BOARD BRIEFS

Board of Education Regular Meeting

Thursday, February 23, 2023

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What are Board Briefs?

What are Board Briefs?

Board Briefs will be published following Keeneyville District 20's Board of Education monthly meetings to share highlights from the presentations, discussion items, action items, and administrator reports. Board Briefs will not replace the official board minutes, but will provide staff and community members with an opportunity to stay up-to-date about Board meetings and actions.

To learn more about the Board of Education, including Board Members, Calendar, Agendas, Minutes, and Meeting Recordings, please go to https://www.esd20.org/board-of-education.

Public Participation

Public Participation

All board meetings are held in-person at Spring Wood Middle School, 5540 Arlington Drive E, Hanover Park, IL in the Innovation Center (2nd Floor), unless otherwise noted. The meetings are also shown live via Zoom, and a recording of each meeting can be found on the district website at https://www.esd20.org/board-of-education/board-meetings.

The Board welcomes and encourages the community to attend board meetings and ask questions during Public Comment in-person (not virtually). You are asked to limit your comments to 3 minutes. Please understand the Board will not respond to your questions and concerns during the meeting. A member of the administrative team and/or board member will follow-up with you after the meeting.

Watch Meeting Recording

Watch Meeting Recording

We want your feedback!

5eSSENTIALS PARENT SURVEY

PARENT & GUARDIAN INTEREST SURVEY

Recognitions

At the Board Meeting, Dr. Castillo shared that earlier this month our own Colleen Flores, Director of Student Services, received the Citizen of the Year Award at the Village of Hanover Park Annual Community Awards & Recognition Banquet. The mayor recognized her for all the work she has done not only for our students and our school community, but the whole Hanover Park community as well!

In addition, during the event scholarships were presented to five Hanover Park high school seniors. After the presentations of these scholarships, it was nice to see that out of the five students, four went through Keeneyville 20 schools!

Board Meeting Highlights

Board Items

Board's President Report was shared, including reports from the Finance & Facilities, Policy and SASED Committees.

The Board Approved the Bear Construction proposals for 2023 summer construction projects to replace student lockers and reconfigure the office at Greenbrook, as well as update all bathrooms at Spring Wood.

Student fees for the 2023-2024 school year were recommended and approved as follows:
- Registration Fee will remain the same at $150 per student (K-8), with $50 off as Early Bird Discount if complete registration by 5/31/2023
- Technology Fee will remain the same at $50 per student
- Athletic Fee (Spring Wood only) will be eliminated
- Milk price will be reduced (for all three schools) from $.90 to $.50
- Spring Wood PE Uniform fee ($17) and Yearbook fee ($24) will remain the same

Superintendent's Report

Dr. Castillo discussed how achievement gaps are widely considered to be one of the major challenges facing our education system. Closing the achievement gaps is closely related to fairness in education, equal access to learning opportunities, and great educational achievement, attainment, and benefits.

District 20's achievement gaps for Black and Hispanic students were presented as compared to their White counterparts on IAR from the 2022 Illinois interactive school report card. Great work is being done in our classrooms to help close the gaps!

The district continues to streamline processes for the student enrollment process. We will begin using the CLEAR public database to automatically verify current student address information. The process is an efficient way to ensure that enrolled students are current residents of our Keeneyville D20 school community. The annual residency verification process safeguards district resources for taxpayers and is convenient for our families.
- For current families, if your residency is verified through CLEAR, there will be no need to submit additional paperwork to certify that you live within the district boundaries. If additional information is required, your school will contact you asking for specific information.
- For families of Kindergarten and any new families, the district will still need to verify residency at the school they are enrolling in. More information will be shared with families this spring.

District Administrator Reports

Mrs. Reiley Straub, Director of Finance and Operations, presented the Financial Dashboard. The District continues to maintain a financial profile score designation of 3.9, the highest rating awarded by the state. We are very proud to be recognized for our fiscal responsibility!

Dr. Carrie Buckley, Director of Teaching and Learning, presented on student fall and winter assessment data. We are very proud of the work being done by our students and teachers! She also announced that after a five month pilot of two different Elementary ELA resources, teacher feedback and benchmark data showed that the resource HMH IntoReading is the best fit for our students. Elementary teachers will be trained in August and the resource will be implemented in classrooms next year. Dr. Buckley also shared several technology updates, including installing additional security cameras and new VSEVEN Boards at our schools.

Ms. Colleen Flores, Director of Student Services, discussed the successful Newcomers Night for the district's two largest newcomer immigrant populations: Spanish and Ukrainian. Families learned about navigating D20 schools in their native language and were connected with several community resource providers.

Mrs. Julie Relihan, Director of Strategic Operations, reminded parents to take the IL 5Essentials Parent Survey to share their feedback. She also shared upcoming dates for registration and residency for the 2023-24 School Year. The enrollment postcard will be mailed to all residences in our district later this month.
- 4/12 6pm: Kindergarten Round-Up
- 4/13: ECC + Kindergarten Registration Opens
- 5/1: Grades 1-8 Registration Opens
- 5/1: D20 Summer School Registration Opens

School Administrator Reports

Greenbrook School: Principal Gustafson shared his appreciation for his entire school community for trusting and working together as a united team to make sure everyone was safe and supported. During parent-teacher conferences, the staff made phone calls to all parents to check-in, offer their support and discuss how their children are doing. Greenbrook and Waterbury will be holding a student art show together at the Bloomingdale Park District in March.

Waterbury School: Principal Pokora described the school's recent WOW Factor talent show and talked about how wonderful it was to see students and staff participating on stage. Waterbury is looking forward to other fun school-wide events coming up such as Read Across America and the Explore More Day.

Spring Wood Middle School: Principal Aliano reported that the Staff Basketball Game was a big success that was enjoyed by all! Parent-teacher conferences were held and staff created goals for each student at the professional development day. Winter MAP has been completed and staff have had the opportunity to review the data through the lens of the whole building. The data shows that the students are responding to our expectations and challenges created as a school last fall. The SW student report was given by a 7th Grade Student who shared that the girls and boys volleyball seasons have begun and the SW Cheer Team did a great job at their recent competition. NJHS hosted Soup for Superheroes and the Charger Pride Celebration Dinner was a success. A shout out was given to Ms. Eggebrecht's classroom who came in during conferences to serve and deliver treats and drinks to teachers and parents.

D20 MASTER CALENDAR

Wednesday, March 1 - Report Card Distribution
Friday, March 2 - Teacher Institute Day - NO CLASSES
Tuesday, March 14 - Board Finance & Facilities Committee of the Whole (6-8pm)
Thursday, March 23 - Board of Education Regular Meeting - SW Innovation Center (7pm)

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