancements um at our other middle schools. So again, um I want to thank the the staff um that have worked on this grant. Um Beatric, did you want to uh add anything to um the uh the announcement here? Put you on the spot. >> Just right. Um Janelle Hockett and Chris Lepino are the ones who kind of were instrumental and
012have been working on this. We're still trying to identify um some leaders, right? Some adult leaders for this. we've we've found some and then have hit some hurdles. And so we're we're dedicated to committing to, you know, finding that, but definitely know that there is interest there. And so we're super excited because these funds will definitely help us get it off the ground. >> And one of the things that we need to do as a condition of of accepting the grant is formally notifying um State Representative Catsmile um that we did receive the grant. Uh Holmes is obviously within uh Representative Catsmu's representative district. Um, so that is a letter that we have sent to the representative. Um, actually dated yesterday. Uh, so I'm sure the next time you see her, we see her very
013frequently. She's um very supportive and and very visible. Um, hopefully she'll be extremely excited. Uh, and we will make sure that uh as soon as we're organized and ready um we've got a nice concert that uh folks can come to and enjoy. So So again, congratulations. Thank you so much for the effort and and this has been something that again we've been talking about for for several years um as as really something that we wanted to do. So we're really pleased to be able to go in this direction. So >> that's really fantastic. That's that's wonderful. Thank you Janelle and Chris for your hard work on that and I'm personally looking forward to a concert. >> To that point, if you're looking forward to a concert, the Wheeling Band will vary band will be playing
014at the North Cook dinner next week. >> Oh. So, you'll have that opportunity. >> There you go. >> Oh, that'll be great. >> Thank you, Bill. Um, any other any other surprises? >> No. >> Okay, let's move on into staff communication. Um, our first item is a presentation on student behavior, social emotional learning, and bullying awareness and prevention. Dr. Connelly. Um October is uh National Bullying um uh awareness and prevention month. Uh, and coinciding with that, we really wanted to have our new director of student services, Sher Masa, come uh and speak with the board about uh the efforts that she and the and um our staff have been undertaking since uh her arrival in the district in in July um to not only uh prepare for and and really work through the the um
015challenge of bullying prevention um but then also um as part of our strategic plan um really taking a look at how across the district um we can be um you know more um unified and responsing and responsive to our various student uh behavioral concerns. Um so without further ado, I'll toss it over to Sher to take us through um her report. >> Great. Thank you. I'm glad to be able to be here tonight and kind of share some of the work. Um we've been putting in a lot of effort in addressing consistency when it comes to bullying and behavior. Um, so with October being bullying prevention and awareness month, it is a perfect opportunity for us to share some of the work that our schools have been doing. So this month we really since this
016is the first year that we've really been trying to do a very concertive effort across the district. We've asked that all of our buildings take at least a initial step and do one thing within all of our buildings to address bullying prevention and awareness at a building level. And then we've also taken on some district level initiatives that we're working through. So just to highlight some of the things that our buildings have been doing, we've had some assemblies um where Staley Bear has come in to talk about kindness and how to be friends um with each other. We've had our social workers really working on lessons within our schools to talk again about how do we be friends? What does it mean to be kind and nice to each other? And we've been looking at
017defining really what is bullying and how do we work on the definitions and the differences between mean, rude, and bullying behavior. And so we've started just in October 1st, we've just started to roll out some of this language within our buildings. You're going to hear a little bit more about this from our student leaders later on, but we're really starting the conversation to help all of our community members understand that none of this behavior is tolerated, but there is a difference when it comes to bullying and mean and rude behavior. And what does that look like? And how do we respond differently? So really, when it comes to rude behavior, we're talking about inadvertently saying or doing something, right? It hurts your feelings. It's not acceptable, but it's it's offthe cuff. We say something really
018without thinking. Mean is it's purposeful. We're saying something or we're doing something that is very unkind and we know that it's unkind. What's the difference between mean and bullying? Well, bullying is where it's pervasive. Bullying is where it's ongoing and where there's an imbalance of power, where there's someone who's trying to leverage something or get something out of that that action. And so really working with our schools to try and identify that. So, how are we doing that? Well, part of what we're doing is we worked with the communications department and at your seats, I gave you a sample of a trifold brochure that we've created to start addressing what is bullying and how are we addressing this in our buildings. So, all of our buildings have these brochures. We have it available for our
019community members. We have it translated into different languages. Um, this went out. Cass and Andy helped us pull this all together so that we could have it for October 1st. Also, you'll notice in there is we have our link to Let's Talk, which we've started this year as our communication tool for our students, teachers, community members to be able to reach out to us with safety concerns, but also with bullying concerns. We've had 14 reports so far this year specific to bullying that have come through Let's Talk that our schools have been able to address immediately. they come through at night, our schools are able to identify first thing the next morning and talk to the students about it and really help to problem solve and work through the situations. So, in addition to that,
020we've also placed some or we've had some posters that we've been able to place around our buildings, both middle school and elementary, again, to talk about what we stand for and what we believe in District 21. Um, and that we don't tolerate bullying. And if you are a victim or you see bullying that again here's how you can respond. And again we have the let's talk um indicated on the posters as well. Just this evening we actually received a let's talk from a bystander from a student who said I saw my friend and they explained the situation. And so that to me is such a huge win that we're getting the message out there that students are feeling like they have an avenue to be able to report something when it's not even happening to
021them. it's something that they're seeing from a friend. So along with the communication that we're getting out in our buildings and our community, we also have a policy as you know our board policy 7180 which is our response to bullying. So what do we do with these reports when they come in, right? We talked about we had these 14 reports that have come through let's talk. We have a very systematic approach that we look at for bullying. Regardless of whether or not an incident is mean or rude or bullying, we're going to respond. Our buildings are going to take action to help support our students. There's an added layer when there's bullying involved. But regardless, when we go through this investigation process, when we look at a systematic approach to addressing bullying, it's allowing our
022building principles to then work with these students to talk about how to correct their behavior. Even if it was an off-the-cuff rude comment, it's not acceptable in our schools. How do we approach our friendships differently? How do we approach our friend groups? We've been able to bring in our restorative justice um person who's been able to work in our schools. Um it's Megan Navaro. She's been able to work at our elementary schools doing a lot of work with caring circles and with restorative practices. When we do have those instance in instance of social behavior that's not acceptable, but it's not bullying. It's two students who have a social conflict that we need to address. She's able to work with them on those restorative practices. That all falls in line with what our bullying policy states
023and how we respond to that and making sure that systematically we're doing that across the board. We've added in an additional layer recently in our middle schools. October 1st, we started a new a new program that we've brought in called base ed. BEed is online computer modules. When students are involved in incidents such as bullying or cyber bullying, there are very targeted modules that they students complete that talks them through some of those restorative practices and how to approach their friend groups differently. We just started it October 1st. haven't used it a ton, but we've been using it in our three middle schools and have so far received tremendous response. There are it's translated into 74 different languages. There's over 45 different types of modules, so it could be modules for um bullying or cyber
024bullying. It's also modules on decision making and friend groups. There is an elementary component. So, as we delve into it a little bit more with middle school, we're going to start exploring whether or not it's something that we want to bring into our elementary schools. But like I said, we respond to behavior regardless if it's bullying, if it's mean, if it's rude, or any other behavior that we're seeing in our buildings. And so linked in with our strategic plan this year is our goal to create a def professional development plan that supports our strategic plan and addressing student discipline and social emotional learning. And so one of the things that I have been very fortunate to be able to do this year is work with all of our building principles and assistant principles on having
025a consistent streamlined approach to the way that we address bullying and behavior in general. So we have updated our suspension forms. We've updated some of our discipline investigations. We've provided consistent checklists for how we investigate different um instances of rude behavior or negative social conflict in the school. And now we're working through professional development with our principles on what are our tiered responses. So what does that mean? What are we going to be doing as a tier one or a tier 2, tier three approach? We're developing a district-wide behavior committee. So what are we going to do next? Well, next is to take the district-wide behavior committee and we're going to start working on consistent district-wide approaches to tier 1 behavior so that we can have more district-wide training, more consistent language about what does
026it mean to be a district 21 student. So, those are kind of the next steps that we're working on and then monthly continuing to work with our building principles to ensure that we have a consistent approach to supporting our students in all of our buildings. questions for me? >> Anyone? That was an incredibly thorough presentation. Thank you. And this sounds like >> a really incredible program. I'm looking forward to learning more about it. Um I know just, you know, personally as a parent having gone through the district uh and my youngest is is still in seventh grade. Um our our teams do an incredible job supporting their students. I think this will just give them uh you know more grounding and more understanding and help the students understand the roots of their own behavior and
027then the more that we can model dignity and civility amongst ourselves uh and you know amongst the staff I think will help set that tone for what's expected >> of our little ones. Arlin I think you had a question. >> Yeah. >> Could you turn your microphone on? >> Thought I had it on. How much of the um attention is being spent on bullying on social media which gets a lot of press obviously today? We're all concerned about it and there's been some horrible events the result of that. >> Yeah, absolutely. So cyber bullying is part of what we investigate through our bullying policies and our practices. Um I wouldn't say that we separate out cyber bullying separate from any other bullying. when we address bullying, we include cyber bullying in that. Um the base
028modules in our middle school do have some separate components for cyber bullying. So if we know that social media is a part of that, we would certainly assign those modules to the staff. Our social workers actually over the summer did some summer work on technology and social media and how that impacts the brain and our student learning. Um, we actually just met this week to talk about how we can take the work that they started over the summer and continue to roll that out into all of our buildings and have that consistent message of how much social media is too much social media and how do we balance that with a student's desire, especially in middle school, right, to have access to their peers and their friends outside. >> Thank you. >> Yeah. >> Anything
029else? Um, I just wanted to to add um well, first of all, uh just a little bit of a preview um that when our student representatives um give their monthly report, they're going to um take the board through a very um abbreviated uh version of of a activity that they led um when the superintendent student advisory council came together for the first time um uh for the school year uh two weeks ago, two Fridays ago. Um so stay tuned for that. Um and it's related to bullying. uh uh prevention. Um secondly, I think we noted in September when um Mike Grantini went through kind of the let's talk um overview that in K in K12 insight, the parent company's infinite wisdom um they decided to rebrand um and so it's not let's talk anymore. Now
030it's called Onflow. >> Yeah. I'd really love to know what focus groups they use there. However, um because we're just launching it, you know, we're going to we're going to use Let's Talk until we can't anymore. Um and um you know, but we'll rebrand as as we have to, but it's like, you know, timing is everything. Um so, uh but um I I' I think that we're um definitely seeing um some good results out of access to that system. Uh and and again, um every Monday morning, um I get a weekly digest of all of the the tickets that have come in. Um and uh so it really we've got some access to some really good information, too. Uh as that comes through. So I think it was a very good investment um that the
031board uh made in bringing that system in. So >> um do more responses come from the middle schools or from the elementary schools? >> Let's talk. You mean, you know, that's interesting because I think I would have expected it to be very heavily middle school, but we're actually seeing a little bit of the reverse. It's it's not quite 50/50. I think of the 14 that we have, I think eight of them are elementary and six of them are middle school, but I would have expected it to be the reverse. I would have expected more in the middle school just because they there's more access. I think our middle schools are a little bit, you know, more prone to seeing that button on their Chromebook, but we're seeing more responses actually from our elementary schools. I
032do want to say that I love the fact that you've got rude, mean, and bullying because yes, all of them are unacceptable behaviors, but there is a difference. And I love seeing the the separation out. >> Sure. >> And I'll I'll add to that, my daughter actually came home the other day. Well, a little bit ago, uh she was doing some homework on her Chromebook and she told me she uh pointed out the Let's Talk, you know, gadget on there and she kind of shared with me and how they do the caring circles and stuff at school and she actually really likes, you know, sharing stuff in that circle and it's great. >> Yeah, it is great. >> Thanks. >> All right. Kids can advocate for themselves. I think that empowers them to better learning.
