Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District No. 196 Board of Education Met Jan. 11.
Here is the minutes provided by the board:
Superintendent Henry read the following statements regarding the board meeting. This board meeting is being held remotely pursuant to Section 120/7(e) of the Illinois Open Meetings Act [5 ILCS 120/7(e)] due to the state-wide COVID-19 disaster declaration issued by Governor Pritzker to ensure the health and safety of our community members, staff members and students. The head of the public body (superintendent) has determined that members of the public should not meet in-person during the board meeting because their attendance is not feasible due to the COVID-19 disaster declaration. The head of the public body (superintendent) has determined that members of the Sesser-Valier Board of Education shall be physically present in-person at the regular meeting location during the board meeting. The board of education has made alternative arrangements and has provided notice to the public on the school district's website describing how any interested member of the public may contemporaneously hear all discussion, testimony and roll call votes taken during the board meeting by offering a web-based link. The board of education will keep a verbatim record of all board meetings held remotely in the form of an audio recording. The recordings of open session meetings will be made available for public inspection.
CALL TO ORDER
A regular meeting of the Board of Education of Sesser-Valier Community Unit School District No. 196 was held in the High School Library at 6:00 PM on Monday, January 11, 2021. The meeting was called to order by President Teresa Stacey.
ROLL CALL
Secretary Malinee called the roll with the following result:
Members Present: Acosta, Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey
Members Absent:
Hicks, Ketteman
Staff Present: J. Henry, N. Page, K. Jones, V. Malinee, C. Garner (remote), S. White (remote)
Visitors Present: Lori Miller (remote)
PUBLIC COMMENT & CORRESPONDENCE
President Stacey asked for any public comments. Lori Miller asked to address the board. Ms. Miller asked for the board members to consider bringing the students back to school, either adding days and/or hours. She asked the board to review this action every month and to consider the possible solutions that have been brought before the board in previous meetings.
President Stacey stated that the board has been discussing different options and are encouraging the plans to increase in-person instruction. Plans are to move forward in that direction but a decision has not been made due to the recent tightening of mitigations.
President Stacey asked for any other public comments. None were forthcoming.
REPORTS
SEA: No report.
LABORERS' LOCAL 773: No report.
CUSTODIAL & MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR: Superintendent Henry indicated that this report will be included in the superintendent's report.
K-8 PRINCIPAL: Mr. Jones, Elementary/Junior High Principal, presented information regarding the following to the board: Trust fund, recent activities, and upcoming activities.
H.S. PRINCIPAL: Mrs. Page, High School Principal, presented information regarding the following to the board: Trust fund, upcoming calendar entries, past events, the Art Exhibit at the Little Egypt Art Association Gallery, and athlete workouts.
SUPERINTENDENT: Mr. Henry, Superintendent, presented the following information to the board:
1. The consent agenda for this month's meeting includes the following additional item(s): Approval and display of revised board policies (1st reading)
2. The Board's Policy Committee is meeting immediately following this board meeting to review the January/February, 2021, recommended policy updates. Final approval is scheduled for February 8, 2021.
3. Mr. Dilliner and Superintendent Henry are currently working alongside Mechanical Engineer Ben Boyt to explore the best available options for remodeling the District's HVAC system. They are scheduled to meet with Mr. Boyt on Friday, January 15, 2021, to review the current building layout/usage to help him formulate options/recommendations.
4. Mr. Jones, Mrs. Page, and Mr. Henry have an annual duty to report upon the school and district ISBE Report Cards. Copies of those documents are part of your board materials for tonight's meeting. Since there isn't any substantial academic data to report, Superintendent Henry has asked Mr. Jones & Mrs. Page to briefly address selected components of the documents, and he will address selected pieces of information in the District's report. As of this writing, state testing is scheduled to occur on its usual timeline for Spring, 2021 (though Superintendent Henry expects that will change as it gets closer to the starting date).
