##VIDEO ID:uhO5Mvnezjo## sorry eager by patriotism through I pledge alance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all all right 3.0 is to approve the meeting agenda make motion to approve the agenda I'll second any discussion no all those in favor I I I agenda is approved 4.0 our acknowledgements and recognitions um which we don't have any for this evening although I would like to acknowledge that it's nice to see you all it's been a while it's been a while it feels like it has been so good to be back here with you oh you were gone in July oh so yeah yeah so I'm glad to be back good to see you Lexi thanks for coming on your uh summer break appreciate it um 5.0 our recognition of visitors and Community comments our community comments is an opportunity for the public to address the board on an item included in the agenda in accordance with the guidelines printed at the end of the agenda uh and we don't have anybody signed up to speak tonight uh but I would just like to recognize our visitors either here or in cyberspace today or in the future thanks for joining us for the August 2024 business meeting uh good to have you all like usual 6.0 are our reports 6.1 is the principal's report Mr Balan good evening everybody hello all right so for my report tonight it's just uh here we go game on um we've got people coming into the building already next week are five new teachers that are all coming into sou Elementary we'll be here next week for a few days with some onboarding uh General school policies practices curriculum development that type of stuff so that's happening uh next week we also have our kindergarten play date um on Wednesday so that's any uh incoming family um those if they're even if they're not registered yet they can still come and meet families um that's happening at Wednesday at 3:15 um sports are going on right now so we got kids in the building student schedules were made live today in campus so students can log on and check out their schedules um and then just kind of a big huge thank you with all of the new teachers coming in reassignments movement there was a ton of work happening to get everything ready and we're almost there and we will be there by Wednesday when those new teachers come in um and then of course for our back to school Workshop week with everybody the following week on August 26th um getting ready for that first day of school on Tuesday September 3rd and then just another um reminder to the community about our open house night on August 28th of Workshop week where they families can come in meet their teachers last minute paperwork stuff get all that done and ready to go did we do the feedback where a few of us said that uh we shouldn't have that bottleneck when you walk in that overwhelming bottleneck of uh Orient I feel like last year we mitigated that last year and we were able to I know that was feedback for the last year's open house and I feel like we did change some things where in the cafeteria I don't remember that did I not photo orientation M yeah we moved everything into the cafeteria oh cool sounds great oh I vaguely remember that all right well cool great um I had a quick question about the kindergarten enrollment do you have like a up-to-date snapshot of what that's looking like so we're currently at 15 um enrolled um in kindergarten so that's why we did um combine that then into one section um and it's not a surprise to us I know that the the last year the census report has even said just the registered number of kiddos is pretty low this coming year it's a low bubble three years in a row it'll be low yeah according to our demographic study yeah y um so we're at 15 right now um do we know out of how many kids um I off the top of my head I don't have that number only Portage kids I don't know off the top of my head um I do know though that in our especially our Upper Elementary grades we've been having kids transferring in um which is increasing those sizes pushing 30 now which is why we decided to split third fourth and fifth grade into two sections they were all one section last year so awesome is it too early is it like spoiler alert if we ask who the kindergarten teacher is going to be oh no uh uh Miss Miss okay yeah Emily Roy is going to Fourth Emily will be in fourth grade we're in charge here we could ask this question well I know but you know it's like I just posted all the rosters on the eagle D so they're they're public and live now so we can share so autum will be in kindergarten he hasn't been here for a while apparently uh Emily um who was in kindergarten will be fourth grade um TJ who was in fifth grade is moving to fourth grade okay and then our third grade sections will be taught by Chandler litterst who comes to us from the charter school and then Amanda Baris who was here previously um and then in fifth grade Mindy Jacobson um will be teaching one of the sections and she's a veteran teacher most recently in Alaska they've been here before and then we were able to hire a brand new teacher right out of college um Ella arvidson from gustavis so she is coming up here she'll be up here next week she's the niece of Tom M yes niece to Tom and Les okay and they all have places to live which is that's and then we also have uh Margaret Newton coming um into the elementary to teach ojibway language prek she's joing us she's joining us for the new teacher stuff yep y perfect and how about uh the yeah the preschool enrollment do you have a sense for that we're Max we're we're at capacity well I there's I think we're at 38 capacity is 40 lazy be able to tell you there's but there's a number of families who are committ but haven't signed yet and so I from my understanding we're full and that's between the threes and the fours threes and the fours yeah heavier with the fours so that's why this