033Okay, let's move on to a presentation of school improvement plans and our professional learning committee's overview. Uh so as the board knows on an annual basis, all of our schools um author school improvement plans um that take us through um each academic year. Uh and so um Dr. Childress is going to give a highlevel overview of of the school improvement plans. um process in particular. Uh one of the things that I want to note is that um the each individual school's improvement plan uh is something that the board is going to have the opportunity to review and pull and then it will appear in your on your November agenda for approval. So, tomorrow uh in your weekly update, you're going to get a link to the PDF, 136 page PDF that contains all 13 of
034the school's improvement plans. Um, secondarily, as the board knows, um we have been working very closely with uh DEA on making some changes um to our uh professional learning communities meeting model. Uh later this evening, you have an opportunity to approve that memorandum of understanding. And so Dr. Childress is going to give an overview of what all of those changes encompass. So Dr. Childish. >> Yeah. Thank you so much. Good evening everyone. Thanks for the awesome intro. I'm like whoops. I already covered all those notes. Thanks Dr. Connley. Like we moved right along here. Um so as Dr. Connley mentioned, you're going to receive all of the building school improvement plans. um which is a very lengthy document, but I wanted to take a little bit of time to just give you an overview so
035that when you get that document, you kind of find an easier way to maybe navigate it and work your way through um those over 100 pages that you're going to get. Um so, first of all, before I get started, I just want to say that our building leaders and you know, Dr. Connley spoke earlier about our building principles um and all the work they do and this is a huge component, right, of the work that they do. They spend a lot of time looking at data, working with their various teams that we'll, you know, talk a little bit more about later this evening. Um, and right working with myself as we're trying to uh develop the goals, set targets for the goals. Um, and then it's just a it's a cyclical process, right? So they
036work on developing it, work with their teams, we go back and forth, we look at the data, we adjust the goals, we adjust the action steps. So, it's not a it's not a um stagnant document. It's a living document that continues to evolve and that we continue to monitor and as we have new data coming in, we adjust targets if we need to get more aggressive. Um so, definitely, you know, I want to make sure that I point that out. You're going to get a document, but know that it's a it's a living document, right? That all of the buildings continue to review um their school improvement plans with their teams and their buildings. on this first slide. Uh, one thing that I wanted to make sure that um, our board and our community is
037aware of is that we do give our our schools some parameters, right? We give them, you know, when we start talking a little bit more about uh, professional learning communities in that language, you you'll hear us start to begin to say a lot more of things that are tight and things that are loose, right? And so, you're going to start to hear me use that language as I give you different presentations. So thinking about our school improvement plans, one of the items that we have in our district that we've set is what's tight is that every building has to have goals around these four items. So they have to have some goals around positive school climate and they have to have goals around student growth and achievement particularly for reading and math goals around English
038learners. As you know, we have a very high English learner population and that exists in every single one of our buildings. And so that's um a universal goal also. And then all of our buildings are also required to have attendance goals. The piece that's going to be loose on that is some of their action steps and then the specificity around some of those goals. Um, and usually what happens is that the building leaders will work with the teams, see what they feel comfortable with in setting the targets, then I go and meet with them and say, can we challenge this a little bit more or this is this is a really great target. Um, right. And so we want to make sure that we have um goals that are smart goals and that are aggressive,
039but that are also achievable. Um and then the other piece of this is that um part of why we have all of our buildings so having school improvement plans there are there are districts that all of their schools don't have school improvement plans right this is something that we've had in our district for quite some time um it's you know the format of it has kind of changed I think over the years um but we have kind of a consistent template now that we've been using again asking buildings to develop those smart goals. Um, and also the important piece is that this is part of what is required for our title one schoolwide um piece right with with ISBY. So some of our title one funding this year um all of our schools except for
040Longfellow will be receiving some title one funds. Um so that's um a change, right? I think last year we had all but Riley and Longfellow and this year actually Riley has also um fallen into the category that they will receive some funds as well. Any questions about those pieces? Okay. One of the things um that's new this year. So members of the board that have been with us and seen these very large documents that you get um in the fall on the school improvement plans um this piece um which I'm calling like cover sheets. This is a new piece that I've um implemented this year. Um, I will say that I um had an idea of I wanted this cover sheet and um tossed it to u Marllin Roas who is actually on um this
041evening for your approval. She's here. I told her I wouldn't make her come to the podium so I'm not going to. But I just wanted I do want to say that I gave her like a vision and this is not what I thought she was going to produce. And when she brought it I was like oh my goodness this is like way better than I thought. But the reason I wanted to include this is because our district is so diverse, but even within each building, we have lots of diversity. And when you look across the buildings, they're they're very different as well. And so I think as we look at our school improvement plans and understand the demographics of each of our various schools, it helps you understand why maybe the action steps at one
042particular school might be a little bit different than the action steps at another school. And so this is just kind of a way for us to kind of really quickly give you a snapshot of the demographics of the buildings and then again help you understand maybe why some of the the goals or the action steps are it the in the manner that they are. So I wanted to highlight Hawthorne. I'm not going to go through all of the schools. I just picked three to highlight for you this evening. I wanted to highlight Hawthorne because we have preschool at our Hawthorne Early Childhood Center. But we also have preschool right at Tarington and at Whitman. And so I wanted to have that demographic um side by side so that you could kind of see what is
043preschool across the district look like and then at that particular center what does that look like? Um and so that's that's one right that I wanted to highlight for you there. And then I just picked a couple of schools right it you know there's not it there's not any reason other than like I like the colors of field. So, I was like, "Oh, this one looks nice." Right? Um, but so I picked one elementary. What you'll notice in the cover sheet that I want to highlight to you, right? You'll see under our um principal there, Julie Shaver. That's one thing, right? Highlighting who our administrators are that are running um and overseeing our buildings. Um having some visuals of them. And then right underneath that, you see Strand London, right? So, that's the other important
044piece. like which buildings do our elementaryaries feed into? That's an important piece as we think about school improvement and what the impact is um of our students moving through the system. Of course, highlighting the enrollment uh racial and ethnic demographics. And then you'll see there I also have um noted programs. And so I want to highlight that all of our buildings have e English learner and specialed resource. So those are not going to appear on any of these cover sheets cuz that's just that's everybody all across the district we have that what's highlighted under programs here are the things that are more unique to those buildings right so at field for example we have K5 dual Spanish programming and then we have sheltered English programming and then you can see there kind of again how
045do the demographics fall um in that particular building and again those will be important pieces as you look at what are the goals goals that a building chose, right? Because it's going to be honed in on either their subgroups or who the majority of their students are. Um you'll you'll notice some of that differences as you go through those school improvement plans. And then again, just highlighting um London just chose one middle school. It's it's not that it's my favorite or anything like that. Um but again, mainly I look I chose this one because London has some of our specialized programs. And so again, I wanted for you to be able to see where we have a note there of programs. We have we have our sheltered English, but we also have our ELSP and
046we wrote it out because, right, we know we use a lot of alphabet soup in in education. So we have those written out for you. And then the um academic instructional program also is housed um there at London. So again, I just picked three three random, right? Not random, but random schools to kind of highlight just to walk you through what these cover pages are and so that you're when you start to review the plans, you understand why the pieces of data um or information that was selected for the cover page is there. Any questions about the cover pages? >> Thank you, Marlin, for the beautiful job that she did on those. I literally gave her a Google sheet with data and and this is what she produced. So really great. So again, not going
047to want to walk you through 136 page document. So I picked a few goals from the four target areas that the buildings are asked to uh produce goals on. Right? So for London's here, their goal one with their um climate and seal, you'll see the format is the same across all of the goals. So you'll always see what the overarching area is of the goal area. Then you'll have the smart goal pieces, action steps and activities, and success indicators. That format follows through every single goal through every single school. um which might not seem like a big deal but trust me there are many times when we give templates and we get them back and they look all different and I'm like right this I think is really important for consistency for us across the
048district for our community to just have to learn one format and one understanding and of course for our board of education also so that you just have to learn one format and then it follows through all of the plans for SEAL primarily what you're going to see is goals set around panorama data right so we give the panorama survey to our students um our younger kiddos our teachers take that survey right and rate our students um but that's what you will primarily see goals set around using panorama data usually we've been seeing a lot of goals set around um emotional regulation because that is one of the lower um things that we are seeing in our panorama data kind of across the district. So you'll see a lot of schools with that as what they're
049setting their goal on. Um London here in particular, right, also has goal on social awareness and sense of belonging, which again sense of belonging is huge. We know for our students, right, it impacts their attendance. It impacts, you know, how they feel about being at school, um their relationships, all of those pieces. And so that's kind of what you'll see, but definitely you will see um a consistency around the panorama data being what the goals are set off of. Any questions about that? When we talk about our student growth goals, um again, I just picked one building to kind of show you and highlight. Again, you'll see very same format, so you don't have to relearn a format following the same template. Um, but when we're talking about our student achievement, one thing that you'll
050notice, particularly with elementary for kindergarten, because our kindergarteners in the district do not take MAP data. So, you'll see data around common assessments or phmic awareness type of um common assessments. That's what you'll kind of see some of the goals set off of. And then starting at first grade, then you'll start to see benchmarks that are um benchmarks and goals that are based off of MAP data for both reading and for math. And this year um is new where we're doing first grade math. Previously, we started at second grade. Um but last year we had bumped reading down to first grade and saw really great um success with that and got really good feedback from our staff saying that they really appreciated having that additional data point in math and so we extended that this
051year uh to have first graders taking math also. Any questions about that one? >> Just a quick question. So will there be multiple pages for each school for goals or is there a So in other words at London it was social emotional is the page you shared with us >> but they will have all four goals. >> They'll all be okay. >> Yep. And also what you'll see is some buildings that goal one may take more than one page which is why the document is so long. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Got it. Thank you. >> Yeah for sure. Good question. Yeah. Any other questions before I move on? Okay. So then for goal three, um I wanted to highlight again, right, the goal threes are all around English learner um achievement and proficiency.
