Community Unit School District 200 Board of Education, Committee of the Whole met April 27.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
The Committee of the Whole meeting for the month of April of the Board of Education of Community Unit School District 200, DuPage County, Illinois, was called to order at the Hubble Middle School, 3S600 Herrick Rd, Warrenville, IL by Board President Chris Crabtree, at 7:00 PM.
ROLL CALL
Upon the roll being called, the following were present:
Board Members: Mrs. Chris Crabtree
Mr. Dave Long
Mrs. Angela Blatner
Mr. Brad Paulsen
Dr. Mary Yeboah
Absent: Mr. Rob Hanlon
Mrs. Susan Booton
Also in Attendance: Dr. Jeff Schuler, Superintendent
Dr. Charlie Kyle
Mrs. Erica Loiacono
Mrs. Melissa Murphy
Dr. Brian O’Keeffe
Dr. Chris Silagi
Mr. Jason Spencer
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
Mrs. Melissa Murphy led the Board in the Pledge of Allegiance.
SUSPEND THE RULES AND ADJOURN TO WORKSHOP SETTING
MOTION
Member Long moved, Member Paulsen seconded to suspend the rules and adjourn to a workshop setting. Upon a roll call vote being taken the vote was: AYE 5, NAY 0. The motion carried 5-0.
Instruction
Social-Emotional Learning Report
Dr. Chris Silagi introduced Mr. Matt Biscan, Principal of Wheaton North High School, and Dr. Matt Stellwagen, Activities Director for Wheaton Warrenville South High School, to discuss the increase in support from the Board and the Administration for clubs and activities. These administrators brought two students, Wheaton North student Tyler Webb and Wheaton
Warrenville South student Hope Cavin, to share their experiences with different clubs and activities, as well as the impact that decision to increase support has had on them.
There was additional information/comments on the following:
∙ Learning can occur and does occur in all different kinds of settings, both formal and informal.
∙ The most important part of learning is the connections that students build with each other and with the staff.
∙ There are more than 50 activities/programs at both WN and WWS for students to join.
∙ Believe in promoting growth and interests and making social connections.
∙ The goal in the District is to make sure that every student in the two high schools is in
some kind of activity where they have the opportunity to build connections with adults.
∙ The process currently in place if a student(s) wants to start a new club.
∙ Over 80% of D200 high school students are involved in something.
∙ Adults sponsoring clubs goes hand in hand with student interest.
There were questions and/or discussion on the following:
∙ Are there any barriers to opportunities for students to participate? Opportunities continue to arise with new activities.
∙ Where students can go in the high school to find information on clubs/activities.
∙ The activities fair takes place at the beginning of the school year.
∙ Activity buses – have these buses been utilized by students participating in activities?
∙ Reaching out to uninvolved kids – is that happening? Not all students feel the need to be involved; may depend on if they are working, taking care of family members at home, etc.
∙ Providing students with an opportunity to connect.
∙ The idea to use lunch or access periods for those students that have commitments after school – this has some logistical challenges.
∙ Students practicing during lunchtime.
∙ A traditional 8-period school day vs. a modified block schedule being used by some high schools.
The students and admins were thanked for their participation in the meeting.
District 200 is committed to ensuring the emotional well-being of all students. The district had several goals in the areas of relationships, emotional wellness, learning, and behavioral wellness that correlate with the District 200 social-emotional learning framework. A report was given to the Board of Education on the progress made on the 2021-22 social-emotional learning work plan. The report summarized the goals and actions taken this year, which included the following:
∙ Key Questions
o What were our goals this year?
o What systemic districtwide actions did we take during the 2021-22 school year? o How do we keep getting better in the social-emotional learning space?
∙ SEL Framework
o Relationships
o Mindset
o Learning
o Emotional Wellness
o Behavioral Wellness
∙ What were our goals this year?
o Ensure that all students have a relationship with a trusted adult in D200 schools.
o Ensure students know how to advocate for peers and themselves when a risk of harm to self may be present.
o Introduce a universal social-emotional assessment and screener at the Elementary and MS levels as part of a comprehensive assessment framework.
o Provide successful coordinated re-entry for students returning from a hospital setting in grades 6-12.
o Expand offerings and student participation in clubs and activities K-12.
o Implement research-based foundational behavioral practices in all elementary schools and ensure D200 staff know how to proactively and reactively respond to crisis behavioral situations.
