[0:00] Dr. Martin >> here.

[0:00] » Dr. Mario >> here.

[0:02] » Dr. Pock >> here.

[0:04] » Miss Robinson >> present.

[0:05] » Miss C here. Miss >> here.

[0:09] » Hey, let's all stand for the

[0:16] » flag of the United States of America to the

[0:21] stands nation indivisibley [clears throat]

[0:26] and justice for all.

[0:36] Thank you. Well, board, we want to um [clears throat] acknowledge our amazing

[0:42] premeating uh entertainment that we had here this evening with a round of

[0:46] applause from our jazz band.

[0:53] This is our second year here at the board. setting aside time to acknowledge

[0:57] National Arts and Education Week. This week is observed during the second week

[1:02] of September each year recognizing both curricular and extracurricular

[1:06] activities including music, theater, creative writing, poetry, and visual

[1:10] arts. We are constantly, and I mean constantly, amazed by the skill and

[1:16] creativity of our students, and we are grateful for the dedication and

[1:20] encouragement from our educators. At this time, we're going to ask our

[1:25] board and Dr. Kgatti to join us in the middle. And we're going to ask all of

[1:29] our student artists and performers that joined us, as well as their educators

[1:33] this evening, so that we could do a photo.

[2:23] Thank you so much. And then um you can go ahead and have a

[2:28] seat board. Um we are going to provide a certificate of acknowledgement um and

[2:33] thanks to both Mr. Michael Scur and Miss Heather Spanish for their guidance and

[2:38] leadership and helping to put together um this evening. Um and then we are

[2:43] going to be welcoming up four student speakers this evening that are going to

[2:47] share a little bit about um our art and programs this evening.

[3:13] Hello everybody. Good evening. My name is Kian Watkins. Good to see some

[3:16] familiar faces here. I just want to talk a little bit about the impact that art

[3:21] has had on me specifically within this community and within my personal life.

[3:26] So, for those of you who don't know me, I'm a big participant in robotics. It's

[3:30] kind of been one of the focuses in my high school career and what I've done.

[3:34] Each year, one of my great friends kind of brought me into it and I've just

[3:37] loved doing it ever since. It's been so fun. And during my sophomore and junior

[3:44] year, I got really lost in that. Just continuing to try to hone in my skills

[3:49] and try to make the club as good as it can be. I really lost myself and I

[3:54] didn't know if this is what I wanted to do anymore. Specifically robotics I'm

[3:58] referring to. And so I spent a lot of my time

[4:02] just not really knowing where to go until one day my dad who is an artist

[4:07] himself, he's a songwriter, R&B music. Um he sang with a group called Public

[4:11] Announcement who um sang with R. Kelly back in the 90s and 80s. Um he he he

[4:18] talked to me and he was like, "Son, make some art." And like he [clears throat]

[4:21] literally said that to me one night because he also painted. He got a um

[4:25] full ride scholarship to go to Colombia to study art there and he painted. And

[4:30] so one night I sat in my bedroom drawing. He was drawing right over

[4:35] there. Um you kind of see it is a black figure. Um, and I drew that because I

[4:42] had to do a project, but also because it represented how I felt at the time. I

[4:49] felt very lost. I didn't know what I should be doing. I didn't know really

[4:52] who I was. I I thought I did, but it took a lot of soulsearching for me to

[4:57] kind of figure that out. and through art and just being able to represent myself

[5:00] in what I do, whether that's robotics or drawings or photography, which is one of

[5:04] my most fond mediums, which I've been doing for a very long time now, and kind

[5:09] of honed in that skill and taking it with me into college as hopefully a

[5:13] professional, getting some um money while doing that. Um

[5:19] I've just really found that the art community here, specifically NHS and art

[5:23] club, they're just super inviting. They're super inviting, a great

[5:27] community to be around and I' I've loved working with the people. Um, you know,

[5:31] there's a lot of different types of people within it and getting to learn

[5:34] and grow with those people. Like I'm a senior now and like just look looking

[5:39] back at my experience with them and having super fun experiences with them

[5:42] has been great for me as a student and um allowing my creativity to flow

[5:47] outside of just robotics in school. So, I'm really grateful for this art program

[5:51] and all the teachers and mentors I've had like supporting me and supporting my

[5:55] ideas and growth along the way. So, I just want to thank all of them and thank

[5:59] you guys and I hope you guys continue to support this program.

[6:17] Hi, my name is Marina. Um, I'm from OSU High School. I'm a senior this year. Um,

[6:22] I am the NHS branch president for this chapter. Um, I as well run the art club

[6:27] there at OEI with a co-president. Um, my time at the arts, I've been in it uh

[6:32] pretty heavily since I was a freshman. Um, I came into a high school setting

[6:35] not really knowing where I would fit in. Um, it was I had moved here fourth

[6:39] grade. Uh, I went to Grand Park, moved into Murphy, and I still did not feel

[6:42] established where I was. And being able to find a place where I was able to find

[6:46] good community was really important to me. Um, I have made a ton of good

[6:49] connections, uh, especially through the arts program. I did creative writing.

[6:53] That was probably one of the most fun things I did here. Um, being able to see

[6:56] different perspectives on world issues, global issues through writing and like

[7:00] poetry, all of this stuff. Um, especially with we have a really good

[7:04] creative writer, Mr. Ooa. He helped me a lot with how I write like kind of

[7:09] everything. Um, it really changed like how I view a lot of things and I want to

[7:13] be able to see multiple perspectives on different things. Um, as well as I've

[7:17] had a lot of good teachers throughout in like the actual arts. Um, I'm mainly

[7:21] focused in 3D, so I have not had like a ton of experience in 2D. Uh, even still,

[7:25] I've made some of my best friends through the art department. Um, I've

[7:29] also had a ton of really good experiences. I was able to go to the

[7:31] Chicagoland 4x5 uh art show last year hosted by Osprey East High School. That

[7:35] [clears throat] was what like really cool being able to see the awards, being

[7:38] able to see what like watch my friends walk up on stage, receiving honorable

[7:41] film mentions and stuff. Um, that has been really important to me. Sorry, I

[7:45] have like a couple talking points on my phone. Excuse me for looking down.

[7:53] Um, the importance of art in schools is also really important to me. Um, it

[7:56] fosters a community within the school district. Um, as well as uh like in

[8:01] sorry influencing creativity and development. Um, I feel like it also

[8:05] very helpful for critical thinking and looking at different perspectives from

[8:08] other people um other than yourself. I I do feel like that's something that we

[8:12] kind of do lose in this day and age. Um being able visual literacy and written

[8:16] literacy is a big thing for me as well, especially with the use of AI nowadays.

[8:20] um being able to form your own thoughts, being able to write things down like

[8:23] that. Being able to understand a book's purpose and like the author's purpose as

[8:27] well as an art piece, being able to understand the um artist's purpose and

[8:31] their reason for making this and what they thought what their thought process

[8:34] was for that. Um collaboration is another big one. I know we have the

[8:38] collaborative piece up there. Um my twin worked on that one with her uh painting

[8:41] one and two class. Um, it was really, she had a really good time and being

[8:45] able to hear about how much she enjoyed making it with those people she had that

[8:49] class with was really special to me, I guess. Um, individual identity, I feel

[8:53] like the arts is a really good way to influence people to um, like be able to

[8:57] process emotions and being able to process, I guess, deeper thinking

[9:01] through the arts. Um, yeah, I'm really grateful that I've had been able to

[9:05] spend all this time in the arts department. Um, I'm glad I've had really

[9:09] really good teachers like Miss Stannich um to help and guide me like in kind of

[9:14] being more in-depth with it, I guess. Um, that's kind of all I have to say.

[9:17] Thank you. >> Thank you.

[9:30] » Hi, I'm Leona Baitman and I am the art honor society president for Oiggo High

[9:35] School. So, it's my twin flame right there. Other school.

[9:39] Um, and I just had a few words to say about the importance of art to me and

[9:43] also the importance of art education. Um, so first I'd just like to say thank

[9:48] you guys for taking the time to come out here and sit and hear us out and

[9:52] recognize us for what we're doing. And we recognize you for what you're doing

[9:55] as well. Um, especially as we're coming into National Arts and Education Week.

[10:01] As artists, I'm sure that you guys know we're all about self-expression. Whether

[10:06] you see that in us dying our hair, our constant need to chat, or our actual

[10:10] body of work. Um, I want to take a moment to acknowledge that this night is

[10:15] not only about recognizing our student artists, but our art educators like Mr.

[10:19] Skura. I also have other teachers like Mr. Gul as well. As of this year, I have

[10:24] officially had every single art teacher that is currently working in the Asiggo

[10:28] High School art department. I finally completed the Pokédex. I [laughter]

[10:33] feel great about it and I can truly vouch for how equally phenomenal every

[10:37] single art educator at the school is. I've definitely had a lot of different

[10:41] personalities with art teachers because it's art. Like you're going to be a

[10:46] little bit unique in the things that you do because

[10:50] you're trying to challenge certain ideas and express different things visually.

[10:54] Um, we always get to as artists visually express ourselves and kind of talk about

[11:00] things through our body of work, whether that's through color, shape, line, all

[11:05] of those good elements. But tonight, I'm very grateful to have been blessed with

[11:08] the opportunity to talk about this verbally with all of you. So, firstly,

[11:13] it's kind of given me an outlet and my friends to create work physically.

[11:18] obviously all of the paint tubes that you guys have funded for us that as high

[11:22] schoolers we still don't know how to close. Um

[11:26] just kind of having all of the canvases, learning how to build all of the

[11:30] artwork, working on the clay, whatever it might be. A lot of failures, a lot of

[11:35] pieces I haven't been super proud of, and a lot of pieces that I feel really

[11:39] great about. I'm grateful that you guys have taken the time and the funding to

[11:43] give us that effort and give us that time so that we are able to completely

[11:46] waste and also use an insane amount of paint.

[11:50] » Um, two is the community. I really do feel like actually I know um some of the

[11:57] best relationships that I've found have been in my art classes from people that

[12:01] I've just sat with at my art table. Coincidentally, my best friends Lynn

[12:05] Ramirez and Kim B from last year they graduated were on the art board with me

[12:10] before and every single day we would just I mean we would talk and obviously

[12:15] we would paint too but it was a really great experience to kind of push

[12:18] ourselves creatively and I know that Kim and Lynn are both going on different art

[12:23] paths. I personally want to go to film school and I feel like I've kind of

[12:26] found that through Mr. Skura and my other art educators. And lastly, it's

[12:31] definitely built my character and built my friend's character, too. There have

[12:36] been so many times, and I I mean so many times where I've been working on a

[12:39] painting or a piece of work and I just wanted to like throw it out the window.

[12:43] Like, I literally will be spending hours and hours on it and I just look at it

[12:47] for too long. And Mr. Scar always tells us this quote before every single class.

[12:52] I forgot who said it, but he says, "Passion without discipline is

[12:55] sentimentality." And I think over my four years in the

[12:59] Asiggo art program, I've really thought about that and had time to reflect and

[13:03] say that yes, art is something beautiful that I really enjoy. But it's also

[13:07] something that's making me improve as a person and look within myself. I'm

[13:11] challenging myself every single day. I'm working with my friends. I'm working

[13:14] with other people. And I'm creating something, whether that's a portfolio,

[13:18] relationships, or networking opportunities. So really, I just wanted

[13:22] to say thank you guys for giving us this outlet, all of your time, all of the

[13:27] commitment, and most importantly, arguably the best thing, the pizza we're

[13:32] going to eat later. [laughter] Thank you.

[13:48] » Uh, hi. Uh, I'm Gab Mag Spagnoli. Uh, I'm a senior at OS and

[13:55] I've been taking our classes for the past four years. I've also been taking

[14:00] all the metal working classes for four years,

[14:03] » which those two every single year are the highlight of my day probably.

[14:10] it. I feel like art class is a way for me to get away from the stress of just

[14:17] like daytoday school work and where I can just like

[14:22] decompress, hang out with my friends and make some cool artwork. And it's the

[14:29] same with uh like all my metal working classes.

[14:33] And like just making things with my hands is

[14:37] one of my favorite things to do honestly.

[14:40] And I see it in a lot of my friends too where we'll be in class, they'll be

[14:46] stressing out about something, we go to our next class, same thing. We get to

[14:51] lunch, we decompress, and then we'll go to an art class and then we just get to

[14:55] hang out pretty much and do work and then get graded on it. And I feel like

[14:59] it reflects in my other classes like English and uh math or like I took

[15:07] computer AED design and drafting where I find I have a much easier time

[15:12] comprehending complex subjects >> and understanding why an artist or an

[15:20] author or an equation even works the way it does.

[15:25] And I feel like that's a very important skill to have with everything today

[15:29] being about getting the highest test score for your school and for your

[15:33] district where we need to push more about why things work and how to solve

[15:38] that instead of just knowing that it does so we can

[15:44] answer yes or no on a test. And like just being able to

[15:50] understand that and like express yourself

[15:54] through like either artwork or like with your friends or like

[15:58] » just in general I feel like is very important. And that's where our art

[16:04] classes really shine. Like I've taken everything from jewelry and glass

[16:11] mosaics to drawing and painting and uh like metal [clears throat] working

[16:19] like I said and I see kids every day finding new ways to experiment and

[16:24] express themselves and I feel like that's very important for them because

[16:28] post high school not everybody knows how to do that and not everybody knows

[16:35] why they should. And I feel like that like that's just a very important thing

[16:39] to show kids is that that there is alternative options post high school.

[16:45] There is ways that they can express themselves now and

[16:49] they should express themselves. So, I feel like that's why we should honestly

[16:55] keep uh like

[17:00] I don't know just keep uh our

[17:04] » Thank you.

[17:09] » really quick. Um band members, our jazz band, would you mind grabbing that mic

[17:13] and just quick passing it down and just introduce yourselves real quick just so

[17:15] we have your name and which school you're from?

[17:23] Uh, I'm Sarah and I'm I'm from OS. >> What instrument do you play?

[17:31] » Sorry. >> I play [clears throat] the trombone.

[17:34] » Awesome. >> I'm Miles. I'm also from OS and I play

[17:38] the tener saxophone. >> My name is Connor Longett. I'm a senior

[17:42] at OHS and uh I play guitar. >> I'm Spencer Henry. I'm the drummer for

[17:49] this jazz combo >> and I'm a sophomore.

[17:53] » My name is Emily. I'm a senior at um Oswiggo High School and I play the

[17:58] clarinet but also the alto saxophone. >> I'm Campos. I'm a senior at OHS and I'm

[18:05] the jazz trumpet but I also play piano classical.

[18:08] » Okay. Um hi, my name is Betsy. Uh I'm a junior and I play bass for the the jazz

[18:14] band. So yeah, that's the squad. That's us.

[18:18] » Yay.

[18:22] » Thank you all so much for being here. Um, thank you for sharing the incredible

[18:27] thoughts that you did. Um, your student voice helps to center why we're all

[18:31] here. Um, and kicking that off uh, today was just very heartwarming. Um, for

[18:36] those of you that don't know, Dr. Kelgotti is an artist himself. Um, and

[18:41] so I know he really appreciates the opportunity to to dig in and be able to

[18:44] see this. So, um, we have your your artwork up on display. We'll make sure

[18:48] that we take a few moments, um, and appreciate it at the end of the meeting,

[18:52] but we don't want to, um, hold you too long from your your pizza next door, but

[18:58] questions. Yeah. >> Can we invite Mr. Grace? Uh, you've been

[19:01] a big supporter of the arts, and you, uh, do you want to say any few words? I

[19:05] put you on the spot there, but I I I really appreciate you being here um, as

[19:09] a principal of Asiggo High School.

[19:14] Can you grab the mic, Mr. Grace? Thank you. [laughter]

[19:21] » Uh oh. [clears throat]

[19:26] » Better. Oh, there we go. >> All right. So, we have phenomenal

[19:29] students both at Asiggo High School and and Asiggo East High School. I think

[19:33] this is just a testament and a small sample of the many things that our

[19:36] students do and the the benefits of our art programming and all of our other

[19:41] programming have uh for our students. So, uh I commend them and keep up the

[19:47] great work.

[19:53] » Ward, is there anything else you need before we dismiss our kiddos?

[19:57] » All right. >> Enjoy your pizza, guys. Thanks for being

[20:00] here. >> Thank you.

[20:03] really appreciate it.

[20:10] [laughter]

[20:22] » Always so impressive. [laughter]

[20:35] All right.

[20:38] 5.1 our fiscal year 27 budget presentation.

[20:43] » Wish I could follow that joyous stilent uh fun presentation but this is what

[20:50] pays for everything. So in a way it's very important. So, it's the time of the

[20:55] year uh for the uh board to approve the budget as required by the school code.

[21:02] You remember about a month ago, we did um a detailed presentation about the

[21:08] budget. And before that in August, we did three community budget presentation.

[21:14] Two of them in person and one remote. So, we're just going to do a quick recap

[21:21] of um of the highlights of the budget. Okay.

