001e be fun weird fun restriction I doubt that would have been over the weekend wait till you sit down then get you to stand up good evening and welcome to the November 12th 2020 Community Consolidated School District 21 Board of Education meeting everyone please rise and join Us in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you secretary M would you check for quarum please uh certainly Phil I Stacy alen here myself yes Aran I bill present Stacy yes Jessica yes we have a forum thank you thank you uh we'll move into our board communication um and we will start with um nssco well um things are just moving
002along like everybody else is a lot of the groups are start the schools are starting to go into they're going back remote especially with all of the close contact that they they have to have with their students um and no word yet not on the playground opening that'll probably wait till spring now that the weather's starting to get bad but fairly quiet night okay thank you Deb uh we'll move into edre update Bill thank thank you Phil um we had our first member meeting of the year last Friday Ralph martii who many of you know from the center of tax and budget accountability presented on state of Illinois finances given the failure of the fair tax amendment and where we could go from here type perspective it was a very good presentation gave background on
003the budget if you missed it it is has been recorded and it's available on the member page of the website if you have trouble accessing that please let me know and I can email you a link um there was also some discussion of the possibility of a veto session which has now become rather moot as the legislature decided not to have a veto session and finally the next edred meeting will be held again virtually on December 4th for an update on the work of the equity subcommittee I'll hand off to Jessica thank you Bill um just all four of the equity committee subcommittees have now met um and probably had our final meetings for now uh we've discussed potential bills that could come up in the new session uh as Bill noted we also know
004that veto session's been cancelled all four subcommittees have developed a guiding principles document for their subcommittee um I'll note that I'm not on the SRO or the student data committees and I haven't reviewed their documents um but the bipac subcommittee and the curriculum subcommittee both met at the end of October um The Guiding principles aren't really anything formal or binding but they represent uh the principles or the guidelines on which edred would come to the table and negotiate any bills and ideally would represent the interests of the Suburban districts in the organization um I'm happy to answer any questions anyone has specific to any of the principles themselves um in a nutshell for the bipac committee there's two main principles we believe it's critical to increase recruitment of bipac teachers and staff and administrators and
005to be any bill should Implement uh effective strategies for interviewing and retaining staff again these are broad overviews uh we also have some basic recommendations for advocacy for Sarah of any legislation that comes through on terminology that should be used any goals comments on isb's role in this process teacher lure Etc uh for the curriculum subcommittee The Guiding principles uh are there there's a few more um we'd like to reassess how history is taught increase the use of primary sources over Reliance on textbooks which we know is problematic rethinking the state standards promoting resources being used by school districts that are already doing a good job of teaching history and with regard to the commission that the bill uh that we've been talking about wants to establish we would like to see less Reliance on
006textbook Publishers in that commission right now it stands at a recommended 30 person Commission you can make of that what you want um and finally we think that history should continue to be taught while this bill is being negotiated and whatever comes from it uh as as I've mentioned the bill suggests that history just stop being taught until it can be done correctly um the subcommittees have all met will likely not meet again before the new session starts uh Orly until any bills are moved that we want to Advocate or negotiate um also just last week uh right before election day actually right after election day on the 4th the whole Equity committee met and Dr Ayala from the State Board of Education spent some time with us she discussed isb's formulation of a diversity
007equity and inclusion plan um an impact analysis and stakeholder involvement uh Dr AA highlighted the need for a connection between students who express interest in teaching and their ability to actually become teachers and talked about different ways I guess ISB is going to be looking at that um she talked briefly about the need for flexibility in uh lure for students that do their teacher prep programs out of state um I remember my days at ISB working with the board there that approves teacher prep programs and how rigid they were in maintaining that you should do your teacher prep program in Illinois I also know that I'm also a licensed professional and that I could have gone to law school anywhere in the country and still gotten licensed in Illinois because Law School curriculum is standardized
008um just a few other quick notes about our conversation with Dr Ayala uh she indicated she plans ISB to be transparent in their review process of History standards and uh there was some comments by some of the members of the equity committee that we need to make sure we hold ISB account to that and that stakeholder voices are heard in this process um and she did indicate that she would be seeking School District involvement in this process um she talked briefly about the need for more professional development options and stressed that they'd be culturally responsive honestly how can we expect our teachers to be comfortable teaching experiences they've never had uh but are definitely important for them to be able to do so and ultimately that more history needs to be woven into the general
009curriculum and not just taught you know as its own thing um and then we ended the conversation with a brief discussion of few positives that have come out of this pandemic uh that remote learning has allowed is to consider things like if a student is going to be suspended if they need to be removed from the school building they could still attend remote learning and not lose the instructional time um and it just you know it makes us constantly sit back and reassess that you know there are some positive visions that have come out of the situation that we're in and we need to constantly be considering those options for our students um there was a brief presentation by amplify after Dr IA was done but I had to nip out to get the kids
010to school so I didn't attend that part didn't miss much okay thank you Jessica bill was there anything else on red not under red red nope we're good okay for those of you that have never heard Ralph martii I've gotten to know Ral quite well over the last number of years and during my uh time spent down in Springfield with IB I can't imagine anybody that can go through a set of numbers and make it sound just very specific and easy to understand and it's incomparable to me that the state legislature doesn't understand it he was terrific he was absolutely terrific amazing a college professor as well now so of course of course yeah okay um with I update I'm going to do divide it in half bill I want you to go ahead and
011do yours we're going to finish up and then Deb we're going to come to you for the resolutions okay okay and I'll be real quick Deb you'll have plenty of time uh the north cook fall meeting was held on October 28th and Dr Connell you did an excellent job as one of the presenters thank you absolutely um if any of you would like to privately send me any feedback you had on the meeting or any suggestions you may have for future meetings please feel free to contact me outside the meeting tonight it would be of great help as we talk about planning future meetings the iasb virtual Summit will be held a week from tomorrow if you wish to attend you will need to contact LC ASAP to get signed up one of the benefits
012of registering is that the ISB is recording the event so that if you sign up for it but aren't able to attend next Friday you have a full month to be able to view it online um and finally for those of you who need a long lead time in your event planning the north cook spring meeting has has been tentatively scheduled for March 17th 2021 St Patrick's Day that's it okay uh Arlon ISC North cook ISC so a couple of things um Ralph was terrific I was delighted to be part to watch that meeting because he really did and it's hard to comprehend that people didn't understand the numbers I almost think that the state should have done what we did before a referendum the first one that we passed where we said here's what's
013going to have to happen if we don't pass it because I don't think people understood it unfortunately and it's going to be a disaster uh a couple of other things be thankful that we're an Elementary District not a high school district I'm in touch with the board presidents of both 24 and 125 because of my history with them and they are going through issues up and down that are as complicated as ours are uh I feel like theirs are a whole lot worse and a lot more difficult and certainly more difficult to please the parents so uh second in terms of North cook I sent to you tonight you should have notes from our executive director on what's happening through the through the Illinois Department of Public Health which is recommending that non-essential workers stay