year we're combining threes and fours in both sections last year we had a separate three a separate four but I think two-thirds of them are four year olds and then a third is three so didn't make sense to split recent enrollments came in due to the closing of a child care sure I I think that um in Sig pre school class he was in the four-year-old preschool I think there were 18 of them if I recall in his prechool class just in terms of like I think the rule is 20 is numbers rolling into kindergarten and that's takes two adults to run 20 so a teacher and a par that's that's a lot of little we a lot of little ones so the demographics come back after it's kind of a low point for kindergarten this year and then they kind of tick up if you remember back when we did our projection and we had that report they projected that this year next year and the year after three years in a row there were low birth rates in Cook County five years prior so that the the number of kindergartens in the county are smaller just overall so we should all three four schools should see the ramifications of that interesting and it's calculation based upon keeping the capture rate kind of consistent right so if our capture rate stays the same we should have about 16 17 18 kindergarteners for the next three years but that's a that's a projection right you never know what changes with housing and movein yeah I mean with all the new housing coming in there could be more families coming in for sure but capture a you mean the kids that are of that prek age existing and whether they go to OSI corre they okay correct that's not counting like a Dem just a counting that's why I was saying what's a total could be even more more in or it could be more based on where they end up going I mean there's a hundred new units of housing going in the grammar area the next year and a half are those family or is that for J all kinds of stuff there's houses going in there's apartments couple bedroom apartments whatever yeah it's it's going to change it probably at this it's this place too buckle up principal of L all right well thank you so much and good luck on the kickoff to the school year thank you yeah he was in a NOA before he can handle these issues he's Dre all right 6.2 is a superintendent report Mr Lindholm thank you Mr chair um just a couple things that Josh did not touch on in the thank yous for the shuffling I want to specifically call out thank you to Tom and the building and grounds per they've been moving stuff in the storage out of storage all room to room for the last well all summer but um you might notice the hallways are also freshly painted a lot of them uh and classrooms are painted so that crew has been working really hard this summer uh to get our building ready to roll um also a report that we've had contractors in the uh shop the tech ad ad room this past week um at the end of last week I think and now this week and they are working to make the shop compliant for small engines and uh are calculating to be done before workshops or by the time workshops start so that's a celebration thanks to dsgw for helping us line that up and get greased and um underway two other things to mention U at least for the public uh I do think that it is time uh for the community and us to have a conversation about the possibility of whether or not Cook County Schools wants to adopt a 4-day student week uh in the coming years uh it's a really hot topic right now across Minnesota because the state is now accepting applications they they hadn't been for prior 10 years um so now that the opportunity is there uh there is a lot of conversation in the arrowhead about how unique to how far to the AirHead and the distance we all travel for sports and appointments and the like if we all aligned on a 4-day week schedule and could stack game you know football basketball game travel games as much as possible on that day off and family appointments if we could actually improve student attendance and staff attendance um so there's a lot of chatter and I think it's something that will require a lot of who chattering the school district you guys yes yes we're talking about administrators yep y okay and places like Carlton have adopted it as a strategy to recruit students and staff so Carlton has a 4 day this coming year school okay yeah yep Lakes Lake County has had it for years and years and uh very much likes it um so I it's not my decision it's a we Community decision and I I think a process for people to weigh in on that um will need to be rolled out in the fall at some point so that we can be making our decision in time to apply and then make a board decision I mean I like the aspect of of School attendance improvy um I think the issue would be similar issue that we saw during Co where Child Care becomes an issue for uh elementary school kids so we would probably need to have I would think as part of the solution something with that see and I thought we were talking about going in the opposite direction so like you're saying they go four days a week I mean I totally agree with this and hence my major hostility but um aside from that I thought we were talking about our school days and how long they were and now you want to make longer right so I'm not entertaining a conversation right now um when when the time is right we'll list all the pros and all the cons and and we'll we'll go through it right now I'm teeing up that it's it's a relevant conversation across the state right now uh because the state has made it a Poss possibility and in fact there's a national Trend going on right now um as a key strategy to attract staff in the time of Staff shortages so U whether or not we decide to do it we'll we'll decide later um I just want to plant the seat um so people have a chance to start thinking about it and um