[21:41] Okay. So just wanted to show very quickly what revenue looks like uh by

[21:47] far and um

[21:51] you know I I can't overstate the fact that uh transportation continues to be a

[21:57] challenging uh uh point for us and what we've done over

[22:04] the last few years is to levy less in the ed fund and levy more in the

[22:11] transportation fund, levy less in IMRF and social security so that we can levy

[22:17] more in the transportation fund. And even with that though, we're still

[22:22] ending up with a deficit in the transportation fund. So what I am going

[22:28] to say and this comes on it's going to come in November when we do the levy

[22:33] presentation. I believe it [clears throat] is important for us to

[22:38] go back to leving what we need in the ED fund. because uh adopting the levy

[22:43] strategy that we've done the last uh two three years is created uh a depletion of

[22:50] the ED fund and the ED fund is the most uh comprehensive fund that the district

[22:56] has because it pays for just about everything related to instruction. Now

[23:02] that may create some challenges for the transportation fund but I think it's

[23:07] important for for us to do uh to uh levy what we need in the end.

[23:14] So this is a a picture of what the the last slide is.

[23:20] The majority of the of the revenue by phone as I mentioned is actually in the

[23:25] ED fund and the edund is also the most uh consequential if you will for the uh

[23:32] the fund

[23:36] and this is by category which kind of align with what I said earlier. One

[23:43] thing I want to point out here, when we did the initial budget presentation

[23:50] uh back uh a month ago, we hadn't received the uh corporate property

[23:56] corporate uh private property replacement tax

[24:00] um estimate for fiscal year 27. We've received it now and there's uh actually

[24:08] an increase of about 400,000 more that we estimated to get than what uh we uh

[24:16] we have projected and the same thing goes for the ED fun

[24:21] for the EB EBF. We uh the EBF uh allocation was released

[24:28] after we had already presented the budget back in uh a month ago. So we're

[24:34] actually [clears throat] getting approximately half a million dollars

[24:37] more in EBF that what we had estimated

[24:45] and this is a picture of what I just talked

[24:49] and the expenditures by fund as I as you can see which relates to what I just

[24:55] said a little a little bit ago the ad funds bear is the workhorse fund where

[25:00] the majority by far of the expenditures are coming

[25:05] And so it's important that uh that we levy

[25:11] enough to be able to to fund all that needs to happen. Okay.

[25:20] Now, just to go back, what we had done the last uh couple of years is to levy

[25:26] less in IMRF and social security because we had a pretty high fund balance. But

[25:32] those fund balance have now been depleted over the last couple of years.

[25:37] And doing that the last three years allowed us to be able to lean on

[25:41] transportation. But now the fund is depleted. So we have to go back live in

[25:46] what we need. All right. So and this is a picture of the expenditure

[25:53] by far. As you see again uh Edund by far is the

[26:00] is the largest fund

[26:05] and this is uh essentially where we spend our money and close to 80%

[26:13] of our expenditure is tied into salary related expenses benefits. the core

[26:21] work that we do as a school district is tied to labor. Say that and that's

[26:28] that's 80% and that's essentially shows where our money. So as you can see what

[26:34] we've tried to do we've tried to pretty much hold the line on uh expenditure as

[26:39] much as possible. If you compare the unodudited last year's uh expenditure

[26:45] [clears throat] with this year you'll see the increase is minimal. So, we've

[26:49] been doing as much as we can to make sure that

[26:55] we we're a better fiduciary of the resources that the taxpayers sent to us.

[27:03] And this is a a picture of uh the table I just showed. As you see again, if you

[27:10] take the salary and the employee benefits, it's 80%

[27:16] uh plus of the expenditure.

[27:22] And again uh this is by font here and which I pointed out earlier. If you look

[27:28] at the hedge fund for this fiscal year, we're projecting

[27:34] a deficit of $5.7 million. The edge fund and

[27:41] coupled with the fact that we've levy less over the last three years to fund

[27:46] editation, we have to go back to to making sure we

[27:50] levy appropriately the ed. And if you look at what I mentioned, the same thing

[27:56] with the IMRF and social security where we had levy less and we have to go back

[28:03] to that. So if you remember the first presentation that we gave back a month

[28:07] ago, we hadn't received the final allocation for EBF as

[28:14] well as for CPPRT. Once we got there, the projected deficit

[28:20] went down from 447 4.7 I believe to now is 3.8 million.

[28:27] Now, but I can't overstate the fact that we have put systems in place, process in

[28:34] place to reduce the expenditure in transportation. we are but what we've

[28:41] seen going back the last five years transportation has been challenging

[28:47] uh the amount of revenue that we get from the state for example uh the

[28:52] reimbursement for example last year we we submitted a reimbursement request for

[29:00] based on expenditure for $9 million uh we got uh approximately $4 million

[29:07] in reimbursement from the state. So that's that's part of the issue that

[29:13] facing. So I just wanted to point out as much as we're we're going to try

[29:17] everything possible to mitigate the cost of transportation.

[29:23] If the last three, five years has been uh

[29:28] has been a gauge of what we're going to do,

[29:32] we probably will end up with a deficit. But we are trying everything we can to

[29:38] uh to reduce expenditure. So at the end of the day the uh the

[29:44] budget that we presented a month ago is slightly better than where we are

[29:48] because of the two revenue sources additional revenue in uh CBPRT and about

[29:54] half a million dollars in additional revenue in EBF.

[29:59] » So thank you Mr. Ofami board. One of the

[30:03] things that we did over the last I want to say starting January was really work

[30:07] aggressively and and and intensively with all of our departments to really

[30:11] look at where our expenditures were and what were the shifts we needed to make

[30:16] as we went into this year because we anticipated this. Um um Mr. Befi, can

[30:20] you talk a little bit about is this unique to our situation and um and are

[30:27] there other districts facing a similar profile to what we are? Absolutely not.

[30:33] It is not unique to us. If you look at our surrounding area, even if you look

[30:38] at districts such as 203, 204, and even Yorkville and uh 129,

[30:46] uh district with a stronger financial reserve than we are

[30:52] and uh some of them not even as big as we are.

[30:59] Everyone is facing the same challenging financial aid win rate in that the um

[31:08] the revenue that we expect support from the state is not forthcoming.

[31:13] We are very grateful for the taxes that we receive from our taxpayers which

[31:19] makes up about 50% of our revenue and uh that is the most reliable form of

[31:26] revenue that we get as a district. the state is not being as supportive as the

[31:31] state needs to be. We know the state of Illinois is facing economic challenges.

[31:36] So, which has made it very difficult uh for us financially, not just for us,

[31:43] but for just about all the school district in Illinois. This is the

[31:48] situation that we're facing. You that's on the revenue side. The expenditure

[31:52] side is everything continues to cost more. We do as much as we can to

[31:58] mitigate cost to avoid cost but there's a limit to how much reduction that we

[32:03] can do without negatively impacting the educational experience in the classroom.

[32:09] As I mentioned earlier, we are in the labor business. Education is a labor

[32:14] business. It's very labor intensive. You hire people, you pay people, and you you

[32:20] you buy them benefits in order for them to be able to take care of themselves as

[32:25] they and their family. Health insurance, for example, uh from last year to this

[32:30] year, the health insurance, our health insurance went up by 19%. But it's not

[32:35] limited to us. It's everywhere, private, public sector, everywhere. the cost of

[32:40] health care is just going up. Based on the research that we're doing and the

[32:46] the contact that we having with uh providers, health insurance provider,

[32:52] they're not expecting things to be any better next year.

[32:57] They're expecting things to be just as challenging as they were this year. I

[33:02] mean, so those are some of the things that we're dealing with. And if you also

[33:07] look, I mean, we all go shopping, we all buy things, we pay for electricity, we

[33:11] pay for utilities, other utilities. Every single one of us, we're paying

[33:16] higher. For example, even before the cost of uh diesel and gasoline went up,

[33:24] we we were losing we were spending more money on transportation than our

[33:29] revenue. I expect things to be even more challenging now that the cost of diesel

[33:34] has gone up. I mean, I would have never thought two years ago that we'll be

[33:40] paying close to $7, the average cost of a gallon of diesel.

[33:45] We transport 12,000 plus students every single day. We have to pay for diesel.

[33:52] We've been negotiating with the union that transport our kids.

[33:58] They're expecting to be paid certain amount of money because every time they

[34:01] go out they buy things is increasing cost. Not that people are beating down

[34:07] doors to be bus drivers. Driving a bus is a calling. It's not just a job

[34:12] because you have to deal with children and not everyone has that superpower to

[34:17] be able to transport kids and while the kids are in the on the bus also making

[34:23] sure you follow the rules of the road and avoid uh crashes and still be able

[34:29] to to give the kids a good experience because they are the first sets of adult

[34:36] that the kids see when they leave home. folks who transport them from home to

[34:41] school. So if they have a great day on the bus, chances are they will have a

[34:45] wonderful day in school. So it's just it's a confluence of just very very

[34:51] difficult situation uh inflation uh revenue support and we

[34:58] are absolutely doing everything we can to mitigate expenses because what we

[35:05] always say we have control over expenses as much as possible. We don't have as

[35:09] much control over revenue and we are doing everything within our purview of

[35:13] control to reduce revenue as much as possible without unduly

[35:19] damaging the educational experience of our kids. And if you think about it, a

[35:23] first grader only get to be first grader one time and they they have to they have

[35:28] to have the absolutely best experience. So when they get to second grade,

[35:32] they're ready and they can have a good experience in second grade. But these

[35:36] are the things that we do. Thank you. >> And not just us, yeah, school district

[35:40] all over the state. >> One of um I'm sorry. One of the other

[35:43] things that comes to mind for me when I hear this presentation is I've I've

[35:48] known for a long time transportation is a pressure point. Like we have it's

[35:52] expensive to transport our students uh on top of everything else, right? We

[35:56] have a lot of students and a lot places that we need to go to get them to bring

[36:00] them to school. The other thing that rings in my mind when I'm listening to

[36:03] the presentation is what we don't know because this is a projected budget,

[36:07] right? If you look at the budget from the year before last year, we for some

[36:11] of our capital pro or emergencies that we needed to do. Um that's something

[36:16] that's ringing in my mind too because those are unknown expenses. uh which is

[36:21] why we've voted as a board to ask the the public to help us fund some of those

[36:26] capital improvements um so that we can plan better for those those expenses

[36:32] because I think you could easily have this projected budget and then this goes

[36:36] out and that goes out and this happens and this happens

[36:38] » and we've started experiencing that already.

[36:40] » Yeah. [clears throat] >> Emergency fixes. And the the part that I

[36:44] actually forgot to mention, I'm glad you mentioned,

[36:48] » as strange as it is to say this, the mandated categorical funds, those are

[36:53] the the reimbursement that we get for transportation, regular transportation,

[36:57] especially transportation. Uh the orphanage, the state actually hasn't

[37:03] they have not released what the proration is going to be.

[37:07] » So we don't get we don't know what the proration is going to be. What that

[37:11] means is that for those program we spent a dollar. We have never gotten a dollar

[37:18] since I've been doing this. I've been doing this for a while. Last year we got

[37:22] approximately the reimbursement that we got was

[37:25] approximately 60 cent on a dollar. We don't know what we're going to get until

[37:30] next month. >> What the uhation is going to be. That's

[37:35] another unknown. >> Well, that was like a 15% drop from the

[37:39] year prior, right? Went from Seven to six.

[37:41] » Yes. Yes. And it's just it's been it's been going that way. It's been going

[37:45] it's a it's a race to the bottom. >> As you talk about that, it's also hard

[37:50] to project like your um oh my goodness. Uh work that we have to farm out

[37:56] essentially. So I we talk about like even that would be any staff member that

[38:01] we couldn't essentially hire. We often would go to a contracted agency and

[38:05] those costs increase too. and you don't know um how much their cost will

[38:11] increase. So that is something else it's hard to anticipate. Like they may know,

[38:15] right, that they're going to have to increase their budget, but you don't

[38:18] know until you act until you actually seek those services, right? Um so that's

[38:23] something else I'm thinking about this. >> And the the uh students we love, we

[38:28] provide whatever resources our kids need to be successful.

[38:32] uh a special needs student when we don't know who moves into our district, right?

[38:38] We can have kids move into our district. Some of

[38:42] them may require 1018 a require uh series of services from speech pad from

[38:51] uh psychologist from different clinicians some of whom

[38:56] OT PT >> we cannot afford. Number one, there are

[39:00] not enough people with OTP licensing and most of the time we can't even find

[39:07] them and a lot of time we can't even afford that because of what they go for.

[39:12] So what so we build the budget estimating what we think cost us then we

[39:18] may have 15 kids move in during the year who need specialized services and we not

[39:26] we're not in a position to hire all the conditions that we need. So what we then

[39:30] have to do we have to go through a third party agency and some of those agencies

[39:34] charge as much as a 30% up charge in the in the salary that we pay for

[39:42] [clears throat] those consultants they send us. So those are all the things

[39:45] that we deal with as a school district. And the final thing I want to say, I

[39:51] know we've gotten some uh some complaint from parents as it

[39:56] relates to transportation. Uh couple of things that I just want to

[40:01] share in our sincerity. There's a shortage of bus driver.

[40:06] Not every and this is something that is happening every school district, not

[40:11] just us. Not enough people want to be bus driver. It's just that simple. So

[40:18] the so we have a shortage of bus driver. Now we also have contractors. They're

[40:24] facing the same thing that we're facing. It's not like they have a factory where

[40:29] they make their own bus driver. They do the same thing that we do. Even though

[40:33] they they they pay more than we pay. We try to match them but there's a

[40:38] shortage. So we all know from uh uh high school economics when supp when demand

[40:46] outpays supply prices will rise and that's the only reason that has been

[40:52] causing the uh the cost of transportation to go up and I do not see

[40:58] any good solution anytime soon. We're doing the very best we can but this is

[41:04] some of the things that we're dealing with. So our buses sometimes run longer.

[41:08] It's not because of incompetency. It's not because we just design them that

[41:13] way. It's because we have shortages of driver. More people require busing than

[41:19] we have drivers who want to drive those buses. Most of our office people in

[41:24] transportation, for example, they drive buses. They are supposed to be doing

[41:28] office work but require them to have CDL. So, we put them on the bus. Even

[41:34] with that, we still don't have enough. Thank you, Mr. Wolf.

[41:39] » If I may, just real quick, just two items I'd like to highlight as we go

[41:43] into the 20 2026 2027 um budget is one kind of parallel to the conversation of

[41:50] special education is outplacement. In regards to our outplacement numbers for

[41:54] our district, we have very heavy numbers compared to other districts. I'd like to

[41:59] see how we can find maybe some efficiency in regard to and I do know

[42:03] right from a special needs parent perspective that there are a lot of

[42:07] needs whether special excuse me OT so forth on but I think we have to find a

[42:12] better mechanism when it comes to our outplacement and what that looks like

[42:16] but most importantly the process and then another thing I wanted to add on

[42:20] was the residency verification as I started looking at the numbers right now

[42:24] we have roughly 1,000 students that are outside of for our boundaries. So, I

[42:29] wonder how that impacts our excuse me, our budget. So, those are just two

[42:34] components I'd like us to see to continue to drive, but most importantly,

[42:37] understand. >> Thank you for raising that. I with uh

[42:43] with permission from uh my boss from the board, the work trip. I think that could

[42:50] be something that we can bring up in the future as a presentation to the board

[42:55] about our process of determining you know our placement and just to share

[43:01] that information. I don't think it's something that we take uh cavali uh

[43:07] outpacing kids because I know the philosophy is in the district

[43:13] is as much as possible if we can educate our kids right here in the district we

[43:19] want to do that a they reside here b their friends go to school here uh c

[43:25] their family lives here have been able to provide them the education that they

[43:29] need regardless us not even thinking about

[43:33] cost is the approach that we want to take. So for us to determine to to our

[43:38] place of care that means we've done everything in the district to provide

[43:44] the faith and if we're not uh able to do

[43:49] that and it's not in the best interest of the kid to get a good education here

[43:53] in the district only then do we contemplate our placement and we take

[43:58] that very seriously which is a reason why we uh we have uh EVA Right. And

[44:06] we've actually expanded the number of kids that we referred to in an attempt

[44:10] to a make sure we keep our kids here so they can be with their friends, but we

[44:15] can also mitigate the increase in cost.

[44:21] If I may, we're not I'm not aware of we have 68 square miles. I'm not aware of

[44:27] any 1300 students who live outside of our our our 308 boundaries. We do have

[44:34] uh quite a few students who qualify for Mckin Vento as well as for special

[44:39] education um who we do bring into our district but um we're happy to look into

[44:44] it if you have some numbers but at this point I have no evidence that that is

[44:48] number >> I just voyed it so you should be able I

[44:51] think everybody in the community should be able to see it. So roughly there's 13

[44:54] in particular, but there was one resident in Chicago, one in Villa Park,

[44:59] Bellwood, but needless to say, there's there's a hefty number out there that

[45:03] are outside our parameters for SD308. >> We have a responsibility. I'm sorry. Go

[45:07] ahead. >> You're talking about students who are

[45:09] living outside of our boundaries. >> They're living outside.

[45:13] » Yep. They're receiving education from our

[45:16] » So there is something I would like to share though. There's a law.