014home uh so we are doing that with our staff we've proven however that they can work well at home and so it's not an issue um and as I always do I wanted to thank our teachers again for another month of extremely hard work commitment dedication and love and handling our children I continue to hear you know wonderful things from parents that I see thankful at the hard work that our teachers are putting in and the dedication so I want to thank them once again terms of Arlington Heights uh they are using reserves to cover their budget shortfall and they're not expecting an increase in um in rates uh for the next year so Arlington Heights nothing extraordinary happening they do have a contested election coming up in the spring and that's it Stacy anything
015Stacy anything just uh Village of Wheeling has their uh budget workshop on Saturday at 8:30 in the morning I um think there will be some interesting numbers that come out of that I reviewed the financial documents this morning actually um in preparation uh for that meeting and they also have a contested election coming up in April so should be interesting okay um since we have a public comment dealing with um the resolutions for ISB I think I'm going to go ahead and read this into uh the record which is what our Council now recommends for us to do with any communication that aren't in in person um this is from Heidi Graham who we know is a president of the League of Women Voters out in this area uh it's regarding IB resolution 2 all
016of you have this at your thing I'm reading this for the for the record dear district 21 school board members and Dr Conley I had hoped to be able to deliver my remarks in person at this evening school board meeting but I have a previous commitment to a program on Asylum Seekers I'm asking the board to vote to approve ISB resolution number two at the 2020 meeting this resolution aligns with League's position on guns which states in part that we believe the proliferation of handguns and semi-automatic weapons in the United States is a major health and safety threat to its citizens teen suicide by gun and School shooters are headlines we all want to avoid resolution two is a simple step we can take to stand in the way of such headlines resolu solution number
017two would align Illinois childsafe gun storage law with laws covering the minimum age to purchase guns current Illinois Law covering Childs saafe gun storage applies only when a person under the age of 14 might have access to the firearm the minimum age to purchase a firearm is 18 School shooters are typically current are former students between the ages of 13 and 21 with the majority being 14 15 16 and 17 years old as you can see from the chart on the attached handout in most school shootings the SC the shooter obtained the gun from family a friend or relative who left the gun unsecured under current law the gun owner cannot be held responsible should a teen 14 15 16 or 17 commit a crime using an unsecured gun unfortunately the resolutions committee voted a
018do not approve disposition for resolution too the reasons given for the do not approve include that IB does not have legislative resources to support such a resolution and the ISB typically only deals with issues affecting the school district a school shooter is in the district the shooter is in the school regarding legislation there are many gun violence prevention groups in Illinois including League of Women Voters ready to support this legislative change an endorsement by the iasb would help with our lobbying efforts additionally I'd like to ask you to vote for the equity belief statement proposed by Indian Prairie School District 204 League's position on diversity equity and inclusion States in part the federal government shall in share in part with other levels of government the responsibility to provide equality of opportunity for education and employment
019as Dr connley pointed out in our meeting this summer school districts are the largest social services provider in our communities and to achieve the idea of our Founders we must begin with the schools on behalf of the League of Women Voters Arington Heights Mount Prospect Buffalo Grove including Prospect Heights outro Village and Wheeling I thank you uh we look forward to continuing our partnership with district 21 in service to the community uh follow this link to the presentations we completed for the district 21 Mack elections I cannot speak highly enough of Mr Latino who was key in coordinating this effort across all of district 21 schools no small task in a limited time frame as always feel free to email or call me I'm not going to put her her phone number out there sincerely
020Heidi Graham president League of Women Voters okay uh with that Debbie I'll turn it over to you to go through the uh the 12 resolutions I believe yes we there are 12 um resolutions um well 11 resolutions one belief statement um the agenda that they had listed on the committee report is changing which is why I wanted to make sure I went through every all of them individually because of ones that are um have been pulled and some have been um appealed so number uh if you go through the list number one which was regarding the loan programs number three regarding the school report card and number eight which was the second one on local control for pandemics those are not being voted on at all um they have not been appealed or anything if
021they were all voted as do not adopt um I'll wait for number two to last since there's the most on there number four is listed as prek lure it should have been titled prek pre-service um meaning what they were talking about was what classes the teachers should have to take when before they can go and get their uh license um that was voted as do not adopt it was originally not going to be voted on but it was appealed um the reason they said do the reason the committee said do not adopt was because that's not our jurisdiction to tell the schools what they should be teaching if we want that kind of a class taught if we want that on there we can require that our ourselves as a district but we should not
022be the ones dictating what the lure should be um so if anyone wanted does want me to say adopt uh if you could let me know that or first we have to vote should it become up for a vote and then we will be voting as to a yes or no um as of right now we we would say Do not even vote on it because we are going to be voting no so was everyone everyone seems in agreement with that uh teacher uh number five was teacher shortage um that is for voted for adopt uh that's what they recommended and that's what we had said and that's for people to get preliminary preliminary licensure um if you don't want to use it we in our area don't have a problem getting teachers usually for
023most cases but in the smaller Southern communities they do have problems so they they need to have that flexibility so we were voting do adopt on that one number six was e-learning on Election Day that was giving us the option to use e-learning we said adopt number seven was local control pandemic um as to whether to go to e-learning close hybrid whatever um we again said adopt this one was more inclusive than number eight which is why they chose this one instead of the other one um numbers 9 through 11 are re reaffirmations of existing positions we said adopt and number 12 was the belief statement that Heidi had mentioned um on equity and we also had said adopt on that one the questionable one and the one that we spent most of our time
024on in the discussions was number two which was the gun storage um I know several of several of you did watch the at least that section of the webinar um and the resolutions committee said recommended do not adopt mostly because it's out of what we can control essentially should we be spending uh the ib's time and money on changing trying to go for legislation that really does not directly affect the schools yes it affects us but like I spoke last week and said you know we tell the kids they need to wear winter coats it gets cold up here you need to wear a winter coat um we even give winter coats to kids but we can't make them wear them except for when they're in school you know you can say no you can't
025go out for resistance you don't have your winter coat but we can't control what they do we can't punish them for what they do at home so that's where we were saying my personal opinion if this had been a belief statement absolutely I fully agree that this should be done I just don't think as a school board it is where we should be spending our time and money I wanted to ask I want everyone's their individual opinions on this I want to make sure I vote the way everybody wants me to if we say if everyone says yes I will vote uh yes so well did you want to go Stacy go ahead um I personally feel like the gun situation is another pandemic in our country and certainly many school districts across the country
026have been affected by teenagers getting their hands on guns and so it would seem to me it would behoove us to support at least to support a resolution suggesting that this from a school district idea a perspective is an is an idea whose time has come to say that a a a child of 14 to 18 so 18 at the top side should now the parents should have a a safe place for a gun seems to me as perfectly reasonable our schools schools in in this country have been affected by that and I would totally support a statement by is IB supporting it myself any reaction um I I agree with Arlin um while I I I see the analogy of the coat um I disagree with it a little bit in so far as