∙ What systemic districtwide actions did we take during the 2021-22 school year?
o Relationship Mapping
o Acknowledge, Care, Tell (ACT)
o Social Academic Behavioral Assessment
o Emotional Wellness Coordinators
o Expanded and Enhanced Clubs/Activities
o Focused Professional Learning
o Core Behavioral Framework
∙ Relationships
o Relationship Mapping
o Goal – ensure that all students have a relationship with a trusted adult in D200 schools
o Percentages by Level (Elementary, MS, HS)
∙ Emotional Wellness
o Acknowledge, Care, Tell
o Goal – ensure students know how to advocate for peers and themselves when a risk of harm to self may be present
o The BSAD (Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression)
∙ Learning
o SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener)
Goal – introduce a universal social-emotional assessment and screener at the elementary and MS levels as part of a comprehensive assessment framework
o Percentages by Level (Elementary, MS for Fall and Winter)
∙ Emotional Wellness
o Emotional Wellness Coordinators
o Goal – provide successful coordinated re-entry for students returning from a hospital setting in grades 6-12
∙ Learning
o Expanded and Enhanced Clubs and Activities
o Goal – expand offerings and student participation in clubs and activities K-12
∙ Behavior Wellness
o Focused Professional Learning (K-12)
o Goal – implement research-based foundational behavioral practices in all elementary schools and ensure D200 staff know how to proactively and reactively respond to crisis behavioral situations
o Core Behavioral Classroom Framework (Elementary)
o Significant Disruptions Protocol (Elementary)
∙ How do we keep getting better in the social-emotional learning space: A few future focus areas…
o Enhance Relationship Mapping Process
o SAEBRS Expansion and Implementation
o Leadership Training
o Productive Growth Mindsets
o Continued Enhancement of Clubs and Activities
There was additional information/comments on the following:
∙ The starting point for any conversation on SEL is the framework.
∙ Students in D200 take a trusted adult survey as part of a comprehensive effort to connect students to their school; the survey is conducted in the first semester early on in the year.
∙ Relationship mapping for next year and looking at our students who do not have a connected adult, but also making sure at our MS and HS that all staff members are aware of students who have identified them as a trusted adult – cross-referencing; having staff do a reverse relationship map for students they are connected to.
∙ ACT (Acknowledge, Care, Tell) and BSAD (Brief Screen for Adolescent Depression) programs and how they work.
∙ ACT – hope this becomes part of our school culture and will help to destigmatize mental health.
∙ An all-hands-on-deck effort when BSAD survey /program is implemented (so the assessments can be evaluated and support be provided to any student identified as soon as possible).
∙ The time and effort that it takes for our schools to do these assessments at each grade level.
∙ SAEBRS (Social, Academic, and Emotional Behavior Risk Screener) asks questions related to each student’s academic, emotional, and social behavior three times per year.
∙ When thinking about academic or emotional programming, you typically should not be providing intervention for 80-85% of kids (that should not need extra levels of support).
∙ SAEBRS was piloted this year at four elementary and two middle schools and is a part of the assessment suite the district already uses (Fast Bridge).
∙ Data looks at whole school and individual levels, and will also provide trend data.
∙ Reporting of data to parents.
∙ Emotional wellness coordinators – added to the MS level this year – one for south side MS and one for north side MS.
∙ Expanding the Signs of Suicide (SOS) program to the MS level.
∙ Have had a lot of excitement about the expanded and enhanced clubs and activities at the elementary level; increased participation rates and involvement from students.
∙ Consistency in programming for clubs and activities through the various levels (elementary, middle, and high schools).
∙ Focused professional learning was provided on student-teacher relationships, classroom and behavior management, crisis prevention and de-escalation, and restorative conversations.
∙ Thinking early about how we shape behavior – one way is through the core behavioral classroom framework, which communicates success descriptors for a successful classroom environment.
∙ The disruptions protocol identifies the significant disruptive behaviors and the specifically trained staff members that should be contacted to respond.
∙ June 6th leadership training for all of our schools – admins and leadership teams from all buildings will participate in the Leadership Learning Lab with Trevor Ragan. The focus will be on a growth mindset and developing leaders and cultivating that within our school culture, overcoming fear, and becoming better learners in taking action and culture.
∙ As we enter into the math adoption, the importance of improving learning and student efficacy in math as it relates to a productive growth mindset.
There were questions and/or discussion on the following:
∙ Focused Professional Learning – research showing the harmful impact of teachers not being well-trained in culturally responsive teaching leading practice; the training teachers need going forward to advance the SEL goals reviewed.
