CCSD21 Board Of Education Meeting - May 15, 2025

001The CCSD 21 May 15, 2025 regular board of education meeting is called to order. Doug Mara, would you please take attendance of the board members and the student representatives? Jessica, I'm here. Debbie, here. I am here. Carrie, here. Arlin here. here, Bill here. Um, we have Cororum and for the student representative, Santi here, Carla here, and AJ here. Thank you. All right, if everyone would please rise for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, welcome. I see Sher Clump has joined us tonight. Thank you very much for attending our meetings and for all you do for us for the park district. Do we have any other elected friends

002here tonight? No. Okay. Oh, that was a that was a good call there. Um, any individual physically present at this meeting wishing to address the board must complete a comment card and provide it to Miss Del Ryal. Any written public comments may also be submitted by emailing district 21cccsd1.org. or um I have a few comments I'd like to make before we get into our meeting. All too recently, we lost a member of the District 21 community, and it hurts. Melissa Newark was a first grade teacher at Frost and Tarkington, but she was so much more to those that knew her and loved her. Let's honor her and her family and reflect on her life with gratitude and in peace. May her memory be for a blessing. Let us have a moment of silence. Thank you.

003May is many things to many of us, but it is also mental health awareness month. We all carry burdens and we don't know what struggles someone else is dealing with. So, it's good to have a month designated to raising awareness or reminders of the importance of maintaining our mental health and seeking help where and when we need it. Whether it's our daily self-care, taking the first step to ask for help, or just knowing that there are resources here to help, just know that here in District 21, we support everyone feeling safe, and we are glad you're here. Also, earlier this month, we celebrated teacher and staff appreciation week. Of course, we appreciate all of our staff that care for our children and keep our buildings running smoothly all year long, but it's nice to have

004a week where we can really show it. Our PTO's did an amazing job keeping our teachers lounges stocked with lunches and treats, and we had a fun custom coffee truck visit each school. As we wind down the school year over the next few weeks, know that we appreciate all your efforts every day. And just before our meeting tonight, we celebrated our staff who are retiring and who are recognized for their excellence. Let's get into our meeting. Okay, we'll start with announcements and celebrations. Well, good evening. Um and yes, we have a lot of uh celebrations this evening um which we're very excited to bring uh to the board and the public. Um we're going to start off um with um our director of science and social studies uh Dr. Asard Rodriguez um to share some

005really uh great information about grants um that uh we have secured for our project lead the way efforts. Yeah, the next part there. Good evening members of the board uh district 21 um administrators as well as all our staff. Um I am really super excited to be here to share some announcements and celebrations related to project lead the way and some of the Ardor grants that we have just received. So um I am super excited to announce that we just won 60,000 in additional Ardor grant funds for three of our elementary buildings that will be Longfellow, Riley, and Wittman. Um these funds will be granted over the next two years. It'll be 10,000 for each school year, 20,000 for each school. Um over the next two years, the funds will be used to cover training

006for all of the staff that would be um interested in implementing Project Lead the Way launch at our elementary buildings. Um and typically we envision it would be done through before school or after school programs at each of these three schools. In the past, we have shared that six other of our elementary schools have also won these ARDOR grants. So bringing the total to 180,000 in ARO grants that our district has won for each of our well for in total for all of our elementary buildings. I wanted to share a little bit about how um how we have used these funds over the for three of the buildings that received the funds this school year. So that's what I'm going to talk about next. So this school year, Field, Frost, and Kilmer received $10,000 towards

007the implementation of Project Lead the Way Launch at the elementary buildings. Um, these funds were used to cover the cost of training two administrators as well as seven teachers from these three schools. But we didn't stop just at training the teachers. We decided to try and implement a a club and a Project Lead the Way module at our buildings. And so we were very excited to see Frost and Kilmer take on um and lead this the way in um having two before school clubs for our students. So Frost has about 24 students currently going through the the club. It's it's a club called game quarters um and consists of 24 third second graders as well as third grade students who have been participating. Kilmer similarly has about 25 first grade students participating in their before

008school club and they are targeting the project lead the way launch module called structures and functions. Um it's pictures are always worth a thousand words. So I wanted to share a few pictures here. So if you could see the the top two pictures um they are from our elementary school Frost. Um that's the coding club that's going on there. As you can see, students are using the Scratch platform to create their own game. Um then once their game was created, they shared it with other students. The students were able to play with the games of their friends and then uh provide feedback to the their their um the other classmates and students were able to then take that feedback and improve their game. So it was a lot of collaboration. students had fun learning how

009to code in Scratch and then sharing their games with their friends and um actually at the end of the class every every whenever they had their morning sessions they would like hesitate to close down their Chromebook, shut it down and actually get started with class. But uh so it was a lot of fun for for our Frost second grade and third grade students. Um similarly the other three pictures are from students participating in the structures and functions club at Kilmer. Um the teachers had students work on individual projects as well as group projects. So um one of their individual projects is the one in the bottom um there with the yellow beantock. It's the beantock project where students had to design first on paper their an individual freestanding beantock. Um once they had designed it

010on paper then they were given their materials to play along and and improvise and change their design and build a freestanding beantock. Um so that was their individual project but then teachers also wanted to give students the opportunity to work together in groups and collaborate. So then their next project was this marsh marshmallow challenge where our first grade students were asked to build a marshmallow tower using just tape, spaghetti and marshmallows to um students quickly found out that marshmallows are really really sticky and spaghetti breaks really really easily. So they had to modify their initial designs. Um I we I was there during this uh club and um I saw all groups were able to build a freestanding tower which is amazing cuz there have been times where I've tried this challenge myself and I've

011not been able to you know make a freestanding tower. So um really excited about that and our frost just wanted to share a few words that our prost principal had to share about this club and project lead the way in general. Um, she says, "Our students enjoy the hands-on activities and visual projects, especially when working with scratch coding. It has helped keep them engaged and encourages creativity. They are not just having fun, they are also building real world skills and discovering all kinds of ex exciting career paths in science, technology, and engineering. Project Lead the Way has helped our students see themselves as future inventors, computer programmers, and problem solvers. It has helped um it's learning with a purpose and it's helping them dream big. So really excited about these clubs and the implementation of

012project lead the way at our two elementary schools and for next year the rest of the seven elementary schools as well. Um so a few updates on what has been done um with the money so far. So currently we are in the process of recruiting staff to participate in project lead the way training either over the summer or during the start of the school year maybe in the fall so that the interested staff are ready to implement a project lead the way module of their choice during the ne the next school year. Our plan is to increase the number of before school or after school clubs that we have and have some clubs at each of the ele each of the elementary buildings but also opening it up to multiple grade levels. um at Frost

013and at Kilmer we had we had targeted the younger grade levels because we already had quite a few clubs for our intermediate students but uh the goal and the plan would be to open it up so that we have um clubs for each of the grade levels um kindergarten all the way to fifth grade. Um additionally we also are going to be implementing three project lead the way launch modules at our art and STEM academy next month. Um so excited about uh additional opportunities for for students all across the district attending summer school to um to be a part of this and experience project lead. Um the funds that we got for those three schools were used to purchase the materials for the before school clubs as well as a little uh was also used

014to purchase the supplies for the art and stem summer academy. So really excited about this. Um looking to take this to every school and provide schools, all students across our nine elementary schools with opportunities to engage in project lead the way launch and um just uh collaborate with their peers and see what it is out there and what they can be. So be be future dreamers and the creators that we really need them to be in today's world. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you very much for that presentation. Very excited about the new grants. Um, next, just prior to today's board meeting, we had a spring celebration to recognize some CCSD21 staff members. We had seven staff members honored as 2024 2025 recognizing distinction recipients. 20 licensed staff members as recipients of the 2024

0152025 celebrating excellence honores and 16 staff members recognized for their service to district 21 and we wish them a very happy retirement. Next, I'd like to recognize our student representatives to the board. These students have done an exemplary job this year as our student representatives during the school year and we're grateful for your service and the time you spent with us. We hope you found this experience valuable. I know that we did on this side and I certainly hope that you continue in public service and we wish you the best of luck in high school. We have So, um, let me just say that for an eighth grader, um, any eighth grader to have, um, willingness and the courage to come to the table, a lot of thoughts, uh, and speak their minds and speak

016truth and really tell us what they're thinking, um, is really something we share, and honor. And so, I personally, um, and having gotten to know him over the last both being on the supervisory council and being at this table. Really appreciate everything you have done for us and I know you're going to do great things. Um, and we have a plaque that we want to give to each of you. I'm going to unpack them a box. Uh first is uh and and the plaque reads uh in recognition of your service to your school community student representative board of education unity consolidated school district 21 2024 2025 AJ Congratulations. [Applause] One, two, three. Perfect. No easy way to get around that table there unless I leap over it. Last, but certainly not least, we would like

017to recognize and honor former board member Stacy Allen for her 18 years of dedicated service to our board in District 21. Stacy, if you would please come up here. We have a special plaque for you. It comes as no surprise Stacy has modeled the importance of community engagement, speaking your mind, and challenging the status quo. We wish you the very best in your next chapter. In recognition of your service, care and commitment to the entire CCSP 21 community member board of education community consolidated school district 217 to [Applause] 202 not speechless shockingly but um yeah that's true too. Um, public service is an honor. Public service is um, it it's soul food. It really is. And I was joking with a few people that were here earlier that um, my service started when somebody came

018and knocked on my door and had me sign a petition for a boundary change that I didn't know anything about except people were fired up and I should learn more about it. And I got on my um my AOL back then, the dialup AOL, and looked it up. And before I knew it, I went from, you know, a a a new mother of a a newborn who's sitting there recording me right now at the age of 24. Um, and we had this new superintendent come in and he allowed me to take a passion that I didn't know that I had to serve a community that I didn't know much that much about and afforded me the honor to help people through navigating nonsense, which is the education system sometimes. And I have been blessed enough

019with my full-time career of helping people every day at their darkest moments. Um, but really my gratitude goes out to every single teacher that touched the life of my kids during our happy times and during our sad and horrible and and tumultuous times. and to my fellow board members who when I went through some of the darkest, hardest, most complicated times in my life, including being diagnosed with multiple scerosis in 1999, were there to be there for my family. And everybody knows that my family and my kids mean everything to me. But the truth is, my District 21 family has been a destination for my family and my kids for for 25 years. And so, as I close one door, you know what they say, when one door closes, another one opens. But as we

020make the decision to transition, I hope that, you know, I hope that everybody knows that our heart is is in District 21 and we're we're not too far away and that we'll be around and this is still our home. So, thank you very much. [Applause] All right. Um, let's move on to board communication and start with an update from the policy committee. Uh, Debbie, thank you much. Uh, our policy committee met last week to go over our most recent press update. Um, I think it was possibly one of the shortest policy committee meetings we've ever had. Um, we were done I think in like 20 minutes, 20 to 25 minutes. It was very short. Um, there we had no real changes to make. Uh, we did have some we had discussion most of which was

021simply how we handled the circumstance when that came up. Um, and we will be doing our first reading later in consent agenda. So, that was it for policy. Great. Thank you. Uh, would you do NSSO next, please? Absolutely. That one's going to be a little bit longer. Um, just as we did them here, we the first thing we started out with was celebrating retirees from NSSO. They had only four retirees, but they still ended up with 109 years of service. Um, so that's that's just unbelievable. Uh, we approved the hiring of the new assistant principal at Kirk, which is Nick Balserak. Uh, Kirk School is the ages 14 through 22. So, we might have a couple right at the edge starting there, but mostly that's the the high school to age 22 students. Um, we

022discussed a recap of their wellness event. Unlike ours, theirs was for all of their staff. So, it's ways to keep them the staff healthier. Um, preventive things. They have a lot of injuries there because simply because of their population. Um, we discussed that they have a a marketplace coming up that I will let everyone know about. Um, out at Kirk. They have micro businesses where they sell things like um coasters and things that the students make and then the money goes back into help their programs. Um I think I've got like eight of the the coasters. They're wonderful things. Uh there is also at minor school which is the pre preK up to age 14. Um that that school they're doing a block party that is tomorrow. I did not realize it was tomorrow. Um,

023but it the details on all of that will be included in the board recap that I started giving everybody last month. However, we haven't gotten it yet because our this meeting is so close to the NSSO meeting. I haven't gotten that yet. Uh, we also had an update on the strategic plan that we are now working on. Um, a lot of that will be worked on in at our June meeting because we had uh two new board members that were being seated from two different two other districts from two uh 211 and 214 will be changing their representative. However, 214 had not been seated yet. So, they we are waiting for that one until June. Um, we will be having with the way the strategic plan was done, we're going we're changing our governing system.

