[0:00] We have a monthly meeting of the Downer School of Grade School District 58 Board of Education, Monday, February 11th, 2019, 7 p.m. at Downer's Grove Village Hall. Melissa, will you please call roll. Member Doshi's absent. Member Harris. Here. Member Hughes. Here. Member Miller. Here. Member Simonsky. Here. Member Siegel. Here. Member Purcell. Here. To make a start with the flag so we and all see her school with principal Jason Lindt.

[0:42] of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under

[0:50] God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

[1:01] I'm excited to represent in El Serro School tonight.

[1:03] We have not only our student council members but our PCA here tonight, so we're going

[1:08] to start off with our PCA, our government council members.

[1:12] They're very excited to be able to tell us about these.

[1:15] I'm pretty thinking of going on in El Ciro and I'm going to be on the council side.

[1:18] We have Ella, Pete, we have Becca, we have Joe, and we also have Lauren, and we'll be telling all of the great things in El Ciro.

[1:34] I'm going to work for this school this year.

[1:36] Each year, it all depends on the election.

[1:39] Interested students choose positions for our boring right speech.

[1:42] When you write, they would do with a job in that position.

[1:45] Two students are then chosen to officially run for each of the four positions.

[1:49] Candidates choose a campaign manager and then get to work for the next week and you work out about candidates.

[1:54] Campaign meet ends for the assembly for the third or sixth graders.

[1:58] The campaign managers enter each of their candidates and then each candidate gives a speech.

[2:03] There was some real-time conversation this year. The students met all over their choice.

[2:07] We also tried something to do this year and used Google for our love. We think they're not love.

[2:13] Students counseled love for 90s bureaucraties or else kids.

[2:17] The only place pretty happy here today, crazy soft day,

[2:20] jam day and rainbow.

[2:22] We're looking forward to having support to school life,

[2:25] miss back training, entire day, different shoe day and the school day.

[2:29] Writing that out here about students showing their school spirit

[2:33] by learning a lot of how to help.

[2:35] The last time I was a little scared,

[2:37] there was a black cat flag,

[2:38] have to be very important to us.

[2:42] This year we had a pastor working for us today,

[2:51] the more the business of our community.

[2:53] Are you ever been sitting for drives of age success?

[2:56] You collected boxes of things that were donated

[2:58] to the downscrewed fish market.

[3:01] In December, we decorated our trees

[3:02] with new pasts, new ancestors, and donated

[3:05] to the family services.

[3:07] We helped out here as super-old as well.

[3:10] Students brought in here to see the face of the face

[3:12] with the team that went to the big fish.

[3:14] I'll give you the evidence to the government's effort to thank you.

[3:18] Another priority of student council is to raise funds for various needs

[3:22] and else here. This year we will be deciding to sell all this

[3:26] council's during lunchtime in the month of December. They were

[3:30] making it amongst the kids. Kids seem to enjoy coming up to the table and

[3:33] smiling on the center before choosing their favorite. We also

[3:37] plan to have a school store which has been named the Vodka and Tea.

[3:41] We set up a shop during lunchtime in a self-bought pet being a school supplies to the other students.

[3:47] This is a great way to show our school spirit.

[3:50] And past year's student council has funded things such as huge in Essexmouth, a curtain

[3:55] in the stage, and the God-gathering.

[3:57] With help from the PTA and the Lester family, we are still deciding on plans for this year.

[4:03] But one of our thoughts is to help fund in water well in Africa.

[4:07] One of the highlights of this year is the barren show.

[4:09] Students truly enjoy showing off their talent at this exciting event.

[4:14] The Student Council officers have the privilege of seeing them and keeping their

[4:19] setting in the most high.

[4:22] We just have an hour and a half before fifth and sixth grade students.

[4:25] It's almost here to help connect our first and second graders working on it

[4:29] and play games at injuries as every day.

[4:32] So primary students love seeing and interacting

[4:35] with the intermediate students outside.

[4:38] This program is our ultimate chance to leave by example and keep our players safe.

[4:44] At the beginning of the school year, our sixth grade is a country expert

[4:48] specifically for the state. They then take what they have learned

[4:51] and present it to each grade level. In fact, it's playing.

[4:56] The sixth grade model goes for citizenship and explain all the rules.

[5:03] This helps to keep this as part of society and stay on your own.

[5:08] Thank you for taking the time to hear about all the wonderful things our student council is doing at LCR.

[5:13] We are very proud to be back.

[5:29] Of course, it was a tradition for us to eat and realize that Chris Marquez was one of our teachers who had been here tonight.

[5:34] But they do a wonderful job of helping our school and support a lot of positive things that are going on in their lives.

[5:40] Thank you.

[5:41] Thank you.

[5:42] We have a gift for the Student Council as well.

[5:47] Thank you, Dave. Good job.

[6:16] We also have our PTA here tonight, we have our full residents,

[6:20] that have been passed to New York's Council, and they're going to talk to us a little bit

[6:23] about the great things that our PTA is doing in El Ciera.

[6:27] Hi, I'm Beth, and I have a question with a little resident in El Ciera, and as Jason said,

[6:31] we're just going to tell you one thing about our events throughout the year,

[6:33] it's been a very fundraising effort.

[6:35] First thing we have is our PTA Kinder in Connection, so our Kinder in Connection,

[6:40] coming from the Kinder in Canada, we have come to El Ciera, El Ciera.

[6:43] And I'm just to meet the teacher, principal, and other families, drop off their school supplies.

[6:49] They need to go down to the kids.

[6:50] We, as the PTA, provide a lot of school students, plant playgrounds, get to know each other a little bit.

[6:57] It was an exciting, certainly year, as well as our families are able to come this year.

[7:02] We have our PTA new family connections.

[7:06] So, this is something new we did this year.

[7:08] some of our better and healthier families.

[7:11] We make an extra effort to welcome new health

[7:13] care families to our community,

[7:15] which allows new families to get a chance

[7:17] to learn about the health care from the parent perspective.

[7:20] So what we do, we give them a family,

[7:23] and we just communicate them via email.

[7:25] We also put up a quick week, send them

[7:27] like important dates of school events

[7:29] and answering the questions that they might have.

[7:33] We have our PTA ice cream social.

[7:36] So every fall that this is going to start in, because this is that we've had this

[7:41] convent enjoying three ice cream along with an opportunity to meet other

[7:45] ulcerative families. It's a great way to start this school year. It's only

[7:49] a hundred and fifty in our family at ulcerative. We were actually able to

[7:52] end up three hundred and twelve other ice cream ones.

[7:58] So our teens are paid, it

[8:01] coincides with our partner on our year. We have some lunchtime bills so the kids

[8:06] kids aren't able to build their cardboard game at home

[8:10] or at school during lunchtime and this is our games

[8:16] our game.

[8:17] So right before the fun run, the students pack the gym

[8:19] to play each cardboard game, then the kids can follow

[8:21] on their game or game, they can also continue to go

[8:25] that that time with all the cycle materials and just

[8:30] play the game and then we'll go on to our own.

[8:33] Which is the next slide.

[8:34] So, we have our fund run, which is all the last get down, it's not only in the great fun race room, but it's a fun event for our students.

[8:44] The class that raised the most money gets to run with more students.

[8:48] The annual event is always our largest fundraiser of this year.

[8:52] This year we were able to raise over $10,000 at the school at this event.

[8:58] So our wash draw is pizza night, and Darwin's most people find out that he stands for

[9:03] dad's and great students.

[9:05] So this annual round ends in the huge hit students love it.

[9:08] They pack the gym with their dad or other important role, male role models, and for some

[9:14] pizza, the teachers serve pizza, and he is easy to carry with that for them.

[9:19] The gym was packed with a pile of great male role models, and he did, after work, 50

[9:27] And along with the watchdog, he's going to have a watchdog Wednesday, and everyone's day

[9:32] else here is a watchdog Wednesday, which means that a positive male home life spends

[9:38] time at each place, health is bad and reading activity, he also comes up on the playgrounds

[9:43] and with a rifle in his missile.

[9:45] And I can say that students love, love getting the dinner, and the dads, grandmas, uncles.

[9:51] In Shira, he's a very school day with these defendants as a highlight of the four-star ones.

[10:06] Moving right along, all the students that every school love the room parties, and it's definitely one of the big hits throughout the year.

[10:13] So the PTA plans these parties for the rooms with all of the room parents, and they have fun party games for every classroom.

[10:22] The focus there is to always have games that have small groups, where they can enjoy

[10:27] a lot of creative ways to serve fresh fruits and vegetables.

[10:30] Students always look forward to these parties.

[10:33] It's a huge pile of excitement time.

[10:37] Field trips. One of the things that ETA has really tried to focus on is

[10:40] helping out with this many field trips, as we can.

[10:43] So we continually try to provide additional ones.

[10:46] New this year, the LCR of ETA is providing the funds for our work with

[10:50] and six graders to experience be my starting children.

[10:54] So this way they can also make a difference in the lives

[10:56] of those less fortunate.

[11:01] We also try to try to strive to help out with as many

[11:03] educational programs within the school as possible.

[11:06] The highlight this year was Public Go,

[11:08] which is an online library research tool.

[11:11] The students so far this year have been able to use Public Go

[11:14] to work on their graduate faculty of research.

[11:17] The program has really helped our educators engage

[11:19] the children in new creative ways of learning.

[11:21] And

[11:25] then the other popular breakfast was santa. This is an annual thing that we have at the school. It's four families.

[11:32] It's a completely 100% involved with both students and their parents and grandparents.

[11:40] And it's also everything they can bring. The kids love food. The students love all the aims and face painting and crafts. And everybody loves santa.

[11:50] Another event at Favorite Event at Breakfast of Santa is the story I'm with reading on the

[11:55] polar ice press.

[11:57] In addition to breakfast of Santa, LCRPTA brought families together, this has to be getting

[12:04] further and now down by the State Party, which we are able to get now.

[12:10] Our PTA book fairs are great, great reading pool that we have throughout the school year.

[12:16] We have two of them, usually per year.

[12:20] LCR contained lots of remote reading.

[12:22] Each year we have the two book fairs and encourage students

[12:25] to earn free cane counting for their tickets

[12:27] by reading lots of books.

[12:29] To participate in a program, 100 additional minutes

[12:32] of reading per week for eight weeks

[12:34] earned each student a free ticket to the game,

[12:37] a free drink, a hat dog, and a bold intake

[12:39] and entitling them to complimentary admission

[12:41] to all June through September gains and reading love to.

[12:47] The book fair is also helped to provide a wish list for the teachers in the school.

[12:52] This year, the book fair sales were able to provide classrooms with wish list books

[12:56] of over $500 and then the LRC received over $400 worth of books.

[13:04] If you just wanted to thank you for allowing us to come out and show you the plunge of

[13:08] the student council and the LCR of the T.R. doing.

[13:11] We're looking forward to continuing to build our school as a community and as much as

[13:16] and possibly hand them some of it this year's drama.

[13:29] Thank you for that presentation,

[13:30] for all your hard work for us here.

[13:32] Thank you.

[13:34] Thank you.

[13:35] One more thing we wanted to be able to just promote

[13:38] a little bit of some of the neat things

[13:39] that are going on in our school.

[13:41] Last year we came up with a staff.

[13:43] We really worked hard to create a vision statement.

[13:46] So we're gonna show that video in just a second.

[13:48] But before that I want to just highlight

[13:49] some of the great things that we have going on.

[13:52] and I'll see her beyond student council in PTA.

[13:56] And one of the things this year that we wanted

[13:58] to really stress was the fact that our students

[14:01] are really growing academically.

[14:03] We've been seeing that for a number of years

[14:04] with the map tests, but this year,

[14:06] really with park factoring in academic growth

[14:10] and student growth really helped us

[14:12] to be where we are right now with our ranking

[14:16] as an exemplary school.

[14:17] We're very proud of that.

[14:18] We still have a lot of work ahead of us,

[14:21] but just like every school,

[14:22] but we're very proud to be able to see that growth that our students have.

[14:26] One of the things that we're extremely part of is our parent partnership

[14:29] that we've been really focusing on these last couple of years. This year,

[14:34] all of our staff members are working hard with the CSA app and our students are

[14:38] finding a lot more creative ways to be able to express what they're doing with

[14:43] their families compared to just the teacher saying that this is what we're doing.

[14:46] And some of those authentic pieces have been great to be able to see throughout

[14:50] course of the year. I know we're going to be looking at that a little bit later as

[14:53] well as this as a district. We're also very proud of our small group

[14:57] instructional model. That's one of the things we've been doing at

[15:00] You're for a number of years. We have a wide variety of needs, just like every school. But when we can work in those small groups, we can really meet the students where they're at and help them to achieve more and more every year. It's not all sunshine and roses at every school. And just like us here, we do have some challenges too. One of the things that we are constantly taking look at is our enrollment. That's one of the things that I know you as a school board, taking a look at as well. With us being the smallest school in the district number wise in terms of students, it does create

[15:29] some challenges for us as we start to make some of those instructional decisions.

[15:34] We, me and me, and some of those decisions come down to, you know, how we're going to have one large section in a grade.

[15:40] Are we going to have two small ones because we're going to have one large one?

[15:44] Are we going to have combination classes with multigrades?

[15:47] Some of those types of things we don't always know in the spring because our enrollment changes all the way up until school starts

[15:52] and then sometimes even after Labor Day.

[15:53] Okay, so that's why I'm kind of pulling my hand over here.

[15:57] But it is one of those things where we want to do what's best for kids, but also include

[16:02] our families along in that process.

[16:03] That's one of the things in the last couple of years we've been having a few more parent

[16:07] forums to let them know that these are some of our options that we get closer to the school

[16:10] you're starting.

[16:12] Other things that we have to make decisions around with some of those one class being one

[16:18] grade level being one teacher or having combination classes and things like that or sometimes

[16:22] our teachers are being asked to teach multiple math blueprints some years and things like that,

[16:27] which is one of those things that we do put into a lot of thought other ways that we can

[16:34] help with teachers in those situations or other ways that we can support students,

[16:38] but really comes down to meeting students where they're at and helping them grow.

[16:42] We're also very proud of our, we talk about the number of families that we have in our community,

[16:49] how many of them come out to our events, and I think a lot of that is focused on

[16:53] truly being a family event to celebrate the great things that we have at our school compared to just coming in raising money while that's an important aspect.

[17:01] We do want to really honor the fact that we want to have a few more community celebrations.

[17:06] Last few years we started having an international night in this year through the help of grants.

[17:11] We're going to be having our first math night of the year.

[17:16] So that's going to be exciting to have.

[17:18] And then one of the big things for us is when we're celebrating our 50th anniversary at

[17:24] LCR.

[17:24] So that's an exciting thing for us as we start to welcome back some of our alumni

[17:29] and other community members.

[17:31] Our neighborhood has a lot of empty nesters, so it's going to be kind of nice to say, hey,

[17:35] remember when your children were in here, you know, within the last 50 years, come back

[17:38] and take a look at our school, we're very proud of what we have to offer at LCR.

[17:43] So now if we could just take a second to take a look at our vision statement video that

[17:47] And we have the reason why we created this was so that people who aren't familiar with

[17:51] an open concept can kind of get a little bit of a glimpse into our school, but also see

[17:55] that it might not look too different than the classrooms that maybe you grew up with

[17:58] even if you're not familiar with an open concept.

[18:00] But as you look around, look at the words, but then also look at everything in the picture

[18:05] because there's a lot that you can see just by taking a look at this video.

[18:09] We appreciate your time.

[19:11] Members of the audience will have the opportunities to provide public comments to the board during

[19:15] the reception and visitors later on the agenda. The board asked anyone wishing to comment

[19:19] to fill out a card and indicate the topic to be addressed. He's going to be placed in the basket

[19:24] on the table to my right. They will be used to assist us in allocating time so that all those who

[19:30] wish to have the opportunity to speak and help us follow up after the meeting. Tonight the board

[19:35] plans to allocate 30 minutes to public comment. Please fill out a card if you wish to speak. The board

[19:40] will also ask each person to plan to speak for no more than three minutes so that all have the

[19:44] opportunity to comment. We invite those who have submitted cards to speak first, if

[19:48] time allows, others will have the opportunity to address the board. So next we'll go to

[19:53] the non-action reports. First, we'd like to recognize some students. The board would

[20:00] like to formally recognize students. Over 500 students who participated in the 2018-19

[20:07] science fair on February 2nd, I don't need. Congratulations on your hard work and accomplishments.

[20:12] and thank you to the faculty, staff and community members who volunteered to make this a successful learning event.

[20:20] Next on our agenda is the spotlight on our schools, parent partnerships and learning with Jane Eusentis and James Ike Miller.

[20:30] Thank you. We're going to spend a little bit of time tonight. I apologize I'm struggling with a cold.

[20:35] of sharing information with the Board about our work around

[20:40] pair of partnerships in learning and some of the activities that we have begun

[20:45] plus the exciting work ahead. So if you would call the goal on pair of

[20:51] partnerships was actually part of our prior strategic plan and really taking a

[20:57] look at pair of partnerships in learning, looking at the ways that we can

[21:02] and improve strength in our partnerships,

[21:04] more outreach to parents,

[21:06] let's reflect on how we can support student learning

[21:10] through this partnership.

[21:12] We have since then incorporated our new strategic plan

[21:15] and there's definitely crossover

[21:18] from both of the plans.

[21:20] I have on this slide I wanted to highlight the objectives,

[21:24] the 2.1, 2.2, those objectives in our new strategic plan

[21:28] are really at this point in their initial stages

[21:30] of the work with our community advisory council and looking at the district-wide activities.

[21:39] Tonight we're talking more about the specifics at our building level and looking at those

[21:43] partnerships and how we're building those relationships specific to the building.

[21:48] We're in an objective 2.3 that consistency objective. There is a specific bullet. We've just now

[21:54] begun the work with our looking at the communications to our communities from the individual buildings

[22:01] and trying to work toward that increased communication as well as consistency.

[22:06] And so a small group of administrators along with myself and James have begun to look at what are some of

[22:12] the ideas that we are already using, what's in place now, and then our plan will be to continue

[22:18] you working through this year to put something in place for the start of next

[22:23] year. So there is more consistency in that communication that comes from the

[22:27] building, for instance, specifically to our schools, to our parents.

[22:33] Another piece of our presentation tonight is sharing the survey information.

[22:39] We did a very brief survey during the parent conference week and we were

[22:43] pleased to have 642 responses. These next two slides really just give a

[22:48] general picture, if you will, of our parents where the value is in some of these activities,

[22:57] in our communication against specific to academic progress with their child.

[23:02] And so if you notice nothing, actually there's not really any alarming or shocking information.

[23:08] When we did the survey three years ago, we had very similar results in that our parents

[23:13] value looking at the parents who rated a 4 and a 5. The report card is a

[23:17] communication tool, classroom assessments, and then you'll see the next level

[23:22] there that math scores are important. Power scores in rubrics were less

[23:27] valuable to our parents.

[23:32] And then your notice parent teacher conferences

[23:34] continues to be one of our structures and systems that parents find very

[23:39] valuable as well as student work samples and then you know lesser value on the

[23:46] senior space reporting information percentage based reporting. And so this

[23:50] was just giving us that sense of word of parents value and how much value is

[23:55] there in each of these methods of communication. The next slide this is really

[24:00] for those people that want to see the actual numbers of and we've right we've

[24:04] order them, so really the value looking at the parents who aren't most valuable, the

[24:10] five or the four. The highest value is with our parent teacher conference activity, which

[24:17] we were happy to see because we did make changes in the structure of conferences. Student

[24:21] work samples still high, report cards done in classroom assessments, and you'll look at

[24:26] the map scores in student assessment and it tapers off a little bit. So just sharing this

[24:31] information so you can get a sense of you know where that value is.

[24:37] And then finally related

[24:38] to the survey we wanted to highlight three of the questions and I wanted to share some

[24:43] general themes in the open-ended portion. First because we had made the change in conference

[24:49] as we wanted to know do our parents feel the information they gained was valuable. We are happy

[24:55] with the 90 percent. The information app absolutely though tells us let's take a look at that

[25:00] and other 10% are the ways that we can continue to improve the parent teacher conference experience

[25:07] so more parents find it a valuable experience.

[25:10] That second question was geared more toward the formative conference, the midterm conference

[25:16] we have now because if you recall our reason and purpose for making that change was we want

[25:23] to partner with parents earlier in the learning process.

[25:26] We want parents to have an opportunity to learn more about where their child is progressing,

[25:31] what are those areas so they can work and be part of the learning process prior to

[25:36] the end of a reporting period.

