Good News
Principal Bill Walsh provided the board with the good news report for Hinsdale Central. This report included the following:
- Information about the new student services center and student commons that opened on April 4.
- Information about the nearly 1,200 students who received free heart screenings through a partnership with Young Hearts for Life.
- Details about Bob Barber being voted the boys and girls swim coach of the year by the Illinois Swimming and Diving Association, and Billson Rasavongxay being named an Outstanding Activity Advisor by the Illinois Directors of Student Activities.
- The announcement that seniors Jui Khankari and Grant Zhang are among the 21 students from Illinois and 620 students from across the country who have been named semifinalists for the 2022 U.S. Presidential Scholars Program.
- Information about the Red/White Scrimmage the varsity boys tennis team held on April 16 that raised more than $3,500 for Bridge Communities.
- The names of the students who won awards during the Family, Career and Community Leaders of America's (FCCLA) state competition.
- The names of the students who won awards during the Poetry and Prose Contest hosted by the Illinois Association of Teachers of English.
- Details about prom and the Cultural Fair.
Principal Arwen Pokorny Lyp provided the board with the good news report for Hinsdale South. This report included the following:
- Information about the Senior Signing Day event that was held on April 28.
- The names of the students from the Science Olympiad team who won awards at the state competition.
- The names of the students who earned medals for finishing in the top six in their respective categories at the state tournament for journalism.
- The names of the students and staff members who were selected to speak at the 2022 commencement ceremony.
- Information about senior Jay Yang and his sister Judy, who is a South alum, being members of the first badminton team that the United States will be sending to compete at the Deaflympics.
- The names of the 55 members who were inducted into South's chapter of the National Honor Society.
- The names of the students who were recently recognized as the World Language Students of the Month for April.
Board - New Business
During the portion of the meeting dedicated to new business, the board:
- Received a report from attorney Steve Richart from Hodges, Loizzi, Eisenhammer, Rodick & Kohn LLP (HLERK) about the district's current practices for responding to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests.
- Discussed the potential formation of a board academic committee that would also help lead the district's work on diversity, equity and inclusion.
Below is additional information about both topics.
FOIA Presentation
In his presentation, Mr. Richart shared that FOIA requires a public body to respond to requests submitted by any person and to maintain files regarding those responses. However, he stated that it does not require publication of each response, release of documents on the internet or maintenance of a public log. He provided the names of several districts that do not publish all FOIA documents online, including:
- New Trier High School District 203
- Stevenson High School District 125
- Community High School District 128
- DuPage High School District 88
- Glenbard Township High School District 87
- Lake Forest Community High School District 115
- Township High School District 113
- Township High School District 211
Mr. Richart shared that FOIA requires the superintendent or a designee to:
- Provide sufficient information and data that will enable the board to monitor the district's compliance with FOIA and board policy.
- Provide a report during the board's regular meetings that includes information about the FOIA requests that were received and the status of the district's response to them.
Mr. Richart also shared information about proposed administrative procedures that would help guide how the district processes requests going forward. These procedures address a variety of topics, including:
- Redactions and exemptions
- Consultation with legal counsel
- Timing of responses
- Reporting requirements and practices
In accordance with these administrative procedures and policy 2:250 (Access to District Public Records), the district would provide a FOIA report at each regular board meeting, but would no longer have a running FOIA log or publish all released documents on the internet.
Following the presentation, which can be accessed by visiting
https://bit.ly/3kEAYXb, the board members reached consensus that the online FOIA portal and log would be maintained. They also requested that the Policy Committee review the proposed administrative procedures provided by Mr. Richart and present its recommendations to the board at a future meeting.
Formation of a Board Academic Committee
Board member Debbie Levinthal led the discussion about the possible formation of a board academic committee. She talked about the potential focus, composition, goals and benefits of the committee. She also shared that similar committees have been successful in other districts. Following the discussion, the board decided not to form a standalone committee. However, they asked the administration to help them explore ways that the responsibilities of existing groups such as the Parent-Teacher Advisory Committee could be expanded to include the work that would have been done by the academic committee.
Committee Reports
Members of the Closed Session Minutes Review Committee (CSMRC) provided the board with a report from
their meeting on April 20. During this meeting, the committee reviewed board-approved minutes for closed sessions that were conducted following its last meeting in November.
After completing its review of these minutes, the committee:
- Has recommended that the board maintain the confidentiality of the closed meeting minutes it approved through March 2022.