024So, there will be a lot of updates on how that's going to be handled in the future. Um, currently the governing board does 11 meetings a year. We do not meet in July because they're just isn't a lot happening in July. Um, so we just they just pay the bills and then we don't have a lot to deal with. Um but that's it for that and a brief update. Um one of the things that we have discovered is the NSSO buildings are not in very good shape. Um they've been held together with essentially spit and bubble gum. Um we are in going through a 2-year uh replacement of the entire HVAC system at Kirk. Um, a lot of the PL pieces just can't be found anymore because at with the special education co-op, you have

025to offer uh the extended school year to the students and so that is all of the students at NSSCO qualify and I think it's like a 98% acceptance that the kids go into that. So it pushes back our window for construction. So it's going to take two years to do that pro uh project. We are also working on uh things over at minor school. We have found a lot of issues there. So we are working very much on that. And finally, the nominating committee because they do their reorg after everybody has been seated. That the nominating committee was formed for the president, vice president, and secretary. And that nomination will come forth at our June 4th meeting. So that's when the reorg will be done there. That's it. Thank you, Debbie. Um, Bill Ed. Thank

026you, Jessica. Ed Reddd's June member meeting, which is the last meeting of the school year, will be held here on June 6th from 1:30 to 3. You could register to attend virtually if you need to on the Ed website. The topic will be a post session legislative recap and a guest legislator has been invited to to speak. As a reminder, ED's second annual mini summit will be held Thursday, June 12th from 8 to 12 at Glenrook North High School. Attendance is free, but you do need to register in advance. There will be an opportunity for networking, multiple breakout sessions to choose from, and a keynote speaker. I'll be presenting in one of the breakout sessions, and if you need a ride to the event, please let me know, and I'm happy to carpool with you.

027And that's it for Ed Red. Thank you. Um, IB. Okay. Okay. It's sent it to me. There we go. Um, three things of note for IASB. There are openings on the IASB North Cook Division board for members at large, member or members at large. An email to all school board members in the division with information will be sent out shortly, possibly as soon as tomorrow. Second, the North Cook board will be meeting mid June to determine meeting times, locations, and topics for next year's dinner meetings. If you have a suggestion for an interesting topic, please contact me. And finally, you've all received information from Leticia on this year's joint annual conference, please complete the spreadsheet so that Laticia can complete our registration. And that's it for ISB. Great. Thank you, Bill. Arlland, anything from North

028Cook? No, actually our la our next meeting is in a week, so I don't have an update. I will email all of you the superintendent's update when I get it after that meeting. Great. Great. But I have nothing on that. Thank you. Great. Thank you. Thank you very much. Um, does anyone have any local government agency updates? Arlin, anything? Yeah, I'll just share that the Arlington Heights new board has been seated. Uh, the new mayor, Jim Tanalia, has been seated. Uh, so so Arlington Heights has gone through a massive reboot, if you will. Great board members. I think it'll be really good for the community. Great. Thank you, Debbie. Bill, three strikes. I'm out here. Carrie, Dagmara. Okay, I have just a couple quick updates. Uh, I just wanted to remind everyone that returning student

029registration for next school year is open. Registration is online. If you need any assistance, please reach out to our registars's office. Of course, the sooner you can register your children for next year, it gives us more time to plan. Um, in fact, as I was preparing for tonight's meeting, I realized I had not yet registered my youngest. So, I have taken care of that. I get a gold star. Um, also, just for the benefit of the board here, Debbie and I will be conducting interviews for next year's student representatives to the board. They have some big shoes to fill. Um, but we have an excitingly diverse and sizable candidate pool this year. We have 11 from Cooper, six from homes, and seven from London. So, this is becoming quite a competitive commodity. Um, Leticia is

030working to schedule those interviews for us. We'll report back afterward and and with our selections. Um, so let's move on to our student representatives and hear from them. Dr. Connelly. So uh this month um as it's the final meeting that our representatives will be um joining us um we asked them really two questions um and the first one being what kind of guidance or advice um would they give to their successors uh the next student rep uh representatives to the board uh and then also um as they are departing us and moving on to their high school uh journey uh what is one memory um from their time in district 21 that they will take with them um as they continue into high school. So, Carla, do you want to start us off? Uh, the

031guidance or advice I would give to the next student board representative would be to um not be scared. Your opinion is truly valued here. Everyone on the board cares about your opinion and takes it into consideration. Don't be scared just because they're adults. They are really kind and caring people. Um, and then one memory I will take with me to high school is when I won the orchestra MVP award. It just happened last Thursday, but I feel like it really helped me remember all of my hard work in orchestra. I put a lot of dedication into my instrument and school work overall that it really helped me notice all the work I put into things without ever realizing it. And then for my updates, uh, they're via what's the bus number 32. We have our

032eighth grade promotion party on the 29th. Then we also have our ABC countdown to summer. We have intramural soccer, the eighth grade creative writing club. And we also have eighth grade expectations in order to be able to go on the field trip, dance, and promotion ceremonies. Thank you. I would say to the next student representative that it's very important that you should always represent the voices of the peers. This is very important because the students are a major part of our district and that each voice makes an impact. Simply reaching out to friends or classmates about their views in specific problems or topics can increase the knowledge that not only the representative has but also the board member's knowledge. Speaking for the peers can help grown-ups like our board members gain a perspective about how

033important being a student is because students as well as you are important. So good luck to the next student representative and you could do this. be confident. And one me one memory I would take with me is making a few friends in seventh and eighth grade. They're really kind and good people. I was always lonely and since like my schedule was packed, I barely had any time to have fun. But my friends were always with me and they made my day better even when I was at my lows. So shout out to my friends who always stood by me. Thank you. And my updates are boys volleyball, track and field, soccer club, and the A to Z countdown for [Applause] school. I want to start off by saying that it was a fun year. I

034remember my first board meeting, I was scared. And now look where I've become. I'm more confident in my speaking. And I want to thank all you guys for that. and 11 Cooper students. There was only four, I believe, last year. But one key advice that I would give to the next student representative is that your voice is heard. And that comes with power. A power to help your community, help your classmates, and help your peers. Not only that, but to help the grown-ups in your community and people that you don't even think of. And this power comes with a lot of power. So it's important to use it wisely. And one memory that I will take from my time at district 21 is participation. This is why I believe I became so successful in school

035is when I started to participate in sports and band even in this district 21 representative. Participating is a way of connecting with your community and also connecting with other people. And I believe that district 21 is great at finding ways for people to participate whether it's through sports, through academic learning, or even through after school activities. And I also want to say that whoever comes next after Cooper just good luck. Yeah. [Applause] Well said. All three of you and um you you're all going to 214. Is that right? Yeah. They have great things ahead of you, Santi. That participation piece, all of you. That is a key to success in high school as well. So keep that up and tell all your friends as they move into their freshman year, get involved, do more than

036just go to go to class. So thank you very much for everything that you have shared with us this year and uh we will absolutely miss you, but know that you are going to be doing great things at 214. So thank you. [Applause] We will certainly pass along your guidance to the next group, but thank you. So, I know you guys need to get home, get homework or at least some sleep in. All right. Um, next I want to uh just announce the appointments of the board committees and liaison. Uh, since we had an opportunity to um shift things around a little bit. Uh, for the finance and operations committee, I will chair the committee and will be joined by Ilana and Arlland Gold. The policy committee will be chaired by Bill Harrison. And he'll

037be joined by Debbie Mcatee and Carrie Devit. And the new committee, TBD, which right now means to be determined because we haven't thought of a snazzy new name for it. Uh will be chaired by Debbie and she'll be joined by Dagmara and Ilana. Um, as far as the liaison appointments, Arlin will take North Cook ISC or will continue with North Cook ISC, Village of Arlington Heights, Arlington Heights Park District, and the Wheeling Township 708 board. Debbie will continue to represent us on NSSO and will take Village of Wheeling. Carrie will serve as Debbie's alternate should she be unable to attend an NSSO meeting and also take the village of Mount Prospect. Bill will continue with the IASB and Ed and take the village of Buffalo Grove as well. Iliano will take the Indian Trails Library

038and the Buffalo Grove Park District. Dagmar will take the Wheeling Park District, Village of Prospect Heights and River Trails Park District. And I will take Township High School District 214. Thank you all in advance for your willingness to serve in this role. Uh and we look forward to any updates you can provide. Uh let's move into staff communication. Um the first item is with regard to our school-based health center and our year one update. Dr. Connelly. Yes. Um so uh next week is the one-year anniversary of the opening of our school-based health center. Uh actually next Tuesday, I believe, right? Uh we opened on May 20th uh of 2024. Uh and so we thought it was an ideal time uh to ask our um leaders in in our schoolbased health center. Uh Erica Slack who

039is our nurse practitioner. Um and I am going to mess up your last name. Fine. And Laura who's our our um the manager of the of the the schoolbased health centers for uh advocate uh to come and share with uh the board um the overview of our first year experience uh and the successes and and where we're going to take it from here. So I will turn it over to Thank you. Good evening. Thank you for having us. Uh my name is Erica Slack, the nurse practitioner at the health center. So, we wanted to start by introducing the staff that work at the health center. So, we have Dr. Christina Mitten. She is our medical director, myself, the nurse practitioner. We're excited that we just hired a new social worker, Aisha Mik, and then we

040have Erica, who's our patient service representative. Um, so she basically is our receptionist and then Gabriella Mansera who is our medical assistant. So what is a school-based health center? Um, we provide access to highquality medical and mental health care to both staff and students. We really aim to improve the health and well-being of staff and students. We want to reduce the barriers to access to health care um and promote academic success by making sure we help get the health address the health needs within the school environment. So what are the benefits? We'd like to show the before and now. Um before we had limited access, walk-in availability, mental and medical care, and now we're on-site accessible. Um, we have high quality care, same day appointments, medical and mental health, which is really, really important, especially

