##VIDEO ID:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmiXw_SSdvc## Everybody ready? Good evening, everyone. On behalf of the Community Unit School District 300 Board of Education, I would like to thank you for being in attendance both virtually and in person for tonight's board meeting. At this time, we would like to reconvene the meeting of the Community Unit School District 300 Board of Education to for Tuesday, January 23, 2024. Madam secretary, please take the role. Birkett, I or present. Ferentino? Present. Gauther? McKendy? Present. Scarpino? Thomas? Present. Zettler? Present. You have 5 board members present. Okay. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, 1 nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Alright. Moving on to the approval of the agenda, we have made some changes. The agenda has been amended. We've removed item 7, the recognition, and item 13.7, employee discipline case number 4. May I have a motion to approve the agenda as amended? So moved. May I have a second? Madam secretary, please take the roll. Ferentino. Aye. McKendy. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Zettler. Aye. Burket. Aye. Motion passes, five zero. Deputy Superintendent Smith. Good evening. Members of the Board of Education, community members, staff, and students, tonight the district will observe two moments of silence in recognition of 2 students who recently lost their lives. 1st District 300 would like to honor Dundee Crown student Amelia Millie Redes. As we pause to pay our respects, we would also like to extend our condolences to the to Amelia's family, friends and loved ones as well as the Dundee Crown community. At this time, I respectfully ask all in attendance to observe a moment of silence in honor of Amelia. Thank you. The district would also like to honor Golf View student Ethan Beltran Beltran, I apologize. We would like to express our sympathies to all of Ethan's family, friends, and loved ones, and the Gulfview Elementary School community. At this time, I respectfully ask all in attendance to observe a moment of silence in honor of Ethan. Thank you. We are now ready for the rules of decorum. Okay. There's no need for anyone to call out comments during our meeting or to raise their voices nor interrupt another speaker or presenter. We as a board will listen to you and be respectful. We will consider your comments but will not dialogue or engage with speakers in this forum. Board members may choose to discuss matters brought up during public comment during board discussion. Excuse me. However, I need to remind everyone that this would be a board discussion and the board will not dialogue or engage with anyone other than the superintendent and other board members. I ask that you please be respectful, civil, and courteous during our meeting. If a person chooses to be disruptive, I will gavel the person and ask them to please stop their disruptive behavior. Additionally, our district safety officer or his agent may warn them that if they choose to continue the disruptive behavior, additional consequences will be forthcoming. If a person chooses to continue to be disruptive and not follow the rules, they will be removed from our meeting. This action is a direct result of the person's choice to be disruptive. We as a board will respectfully listen to each speaker. Just because we didn't vote the way someone wanted us to does not mean we didn't listen or take into consider what you had to say. Also, please remember we will all learn we all learn differently. Some of us take notes during presentations and therefore take our eyes off the speaker. It does not mean that we are not listening. In our effort to accommodate more seating in our board room, we respectfully request that the audience remain in their seats throughout the duration of the meeting with the exception of using the restroom or speaking at the podium. Finally, I want to thank you in advance for your cooperation. The board and I look forward to meaningful and productive meeting. Do we have any public participation tonight? Okay. So we're gonna go to, item 9, board announcements. Good news. Students win fashion merchandising contest at Hampshire High School. Freshman Dalila Alonso Camacho and senior Alondra Leon were recently voted winners of a fashion merchandising contest at Hampshire High School. The student led competition involved create creating eye catching window displays featuring apparel. Dalila and Alondra, along with several student assistants, garnered the most votes with their display titled Belmont Boutique. District 300 congratulates all of the students who participated in the fashion merchandising contest at Hampshire High School. Dundee Crown High School hosts client tools competition. Dundee Crown High School students studying electricity with Mr. Nick Linden recently participated in a client tools competition. The competition tasked students with performing a number of timed actions using Klein Tools including laying, cutting, stripping, and splicing electrical wire. Taking 1st place in the contest was sophomore Gael Rodriguez who was awarded with various prizes courtesy of District 300 and Klein Tools. District 300 congratulates all the students who participated in the Klein Tools competition at Dundee Crown High School. Big Timber Elementary School receives excellence in engineering award. Big Timber Elementary School recently received an excellence in