December 19, 2019 at 7:00 PM - Board of Education Regular Meeting

Description:  Minutes of regular meeting held November 14, 2019
Minutes of closed meeting held November 14, 2019
December Bills Payable
November Treasurer's Report
Destruction of closed meeting audio recording from June 21, 2018

Description:  Emma Lancaster will be in attendance so that we may recognize her accomplishments in being selected December Student of the Month. 

Description:  Athletic Director Tom Ross will be in attendance to share highlights from our fall athletic programs.

Description:  Greg Urbaniak, Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment, will be in attendance to provide an update on our Future Ready School efforts.

Description:  Greg Urbaniak will review student performance on the fall PSAT/SAT suite of assessments as well as provide longitudinal data for each grade level.

Description:  Principal, Jeremy Schmidt, will present the recommendations of a Student Privilege Exploratory Committee to pilot the flexible use of study hall time for senior students that meet grade, attendance, and behavior expectations this spring. 

Description:  I am recommending changes to the following School Board Policies based on direction from the Illinois Association of School Boards and legal counsel.  The Board may determine to review as a first reading or take action if no additional time to consider is necessary.  Rather than provide the typical brief recap of each change, I am sharing a copy of the PRESS release.  With the extensive number of changes, I thought you might find the legislative details more helpful in this case.    
2:20          Powers and Duties of the School Board; Indemnification
2:70          Vacancies on the School Board – Filling Vacancies
2:100        Board Member Conflict of Interest 
2:105        Ethics and Gift Ban
2:110        Qualifications, Term, and Duties of Board Officers
2:200        Types of School Board Meetings
2:220        School Board Meeting Procedure
2:260        Uniform Grievance Procedure
4:15          Identity Protection
4:30          Revenue and Investments
4:60          Purchases and Contracts
4:80          Accounting and Audits
5:10          Equal Employment Opportunity and Minority Recruitment
5:20          Workplace Harassment Prohibited
5:30          Hiring Process and Criteria
5:50          Drug- and Alcohol-Free Workplace; E-Cigarette, Tobacco and Cannabis Prohibition
5:90          Abused and Neglected Child Reporting
5:120        Employee Ethics; Conduct; and Conflict of Interest
5:250        Leaves of Absence
5:290        Employment Termination and Suspensions
5:330        Sick Days, Vacation, Holidays, and Leaves
6:60          Curriculum Content
6:150        Home and Hospital Instruction
6:300        Graduation Requirements
7:20          Harassment of Students Prohibited
7:150        Agency and Police Interviews
7:180        Prevention of and Response to Bullying, Intimidation, and Harassment
7:270        Administering Medicines to Students
8:30          Visitors to and Conduct on School Property

Description:  The State of Illinois now provides schools with the flexibility to utilize e-learning days in lieu of emergency days (Public Act 101-0012).  Up to a maximum of five (5) e-learning days may be used annually in place of emergency days.  With faculty and students each having possession of a district provided computer, we feel we are well positioned to extend educational experiences beyond the walls of the classroom.  We have been working with all district stakeholders over the past 7 months to design an E-learning Plan, which we are presenting for your consideration this evening.  The recommended E-learning Plan is attached, but here are a few highlights:   

·        An e-learning day may be utilized on severe weather days when it is possible for the decision to  be made regarding closure by 8:00 P.M. the evening prior.   
·        If it is necessary to close school without ample warning, an e-learning day will not be used and the district will utilize the emergency days reserved at the end of the year.   
·        E-learning days will be limited in use.  If consecutive emergency days are necessary, it is not likely that consecutive e-learning days will take place.  
·        It is advised that families and staff plan their annual calendar incorporating the potential use of all emergency days rather than plan for e-learning days to be utilized.   
·        Student learning activities shall be valuable learning experiences, tied to the existing curriculum, and each learning activity is expected to be the length of a typical class period.   
·        The district will provide a practice e-learning opportunity this school year, on a regularly scheduled school day when school is in session, for students and staff to practice e-learning.  

All requirements for approval have been met by the district.  Recommend approval of the Resolution to Adopt E-learning Program in Lieu of the District’s Scheduled Emergency Days as presented.  

