001good evening and welcome to the district 21 board of education meeting for july 21st 2022 first order business is to determine if we have a quorum for our business meeting jessica phil aye debbie here i am also here stacy allen is absent arlen hi bill harrison here stacy yes we have a quorum okay thank you if everyone would please rise and join us in the pledge of allegiance of american republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all okay uh directions for public comment when we get to that part of the agenda our policy is any member of the public has three minutes to address the board uh from the podium up front under our current policy we do not allow someone to pass their time frame off
002to someone else so if you've signed up to [Music] address the board that means you're addressing this directly from that we'll go into board communication board policy update thank you phil um you will notice we met on monday for about 45 minutes was all it really took us um and you will notice on the consent agenda under p is the first reading of the board policies um so please be sure that you review everything prior to our second reading next month and if you have any questions just as always just contact me or any of the members of the committee thank you thank you deb uh for those of you that are not following how our committees work especially our policy committee it's a two-month process we have a first reading by the committee and
003then by the full board and then the following month the board considers and takes action on those policy recommendations so um nsseo update that we do not have a july meeting so i have no update uh ed rod bill okay uh quick one the final two sessions of the summer sel series will be held virtually on august 3rd and 17th you could register for a link from either the edred website or from the emails that you should be receiving if you've missed any of the previous four sessions they could be viewed on the members only page of the web of the website and now on to the iasb web uh update nice okay the illinois association school boards has created and made available for the public a new pamphlet titled about school boards the pamphlet
004is intended to give the public a brief overview of the responsibilities and workings of a local school board the document can be found on the iasb website that's it do you have the um uh the dates again for the urban conference and then next spring for i'm sorry cosmo um i'd have to go back and check i could get those for you if you need it okay if you wouldn't mind what was the name of that new pamphlet about school it's called about school boards that's it okay so under the publications tab of the website yeah okay very good um north cook intermediate service center update nothing on that but if i can take a minute to update on the 708 board uh we did submit uh 30 [Music] 2500 signatures on petitions well above
005the thousand that we required we've received uh quite a bit of print this one in the journal and topics just ran the post ran an article today the daily herald ran one few weeks ago written by steve zalewski and so um now starts the fun part of trying to uh make this happen and win the campaign but uh we're waiting for verification that we're actually on the ballot um so we're moving ahead congratulations on that hard work by a lot of people we look forward to having some conversation in person uh as we get closer to that yeah i think september probably because of early voting sounds good okay uh any other local government agency updates anything stacy anything from you jessica anything nothing okay from that we'll move on to item three which is
006staff communications dr conley well good evening everybody um we have a couple of updates uh very uh pretty brief updates on a couple of different topics so i'll go ahead and kick it over to michael who will give you a uh summer construction update thank you last month as we reported everything is progressing very nicely we only had some issues looking at certain units at cooper riley and tarkington regarding the air conditioning i am very happy to report that all of the unit vets for cooper which was our largest priority given its individual classrooms are not only in the district but have started to be installed the vavs which control the temperatures arrived as well so we will be up and running at cooper uh there's a couple fan coil units that are in individual
007offices that uh are still on their way in uh nothing that dave can't handle he said he could relocate those people if he had to for the time being at riley we still have a july 25th ship date for the two rooftop units that has not moved so we are confident that that is going to hold and that that will be here next week those two the curbs for the rooftop units came in and were installed today so as soon as those rooftop units get here we'll be able to install those and get them running so we do have a contingency plan in place those two rooftop units control the library and the front office so we do have those contingencies in place in case they're needed we're hoping they will not be and then
008tarkington same issue rooftop unit the curb the curb for it came in that was installed it has a july 25th ship date as well so uh contingency plan in place for that it is just the library so again at least it's not classroom spaces but the libraries the bathrooms at riley the lighting at tarkington and riley everything is going ahead according to schedule so that is all good news the last part is the admin building we were told by commonwealth edison that our transformer is delayed as of today we heard that we're at the top of the list as an educational institution and because of the fact that we don't have a transformer to use for the time being they've made us a priority other school districts are awaiting transformers but they're remodel projects so