- Supports the recommendations of past committees for the treatment of closed meeting minutes.
Members of the Facilities Committee provided the board with a report from
their meeting on April 22. During this meeting, the committee received presentations about and discussed:
- Updates on Phases 2 and 3 of construction (some Phase 3 work began early at Hinsdale Central).
- Financial updates for each phase of construction.
- An update on the referendum budget, which showed a surplus of approximately $92,000 that will be adjusted as the project moves to completion.
- Information about savings achieved through value engineering, including $921,218 for Bid Period 4 (Phase 3) and $2,070,000 for Phase 4.
- Potential savings that may be realized through value engineering in conjunction with Bid Period 5.
- Updates on energy incentives.
- Ongoing capital needs that will help the district keep pace with the maintenance of its facilities given market trends, inflation and capped revenue.
In addition to receiving the reports mentioned above, the board voted to release the draft minutes from these meetings as part of the consent agenda.
Consent Agenda
Prior to voting on the consent agenda, Board President Erik Held shared that a change had been made to item 11.3 (Administrator Contracts and 2022-23 Administrator Salaries). He said that the proposed 1.4% pay increase for Superintendent Tammy Prentiss would be removed from the item and brought back for a vote at a future meeting following the completion of her annual evaluation. Following these comments, t
he board approved the consent agenda as amended. The consent agenda includes personnel, stipends, board bills and meeting minutes. Please visit
https://bit.ly/3KpUb9e to access the consent agenda items beginning under number eight.
Approve the Final Calendar for the 2021-22 School Year
The board approved the final calendar for the 2021-22 school year, which was modified several times throughout the year to accommodate date selections, date changes and the use of two Emergency Weather Learning (E-learning) Days.
Approve Letter of Resignation and Agreement with Administrator
The board approved a letter of resignation and an agreement with the assistant superintendent of student services.
Board President's Report
Board President Erik Held talked about the coherency of the board. He said that he has been very intentional about referring to them as a team because that is his hope for the group moving forward.
Board President Held also shared that Teacher Appreciation Week will begin on Monday. He thanked the teachers for all they do on behalf of the district's students, schools and community, and encouraged everyone to find ways to celebrate educators during their well-deserved week of recognition.
Board Reorganization
The board briefly discussed the organizational items that will be talked about during its meeting in May. Those items include:
- Committee assignments.
- Selection of the individuals who will represent the district on the DuPage Area Occupational Education System (DAOES), the Darien Woman's Club (DWC) and the governing board for the Illinois Association of School Boards (IASB),
- The schedule of regular board meetings.
- Renewal of the treasurer's bond.
- Appointment of the recording secretary.
- Membership to the IASB and Illinois High School Association.
Future Agenda Items
Below are the future agenda items that were requested by members of the board.
- A discussion about including summaries of board member comments and audience communication in future editions of Board Briefs.
- A discussion about the Culture and Equity Leadership Team (CELT) becoming a board committee.
Superintendent’s Report
Superintendent Tammy Prentiss shared that students from Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South are excited about prom. Both events will be held on April 30. Central's will take place at the Field Museum, while South's will be held at Shedd Aquarium.
Superintendent Prentiss announced that Hinsdale Central and Hinsdale South both fared well in the 2022 high school rankings that were released by U.S. News & World Report last week. Central was ranked ninth in Illinois (up one spot from last year), while South was ranked 71st (up 11 spots from last year). In addition, each of them was named a U.S. News Best High School for being ranked in the top 40% in the country (Central was 277 and South was 1,490 out of nearly 18,000 schools). She gave a special shoutout to South for moving up 449 spots at the national level.
Superintendent Prentiss also mentioned Teacher Appreciation Week and thanked the teachers for their hard work and dedicated service.
Review Proposed Three-Year Calendar and Early Release Schedule for the 2022-23 School Year
The administration presented an updated version of the three-year calendar that was shared with the board in March. Below is the information that was included in this presentation.
- Proposed changes to the three-year calendar
- Move next year's Curriculum Night to Sept. 15 to avoid conflicts with homecoming.
- Reduce the days for optional fall testing next year to just the PSAT/NMSQT in order to recapture instructional time during the condensed construction year; MAP would continue in order to help measure growth from fall to spring.
- Change the date of the student and staff half day (11:30 a.m. dismissal) for second semester next year from March 24 to April 7. This contractual half day would compensate teachers for working the evening of March 2 for parent-teacher conferences.