027not wearing a coat for that child really only affects that child um and you know getting access to a gun by somebody um who should be locking it up obviously impacts a lot more than just that one child um but I I I hear what you're saying about the resources and d and and I'm I'm okay with that but I I do appreciate a belief statement that says I mean I personally support that legislation if it would come up so um you know I would support that but I understand dedicating the time and the resources and I'm okay with that decision that that's the way the board goes okay the just want to mention that we have to vote on it as the resolution it cannot it was it was submitted as a resolution not
028as a belief statement a lot more people would have said have said that they would say yes if it was submitted as a belief statement so before we I continue go let me just share a couple quick thoughts um as you know I chaired the resolutions committee when I was vice president of IB for two years the statement that they use and I've seen multiple resolutions over the years have similar good intentions uh come through the committee uh of all different types of natures and anytime um it was outside of the school building or the ability of a school or District to totally capture the issue um the same rationale has been used I think if this resolution comes back next year as a belief statement I'm sure that it would it would result in
029the committee's recommendation to approve but they deal with on an average year probably close to 12 to 1500 different pieces of legislation are government staff of four people so when they say the resources they have to Target those things with a prioritization that they can try and and talk to legislators about so I just want to share that that background experience Stacy and then Jess and Bill you know in my feeling in reading some of the comments on it and I agree actually with Stacy and Ireland both which is um the line that I really if this will help them move some legislation forward by having some support on this then then which is you know actually what have I read on the comments from the League of Women Voters Then I then I would
030be supportive of it I understand belief statement versus a resolution but um I think if if there can be some leadership provided and support from from us on getting that mve forward I think Ireland is right I think we are um I I think the rise in gun violence across the board during this time has been noticeable and marked and I think um although it would be not in their control I think it would be something to take a position on and I would be supportive of it if it helped move things forward in the grand scheme of things Jessica yeah I I did listen to the discussion sessions and thank you Debbie for for sending us the links to those um and I was particularly interested in the discussion of whether this affects schools
031I mean anything that affects children and school affect schools but I looked back at the way the resolution was written and I I I do agree that it it's sort of outside of the realm of school boards in terms of something that we we would really in charge of um I and Phil thank you for providing the explanation you just did I I think had members of the resolutions committee said that during the discussions that might have alleviated some of the concerns that were raised uh I don't think most people really realize how limited the staff at iasb is and how much they have to do and I I certainly appreciate that maybe this isn't where we want them to put their limited resources right now considering everything that that they're going to have to
032be doing in this this upcoming session uh that said I do completely support the legislation and I would like to think that if a bill was introduced and iasb was asked to sign a witness lip in support that they would be willing to do so because I think it's it's definitely an important issue um you know honestly I I wish the resolution had been written def differently to be more directly within the realm of school boards maybe something along the lines of of having a b smart policy or education program something like that um but I I I I I'm comfortable with us aligning with their recommendation of do not adopt I just I would hope that there would be some support down the line if ISB can lend that bill last year we proposed
033and the ISB adopted what was then called resolution three which was a school safety issue so that we talked about not arming teachers but instead supporting a grant program we have had conversations in this Arena before um I agree that with what as Jess was saying that this is beyond the bound of a school district in terms of the resolution I would love to to sit back and if you had the chance to comment to say that we would be happy to support this if it came forth as a belief statement um I would think that at any point that we could sign a witness list uh slip either as ISB or even as district 21 that would be a wonderful thing to do bill would you use your mic I can't hear you I'll
034bring it closer thank you sir there are you having problem no no it's a male thing no I think it's an age thing Ireland but that's another thing okay let's there it is in any event I think you do need to go forward with the supporting that do not adopt and hopefully that you'll have an opportunity to Simply mention that we would prefer to see this come forward as a belief statement well you got a 33 and you're the decided vote on that Deb so okay okay and I I say do not adopt because of the wishing it was a belief statement if it does not pass I can guarantee I would bet money that it comes back next year as a belief statement and more people will be supporting it that way can I
035suggest that in your remark when you vote could you not say something to the effect that this board would support it the amount of commentary that's going to be allowed on Saturday is very limited that's why they had so much uh I mean we' had almost 3 hours the first conversation and two and A4 hours the second time and that's why I made sure I spoke and there were a lot of people after me that said if it was a belief statement they would so all I'm asking is that if you can squeeze if I get if I get an opportunity I will i' appreciate it yes okay thank you good conversation we'll move on to staff Communications Dr Conley so um first of all um I just want to uh recognize that um it
036is School Board uh member appreciation um day I don't know if that's today or time has no meaning anymore um so uh but it is in November um when school board appreciation day um but we have meaning yes the day may not but we do no no no time has no meaning um one day is just goes into the next um in any event uh so I think it's extremely important to note um that the the seven individuals that are elected to serve on this board uh do so without compensation um they give hours and hours and hours and hours of time um over their terms um and make some of the toughest decisions that any local unit of government um need to make uh this is in no small um part Illustrated by the
037kindness of decisions that you have had to make over the past eight months um so uh you know at your at your board tables there's just a very very very small and uh not nearly as uh uh significant a token of of appreciation um for all of you than what you deserve um and again just on behalf of the entire staff um and the community um just thank you for what you do as members of this board so thank you very much thank you thank you thank you um we uh only have one item uh this evening I did um make a decision uh in consultation with Phil to delay our NWA map uh data presentation to December um because of the um the discussion that that we need to have this evening um and
038just out of a uh you know um making sure we we had time uh to spend on that um that's not a time sensitive issue uh so there that really is no um no problem to to move to to December uh but we did have a uh a very nice um uh uh opportunity um that we've pursued in uh with our Architects archon and so Michael do you want to talk a little bit about um uh the uh opportunity our students had I will I'll bring my microphone closer um archon annually does a holiday card uh contest that they pick a school district District to go ahead and in any way that they fashion whether it be Elementary certain grade levels whatever it may be have the art from the students submitted and then typically
039it's voted on at the tric conference obviously that's not happening this year so what they're going to do is take our submissions since they selected district 21 and car has been working with Carolyn droll on uh getting those submissions together Tuesday they're going to pick them up Aron's going to do a selection process of the top ones that they feel uh represent the the best work of our students and then they're going to post online the ability to vote on those cards and the holiday card for archon this year will be representative of the artwork of a district 21 students so we're really honored to have been chosen for that um I don't know if you've seen their cards in the past I think you all receive them they're always really cool very festive and
040a nice touch to the season so we're happy that they chose us very nice very nice thank you okay the next item on our agenda is public comment do we have any other board discussion and then public comment pardon public uh board discussion and then public Comet I'm sorry board discussion this is like one of those non-controversial topics that we're talking about status of inperson learning with covid-19 Dr connley so um this really is a uh it's the culmination of a of a tough few days um the first of all let me start off with maybe some some positives um you know we returned uh the in-person um learning option uh for about two-thirds of our students um whose whose families elected to take that uh that road um on October 5th um and obious