009they could use their current transformers so we've been told we're at the top of the list i don't know if that is you know what that means exactly with comed we do have a contingency plan in place there we have some generator proposals one that i don't even really want to think about because the cost to run it 24 7 is quite expensive another one to be able to get the elevators installed but at this point we're hoping that we'll hear something the next couple days there was a meeting yesterday of comed and we're supposed to hear some news shortly so i'll continue to update the good news is we don't have to be in the admin building the classrooms at the at the schools will be cooled and ready to go and all the
010construction should be done on time so i'm happy to report that okay anybody have any questions for michael no no okay it's never easy working with contractors since i do that as part of my profession uh my hat's off to the team and michael especially to you and working uh this every summer but especially this one with the new building as well michael mike i'm sorry so uh our next update um we wanted to give just a brief overview of where we stand um to date on our recruitment and hiring for the coming school year um as has been made very well known uh in the media um that there are um fewer and fewer people um that are going into um k-12 education um and you know we are lucky to be in a
011metro area where where you know generally speaking we we still have a fairly substantial candidate pool some of our colleagues to the south of us can't find teachers um to you know to save their lives um you know there i there's a high school i don't remember exactly where it is who will not be offering physics at all um because they cannot find a a qualified physics teacher so um the situation is not that grave here but we do have our challenges particularly in some of our student service areas um our speech pathologists are psychologists that are um they you know can there a lot of them are going into agency work and and and is more lucrative in those fields and and so it has been a challenge so um bob do you just
012want to kind of briefly give an overview of where we are today thanks mike um you all have the slide as far as we have about 40 openings right now just in the last week kim's team has actually hired two speech-language pathologists and a psychologist ironically the ones that dr conley mentioned um but um our entire administrative team is back this week and they are working tirelessly to fill those positions and we are very optimistic about the prospects for the start of the school year are we finding it's a compensation issue or just a lack of qualified people in the in the universe out there i think it's a combination um so the marketplace is is pretty hot right so there's a lot of particularly for some of these more specialized positions um they can
013kind of you know go in and write their own you know their own ask and one of the things that when you're part of a collective bargaining agreement you're not negotiating with individuals so you know we have some latitude about where we bring in a particular member of the staff based on their years of experience and things of that nature but um you know if they get a better offer down the road um they take it we're very competitive with our teaching assistant salary locally for the region and we're really having our in the last couple years filling those positions yep anybody have any questions for bob continued good luck thank you all right next time um again very briefly um i just wanted to kind of make mention of um a couple of things
014that we have been working on uh to really try uh and continue to expand the availability of after school programming in our elementary schools the board may recall that that as part of the american rescue plan act funds last year we did allocate dollars to the elementary schools to expand after-school programming such as tutoring but then also enrichment programming and so on and so forth we want to continue to do that one of the things that we did find last year is while we did have successful you know tutoring programs that that that ran we also had um either due to availability of staff or just you know um just they couldn't take anything else on uh didn't have the the um ability to establish some of those the other types of programming that we
015were hoping to do so um we are currently out there um looking to identify partners who can come in who can expand you know stem classes you know enrichment things that that we can do nothing specific it's just something it's an effort that's you know that we're undertaking um at the district level to to try and and you know introduce some of those things um at the elementary level as the year goes on so um just wanted to you know kind of put that on your radar but again nothing specific to to recommend or to present at the moment so any questions by way of segwaying into the final comment uh final item under staff communications all of us in our professional lives know the importance of networking marketing and networking [Music] i've got to
016say that the announcement that dr connolly is going to be sharing next was in large part the result of some good solid networking within the professional community so with that mike and i'm actually going to defer to michael um who was instrumental in securing both of these gifts thank you um the first one pursuant to policy 880 which is gifts to the district anything over five thousand dollars that is given to the district should be accepted acknowledged at a board meeting uh we're happy tonight to have two such gifts that well outweigh the the five thousand dollar threshold the first one uh based upon a conversation that mike had at a meeting a few months ago back in march led us to a family foundation that helps out districts uh and different entities that have