engineering award from the Illinois chapter of the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air Conditioning Engineers. In order to be awarded, the Big Timber Engineering Project demonstrated innovation in the categories of energy sustainability and indoor environment quality. Receiving the award for its work at Big Timber was Alara Engineering which is officially recognized during a ceremony in December. D 300 congratulates Alara Engineering for receiving an excellence in engineering award. During December, district 300 central office participated in a reverse event calendar project to help collect items for the District 300 food pantry. Items sought as part of the project included boxes of cereal, canned fruit, jars of peanut butter, and packages of pasta. Ultimately, 38 large boxes of food were donated to the pantry. District 300 thanks those who organized the food drive as well as those who participated in the collection effort. 1st we have first we have Doctor. Liz Freeman coming to the podium for a preview of our summer programs. Good evening, deputy superintendent Smith and Board of Education. Tonight, I'm sharing with you a preview of our d three hundred summer programming, which is still in the finalization and development stage. At d three hundred, we strive to keep the learning going during summer months so that students can continue to develop academic and social emotional skills. D three hundred will be offering a variety of programs during the summer 24. We include offerings such as extended school year, known as ESY, and programs offered in partnership with Northwestern Illinois Association or NIA. Additionally, we offer opportunities for students to engage in credit recovery, credit enhancement, and they can extend their learning in literacy and math or also attend a variety of summer camps. ESY or extended school year and NIA programs offered through our partnership with Northwestern Illinois Association are offered for students who are identified in their IEP and who meet certain criteria for eligibility. These programs help support students with disabilities so that they can continue to make academic and social emotional learning progress. Credit recovery options are offered for both middle school and high school students. These courses are specifically designed for students who have failed a course during the school year. Students complete classes during the summer to learn the essential content from the class or course that they failed. Credit enhancement are courses that are offered for students who are seeking to get ahead in their high school credits. We often see students doing this if they have a wide range of interests and they want to free up their class schedule to take multiple electives during the school year. Also, at the high school level, we offer driver's education. Students may enroll in the classroom portion or behind the wheel section where they learn essential safety and driving skills. D 300 also has summer options for our younger learners, including literacy and math extension known as summer scholars. This program is open to all students and supports ongoing literacy and math lessons. Students get extra practice on standards from the grade level that they are just completing and they also get exposure to standards for the grade level they are about to enter. Another exciting aspect of this program is that field trips are included in the experience. Last year, students were able to explore local parks, museums, and learning centers, and our team is planning for similar experiences during summer 24. And finally, we'll be offering a variety of summer camps this year. We will have athletic camps for students who want to get a jump start on their athletic experience. We will also host CTE and fine arts camps so that children can explore their interests in those areas. As you can see, we have many different options for families and students during the summer months. I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the incredible teamwork that it takes to get these programs off the ground. For every summer program, we need staff to make it successful, and we've had great support not only from LEAD, but DESA and DESPA staff members as well. Whether it's being the teacher of record, hosting camps, organizing athletic camps, providing support as a paraeducator, or readying our facilities both before and after summer activities, we're really fortunate to have a team of professionals who want to make these options available for students and families. I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge their hard work as we're preparing for summer programs. Summer programming information will be available mid February on our D300 website. Principals, counselors, coaches, other members of the team will share that information. This is the conclusion of our summer preview unless you have any questions. Sounds great. Wonderful. Thank you. Thank you. E learning update and 20 three-twenty four calendar revisions. Here on this slide you'll see that this is our, this is the current calendar we started the school year with, which includes our emergency days, for makeup and, which includes May 23rd as our last day of school. Here you will see our 1st makeup day, is originally marked as February 16th that we will now, hope with your approval tonight revised for an in school attendance day due to our school closure on January 12th. Our second makeup