∙ How can we measure if we are having an impact on kids and making progress on this?
∙ What is being done to help students get connected and make that connection during the school day or after school?
∙ The ability to track how students are doing on the assessments noted from year-to-year, and see trend data. Do we have the infrastructure to do that?
∙ Is there a point where we are developing a class for kids that are struggling or we are more directly teaching SEL or teaching explicit skills? Feels like remediation in the academic space, and not sure that is the best way to bridge the gap.
∙ SAEBRS assessment and the alignment to Fast Bridge – parents being able to see this and have this information creates trend data; will have this for a group, as well as individual students.
∙ SAEBRS assessment – how questions are framed and how this is reported in terms of averaging scores – how is it descriptive for an individual parent? Can bring this back at a future meeting.
∙ Who is administering/scoring this assessment at the MS level? The assessment was piloted by ELA teachers. What if that is not the student’s area of strength? There are a number of variables coming into play.
∙ Communicating to parents concerns if students fall into some or high category.
∙ Emotional wellness and privacy concerning students.
∙ If a student is re-entering after hospitalization, how is information communicated to the school and who will be informed at the school level?
∙ Specific targeted SEL lessons as it relates to the use of advisory time at the MS level.
Vision 2026 Dashboard
District 200 has been working on the development of a new strategic plan. The strategic plan is being built around the Portrait of a Graduate. The Vision 2026 Strategic Plan will include specific academic excellence and operational excellence strategies. It will also include a dashboard that monitors key performance metrics related to academic excellence and operational excellence strategies.
The Administration reviewed the Vision 2026 draft dashboard, which included the following:
∙ Vision 2026 Strategies
∙ Indicators
∙ Data sources
∙ Description – what does this tell us?
∙ Why is this important?
∙ Baseline 2021-22
∙ Time of year information is tracked
The Vision 2026 Draft Dashboard includes the following strategies and indicators:
∙ Learning Acceleration/Balanced Assessment System (ELA)
o Early Reading Achievement (K-1)
o English Language Arts Achievement (2-5)
o Percentage of Students Meeting Reading Growth Target (K-8)
∙ Learning Acceleration/Postsecondary Opportunities (ELA)
o High School English Language Arts Proficiency
∙ Learning Acceleration/Balanced Assessment System (Math)
o Early Math Achievement (K-1)
o Math Achievement (2-5)
o Math Achievement (6-8)
o Percentage of Students Meeting FastBridge Math Growth Target (K-8)
∙ Learning Acceleration/Postsecondary Opportunities (Math)
o High School Math Proficiency
∙ Learning Acceleration/Balanced Assessment/Preparing Students for Postsecondary Opportunities
o PSAT to SAT Growth
o Freshman on Track
o Graduation Rate
∙ Preparing Students for Postsecondary Opportunities
o Advanced Coursework
∙ Social-Emotional Learning
o Student Connectedness (3-12)
o Activities/Co-Curricular Participation (9-12)
o Attendance
∙ Hire, Develop and Retain Diverse, High-Quality Staff
o Teacher Retention
o Principal Retention
o Percentage of Positions Filled
o Staff Demographic
∙ Fiscal Health
o Finance Overview Document
o Balanced Budget
o Fund Balance
o Finance Profile Score
o Bond Rating
∙ Facilities Master Plan
o Facilities Overview Document
o Capital Projects Complete
o Long-term Debt Schedule
o Master Facility Plan Improvements
∙ Community Engagement
o 5-Essentials
∙ Learning Acceleration/Balanced Assessment/Organizational Culture/Community Engagement/Hire, Develop and Retain Diverse, High-Quality Staff
o Equity Journey Continuum
There was additional information/comments on the following:
∙ A reminder that learning acceleration is very different from remediation.
∙ Comprehensive assessment system - includes classroom assessments, interim assessments, summative/evaluative assessments.
∙ Feedback from the community – it would be beneficial to have assessment data broken out by level.
∙ HS English Language Arts (ELA) Proficiency – aligned to College and Career Readiness and the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE).
∙ A more comprehensive report with information on FastBridge will be presented to the Board in May.
∙ PSAT to SAT Growth – is on the dashboard, but was unable to report on this data due to the pause in testing in 2020. The 2022 data will be the baseline year that the district will be able to use, along with the 2018 PSAT grade 8 data.
