Description:  Minutes of regular meeting held September 17, 2020
October Bills Payable
September Treasurer's Report
Destruction of closed meeting audio recording from April 25, 2019
Quarterly list of authorized depositories, investment managers, dealers, and brokers

Description:  Priya Audipudy will be in attendance to be recognized for her selection as the October Student of the Month.
 

Description:  After months of planning, we are very excited to begin welcoming back additional students to in-person learning beginning on October 19^th.  Several staff meetings were held, along with a community meeting on October 5^th, to review Phase 1 of the Blended Learning Plan 2.0.  For Phase 1, families were provided an option to have students return on their designated day or remain learning at home.  Those decisions are due on October 7^th, so I will be able to provide you an update on attendance numbers at our meeting.

A final copy of the Plan is included for your review.  We will continue to closely monitor health metrics, staff capacity, personal protective equipment, cleaning and sanitization supplies, and local illness/outbreak.  As long as all of those items align, we plan to continue to take small steps forward to increase the number of students on campus.

Description:  I am presenting to you a number of curriculum changes for the 2021/22 school year.  The proposed changes are as follows:

New Courses:
PLTW - Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM)
Academic Literacy II

Course Revisions:
Introduction to Strength and Conditioning (modify grade levels 9, 10, 11)
Reading Workshop title change to Academic Literacy 1

Course Deletions:
Aerobics
Physical Education 11 & Physical Education 12
Spin

Recommend approval of the course additions, revisions, and deletions as presented. 

Next month, we will be presenting new courses proposals for 2022/23, following our traditional two-year approval process.  Also, I wanted to make the Board of Education aware that we are delaying implementation of Advanced Placement Computer Science to the 2022/23 school year.  This was approved previously for 2021/22 course offerings, but due to the pandemic and additional ongoing responsibilities, we are delaying development of this course for one year.

Description:  The 2020 Illinois School Report Cards will be released on October 30^th.  This will be a very unusual year for reporting, given the pandemic.  There are a few important items I would like to bring to your attention:

• Summative designations were not calculated for the 2020 school year.  The summative designation for 2019 will be reissued/carried over for 2020 reporting.
• Many metrics typically included will be listed as "Data unavailable due to COVID-19."
• Metrics included, but that may not represent a complete data set, are noted as "Items possibly impacted by COVID-19 are highlighted."
• There are items being included in the Report Card that may very well have been impacted by the suspension of in-person instruction last year.  However, ISBE is not commenting on the ways they may have been impacted, leaving District users to discern how to interpret the results.  These items will be labeled as "Possible data impact due to COVID-19."     
• Participation in the Illinois Youth Survey is a new metric for 2020

Description:  Last March, you approved four clubs to pilot for the 2020/21 school year.  Interest has been expressed to pilot two additional clubs for this school year - Esports and Special Olympics.  The Illinois High School Association has identified esports, or electronic sports, as an emerging sport.  It is a form of competition that is facilitated through computer gaming.  Special Olympics provides training and athletic competitions in a variety of sports for student-athletes with intellectual disabilities.  We are excited students will have additional opportunities to become involved and look forward to a successful pilot for both clubs this school year!     
 

Description:  I have provided you with a summary of 6^th day enrollment numbers for Grant and our feeder districts.  Enrollment decreased from 1,843 to 1,812, which closely aligns with the District demographic study.  Enrollment at feeder districts collectively decreased a total of 154 students.  We will continue to monitor feeder district enrollment to determine what, if any, impact that may have on our enrollment numbers.

Description:  Homecoming 2021 has been set for Friday, September 17^th.  Fortunately, homecoming will occur the same week as our regularly scheduled Board of Education meeting.  We look forward to formally inducting our Hall of Fame candidates, Mr. Steve Hill and Mr. Fred Loffredo, on Thursday, September 16^th.

Description:  Recommend approval of the winter coaching staff as presented.

Description: 

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

Description:  The 2019/20 audit was recently completed by Evoy, Kamschulte, Jacobs & Co. LLP.  I have included a copy for your review.  The district is overall fiscally stable and debt free.  I will present highlights of the audit for you at the meeting.

Description:  Attached please find the tentative 2020 Certificate of Tax Levy.  The county is predicting that our equalized assessed value will increase from $927,557,050 in 2019 to $958,038,748.  This is a 3.29% increase from the previous year including new construction.  They are projecting our new construction to be $7,827,178, which is a decrease of 14%.  In November, I will bring the resolutions and recommendation for approval of the final 2020 tax levy.