Good News
Principal Walsh from Hinsdale Central and Principal Pokorny from Hinsdale South shared recent good news from their respective schools.
Student Liaisons to the Board
Sara Draddy from Hinsdale Central and Lilianna Bone from Hinsdale South and presented their reports to the Board.
Consent Agenda
The Board approved the consent agenda as presented. The consent agenda includes personnel, stipends, board bills, and meeting minutes. Click on the link to access the meeting agenda and then scroll down to see Consent Agenda items beginning under number 4.
Board
Policy for First Read
The Board reviewed for first read
Policy 6:280 Achievement: Grading and Promotion
to make the policy consistent with the recommendation of the Marking Period Committee to eliminate quarter grades. The policy and recommendation will come back for a vote February 19.
President’s Report
Board President Bill Carpenter affirmed publicly that D86 is not conducting a phone poll. Community members had been contacting the District Office January 28 through January 30 asking whether the District was conducting a phone poll. D86 is prohibited by law from conducting a phone poll when a referendum is on the ballot.
President Carpenter also expressed gratitude to Buildings & Grounds staff (B&G) for all of their hard work on the severe weather days last week, particularly on the days of extreme cold on January 30 and 31.
President Carpenter asked the Board for their availability for a Special Meeting on April 3. If the referendum passes on April 2, the Board will meet April 3 to determine which cuts will be rolled back. If the referendum fails, the meeting will be canceled.
Administration
Superintendent
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Dr. Bruce Law also expressed gratitude to Buildings & Grounds staff for their hard work during severe weather, performing their duties in adverse conditions while other employees were told to stay home. He also shared with the Board that one of two boilers used to provide heat to Hinsdale South failed January 29. The boiler was fixed and school continued. Had both boilers failed, school at Hinsdale South could not have continued. He also reported that a pipe burst at Hinsdale Central January 30 but because Buildings & Grounds staff were in the buildings the ruptured pipe was quickly contained.
Dr. Law shared that T-Mobile customers are not receiving District 86 texts and there is nothing District 86 can do about it. T-Mobile is blocking the texts because they come the District’s third-party notification system. People have reported that when they contacted T-Mobile directly to report the problem, T-Mobile has unblocked D86 texts. The District’s vendor is aware of this problem and is working with T-Mobile to fix the problem nationally.
Dr. Law then clarified information about the Curriculum Equity work underway, stating that the point of the exercise is to align the excellence occurring in each school to a D86 standard of excellence. Dr. Baker spoke in greater detail later in the meeting, see the Curriculum Equity item below.
IHSA Advice on Eligibility
Administration shared with the Board the memo created by the Illinois High School Association (IHSA) stating their position on eligibility in the event D86 sports are cut. Since eligibility is solely within the purview of the IHSA, the memo was requested by Administration subsequent to the cuts made on December 17 to pay for fixing infrastructure and upgrading facility security by eliminating among certain athletics and activities. The IHSA memo can be found
here
.
Assign Emergency Days as Attendance Days to Recover January Inclement Weather Days
The Board agreed with Dr. Law’s recommendation to use Emergency Days, Monday, June 3 through Wednesday, June 5, to make up for the three days of school canceled due to snow and extreme cold last week. Graduation dates remain unchanged.
Recommendation for Online Registration Software for 2019-2020
The Board reviewed a recommendation to purchase new online registration software for the 2019-20 school year. After receiving input from multiple stakeholders, Registration Gateway emerged as the best solution that met the District’s specifications and supported the District’s goals for families while meeting the District’s challenging online registration and student data management needs. The item will come back for a vote at the February 19 meeting.
Security & Technology
Facility Security Rough Order of Magnitude Report
Administration presented to the Board a plan to upgrade the facilities’ security and its estimated costs. The items will be paid for either by the proceeds from a successful referendum or if the referendum is unsuccessful, the items will be paid for through the cuts the Board made December 17. The item will come back at the February 19 meeting.
Academics
Curriculum Equity Update
Following the approval of the Curriculum Equity Leadership Structure at the January 22 meeting, Dr. Baker provided a verbal update echoing Dr. Law’s statement from earlier in the meeting. She noted that this item will be a recurring agenda topic so that noteworthy updates can be shared as they occur rather than waiting for the quarterly reports. Dr. Baker said the goal is each school sharing the best of their departments so that best practices are used Districtwide. She said that progress in this work will be posted publicly and the first posting to our website will be the District-aligned curriculum templates for each course.
Textbooks
Administration presented to the Board new textbooks and books for World Literature, Personal Perspectives, Introduction to Calculus, College Prep Mathematics, and Introduction to Statistics I and II. Copies of the books will be available for public preview at the D86 Administration Building during regular business hours until the March 18 Board Meeting. Dr. Baker emphasized that from this adoption forward, the books that are brought for Board approval will be the same book, brought at the same time, for both buildings.
Business
2019 Summer Construction Bids
Administration presented to the Board results of the 2019 summer construction project bids. Nearly all items in the 2019 summer construction projects are "B" items in the District's Life Safety Report, some are “C” items. All “B” items must be addressed within five years of the report, but the state has no timeframe for completing “C” items. These bids will come back to the February 19 meeting for approval.
The meeting adjourned at 8:04 p.m.