∙ Broadened the definition of advanced coursework to go beyond Advanced Placement (AP) and Dual-Credit Coursework, and will include the percentage of students that will earn an industry-recognized credential. This aligns with the goals of career pathways.
∙ Included for the first time on the dashboard – State test scores (at the K-8 level). Have not had good trend data in the past as the assessments have changed every couple of years. However, this is what ISBE uses in public school district school report cards.
∙ It is very likely in the next couple of years the state assessment is going to change.
∙ Do not believe the percentage of students meeting and exceeding on the ISBE state test is reflective of the percentage of students that are functioning at grade-level academic content, therefore a misleading metric. The state assessment has a very high cut score, which presents a lot of challenges with that state data.
∙ Also new on the dashboard – FastBridge and the growth element. Have always reported the percentage of students that are attaining a certain level of performance on our local assessment. It is also important to make sure students are growing and growing typically during the year.
∙ Teacher retention – 93%; Principal retention – 98-99%.
∙ As previously reported, it is becoming harder to get classified staff to fill positions. The district is always looking for new ways to fill open positions.
∙ Tracking the hiring of diverse staff/educators; goal to attract and try to get more diverse candidates to apply for positions.
∙ Career pathways and “grow your own teacher” program.
∙ The finance overview and facilities overview documents – use as a baseline of what has occurred and provide the Board and the public with an overview of where things stand from both the financial end and the facilities end.
∙ The financial profile score comes directly from the state (included in the AFR, but then codified by the state after reviewing all financial data submitted by the district).
∙ Bond rating, and when this becomes important. In terms of the debt profile side of things, that rating is a distinguishing characteristic of bond credit worthiness in the financial marketplace (a higher bond rating means you pay less interest).
∙ The facilities overview document is a high-level perspective of what has happened year over-year concerning completed capital projects.
∙ The long-term debt schedule shows what current debt the district has and when the debt is due.
∙ 5 Essentials survey – this is the state-sponsored school climate culture survey that provides student, teacher, and parent feedback for school improvement. Provides helpful information in terms of understanding the kind of instructional climate and culture in D200 buildings.
∙ Currently, ISBE is only tracking participation data on the 5 Essentials survey.
∙ Determining what is the most useful to the district from the 5 Essentials data as a tracking tool.
∙ Equity Journey Continuum – newly developed from ISBE and will be on the state report card this year (reported in October 2022). This will be utilizing data we already report to ISBE on an annual basis. The continuum analyzes data elements in student learning, learning conditions, and elevating educators. The data is used to place districts in one of the steps on the continuum, from step 1 (large equity gaps) to step 4 (minimal gaps in equity).
There were questions and/or discussion on the following:
∙ FastBridge assessments and whether they stay constant? FastBridge is a District purchased assessment and will allow us to have trend data; this is also given three times a year.
∙ Possibility of the state going to a three times a year assessment – ISBE meeting and the center for assessment reported this is not currently something the feedback is suggesting or supporting. Also, advocacy groups are pushing strongly on that.
∙ Illinois Assessment of Readiness (IAR) percentages and what they represent – the percentage of students from this past year that met or exceeded on the state assessment.
∙ IAR and Fastbridge percentages of students meeting/exceeding will not correlate and why this is so. FastBridge numbers are expected to be higher than IAR.
∙ FastBridge is an assessment tool the District is purchasing; they standardize the scoring and align it to learning progressions and nationally norm the results as well.
∙ IAR – defines “at or above” as 4 and 5, would like to get the data for 3, 4, and 5.
∙ SAT - The state has a higher cut score for “meeting” standards than the College Board cut score.
∙ The addition of an option for the grade as being “meeting or exceeding” in proficiency at the HS level – data is defined by redefining readiness and the criteria set by that group concerning competency and proficiency for ELA and math. The belief is that if you are successfully navigating through a college course and succeeding (dual-credit class), research suggests that is a strong indicator that you are college-ready.
∙ Receiving a “c” in Algebra 2 and whether that means you are college-ready. Data is being compiled for the first time in June which will give us baseline data.
∙ The last time the District Mission and Vision were reviewed and/or revised? The importance of integrating Portrait of a Graduate (POG) things into the District Mission and Vision.
∙ As the district adopts POG, will we organically see the Mission and Vision shifting?
∙ Look at the District belief statements.
∙ Professional Development - the percentage of teachers engaging in microcredentials and continuing their education. This number increases each year and the district continues to add additional professional learning opportunities for teachers. Monitoring this information – can be provided to the Board.
