Board of Education Special Meeting Minutes

Date:September 15, 2017

Time:9:48 a.m.

Place: Aftercare Conference Room

APPROVED: November 3, 2017

IO1.0CALL TO ORDER by President Heidi Mueller at 9:48 a.m.

1.1Roll Call

1.2.Board Members Present: Heidi Mueller, Patrick Griffin, David Green, Jennifer Vidis, Dr. Heather Dalmage, and Teresa Dunbar Garrett

1.3.Others present: Dr. Sophia Jones-Redmond, Superintendent of Schools; Dr. Bambi Bethel-Leitschuh, Director of Special Education; Dr. Peter Leone, IDJJ Court Monitor; Esther Yahnig, Assistant Legal Counsel;and Maurice McAllister, Recorder.

AI2.0CONSENT AGENDA

2.1Approval of Agenda

President Mueller motioned to move the approval of the September 15, 2017 agenda. Member Green motioned to approve the agenda and Member Vidisseconded.

Voice Vote

Aye:Unanimous

Nay:None

Motion Carries

2.2Approval of Minutes

President Mueller motioned to move the approval of the Minutes for

July 21, 2017. Member Dalmage moved to approve the July 21, 2017 minutes and Member Green seconded.

Voice Vote

Aye:Unanimous

Nay:None

Motion Carries

IO3.0Public Participation

No public comments.

IO4.0PRESIDENT’S REPORT

4.1Dr. Peter Leone, IDJJ Court Monitor – Updates from last visit

President Mueller mentioned that Dr. Peter Leone has a wealth of great expertise in walking IDJJ through our Consent Decree. Dr. Leone makes his visits and reports back to the School District with his feedback.

Dr. Peter Leone thanked the Board of Education for inviting him to this meeting. He mentioned that his visits were June 2017 to August 2017. He visited all schools, administrative staff and some vendors in the communities. Pere Marquette School was visited in June 2017 and he noticed strong leadership. The boys are participating in college courses and Youth Build in the community. A wonderful set up in Alton near Pere Marquette. Pere Marquette administration has a good working relationship with staff and youth. The school library is a great area for staff and youth to read. Harrisburg School over the last six months has developed a strong relationship with Lake Land College and their teaching of the Horticulture, Culinary Arts and Building Maintenance programs has been outstanding at Harrisburg. The school has good leadership and is fully staffed. Although some facility security staff at Harrisburg is putting in complaints to the County courtsoffice on youth who are spitting or hitting staff; and as a result the courts are adding more time on to the youth’s sentence. There are some racial tension with African American and white rural staff. The youth have been acting out at the school and the classroom rooms are used for discipline. Harrisburg has a strong Career and Technical Educational (CTE) Program. Chicago Schoolhas high school leadership and educational staff. Number of the teaching staff decided to stay home as retaliation due to student consequences and youth behavior for offenses at the school. The school lacks a CTE program due to lack of space. The Department needs to see how they are going to address the lack of space at the school. Warrenville Schoolhas no permanent Principal but has been temporarily assigning educators and has contracted staff in as a lead teacher. In speaking with the Superintendent, candidates have been interviewed and a selection has been made. We are hoping that the position fills fast. Warrenville had a great school counselor and was helping the youth improve but the position is currently vacant as of September 13, 2017. The youth can work on any computer during class and work on Grad Point.

St. Charles School continues to struggle with teaching staff. Dr. Leone

mentioned he attended a graduation at the school during his visit. The school is without a permanent principal and one of the educator’s at Harrisburg is currently temporarily assigned as the Principal at St. Charles. A new Principal will be appointed soon. The youth at the facility are acting out but the blame is not the youth, it’s the school because they are receiving half school days and in some cases only 2 hours of school and the youth acts out because of this. Getting teachers hiredwho are on a 9 month contract in public school systems verse 12 month contract with the State school systems poses problems and these are issues that need to be addressed if IDJJ continues to seek teachers in their schools. Some options could include: IDJJ must get the human resource agreement met with the Governor’s office in reducing the number of hands to get paperwork and staff hired; Allow creation of Charter School with contract at St. Charles only. This would allow the State freedom from constraints with the hiring process; Contract with Kane County Cooperative, they will do the hiring of all teachers and provide staff development with the State of Illinois background process, the current Superintendent would oversee the school and operational needs as normal; and have specific parts of the hiring process contracted out to a staffing agency (Delta-T Group) or Kane County. With the lack of security staff, kids do not get to class on time and in some cases no school at all.

President Mueller responded to Dr. Leone’s comments to the Board. She mentioned that the Department wants to lead with our actions toward his response during his visit. In response to Harrisburg staff contacting the County to file a complaint, the complaints are coming from non-teaching staff. Staff is going by hearsay and all incidence been taken care of. The Department rolled out new policies. Dr. Jones-Redmond and her team of educators are visiting Pendleton Juvenile Center in an effort to capture ideas about a juvenile center that was once under the Consent Decree. In addition, she will be visiting the Maya Academy in Maryland next month again to see difference school models. With the situation going on in Harrisburg, the Department has written and approved new policies relative to youth intervention, using Positive Behavior and Interventions Supports (PBIS). We realized that there is a breakdown in communication. In some cases with solitary confinement everyone sees that discipline was administered but with no confinement staff cannot see what the discipline is and therefore they think the youth was not disciplined for bad behavior. Communication is important in these situations and lack of it can break through the negative process.