ponder it a little bit um and then the last thing I want to uh mention for everybody that's tuned in is an event coming up August 27th that we're really really excited to be bringing to Cook County um Aaron Walsh from spark and Stitch is coming to provide education for parents and for educators about raising kids in the digital age and balancing screen time as a parent and what's the brain size science behind that and and how does it affect brain development in children um aon's father Dr David Walsh has written numerous books I've read I've heard Dr David Walsh speak he's phenomenal she's great um she's coming on August 27th there'll be a community meal at 5:30 p.m. in our cafeteria and a six o'clock presentation in the auditorium prior to that there'll be a one o'clock presentation in our Auditorium for all Educators in Cook County from all four schools welcomed invited to he her presentation from 1 to 2:30 or so um and for the 5:30 and dinner and the six o'clock uh presentation the YMCA is partnering with us in providing child care and a child care option for parents that want that so it's a partnership with no screens it said child care right every kid will be given an iPad yeah right right yeah no um it's a partnership with Cook County higher ed and with Cook County Public Health it's being funded through a public health Grant uh and then of course we're Partners in this so um really want to be pushing the I'll be pushing the word out next week about this event uh a little more heavily but send me a flyer so we can post the B's page because this this is a great program yeah it is and parents have been asking for it and you know every parent needs to think heavily hard about that as as we do too as Educators so great event great and that's it all right any other questions or comments alrighty 7.0 is well and also thank you to you and good luck with the roll out of the school year yeah as well thanks yeah all right consent agenda um is there anything that needs to be pulled well you know what actually excuse me before we move on um it's not on the agenda per se but Lexi is still here and we have a standing item for her um she provided a report to uh to Chris that he sent out in board notes a couple weeks ago I was looking for that about a survey regarding cell phone use at school would you like to touch on that right now or anything else laptop or anything or if you want to Riff on that any any thoughts I put it together like the last week of school I don't remember the exact day but and I don't know I read through them like as soon as I kind of got them and since then I haven't really it so Mr LOL if you wanna yeah I'm trying to find it really fast here is there a date that came out that's what I'm looking for I got the August 2nd up is that might have been the June [Music] one it was I read through the the input and the input was very mixed yeah I didn't see like a trend to pull out I think the respondents were all high school right yes I believe I sent it to like the incoming ninth graders any of the seniors I graduated um a lot of students obviously want to have their phone accessible it's not a shock um so you know there was some good comments in there about um you know students can put them away and not have them out in class be respectful of the teachers policy and is there a persistent kind of issue with cell phone like teachers are having issues with people on their phones in class or it it wasn't a a specific behavior issue that was at a high level last year um I don't know yeah I think the conversation is more around just like what research and Society is realizing about screens and Tech kind oh it's kind it's kind of yeah screen issue gotcha and then msba or the legislature yeah passed a law in the last session requiring districts to have a policy oh that's right so technically we do it's in our technology policy it's in our handbooks um but tx's survey I mean we we have the obligation of figureing out where are we going to draw the line in this end and there's a lot of districts right now that are saying at least through 8th grade put it away for the day um right if you walk into our lunchroom uh you know there'll be middle school kids in there looking at videos on their phones a lot of people say That's not healthy put them away talk to each other especially at the middle level age High School um what I've heard from my colleagues is that's a little harder because high school kids often have a job or they're responsible for a sibling or whatever and so how to balance to put it away or put it in your locker but yes you can check it at lunchtime and yes you can look for a message from work there kind of yeah there's kind of that line between it being sort of this sort of tool that you have integrated into your like life you know sort of like like mine's sitting here like I get that but it's the like are you just using for entertainment or like you know gossip or whatever where it starts to become like an issue I did find the it was inor 726 726 um notes I did a couple of like um informal inquiries on this um I traveled to Costa ricao with the high with a of high school kids so we had a lot of time to chat and I this is one of the questions that I asked some of the students about and it was kind of mixed some of them like a couple of them were pretty Frank they were like I see no use for them just put them away like no problem and then there was mixed but I think that one of the prevailing um themes that came out was like a desire for like a consistent sort of standard right and they were like you know the the rule doesn't get applied consistently ly maybe in different like some teachers are more like don't care some teachers have a really hard line right and it's like that's where some of the challenge they were see came out and it's like