[25:38] So again, 89% of our parents feel they did receive information that allowed them to support

[25:44] their child prior to the end of the marking period.

[25:48] Again, area for growth, absolutely we can continue to try to increase that percentage.

[25:53] So more parents feel they have that opportunity to be actively involved throughout.

[25:59] And then final that third question was, as we have changed, if you recall we had conferences,

[26:07] we're two evenings, twice a year, we had one year, a couple of years ago, we had a full

[26:11] day conference.

[26:12] In addition to evenings, we really didn't get large peer participation during that full

[26:17] day.

[26:18] It didn't seem to fit with our peer schedules necessarily, perhaps.

[26:22] This year we had the half day during the day, plus the evenings.

[26:27] We were going to get a sense of our parents able to attend,

[26:31] which we were happy that 84% of our parents that 538 parents, yes,

[26:36] were able to attend, all those parents who earned,

[26:40] are they still able to get that important information about their child?

[26:44] And so this would be our area to look more closely at,

[26:49] 78 of the parents who couldn't come to conferences and said yes, 22 said no, so maybe there's

[26:55] an opportunity there of how can we put more systems in place to make sure there's

[26:58] more outreach, so parents do feel they have that opportunity to gain the information

[27:03] and partner with our schools.

[27:05] The bullets, as you look in the open again, the last question was, you know, basically

[27:10] share anything you would want us to consider or know more about conferences.

[27:14] These are general things. 160% understood respond.

[27:20] It was primarily a very positive about loving the opportunity.

[27:24] The pieces that came up a couple times, more than a couple times,

[27:27] or consider the length of the conference as I think that's a common response of it's just not long enough.

[27:34] Could we consider 20 minute conferences in the spring as opposed to 15?

[27:38] Interestingly, that very safe piece of feedback came from our teachers.

[27:42] If it doesn't seem long enough, can we look at this?

[27:45] We do want to continue looking at that option of making a change there, possibly.

[27:52] The second bullet, again, came from parents, but it also came from our teaching staff.

[27:57] As we think about the January conference, it came pretty quickly right after Christmas,

[28:02] and that went to a break period.

[28:04] Could we consider a little bit more time, a little later in January, when we would have

[28:08] math data for the great levels that are taking math and also teachers would have

[28:14] more time to analyze the information to make plans and be able to talk to

[28:18] parents about here's where your child is, here's the progress and here's what we

[28:22] want to do as most of us and so that it was nice to see that came from both our

[28:27] parents and our teachers you know asking can we look at that a little closer as we

[28:31] plan for next year. The other, both just again parents sharing the things they

[28:37] they thought were valuable, and it's that third bullet was around keeping the schedule so

[28:43] that we can stay on time with our conferences and encouraging more meetings that if they're

[28:49] not going to fit within the conference time to schedule additional meetings, parents,

[28:52] multiple parents share how much they appreciated having student work samples because it really

[28:58] gave them a much better picture of the strengths or any areas of concern.

[29:02] And then that final bullet, again our conversations we have had as well with staff is looking

[29:07] Looking at that middle school conference structure, we don't have a good answer for that

[29:13] right now, but that definitely has been a question of the 10 minutes.

[29:17] Seems real tight.

[29:19] We can't get to all of our teachers, isn't there a better way we can organize this?

[29:24] So I think you will, from my perspective, we'll be looking at conversations, not for next

[29:29] year, but let's try to brainstorm our, is there a different way maybe we should be organizing

[29:34] and scheduling the middle school conferences?

[29:35] for both parents and teachers.

[29:43] As we shift into the partnership activities across the school level,

[29:47] the three main topics or activities on this page

[29:52] we've talked about the conferences.

[29:54] Again, the purpose was to try to involve parents in that learning process early.

[29:59] So they can...

[30:02] The second bullet related to CSA, James, and we have some staff who will be talking a little bit more. We began initial exploration and implementation of CSA with the end goal. It's not where we are right now. It's not where we will be maybe next year. But our end goal ultimately is to be able to use that tool to provide specific information related to the child's learning experience and their progress in learning.

[30:27] for so very specific to the child.

[30:30] So as a parent, you have a good sense

[30:32] of your child's learning in the program.

[30:35] And then the third bullet relates to power school

[30:39] and the parent portal.

[30:41] Our parents right now at the middle school

[30:43] are able to go into the parent portal,

[30:45] look at specific information related

[30:47] to the learning experiences.

[30:49] Some of our teachers, you may know,

[30:51] have begun exploring Google Classroom.

[30:54] And it was interesting.

[30:55] I was in a principal counsel, which is a principal in a group of students meeting, talking

[31:02] about the things that the kids liked about communication within the school and the things

[31:06] they felt were useful, and Google Classroom continued to come up as a very helpful tool

[31:12] that some of our kids are getting to use and benefit from as well as parents.

[31:17] I think there will be more conversations that will tie right into our strengthening our partnerships

[31:21] around Google Classroom in the future as well.

[31:32] This point, I would like to introduce Michelle Zubka,

[31:35] Principal Co-Cross School.

[31:38] Talk a little bit more about our partnerships.

[31:41] Michelle, hello.

[31:43] So just a couple more specific examples

[31:46] of things that we're doing at the building level

[31:49] to involve and really integrate the parent group.

[31:52] We're going to switch over to, this is one example.

[31:56] of a newsletter that I send out weekly to the Hill Presbyterity. Sharing with them is

[32:03] really a balance of information and explanation along with highlighting some of the things

[32:09] that we are most proud of. I typically start out the

[32:21] opening paragraph just to sort of

[32:26] hook our readers in. Anything important here that may be those who aren't going to read

[32:32] through the whole thing. In this case, just emphasizing where we're at in terms of the

[32:38] bench and our assessment. A lot of times parents know that it's coming, but they don't necessarily

[32:44] know how long it's going to last. So I just made a statement in beginning to say, well under

[32:49] way, finishing up in the middle of next week, and then I really try to highlight some of

[32:56] the great things that we're doing within our classroom. This specific example shows

[33:01] some pictures, and then highlights one of the parent partnership activities that we did

[33:06] within a third-grade classroom where they were invited in to dissect outfellets, which is

[33:12] really cool. I think it's also a really great opportunity for

[33:19] some of the parents who have younger students to see sort of the things that are coming in future years.

[33:30] We highlight every month at our school meetings we talk about a specific focus character training or focus topic.

[33:41] In this case it was communicating out what happened at the school meeting and making sure that parents have some of that comical

[33:47] vocabulary and are familiar with what we are emphasizing with students in terms of

[33:55] the focus rate of courage and the power of yet.

[33:58] We talked through flexible work stuff thinking so again I know that I received feedback from

[34:04] some parents who are saying thank you for sharing the exact vocabulary that you're using and

[34:09] I'm also trying to incorporate that at home.

[34:14] We, of course, learned a highlight and take pride in recognizing these are our handouts

[34:19] of the months, along with our awesome staff award winners, and we have to please come

[34:25] you award, especially this time of year.

[34:29] And then this newsletter was back in December when PTA Reflections was happening, so I recognize

[34:36] and students who participated in that.

[34:38] And then it's also a way to give some reminders

[34:41] of music performance, or the Science Fair Registration,

[34:46] Megan, Hugh, and I kind of work hand-in-hand

[34:49] and I borrow some current research.

[34:50] She bought me some money.

[34:53] And then as we always, or I always incorporate,

[34:58] we work very closely with our PTA,

[35:00] so we wanna make sure that we're both tag teaming,

[35:02] getting the message out there

[35:03] what some of the initiatives are. I've been humming and then I know that along

[35:10] with all of this information which looks a little lengthy but parents really

[35:14] appreciate just getting a rundown. I usually try to map out the rest of the

[35:19] months and I know a lot of the parents have shared that, you know, as soon as that

[35:23] comes out they get up a calendar and this serves as a nice reminder too to just

[35:28] keep everybody on track. So that's just one example. Many of our building

[35:33] leaders, obviously, use different forms of weekly communications. They might look

[35:38] different, but we all try to highlight many of the things that we're doing

[35:42] within the building to keep parents in and out. A lot of schools will use parent

[35:49] or positive parent context, whether it's BNP or just a phone call.

[35:55] Pre-school uses the daily communication log so that each one of their

[35:59] students who maybe they don't have the verbal skills

[36:02] articulate what's happening at school each day,

[36:04] but they're able to, then the parent can ask

[36:08] to more specific questions tied to what's happening

[36:10] at school.

[36:12] You also probably have been invited

[36:16] into your child's classroom or to school

[36:19] for whether it's a math night or a study,

[36:22] kindergarten roundup, or cultural arts

[36:25] are fair or night.

[36:28] And then just to continue in terms of parent involvement opportunities I know

[36:35] I'm not interested in that. Watch Dogs with El Ciro. There's lots of opportunities

[36:39] whether it's guest breeders or mystery breeders, partners in the art or art

[36:43] appreciation. I think we all have different names but are really trying to do

[36:47] the same thing which is collaborating with our families in one way, shape, or the

[37:07] There's a lot of things you've seen and heard about sea sods, it's worth noting kind

[37:21] of as Jane mentioned, we're not even yet fully implemented with sea sods, and next year

[37:25] we look forward to kind of being in that first year of full implementation.

[37:28] We're asking all pre-K through six great teachers to use CSAAA as a way

[37:35] to document student learning and then share those artifacts with parents.

[37:40] So we're really excited about that in particular because I can tell you it's feedback

[37:43] that I've heard for many years pretty much my entire time here at Downers Grove

[37:46] that it is really challenging as a parent to have so many different tools to have

[37:50] to, you know, for one grade level and for one school and for this child

[37:54] for that child to have to track down where to find information about your child.

[37:58] I'm not going to say that that problem will be solved next year, but we do hope that

[38:01] CSA, at the pre-K through sixth grade level, will be a central spot that all parents will

[38:05] know they can go sign in, create an account, link with their students, and really get that

[38:09] direct line into what their students are doing, what they're doing at school doing at school

[38:14] doing the school day.

[38:17] So also along with what Jane mentioned is that in the next year, it will be our first year

[38:20] full of thementation, but it will be a work in progress.

[38:23] Now that we're getting more in there, we can continue to have conversations about how

[38:27] CSO is being used and why it's valuable to document learning and it uses an assessment tool

[38:32] and a communication tool.

[38:33] So, you know, look for us to continue to try to improve that, but we view it as a really

[38:37] essential part of our way to partner with parents and how we're communicating what's happening

[38:41] in the classroom.

[38:42] So, with that being said, I've invited a few guests here tonight to speak a little bit

[38:47] about how they're using CSO and how they're seeing CSO.

[38:50] So we're going to start with Jason Lent who you saw earlier night speaking in his capacity as a principal of LCR School.

[38:58] Here is actually going to be kind of shifting a little bit and talking about his perspective, excuse me, of his perspective as a parent.

[39:05] Thank you Jason.

[39:09] This first one here is my youngest son Nathan.

[39:13] He's one of those little guys who would rather have somebody to read to him than to read out loud himself.

[39:18] So it's kind of been one of those things for the educator myself because I had no weed

[39:21] degree, but he wants somebody else to return all the time.

[39:24] So it's been easy for me to be able to see he's in second grade right now, he's been

[39:29] eating and reading progress, but just with this app for him to want to share with us through

[39:35] when he's doing it in school, it's been easy for us to be able to see his parents, how much

[39:40] he's going to do in this reader, but then how much he feels more comfortable to do that rather

[39:45] and then if we ask him, he may be treated to school,

[39:47] but he, yeah, now we can actually hear a few things.

[39:50] We'll just hear a little bit of a sample of it,

[39:52] but it's nice because he's able to have

[39:54] ownership of sending it to us.

[39:57] We see what he's doing.

[40:00] We see what he's doing.

[40:01] He's having a good feeling, good.

[40:03] He's having a good feeling, good feeling, good feeling, good feeling.

[40:06] He's having a good feeling, good feeling, good feeling, good feeling.

[40:12] Should I move away in the water,

[40:14] The name is already here, his name was nothing but a fidget.

[40:20] So you can see, so the class that you get in a notification on your phone says,

[40:24] you know, there's, I make them posted this, you know,

[40:26] so then whatever time you can find it, look at it, you can get that in this parent,

[40:30] that conversation, and there's a lot different than, you know, the time,

[40:34] without seasaw, it wouldn't have been possible.

[40:36] I was easy, maybe.

[40:37] Yep, the next one.

[40:39] Well, I actually, I'm fortunate in this year,

[40:40] not to show you all, but to show you a little bit more, this is my son Everett, he's

[40:47] in punishment right now, he's one of those kids that, you know, tie a tie and do 100 push-ups

[40:55] without even, you know, trying, but to see how much this teacher's making focus on his

[40:59] form, this is one of the things he was kind of need to be able to see that he's working

[41:03] pretty hard to do in the left-right form, so we're going to go.

[41:19] Which specials, you know, a lot of times is a parent, you know, they have two times in

[41:22] me, and a lot of times, for him, he'll talk so much about the beams, they play, they

[41:28] see that they're really focused on that to this aspect, the importance of that, the

[41:32] form of coach myself, it's nice to be able to see that the piece that we allow in the

[41:36] district, and I see it in our school, but I'll see how you see it, because I have it be

[41:40] perspective, but you get that, and people have that conversation, you know, about

[41:44] class a little bit different compared to why something wasn't fair is a lot more fun

[41:49] to be able to talk about progress.

[41:52] Thank you Jason.

[41:53] I think a couple of things that I wanted to just be that I was slow to remind about

[41:59] see some of the students do the posting a little a lot of times.

[42:01] Not everything, but really the power is done to them.

[42:03] They do something, work with the crowd, really want to share with the teacher or with their

[42:08] parent.

[42:09] They can grab their iPad and with a few clicks really quickly instead of posting.

[42:13] The other thing is that RPGs are in the news society, you know, PE, there's already so much going on in this space and students have to bring their equipment.

[42:21] I think it's the fact that this tool is so easy to use that students can bring it into the V-Class.

[42:27] Well, everything else is going on and being able to create our best connection.

[42:30] That's great to have you.

[42:31] Thank you, Jason.

[42:33] Next, I'd like to call Sarah David.

[42:36] I'd like to hear some of the schools that are in the strip to give you some more specialist perspective.

[42:45] I really found out that CSOL was my students to create art and have their parents see what

[42:51] they're actually making in art class.

[42:53] It allows students to be present and to present all of their stuff to their parents in

[42:58] a real-time audience, which we didn't have before.

[43:01] I have over a thousand students, and that would be really hard for me to get everything across

[43:05] to parents because I just don't have time to talk to every parent, so this is a great way

[43:10] for kids to talk. This slide right here is a little slide of I'm not going to

[43:15] attempt to read it because my four-year-old old bachelor didn't do that. But a student

[43:19] created a self-portrait and then they talked about the history behind why we

[43:23] did this and how they did it, the process of creating and then they also talked

[43:27] about what they would change and why they chose the colors they chose. It's all

[43:32] about the kids for me that the kids get to reflect on what they're doing in my

[43:36] And I think that's really powerful for them to say,

[43:39] wow, I really did something cool and that's really fun.

[43:42] And this is why I did it, Mom and Dad, and Mrs. David,

[43:44] and this is what I learned about this artist,

[43:46] and this is why we're doing what we're doing in class.

[43:49] So I don't do the post-the-Kids here.

[43:51] This is a sixth grade example.

[43:53] I'm going over here.

[43:55] The next one is a fourth grade example.

[43:57] I also still focus on the history behind the art,

[44:01] the process of creating art, and the opinions

[44:04] of what they would change.

[44:04] This is a shuddering that, when my fourth year

[44:06] and you can see parents responded to it.

[44:09] They love it when their parents respond.

[44:11] Sometimes they respond in class.

[44:13] And as I'm approving things,

[44:14] I see it comfortably.

[44:16] Joe, you have a parent come on, check your feed,

[44:19] and then they get to see it, which is fun.

[44:21] I see on the hand, but I'll show them.

[44:23] The next one shows a kindergarten sample on the left.

[44:27] So where I put dot, dot, dot, not a lot

[44:28] because they're practicing looming,

[44:30] which is a really big skill for kindergarten.

[44:32] So parents get to see a couple of kids in class gluing

[44:36] and they get to use those terms and techniques for kids at home.

[44:40] The one on the right side was a student picture.

[44:43] I'm working on the kids to take a picture of both.

[44:46] There are, put their art on the floor,

[44:48] and then take a picture above it.

[44:49] So they'll get like a crazy distorted view

[44:51] of their art, which is really important.

[44:53] And that was a meeting that a student made in first grade.

[44:57] And the parent commented to, which is really fun.

[45:02] The last one is my kindergartners don't bring their iPads to art. So a lot of times I'll just sit with

[45:09] like two or three kids and get a picture of them with their art and then I let them talk about it.

[45:14] So a little kid would say something like, this is my shape party and we learned about cutting out different

[45:20] chains. I hope you like it. You know something like that. And it doesn't go to the whole class. It just goes to that specific child

[45:26] and their followers, their parents, or their family.

[45:29] So that's really nice.

[45:30] It's something that I'm not gonna have a good way

[45:33] of finding a way to share everything,

[45:35] and I've been looking for a really long time

[45:37] for a tool that doesn't,

[45:39] I don't want my kids reflecting on each other's art

[45:41] as per say and writing,

[45:43] because that can sometimes be repeating.

[45:45] But I want the parents to be able

[45:47] to see what's going on in my class.

[45:48] And we've sparked so many cool conversations,

[45:51] even when we're out in the hall today.

[45:53] I was pretty sure the kids made the masks

[45:55] and one of the parents from El Cero was like,

[45:57] that was the cutest picture ever,

[45:59] and then to know what everybody's called.

[46:01] It's just such a nice way to just,

[46:04] the parents know me, they understand

[46:06] what was on in my class,

[46:07] and so I've had a great time with these other students.

[46:10] Thank you so much.

[46:11] Thank you so much, for sure.

[46:13] That was a number of students, really.

[46:15] A lot of them.

[46:16] It's really striking to think about it.

[46:18] And I think the way that Mrs. David's able to get us

[46:22] Thank you so much.

[46:28] Next, I'd like to tell Jenny Lasky, who is an expert at a few of our schools, and

[46:34] flavor.

[46:36] Oh, I'll start with learning.

[46:38] As a structural coach, I have the opportunity to work with teachers across three of the

[46:41] schools currently, and do any instruction.

[46:44] And she saw him being able to add a powerful aspect to that, to make that an enhancement

[46:50] so I'm like, oh, powerful.

[46:51] In this example, we're going to see a first grade student comparing intermary and narrative

[46:56] text to the English language.

[47:34] So here, not only was the student able to show the

[47:36] comparing and the contrasting of the two different tags,

[47:38] they were also able to add their voice in to explain even more.

[47:41] So they were all like on a worksheet,

[47:43] they would only be able to put in so many pieces of information.

[47:45] But here you can see further the depth of their knowledge

[47:47] that they had that you wouldn't have been able to see

[47:50] on a piece of paper that would go home.

[47:52] So this not only gets sent to the parents,

[47:54] but it automatically goes to the teacher

[47:56] and they're able to get that formative assessment feedback.

[47:59] And then the student is given that opportunity to reflect.

[48:01] So they're reflecting on the lesson, making sure they understand what they're doing, while the teacher is able to form a TV assessment, and the parent is seeing all the same time.

[48:10] So this is a really quick way of doing those three powerful things in the classroom.

[48:15] And then we're continuing to collaborate on these activities, and comparing and contrasting is a big skill throughout first grade and throughout most of the benchmark curriculum.

[48:22] So they're continuing to show growth throughout doing similar activities like this in the similar structure.

[48:30] Thank you so much here, and this is Hume Sonserberg writes that she is a credit course tonight,

[48:38] so she wasn't able to attend the chair.

[48:40] Thank you so much for coming to share her.

[48:42] This is one of the things that I get really excited about, and I think,

[48:47] luckily for you guys, there's not like 20 more slides, but I feel like there could be,

[48:50] because there's so many fantastic examples of how our teachers and students have really

[48:55] to take advantage of this tool this year.

[48:58] So I'm excited about more to come, and I know.

[49:04] So I've just got a couple slides, just with some statistics

[49:08] and this is from November, kind of our most recent

[49:12] complete month.

[49:14] And so this just gives you a sense of how many posts

[49:17] are happening at each school.

[49:19] In India Trail and Puffer, in terms of noting those two

[49:22] schools have preschool, and they use seesaw's a tool

[49:26] pretty extensively as part of their portfolio process.

[49:29] That's why their numbers are even particularly high.

[49:31] But this just gives you, yeah, those two, those two

[49:35] definitely send out.