041and even before that on on on August 31st um we started to uh work in person with some of our specialized programming and it's been um you know an extremely successful Venture um the the teachers and and uh staff in in the buildings and you know parents and and kids have have really just been um so thankful uh to be back in the classroom um and we've really enjoyed being able to see them again um and um and we've done a good job uh the the the efforts that are being uh put forward by the staff um the planning that we've done um the the mitigations we've put in place um you know they've really kept us going and quite frankly and and to be very honest um we blew past our our high-end metrics
042that were in our reopening plan weeks ago and that was tough because it was that concept of well this is what we put out there based on the best information that we had from um the field epidemiologist so on and so forth and yet our internal data was looking very strong and so we decided to keep keep the course right um it was something that we really wanted to to to keep our kids um with us um and knowing that you know we had provided choice and that that parents um that elected to to have their students learn remotely were were able to do that but we all know what's happening uh and what has been happening um for some time um the fact of the matter is and and if you were able to
043to hear the governor's press conference um this afternoon um Dray as well as as um others on the de um I think said it a couple of different times um we have reached exponential increases in the infection there is no area um that is uh below um well almost four times in terms of cases per 100,000 than what our our higher end um you know metric was uh positivity um testing positivity rates are are are 133% um and um that's up from 6% in I think 2 weeks so again it's just that um but even internally while our data is I wouldn't say that it has reached a red line yet but it's also I truly believe a question of not if It's when um and again as our staff has really done um the
044Yan's work to try and and and to you know to to protect themselves to protect their families to protect our kids to keep this going you know the reality is is that we are in uncontrolled Community spread and we have more and more staff that are being exposed um either in their personal lives with other family members so on and so forth or you know just in the in daily living life um and uh uh or are um coming down with it themselves and so you know we are at a point where I think one of the blessings of having a larger district is that we do have more people than some of our smaller neighbors um who have already hit a point of they don't have the Staffing capacity to keep it going um
045but you know if you look at all of our data it's trending upwards um and quite frankly uh some of the things that that we're hearing all of us are hearing is just terrifying uh the CDC this evening um uh projected that Nationwide we could see another 40,000 deaths by December 5th MH we're coming into the holiday season um it it you know quite frankly the predictions that that epidemiologists and scientists have been making you know for quite some time are arriving right on time y um and so I wanted to spend some time this evening talking through um our options and what our our next steps could be uh or should be um I shared with the board yesterday uh an executive memo that laid out um some of the various um data points
046as well as um the um some of the more qualitative considerations um we've continued to to um you know revise and update and you know put new information into that I won't necessarily go Point by point there um unless you know members have have questions um but I think overall um if I could you know if I could point to just the trend data it's not in our favor um I think anecdotally um we also have to acknowledge that when I reached out to building principles um all principles and just said how how's it going right you know what are you hearing what are you seeing what you know and some buildings are are doing okay right you know um you know they're they're you know the staff is is you know dealing well um
047with this with the stress they're not hearing a lot from parents their their absence rate isn't isn't all that you know concerning albeit some of our smaller learning communities um and then you have other There's real fear the anxiety is real the stress is real and it's not just staff it's also parents um you know principles are are are receiving more and more calls uh from parents that are in the in-person track going I'm keeping my kid home because this is just too scary um you know we we've heard from some parents that they've decided to keep their children home you know at this point because of the holiday coming up and they want to keep them you know healthy so that they can see their family on Thanksgiving and certainly respect and understand that
048that decision-making um so uh you know I think the other thing is that the dominoes are falling um you know just today um and I included this in the in the um memo uh we have um of the 214 Center districts um District 23 Prospect Heights was already scaling back there in person to only targeted um High need students very likely as of Monday they are going to be going full remote because of Staffing capacity um River Trails District 26 needed to to step back because St capacity earlier in the week um 57 and and 59 um really hadn't gotten to the point of being able to to move into um uh although you know 59 did have again some targeted staff in uh NSO um you know Kirk and Miner had to to to
049move back to to remote earlier this week well as of Monday Timber Ridge uh is is moving to to remote and then we look at other districts um district 15 last night uh made the determination that they're going to go remote um at least for a week after Thanksgiving four districts now five districts actually um in Northfield Township District 27 28 31 30 and 34 all announced that um as of Thanksgiving break um whatever day that is for that District they are moving to an Adaptive pause and they will be uh planning to return um after the holidays so basically after MLK uh Martin Luther King Jr's birthday District 54 um needed to to go remote last week because of Staffing capacity they I believe this evening are having a similar discussion uh about what's
050next uh District 62 64 in Lake County 96 102 barington 220 District 211 um is having a discussion this evening bottom line is we are at a point idph put out a travel advisory uh excuse me a stay-at-home advisory uh limit um non-essential travel uh I found it very interesting the County Department of Public Health actually added something to their travel advisory uh today that said um if you are traveling into Suburban cook quarantined for 14 days I live in the city of Chicago which is not Suburban cook and so you know I mean it's at that point where where so very complicated yes um you know how enforcable is I you know Point as these are advisories um the mayor of Chicago um placed a a 30-day stay-at-home advisory for the entire city of
051Chicago um so so unfortunately I think we are at a point where we need to take a look at the reality and how uh even though we have been successful um how much longer we can actually keep doing this and I don't think it's very long um so I guess I'll pause there and just kind of answer any questions or have any conversation and then I do have a recommendation to make um but I don't want to get circumvent conversation first let me go first order from where we've been going bill I'll start with you reaction I'm sorry I was thinking that I'd be last and I'd have the opportunity to think about this for a minute I want to Echo something that arand said a few minutes ago which is first of all a
052thank you to our staff to from administrator and all the way down every teacher this is this has been a difficult time and quite frankly had we been a more handson board to you to tell you what to do we could have shut this down three weeks ago uh we have trusted you to do and trusted your team and trusted our teachers to do an outstanding job and you all have and you all have and and that's to your credit and it's done good things for our community I'm willing to allow you to continue doing that good job and making the decisions the hard decisions that you've been making I think there's no question I think we've all been expecting from back in July that a day like this was coming and coming quickly I
053don't think that's a surprise to anyone I don't think it's a surprise to the board or anybody who's watched any of our meetings all you have to do is listen to what's been coming out of the CDC out of every out of every other place in reading your memo one of the things that struck me was that our teachers wanted to have as as much time as possible with our kids and I think that speaks to their dedication it speaks to what we think of our kids but at a certain point I don't know that adding one or two extra FaceTime days is really going to make a difference one way or another if we could spend weeks and months that's one thing days not so much if you feel that we need to shut
054it down immediately I could support that if you feel that we need a few days to make sure everything is in place that's fine too I can't imagine that we're going that much beyond that um we all want to see our kids here we all want to see everyone safe as well and it's the situation is becoming out of control thank you Bill Jessica I know we've had this discussion in various aspects for quite some time now and I I think I've made my feelings clear all along and as you know I'm in kind of a strange position here I I have two little ones in one of our buildings and I I see what they've gone through since March and balance that against what I see going on in our community and I don't