Description:  The Transition Program is a special education program that is offered to students with disabilities who require continued support after completion of their four years of high school. These students may need further instruction and guided practice in the areas of work-based learning, independent living, and community access to further their independence as determined by the student’s IEP team. The students in the program have a range of abilities and the goal of the program is to help each student reach their highest level of independence in these areas.  We currently contract with SEDOL for the Transition Program.  I’d like to review with you a proposed plan to provide these educational services in-district and associated cost savings.    

Description:  Students have the right to attend school in the district in which they reside with their parent or legal guardian.  With an increasing trend of residency-related cases requiring investigation, we have a measure for the Board of Education to consider.  To ensure we are enrolling and educating only those students who reside in-district, we are requesting to purchase a subscription-based residency validation program, CLEAR, from Thomson Reuters.  We’ve considered many options, including returning to an in-person or online residency process.  However, that process does not lend itself to families proving residency with unique living arrangements.  The CLEAR program will provide us the opportunity to verify residency, through reliable public and proprietary information, prior to enrollment and periodically throughout their four years.  The site-license to run residency reports once per year for all students, prior to the start of a school year, is $234 per month.  The site license to perform unlimited searching throughout the school year (new students, transfer students, returned mail, etc.) is $289 per month.  Both require a 12-month subscription.  With a cost to educate a student at approximately $15,000 per year, we feel this would be a sound investment to strengthen our residency measures and ensure all students reside in the district. 

Description:  The Speech Team is requesting an overnight trip from January 24 to January 25, 2020.  They will be attending a two-day speech tournament held at Downers Grove South High School.  Recommend approval of the overnight trip as presented. 

Description:  Recommend the employment of the following individuals: 
·        Greg Wodzien, 2020 Summer School Supervisor 
-  Alexander West, Full-time Internal Substitute Teacher, $150/day, beginning January 6, 2020
·        Lynsea Volbrecht, Asst. Girls’s Basketball coach 
·        Colt Foerch, Asst. Baseball coach 
·        Nicole Frett, Asst. Softball coach 
·        Kim Schmidt, Bus Driver, $19.35/hr., starting 1/28/2020  

Recommend accepting the resignation letters from:
·        Dawn Falco, custodian, effective 12/5/2019. She will remain a bus driver. 

Notification of FMLA from Jacqueline Hernandez, between February 3, 2019 - May 6, 2020 

Description:  Mr. Schmidt will give his monthly Principal’s Report.

Description:  Last month, I presented the tentative 2019 Certificate of Tax Levy.  Attached, please find the final 2019 Certificate of Tax Levy, along with the Resolution to Spread a Tax Levy for Year 2019, the Resolution to Levy Certain Special Taxes for Special Education District IMRF Purposes, and the Resolution for Levying for Working Cash Fund Purposes for the Year 2019.  There has been no change to what was presented last month.  Dr. Sefcik and I will present a few facts and figures to support our recommendation.  Recommend approval of the 2019 Final Tax Levy.  

Description:  The Illinois State Board of Education has opened up the School Maintenance Project Grant.  The School Maintenance Project Grant is a dollar for dollar state matching grant program providing awards up to $50,000 to grantees, exclusively for the maintenance or upkeep of buildings or structures for educational purposes.  There is no limit to the cost of a project; however, grant awards will not exceed $50,000.  I have listed several projects for consideration by the state including the turf replacement, track resurfacing, front parking lot re-pavement, bleachers in the West Gym, East Gym floor, and updating all outside doors and elevators to the fob system.  The grant application must be presented to the Board for approval prior to submitting.  Recommend approval of the School Maintenance Project Grant Application.  

Description:  As part of the 2019-20 budget, a transfer from the Operations and Maintenance Fund to pay for one- time facility renovation and upgrade expenses is needed.  This resolution explains the $1,800,000 accounting transfer from O&M to Capital Projects.  These funds will be used to pay for the construction this past summer in the hallway where the Project Lead the Way and Technology Services Internship rooms are.  Recommend approval of Resolution for Fund Transfer from Operations and Maintenance to Capital Projects.