[49:36] But this gives you a sense of just the volume of how this

[49:39] tool has been used.

[49:40] Those are some pretty big numbers of posts beginning

[49:43] added to see salvage those skills.

[49:44] If you think of, you know, if you school having, you know,

[49:46] around 300 students obviously.

[49:48] So, so anyways, it's a pretty prolifically used tool.

[49:51] And again, we're not even quite to a point of full implementation yet.

[49:54] And this is on the post that has students in orange and family members in blue.

[50:03] And so you'll see, I think probably the most interesting thing about this one is not

[50:07] necessarily looking at the difference between schools because those are tied in enrollment,

[50:10] but actually how tight those student and family members connections are.

[50:14] So we have a lot of students on there and family members are also connecting as well.

[50:18] I think that's important part of this.

[50:19] Not just something that's happening in school and you're putting it out there and we don't

[50:22] know whether or not parents are interacting, but we have some data that really shows that

[50:26] parents are connecting with these accounts, and they are viewing these artifacts.

[50:32] So I think this is one of those things that I think we can be really proud of.

[50:35] That our parents appreciate this tool, and they're taking the time to tunnel the app to set

[50:40] up the account and connect with their students because they really value seeing their children's

[50:43] work.

[50:47] I think that brings it to the end of our presentation.

[50:50] So we appreciate your time and for hearing about this, and we do look forward to continuing

[50:55] you when I worked in this area? Thank you.

[51:01] Questions?

[51:02] I do just have one quick question, Jane. You reflected a lot on the parent survey

[51:06] information and I know you mentioned anecdotally a couple of places where the teachers in the

[51:09] parents were aligned. Were there any instances that stuck out to you where the teachers had

[51:13] strong feedback about the way the conferences worked or didn't work

[51:18] that we should be taking into account for next year?

[51:20] The teacher feedback, which I should have said, was not through

[51:25] through a survey, it was through our great level meetings that we've had those

[51:29] last few weeks and so we really spent time just let people talk about how

[51:34] the conferences go. From the teacher perspective the feedback that we have

[51:38] has gotten very, very positive. They feel like the parent feedback that they've received

[51:44] was also very positive and just that those conversations around sharing what

[51:48] ideas and what would you maybe try and change for next time. But I would say it's

[51:52] consistent very positive feedback from SAF. We just wrapped up our great level meetings today

[51:58] and talked to our teachers who at every great level were happy to hear yes we're going into

[52:04] next year with this mid trimester conference format and we'll continue to build upon that experience.

[52:19] Okay thank you nice presentation and thank you to the teachers who came up and gave us the

[52:25] extra information as well and in the videos of your children. Thank you.

[52:34] Next on the agenda is spotlight our schools fall 2018 school environment

[52:41] survey results. Good evening.

[52:48] I'm really excited to share with you the

[52:50] results from the recent school environment survey for parents as

[52:59] you may

[52:59] Recall the former strategic plan here in District 58 was approved in 2011 and

[53:07] one of the major goals back then was social and national learning and as part

[53:12] of that goal back in 2011 the district started a school environment survey.

[53:19] Originally it was for parents and students and recent years the State

[53:24] five essential survey for students replaced our school environment

[53:28] survey for students but we have continued throughout the year to offer parents

[53:32] a school environment survey. This year we administered it in November and

[53:38] December and offered it in English and Spanish and while we didn't receive a

[53:42] record number of responses we definitely received more responses than we

[53:46] typically do which is great we always we always try to get as much parent feedback

[53:51] back as possible. So over 1,300 responses was pretty great for this year. So I'm going

[54:01] to be doing a quick review of some of the quantitative data, both what we did, how we

[54:07] achieved this year, and then also comparing it to previous years. And then I'll be doing

[54:12] a deep dive into the open-ended questions that we asked parents at the end of the survey.

[54:20] So, just kind of to overview the format, here's one of the statements from the survey.

[54:27] My child is cared for by the adults at school.

[54:31] You can see that 96% of parents either say always are usually, which is fantastic, but

[54:40] almost just as important, 0% or I think technically 0.2% of parents said never.

[54:48] which is very important and really good to see.

[54:52] And then if you look over at the historic data

[54:55] over the past four years, each year,

[54:57] we've improved one percentage point in this category.

[55:00] And then going back to the baseline year, 2011,

[55:03] you see really significant growth, 83%.

[55:08] Though it's worth noting that in 2015,

[55:12] we had a small survey committee

[55:14] and we changed the rating scale from one of agreement,

[55:19] previously, what was strongly agreed,

[55:22] agreed, disagreed, et cetera, to one of frequency,

[55:25] to give us a little bit better information.

[55:28] So we can't exactly compare the 2011 data,

[55:31] apples to apples, but it's fairly similar.

[55:36] So I'll go through the rest of these quantitative results,

[55:40] a little bit more quickly, but you can see with this question,

[55:43] and my child is getting a quality education.

[55:45] Pretty good scores, pretty steady over the last four years.

[55:49] Does show some good improvement since 2011.

[55:54] Looking at how supportive the school is for students.

[55:58] Very similar to that first question,

[56:00] where we see some steady growth each year

[56:03] in the past four years and also how supportive

[56:07] in inviting the school is for parents.

[56:10] They haven't seen as much growth in the past four years,

[56:13] but it's been fairly steady and still, you know, in the 90% which is pretty good as

[56:19] well.

[56:22] Then here, focusing specifically on social and national skills, we see some huge improvements

[56:28] if you look at 2011, 73% of parents agreed or strongly agreed with that statement.

[56:35] This year, 90% of parents say that their school always or usually focuses on it.

[56:43] And related to that, parent, guardian involvement with social emotional learning skills, we've seen improvements we're at 90% now, we're at 78% in 2011.

[57:00] Parent feedback, this question was not asked in 2011. But as you can see, we've improved by six percentage points in just the last four years.

[57:10] parent feedback was something that came up during our strategic planning process last year and we formed a

[57:20] council this past year, the Communications Feedback Council that's really looking at not only ways we can

[57:28] improve the feedback we get from parents but also improve what we do with that feedback as a school

[57:33] district. So going forward there is continued room for growth with this question as you can see only

[57:39] 33% of parents that we always consider parent feedback and that's something that I think we

[57:46] can improve upon and something that I hope I think some of our current improvement measures

[57:52] will hopefully tackle.

[57:56] This question, the statement focuses on student diversity and respect

[57:59] which is also directly linked to social and national learning and you can see we've made

[58:04] tremendous growth just in the past four years. We've improved five percentage points and

[58:10] And then the last area for the quantitative section when I focus on is teacher communication.

[58:17] And this is shown, was not, this particular question was not asked in 2011, but we've

[58:22] seen some improvement over the past four years, the more study the past two or three years.

[58:30] And you know, with CSAS, some of our communications in our classrooms are continuing to improve

[58:38] is we saw on some of our last presentations.

[58:43] So at the end of the survey, we asked parents to open

[58:46] into questions.

[58:48] The first one is, what is one thing District 58 does

[58:51] while that we would like us to continue.

[58:53] And the other one is, what can we approve upon?

[58:56] For both questions about, we received six, like,

[59:00] for this question, we received 697 responses, which

[59:04] was just over half of respondents.

[59:06] And we took that data, all of the parent comments, and analyzed them for the different themes that may have come up and took themes from each.

[59:18] So if a parent just said something like, I love my children's teachers, that would count as, you know, one thing.

[59:24] But another parent may have written more and gone into greater detail, and we would have taken all their different ideas when analyzing the data.

[59:34] And then from there, this is a whole word cloud that the computer generated with the most common words I know.

[59:44] But from there, we took those themes and categorized them in order to how often they were mentioned.

[59:51] and to kind of better understand what topics parents are most concerned about and what

[1:00:00] I think we're doing well on. So, for the first open-ended question, the most commonly mentioned

[1:00:08] topic was communication, and all types of communication were referenced. Teacher communication,

[1:00:15] principal, and district communication. Seasaw came up a lot, and from earlier tonight's

[1:00:21] presentations, you can probably see why it did come up. Seasaw can be a very powerful tool.

[1:00:29] weekly emails, newsletters, all different things were mentioned there.

[1:00:35] Corn curriculum also frequently came up. A lot of parents mentioned the recent

[1:00:41] curriculum updates that some of our subjects received is being to highlight.

[1:00:46] Social and emotional learning was also very widely mentioned, which shows that

[1:00:53] that some of our work from the last strategic plan has paid off.

[1:00:57] As you can see, carrying the supportive environments, parent involvement.

[1:01:01] I think Jason's presentation earlier did a great job of showing

[1:01:05] some of the ways Elsira is just one school

[1:01:09] really involves its parents. Good teachers, staff administrators,

[1:01:14] there were so many comments about our staff, which is fantastic.

[1:01:19] Our technology was mentioned a lot, especially

[1:01:22] in regards to CSA. I'm not going to go into all of these but you can see here some of

[1:01:28] the other common topics that came up as themes of things that we're doing well in District

[1:01:35] 58, the bar with some keywords associated with them.

[1:01:41] So then the other open and a question

[1:01:43] is what's something that District 58 and or your school can prove upon. Similarly, we

[1:01:49] had 694 people to respond just over half of all survey takers. And here's a word

[1:01:57] cloud that shows some of the most frequently mentioned words.

[1:02:06] And here are the

[1:02:06] themes. So the most commonly mentioned topic would be core curriculum. 149

[1:02:14] people mentioned something related to our core subjects. And a lot of the

[1:02:20] comments related to the desire to see increased rigor in our curriculum as well as more

[1:02:28] acceleration.

[1:02:30] Interesting.

[1:02:31] We had a lot of parents say more homework and then a lot of parents say I want my

[1:02:34] child to have less homework, so there's that definite balance there.

[1:02:40] Communication came up again, consistency and timeliness were two facets of communication

[1:02:47] that were frequently mentioned, off a lot of parents said, you know, I have one

[1:02:53] teacher that communicates with me all the time, I have another that's more

[1:02:56] frequent, is there some kind of standard for communication. And yeah, that

[1:03:03] is very common. Next facility maintenance, enough grades. 75 people mentioned that

[1:03:09] air conditioning received 36 mentions. Facility planning is a big component of

[1:03:15] strategic plan, so there's a lot of efforts in place right now to really look at our facility needs, including your conditioning.

[1:03:24] Apparent involvement was another common topic with many parents mentioning that the timing of a lot of school events

[1:03:32] wasn't always conducive to employed parent schedules.

[1:03:37] And then lastly, on this page, instructional technology, there were really three different groups of

[1:03:44] comments related to technology, one that we're doing it really well and we should do more.

[1:03:51] Another, we're not using technology very effectively or as effectively as we could and we should improve.

[1:03:59] And then a third group that said we should not use iPads.

[1:04:03] And it was very specific to iPads as a type of technology in that third group.

[1:04:09] I didn't see as much about Chromebooks or other areas.

[1:04:15] So again, I'm not going to go through all these topics, but here are a few other common

[1:04:20] things that came up and associated key words, so we have teachers and staff and specifics

[1:04:26] there, class size, overcrowded schools, progress reporting, school and district leadership,

[1:04:34] special classes, specifically the desire for increased opportunities in art,

[1:04:40] music, PE, et cetera, social national learning and here at other

[1:04:46] balance where some parents want more, some think we do enough

[1:04:49] and they want less, and then student discipline.

[1:04:54] To continue, we have,

[1:04:57] themes related to special education, testing,

[1:05:01] extracurriculars, the school environment, supervision, particularly like a recess time around the playground, and then the calendar.

[1:05:12] Later on in tonight's meeting I believe there's going to be a presentation related to next year's calendar and professional learning

[1:05:20] models that may address some of the concerns raised among these calendar questions.

[1:05:28] And then this last page has a few smaller themes that came up through the survey that

[1:05:36] didn't even include key words for, but some of them are topics that we've heard before

[1:05:41] with moving to grade at six, eight middle schools, some of our safety security, food services,

[1:05:46] is, um, et cetera. So, here they are. So then finally, what's next? All of our building

[1:05:54] principles and administrators have received the survey results. Our principals and their

[1:06:00] building leadership teams, um, our groups of teachers, um, will be reviewing the, their

[1:06:06] school's results and making, um, improvements specific to their school based on, um, those

[1:06:13] results and then at a higher level district administrators and principals will be reviewing

[1:06:18] the data to inform district wide improvements. The communications feedback council I mentioned

[1:06:23] earlier is to finding how we can use these results to in a more impactful way and then lastly,

[1:06:30] we are posting the results on our website so that the community can better understand the

[1:06:38] parent feedback that we receive.

[1:06:41] So that is a summary of this year's survey results.

[1:06:46] You have any questions to let me know.

[1:06:48] Otherwise, thank you so much.

[1:06:51] I have a comment.

[1:06:53] In the years I've been on the board, this I find is one of the most interesting and telling

[1:06:58] things and informative things we do as a district and I guarantee everybody out there I read

[1:07:06] all almost 1400 of them and I'll read them again because first time through you

[1:07:11] you might miss a few and I always find it very interesting and I really use

[1:07:17] that to help my thought process throughout the year because there will be a lot

[1:07:22] of times where somebody will say oh nobody says that oh nobody says it in this

[1:07:25] meeting but we had 1400 respondents and 50 of them said this and your comment is

[1:07:33] one of, you know, could be one of those 50, but there's 49 hundred people who are listening

[1:07:37] to our 100 people said this. And I think it's interesting when you look at, you know,

[1:07:41] how it's scattered. Some of them are tough because they'll be the same topic and you'll have

[1:07:46] just as many positive comments and just as many negative. So you'll have 100 people saying

[1:07:51] we're doing a great job at X and 100 people saying we're doing a bad job at X. And I was like,

[1:07:57] it's just really interesting in the comments, but I think it's really telling. And I think

[1:08:03] It's good as much as information that we can get to the community as possible because

[1:08:08] a lot of people are willing to share their opinion here, but they're not willing to come to a meeting.

[1:08:14] And this is, you know, we want to listen to everybody, not just the one person that gets your attention

[1:08:21] about all these people. And I really hope that when the buildings get these, they take them seriously,

[1:08:26] especially recurring themes. Do we ever go back? I know we go, we just talked about how we go with the building.

[1:08:31] But some of these things, I look on there and I'm like,

[1:08:34] I've seen nine of these, maybe a ton of these now.

[1:08:38] And it's the same thing, that specific question

[1:08:42] maybe pertaining to that specific building year

[1:08:45] after year after year, how do we address that?

[1:08:50] And I get it every year, there's gonna be this or that.

[1:08:53] And you got to sometimes sort out,

[1:08:55] you had a bad experience, but 50 people had a good experience.

[1:08:58] So what was the difference?

[1:09:00] But what concerns me is when I can see the continuous improvement requests from our parents in here, but I don't see progress in it.

[1:09:11] What do we do? Do we just share one thing for one year or do we go and say, hey, building X, this is not only a concern this year, this is a concern for 10 years.

[1:09:21] and I don't know. I'm assuming that it didn't just start as a trend. When I got on the board

[1:09:26] I'm assuming that some of these trends may have been before that. So it kind of a long-winded

[1:09:31] comment but then more of a question or what do we do? Well I think the

[1:09:36] communications feedback comes, which is that group that just started this past fall to

[1:09:41] address how we can better use feedback. I know we're still in some of the

[1:09:47] Formation parts of what we want to,

[1:09:51] how we want to use feedback on the informer,

[1:09:53] but I know a school environment survey results

[1:09:56] or something we'll be discussing and considering,

[1:09:58] and I'm hopeful that we can,

[1:10:02] with that group to find a way

[1:10:04] to better follow-up on some historical trends

[1:10:07] and identify some more tangible improvements

[1:10:12] going forward.

[1:10:15] I understand there's been a lot of transparency has been a big issue with many, many people,

[1:10:21] many groups, you know, kind of consistently throughout.

[1:10:25] How much is information can we share before we can't, I mean, I know surveys and people

[1:10:31] take surveys and there's some concern of, you know, what we can share with these individual

[1:10:40] comments and what we can't, how do we determine what we can share and what we can't.

[1:10:46] So we have taken the stance of much like our reception of visitors.

[1:10:53] The surveys are intended to be a place where we're allowing one person to be called out

[1:11:00] by name.

[1:11:01] So Melissa, the board secretary, has for many years.

[1:11:05] Yeah, it's pretty good.

[1:11:07] Yeah, took over.

[1:11:10] That position has redacted those names,

[1:11:13] the personally identifiable information.

[1:11:15] But otherwise we post those results online,

[1:11:18] the quantitative as well as the qualitative.

[1:11:21] The school teams do receive their school's report

[1:11:25] so they can look at some of those themes

[1:11:26] and analyze those in school teams.

[1:11:29] In my experience at least, do take those results very seriously

[1:11:32] and they use those results to help design what their school improvement plans will include,

[1:11:37] building leadership teams will design some of their outreach around some of those themes

[1:11:41] that they see.

[1:11:43] And you know, you're right, John, sometimes those themes are hard to tackle in our school

[1:11:48] teams, I think, to a really nice job of trying to see improvement year over year on some

[1:11:53] of those recurring themes.

[1:11:55] And I think the quantitative results certainly show that.

[1:11:58] And we need to continue to dig into some of those qualitative results as well.

[1:12:02] I just think it's one of the most honest and open I know it's a lot of work for staff

[1:12:08] and everybody to do it, but every survey I've ever looked at, the most important part

[1:12:13] of the survey is the comments because sometimes you can't just neatly fit things in a 1, 2,

[1:12:19] 3, 4, 5 type box or 1, 2, 3 box.

[1:12:22] I really appreciate it and I'll tell you I think that was one of the best informative tools

[1:12:28] of the halls of the community and you know just start seeing trends between schools

[1:12:32] right.

[1:12:33] Why does this school think that but this school thinks that?

[1:12:43] Okay.

[1:12:44] Thank you very much.

[1:12:51] Next are communications listed on tonight's agenda are 17 communications received by the

[1:12:55] board.

[1:12:56] Are there any additional communications board members would like to share at this time.

[1:13:06] Okay.

[1:13:06] If not, we will move on to the report to the board and start with the Superior Intentant

[1:13:10] Report with Dr. Kermeskola.

[1:13:13] Thank you.

[1:13:14] So I just have a few things to report to the board in the community this evening, especially

[1:13:19] since we have a rather lengthy agenda tonight.

[1:13:22] First is we are excited to present to the board this evening, later on the agenda to action

[1:13:29] items related to the STEM curriculum adoption.

[1:13:34] The STEM committee held a very productive meeting last Monday, and together came to consensus

[1:13:38] regarding the STEM curricular resources.

[1:13:40] The board will remember a presentation that Mr. Cicil gave recently, summarizing some

[1:13:46] of the options that we were looking at and some of the next steps as well, knowing that

[1:13:51] that meeting was really important for our teachers to come together and review those resources

[1:13:55] and make some decisions and together with our administrative team-maker recommendation to

[1:14:00] the board.

[1:14:00] And so, we are excited that they were able to come to consensus.

[1:14:04] They've chosen TCI for kindergarten through fifth grade and IQuest, which is also known

[1:14:09] is active learning for six or eighth grade levels.

[1:14:12] So we're excited for this decision and for the upcoming training that will support our

[1:14:16] teachers preparation as they transition to these new resources.

[1:14:21] So pending board approval this evening of the curriculum purchases, these resources will

[1:14:27] be used in full implementation district-wide next school year, so we're really excited about

[1:14:32] that.

[1:14:33] And the purchase of these materials will be shared, the cost will be shared over the next

[1:14:38] last three years, as we plan those budgets, we'll certainly fold those in, but the board

[1:14:44] is aware that we have made those kind of financial projections over the next five years and those

[1:14:50] assumptions reflect the purchase of these materials, and so they certainly are built into those

[1:14:55] projections that Todd has shared with us many times over at this point, so we're excited.