how do you find that place that makes sense that you can sort of universally apply you know which is kind of the challenge so for what it's worth some of the feedback I heard but we have a policy so we can do nothing technically yeah and what's the policy uh well it's in the hand in the it's in the hand poliy is um in the elementary school they're away all day they're not to be out at all um and then in the middle in high school during class they're supposed to be away away um unless they're being used for an educational reason that the teacher is giving permission for um and then if they're during passing time or during lunchtime they're able to have the current practice Yeah current practice yeah that sounds reasonable yeah I think it's reasonable so thanks for that Lexi yeah of course any any other aside from putting you on the spot about that is there anything else that you are feeling compelled to talk about not really okay going in this you're going into your senior year a year yeah I'm graduating a semester early as well cardio yes wow cool congrats are you going to go to college right away or no I'm going on a noll's trip which is like an outdoor leadership ship program and it's 880 days in the Rockies awesome I'm excited plus the need to heal your leg yes I I need to it's better first but we'll see how it goes yeah cool good for you cool well we'll we'll look forward to your updates over the next few months it'll go by quick that's for sure great well thanks and feel free please stick around if you would like for the duration of this meeting yeah um okay so now we'll move on to 7.0 which is our consent agenda um is there anything that needs to be pulled for further discussion if not we just need a motion to approve it second okay all those in favor I I bu opposed motion carries all right 8.0 are a discussion and action items uh 8.1 is to accept the July 2024 expenditure and revenue report and our packet um Miss over is with us this evening is there anything you would like to highlight for us from the hot seat the only thing that I would draw your attention to the fact that it's currently not closed out for the fiscal year so it is the numbers that are reported are year-to date plus July and that happens every year because things are still happening that have to go into the last fiscal year so it looks a little bit you know funny per se um so as I do audit and year end things the numbers will adjust slightly it's mostly like a bill came in that was for June and so I still have to pay it and last year you know there's a few few things like that that happen and so then once I can close all those things out I can shut it down and then I'll have yearend numbers but as I peek at yearend numbers for last last year they they look decent it looks like we landed where we thought we would land and maybe to the better a little bit and that's what I'm hopeful for currently I'm that's what I'm seeing but like I said I haven't finished um doing all final year end bills because I just looked and I saw some more for 23 24 so gotta love it so that's all I have for as far as explanation of my report okay great any questions no no I just point out that we budgeted for a slight loss a slight decrease and so to come out even or better would be phenomenal yeah yeah something that has to do with um catch-up payments and you know last bits of EST funds things like that so there's not any more Revenue that's going to be be recorded for this year is that right or or is it how there potential more expenses but there shouldn't be any more revenue and some of that has now been remember I said last month that it would be moving buckets yeah the buckets it did move the buckets moved so before it was general fund $10,000 now we've moved you know some of that those funds to transportation and some of those funds to um Debt Service uh the only bucket that might change as far as uh Revenue new goals would be um community service because there were some funds that were brought in under that umbrella that were maybe Meant To Be A Student Activity account because it was an activity that was held in the summer that students helped with that was revenue for their for their sport activity or whatever so like the basketball had a basketball camp and the students helped with that so those revenues came in through fund for and then we go to their Student Activity account for the year so there might be slight differences but nothing nothing major okay cool all right great well we just need a motion then I'll make a motion I'll second all right further discussion all in favor I I those opposed motion carries right 8.2 is to approve the the par contract which is the team s par professional 2024 through 2026 contract and let's see we've got a red line um Mr lindol if you want to take us through this real quick just a quick summary on that uh first of all thank you to Reena she helped negotiate and Teresa of course both Teamster contracts so thank you for that par contract um increases wages for this coming year 4% and in year two 2% so four and two um 43b match of $1,000 doll for all of them that was a big jump and a change for them there was kind of a steer stepped um benefit uh increased health insurance to match teachers at 7100 and 18250 accelerated longevity you know how quickly they get it uh and then the incentive to get certified to drive a bus we doubled from 50 cents an hour to a dollar an hour hoping that some of them will take the bait and get license to drive a bus when needed and then we actually did quite a bit of language Cleanup in this contract with PTO Cru school closures paid catastrophic leave and then some notes that were from years and years ago and their their appendix in that contract so this it was a wonderful two meeting round it was great it was very um congenial I