[45:20] » It's a law. So if a student was going to school here for example they live here

[45:26] » and if for whatever reason they now homeless or doicile they're homeless

[45:33] staying with relatives we are required to still provide them an education here

[45:38] in the district that's the law MKB >> and I respect that and that should

[45:42] absolutely be put in place but as I look at other numbers let's just say district

[45:47] 203 204 they're roughly between 1 to 3% % we are at 8%. So again just a topic

[45:55] just to kind of review and see if we are really doing our due diligence when it

[45:58] comes to boundaries. >> Thank you. We will we will bring we we

[46:02] will bring a presentation in the future where we look at

[46:07] » we look at that. >> I I was just going to say I saw your

[46:09] comment on the board document and some of those towns that you were referencing

[46:13] are in our school district. Yorkfield, Joliet, Planefield. They I I don't know

[46:18] if you're looking at other zip codes. >> No, it was the exact zip codes. So, for

[46:24] one, I know what you're speaking of, but if you go and you analyze the data, it

[46:28] gave zip code and it gave you the breakdown which verified that we had

[46:31] over a thousand students outside of SD308. Now, I could be potentially

[46:36] wrong, but based upon analysis and the reports, that's what was captured out

[46:41] outside of what you're speaking to. the the zip codes. I just to clarify

[46:46] board, but I will say that uh our boundaries are not determined by zip

[46:51] codes. There are zip codes. In fact, um I met a young man earlier tonight who

[46:56] said that he's actually closer to Mata Valley uh than he is Aurora, but he

[47:00] prefers to come to our school. So, so I I would agree with you, uh Miss

[47:05] Robinson. I appreciate the the concern. Um our team is very careful in our

[47:10] registration department when we do residency when people come in. Um we

[47:14] also have as you heard so if the board if if the board would like us to do

[47:18] further analysis of we're happy to do that. I would say that would give that

[47:21] to the board decision to consider. Um other questions regarding the budget

[47:26] hearing? >> I I have some. Can you go to page eight?

[47:39] Keep going. >> Um, yeah, it's like the second to last

[47:44] one. This Wait, no, >> this one.

[47:51] » Expenses by category. Um, >> can you explain the really big numbers

[47:57] like the capital outlay change and the purchase services number changing? so

[48:03] dramatically. >> Yeah. So, uh last year we only spent uh

[48:11] about 471 in that capital outlay fund and in anticipation of some of the the

[48:18] repairs that we needed to do this year, we budgeted more.

[48:23] Well, but I'm I'm talking between the 2025 budget and the 2025 actual or I

[48:29] mean clearly it's unaudited, but see how the it changed from the to 100%

[48:35] more or changed from actual.

[48:42] I guess it's looking the 9.7 million to the

[48:48] um sorry I I helped uh prepare this. So the actual percentage is a variance

[48:54] between the unawited actual of 2526 to what we're budgeting this year. So it's

[49:01] almost 100% increase based on the 471 up to the 949. Um so that's what those

[49:08] columns are referring to. >> And then we went down in purchase

[49:13] services due to budget cuts and trying to be you know fiscally aware. Can you

[49:19] summarize some examples of those budgeted or those purchase services that

[49:24] were cut or reduced? >> Purchase services.

[49:27] » There were so many. >> There's so many. Uh we pay for utilities

[49:32] out of purchase services. That's the one one area.

[49:35] » Mike, we need you on the mic. >> Oh, I'm sorry. One area is a big area is

[49:39] utilities that we pay for. And uh another big area is related to

[49:45] transportation, third party transportation. I know we reducing some

[49:49] of the services that we purchased from the uh from durm and uh se etc. We're

[49:57] not giving them as many around as they had uh the prior year. That's that's

[50:02] another >> So at this point those are projected

[50:05] numbers. We're hoping to reduce it by >> we're hoping to reduce it. Yes. and some

[50:12] of the so purchase services also related to consulting services and in an attempt

[50:17] to balance the budget. What we looked at, we looked at all the consulting uh

[50:22] services that we had and uh we looked at some of them that we can reduce or defer

[50:30] and if we thought we didn't have to spend that money in 207,

[50:38] we decide not to fund it or we decide if we can defer for another year. We did

[50:44] some of that. So this were all the things that we did when we started

[50:49] working on the budget uh in the fall last year. The deficit was really big.

[50:54] So we went through rounds and rounds of reduction saying some of the things that

[50:59] we may have uh approved before and we looked at it and we looked

[51:05] at it really critically the folks who benefit from it for example and say can

[51:09] you not do this? Can you wait a year? you wait two years can you make it work

[51:16] a couple of years longer to try to balance the budget so we did a lot of

[51:20] that so so I just gave you a couple of example that's one I mean it's a number

[51:26] of them that makes up so purchase service essentially any services that we

[51:31] buy from a third party and it's funny uh the the bus leases in there the uh third

[51:37] party transportation in there another one is third party consultant that

[51:42] provides us with uh special ed special ed uh staff member uh paid out

[51:48] of there another TA which is another thing that I mentioned earlier we used

[51:53] to depend more third party providers for a TA what we found out is now that we

[51:59] have a better agreement with our TA we have people who are staying longer so

[52:06] it's an increase in salary but a decrease in purchase services and salary

[52:11] is actually cheaper for for us to find than the third party consultant. So

[52:16] those are some of the things that comes to mind that that we pay for out of

[52:20] purchase services. >> Thank you.

[52:24] » Other questions board?

[52:31] » Well, you asked question that I had. Um yeah, I took a look at a lot of the

[52:36] other districts and um you know, like playing field, I think there 14 million.

[52:41] They did $8 million in cuts and >> difference is they have a $200 million,

[52:45] you know, coffer. >> Yeah.

[52:47] » Um, it's like a

[52:51] » it's nothing, you know, for them.

[52:54] » Yeah. >> So, yeah.

[52:57] » So, a lot of changes. >> I hate to say 2080 is even going to be

[53:01] challenging. I', you know, I've been saying that for

[53:05] the last couple of years and we absolutely have to do it because I'm not

[53:10] even sure if the state will be able to appropriate the 350

[53:14] million in additional funding for EBF and they promise to do that

[53:21] if the money is there. But if the money is not there,

[53:26] they can easily decide that we can't afford it. We're not going to be able to

[53:30] fund it. So yeah, that plus an increase in in in

[53:36] a lot of prices of things that we buy, it's just going to be a challenging year

[53:42] 2020. And the federal government >> the budget the the funding for this year

[53:49] from the federal government is actually higher the way the federal government's

[53:54] budget work. So what is going to happen is the budget that's actually going to

[54:01] impact us in 28 is going to be the original budget for this administration.

[54:08] The budget that impacts this year was inherent.

[54:12] So what is going to impact us in 28 is going to be first budget of the current

[54:18] administration and we've known we know there've been reduction in educational

[54:23] funding. So, it's is going to be it's going to be a challenge in 20.

[54:29] » I know we've [clears throat] my voice is gone. Um, excuse me. You know, we've

[54:34] talked a little bit about this, I think, in smaller conversations, and this does

[54:37] not have to be answered now, but um I think it would be interesting, not only

[54:43] for the board, but also for like the six people streaming it at home. um just to

[54:49] get a better idea of some of the advocacy work that we do at the district

[54:55] to try to I guess I mean I know we have very limited control over our revenue.

[55:03] Um I mean you've mentioned multiple times about like shortages from the

[55:06] state and from the federal government. So, I think it would be interesting if

[55:10] we could at some point just have a better idea of kind of the different

[55:15] avenues um not only that you have as district leadership with advocacy, but

[55:20] also us as a board and for anyone that might want to also advocate um in favor

[55:25] of a little bit stronger and more predictable funding for the schools.

[55:30] » I'm actually going to be in Washington DC next week doing that very thing.

[55:35] » Thank you. >> No, I'm just kidding. [laughter]

[55:38] We'll be happy to do that and and and that and the other topics that were

[55:42] brought up tonight. Look at how it fits and where we can bring some feedback for

[55:45] the board. >> Thank you.

[55:47] » And our committee for the whole actually is a great space to have some of those

[55:50] discussions. Um the whole

[55:53] » Thank you.

[55:57] » Okay. [clears throat and cough] Moving to six public hearing.

[56:04] We have two opportunities for public comment tonight. The first opportunity

[56:08] will be during the public hearing on the fiscal year 27 budget which we are about

[56:13] to convene. If you wish to make a comment about the fiscal year 20 or

[56:16] tenative 27 tenative budget, please do so during the public comment portion of

[56:21] this hearing. If you wish to make a comment about some other matter

[56:24] unrelated to the public hearing, you may do so during do so during the second

[56:29] opportunity for public comment. Please make sure that you noted on the comment

[56:32] card which portion you wish to speak. We will now hold a public hearing on the

[56:37] fiscal year 27 budget

[56:44] 6.1.

[56:48] This is the public hearing convened by the board of education of community unit

[56:52] school district 308 regarding the fiscal year 27 budget. At this time I would

[56:57] like to ask

[57:02] » you got any information >> as presented Mr. as present

[57:08] following the update uh or public comment and now the board are there any

[57:14] public comments the budget >> not for the budget portion

[57:18] » okay um

[57:23] so I guess we just move on right >> at this time we will close the public

[57:27] hearing >> at this time uh we will close the public

[57:31] hearing um on the fiscal year 7 budget.

[57:37] » Oh, this does.

[57:44] Oh.

[57:47] All right.

[57:50] I'm backtracking here, guys. At this time, does any member of the

[57:55] board of education have any comments? If so, please identify yourself for the

[57:58] record and make your comments.

[58:06] Okay, at this time we will close the public

[58:10] hearing on the fiscal year 27 budget. My first time doing that one.

[58:16] » All right, we're moving to 7.1,

[58:22] our public comment. Do we have for regular public comment?

[58:26] » Yes, we have one. >> All right. On behalf of the board of

[58:30] education, I would like to thank the public for attending tonight's meeting.

[58:33] We value the feedback we received from our members of the public and encourage

[58:36] everyone to take an active interest in their public school system. Individuals

[58:41] interested in speaking to the board this evening are asked to have completed a

[58:44] comment card and presented it to the secretary to the board. Any members of

[58:48] the public who have not yet turned in their public comment card to the

[58:51] secretary of the board are asked to do so at this time.

[58:54] When the secretary calls your name, I ask you to come to the microphone. State

[58:58] your name for the public record and provide your feedback. [laughter]

[59:04] » We figured it was you also. >> Yeah. Please note that that's why I'm

[59:08] kind of smiling while I'm Please note that comments are limited to five

[59:11] minutes per person. The board does not participate in discussion during public

[59:14] comment. Comments should address the board of education as a whole and not be

[59:17] directed to an individual board member, audience, or staff member. Followup to

[59:22] your questions or concerns may be addressed by administration through the

[59:24] contact information provided on the comment card. Thank you.

[59:36] » Good evening. My name is Scott Dematis and I'm here to speak on behalf of my

[59:40] son, Jack Dematis, who is a sophomore at OE. I wanted my son to be here with me

[59:44] this evening, uh, but I just dropped him off from gymnastics practice so he can

[59:49] begin his homework, which will keep him up past 10 p.m. this evening. My son is

[59:54] a level 10 gymnast at Premier West Gymnastics Academy located about a mile

[59:58] from here. Oi. [clears throat] Uh for those you're not familiar with

[1:00:02] gymnastics, level 10 is the top level of a gymnast can achieve or before the

[1:00:07] possibility of being accepted into a collegiate program. This is no easy

[1:00:12] accomplishment. Less than 1% of gymnasts make it to this level. My son started at

[1:00:17] 5 years old as a member of Premier West boys team where he has progressed

[1:00:21] through years from a level two now competing at level 10 at this point. A

[1:00:25] rough calculation that my son has put in close to 10,000 hours of training over

[1:00:29] his over his career. My son uh goes directly from Oi to gymnastics practice

[1:00:36] uh for three and a half hours of physical strength training, flexibility,

[1:00:40] countless repetition on all six events, floor, vault, rings, pommel, parallel,

[1:00:45] and high bar. Each day he pushes himself to execute flawlessly new techniques

[1:00:50] that will improve the potential to receive a higher score. Gymnastics is a

[1:00:55] game of decimals where the difference of point of a 0.5 score can be the spread

[1:01:00] from first place to fifth place. Each year we travel throughout the US for his

[1:01:04] meets. It's not easy or cheap. My wife and I sacrifice to support him because

[1:01:08] he has a passion and he has a talent. These competitions are governed by USA

[1:01:13] Gymnastics, which is the national government body

[1:01:16] for gymnastics in the United States. USA Gymnastics is responsible for selecting

[1:01:22] and training national teams for Olympic games and world championships.

[1:01:26] This is the elite level of competition in the country. From practice, he comes

[1:01:31] home, eats, and begins his homework. His course load is currently AP US

[1:01:36] government, honors chemistry, English 3 is a sophomore, honors digital

[1:01:40] electronics, honors algebra 2, and PE. His homework keeps him up studying after

[1:01:45] 10 p.m. most every night. last spring while training for the upcoming US

[1:01:49] National Championship in Oklahoma City were contacted by his coach stating that

[1:01:55] he had to stop Jack from executing certain high-risisk moves multiple times

[1:01:59] due to Jack's apparent lack of mental focus focus and overall fatigue. Coaches

[1:02:04] play an important balancing role knowing when to push athletes and knowing to

[1:02:08] pull back to avoid risk of injury. When I asked my son what was going on, he

[1:02:13] just looked at me and he said, "Dad, I'm just tired." Every night he's up past 10

[1:02:18] p.m. and then he gets up at 5:40 to be on the bus at 6:20. The daily school

[1:02:23] schedule and the additional physical activity during PE begins to take its

[1:02:27] toll. And this is what brings me here to you tonight. Uh a father advocating for

[1:02:32] the well-being of his son. What I'm asking for is the district's support by

[1:02:37] granting him a we a waiver from his PE class. In this letter that I have uh

[1:02:44] from his coach uh it states, "Based upon my professional experience coaching

[1:02:50] elite level athletes, Jack's training is highly structured, includes

[1:02:53] comprehensive strength and conditioning, cardiovascular training, flexibility,

[1:02:58] impact, and event specific skill development that are planned and all are

[1:03:04] carefully managed to pretend to prevent fatigue and reduce injury. I do not

[1:03:09] recommend that Jack participate in additional physical education at this

[1:03:13] time and that phys that a physical education waiver would be in the best

[1:03:17] interest of his health, safety, and long-term athletic development. My wife

[1:03:22] and I also consulted with Jack's uh primary care doctor who stated that

[1:03:26] Jack's level of training, he is at elevated risk of joints, muscles, and

[1:03:30] tendons and his training needs to be carefully monitored to avoid injury.

[1:03:34] I've had several discussions about my son with Dr. Cooper Wells, executive

[1:03:38] director of high schools, and with Dan Arson, executive director of athletics

[1:03:43] at 308. They were able to help provide guidance, but stated that a waiver would

[1:03:48] need to come from SD308 leadership. Dr. Cooper Wells was kind enough to

[1:03:53] investigate options for my son and found other schools, other school districts

[1:03:58] that do not offer that do not offer boys gymnastics, but do grant casebycase PE

[1:04:04] waiver for students. student athletes participating in nonIHSA

[1:04:11] sports. These include community uh community school district 300 which is

[1:04:16] Bington, Alangquin, East Dundee, U46 which is 55 schools across Cook, DuPage

[1:04:22] and Kain counties. Pinsdale 181, uh, MC Chapman School District, and

[1:04:29] Playingfield 202 accepts PE PE waiverss for nonIHSA

[1:04:35] sports. What I'm asking is for the SD leadership to look at my son as an

[1:04:40] individual as these other districts have evaluated the indiv individual needs of

[1:04:45] their students and found a way to support them in their athletic and

[1:04:49] academic pursuits. on page.

[1:04:52] » Um >> I'm sorry. Nearing time.

[1:04:55] » Yeah. And um >> that that's

[1:04:57] » you could always you could send us a letter too.

[1:05:00] » Yeah. >> Yeah. I I will follow up with an email.

[1:05:02] Uh thank you for the opportunity to address you this evening and listening

[1:05:05] to my concerns. >> Good luck to your son.

[1:05:18] » All right. Have a good night.

[1:05:23] Committee of the whole 8.1 committee purpose norms and logistics.

[1:05:31] [clears throat]

[1:05:34] » All right. Good evening board. So for for this one we are going to welcome

[1:05:40] everyone. So this is a new practice that the board has

[1:05:46] made a decision to pursue and we want to thank the board for this opportunity. So

[1:05:51] tonight we are shifting gears and I'm going to invite members of the

[1:05:55] administration to join as we do and move into our first agenda item. So for the

[1:06:01] next as you can see three to four agenda items we're going to engage in a first

[1:06:06] of the conversation about kind of the high level uh setting purpose. So the

[1:06:09] committee the whole is an opportunity for the board to really engage um in new

[1:06:15] way around some of the topics versus a formal process where uh you would have

[1:06:19] typically a presentation followed by um maybe a very kind of linear process.

[1:06:25] This is a allow us to engage in our committee process um in a very different

[1:06:30] way. And so tonight you will hear a number of items. Can we go to the next

[1:06:34] slide please? I don't know who has a clicker.