017the basic needs of health care for children and the community at heart and so uh mike turned over the name and number to me i was lucky enough to meet with the individual from the foundation that controls that gift giving they wish to remain anonymous which is one of the things that that they do and and we're grateful for their gift uh they gave us a check on friday for one million dollars towards the administration towards the community service center for the clinic specifically we met with them a couple times uh talked with them about the vision uh they came out to see the the clinic space walked it and at that time told us that they were gonna give us that gift it's a very short negotiation which i shouldn't even say negotiation they
018handed us the gift agreement we said thank you and like i said last friday i was lucky enough to collect that check which did go into a safe immediately so thank you and the second gift is one that will be very useful to the district and will save us a lot of money um we had a a organization reach out an entity that was a fully in-person business prior to the pandemic about six months before the pandemic hit had uh received or purchased 64 brand new workstations that could either be individual or grouped for their business they have now since gone fully remote they were only used for about three to six months and when i say used uh they don't have a mark on them uh it will benefit us at hawthorne because they
019can be grouped like i said in banks and that was a furniture style we were looking at for our coordinator for our coaches and our our specialists that are over there as well as they will become because they're 64. when we don't need that many we will also have brand new furniture for assistant principals as well as some of the the psychologists social workers uh based upon that gift again they wish to remain anonymous that donation is about a hundred thousand dollars in total as far as the furniture goes and we thank for them for that as well and i would just ask that you acknowledge the gift so we certainly acknowledge that thank you and if i can just put a comment out there to our friends and family and onlookers and virtual land
020if anyone else would like to join in it's fun we're certainly willing to acknowledge you either uh informally uh anonymously or in person so please if you're considering um offering something district 21 is certainly receptive to that fact with that we move into uh board discussion yes and so um i'm somewhat sad uh to to have to to to take us into into this conversation however um we know that uh particularly at the end of the school year uh with the um tragedy and and the murder uh mass murder that happened in uvalde texas uh and then just uh over the fourth of on fourth of july um the uh shootings in mass murder that occurred uh in highland park right in our own backyard um that the the concept the topics of of school
021safety and and readiness which are never far from our daily thinking um is something that that you know has become a heightened concern um and so we wanted to spend a little bit of time just kind of recapping for the board um all of the different things that we already have done particularly since the the successful referendum in 2018 to really uh upgrade um the safety and security of all of our of our school buildings um and then just uh talk a little bit about you know where we are going from here and and then just kind of engage in any dialogue or answer any questions that that members may have so i have a very brief um slide deck here that i'll go through and this just kind of recounts um some again some
022of the things that we have done um to secure our school buildings and again these are things that are include but are not limited to um the biggest which of course was the redesigning of all the main entrances of all of our school buildings um you know prior to that effort you cleared one set of doors and you had access to the entire school that has now been changed in every single building so that there is a three-point entry you have a much much higher security area with bulletproof glass full of resistance glass that that encounter you know encompasses that area more direct eye-to-eye contact before you know allowing anybody in um and uh really something that that is a probably the biggest impact in terms of of our incu you know improving our security
023envelope um in addition to that um at the same time we installed uh internal and external security cameras um in all of our schools um and so that immediately uh gave us a uh pardon the pun but a bird's eye view of um where uh what was happening inside of our hallways uh who you know who was outside where we could you know um be able to to make sure that we were able to keep footage and have a record of of of the comings and goings um in the in the event that we needed um uh any of that um and then other things such as you know updating the staff id card um fob so our external doors you know staff ids activate the the door locks that minimizes the number of keys
024floating around can be immediately shut down shut off if if there is a need to do so we implemented our raptor visitor management system so that anybody who comes into our buildings has to present an id that id is scanned it automatically searches the the sex offender database um and you know generates a record of who is who has entered the the building i think another big piece of this is that all of our internal classroom doors in every single building um the locking mechanisms have been retrofitted so that they are automatically their default is lock um you cannot um either you know you can't key the the door to be unlocked um from the outside if the door is closed you need to have a key in order to get inside so if we
025did have an emergency situation a lockdown type situation all that needs to happen is make sure that door is closed and it is locked um there is not an unlocked door um internally um and uh that has been that was done and i think in 2019 um if i'm correct um obviously we're in the prog in the process as we do our other construction efforts of improving our exterior lighting improving interior lighting we had some pretty you know dark spaces um you know if you've you'll those of you who are have a relationship with the tarkington community are going to see the difference um in terms of light that is in the uh in the building as a result of the the lighting upgrades we do have panic buttons in key locations across the district