5. One (1) recent Freedom of Information Act request and the district's response to it was presented to the board.
6. The following newsletter(s) and/or report(s) were presented to the board for review:
• IASA Capitol Watch (January 9th) Illinois School News Service (January 11th)
7. As of January 11, 2021, the following Fiscal Year 2021 payments are due & payable to the school district:
Total payments to date: $77,881.93 (49.00% of payments due-to-date for FY21)
Grand Total of Outstanding Fiscal Year 2021 State Payments (FY20 Claims; All 4 Quarters): $239,513.64
Superintendent Henry addressed the comments from the visitor earlier in the meeting. He presented information on the re-entry planning (still in progress; moving forward; working with CDC documents; not being taken lightly; never leaves the thoughts of those involved; carries a lot of responsibility) and indicated that although the planning is still being done it would not make sense to push forward until the region gets out of Tier 3 mitigations. Superi asked for any questions from the board. Megan Rounds stated that other school districts are not following the mitigation regulations and are returning to full capacity.
Mr. Jones presented a report regarding the 2020 ISBE School Report Card for both the elementary and junior high school, which included student performance on standardized tests (last year's testing data carried over since there is no testing data for this school year), successful completion of the curriculum, attendance, and drop-out rates.
Mrs. Page presented a report regarding the 2020 ISBE School Report Card for both the high school, which included student performance on standardized tests (last year's testing data carried over since there is no testing data for this school year), successful completion of the curriculum, attendance, and drop-out rates.
Superintendent Henry presented a report regarding the 2020 ISBE District Report Card which included basic demographic and financial information in the absence of full academic testing in Spring, 2020.
Questions regarding how a district can go from commendable to exemplary (Mr. Jones indicated the student growth factor would help the elementary and junior high and Mrs. Page indicated she would get back to the board at next meeting); and how does this affect funding (Mr. Henry indicated that more money is made available for lower tiers).
CONSENT AGENDA
A motion was made by Acosta and seconded by Rounds approving the minutes of the previous meeting: December 14, 2020 (Regular Board Meeting); Treasurer's report; the bills in the amount of $164,925.52 and salaries in the amount of $352,104.11; and approval and display of revised board policies (1st reading), as presented.
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Acosta, Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (0) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
OLD BUSINESS
None
NEW BUSINESS
APPROVAL OF HVAC PROFESSIONAL SERVICES FEE PROPOSAL (BOYT ENGINEERING): A motion was made by Loucks and seconded by Acosta to approve an HVAC professional services fee proposal with Boyt Engineering, as presented, effective December 23, 2020.
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey, Acosta
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (0) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
STATUS OF CLOSED SESSION MINUTES AND/OR DESTRUCTION OF CLOSED SESSION VERBATIM RECORD AUDIO RECORDINGS: A motion was made by Loucks and seconded by Acosta to keep all closed session minutes closed to the public.
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey, Acosta
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (0) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
A motion was made by Acosta and seconded by Schoenbaechler to authorize the district superintendent to destroy the verbatim closed session records (audio recordings) for the following closed session meetings: February 11, 2019; March 11, 2019; April 8, 2019; April 29, 2019; May 13, 2019; June 10, 2019.
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey, Acosta
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (O) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
PERSONNEL (NEW BUSINESS)
EMPLOYMENT OF SCHOOL OFFICE SECRETARY (CROSS, EMMA): A motion was made by Acosta and seconded by Loucks to employ Emma Cross as a school office secretary (clerical category), effective January 1, 2021.
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey, Acosta, Loucks
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (O) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
EMPLOYMENT OF SPECIAL EDUCATION CLASSROOM AIDE AND/OR SPECIAL EDUCATION EXTRAORDINARY CARE AIDE: Discussion only. No action taken.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT OF EMPLOYEE RESIGNATION(S) RETIREMENT(S): A motion was made by Schoenbaechler and seconded by Loucks to acknowledge the following employee resignation(s)/retirement(s);
• Elementary Classroom Teacher: LeAnn Miller (retirement effective at the end of the 2023-2024 school year) Elementary Classroom Teacher: Angela Bullock (retirement effective at the end of the 2023-2024 school year) .
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Stacey, Acosta, Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (0) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
OTHER BUSINESS: None
ADJOURNMENT: A motion was made by Acosta and seconded by Rounds to adjourn.
Roll call voting was as follows:
Yeas: Loucks, Rounds, Schoenbaechler, Stacey, Acosta
Nays: None
There being five (5) yeas and zero (0) nays, the president declared that the motion carried.
The meeting adjourned at 6:46 PM.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1gNtegq0a6h1sL-Qopr3MgqWOWH2oH7ki8Mz6nJ5grps/edit
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