041for those sick sick kiddos out there. We can just get them right in. Um, before we had language and system barriers, and we have translation services and navigation support. We have um a huge uh interpreter machine with Advocate. It's like over 350 languages that we can connect to, so that is never an issue. Um before we had missed appointments due to lack of uh transportation and now we have transportation provided to and from appointments and to and from the school. Before we had limited access to healthcare services for uninsured and and underinsured patients. We are free. We have free services provided regardless of your insurance status. We do not bill insurance. Uh we had fragmented care before and now we have coordinated support with nurses that we've team up here, social workers um and our

042health center staff. And then if we do have uh kiddos or staff that need referrals, we have our advocate system that we can tap into for referral sources for specialists or any other needs. And then before we v vulnerable to system and policy changes and we are flexible and we're responsible care model. So here's a quick video of a tour of our health center. So this is our waiting room. This is our play therapy room. Here's an example of one of the medical exam rooms. We have four of these. Here is our therapy room. And we have two therapy rooms. And then here is our lab and our vaccine storage area. This just shows you um we provide services to all staff and students eligible to be seen. Transportation is available 9:00 a.m. to 2

043p.m. As we said, walk-ins are welcome. Appointments can be made online or calling our health center. and we are open uh Monday through Friday 8 am to 4 pm and we're also trying to even when the school is closed we are open so we're really trying to provide access for um and get the word out with thank you for the help of that to to make sure that people can come in when uh school is closed so comprehensive services that we offer we do general health assessments school and athletic physicals immunizations we do therapy counseling ing illness treatments, referrals, screening, and diagnostic testing. We also just started doing pre-employee physicals, which is a great way to introduce new staff that are coming to the district to our health center. As Laura had mentioned previously, we

044have an interpreter service that is ondemand services of over 240 languages. They do sign languages and it's a video. So, it's really that they are engaging with the parents, with the students, and the patients. We also, something I pride myself in is comfort schools that we do. So, we all know that kids are afraid of going to the doctor. Even adults are. So, we want to make it so it's not so scary for those kids and even staff. So, we have tools like a Buzzy Bee, which is a vibrating ice pack that actually changes the pain pathway that we utilize when students or staff members who maybe are more afraid get vaccines. We also have pineies numbing spray that we use. We are also very fortunate to have gold standard rapid PCR testing here. So

045we can run um COVID flu and RSV tests all in one mid-nasal swab versus having to do that one that everyone knows you go up really high and you feel like you're touching someone's brain. We don't need to do that here. We go mid- nasal. And you don't need to do three swabs. It's one swab and it's PCR, so it's looking at the DNA and we get that result within 30 to 40 minutes. And then we also have a strep test that we can run on this machine. And what's great about that is a lot of times rapid antigen strep tests are not very valid. And so you have to send out what we know of as a strep culture and it takes several days to get that result. Well, we don't need to do

046that here. We will know within 30 minutes if they have strep or don't and we can treat them right then and there. We also work very closely with the school nurses as well as social work. We have meetings with them and if we get consent from parents, we can collaborate with them. We also have on-site vaccine days and dental days as well as health education and wellness events. So we want to share some metrics from our first year. So, um, from May 20th, 2024, our first day of opening, till April 30th, 2025, which was a total of 223 operating days. Our total visits was 1,830. So, we broke it down by staff and students. So, you can see we mostly saw students, which was over 1,400, and then over 300 staff. We also had over

0471,400 medical appointments, which I think is pretty incredible for our first year. Myself being the only provider, as well as a lot of our students don't don't and a lot of our patients don't speak English. And so being able to utilize this resource is great, as well as total mental health appointments, which was 428. And so unfortunately there's not a ton of data that you can get when you compare what the volumes are with other school-based health centers, particularly other elementary and middle school ones. I've even reached out to IDPH to see if we can get those numbers and they don't have those numbers. However, we are fortunate that we can look at Glen Brooks South High School in their first year and we were extremely comparable to those numbers, which I think is something

048that we should be proud of because we are not in the high school as well as kids are a lot younger and so they're not having that autonomy to just stop in the health center like they are in the high school. So to give you a little bit of an idea of how many appointments we can see per day, it really varies based on the type of appointment that is scheduled. So our physicals are wellchild visits right now are 60 minutes. Our pre-employment physicals are 30 minutes, sick visits 40 minutes, our vaccine appointments 15 minutes, and mental health appointments 45. Now, of course, this may vary, but what I think is great about here and something that I get from parents, a lot of feedback as well as staff, is we really can take the

049time with parents and spend more time than what you may normally get at a primary care office where when they're billing, it's quick. You only get one complaint, you have another complaint, you have to schedule another day. Here, we can really build that rapport, work with them, and make sure we're providing that comprehensive care. So we broke up our monthly visit volume. So May I believe we started and school was getting out either a week or two later. So of course our first and we started May 20th was lower and you can see a natural trend of it increasing with October being our highest and that's when we have that exclusion day if students don't have their physicals and their vaccines in. And then of course during respiratory virus season, November, December, January, we were

050also higher. And now we're starting to see that kids aren't getting as sick as often. So our no-show rate uh for medical versus mental health, of course, June, we were also brand new. Um you know, kids weren't physically in school at that point, so we were our highest. and we worked on some ways to make sure that we prevented uh no shows. So, what do we do? We send out a communication via text and email after an appointment is scheduled as well as 48 hours before the appointment as well as 24 hours before the appointment and we also call 24 hours before the appointment to confirm. Um, another great thing that we've been doing is if the school nurse is helping to schedule those appointments for students, they will work with us to remind the

051parents, whether it's giving them the consent form and the students backpack or working with that parent if we need to set up transportation. And when you look at our no-show rate, we're actually lower than what the national average is for no-show rates in primary care, which is approximately 19%. Um, one thing we're also working on is some sort of a policy or process to even decrease this more. One of the things we've found is sometimes the people who are no-showing, no show, not once, not twice, three, four times. And we want to make sure that we're not blocking time and taking away from other students or staff that may need to utilize that. Another thing we've found is sometimes with those no-shows, it's a family. So they may have a family of three four and

052they're blocking we're blocking 2 3 hours in the schedule to see that family now and they know show that just took a chunk of time that could have been taken away. So we're working on utilizing advocates way as well as what makes sense for the school district. So we have additional one-year metrics. So, this is just a breakdown of the type of appointment um and how many. So, school and sport physicals were $4.94. Our sick visits, you can see, were one of our highest of 4.99. Vaccine only appointments 390. Pre-employee physicals cuz we just started that. 19 mental health visits 428. Immunizations over 1,400 immunizations we have provided. point of care testing. So this includes strep, COVID, flu, RSV, glucose, hemoglobin, and lead 565. And then send out labs and orders. So this is including

053blood tests, urine cultures, imaging studies, prescriptions, referrals, and that is 686. So we wanted to just provide a breakdown of the schools that are utilizing our health center. So you can see um Cooper Middle School, London, and Homes are towards the highest, which makes sense because they're the middle school. Um and then of course London being our neighbor, they can just walk over, which which is wonderful. So insurance status breakdown of students. Majority of our students are either Medicaid or uninsured. We have about 22% are private insurance and really the 2% unknown means they weren't sure if they had insurance. They may have Medicaid and when we search it we can't find anything. So most likely those students are uninsured. So this is something I think that is also we're very proud to share with

054everyone. So there was recently a measles outbreak and we looked at improved MMR immunization rates which is measles ms reubella vaccine rates through collaborative e efforts with the school district and the health the school health offices. So if you looked at March 2024, the total number of McKenna Vento students was approximately 161. And the total number of McKenna Vento, which if you don't know what McKenna Vento is, it's students who are considered homelessness and they don't have to provide vaccine records or physicals to the district. So the um last year there was a total number of 49 McKenney Vento students who had incomplete MMR vaccines. This year with working with Olivia, the school nurses and our health center, we marketed the importance of getting your measles mubella vaccine especially with the outbreak. And you can

055actually see we had more McKenna Vento students this year. So May 2025, there was 197 McKenna Vento students and only seven, which it continues to go down because we're still vaccinating. Um only seven of those students have incomplete MMR vaccines, which is a 86% reduction in McKenna Vento students who are not fully immun immunized against MMR. So that really shows the importance of addressing these health inequities, enhancing access to essential care and fostering the overall wellness of our vulnerable students. So here we have post survey results. So after every visit, we send out a survey to the patients. They are asked three questions. Their patient classification, so are they a student, a staff member? Using the scale below, please rate your overall experience today at district 21 health center. And then if they have any

056other comments. So you can see based on using that scale that either they answer could be better, okay, or great. You can see majority of our patients have answered great, very few have answered okay, no one has said could be better. And then a majority of the patients that filled this out were the students or the the parents of the students. And here's just some comments you can read on your own, but some common themes that we see on our on with our comments that come through. Um they were able to be seen very quickly. Very important for people to have access right away. Of course, when you're sick, you want to get right in. Um, we see, you know, a wonderful comments about our provider. Amazing. But also about the PCR test and I

057couldn't get into my PCP, but then you guys could see me and that that really helps. Um, so you can just and that's just a small snippet of what we experienced. So, we're we're very fortunate and she does an amazing job. So, and so goals and future vision, what are we doing here? We are want to increase awareness and utilization more, more, more. Bring it on. Uh we're doing videos, social media events, collaboration with the school, RNs and social workers, and we will continue to come up with great ideas and um and foster that to to let everybody know what we're doing. Uh support health, student health, uh support student health and success. We continue to develop accessible, comprehensive care, promote growth, right? We're always coming up with some we have lots of ideas uh

058planned, health education nights, health promotion nights, dental visits. Um we were just talking about heart month and lipid panels and all kinds of fun stuff to do um that we can bring not only to students but mostly for the staff as well and really focusing and working with our school partners. What's important you know like for example right now at GBS they have you know a lot of staff members that are having some heart issues. So we we're honed in on that. Okay, what can we do? We're going to do some blood pressure screenings for them A1C's. We're going to do um cholesterol checks. And so we're really paying attention to what the community what the the school needs and we can do that here as well. Um plan for sustainability. We are going to

059continue to pursue grants and organize fundraising events. And just to bounce off that, another thing that we're working on is going back to the old fashion way with paper flyers. whether it's sending it out via mail, having things go in backpacks, having the nurses put uh papers in backpacks, anytime a student comes to the nurse's office and then working with the nurses as well as coming up with the script. So, Johnny comes to the nurse and says, "I have a sore throat." What's the process? Are you saying, "Mom, Johnny needs to go home." Or, "Johnny has a fever. You need to take Johnny to the doctor and get a note for them to come back." Or are you saying here's the health center. Johnny is sick. If you are unable to come, we can set

060up transportation. I already called the health center. They have availability. We can they can call you once they get to the health center. And we know one of the nurses who has actually done this with the students, shows a picture of me, shows a picture of the health center, talks to the students um about it, makes that process very easy. We've even had 5-year-olds come who surprisingly are better when they're not with their parent. They don't fight us to get their shots. They don't fight to get the strep test and make it very easy. And then if they do have strep, we can send that prescription right to the pharmacy. Mom or dad can pick up that, you know, pick up Johnny from our health center, go right to the pharmacy and bring Johnny home.