[1:06:40] Okay. So, um for all of their committees, we wanted to um one of the

[1:06:45] things that in a typical committee structure, you would always have a

[1:06:48] chance to look at what are the values and the core values that are centering

[1:06:51] the work as well as norms of collaboration. This is a practice that

[1:06:55] our district has using is has been using regarding um when we get into

[1:07:00] conversations. So these are helpful tools that our district leadership team,

[1:07:04] our school leadership teams, um any committees that we have, we lean on

[1:07:09] these practices or norms of collaboration to help um facilitate the

[1:07:14] conversation. So rather than do this for each of our structures tonight, the

[1:07:18] equity uh teaching learning um any of our committees, we felt like for all of

[1:07:23] them, we thought it would be valuable for us to have a conversation. And so

[1:07:26] I'll invite comment or anybody want to name or anything that you notice about

[1:07:31] whether it's the norms of collaboration or the district core values of how can

[1:07:34] this be helpful for committee discussion. How do these how do these

[1:07:38] inform is guess is my question for our discussion around the committee for the

[1:07:42] whole how can these be of help to the discussion tonight and and maybe rather

[1:07:46] than looking forward also what have you learned in the past? So what about these

[1:07:50] emerged in your committee conversations last year that made it helpful and

[1:07:55] productive conversations and this is for everybody to speak to?

[1:08:02] I would say regarding the norms of collaboration like for me those are like

[1:08:06] cue as a board member those are like cues right like how should I be engaging

[1:08:10] they seem pretty um in line with um how what my experience on on the

[1:08:18] previous committees not the committee of like when we had our our other

[1:08:21] committees um and so they seem in line with um how we've conducted you know

[1:08:27] committees in the past um I would say this is a larger setting. So that's

[1:08:32] something that's kind of in the back of my mind as I think about, you know,

[1:08:37] putting all the ideas on the table and paying attention to self and others or

[1:08:40] just the larger setting. >> I'm thinking about

[1:08:46] » I'm appreciative of the norms. Um I think this will be an interesting

[1:08:50] experience because I know for Eli we are used to like presenting and then

[1:08:54] stopping in the midst of pres of the presentation. So it will be interesting

[1:08:59] as far as like us getting through the presentation and then the different

[1:09:03] questions that we have coming our way. But I appreciate the norms of

[1:09:07] collaboration um because it names that we will be posing questions, we will be

[1:09:12] putting ideas on the table and we will be utilizing data to have these

[1:09:15] conversations.

[1:09:19] » What What does pausing mean? >> Just throwing it out there. Yeah, I

[1:09:24] would >> because I'm all about keeping it going.

[1:09:31] Sometimes you want to [laughter]

[1:09:36] » I think sometimes for like for when I see politic I don't know if everyone

[1:09:39] else interpers it this way but um sometimes when there's um an intense

[1:09:43] presentation happening that I know less about like finance or something like

[1:09:47] that. I personally just need to pause and like make sure and like that second

[1:09:51] one like paraphrase to myself okay this is what's going on. And so for me it's

[1:09:55] like a personal cue. I don't know that we would be, you know, pausing the

[1:09:59] meeting unless there was a request to do so by uh Erica.

[1:10:04] » No. [laughter] >> Or anybody permission to think, right? I

[1:10:10] » you name that. >> Go ahead.

[1:10:12] » No, I would agree that's that is the intent. Um to pause before we respond to

[1:10:17] pause and assume positive intent. Pause to pose the questions. Um because to

[1:10:24] that end at times when we don't know things or we're we're less familiar with

[1:10:28] things you do kind of get more like well wait what is this? What is that? What is

[1:10:31] this? What is that? Sometimes it's okay to say well let me just write these

[1:10:34] thoughts down and then we can come back to

[1:10:37] » and to be respectful of others people's need to pause. Like there are some we

[1:10:40] all have different oops >> we all have different um areas of

[1:10:45] expertise. Uh, and so for a presentation to for for for Erica that she can just

[1:10:50] take in and be like good, good, good, good, good. And I need like that time to

[1:10:54] kind of process it a little bit more. And depending on the topic, I think that

[1:10:57] would be true for any of us.

[1:11:02] I think um I think that one of the things I'll

[1:11:08] invite and I think we'll have to talk about the board has an opportunity and

[1:11:12] the committee members um from the the staff

[1:11:17] um have an opportunity to think about what does it mean to put ideas on the

[1:11:21] table when we have a recorder and how do we become comfortable um we always this

[1:11:27] always following OMA guidelines so those are always recorded But, you know, it's

[1:11:31] a very different setting. Um, this is where we typically have our board

[1:11:34] meetings, um, our formal board meetings. And so, this is a committee for the

[1:11:37] whole. And so, understanding that you're going to have that flexibility to have

[1:11:41] those conversations in a different way than you've had before, that's a a mind

[1:11:44] shift a little bit for us. We're not used to that structure, right? So, I

[1:11:48] think that'll be a new learning. And I would just invite board members, you

[1:11:52] have comment cards, I think, comment cards that you can give feedback. um

[1:11:56] also our our our leadership team who are here this evening um to to weigh in on

[1:12:03] those comments. So one thing that um in addition to this

[1:12:09] is that we have our structure. So tonight we'll have our three

[1:12:13] subcommittees or committees equity, learning, innovation, finance,

[1:12:16] facilities and human resources and then policy and legisl legislative. Each one

[1:12:21] is advisory. um each gives the board and the committee a focus place to examine

[1:12:26] our priorities before matters move forward and none of them replaces the

[1:12:29] authority of the board and recommendations move from here and then

[1:12:33] we'll go to full board vote if necessary um Bren or Teresa is there anything you

[1:12:40] want to add to this as you've been listening

[1:12:43] okay um with that I think uh uh Mr. Chair, if

[1:12:48] you want to move us to the next one and then we'll invite the chair of that

[1:12:51] committee to start. >> Okay.

[1:12:56] Nine, equity, learning, and innovation chair. Dr. Pock, Dr. Mario, and Miss

[1:13:05] Robinson are also on the committee. Um, at this time, I would like to invite Dr.

[1:13:10] Pak, chair of the equity and learning and innovation committee to lead us

[1:13:14] through the equity committee. Sure. [snorts] So,

[1:13:19] » well, no, go ahead. >> I've got two more paragraphs.

[1:13:22] » Go ahead. Read it. >> I got [laughter] I gota say at every

[1:13:24] meeting I think. >> Go ahead.

[1:13:26] » Dr. Pock, please take us through the agenda items in this section. Once those

[1:13:30] items have been addressed, please invite the committee members to ask questions

[1:13:33] or offer comments. Following that discussion, please open the floor to the

[1:13:36] full board for any questions, comments, or discussion. At [snorts] the

[1:13:40] conclusion of the discussion, please ask the committee to make a recommendation

[1:13:43] to move these items forward and bring them to the next regular board meeting

[1:13:46] as a consent agenda item for action and approval. Board will vote on the item

[1:13:51] separately at that meeting. I will turn it over to you.

[1:13:55] » Sure. So, I hope that I'm getting this right. I'm excited about this though.

[1:13:59] Um, so I'll now walk us through the items before the equity, learning, and

[1:14:04] innovation committee. Um we'll take well I'm going to take each of you through

[1:14:08] the agenda items and I am inviting Dr. Dell and Dr. Waller correct to be a part

[1:14:15] of this. Perfect. To be a part of this conversation and so we will just take a

[1:14:20] look at the agenda if you can walk us. Am I walking us through the agenda? Are

[1:14:23] you okay? Perfect. >> Yep.

[1:14:25] Um so I mean moving forward uh that what that would look like would be

[1:14:30] differently because um what we've come to in this space today is with our

[1:14:35] proposed topics of what we would like to be able to speak about in the space and

[1:14:40] once that part is named and understood then we can shift regarding how that uh

[1:14:45] committee is navigated through. We've said this, we shared this. We know that

[1:14:49] um we've created this space before. Um this is not obviously to uh replace the

[1:14:54] authority, but ultimately give us an opportunity where we can examine things

[1:14:58] that are for equity, learning, and innovation regarding our three

[1:15:02] foundational practices. So much of the work that we do is related to schools

[1:15:07] and special programs. And so, um, over the past few years, we've been able to

[1:15:12] work with, um, our committee to provide information on MTSS, school improvement,

[1:15:18] professional learning, school leadership paradigm, etc. And so, we recognize that

[1:15:23] previously we would have this on a month-to-month. And so what we have done

[1:15:28] is uh put up some proposed topics here for you all that we would like for you

[1:15:32] to consider um for October 13th leaning into school leadership teams um school

[1:15:38] leadership paradigm our district which uh our school leadership teams are

[1:15:42] districtwide um movement um principal and AP coaching systems through our

[1:15:46] boost structures um as well as ISBY updates for ML and sped. When we shift

[1:15:52] in January, we want to lean into our social emotional learning systems and

[1:15:57] support, student discipline, um, panorama, leaning into those pieces,

[1:16:02] character strong, etc. Um, by January, we will also have a clear update

[1:16:07] regarding our gifted audit and the work that's being done with that.

[1:16:11] For March 8th, we are proposing that we lean into school improvement planning um

[1:16:16] district and building level progress as well as really highlighting and lifting

[1:16:20] our portrait of a leader um that was created last year and needs to be

[1:16:23] launched this year. And then our final meeting, we would like to have a

[1:16:28] foundational practice year-end recap. Um it's not named on here, but we

[1:16:32] definitely want to make sure that um we include student voice that would that's

[1:16:37] going to look different. um at our last year the we had students come into that

[1:16:42] committee space but we would be inviting them into this space in April. So these

[1:16:47] are our proposed topics and the way in which um we see this kind of flowing and

[1:16:53] if there's uh approval of these topics well then we'll be able to then work

[1:16:58] with our executive directors and directors to ensure that we have the

[1:17:01] presentations that are necessary for us to have the engaging conversations.

[1:17:06] What are your thoughts? >> Yep. And if I can just add these

[1:17:11] committee topics or each one of them is tied to the strategic plan. So it's very

[1:17:15] much in line with our work. >> Is there a way we can see what the

[1:17:21] topics are tied to relative to the strategic plan and then um because I

[1:17:27] would want to know how they align to the strategic plan and as always during

[1:17:32] committee meetings I always talk about student outcomes, right? And so, how

[1:17:36] does that all tie to student outcomes and advancing those?

[1:17:40] » I would echo what Dr. Pollock is saying in regards to student outcomes. Um, I

[1:17:46] can see what all in each of these what those might be, but it might be good to

[1:17:51] name them for us so we know. That's really good.

[1:17:53] » And I think we've also discussed several times at in this committee uh just being

[1:17:58] a little bit more expansive when we think what we think about when we think

[1:18:01] about what student outcomes are. So, not just looking at like the state test

[1:18:06] scores >> um or the ACT scores, but looking at

[1:18:09] like >> grade point averages or um

[1:18:14] » um so I can't think of other ones right

[1:18:19] now, but uh we've done a pretty good job in the past of that. I think it would

[1:18:22] just be good to note um what outcomes we're going to be looking at for all of

[1:18:26] these. >> And I also I wouldn't want equitable

[1:18:30] grading systems to be lost in this. So I spoke a lot about that last year and so

[1:18:35] I definitely want to bring that up this year again and while I do think building

[1:18:41] the capacity of our leaders it is critically important but I think it's

[1:18:45] important relative to their capacity to lead some of this work as I'm going to

[1:18:50] go back again student outcomes right and so how

[1:18:53] » in relation >> y

[1:18:55] » all that being said I do think when I think about this structure and these

[1:19:00] meetings and our committees in the past, I see one, two, three, four meetings

[1:19:05] with lots of topics on there. And so I feel like maybe there's an opportunity

[1:19:11] to just be real real specific like school leadership like what are what are

[1:19:18] we looking at and what I honestly don't think that we're going to get to all of

[1:19:22] these things >> and so right

[1:19:24] » um not that no one's we're not hard enough, right? we're just there's not

[1:19:29] enough time in [clears throat] a committee format like this. But I think

[1:19:32] if you lean into the student outcomes and say in October we can present this

[1:19:36] and that's related to this, we'll have it then like start with the outcome

[1:19:41] maybe and then backtrack like backward planning to what the the system is that

[1:19:46] you're going to highlight for us that impacts those outcomes.

[1:19:50] I also so with with these because we've had conversations as a all of us at the

[1:19:56] district uh level and so you know in thinking about school leadership teams

[1:20:01] and all of that work that we're doing um school leader paradigm like we can name

[1:20:06] those and so we've talked about doing one pager high well one slide highlights

[1:20:10] for those different pieces and to your point um we can lift that student

[1:20:15] outcomes piece as well as I was thinking about for the equable grading systems

[1:20:20] that would be good for January. So, as you continue to to lift and name these

[1:20:25] things, to your point, yes, there needs to be we need to be specific, but we've

[1:20:29] talked about still having these exact topics, just one slide at a time because

[1:20:35] we do want you to be able to have at least a highlight and then the space to

[1:20:40] then dig in to ask questions about those things because the work that we're doing

[1:20:45] with launching school leadership teams this year as a district and that

[1:20:49] alignment and how it transfers to DTLT planning and all all of those meeting

[1:20:54] structure plannings is our intentional K12 alignment to like lift and really

[1:21:01] increase student outcomes. So like >> Yep. I'm following you.

[1:21:07] » I think the the other piece just as a board member oftent times I'll hear like

[1:21:13] I'll see presentations or we are introduced to something and I'm not

[1:21:16] quite sure what to do with it. Right. And so I think it's critically important

[1:21:21] to let us know like in this committee is this for your information right we're

[1:21:26] telling you this just so that it's on your radar or we're telling you this

[1:21:30] because there is a decision that you will have to make you know in a couple

[1:21:34] of months relative to this so just giving us like how this is relevant to

[1:21:39] our work right that's critically important and while I love knowing like

[1:21:44] knowledge is power I love knowing everything um I think some things are

[1:21:48] missed because I'm not sure why I'm been being

[1:21:52] told certain information. So, >> if if that can be framed for us as well

[1:21:58] » and not to say you shouldn't tell us, just letting us know like what lens we

[1:22:03] should be looking at this. >> Yes, I think there's some structure that

[1:22:07] we need to think about because it's such a big committee or not a big committee

[1:22:11] but a big topic, you know, that's in one committee. We could take hours and hours

[1:22:16] and hours. Like I literally think we have to get rid of half of the things on

[1:22:20] the list. Not because they're not important, but we won't have time to

[1:22:23] discuss all those. To your point, let us know. Hey, just quick like and Dr. Well,

[1:22:28] you were saying like maybe a slide like these are just highlights, right? Just

[1:22:31] FYI slides, right? >> Those are the quick hitters at the

[1:22:35] beginning. And then there's like one thing we're going to really dig into.

[1:22:40] One of the structures that we heard about and we we're'll be offering as

[1:22:44] part of this is that there's a format for a memo.

[1:22:50] Um there's a format for a memo where for some of these topics to your point like

[1:22:54] what is the background on this topic? what's the current state of that topic

[1:22:59] and then what's the future state meaning what is that the ask that's being

[1:23:03] brought up and what are those asks right and so the team has been as thinking

[1:23:07] about for some of these the board and maybe that's one of the things that

[1:23:11] between now and the next committee you can think well this would be something

[1:23:14] where it will be beneficial based on the strategic plan for that to be something

[1:23:19] that's more of a memo >> um background current state future state

[1:23:23] request and then there may be topics that the board wants wants us to really

[1:23:28] dig into or that the committee wants I should say the committee wants to really

[1:23:32] dig into and understand. And so I think that's a question I think uh following

[1:23:37] tonight's meeting if you want to communicate with me and let me know what

[1:23:40] those could any of these stand out and then the team and I can look at those

[1:23:44] and then come back next time with some recommendations for the committee.

[1:23:49] » Thank you. That'll be really helpful. And again, I think that they're all

[1:23:53] great topics. I just think an example again relative to uh professional

[1:23:58] development for our leaders. Um essentially what will that translate

[1:24:03] into? Is this about hey they may need more professional development um

[1:24:08] external professional development and the board can anticipate seeing

[1:24:13] uh this sorry Raphael but for purchase services right so just if you can just

[1:24:20] give some context um relative to that that's all but thank you

[1:24:41] Are there any other things that you all want to talk about as board members?

[1:24:49] » You know, I you might you might not know the answer, but um I'm sure you guys

[1:24:53] will. Um we're having committee the whole on

[1:24:59] during board meetings outside of these dates,

[1:25:03] but as I was scrolling through the other committee meetings,

[1:25:06] I don't see dates. So, I've just Are we having like

[1:25:12] » the dates are the these types of meetings and we're having all of this

[1:25:16] topic talked about at that meeting? >> So,

[1:25:21] » there's no extra committee meeting, >> right? No, I understand that. asking

[1:25:25] where the other because this is the only dates, right? Is that what you're

[1:25:30] asking? >> Yeah. I'm wondering are we doing like

[1:25:31] one committee >> per committee of the whole?

[1:25:35] » You're saying because there's not one there's not a November meeting on there.

[1:25:38] » Well, we have five committee of the whole dates.

[1:25:42] » There's only five, >> but there's only four on here

[1:25:44] » because today is the first one. >> Oh. Oh. Oh.

[1:25:47] » Because then in May, >> they're

[1:25:50] » okay. >> You have the public forum and the

[1:25:53] student forum. Is that what it is? Okay. >> Yeah.

[1:25:55] » Yeah. There are a number of other big uh board related functions that are coming

[1:26:00] up. So that's >> okay.