026uh in offices i'm not going to say specifically where they are but they there are several of them those are um you know keyed in so that we have a about a three minute response time um you know from emergency services when we've when we've tested those those panic buttons and then most recently actually as we speak um the district is is implementing um its updated and unified district radio system prior to this point um schools would have their little walkie-talkies and they would never talk to any other other than within their school we now will be rolling out and michael actually was working michael and mike were working with the with the building principles this week um coming back uh a system that is district-wide there are antennas um that have been placed on
027buildings so we have line-of-sight uh communication and we will be able to communicate by radio from building to building there are multiple channels we have an emergency channel that we can go to in the event that we need to coordinate some kind of a disaster response they are not specifically tied in with with uh police and fire bans but that's also because um they need to be separate bans um but we are uh in in contact with and and you know very quickly um can provide the any kind of emergency service information that they need um but it's um it's it is a separate system from from what um uh police and fire bans are um so uh that buttons is it direct yeah the panic buttons are direct links um into our our emergency
028circuits yeah yeah as are our fire panels i mean all of that i mean so if you you know somebody if nothing else if somebody needs to pull a fire alarm um you know they send everything you know um so and like i said response times are about three minutes so separate from um the actual security aspect we also have undergone um a lot in terms of just planning and preparedness so and that those are activities that continue on an ongoing basis again some of these activities include but they're not limited to we have a standing district safety committee that meets multiple times a year building administrators teachers are part of that committee kim as part of her her job title is assistant superintendent for support services and school safety um she is she facilitates
029those those meetings and those conversations um on an on an annual basis officially on an annual basis we sit down and we review and revise all of our emergency plans with local law enforcement and emergency services that happens in june generally speaking but even beyond that we are in continual conversation with particularly our local police departments um and um you know i mean kim is you know we'll talk to commander troy uh in at wheeling you know um on a on a weekly basis and the same in in some of the other departments so we are in continual contact um with uh with local law enforcement and and making sure that we're all in the know of all of the different things that that um may be coming down um you know we have updated
030uh we a couple years ago went to our alice training system uh for um our lockdown um active shooter um situations we do um uh practice uh we do not um go overboard there has been i think rightly so a bit of caution in terms of not going overboard with the drills um you know because of just the mental health and and kind of of stress that that puts on both parents staff and kids um but we do practice um and and kids do know particularly reunification and and um you know what to do if so that is something that that we make sure that that we do frequently throughout the course of of of a school year and again as i said before you know our response times are like i said generally three
031you know to five minutes when whenever you know so when we need need them they are here um and they are here fast and that is um every single one of our municipalities um so something that we are very lucky about you know we we do not have this the situation that that some of our colleagues particularly downstate where it could be 45 minutes before you know emergency services shows up um they're right on top of us and they're here very quickly so what are some of the future considerations particularly as it relates to um you know things that have gone in motion since these last two um in particular incidents first of all there was recently signed federal legislation that has a significant amount of funding for expanded mental health services and violence prevention
032particularly for schools you know and as the board knows you know we leave no stone unturned when it comes to mental health physical health resources for our families we you know kim and her department work uh secured a 635 000 community partnership grant for mental health um services you know we are implementing activities and programs as a result of that grant we will absolutely be pursuing whatever kind of of funding that may be coming from this legislation to continue and expand that work coming directly out of the highland park incident the illinois state police has indicated that they are going to be doing some um kind of expansion and clarification of the the clear and present danger notification process and this is actually a notification process that has been around for a few years it
033was it came into the law i want to say about six years ago but it hasn't ever really been all that well defined in terms of what triggers it what our what our responsibility is you know in terms of of you know providing that information to the illinois state police what happens once that you know once that is done it's been pretty murky at best and so um and i think that as a result of some of the things that came out in the investigation post highland park um that there were some perhaps some flags that were not were missed and so the um we are we are awaiting uh any information that may come from from that process um so that we can ensure that we are doing everything we're supposed to be doing