061Um or they can go right back to school if the strep test comes negative. So, it really helps with parents. and then students as well. Any questions? Oh, thank you so much for an incredibly detailed presentation and just tremendous year of success. I think kudos to all of you. Thank you. Thank you. Um, does anyone have questions? Let's just go around the room. Arlland. Oh, okay. So, two quick questions. What would year two look like as a good year? What would your goal be for year? I I think it's a wonderful program. I think it's one of the finest things this district has done in my years on the board. So, I'm a big supporter of what you're doing. Yeah, I would just say increase, you know, the number of visits that we can see.

062Um really utilizing our schedule. We do only have one provider, so we are limited. Um but what we're looking to do is we have a medical assistant, so we can do nurse visits with her. Um and at the same time, we can also have provider visits with sick visits. So, we're really looking to divide and conquer. So, that'll increase access. Yeah. And I think to sorry, just to bounce off, I think also, you know, my goal is to be the gold standard of health care and of school-based health centers. And so I think that there's a lot that this district does that is so amazing and so unique and even working with the family liaison and the social workers and there's so many resources and the more and more I'm in healthcare the more and

063more I realize how gafted our health care system is and how hard it is for uninsured or even certain insuranceances and Medicaid and how expensive it is and coordinating it. And one of the big things that I have found is if I have a student who maybe has a heart uh condition or an unknown heart condition and has chest pain and they need a specialist and they don't have health insurance, well, your hands are kind of tied at that point. And so what we've been working towards is setting up a process for those students. And what does that look like? Helping them get health insurance, helping them schedule that appointment with that specialist, making sure that they make it to that appointment. what are the barriers of getting to that appointment? And so, we're really

064working with that case management piece, which I think is so unique and amazing that primary care providers don't have time to do that and can't do that. They're worried about billing, getting people in and out. And here we can really support the students and working with the social worker as well as the district. So, I think that's another big goal of ours. Okay. And my my second question, if I may, uh I see 20 about 23% of your visits are mental health related. Is there more for us to do in that area? Absolutely. Absolutely. And we we just hired a new social worker. She just started on Monday. Um, and we're re what I think that we missed the ball on last time and I think we can improve upon this time is is really

065connecting with workers here on site and you know sitting in on meetings and collaborating together and getting those referrals and then really honing in on what the kids need. We were just talking to somebody um from what was her Alyssa who who is I forgot her exact title um but she work Alyssa where what's your title again? directors director of MTSS so working with the basically support services and coordinating with her the family liaison as well as McKenna Vento social worker she's identifying kids that you know are having hearing and speech problems and and how do we what do we do and they're kind of getting lost in the system and like really how can we collaborate right and and they have social work and mental health issues how can we we just we're talking

066out there how can we pull it through so There's a there's a lot in that area that could be improved upon for sure. Thank you very much. For social workers as well. So one of the things is they're doing ongoing therapy every single week. So technically a full case load for a social worker is 25. Now that can of course vary and then helping with some of that case management piece where I can see 14 possibly 20 in a day. So that it those you will have a discrepancy as well. But I think like Laura had mentioned there is a lot of room for us to you know increase that volume as well. Thank you very much. Continued good luck Debbie I think you had a question. Yes I definitely have a actually I've got

067two questions. The first one when I saw here your plan for sustainability I know that's an issue that we've all thought about. Um, is there any credence to actually accepting insurance for some of these cases? It's like that might extend out the money that we've got sitting there, the grants that we've been given and that. So, I was just Yeah. So, I bring that out as an option. Medicaid. I am a Medicaid provider. So, I am credentialed with Medicaid. The challenge sometimes is if you are credentialed with every single payer. So, you know, I could be credentialed with Blue Cross Blue Shield, Etna, United Healthcare, but there may be some of the smaller ones and that's when you have to start turning away. You can't or or have an out-ofpocket uh cost. So, the Main

068East does bill and there is of course that potential in the future. Yeah. Yeah. What I was thinking of is if they have insurance, we can take it. If they don't, we still cover them. It's like it's not out of pocket. We take care of it like we've been doing now. Can't do that. That is actually considered Medicaid fraud. So, unfortunately, you if you bill one, you have to bill everyone. Okay. Yeah, I was just did not know how that worked. And then my other quick question is how do we get board members to be able to go? That's not a question for me, but I don't know. I don't that's not our decision. We'd love to see you. Did you have any questions? Bill, I think you had one. Yes. I um for for

069you, do our staff, do our parents have the ability to access advocate care outside of the hours of operation. If we have parents who can't get their kids in during our hours of operation for a physical or vaccination, can they go to another advocate clinic? Absolutely. So we have Yakman which is not too far from here. That's the after hours clinic. They have an immediate care as well. And then we do try to refer I'm always going to refer patients for what is best for them whether it's their insurance closest transportation meets their needs. But Advocate is of course a huge health system and so we can refer within the advocate system. Great. And then actually Mike I have a couple questions for you really about this. Do we have the ability or to aggregate

070data that maybe three, four, five years from now we could check to see the decrease in sick days that our children or our staff are are reporting? Sure. Yeah. And we could aggregate that out. Yeah. Great. Absolutely. And do we uh currently are we putting information into what's going out to the students at the beginning of the year to let their parents know as an additional this is here for you? Yes. Yeah. And and again, I think as as we've gone through this first year, as we've learned lessons, as we've you know, I think there's been a lot of uh and and Eric even noted it, you know, that, you know, we're blasting messages out, we're kind of, you know, pushing it, but might not need to go back to the old uh you know,

071putting paper in in uh in handbook or Well, right. So, I mean, there's we're, you know, so I know Ca Cass has been working very closely with with the team at Advocate and and and Olivia to really um identify all of those different ways of of being able to to get that that messaging out because one of the things that I think we were a little surprised about is as much as we thought we were getting the message out there, there was still a level of of you know, parents who were like really didn't realize that it was even, you know, something that that was available to them. So, you know, that's um you know, we don't want that, right? So, yeah. And also now the consent form for the health center is in registration.

072So, I think that's another great way of marketing it because we didn't have that opportunity last year. Thank you. And I I think at the wellness fair there were magnets available that had I missed it and I want one. We can get you one. Uh any other questions? I don't have a question, but I just want to give a quick testimony. I had my first experience with the student health center last week. Um I actually got a call from our the field nurse that my fourth grade daughter was not not feeling well. She had a low-grade fever complaining her ears hurt and she said if you want I can call over to the health center and see if they can see her. So my husband came and picked her up, brought her right over. You

073guys swabbed her. She test positive for strep. They called the, you know, antibiotic into our conveniently located Walgreens and it was like easy peasy. So you guys are doing a great job and I definitely reap the benefits of it. I didn't have to truck her out to the pediatrician and who I love, but it's not as convenient as this building. So thank you. Thank you. Is she feeling better? Just thank you for your presentation. Is she feeling better? She is. Awesome. Uh thank you for your presentation. I did have a bunch of questions and then you ended up hitting on all of them throughout. So thank you. Um, I also am helping promote the, you know, as I come across parents and so, thank you for, you know, what you guys are doing to help

074get the word out and I hope we continue to do a harder push so we don't drop off over the summer months. It's a tremendous opportunity to get those annual physicals in, etc. Um, so thanks for being great thought partners and um, looking forward to seeing how successful we continue to be. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks everybody. Um next uh is an update on the school parking lot and safety study. Dr. Connelly. Yes. So um we have talked um multiple times at various times throughout the years um about some of the uh challenges um that we experience on our school sites particularly as it relates to traffic management um you know drop off and pickup. Um, you know, we've often talked about the fact that as traffic increases, um,

075our sites who were designed in a time where many many more students walked um are not designed to handle that kind of traffic inflow and outflow and and unfortunately we are also dealing with some at times less than ideal adult behaviors um as they are driving on and off of our sites. Uh and so um the district over the past um couple of years have been working with um uh traffic consultants um to really be able to kind of take a look at our sites and see what changes we can be making to try and increase um the management of the traffic on and off the sites as well as increase the safety um of uh of our students and staff and and parents as they're they're picking up and dropping off. So, I asked

076um our director of safety and security uh Danny Malik to come in and give us an update on the work that has been done this year. Um and it's an ongoing process which uh he'll he'll touch on as well. So, Danny, thank you. Good evening board. Good evening to all those in attendance. Um just as Dr. Connelly said, uh we are currently underway on an assessment. Uh basically the purpose of this presentation is provide you an update on how that assessment is going. uh it's based on the school traffic flow and the u assessment of the current phase and we'll talk a bit a little about the project. So um kind of like Dr. Connie uh just touched on, I'm sure we if you have children and you've dropped them off at school before, you've

077been a little bit frustrated whether it's in this district or at another district. Uh we've all been in that position when everyone's trying to get to one location at one time and trying to make arrival or pick up their kid for dismissal. uh there's going to be some some um people are going to be frustrated because they can't get there in time or uh they're confused with signage or whatever the case may be. So, uh the purpose of this assessment is basically to improve that process as much as possible, redu reduce the congestion and increase uh student uh family safety. So, we partnered with Kimley Horn. This was actually a consultant before I started with the district that this process was already underway. And I'll just kind of go through what the process looks like.

078Um, and then please, uh, to the board and anyone else, uh, sitting on the panel, if you have questions throughout, just just ask because it'll be easier to kind of answer those questions as I go along with this presentation. So, the process of what the consultation looks like, basically, our consultant uh, staff meets with our our school administrators because our school administrators know their process better than uh, anyone else. Uh, so we we all kind of meet together and we have a kickoff meeting. The consultants get to learn a little bit more of the lay of the land of what their what their process looks like, what issues are they experiencing. And then after that kickoff meeting, the consultant will schedule a field observation. They schedule two observations. One's uh for arrival and one is

079for dismissal. Basically, they're there with uh members from their consultant team and they're looking at a bunch of data. They're observing the flow and then they go back and uh complete a report with their findings and they provide some uh improvements solutions. The focus of those uh consultations, those assessments are traffic efficiency, uh congestion and pedestrian safety. So once that's done, uh they provide us those reports. So phase one was as I mentioned completed already. The schools that were uh as part of phase one were Tarton, Field, Whitman, and Frost. Um the status of those of phase one is those assessments and reports were completed. Uh the recommendations were inter implemented and uh currently monitoring for ongoing effectiveness. Uh there are some tweaks that are going to be made uh at Frost and Tarkington. Those

080are things that we're currently looking at. Uh but overall, for the most part, the assessments were successful and have improved the process. Um the presentation tonight's going to focus on phase two. Um there's four schools that have been completed. Uh we completed the full assessment process with Kimley Horn. Uh final reports were reviewed by myself and the district leadership team and then we're looking at some preliminary implementation plans. Uh those are underway right now. The schools in phase two are London, Twain, Kilmer, and Longfellow. Uh the next steps, we're going to begin implementing those recommended improvements immediately for a couple of the schools and we'll kind of talk about that. And then we're going to coordinate logistics uh with each school site over the summer. Uh and then again we're going to monitor and address

081if there's any tweaks or changes that need to be made uh for the next school year. So the first one we're going to talk about is Kilmer and again as I go through this if you have a question just please ask. Um so we completed the assessment and then uh we reviewed the report. So some of the issues that were identified and kind of bear with me as I go through this. I don't know if you can you really can't see the laser from here. So I'll try to explain as best I can if you're looking at that image. I know it might be a little bit hard to see, but uh if you see the arrow at the top right, north is facing straight up. Um so the issues that were identified during this