thought that good discussions General agreement up States was the incentive to drive a bus come from you guys or come from them me yeah I idea I mean sub bus drivers you know pay you an extra Buck an hour if you just get the license yeah there I recall there was a we had an issue with language that came up and there was a little bit of a conflict about maybe it was around the closure and the reporting was that addressed I think there was a grievance that we had to work through um it was like whether or not you had to report to work if I thought I had noticed maybe that was addressed it was that actually got captured in anou like a year ago okay and so we just put thatou language into the contract so it's if they for good no okay yep that got cleaned up and then I think the other thing that came up with this contract was yeah something about the PTO and the ability to use it or the approval of it or being paid out and that was that Al something that maybe we did that with anou Once upon a time also um there was we had I can't remember the details but there was a question about that there is some separation PTO payout yeah it's not all uhuh we clarified it in hours in hours yeah yeah the workers work so many different hours within the contracts right okay but they ACW their PTO in ours so we wanted to clear have they already voted for this they have already voted they approved it they approved it okay fantastic okay great um well um thanks for for doing that yeah you can see in the red line on page seven that PTO change um if you're curious about that it was tied to being able to um cash in a certain number of them for compensation at around winter break and around spring break when they lose a week of compensation um so that language got tightened up and you're correct I believe that was in a in anou at some point good memory yeah you have a really good memory well sure for certain things but other things um good well thanks for yeah thanks for working on it and I'm glad that every it's always nice to just have it all be moved so yeah I think the other thing that I saw was how much we've you know standardized our contracts and relationships you know terms of every different group doesn't have different things and different vacations and different ways that they get paid out it's like really I know that that's always been one of your goals you got here but it takes a couple of rounds to do that but I can see where there it's been a lot of movement which makes it a lot easier to manage yeah nice yeah I make a motion to approve the par contract Saga any further discussion all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries okay 8 point3 and yep to approve the teamsters uh bus drivers Cooks maintenance and admin assistant 24 to 26 contract so in this contract uh wages are increased 4% this in year one this year 3% in year two um they added a third step for all of the positions so it used to be used to be one rate of pay then it was two steps now it's they've added a third step for all of the spots um they established a 6,400 minimum for people that have an individual health insurance that was a big ask of the group uh and the peras actually already had that in their contract so this brings them in alignment um with the par contract also increase longevity and acceleration of the years increase small increase to 403b um clarified a bunch of language on catastrophic leave and pay for trip inspections and stuff um and then also and in this one too we increased the incentive to get certified to drive a bus to a buck an hour We're trying um but overall again a really really great uh round of negotiations Katherine Meyer our relatively new bus driver was The Negotiator for this group okay cool great um and who was did you do this one as well thanks well and thanks to the groups to to the both of the the unions that we that unions for sure yeah the the um the guy with the that did the negotiation y he's really good it's a really reasonable reasonable portion really reasonable very conent great all right we just need a motion then I'll make a motion I'll second okay uh any further discussion all those in favor I those opposed motion carries it's a final comment of gratitude to the teamsters and it's really good to be going into a referendum with all of our contracts s yeah uh that was a goal of mine and um I'm really grateful that we got everyone there over the finish line so just time to start start again the year all right fantastic um okay 8.4 to approve the 2425 uh faculty handbook which we've got here the packet um Mr Blan any big changes I think it's highlighted yellow okay not not major changes um could you talk a little bit about your and perhaps this applies to all the uh the handbooks like what your process kind of looks like when going through these and updating them sure um I think um I like to always I want to always um make appropriate incremental changes every year just to tighten up things um and so I nothing too major but also I think just as a general philosophy schools are always changing and so you got to adapt your policy and practices to stay current so that's a general perspective that I find myself taking when I look at handbooks The Faculty hand the staff handbooks get weighed in on by Teresa and Kay and um Josh of course Cindy erson so it's kind of a team effort then the student ones are more you and teacher feedback and whatever yeah does it seem like these get referenced regularly um not so much with staff um what handbooks do make how they make my job easier is like when we had things stated and decisions have to be made um I get to reference handbooks and policies as to why the decision was made right and then it's less of a personal thing and it's more of a these are the rules and um yeah totally good um do you whenever you're