CCSD21 Board Of Education Meeting - October 19, 2023

001the Board of Education will now resume its October 19 2023 regular board meeting if everyone would please rise and join us in the pledge I pledge to the flag of the 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 thank you uh secretary rck will you please take attendance of our student Representatives Brandon here Mario here Aaliyah here welcome welcome students we're happy to have youone did you say anything with Leah okay pleas so uh we're very excited tonight good evening everybody uh we're very excited tonight to welcome um our new Cooper student representative um uh Aaliyah Weber is joining us from uh as I said Cooper 8th grade and um we're extremely um excited to be able to

002to uh um welcome her here today because uh when I spoke with with Mr deuth and with others members of the staff over at uh uh at Cooper um they didn't have um anything better that they could say about um it was all good stuff right um involvement in in basketball and being a student leader and and uh so we're really happy that you said yes um and that you're you're joining us um and really looking forward to hearing from you a little bit later so thanks aah thanks for being here and thanks Mom for bringing her okay now uh so any individual physically present at the meeting that wishes to address the board must complete a comment card and provide it to miss delal on my left here any individual virtually attending the meeting

003wishing to address the board must complete the public comment form linked on the agenda prior to starting the public comment section of the meeting and any written public comments may also be submitted via email which will then be distributed to the board uh I do see one elected official here tonight our our friend Sher Clump from the park district she's our lady haison nice seeing you again since last night okay and next um October is National principles month I would like to recognize our principles and assistant principles and thank them for their dedication as school leaders to our staff and our students thank you principals assistant principles we greatly value your commitment to the district thank you okay next on the agenda is our board communication uh we'll start with nsseo uh that would be

004me and it was we had a very quiet meeting last month we went over there every year this time of year September October we go over their continuous Improvement program and with a new superintendent we had a lot to talk about with what she was doing the fun thing though that we talked about was they have the most fantastic foundation and one of the things that they are doing is a frozen pizza fundraiser from L madis and what it is is you get a coupon and then you go up to lumel nattis and you get frozen pizza that you can cook at any time so if anyone wants more information on that they can come to me and I can officially the cut off was yesterday but I've got connections over there I can get

005more um so that's it for that um I do know I placed my order so I know we've got some from here uh so next we go to edred Bill thank you Debbie um Ed R held its annual kickoff launch in on October the 6 most of the board Michael and Mike were able to attend there was an outstanding presentation on artificial intelligence a topic I'm sure we'll be hearing quite a bit more about in the future in the event that you miss the presentation or you would like to hear it again it is available on the Ed rad website yesterday there was an excellent Zoom discussion between state representatives and certain administrators including Mike uh regarding new arrivals and the stresses being put on the system and the stresses to come my takeaways were

006that many of us are in the same boat that there was a shortage of qualified providers for of the additional services that these students will be needing and that while the state may eventually provide some additional support we should not expect additional help soon as legislature is unlikely to address additional funding me measures during the veto session this is a topic that edred plans to be heavily following going forward Mike since uh you were one of the panelists you want to ask anything um sure um so uh this conference was really called together by representative friend Crespo uh who is uh out of Hoffman Estates and we've actually been working with the representative um really since the U since last fall um to really try and and um shine a light on the fact that

007as we have uh an increasing number of of newcomer students um that uh the need uh is is something that that needs to be addressed as a supplemental um really by the state of Illinois um that we need additional resources to support these students so um again there is a bill um that was not successful in the spring session uh representative Crespo is is bringing that bill back probably like Bill said not in the veto session um but uh hopefully in in the um the spring session uh in 24 um and so uh you know we're going to keep at it and I I think that that the uh staff and the legislators that were part of the of the uh the conference call yesterday really got a good picture not only from us but

008from dis Plains and Argo Community High School and churg and so on and so forth um of of the impact um that we are seeing from newcomer students and obviously we know in in the city um it's a it's a major uh impact as well so okay and then additionally Ed Red's next monthly member meeting will be held Friday November 3rd at 1:30 right here it will also be available via Zoom it is their annual joint meeting with the Northwest Suburban iasbo the featured speaker will be Eris delanis a friend of ours from franic who will be discussing existing and pending uh legislation regarding property taxes tiffs Etc and that's it for my Ed rad update okay thank you Bill Jessica do you have any you would like to add no I also attended the

009webinar and I think I think that's been covered okay thank you uh now on iasb Bill do you have anything from that first a couple quick reminders the fall dinner meeting of the north cook division will be held Monday October 30th at 6:15 at Meridian Banquets the featured speaker will be Tony Sanders the illo state superintendent of schools and if you've not yet registered and are still interested please contact otisa the joint annual conference is in November we all look forward to that the planner is available online if you'd like to begin planning your weekend I have contacted our and I'm waiting for her to call me back to see if they're going to have an app again as they've had in the past so we can put it email about it yesterday so it's

010out oh wonderful fantastic so then I don't have to let you know when I get an answer finally the shakeup and Senior leadership at iasb is continuing following the retirement of uh then executive director Tom Bertrand the position of associate executive director governmental relations is open that department has completely turned over over the past couple of years hopefully a new director will be able to bring it some stability and I know uh Phil you sometimes have some Insider information on IB so yeah um nothing's really been shared uh through the grape vine but to underscore what you said that in the last two years at the entire department from the associate executive director to every single one of the uh staff members that are there for advocacy have changed um in fact the one the

011last person that was left was um Zach mezer Smith and he's head of government relations now at Western Illinois University um but the other three people that are now there it's they've been there for one or I think Barbara's been there for two years and that's been it so you know as we I talk saw Roger Ed um yesterday and I'll get into that a little bit more at my time but I know he was concerned and I know he's had a conversation directly with uh with Kimberly so I know it's going to receive um some well-deserved attention in making sure that the next hire um will hopefully be there for a while because Brian was only there for about 13 months so that's it for my updates okay thank you Bill uh for North

012cook Ireland do you have any updates so nothing new on North cook except that things are going well and we're in the middle of our superintendent search as well preliminary aspects of that okay and then we go to the 708 board yeah well we're where there's nothing at at North cook there's plenty at uh 708 board so where we are today is that um as I announced at the last meeting we were working with representative Dan ditdit and an Gillespie to do a legislative fix by the way Crespo is a great State Rep and very committed to education and special ed I've known him for years and he's just solid as a rock so you're in good hands with him but um so we're working on that we presented to the 708 board and then

013to the Wheeling Township board last month that we were working on a legislative fix they refused to accept that and what they've decided to do is put us on the ballot for a referendum in Spring which would be a horrible time for a referendum for us because the only people that are going to be voting quite candidly are those voting in the Republican primary for president there's nothing else on the ballot for anybody else so uh we will continue to fight this uh we're not sure what steps we'll take whether we'll have to win that referendum as well as get a legislative fix because Dan ditdit is convinced we will get it in fact I spoke to the speaker who's who's absolutely in favor of it so I'm I'm sure we'll get the fix but