[1:26:02] » I knew that there would be an answer. I just

[1:26:04] » Yeah. >> Yeah. So you are correct. That's a lot.

[1:26:10] » Yeah. >> That's a lot in the

[1:26:11] » That's a lot. >> Do it.

[1:26:16] » Can I make the comment that I don't know anything about most of this? So, if we

[1:26:21] could possibly get the background information earlier,

[1:26:25] » like I I don't want to put you guys like having to rush to prepare something, but

[1:26:30] the more lead time we get, the more likely I'll be able to understand it

[1:26:34] when we come to the I'm I'm with you on that one.

[1:26:39] » So, basically getting the agenda to the board like on Monday.

[1:26:44] » Not so much the agenda. >> Well, the agenda information,

[1:26:48] » but I think the background information right would be really important.

[1:26:54] » I would agree.

[1:26:58] » Any other discussion full board discussion?

[1:27:03] » I know you'll come back on um the third or

[1:27:09] so we're preparing for our next committee meeting where we would be

[1:27:13] voting on stuff but we don't we won't be voting on anything in regards to this.

[1:27:16] Would it be possible at that meeting to review like a revised list of topics? I

[1:27:22] want to be able to give you guys like guide like

[1:27:26] guidance into like there's some stuff on here that I would like I know we can't

[1:27:31] my opinion is we can't do all of this in the committee of the whole. I don't

[1:27:35] think we're going to have enough time. Um not that it's not important but

[1:27:38] there's some things on here to me as a board member that are more important

[1:27:41] than other things. Uh, and so I don't know, maybe I can communicate that with

[1:27:46] you all through an email. Um, but >> well that's why they're proposed. So if

[1:27:50] you all could tell us what you want >> and then we'll do it.

[1:27:54] » Like that's that's that's a part of it. Now, as far as

[1:27:58] » like the context pieces, that sounds like there needs to be some learning

[1:28:03] like a glossery of like information. So, like that's a separate project and

[1:28:08] that's something that I think that we should talk about as a senior leadership

[1:28:11] team regarding all of those different areas because finance is definitely not

[1:28:15] my cup of tea. So, I understand um but that was the intention right to and and

[1:28:21] just so again so you know where I pulled these topics from. I utilize all of our

[1:28:26] minutes and everything from the last couple of years.

[1:28:28] » Yeah. >> And then I also then lifted what's

[1:28:30] currently happening in the strategic plan this year and then put these

[1:28:34] different things together. But you'll have to decide what you really want us

[1:28:38] to lean into. But to your point though, I still think that we can give you that

[1:28:42] high level of like I'm also processing and wrapping my head as you all are

[1:28:47] talking about like student outcomes ultimately like I think we need to

[1:28:52] consider to your point of like what that looks like because if we're leaning in

[1:28:56] from an a student outcome space, well all of these different things we could

[1:29:00] speak to on how they impact student outcomes, right? So, I think that to

[1:29:05] your point of some areas being more important than others, we're open to

[1:29:11] that's that's why these are the proposed topics to so you all can say yes, we

[1:29:15] need this. No, we won't have time for that. Throw that one on a memo or one

[1:29:19] pager and we'll be able to do those pieces. Yeah, I appreciate that you're

[1:29:22] talking about that you went back to the strategic plan because now it's making

[1:29:25] me think >> maybe I should go back and make sure

[1:29:27] that all not to make sure but like kind of re relook through these this topic

[1:29:32] these topics with a strategic plan in mind. So I guess I think moving forward

[1:29:37] then we just need to be flexible, right? Like maybe as part of our committee

[1:29:42] discussion during these times, >> we can say, "Oh, like what's on the

[1:29:45] agenda for next time? Does that sound good?" Like give them a thumbs up so

[1:29:48] that they feel confident that they're bringing the type of information that

[1:29:51] we'd like to see. >> Well, and as I take a look at school

[1:29:53] leadership teams, I don't think we spoke about school leadership teams last

[1:29:57] school year, per se. We talked about this is something that we want to to get

[1:30:03] started, but we didn't necessarily talk about it. Correct.

[1:30:05] » So because it is new school leadership team, I definitely would want to know

[1:30:09] more about the school leadership team. Um what is the scope of learning for the

[1:30:14] school leadership team? How are we building these are teacher leaders as

[1:30:18] well as so how are we building their capacity to collaborate? What type of

[1:30:22] models are so that is something that we would need to know as a board right so

[1:30:27] that we could speak to it. But moving beyond that, there's a lot of work that

[1:30:31] goes into building an effective school leadership team. And so how how would

[1:30:38] the board support this essentially? And I'd argue that there's probably a lot of

[1:30:43] professional development for this. So we would need to know about that. And then

[1:30:47] are we teaching school leadership teams this year how to accelerate data? Like

[1:30:50] what? So that's what I mean when I'm saying

[1:30:53] » how do we tie this back to student achievement? What are we looking to

[1:30:56] accomplish? because I know SLTs are new this school year. This isn't anything

[1:31:00] that we spoke about last school year. However, I've heard rumblings about

[1:31:04] SLTs. I'm excited to see it here and that we're getting ready to get the work

[1:31:08] going. So, >> I would say too, well, and so Dr. Kyatt,

[1:31:12] you let me know. So, we did create a a document that has like these five

[1:31:16] different dates, all the different proposed topics. there is a strategic

[1:31:20] plan alignment piece of it and then there's notes and we also have included

[1:31:24] like we know we need to bring course things you know along in October so we

[1:31:28] are trying to marry those different pieces I don't know if that document

[1:31:32] would be impactful if you're good I can we can share it because then that way it

[1:31:37] is it's asking for your feedback it's asking for you to you know add things

[1:31:41] it's asking for all of those different pieces I think it would be you know it's

[1:31:44] our first time so we're like okay let's put what we can on this and go from

[1:31:49] We wanted to allow a little bit of flexibility. Um we the team did prepare

[1:31:54] a full doseier or like a articulated plan. We will share that with the board

[1:32:00] and then just uh if you want to send that to me and I can share that

[1:32:03] feedback. >> Thank you.

[1:32:07] » So [clears throat] if there is no further discussion that concludes

[1:32:11] thisformational item no action is required and there's nothing further

[1:32:16] needed from the committee at this time. Thank you. That concludes the equity,

[1:32:21] learning, and innovation committee portion of the meeting. I'll turn it

[1:32:24] back over to the president. >> All right. 10. Our finance, facilities,

[1:32:29] and human wor human resources committee

[1:32:34] chair miss

[1:32:38] through the items for the finance committee. Oh, finance, facilities, and

[1:32:43] human resource committee. We will take each agenda item individually with

[1:32:46] discussion on the follow with discussion following each item. Um the committee is

[1:32:51] made up of me, Dr. Martin and Miss Wenmouth.

[1:32:58] » And from the district team we have >> Oh, and from the district team we have

[1:33:02] Mr. Oaf Femi and Miss Mitchell. Is she not here now?

[1:33:06] » Yeah, but we have uh other >> But we have other people here now.

[1:33:08] » Yes. including

[1:33:12] » Amanda Satar and uh >> Shanz I'll get it one of these days. Um

[1:33:21] » Dr. Take it away. And the uh the from our point of the the

[1:33:29] role of the finance [clears throat] committee is to provide uh oversight

[1:33:34] and to ensure transparency and strategic review of how resources in

[1:33:40] the districts are being allocated and to also uh provide input

[1:33:48] on uh complex financial matter and that's really as it relates to finance.

[1:33:54] operations and human resources.

[1:33:58] That's that's what we believe the uh the role of the finance committee finance

[1:34:05] human resource committee should be.

[1:34:10] And uh just purely on the finance side, we're thinking providing

[1:34:15] uh budget oversight, long-term financial planning oversight

[1:34:21] on that and also oversight when it comes to revenue and levy, the property tax

[1:34:28] levy, expenditure management, and particularly as it relates to facility

[1:34:34] and facility planning will be a a big part of that. And additionally it'll be

[1:34:41] debt management, transportation and operations. Those falls under the

[1:34:46] purview of the finance committee and uh related to that and also related to

[1:34:52] human resources will be uh oversight about benefits and insurance

[1:35:00] and uh grant and additional funding that doesn't fit into the regular budget

[1:35:05] [clears throat] funding and ensure above all that whatever we do is uh couch on

[1:35:12] the financial transparency. to whatever decision or information that

[1:35:16] we share. As a district that is open and it's available for every one of our

[1:35:23] taxpayers to see to be able to get involved and ask questions.

[1:35:30] » Uh thank you. I'll invite the committee members for any discussion on this site.

[1:35:35] » Wait, there's more. >> Oh, there's more.

[1:35:40] » Dr. Mitchell. Um, I think it's important for us to also remember the human

[1:35:45] resources piece are comprised of two really important pieces, the humans and

[1:35:49] the resources. And so to Mr. Rob Femy's point about the allocations and the and

[1:35:54] the um the resources that are involved with that. We're going to be seeking

[1:35:58] similar input with respect to the human portion as well, staff wellness, um the

[1:36:02] employee experience and um and their uh feelings uh with respect to what we can

[1:36:08] do to help grow and support them um in addition to the other pieces um with

[1:36:14] respect to the benefits and and compensation that we we um enjoy here in

[1:36:19] the district. and the uh labor management partnership between the board

[1:36:24] and those groups um with respect to ensuring that we continue those

[1:36:28] partnerships to um improve um our relationships with those various uh

[1:36:34] groups.

[1:36:39] I think for those of you who are new to finance, facilities and human resources

[1:36:44] and may be concerned about the lengthy list, it is worth noting that generally

[1:36:49] our committee meetings were significantly shorter than yours.

[1:36:53] » So while I bragging right now there are not going to be longer ones, but I know

[1:36:59] like the conversation we had about the last one with just the five the dates

[1:37:02] broken down and it was seemed very overwhelming. Um, a lot of times some of

[1:37:07] the especially the facilities uh pieces are I would say significantly

[1:37:12] [clears throat] more straightforward. So um yeah

[1:37:17] » well I think they're straightforward for now but if if the referendum passes and

[1:37:22] we start >> I think a lot of things

[1:37:25] » totally beg to differ Dr. Martin >> and then just the like

[1:37:28] » yes I would >> different projects and things like that

[1:37:31] but yeah >> we have we have but there's 17 items

[1:37:36] here are >> and we have four meetings.

[1:37:39] » Yeah. >> We have a referendum that if it passes

[1:37:42] we've got a lot to talk about when it passes. If it doesn't pass we have a lot

[1:37:47] to talk about. Um, I think that I I think we need to

[1:37:52] narrow down the scope is is basically is basically what I'm saying on both sides

[1:37:57] because also I have a feeling that if we don't

[1:38:01] narrow down the scope and get a little bit more specific,

[1:38:04] » let's be honest, we're going to be we're going to be spending most of the time

[1:38:07] talking about finance and facilities and less time talking about human resources

[1:38:11] and that's a critical piece. So, I I I think we need to

[1:38:14] » all of these are important, no doubt. Um, but I think we need to kind of focus

[1:38:21] a little bit more or decide what we need to focus on.

[1:38:23] » I think a lot of these are like intertwined though like I I don't see

[1:38:29] like many of these depending on the context are not are not 17 individual

[1:38:34] » hold they are >> so closely related that several of them

[1:38:41] would be covered in one discussion. Um I [clears throat] was just going to

[1:38:46] say that uh most of what we spoke about in finance and facilities and the human

[1:38:51] resources committee meetings we also talked about here. So um I don't think

[1:38:56] it will be anything really new that you guys haven't heard before. Um it's just

[1:39:00] going to kind of condense those things. and

[1:39:05] the if you look at the list of finance uh priorities those are statutoily

[1:39:11] mandated >> that we're required to do anyway

[1:39:15] » so it's not a departure from what we do and I think it's just the venue where we

[1:39:23] do a lot of the discussion is going to be here because we can't avoid we can't

[1:39:29] avoid doing a levy or doing a a fiveyear announce your projection. So all those

[1:39:35] things we are required to do by statute anyway.

[1:39:38] » Oh, I'm not saying we should eliminate any of them. I just think we should kind

[1:39:42] of focus a little bit more on I mean to to just my opinion to to put the 17

[1:39:48] items out there looks like a lot and it is a lot and I

[1:39:53] understand that a lot of these overlap. I think what we need to do is maybe have

[1:39:57] some discussion about combining some of it so that we so that we as committee

[1:40:01] members have a better focus >> um as opposed to just kind of being all

[1:40:06] over the place because because there are so many items out there. I would also be

[1:40:11] curious with as I'm thinking about all of these different pieces, well two

[1:40:16] twofold, um what of these topics would take place

[1:40:21] in a different part of the board meeting or at a regular board meeting as a board

[1:40:26] meeting presentation like the budget update, right? [clears throat] So in

[1:40:29] really considering what is the committee's work and the other part of

[1:40:33] this is that um we know that a lot of human resources pieces happen in close

[1:40:38] session. So then if it's not in closed session and it is public then again what

[1:40:44] what do we want the community know and also what do what input and feedback do

[1:40:49] we need from the board based on those topics.

[1:40:52] One one topic that I would definitely like to see us discuss is uh benefits

[1:40:56] and insurance mostly because we have a lot of increasing costs. And I I think

[1:41:02] it needs to be a larger discussion um with the board

[1:41:07] uh setting priorities for how we provide benefits and insurance to our employees.

[1:41:12] » Absolutely. >> And I also don't think that's never I

[1:41:15] don't think I've ever really dove into that topic. Mhm.

[1:41:20] » And that is that is very critical and I think related to that at some point we

[1:41:26] have to start thinking about redesign benefit redesign because as I'm doing a

[1:41:32] lot of reading in that arena and talking to experts what is being done in a lot

[1:41:38] of private uh sector spaces which we cannot discount is that if cost are

[1:41:45] going up how can you mitigate that cost and some things you have no control over

[1:41:51] but some things we have control over as far as how we design our our uh a

[1:41:57] different uh plan. So I think that will be something that should probably should

[1:42:03] come to the uh finance committee to explore different options of plan

[1:42:08] redesign that can mitigate the increase in in cost.

[1:42:13] One of the topics that came out of the finance philos was the student

[1:42:19] assignment planning work right there was some discussion a lot right so what I

[1:42:23] would say is that the board and for the community is that there are topics that

[1:42:27] may start here in committee but may get extended into let's say a broader

[1:42:33] community conversation. So you may start a conversation tonight and say you know

[1:42:38] what we want a lot more input on this topic. So we need to set up uh parent uh

[1:42:44] teacher community students we really want student voice right so we can these

[1:42:50] are the the committee the whole is really meant to be a starting point for

[1:42:53] some of these it's not the end right and so some of these topics you may say okay

[1:42:57] you know what we want this to go to the wellness committee or we want this to go

[1:43:01] back to the union partners to bring in so this is a space where I would say

[1:43:05] that it can be a launching pad versus an ending and for some of these you may say

[1:43:09] okay you know what this is ready for action The board would say, you know

[1:43:11] what, we want to recommend this go to the next board meeting for action. Out

[1:43:14] of committee, right? So the committee tonight would say, you know, on this

[1:43:18] topic, we are all in consensus. We'd like to see this go to the board for

[1:43:21] action next meeting. Great. The board, the committee would decide on that

[1:43:25] tonight. Um, another topic, you might say, this topic needs to get discussed

[1:43:30] in the community much more. You say, we don't, you know, we'd like to recommend.

[1:43:35] Can the administration take the next step with this to organize this? And you

[1:43:38] all would have done this before. you say, "Okay, we're going to have a RFP.

[1:43:43] We're going to do a bid. We're going to do these things. Don't bring it back

[1:43:45] till you've done that." So, that's the fluidity that the committees have

[1:43:49] operated in before that can continue here.

[1:43:53] That's the fluid way the committee has operated before. That can continue here.

[1:44:00] » Do the committee members have anything else before I open it up to the full

[1:44:04] board discussion? How

[1:44:09] » any other board members have any comments?

[1:44:12] » Thank you for the invite. That's what this feels like. I get to hear what's

[1:44:16] happening in other committees. So, I'm really excited to just Me too.

[1:44:21] » Me, too. I could have. >> No, absolutely. I feel the same way.

[1:44:27] » I understand previous committee meetings were public and I could have attended

[1:44:31] » Well, sometimes there was an overlap. >> I know. I know a lot of they were back

[1:44:35] to back. >> So I'm asking as I may see Mary Joe

[1:44:38] leaving out of her committee meeting like well what did you guys do? So like

[1:44:41] that this is really exciting for me. Um the what I did want to say and it's nice

[1:44:47] that you said that because I had an epiphany. You're absolutely right. Some

[1:44:51] of this will translate to other board meetings. So maybe just not the

[1:44:55] committee of the whole but these topics will live in other places. It's not like

[1:44:59] they come to committee meetings to I don't want to say die, but just like

[1:45:03] they only live in the committee meetings. They will they'll live

[1:45:07] [clears throat] in other spaces. And so I think that that's what's really

[1:45:10] excited. Also, I would assume that this would help because we've talked about

[1:45:14] board pro protocols and what informs our agendas, right, for our board meetings.