034in terms of that clear and present nature notification and anytime particularly a school shooting occurs there's always a review of practices and there could very well be some additional guidance some new recommendations that could come out of that in terms of how we should be kind of preparing for something that we hope never happens uh but as we have seen all too many times does happen um and so we are absolutely um keeping our our ears open um regen our partners at north cook the regional office are on top of it they are they are generally speaking our first source of information we are linked in with state agencies counter-terrorism task force things of that nature so we do get information from them when something is happening we don't talk about that you know generally
035speaking because but we so we do have sources of information that that flow into us so so i want everybody to be rested you know rest assured that that that the issue of safety and security is a daily concern and is a daily line of thought and action for us in the district so um so with that i will open it up to any questions that you may have or dialogue or or anything of that nature it's um it's always a balancing act when we're talking about this particular this topic in particular uh what we can communicate to the general public to our parent community especially and about what we're doing can you address whether or not there's anything in the beginning of the year handbook that perhaps touches on anything from the first page
036items that we've already done uh that may be included in that when you say handbook um the handbook is generally speaking you know information on you know processes procedures and kind of it it does make note of the kind of drills and and and you know a practice that that will occur um in terms of um the actual kind of recounting some of the things that i've just done here uh one of the things that we really took uh from some conversations that we had post you all day um is that we do need to be more intentional about communicating with our parents and community about what we do with safety and security without you know divulging you know too much information so so cass and i have talked about um making sure that periodically
037throughout the year within our parent newsletters that there is a safety and security update um you know just kind of a reminder we that was part of the june family newsletter is that right it was either may or june yeah but uh so we've done one we will do it periodically throughout the year so so those are the types of things that we'll we're going to be doing as well okay i'll open it up no um a number of things use your mind for you yes ireland i've reached out immediately to say for you not for me for the audience at home okay um on july 4th i was fortunate enough to be invited to march in two parts unfortunately i had to choose because they were at the same time and i chose to
038march in the arlington heights parade but i was also invited to march in highland park and so this all struck fairly close and one of the things i remember from our training way back from iasb 20 years ago and every year since is our first job is not education our first job is sending kids home safely is you know in the same condition they were when they were sent to us in the morning this is just such a hard thing on a variety of levels i do have one question before i go into more common so you had mentioned the safety reviews that go on and how administrators and teachers are involved are custodians involved in that also because they know our buildings as well if that better than anyone i mean we do have
039representatives from the operations department um so you know that they come in so um but these meetings are happening um generally speaking during an active school day so custodians are in buildings they're you know so um but but remember we also do a number of safety walk-throughs the roe comes in does safety inspections the fire marshals come in and do inspections and our custodians are always part of those things as well um you know i know that we've talked about this before a number of years ago i think before you first came on mike we had a security audit if you will from an outside agency and we might want to consider doing that on some sort of periodic basis and that's just a mention of discussion i will also say though it's on us
040not just as a board but individually as board members as community members and for that matter as community members out there whether here with us or virtually to be talking to our legislators there are so many things that can be done that we might not be able to do as a board but can be done at a greater level i can tell you one thing for example through edred we're working on hopefully giving school districts the ability to [Music] avail themselves to the red flag laws so that if we hear of a threat an administrator might be able to put in a red flag request to the appropriate police authority to get that type of thing moving and that's something that we could work do not necessarily as a board but as individuals to talk
041to our legislators about things like that so i hope that as we continue moving forward with this we think what we can do as a board whether it's an audit um we've had sros in the past whatever but also what we need to do as individuals and to continue those discussions thanks bill anybody else over here i just i wanted to ask i i think we've talked about this in the past and i just can't remember where we landed on it but is there a possibility of a parent advisory committee about school safety where you could get direct feedback from families in the buildings um you know i'm speaking not only as the board board member but is the only board member who still has children in the buildings and one going into middle school