014frankly uh Wheeling Township would like to kill this and I'll say it straight out because there's no other explanation as to why they did it now even though they talk about the need for mental health because they could have waited till January January to approve going on the ballot they didn't need to do it last month so that's a sign of uh bad faith in my opinion and it's unfortunate because we all know the need in our community for more mental health care and I just wanted to thank our teachers and principes for all you do for us every day thank you okay thank you arand Stacy did you have anything for the 708 board no I actually have the pleasure of working on um the Vernon Township 708 board um with my so I

015I'm I'm quite happy over and there where things are progressing quite nicely so thank you okay next we go on to our local governmental agencies Bill do you have any up more updates there other than I think we all enjoyed the taste of the Town last night uh no nothing to add okay arand did you have anything else any go any other governmental agencies uh nothing that I can think of except the Bears saga continues mhm it's not at all clear what's going to happen there although within Arlington Heights people believe that Administration that it still will come to Arlington but it's not an all not at all a done deal at this point so we'll just have to wait and see okay thank you Stacy I I do have a couple um I had

016the pleasure of attending the last Chamber of Commerce board meeting which was hosted at the Prospect Heights Village Hall um Joanna pesca who is the secretary for the Wheeling uh Chamber of Commerce board um is the clerk in Prospect Heights and has um graciously offered up you know they like have a whole full television studio in the basement of the village hall with with the green screen and everything that they um said if we ever wanted to do a video there talking about the 75th Anniversary anything that you know they would love to work with us on any sort of project to get the word out to their population I know part of Prospect Heights is is District 23 but we do have a large um chunk of it so their Hospitality was lovely we

017got to see sort of their room and she wanted to make sure that we they extended the invitation that we are ever interested in partnering on a television project that they would be um more than happy to have that um conversation I attended the Wheeling Poli Wheeling police Unity Foundation um had a cancer fundraiser um that started off actually to honor Chris Par who was one of our former um original student resource officers so um I attended their McDonald's fundraiser on Tuesday night and for everybody I have a patch in honor so if you would like to pass that down to Bill be I gave keep going there should be y keep going thank you should Stacy awesome thank you Stacy Dr is um and a big thank you to Phil Kim he's been um

018just a pleasure to to work with on these projects and um and to Troy as well and you know looking forward to to doing more stuff like this they were very grateful that we helped them get the word out and um I think they have become really great collaborators so a big thank you to the Wheeling Police Department for for allowing us to be a part of this and they let us know when they do the patches every time we'll you know we'll grab one for everybody on the board thank you Stacey and thanks for coming to tast of the Town it was fun really glad it's done okay Phil a couple quick things uh also like everybody else I enjoyed last evening's Taste of the town it's always a fun event get to see

019some folks That You Don't See except for once or maybe twice a year so that was nice um I just want to to let everyone on the board here know in case you hear any feedback coming back from a different from different sources that uh Susan my wife and I attended the Illinois State Board of Education meeting in glenbard uh Glenn Allen uh glenbard South High School yesterday um as I think most of you know Susan is a um uh retired RN and she was a student nurse student nurse school nurse uh in three different districts during her the time that she was doing it including director of health services at Round Lake unfortunately due to a health issue she had to retire from that for a good eight or 10 years now and she

020was interested in coming back to sub um so in contacting idfpr um found out that she would have to take her nursing boards again like an attorney having to take the bar again or a CPA having to sit for the exams again uh which we found to be rather honorous and even though it's not a isby issue we felt that they should be made aware of that issue and perhaps there could be some jaw boning with the uh uh general assembly and for the uh towards idfpr to try and U uh come to a um a change in that because especially with the shortage of uh qualified nurses uh that are available not only for schools but in the uh hospitals and Senior Living places and so forth that there should be some accommodation so

021anyway I just want to make sure that all of you were aware in case you had some type of feedback um on that during the um during our uh public presentations and stuff we also um heard uh probably from about seven or eight CPS teachers and staff about the issue that you were just talking about of the income influx of Migrant students uh and uh at CPS we know what our numbers are magnified by 10 to 20 fold and that's what they're dealing with and uh uh without money and resources to really accommodate it and the other thing I just want to share is that um those of you that that are of a certain age may remember Phil Rock he was a state uh Senate President I believe and in um DuPage County I

022know Mike's uh knows this there's a Phil Rock Center and they did about a half hour presentation of their facility there and the good works that they're doing and uh it was just um just really good to hear about that because I it had been quite some time since I'd even heard Phil Rock's name but to hear uh his legacy being carried out in DuPage County was quite remarkable Y and for those who don't know the Phil Rock Center School and Center is specifically um was set up for um deaf uh blind blind yes um and and that's a big spectrum of of disability right um and so it just so happened that in my prior role as superintendent in keenville we were the fiscal agents for the Phil Rock Center so I'm very familiar

023with uh and their current director uh came in um as when we were there foral agents so I think they got a brand new facility um which they or they're working on it they're working on it that's one of the things which they desperately need uh so yeah but they do amazing um work over there for very very very difficult um physical circumstances for for those students so and I probably should give you a heads up I did happen to mention to uh chairman of isby and to Tony Sanders that we would be willing and welcoming to them to host one of their uh Regional sessions of state board what was that I already said that to them I know I know Steven well so yeah yeah and Tony he took care of him for

024you already no the invitation has already been [Laughter] exp okay you just reinforced it yes yes there you go okay thank you Phil uh dmar do you have anything okay Jessica uh well first I'm I'm super said that I miss Taste of Wheeling um unfortunately it was one of those nights where both my children had to be in different places at the same time and it's uh unfortunately that has to take precedence but um I did have the opportunity to attend two really interesting conversations over the last couple weeks um one was hosted by the League of Women Voters local chapter and state chapter um about their strategy to address during veto session um if the governor doesn't act independently on the invest in kids program um and for those of you who don't know

025typically the league does not take positions on issues unless they feel that it's it's dire so I think that should signal to all of us how strongly they feel about the program um and and frankly I agree how detrimental it's been um and would continue to be so should the program continue um so that was interesting and I'm looking forward to seeing what action happens during veto session on that um and then the other conversation was a webinar hosted by rails and several local libraries um and featured Illinois Secretary of State Alexi janulus about libraries being on the receiving end of book challenges um and the main reason I wanted to attend this was was twofold actually they featured two authors in the conversation who had been the target of book challenges and they talked

026about all the different aspects that we don't particularly hear about um and I if anyone is interested in a little more detail I'll be happy to talk to you about that after the meeting um as you know Illinois has passed uh a ban on book bans and secretary janulus indicated that a number of other states have reached out to him uh regarding the process that was used in Illinois that they are considering passing in other states um and just everyone on the call spoke to the importance of supporting your local library board meeting uh members and your Schoolboard members who are sometimes you know on the the receiving end of these issues so just really interesting stuff if I could interject one thing I had one thing okay um regarding your conversation about invest with

027kids in the past week I've had an opportunity to talk to two of our state uh Representatives who strongly predicted that it's going to die a noisy death so for what it's worth so one thing I forgot um as you may know I'm member of a thing called a Northwest Suburban task force for mental health they've asked me to serve on the board which I will do in the next year uh but the good news is we're working on a new permanent supportive care facility in Northern uh Southern Arlington Heights over by um um El no forgetting the street that the cross street uh but the furthest part of of Arlington Heights South on Arlington Heights Road and it's moving along quite nicely there have been no OB C from the community it'll be a