052And so you'll see depending again on what the student demographics are. You might see some MAP goals specific to EL, but what you will definitely see is goals around access. So remember that access is our state assessment that determines when our children are ready to exit from the program. And so all of the buildings have goals set around that. So this particular one is worded as English learners who will receive a score of 4.8 overall composite which is essentially the score that they need to exit from the program. So when you're looking at the goals, you may see this percentage of students qualifying to exit or you may see that score because that's the equivalent of that there. Right? There's a little bit of variance in the language with that. In terms of the second
053piece of it, again, what we always want to measure is the achievement, but also the growth. And so I also require for all of the buildings to have where they're monitoring the growth of the student population. And some of them will you'll see a 1.0 as you do on this one where it says 1.0 in the area of literacy proficiency. Some of it you'll see a a.5 is the minimum that that right we're allowing them to kind of set those goals off of. Um and the reason that the literacy proficiency is picked is because that is essentially 50% of the access test. So when you think about the test in general, if you've got a lot of kids growing Whoops. in that particular area, you have a greater chance in making sure that students are
054growing with their English proficiency. And so that's why that's a particular number that we focus on and use as a as a monitoring measure. Any questions about that? >> Yes. Is the access test is that a statewide or like a federal state? >> Statewide. Thank you. >> Yeah. A number of states use it. It's a pretty wide consortium that uses it, but it's a state test. Mhm. >> I always get mixed up with the map and the access. How many times is access taken in a school year? >> Access is a state test. It's only given one time. It's given in the spring. Um and so, right, we don't have it. Whereas MAP is a district assessment and we give it three times. And so we can kind of watch that that way. Excellent question.
055Yep. Which again is part of why we pick those couple of numbers to be able to say we want to make sure that Beatrice is growing year after year, right, in her in her access scores as an example. And then the sample of the last goal, right, the attendance goal. We know that attendance has been, right? It's it's a thing. It's a thing nationally. It's not just here in in district 21. Um but this is also one of the goals that schools are required to have. Um goals around attendance. You'll see um again a little bit of variance. Some buildings have as as Frost does an a goal around um average daily attendance which is ADA, right? And they set a goal around that and we monitor that actually every month. Um Amy Kipley, our
056data manager, pulls that data and I have a spreadsheet that has all of the buildings every month and I can watch that data and principles have access to that to be able to watch it as well. Um so that's one data point. You won't necessarily see all of the buildings with that as a smart goal. You might see it sometimes as a success indicator. So, some of them will have two, some of them will only have one, some will only have the second one that's listed here, which is the chronic absentee rate. And that's the number that we're really trying to hone into. That's a number that's monitored, right, by the state. It's part of the state report card. It's part of the school report cards. Um, and so that's one that's that's a tight
057one. You have to have that. Most buildings do also have the ADA, but if you don't see it as a smart goal, you will most likely definitely I went through all of them there. It's as an it noted as a success indicator if it is not called out specifically as a smart goal because those are two data points that tell us two different things, right? Um but both important pieces that we need to watch for our students. Yes, I >> just as long as you're standing there, how are we doing on the chronic absenteeism issue? >> I will say that we have been seeing that number decline in in most of our buildings. Um, without having it all in front of me, I couldn't tell you, but I know when I was reviewing the goals
058with the building principles, um, a lot of them have seen a decline and then of course set goals to have more of a decline. Um I think that our attendance liaison um have been critical in that work. Um of course Dr. Shapiro, I believe, yeah, is here, right? She she really watches all of that data and has been actually meeting with our building leaders to look at that data with them. And I think that all of those pieces, working together in collaboration, as well as, you know, our teaching staff and right checking in on kids and, you know, doing a lot of those other things, making sure that we're doing anything we can to remove the barriers for children. So, we are seeing that number come down. Um I'm actually very pleasantly surprised with how
059fast that number is coming down in comparison to what I'm hearing from colleagues in the area. >> Great. Thank you. >> The other thing is that on a weekly basis um they each principal um receives an automated um report from P school that actually graphically shows the number of students in the green zone, yellow zone and red zone. Um so that's um very helpful. Then on a weekly basis, our principles are and I I get all of and we we get the entire district. Um we're able to see very quickly dashboard style where we are. >> Any other questions on that? >> Well, not a question on that. More a comment on the presentation as a whole. Um and not on the content as so much as to the format. And that is to tell
060you I'm both impressed and disappointed. I'm disappointed in the fact that we're still getting 150 pages. I thought this was going to take the place. Um, however, I wish I would have seen a presentation like this 25 years ago because this makes going through the process, going through that 150 pages or less um, so much easier and so much understandable, not only for us, but for anybody who wants to look at at these documents. And I hope that we're able to put this, if you will, in the front every time we have that SIP report to go out so that anyone in the community can understand what all of this is. >> And yes, by the way, great graphing. Even I, the colorblind guy, could see it. Good job. >> Yeah, with Bill. It's been
061a long time since we've had a presentation with this kind of detail. Uh, so easy to understand, so easy to read. Uh, at one time we used to do that actually in close session a long time ago before Mike and we'd tear through them, but this is the best presentation as Bill said that I've seen in probably 20 years. I mean, it's really impressive. >> How excited you are about this when you just remember how excited you about this when you get the 130 page. >> Well, that's another story. >> I'm sorry. Go. No, you're good. I was just going to say, I mean, a lot of work does go into the plans with the building leaders and all of the teams that they work with, right? All of our teaching staff and and others
062in the buildings. I mean, it truly is a lot of work that goes into the planning of that. But any other questions? Okay. So, the next presentation is about uh professional learning community. And I know Dr. Connley mentioned a little bit about right theou that you have in your um in your packet for approval that we've been working with uh DEA leadership on. Um I'm going to ask Janelle to step up. Um she's going to co-present this with me. And while it's Janelle and I also want to say we do have a a a third amigga that joins us. Um Dr. Shapiro has been very active in our um progress and planning of um moving towards a professional learning community. Um, and I you'll see that I'm trying to consciously say the whole thing instead
063of just PLC because part of the shift that we're having to make in our district is currently in our CBA, we use the term PLC as professional learning council. And this is a different scenario because professional learning community is the way that we work. It's not a team per se. It's the way that we work. It's very um um common very nationally right known with work with solution tree um and there are a number of districts right that utilize solution tree as we do and Janelle will talk a little bit more to that later in the presentation but when just so that we're all on the same page it's a it's a shift in the culture in our district knowing that we're talking about kind of if you think about it in terms of more
064of norms how are we functioning as educators in our district. We're looking to move towards the professional learning community. Um so that's just an important distinction that we're we're we're working on and navigating in our district. So um thinking about and so we're using kind of this terminology um PLC at work, right? Um and DEA has been um really um an important piece of us as we're trying to navigate to make some of these changes. Again, as Dr. Connley mentioned, right, you have the theou in your packet. So, previously we had the professional learning council. Well, we currently have until you until you take motion. Sorry, let me let me fix myself. Um, and what what we heard what you know as I worked with teams last spring, all different stakeholders in our district, what
065we were hearing was that those um councils that are in place currently with with our CBA that in some situations, they were either spending so much time on the instruction piece that they never got to talk about the behavior piece or spending so many so much time on building logistics that they never got to talk about instruction and behavior. And that was a repetitive theme regardless of which stakeholder I was meeting with. This concept of we don't have enough time. We're not focusing our attention enough on anyone right in one of these three areas. And then also along with that is the desire of a number of stakeholders in our district to have more voice, right, more efficacy and what was happening with some of the decision-m in the district. And so as we began
066to think about that and again hearing about kind of these three core areas that members in our educators in our district regardless of what position they held feeling like these were three main areas that needed some focused attention. And so that's when we started down this road of thinking about okay what can this look like and how do we make some of these changes? And so what we ended up coming out with is the school instructional leadership team. Again, that is essentially the group that is helping the building leaders develop those school improvement plans. That's the easiest way to kind of think of that about that. Actually have a slide for this. Sorry. Um right. So that's kind of the main function is kind of monitoring those instructional pieces um in the in the schools.
