Good News
Principal Walsh introduced student liaison Jackson Hughes from Hinsdale Central, who provided the board with information and updates from his report that included details about some of the school's recent and upcoming events and activities (e.g., the Madrigal Concert, Red Devil Invite chess tournament, the Mr. Hinsdale fundraiser, Pack the Place Week, Bingo Day and the marching band's participation in the New Year's Day parade held in Rome, Italy). It showcased accomplishments by some of Central's athletic teams, including the strong start that girls basketball, girls gymnastics, wrestling, and boys swimming and diving have had to their seasons. It also included student feedback about the possible changes being made to the school calendar to accommodate construction. You can access Hughes' report by visiting
http://bit.ly/2T5jypL.
Since Nautica Kindred, Hinsdale South's student liaison, had a conflict that prevented her from attending the meeting, Principal Pokorny Lyp shared the information from her report, which included details about several of the events and activities that were held at the school prior to winter break (e.g., Parent Visitation Day, Fall Athletic Awards Night, Cupcake Gratitude Day, 8th Grade Night and the second Breakfast Club Ceremony). It also featured information about recent accomplishments earned by some of South's student-athletes and academic and athletic teams, including Caraline Custardo being the first diver from the school to qualify for state in more than 30 years, the boys basketball team taking first place in the Ridgewood Thanksgiving Tournament, and the speech team taking first place at the Plainfield North Fall Classic and the D211 Turkey Tournament. You can access Kindred's report by visiting
http://bit.ly/2N8MMjY.
Committee Reports
PTAC met on Dec. 11, 2019 to review and discuss potential changes to the calendars for the 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years that will help accommodate the work being done at Central and South in conjunction with our Future Ready Facilities plans.
More than 50 students, staff and parents/guardians representing PTAC, the Principal-Student Advisory committees for Central and South, the Hinsdale Central Boosters, the Hinsdale South Boosters and the Hinsdale Central PTO took part in the meeting. They received a presentation about the calendar options, and then discussed them in table groups.
The table groups unanimously supported calendar option C, which would lengthen the school day by 10 minutes and eliminate four school days in order to extend the summer break in 2021 and 2022 from 10 weeks to 14 weeks and help ensure that we complete the work at Central and South on time and on budget. The recommendation for the calendar is scheduled to be presented to the Facilities Committee for review on Jan. 17 and the board for review and approval on Jan. 23.
The CSMRC met on Dec. 18, 2019 to review minutes from the closed sessions the board held from Feb. 19, 2019 to Oct. 23, 2019, as well as the minutes that were kept confidential by the previous CSMRCs in compliance with the law. This review was conducted in accordance with administrative procedure 2:220, which includes guidelines for the semi-annual review of closed minutes.
Committee members also discussed updating the administrative procedure to address the review and destruction of closed session verbatim recordings, and set a cycle/schedule for the review of prior minutes. The members proposed that once the closed session meeting minutes were presented to the committee for review three times (over 18 months), they no longer required ongoing review by the committee. The CSMRC decided to ask the Policy Committee to consider revisions to the policy and administrative procedure that deal with the review of closed minutes.
The CSMRC recommended to the board that it maintain the confidentiality of the closed session minutes that were reviewed by the current and previous iterations of the committee. It also provided the board with a resolution for the treatment of the closed session minutes that were reviewed by the CSMRC on Dec. 18. The board will consider adopting this resolution during its regular action meeting on Jan. 23.
The board voted to release the draft meeting minutes for both committees as part of the consent agenda.
Approve School Maintenance Project Grant Application
The board voted to approve the district’s application for the fiscal year 2020 School Maintenance Project Grant, which is a dollar-for-dollar state matching grant program that provides awards up to $50,000. If the district receives the grant, the money will be used to address items identified in the 2017 life safety report.
You can access additional information about the grant and the district's application by visiting
http://bit.ly/2N7vyTR.
Consent Agenda
The board voted to approve the consent agenda as presented. The consent agenda includes personnel, stipends, board bills and meeting minutes. Please visit
http://bit.ly/2sTkK5c to access the consent agenda items beginning under number seven.
Approve the Non-Renewal of Administrator Contract and Dismissal of Probationary Teacher
The board voted to approve a resolution authorizing the non-renewal of Dr. Carol Baker’s administrator contract. The resolution also states that the district will not re-employ Dr. Baker as a teacher for the 2020-21 school year. You can access the resolution by visiting
http://bit.ly/39SM2Jj.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Tammy Prentiss talked about her recent Wednesday Walkthroughs at Hinsdale South and Hinsdale Central. At South, Superintendent Prentiss and Mike Holland, who is the school's director of counseling, stopped by the cafeteria and had the chance to talk to students about their winter break and returning to class. They also visited a freshman Honors Physics class and several elective classes. At Central, Superintendent Prentiss and Principal Walsh visited AP English and AP Psychology classes.
Superintendent Prentiss also talked about hosting the monthly meeting that she attends with the superintendents from the district's feeder schools. During this meeting, the superintendents had a conversation about the proposed changes to the district's calendar that will enable us to accommodate construction at Central and South over the next three years. In addition, they discussed that District 86's summer school programming will be held at Burr Ridge Middle School this year and at Maercker Intermediate School next year. She thanked the feeder school superintendents for their assistance and continued partnership.
Board President’s Report
Board President Nancy Pollak moved the first portion of her report to the start of the meeting so that the board could recognize James Lewandowski, who is retiring after serving for nearly 40 years in the buildings and grounds department at Hinsdale Central.