055think there's any disagreement any question at all that inperson instruction is absolutely the best for kids but to be effective those kids need to be healthy I know we've had a lot of discussions about mental health and I know that there's always more we can do for our students for our staff but I also see the anxiety that our kids are exhibiting because they're afraid of what's going on and they don't know what's happening some of them are at home some of them are in person they're all feeling the same things I trust you and I support you to make the right decisions for our community and I think you know that my only request is that we try to the best of our ability to give people lead time and to be as transparent
056with our Communications as possible I was talking to a friend of mine today today was a mom of one of my son's classmates and her school shut down today they told them today we're going remote no lead time no discussion hit her like a ton of bricks and now she's got a scramble to figure out what to do with her three kids and I don't want that for our community if there's anything we can do to have conversations with the community and let them know ahead of time to be honest I don't think anyone will be surprised we're going in this direction um I I've already started talking to my kids about it so I it's very hard for me to say this but I I I think it's the best decision it's just a
057question of when you feel we need to do it thank you Jess stac um I I I understand what you what you're saying and what you're going through it's it this has been rough I will say from a healthare perspective as someone who spends my days in and out of treatment centers and hospitals the tone has changed remarkably in the last week and a half um in in a in a way that I didn't even see in in March and April um not just for the escalation you know when you turn on the news when you talk to your neighbors not just the escalation in numbers but I went online today to get a covid test for my daughter who just returned from a business trip and I couldn't get her one I couldn't get
058her an appointment to get a covid test anywhere I was willing to drive to Zion I was willing to drive to WAN I was willing to drive to Palatine I was willing to drive anywhere I could and I couldn't get her a test so that fear is not helped by something like that when you have um so she will 14-day quarantine instead of of me being able to get her test so those are the things that are that are different out there um I was not in favor before of of of coming out but but only from a safety perspective only from being able to provide a a a layer of of of safety for our for our teachers um I will say that and Dr Conley and I have talked many times over the
059last couple of weeks um I think he's done an extraordinary job under extraordinary difficult circumstances and the feedback that I have gotten from my friends and neighbors is that district 21 has taken a leadership role in this community in this crisis this is another one of those moments where we need to take a leadership point in our community because I have three co-workers ERS and friends that are currently struggling with covid-19 the best contact tracers the best healthare people and these people have no idea where they got it from and so that when I talk about the fear in the medical community the fear is that we it is we have hit that point of community spread that people were hoping that we weren't going to get to um and so that that's my that's
060my Tipping Point is that that's that's where we are where these are people with great contact tracers these are great people with great resources and these people have no idea where they contracted it that gives me a cold sweat um I do agree with Jessica the more preparation and lead time that we can give to our families and our communities but um I you can I mean I I picked up the phone and call Dr Conley a couple weeks ago and the numbers were were not in our favor and and we had a robust discussion about what was coming and you know I I give him all the faith and all the confidence in the world to to keep keeping our kids in our buildings but at this point in time I think it is
061a matter of when and the better that we can do to prepare our community for not what's just coming in the coming weeks but the coming months I think that that's our charge and that's what we need to do thank you Stacy Debbie yeah one thing I did notice Dr Conley that you did not mentioned was what 2114 is doing because 214 being that I have a student there is actually increasing the number of students that they're having in person I in the building at at a given time um instead of being split into three groups they're still staying in the three groups but group one and two are together and then two and three are together and then three and one so they're actually having more students now when I pick my child up
062there are not a lot of high schoolers that are in those schools at any time um used to be rows of buses picking the kids up and now there's three maybe four and they're not full um but yeah the the biggest thing that we need is for the community is is yeah lead time do we think you know you don't want to have if all of a sudden there's an outbreak yeah shut a shut a building down now but for the health of the community if we need to shut we I trust you if we need to shut down we need to shut down thank you Debbie I'll save M at the at the end after Stacy Arlon you're next so the first time around I was leaning more towards where Stacy was because of
063the social emotional side but I went along with closing at that point point I think now we're in a different world and um I've had at least uh one of my relatives who works in another District be notified by email the morning they were closing just surprise you're closed um and another District that closed over a weekend the same kind of thing with no advanced notice I was assuming coming to this meeting that your recommendation was going to be to close uh Thanksgiving I don't ask me why um just because I know that you like to anticipate rather than be caught by surprise and that would make some degree of sense in terms of notifying the parents in advance it's not going to get better very quickly um my guess is that we're going to
064go through January until this thing really turns around um and of course the the fear is that we continue to see younger people uh younger adults 30s 40s getting sick and dying from this disease it's just happening and so from the standpoint of community spread uh I would lean into closing in advance assuming that your judgment is it's going to happen anyway I'd rather see us pull a lever and do it so that our parents have adequate notification rather than all of a sudden on a Monday morning realize that three of our buildings have to close or four of them have to close and uh and then parents are not ready for it so if it's inevitable um and I know nobody likes to think that then I would a on the side of uh
065of moving sooner rather than later but I will also go along with Bill of course um you've done a fabulous job our staff has done a fabulous job as I've said before I couldn't be prouder of this district and the team that takes care of our children from top to bottom so I am very comfortable leaving it in your hands in terms of making that that decision but that's just kind of my gut feeling thank you Aran Stacy so my thoughts are kind of all over the place and I apologize as I'm sure every vacillate on this issue quite a bit um like Jessica I am a not only a board member of district 21 but I'm also a district 21 parent and a district 214 parent um if our district had decided to go
066the route of others which was having certain kids in school all day for a couple days I would be more nervous about continuing that course where they had lunch together recess together you know um I I think the manner in which you all have chosen to allow our kids to come back to school was the right one as much as it probably caused inconvenience to a lot of people um I'm one of them um you know but to have these kids into school two days a week for two and a half hours with minimal movement and minimal contact I think was I think was the absolute right way to go um am I optimistic we're going to be able to continue that for significant periods of time not really um I personally would like to
067see it continue um until we hit the markers that we've set the 85% Staffing the the con continuous outbreaks or whatever we're we're looking at because I think it's been invaluable for some of these kids to be back into school um like I said I'm not optimistic that you know with the way the numbers are trending that's going to be for a long period of time I would be willing or I'm interested in considering a small break after these holidays um I think that that would be a way to curtail a significant amount of outbreak if we had the kids remote for a week or so after Thanksgiving couple weeks after Christmas because you just know there's going to be people getting together um and the opportunity to spread this disease is going to be
068significantly more than it is today but I'm going to Echo what everybody else says you've been living this you've been eating drinking sleeping this you you and your staff so I trust you if you feel that it's we're ready to go and we need to pull back and go remote I fully support that personally I think we can continue for a little bit longer for as long as we can um I think the benefit of that right now I think there's a lot of benefits to that let me put it that way but the numbers aren't great so you know you just can't you can't argue with you can't argue with that so you have my support um I wish it was different like everybody else does uh it's just very frustrating all the way