um handing these out and updating them do you is there some sort of like process that you do in terms of like is it just like hand it out or do you like is there part of like a workshop or something where you like talk about it a little bit or Point things out so at Workshop we what we'll do is it we'll highlight the changes um with staff and faculty and so our students go they they have a week to review it and then turn it in submitting it saying that they understand and agree um but yeah other than that there's not a big sure not too much time employees is there kind of a going over the handbook or yeah so so last year we did not do that with new employees but this year one of our agenda items is like school policies and practices for staff so we'll be touching on those things next week next week yep well it's harder when you're hiring on the fly in the middle of the year yeah but every year it's kind of a rolling protocol in August when we come back sounds good I'll make a motion I'll second any further discussion no all those in favor I I I those opposed motion carries all right uh 8.5 is the 2425 employee handbook also in the packet same so same deal like there were very many changes in that one um oh this is just a question and I as I was reviewing some of these I wondered about um would it be appropriate or helpful in the handbooks to add something about like our um like foure values or like anything from our like strategic road map kind of a thing or in particular the like core values kind of stuff we could um I think it just comes down to what's your best return on on investment of time and energy yeah so we actually have planning our professional development week to spend some time on that Thursday I think Monday and Thursday actually Monday strategic road map and the Thursday specifically our core values and diving into that and um so you know what's the better return time spent talking in protocoling it or putting it in a document sure maybe both yeah sure and I I was thinking about it maybe the thought came to me as I was looking at student ones in particular because perhaps those are ones that like that that's a document that goes home and parents look at and it I don't know if it's just like another Avenue to communicate that the teachers it's a little different but um there's just a lot just curious my experience tells me that very few people actually read until they have to right until they're in trouble you know then they're looking to see how how many days am I gonna be suspended that's about it fair enough fair enough um okay um so employee handbook I'll make a motion second okay any further discussion all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries all right 8.6 is to approve the 2425 middle school high school handbook so in the packet y Lo anything notable here now that we're getting into the students um can I I don't think there's anything too major parking there some language on parking just to be more clear with parking expectations sure little tightening up on some attendance though yeah yeah minutia really sure I have a question about I remember two years ago there was some discussion around like the dress code and what's like the current Like rules around dress code just like and you don't have to read them all out just like a kind of so like I know last year we we did change that was a big change last year was if I remember correctly a year ago think of the handbook there was a whole like even diagram of a person yeah like we took a lot of that stuff out yeah um and uh and so I that's maybe feedback too to follow up on I I don't know if there was any I don't I I don't remember any issues this past year with any dress code violations or issues with that oh yeah so from like before you were here to now there's been some changes yeah absolutely I've noticed that definitely like walking around school like barely anyone I know has been dress coded corre I don't know from a teenage girl's point of view and my friends and I we like this is nice that our bodies aren't being kind of policed yes that was the intent of the changes made a year ago and you can thank Mr Balan for that um we also last year made some significant changes and additions about restrooms and locker rooms and um we put those in writing in our handbook which it hadn't been prior um so now it's Crystal Clear what our stance is on that but that's been there for the the whole year and it's not new this year awesome I have a random uh question about the dress code I know a student I won't say his name but he bought a Modello shirt and I said to this random student hey dumbass you can't wear that to school it's got beer is that true that's true okay I've had I have had the FL I've had the I know who you're talking about yeah has a flag um plenty of students and plenty of Staff with voyager because they just like they work there and they don't even think about it I'm like no you can't advertise beer at school you just that one probably a little more passible than just buying H sure I mean and we we're we're reasonable we're like don't wear that again um it's not something that I know anybody's like out there like trying to catch people it's it's issue then I see your beer shirt I say don't wear it again yeah thank you um so I had I just had a quick question this regarding off-campus lunch um so 11th and 12th graders can go off campus correct um and it seems like ninth and tth graders can go off for in certain scenarios y right and I would just kind of like doesn't seem to be really like addressed one way or another in the h book like that it's allowed or it seems like it's not allowed but there's kind of like you know an activity that happens every week that a lot of kids go to yeah and like how do we sort of like square that with sort of like the idea that