∙ Teacher retention percentage – ISBE metric and accounts for anybody leaving for any reason.
∙ The number of open positions as it relates to the total number of staff; most open positions are classified staff. If that number grows, particularly at the beginning of the school year, it will impact the quality of service.
∙ Percentage of positions filled – valuable metric; doing everything we can to fill positions at any point in the year.
∙ Equity Journey Continuum – the gaps in equity around special populations – defined as students with disabilities and multilingual learners; also the racial demographic groups.
∙ The state is reporting the equity continuum in the aggregate by category.
∙ What kind of data point will capture the two different stories being told about the district? There is a disconnect between the community voice being heard daily and what is seen in the board seat. What is the district doing to make sure that certain populations are being heard and responded to? When we want to improve things in the district we do it through intentional strategy to ensure we are engaging with the entirety of our community.
∙ Dashboard items/metrics vs. strategies; dashboard metrics – either numeric quantitative metrics or qualitative measures that can be distilled into something being monitored every year.
∙ The importance of focusing and monitoring both the numbers and the strategies.
∙ Vision 2026 – tactic added to support the organizational culture includes conducting a communication and community engagement audit to ensure all stakeholders in our community feel informed and valued. This information could be used to drive the annual community engagement plan for the district.
∙ What the district is intentionally doing in terms of strategy and focus and what is being monitored comprise the strategic plan.
∙ Measuring how well you are implementing your plan is probably more relevant than measuring what percentage of the community population the district is engaging with.
∙ Taking an equity lens to the whole plan itself.
∙ The kinds of data that do not get captured – are often in microaggressions or in small moments that happen. These are hard to capture and often are unresolved. The idea of an incident form or some way to capture this data for the district.
∙ The importance of understanding what we are trying to capture and what we are trying to measure.
∙ Frustration among certain subgroups in the district, and having a better understanding of what that frustration is.
∙ Purposefully targeting areas that we are not getting to; how to draw people to talk to us.
∙ How can we systemize a process? All Board members have different stakeholders in the community that access members more regularly. How to bring all the voices together – something to think about so collectively we have a better understanding and what is that data point that is driving that.
∙ Interested in the design of the dashboard - trend data, interactive, useful information, and understandable for the community.
∙ Board accountability and how to function as a group.
PUBLIC COMMENTS – Agenda/Non-Agenda Items
In accordance with Board Policy 2.230, members of the public wishing to offer public comment had the opportunity to do so. A public comment sign-up sheet was made available until just before the comment opportunity at the meeting site. The Board Meeting was available for viewing via live-stream on the District’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/communityunitschooldistrict200.
Per Board Policy, the Board may shorten the time allocation for each person to less than 3 minutes to allow the maximum number of people the opportunity to speak.
∙ There were no public comments.
CLOSED SESSION
Pursuant to 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(1) The Appointment, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance, or Dismissal of Specific Employees, Specific Individuals who Serve as Independent Contractors in a Park, Recreational, or Educational Setting, or Specific Volunteers of the Public Body or Legal Counsel for the Public Body, including Hearing Testimony on a Complaint Lodged Against an Employee, a Specific Individual who Serves as an Independent Contractor in a Park, Recreational, or Educational Setting, or a Volunteer of the Public Body or Against Legal Counsel for the Public Body to Determine its Validity.
MOTION
Member Crabtree moved, Member Paulsen seconded to adjourn the meeting to closed session for the purpose of discussing The Appointment, Employment, Compensation, Discipline, Performance, or Dismissal of Specific Employees, Specific Individuals who Serve as Independent Contractors in a Park, Recreational, or Educational Setting, or Specific Volunteers of the Public Body or Legal Counsel for the Public Body, including Hearing Testimony on a Complaint Lodged Against an Employee, a Specific Individual who Serves as an Independent Contractor in a Park, Recreational, or Educational Setting, or a Volunteer of the Public Body or Against Legal Counsel for the Public Body to Determine its Validity 5 ILCS 120/2 (c)(1). Upon a roll call being taken, the vote was AYE 5, NAY 0. The motion carried 5-0. There was no action expected following the Closed Session.
The meeting adjourned to Closed Session at 9:47 PM.
https://www.cusd200.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=22857&dataid=36620&FileName=Minutes%20Apr%2027%202022%20COW.pdf
Alerts Sign-up