067And then the behavior team um right is also an important piece. If if we're having some challenges with behavior in the school, it's going to impact the way that the children can learn, right? It's going to impact the learning environment and the way that our teachers can right do do their work their craft and work with our children. So that's an important piece. Um and so that team has been um also created and then of course the building building logistics team. So while right instruction, teaching and learning are important pieces and as our behavior, so are other pieces of the culture, right? Making sure that um you know, you'll hear often educators say making sure that the trains are running on time, right? Making sure that the kids are getting into the building safely. Um
068you know, any kind of if we feel like we need to have assemblies or different things like that, right? We've got our huge bullying thing. I know a number of our buildings have done some some work around some some of those pieces. So those are pieces that would fall through the building logistics team. If you just kind of think about it, it's kind of like the the planning of the functions of all the other pieces of the things that impact the school that aren't specific necessarily to teaching and learning or to behavior. Any questions about the three teams? Okay, I'm going to turn it over to Janelle who's going to talk about the meeting structures, but of course now I'm going to keep talking. Janelle, um, one thing I want to say is last year,
069um, right when when Dr. Shapiro came on and joined the team and she started doing all the work with the MTSS pieces, right? And us trying to figure out all of those pieces as we were working with buildings. We were finding that there were all these various meetings that were happening in the schools and there were some consistent meeting structures and some that were not consistent meeting structures. And so um we said okay actually Dr. Shapiro said, "You know, Petus, I really think we need to do a meeting audit of what what meetings every building is having because again, what we were hearing from our stakeholders was there are lots of meetings, but there aren't clear defined focus or outcomes coming out of those meetings and it needs to be tighter, right?" Little did we
070know, we we did that meeting audit and like I had I think I had Marlin printed off and it was like it was crazy. Like I probably was more than 136 pages. I'm going to say so from that we decided we needed to kind of reset and have again some consistency across the district because also what we were hearing was right a staff member at one building might say well this other building's got this meeting structure and I'm hearing it works really well how come we don't have it at our school and so that's where some of that need to have some of that consistency now I really will turn it over to Janelle >> so both Sher and Dr. childrens have used the word consistency quite a bit and that's exactly what we're aiming
071for in this reset that that we're speaking of. And so the meetings that you see here, the meeting structures that you see here are direct in alignment with the team structure she mentioned a little bit ago. And these are all things that have been taking place, but they've had eight different names across the district, let's say, and maybe different players were at the table at different buildings. So what we've done through this work is identify these are the types of means we're all going to be consistent with. Here are the people that need to be around the table. Here is the way these are going to function and the primary focus of these meetings. And so that's what you see here. And we've got it colorcoded so that as we continue talking with all our
072stakeholders about what these are and who's impacted, we can all keep building that common vocabulary and understanding. And so you can see some of that information here. And um we're going to be continue to talk about that with all of our staff as well as we go through. Um anything else on that you want to say? >> Yes. One important distinction that I that I should have made. Can you jump back one slide for me? Okay, Janelle. These three teams are in outlined in theouou that you have in front of you this evening. And then if you go to the next slide, the meeting structures are not part of the CBA. These are administrative structures that we're putting in place again to have focus and consistency across the district. So that's just an important distinction
073that I wanted to point out for you. >> Anything about meetings? Are you good? No, I'm good. Okay. >> So, in addition to the work of redefining these structures for both teams and meetings, we also know that we need to help build everyone's understanding and capacity around where are we really headed? What is a high functioning professional learning community? And if you've been with us a while, you know, we've talked about professional learning communities before years back. And what I will tell you is although we started down that path, we were not taking as many steps as we could have been taking to make sure everyone was on the same page. And so what we've tried to do this time is be very strategic and diligent about everyone having the training that's the same, the
074experiences that are the same, and starting to roll a little bit more um tempered in our speed to bring everybody with us as we go. And so what you will see here is that what things that we started so far was solution tree which as Beatric said is the most recognized group who supports the work of Rick Defor who created professional learning communities all those years ago and so they are the primary experts their resources come from solution tree. So we've partnered with them and have had an excellent facilitator with us since June who has come and done a training session with all of our administrators. Then we've done another session with all of our school leadership teams. And so all of those teacher leaders have been a part of these initial conversations. We've done
075some more work with our coaches this fall for all our specialists across the district. And then in October next week, we're going to have our institute day and we're all the whole entire district going to go through this process of this common language and common understanding. And not only that piece, but you heard Dr. children's talk about giving voice and really trying to build that culture and climate and strengthen that. So the tail end of our institute day is really going to focus on okay we've been through here are all the characteristics of a high functioning PLC. Now as a staff member in our district where are you feeling right now? Are you feeling like you're all in ready to go? You get it or are you a little more on the nervous side? What
076do you think you need to really get where we're going? Um what supports can we provide and be working on together? So they'll have an opportunity to do that. We'll be pulling all of that data together then to share with buildings and then keep moving the ball forward. So really the focus this year is to work on that common understanding. We're really in that first stage of developing that common language, that common understanding to make sure that we're all speaking the same language around what professional learning communities really are. So that's really with our meetings and team structures and this consistent language and understanding. That's where we're headed this year. Moving into the summer, we'll start building in more opportunities for people to go deeper. So, what's it going to look like for our school
077leadership teams to go deeper in their understanding of how to be a high functioning professional learning community? And same with our teachers and teams. So, we'll be doing that work in the summer as well as every time that I've talked to other districts and our presenters with solution tree about, hey, what do you do when new people come into the system? If we're going to work toward this being the way we do life, then anyone who's welcomed into our system in the future needs to go through this same path of training that we're all going to experience. So, we need to build that in to the front end of when people start their journey with us in the district. So, that will be a part of next summer as well. and then into where we're
078headed for then the year of 2627 we'll really be looking at making sure again refining where we are but keeping that momentum and then really looking at the launch of what our expectations are. So we will have developed this clear and common understanding and then we'll be talking a little bit about okay so what's that look like consistently across all of our schools when we're really living this out and we'll be a little bit more specific as we start to grow those pieces based on the data we hear from staff and the supports we need to put in place maybe you want to add to that so again just to highlight right we're focusing on this work because there are tons of data and evidence of districts that function as a professional learning community yield
079better results with their children in the district. Right? And that's what we're after. And part of that is because the whole concept and construct of it is that nobody's working alone. Nobody's working in silos, right? These are all of our children. We're all responsible for their social emotional health as well as their academic um achievement and growth. And you know, if we can learn to lean on each other a little bit more and have some more comfortability and sometimes some crucial conversations, right? And looking at data and if we're looking at data and you know Janelle and I both teach fourth grade and her data looks great on a certain assessment and mine doesn't, that I can sit with her and say, "Janelle, what did you do?" And that's all part of the language and
080the learning and the way that a professional learning community functions is that you're able to have those conversations. And so moving in this direction gives us the vocabulary. It gives us the structures um and really sets the tone of the district to be perfectly honest. We want people in our organization that are allin for all of our kids. Right? It's not about my students and your students. It's about our students and how are we working together to make sure that we're doing the best that we can each and every day for our kiddos. And that's not to say that we are not trying to do that, but what we don't have is the common language and the common structures in place. And so that's really what we're after here with this work. So far, the
081feedback has been really great from the teams that have gotten um the professional development. And so we're really excited about um the work and what it can mean for um again for the children in our district and those that we serve. What questions do any of you have? >> As an additional benefit, do you see this as a way of building a common culture, if you will, to allow over the years our teachers to move perhaps from one building to the other and have the same expectations, language and so forth? >> Absolutely. Absolutely. And this again it's when we think about it it's it's a structure for districtwide right so whether I move grade levels whether I move buildings then I will learn and know okay it's this expectations are going to be the same
082when we're talking about how are we adapting our teaching right to ensure that the children are learning right it absolutely it helps us with all of those pieces >> thank you any other questions >> is a facilitator from like at what point is the facilitator from solution tree involved up to? Are they there to help develop the structure and then they step back and we take it forward with the substance or are they sort of involved more deeply as the team's this is the worst worded question I think I have ever asked in my life. Feel free to not answer it. >> I think I I think I know where you're going after. This is why lawyers don't speak off the cuff. We write everything down. >> Do you want me to try? >> Please.
083>> Okay. Let let me stop talking. >> So, right, we felt that it was important to bring a presenter who's been working with solution tree in because sometimes, right, it's not necessarily that they're saying anything different than we've been trying to say, but when this people hear it from an outside voice, sometimes it resonates differently, right? And then it also allows us as leaders to just be part of the learning process, right? And also watching, okay, where do we need to slow down? Where can we speed up? That's why even as Janelle mentioned, some of the um feedback loop that we're going to put into the to the 24th is going to be so important. Eventually, yes, we hope to have to be a we hope to be able to move away from bringing somebody
084in. Um I think we'll have a better assessment of that right as we move on through this school year. Um one of the things with the work with Solution Tree and again right they've done tons of work and I've been through many of their trainings throughout my career. Um they have other trainings that are more specifically geared for other pieces. So, while we might not continue with a outside person for systemwide big district-wide stuff, we may bring a presenter in to work with our district leaders on certain things or our coaches or our specialists on certain things. But I would anticipate for sure through this school year and maybe part of the beginning of next year, I think we'll have a better idea once we get that feedback from our staff. >> Okay? >> Because
085that's going to determine the speed, right, that we can move You know, one of the things that um particularly as we've engaged in the work uh with solution tree and and u have really been working through the uh really the evolution of our professional learning communities efforts. Um I've been doing kind of a lot of reflecting on you know kind of the road the journey that that we have been on. And I think one of the things that I will admit I don't know that we necessarily do a very good job with is kind of connecting the dots, connecting the arc, right? But if you think back to the spring of 2019 when we worked with CEC the to conduct our comprehensive systems review. Um and what we found from that review and again dozens
086and dozens of of faculty and staff as part of that effort um external evaluators that were coming in and and doing focus groups and and kind of looking at data and you know whole team of people was that we were a system of schools not necessarily a school system. Um within our um collective bargaining agreement, um we had a um building council system that was very broad in terms of how it was defined and quite frankly looked very different from building to building where you might have 50 people on a building council in in one school and three uh on another. And so then you come to 2022. Yeah, there was that little COVID thing that was going on there too. So that, you know, kind of made for some interesting byways. But you come
087into the collective bargaining um agreement that we worked through with DEA and introduced um within that contract in 2022 the first kind of distributive leadership structures um where we had um specific compensated team leaders where the professional learning council replaced the building council with that purpose of trying to increase voice and and and move towards a system um you know where we could increase collaboration and and and start to embed some of those distributive leaderships. And it has been a learning journey and it has been an evolution. And so as Beatatrice has moved into her role first as chief academic officer and now as as deputy and has been able to have those conversations and the willingness of our staff um to really have those critical conversations, those crucial conversations and to be able to
088have that ability to say we've got to get focused and we need to have more people. uh we can't have just this one body that is trying to do all of this as as you know not to belabor anything that has already been in in the presentation and so then as an outgrowth of that we are now at this point right so this has been a steady evolution of sophistication and of kind of addressing and building systems to try and move us where we need to go. um and the willingness of everybody of this board to invest in these you know in in these um all of this costs money right you know it's it's time and resources um but the willingness to invest in that the willingness of the the DEA and the faculty
089and staff to really um embrace and engage in that work um you know it it really is um a great really an amazing amount of work um and we've got a lot ahead of us right but each time we are reflecting and we are having these conversations and we are going and taking the next step. What we're doing is just that much more effective and really bringing us to a point where we are really enhancing um our educational environment year over year over year. And we got a lot of challenges. We're doing this in headwind, right? And that's not going to change. but it's putting systems in place so that it is maybe a little easier to manage through some of those headwinds. So, I just want to say personally that it has been so