028beautiful new facility and these facilities as you may know provide supportive care for individuals who can live on their own if they have supportive care and these facilities provide psychological and medical and other support so that individuals can work and do other things and have a life of their own especially if they formerly were living with their parents so it's a marvelous idea it's desperately needed in our community uh we had figured there were a need for over 1,700 rooms we've now built five of them in the last seven years so we're continuing as a group to work on those but the need is uh quite dramatic thank you thank you okay next we have a report from our student Representatives Dr Cony we do indeed um so we're going to start off and reintroduce

029uh Aaliyah Weber who is just joining us for the first time this evening and Aaliyah do you want to introduce yourself and and tell the board a little bit about yourself um hello my name is Ayah webert um I love doing like activities and stuff like that so I'm glad to be here tonight um and I just want to say that like I love to do a lot of clubs at my school so I'm very glad that my school's offered all of that for me it's why I've got to find that I have a lot of passions like I love everything with the Arts and I like to play a lot of sports so my school will forever hold an amazing place in my heart for letting me do all those things so thank you

030you so um each month um we are asking our student representatives to um give a little um synopsis of of their thoughts around a question that we've posed to them um and so for this month um we've asked them um to to kind of talk to us a little bit about what they or other students their colleagues in in school um really most look forward to in uh their school experience so um Brandon want to start off with uh Mario you want to go first wa who who's going first okay there you go Mario uh yeah good evening um one of the many things that other students and I look forward to is like either getting to see each other cuz you know we don't see that each other that often or like working together

031on group projects I think that like all my friends we have like good team building skills and are also able to complete the projects in like a timely manner so and we don't see that often each other we don't see each other that often outside of school often due to like extracurricular such as like sports or clubs and that's pretty much like some of the things that we look forward to when going to school all right uh so the question for for the month is what do you or other students most look forward to at school um on a side note really quick um I just want to give a quick um a striking shout out to mate our coaches coach mate Myers and Coach zamit um for having us finish off the season strong

032we also were able to send off um Mason to state so I've not had I have not had a chance to hear from him and how he did but I'm pretty sure he did really well so congrats to Mason um so a lot of my friends are excited about what classes I have to offer this year with the classes here at London there's and teachers having different teachers for each classes is a unique experience from what elementary students have because ele has one teacher for most of their core classes and then they have their specials or explos um so with the different teachers they all have like different ideas and different ways of teaching the the class to this the class to the students so having to hear from the teachers on how they want

033the students to interact with the class is a very unique way that's that makes students look forward to at school so as an example like science we can always count on working together as a table of four to do projects or in math where you stand up where we can stand up and interact with students in our class and solving the questions that are necessary to learn a lot other people are my other peers are excited for after school after school after school club activities such as jazz band Art Club or even chess club which is new um but overall there's always something exciting to see here at London thank you thanks Brandon so Aaliyah you you're I'm going to put you on the spot but don't feel like you have to say anything else

034um but uh what do what do you think about the question about you know I know you talked a little bit about this in in in your introduction of yourself but you know uh what are you or other students really look forward to in your school experience um I think it's on this L just like the teachers they um make it exciting and like there's new methods of teaching um and also we're just like very glad to like work together on projects and just to see each other even in passing in the hallway cuz you know you don't get to see many of your friends as often when you're doing clubs so yeah thanks Ayah any members have any questions or anything they want to talk to the kids about one of the things that

035I'm um very much looking forward to is tomorrow at noon um it's one of my favorite things to do is my U uh our superintendent student advisory Council uh is having their first meeting of the year and so um we will have 36 uh middle school kids um from all three of our middle schools that will be coming to this building and um all three of our student representatives are part of that as well uh and we really use um those uh those meetings as an opportunity to to really kind of have some student focus groups um so tomorrow we've got a a whole list of of things that we're going to be asking uh the students about ranging from you know what what their feelings are about the new uh furniture that that they're

036seeing in the language arts classrooms and in the new libraries and and then also um how you know um what kind of of of learning supports and and kind of different approaches in in in classrooms they they really kind of want to see and and and experience to help them um be you know as successful as possible in in their learning girls so uh like I said it it is one of the best parts of what I do um it's uh they they are unfiltered uh they are not afraid uh to tell truth to power um and uh I can't wait to see you guys tomorrow morning so I question mind so you said you have a friend that went to state so your friend's whole name that went to State what's what's their whole

037name honestly I okay first name Mason Mason and what sport did they go to state for uh cross country cross country and do we have any other district 21 kids that made it to State we have several from Cooper um that made it to State um so I would love actually if you if cat if you could let us know how they do I actually um I I love coach Meers too but um I think we're really blessed and all I I know I think we're really blessed in all of our middle schools that kids have the opportunity to work really hard hard in Cross Country it's a really hard sport I had one cross country Runner who didn't last very long but it's amazing and so those are the things that we would love

038to celebrate with you so I'm going to make sure that we find out who made it to State and how they did and we make sure we congratulate them appropriately because that is hard hard work and you're a great friend for giving them a shout out so thanks for letting us know no problem so in your sorry in your experiences and you've been in our district quite a while now are there any aspects of your education that you feel are missing are we not hitting a particular topic an area a subject be it climate or government that you feel like you're missing that you need more of oddly enough arand that's that's a topic of that's one of the questions that we're going to be asking them up in an upcoming month so if you

039guys got something that you want to in right off the top of your head go for it um but uh we're going to ask you that question too so okay I would like you to mle that one over actually that's a good one to to to mle over for sure okay uh next section is Staff communication uh a Communications update yeah so while Cass is getting set up for her Communications update I uh asked uh Michael to give a brief um update on the formation of the uh Transportation committee um so uh go ahead good evening um we have been working to get the committee fully formed starting with legislator legislators starting with our administrators uh that would be part of the committee so uh I'm happy to announce that from the London strand Dr

040Arduino and Mr Smith the London AP will be the administrative representatives from the home strand uh Joanie Murphy and Ellie Zimmerman will be the representatives and then Sarah rosegger and Anna cordino will be from the Cooper strand during the time that we were going ahead and compiling administrator volunteers uh we have had the form open for uh the the district parents that have volunteered um we've had a little bit of a snag because we still have a couple buildings that don't have anybody that's volunteered we'll be seeking some additional people from principles and just the general public this week in hopes that we will complete it next week I'm pleased to announce that we have 49 applicants so far uh we have two from Cooper five from Holmes eight from London two from Hawthorne five

041from frost eight from Kilmer eight from from Longfellow three from Riley four from tarington three from Twain one from Whitman and we're seeking volunteers from Po and field uh to date we've been working to get all of the information together for the initial meeting of the committee which uh has been uh Gail who is our transportation coordinator and Mike Zager the new Director of Business Services who oversees Transportation uh working with first student to look at the rescoring process of our current hazardous routes uh something that we started in the spring but uh want to work with first student on considering they have the experience of running those routes uh we have also been in contact with a couple different individuals who would consult on the process uh because obviously we want to do it