day you will see here is identified as May 24th and we are now hoping to enact May 24th as a student attendance day due to our school closure on January 16th. So you can see that here as well. In partnership with, many people in administration and Mr. Williamson and, some conversations between our other 2 union groups we have been able to be really prepared for utilization of that e learning day today. So let me talk just a little bit about that before Doctor. Herb comes up to the podium. We may authorize the e learning day in order to continue to provide instruction to our students, when we would normally have a school closure, which you just previously saw on the last two slides. When we call this day, students are not in physical attendance but they are able to access their coursework virtually through Schoology using their Chromebook. Transportation is not provided on those days and students in out place programs don't have the transportation either, but we have options set up for all students on those days. Teachers utilizing Schoology, on that day the timeline looks like, and you may have had some, engagement with this today, High school the work is posted for students by 9:30 a. M. Which is within 2 hours of the regular start of their school day and so we follow that 2 hours, for all levels and so you see this in order of time that it begins not in grade level order. Elementary school by 10 a. M, pre k by 10 a. M, and middle school by 10:55 a. M. Students have the flexibility to work at their own pace. All assignments should be completed and submitted within 48 hours to receive credit unless the teacher communicates otherwise that is up to the teacher if they have circumstances or opportunities for their students that they like to extend that. Additional, information about e learning will continue to go out to families. I have asked doctor Herb to come up and just speak a little bit directly about how was it out there today as we, had our first e learning day? Yes. Thank you. Nice to see you all members of the board. Very brief update. We certainly wanna thank the d three hundred community for pivoting with us this morning. We know that it is difficult to receive a call in the morning with a change of plans, but I feel that everyone came to this day providing grace given that we have not enacted an e learning day in a couple of years, nor have we really employed some of the different tactics that we utilize today in order to allow learning to continue, throughout the school day instead of closing the district. So thank you very much to the district 300 community for working with us through the day. I do believe that as doctor Smith mentioned, the work that had gone into making this day a success really did play into the fact that parents, students, and staff had the tools that they needed in order to be able to find the resources and still be able to find a meaningful day of learning out of today. So the feedback that we've gotten from a number of different sources have been overwhelmingly positive about the access to resources and what we're able to accomplish, for our 1st e learning day of this school year. What that transitions to, just so that we have a better understanding of how that impacts the district calendar moving forward, doctor Smith had mentioned that the 2 makeup days that we have already utilized, February 26th, excuse me, February 16th and also, now May 24th. Should we continue authorizing elearning days throughout any potential inclement weather days moving throughout the rest of this school year, it would allow us to maintain the May 24th school day as our last day of school for this calendar year, which, you know, we would not have to utilize the days that are in red, May 28th, 29th, or 30th if we are allowed and able to continue authorizing e learning days for those, any future inclement weather days. So we do feel as if that does have, 1, a positive impact on student learning. We're able to continue learning throughout the school year without any negative impacts or closures, and it also benefits with a little bit more clarity as to what our last day of school will be. Certainly happy to open it up to any questions from our board members for any of the components that Doctor. Smith talked about or how we closed it up with me. Questions, comments? I'll go. Yeah. Thanks everybody for all the work that you put in to make, you know, e learning day happen today. I think just the one, like, tiny bit of, feedback that I was hearing, and I myself was confused a little bit as a parent, was it wasn't clear to me if I my daughter had to log in at a certain time. And so I heard a lot of people just saying, like, is it just any time today, you know, to be counted present or not? So I think just maybe, like, making that a little bit more clear to families, but other otherwise, her day went off without a hitch. Now I realize I'm lucky because she's in middle school and she's, you know, good on her Chromebook and all, but, yes, her her day was good. So thank you for that. Thank you for the feedback. We'll definitely employ that in our future messaging. Thank you. Anybody else? Thank you also for everything you guys have done. This is it's good to hear that it went off good. Well, not good. Well, really bad to do something like that at a board meeting. And, it is it I know people are a little people who've, had issues today are gonna be happy in May Right. When we're