082assessment, which were kind of already known, multiple reports from staff members in the school administration, uh parking is limited. Uh primarily because just the geographic location the school is within a neighborhood. Um and now with the addition of the mobile uh building, it also did eat up some of the parking lot space in that in that um area. So the issue basically the main issue here is that there was very limited parking for staff for visitors. Um and then the another issue was that there was uncontrolled pedestrian crossing at G View and Terrace. Um so that was another thing that was kind of identified uh through the assessment. Some of the planned improvements are to restrict parking on Gulf View and Terrace to direct C uh for direct crossing. Now, this is something that is

083not a decision that the district can made so can make solely because that is a a roadway, the village roadway. We're working with the Buffalo Grove Police Department and u the RSRO SRO Essig who's taking that information back to the village to see kind of what they can do if they can restrict parking for uh specific hours to eliminate to make basically make it safer for crossing in that area. Uh there is a little uh pavement uh that's on the south end of the building uh that's kind of being used as a de facto drop off zone. Uh you can kind of see where it's indicated on that image right there. And basically that space is not being used for uh much of anything. Uh but what's happening is that uh parents are pulling up

084and because they see that little pavement area, they're just dropping off their students there. And what's happening is when a vehicle stops in the middle of the roadway, it kind of throws off the whole flow of the traffic. So basically the simple solution is to that is to get rid of that pavement and just cover it over with some some grass. Um people will likely stop dropping off their kids there. Um another issue is to uh that really is going to solve the main issue is to reconfigure the lot for seven new spaces. You can kind of see um where those spaces are indicated at the north end of the building. Right now those are parallel parking spaces which make it kind of hard for people backing out of the of the um the regular

085parking spaces. So basically making those into a a more angled parking spaces would give us seven additional parking spaces, which doesn't sound like a lot, but it really is for the sides of the school. It's going to help out tremendously. And then last but not least, adding signage to improve the traffic flow. This is something that we're doing and we're assessing uh districtwide uh with some of the improvements and we'll talk about London just with the with the kind of the temporary improvement plan we made at London just by implementing signage really helped. Um, we did this uh also at the request. Riley requested some signage too and we're getting reports that it is really helping uh lessen the confusion and kind of direct parents on where to go. So, as a district looking at

086keeping that signage consistent for all our schools and assessing where it's needed. So, I'll kind of since we're on Kilmer, is there any questions about Kilmer? Yes, I have a question. the dotted line that's no parking proposed. Does that mean people would not be able to be in their cars at all there during that time period or you just don't want them to park and leave their vehicle? Yeah, they wouldn't be able to park there whatsoever. So like if you're if you're on the roadway and you're and you're just sitting in your car, that mean you're still standing. So it would be considered like your parking. Uh so during those school hours, it's being recommended uh that no parking is allowed on that side of the street. So on that side of the street there's

087cars that queue up now waiting for their kids or they park and they go get their kids. So if we eliminated all of that are is there they'd have to go further south um and park uh basically further south of the intersection and the the purpose of that again is so that when students do park they're not parking and getting out of their vehicle right in front of the school and then crossing where there's no crosswalk. So, if we move them further south past that crosswalk, now when students park and get out, they must they will have to utilize the crosswalk, which is much safer than just darting across the street. Again, that's a decision that's uh going to be have to work with the village because they're the only ones that can put a

088parking restriction sign on the roadway. Yeah, I it stands out to me cuz Frost kind of has a similar thing, but their street is just one way and there's no parking between those school hours, but people do queue up there to get into the parking lot on the right hand side of the street. So it's that's why I the car Oh, so the car line would I mean naturally there's going to be a car line forming, but if there's a car line like a defective car line forming to wait for their kids to come out, those cars would be considered parking. So if there's if it's the car line that's queued up to get into the parking lot, then that's going to happen naturally. We try to try to minimize that by moving the flow

089out of the parking lot. Um but yeah, there there really should not be a a a car line queued up on the roadway. you're going to eat up a lane of traffic there. And again, kids are going to be getting in and out of the cars in a roadway. It's just unsafe. You got a question? Um, previously there was a uh crossing guard at G a few years ago. Has that been looked at as the consultant did recommend crossing guard in that location as well? They did. Okay. Yes. Good. Yeah, we'll work with Buffalo on that. It's a busy intersection. So, thank you. All right, we'll move on to the next school that's currently underway, which is Twain. Um, so this this is just to go back to Kilmer, this is all the things that

090we discussed. Um, barring the the parking, the no restriction of parking because that's pending village approval and village implementation, the the parking lot spaces and covering that pavement. is something that's planned to be uh done over the summer. Twain is another uh one that the assessment was complete. We reviewed the reports. Um issues identified here. The main issue is that there's a big car queue that's building up on the street. So on the south side is where you see that blue line. Um the the blue line is the the old plan is where our vehicles currently enter from. So what's happening is because there's such a small space for cars to queue up from there, the car line is really queuing up on the roadway. U and what happens here is because all our buses

091don't show up at the same time, those buses are now getting trapped in the car line. And so we're we really have to wait for those buses to come because they can't get in until basically that car line makes its way uh through the school parking lot. Uh so another issue is that students are exiting both sides of the vehicle and uh speeding through the the lot and pedestrian conflict. So uh some of the ways that this was improve looking to be improved through our consultant and just through observation was to flip the entry and exit uh of the moving the queue into the lot. So now instead of using the south side for vehicles to enter during pickup and arrival, the north side would be the entrance for vehicles. So where you see that

092red line would be the car line. You can see how much bigger of a queue that would cause and remove vehicles off of the roadway and into the parking lot. Uh so we really believe by doing that uh there really shouldn't be much of a queue on the roadway. Uh and then separate the car and bus circulation to avoid trapping buses as I mentioned and then staff to direct and support uh safe crossings. Uh and then to increase the u the student dropoff zone. We would remove three spaces uh which would basically allow for more four to five vehicles to drop off which should speed up the Q- line the uh the Q drop off. And then we're still going to maintain our sped drop off. we have vehicles that pull that we need to

093really pull up to the front uh because they're sped vehicles and we can let those students out as close to the door as possible. Um and then as those vehicles exit, basically we enforce a outbound right turn only. Um again, this would just prevent uh uh issues on the roadway and really make an efficient uh exit out of the parking lot. So, while we're on Twain, is there any questions about Twain? Yes, sir. Yes. Just uh quickly, are the buses and cars exiting out the same lane? I'm looking at the map here. It looks We separate their entrances, but are they exiting at the same place? Yes. So, the the the entrance the the way they enter is separate. The vehicles will enter on the north side, the buses will enter on the south side,

094and they are exiting both through the south side. And basically what will happen is while while those buses are leaving, there'll be a staff member to stop the car line, let those buses out, and then we continue. Thank you. That's the part we're getting to. Thank you. All right. And this is another plan that is um uh the plan is to put these uh changes over the summer so it's ready to go for next school year. All right. Moving on to London. Again, the assessment was complete. The report was reviewed for this one. Um I'm sure the board is familiar with some of the concerns uh with London. Uh there's limited queue capacity for cars and buses. their safety concerns at the entry and exit points um and the vehicle pedestrian conflicts during peak time.

095So um the original plan that the uh our consultant looked at was actually what they what they assessed has is different now. Um the board is aware that there was an incident that happened in the parking lot where a pedestrian was hit by a vehicle. Um since then we we we put a temporary plan in place and that plan's been working really well. We have a protected car lane with retractable barriers. Um and uh so basically cars can't go around one each other around one another. It's very controlled. Uh we put a lot more signage to kind of really lessen the confusion of what's happening and dedicated specific parking for staff for drop off and pickup and then the car line. Um and our buses are the flow of our buses has has improved. So

096the current plan we have in place has mitigated those serious safety concerns. Um however, we are still looking at how we can improve the process. So, we are exploring a dedicated protected bus lane around the full perimeter of the school. What this is going to do is because even with our current plan, we still do have a little bit of a queue back up on the roadway. Um, so to basically eliminate that, uh, we would need our buses, there's really nowhere else to put them to go around the building. The consultant did a auto turn analysis of this and what it identified is that those buses can currently make its way around as is. However, because we have a lot of our operations, our facilities, vehicles going in and out of there, we have students

097that dismiss from the from the uh the west side of the building and the south side of the building, we really didn't feel like it was in the best interest to have those buses going around and encounter those potential conflicts. So, um after speaking with leadership, we kind of thought of the idea of creating a protected permanent bus lane that actually goes around the building. And this is something that's going to require it's it'd be a significant project because we're talking about a lane that would, you know, kind of be built into the earth and with with permanent barriers where these buses can go around and really protect uh the students that are coming out and keep them away from other vehicles that go in and out like our food service vehicles and again as

098I mentioned our operations and our facilities vehicles as well. Um and then the other thing was to flip with this we'd have to flip the entry and exit to improve the flow and separation of cars and buses. Um, if anyone's ever exited from London, uh, you can understand that trying to go west is, uh, can be a little challenging. Um, especially during high traffic times, there's times where people just decide, you know what, I'm just going to go right. I'm just going to go east because I'm not going to wait here all day and I I I don't feel safe doing so. So, um, we're with being and that's another reason why we were looking at making those buses go around because if we're going to flip the entry and exits and to have a

099passenger side drop off, well, the buses would really have to come around the building. Um, so that is something that's going to require the Illinois Department of Transportation approval. There's going to be have to be roadway modifications. I mean, we're talking this is not something that's going to happen over the summer. This is something that we have to really plan out, get some architects and engineers involved and look at how this can be best applied. So, as I mentioned, um the current plan we have in place did mitigate all the serious safety concerns. So, we feel comfortable that what we have in place now, we're going to continue doing that while we explore this more permanent solution. So, with that being said, um I can try my best to answer any questions for London. All

100right. At the risk of being asked to leave the meeting, is there any discussion of trying to install a traffic signal for that left turn out of London regardless of which way we're going to go in, even one that's only operable? Should I even finish my question? Should I just Well, no. I chuckle because um that was one of the first conversations I had in 2018 when I arrived um because it has come up at at various times. Um and the the issue is is that um in order to actually put a a controlled signal um the pedestrian bridge would have to go bye-bye. Um forget I asked. Yeah. Yeah. So it's been invest Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, that was something that we I mean even when I first got here I'm like why is

101there a light here? Um and that was the reason it's we keeping the bridge just getting rid of the bridge. just doesn't seem like withdrawn. It's almost the shortest term of president I've ever seen. Okay, moving on. Long fellow. Again, this assessment was complete. We have reviewed the report and I'll just go over some of the issues that were identified here. Uh again, this is another one where vehicle uh the cues back up on Arlington Heights Road. This is one of our schools that's uh right off a major roadway just like London. Um it's shared lanes for buses, cars, and staff parking create safety and efficiency concerns. um the on-site space and traffic flow are limited during peak times. So again, this is another one just like London that uh because uh through the consultant

102and our observations uh is another one where instead of the bus lane this time, the car lane uh is going to go around at least we're exploring the idea of it going around the building. Cars are currently doing that right now. However, um it's it's in a way that's a little bit confusing and can create some issues. So we want to keep that flow because that's really with the space with the limited space that's really the best way that the vehicles can go around. But to do in a safe in a safe fashion we feel that it needs to have that protected car lane because you know during before school we have students out in these parking lots. Uh we got students kind of by the playground, families walking all over the place um and