042this fall which will be a new adventure for all of us um but i i know that they report things to me that they see during the school day you know just on on any average day on the days where they do you know their their safety drills of all different sorts um and i know i know that other kids are communicating to their parents you know what they see and not not just the physical safety of the building but you know issues that they have with with other students how you know interpersonal conflicts are being resolved and i'm wondering if maybe that's an option that we should consider having you know a periodic parent portal to directly advise you you know what our children are telling us is going on in the buildings and
043getting it from from their perspective yeah i think that that's certainly something that we can we can do we can incorporate that uh particularly with some of our other parent advisory activities that we you know undertake as it relates to school discipline um you know and and different things like that i think one of the things that we want to make sure um is that um you know we're taking information in we're kind of listening but we're also um doing so in such a way where where you know people feel good about you know i mean people can get panicked um you know you start talking about these things and and and you know we don't want to um create uh a a perception um that there is a safety issue um but that doesn't
044mean that we can't have those types of focus groups um periodically you know to kind of just say you know do you have concerns what what are you hearing you know what are your your questions so we'll we'll absolutely um take a look at how we can incorporate that into some of the other things that we already do with parent advisory okay thank you absolutely uh thanks phil so taking a long view you and i were here when security wasn't even talked about at all literally and flintstone days when when i joined the board which was a couple years after you joining the board and and in the wake of the lori dan situation we started to talk about that outgoing board members then thought that some of us were crazy talking about securing buildings
045it just is beyond my comprehension where we are today and the things that we need to do to keep our buildings and our students and our staff safe and it won't go away until we can deep politicize the issue of guns on the streets of america because what's happening here is uniquely an american problem does not happen anywhere else in the western world so on my list and we've talked a bit and and bill you and i share a couple of the same thoughts uh one of the things that i was thinking we might want to do again is a real audit a new audit [Music] i can't turn it off is to look at doing another audit uh district-wide of security uh the other i thought that you touched on it and i would
046like us to review it again would be sros the middle school level and we've had that discussion as well also on my list was something that was in our last district-wide plan increasing security with the ballards in front of our buildings where there are driveways where somebody could literally drive a car into a building uh all the major chains and uh have done that for their front entrances i it wasn't it wasn't our original plan and i think we've done as good a job as any district i think the last couple of years we've done wonderful things but it's never going to stop it's never going to end and we just have to keep our pedal to the metal and keep trying to do the new things that those who wish to do harm to
047individuals really kind of prevents them as much as we can because they they'll keep getting more difficult and they'll keep trying new things and we just have to try to stay ahead of the curve but i want to thank staff our teachers superintendent uh you know it's a heck of a thing to have to go to work every day and think about safety as a primary as bill said primary cause of what we do but we must and we do and so i thank everybody for all your hard work no all right mike anything else on that no that's it okay thank you we now move into public comment uh the board will now receive public comment for up to three minutes per person such comments should not include discussion of personnel matters which should
048be brought directly to the attention of the appropriate school official if there's anyone that has wishes to address the board if you could fill out the form and drop it with uh miss del rio um we will call on you this is the appropriate time if there is some interest there um phil i received an email to it's cass over here i'm sorry over here an email came through do you want me to go first or boomer cass is talking to you oh here i'm sorry i'm sorry an email came through on the emails district account for public comment would you like me to read it now or after um go ahead you can okay it's a little lengthy so please bear with me it's from megan b and it came in today at 7
04918 pm and it says i hope everyone is having a happy and healthy summer i just wanted to publicly make a comment regarding running for school board many may or may not know what a school board is it has been brought to my attention that a few parents didn't know what a school board was so i wanted to provide some information and offer encouragement to the incredible parents current parents within this district school board members are the leaders who have the public school children's best interest they make all decisions not only for the current school-aged children but for those to come they meet and should exceed the mission of the school district establish direction and exceed goals within the district from all approaches they should be fully supporting the teachers the staff the students and