- Structure of early release days for the 2022-23 school year. Please note that providing certified staff with time during the school day to engage in professional development and collaborative activities is required in accordance with the current collective bargaining agreement between the board of education and Hinsdale High School Teachers Association. This has been the standard practice here and in a number of other districts for years.
- Start and end dates, breaks and days off, and the construction schedule for the three-year period would not change from what was previously presented.
- Considerations for the proposed changes
- Instructional continuity - Provides consistent opportunities for teachers to develop and deliver effective lessons.
- Instructional time - Provides more time for students to engage in academic instruction.
- Collaboration/professional development objectives - Provides sufficient time for teacher teams to work on common curriculum and assessments, and advance the goals of the strategic plan, most notably in the area of curriculum alignment.
- Cost - Takes into consideration the human and financial cost to the district.
- Context for the proposed changes for the 2022-23 school year
- Construction schedule - condensed due to hard start and end dates.
- Next phase of the work being done on curriculum alignment in conjunction with Goal 1 of the strategic plan. Curriculum development being done by several teams; curriculum writing being done by all teams.
- Proposed early release schedule is only for one year because the Secondary Instructional Schedules committee is currently discussing a variety of related topics, including start and end times, block versus traditional scheduling, homeroom/advisory, teacher collaboration time, student intervention time, etc. The work of this committee will drive both the schedules for instruction and collaboration moving forward.
- Data that informed the proposed changes
- Professional development and collaboration needs.
- Work being done on curriculum alignment in conjunction with the strategic plan.
- Teacher absences from this year that required a substitute.
- Six-year trend for instructional and collaboration hours.
- Results of the survey about late start and early release schedules.
- Current time of day when students are eating lunch.
- Feedback from the deans about the tardy and bus issues on late start days.
- Peer district comparisons.
- Option to continue with the same late start/Flex Learning Day schedule next year
- Benefits - Use a familiar schedule while the Secondary Instructional Schedules committee continues its work; increase instructional time by two hours; no loss of food service revenue; building-specific course teams have more frequent opportunities for collaboration meetings.
- Challenges - Class minutes remain uneven on late start days (difference of 15 minutes per class); class periods remain 25 minutes on Flex Learning Days; continued issues/concerns with tardies and transportation on late start days; students consistently pulled from class for intervention and academic/student services; limited time for district collaboration toward alignment goals (will likely require more pull-out days).
-
Difference in instructional minutes this year versus next year.
- Option to use a modified early release schedule next year
- Benefits - Increase instructional time by eight hours; consistent start time and class length; increased class length on early release days; support services available twice a month that do not require missing class; reduction in the amount of time teachers are pulled out of class; one plan for each class; sufficient collaboration time for in-building and cross-district meetings.
- Challenges - Estimated loss of $45,000 in food revenue service (will be offset by the $40,000 in fees that will be saved by pausing the optional PSAT testing in the fall); transportation back to campus for afternoon or evening athletics and activities.
-
Difference in instructional minutes this year versus next year.
-
Student options on early release days (e.g., go home, do homework, do group work, make up tests, meet with a counselor or social worker, etc.).
The administration recommended that the district shift to the modified early release schedule next year. Following the presentation, which you can access by visiting
https://bit.ly/3vmFfEG, the board did not take action on the proposed three-year calendar and asked the administration to revisit the modified early release schedule. The calendar and early release schedule will be brought back to the board at a future meeting for review and discussion.
New Curriculum Materials for the 2022-23 School Year
The board discussed five new texts that the district's instructional teams are recommending for use at the start of the 2022-23 school year. They include materials for English and math.
Members of the general public will be able to view the proposed texts at the district's administration building during a 30-day review period that will begin on April 29. After this review period is over, the texts will be presented to the board for approval. That action is scheduled to take place on June 2.
Treasury and Financial Reports
Per its regular cadence of reporting, the administration provided the board with the financial and treasury reports for March 2022. You can access the treasury report by visiting
https://bit.ly/3vqlr3e and the financial reports by visiting
https://bit.ly/3LHVQbX.
FOIA Requests
The board received information about the FOIA requests that have been processed since its last regular action meeting. This information included the names or titles of the individuals and departments who helped respond to the requests, a summary of the records that were requested and who asked for them, and trend data about the number of requests that have been processed and the legal fees the district has incurred in responding to them.