090amazing to not only be part of but to be to watch uh and and Beatric and her team and and really the entire staff engage in this work. Um this isn't one person's idea. This is the culmination of hundreds of hours of conversations and really sometimes painful conversations, right? Um but leading to a very good place. So I just wanted to say that it's really an amazing evolution that we have been part of. >> Any other questions for Dr. Childress or Janelle? >> Okay. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. All right. Uh, our next item is, uh, board discussion. The 2025 ISB resolutions committee report is out for our review. Um, for those that don't know, for those that do, as a refresher, ISB hosts an annual delegate assembly at our triple eye conference
091every November for member districts to vote on proposals submitted by local school boards. And through this process in the delegate assembly, ISB member districts provide critical direction as ISB represents members interests before state and national poly policy makers, which is a very nice way of saying we help define our state organizations's advocacy agenda before the Illinois General Assembly and our National Congress. Um, tonight in our consent agenda, we're going to appoint uh Debbie to continue to be our delegate to the 2025 delegate assembly on behalf of our school board. She served us admirably in this role for many, many years and would like to continue. Um, that said, please, board members, review the committee report. Um, over the next couple of weeks, we can have some discussion here tonight, and I'll get to that in
092a minute. Um, but over the next couple of weeks before we get to the November meeting, please review the committee report, you'll see several proposed amendments to the IASB constitution that we'll be asked to vote on, as well as one resolution uh regarding um the likelihood of grant funds for uh the safety belts that will be installed on school buses for districts that have to purchase new school buses. Um there is an ISB webinar on November 13th that will go through each of these. Um I'd recommend that you attend the uh the webinar. I know obviously Debbie will be attending as our delegate. It's free. If you need help registering, please ask Leticia to help you uh with that process. Um but sometimes it's good to hear the different member districts Q&A uh and thoughts
093about each of the proposed resolutions. Um so that when we get to November, you know, we have other perspectives uh as we take our vote. Um Debbie, I don't know if you want to uh >> yeah, >> address any of the things that we'll be asked to vote on before we get into discussion. >> More for our newer members. Um you've all received the committee report. It's attached in your packet here. Look over it. If you have any questions on anything, uh, like Jessica said, we have, um, they actually condense down the number of constitutional amendments. There's 10. Most of them are fairly self-explanatory, but if anybody has any questions on the details of them, just reach out to me. I did watch the webinar. If you can't watch it live, it'll be attached on
094the IASB website for like within 48 hours for sure. Um, I was traveling on the 9th so I was not able to watch it. I watched it today and it's explains everything. The biggest things are the constitutional changes are going to be done through a consent agenda. So if we if anybody wants anything pulled, we can always pull. Um, and that's going to be done first. That way, anything that is approved at the consent agenda at the for the constitution will take effect at right at that time. It's not even the end of the meeting. It's at that time because one of the amendments that they're putting in is for two-year terms for president and vice president. Um, it's been one year and potentially that could be changed. you know, it's just doesn't doesn't give
095us the flow that we need that's the most effective. Um, that will be first and take effective immediately. There's only the one resolution and yes, that's for buses that are purchased after 2031 have to have seat belts, have the three-point seat belts on it. And there's I'm sure there will be some discussion on that. Um I don't know how much it would affect us because we don't buy our own. >> Well, but it'll affect our vendors. So, you know, the flow through will it will absolutely, you know, Yes. >> And I know for sure that it will definitely be affecting the NSSO budget too because it'll be really although most of theirs have five point harnesses on their for their seats. Um so that's pretty much it. Yeah, just go through it. Any questions, reach
096out to me and we'll go through next month item by item and I'll make sure that we're all voting that I vote the way that the the board wants me to. Um, also the president and vice president are up and so I want to make sure I have everybody's approval on those. So that's it. >> So we have some time for discussion if there's any other questions anyone wants to raise. I know Bill's raising his hand or comments anyone wants to make. uh for right now. >> Uh the first thing is just simply an additional opportunity for us at the North Cook dinner this week or this upcoming week. If you get there by 5:30, there's going to be the opportunity to have a discussion on the constitutional changes to ask questions and to go
097for that. So that is an opportunity for all of us, you know, if you're interested in doing that. Um, I have had an opportunity to read all of this and do the seminars and also talk to our division director, Alva Chryser. As you go over this, I want you to think or I would like to ask you to think about two things. Um, first is the change to the voting procedures that's in there. Um, there's a concern from some downstate districts that they don't have the opportunity to attend the conference and they would like to be able to vote remotely or even by mail. And there's two problems with that. One is that the constitutional what the change they want to make would be allow the board of directors to make that change as opposed
098to the delegate assembly. And quite frankly, that's a change to the constitution and as such should probably be done by the delegate assembly. You know, let the board of directors get the report and make a recommendation. But a constitutional change by definition should be done by the delegate assembly. The second thing is there's an incredible unintended potential consequence to that, which is people may decide simply to vote absentee and not show up at the delegate assembly and not show up at the conference. >> Um, I don't know that they're thinking that quite through. >> Um, the second thing that, you know, I would like us to consider, yes, Debbie, you're right. They're talking about a two-year term for the presidency, and that's great >> because right now a president gets elected and they pretty much
099automatically get a second term. So, there's pretty much a two-year cycle anyway, but they need to have some additional language in there in the event that the president loses re-election in their local district, moves out of state, has an illness. There is no language in there that says, well, once the vice president replaces them, do they have an opportunity to get their own two-year term or is this going to be it? >> Okay. And it that's not a problem to allow us to approve this, but I think more language needs to be added to cover that that potential. >> Okay. >> So, at the uh at the dinner on uh next Wednesday, uh Lori Grant, who's the associate one of the associate directors of ISB, will be there. I intend to bring these up with
100her then and if anybody else wants to ask questions or whatever, you will have that opportunity. >> That's it. >> Thank you, Bill. Excellent points to consider. Um, so I mean I think it's likely we'll be having discussion clearly under the bounds of the OMA with each other throughout the next couple of weeks to help acclimate certainly our three newer board members to what this is all about and what it really means to us as sitting board members. Um, so I'll just encourage you all to talk with each other. Those of us who've been around a little longer, please let your expertise be shared with uh with each other. Um, are there any other questions or comments before we move on? Okay, none. All right, cool. That's good. >> Well, it's a lot of information
101and it's new and it's something that we haven't really done at conference in a while. Um, let's uh let's move ahead into public comment. Ah, thank you very much. The board will allow any individual to share a public comment for up to three minutes. Such comments should not include discussion of personnel matters which should be brought directly to the attention of the appropriate school official. During public comment, the board and administration listen to comments but may not respond to the public. Uh Leticia has handed me one comment card. Uh Ben, do you want to come on up? Hello, my name is Ben Kman and I am a project lead the way and academic lab teacher at Cooper Middle School. I am also the current president of the District 21 Education Association. We represent pretty much
102everyone who works at District 21 who isn't an administrator. I'd like to start by welcoming our newest board member, Ms. Okay, awesome. Oh. Oh no, I lost my speech. Um, please pause. Talk amongst yourselves. Sorry, I got a new phone as you can tell. Okay. I would like to start by w Oh, I would like to talk briefly about two things. The first comes from a story that I heard from my daughter who works at a coffee place in the northwest suburbs. She told me that she saw a customer of hers get detained by ICE. When she told me this, I wasn't sure how to talk to her about it. It's a scary subject when it affects you in your neighborhood. We are grateful that our district has provided legal guidance on how to handle
103ICE agents if they should approach one of our buildings. That helps. I think I can speak for almost everyone in district 21 that we don't want to talk about it to our students, but that means that someone needs to speak to our kids. I hope that parents are willing to do that. Whatever your views, I hope that parents are having those conversations with their children. I think that's the best place for that. The second thing I want to talk about briefly is history. I'm really enjoying my new role at Cooper and I believe that I am blessed to have a workplace where I'm valued and where I can work with people who I respect doing something I love. I think that schools work best when staff, students, and parents are partnering to make things work.
104And I think that unions are a big part of an effective school. I'm happy that I work in a state and in a school district that respects that long history of beneficial partnerships. And I hope that we can continue to be successful partners for many years to come. Thank you for your time and thank you for all that you do for the staff and families of District 21. We look forward to partnering with you to continue making our schools the best they can be. >> Thank you, Ben. Um, any other public comment cards, Laticia? >> No. >> Okay. Thank you, Cass. Any written public comments? Okay. Okay. Let's move on to the consent agenda. We received one Freedom of Information Act request this month. Uh, in our consent agenda, our board conference and travel expenses
105for four of the board members to attend the ED Red Kickoff lunchon next Monday. October 20th for a total amount of $250 $25452 and there is a registration cancellation to the IASB Super Saturday event for a board member and therefore we will receive a reimbursement in the amount of $199. Uh I reviewed the financial documents with Mike Zigger. Many thanks to Mike again. I had a few clarification questions and he responded satisfactorily to all of them. Um, and thank you Glenn for your response as well to the questions I had that fell under your department. >> Um, Bill, I know you need items A and B pulled. >> That is correct. >> Since you were absent from the September meeting, um, and Galla, I hate to put you on the spot. Um, we can poll
106C and D as well if you'd like to vote on the rest of the consent agenda. If you're planning to abstain, then we can just leave them in. >> Okay. Okay. So, we can just pull A and B and then leave uh vote on the rest of the consent agenda C through through the end. Okay. Uh, may I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus item A, which is the minutes of the regular board of education meeting from September 18th, and item B, the close session minutes from September 18th, uh, and not item C or D. >> So moved. Second. >> Okay, so that's this one, right? Um, we're going to vote on the consent agenda minus A and B. So just cross off C and D here. >> Okay, perfect. >>
107All right, technical difficulties. >> All right. Sorry, who made the motion? Debbie did. Okay. >> And Arland second. >> And Arland, thank you. >> All right, Debbie. >> Yes. >> Uh Leiana, >> yes. >> Bill, >> yes. >> I vote yes. Jessica, >> yes. >> Arlon, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Now, may I please have a motion to approve items A and B? >> Can you call in Jelica? >> Uh I marked her as abstained. >> Oh, you register. Okay, thank you. You got to call. >> Okay. Angelica, >> abstain. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Sorry. All right. Angelica, abstain. >> Yes. >> Bill, >> abstain. >> I vote yes. Jessica, >> yes. >> Arlin, >> yes. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Very about that. >> No worries.
108No worries at all. >> Okay. Um, >> so before we move on, I just wanted to note um that uh as part of the personnel report um the board has just uh formally approved uh Marlin as um Dr. Childress's uh executive assistant. Um so, you know, she's already obviously been on the job as you noticed from the um from the uh uh the new cover pages. Uh but congratulations and um I know we're really excited to have you move up into this role. Thank you for that. Um let's go ahead and move into our new business. Uh we're going to start with a presentation on the 2025 tax levy and approval of the 2025 tenative levy. So, um, as, uh, Mike Zagger is coming to the Deis, um, just this is a the first step,
109uh, in a two-monthl long process, um, of finalizing the, um, next year's tax levy. Uh, and so what, uh, Mike is going to do tonight is kind of give just a a broad highle overview of the tenative levy, which then you will have an opportunity to act on. Um the final levy um would be acted upon at your November meeting um so that we can file it with um the county and uh make sure that we are uh getting the local resources uh that we need to uh fund our schools uh for the coming school year. So Mike turn this on. And we do own three buses by the way. So I did want to mention that. So but by that time we'll probably need new ones and I'm sure we'll have seat belts. So
110tonight we're here to discuss the tentative property tax levy. So I'm just going to go over the process tonight more than anything. I'm not going to get too much into the nitty-gritty, just the process, what we have to do, what the laws are, go and then we'll get into the levy a little bit. So So I'm going to try not to get into too many details tonight. We'll get on that at the next meeting. Um so so this is just overall process. So what we do is we is the levy is the amount we request. That's the only thing the board truly gets to do is we ask for an amount. Um the county is responsible for extending the levy and and during that process they add our 3% loss cost factor on there. So
111before they extend it, everything is added into what we what we want our levy plus our loss cost. And then they are also responsible for collecting that money and distributing to the district. There are two um invo bills that are sent out. one typically in fe February March and one in July. July is obviously not happened. Um but that's the process and then we do our collections in March, April and August, September. So that's kind of the levy extension collection process. Um the county has to do a lot in this process. They pretty much control the whole process. There's not much we do. So they there's an assessment process. Cook County being so large, they do it in three. They split up into three areas, North Cook, South Cook, and Chicago. So, they only assess
112an area once every three years. We are actually up in 2025. And it's been a it's typically been a big hit to residential, less of a hit to commercial, and I believe we've saw that in our assessments that have been mailed to us in this area. So, the county controls that they say what your house is worth. We do not have any control of that. Um, the next is they review the assessments. It's reviewed the re the assessments decisions are reviewed by the board and then they pro process taxpayer cla on the fairness of the assessments and then finally the state comes in and the reason the state has to come in is because some some school districts have multiple counties and they want to make sure the houses are assessed fairly across each county.