103potential other vehicles. So, just to keep our car lane away from any potential issues, create that protected barrier car lane just like I mentioned at London. And Danny, correct me if I'm wrong, um, but really the issue of of traffic um, uh, queuing up on Arlington Heights Road is a is a morning issue. Um, because um, the cars are not going behind the building in the morning. Um because again there's playground space back there and so students are out there waiting to go into the building. Um so in the afternoon it isn't an a queuing issue onto Arlington Heights Road because cars do access um the back parking lot and queue up into like six lanes um which is kind of mind-blowing in terms of how that but you know the the major issue as

104as we see it right now is that queuing up is really a morning issue not necessarily an afternoon issue. The problem is is that none of it's good. Um and in order to really get to that um more permanent solution both morning and afternoon um having cars go around the back of the building. There's some significant issues with that in so far as it you would perhaps lose some of that not all of it but some of that um um blacktop space uh play space. And again, it's that being able to create that physical separation, permanent separation that there is a dedicated lane um that is is going in place there. So, um this one is is is is a tough one. Um and so, you know, it is not something that we're ready to

105move forward with um in any significant way. Um because we really are going to have to take a pretty serious look at the design of the site, how much engineering, how much space, you know, in terms of creating that car, you know, that that dedicated car lane around. um you know, engagement with the parent community, you know, in terms of you know, if they're losing some some, you know, playground space over there, if there's, you know, having to move some basketball hoops and and then, you know, there's there's just a lot of complicated issues on this site um that that um so we are not ready to move forward with any any kind of major solution there. It would also require flipping the entries and exits. This is not something that we can just do

106uh because it's on AR tonight's row. That's the Cook County Department of Transportation and Health that would require approval. So, I mean, this is just something that's going to it's going to be a process if uh we move forward with this plan. But just looking at it overall to make it as most efficient and safe and possible. This is kind of the idea that uh the district's looking at. If you look at here, it shows the car line going out the same way the buses the buses come in. So, we're kind of looking at we would actually just have them go out the same way the buses are exiting uh pending that it would be a proper cue. So, that's something that we'd really have to look at. Yes, sir. As somebody who has to

107be at Longfellow one morning a week before school, I could testify to what it's like leaving there. Just out of curiosity, and I'm sure it's something we'd have to talk to the parent community also, but would it would make sense to make the exit in the morning right turn only also to prevent some of the queuing up? Yes. You you mean the the exit here or the current exit? The the current exit? The north exit. The north exit right now, but if even if we flipped it, would it make still would it still make sense? Yes. If you if you made it a right turn only, you're not going to sit there and wait for a car to wait for traffic, especially knowing that the the amount of traffic on that road. Yes, actually that

108was a during our during our meeting that was something that we discussed was making that a right turn only. I could see how that can in inconvenience some folks. That's why you wrote to the community. Yes. Correct. But yes, you that would make the vehicles exit a lot faster because you're not going to wait there for a car to make that left turn. Thank you. Y any other questions on Longfellow? um not on Longfellow but on on all of these as you guys were going through this process were like the staff who do are out there watching the drop off and managing drop off and pick up and the principles and APS were they part of the process to look at this and give any feedback. Yes, the the uh administration was part of the

109process um because again they were asked to kind of connect with their teams and identify you know what issues we're looking at what's what's what's what are the problems and then during the assessments uh the the our consultants were out there with the staff asking them questions identifying what issues they're observing and where where are some immediate areas of improvement that they feel need to happen. So it was you know everybody that was involved uh as much as possible was involved in this process. So, um, and then even now looking at these assessment plans and updates, you know, we're following up with administration to see does this look like something that would work or make sense. Great. Um, and then going forward, just this is just a summary of kind of what we talked about.

110We kind of talked about it in length. Um, just a phase three. So, to finish off all our schools, you know, to keep it consistent, we want all our schools to be evaluated. Uh so Riley, Poe, Homes, and Hawthorne are the other ones uh that we're going to run the same process with in uh next school year. Um another thing that we're looking at is safe walking routes. So our consultant can actually look at all our schools and identify uh where are students walking to for this specific school and identify routes that we can provide the community and say these are routes that we recommending your child, your student, our students take. It is going to be the safest route. uh during that study what also happens is the consultant will look at those intersections

111and there's a lot of data that goes into uh when you look at an intersection and when it requires let's say a crossing guard or a traffic control device or a flashing beacon or something like that. So they will put together that information for us and then it just helps us identify those safe routes and also hey where do we need to put some more control on an intersection and and obviously as we noted phase three London and and and Longfellow will continue that work through. So any other questions from the board or anybody else? Thank you very much Danny. Appreciate it. Okay. Uh then the last item under staff communication is the literacy spring update. Yes. So I will uh turn it over to Dr. Childress to introduce members of her team. Good evening.

112We have um Amy Briler, our director of literacy, and Alana Lambert um one of our student services coordinators, presenting a literacy update for you this evening. Um so I will turn it over to them so that I don't um take any of the of the key points that they want to address with the board this evening. I almost said good morning. Um good evening. Um uh Alana and I are excited to um share a literacy update with you talking about the work that we have done all year. Um really working hard to align tiered support um across um across um language arts um across all the tiers of literacy um that is based in the current research. All right. So as we work to make decisions or provide professional learning, we always reference the current

113research. We consistently work to build teacher capacity in understanding evidence-based instructional strategies and the research behind them. The research we lean into is based on the science of reading and teaching, a vast body of inter interdisciplinary research that explains how the brain learns to read and the most effective instructional practices to support all of our learners. This is an image of Scarboro's rope um reading rope which is a visual model that illustrates the complex interwoven skills required to to um be a skilled reader. It highlights two different strands. The language comprehension strand including vocabulary, background knowledge and verbal reasoning and word recognition including phonological awareness, decoding and site recognition. Over time, these strands are woven together um to build fluent, automatic, and meaningful reading. Understanding this model helps educators um design instruction that supports every

114component of reading development and builds a deep reading comprehension base. Last January, the um Illinois State Board of Education adopted a comprehensive literacy plan and we are working to continue to align our district resources and practices to the three goal areas they have they have identified. Goal one is that every student received a highquality evidence evidence-based literacy instruction. Goal two is every educator is prepared and continuously supported to deliver highquality evidence-based literacy instruction. And goal three is every leader is equipped to create and maintain and sustain equitable conditions for highquality evidence-based literacy instruction. This summer, a team of D21 stakeholders will be working collaboratively to develop our D21 comprehensive literacy plan aligned to the state plan. This is our MTSS multi-tered systems of support. um is the is our overarching framework that guides everything we

115do in the district to support student success and ensures that all students including those needing additional support. Students receiving special education services and advanced learners receive the instruction interventions and enrichment they need to thrive. At the core is strong tier one instruction supported by targeted and intense interventions as needed. As a district, we are working actively together um aligning our district resources within this framework to ensure cohesive, consistent, and effective support across all tiers of instruction and literacy. Over the past two years, we have reflect we have refined our literacy curriculum and resources to align the to the latest evidence-based practices in literacy instruction. We focused on deepening the our understanding of the Illinois learning standards and enhancing instructional planning around the D21 language arts scope and sequence, our reading and writing unit outlines that

116include speaking, listening and language standards, and assessment informed instruction. Language and reading comprehension are systematically integrated across the reading literature, informational text, writing and language domains. And then our instruction is grounded in evidence-based practices, including explicit, systematic, and scaffolded support. Each trimester's reading unit outline is intentionally designed to build knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension through a variety of grade level, highquality, diverse text while promoting the transfer of taught skills to authentic reading and writing. We've also embedded strategy-based academic and content area vocabulary in literacy, social studies, and science. Our D21 writing unit outlines um narrative, information, and opinion use a consistent evidence-based approach with explicit instruction, modeling, and guided practice, and grammar is directly taught and applied within each genre, helping students build clear, effective writing skills that transfer across the content areas. Districtwide, our literacy

117specialists and language service specialists continue to collaborate to lead professional development that teachers to help build teachers capacity and evidence-based instruction practices and current literacy research. Three years ago, we identified a need for stronger resources aligned to the reading foundation standards in kindergarten through fifth grade, specifically for explicit systematic instruction in phmic awareness, phonics, and word recognition. in the table. Um, as you can see, we started in 2022 with our tier three interventions and we implemented the benchmark phonics um, intervention program. Um, in 232 24 we um, worked specifically with kindergarten through 2 grade teachers um, in monilingual English as well as monilingual Spanish to implement benchmark phonics as well as tier phonetica. Um and this year um we have been working diligently in third through fifth grade to bring benchmark phonics ben um benchmark

118tayer phonetica as well as we have been working with our bilingual Russian population um um teachers in order to finalize their reading foundation scope and sequence and to finalize resources to support their instruction. Um, alongside these resources, we've prioritized ongoing professional development to deepen teachers understanding of how students learn to read and ensure consistent high-quality instruction that builds on strong phmic awareness, decoding, encoding, and comprehension skills. I'm excited to show you some of the data that we have um of our students growth um this year. Um so the students in kindergarten through 2 grade take a comprehensive phonics assessment and this is our second year um that we've built a comprehensive phonics assessment that mirrors um a phonics assessment that was developed by a researcher Wy Blevens. Um and uh we the kindergarten through kindergarten

119and first grade uh teachers administer the assessment at the beginning of the year um and at the end of each trimester and second grade administers at the beginning of the year, the middle of the year and the end of the year. So I'm going to share a little bit of the data and as you can see our our our growing student growth. Um it's um so uh sorry in kindergarten um at the end of trimester 2 um 67% of our students were meeting and exceeding the end of the year skill expectations in first grade in our monolingual English classrooms at the end of try to 41% of our students were meeting and exceeding e um year-end expectations in second grade at the middle of the year 31% of our students were meeting and exceeding end

120of the year expectations s for our Spanish um bilingual classrooms. When we look at kindergarten at our end of the year, 44% of students were meeting or exceeding endofear expectations. First grade, the end of trimester 2, was 52% of students were meeting or exceeding endofear expectations. And second grade, our middle of the year, 60% of our students were meeting or exceeding end of the year expectations. Oops. In our Russian bilingual classrooms, at the end of trimester 2, 44% of students were meeting an ex or exceeding end of the year expectations. At the end of tri um first grade, at the end of the year, sorry, at the end of trimester 2, 92% of students were meeting or exceeding um end of year expectations. And second grade um in the middle of the year, 66% of

121students were meeting or exceeding end-of-ear skill expectations. while monitoring this year's data to last year's as we were looking for um resource um implementation um and the effectiveness of um the resource that we had chosen and um the implementation the um the fidelity of implementation of resources. We specifically analyzed last year's data at the end of the year um alongside this year's midyear data. Even with even with nearly three months of instructional re instruction remaining, the mid-year data reveals clear evidence of student progress and resource effective effectiveness. This growth can be attributed not only to consistent and faithful information in implementation of instructional materials by teachers but also to deepening their knowledge of effective phonics instruction. I'm sorry. Um and best practice best practices in foundational literacy. So this slide represents that comparison. Last year

122in kindergarten at the end of the year 87% of students were meeting or exceeding and the end of the year expectation and this year in the middle of the year already 67% of our students were meeting or exceeding end of the year expectations. Last year in first grade, our end of the end of the year data showed that 45% of students were meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectation. And this year already are 41% with nearly three months of of school um to go. Last year in second grade at the end of the year was 51% of our students were meeting or exceeding skill expectation. And this year in the middle of the year, 31% of our students were already meeting or exceeding this year's skill expectation. in our Spanish bilingual classrooms. Last

123year in kindergarten at the end of the year, 67% of students were meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectation. And this year, 44% of the students were meeting or exceeding um skill expectation in the middle of the year. Last year in in first grade, our um 78% of our students met end of the year expectations were meeting or exceeding skill expectations. And this year in the middle of the year already 52% of our students were already meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectations. Last year in second grade at the end of the year 69% of our students were meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectations. And this year um in the middle of the year 60% of our students were already meeting those end of the year skill expectations.