we're ninth and 10th aren't really eligible yeah so the practice um and we did do some work around the practice not so much the overall policy but we did change the practice of how we're going to do things this year that will be rolled up the kids when they come back um but so there are multiple organizations that provide opportunities for kiddos to leave school um under the supervision of adults with permission slip signed by parents and those staff um folks and and last year the issue uh was that those were happening on different days and it was really hard for us as a school to manage that in an efficient way and so the change in practice is year is that it's any sixth graders through 12th grader who um in one of these organizations participates and fills out a permission form with that um organization that organization then will let us know that hey this kiddo wants to access our our Wednesday lunch or whatever they'll let us know and then it's um expected that the students will then fill out a form with us um that parents will sign just so we have a record of who is leaving and we're we're I don't want to say restricting but we're making all of those opportunities happen on Wednesdays one day between 11:25 and 12:15 so um with the old schedule that means that high schoolers will would have to go to advisory still for the first 15 minutes um and then at 11:25 they could be dismissed if they were on the approved list to go to one of these three organizations it was last year that provided some of these lunches with kiddos um and middle schoolers uh they would be able to leave their lunchtime um 15 minutes early because at 11:25 middle schools and lunch high schools in advisory so that's the that's the new kind of practice around that this year and again it was more just to help us manage where everybody's going and um and then yeah so other than that it's uh nin 11th and 12th graders are the um only ones who have the open lunch policy every day gotcha so is there like a particular like criteria or something that the organizations like are that you're evaluating to make sure that it's like okay yeah so like I just yeah flip thing that comes to mind it's like well you know I'm an adult that um owns a restaurant yeah and I'm inviting students to come eat here you know like so I apply I mean yes and and the the thought on that is that any parent at any time can call their kid out and excuse them for a lunch if they wanted to do that um and so I I hear you on that the the part of it is is though that we need to know that we need to know like what the organization so right now it's the um uh Cook County um public uh our youth Mental Health Counselors come in and work with some kiddos North Point works with um has provides lunch and then the um Evangelical Free Church provides uh free lunch for kids um and again then once kids who are involved in those groups uh let us know then we require parents to sign off to say yes I know my kids going there I give them permission on that type of stuff so yeah I mean not if if a restaurant did create a group and the parents were okay with their kids going between 11:25 and 12 I would probably to the line there I mean this is these are groups that are doing service to families and kids some way shape or form the county is doing direct Mental Health Services with kids that's different different than a restaurant trying to make well I know I I know that some of it is service but some of it's just lunch and it's fun to leave campus you know well from your perspective I don't think that other people would say that oh okay well the live that's being put out on social media so okay all right well just just curious you know I'm just in the kind of the perspective I come at it from is like you know if kids if we want to talk about having kids go off campus you know like what does that look like for kids rather than I it feels a little weird to me if like we're restricting them to like certain programming and then we're basically funneling them to that programming if they want to go off campus so it's like you know these three are the the historical ones that since I've been here have been the ones who've been doing it so that's why they're the ones that were working is it common to have uh Church groups be allowed to host kids off campus like other districts because I found that a little you know we had a little controversy with that a couple years ago with one of them and I was like where one of them was kind of pushing our family in particular and I said well hold on here it's like and it kind of was I think a little more like Dan's describing where it's you know people who want to go off to eat lunch but I was like this is a church group and you know not all families that's not their values for All Families you know it's different so especially you know our kids from Grand Portage so I don't remember that being an issue last year so much but it does kind of raise this thing for me like well yeah why why are these Church groups allowed to kind of do that because you know again from our perspective you know in our community churches had a certain agenda and so nothing wrong with that agenda but we you know we don't we've had not so great experience sometimes with that agenda so I don't know it's different everywhere is the answer I I I can't give a general statement like that you know I is I mean I had that discussion before here but I just sort of feel like we have to really have a hard line between religious organizations in public school and we have to be careful at that well sounds like we ar being though like these kids can go off for this but not others right well the county is one of the players the soci social service the other two the majority are Church groups that's accurate I don't know I'm not trying to you know