113So what they do is they do an is they issue an equalization factor. Cook County is a little different like everything else with their properties and they only do an assess value at 10%. Where EAV is 33% of the market value of the home. So there's a big equalization factor in Cook County every year for 2025 it's 2.8487% times the value that they sent you in the mail. Um, and so that's ju just to get us equal, Cook County equal with Grundy County, DuPage County, and all the other counties because there are some districts that are in three or four counties. So that's what they do to make sure the assessments are being fair across counties. And for our student reps and anybody else, there is no quiz at the end of this. So >>
114yes, no worries. >> This is some interesting stuff. >> However, it's because I want to make sure when you say EAV, EAV means >> is is estimated um actual value. the EAB's estimated actual value of the property. So that's 33% of the market value of the property and for some reason through the property tax process they chose 33% to be that. So that's the equal equalized assessed value of the property. So Cook County does it an assessed value of 10 and then the state equalizes it for the whole state. So that is what it is. >> Since I opened that door, let me make sure that you you know everybody understands what what we just said. So your house, you know, if your parents own your home, there is a value um to that house.
115Um if your parents were to sell it, uh you're looking to move into a new house or whatever the case may be. So each year um what well or every 3 years in Cook County um what the county is doing is they're saying your house is worth this much if you were going to sell it. Okay? And so then they take 33% of that value. All right? So if your house is worth $100,000, the county taxes off of 33% or $33,000, right? So again, it's just kind of layman's terms. Um because this is a lot of just kind of weird information. All right. So, I just wanted to make sure that since the first time they're hearing it, uh, and probably several people in the room are hearing it, um, that we're able to to
116just kind of try and reduce it down to its its most basic level. And and I honestly have no clue why they use 33%. So, >> yeah. >> Also, as a former history teacher, I needed to do this because I didn't know what anybody was talking about in superintendent school either. So, you know. >> Yes. So um so that's what the state so that's the process to get the values on the homes which is what our ask the rates are based off of. Um the next process is actual levy process and this is what we have to do and what we're here tonight is the first part of that process. I am required to present a tentative levy to the board at least 20 days prior to the adoption and and so that's tonight. Next
117meeting we will actually present the final levy for approval. So tonight we just have to present the ten of the le that's a state law we have to do it and it was 30 days they reduced it to 20 because like the budget we run into that time where we don't have 30 days between meetings so for the levy since it's so important they put this law into place I hope they do with the budget someday a truth and taxation hearing is required only if I if I come up and ask for in excess of 5%. We are not there this year, but if we were to, if the levy were to be in excess of 5% when the new uh Bears stadium gets built, they will probably be three times their old levy amount.
118You have to have a truth truth and taxation hearing. We're required to put in the newspaper no more than 14 days prior to the board meeting, no less than seven that we're having that meeting. So, prior to me presenting the levy, we will have a hearing. Um and then I am responsible for getting to levy to the county by the last Tuesday of December. Um, so that's a requirement. And back in the day before they had the online portal, it was a rush on the train to get downtown for that day. So it was a it was actually a trip and the and the and the and the county, they would make fun of it and everything. They were ready to go. They had their stamp out and everything. So it was actually fun back
119then. So now I just got to go online and put it on. So >> very different fun. >> Yes. No, I was like some people still actually go down do the ride because they want to. So it's it's just like a it's a holiday almost. It's an extreme time to be at work. So So uh and then so the extension the extensions is the most important part. That's when the county goes through all the calculations. That's what we're actually extending because we don't get what we ask for and and we'll get into that a little bit on the next slide. And and and definitely when I present the final levy. So that's kind of the the process for the levy. Once the levy is extended, they'll send the bills out in hopefully March 1st. I
120doubt it, but hopefully March 1st and then July 1 and they'll be due April April 1st and August 1st. So that's kind of the process of the tax of tax lives in Cook County. Each county is different. So if you ever move to a different county, there's different payment dates and everything. So us, we're worried about Cook County. So um the next slide is um something that's unique to Cook County and the Cer counties. I don't think anybody else has implemented this yet because it was voted on in counties outside of Cook County. So, we're subject to the property tax ex extension limitation law. So, we are not allowed to increase our levy on existing homes more than CPI. And the max we're able to increase our levy is 5%. And that's all based off
121the December 31st. Um, so for this year, 2024 CPI. So, that's what they base it on. So, we know when we're doing the budget budget exactly what we're going to get for this levy when we're doing the budget. That's the nice thing about it. But um when inflation was 8 9% we only got 5%. So that's one thing to keep in mind. So we want inflation to be low because then our costs keep up with our levy because this is our biggest revenue source. The only way we're able to increase above CPI is um is if the voters approve. So and that's either a rate limit increase or or a debt service issuance. The voters will have to approve that stuff. we we cannot go and add above CPI on for existing homes without voter
122approval. >> And CPI stands for consumer price index. So that's inflation. Um so every January, end of January, um the government puts out an average of how much prices have gone up um across the the economy. So food prices, gas prices, um prices for basically anything that is being purchased and so um that's what we can't go more than 5%. Um or what CPI is whichever is less. >> So last year CPI was 3.7. >> I have it right here and so I was >> but that's what that that's what that means is consumer price index. So inflation when you hear that word >> this is what when you hear the the the Fed talking about limiting inflation this is what they're looking at. We know this number monthly, but this is what whenever you
123hear them talking about interest rate reductions, this is the same CPI they're talking about. So the same CPI they're talking about is what impacts our levy. And so and so that's something important. And one thing I always say, their goal is 2%. So so when we're doing long-term projections, we should always keep that in the back of our mind. Um so but like I said, when when the Bears build their new stadium, there's something called the balloon levy, and that's where you say, "I've got a lot of new property. I want to make sure I cover it all." and you go well above CPI 5% and that's when you we need to have the hearing. Um and and you do have to do it sometimes. If we know a big tip's coming off the books,
124we will balloon levy because we want to capture that coming on. So that's just that's just something to and some districts do it all the time. I am personally not a fan of it. you we have and you'll see there's a lot of room in our levy where you know you need a big big property come on to need to go 15 20% which I see sometimes in my newspapers and I kind of just come on so so yes so that's kind of what how pel works um the next slide the next slide and we do not have a final levy right now so this is the preliminary levy my the levy that I will present is based on off of this so this just kind of shows where we were last year Last year
125our EAV was um 2.46 million. We brought on 21 million of new property which is high for us and that was because one of the tips rolled on. We were fully aware of it. We captured everything and and the way you know we captured everything is the PEL reduction levy column is being reduced. If that's not being reduced, Mike made a mistake. So if if that's not being reduced, it's my fault because that means I did not capture all of our money. So that's a key thing for you if you ever want to look at something on the levy to know if I did it right. It's that column right there. So, and and I talked earlier today about the PTEL reallocation. You'll see on the next spreadsheet what I was talking about about that
126um the resolution that will come at the next meeting because it's not you don't see it on this column. So, last year the the the extension that we are most worried about is the final levy column for the cap funds. That's what everything is based off of CPI on. The non-cap funds before is our debt stuff that that is is is added on. based on resolutions um that's sent when we issue the bond. So that's automatic. CPI does not matter. So because those are all based off payment schedules and and they're they're flat. And the the top line is the uh the levy adjustment that is for um the recapture levy. So so that's something that we don't know. The county just says we messed up on the levy. We owe you this money and
127it comes on the next year's levy. So that was new and that was something that was fought about for years because because districts were getting losing out on money because the county was making mistakes. So that's last year's prelim preliminary 2024 tax levy session. This came from the county. It should be right, but we don't know. So and if you and so we'll get to the final levy now. So this is what I'm truly supposed to present you tonight. So this is the 2025 tenant tenant of tax levy. So, um, what the ask the levy amount is in column A and so we're asking one point for $117 million of the cap funds. Last year's levy was 111,872. So, the most I can get on this 2.9% but we're asking for 4.63%. And we're doing
128that to make sure we cover the new property. Um, over years we've we've averaged $8 million a year and then the tips come on. We have no tips coming on. So that's the number I'm using. Um so when you get through all the rigor rigors, we will actually get 115 million 500,000 roughly. Um that includes the new property. So So if you see um the extension is increasing by 3.23%. CPI is 2.9%. That little difference there is the new property me picking that up. And you can see I'm picking it all up because you see that PEL levy reduction. It means I'm too high. You're not getting it all, but you're getting all your new property. So, you always want to see that on your levy. That means we captured everything. So, and you can
129see column number two is filled in over there. That's my reallocation and and taken from the ED fund only. So, overall the levy will be going up 323. Uh, but only 2.9% of that is existing property. And one thing I wanted to put on there was so for if if everything stayed the same as last year, which it will not, um, per $100,000 of market value, that equates to $45.70. So if you have a $500,000 house, you're talking roughly 250 bucks is what this levy would what the ask is from our district. Now, we do not control what the county does with assessed values and that has a big impact on that number. So, so overall this is the lobby that will be presented at the next board meeting. Um, is there any questions on
130this because this is the most important thing. I know it's fun. So, yes. So, yes. So, that's kind of the the gist of it. The kel the kel behind it don't worry about the one thing I will always say that you want to see is that we are hitting that pile reduction. That means we captured all of our funds because that's the most important thing. So, um, next next slide. >> Uh, >> what did I do? Uh oh. >> It's okay. >> It's over. I don't have much left. That may be the last thing. Oh, so yes, it's not much left. So, yes. Um, so this is just kind of a recap of what we have to do over the next three the next three meetings. We kind of over went over this. Um, so
131tonight we're doing the tenative levy presentation which is required. Next meeting we will pass we will hopefully pass the actual tax levy certificate. we are required to do that by the December meeting and and I am responsible for getting it to the county on a specific date. So, and that will be done right after it's approved. I will not wait till December. So, that's kind of the process there. Um, and questions >> anyone again I'm sure glad you find this fun. That is not the word I have. >> And and and one thing I was going to say and I meant to say was um I do stress test a levy. um our this current levy in its current form can take a 45% decrease in EAB. We know that's not happening before I hit