042from an arms length so that the rescoring of the routes is done fairly and in accordance with all the provisions so we anticipate next week being the announcement of the committee as a as a whole uh and then having our first meeting in early November which we had hoped to have it in in mid October but given some of the delays and seeking out some volunteers um we've just pushed it back in hopes of getting more but now we're going to go ahead and do a little bit more of a press to try and get those final spots filled and then we'll make that announcement thank you okay so um Cass uh is going to uh give us a a Communications updat specifically uh starting off with the uh um kind of some updates to

043our website which I I think have been pretty well received um and then uh kind of a special Premiere um of a project that we've been working on for uh several months so Cass thank you so we've been considering a redesign of the website for quite a while and I have lots of vendors soliciting me who do that type of work so I reached out to four vendors and our current vendor to get a capabilities meeting going and we met with all five companies several times we gave them our wish list our dreams and we in the end we decided to stay with our current provider for several reasons one was cost another one was uh timing another one was uh the website would probably be down for a couple of days and we were

044challenged with with migrating all the content from one provider to another so instead of doing a complete redesign we just did a refresh or a facelift if you will but we're very happy with the refresh and um I would say it's complete but we continue to improve upon it every day so you can see from this slide on the right hand side the hamburger menu is gone and that was a big Bugaboo of mine I I couldn't I couldn't find anything so now we have five distinct categories at the top for simpler easier navigation we also have put that 75e recognition Banner on the front page on the left hand side we have cleaner simpler Bolder logos on not only the district site but on all the school pages and the center um panel has

045bigger Bolder vibrant photos that are rotating out more frequently um so that top navigation bar actually drops down for more menus and it's easier to navigate it's easier to find things it's just a better user experience for our um community and on the right hand side we have quick links um for frequently searched items we have a section towards the middle of our District page called news and we changed that to news and happenings because it wasn't always news that we were putting there and it better reflects the content that we're putting there and finally at the bottom of um our the front pages the homepages of each school and our district website are um social media sites that um they're buttons that drive to each social media sites so we've got up there Facebook

046Twitter Instagram and YouTube and at the bottom of each page also we have pumped up the logo and the address and contact information for clearer um more vibrant easier to read um content so that's it oopsie are there any questions Bill yes in a number of the uh law conferences that I've attended um they talk about needing to make your website more ADA Compliant how are we doing with moving in that direction so that is on our to-do list I know that we're not compliant um in a lot of areas but we are meeting now with our old vendor every month to give up give them more assignments and continue to tweak our website and that is pretty high on our priority list if I could just add to that um the amount of work

047yeah and the depth of time energy and expense um to meet those requirements is in my view almost unattainable um so you know while we know that this is something that that has been um uh pushed really again at the federal level um some of it is is onerous not well it's all onerous um but I mean it's it's just not realistic um you know you're talking about every single time you make an update to you know to the information on the website you're going to you know there are implications for the accessibility of that um content and it is um it is an unwieldly Beast uh to to you know put it lightly so I would venture to Guess that no school website is likely to be full fully in compliance with their vision

048of a fully accessible website so another example bill is every time you put a picture up you not only have to put the picture up but you have to put a verbal description of what it is for people who have visual impairments oh no I understand that I that's what I was trying to get to with the question is I understand the difficulty that is involved and quite frankly to your point Mike V the virtual impossibility that's been some of the discussions that have been being had at these seminars so I was just wondering what we were doing to do if you will to be our best yeah Dr KY if I may we have had these discussions at essic our uh property and liability insurance pool they actually ran a test of all 17

049members websites including the Gallagher Basset website and none of them were compliant that being said we know that cyber security insurance at some point is going to start to cover items like this and so they are tracking for all of the member District's knowledge where this is going because right now all the lawsuits are out west but as we know they'll also make their way East and then they'll make their way towards the middle state so they have been working with a couple companies and I know Mike frantini has as well about getting systems assessments to see what we need to do to get to compliance so we all will get there at some point but I I think it's just a little ways off right now thank you any other questions okay the second

050up date is our District overview video and when I first came to the district one of my goals was to do this overview video for a couple of reasons one to give sort of a historical perspective of our district and Wheeling um another was uh recruiting tool and an educational tool so um we started this project about a year ago this November and I put this slide together to show you that um a video is not just about shooting and editing there are a lot of components to this besides shooting the cabinet and um Phil we uh hired a graphic designer to create some of these older world maps we worked with the Wheeling um Historical Society to gather some pictures of old schools and students from the 1900s we got um we got permission

051to use them on the right um we created a script we rewrote it we rewrote it again and we kept reducing it and re rewriting it and rewriting it to get it you know cleaner and then in the middle is a production schedule which um we created to go to different schools to videotape teachers in their element making sure that they have students who had signed permissions so with all that said um this District video is complete I'm going to show it to you right now and then I want to talk a little bit more about it afterwards so stand by in the plains of the Illinois Prairie where Native Americans like the ilani kikapu and patami tribes roamed where fertile soil made for abundant crops and even greater opportunity a patch of land 30

052m Northwest of Chicago now known as Wheeling Illinois a public school erected in 1845 was named after the Great American Author Walt Witman the one room Schoolhouse that stood for almost a century gave way to a larger one with more classrooms to better serve the educational needs of an ever expanding Community the formation in 1948 of the Wheeling Community consult Consolidated School District 21 serves wheeling and the surrounding communities of Buffalo Grove Arlington Heights Mount Prospect Prospect Heights and a sliver of Northbrook district 21 is unique I think in a couple of different ways the first being really the the kind of diversity um that we have going from the east side of the district to the west side of the district we represent every socioeconomic racial ethnic religious Creed I think the common theme

053that unites all of us is the fact that we truly are concerned with and interested in how our students are going to be successful because we've laid the groundwork for all of the core instruction and our teachers have done so well with meeting the needs of our students in the classroom we're able to now expand into other opportunities to give our students exposure to some more unique learning opportunities all students grades K through 8 have been assigned a Chromebook device that their were able to take home with them each night and we've also allowed them to take the device home for the summer that really allows for Anytime learning it allows for them to always have access to tools and resources they need whether it's at school or at home the meaning of our tagline

054empowering every student every day is to make sure that they are in a position that they can help set out their own realization of what education is going forward we want them to have the tools we want them to have the self-esteem to speak up speak out and be able to say that this is what we believe we need to have in order to be successful to be able to move on to the next level of our educational [Music] process district 21 focuses on the whole child part of our mission and vision that means looking at basic needs being met which include mental health making sure that our teachers have the training and the supports that they need to connect with all of the students in their classroom with such different needs district 21 believes

055in prevention and early intervention as part of that we have a full-time team that's been trained in transdisciplinary play based assessment we really truly care about the whole family structure district 21 ensures the safety of its students and staff by having security cameras both at school entrances so that we can see who's entering the building but also throughout the school building [Music] bu we're very proud of the staff we have been able to attract to our district and being able to keep them here in our district we've got some wonderful people that work here on a daily basis and that has led to other people wanting to be in the district if you want to work in district 21 I think what you're going to find is a professional environment that is really interested in

056doing what's best for kids growing learning as a professional learning community and that is also supportive from fellow staff and faculty from Administration and from parents the district really does enjoy a lot of of Parental support and that translates into the relationships that our employees are able to have with families and the community in [Music] general our people are reaching out to Professional Health Care folks in order to create the family of people that are necessary to make students and families that are new to the district feel welcome and feel a part of our community and our culture district 21 has done an excellent job over the years of maintaining strong fund balances it came through a large amount of effort on behalf of the Board of Education Administration to priori ized spending on educational