[1:15:00] About this this evening. Second, we with regards to emergency days and making those up. We certainly

[1:15:09] have had an unusual couple weeks of school cancellations. I would like to say, hopefully, the most

[1:15:14] treacherous winter weather is behind us, but today's weather and tonight's weather seems

[1:15:19] to be making me a little nervous about the game. I feel a little bit like a meteorologist

[1:15:25] just recently so hopefully the weather will not be too bad this evening and things will

[1:15:31] continue as planned but we have reviewed the this year's school calendar and we will

[1:15:38] need to plan for three additional emergency days at the end of the school year so there's

[1:15:42] been four days used and we'll need to make up all four of those provided we don't need

[1:15:49] to use any additional emergency days and it scares me to even say that we will plan to adjust

[1:15:54] the calendar to reflect the use of those four emergency days. This would mean that our

[1:15:59] last day of school would be on Tuesday, June 11th. So as typically our practice, June 11th

[1:16:06] would include a half day of student attendance and an afternoon of school improvement activities

[1:16:10] and end of year work for our teachers and staff. We've provided the board with a draft calendar

[1:16:16] reflecting these revisions. At this time, our plan is to continue to closely monitor weather

[1:16:21] through February and early March and we hope to plan, we hope to bring back to the board

[1:16:26] an adjusted calendar for approval at the March Board meeting and so that will finalize

[1:16:31] that June 11th date as our last day of school. And typically, although we're still working

[1:16:38] out the final details, typically the middle school promotion ceremony then is the night before

[1:16:43] the last day of school so that we're put it on Monday, June 10th. Since we host those

[1:16:48] at the high schools, we're still working out some of those, some of the, the scheduling

[1:16:53] of that.

[1:16:54] And that note, Carrie, there's been some concern in the past and I get we have to make

[1:16:59] up emergency days now with community and just beats that at all and everybody kind of agrees.

[1:17:05] But is there any way we can set the promotion because that can affect some families, especially

[1:17:10] if you've got people coming from out of town and can, as you mentioned, can affect facilities

[1:17:15] And I know this is maybe different than in the high schools, but the high school set graduation day.

[1:17:22] And no matter when the school year ends, graduation day stays the same.

[1:17:26] So even if they add more days on which they have and they just came out this past week and said that,

[1:17:32] they don't change that because they know that's an event that people take pride in and want to attend.

[1:17:39] would there be any drawback to just saying this is when eighth grade promotion

[1:17:44] happens on this day, regardless? Here's the deal, right? Like the high school

[1:17:50] knows, if you're not passing three days isn't going to help you, right? So you're

[1:17:54] going to graduate or you're not going to graduate. So you're either going to get

[1:17:58] promoted or you're not going to be promoted. So in our district we have taken

[1:18:03] the stands that instructional days are really important for our students and so

[1:18:09] So for our eighth grade students, those are instructional minutes that would be lost.

[1:18:14] If in fact we set, for example, the promotion day as Wednesday or Thursday of the week prior

[1:18:21] to what now is the last couple of days of school, it would typically a student is promoted

[1:18:29] and they don't return to the school, for those last four or five days of school.

[1:18:33] And so we have taken the stamps in the past that it's important that our students receive

[1:18:38] as much instructional time and support as possible.

[1:18:41] However, we could certainly look into that if that's something that the board wishes to

[1:18:44] do for the upcoming school year, it just has always been our practice that it is the

[1:18:48] day before the last day of school for eighth grade promotion, which does look and feel a little

[1:18:53] bit different than the high school graduation where they have received their grades.

[1:18:59] I understand now at high school, sometimes seniors don't participate in finals, so many

[1:19:04] of their last couple of days of school include finals.

[1:19:07] We don't have that same approach here at the middle school level.

[1:19:10] So those are some of the things that we've taken into account but if it's the board's desire

[1:19:14] to more firmly set that promotion day I know many of us administratively and I'm sure

[1:19:19] our teachers as well would appreciate having the opportunity to simply just set it and keep

[1:19:28] it a firm date that would make for some differences in the way we kind of wrap up the middle school

[1:19:34] you're especially considering we only have 7th and 8th graders at our middle school.

[1:19:38] I'm not saying we're at a point we make a decision but you know at least it might

[1:19:43] be something that you know maybe the teachers can add to that or the administrators can add

[1:19:48] to that. We do get parent comments about that's one of the typically the the comments we get is

[1:19:54] everybody's like when is it when is you know right now we're like when you get a firm up the schedule

[1:19:57] when are you going to firm up the schedule and it's usually 8th grade parents it's not necessarily

[1:20:01] Oh, I plan on going on vacation that day after having that happens, but it's mostly it seems over the years to have been eighth grade parents.

[1:20:08] We get it typically actually at eighth grade and at sixth grade there's some events that happen right after school lets out in sixth grade, which often we hear a lot from our sixth grade parents as well.

[1:20:19] So it certainly is something we can look at for eighth grade promotion.

[1:20:22] With that, I would not advocate for looking at that person.

[1:20:24] With that end up counting against us as far as the ratings because then all those students would be out of school

[1:20:30] That's a really good point because yes, their attendance would need to be reported accurately

[1:20:36] Why just thinking of that box here? Why are we stuck on the idea that the

[1:20:42] eighth-group motion ceremony has to be the penultimate day of school

[1:20:45] Why can't we just set it as the second to last day according to the calendar including emergency days?

[1:20:50] So this year, why can't we just set it as the 11th?

[1:20:53] I understand that people don't always consider the last day of school to include the

[1:20:59] emergency days.

[1:21:00] So many of I've heard from families who have already established vacation plans, but

[1:21:04] if we communicate long and advanced to people who have eighth graders, motion ceremony is

[1:21:09] going to be in all likelihood after school ends, so don't go on your plan at vacation until

[1:21:14] after the motion ceremony if attendance is valuable to you.

[1:21:17] So I would suggest, and I certainly can look for some additional feedback on this, but I think that we might not have as many student participants in promotion if we do that.

[1:21:28] If it were four or five days after school is out, students, especially our eighth grade students, would be thinking about maybe summer and whatever their next plans are.

[1:21:38] I also think it might be difficult for staff, for faculty and our teachers to make arrangements

[1:21:43] then to participate in this ceremony and we have many of our teachers and principals

[1:21:49] and others who come out to celebrate our students as they're promoted to District 99.

[1:21:54] So certainly Greg, that's something we could look at as well.

[1:21:57] I think what might be a better option is to look at the other, but it would have an impact

[1:22:02] on our attendance.

[1:22:03] So that's a really good point, Jill, and something we'd have to think carefully about more pursuing

[1:22:07] that option. Do we have data that demonstrates that if we have that eight-grade

[1:22:11] attendance is abysmal following the promotion ceremony? No. Like for four or five

[1:22:15] days. If there's four or five days after the promotion ceremony, we haven't you're

[1:22:23] saying like go ahead and hold promotion ceremony but then expect that. No, but

[1:22:27] Jill's point was if we're worried about our our chronic absenteeism rate with our

[1:22:32] a pair of S reporting, is that based on historical evidence

[1:22:37] that our A through S don't show up after promotion?

[1:22:39] Is that just an assumption?

[1:22:40] We've never expected our A through S to show up after promotion.

[1:22:44] So we've never had a situation where promotion is day X

[1:22:48] and then the last day of school is four days later.

[1:22:51] Not that I'm aware, I'm looking at my team

[1:22:53] to see if you have any recollection

[1:22:55] of A through S attending four days after promotion ceremony.

[1:23:00] I don't think we've had that experience.

[1:23:01] At least not in any kind of recent past.

[1:23:04] I think up to two, maybe.

[1:23:08] Yeah, and then they don't.

[1:23:10] They don't show up at school.

[1:23:11] They certainly could.

[1:23:12] Sure.

[1:23:13] But they typically, after promotions,

[1:23:15] how many are there?

[1:23:16] Don't look.

[1:23:16] Well, there's a lot of camps and there's a lot of sports activities

[1:23:20] that travel sports that I've already had people ask me about.

[1:23:24] When the last day is for those people going out of town

[1:23:27] for tournaments and things like that.

[1:23:29] Sure.

[1:23:29] I always try to show people that last emergency day, just anything that you can respond to.

[1:23:34] Yeah, right, right.

[1:23:36] So there's certain things that we look at.

[1:23:40] So those are things certainly we could look at.

[1:23:42] And as we build next year's calendar, we always do look at when that last year's school is,

[1:23:46] and when likely the ceremony might be.

[1:23:49] But this has been an unusual year to have four days canceled within one school year is unusual.

[1:23:59] We have five days built in. It's unusual to have four emergency days in the year.

[1:24:05] In the event that we have two more, which unlikely, but I didn't think we'd have an emergency

[1:24:09] date in November either. Is the six day just not made up?

[1:24:13] Yeah, after five days, it's considered an act of God, and so we get to...

[1:24:19] Some of us would think they're all an act of it.

[1:24:22] Well, I don't know this too coldly, sure, we're not supposed to lie.

[1:24:26] We're supposed to lie.

[1:24:27] Really?

[1:24:28] God doesn't care about the first day.

[1:24:30] I don't know.

[1:24:31] I'm the sixth day.

[1:24:32] Okay.

[1:24:34] I don't know.

[1:24:35] I understand it to be.

[1:24:36] We can forego making up the sixth day, but don't chance us, it's all I'm not saying.

[1:24:43] We're hoping that school will be in session as far as I didn't mean to restrict it.

[1:24:47] That's okay.

[1:24:48] I appreciate the question because John, you're right.

[1:24:50] We get that question every year, too, and especially in these years where we've had to adjust by four days.

[1:24:56] It really does become pretty significant.

[1:24:59] I think seven years ago we had four days, but that was inclusive of a flood.

[1:25:04] We had a four-year individual experience as well, yes.

[1:25:09] On that note, though, I will also share.

[1:25:11] We've received a few questions regarding the possibility of making up school with an e-learning day

[1:25:16] or some type of a remote learning day.

[1:25:18] At this time, District 58 does not currently have procedures

[1:25:22] in place to accommodate this type of an emergency day makeup.

[1:25:26] However, we would like to consider these opportunities

[1:25:29] for the future.

[1:25:31] Some of our neighboring districts, especially the high school

[1:25:33] districts, seem to be exploring this a little bit more

[1:25:35] and many are piloting or exploring it with one day to try.

[1:25:41] So it's something that we'd like to learn from.

[1:25:43] There are a handful of suburban districts at the elementary level that are piloting this approach to the school year as well.

[1:25:50] Again, we hope to learn more from their experiences and to consider some options for that in the future, but right now we just aren't quite in a place where we would be jumping in to give that a try.

[1:26:01] The other thing to keep in mind is the state this year has made some adjustments to how they're counting and calculating student attendance days.

[1:26:07] And throughout this year, superintendents and other administrators have really been closely monitoring this because they have changed it a couple of times.

[1:26:16] Many of the adjustments are offering districts more flexibility.

[1:26:20] But there's still some requirements that in some limitations that they've set there.

[1:26:24] And so there's a little that still is unknown about whether or not an e-learning day, how it would count in how you have to structure it to ensure that it counts adequately.

[1:26:34] And so, again, we hope to learn more about that.

[1:26:37] We will be looking at next year's calendar

[1:26:39] and looking to consider some options there.

[1:26:42] Also some options for where we place those emergency days,

[1:26:46] so that there's some information built into the calendar

[1:26:49] and some opportunities may be built into the calendar

[1:26:52] to more flexibly schedule those days,

[1:26:54] if in fact the board and everyone who contributes

[1:26:59] to the calendar development can come

[1:27:00] to some consensus around that.

[1:27:02] So we'll be bringing back.

[1:27:03] We have long been aiming for bringing a calendar for next school year in March.

[1:27:08] You're going to hear a little more about our calendar development later in tonight's agenda

[1:27:12] and again at the curriculum workshop.

[1:27:15] So we'll keep talking to you about that.

[1:27:20] Third, the superintendent search, the online survey did in fact launch today.

[1:27:25] Megan sent out some communications regarding that.

[1:27:28] They'll be collecting input for the next 10 days via that online survey and we would

[1:27:33] encourage everyone to log in.

[1:27:35] It's a pretty quick and simple survey to respond to, but that responses are really valuable

[1:27:41] to the recruiters.

[1:27:43] They just continue to want us to encourage people's responses to the online survey.

[1:27:48] That's really, really important.

[1:27:49] In addition, we have our stakeholder input events that are being scheduled for February 20th.

[1:27:55] The board was provided that tentative schedule, and I'm looking this evening to just affirm

[1:28:01] that the schedule of events look good to the board.

[1:28:04] We hope to advertise that tomorrow.

[1:28:06] We have some two o'clock meetings happening with some of our faculty who are a little more

[1:28:12] flexible.

[1:28:13] And then right after school, we will host, we are planning to host an event at each of our

[1:28:20] middle school so that our faculty and staff can attend that.

[1:28:23] And then again, in the evening, at seven o'clock at each of our middle schools, so that parents

[1:28:27] and community members and other faculty and staff, if you can't get to the afternoon

[1:28:31] event, you can come to the evening event.

[1:28:33] Again, the goal is to broadly encourage as many people as possible to come out and share

[1:28:39] your input with BWP that will help to build that profile of the next superintendent and help

[1:28:46] to inform the board's decision as you consider candidates.

[1:28:49] So the first is I need affirmation that that schedule looks good, so we can post and

[1:28:53] publicize that.

[1:28:55] Yes.

[1:28:55] Any suggestions?

[1:28:57] Okay.

[1:28:58] Wonderful.

[1:28:59] I'll pass that along to BWP.

[1:29:01] And then first round interviews are being scheduled for Thursday, March 7th in the evening,

[1:29:06] and for Saturday, March 9th in the late afternoon at this point.

[1:29:10] I'd like to acknowledge John Miller for thank you for adjusting your schedule a little

[1:29:15] But I know that that will help with BWP and in the candidates.

[1:29:19] I'm sure as well right now.

[1:29:21] We're looking at that two to six time frame for scheduling the Saturday, March 9.

[1:29:26] I think Melissa, we were still waiting to hear back from a couple of board members.

[1:29:30] Do we have information from everyone that that will work on that date?

[1:29:35] Yes.

[1:29:38] The Google forums said one to five.

[1:29:40] It did.

[1:29:41] Yes.

[1:29:41] But we're going to do two to six.

[1:29:44] If that works for us.

[1:29:45] Because my feedback was I could do two.

[1:29:47] I couldn't be there at one.

[1:29:48] Right.

[1:29:48] So I've heard from about half.

[1:29:50] I just need to check in with everyone else.

[1:29:53] Two more.

[1:29:53] Six is good.

[1:29:57] You can go.

[1:29:58] Okay.

[1:29:58] Perfect.

[1:30:00] Melissa will then proceed with BWP and getting that schedule. For the 20th, for our engagement in that process, do we contact Melissa to set up some time with BWP? Yes. She will hold that schedule for BWP, and it seems easy as just to schedule that directly with her, if it's going to be that on the 20th. And I know BWP representative said that if that date afternoon time doesn't work for members of the board that they would schedule an alternative conference call or meet

[1:30:29] on another date with one of you if that were the case.

[1:30:34] So please reach out to Melissa to secure one of those dates

[1:30:37] and if one of them doesn't work,

[1:30:39] then she'll make sure to put you in touch

[1:30:41] with BWP directly so that you can schedule that.

[1:30:44] Okay, thank you.

[1:30:46] And then again, reserving March 12th, 14th,

[1:30:50] and 15th for the potential final round interviews.

[1:30:53] Okay, so with the boards approval of the schedule,

[1:30:56] We'll ask Megan to update the website with this information.

[1:31:00] We'll start advertising those events hopefully tomorrow, sending out invitations and advertising

[1:31:07] the February 20th, again, an important date for us.

[1:31:14] And then just two other quick announcements. One is the curriculum workshop is on February 25th.

[1:31:19] We'll be talking a little bit more about professional learning, next year's calendar,

[1:31:23] as well as some other really important topics at the curriculum workshop.

[1:31:27] We have on February 25th, we are scheduled on that evening to meet at Fairmont School,

[1:31:32] so we're excited to be able to visit another school.

[1:31:35] We also have a visit to Henry Puppers School coming up next week, a board tour and visit

[1:31:41] with the PTA.

[1:31:43] And then we have the exciting Harlem Wizards event, a fundraising event for our Education

[1:31:50] Foundation that is scheduled for the afternoon of February 24th and we would invite members

[1:31:56] of our community to come on out and enjoy the fun and entertainment. We have faculty and staff

[1:32:02] who will be taking on the wizards and hopefully victorious in that game or at least having a whole

[1:32:08] lot of fun along the way. So that should be a good time. That is all I have to report. I tried to

[1:32:16] keep it as brief as possible this week or this month. I'm sorry and we have monthly business report

[1:32:21] if there aren't any other questions.

[1:32:25] Thank you.

[1:32:26] You had a monthly business report.

[1:32:28] All things are going well.

[1:32:30] We did receive some state money in January.

[1:32:35] And in the interest of time, that is the end of my report.

[1:32:38] There are any questions.

[1:32:40] I should point out I did look up a cicada cycle starts in 2020

[1:32:45] for those interested about, you know.

[1:32:53] Back to the state money.

[1:32:57] Where do we stand?

[1:33:00] You've given us updates in the past.

[1:33:03] Where do we stand on?

[1:33:05] Where are we outstanding on right now?

[1:33:08] I have to go look.

[1:33:09] They have made...

[1:33:11] Well, we've been paid the two payments

[1:33:13] from the reimbursements from transportation that were due to us in fiscal year 2018

[1:33:23] that were for reimbursements or 2017. So those are done now.

[1:33:27] So now we just need the 2018 reimbursements that are due to us in 2019,

[1:33:32] which they're supposed to be for, so we'll get two of those.

[1:33:36] As far as that's transportation money. The special ed money, we did receive some of that

[1:33:40] But that is not already rolled into the evidence-based model.

[1:33:45] Those came in January.

[1:33:47] We do get some money in January, usually when a stake can start, you know, has some

[1:33:52] revenue to put forth.

[1:33:54] I'd have to go and add up what they're buying right now.

[1:33:57] They've been, I think, it's transportation, they've been, like, two behind.

[1:34:00] Yeah.

[1:34:01] And the problem is, I mean, for us, last year's claim was significantly higher than a year

[1:34:07] before.

[1:34:08] So, the budget is based on some of those payments coming in and that's a larger amount than the ones that we've already received.

[1:34:18] So, the next payment when we get them will be a considerable higher amount.

[1:34:25] I'm going to presume we're going to get three payments of transportation this year.

[1:34:30] maybe if they do something significant they'll get a fourth in mid-June. I mean depending on what they're with their structure and stuff and what they try to get through, I'm not going to be extremely optimistic on the state contributing.

[1:34:48] We'll see what happens after tax receipts come in and everything gets filed.

[1:34:52] So in John we should consider ourselves being just as far behind as we were before we're not catching up

[1:34:58] But we're not following behind right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's kind of I mean last year was in with three behind

[1:35:04] When you're looking at last year's comparison

[1:35:07] Last year was an anomaly because they accelerated payments at the beginning of the fiscal year

[1:35:13] Because they held state aid money

[1:35:17] as they did, it dealt with the budget and the evidence-based model.

[1:35:21] And so last year was really an anomaly because there was a lot more state money coming in

[1:35:25] because they had to do something to give money to schools so they could open.

[1:35:30] Because a lot of schools that are dependent on, much more dependent on state money than we are,

[1:35:35] were very worried about making their first payroll without having some funds

[1:35:40] and they didn't have a general state aid coming in.

[1:35:44] So, there's always, when you compare last year, this year to last year, particularly looking at the year-to-day reports,

[1:35:51] it's always going to look a little more skewed than the trend has been over the last four years or five years or whatever it's been since we've had a significant reduction in the payment system.

[1:36:05] So, we are where we should, where we would be every year, last year being kind of an outline.

[1:36:11] Okay.

[1:36:16] Thank you.

[1:36:21] The Policy Committee has not met since the last board meeting.

[1:36:25] A legislative committee met January 23rd and member Siegel.

[1:36:31] Sure. We met and we maybe talked about the legislative breakfast.

[1:36:35] We are confirmed for the date of March 15th.

[1:36:39] We do have same dates have gone out.

[1:36:41] We do have two representatives or two legislators that have said they are going, they are able

[1:36:46] to attend.

[1:36:47] We're still waiting here and five other legislators.

[1:36:48] So it is an interesting year where we have so many new representatives that really then

[1:36:54] is I think to some extent coloring the types of questions that we will ask because obviously

[1:36:59] the goal is to ask questions that the representative should be comfortable answering but then also

[1:37:04] help to educate them but the things that are most important to our district.

[1:37:08] And so the plan is at a high level to really start by asking some questions about education

[1:37:14] in general, what our priorities are, what their priorities are, and then talking about ways

[1:37:19] that we could work together and really helping to understand how that outreach could work

[1:37:23] more effectively.

[1:37:25] And then we will probably ask some of the same questions that we ask every year regarding

[1:37:29] funding.

[1:37:30] And perhaps the pension cost, the property tax freeze, reliability state funding, I think

[1:37:35] that still it folks on exactly how to ask the question, but of course that question is

[1:37:39] going to be asked because it's always asked because it's so important as you've heard

[1:37:42] for the stability of funding is so important to our forecasting.