shut it down or anything like that but well right so it's and you people have the right to take good out of school and go to you know a religious service or whatever I can't remember what you call that um whatever time like used to called religious release yeah release time you know and that's all protected stuff that people can do of course right so that's not really the issue of like what people are leaving to do I mean kind of the angle that I have on it is like well well why don't we just let all the kids leave then you know if we're going to leave some you know if some of them are going to leave why don't we let them all leave you know I don't know um just from like an equitable standpoint but that's that's a simplistic way to look at it I understand that it's a more complicated issue than that but you know I think as a board uh the some things to think about is you know most districts the vast majority don't have open lunch because of liability you know we we lose control of students when they go out the door and from a board's perspective that's an important variable to way and there's definitely a maturation difference between a ninth grader Junior and a senior and so our ninth and tth graders must be under the supervision of adults with permission forms so we're literally saying to the parent we're handing the kid to that adult and back to us from a legal standpoint and liability standpoint well that's why it wasn't an issue last year because he wasn't in ninth and 10th grade he could do what he wanted I get it now okay Juniors and seniors could walk out the door with permission from the parent and and and they aren't under the supervision of an adult or organization so there's layers of you know thinking through this with protecting the the safest position would be nobody Lees sure for sure which we've had we've had that be the rule here and not the too distant history and then it started it was like and Bam we were kind of all across this the line of the pendulum are kind of in a more medium spot now but I don't know okay well you know food for thought and thank you for talking about that and kind of paying attention to it so um all right any other comments or questions if not where were we middle school high school middle school high school we I'll make a motion okay any further discussion all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries uh 8.7 is to approve the 2425 Sawtooth Elementary HL presented here I think that was pretty much just dates yeah I was I didn't really see any yellow so I'll make a motion I'll second okay any discussion all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries 8.8 is to approve the 2425 preschool did we have one of those before yeah really next is the 2425 and uteral handbook and is this a separate handbook because it's like considered Community Ed programing leave I think so yeah and more hand even more Hands-On from the parents special considerations right and there calendars little different and all kinds of stuff sure okay um if there aren't any questions we just need a motion on this one too I'll make a m I'll say okay any further discussion all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries thank you for all your work on all of those handbooks we appreciate it all right um 9.0 is a Personnel 9.1 is to approve the new hires resignations and leave of absence slate I Mr chair I'll explain one quick thing in here um the leave of absence for Amanda Beal um is actually being addressed by like three different English teachers um and she'll be gone for three quarters um so this brings back Sue Nelson a retired teacher um Kitty Balan will pick up a couple of classes here and there and then another English teacher will pick up another and one of our special ed teachers is already covering some of that so it's kind of schmorgers board of people covering that leave absence okay um the math one is straightforward um and that's also for ilal absence okay and the others are just straightforward hires so is the in the case of the English um they're we're gonna start off the year with Amanda with Amanda first quarter gotcha Y and then she leaves second quarter and whenever she has her baby sure is this like Chris O'Brien that's like is this the Chris Chris O'Brien that's no not that not that one okay a younger one okay all right was on the H and all that I was just kind like really okay retired Engineers that's that's a partner of one of our bus drivers actually gotta okay well great yeah um I think somebody made a point before it's nice to have more hires than resignation resignations on the list so well we need to say thank you to Bill hacker he's been driving for ever first first bus was a dog sled he's been doing that Portage run for who knows how long I'm G to miss his voice on the radio I know I morning to everyone on the highway yeah he was the morning Shear on the radio so thank you Bill for your many many many years of driving our kiddos to and fromont Portage yeah and is um the new hire is Romero are they goingon to do the the same route sure not I honestly don't know if we get shuffled around some sure I think so yeah all right cool well we just need a motion on this one then I'll make a motion I'll second it any further discussion all those in favor I I those opposed motion carries all right um 10.0 is to adjourn into close session um and I don't have the statue written down but we're adjourning into close s session for the statute that says that we can do that to evaluate the uh superintend superintendent's performance so um we are going to journ here at 6 PM you want a motion for that um yeah I suppose we need a motion oh okay you can second it is that good all right um all those a favor I I okay so we are journeying into close session at 6m and we will stop the recording we will