057programs and not on items that were either short-term projects or did not have a lasting impact it has not only been the referendum dollars that have made these enhancements possible it is also the prudent Financial stewardship of the Board of Education and administration that accomplished these [Music] goals as we look towards the next few years we want to continue to build those relationships with colleges and universities District 21's student-based Health Center is a game changer it allows our students their families our staff to access Quality Health Care Now and into the future it allows students to reduce the amount of absences due to health concerns and that's vitally important for their education we want to make sure that we're evolving to understand the need needs at each School within each grade level and that we're

058really reflecting on our practices so that we are evolving with the needs of our students rather than thinking that a one-size fits-all approach is going to meet those needs empowering students every day means that we are having our students be our partners in the learning process and so they have some choices in the classroom about things that they're learning about and making sure that they feel engaged in the learning process um is really important to us because we're here to serve them and so we want to make learning fun and we also want them to feel like they're a part of the process in order to make sure that we can fund the best facilities 21st century classrooms and all of the needs our students have the board is committed to a budget line item

059towards making those capital projects possible I'm most proud when I get to walk around the schools when I get to go visit those schools and hear the vibrancy that's coming out the energy that's coming out of those classrooms and the hallways the teachers love being around the kids you can feel that you can see that the administrators that we've hired the assistant principals the principls really enjoy being in the school setting and when you see parents visit they're really happy they're really happy with what we're doing here in dist 21 it will be very important to stay ahead of the technology curve and adapt to to improve student learning when students are being educated it enhances the community when we enhance the community it strengthens the environment with which we all live in in this

060area in this state and when we are able to do that we Empower every student to learn every day we are not 13 separate schools we are a school district that's very important for our community and I'm very proud of the work we've done to bring that together so um I know that's a long video it feels shorter to me maybe because I've seen it thousands of times but the beauty of it is that um we own the raw footage and we have sort of separated it into three different parts the historical part the kind of current part and then the Future Part and we can cut it any which way we want and now that this reveal has been done here at the board meeting um I can cut this up any different way

061put it on social media plop it into our newsletters Etc any other questions um I think it's great I think it's a great recap on the district my only problem was I didn't recognize Phil without his glasses but but other than that I think everybody did a great job and the presentation was solid the photography was solid I will just add a note from last night which happens to fit here I had a parent who I did not know come up to me last night and say you were on the board a long time ago when my kids were little and she looked to be you know later in in her years and I said maybe what year was that and she told me and I said yeah I was on the board then she

062said well please thank the rest of your board for the job you've done educating our children she said I am so thankful that I lived in district 21 and my kids got a great education here that was out of the blue and I still don't know who the lady was so I just want to share that with everybody appropo of what we just saw thank you I think one of the things I also kind of want to highlight and and Cass mentioned this is is um there's a lot of different uses um for this kind of of um well first of all this video but then the different footage um elements we have to be able to to re-edit and things of that nature I think one of the things that we are absolutely um

063kind of progressing in uh which is different uh for a lot of schools is you know the note the notion that you know the ways we've communicated in the past aren't always the ways that that are are are as um effective as what we need to do now and particularly when we're talking about um trying to recruit um you know we we have a a teacher shortage uh in in the state in the country um we really need to distinguish ourselves um and and really be able to to kind of have those resources that will allow us to capture um the the talent that we seek um in addition um we know that that um you know we live in a in a clip world right you know uh 30 second one minute type of

064of interactions and clips and and through social media and pushing out and things of that nature and to have a battery of resources to be able to speak at that level and I mean the b-roll the the the images in the classrooms and so you know the narration lovely but you know to be able to see um the the kids and and to be able to to really edit and that in any way we need to um it it truly I think is a Communications investment um that is going to um support us um for for um years to come so and also it's spreading um Cass uh is working with Kilmer um on producing a video um that will be used with students um and families um to really support um getting to school

065on time um and just kind of laying out we had a young lady from from Kilmer who was uh uh agreed to uh uh parents agreed to invite us into their home so we could do some footage of of that young lady um you know how she gets ready for school um How She lays out what what she needs to do so she's she can go and be on time and things of that nature so she checks the weather every morning before she picks what clothes she wants to wear and we're doing a video for Long Fellow as well so have so what I think we've done really well the last two years post pandemic and coming back and I think we've done it actually as a leader in the area is community building and

066so I think this is such an amazing tool for community building and the more you know what I found from from events like last night and I'm I'm everywhere a a lot is people want want to know what's going on in the schools and they're and because what what I think the pandemic really Illustrated was pre pandemic your municipalities were the solid ground that people stood on and the rest of us were partner D you know we were directing traffic like you need services for this okay you come over here but municipalities were the solid ground that people stood on and post March of 2020 the school districts because we have the most amount of contact with people we we talked to them on a daily basis our school district in in particular became the

067solid ground that people stood on and other taxing bodies be became those traffic directors or um took a little Hiatus Al together but I won't name names um but I do think this is a great way for that Community Building piece of it to be able to get it out there for people to see and re-engage which I what I think because between the school-based health center and the other really what some people would call non-traditional work of schools which is now completely part of our everyday I think it helps people understand what this is this isn't just a building where we educate kids this is this these are communities we are a community and I think the more that you can we can use this tool whether it be have this video up on

068YouTube on the Wheeling Channel for people to see do you know what I mean the more you get people engaged and feel some skin in the game to this our community you know that's why we pass referendums at 70 plus percent because you get the Buy in from people that would normally not be a Buy in and I think this is a great opportunity to use this tool to continue to build something that I think we're already doing really well just make one quick point the video was lovely thank you I see a lot of hard work went to it I felt a lot of Pride coming from everyone in there and leftt with a nice warm feeling and I know there's no way to really like do a video that encompasses everything but um

069and decisions may have been made on The Cutting floor that that we're not privy to but um if there's opportunities to provide footage of maybe some of the Middle School athletic programs um just because those are awesome to see and even maybe some of the commencement cere the promotion ceremonies as are really just some of the best Smiles you see on kids and that that's a real source of Pride for the district as well but overall wonderful looking forward to seeing it on social media that was great good points Jessica thank you great job Cass thank you um next section on the agenda is board discussion the first item is the school-based health center Advisory Board yes so as we are um taking steps to um formalize our relationship with uh Advocate and um get

070on the road of getting our student uh school-based Health Center um open later this spring hopefully um one of the uh areas that we need to um uh accomplish is the establishment of a school-based T Center Advisory Board um and this is is something that we've been taking a look at in terms of um their role uh kind of what the um administrative code in the state of Illinois Public Health Administrative Code uh really lays out is being the requirement um and so um really just wanted to kind of narrowly focus on The Advisory Board this evening we've got other conversations that we're going to be having over the next couple of months um as we're preparing to to uh to launch this uh this new institution um but uh as it relates to The