069around you know they finally got back in and or those who wanted to go back in got to go back in and I I see some real benefit to that and it's just frustrating that we may lose it thank you thank you Stacy thank you everyone um obviously Mike and I have had a series of ongoing perhaps without much break in between and checking in with with one another Mike checking in with me uh to get my reactions to where we are uh in the last week um from one day to the next from one night to the next morning things have turned 180° from where when I went to sleep I thought we were going to be the next day um this is a tough thing to catch this is a stough tough thing
070to keep your hands around or get your hands around um you know one thing we we mentioned at the beginning of this is this is a group of eight it's Mike's decision but I felt and we felt com uh very strongly that this was not going to be something that he was going to be out on a limb by himself on which is why I wanted to have this discussion um with all all of you tonight um the one thing that I don't want to do personally and I don't think it's good for the district is to go back and forth in short order I think if we're going to go to uh remote adaptive pause um that it's going to be for a period of time um if we initiate this at the Thanksgiving
071holiday it's my personal opinion that we don't even put it out there that we're going to have that option again of of inperson learning until a week or two after the Christmas holidays because we don't want to go back and forth that's not fair for the parents they have to have uh Child Care issues and other things that they have to deal with so uh Mike's going to give you his recommendation it's not going to sound very much different than what we've all been talking about uh but I think it's the right thing for the community uh I think it's the fair thing for the community and I think it shows uh thoughtfulness uh planning and the ability to um put this put the district in a good position you know Mike and I have
072been having this ongoing conversation long before our surrounding districts have made up their mind and publicized it uh just like we did at the very beginning of this process last summer uh some actually made their their decisions known prior to our meeting um but our conversations have been um irrespective truly of what other districts are going to do we wanted to check in Mike wanted to check in with them to see if we're going to be out there by ourselves or not obviously we're not going to be so with that Mike you want to offer your recommendation so uh to Phil's Point um you know if we were having this conversation on Tuesday evening um you would hear very different words coming out of my mouth um as a matter of fact uh and this
073is something that I that I noted uh in my communications uh with the board um in my cabinet meeting on Tuesday the consensus um was let's let's keep this going as long as we can um and at the root of of I think all of our Our Hope and desire that's really where we come from but I can't ignore um what it's what's in front of us um and in some ways it's um not necessarily although certainly it's it's a it's a big concern about kids getting sick and we do have kids that are are testing positive for for covid we have a number of kids who have co-like symptoms and so they're excluded um and uh you know that all factors into it um and of course if you have multiple siblings in a
074family you have one go down they're all down um and and that is is absolutely um a hardship but when we've seen the uh daily uh increase of Staff who have been exposed osed um who then have to quarantine uh they you know they're still working but they're working from home to this point we've been able to cover right but there's a fine line between being able to to cover and not um and I think we need to to to Really recognize that I think we are at a Tipping Point um I don't I in in as I struggled with this and I struggled with it um it's the difference between kind of a methodical and controlled Retreat um or being forced to retreat right could we keep going for a little while until we
075hit all those red lines yes we could um I don't know how quickly we would hit those red lines I do think we would hit them um but you know I I don't doing a strategic Retreat to not lose the war is I think ultimately where I ended up and so um I do think um that uh what my what what my recommendation would be what my decision would be um is that uh you know we're going to we're going to do our level best to to get through next Friday um you know that's going to be the the the date in which we will communicate will be our our last inperson day um and we will continue uh as I have I mean I needed to put Hawthorne into an Adaptive pause I needed
076to put Holmes into an Adaptive pause because of quite frankly not because necessarily of of covid but because we had so many of Home students not in attendance just because of whatever you know the fear that you know that the parents keeping them home or their older kids maybe they needed to you know they had duties that child care things of that nature I mean there's a myriad of reasons um but you know we have some buildings that that are uh a few Active cases away from hitting 3% at which point they would need to go down immediately um we could have some situations where over the weekend we have a rash of Staff um that that either test positive or or or get ill or or get exposed and we could see that situation
077which is you know what happened um you know particularly for District 26 and over the weekend you know and they had to you know they didn't have a choice but the intent would be to communicate tomorrow um that we are going to move into an Adaptive fuse as a district um beginning um with you know so the last day of student attendance would be Friday the following week we have parent teacher conferences kids were not going to be in session as it was then we have the holiday now part of the conversation that that you know many of us have been having um is that whole concept of as much as as we would like to think that people are going to stay put um over Thanksgiving it's not necessarily going to happen and so
078I think that um the con some of the conversations that have been growing is that kind of building in those adaptive pauses after period periods of of of of um you know the holidays well you know in looking at the calendar you get to that 14 days after Thanksgiving and you literally have one week um of attendance days before we would go out on winter break likewise winter break the um first day uh project day back would have been um January 5th because we have a teacher Institute day scheduled for January 4th in alignment with 214 um and then 14 days after the holiday takes us really pretty much towards the end of the week right before Martin Luther King Junior's birthday and so where I'm at um is uh as as Phil indicated um
079is to say it makes sense for us to just you know set it out there that um not unlike what the the schools in Northfield Township have done uh what what District 62 has done I leave District 64 in park Bridge um and others are having this conversation literally right now 62 shut yes I know that's what I'm saying but but to say that you know we're going to we're going to make it to Thanksgiving right um if we can and then our return to in person would be projected if you know God willing um to be Tuesday January 19th yep I agree so Bill and J first of all I it's not a comment on the policy but I'm just simply looking at the calendar and thinking for not putting you out on a
080limb but our board meeting is two days later 21st would you feel better he can't hear you I think I'm going to stand behind him next time um just use your micophone you feel better delaying that until after the board meeting to get our support at that point in time I'm not recommending it I'm asking your opinion yeah I appreciate that no um I mean I think that that um um you know here's the thing um believe it or not we're getting a handle on this right you know and and and with each major decision that needs to be made we learn and the decisions while never easy become a little bit more self-evident um and so um you know I am um you know I mean the bottom line is is that that you
081know when we get to that point I I I need to see at at the very least the curve having flattened right and and the and and if better the curve starting to come down yep you know if those things don't happen if we're still in or you know quite frankly again if you saw the governor's press conference I mean he he took some people to task today um and you know I'll leave that to others to to to you know discuss but the bottom line is his Central Point was we as a state have very few tools left in the toolbx and so it is distinctly possible that we could end up right back where we were in March where we have a stay-at-home order and that completely changes the you know the landscape
082of things um if he moves us back into phase three now to date they have done carve outs for schools where that when we reduced to 25 it was a carve out if they they reducing to 10 there's a carve out for schools but again the conversation kind of goes well what's El what else is going on right so um I I I feel like I I I'm not concerned um with the ability to to make that call um and uh you know with without needing to to wait for the January board meeting and of course you know we're going to right keep in consultation just good for the school days for the school days that we would have remote would we as a district be able to provide that child care option that we