[1:45:19] So, I think that this is an opportunity for all of us to have input on what

[1:45:23] informs like our agendas moving forward for regular board meetings. That's what

[1:45:27] I thought about it and I got really excited about that. Um, just topics that

[1:45:31] we may want to to hear more of or discuss a bit more. So yeah.

[1:45:37] » So I I I guess I just want to clarify. So our regular board meetings I think in

[1:45:42] this during the committee the whole that's

[1:45:45] the time to have these discussions that's a time to have the presentations

[1:45:49] regular board meetings are going to be voting

[1:45:55] » pretty much pretty much >> it's a board decision the board the

[1:45:57] board can decide is this a topic that would go for further discussion at the

[1:46:01] next board meeting is this a topic that would go for consensus

[1:46:05] do you want to add oh okay >> that's the model that I was

[1:46:08] » because we could ask though for more information. Nothing would be wrong for

[1:46:12] us to say I want more information and we bring it back to a board meeting similar

[1:46:17] to before because before I would hear a topic twice

[1:46:21] » before it would even come to the board meeting. So I would assume that we would

[1:46:27] be able to cycle topics if we needed to because that's what happened before. I

[1:46:32] don't see why it would be any different. Well, I think the idea the idea was that

[1:46:37] this would be a longer meeting and the next meeting would be a shorter and so

[1:46:42] we would condense all the presentations into

[1:46:45] » Well, I think the idea is twofold. We all get to hear like what's happening.

[1:46:49] » Well, no. Yeah, there's other benefits, right?

[1:46:51] » Yeah, that was that was the Hey, I'm open. I'm not this is just how it was

[1:46:56] kind of proposed to me. Yeah, I think that's that's my impression as well, but

[1:47:00] I also feel like there's flexibility in that

[1:47:03] » that [clears throat] if we as a board like I think that is the the outline or

[1:47:08] the structure, but I think that if we have as a board if we want some more

[1:47:11] information, we can request it at the next board meeting or before any vote

[1:47:15] that we could take, we can engage in another discussion before the vote.

[1:47:18] » Yeah, I don't mind I don't mind um having another

[1:47:21] » Yeah. another go at something we want to see. Yeah,

[1:47:24] » I guess I would I would caution that we don't do it on every topic.

[1:47:28] » Oh, come on. >> You know, because [laughter] then then

[1:47:31] that kind of that kind of >> Erica was very clear about moving on.

[1:47:35] [laughter] >> Well, listen, I'm here.

[1:47:38] » We're on the same team. >> Um, one thing in regards to this this

[1:47:42] committee is on the human resources side. Um, and I'm trying to find it in

[1:47:47] the strategic plan. Maybe it's not quite in there the way I was remembering it.

[1:47:52] Uh, but at some point during this school year, I think it might be good for us to

[1:47:55] see um if the other board members would agree to see like an analysis of HR for

[1:48:01] trends over time >> because um when three of us came on the

[1:48:05] board, there was a an effort for us to say we need to make sure we're keeping

[1:48:10] the PE the good people that we have and because there was a lot of people

[1:48:13] leaving and things like that both in admin and teacher-wise and I think we've

[1:48:17] done a good job I of making it an attractive place to stay. Um, but I

[1:48:23] don't think I've ever seen any. I've just had that feeling and based on the

[1:48:26] conversations I've had and things that I've seen from our personnel reports and

[1:48:30] things like that, I think that is the case. But it might be good to get a

[1:48:32] trend report of some sort at sometime. [laughter]

[1:48:34] » I think we get a lot of snapshots like with like open positions before the

[1:48:39] beginning of the year and like fill rates and things like that. Um, but I

[1:48:42] agree with you that it would be helpful to see that kind of evolution because I

[1:48:46] know, >> you know, based on the snapshots we've

[1:48:49] gotten to, like you said, it seems like there have been improvements um both

[1:48:53] with retention and recruitment and whatever, but um but it would be nice to

[1:48:57] see it >> over maybe like a two-year trend. I

[1:49:00] don't know what the great moment is to do that when we have the data in place

[1:49:04] and because I know it's always in flux uh HR stuff.

[1:49:07] » Yeah. Well, I yeah, I mean I I' love to see like by school staffing by um you

[1:49:15] know program you know things along those lines.

[1:49:19] » I' I'd like >> Do you feel like that can be

[1:49:24] » perhaps like one of the memos that we talked about that in these like four

[1:49:27] [clears throat] four remaining meetings that that's a memo that's provided kind

[1:49:31] of like a data over time trends over time in the HR. I think that would be a

[1:49:36] good example of something that we could probably take a quick look at and then

[1:49:39] if there's anything in there that we think is like noteworthy or surprising

[1:49:43] then we could potentially open it up for discussion at a later meeting.

[1:49:47] » Right. It wouldn't have to be a full presentation on a regular basis but a

[1:49:50] data point. Yeah. >> Yeah. Thank you.

[1:50:00] Uh if there's no further discussion, that concludes thisformational item. No

[1:50:05] action is required and there is nothing further needed from the committee at

[1:50:08] this time. Thank you. That concludes the finance committee, the finance,

[1:50:13] facilities, and human resource committee portion of the meeting. I'll turn it

[1:50:16] back to the president. >> All right. Um item 11, our policy and

[1:50:22] legislative committee is chaired by Dr. Mario uh with Miss C and Miss Wenmouth.

[1:50:28] Again, at this time, I would like to invite Dr. Mario, chair of the policy

[1:50:32] and legislative committee, to lead us through the policy and legislative

[1:50:35] committee. Dr. Mario, please take us I got two more paragraphs. Please take us

[1:50:41] through the agenda items in this section. Once those items have been

[1:50:44] addressed, please invite committee members to ask questions or offer

[1:50:47] comments. Following the discussion, please open the floor to the full board

[1:50:50] for any questions, comments, or discussions. At the conclusion of the

[1:50:54] discussion, please ask the committee to make a recommendation to move these

[1:50:56] items forward and bring them to the next regular board meeting as a cons consent

[1:51:00] agenda item for action and approval. The board will move on the item separately

[1:51:04] at that meeting. I will turn it over to you. That's right.

[1:51:08] I'll now walk us through the items before the policy and legislative

[1:51:12] committee will take each agenda item individually with discussion following

[1:51:16] each item. The first agenda item is 11.1 discussion of the committee and purpose

[1:51:21] and priorities.

[1:51:24] I'm gonna fill in for you whenever you're ready behind you.

[1:51:27] » Okay. I lost my presentation.

[1:51:35] » It's up here. >> You want me to?

[1:51:38] » You can go ahead. >> Okay. Yeah. So, the purpose um of this

[1:51:41] committee um has two main responsibilities. It's moni monitoring

[1:51:46] press policy recommendations, reviewing policy change proposals, and

[1:51:50] recommending board of education policy changes to the full board. And then also

[1:51:55] monitoring legislative activity that impacts education.

[1:52:03] Um at our meetings uh previously which we're going to follow this too, we would

[1:52:08] usually use press to help us um move through different policies whether they

[1:52:15] were just um a five-year review or it was an opportunity to uh have them

[1:52:22] change little footnotes or um um non-impactful items in the policy. Uh

[1:52:28] and then also policy changes that might actually have um you know impact on on

[1:52:33] practice. Um

[1:52:37] we use press to kind of guide our work and our conversations.

[1:52:44] » Dr. Mer, do you want to share a little bit about press or um what press? How

[1:52:48] has the why has the board uh and the committee used press in the past? Um I

[1:52:54] will do my best to summarize >> or for anybody on the

[1:52:56] » Yeah, I think um press is um

[1:53:04] » group from ISB >> from ISB [clears throat] it's policy

[1:53:07] recommendations for school boards uh that they um provide to us um and then

[1:53:12] we can use um those policy recommendations to inform our policies.

[1:53:18] uh this is a service that we use so we don't have to come up with every single

[1:53:21] policy on our own which would be very work and time intensive for a school

[1:53:26] board that might not [clears throat] have expertise on school policy um and

[1:53:30] so um those >> I don't I forget how often they come out

[1:53:35] um but >> like quarterly

[1:53:38] » is it maybe quarterly and then we work through their recommendations every

[1:53:41] quarter to see how they might impact our policies and those are what you we when

[1:53:47] they come to uh the board for a vote, when we're voting uh for action items on

[1:53:52] policy items, uh we're voting on those uh changes or those five-year reviews of

[1:53:57] certain policies. Uh we're required to review our policies every five years.

[1:54:01] And so every time um for each press uh publication, it'll usually highlight

[1:54:08] re uh policies that we need to review and just affirm that they are continued

[1:54:12] policies. uh they'll have a section that will include um policies that have minor

[1:54:18] changes like footnotes or legislative notes but no impactful policy changes.

[1:54:22] And then I think I highlighted this already. The third uh piece would be

[1:54:26] actual policies they want us to consider um um or policies that we need to add

[1:54:32] based on um legislative action. >> And some of the policies we add

[1:54:37] automatically assuming that they agree with what with what our goals are. And

[1:54:41] then we've had some cases where we've actually had to go back and have uh

[1:54:45] legal opine on it if our interpretation is different than what press presses is.

[1:54:53] » Yeah, there have been times to that end and also times where we've asked for

[1:54:57] just some more information and Dr. Concade will go back and say, can you

[1:55:00] give us some more background information on this policy so that we're kind of

[1:55:04] informed on on um um the full the full depth of the policy.

[1:55:13] Um

[1:55:17] well thank you. I'll first invite the committee members for any discussion on

[1:55:20] this item. >> So

[1:55:24] » you kind of jumped into that already. >> So so my understanding is that it will

[1:55:27] be business as usual. >> Yes. So I think in regards to the policy

[1:55:31] and legislative committee part of the committee of the whole uh will be

[1:55:35] following. We're actually going to practice it tonight because we have some

[1:55:38] board policies that we need to um to review. We'll review them tonight and

[1:55:43] then we will um ask to push them to the next board meeting where we will we will

[1:55:48] vote on them. >> I think for uh ease and discussion, I

[1:55:54] think we should separate them out by the ones that are for footnotes and the ones

[1:55:59] that are >> legislative changes that we really can't

[1:56:02] do much. and then the third category cuz it seems like we were getting them as a

[1:56:07] list as they appear in the policy manual and I think it's better if they're

[1:56:12] grouped that way. >> Yeah. The next agenda item is actually

[1:56:18] policy stuff. Um and I think she has Dr. Concincaid has prepared a memo for us

[1:56:23] that um is organized in that way. That's

[1:56:27] good. I think that was a good change or a good approach for the committee as a

[1:56:31] whole.

[1:56:35] I'll now open the floor to the full board for any discussion.

[1:56:46] » I do not have anything for purpose and um

[1:56:51] priorities. >> Okay.

[1:56:53] » All right. We can move on to uh agenda. Oh, is that you?

[1:56:57] » Now that I think about it, I mean the legislative part.

[1:57:03] I don't you know I think you know if we have a full board

[1:57:08] it might be uh something that we could talk about and if we're able to kind of

[1:57:13] breeze through the footnotes and all those things. Um

[1:57:18] » yeah, so past in my experience on this on this committee um legislative

[1:57:23] activity has kind of um been um not a priority like we haven't

[1:57:30] discussed it as much because because we need to do all the policy stuff. Uh but

[1:57:34] I agree if there is uh legislative activity that would impact education and

[1:57:39] our policy portion is not too heavy um we could discuss some of we could

[1:57:45] discuss something >> going to Washington next

[1:57:48] » and and legislative pushing priorities. I know that we're doing that you know

[1:57:52] with forwards and different other things.

[1:57:54] » I I would be open if the board wishes that I could prepare because I do a lot

[1:57:59] of legislative work. I'm regularly in contact with legislators that if I

[1:58:03] brought let's say quarterly an update to the board in writing and so the board is

[1:58:07] at least on that front you know I understand that there are other dominant

[1:58:11] topics but that way the board gets a formal I know that I directly will

[1:58:16] communicate with the board but in a committee structure I've not done that

[1:58:19] in the past so in this format I'm happy to do that and bring the board those

[1:58:23] legislative updates what are some agendas what are some priorities right

[1:58:27] now I've reached out to I have a have a meeting scheduled with Senator Kappell

[1:58:31] and some other individuals to advocate regarding a teacher vacancy grant. Um I

[1:58:36] meet with different individuals regularly around legislation. I spent a

[1:58:39] lot of time uh connecting and that's one of the re one of the priorities the

[1:58:43] board put before me when I came to this community and so I'm happy to provide

[1:58:48] more formally to the committee those legislative updates on a quarterly basis

[1:58:51] so we could plan for let's say the October and and then you know pick at

[1:58:56] least in writing and then if there's a topic you can always have it there

[1:59:00] because oh we saw the memo doesn't have to be an agenda item or I can also

[1:59:03] include in there where there are places where board members are going to happen

[1:59:06] so like I know that Indian prairie and myself and 203 are working on a

[1:59:11] legislative uh event in January that we have just coming you're getting that hot

[1:59:16] off the press. Nothing's been formally said in terms of date, but that's uh

[1:59:20] that's something in the works of superintendents and I've been talking

[1:59:22] about is a roundt discussion with our legislators. So, um if that's the board

[1:59:28] would like that, I'm happy to do that. Uh or or the committee, I should say. Is

[1:59:31] the committee open to that? Is that helpful Teresa and you all?

[1:59:37] » Yeah. Yes. I think so. >> Yeah, I think so. I think that there's

[1:59:40] an intersection because as you talk about like the teacher vacancy grant

[1:59:44] that would also fall under HR. So any relative legislative work that there's

[1:59:50] an intersection and just highlighting because none of this work lives in

[1:59:54] isolation, right? Right. >> They're all related. So um yeah,

[1:59:58] absolutely. >> Okay.

[2:00:04] » Anything else on this item?

[2:00:08] We'll move to the next agenda item uh which is 11.2 B board policies for first

[2:00:15] read. So this is kind of our practice um for uh committee of the whole to look at

[2:00:21] uh board policies. >> Yeah.

[2:00:25] » Yeah. Go ahead if you want to. >> Yeah, I can. So, if you guys open up the

[2:00:30] um the memo that's in the agenda. Is it

[2:00:36] possible to put it on the screen? Maybe not. That's all right.

[2:00:42] That's okay. If you look at >> It's available in the board packet for

[2:00:45] the public. >> Yeah, it is available in the board

[2:00:48] packet for the public. uh board members. Um the memo um if you look at the top of

[2:00:53] the memo um there where it says updates in response to a five-year review. Um

[2:00:59] these are policies that I mentioned before uh that are under a five-year

[2:01:03] review process. There's no substant substant substantive substantive changes

[2:01:10] uh that are being proposed. Um the adoption date will be updated to reflect

[2:01:14] that each policy has been reviewed and readdopted. And as I mentioned, um this

[2:01:18] is a regular process that we do at the policy and legislative committee is

[2:01:23] review those policies and then um um bring them to the board for approval to

[2:01:31] continue as part of our policy.

[2:01:38] I think I'll go through the whole memo maybe and then open it up for discussion

[2:01:42] or what would be the pref what should I >> I had a question just for one of the

[2:01:46] policies for review and I think that it's something awesome that we do but I

[2:01:50] just wonder like why would we necessarily have um a policy like 510

[2:01:55] 5110 I think we do it organically and I'm just wondering why

[2:02:01] um maybe why did we adopt like recognition for service like we do that

[2:02:07] right like we do it >> one we do it here at board meetings and

[2:02:11] I think we do an amazing job um we have different um awards for teachers uh

[2:02:17] students and then we do it at the end of the school year as well

[2:02:22] um so just wondering and I don't know if when we initially adopted the policy in

[2:02:28] 22 because it's up for review

[2:02:32] » so several years ago the board um made the decision to try to move away

[2:02:39] from a lot of the individualized policies that were maintained outside of

[2:02:44] press because it's um it's just a heavier lift and it was expensive

[2:02:50] because we then had to seek our own legal review in order to site um cases

[2:02:57] for substantiation of the policy itself. And so the decision was made to align

[2:03:03] with press um so that there could be greater uh it would be easier then to

[2:03:10] review and align because we would be aligning through the IASB

[2:03:14] um provided press which we subscribe to as opposed to us having to individually

[2:03:19] do each policy. So some policies like that that are,

[2:03:25] you know, somewhat generic in nature are that way because we we aligned ourselves

[2:03:30] again with press so that there wasn't as many individualized custom policies that

[2:03:36] weren't >> backed by press.

[2:03:40] » Okay. >> Yeah. And then remember the policy is

[2:03:44] different than the procedure or the actions carried out for that policy. So

[2:03:49] for a lot of what you see in policy, there's a whole um host of procedures

[2:03:56] that would back it up. So as you mentioned, a lot of the things that the

[2:03:59] board does, the pride program being probably its largest, um that's kind of

[2:04:03] more of a procedural um where we would go into detail. This is just the policy

[2:04:08] that references it's something that you do

[2:04:11] » and [snorts] I think we should continue to do it. I was just asking.

[2:04:14] » Yeah, they're just to keep it alignment with Chris.

[2:04:16] » Perfect. Thank you.