071Advisory Board we'd like to get some some feedback from the board some directions so that we can begin to for you know form that board um because it does need to be in place um for when we um you know finally do open um the center itself so um you know I've provided you with a with a memo an executive memo yesterday that kind of outlined um really Verbatim what is in the public health code title 77 um and so uh just very briefly to you know for the the the sake of the whole group um the the advice advisory board's main purpose um is to advise um to make recommendations um and to provide Community Support in feedback regarding the operation of the center it's not a decision-making body um it is an advisory

072body um The Advisory body itself um has to be at least eight members um but it can include as many as we choose and um there's kind of a a suggestion of of of different areas of representation that that could be included um as members on The Advisory Board and they include um you know representing following areas obviously School administration uh school nurse uh medical professionals um we have an MD that is a parent that is interested in being part of that or um nurse practitioners whatever the case may be uh I think 225 with glenberg they just were the ones that recently opened a school-based sales Center I think they actually even have a couple of the clinical staff um that is on that board is that right yes yeah okay um so um

073you know local Health Department officials uh Municipal officials clergy um you know youth service agencies obviously we have a very close working relationship with Omni and and the YWCA and and areas like that those are sources um and certainly parents students um so we have a lot of of um you know opportunities uh to engage uh various Partners um to potentially serve on on a u on a board of this type um so really what I was hoping to generate some conversation around and maybe get some some insight from you know where the from the board's perspective is um first of all kind of the baselines uh how many people do we want to have on our Advisory Board minimum is eight um but you know we have the ability to to kind of make

074those determinations um and then really just kind of getting some guidelines um so as we are identifying potential candidates to serve on this Advisory Board um what does the Board of Education like to see in terms of or what would you like to see in terms of a a kind of scope of representation um you know what different areas should we be kind of tapping into to try and and and round out a um a well-crafted and Advisory Board that's going to um really be um a value added um to the to the operation um and then you know just in terms of of appointment process um there is not a specific you know manner that that that the appointments need to be made uh the appointments can be made by the board the appointments

075can be made delegated to me and the administration um it's really the up to the to to the board and how they want to proceed um and then some of just more the the kind of um you know nuts and bolts of you know what's the how many years of service is it an ongoing is it a you know people rotate off after a few years what you know what are those types of things so um you know obviously not things that we all have to make determinations around just you know this evening um but just to start getting some general conversation and give us some walking uh Direction um that we can start to to um start to materialize these things I um as I was looking at this yesterday Mike I the number

076of 15 sort of popped into my head as far as the size of the grou group it could be larger I don't know that we want it to be very much smaller than that quite honestly we have a broad-based community a broad based uh group of different types of folks representing different areas that I think we would want to have included uh so that 15 was sort of a number that popped into my head um reaching out into the community as you've got here obviously uh health professionals but I don't think we need to make it too clinical if I can use that term into only having Health healthc Care Professionals sure I think it needs to be pretty broad-based I mean 15 sounds a little bit bigger than I would have said but I

077could live with that I mean I was thinking more 13 or something like that it gets unwieldy if you get too big but uh one other aspect I think you've covered a lot of bases in terms of types of individuals we would want on the board you've covered I think most of them I'd like to see representation from our various uh Municipal communities we work with them we're not recognized by all of them as being important in their community and I think this is a way to bring them back into 21 officially um and have representation on the board and that adds a bunch of people though so I'm not sure how you balance that just I would like us and I know like in Arlington we're kind of the Forgotten District I mean not

078because of anything we do just because 25 is so prevalent there so uh just a thought but I think you've covered all the other bases uh in terms of having representation from some of the great social agencies like Omni that we work with and others that we don't work with obviously that would be great as well as parents Bill well I you know I appreciate the conversation you and I had yesterday um on this the specific number you know 13 15 91 is isn't particular I think perhaps we should just put a maximum number on it as well as just try to keep it to an odd number um I think two years terms may be staggered so that we originally appoint people when the one and twoyear terms so that there's never everybody coming

079off at the same time or being reconsidered at the same time I think your idea of term limits that you just mentioned I think especially because we're trying to get Community input from different community members I think would be generally a good idea um to allow more people to come in and people to step off after doing their service uh would be a great thing I think there's a couple of things that were in the the statute that you gave us that are that are implied but not stated um one that they should be specifically reporting to the board to this board on a regular basis not handing in a report but having somebody come in to us to report on you know perhaps in the first year or twice a year but after that

080on an annual basis um and just in case I think and again I think it's implied by the statute but not said we should retain the right to remove people from the board should we find it necessary should we find it necessary um but I think that what you've laid out what Phil and Ireland have already said about reaching out to different parts of our community um are valid and important I'd like to add to that um I would like the makeup to be at least two-thirds representative of eligible participants for the services of the clinic so whatever I'm sorry could you repeat what you said what whatever number we decide I would like to see a majority of the advisory committee be made up of people who are eligible for the actual services so

081maybe that's two twoth thirds maybe it's 60% depending on how many you have I would like to see that uh significant contingent a majority that are actually eligible to use the services I would have a hard time with that I think we need expert some expertise if they're going to make recommendations I think it just depends on how many you have so maybe you know two two-thirds might be too high but you know I think we need to be cognizant that we are getting advisors who actually can also utilize the services if I can interrupt really quickly on that the makeup of the board if that's the goal at the start that wouldn't necessarily be possible because students and staff will be the only two groups open to it so we will have to trim

082that back and that's why 225 did have some Advocate members on it because they are the ones running the clinic and tasked with going ahead to uh bring forward recommendations for the clinic and while they didn't have all Advocate members they did have the Clinical Director that was there and then made it up of school administrators community members and some of those community members were also medical experts so so that's a good point thank you for reminding me of that so how how like do we have a length of time for when the clinic will be kind of that phase one and it'll start with staff correct it'll start with students and staff to begin with the goal is within three years to be up and running to the full community uh included in the

083student group is siblings of students and also uh one of the things that 225 is doing pretty masterfully is inviting their feeder districts in which ours could be either 214 or some neighboring districts to help f fund the operation of the clinic through their Medicaid dollars so uh the idea is to have you know a pretty wide ranging but eventually three years is the goal to get up and running for the full community yeah so so some consideration of of that makeup to to be eligible and I would agree with you I think one of the things that maybe has been implied as we say community members and things of that but but probably should be stated specifically is I would also want to see um you know a a a robust um active parent

084representation right um so um you know it's not just to your point it's not just people that are kind of above the you know in a a line of expertise about you know so you're saying in three to five years we want to have that yeah and I don't know we have to set a concrete number I just you know I think as we talk through this it's a consideration we have that we have that representation that is you know directly eligible and and but to an earlier Point made um we have people that wear multiple hats so you can be a parent and a medical you know someone who has medical expertise or you know so I think that people can wear multiple hats they're not just filling one check the box criteria right

085Y and just to add quickly to that it could work reverse too we could ask Advocate if they have people who live within our district we could ask uh Omni to appoint people if they have them who live within our district so we could get to the multiple hats in both directions Stacy so I think my I I think we've always been very blessed on this board that we everybody sort of has a a niche that that that is their passion um what we don't have on on this board or I would say any board in the area is a lot of e ethnic diversity um and while Dr Conley and I had a very robust conversation about how we are working really hard within our hiring our teachers to diversify the teaching base on