124Um, last year our Russian bilingual classrooms, last year in kindergarten at the end of the year, 88% of the students were meeting or exceeding year-end expectations. And this year in the middle of the year, 79% of our students were meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectations. Last year in kindergarten, at the end of the year, 96% of our students were meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectations. And this year in the middle of the year, already 92% of our students were meeting or exceeding those expectations. Last year in second grade, at the end of the year, 74% of students were meeting or exceeding end of the year skill expectations. And this year, 66% of students were already meeting or exceeding skill endofthe-ear skill expectations. We look forward to seeing the strong

125impact of strong foundational literacy instruction with not noticeable gains in reading achievement and look forward to seeing what our end of the year this year results um come in as as uh teachers are administering that end of the year assessment as we speak. So, as we continue to work um to align those foundational literacy across all tiers of support, Alana Lambert um will share an overview of the structured literacy phonics pilot implementation um that special ed um did this year along with resulting data outcomes. Thank you. All right. Last spring, a committee was formed to dig deeper into finding a resource that would support foundational literacy for our special education population. This committee was representative of special education teachers, instructional specialists, and administrators from across both elementary and middle schools throughout the district. When students

126are identified for special education and have a need in basic reading or reading fluency, which incorporates phonics and phmic awareness, there was an identified need to implement a resource that has increased intensity as well as meeting the multiensory and multimodal needs of our learners. During the 2024 2025 school year, the committee identified three resources based on research and evidence-based practices. In each of these resources piloted, there was a representative group reflecting all district demographics. And so we piloted three programs this year. We piloted slant, Wilson, and Sunday system. So to determine the best fit resource, all students were administered the WIST. The WIST is the word identification and spelling test both at the start of the pilot and before the committee came together to make final recommendations. Based on the data collected, the sample group

127was comprised of 41 students who were participating in the pilot. It was evident that slant showed a significant amount of percentage point growth over the approximately 3month period where the data was collected. Aside from the strong data to back up the committee's recommendation, teachers who participated in the pilot were able to provide feedback on the resource while looking at its ease of use, the materials required, as well as the instructional setting. Additionally, as part of the pilot, we looked closely at IEP student goal progress throughout throughout the monitoring period of the pilot. Teachers who participated in the pilot met with instructional specialists every seven weeks aligned to our intervention cycles to analyze data and make instructional decisions. So overall why slant students identify that participated in the pilot made adequate progress towards their IEP goals.

128The lesson timing aligns well with the current instructional delivery model. Students were engaged and responsive to the lesson structure and the multiensory approach. And then inclusive of our dy identified learners, an explicit sequential multimodal approach provides our IEP and EL students with the linguistic clarity and structured support needed to develop listening, speaking, reading, and writing in an integrated format. Slant instruction is delivered in small groups of students by the trained special education teacher. The instructions delivered through the use of hands-on multiensory materials. Students have a hands-on experience with this systematic approach of literacy instruction. Therefore, no studentf facing digital instruction is part of this intervention. So some key features of slant are the explicit systematic sequential teaching, the cumulative practice and ongoing review, a high level of student and teacher interaction, the use of carefully

129chosen examples and non-examples, connected decodable text and prompt and corrective feedback. As you have heard, we are working collaboratively to align foundational literacy resources that are evidence-based and ensure that instruction is grounded in what we know about how students learn to read through explicit, systematic, and cumulative teaching of skills that gradually increase with intensity throughout each tier of instruction. Providing evidence-based support across the tiers ensures that every student receives the just right level of instruction based on their needs. When resources are aligned and consistent across the tiers, they reinforce key skills, provide a common instructional language, and allow for more seamless progress monitoring and intervention, help helping prevent and close literacy gaps more effectively. our next steps in literacy as we move forward in aligning our literacy instruction and resources to current research and the

130Illinois compre comprehensive literacy plan um for the school year 2020 2526 um for all staff. We're going to continue to provide professional development and evidence-based literacy instructional practices through systematic phonics and decoding and encoding strategies using decodable text and morphology. um utilizing tiered resources, we will continue to integrate um the integration of explicit grammar instruction and writing and we will continue to build background knowledge and teaching comprehension strategies of our of our students and our teachers. Um and um we will provide um intense and um explicit um professional development um for the implementation of the slant program to all resource staff. In the summer of 2025, just coming up in a few weeks, um we will revise our current D21 literacy framework to more tightly align with the state comprehensive literacy plan. Early um this

131fall um we will do an extensive tier one resource review process with literacy language services and special education departments um to determine resources for next phase our next phase of review. And in the late fall of 2025, we will establish a reading resource review committee with district stakeholders to evaluate selected resources utilizing the state literacy curriculum evaluation rubric and determine a new tier 1 reading resource for kindergarten through fifth grade. And in the spring of 2026, um early adopters will implement a new uh a new unit within the new reading resource in kindergarten through fifth grade. And then we will determine a plan for grade level roll out. And as always, right, um as we as we rely on teacher feedback, um the timeline may be subject to change based on teacher feedback. Um our

132next steps is clear. Our next steps are clear. As a district, we must continue to ensure the use of ex um evidence-based resources and prioritize focused consistent professional development. Highquality professional development is essential for strengthening instructional practices, deepening teacher knowledge, and ensuring effective use of resources. By investing in ongoing professional development, we empower educators to um to collaborate around data, apply evidence-based strategies, and ultimately drive stronger student outcomes across all classrooms. Equal as equally as important is ensuring that we broaden the knowledge and understanding of literacy among all community members and provide support for parents. Thank you. Thank you very much for that update. Um does anyone have any questions for either Amy or Lana? I guess just a quick question. First of all, your next steps is very thorough. I think your plan is

133great. Good job to everyone. Um the slant program, can that be used for tiered interventions as well or only students in special ed? So right now we have discussed starting with our students in special education. We don't have a plan right now to move it into our MTSS framework, but that's something that we can definitely discuss as we gather more data. Okay, Bill. And quickly to to understand uh one point on the data, if you went back to slide seven, which was the comprehensive phonics data um at kindergarten after try to there's approximately 33% of the students who are does not meet or approaching standard. Yet, when you go to the beginning of first grade, that number jumps to well over 90%. Now, I know we're talking about different kids. So, that's that's part of

134the issue. But, are we also looking at either changing ben benchmarks or summer learning loss or how would we explain such a big jump like that? We're looking at changing skills. So, if we think about the it's it's it's all of the skills in the continuum of phonics, right, throughout the entire year. So all of those skills um increase with complexity throughout the years. So what students are expected to know from the beginning to the end of the year. So it's a vast variety of multicomplex skills that kids are being asked to um being asked to um um complete on the assessment. So So basically the benchmarks have changed. That's fine. Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, we're going to move into a discussion item uh regarding the new uh district strategic plan.

135Um Dr. Connelly has provided us with the draft plan and the goal timeline. Uh and I'd like I'm we've all had a chance to review it. We've all had a chance to look at the progress indicators. Um, I'd like to offer us each an opportunity to share any thoughts, ask any questions, have some discussion uh, as we move into developing um, the goal timeline and the is it the greatness indicators? Is that what they're called? Yes. Um, so Arllin, if you want to start us off, we'll just go around the table. I don't have any specific hard questions for you uh tonight. I do think it's a good plan. Really appreciated the time that went into crafting it and all the people that were involved. U so I don't have any particular hard questions tonight.

136one a general one that Mike and I have talked about uh for the future and that is, you know, within this plan, how do we encourage more of our students to read at home? That's the one question I get asked by parents all the time. That's not for tonight, but but down the pike, I'd love to talk about that. Okay, Debbie, any comments? No, I'll pretty much echo what Arlland said. I'm love the amount of work that we put into this. It was obviously very thoughtful and very well- engaging of the entire community from parents all the way through up to administration. Um, I don't have questions yet, but as we get further into this, I'm sure that I will have lots coming up. Okay, I um I don't have any specific questions. I was

137part of the strategic plan before even being on the board. So it was nice to be able to put in input as a parent perspective. Um so I mean a lot of my questions were answered during the whole planning. Um I do think it's a very good plan. A lot of areas that um I'm excited to see progress in. Um so as of right now I don't have any questions. Yeah. Bill. Both the goals and the indicators were things that we've all worked on together and pretty much agreed to so far. So to the extent of looking for changes, I'm not looking for any changes. Um we've hashed out the language issues rather extensively. The one question I would ask is to the greatness indicators, will we be able to develop more specific benchmarks within

138them as to what do we mean by the achievement levels we're trying to get to? What what is considered superior in terms of recognition of students, staff, and so on? Something more specific to identify our progress. Do you want to respond to that? Yeah. So, I think one of the things um the process as we continue, you know, as we move forward, well, given the board's approval of the plan, um which is not on the agenda for tonight, but hopefully something that you will be able to to do in your June meeting. Um the the next step is is as we are building out those action plans um to implement the goal matrix um that then also to begin to as we develop those action plans take these greatness indicators and get more specificity about

139what that means in these particular um action plan areas, right? Uh and so it's there's going to be a wide variety of ways that we can establish um the excuse me uh the so let's just say superior performance student academic achievement. We're going to be looking at that through a lot of different lenses, right? There's going to be a lot of different data that we can um you know bring to but those are really ongoing conversations amongst the board as to you know as you evaluate that information that that data in your viewpoint have we met that greatness indicator right so so yes it's going to be an ongoing process over the next three years to to build out what those uh greatest indicators are and how you're going to judge them. Thank you. Yeah.

140No, I think it's a great plan. Um I appreciate being part of it. I'm looking forward to to kind of echo what you were saying, Dr. Connelly, how we're going to measure this over time. And I know that comes later after we officially adopt the plan. Um but again, how staff's going to be engaged, how, you know, everybody's going to work together to kind of make sure this happens. So, but thank you. that um I appreciate it as as others had said the process that we were all involved in and so many members of our community as well and I'm I'm happy with where we landed. Um to echo a few of the other points I mean measurable and observable are things we're going to have to figure out tactically like what we're looking for.