[2:04:27] Um, if I can point everyone, maybe this is some I have a question about this

[2:04:31] process at the end, but the second section of the memo includes updates

[2:04:35] with changes. So, these policies listed in that section are policies that

[2:04:39] include updates to legal references, cross references, terminology, or other

[2:04:43] policy language. Um, in most instances, these proposed changes are technical or

[2:04:48] intended to align with policies with current legal requirements or related

[2:04:52] board policies. Uh, these usually do not have substant substantive um um

[2:04:59] implications for uh policy um or changes um to to a policy. Um, so

[2:05:07] if you were to click into some of those policies, you might see like one

[2:05:12] footnote change in the whole three or four paragraph policy, or you might see

[2:05:17] a legislative reference uh change, or you might see a comma that was added

[2:05:22] because they decided they need a comma now. Um, and so that's often what um um

[2:05:28] changes we're making when we vote on that section of of policy.

[2:05:34] In the policy and legislative committee, we would usually go through these one by

[2:05:38] one. Is that the intention of the committee of the whole or is the idea

[2:05:42] that we would have looked at these prior to coming to the meeting

[2:05:46] and >> I think for in an effort to keep the

[2:05:52] meetings going, I think we should commit to looking at them ahead of time.

[2:05:56] » I agree. And then if we need to discuss >> if we have a an item we'd like to

[2:06:01] discuss at prior to to our review while we're reviewing them then like if you

[2:06:06] reviewed it before the meeting and you have a question about one obviously we

[2:06:10] can discuss it but if there's no discussion then we don't have to have a

[2:06:13] discussion on the footnote changes. Correct. Okay.

[2:06:15] » I was going to say to your point if it's just a grammatical change or like an

[2:06:20] updating of like legal citations or whatever then I don't think there would

[2:06:25] be a whole lot to discuss. Yes. >> Obviously, if it's something that's

[2:06:27] going to have larger implication on the students or the community, then

[2:06:32] » yeah, >> I also think maybe like in the five-year

[2:06:35] review one, maybe if there's a policy that we really want to highlight or we

[2:06:39] want some discussion on, we can also bring it forward. But I think we can

[2:06:41] leave that to the the committee members and from there um decide if we're going

[2:06:45] to have more discussion or just kind of do them by the chunks that we organize

[2:06:50] them in this way. There there are going to be and I I

[2:06:54] think she called it out um Dr. Mario and in that section where

[2:06:59] there are going to be top topics that need to be discussed because a decision

[2:07:03] is to be made. >> Yeah. um that those ones I think would

[2:07:06] automatically come forward to the committee um for discussion but ones as

[2:07:11] you mentioned that are really minor in change um would be again

[2:07:16] you still have to read them out because this is also first read for the policy

[2:07:21] prior to action but you wouldn't need to engage in individual discussion about

[2:07:24] each one of them. >> Got it. Thank you.

[2:07:29] All right. And then we have um a section where we have some questions

[2:07:37] that we need to answer. Um I've lost my way section.

[2:07:46] So if we look at um updates with the updates with changes section um section

[2:07:53] two for the school board um policy 2 col 230 public participation at board of

[2:07:59] education meetings and petitions to the board. The press recommendation is a

[2:08:04] threeminut time limit for the public to address the board. Our current policy

[2:08:08] states a limit of five minutes for public participation at board of

[2:08:11] education meetings and petitions to the board. So, we have to make a decision um

[2:08:17] as a board whether or not we want to uh proceed with the press recommendation

[2:08:22] which would be to align with the press recommendation of a three-minut time

[2:08:25] limit for public participation at board of education meetings and petition to

[2:08:29] the board or do not align and we would remain with a fiveminut time limit for

[2:08:34] public participation. >> Are we making a decision as a committee

[2:08:37] or as a board? >> It's the committee.

[2:08:42] The committee would make the recommendation and then the committee

[2:08:44] would then send it to the board for final decision.

[2:08:48] » Okay. >> Which would occur at then the action

[2:08:51] » the action would happen. So the the committee could decide is there

[2:08:55] consensus do you want to send this or is there

[2:08:58] » okay >> well you you as you've done in the past

[2:09:01] invite us to to participate the discussion. Okay. Um so committee

[2:09:07] members we can discuss this option or what we would like to do for a

[2:09:10] recommendation. I can provide maybe some of my thoughts to start and then we can

[2:09:16] go around and see what you think. Um, I think usually we align with press. Uh,

[2:09:23] but in this case, since they're giving us a decision to make, um, I feel a

[2:09:27] little bit more hesitant to limit it to 3 minutes. Um, because I'm not sure that

[2:09:35] I think, for example, tonight we had a gentleman speaking and I was interested

[2:09:42] in what he had to say and he he ran out of time. I'm not suggesting we add more

[2:09:47] to it, but um we also have a a practice in place

[2:09:51] that if we have many people who would like to speak to the board, we limit

[2:09:57] their time to three. Um >> I also think it takes like a lot of

[2:10:03] bravery to like write something and sit in front of a group and say it say what

[2:10:08] you want to say in in this format. Um, and I think about some of our students

[2:10:12] that have presented to the board. Um, and um, I just think it might limit us a

[2:10:18] little bit in hearing some of the voices that we would want to hear.

[2:10:21] » Do we currently have like a So, in preparation for this,

[2:10:28] I was looking at other districts in the area and what

[2:10:31] » their limits are and I some of them have like a total cap for like the entirety

[2:10:38] of public and like the per comment in there. So like for example, if it was

[2:10:43] something that like was going to garner a lot of public input, they might have

[2:10:49] like a cap of, you know, an hour or something or 45 minutes and then within

[2:10:53] there they would wiggle it. Um and then for those board meetings where there are

[2:10:59] not those extenduating circumstances, they have a a regular event.

[2:11:03] » Yes. >> But we don't have anything

[2:11:06] the total, do we? >> No. Everyone else

[2:11:10] I don't think so for speaker >> there there is board authority board

[2:11:15] president authority um outlined in the policy as it stands today to both

[2:11:19] shorten the time for each person to participate um to give the maximum

[2:11:23] number and then also to determine that procedural matters regarding the

[2:11:26] participation you know not otherwise covered in board policy. So that would

[2:11:30] there is leeway within the policy to allow for example if a 100 people showed

[2:11:35] up to talk about the same topic where you could say we'll take five from that

[2:11:39] topic and allow the you know three minutes each and then we'll see you move

[2:11:43] into the other topics and if we have time to come back not to exceed 45

[2:11:47] minutes or whatnot but it's not it's not spelled out in the policy that's

[2:11:51] underneath that presidential authority. Could in that same vein if there's only

[2:11:56] one speaker and the board want the the president wanted I'm I'm not proposing

[2:12:02] I'm just asking could the president say okay you have another 30 seconds and

[2:12:06] I've seen that >> that's also in policy it does say in

[2:12:08] unusual circumstances when an individual has made a request to speak for a longer

[2:12:12] period of time the board may allow that person to speak for more than five

[2:12:15] minutes >> we've had speakers I know

[2:12:19] » that's true >> yeah we've been I think

[2:12:22] » we're pretty generous generalally Yeah, generous, responsive to our speakers. Um

[2:12:29] I don't know other any members. I'm um my preference is three. I'm not dead set

[2:12:36] on it. Um I would go five and and I and I do understand that there are

[2:12:41] circumstances where you know we can extend or we may need to extend. Um I

[2:12:45] think as a general rule I I have no problem leaving it at five. Um as long

[2:12:49] as we're monitoring it. I think for the most part it's it's really not an issue.

[2:12:54] Um but there will be some time when something will come up and we will have

[2:12:58] had to have the policy in place. That's where I agree Mary Joe and I agree um

[2:13:04] Dr. Elo as well. There isn't a time where I didn't want

[2:13:09] to hear more, right? But I know that like I always want to hear more,

[2:13:13] especially if students are here, but I know that there will become a time where

[2:13:17] we have to have an even practice. >> Yes.

[2:13:21] » Um because if we don't, then it becomes subjective, right? And the perception

[2:13:25] is, oh well, I only got three minutes, but I watched the other day where

[2:13:30] someone got five minutes and 30 seconds and they they they didn't cut them off.

[2:13:35] And I don't want there to be like this um perception that it's based on what we

[2:13:41] want to hear. You get a chance to talk for this amount of time. I think

[2:13:44] something that we should consider is an aggregate number, whether that's 30

[2:13:49] minutes, 45 minutes. And so that we haven't even practiced.

[2:13:55] We, you know, and I'd like to hear more people. So if we do adopt an aggregate

[2:13:58] of an hour, if it's 3 minutes, we get to hear 20 people, right? So it's just

[2:14:04] something to think about. But I agree. There hasn't been a time where I'm like,

[2:14:08] "Oh, I you know, I wish we could give people as much time as possible, right?"

[2:14:13] But >> I No, go ahead.

[2:14:16] » Okay. So I I agree that there has not been a time

[2:14:21] where I like don't want to hear someone. The interesting thing for me personally

[2:14:26] is like we never have a two-sided conversation

[2:14:30] and open comment. So like >> it's I just wonder what the benefit is.

[2:14:36] And that's not to say that I don't I think I kind of lean with Mary Joe where

[2:14:40] I'm more inclined to I think my preference would be to have the default

[2:14:45] is three and the exception is five versus the default at five and the

[2:14:48] exception at three. But I I'm not I don't think it's uh going to

[2:14:53] dramatically impact anything one way or the other. But I just like my thing is

[2:14:58] like with because those conversations like in the experience that I've had on

[2:15:03] the board so far like when there is a conversation it's not during public

[2:15:06] comment. It is when someone comes from public comment and then maybe stays till

[2:15:11] the end of the meeting and has a conversation with board members or

[2:15:14] follows up via email. So I think while that public comment is important um both

[2:15:21] for the board and for the public and for the people who are voicing their

[2:15:25] concerns um I also for me I think a lot of the value is

[2:15:31] also in like the resolution which never happens during public comment.

[2:15:37] » Um so that's just kind of another component I guess that I'm considering.

[2:15:42] I think for me are a couple things like the community I think is well verssed in

[2:15:47] the five minute rule. So those who come and speak like I think they know that

[2:15:51] you can speak to the board for five minutes. Um and we can change that and

[2:15:55] change that perception if we if we move uh to three minutes. Um, I would rather

[2:16:00] my personal preference would be to stick with five minutes, but to lean into this

[2:16:03] idea of let's limit what the what the time is that people can speak to the

[2:16:10] board in regards to like a whole public comment area, right? Or a whole public

[2:16:14] comment section. uh that makes more sense to me than leaning into this

[2:16:20] because we could lean into three minutes and we would still if there's 100 people

[2:16:22] here we'd be here for 300 minutes, you know,

[2:16:24] » and we still have to conduct board business and be alert enough to do that,

[2:16:29] right? >> I know there are some that'll have like

[2:16:31] a full aggregate and I think there's one or two that'll also have like a smaller

[2:16:35] one like this many per topic. So >> if we've done that no we've done that

[2:16:40] before. I feel like we've done that. We have done that things.

[2:16:45] » The um >> I guess I just I want to make sure that

[2:16:50] » this isn't we could publish both our practice and our policy.

[2:16:55] » Is this something that would have to be in policy?

[2:16:58] » Yes. Yeah. >> Like if we were to and are we sure that

[2:17:02] that's >> Yeah. something that is

[2:17:04] » that's part of OMA that you can't you've got to have a published policy in

[2:17:09] regards to what any limits you're going to impose ahead of the board meeting so

[2:17:14] that it doesn't >> talking about the aggregate number

[2:17:16] » the total aggregate number >> it does not have to be outlined in there

[2:17:22] » you want it to be though it doesn't have to be

[2:17:24] » it can be yeah yeah yeah >> so it doesn't feel like you're moving

[2:17:27] the goalpost right >> no I'm well I'm wondering if if that's

[2:17:30] kind of that procedure versus policy, >> you know.

[2:17:34] » So, the policy right now is providing that to the board president to make that

[2:17:39] determination in circumstances even though unusual in

[2:17:43] nature to allow for an individual to have more than the five minutes to allow

[2:17:48] to put constraints on um the number of individuals to speak or the total length

[2:17:52] of time. Right now, you have it written very broadly to allow for the the

[2:17:56] president to interpret that. You can put both the per speaker

[2:18:03] time and a maximum time. But your maximum time, if you publish

[2:18:08] that in there and you have a really full night, you

[2:18:13] can't say, "Well, we're not going to do 60 minutes tonight. We're going to do 30

[2:18:17] minutes." If you publish that as part of your policy, you would need to have that

[2:18:20] be part of your policy because you wouldn't want it to be interpreted that

[2:18:23] because it's a controversial topic or an angry audience or whatnot that you then

[2:18:29] put in place a constraint that wouldn't normally exist.

[2:18:33] » There are boards that and I know personally they've adopted the

[2:18:37] aggregate, right? Because some of this policy I believe was written relative to

[2:18:41] the aggregate which is why uh the three minutes is what they are suggesting. and

[2:18:47] and a max like a maximum of five comments relative or or 10 comments

[2:18:52] whatever >> your minutes per topic or like 30

[2:18:56] minutes overall or something to that >> it would be your overall aggregate. So

[2:18:59] yeah, three minutes per speaker to a maximum of

[2:19:02] » an hour. >> Yeah, 60 minutes. Um, but right now the

[2:19:06] policy does cover that in order to allow for you to conduct the board's business,

[2:19:11] you can then implement restrictions

[2:19:16] and you have used this in the past. You've you have shortened both the time

[2:19:20] of the aggregate as well as saying we're going to take the first five comments on

[2:19:24] the topic, get through everybody else with a maximum of 45 minutes. Mhm.

[2:19:30] » We haven't had to exceed that other than as far as I can recollect COVID was one

[2:19:34] time when we did have to cut those comments off at one hour.

[2:19:39] » It's interesting that the communicable uh disease that I think that's up for

[2:19:44] review, too. Maybe I think in this press policy. Yeah, it's interesting that

[2:19:48] they're both up for review again. >> So, so are we doing a committee

[2:19:54] consensus at this point? Is that you know if that's a word to

[2:19:58] » Yeah. So yeah the committee would bring forth a recommendation to the board

[2:20:02] » the policy and legislative committee. >> Yes. Okay. In regards to the three or

[2:20:06] five minute and then now it sounds like there might even be discussion about

[2:20:09] whether or not you'd like to enhance that by putting a a total

[2:20:14] » aggregate time limit if I'm hearing the committee correctly.

[2:20:20] » [laughter] >> My comment would be to keep it at or to

[2:20:24] change it to three to make it more aligned with press but then also add the

[2:20:29] aggregate after the fact. And um I think a lot of people write out their

[2:20:38] comments ahead of time so there's nothing restricting them from emailing

[2:20:42] us. So we are actually receiving the information they wanted to convey. But

[2:20:48] we can read it at a different time. >> I think it's worth noting that it's not

[2:20:53] just more aligned with press, it's more aligned with surrounding districts.

[2:20:57] » Yeah, a lot of the surrounding districts are going to read this and align it with

[2:21:00] press and and move forward like suggesting. Yeah,

[2:21:06] » most surrounding districts are at three. >> Yep.

[2:21:10] » Except what? >> One of them's at two.

[2:21:12] » Oh, no, there's one at two. >> Yeah,

[2:21:14] » he's at two. I believe the village the village board I think is five but that's

[2:21:19] a different board. Um

[2:21:23] so the committee of three we need to provide a recommendation. You're saying

[2:21:27] three? >> I'll go three.

[2:21:28] » You would like to go three. >> I've been outvoted and I will graciously

[2:21:32] step [laughter] >> step into the three minute time period.

[2:21:35] Um and we can move forward with presenting

[2:21:40] this for a vote at our next um >> Do we do we want to add a maximum?

[2:21:45] » Oh, good question. Do we want to add a maximum? Well, I

[2:21:50] will say given what Teresa was outlining, I think the board president

[2:21:55] would have the flexibility to do so

[2:22:00] if there was a big crowd and we wanted to kind of

[2:22:05] make sure that we could get to board business as well. Are we comfortable

[2:22:09] with that? That the board, the president could kind of make that decision, say,

[2:22:13] "We're going to there's 100 people, but we're going to allow for 45 minutes of

[2:22:17] comments." I'm I'm I'm not >> I'm not I think we again Sorry.

[2:22:21] » I think everyone can open to the discussion.

[2:22:23] » Well, stay in your committee first and then make your recommendation to your

[2:22:26] your call. >> Okay.

[2:22:29] Go ahead. >> I would I would again going back to I'd

[2:22:32] rather have it in place so that when it happens it's not an on the-fly decision.