086most elected boards in this area including this one there is not a lot of ethnic ethnic diversity um for a variety of reasons but it's much easier to start getting people elected to those boards when the people that serve on those boards look like the people that are out in the community um and so so I would say this is a great opportunity to do a deep dive and really um I've said it out out out in the public I'll I'll say it here now my goal in the next couple of years is to to be to address those diversity issues in our area because our elected boards need to start representing the community more in in what their faces look like and I think this gives us a very unique opportunity to augment the

087amazing diversity that we have in our community from one corner to the next to give them the opportunity to become involved in a higher level in this District Jessica I I don't have a particular number uh that I've in mind I'd actually kind of like to know what other student-based health center advisory boards look like in terms of their makeup before we kind of come to any consensus on that um if it's a non- voting board you know there's there's no necessity that it be an odd number I just always think that's a good idea to have an odd number board uh with someone designated obviously as the tiebreaker um I like the idea of an appointment for two years with stagger terms so you have some overlap and some sharing of expertise and maybe

088at least initially some preference for people who have experience serving on a board like this um and you know frankly I would prefer to have the board a little at least initially more heavily weighted with medical personnel Youth Services School administration and parents um I know we need to include all the categories and and definitely to e Echo Stacy's Point socioeconomic and ethnic diversity you know would would really be Paramount to truly represent the community that we're serving here so you Al also touched on appointment or how we would appoint uh members I would suggest that staff it we should seed that responsibility to staff based on possibly advice and consent of the board or some structure like that but I don't think we ought to be the ones appointing per se I think that

089should transfer to you guys I also agree with Jessica I think in the beginning certainly and and ongoing there should be fair amount of weight to Professionals in the field uh as well as possibly some Financial people or a financial person or two because it's a combination of being a business business and a clinic and there's a lot of complexities to that and of course the medical world as we know is changing literally daily so having that expertise on that advisory panel is really an important thing to do I'd sort of like to know to Ireland's Point how many other student-based health centers in the state in our area uh greater area how they are set up in terms of who they report to are they reporting to superintendent are they reporting to the Board

090of Education um I think it's only appropriate that uh the review and recommendation comes through the administration and and Dr Conley but to me it seems like uh it may be a final decision making point to come from this board um but the pre-work going through the administration to me that sounds like uh the way it should be however I would like like to know what others are doing in in regards to what 225 did um one they started out with eight members on the board because it's advisory so there is no voting necessary so the recommendations that come to the board are just that recommendations there's no binding nature to it um they also have done no board approval of members or appointment because the board is the voting body so it looks like

091if the board appoints and approves that it's not a neutral body that's doing the advising of the board so they've kept it very neutral in that regard and smaller to start but I think we can definitely talk to main Township Evanston and a couple others that are even outside of the greater Chicago land area to get how they decided to make up Kim and I met with RJ gravel who started up he was my position in 225 he was the one who kind of pushed everything out with the the superintendent and then it went to the board so uh we will definitely get back to you on that and do it pretty quickly and if you could also get back with like if there was any requirements some examples of requirements for the advisory committee

092members yeah uh in 225 they basically followed the ADV the administrative code and it was just the basic these are the eight groups of people you choose from and they didn't feel the need to choose from each group they kind of doubled up in some areas because they wanted that initial expertise as well in certain areas so but I think we can give you a really comprehensive look at that um and the board doesn't need to be appointed immediately this is a process that will go through in 225 they open the clinic prior to receiving um approval for the school-based health clinic and that's a step that's in line if you want to be a school-based health clinic but you can just be a clinic so yeah my understanding is in at least the first

093couple of years uh the uh clinic will be mainly or only for students and teachers students teachers and then families of of students as well but that not right away right I thought or no that's one of the things that is the final piece to the negotiation I think we want to start with just our students because we want to hit the ground running we want to make sure we have the right number of Staff the right number of people that are servicing and then and as we go along uh 225s numbers have gone tremendously up since they first started their first month they saw about 25 people total they see over 25 people a week now sure of course I just want to clarify it's all staff not not just teachers yeah yeah no

094no all staff and so my point was I want to be sure that our staff all staff has representation as well on the board I'm sure we will but that's obviously a critical component for myself I've listening to everybody um the one to two years definitely a rotating because yeah we don't want it you know every year everything turning over the idea of a term limit um I wouldn't want it really short but I do like the idea of a of a term limit that you can't you're not on forever um ethnic diversity the making sure that we represent our students and staff whether it's be parents of the kids or whatever maybe it might not be right away that we can get that um trying to get the P get enough parents involved might

095be a little more difficult but that would be definitely a goal that within the first couple of years um and yeah I don't think that the board should be involved in the appointment so that we have a transparency I mean have some sort of like an application that people need to fill out so we we can make sure that they are actually qualified for the positions right so um what I'll what I'll start to do and again I'm not you know predisposing that we're done having the discussion I just kind of wanted to throw this out here uh is based on on the conversation to this point um we'll start to pull together um you know kind of a a document that outlines um you know the constitution of this Advisory board for then the

096board to consider and amend ask questions so on and so forth so and you know that will you know we'll do that in in in consultation with Excuse me the other existing uh sbhc um advisory boards and and you know kind of finding out you know so we're not Reinventing the wheel um but yeah start working on that excited very EXC okay uh the next item on the agenda is the 2023 iesb resolutions committee um every year the iasb hosts an annual delegate assembly for member districts to vote on the proposals submitted by local school boards through the resolutions process and delegate assembly iasb member districts provide critical direction as iasb members represents members interest before the state and National policy makers this year I will be representing our school district at the delegate assembly

097and I have also registered there is a webinar that happens on the 31st so a few weeks beforehand uh where they will go over in detail all of the um various resolutions I just got my notification of the resolutions report today and it should I believe it is attached here on our [Music] agenda yes it is attached so if everyone before our next meeting can please look over over the few the it's not like in past years when we've had 15 resolutions it's a lot smaller this year everyone would please look them over and we I'll go over each of them next month and we can decide how I will be casting my vote um as to whether or not IB recommends it or not I will vote the way my board directs me to

098and next now we have 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 admin Administration listen to comments but may not respond uh I see L has brought one up for me uh Miss Sherry Sherry CL from the Wheeling Park District and I wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving to all and thank you for all staff students too for what you do the district 21 um every time I'm involved with anything district 21 I always feel very welcome and so I wanted to say thank you um secondly Wheeling Park District is a

099board of seven people and since the election in April we have only had six Commissioners on board well recently I believe it was October 3 we um swore swore in a new commissioner her name is Claudia fansa and you may recognize the name she was very involved with um Mark Twain School very involved with PTO there I know she has at least one son who is at homes right now I'm not quite sure because you know how middle school kids are when mom or dad comes to the school it's sometimes a little awkward sometimes but anyways um I look forward to working with her and if you ever are out in the community or the park district wherever and you meet her and you see a new face it's Claudia um and then the other

100piece is tomorrow the park district is having their Halloween event for people um called Bonanza that starts at 4:00 tomorrow at the Rex huner and then on um October 29th which is a Sunday there's a day of a de the dead race Andor walk um registration is still open it's a fun celebration of family and um I heard that there were like 350 people registered as of the other night so it's a pretty exciting fun time I made it through the walk last year after having a cold maybe seven people were behind me but I didn't die and I didn't get taken away so um thank you again just a comment if I can Claudia was involved in the early part of a referendum uh she met with me she wanted to know how to