050the community with that said and in support of my opinion i think we could use some new change like the eight yes eight new principles and assistant principles taking their spots in just a few weeks this school year these educators could use some extra support and i am confident there are individuals in this great and large community who can exceed this hope of mine who is with me okay so now you know but what makes a good school board member in addition to meeting the already mentioned for me i think it should be open-minded unbiased and engaged in tough conversations that better serve the majority they don't have their own political benefit or push their ideas in forums they offer understanding and compassion they are the ones willing to stay informed with the current needs
051of today's children and not make you feel otherwise they have the eagerness to serve not only the children in the school district in which they serve but the community and public school community as a whole they recognize not only the staff within the district but the silent but the resilient children and their parents in which they serve on a continuous basis they are dedicated and okay to say when they are wrong they care and show up for all no matter how tough it might be almost done so do you know somebody who fits this job description you can help this community in more ways than you know you might not be the most popular or you might be the queen bee on the pto maybe you have a master's degree or a phd maybe you
052are a stay-at-home parent who wants to be we're way past the three-minute car i'm sorry thank you uh we do have four uh four uh members of the public as the first person michelle is coming up to the podium uh let me remind all four speakers that you can come um that this is a listening session for the board members we typically do not enter go back and forth with the speaker i just want to make sure that all of you are aware of that please michelle go ahead three minutes good evening everyone i just want to say um thank you all for all of your hard work that you do day in and day out it doesn't go unnoticed besides that i do have a couple of things that i am a little bit
053concerned about i have a student in the district i don't know if these topics are currently affecting our district or they might be in the future but i did want to let everybody know that i am opposed to critical race theory sexual education discussion any types of discussion relating to changing genders or wanting to change genders i think that is not a school topic [Music] pronouns of how people think that they should be called i think these are all unrelated to the main topic of education our taxpayer dollars can be better spent [Music] children need to learn english grammar literature math science etc in order to become intelligent and productive adults in society [Music] please help us to get on the right path so that we can save our community and the future for america
054thank you thank you michelle appreciate your comments next is tanya good evening board members my name is tanya and i have two daughters attending tarkington i recently learned about the senate bill 818 also known as comprehensive personal health and safety and sexual health education i did my research and i'm bothered by the curriculum that will be taught to our children starting at kindergarten these standards are too extreme for our children what worries me the most is that i have not heard any public discussion on this topic i know that sex education in illinois is optional for district uh for districts to provide my request to the board is to inform the community and allow parents to take part in this decision before putting it to avoid to a vote by the district thank you for
055the time thank you for your time uh the next um public member is veneta please dr connolly board members and administrators i would like to follow up on my email to the superintendent and all board members from about two weeks ago it is regarding public act 102.0522 or also referred as comprehensive sex education standards it isn't my understanding that the district has not received any guidance from the illinois school board of education in the same email i attached a link to the national sex education standards and i asked if any of you have read them and nobody answered that question but we all did and saw other parents who are watching and it's a bit alarming no wonder other districts have been decided to opt out like barrington 220 and crystal lake 47 even has
056it on their website i know you will not answer my questions now but it will stay for the public record that i am asking if any of you is familiar with the dark side of so-called gender ideology are you familiar with the work of dr john money and dr alfred kinsey if you do i'm sure you know that they are called the fathers of sex education dr king's history and sex lives of pre-pubescent children were actually based on a diaries of a pedophile who has molested hundreds of children dr mani took the sexualization of kids even further conducting the rainier twin study and the tragic findings in that case are now being pushed as normative in our culture i hope you will research the gender ideology movement before you decide that it's okay to teach
057k to two great to define gender and gender role stereotypes and to explain how is gender different than sex assignment birth or three to fifth graders to learn about romantic and sexual feelings masturbation mood swings how to differentiate between cisgender transgender gender and eye binary gender expensive etc and are all puberty blockers play in the lives of kids who identify as transgender the list goes on and on with even more detailed information in higher grades please make informed decision on the proposed standards and maybe choose to teach health curriculum that is age and developmentally appropriate medically accurate and that aligns with the family values in our community i will tie this everything that i just said to the fact that the district is choosing to selectively communicate with the parents lately we have been important