[2:22:36] I mean, I think it can be as many if if we want to do an hour um at max, you

[2:22:43] know, that's that's theoretically 20, it's probably about 17 or 18 speakers at

[2:22:49] 3 minutes a piece. That's a lot. But I think we should have that in because I'd

[2:22:53] hate to have the potential to be here like forever because

[2:22:57] » because the president, whoever doesn't want to make the decision, I think we

[2:23:00] should make a policy. I think we should uh

[2:23:06] my idea would be to cap it at 30 minutes, but then I I don't know if

[2:23:12] we're allowed to, but can we return to public comment at at the end after we've

[2:23:16] done the business we need to do so we could like add another 30 minutes if

[2:23:22] needed. >> I would leave. So I what I would say is

[2:23:28] the language in there that you have in there allowing the board president to

[2:23:30] extend public comment either to an individual or to that period of time

[2:23:34] based on extenduating circumstances would cover that ability then and then

[2:23:38] I'm assuming you would need to then add a motion to continue item whatever right

[2:23:44] you know to to table additional comments >> because realistically we're not going to

[2:23:48] have it's not going to become an issue unless there is a huge topic that comes

[2:23:52] up >> right

[2:23:54] » I have a couple thoughts I I think if we're going to go with some we're going

[2:23:57] to go with three minutes. We've decided that as a committee, as a

[2:24:00] recommendation, I think 30 minutes is I just think it's not enough time. Not

[2:24:06] because we're not going to get a sense of what the community is saying. I just

[2:24:10] think when people show up here to speak with us, we should allow for a good

[2:24:15] chunk of people. If if 30 people are here to speak with us, um,

[2:24:22] and we only give them 30 minutes, I don't know. it just seems really

[2:24:26] limiting. I feel like we're going from something really broad that invites the

[2:24:29] public to come and speak with us to something a lot more restrictive. Um,

[2:24:33] and that

[2:24:37] and I don't know exactly. I think this the reason is because we don't I I think

[2:24:40] the perception will be the reason is we don't want to we want to just get on

[2:24:44] with the board meeting. >> Is there a flexibility? So I've seen

[2:24:48] where boards can make a motion to say given the circumstances we'd like to

[2:24:52] hear more public comment. And so if you have a baseline and you say this is the

[2:24:56] baseline, but there's continued flexibility. The board president may say

[2:25:00] or the board may take action. It could be a recommendation from any board

[2:25:03] member say I'd like to recommend that we have a second public comment meeting on

[2:25:08] the agenda. I think you can make that second. Um

[2:25:11] » it' be like a continuation of correct to move on. I think yeah I mean you

[2:25:17] » I would say listening like trying to summarize what you guys are saying would

[2:25:21] be you would establish normally public comment is 3 minutes per person with a

[2:25:26] maximum of 30 minutes per meeting. however, and then leave the language in

[2:25:30] there that allows their foreign president to under extenduating

[2:25:34] circumstances allow for either an individual that has requested a longer

[2:25:39] period of time to speak or a longer overall period of time um for the public

[2:25:45] comment portion of the meeting. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead. I was going to say

[2:25:49] I don't like the idea of like saying we're going to add another session at

[2:25:53] the end of the meeting so stick around if you have like

[2:25:57] » stick around for another three you know two and a half hours or whatever and

[2:26:00] we'll we'll let you you know speak to the board for three minutes but I think

[2:26:07] I think some I think 30 minutes is too little. I think an hour is maybe too

[2:26:11] long. I'd be fine with like a 45 minute time frame. Um and then if and during

[2:26:17] extenduating circumstances we wanted to extend that we could.

[2:26:21] » And remember your policy is rooted at the very top of the language in 2230 is

[2:26:26] rooted in that chain of command. So we really do want to make sure that we

[2:26:30] remind people >> this shouldn't be the first place to

[2:26:33] bring forward a a an issue. They really should respect that chain of command for

[2:26:38] addressing issues and then bring them to the board when necessary.

[2:26:41] » Yeah. Do you want to say what your role is

[2:26:44] with IASB? I think that's relevant here and I think sorry to out you but

[2:26:49] [laughter] she serves um uh on a regional level in terms of her work in

[2:26:54] the ISB for outside of her >> district hat. So do you mind sharing a

[2:26:58] little bit? >> Yeah, just sitting on the regional board

[2:27:01] for the star division of ISB. So yeah. Um, another just suggestion could be,

[2:27:09] have you all considered a threshold of saying like if you received at least,

[2:27:15] you know, 10 to 12 board comments prior that then there's an automatic

[2:27:21] extension. It's just a just an idea. Just wondering if that maybe helps

[2:27:26] » like prior to the board meeting. >> Correct.

[2:27:28] » That that's happened before. I've had that happen where if you get a a

[2:27:32] significant That's a great point, Dr. Waller. Now, if you see a significant

[2:27:35] number, right away you alert the board. You said we received a number of

[2:27:39] comments. The board president and vice president will prepare that in

[2:27:43] conversation with the secretary. >> Yeah. I don't think it should be

[2:27:45] automatic though. >> Yeah.

[2:27:46] » So, that would be a change in your practice too though cuz right now we

[2:27:50] don't collect those ahead of time. They they fill it out the card when they get

[2:27:53] here and hand it in. >> Um there's capability within Diligent to

[2:27:58] take registration on public comment ahead of time, but that would just again

[2:28:01] be a change of practice for the district. Is that isn't that how how we

[2:28:05] did it during COVID? They had to submit right prior.

[2:28:09] » No, you can't require anyone to submit prior for a public meeting. But um

[2:28:16] but we also did for a while there accept comments, public comments that were

[2:28:22] submitted in writing ahead of time >> and the board read a certain number of

[2:28:26] them to a point out loud and the rest of them just went in the record as

[2:28:30] received. >> Yeah. um because people weren't

[2:28:32] attending meetings during COVID for concerns, but we really if somebody

[2:28:36] shows up like this evening, like most of the time

[2:28:40] we I mean even the the preface >> ahead of public comment states someone's

[2:28:46] to have completed a public comment card and turn it into the board secretary. So

[2:28:50] right now our practice is that that's done in person here. We would just need

[2:28:54] to change that. If the idea is that the length of time for public comment would

[2:28:59] be reactive to how many of them were received ahead of time, that would just

[2:29:02] be a change in practice. >> All right, committee members, let's

[2:29:07] think of a recommendation that we can give to our fellow committee. I'm going

[2:29:11] to go 3 minutes and 60 max. >> Erica, what say you?

[2:29:17] » I'd be okay with that. I'd rather do 3 minutes and 45 minutes, but

[2:29:23] But I'm okay. >> I can live with 45. [clears throat] It's

[2:29:25] just a weird number. >> We got the difference between 15 and 20

[2:29:28] people. >> Yeah.

[2:29:30] » Yeah. >> I'm going to go let's say 45.

[2:29:35] » Are we okay with that as a recommendation?

[2:29:36] » I'm okay with that. >> I'm okay with that.

[2:29:38] » Are So let's open up to the committee of the whole. We have a recommendation.

[2:29:44] » Yeah. Would that discussion like >> kind of like the existing caveats we

[2:29:50] have? Like I mean I know we said the board to extend things whatever

[2:29:54] » but that would that include specific language about like extenduating

[2:30:00] circumstances whether that be you know uh like a co situation where a million

[2:30:06] people are showing up and and >> I think we keep the language that's in

[2:30:12] there. Yeah, >> but at

[2:30:16] » Yeah, I think >> at the time limit part.

[2:30:18] » Yeah, I think the current language still allows for that.

[2:30:20] » Okay. >> Um

[2:30:24] » I I very much agreed with you, Dr. Mario. Um

[2:30:28] but I I understand it's a board. >> Yeah.

[2:30:31] » And um so what I've I I don't know. I did some digging on YouTube. I spent

[2:30:37] more time uh watching commercials.

[2:30:42] um than actually listening to the public comment, but basically I just figure I'd

[2:30:48] kind of give a little context to the community. What I found in 37 um

[2:30:53] meetings since the beginning of 2025 is that

[2:30:59] 25 out of those 37 meetings um going to three minutes will have zero impact.

[2:31:05] um

[2:31:08] three to five. It didn't matter because nobody either went over three or there

[2:31:11] were no comments. Um then the other ones the max that this will save us is about

[2:31:18] six minutes in a meeting. So it's it's an argument for both ways.

[2:31:22] » Yeah. >> You know, it's an argument that it's

[2:31:24] really not limiting but also has a perception of it. Right.

[2:31:28] » But that's on past history. I mean again you don't have I mean if if we have a

[2:31:32] situation where there's a Again, that's we have the ability right now to limit

[2:31:37] that to three minutes as well. So, I'm not I'm not I just thought it was

[2:31:42] something I'd share since I put the work in,

[2:31:45] » you know. >> And um

[2:31:50] » basically meetings he's watching for. >> Yeah, that was fun, you know. [laughter]

[2:31:54] » So, essentially it's it's about one minute a meeting,

[2:31:57] » you know, over those 37 meetings. >> Yeah. For me, what prompted it prompted

[2:32:01] it was the press policy. It was like, "Okay, now we have to actually talk

[2:32:05] about or else it probably wouldn't have necessarily been on my radar." So,

[2:32:08] » yeah, it was a Right. >> Um, Dr. Paul,

[2:32:14] uh, Brandy, do you guys have anything that you want to add? No, I think I

[2:32:17] spoke out of turn anyway, but I I would support I know I would support the I

[2:32:24] know [laughter] I would support the three minutes and

[2:32:27] for three minutes and then the aggregate number and any aggregate number um that

[2:32:33] would afford people more opportunity to speak. Um and then specifically there

[2:32:38] are provisions within the language that if we needed to exceed that then

[2:32:42] obviously we would. I just want to be sure that we're not being subjective. We

[2:32:46] have an even practice. >> Um just so that there's no um people

[2:32:52] don't it doesn't appear that we are limiting certain people and then certain

[2:32:56] people they have an opportunity to express their opinion.

[2:33:02] » Did you have anything? So I agreed with your initial excuse

[2:33:07] [clears throat] me my voice um initial sentiments in regards to the five

[2:33:10] minutes um just because it is the public coming in front of the board members but

[2:33:15] most importantly it allows transparency and then it also just allows the public

[2:33:19] to be heard from a representation stance. So for me it will be five. So I

[2:33:24] would decline [laughter] excuse me

[2:33:27] » decline on that vote. >> Y

[2:33:31] » Teresa I think we have other recommendation then. So,

[2:33:34] » did you want to add something else? Go ahead.

[2:33:35] » So, I guess what I would The other part would be is that does this piece get

[2:33:39] pulled? >> Yeah, that's what I was going to just

[2:33:41] say. I would say this shouldn't be your first read then. The recommendation of

[2:33:44] the committee would be um to bring that back because we'll want to adjust that

[2:33:48] legal language then to add the provision of the overall aggregate 45 in there and

[2:33:53] make sure that it's still aligned with [clears throat]

[2:33:55] » the existing content and the legal requirement, right, with OMA because

[2:33:59] this one's really closely aligned to OMA. So when you um when we read for

[2:34:03] first pol for first read tonight, we'll take out 230 and bring that back.

[2:34:10] » Okay. So the rest of the policies will come for uh a vote at our next meeting.

[2:34:16] Um Dr. Mario, I think for procedural

[2:34:21] perspective, I think we'll need to read those the the total number of um

[2:34:27] policies which policies they are for um first read

[2:34:32] like I should read them out right now. >> Yes.

[2:34:41] » All right. So these are the policies that have um

[2:34:46] undergone a first read section three or 3 col 7.

[2:34:53] » Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. 3 col 70. Oh. 3 col 70 4 col

[2:34:59] 175 5 col 40 5 col 70 5 col 110

[2:35:08] 5 col 140 730 7 col 80.

[2:35:18] So that >> um policy 2 colon 230 will not be going

[2:35:24] or has undergone a first reading. >> Not we're going to take that back for

[2:35:29] revision. >> Okay. We'll be taking that back for

[2:35:30] revision. Um, the other ones to include a first

[2:35:35] reading would be 5 col 240, 670, 680, 61 190, 71 130,

[2:35:45] 730,

[2:35:49] 870.

[2:35:56] » You can conclude your committee meeting then.

[2:36:00] » Thank you. That concludes the policy and legislative committee portion of the

[2:36:04] meeting. I'll turn it back to the president.

[2:36:09] » Normal. >> Good job.

[2:36:13] » And I Yeah, great job to the chairs and to the discussion. And I really

[2:36:16] appreciated everybody's uh input >> and I I I I thought it went I mean we

[2:36:22] really only had meet on one of the committees but um it's nice to for

[2:36:28] everybody to hear it and be here and fine.

[2:36:31] » I can feel the rhythm coming like there was a rhythm to our other board meetings

[2:36:35] and now I feel like what this rhythm is going to be. So um it was good to have

[2:36:39] light agendas [laughter] with those things just to kind of get a sense of

[2:36:42] what this would feel like. So um >> practice round.

[2:36:45] » Yes. the practice run. >> Um, now we're at Well,

[2:36:52] » yeah, I guess. >> Yeah,

[2:36:53] » I guess we'll uh proceed 12 action items. 12.1 action item approval of

[2:36:59] fiscal year 27 budget. Can I have a motion, please?

[2:37:02] » I make a motion to approve the fiscal year 27 budget as discussed and

[2:37:06] presented. >> Second.

[2:37:08] » Is there any discussion the fiscal year 27 budget?

[2:37:15] Dr. Mario I >> Mr. Cerone

[2:37:18] » I >> Dr. Pock

[2:37:20] » I >> Miss Robinson.

[2:37:22] » Miss C. I >> Dr. Martin

[2:37:25] » I. >> Miss Wmouth

[2:37:27] » I. >> A motion passes 6

[2:37:32] 12.2 action item approval of bills for payment. Can I have a motion please? I

[2:37:35] make a motion to approve motion to authorize the payment of bills in the

[2:37:39] amount of 7,536,899.31

[2:37:44] cents as presented. >> Second.

[2:37:48] » Any discussion?

[2:37:51] » Dr. Pak. >> I.

[2:37:53] » Miss C. >> I.

[2:37:54] » Miss Robinson. >> Dr. Martin. I

[2:37:58] » Mr. Cerrone. I >> Miss Wenmouth. I

[2:38:01] » Dr. Mario. I >> uh motion passes 60. Action item 123,

[2:38:07] approval of Aurora University Direct Admin. Uh can I have a motion, please?

[2:38:12] » I make a motion to approve the Aurora University direct admin as discussed and

[2:38:16] presented. Second, >> any discussion?

[2:38:22] I the only the only thing I say is uh just

[2:38:26] promote this. Yeah. >> Bring us right. You know, it's it's a

[2:38:30] great thing. It's really a great thing and like

[2:38:33] having gone through like the college selection process with my children, it's

[2:38:38] a lot and so to have like at least one university kind of make it really

[2:38:41] streamlined, >> it's nice.

[2:38:44] » Yep. Totally agree. Right, >> Miss Wenmouth.

[2:38:49] » I Dr. Mario >> I

[2:38:51] » Dr. Martin I >> Mr. Cerrone

[2:38:53] » I >> Miss C.

[2:38:55] » Miss Robinson oh

[2:38:59] » Dr. Pollock. >> Hi.

[2:39:05] » Okay. >> Um

[2:39:09] motion. >> Motion passes 6. Um action item 12.4

[2:39:15] approval of a resolution authorizing a notice to remedy of a professional

[2:39:18] educator uh licensed employee. Can I have

[2:39:22] » We skipped one. >> Approval and acceptance of T-Mobile.

[2:39:28] Don't forget Friday night. >> No, his his shows that's not that was

[2:39:32] not on him. >> Sorry.

[2:39:33] » No, that's okay. >> It's the um T-Mobile

[2:39:40] » approval. It was >> okay. Can I have a motion for the

[2:39:44] approval and acceptance of a T-Mobile Sorry

[2:39:50] » grant? A $5,000 uh

[2:39:54] » I gotcha. I make a motion to approve and accept a $5,000 donation through the

[2:39:58] T-Mobile Friday night 5G lights program. >> Second.

[2:40:04] » Any discussion?

[2:40:08] » Mr. Cerrone. >> I.

[2:40:10] » Dr. Martin. >> I.

[2:40:12] » Miss C. >> I.

[2:40:13] » Miss Wmouth. I >> Dr. Mario.

[2:40:16] » Dr. Pock. I >> Miss Robinson. I uh

[2:40:20] » motion passes 70.

[2:40:25] All right. Action item 12.5, approval of resolution authorizing a notice remedy

[2:40:29] of a professional educator licensed employee. Can I have a motion, please?

[2:40:32] » I make a motion that the board adopt the resolution of the board of education of

[2:40:35] Asiggo Community School District number 308 authorizing a notice to remedy of

[2:40:41] Mr. Brian F in addition to the discipline proposed by the

[2:40:45] administration. >> Second.

[2:40:48] » Any discussion on this topic?

[2:40:52] » Dr. Martin >> I Miss Wmouth I

[2:40:54] » Mr. Cerrone >> I

[2:40:56] » Miss Robinson >> I

[2:40:57] » Dr. Pock I >> Miss C

[2:41:00] » I Dr. Mario >> I motion passes 70 action item 12.6 the

[2:41:06] approval of a personnel report. Can I have a motion please?

[2:41:08] » I make a motion to approve the personnel report as discussed and presented.

[2:41:12] » Second. >> Any discussion?

[2:41:16] » Miss Robinson I. >> Dr. Martin I.

[2:41:19] » Dr. Mario. >> Hi,

[2:41:20] » Miss Wmouth. >> Hi,

[2:41:22] » Dr. Pak. >> Hi,

[2:41:24] » Mr. Cerrone. >> Hi,

[2:41:26] » Miss C. >> Hi.

[2:41:27] » Motion passes 70. Um, item 131. Can I have a motion to adjurnn?

[2:41:32] » I make a motion to adjurnn. Second. >> All in favor?

[2:41:36] » I I >> We are adjourned.

[2:41:39] » Thank you. >> Time is

Committee of the Whole - Sep 14 2026

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