101get more involved in the district she's a great lady and the park district is lucky to have her yes is there thank you uh Mike did we have anyone online okay in case have we gotten anything written no okay thank you the next item on the agenda is a consent agenda this month we received three fre Freedom of Information requests and there are no conference and travel expenses uh Phil did you have the opportunity to review the financials yes I had um five questions that uh ner was able to respond to and didn't have a need for a followup okay thank you does anyone need anything pulled from the consent agenda he may please get a motion to approve the consent agenda as a correct second Stacy yes Phil I deara I vote Yes Debbie

102yes bill I Arin I motion carries okay the next section on the agenda is the approval of membership in self Workers Compensation Insurance Pool Michael good evening um no presentation tonight but just a explanation of this because this is a fairly technical legal issue on Our Workers Compensation Insurance number of years ago we Bel belonged to self which is an education pool uh for workers compensation about uh five six years ago uh Mary had suggested pulling out of self because the costs had grown higher and we went to the Illinois public risk fund we've been with them and our rates have continued to go up some based on experience some just based on the pool uh banding formula iprf is a pool that is for municipal County other agencies school districts make up a small

103percentage of it iprf also has a uh has gone away from in-person training and gone only to module videos and in addition to that um their investigation rate is now as high as what we were previously used to and not that we think that people are not injured on the job we know that there are very legitimate claims of of being of workers compensation but there are also some claims that have gone through that uh we really wanted to go ahead and challenge just based off of some of the circumstances and we didn't feel that iprf was doing really a sound enough job in in investigating so last year uh as our rates continued to grow in the standard program we were also told by IA because of our experience that we we were becoming

104uninsurable in the standard rate program our uh rates for last year grew to over $360,000 which has been the highest that we've seen and our experience level continues to be high but it's starting to come down as we went through that process last year we informed iprf and our broker that we would be looking at other avenues because we didn't want to get into a situation where we were uninsurable so we went back to self and some other pools but one of the unique features of self is you gain equity in the pool as you're there and if you leave that Equity remains if you return you can use it towards premiums um and you can use it they have a robust training program they have a a department that really speaks to the injured

105individual and the district to talk through situations they do in-person training uh and they have a lot of features that we saw as a benefit so we started through the process with them also started talking to our broker about iprf iprf came back with a rate of over $400,000 for our standard insurance program and did not offer us the opportunity to go into their deductible program uh we also consulted with ICM icmt which is another Pool they offered a $450,000 rate in the standard program while self offered us about $380,000 self does have a deductible program which acts as our self insurance which is self-insured and it's something that we looked at we also asked rcmt to quote Us in that icmt quoted us at a at a minimum of a $100,000 deductible self offers

10625,50 and 100,000 so all the benefits of self just on their own of the in-person training working with employees and and and administration as we investigate injuries working to help people in programs to get rehabilitated faster we all a bonus and then to have the equity in the pool that gets spread out over the years um helps us reduce our rates as we do training as we work to reduce workplace injuries that pool amount that we have in equity is over $350,000 we can spread that out up to five years so it will reduce the initial cost of workers compensation allow us to work towards limiting injuries and really work to reduce our rates overall in order to go back into sell you need to approve this legal resolution so that's the longwinded explanation as

107to why this is in front of it B well first of all thank you for spending quite a bit of time with me earlier this afternoon um I did warn you that I would repeat one of my questions so for the for the benefit of everyone we've been seeing our claims experience increasing over years what what part of that is within our control to keep down and what what could we do going forward to prevent this problem from happening again so one thing and I went back and looked at both some of the pool numbers and just experience overall amongst other districts as we share it and postco claims have gone up immensely and and I don't know the exact reason for that I will say injuries to staff have gone up excuse me caused

108by students and that's just the nature of as students have come back we have higher needs we have higher issues that that staff is dealing with and so from our part training is one of the things that's essential positioning of Staff as their as their aids to students because based upon their position they've un not not intentionally unintentionally put themselves into a position that an injury gets caused or just trying to either uh control the student's behavior um you know go ahead and perform certain holds has caused injuries and then there's always a number of injuries in the ranks of custodial and maintenance so we truly feel that training will help bring those down we think making sure that we have as much as we can the appropriate number of staff so that aids aren't

109stretch thin will help bring that down and we just think the overall training program and work with I with the self pool to go ahead and make sure that the injured employee is getting the treatment they need and also making sure that when they come back they're in either a light duty role that allows them to successfully come back and not be reinjured right away because they're not fully healed or when they come back to full capacity that they truly are ready to return to work and that limits the amount of injury that that reoccurs thank you so um my son happens to be a firefighter in Chicago and because of abuses 10 years ago 12 years ago he had Ser surgery just recently he's literally for two months banned from going anywhere outside his

110neighborhood almost can't even go out for dinner so while I believe investigating is important and being sure people really do have an injury is important because I've seen in my own company some situations by the same token we could also go over the top so it's a blend of the two it seems to me when I speak of Investigation I'm not talking about once the treatment is a occurred I'm talking about just into the the claim and how it occurred and is it something that is the responsibility of the district or not we had some claims with iprf that we fought because things in the parking lot typically aren't the responsibility of the school district unless it's you know a function of your your your work and they just didn't even look into where it

111happened when it happened how it happened so absolutely when people are recovering we're not looking trust me we don't want to chase people and and make sure that they're sequestered in their home this is more of the investigation of the claim to make sure we're going to go ahead and pay out we're going to get you all the help you need we just want to make sure that the claim was properly filed that it merited the the the treatment that was that to thank you so so we're talking about a recommendation that's financially prudent for the district and it adds additional and Hefty training which should help reduce the financial burden years going forward right yes no brainer okay okay am I my next question is May I please get a motion so moved I'll

112move that the resolution authorizing membership in the School Employees loss fund uh be approved by the board second Bill deara yes I vote Yes Debbie yes bill I Arin I Stacy yes motion carries okay thank you and the next item on the agenda is to announce that our next regular Board of Education meeting for Wheeling ccsd21 is scheduled for Thursday November 9th that is earlier than normal because of the conference may I have one last announcement before we adjourn yes you may all right I forgot to mention it but I think it's really special to mention so this year Indian Trails Public Library has teamed up with social services at the Wheeling at the Wheeling Police Department to create a community Altar for the day of the dead so you are able to go on

113their Facebook page or snapy QR code and submit a picture of someone that you would like them they have a Day of the Dead altar that they'll be featuring at the entrance of the public library so if anybody would like to honor a loved one by sending it a picture for the Day of the Dead celebration um I think it's an amazing partnership between both entities um and we create an alar at our house and and have one for our loved ones for Day of the Dead and we will be contributing to the one at the indiia Charles Public Library as well but great information and I compliment both agencies on um on doing this it's new this year but um I think it's amazing and I want to say thank you and I hope

114everybody participates thank you okay may I please get a motion to adjourn our regular meeting second Debbie yes bill I I vote Yes Stacy yes Arlon hi deara yes Bill motion carries