058some very important topics like change international suicide crisis crisis hotline back to school medical and dental services copying with community violence however there has not been a mentioning of the sex ed standards parents are not aware of what the board plan is is it going to be discussed in a regular meeting and when and just like that this is the latest important topic that we have not been informed just like we were never informed that we can opt out of shield testing or of non-academic student surveys that you make our kids take without parental consent like a panorama service for example you know that you are required to inform us that we have the right to opt out i hope you will correct the mistakes and you will inform the parents at the beginning of
059the new school year and while you're at it please don't forget to let parents know that according to the illinois school board of education we have the right to opt out of the sex education in case the district chooses to approve it thank you thank you and the last public member is dorina please well obviously you guys understand it's all about the same topic as my friends have previously stated um so my concern is everything that they've said it's just like i feel it's very confusing especially for small kids um my little daughter asked me she's like mommy like i love my best friend like you know i love spending time with her she's awesome and i love her what does that mean am i a lesbian i was like no of course not like
060you just love your friend and and you know that's okay it doesn't mean that you're a lesbian and i'm like where'd you hear it this is how i heard my older sister talking about it so that's that's like that's where all the parents are concerned is that kids are gonna take it the wrong way and like think something that let's say that i'm a lesbian even though she's not because she doesn't fully understand it and she's four years old so that's why we're concerned about this whole situation so i really hope that you guys will take into consideration everything that we said and then we'll be informed with the options to opt out of the sex education talks thank you thank you thank you to to all four of our members of the public that
061addressed us this evening we have not had a direct conversation about this in fact when it's typically when a law is passed that affects schools the illinois state board of education puts forth rules and guidelines be that they share with the public school districts in the state they have not done so as yet so this is not this is not something that has come to to the table for us to really review in any significant detail at all um dr connolly i don't know if you want to further address that well the only thing i'll say is that that i can assure the board and those who are in the audience are watching at home that when the district moves towards consideration of these new standards that it will be done in a very transparent
062way there will be discussion at the board level there will also be discussion with parents with our teachers with our health experts that teach health to our students our our medical staff our nursing staff so on and so forth because we too and the law requires that the the um education that we provide particularly as it relates to health and and and sexuality um is uh medically accurate um and we're going to be doing that and and age-appropriate by the way that's in the law um so you know this is something that that the district has a a great deal of of say in how we meet the the um requirements of the law um but we have simply not begun those discussions and we we want to have the information from the state the
063material that the state is putting together to review before we get into these substantive discussions because it's an important issue and we need to make sure that we have all of the information before we move forward but i i commit in public that this is going to be a transparent and and collaborative process when we begin it thank you dr connolly again thank you ladies for uh for addressing us on all those topical areas we appreciate that next item on their agenda is the consent agenda does anybody need anything poor thank you i do okay minutes yes which i don't know what oh thank you b okay the chair will accept the motion uh for the consent agenda minus uh the minutes from the meeting i'll move that we prove the consent agenda minus item
064b second thank you questions jessica phil hi bill i i vote yes debbie yes phil hi oh arlen aye stacy yes motion carries okay chair will accept the uh motion for the approval of the minutes from last month's meeting so moved i'm sorry go ahead one second just to clarify this is these are the minutes for the special board meeting of july 5th i'm sorry who was the second i'll take this oh debbie okay thank you i vote yes debbie yes phil arlen aye stacy abstain bill aye motion carries okay is there anybody else have any items for conversation before we move into closed session scene none the next meeting of the board of education [Music] is the third thursday in august which is the 18th which is a week before my birthday oh i
065will be here okay not taking it off um august 18th is the next meeting at seven o'clock right here in the boardroom um we will now uh where is the i'll move we recess the open meeting and move into close second yeah but isn't there something i have you have to go read the whole thing yes huh yeah you have to do your reading um try i can read it for you um be it resolve the board of education approves to recess the ccsd21 july 21st 2022 regular board meeting and convening closed session to discuss the minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act for the purpose of semi-annual review of the minutes thank you yes phil hi arlen aye stacy yes bill hi i vote yes motion carries thank you public meeting
066is now adjourned and over