President Mueller further mentioned that Superintendent Jones-Redmond is working to develop other partnership with post-secondary colleges and is expanding our current systems into other schools. IDJJ have to get the Governors approval to set out a plan were we can have youth to do online classes with unfiltered search on the computer and websites. We by far are exceeding our staffing ratios in our schools. Unlike Pendleton Juvenile Center, they do not exceed their ratios. We have a strong leadership tool in place to handle situation but everyone must do their jobs. We are working with St. Charles on getting training and working with establishing accountability. We have proposed to the

Governor’s office a divorce from our current hiring process. The State is under a Rutan Hiring Consent Decree but we are proposing other avenues to get the process done more effective.

Superintendent Jones-Redmond mentioned that the School District is working on getting staff on board with St. Charles and Warrenville schools. There is a lack of permanent leadership at these schools and new leaders are coming on board very soon. In addition, we have scheduled the Principal and at least one additional teacher in each school to attend Rutan Interview Certification training. At this time, training is scheduled in Springfield, October 12- October 13 and October 24 - October 25, 2017. We are in discussion with Delta-T Group a consulting agency that can do the hiring process for the School District but the primary focus will be at St. Charles. We currently have a long background process and too many hands are slowing down the hiring process. Since IDJJ is under the Consent Decree, we have some critical positions to fill. What we are mentioning are small fixes and we are working on a long-term process.

President Mueller mentioned that IDJJ was starting the Charter School path and the Governor’s office felt this type of setting is difficult in IDJJ and put the brakes on this type of setting because of legal obligations.

IO5.0SUPERINTENDENT’S REPORT

IO5.1School Board Policy Plan

Esther Yahnig mentioned that the Department is updating its Administrative Directives (AD) and are working to adopt the Board of Education policies. This board has approved changes to the following Administrative Directives: 04.10.101 Authority and Responsibility for Educational Programs; 04.10.103 Curriculum, Class Size, and Schedules for School Closings; 04.10.112 Eighth Grade Diploma; and 04.10.118 Educational Records and Transcripts. This board also approved changes to AD 04.10.105 regarding Special Education Services, which is under review with the Department. The School District and Legal are reviewing sample policies developed by the Illinois Association of School Boards and will be recommending Board of Education policies for adoption over the course of the School Year. The plan for this project is as follows:

  • The Superintendent and Assistant Chief Legal Counsel will draft the policies.
  • The policy subcommittee will meet to review the draft polices and recommend changes.
  • Sections of the draft policies will be presented to the Board of Education for review and recommendations at each meeting, beginning in November 2017.
  • The Board of Education will be asked to adopt all policies when the project is complete in 2018.

AI5.2Proposed School Names

Superintendent Jones-Redmond mentioned that the School District is proposing school names for all our schools with IDJJ. The School District felt the need to

identify each school with a name instead of a facility; and feels that by establishing a school name, this gives school value, builds cohesiveness, and purpose. The school names were developed by the teachers and youth at each

school. Many of the schools had the youth to research and come up with a name that would speak for their school. The School District attached a brief narrative description behind each school name. Therefore, the School District seeks your approval for naming each school.

President Mueller motioned to move the approval of the Proposed School Names for IDJJ School District. Member Griffin moved to approve the Proposed School names for IDJJ School District and Member Dalmage seconded.

Voice Vote

Aye:Unanimous

Nay:None

Motion Carries

IO5.3School District Staffing

Superintendent Jones-Redmond mentioned that the Director of Career and Technical has been hired and is currently in background pending a start date. We anticipate the candidate starting on September 16, 2017 and he will be at the next Board of Education Meeting in November. As we scan through the current staffing chart, St. Charles is still in need of Educators and as I discussed earlier, the Department is seeking other means to capture teachers with Delta-T Group.

IO5.4July and August Special Education Reports

Dr. Bethel-Leitschuh mentioned that the Special Education reports have been revised for painting a clearer picture of the Special Education program at IDJJ. The monitoring log has been dissected and is simple to view. The purpose for the shift is to have a readable and logical flow of information for this board. As we few the August report, 13 initial, annual, and re-evaluation meetings were conducted with one meeting needing to be rescheduled. Of the 125 students enrolled in Special Education only 41 were new students and 27 exited during August. Emotional Disabled was the primary eligibility with 63 youth. The Specific Learning Disabled was the primarily eligibility for 31 youth. Other Health Impaired was the primary disability for 26 youth. Five youth were eligible for Intellectual Disabilities. One Student had an active 504 plan. Off all the classes that required only six students with IEPs to enroll, one class had 7 students

enrolled on the reporting day of August 31. IYC Pere Marquette, IYC Warrenville and IYC Chicago had zero students who were out of compliance for 30-60 or 90 days. IYC St. Charles had two students out of compliance over 30 days but fewer than 60 days.

IO5.5July and AugustPrincipal Data and Education Reports

Superintendent Jones-Redmond mentioned that the highlight of the Principal Data and Education Reports are the youth who has graduated in our schools by way of meeting the required courses of study for High School requirements or by GED. We are graduating youth in our schools and as of July, 10 High School Diplomas and 7 GED were rewarded. In the month of August, 6 High School Diplomas were issued and 14 GEDs were rewarded.

IO6.0BOARD DISCUSSION ITEMS

Nothing to discuss.

IO7.0ADJOURMENT

Meeting adjourned at 12:05pm