132our rate limits and it can handle $118 million of equalized assessed value which is 360 million roughly of market value new property which I don't believe is out there right now. I could be wrong but um it's that's a big number. So it's hard to hit that number and that's why there's comfort in what we're asking for. we don't have to go over 5%. And and there and PMA, our financial advisors, provides us with a spreadsheet that allows me to type numbers in to see there if there's going to be a problem. So, so it's a nice little tool that they provide that helps me make sure I did not make a mistake because this is probably the most important thing that my job does. So, >> again, I'm really glad it's you doing. >>
133Yes. Because it has been messed up before. So, >> Oh, yes. and it has been done and this is one of the biggest examples we've seen. So, I've ever seen. So, yes. >> Um, any questions for Mike? >> Okay. May I please have a motion to accept the estimated 2025 tenative tax levy as presented and place the approval of the 2025 final aggregate tax levy on the agenda for the November 13th, 2025 meeting of the board of education. So, >> so moved. >> Second, I guess. Switch. All right. Debbie, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> Yes. Bill, >> I vote yes. Jessica, >> yes. >> Arlon, >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Great. Thank you. Okay. The next two items are transfer resolutions. First, it's the approval of transfer of funds from the ED fund to
134the debt service fund in the amount of $845,100. Um, does anyone have any questions on this transfer? >> Not a question, just a comment primarily for our new board members. This is something we've planned as part of the process of creating this building. So, this is not a surprise or anything new that's coming before us truly. Okay. May I please have a motion to approve the proposed resolution? >> So moved. >> Second. >> You could say. >> All right. I vote yes. Jessica, >> yes. >> Arlin, >> I. >> Debbie, >> yes. >> Angelica, >> yes. >> Iana, yes. Bill, >> I. >> Motion carries. >> And the second one is also a transfer of funds from the ED fund to the dev service fund in the amount of 1,10,457. Any questions before we make
135a motion? Okay. May I please have a motion to approve the proposed resolution? >> So moved. >> All right. >> Second. >> All right. Debbie, >> yes. >> Gelica, >> Yes. Bill, >> I vote yes. Jessica, >> yes. >> Arlin, >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Very good. Very good. Thank you. Let's move ahead into board communication. Just prior to our regular meeting, we had a board finance and operations committee meeting. Uh Mike Zaker took us through some understanding of the process for issuing tax anticipation warrants and the likelihood that we need to do that. He discussed with us uh his tax levy strategy for the coming year and a proposed and Glenn helped us understand his proposed schedule for the 2026 summer construction that will be done around the district. Um, and we had
136a review of the life safety inspection report that was very favorable for our district. Uh, there is likely not going to be a finance committee meeting before the November meeting, but who knows what's going to happen in the next three weeks. Um, let's move into NSSO. Uh, Debbie, would you uh update us, please? >> No, thank you. Um right now as people should remember we're mostly working on updating our articles of agreement uh that will be we will be reviewing them at a committee of the whole meeting on the 30th and I will pre be providing we've got a new updated tenative articles that I want to get out that have gotten a lot of changes. So, I'm not even sending out the old ones cuz there were so many changes. Um, it's looking much
137more promising. We had a couple of districts that were a little argumentative, but after a lengthy discussion at our last meeting, it it's looking much better. Um, so in October, we get our annual report from Sunrise Lake Outdoor Education Center. Um, if you ever get the chance to go out there, especially with our new members, it is just phenomenal. It was property that was given to NSSO for $1 from the state or sold to us for $1 >> and if we ever want to sell it, we have to sell it back to the state for $1. >> Um, but it is awesome just canoeing. Uh they've got pedal boats, they've got archery, there is so much out there and it is so popular they are actually starting booking for next school year. This year is
138100% booked up >> for not just member districts, other district, you know, outside districts, um companies, a lot of groups go out there for team building things. Um, unfortunately we are losing uh Brian Bulier who has been the leader. He is retiring and he has some very large shoes to fill. Um, but they are already looking and they've got some irons in the fire. So that's good. Um, this month I was able to attend. We are one of the things in the articles of agreement is to have two boards, a governing board and an operations board. and the operations board will be the superintendent of all of the member districts. Um myself and Steve Rosenbomb from district 211 attended. We only were allowed two governing board people because of OMA because the superintendence council is
139not subject to OMA but the governing board is we could only have two of us there. Um, and since it was district, it's district 211 is a high school district and the school we were out at was Kirk, which is age 14 to 22. I decided that Steve would be the person that would go and it was just amazing. I've never been out there when the students were in session and walking around and they're having lunch and they're greeting us and they were just they were enthralled that we were there. Um, anyone who is interested in watching the meeting, it was recorded. If you have two and a half hours to to spend, um, but it's fascinating because it tells you so much about the whole organization. Um, how everything is done. I I learned
140a lot and I've been on the board for almost 10 years. So, it was really fascinating. Anybody who wants that, I will be glad to forward that to you. Um, you will not be falling asleep during it. Um, Well, during some things you can feel like you're falling asleep. >> I was just going to say I'll let you summarize it for me, but it sounds like you really want us to watch it. >> You also get a view of what superintendents are like with each other when they're in the room together. >> Uhhuh. It was It was nice though seeing that you didn't always agree, but you It was very cordial, very much like our our meetings. Um the next meeting is on the 6th I think of November. Um and I will be at
141that one. That is going to be out at Timber Ridge that does have a lot of our students. Um that is the beha more behavioral is uh problems. And I will be there and nobody else has asked to step up yet, but I'm sure I will get at least one person. And one little thing I wanted to mention that we did get NSSCO through the efforts of Mary Beth Kanty got a $150,000 grant for them. So that's going to be doing I'm not exactly sure what it's earmarked for, but that was just I wanted to give a shout out to Mary Beth because that's just awesome. >> Um so I will send more information out for our committee of the whole. I'll make sure that Leticia gets all of the backup files so that we
142have it for the agenda. >> Okay, >> great. Thank you, Debbie. Um, Ed Red, Bill, would you update us? >> Sure. Thank you. Um, as we've been mentioning, Ed Red's kickoff lunchon is coming up this Monday. Given that the state legislature is currently in veto session, the panel of deputy governor Martin Torres, ISBY chair Dr. Steven Asoy, State Senator Adrien Jansson, and State Representative Will Davis should prove to be very interesting. Ed Red's first member meeting of the school year will be held on Thursday, November 6th. That is will be a virtual meeting held in the evening. So, watch your email for a link if you're interested in observing. And finally, Ed uh currently has openings on the executive board and is currently accepting applications. If you're interested, the application can be found on their
143website. If you have questions, Mike is currently a member of the executive board and I'm the previous chair. So, feel free to reach out to either one of us. And that's it for Ed. >> And the lunchon is Monday. >> Monday. >> Okay. Um, and if you want to just take IASB, please. >> Certainly. Um, first two quick reminders. Again, as we've discussed, the North Cook dinner will be held this upcoming Wednesday. And again, if uh you're interested in additional discussion on the constitutional changes or if you'd like a tour of the District 214 building at Forest View, um please arrive by 5:30. Second, and again, just a reminder, if the joint annual conference is coming up, if you're interested in pre pre-planning your seminars, the ISB has an online guide on their website. As
144a separate side note, um I previously advised the board that the legislator legislature was working on an amendment to the open meetings act and to foyer requirements. The bill passed the house this spring but was not able to be heard in a timely manner in the Senate. Thanks to the work of one of our representatives, Dan Diditch, the bill passed the Senate unanimously yesterday and has been sent to the governor's desk for his signature. Thanks also to Senators Adrienne Johnson and Mark Walker and Representative Nicole Graassie who also sponsored the bill. The bill, which in case you want to look it up, is Senate Bill 243, is an omnibus bill making numerous changes to the act. Two of which are specifically important to school districts. First, we're now prohibited from holding regular or special meetings
145on election days, not that we were doing it before. And most importantly, it allows us to require that a requesttor of a FOYA verify that they're an actual person and not an AI bot. So with uh that should give quite a bit of uh relief to Leticia and to Mike. So that more Yeah. And and where that had really come from is is the fact that in the spring we were getting just automated, you know, asking for decades worth of information and it was like it was clear that it was not a real person that was actually doing it. So, um I'm glad that we got that. >> We we had to do a little bit of work because the ISB was concerned with a slightly different portion of the bill. So, I was working
146with Dan and with uh IASB to to get them on the same page, but uh fortunately that finally worked out >> and that's it. >> Do you know if ISB is planning to use the app for the conference that they've used in previous >> the WHOA app? Yes, but you can't uh get it yet apparently. I was I was trying to get on there and I couldn't get on to it yet, but my understanding is they're still planning to use it. >> Okay. And for the three of you that are new, it's it's pretty self-explanatory, but it's there's there's just a lot of choices. So, we can talk about how to structure your conference weekend. Um, Arland North Cook, please. >> So, I have nothing new. Just to review, North Cook is one of three
147uh Cook County essentially regional school boards. Um, and we are in the north. I'm on that board, have been for 20 years. We are working on a new home because of the demand for additional space for more students who are cannot go to their regular schools for a variety of reasons. And so we're in that process. I have no new information for you on that at this time. I would expect at the next meeting or two that we'll have some specific information on it. >> Great. Thank you very much. >> You're welcome. >> Um all right. As a point of general interest, I will be appointing Angelica to the community engagement committee or whatever Debbie and I end up calling it. Um, taking the role that Degmara had. Thank you in advance for your service
148on that committee. Um, I will also be appointing Angelica to shadow Bill as the board champion for the section on securing the future with the goal eventually of you taking over that role and Bill fading gently into the moonlight. >> Hi, Bill. >> I've never been told I did anything gently, but okay. >> You can practice your projects. Um, I'll let the two of you talk about that in in more detail. I just I think this would be a really great way for you to get, you know, hands in on our strategic plan. Um, and thank you to Dr. Connelly and Bill especially for being uh so gracious and allowing this change. Um, also I attended today the IASB webinar on student proficiency cut scores. Um, it was one of their one-hour lunch and learn
149webinars. It was recorded. If you have an interest in the changes that have been made, both policy and substantive, to the student proficiency cut scores in Illinois, um, I came away with much deeper understanding of the history, the changes that were made, what they really mean, and sorry, Dr. Childress, but I have a ton of questions to sit down with you and talk about what we're doing uh, going forward. But it is recorded. I would recommend you you register and and try to watch that. U and then our last item under board communication is the student representatives presentation. >> Yes. So um we have uh reports coming from each of our student reps. Uh and then um they're going to take us uh through a a brief uh overview of an activity that they led.