[1:37:47] The only change really versus past years and I do think it's a positive one was that

[1:37:53] the committee decided to invite the legislative committee leaders from our surrounding districts

[1:37:59] from the other districts that then will feed into district 99 as a way just to have that

[1:38:05] outreach and hopefully then perhaps be invited in turn to the extent that they have events

[1:38:09] But just to try and have that be a little broader conversation and then also to to make sure the representative understand

[1:38:15] Obviously that there are a lot of districts who share the interests that that they are representing

[1:38:21] So that that's the biggest change other than that

[1:38:23] I think the format will feel fairly similar assuming that we don't get stowed out

[1:38:33] The financial advisory committee has an affimates since our last board meeting the district leadership team is not met since your last board meeting

[1:38:41] of a discussion in the facility planning update with Dr. Kermes-Killard.

[1:38:44] Yes, thank you. It is my privilege to introduce Todd Drefall,

[1:38:49] who is chair of our facility planning council

[1:38:53] and Amy Fuller and Grand Paulson, who are here with us this evening

[1:38:57] from White Incompany Our Architects firm.

[1:39:00] As the board is aware, we have been working diligently on our timeline

[1:39:05] and our goals related to the strategic plan this evening. We're really going to focus in this presentation

[1:39:09] on securing the future and the work that has been accomplished in steps one and two.

[1:39:15] So we're really excited to be able to share the results of this work with the board

[1:39:20] and with our community this evening.

[1:39:22] So I will let Todd walk us through the first couple of pages here.

[1:39:26] Thank you.

[1:39:27] So this is the first big report for goal three and for the facility planning council we've

[1:39:34] been working since July, August, and the council formed up.

[1:39:39] I think in September, and we've had, again, a few delays.

[1:39:44] Did you just know in ice and cold and everything else?

[1:39:47] But we've been getting through it.

[1:39:49] And White County has done an incredible job

[1:39:51] of synthesizing and getting all the data.

[1:39:55] And there's been a lot of data that they've put together

[1:40:00] very quickly to get the report.

[1:40:03] We had our last engagement session last week, so again, you know, goal three is what

[1:40:13] in securing the future is, if you are focused on this, our timeline, or in February,

[1:40:21] we made some adjustments to it, but we're still working aggressively to get to the board

[1:40:27] a financial plan in the summer for them to consider a review, but there's more

[1:40:33] community engagement sessions coming as part of each, you know, the next phases.

[1:40:39] So after tonight we will, in earnest, begin steps, you know, three and four moving on from there.

[1:40:46] So, but we can't, you know, we, this, what you're seeing tonight is

[1:40:52] of the prior reports going back into 2012

[1:40:56] and that facility assessment updating that

[1:40:59] with current issues and information

[1:41:02] as well as going through the visioning

[1:41:05] sessions that happened first with the facility

[1:41:08] of the planning council, then

[1:41:10] at all of the buildings with all the staff

[1:41:12] and then to community sessions that we've had.

[1:41:16] So that brings us to

[1:41:20] We'll focus on what our next steps are, and we'll be forward, and as we kind of work

[1:41:28] through this year, so at that, I will turn it over to Brad Olson from White Company

[1:41:35] and Amy.

[1:41:37] All right.

[1:41:37] Thank you, Ted.

[1:41:39] So, before we set up some of that data that Amy's going to share on a great level of detail

[1:41:43] and a very high level for the meeting, I'm going to kind of talk about the process we

[1:41:49] and any time we're involved in a facility planning process,

[1:41:51] the question we always get in any community is why.

[1:41:55] People understand the need that we have old buildings

[1:41:57] and the infrastructure and buildings

[1:42:00] are 40, 56 years old need to be replaced.

[1:42:03] But buildings also need to adapt to the modern styles

[1:42:07] of learning that happen so often in education now.

[1:42:11] So in our conversations with your community,

[1:42:14] with the teachers, with the facility planning council,

[1:42:16] we've had a lot of conversations

[1:42:17] and shared a lot of statistics about communication,

[1:42:21] about collaboration, critical thinking, creativity,

[1:42:24] these core elements that are often so important

[1:42:27] in those conversations, but also so instrumental

[1:42:30] to the student experience they have in schools

[1:42:32] and the different types of ways students learn today.

[1:42:36] So as we look at, so as we look at buildings

[1:42:42] for different lens, I wanted to give you a quick,

[1:42:44] high level summary of some of the eight things

[1:42:47] we look for in schools and these are examples we shared with your community to give us a better

[1:42:55] glimpse of how well your buildings are aligned with the types of things that we would see typically in

[1:42:59] a school today as well as tomorrow. So classrooms, modern classrooms are the core of every learning

[1:43:05] environment, modern classrooms are flexible, dynamic, they're largely driven by furniture and technology.

[1:43:12] These support the notion that the teacher has a different role in the classroom.

[1:43:16] They're constantly moving around working with different student groups.

[1:43:19] So classrooms in a modern school are very active in exciting places to be for students.

[1:43:26] Outside of those classrooms are what we would call collaboration spaces.

[1:43:30] These really serve to extend the learning opportunities outside of the classroom.

[1:43:34] Corridors are no longer just a place to move kids and exit kids out of the school and to the lunch period.

[1:43:40] So these are spaces for collaboration, these are spaces that are comfortable and tech-driven.

[1:43:46] It's usually supports groups at three to four students.

[1:43:49] But sometimes you need more than three to four students, you need 30 or 40 students.

[1:43:54] So we often look for bigger spaces in classrooms where multiple and schools where multiple classes

[1:44:00] can come together.

[1:44:01] These are opportunities for interdisciplinary learning, these are opportunities for blended learning.

[1:44:06] these spaces are very different multiple functions in the school and are

[1:44:12] instrumental to extending the learning environment.

[1:44:17] At the core of the school

[1:44:18] typically is a learning center and the traditional school libraries has been

[1:44:22] turned inside out. Modern library support group work, they're no longer spaces

[1:44:29] for silence. These are active dynamic spaces. Yes, they still have books but they're

[1:44:34] focus around the student activity that happens in a different type of learning style.

[1:44:40] Usually adjacent to those spaces has been the traditional computer lab, those are gone.

[1:44:46] Traditional computer lab has gone.

[1:44:47] These tech driven spaces now support a variety of different environments.

[1:44:51] They support the maker movement.

[1:44:53] They support the notion of learning by doing and hopefully doing over if they don't get

[1:44:57] it right the first time.

[1:44:58] they support

[1:45:00] Stem curriculum. Understand that's on the agenda a little bit later. These are messy, clean,

[1:45:06] full of lots of kits, equipment, materials that support a cross-section of different types

[1:45:12] of learning environments. Often, the things we look for, you can't see, you have to

[1:45:17] feel them. So we look for the types of environment that happens in the classrooms and in the school

[1:45:24] to have an improvement to enhance student achievement. They can improve the use and make

[1:45:29] efficient use of taxpayer resources and they can enhance comfort for teachers and students.

[1:45:35] So we look at the amount of daylight, the amount of views to the outside.

[1:45:39] We look at and try to measure temperature, humidity, ventilation, CO2 levels.

[1:45:45] We try to measure acoustics in the classroom which has been documented through research

[1:45:49] to have a direct impact on student achievement.

[1:45:52] So these are all elements that are critical to a learning environment and they're much

[1:45:59] they were 50 years ago. The other thing that's so critical is that we recognize that learning

[1:46:05] happens all over the place and that the dining experience is way different than it was when

[1:46:09] we were all in school. We hope it's different than when we were in school. So the dining experience

[1:46:14] really can change the school's culture. It's a place where social and emotional learning can happen,

[1:46:20] can be enhanced rather than challenged. It's a different type of environment. It lets kids connect

[1:46:25] in a different way. The furniture is integral to that type of environment. So, the old cafeteria

[1:46:31] functions as a multipurpose to remain as a community hub. And then, finally, gymnasiums

[1:46:37] are still the center of the physical education class. There's a variety of different activities

[1:46:42] that really complement that. There's a host of new spaces that enhance physical fitness,

[1:46:47] support lifelong wellness in a variety of different smaller types of spaces that are more focused

[1:46:52] as an individual learning as opposed to team activity.

[1:46:57] So with that, it's a quick primer for some of the things

[1:47:01] we looked at in the schools.

[1:47:03] I'm going to turn it over to Amy who's

[1:47:04] going to share in great detail the amount of research

[1:47:07] that we've gathered through a variety of different tools.

[1:47:14] Thanks, Brad.

[1:47:16] So what could this mean for a district of D8 students?

[1:47:19] We started with a series of visioning sessions

[1:47:22] for it with the FPC group as well as staff and the community.

[1:47:28] Those visioning sessions included conversation-oriented activities

[1:47:33] that we were able to gather data and I'm going to share kind of and identify the big picture items that came out of those meetings and really resonated with staff and community.

[1:47:48] So one of the first activities had to do with that PC group was given a list of 20 different

[1:47:57] items and we narrowed that down through their visioning session down to 10 most essential

[1:48:04] items which were then kind of refined into statements that were given to each of the schools

[1:48:11] for their staff-visioning sessions, as well as the two community events that we

[1:48:15] held. As you'll know, note, when you're looking at one being the most

[1:48:21] essential item and kind of ten being going down the list for effective

[1:48:26] learning environments. A lot of those areas kind of gravitated towards human

[1:48:32] comfort as the top few categories.

[1:48:40] The next activity focused on an activity that

[1:48:43] was really geared towards the areas for consideration outlined in strategic plan 3, goal 3.

[1:48:51] This was one of the most exciting activities for a lot of the participants.

[1:48:55] They were giving a series of dots with different colors to rate priority statements.

[1:49:03] Each group or each person was able to identify and rate their statements from a personal level,

[1:49:09] but be able to discuss in their groups what those statements meant and maybe have more

[1:49:15] of a deeper conversation of how they could be applied to district 58.

[1:49:20] So there were a series of 12 statements per board.

[1:49:24] There are two sets of boards.

[1:49:26] The first set of boards dealt with statements dealing with safety and security and human comfort.

[1:49:32] One thing to note on the safety and security and human comfort.

[1:49:35] Again, a lot of the higher points or higher that's given for high priorities were ranked

[1:49:46] towards student comfort and human comfort, just kind of going into some more of the details

[1:49:56] which you can read through thoroughly in the report.

[1:49:59] board. The second set of boards focused on the grade structure of the buildings. And

[1:50:07] looking at moving six grade out into the six, eight middle schools, and what does that

[1:50:13] mean for the elementary school buildings, as well as what could that mean for the middle

[1:50:19] school structure? After looking at that, there's a lot of positive thinking towards having

[1:50:27] six graders with middle school curriculum and having the opportunities that are available

[1:50:32] by being with older peers and for a longer stay.

[1:50:37] So after we kind of looked at those two sets of boards separately, like in company gathered

[1:50:44] all that data across all of the visioning sessions and across the staff meetings and summarized

[1:50:52] what those top priorities were, and one thing to note is that through all the

[1:50:59] participants it really aligns with your strategic goal-free and the objectives

[1:51:04] that were set forth with goals to consider. And those reinforce that human

[1:51:12] comfort, that indoor air quality, shifting the 6-8 middle school, freeing up space in

[1:51:17] that elementary school and providing greater opportunity for six

[1:51:20] our key, as well as safety and security, our high priorities.

[1:51:29] From there, kind of that was step one if you recall the timeline before.

[1:51:34] Now we kind of move over into step two, and what do we have?

[1:51:38] We really kind of evaluated the buildings as a whole.

[1:51:41] So the Board of Education and the District for a long time have been invested in your buildings.

[1:51:47] back in 2012, a physical needs assessment was completed, and your facility's team since

[1:51:57] has been working on projects based on priorities, as well as they continue to refine and project

[1:52:03] out projects based on needs based on a long-term plan.

[1:52:07] So what's interesting to note is that your average age of your 13 buildings is about 65

[1:52:15] five years old, with about three additions added on average across the board.

[1:52:24] So kind of the next step was to look at it, okay, now that we've looked at the physical

[1:52:29] building, what about how does it align with education?

[1:52:36] So this is important because it kind of addresses a baseline and it really looks at the support

[1:52:45] work for teaching and learning and evaluates it against your district's vision and how

[1:52:50] well spaces are enabled modern learning.

[1:52:54] We know that kids learned differently today than they did before and teaching is delivered

[1:52:59] in a different manner than it was in the past.

[1:53:02] So the district established a core group of people that consisted of FPC members, staff and

[1:53:12] And they were joined by principals at each school to walk the 13 buildings and evaluate it

[1:53:18] based on three overarching criteria.

[1:53:21] White and company helped provide a template for this group to go out and evaluate and

[1:53:27] survey each of your buildings.

[1:53:30] And from that data, we collected and kind of summarized as a district whole.

[1:53:36] So we're going to dive into each one of these areas specifically, but the way it's outlined

[1:53:41] right now is you're seeing right up here a focus on the building campuses and

[1:53:47] facility configurations. The rating scale is color-coded just so it's easy to

[1:53:54] read. Green means good, yellow is fair and red and when you see it in the

[1:54:01] future is kind of poor quality. Overall your building campus which looks at your

[1:54:11] neighborhoods, the security lighting, site configurations, play areas, as well as the

[1:54:16] configurations of the buildings overall ranked fairly well.

[1:54:22] When you dive into holistically your learning space survey assessment that groups along many

[1:54:29] different group types, which, again, will dive in kind of each core learning environment

[1:54:35] in a moment but the key point here to look at as a whole is that areas identified in red

[1:54:43] should not be looked at as a problem but rather an opportunity for improvement.

[1:54:48] Some areas as you'll note there's a lot of green in your technology right now across the

[1:54:53] board and whether it's co-learning spaces, your library, your art across the whole gamut

[1:55:00] of space types.

[1:55:01] That was something that was identified as a red area in the last strategic plan.

[1:55:07] So making these long-term plans really helps show that improvements can be made and

[1:55:15] addressing those issues can be taken in a positive direction.

[1:55:20] One thing to note holistically, too, is a lot of the red areas occur in that human comfort

[1:55:27] section.

[1:55:28] So when we talk about human comfort, we talk about air quality, we talk about humidity and acoustics, as well as artificial lighting.

[1:55:44] Brief overview of core learning spaces and classroom specifically, again, targeting kind of that health and comfort as an area to look at and monitor and technology being kind of on that great side.

[1:56:00] your buildings. For non-core learning spaces such as your library, your art, and your

[1:56:06] music. One thing you'll notice is that music and art are pretty much similar responses

[1:56:11] and that's because in a lot of your buildings they share the same space or if they share

[1:56:18] the same, they might not even share the same space but they're on a cart and they have to

[1:56:22] actually go to a different classroom. Also

[1:56:30] district large groups spaces such as dining

[1:56:33] and your gymnasians showed the need for the most improvement to be considered.

[1:56:40] They're helping comfort, again, those key areas that really drive home but also across

[1:56:46] the board for the physical qualities of the space along with furniture and equipment.

[1:56:52] And technology in these areas were actually just considered to be fair rather than great.

[1:57:01] And finally, looking at students' support spaces, resource centers, resource spaces,

[1:57:07] psychology, social workers, speech, and special ed, again that need to look at

[1:57:13] the health and comfort of those spaces as well as looking at the physical

[1:57:18] qualities of those spaces, the size, the shape, many of those spaces are whatever was

[1:57:23] left in the building tucked away into small either office spaces where they

[1:57:28] have to have three or four, five, sometimes students in those spaces.

[1:57:33] I

[1:57:37] come from a built environment, looking at capacity and what does capacity mean?

[1:57:42] That's more than just a student sitting in a seat,

[1:57:47] looking at the holistic approach, not room size, number of students,

[1:57:52] your site and the building acreage,

[1:57:55] along with teaching and learning styles.

[1:57:58] So the information that listed up here kind of compares the district as a whole for a building square footage as well as enrollment.

[1:58:08] But one thing to note about this summary is there's five buildings here that host special programs with unique enrollment classifications and so that really skews the data.

[1:58:19] So it really looks like O'Neill, Henry Puffer, Hillcrest, Indian Trail, and Kingsley have

[1:58:26] a lot of growth square footage per student, but in reality a lot of those specialty programs

[1:58:32] require more square footage per student.

[1:58:38] So one way to look at it instead is kind of looking at spatialization across just the building

[1:58:46] itself and data from a percentage standpoint.

[1:58:51] So we've kind of targeted a, if the world was perfect and you got to build a brand new

[1:58:57] school with the most efficient building, here's what the targets would be today for

[1:59:02] modern learning.

[1:59:03] Then we looked at a district wide and some of the suggested goals could be by shifting

[1:59:11] access core classroom space into co-learning spaces for making and doing. Also by enhancing

[1:59:20] the fine arts and performing the performance assembly spaces is another area that kind

[1:59:27] of laughed in the overall percentage of the buildings.

[1:59:35] So the next steps Todd had mentioned the overall timeline. We're looking really at going forward

[1:59:43] and coming up with that long-term plan before summer and coming back with that would have options, cost estimates, as well as the additional community feedback by that time.

[2:00:00] And then towards the end of summer, really looking for the board adoption of what that long-term facility plan is.

[2:00:09] Sorry, just by the end of summer, I think we're looking for the evaluation of finances so that the board has the chance to review those. We wouldn't likely be looking for that board adoption until close to December so that there's plenty of time to build out those options, evaluate those options.

[2:00:27] And then over the summer really take the time to digest what those options might mean and what the financing options would look like to support those options or that one option if it comes to some consensus around an option but actually the board wouldn't need to take action on that until more likely December so that we have plenty of time for again community input tweaking of that plan based on some of that input not only from our community.

[2:00:57] community, but from our faculty and staff as well.

[2:01:00] So we're really kind of slow and steady

[2:01:03] with these steps that we've designed, so.

[2:01:08] Thank you very much.

[2:01:09] Are there any questions?

[2:01:14] OK, thank you very much.

[2:01:15] Thanks.

[2:01:16] Thanks.

[2:01:19] All the comment, not necessarily for the architects,

[2:01:22] but I think we do have to consider the social emotional aspect

[2:01:26] of if we're going to have expand those middle schools

[2:01:30] and include six grades, because there's certainly

[2:01:33] your studies that show it might not be the best situation for a six-grader to be

[2:01:38] included with eighth graders with the age difference at that time of their

[2:01:42] lives. So I think that's certainly something that not only the

[2:01:47] administration should consider but we need to get some of that information out

[2:01:50] to the community so that they can have that information and maybe use that to

[2:01:57] evaluate what they want because that could be something that they just appease

[2:02:01] that people don't necessarily think about or have

[2:02:04] at the front of their minds.

[2:02:06] Thank you for that, Doug.

[2:02:07] Actually, those are important questions to be asking

[2:02:10] in steps three and four.

[2:02:12] We also have an instructional models review council

[2:02:15] that is just getting started.

[2:02:18] And that council will really be looking at

[2:02:20] and evaluating some of that research behind the instructional

[2:02:24] model and how we design where grades go.

[2:02:28] Sixth grade does mean whatever it does

[2:02:30] and either other models we can look at grade level centers or other organizations of students

[2:02:36] that we can really examine for those benefits and drawbacks.

[2:02:39] Not only to help inform our facility needs, but also to help us to start to think about

[2:02:44] what our students might need, regardless of the facility structure.

[2:02:48] We have to be thinking about how are we supporting our students through those transitions that occur

[2:02:53] in their instructional lives.

[2:02:55] So thank you.

[2:02:58] Thank you.

[2:03:01] We're going to need a lot more information on why we do some things and we're going to

[2:03:06] have to have some stage gates too because if the community has no support for a certain

[2:03:11] model, we need to know that sooner or later, I'd rather not spend months or years and

[2:03:16] a lot of money going down a path that we don't, so I mean, I know it's a moving train,

[2:03:22] but if there's three different models we're going down, we need to make sure before we

[2:03:27] to get to part on the path and I don't want to design new middle schools only to find

[2:03:32] out the community has no desire to do that or grade centers community has no desire

[2:03:37] to do it why go there yeah and some of that information was was gathered as we were

[2:03:43] doing our strategic plan we asked a specific open-ended question so some of those results

[2:03:47] we can continue to analyze a little bit further but you're absolutely right as we go into

[2:03:52] to this what do we want in some of the gap analysis

[2:03:55] and looking at priorities.

[2:03:57] It shifts from just looking at what our facilities have

[2:04:00] and can offer to what do we really actually want

[2:04:03] within our schools and within our community.

[2:04:06] So you're absolutely right, John.