Board President Pollak shared the following information about the resolution regarding Dr. Baker, and the impact of this situation on the curriculum alignment work being carried out in conjunction with Goal 1 of the district's strategic plan.
- As the resolution states, Dr. Baker was non-renewed for reasons other than a reduction in force. Since this is a personnel matter, the district is not at liberty to provide any additional information about it beyond what is included in the resolution
- The district's decision regarding Dr. Baker will not alter or impact the curriculum alignment efforts that have and will continue to be led by our teachers, department chairs, principals, and assistant principals for curriculum and instruction. This includes the development and implementation of our new science sequence. Several of our teachers and our science department chairs are scheduled to provide an update regarding their work on the sequence during the board meeting on Jan. 23. We invite and encourage people to either attend or livestream the meeting to learn more about the sequence and the next steps involving its rollout in the fall.
Board President Pollak also clarified some of the information that has been shared by community members regarding the conversation about curriculum equity that took place during the board meeting on Jan. 7, 2019. This conversation included a discussion about a document featured in the board packet for that meeting that was titled Curriculum Equity-Department Chairs. Below are details about this conversation.
- The primary purpose of the conversation was to determine how the district would staff/lead the curriculum work from a personnel standpoint. This is further highlighted/confirmed by the board packet and minutes for the regular action meeting on Jan. 22, 2019, which included an action item titled Curriculum Leadership Structure that specifically references/ties back to the conversation on Jan. 7, 2019.
- The information in the document that was provided by the department chairs for all subjects, including science, was produced in approximately 10 days. Furthermore, the chairs were specifically told by Superintendent Law that they could not get help on the creation of the document. This means that the information that was shared did not include feedback from teachers, assistant principals, principals, students, parents/guardians or community members. This was done to aid the conversation about the leadership structure for the curriculum work.
- While board members Pollak and Planson did ask for additional information about the potential cost of implementing the science strands mentioned in the document, there was no request or directive to do so given by the full or a majority of the board. In addition, toward the end of the conversation on Jan. 7, 2019, Superintendent Law reiterated that the purpose of the discussion was to determine staffing for the curriculum work.
- Some people have stated that the science strand information that was included in the document shared during the board meeting on Jan. 7, 2019 was “abandoned” or “shelved.” That is not the case. A model very similar to the one included in the document was among the options that a committee was tasked with exploring and discussing. This committee included science teachers from Central and South, both science department chairs, both building principals and both assistant principals for curriculum and instruction.
- Similarities between the models
- Both were based on the model used by New Trier
- Both were non-locked in tracks
- The electives were 85% the same
- Both featured three strands based on these core sciences: 1. Physics—Chemistry—Biology; 2. Biology—Chemistry—Physics; 3. Earth Science—Biology—Different
- Differences between the model
- There were some differences in electives, primarily related to AP Physics
- There were some differences in the levels of the courses offered; for example, the model shared on Jan. 7, 2019 included Biology Honors in the third year of the PCB strand and chemistry/physics in the third year of the earth science strand
- The third year of the earth science strand that the committee explored featured the courses Chemistry or Chemistry Honors, while the third year of the earth science strand included in the document on Jan. 7, 2019 featured chemistry and physics-based courses
- While the option shared on Jan. 7, 2019 was based on 10 days of work completed strictly by the department chairs as directed by Superintendent Law, the committee spent hundreds of hours studying and assessing several possible options/models, which included getting feedback from science teachers, students and parents/guardians from Central and South. At the conclusion of its extensive exploration of the options, the committee reached consensus on the ESS-integrated PCB sequence (ESS stands for Earth and Space Science; PCB stands for Physics, Chemistry and Biology) that will be implemented starting next year.
Summer School Proposed Program and Budget
The board received a presentation regarding the proposed program and budget for summer school. Below are some of the key points/highlights from the information that was shared with the board.
- Due to the construction taking place at Central and South in conjunction with the district's Future Ready Facilities plans, most of the summer school programming for 2020 will be moved to Burr Ridge Middle School. The only courses/offerings we will be able to accommodate at the high schools this summer are driver education, technology camp and math camp.
- The program of studies for summer school, which you can access by visiting http://bit.ly/2QAAgM6, features a variety of core courses and enrichment opportunities, including a new AP History Writing Workshop.
- Registration for summer school will begin on March 1 and close by the middle of April.
- There will be no student parking at Burr Ridge Middle School or Hinsdale Central. As a result, students will be encouraged to be dropped off or take the bus. We are also proposing the use of a shuttle bus from Hinsdale South to Burr Ridge since student parking will be available at the high school this summer during construction.
- In an effort to help make summer school programming more cost neutral, we are increasing the tuition by $50. As a result, the cost of a credit-bearing course that lasts one semester will be $300 and that lasts both semesters will be $600.
You can access the presentation, the program of studies and the budget for summer school by visiting
http://bit.ly/36EKAZ5.
Open Enrollment Tallies
The administration presented the board with the open enrollment tallies for 2020. Overall, the district saw a 5% increase in staff shifting to the HMO medical plan, while the traditional PPO plan decreased by 8%. Below is a breakdown of the various plan options and the percentage of staff who enrolled in them for 2020.
- HMO - 36% of staff enrolled
- HDHP/H.S.A - 23% of staff enrolled
- PPO - 22% of staff enrolled
- No district plan - 19% of staff waived coverage
You can access additional information about the enrollment tallies for 2020 by visiting
http://bit.ly/2NcUDwZ.
Operational Calendar and Future Agenda Items