150Uh as I noted earlier in the evening, uh Selma wasn't able to join us um this evening. Uh she had another engagement. Um, but I did want to give a just a brief overview of of her update. Um, she says that there's a lot going on. Uh, good stuff. Uh, some of the things happening over at Holmes, um, that have been buzzing around the school. Buzzing nice integration of of of the That was her, not me. Uh, sports, uh, Palms tryyouts. Um, we're we're moving into, um, uh, winter season, uh, already. Uh, winter, no, fall, sorry. Um, so wrapping up cross country and now moving into um, help me out here kids. Uh, it's um, girls basketball and boys volleyball, right? >> Basketball and basketball. >> Basketball, right? Yes. >> Girl Palms, girls basketball, and
151then boys basketball. >> Okay, got it. All right. Uh, so that those those teams are getting going. Um, art club, yearbook club, drama club activities uh, going on. There's uh they're doing their variety show auditions. Uh and actually um yesterday um Holmes held their literacy night. So uh lots going on over at homes. And Reed, take it away. Last week London Middle School played MacArthur for soccer and we won. We beat MacArthur. And last week it was also cross country conference and on Tuesday palms and girls basketball triyouts and yesterday was palms and boys basketball triyouts and then today was boys and girls basketball triyouts. We have started a lot of extracurricular activities. As you can see many students have joined them to try out as someone trying out for basketball. There are a lot
152of people getting involved. Um on October 6th we had a chance to learn more about the students at the meeting. at the at the superintendent meeting and did an icebreaker get to know you activity. We also did a sort activity in which the students had to organize a set of scenarios in which they think it's either bullying, rude, or mean. And for next month, we're going to do a food survey from students. We did not send out the food surveys this month, but next month we'll send them out. Hi, my name is Alex and this is what I have for the Cooper board update for October. Since it's mental health awareness month, I thought it'd be good to see how the Let's Talk app is doing in Cooper. I have had personal challenges bullying in
153the past, so I think it's important that people are aware of the resources available to them when it comes to bullying. I did a survey through all grade levels to see if kids actually knew about the Let's Talk app. I got over 316 responses and it turns out that 73.7% of kids didn't know about Let's Talk. That's a big problem because a lot of kids that are bullied are shy. This means that a lot of kids might not report bullying. So, I think that specifically in Cooper, teachers should make sure their students know about this new resource so that kids can not only report bullying happening to themselves, but to others, making Cooper a better place every day. For school updates, the Cooper cross country two-mile girls team are co-conference champions. Go Cobras. In other
154news, Palms and basketball are starting. Last week, we also heard announcements about band books. My next topic is a superintendent meeting. I reviewed a short activity relating to being mean, rude, or bullying. Many students were able to identify the difference between these three behaviors, making me hopeful that students in my school will be able to identify them as well. Lastly, next month's topic will be the food service survey. >> So, I wanted to circle back on a point that Alex made um which is kind of the, you know, making sure that students are aware of the availability of Let's Talk. And I think anytime you roll out a new system, particularly at the beginning of a year, particularly in a middle school when you are vying for attention, right, a lot of different things going
155on. um it's we got to continue to work at it, right? To make sure that that we're um you know putting it in front of them. The information is out there and we're reinforcing that it's there. It's a tool that is available to be used. So, one of the things that I really valued about the conversation we had um at the the Superintendent Student Advisory Council is that we were able to talk about okay, like do people know about it? Like, you know, we've talked about it. Do people know about it? Right. Uh and the feedback that we got is very much of what Alex was talking about that we haven't broken through yet, right? So, um it was valuable information for us to be able to go back and say we still have a
156lot of promotion that we need to continue to do um with our middle school uh kids in particular. Um and go ahead, Alex. >> I wanted to ask for like the pamphlets on the table, will kids get these because I think it'd be helpful because it has a lot of information about the resource. So maybe if kids in home base not only got told about it but maybe received it, it could inform a lot of people. >> Yeah. >> So those brochures are at the front desk of every school and it's really intended more for the parents, but yes, they're there and available for parents and students and staff members. And I wanted to ask if you're seeing posters on the walls in Cooper about anti-bullying. Yes, I have seen them, but I think sometimes
157maybe kids don't read them and stuff, which I mean I know we can't control, but maybe just saying it to them specifically might be better, but I have seen them. So based on what you're saying and free you jump in here as well if we if we produced a specialized um kind of more studentbased um version of this trifold you feel like you know that would be a good thing that we could you know kind of like maybe through your home based you know your home rooms and things like that actually distribute paper copies of? >> Yes. So, in the hallways we have like these little buckets where like people put like the try out papers, permission slips. And I feel like if we put these in there because there was a time we hung
158like stuff that have little like thankful words and like say like and like like what's the word I'm looking for? Um >> like compliments. >> Compliments. Yeah. Yeah. They have compliments and they're like there's like five around the school and all of them are gone. >> Okay. Okay. >> Cuz like those little stickers have to >> Yeah, I think I know what you mean. Yeah. >> Okay. So, that's actually really good feedback. So, we'll take we'll take a look at at how we can take some of this, make it more kid oriented, student oriented um and then um you know, produce those things so that they can get distributed. Um so, that's really good. Thanks. >> Um for what free is talking about, I've never seen that in Cooper. So, maybe it's something Cooper can
159try. Um but also you know I think another thing just that they talk to the kids about it because also they might not read them which again >> Mhm. >> you know >> we can't make them but you know it would definitely help. >> Yeah >> for sure. Great. Thanks very much. Okay so um let's and I see Mr. Latino coming up to assist. Um so very quickly um what we're going to do is just again a brief uh kind of showcase of the activity that they led with the superintendent student advisory council. So, um, and we're going to make it real fast because y'all need to go home, do homework, and go to bed. So, you know, >> not just them. >> Well, yeah, but I like worry about you. You're an adult. I
160need I need them to be like able to function in first period tomorrow. >> Is this a quiz? >> I like homework. >> Homework. Are we allowed to listen? >> Are we starting? Yeah. >> So, um, we did a sort with our group of student board representatives. First, we had them sort all of these different situations that you guys found in your envelopes based on what category they best described. Rude is when someone's behavior is thoughtless, careless, and or inconsiderate, but usually not on purpose. Um, so first one is someone making an annoying noise close to you. >> That would be rude. >> Yes. >> Next mean is when someone is being hurtful on purpose, usually just one or two times because you are upset. So the first example is someone laughs when you make
161a mistake. Okay, >> that's mean. Yeah, >> that's correct. Next, bullying is when someone is being hurtful on purpose and it happens again and again or when there is an imbalance of power with no sense of regret or remorse. An example is continuously spreading gossip about someone through social media and text messages. >> Certainly, boy. >> C. Yep, >> that's correct. Uh overall students did a good job sorting out the different situations and seemed to know very well the difference between the different situations. So I think one of the things that was really nice um as they led the the um members of the uh superintendent advisory council in doing this activity is the discussion that it generated right um and particularly when you're kind of at at first glance you can kind of say
162well this could be either one right but it was that distinction of is it happening more than once is it more you know and and so um really being able to kind of dig in on on that um I think was a was a good discussion and they did a an amazing job leading their their peers um through that uh was really great to >> stand back and watch it happen and but then also being able to have some some good conversation coming out of that um and we had some good takeaways um from uh from the discussion. So um so again um as they noted next month we're going to be talking about lunch and breakfast >> um and so we're looking forward to that. So, any questions for our representatives? >> I had
163a question. Um, so is this rude, mean, and bullying only presented in the middle schools or was it also introduced in elementary schools? >> Right. Um, Sher, do you want to speak to that real quick? I mean, it is across the board. Obviously different age, you know, kind of, you know, but >> may not all be working with our administration in October 201. >> Okay. Yeah, I think it would be very beneficial for elementary school um kiddos because it's it's kind of hard for them to distinguish what exactly is mean or you know >> bullying behavior >> and I actually think it's it's good information for parents as well. Um because I will tell you that a lot of particularly at the elementary level but a lot of the bullying investigations that we are doing
164um are reports coming from parents um and you know so we are trying to engage in conversations you know because um the you we want to make sure that that you know we're doing the bullying investigation you know when there's an indication because it's labor and time inensive um and there is a you know difference between, you know, some misbehavior on the playground in a single instance and then more ongoing as we talked about. So, um, yep, we have work to do there. >> Yeah. >> All right. Thank you, >> Jessica. If I could ask a question. >> Sure. Go ahead. I mean, I think this is more aimed for Sherry, but there was a request from our students for these pamphlets, perhaps aimed, you know, more toward their age, but also a concern that
165they mentioned that not everybody is necessarily going to read them. Does the Let's Talk app have a module that the students could use as an example that perhaps we could have them do during home base so that they get acquainted with the uh the app. But you can work with just be able to identify show that was part of what we were closer let's talk but I think we can do more teachers try to share it show it and talk about it there wouldn't be any Okay. >> Um, is it possible instead of just having bullying posters, what if we have let's talk pictures as well? >> They're out there. May not have seen them, but they're they're we we have those out there. So, um, so take a look. Um, you know, just kind
166of as you're walking around the halls in London. And if it seems like we need to put more of them out there or put them in better locations, that's going to be important for us to know, too, cuz some, you know, sometimes you put them out there and you guys are like, you're walking down the hall every single day. You might not notice it, and so we want to make sure that we're getting them in areas that you will notice it. Um, so, uh, yeah, so that's, you know, definitely, um, keep in touch with Mrs. Netzel, right? Um, and if we need to do more, make them bigger, whatever the case may be, happy to do that. There is a little logo and a QR code on each poster that will direct you to let's
167talk. So the logo is let's talk and then the QR code directs you there. And also I do believe that there is a little video right in the let's talk module that talks about bullying. Isn't there a mic? >> Yeah, but I don't think it aligns to the language. >> Okay. I I I think that, you know, and Bill, your question actually triggered a thought in my head that that I think we can talk about, you know, particularly as it relates to video, maybe producing something that then can be used in home base um you or you know, kind of broadcast um you know, for kids to be able to see it at specific times. And so, so we've got some we've got some ideas floating around. Um, but this is all Yeah, this is
168all good. >> All right. Thank you, Fared and Alex. That was great. Um, all right. The next regular meeting of the board of education is scheduled for Thursday, November 13th, 2025 at 7 p.m. Please note it is one week earlier than usual. Um, we are going to move into close session as a board. We will not be returning back into open session. We will adjourn directly from closed. Um, be it resolved, the board of education moves to approves to recess the District 21 October 16th, 2025 regular board of education meeting and convenient close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or specific volunteers of the public body or legal council for the public
169body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of the public body, or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. to discuss the purchase or lease of real property for the use of the public body, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired and to discuss student disciplinary cases and discuss the placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students. >> Second. >> Right. Arlland >> I. >> Debbie >> Angelica >> yes. >> Elelliana >> yes. Bill >> yes. >> I vote yes. Jessica >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. We are now in closed session
170again. We will not be returning to open meeting. We will return directly from closed. Thank you everyone for attending. Have a good night.