[2:04:07] In taxpayers, they want things until you ask them

[2:04:10] to pay for it sometimes.

[2:04:12] So you gotta be careful.

[2:04:13] I can ask, I have a lot of wants.

[2:04:16] But if you tell me you're gonna spend $80 million

[2:04:18] on an auditorium, I'm gonna say no.

[2:04:21] But, you know, I mean, we won't spend 10, you know, for just an example, wherever it is.

[2:04:28] Yeah, and again, for those reasons, I think that community engagement is really critical

[2:04:32] like each of the next several steps.

[2:04:34] And so we'll be working with the FPC and with our architects and our administrative team

[2:04:39] as well to plan out with those next several steps look like.

[2:04:42] And also for that reason, we have built in some additional time for people to really wrap

[2:04:48] their heads around what these ideas are to provide us with more feedback and for the team

[2:04:52] to continue to re-evaluate and redefine what that looks like based on that feedback.

[2:04:59] So we've really been cautious to not get too far ahead of ourselves and jump to conclusions.

[2:05:04] We want to make sure that we're evaluating each of those elements beyond just what the facilities

[2:05:09] have in need.

[2:05:11] Well, internal communication as well, understanding the impact that this has on curriculum and the

[2:05:17] alignment that we're doing there, the programs that we're now infesting in, and does that

[2:05:22] align better with one model over the other?

[2:05:25] I think that's going to be really important as well because I think that when we communicate

[2:05:29] with the community part of what we want to be able to explain is why we're going down that

[2:05:36] path and that gives an opportunity to to weigh out options keeping six graders with a younger

[2:05:42] group of children or getting them, you know, if curriculum aligns better. And then they

[2:05:47] have an option to kind of pick between, um, and what is better for their, their children.

[2:05:53] Thank

[2:05:58] you. Thank you. Next, we've discussed professional learning model and the 2019-20

[2:06:05] school calendar with Dr. Framerskulli. Right, and really, um, Mr. Cicil is going to talk us through this.

[2:06:11] We have talked with the board quite a bit about our professional learning needs. Our new strategic plan

[2:06:16] and really calls for some improvements to our curriculum,

[2:06:19] but also to the way in which we support our staff

[2:06:21] through professional learning opportunities.

[2:06:24] And so we've been talking really a whole lot

[2:06:27] about the need for ongoing professional learning

[2:06:30] for our staff.

[2:06:32] Our calendar right now offers institutes

[2:06:35] and some of the more traditional learning opportunities.

[2:06:37] We've been exploring and really investigating opportunities

[2:06:41] for more consistent and ongoing collaboration

[2:06:43] with our teachers and with our faculty.

[2:06:46] We know that we're challenged at times with sub-time

[2:06:50] and with lost instructional time.

[2:06:52] And so we've been trying to come up with a model

[2:06:54] that might support the professional learning needs

[2:06:57] while also really paying attention to the quality

[2:06:59] educational programs that we're offering our students

[2:07:02] as we continue to improve our curriculum.

[2:07:04] So with that, Justin will walk us through some of the ideas

[2:07:09] and offer some insight and we're hoping ultimately

[2:07:12] at this session not to get a nod from the board but to hear what some of the questions might

[2:07:17] be and what some of the needs for additional information might be. We're planning right

[2:07:21] now for this to be an important topic of discussion at our curriculum workshop in a couple weeks

[2:07:27] and then ultimately our aim would be to bring back a calendar for approval by the board at the

[2:07:33] March board meeting. So we've really been trying kind of like we were saying with the facility

[2:07:38] planning to take a slow and purposeful approach to this, offering as much information as we

[2:07:44] possibly can.

[2:07:45] So we're eager to hear your questions and your feedback this evening.

[2:07:49] And if you don't think of them tonight, please reach out to us so that at that curriculum

[2:07:53] workshop, we can make sure that we're prepared to answer those questions and offer whatever

[2:07:57] additional insight might be useful to the board.

[2:08:00] More certain we'll hear some feedback from our community as well.

[2:08:03] So with that, Justin, please.

[2:08:05] Thanks, Dr. Kermeskall. It'll actually be Jane and I who have co-authored the presentation, so we'll walk through that.

[2:08:10] Before I start talking about quality learning experiences, if we were in a learning situation that gone on two hours,

[2:08:16] I would offer at least a stretch break. I just stood up and it felt really nice.

[2:08:19] So, do you want to just think really? I mean, do you want to just stand up physically? And then, and, I mean, I'm actually...

[2:08:24] It's true.

[2:08:34] I also want your undivided attention, so this is for you to make sure that you can present

[2:08:39] over state.

[2:08:40] Thank you.

[2:08:41] Oh, thank you.

[2:08:41] Thank you very much.

[2:08:47] So, as Dr. Kremescoly alluded to, there have been a number of conversations around the

[2:08:53] needs throughout the district, and it's come from a variety of directions.

[2:08:58] Coming out of strategic planning we formed the Curriculum Council, which has looked at

[2:09:01] our implementation and potential and actual adoption sequence of new resources, and that's

[2:09:07] up on the screen right now.

[2:09:09] That group, when it sort of made that recommendation, and a similar response from our administrative

[2:09:15] team, said, this recommendation feels plausible if we can continue to increase our support

[2:09:21] or around the professional learning

[2:09:22] that will be required to implement these kinds of things.

[2:09:24] We have a group called the Professional Learning Council

[2:09:26] that came out of strategic planning.

[2:09:27] That's a group of teachers and administrators

[2:09:29] who have begun looking in depth at the real research

[2:09:33] and actual, you know, our own experiences

[2:09:35] behind high quality professional learning

[2:09:37] and what that really means.

[2:09:39] And it's more than just the learning in the moment

[2:09:41] and the time to receive instruction on new strategies.

[2:09:44] It's the time to implement and then the time to come back

[2:09:47] and reflect around that implementation.

[2:09:49] and talk to people who have had similar implementation experiences,

[2:09:53] learning from each other, and being able to, you know,

[2:09:56] when we talked about the movement of the Institute Day, for example,

[2:09:59] we talked about wanting to make sure teachers had time

[2:10:01] to immediately implement the learning rather than putting it in June

[2:10:04] and we put it in February so that we could make that happen.

[2:10:08] Additionally, we want to have time for teachers to come together

[2:10:10] and reflect and share those experiences.

[2:10:12] We've had those experiences this week

[2:10:13] with our K-6 grade level meetings

[2:10:15] and just watching the power of the conversations

[2:10:18] around the nuances of implementation

[2:10:20] and how are you experiencing that?

[2:10:22] What's working for you?

[2:10:23] It really gives us a chance not only

[2:10:25] to harness what's happening in our classrooms,

[2:10:28] but to build toward consistency

[2:10:30] because when the teachers from across the district

[2:10:32] have a chance to have those conversations

[2:10:33] and even within buildings across grade levels,

[2:10:35] we start to gain even the student experience

[2:10:40] quality continues to increase.

[2:10:42] The consistency piece that Carrie mentioned

[2:10:44] also is a major component of that.

[2:10:46] And totally when I was at Pierce Downer, there were a large number of teachers, or a large percentage of teachers,

[2:10:52] I just had the staff that were pursuing a master's degree together at the same time as part of a cohort.

[2:10:57] Classes met Wednesday evenings.

[2:10:58] Thursdays were awesome days to walk around because new things were happening as a result of those conversations.

[2:11:04] And then they had the chance to come together both in the lunchroom and on their own time,

[2:11:08] as well as regularly through that class and reflect upon what was happening as they were trying new things

[2:11:13] and to continue to build upon that.

[2:11:15] It really, really moved the needle on instruction for those individuals because they had that consistent time.

[2:11:23] We've looked at a number of models first through the Professional Learning Council and second through the administrative team,

[2:11:28] and we try to consider all possibilities that could be out there.

[2:11:32] We started talking about a late start, we thought about alignment with District 99, and that is a possibility.

[2:11:37] However, right now, because District 99 does it, if we were to, we talked about aligning more directly with them,

[2:11:42] It presents some transportation challenges for us to be able to share the busing.

[2:11:46] We were looking sort of at this the Mondays for similar reasons because that's the day already

[2:11:50] impacted on the calendar quite a bit.

[2:11:53] So that was one of the challenges with that model.

[2:11:55] We've been using half days and there is certainly that the learning that happens on those days

[2:11:59] is effective and is powerful and yet that consistency piece doesn't really tend to exist as much.

[2:12:05] There's a challenge to being able to have those frequently enough to have the consistent

[2:12:10] return.

[2:12:10] There's also impact on our instruction when you're taking off.

[2:12:14] We've typically done half days where we're releasing students for the afternoon and that

[2:12:18] eventually over time creates some instructional inequity based on our special schedules and

[2:12:23] certain schedules in the middle schools as well.

[2:12:25] We've been talked about additional full institute days and what that could look like.

[2:12:29] But again, when you're in a, the difference between a five to six hour learning session and

[2:12:33] a three hour or a 90 minute session, there is some point of diminished returns after that.

[2:12:38] that's at their intense days when we have them, and we think about, we value those days,

[2:12:41] but it also, again, is going to not work toward consistency, and currently under the current

[2:12:47] legislation, we can't count those full days as part of student attendance days, whereas

[2:12:50] even half days could be, or, and certainly, an early release concept would be.

[2:12:54] And so we've landed on our focus right now on the concept of early release.

[2:12:59] The things we believe this will help us to accomplish, again, is that consistency?

[2:13:03] It's also the frequency, having something that happens more regularly, allows us to continue

[2:13:08] to come back to a variety of different learning models.

[2:13:11] And it gives us a little more flexibility with what will be happening within those days.

[2:13:16] So let me get to the next slide, and I'll get a little more into that concept.

[2:13:20] We wanted to see what was happening around us, because we know that these aren't brand new

[2:13:24] concepts.

[2:13:25] They've been implemented with a significant degree of success in many districts.

[2:13:28] And so this is certainly not intended, it's not a comprehensive survey.

[2:13:32] the responses we got at the time that we were able to ask the questions, but of 24 elementary

[2:13:36] districts that responded to that we were able to gather information about, 23 use some kind

[2:13:41] of one of the things I just described on the previous slide to accomplish professional

[2:13:45] learning. Only one in that group replied with a late start. Five use half days, 17 use early

[2:13:51] release, and if you start doing a map you can see some use a combination. Some of the just a couple

[2:13:55] of districts around us that are currently using early release, and 11 of the elementary districts

[2:13:59] are using an early release model on a weekly basis, which means rather than every other week or once a month they are offering an early release each week.

[2:14:09] And so this is what we would like to propose and suggest would be the most powerful way to accomplish all of the things that we know we need to accomplish over the next several years.

[2:14:20] We would be a weekly two o'clock release, or dismissal, excuse me, for students in

[2:14:24] Grace K-8.

[2:14:26] That's one of the important components of the consistency as we want this to be available

[2:14:29] across our entire K-8 staff so that we can work, we often look for ways to think about

[2:14:34] this six through seventh grade transition so that we want to be able to have that happen.

[2:14:38] We have teachers who teach in multiple settings and we really want to make sure that all of

[2:14:41] those opportunities are available.

[2:14:43] It would yield then 90 minutes on each of those Mondays for all of those certified staff members

[2:14:48] to have an opportunity to engage in professional learning.

[2:14:51] The one group not captured in that model specifically is preschool.

[2:14:54] We're working to develop a schedule for our preschool teachers that will accomplish something

[2:14:58] similar.

[2:14:58] pre-schools the only place...

[2:15:00] Right now where we have unique AM and PM classes where the children attend in the afternoon do not attend in the morning. And so we don't want to make sure that we don't have an adverse impact on that program while we still value providing the time for professional learning for those staff members. What would this time look like? There are three broad categories that we see being everything would kind of fall into. One of the first is the number of these Mondays would be district-driven professional learning.

[2:15:28] are speaking to the curriculum implementation, the instruction that goes along with that,

[2:15:31] the integration of technology with that curriculum implementation.

[2:15:35] These are things that are happening now, yes, on our institute days, and at our grade

[2:15:38] level, half days, but this will allow, again, with some more regularity, some more consistency,

[2:15:43] and even working into some smaller groups, but we might bring together the third grade teachers

[2:15:47] from the North Side Schools, so a slightly smaller group, but again able to capture some cross-district

[2:15:52] conversations.

[2:15:53] But we might bring together the third, fourth, and fifth grade teachers from three schools and

[2:15:56] and have some of those conversations and stagger that across the Mondays so that we can continue

[2:16:00] to ensure there's consistency, the same message as being received, and yet those collaboration

[2:16:04] opportunities are happening even within the district-driven learning.

[2:16:08] And it's important to realize that, you know, while we laid out an implementation schedule

[2:16:12] where, for example, we at the end of this year will be fully implemented in English language

[2:16:16] arts.

[2:16:17] Ben Sharpen's Study St, where it will be through the first full year for all teachers.

[2:16:21] But that doesn't mean the learning around an implementation ceases in May of 2019.

[2:16:25] We need to continue to reflect and support those experiences, even as we implement science

[2:16:30] next year, even as we potentially implement math going forward.

[2:16:34] Does the focus shift a little bit?

[2:16:36] It does, but if we, I don't think any of the teachers that we're working with right now

[2:16:40] through the great little meetings we've had this week would say that they're done learning

[2:16:44] about benchmark and they're done learning about study sync.

[2:16:46] They've only really gone through it once, and so that ongoing support is going to be important

[2:16:50] as we go forward.

[2:16:52] Another portion of the Mondays would be driven by building agendas.

[2:16:56] So many of our half days right now are essentially our principles are responsible for creating

[2:17:01] the content that happens for teachers on those days.

[2:17:04] This is going to allow again a more consistent structure to get back to some of the building

[2:17:09] initiatives that the principles set as professional goals for them and their staff at the beginning

[2:17:12] of each year.

[2:17:13] It's also going to give us a chance to spend more time in again a more frequent consistent

[2:17:18] and manner, talking about student instructional strategies

[2:17:21] based on looking at data, those kinds of meetings

[2:17:23] where we bring a team together and we say,

[2:17:25] let's talk about these couple of students today.

[2:17:27] I really make sure that we have all wrapped our heads

[2:17:30] around what their needs are.

[2:17:31] Right now, those meetings are happening occasionally

[2:17:34] after school, occasionally before school.

[2:17:36] We just heard a teacher say this evening,

[2:17:38] one of the things that will be so great is this is time

[2:17:39] that everyone will always be available.

[2:17:42] It's a time that would be there for those meetings

[2:17:44] to ensure that we're giving our teachers adequate time

[2:17:47] to collaborate around those instructional decisions.

[2:17:51] And then a third portion of the Mondays

[2:17:53] would frankly not be driven by an administrator created agenda.

[2:17:57] We have honored with the teacher working,

[2:17:59] we've honored through a number of professional learning

[2:18:00] opportunities already embedded,

[2:18:02] the concept that sometimes teachers know what they need

[2:18:06] from each other.

[2:18:07] And so it wouldn't be a free for all,

[2:18:09] it wouldn't be time without accountability,

[2:18:10] but it would be a time for teacher driven professional learning,

[2:18:13] allowing for some choice, allowing for some input,

[2:18:16] But as to what that should look like, and again, we're emphasizing the collaborative nature

[2:18:20] of it.

[2:18:21] This isn't professional learning around catching up on grading.

[2:18:23] This is actual time where we're going to work with our peers and be able to talk about

[2:18:27] what we're doing together, to be able to share the ideas that are being implemented, to be

[2:18:31] able to share the strategies and successes and failures.

[2:18:34] This also allows opportunities for our specialist groups to be able to meet together as a group,

[2:18:38] which is something we have had, it's challenging to capture that time for our teachers, our

[2:18:43] music teachers, our PE teachers.

[2:18:44] And then even our special services and all of those groups can both share in the learning

[2:18:49] with a larger faculty group and also could propose and suggest some times that they could

[2:18:54] really work together on topics that they would ultimately select.

[2:18:58] And we would ultimately agree that this is valuable time for them to be spending.

[2:19:04] What will the due to the calendar overall?

[2:19:07] We would keep the four full day institute days.

[2:19:09] Those are the days that are approved by the regional office of education.

[2:19:12] Now two of those don't impact.

[2:19:13] They happen before student attendance begins in August.

[2:19:16] And then we have another one typically in November and then typically in March, that's the county day.

[2:19:21] These days are what provide teachers with professional learning credit to maintain their license terms.

[2:19:27] So it's important that we keep these. They're also part of the approved calendar. So those stay.

[2:19:31] To account for some of the time it would be shifting, we would be removing from the calendar the half days that it was tradition that this year for example were in September and May.

[2:19:40] So those would be termed to be student attendance minutes.

[2:19:42] We would also remove the teacher work day from the calendar, so that would be another full

[2:19:45] day of student tennis, we would be placing back into the calendar, and then we're hoping

[2:19:50] to see eventually a more significant and initially at least an appreciable reduction in the

[2:19:55] use of substitute teachers.

[2:19:56] I've been mentioning our grade level meetings where we bring together all of the kindergarten

[2:20:00] teachers for half a day and then all of the first grade teachers, etc.

[2:20:03] Right now we have three of those in the calendar because that time is so valuable to us.

[2:20:07] Next year, we're anticipating with all of this, reducing to, reducing definitely to two and

[2:20:11] and continue to reflect on how much of that time we continue to need.

[2:20:15] So essentially again, that's another three hours that teachers are back in the classroom

[2:20:18] if we take that half day away.

[2:20:23] Everything I've said thus far because we know that one of the big questions around this

[2:20:27] is, well, what does it actually need for instructional time over the course of the year?

[2:20:30] Everything I've said thus far is a net reduction in instructional time.

[2:20:33] Even with putting the half days back in and putting the work day back in, we're still,

[2:20:43] we would

[2:20:43] of instructional time. So then we started talking about ways to capture additional time to try

[2:20:50] to offset any loss in actual student contact time. So if we were to add five minutes to the

[2:20:54] student day, it actually brings the difference down to a negligible point. You have to think about

[2:20:58] specifically where the other things on the calendar are going to fall before you can get to an exact

[2:21:02] number of minutes, but it gets to a point where it's a negligible difference within an hour or two

[2:21:07] across the course of the school year. However, if we were to add ten minutes to the student day,

[2:21:11] So, for example, if we were to start the student day at 10 minutes earlier or at 5 minutes

[2:21:16] at the beginning and 5 minutes at the end of each day, we actually yield a net gain

[2:21:19] instructional time that's somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 to 14 hours.

[2:21:23] And so, that, frankly, is bolted on that slide for a reason, because it's what we'd like

[2:21:27] to suggest concluding in this concept for next year.

[2:21:32] Not only does it offset the loss of instructional time for the early release, but if we think

[2:21:37] back to about a year ago, we increased PE and art, for example, at the elementary schools.

[2:21:44] It's wonderful to increase those minutes, but those minutes come from somewhere, so this

[2:21:47] helps to replace some of the minutes that were taken from other subject areas when we

[2:21:52] increase those kinds of things.

[2:21:54] So the addition of ten minutes, we're still working out exactly what the least impactful

[2:21:59] way is in terms of all of our systems to add that ten minutes, and that's what we continue

[2:22:04] to work on.

[2:22:15] Obviously, I think it's important to say that this is not a recommendation that we've

[2:22:19] taken lightly.

[2:22:19] We absolutely recognize this as a shift.

[2:22:23] And so as our team worked, as we worked with the principals, as we worked with our great

[2:22:27] level teams, we began the conversations about what do you see as the impact?

[2:22:31] What are the things we need to be thinking about?

[2:22:34] other areas of impact that we have already considered and are working on and will continue

[2:22:38] to gather information about our list of here transportation, the timing of the routes,

[2:22:44] what would that mean for cost, what would it mean additional cost, what would that cost

[2:22:48] fee, if in fact it did. After school care, reaching out to champions, obviously parents are

[2:22:55] going to be wondering and thinking about how does that impact what I need to do for my children,

[2:23:01] and for my child to make sure that I have that time where the kids say I'm

[2:23:06] super mission. And so yes, champion school extend their hours. What does that

[2:23:10] mean? The specifics? That is something we recognize. We need to continue

[2:23:13] gathering information. Our parents will be wanting the information.

[2:23:17] All right, after school events on the Mondays, it will impact. We obviously would

[2:23:22] not schedule practices because we really feel that that freshman learning time

[2:23:26] is critical. When working with the middle schools, it was interesting. So because

[2:23:30] Because other districts have already captured the Monday as an early release, there are already

[2:23:36] not that many other school activities at the games scheduled, and so from the middle

[2:23:42] school perspective, our principals are feeling like, no, we can reorganize when those practices

[2:23:45] are.