not coming back after Memorial Day. And also I think it's a good idea to try as much as possible to continue learning, for the purposes of the kids being able to have, you know, starting, stopping, starting, stopping is never good. Right. And, in my opinion at least, doing e learning days instead of taking a snow day is a better a better option, so thank you again. Thank you, we appreciate your support. Thank you, and that concludes the superintendent's report. Thank you. Section 11, item 11, are there any updates regarding the board committees? Yes, our next, operations committee meeting is February 13th at 4:30, And those are being recorded now so people have more access to them, should they wanna tune in, especially as we're working, hard towards looking at our master facilities plan, which will be a big endeavor and important planning for the next 5 years in the district. And as we always say, well, frequently say, this board committees, are the meetings where we get a lot into the nitty gritty on a lot of subjects that we end up voting on. So if you can make it, it's always great to see people come. We do we do get several people, that come to the meetings, but, we can always use more. And if you can't make it, at least if you can watch the they're not very long, so you're not gonna invest a ton of time. But there's a lot of information packed into those relatively short period of time. So, please if you can, if you can't make it to a meeting please try to take a time to watch the meeting online. It would be very interesting. I think you'd find it very interesting. Anybody else? Anything else you wanna talk about tonight, guys? No? Okay. I think that's it for discussion. As a note to those in attendance both virtually and in person, some of these items have been vetted through the board operations committee that we were just discussing, which is why there may not be a need for new discussion. Do I have a motion to approve the consent items? So moved. And a second? Madam secretary, please take the vote. Ferentino. Aye. McKinney. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Birkett, aye. Zettler. Aye. Motion passes 50. Okay. Item 13, roll call action items. I will read each of these items individually. 13.1, approval of closed session minutes for February 11, 2022, February 20, 2022, February 22, 2022, and March 15, 2022. May I have a motion for the approval of the closed session, minutes for February 11th 22, February 20th 22, February 22nd 22, and March 15th 2022? So moved. Do I have a second? 2nd. Is there any discussion? 2nd. Any discussion? Okay. Madam secretary, please call the roll. Birkett, aye. Zettler? Aye. Thomas? Thomas? Aye. Okay. McKendy? I'm I'm gonna abstain because I was in those meetings. Okay. And Parentino. Aye. Motion passes 410. 401, sorry. Okay, item 13.2 approval of avid services agreement renewal. May I have a motion for the approval of the avid services agreement renewal? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Any discussion? Madam secretary would you please call the roll? Mackenzie. Aye. Burkett. Aye. Zettler. Aye. Barrantino. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Motion passes 50. Item 13.3 approval of district wide safety systems assessment agreement. May I have a motion for the approval of the district wide safety systems assessment agreement? So moved. Do I have a second? Is there any discussion? Madam secretary, please call the roll. Valentino. Aye. McKendy. Aye. Burkett. Aye. Zettler. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Motion passes, 5 0. Item 13.4, excuse me, approval of summer 2024 construction bids. May I have a motion for the approval of the summer 2024 construction bids? So moved. Do I have a second? 2nd. Is there any discussion? Madam secretary, please call the roll. Mackenzie. Aye. Burkett. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Ferentino. Aye. Zettler. Aye. Motion passes 50. 13.5, approval of technology services contract renewal. May I have a motion for the approval of the technology services contract renewal? So moved. Do I have a second? Second. Is there any discussion? Please call the roll madam secretary. Barrantino. Aye. Mackenzie. Aye. Zettler. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Birkett. Aye. Motion passes 50. Item 13.6, approval of the 2023, 2024 calendar revisions. May I have a motion for the approval of the 2023, 2024 calendar revisions? So moved. Do I have a second? 2nd. Is there any discussion? Madam secretary, would you please call the roll? Birkett, aye. Ferentino? Aye. McKinney? Aye. Thomas? Aye. Zettler. Aye. Motion passes 50. Okay, moving on to item 14, do I have a motion to go into closed session for the purpose of discussing 1, the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, 2 c 1. Number 2, litigation, 2 c 11. And number 3, security procedures, school building safety and security, and the use of personnel to respond to an actual, a threatened, or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees, students, staff, the public or public or public property 2 c 8. Do I have a sec do do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Okay. May I secretary please take the roll? Ferentino. Aye. Birkett. Aye. Thomas. Aye. Zettler. Aye. McKendy. Aye. Motion passes, 5 0. We will be back but I don't think we're gonna be taking any action. No action? We are coming back afterwards, but we will be taking no action, just so you know.