083provided when we were fully remote or is that it's it's logistically logistically not operationally it's I mean that was when we did it in the in the in the early part of the of the school year that was rough um it it it really stretched us um you know we had a lot of of teaching assistance we had a lot of Health assistance things of that nature that were redeployed to cover that um it unfortunately it's not really something that we can we can and we we looked at it it's just not really something that we can keep doing um we just don't have the manpower to to be able to do it and to keep our teaching assist working with kids you know in you know and and help you know so unfortunately no
084we won't be that's completely understandable and again with the communication to the community yeah I want to make sure there's no expectation or surprise there right thank you yes very we good were you nope I'm good oh okay so just uh two quick things I don't know if you want another vote as we did before to to for the superintendent but I'm happy to do that if if you think we need to Phil um second the daycare question was answered that was on my list uh but third I would hope that we would double down on reaching out in some fashion to parents with indications of the kind of support we can provide on the phone by Zoom for students who are having issues connecting them with other social services of course uh District 125
085just double down on that kind of support for their parents we've never stopped I'm not I'm not suggesting we did but once we close down there'll be additional stresses yeah I absolutely um but I mean our you know our student services staff is is you know they're on it and they're going to remain on it Debbie I'm sorry Debbie go ahead uh yeah back at the beginning of the year we did have some students that were in still in person are we going to have that or will it be everybody at least initially it's going to be everybody um you know because again and to be fair um what we have found even though at the beginning you know in August when we started um those those self-contained programs were were running great they've they've
086had difficulties oh yeah um and and again it's because of the nature of the program there's a lot of close contact there's a lot of um there's a lot of staff that comes in and out and so when you have uncontrolled Community spread like we do right now there's really just no way to effectively um make the the the very well thought out you know um protections that we've we've put in place work so we will certainly bring those um those targeted populations back when we you know if we can do so earlier we we certainly will if we feel like we can but just the nature of those programs we got to get community spread under control before we are able to do that I can't have those staff members be the canaries in
087the coal mine right um and nor nor those kids and and quite frankly at this point if we kept them there they would be right and then secondly um teachers will be working from home or will they be in the buildings so um we are going to keep the buildings open um I am at least initially um going to um while we will um encourage teachers who feel um comfortable in doing so and and can um to continue and and many of our teachers want to um you know I've had conversations with Greg and DEA and and and that was one of the things um but I do also think that at the moment um we need to give some flexibility um we we're going to have we're going to have um as all parents
088are struggling as this is happening we're going to have um you know uh uh staff members who are parents who are going to need to to juggle um you know childcare options themselves what I will say is that we're going to be of course reinforcing that if you don't have a stable internet connection if you don't have the ability to um you know have a dedicated workspace where you know it's going to be in you know an environment that is is reasonably free of of distractions and things like that you really need to come in uh you really need to be in your classroom because otherwise the quality of of of your your synchronous teaching is going to suffer um and so we will reinforce that um with staff but uh you know U but
089the buildings will remain open um and they will have the option to to to be in in their classrooms and we'll encourage that okay thank you Stacy um what are we going to do about food service that will continue um what we've been doing um is what we'll um you know well let me put it this way what we were doing before um we came back into to uh inperson um you know because obviously those inperson kids are they're being handed meals as they're as they're leaving right um we have and Michael you can speak to this a little bit more but we have buses that are are running routes and taking you know meals out into the community um we have pickup sites so Michael do you want to talk to that yeah we'll
090we'll go back to looking with Organic life at do we go back to all the seamless summer sites that we had before do we maintain the building sites as well as the bus routes so we will start organic life conversations tomorrow to go ahead and see how that'll look but we'll maximize it it was a real Lifeline before absolutely and um I I think one of the ways that we really took leadership and ownership of of the situation and so I would hope that we communicated with our municipalities as well as our families to try and make sure that we catch everybody absolutely and and thankfully they extended the the program because at one point it fell off and that was a real we we were worried about that but then they extended it so
091that was that was good yeah I think in the in the communication certainly that's a that's a major topic yes just a quick thing I had read at one point that one of the reasons that some children opted even though they could connect on the internet at home just didn't was because of the surroundings were that were shown in the camera setting whereas if they were tutored to be able to put a background in they wouldn't have to show the conditions sure that they don't want to show to other people yeah and that's true um so one of the and one of the you know Google meets has has continued to en enhance their platform and so one of the things Mike have they they they' fully rolled that out uh is the ability to
092to do a backdrop like like they do with zoom not for Chromebooks yet but it's it's it's coming okay yeah I'll have to check on the exact date okay all right okay great but it's coming you know um yeah it's obviously something that Zoom can do right now but but we still have the same safety you know security concerns about Zoom that we did which led us to not go in that direction and there was I think it's quieted down a little bit but there was Zoom bombing happening all over the place at you know towards the beginning of the school year and not good kind of stuff so you know I think for for the record um we have unless someone wants to speak to the contrary I believe we have a consensus of
093the pro the recommendation that's been put forth yeah yes sir yeah AB I I agree absolutely okay all right thank you Mike thank you thank you now now that I haven't skipped it over a couple the second time there's a public comment section of our public comment section of our agenda and I assume nothing else has come in virtually correct okay and nothing car Greg you didn't want to talk to us did you no I'm okay okay our loan public thank you Greg then we move on to the move on to the consent agenda does anybody need anything pulled no okay uh in terms of the um uh financial report I did have a couple minor questions for Melissa and she responded appropriately I didn't have any follow-ups with her so I don't have um
094anything else to pull from that may I have a motion please so moved thank you second thank you Stacy De Bill hi Jessica yes Stacy yes myself s yes Phil I Arlon I Stacy yes thank you okay item number seven is new business and a is a tentative tax levy for 2020 Michael over to Michael yep I'm going to go ahead and share my screen hopefully this is easier than the first time around or maybe not it not there we go all right share [Music] screen where' you go all right now we got and there we go all right so tonight is uh the night where we bring forward the ten of Levy uh this is the process uh by which we determine the amount of money that uh we request and we anticipate for
095need uh it's based off of uh the tax rate the tax rate is equal to the tax levy money divided by the tax uh base that we have which is uh the equalized assess value it's used to allocate our Levy dollars fairly so that uh all Property Owners pay their fair share of those uh tax dollars uh as you or experience board you're familiar with the fact that there is a tax cap based upon the property tax extension limitation law uh that was passed back in 1994 uh it doesn't cap property assessments it does not kept individual tax bills it kept the rate of increase that a um that a an individual or a a business owner commercial residential industrial uh can pay uh it does allow for additional taxes for new property so any
096new property that comes on the books is exempt from that that uh that that rate increase cap uh that's based off of the Consumer Price Index uh hold on there we go yep uh so this this year's Levy uh you get a historical uh perspective of what we've done since 2015 uh the 2020 Levy request uh is there second from the right and the projected extend ion is there all the way on the right uh what it's based off of is CPI and any new property but we are allowed under pel to go ahead and ask for up to 4.99% without having a truth and Taxation hearing if we go over that we need a truth in taxation hearing uh anything over CPI and your request for new property which is uh formulated based upon