[2:23:46] It won't be a large issue of games.

[2:23:48] We will make sure we have, don't have been an orchestra practice after, after on the Monday.

[2:23:54] And then the other important conversation is around the instructional assistance.

[2:23:57] That is a very important group, they are very supportive in our schools with students, our teachers find the work in time with them that official as well.

[2:24:08] So we've started having conversations one with the ESP Association in that we are not looking to reduce their overall work week, which we already feel is minimal, they're already scrambling to feel they have enough time.

[2:24:22] but number two, continuing our conversations to really look at when would it be beneficial,

[2:24:29] how often would it be beneficial that they do stay on the Mondays and for that collaboration

[2:24:34] purposes, for talking about the student needs and how to program and support students.

[2:24:42] As next steps and some of these steps we've already begun, as Justin said, we've met with

[2:24:47] our K6 grade levels, our teachers these past few weeks to get there, feedback, input, what

[2:24:53] else we're missing what you're feeling every great level very I would say

[2:24:59] strongly supported the this is important yes we want to move forward yes we

[2:25:03] want to support this in order to really make sure we're doing the best we

[2:25:08] can as we support and teach kids we will be meeting with the middle school staff

[2:25:13] this week Friday and then as Carrie mentioned the curriculum workshop we're

[2:25:18] really hoping let's let's continue to think about what are all those

[2:25:22] different pieces that we need to have answers for and be able to support and be able to

[2:25:27] be thinking about to come back to that curriculum workshop, which is in the evening with

[2:25:33] an extended reception of visitors and talk a little bit more and have some answers to

[2:25:37] any questions, questions from our board about how might we handle this, how might we handle

[2:25:42] that, what are our steps and thoughts.

[2:25:45] And then obviously we think it's very important to make sure we're soliciting parent input

[2:25:50] but on ways that the district can support families

[2:25:53] as we transition to early release days.

[2:25:56] I thought was that with that,

[2:25:58] is there are there districts that have transitioned,

[2:26:01] we can reach out to can see what steps

[2:26:04] and what they've had to plan as well as hearing from our parents

[2:26:07] so we can help support them through the transition.

[2:26:12] Along with this support for professional learning,

[2:26:15] we've talked about the time, but it's not time alone.

[2:26:19] And this is another big piece to the conversation is to really feel confident that we can appropriately

[2:26:27] support the professional learning and the implementation and the changes that are coming

[2:26:32] into the district or in the next few years.

[2:26:35] We will be recommending the addition of a curriculum coordinator position to some degree.

[2:26:43] If you notice the ultimate target that is not a one-year target, that is not something we're thinking is feasible for next school year.

[2:26:53] We would like to get to a place where we can get to the four part-time curriculum coordinator roles.

[2:26:59] And really the vision of that position is a half-time assistant principal.

[2:27:05] The benefit to that is that assistant principals are traveling between the two buildings, learning two families, two sets of events,

[2:27:11] to they can really focus and have one home base for their home school as an assistant principal,

[2:27:17] but then also really work on the curriculum instruction, the leadership to support which

[2:27:24] I will actually in the next slide talk more about what their role is.

[2:27:27] And part of this decision to really have that target and decide, you know, how much for

[2:27:33] next year, how much is feasible for the following is looking at obviously the budget, the implications

[2:27:39] there, the role development, this is a new position, we want to make sure we take some

[2:27:44] time and properly phase in this position, as well as looking at the timing of the curricular

[2:27:50] initiatives that Justin spoke about.

[2:27:54] So what would the responsibilities look like, what could this position look like?

[2:27:59] Support for the curricular, the implementations, which is another, more people, more staff to

[2:28:06] to help us really support the committee work,

[2:28:08] the council work that falls quite a bit on teachers,

[2:28:13] teacher leaders, administrators where we have,

[2:28:15] people are stretched so thin right now,

[2:28:18] our staff is outstanding.

[2:28:19] I think our administrative team,

[2:28:21] our building administrators chip in and have taken pieces,

[2:28:23] but really accomplish what we're trying to accomplish,

[2:28:27] we're spread too thin, quite frankly,

[2:28:30] and we need additional support.

[2:28:32] Someone that's gonna become the point person

[2:28:34] and for a new adoption.

[2:28:35] Perhaps we identify science for one position,

[2:28:40] math for the other position, ELA,

[2:28:42] as well as supporting the specialist groups.

[2:28:45] Our PE music, again, with those ultimately

[2:28:49] that target of four, we feel we can better support

[2:28:53] the growth and development of all the different

[2:28:56] specialist groups that we right now don't feel

[2:28:59] we're doing a very good job with or a good enough job with.

[2:29:03] The position can provide that direct support, working with staff on instructional strategies

[2:29:07] that accompany a new implementation, so we're supporting teachers, we're supporting the

[2:29:12] work of our building principals, the role we work with the instructional coaches, and the

[2:29:17] role of supporting the work of the central office administrative team.

[2:29:23] One of the things that we've talked about with this position, because the curriculum coordinator

[2:29:27] position in and of itself does not necessarily have to be an administrative position.

[2:29:32] We do feel that the needs are such and the benefits at this point, for that position,

[2:29:38] we would recommend it's an administrative position for a couple of different reasons.

[2:29:43] One is that calendar.

[2:29:44] The work extends beyond the teacher calendar, the teacher contract responsibilities.

[2:29:50] We would need that flexibility of someone to help work with our teams in the summer, our

[2:29:54] administrative teams.

[2:29:56] New teachers in August, planning with the curriculum department.

[2:30:00] Department outside of that that work calendar as I said. The other piece is a topic that you've heard a couple times and then need the need for support for our building administrators related to evaluation of staff. The demands of the teacher evaluation framework to really facilitate that process and do it well. They haven't been meaningful for both our teachers and the administrators and to really lead to growth. We're stretched pretty thin and we continue to hear.

[2:30:28] where we need more support in that area.

[2:30:31] Having this position, the administrative position

[2:30:33] would allow us to share that responsibility for evaluation

[2:30:37] and allows for that flexibility and the schedule

[2:30:39] that we think we need to successfully support

[2:30:42] the implementations across the district.

[2:30:46] That's what they have.

[2:30:47] Justin, is there anything to add or carry

[2:30:50] before we go to great questions?

[2:30:57] I just wanna make a comment.

[2:30:59] And my niece who is 27 years, will be 27 years old and has four years under her belt.

[2:31:09] And it is a graduate of District 58, and 99 teaches in Phoenix.

[2:31:16] She taught in the Phoenix school as well as now works in Chandler.

[2:31:20] And in both districts, she just went into the early release every Wednesday at one o'clock.

[2:31:29] So I've been talking to her about what she finds the benefits she did do some part-time

[2:31:36] maternity coverage in Chicago Ridge as well as in District 58.

[2:31:41] And she just, she said she, even though she's a newer teacher, she said the amount of

[2:31:47] things that she, they as a team, both in her entire building as well as in her grade

[2:31:55] team is stuff that would never get done. She still has a ridiculous amount of

[2:32:03] work that she brings home every night. She was grading papers a big

[2:32:09] sect during the Super Bowl because that's what teachers do. But she could not

[2:32:14] say enough of what a wonderful thing she's on top. They are on top of

[2:32:21] technology there on top of all their curriculum. And for the amount of money and the time that

[2:32:27] we have asked our teachers and administrative staff to spend the last two to three years,

[2:32:33] four years looking at all these curriculum, the strategic plan. We want all of this curriculum

[2:32:40] to be beneficial and to grow and I was kind of hoping that this is what the teachers and

[2:32:48] the administration would be recommending because I think it is a good answer, not without

[2:32:54] its problems, and it's a growth.

[2:32:58] There's always the little pains or big pains, but once

[2:33:04] we set the calendar, and it's consistent, I think it's easier for parents versus those

[2:33:09] individual days, and that's just what you do, and I just really think that this is extremely

[2:33:17] important for what we need to do to support the teachers and the administration in the,

[2:33:25] when it's all set and done, a good million dollars worth of investment in curriculum.

[2:33:31] Thank you, Joe. We appreciate that anecdotal kind of information. I think that our administrative

[2:33:36] team have heard much of the same from our faculty and staff and from our neighbors, our neighboring

[2:33:43] districts in our conversations with them and Arizona is one of the worst or is the worst state

[2:33:49] and that is one thing that a lot of the districts in Arizona actually do for their teachers,

[2:33:54] which I thought was a strange little complex relationship but they see as that as something very

[2:34:02] important. Yeah absolutely it's clearly something that is super important and we know that if we are

[2:34:08] to accomplish the work that lies ahead for our teachers and most importantly for our students

[2:34:12] that consistent time is really, really critical.

[2:34:15] So I think after looking at all of the options

[2:34:17] and there were a lot on the table

[2:34:19] when we started these discussions many months ago.

[2:34:22] But I think this option really gives us that consistency

[2:34:25] with minimal to no impact

[2:34:27] on the actual student instructional minutes.

[2:34:31] I applaud our team for really coming up

[2:34:34] with a creative solution that I think families

[2:34:37] certainly will feel an impact

[2:34:39] and we need to be sensitive to that

[2:34:40] and continue to find ways to support them in that transition, but I think a two o'clock dismissal time for many families will be something that with some support, through the transition will be successful and they'll be able to accommodate, meanwhile our faculty and staff are really capturing the time that they need to be successful with our students in the time that we have them within our schools.

[2:35:08] I think one thing we certainly heard loud and clear through everything we've done is

[2:35:13] we need to find ways to have more professional development for the teachers.

[2:35:17] What would help me looking ahead to the curriculum workshop would be to see some examples of

[2:35:23] how that 90 minutes might be structured relative to how that half days structure to how this

[2:35:31] So, this is kind of some of the specific types of things, not to go into the great detail,

[2:35:35] but it would really help me to understand, I think it would help the community to understand a little more.

[2:35:39] What types of things would be accomplished, all the benefits to the teachers and

[2:35:43] what some of the learnings that might come from that, that would certainly help me to.

[2:35:48] I understand it more now with, I think your context, but I think even a little more would help me.

[2:35:52] I would echo that, just in the same way when we're, this is a similar investment as to what we did with, say, technology or curriculum.

[2:36:03] We're not spending the same dollar amount over investing time and that time is going to, the way we're investing is going to impact, you know, our outputs.

[2:36:14] So I'm definitely interested in seeing a more clear vision of what this would look like.

[2:36:19] At the same time, I'll echo your comment, I'll echo the same sentiments that Jill put forth.

[2:36:25] I am extremely interested in seeing the area of impact related to families, because I'll just share anecdotally.

[2:36:36] Since I've been on board, the thing I've heard about most, which actually surprised me, from people in my network,

[2:36:42] people outside of the network who have known on the board member and they just kind of speak

[2:36:46] to me in public or privately, if in that day, to this Friday, having the non-intendents

[2:36:55] hand Friday to make up for the November emergency day.

[2:36:57] That was where I've gotten this will reach out to me and that surprised me because I thought

[2:37:00] people would be more interested in talking to me about curriculum and this different tenant

[2:37:02] hire or something.

[2:37:03] Something a little bit flashier, but that destruction caused with the ability to reach out.

[2:37:11] So I'm keenly interested in seeing what kind of feedback can get from families when it comes to telling them you're going to have to

[2:37:19] adjust and what our supports will look like. You talk about support to the transition that we can offer based on what other districts have done in the past.

[2:37:25] I'm very interested in what that will look like.

[2:37:29] I want to start by saying that if we want to hit a role of increasing our rigour, I think personal development is incredibly important.

[2:37:38] We're asking a lot out of you and our teachers with all the implementation that we're doing.

[2:37:47] And I think that it's going to be really, really important to bring consistency to our curriculum across the board.

[2:37:52] And I see value in making sure we increase that time.

[2:37:59] At the same time, this is a big shift in model in what we're doing.

[2:38:04] and so that I think there's a lot of questions that I have with that.

[2:38:09] I have some connections to some of the districts that you referenced,

[2:38:12] and I've talked to some of the teachers in there, and quite honestly,

[2:38:16] I felt like their reaction to how they utilized their time was mixed

[2:38:20] in that they felt some of their days were very, very useful,

[2:38:24] and impactful, and some of them were not as much.

[2:38:28] And so I think to echo a little bit of what Elizabeth was saying is, if we were to be willing to make a change to this type of model, I'd like to know how we're going to be in maybe a little bit in more detail than we would normally in a traditional year looking at it because it would be a change for us, how we want to utilize that day.

[2:38:50] Do nine, does the 90 minute model work as opposed to having more hours to do it in one time?

[2:38:59] I think the impact that this has, I'd like to know that the impact that this will have on specials,

[2:39:05] because while you're increasing the total hours of face time that our students have with their teachers,

[2:39:14] Taking a block of 50 minutes is not the same as segmenting out in additional 10 minutes

[2:39:21] per day.

[2:39:21] So, how does that impact happen on, you know, on, on PE, on art, on music?

[2:39:28] What are you envisioning to make sure that there's some, some real consistency there and we're

[2:39:32] not, not losing too much there?

[2:39:38] I would really, really like to see an increase.

[2:39:41] If we're going to do this, I'd like, and I know you're talking about potentially, but

[2:39:45] I think that making sure that it's teacher and student face time and really looking at

[2:39:53] reducing as much as we can that's substitute time, I think cost wise that's beneficial to

[2:39:59] us, but also just I think educationally, I really value that time that they put into that,

[2:40:06] but I also value the time that, you know, my children spend with their teacher, I think

[2:40:10] that that's a more impactful time.

[2:40:15] I think also we got to consider that the impact

[2:40:17] that this is going to have on families and what that

[2:40:21] looks like for their day.

[2:40:22] I think that I'm less concerned about the impact in the

[2:40:25] afternoon than in the morning.

[2:40:26] I just think with consistency with young children, I'm not

[2:40:29] nearly as concerned with the afternoon.

[2:40:32] I think that that's a little bit easier to work with.

[2:40:37] But it's still going to have an impact.

[2:40:38] And so I would really like to understand the impact

[2:40:41] that our families feel that this is going to have.

[2:40:43] And if we did this, I would like to kind of look

[2:40:46] at that first year, more as a pilot program,

[2:40:50] and really sort of do some follow-up with the families

[2:40:53] and see how they feel once that process is ongoing.

[2:40:59] Sometimes something can seem scary, but once you get into it,

[2:41:04] you find that it actually works quite well.

[2:41:06] And if you're seeing better learning coming out

[2:41:10] a bit more consistency, we may see more value about that.

[2:41:14] But I want to make sure that we're getting that value,

[2:41:16] that our teachers are seeing real value

[2:41:18] in that time that was created.

[2:41:20] And that 90-minute model really works

[2:41:23] for the type of learning that we want to have.

[2:41:25] Just to emphasize your last point,

[2:41:28] we talk about collecting data from the families.

[2:41:33] I mean, you kind of said, if I just want to make sure

[2:41:35] that I'm stressing, because it's important to me too,

[2:41:37] that we are also collecting voice data from the teachers as well.

[2:41:39] Yeah, to make sure that this is useful to them right because we don't need to have

[2:41:45] Six months of professional six hours of professional development each month that they don't find to be worth their time

[2:41:50] It's a bad investment their time. They rather be doing something else or they're not getting anything out of it that they we need them to get out of it to put into practice

[2:41:57] I have that my notes. I'm sorry. I didn't say that yes. Absolutely. We need to make sure that

[2:42:02] That you know whether we're I think some kind of survey across the board really to make sure that that every individual

[2:42:09] individual teacher from our veterans to our new teachers are feeling a lot of value

[2:42:15] coming out of that. I think that's the only way that I see value in making a big shift

[2:42:20] like this. I appreciate the adjustments to make sure that our hours are in and this

[2:42:26] may have less of an impact than taking a full day off or a half day off. I can only speculate

[2:42:31] based on my family and the couple people I connect with. For some it's going to be much

[2:42:37] harder. They've got it exactly timed up to their day. Some people it's much more impactful

[2:42:42] on their family when they have to figure out that random row day like what we've heard

[2:42:47] on this coming Friday. So I think that's most of my notes and I appreciate the kind of

[2:42:56] we don't have a set it forget it model with our curriculum. It's not like all right, we moved

[2:43:00] down for me LA. I think that having consistent time allows us to revisit all of our curriculum

[2:43:05] and that was that that resonated with me a little bit, so I think this is great

[2:43:17] progress. I mean everybody has to be on board-roan in the same direction on

[2:43:22] this one. So communication is critical and it can't be one-sided communication.

[2:43:29] It's got to be communication with everybody kind of saying yes. The teachers are on board

[2:43:34] with this, the administrative staff is on board with this, the central administrative

[2:43:39] staff is on board with this. Our parents need to know why this is. Ultimately, our parents

[2:43:45] are our customers. Children are the number one reason we're here. The parents choose to

[2:43:50] send their kids to this district. They can choose to send them to private school possibly.

[2:43:56] So their feedback is always important. And you know, we just need to make the, you never

[2:44:03] to make everybody happy so you know if ten people show up and scream at us that we're doing it

[2:44:08] I mean we need to understand is that ten people have said or is that you know a thousand people

[2:44:12] have said so just always be aware of that because I'm always weary because the person that's the

[2:44:18] most upset usually yells the loudest and we don't want to make sure we just want to make sure everybody

[2:44:21] understands why we're doing what we're doing whatever we end up doing but I echo the continuous

[2:44:29] updates of what this is. A lot of these things start off very well whether it's

[2:44:34] here. It's just any organization, right? Anything you do, you got to constantly

[2:44:39] monitor over the year, over the years, why we do it is an effective, and so it

[2:44:46] doesn't get stale. You know I have talked to, I did broach this with some people, I

[2:44:51] know that work in other districts and that I respect their opinion and they

[2:44:54] say it starts out well and then about half what you do is a waste of time and I

[2:44:59] want to miss.

[2:45:00] If we don't get to that point, we're half of what we do is a waste of time. So how do we independently survey those involved?

[2:45:10] Six months into it, at the end of the school year, how do we blindly and independently survey teachers to say, do you think this is effective? And have a line where they can write a comment in there.

[2:45:24] And this isn't, you know, coordinated, consolidated, and everybody puts the same answers in and the building and they all sit in the room together.

[2:45:31] This is whenever they want to, if they feel like filling out a survey, that's here.

[2:45:35] Just like, that's why I find the parent survey. So, refreshing, people don't have to feel they can feel like they can lay it out there.

[2:45:43] Sometimes people lay it out there a little more than I would like, but, you know, it gives colorful.

[2:45:48] But just it needs to be effective. I think we're on the right path. I just want to make

[2:45:52] sure everybody agrees. I've heard from administration how this is if there's if if that's truly

[2:45:59] how everybody believes and you know we'll know more about it the 25th right maybe that will be

[2:46:07] a good question to ask during superintendent interviews. How do they how do they how will they

[2:46:17] But definitely, make sure the parents understand whatever we do, why we're doing it, and again,

[2:46:23] you know, there's nothing wrong with people who love filling up surveys, apparently.

[2:46:29] So, you know, we can send out a thing, if we get to a point where is this better or is this

[2:46:35] better, and you know, maybe the teachers are like, hey, we would be able to do two of these

[2:46:40] and administration be able to do these, you know, maybe we do send out a survey and say,

[2:46:43] we could do this or this.

[2:46:45] I'll tell you, I did ask some of my pediatrician folks where I work because they did it for

[2:46:49] those of you familiar with the studies about teenagers.

[2:46:51] My most high school is actually to do the late start is because teenagers actually do perform

[2:46:55] better when they sleep in and wake up at nine o'clock in the school.

[2:46:58] It's actually the opposite for many youngsters.

[2:47:01] Great school kids tend to do a little bit better in the morning.

[2:47:06] they're more early risers than you know anybody's got some teenagers trust me

[2:47:11] I know so and so not only that I think there is evidence out there that

[2:47:18] an early dismissal was probably better for a grade school district and from

[2:47:24] a work standpoint most people you talk to tend to say it's easier having that

[2:47:31] that constant absolute start time all the time and because of the way you get into work,

[2:47:38] the way the trains run.

[2:47:40] Anyway, I think I'm not saying anything different to anyone else, but you have to monitor

[2:47:44] the stuff.

[2:47:44] You have to go and ask people how to work.

[2:47:48] Thank you.

[2:47:50] And I think you've retraced a number of really good questions for us to spend some time thinking

[2:47:55] about, I think, over the last couple of years we have developed some ways to capture some of

[2:48:00] that feedback from our faculty and staff through surveys and discussions and open-ended questions

[2:48:05] and I'm confident we'll be able to continue doing that.