141Um and I also think two other things that'll be important will be to um report and explicitly demonstrate the actions being taken and the progress on an ongoing and relatively frequent basis you know realistic um whatever that cadence will be. And then lastly, you know, hopefully there will be points where we re-engage whether it's the same group that worked on this or um segments of that group to continue to check in with them and see if they have additional feedback for us. Right. And one of the things that we've discussed with Dr. Porto um is to on an annual basis to come back to bring that group back together and to really do that kind of check-in. So that's kind of absolutely part of the part of the plan and he's excited to be able

142to come back and and help us with that. So yeah, I think we can all say that we enjoyed the process as intense as it was and I certainly hope any of the other teachers and members of the community that were part of the process feel the same. Um it it's an ambitious plan. It's it's a large plan to put into place and to be able to say in three years that we've made measurable and appreciable progress. But I know that we can do it. Um, this will be brought back to us in June formally for adoption. Um, so if you have questions over the next couple of weeks, let's keep the dialogue going with Dr. Connelly. Uh, make sure that those are addressed. We'll have some opportunity, a short opportunity for further discussion before

143we formally adopt it next month. Um, but this was really just an opportunity for us to have any further conversation ideas that have come up in the last couple of weeks. So, we'll bring this back next month. Ask any questions in the meantime um that you have. Uh, we've now reached the public comment section of our meeting. The board will allow any individual to share a public comment for up to three minutes. Such comments should not include the 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 just handed me a comment uh request from Ben from the DEA. Ben, do you want to come on up? Good

144evening. My name is Ben Kman and I am the current president of the District 21 Education Association. We represent the teachers, education support personnel, and custodial maintenance staff here in District 21. I'm here as part of an ongoing tradition that started a few months ago where we address the board on a regular basis. Today I want to start with Melissa Newark. I think we are all saddened at this horrible tragedy and we are grateful for the steps taken to support grieving staff and students. Thank you Mrs. Riddick for starting today's meeting with some kind words about this. We are counting down the days to the end of the school year. Today was letter I, island day at Holmes and we are quickly running out of letters and days of school. We were hoping to have

145a chance to sit down with some members of the school board to discuss some of our concerns before the end of the year, but that hasn't happened yet. We believe that we can offer valuable insight on many of the decisions you you are asked to make, and we are working to communicate with you. We look forward to an ongoing relationship of mutual respect and communication with the board. It's almost summer, and we hope that you, our students, and all district 21 staff are able to enjoy a peaceful and relaxing summer. We appreciate the work that you and our custodial maintenance and secretarial staff do over the summer. Thank you for the chance to contribute and thank you for the work that you do in support of students and staff here in District 21. We're excited

146to be a partner in the decision-making process. Thank you, Ben. Um, any other comment cards? No. Thank you. Uh, Cass No. Okay, good deal. Um, all right, let's move on to our consent agenda. Uh, this past month, we received three Freedom of Information, uh, act requests. There were no board conference and travel expense approvals for us to approve. Um, I did review the financial docs for this month with Mike Zigger and Mike Frantini. Thank you both again for the time that you spent with me. Um, I had no issues and no specific questions for either of you. Um, does anyone need anything pulled from the consent agenda? Yes, I need to abstain from items B through D. Okay, we will pull those. And I need to abstain from um items A through D. Okay, we

147will pull those as well. May I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda minus items A, B, C, and D? So moved. Second. Take the role. Okay. Arlland I. Debbie, yes. Iana, yes. Bill, I. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Motion carries. May I please have a motion to approve consent agenda item A? So moved. Second. Yeah, I don't write that fast. Sorry. Debbie, yes. Oh, that's abstain. Yep. Bill, yes. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Harlon, I. Motion carries. Thank you. May I please have a motion to approve consent agenda items B, C, and D? So moved. Second. I abstaining and Bill I. Carrie abstain. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlon, I. Debbie, yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Connelly. I think you have some introductions

148to make. Uh we do. Uh there was a a lot of hiring that you just did uh in that consent and uh so very excited uh to introduce um three new assistant principles uh um that will be joining our our team in those capacities. Um so I'm just going to have uh each principal um just briefly introduce their new assistants. We'll start off with uh Whitman and uh Sammy. Okay. Hello. Hi everyone. Um, let me find my notes. So, um, we have a familiar face in our district joining us at Whitman Elementary School, pending your approval, of course. I'm very excited to introduce They approved it. It's official. Oh, okay. We're good. Perfect. Um, I'm so Well, then mic drop. Okay. Um, I'm very excited to introduce Danna Granados as our new assistant principal of

149Whitman. Uh, Diana has a very strong background in teaching and supporting all students and especially our English language learners. She's worked in multiple school districts as a dual language instructor and has spent the past year as a coordinator for our language services department. Diana not only has extensive expertise that is really going to serve Whitman well, but she's also incredibly warm and welcoming, as you probably know, and she's truly the perfect addition to our Whitman community. So, thank you. Congratulations. Good evening, everyone. I just want to say thank you so much for this new opportunity. I was just here last year and it feels like I'm at home now with familiar faces and a whole crew behind me. I want to thank Anna so much. I get emotional, but thank you so much for believing

150in me. I can't wait to get started with the Whitman community and really making putting all my talents and efforts to work for the community and the students. Thank you. And uh Nicole, if you want to introduce the new assistant principal for Riley. [Music] Good evening. Uh tonight I am pleased to present uh Ally Padalik as the assistant principal of Riley. Ally has been a teacher in district 21 for the last 13 years. So she's a familiar face. She has experience teaching at Twain Elementary and most recently Tarington. Ally understands the importance of listening to students, staff, and families. She's open to feedback and is very well respected by the Tarington staff. Uh there was one member of the staff today that said, "Well, as a Tarington staff member, I'm I'm a little mad at

151you for taking her." However, as a Riley parent, I'm really jazzed that she's coming, so that's great. Uh Ally is open to different points of view and is always willing to learn more to improve her craft. She has played a key role on the multi-tered student supports or MTFS committee at Tarington uh to improve student growth and achievement. Ally has had diverse teaching experiences as an ESL teacher, a classroom teacher, and a reading interventionist. She has her special education certification as well. She's the whole package. Uh Ally fully understands our district values and goals and our team was just so impressed uh with her during the interview process and we really feel that she's the perfect fit for our Riley team. So, welcome Ally. Thank you. I just want to say thank you so much

152for the opportunity. Um I'm very excited to start this new journey in the district. Um, I'm honored and I'm very excited to start working with the Riley community. So, thank you so much. And last, but certainly not least, Julian, if you'd like to introduce the new assistant principal at Tarington. Thank you, everyone. I am very fortunate to be welcome welcoming Melissa Colbida to Tarington and District 21. the past several years she has been in West Northfield as a development um a coach development um working with some gifted students as well as being a science and social studies coordinator. She's also spent over a decade in the classroom as well. So we're very fortunate to be welcoming [Applause] her. I just want to say thank you for this opportunity. I am so excited to join District

15321 and to support Jillian in her goals for Torington. You all welcome and uh good luck in your new roles. So, we have a couple more introductions. Um yes. So, uh, also within the the hiring that you just approved, um, as you know, last month, um, the board approved, um, kind of the first wave of of administrative reorganization. Um, one of the things that we talked about was doing some further downline, um, reorganization within our technology and our our business departments. Uh, and so this evening, you've taken some action and elevated um some familiar faces to new roles. And so Mike, I'm going to turn it over so you can introduce your your new new peeps. Sounds good. So very excited to announce two very well-deserved promotions in the infoservices now technology services department. Um

154Matt and Tyler, do you guys want to stand up? [Applause] So, so first off we have uh Tyler Lockach is moving into our director of technology services position. Um Tyler has been in the district for 13 years now. Has done a tremendous job and has been really a key leader in our onetoone program. Uh infrastructure, cyber security, really all things technology. So very welld deserved and Tyler has is going to do a great job. Uh Matt Tonav uh is moving into our assistant director of technology position. Uh Matt has a very unique path here. He started actually as a summer helper in 2011 for our team. Uh 2015 I believe started full-time within the department and again has been a huge piece of all of our technology projects onetoone program infrastructure physical security. um just

155done a great job overall. So, couldn't be more proud of these two. Uh very welld deserved and congratulations. Also, last but not least, he's not with us tonight, but um in the business services department, we have Brian Winrob who is moving into our assistant director of finance comproller position. Uh Brian has done a great job since he joined the the district this past year and really just brings a wealth of experience and is a really good team in combo with Mike Zagger and that director position. So um really excited about that one and congrats to uh Brian as well. All right, great. Great. Um All right. We're now moving on to new business. We have one item under new business tonight. approving an employment agreement for the new director of safety and security, Dr. Connelly.

156Very excited to recommend um uh our next director of safety and security, Todd Rowling, uh who is joining us uh after uh spending um the last uh eight years. Yes, eight years as director of safety and security for um district 300 um which as you know is a is a large district um that covers a lot of ground. three high schools. Um 20 what? 23 24 total buildings. Is that 27? Okay. Yes. 20 27 buildings, 22,000 students. Um and has been in that role um for several years prior to um that he uh actually retired from the Illinois State Police um as a um area commander um and rank of captain. Is that is that did I get that right, Don? Yes. So, um I I will tell you that that the the the pool

157of candidates for this position was quite impressive and Todd really rose to the top um of that of that pool. Uh you can't beat the the level of of knowledge and expertise and experience that Todd will bring to this role. Um, and I will tell you one of the things that he really separated him from from the pack as as the one that was the right guy for the job. Um, was his ability to really engage not just from the security lens, but also from the true safety lens and all of that, what that means. um social emotional safety, physical safety, um the ability of of students and staff to feel safe in their learning environments so they can learn, connections with our MTSS programs, with our social workers, with our student service programs, uh

158the ability to to really marshall all of those resources and and risk and threat assessments so that we're really looking at every single angle um of the the safety question and not just physical security and making sure that the doors have the right kind of of you know, markings and things of that nature. So, um really um I heard total package uh used already and he is the total package when it comes to our our director and I'm just really excited uh to introduce him and recommend. So Todd, if you you want to come up and and actually um if you'd like to just say a couple words of introduction to yourself and and we'll we'll go from there. Um thank you very much for this opportunity. Um uh when I first uh met with

159the superintendent and Mike, um I knew this was going to be my home. This is going to be my home. It felt good. We uh we might be a big school district where I'm coming from, but same demographics, uh same challenges. Um to hear you talk about uh social, emotional, mental health awareness. Um those are all things that are very important to me. So, it's just not like he said before, it's just not about door locks and cameras and things like that, but our kids have feel safe to come to school so we can get that chronic absenteeism down. And, you know, we have a lot of work to do um in all school districts and it's a challenge and um I I want to thank you for the opportunity. Um it it is going

160to be very I'm a person of purpose and this is going to fulfill my purpose. So, thank you very much. You know, we've we've often said the most important thing we do here, even beyond providing instruction, is keeping our kids and our staff safe when they're here for the time that we have them during the day. So, with that, may I please have a motion to approve the employment agreement for Mr. Todd Rowing as the director of safety and security effective July 1, 2025. So moved. Second. All right. Bill, I. Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlin, I. Debbie, yes. Yes. Thank you. Motion carries. All right. Welcome, Mr. Rowing. Looking forward to working with you. All right. A quick announcement. The next regular meeting of the board of education, CCSD21, is scheduled for

161Thursday, June 12th, 2025 at 7 p.m. Please note this is one week earlier than usual due to the Junth holiday. Uh we are going to recess into close session uh and we will adjourn directly from there. So thank you all for attending. Um, be it resolved to recess the regular meeting and convene in close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educ educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal counsel for the public

162body to determine its validity and 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. May I please have a second? Second. All right. So, Carrie, yes. I vote yes. Jessica, yes. Arlon, I. Debbie, yes. Yes. Bill, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. We are now in close session. No actional no additional action items will be voted on afterward. Thank you and good night.