097historical knowledge because unlike the CER counties Cook County does not uh make available through the assessor what your actual new property is uh but based upon what it is that uh we ask for we're we're maxed out at that 2.3% this year which is what CPI is so in an Ideal World we would get 2.3% more than what we got in the previous Levy and then any new property that came on the books that would be brought on at its valuation and that would be what the levy is in order to make sure that that we get everything we're entitled to uh and not leave any dollars on the table because we never get to recapture those we go ahead and go to at least that 4.99% and in some years depending on if we
098don't know what new property is or uh we think that there's a chance that there could be this overabundance of of property that comes on the rolls you might do what's called a balloon Levy which is even more than the 4.99% and can go up into in some districts 20 25% problem is it scares taxpayers because it looks like your taxes are going to go up a ton and then they don't go up that much at all because you're bound by the pel law so rather than strike fear into the hearts of our taxpayers during a a pandemic economy we're going to go to the 4.96 level this does still guarantee us and there's a a sheet the worksheet that I Ed to calculate in the board packet it's posted online this protects us up
099to $118 million in new property uh we haven't had $118 million Over a four-year period ever so I think we're going to be in good shape and this will allow us to go ahead capture those dollars but be responsible in that we're not going to leave anything on the table so you can see that 4.96 request uh equals out to about 9596 million uh what we truly think we'll get that projected extension is 2.67 because that CPI plus what we put in for new property based upon historical non-ri trianal years we use $7.5 million so the ask is technically for I'm sorry that the ask is yeah the the projected extension is for 93.9 million that's that 2.67 the request that we put out there to protect ourselves is about $96 million as you see
100last year because of the balloon Levy that we did because of the two tiffs that came back onto the the rolls and we didn't know exactly what new property would come on with it our Levy request was for about $102 million the projected Levy because we did have an idea of what was coming on was about $ 91.23% that's a really good estimate that we made and that we hit so that allows us to budget more accurately so that's why we also try and do not a big balloon Levy but go up to a point that we're comfortable that we protect ourselves not to lose money but that we don't scared taxpayers thinking that we're trying to take a whole bunch of dollars so the way that we calculate is in the next few slides
101but you take last year's extension time CPI this is what we're getting based off of CPI is about $2.1 million and then new property again we took 7.5 million you take your tax rate uh and take that by that number the 7.5 million we think we'll get about another $335,000 if we get that much new property if we get less new property those dollars will come down if there's more like I said we're we're protected up to 118 million but it'll be more than $335,000 if we're over that $7.5 million in new property so in summary this is what we think we will get um which is that $94 million about uh we've already been collecting taxes from the 2019 Levy so that's going strong hopefully these estimates hit those same benchmarks and will'll be
102in good shape and that we just ask since we don't need a a truth and Taxation hearing we're just asking you to accept the tenative Levy we'll put it on the board agenda for next month we will have a hearing it just won't be required to be posted in the newspaper and have have all of the the public hearing requirements we'll just do a recap of this and ask for a vote any questions for Michael no I I appreciate uh the move because I can't tell you last month how many last year how many phone calls I got from people saying what do you mean you're raising your taxes 15.87% so uh I think the timing is perfect for that move okay the chair would entertain a motion to accept the tenative lovey so moved
103thank you second thank you no questions debie go ahead Jessica yes Stacy yes myself yes Phil I Arin I Stacy yes and Bill I Item B under new business agreement to perform a dependent audit are we back to Michael this is just an informational item uh through our smart Ben system which is the new online open enrollment platform uh so that individuals in the district when they register for benefits which is currently ongoing uh they do it online it takes the human error uh element out of it from the district standpoint of processing those applications and those choices it makes it so that we can do much more efficiently the work that Jan has been doing by countless spreadsheets over the last few years again the fact that we haven't had the human error is
104amazing considering the amount of work she has to do to process open enrollment part of the process of going through open enrollment typically is every 3 to five years you would do what's called a dependent verification audit that's to make sure that the people that are on the district's Insurance are properly on the district's insurance as either spouses or children typically they find between five and 17% of people when they do this type of audit are not on the are not properly on the districts or the employer Insurance government workers around 5% this is something that when we looked into it with Hub has not been done in the district in recent memory and hub's been here a good amount of time Jan said in the time that she's been doing the insurance they haven't
105done one the anticipated Savings of a if they even found 5% is a couple hundred, if they even found a 2% we're looking at about $37,000 so we just want to make sure that the people that are availing themselves of the benefits are the ones who are supposed to be uh as a self-insured district the cost to us if people are improperly on it is extremely high it's something that uh smart Bend can provide to us and it's actually a no cost contract because they guarantee for the the amount of money which is a little under $11,000 they will find at least double that in in in uninsured or or people that are not eligible for insurance and if they do they go if they don't find that number then they go ahead and pay
106us uh that dollar amount back in a credit towards the system that we use so it actually is something that is cost neutral to us and it will help us be more efficient in making sure that only those that are supposed to be on our system are insured very good any questions for Michael no good idea okay Bill quickly yes um Michael from the reading it seems to be this is a benefit not just to the district but to our employees also that it's going to save them money in the end it'll control their costs too because those premium equivalents are based off of experience in the district and what employees pay because we're self-insured is based off of Total experience so if we go ahead and find people that aren't supposed to be there
107utilizing Insurance then that is a financial benefit to both employer and employee great thank you okay thank you the next item on our agenda is a uh convening a Clos session um so we are looking to recess uh tonight's meeting and convene a Clos session before we uh have the the motion for that let me just indicate that the board is not intending to take any action uh once we come out of closed session this evening so we will be shutting down the live feed because there will be no continuing action Stacy I just had a question as it relates to next board meeting are you anticipating us being remote or do you do you have an answer to that or should we just TBD uh I think at this point it's it's probably TBD
108but um it's there I think there's a good chance that we could be back to to meeting virtually I know I I I I don't want to but it's possible so we just have to see where it goes okay TBD all right chair we entertain a motion to uh recess do you want that whole resolution read or just uh can we just reference reference okay to reference the uh the resolution uh that we have in of us go go ahead and read through it I did I just got a a legal response Board of Education approved to recess the November 12th 2020 regular Board of Education meeting uh ccsd21 and conven in Clos session to discuss the appointment employment compensation discipline performance my glasses didn't fog would be easier I lost my place do you
109need help or dismissal of specific employees specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park recreational or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park recreational or educational setting or a volunteer of the public body or against legal councel for the public body to determine its validity and to discuss litigation whether an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal um or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent in which the case in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered
110into the minutes of the closed meeting and I apologize for the stumbles no problem may I have a second second second thank you Debbie uh Stacy Allen yes myself yes Phil hi Arlan I Stacy yes Phil I Jessica yes okay we are now recessed for Clos session folks so the board is going to stay here and everybody else is going to leave Phil would you have a moment please if