[2:48:09] So it will need to be a work in progress and something we continue to evaluate throughout

[2:48:14] next year and for many years to come as we evaluate what's the most effective use of that

[2:48:19] time and making sure that our faculty and staff are feeling like it really is an ongoing

[2:48:27] productive use of their time. And I think working with families to figure out

[2:48:32] how best to support that I agree. Having looked at a variety of options, I

[2:48:37] think early dismissal makes a whole lot more sense for families with younger

[2:48:41] children than does a late start. High school might be a little bit different, but

[2:48:46] for elementary school students, they are. They're a little more independent, a

[2:48:49] little less dependent on childcare and transportation and all the other

[2:48:53] So this does seem like a good middle ground for our district to approach and what we've heard from other elementary districts to is that in early dismissal works a whole lot better at elementary school than a late start.

[2:49:09] That predictability and schedule for younger students is really important, John, and I know that's what you were touching on as well.

[2:49:14] Yeah, it's much more so at the end of the day.

[2:49:17] And I guess we're just one of the things, if possible,

[2:49:20] by the curriculum workshop is to see if the park district

[2:49:24] of the Y champions will be willing to work

[2:49:28] with a new calendar versus, no, we wouldn't,

[2:49:34] which one, I think everyone's life is more difficult,

[2:49:37] but that would be something they would be willing to work with.

[2:49:41] Yeah, and we already have reached out to them.

[2:49:43] So we'll gather some additional information now that we have even more specifics just to ensure that that support would continue to be there for our families to the best that we can support that.

[2:49:57] Okay, I'll touch on something briefly that nobody did after thanking Jane Justin for our very thought out, very thorough presentation.

[2:50:09] I agree with many in the comments and in general for our professional development I'm completely

[2:50:15] on-board with figuring out how we can make that happen and I trust the administration

[2:50:22] and you're doing a really good job working with the teachers to figure out the best way

[2:50:27] to make that happen.

[2:50:28] So when you come back with the questions I'll be with the answers to the questions that

[2:50:33] or brought, I'm sure I'll be supportive of the outcome

[2:50:37] that you, the conclusion that you come to.

[2:50:40] But the topic that nobody has talked about

[2:50:42] that I'm very happy to see is the curriculum coordinator.

[2:50:45] One of the many, I heard the top concern of many groups.

[2:50:50] When we talk about principles, we talk about teachers,

[2:50:54] we talk about parents, is the new curriculums

[2:50:57] that are coming in the burden that

[2:50:59] puts on our professional staff.

[2:51:03] The comments by and large are very, very positive for Mr. Sussle

[2:51:10] and all of his work.

[2:51:11] However, a consistent comment is that he can't do it all,

[2:51:15] that he needs help yesterday.

[2:51:20] So yeah, so thank you for all your work,

[2:51:24] and I fully support adding extra help

[2:51:27] regarding curriculum and I think it's a wonderful idea to have a half assistant

[2:51:32] principal and a half curriculum coordinator.

[2:51:37] Thank you. Okay. Any other comments?

[2:51:41] Okay with that we will give in the time. Before we go to reception and visitors

[2:51:46] we will take a five matter resource.

[2:52:02] Let's go to the reception and visitors. This is an opportunity for members of the

[2:52:06] audience to share public comment with the board subject to reasonable constraints but

[2:52:10] It is not intended to be a time for members of the public to enter into a dialogue with

[2:52:13] board.

[2:52:14] Issues raised during public comment may be headed to future agendas or addressed by

[2:52:18] administrative staff as appropriate.

[2:52:20] Puricism of individuals in that order in accordance with board policies 802-2211-50, individuals

[2:52:26] appearing before the board are expected to follow following guidelines.

[2:52:30] One, any person addressing the board shall identify yourself, state your school, attendants

[2:52:34] area, and shall speak as briefly as possible.

[2:52:36] To the board president has authority to determine residual matters regarding public participation.

[2:52:41] And out of the wise, the board policy, including time limitations when appropriate.

[2:52:45] And three, the president has responsible for the orderly conduct of the meeting and show

[2:52:49] a rule on such matters as the time allowed for public discussion and

[2:52:53] the appropriateness of their marks to the subject under consideration.

[2:52:57] Please remember we allow three minutes per comment and we'll allow 30 minutes total if necessary.

[2:53:04] this time we will look at the cars and we have no cars so then we will open it

[2:53:10] up to anyone else who would like to speak you can come to the podium state your

[2:53:15] name attendance area and provide your public comment.

[2:53:29] I'm Carrie Blanagan I'm a

[2:53:31] parent at Bel Air and I'm just going to go back to like in probably two hours ago

[2:53:35] now. When we were talking about the middle school model moving the six to eight

[2:53:39] and I've heard it a lot people are really concerned about moving the six

[2:53:43] graders with the eighth graders and oh my gosh we'll have six graders with eighth graders.

[2:53:47] I have not heard anyone say anything about my second graders being with six graders.

[2:53:52] My second graders class in an open concept school is popped right in the middle of a sixth

[2:53:56] grade class and a fifth grade class on either side, diagonally a fourth grade class and

[2:54:01] another fifth grade class.

[2:54:06] And it's not a complaint, it's just that's what it is, it is what it is.

[2:54:10] So we have no issues with our kindergarteners at first year, second graders, and we take

[2:54:15] all this pride in bringing them together and doing families, our buddies, and it's totally

[2:54:21] cool that they're all that way.

[2:54:23] And I mean, yes, they're younger kids and kids are kids, but there's a difference between

[2:54:27] a first grader and a fifth grader and a sixth grader.

[2:54:30] And as they get up each year, you know, they learn a little more and are bringing home some

[2:54:34] neat new tidbits.

[2:54:38] So something to keep in mind, and additionally it's a middle school model, and if you look

[2:54:42] around to all the middle school models in the surrounding districts, there's six through

[2:54:46] eight.

[2:54:47] And we're doing such a great job with the strategic planning to looking to other districts.

[2:54:51] We just talked about, for an hour, about how they do the reduced days or the late starts

[2:54:57] or how they do their t-shirt training.

[2:54:59] So let's look to the other districts for this.

[2:55:01] There's always going to be someone that has an issue I understand, but that's just kind of my two cents, so that thanks

[2:55:08] Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else?

[2:55:16] Okay. Thank you.

[2:55:21] Next one would be approval minutes. Are there any suggested revisions to the minutes as presented in the packet of materials?

[2:55:30] If not, is there a motion to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2019 regular reading as presented?

[2:55:36] Is it?

[2:55:37] So moved.

[2:55:38] Second.

[2:55:39] Any discussion?

[2:55:42] All in favor?

[2:55:43] Aye.

[2:55:44] Opposed?

[2:55:45] The motion carried to approve the minutes of the January 14, 2019, regular meeting as presented.

[2:55:50] Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the January 16, 2019, special meeting as presented?

[2:55:57] So moved.

[2:55:58] Second.

[2:55:59] Any discussion?

[2:56:01] All in favor?

[2:56:02] Aye.

[2:56:03] Opposed?

[2:56:03] The motion carried to approve the minutes of the January 16, 2019 special meeting as presented.

[2:56:09] Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the February 4, 2019 special meeting as presented?

[2:56:14] So, second, any discussion?

[2:56:19] All in favor?

[2:56:21] Aye.

[2:56:21] Opposed?

[2:56:22] The motion carried to approve the minutes of February 4, 2019 special meeting as presented.

[2:56:27] Is there a motion to approve the minutes of the November 28, 2018,

[2:56:31] and January 24th, 2019, board to and PTA meetings as presented.

[2:56:37] So moved.

[2:56:39] Second.

[2:56:39] Any discussion?

[2:56:41] All in favor?

[2:56:42] Aye.

[2:56:44] Opposed?

[2:56:45] Motion carried.

[2:56:46] You approve the minutes of the November 28th, 2019, and January 24th, 2019, board to and PTA

[2:56:52] meetings as presented.

[2:56:54] Next is the approval of this consent agenda.

[2:56:57] Are there any items that board member would like to have considered separately?

[2:57:00] If

[2:57:04] not, is there a motion to approve the consent agenda consisting of the personal report and financial statements consisting of the list of bills and summary as presented in the packet materials?

[2:57:14] So moved.

[2:57:16] Second.

[2:57:18] Melissa, please go roll.

[2:57:20] Member Harris.

[2:57:20] Hi.

[2:57:21] Member Hughes.

[2:57:22] Hi.

[2:57:23] Member Miller.

[2:57:23] Hi.

[2:57:24] Member Samonti.

[2:57:25] Hi.

[2:57:25] Member Siegel.

[2:57:26] Hi.

[2:57:26] I remember, Purcell.

[2:57:28] Hi, motion carried.

[2:57:30] The consent agenda has been approved as presented

[2:57:32] in the packet materials.

[2:57:34] Next is items for recommendation for action.

[2:57:37] First is 2019 20 school fees

[2:57:40] as recommended by the business office.

[2:57:42] Is there a motion to approve student fees

[2:57:44] for 2019 20 as follows?

[2:57:47] Instructional materials grades 1 through 8

[2:57:49] at $202 per year.

[2:57:52] Kindergarten at $123 per year.

[2:57:54] milk for kindergarten through sixth grade, $29.

[2:57:59] Outdoor education at $184.

[2:58:02] Middle school novel at $10.

[2:58:05] Middle school yearbook at $20.

[2:58:07] Transportation less than 1.5 miles,

[2:58:10] or greater than 1.5 miles,

[2:58:13] sorry, $35.

[2:58:16] Transportation less than 1.5 miles, $504.

[2:58:20] dollars. Operational kindergarten enrichment and enhancement program at $2,550. And the

[2:58:27] preschool tuition program, the application fee at $50 and the annual fee at $3,750.

[2:58:35] Is there a motion?

[2:58:38] So moved. Second. Any discussion?

[2:58:42] Quick question if you don't know the answer to this is feedback. How do we collect the transportation

[2:58:47] from 9.58 students.

[2:58:52] Typically, it's via a check.

[2:58:54] So the schools we provide transportation for collected.

[2:59:00] Or they bring it into the district office.

[2:59:03] For real school.

[2:59:04] No, those are not for parole skills schools.

[2:59:07] Those are for, you're saying for the students who are less than 1.5 miles?

[2:59:13] For any of the busing fees.

[2:59:14] So we charge everybody in District 58 for a bus, but we provide students in that don't attend 50 schools passing out of

[2:59:22] the school. The program students here, we get a check from them to the school.

[2:59:28] Okay, so we don't have to collect it individually, the school collects it.

[2:59:31] I hate these fees, but it's the reality of how we have to fund things.

[2:59:39] I know none of us like them.

[2:59:43] Any further discussion?

[2:59:45] Okay, Melissa, please go roll.

[2:59:47] Member Siegel.

[2:59:48] Aye.

[2:59:49] Member Harris.

[2:59:50] Aye.

[2:59:51] Member Hughes.

[2:59:52] Aye.

[2:59:53] Member Miller.

[2:59:54] Aye.

[2:59:54] Member Samonti.

[2:59:56] Aye.

[2:59:56] Member Kursal.

[2:59:58] Aye.

[2:59:58] The motion carried to approve student-

[3:00:00] These for 2019 and 20 as presented. Next is the Science Curriculum Adaption. TCI is recommended by the STEM Committee. Is there a motion to approve the purchase of TCI bringing science alive? In the quantities defined in the attached quote for a total cost of $373,087.50.

[3:00:24] So moved. Second. Any discussion?

[3:00:30] My assumption is, since nobody spoke against this, there's consensus that this is the

[3:00:34] right thing to do.

[3:00:38] I mean, I've sat here for nine years, and we've had the same discussion, and two years

[3:00:41] later everybody says, I didn't want to do this.

[3:00:44] We actually had a pretty thorough discussion around what consensus looks like, and I think

[3:00:50] I'm truly not...

[3:00:52] I've got hammered for saying I voted because committee said it, and committee said this.

[3:00:55] Well, and actually, we were clear to that the committee makes the recommendation to the administration.

[3:00:59] and the recommendations ultimately coming from me,

[3:01:02] and I'll own that piece of it for sure.

[3:01:04] I think we spent a good number of hours

[3:01:07] talking through the resources that were there,

[3:01:08] talking through what they would mean for us now

[3:01:11] and in the future.

[3:01:11] I think the committee is excited about the fact

[3:01:13] that this is a six-year purchase,

[3:01:15] so that means that theoretically if something newer

[3:01:18] and stronger water would come out,

[3:01:20] we could reconvene and look at that.

[3:01:21] That's part of our ongoing review,

[3:01:23] but with that caveat,

[3:01:25] and with the understanding that this is something

[3:01:26] that we want to implement fully in with fidelity,

[3:01:28] the committee landed in a pretty excited place.

[3:01:32] I'm excited. I've always thought, this is one where I thought there would have been

[3:01:37] more upper. I can't believe where we spent all the time we did on math. This is the

[3:01:41] one that I thought was the biggest weakness all along. So I just lack of hearing anybody complain

[3:01:47] about it. I'm making myself a note on February 11th that there was no discussion against

[3:01:53] this and trust me, I will be out in that audience the next time I hear somebody complain about

[3:01:59] correct it.

[3:02:03] I'd also just like to thank you and all the committees for all their

[3:02:08] homework. This has been a really long time coming. And if I think back to the

[3:02:13] earliest conversations that took place when I was on the board, the ones that stuck

[3:02:18] out, you know, seven years ago, was through around science. And when are we going to be able to

[3:02:28] get that together? And this has just been been such a long time. So I'm very happy about this motion.

[3:02:35] Thank you.

[3:02:38] Okay, any further discussion? Melissa, please call roll.

[3:02:43] Number semonsi.

[3:02:44] Aye.

[3:02:45] Number seagull.

[3:02:46] Aye.

[3:02:47] Number heros.

[3:02:48] Aye.

[3:02:48] Number hues.

[3:02:49] Aye.

[3:02:50] Number miller.

[3:02:51] Aye.

[3:02:51] Number per cell.

[3:02:52] Aye.

[3:02:52] The motion carried to approve the purchase of TCI bringing science alive in the quantity's

[3:02:57] defined and the attached quote for a total cost of $373,087.50.

[3:03:03] Next is a second reading of internal board operations.

[3:03:07] Sorry.

[3:03:08] There's another question.

[3:03:09] Let's get a little bit.

[3:03:10] So, that's how the tax science curriculum, there should be another science curriculum on your screen.

[3:03:15] And the surplus.

[3:03:17] Yes, surplus.

[3:03:18] We can assume that the motion is right.

[3:03:31] Next is the motion to approve the purchase of Activate Learning IQWST in the quantities defined in the attached quote for a total cost of $407,315.

[3:03:45] dollars. So, second, any discussion?

[3:03:51] Melissa Blitz-Howell?

[3:03:52] Member Miller.

[3:03:53] Aye.

[3:03:54] Member Samonti.

[3:03:55] Aye.

[3:03:55] Member Siegel.

[3:03:56] Aye.

[3:03:57] Member Harris.

[3:03:58] Aye.

[3:03:59] Member Hughes.

[3:04:00] Aye.

[3:04:00] Member Purcell.

[3:04:02] Aye.

[3:04:02] Motion carried to approve the purchase of Activate Learning, HighQuest, and the quantities

[3:04:07] defined in the attached quote for a total cost of $407,315.

[3:04:12] dollars. Next is a second reading of internal board operations. Is there a motion to adapt?

[3:04:20] There's still another one behind that.

[3:04:22] I have to strip us a quick message.

[3:04:26] The reading of the whole section.

[3:04:28] We didn't get enough snow this year, so we're getting nervous.

[3:04:31] I guess. Maybe the meaning is going to be too long, so.

[3:04:36] The words you're disappearing out of the question are disappearing out of my shoes.

[3:04:42] Okay, is there a motion to designate the following as surplus equipment.

[3:04:49] Toro, power shift, 8242 stage snowblower, Toro, 6242 stage snowblower, Toro, Proline,

[3:04:58] 36 inch longmore, a large safe, and a pneumatic floor machine.

[3:05:07] So go.

[3:05:07] Second.

[3:05:09] Any discussion?

[3:05:12] Melissa, please call roll.

[3:05:13] Member Miller.

[3:05:14] Hi.

[3:05:15] Member Simone.

[3:05:16] Aye.

[3:05:16] Member Siegel.

[3:05:17] Aye.

[3:05:18] Member Harris.

[3:05:19] Aye.

[3:05:19] Member Hughes.

[3:05:20] Aye.

[3:05:20] Member Purcell.

[3:05:22] Aye.

[3:05:23] Motion carried.

[3:05:25] No, see, I already was trying to...

[3:05:27] Two.

[3:05:28] Jump forward.

[3:05:29] Thank you.

[3:05:30] Designate the following as surplus equipment.

[3:05:32] Toral power shift.

[3:05:34] 824, two stage number.

[3:05:35] Toral 64, two stage number.

[3:05:37] the war, Toro's pro-36 inch lawnmower, a large safe, and a pneumatic floor machine.

[3:05:44] I thought you were going to start singing.

[3:05:49] Lucky for you I didn't.

[3:05:54] Can we finally go to my second meeting of the International Board of Operations and do

[3:05:57] it?

[3:05:58] They're waiting for three hours and 15 minutes for this one.

[3:06:05] Next, a second reading of internal board operations, policies 802-1, 802-2, 801-1

[3:06:10] 181.02, 181.30, and 181.40.

[3:06:12] As recommended by the policy committee.

[3:06:15] Is there a motion to adapt your vision to internal board

[3:06:18] operations?

[3:06:19] Policies 8021, Code of Conduct, 8022 beings,

[3:06:22] 8100 membership and terms of office.

[3:06:25] 80102, they can see on the school board,

[3:06:27] 801.30, board member development,

[3:06:31] and 181.40 membership in school board associations.

[3:06:34] Is there a motion?

[3:06:35] Some of.

[3:06:35] Second.

[3:06:36] Any discussion?

[3:06:37] All in favor?

[3:06:40] Aye.

[3:06:41] Any opposed?

[3:06:41] Motion carried.

[3:06:43] To adopt your visions to policies 8021, 8022, 818102, 80130, and 8140.

[3:06:50] Next is a second reading for deletion internal board operations policy 8023 is recommended by the policy committee.

[3:06:56] Is there a motion to delete as duplicative policy 8023 abused and neglected child reporting?

[3:07:04] So, second, any discussion?

[3:07:07] I just like that we add the duplicative part in there.

[3:07:09] Because we deleted positive before, but we probably should say,

[3:07:12] this is duplicative, that's how we're getting rid

[3:07:14] of our abused and neglected policy.

[3:07:16] Yeah, just helpful, clear.

[3:07:18] This one in particular, we were sensitive to

[3:07:21] thinking that, no, because it is covered well

[3:07:24] in the other policies.

[3:07:26] Thank you.

[3:07:26] Yes, thank you.

[3:07:31] All in favor?

[3:07:33] Aye.

[3:07:34] Any opposed?

[3:07:34] the motion carried to delete as duplicative policy number 8023 next is a few

[3:07:41] announcements for some dates the policy committee meets Tuesday February 19th

[3:07:49] 7 a.m. at BSE the Board of Education Bill and Tour and PTA meeting is Tuesday

[3:07:54] February 19th at 6 p.m. at Henry Puffer the District Leadership Team will meet

[3:07:59] the Monday, February 25th at 3.45 in Longfellow.

[3:08:02] I've been talking about Femme.

[3:08:04] Femme out.

[3:08:05] District leadership team Monday, February 25th,

[3:08:08] 3.45 in Femme out.

[3:08:10] There will be a staff meet and greet

[3:08:12] with the Board of Education.

[3:08:13] Monday, February 25th at 6.30 in Femme out.

[3:08:17] The next curriculum workshop is the 25th Monday,

[3:08:21] the 25th at 7 pm at Femme out, following that meet and greet.

[3:08:25] And now the board will now meet in close session.

[3:08:28] Is there a motion to meet and close session to discuss the appointment, appointment,

[3:08:32] conversation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the district?

[3:08:36] Collective negotiating matters.

[3:08:38] Between the district and its employees at the representatives or deliberation concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees and or discussion of minutes of the of minutes of meetings, lawfully closed in with the open meetings act whether for the purposes of approval by the body of the minutes or the Sunday annual review of the minutes as a mandate.

[3:08:57] Section 206, is there a motion?

[3:09:00] So moved.

[3:09:00] Second.

[3:09:02] Any discussion?

[3:09:03] Melissa?

Downers Grove Grade School District 58, IL meeting

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