Grundy Reporter

Morris School District 54 Board met Sept. 16.

Here is the minutes provided by the board:

MEMBERS PRESENT:

Mrs. Bogard

Mrs. Cap

Ms. Hiller

Mr. Stevens

Mr. Hitchcock

MEMBERS ABSENT:

Mr. Sikora

Mr. White

I. Determination of Quorum – Call to Order

Vice President, Pat Stevens called the meeting to order at 6:02 p.m. Roll call was answered as indicated, followed by the Pledge of Allegiance. Others present were: Shannon Dudek and Lisa Beeler

II. Approval of the Agenda

III. Public Recognition

A. Board Participation Program - Baseball Coach, Tyler Anderson introduced his “A” team to the board. The team was this year's Conference Champions. They were the underdogs going into the tournament, but their hard work and talents pulled them through to win against Wilmington and Minooka. The baseball team is now the #1 seed going into the Regionals. 

B. Reception of Visitors - None 

C. Presentation from Audience on Agenda Items – None

III. Consent Agenda

a. Approval of Minutes (August 12, 2019) 

b. Approval of List of Bills (September 2019) 

c. Approval of Financial Report (August 2019) 

d. Approval of Payroll Report (August 2019) 

e. Approval of Minutes and Financials of PTO (August 2019) 

f. Approval of Financials of the Student Activity Fund Accounts (August 2019) 

g. Approval of Minutes and Financials of the BBC (August 2019) 

h. Morris SD 54 PRESS Plus 5 Year Review, Policy Issue 100, and Policy Issue 101

Motioned by Hitchcock, seconded by Bogard to approve the Consent Agenda items. 

Aye: Mrs. Cap, Mrs. Bogard, Ms. Hiller, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Stevens 

Absent: Mr. Sikora and Mr. White 

Motion Carried

IV. Committee Reports

A. Finance - None 

B. Policy – Mr. Hitchcock read the policy committee meeting minutes: Dr. Dudek, Mr. Hitchcock, Mrs. Dransfeldt, and Mrs. Beeler were present for the Policy Committee meeting held on August 29, 2019 at 5:00 P.M.

A. Review Board Policy - Dr. Dudek and the committee discussed the suggested addition of Policy 4:190 to the district’s policy manual. Policy 4:190 Targeted School Violence Prevention Plan involves various threat and safety scenarios and how the district plans to handle them. Mrs. Dransfeldt, Mrs. Boe and Mr. Raffel attended an 8 hour training called Student Behavioural Threat Assessment this past Summer that referred to this policy and the dissemination project was how to implement a unique plan for the district. They worked together to create a timeline and steps to process the situation that may arise. They have determined the roles on the Threat Assessment Team and will follow the flow charts created. Dr. Dudek will be responsible for informing the School Board and media outlets as needed. Dr. Dudek is very proud of the Administrative Teams work on this plan and policy.

Mrs. Dransfeldt added that she has been working with our new SRO to make tweaks to his daily routine to perfect his schedule during the school day. Officer Bober, our SRO, has been working on completing his SRO training. Working in the school has been a big transition from working on the Chicago Police Force.

B. Review PRESS Issue 100 & 101 Updates - The committee viewed the information sent from ISBE regarding this PRESS policy issues. The group then discussed the following policies in further detail and answered the questions associated with them:

● Policy 4:20 regarding Fund Balances

● Policy 6:34 regarding Student Testing and Assessment Program

● Policy 2:230 regarding Public Participation at School Board Meetings and Petitions to the Board

C. Five Year Review - The committee reviewed the policies recommended by PRESS as part of the district’s five year review process. These policies have minor changes, the majority of the changes are to the footnotes.

The policy meeting adjourned at 5:40 p.m.

C. Curriculum - None 

D. Parent - Teacher Advisory - None 

E. Shared Services – None

V. Action Items

A. Consideration and Action FY20 School District #54 Budget

Motioned by Hiller, seconded by Hitchcock to approve the FY20 School District #54 Budget. 

Aye: Mrs. Cap, Mrs. Bogard, Ms. Hiller, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Stevens 

Absent: Mr. Sikora and Mr. White 

Motion Carried

B. Intergovernmental Agreement - Maintenance Agreement

Motioned by Bogard, seconded by Hitchcock to approve the intergovernmental agreement for a shared maintenance/custodial assistant position between

Saratoga and Morris Grade School for the 2020 fiscal year to be shared 50% with Morris with Morris Elementary School District 54. District 60C will employ and invoice District 54 in June 2020. 

Aye: Mrs. Cap, Mrs. Bogard, Ms. Hiller, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Stevens 

Absent: Mr. Sikora and Mr. White 

Motion Carried

C. Digital Copy Systems Lease and Service Agreement

Motioned by Hitchcock, seconded by Hiller to approve the lease agreement with Digital Copy Systems, at a monthly payment of $4,327 for 48 months. The Digital Copy Services equipment and service agreement for 48 months was included in the board packet. This agreement also includes a buyout of $31,682.70 with COTG and a $4,235 buyout with McGrath which will terminate our current lease agreements with both companies. District #54 received three quotes, and Digital Copy Systems had the most competitive price and equipment that best suits our needs. 

Aye: Mrs. Bogard, Ms. Hiller, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Stevens 

Naye: Mrs. Cap 

Absent: Mr. Sikora and Mr. White 

Motion Carried

D. Employment

Motioned by Hitchcock, seconded by Bogard to approve the employment of the Morris #54 Print Room Operator, Dea Enerson at $13.50 per hour. 

Aye: Mrs. Bogard, Mrs. Cap, Ms. Hiller, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Stevens 

Absent: Mr. Sikora and Mr. White 

Motion Carried

VI. Communication

A. Superintendent’s Report - Our instructional coaches have been awarded a $1000

IEA grant and a free outdoor library grant that we’re going to build at the front door for our community. They are also working with Park Pointe to begin our senior supporting students STEM activities, and we’re looking forward to our students working with seniors. Also, seniors are going to visit our school to work with students in their environment. That’s a great change, and we’re looking forward to it. They are also going to lead professional development at the Joliet PDA, and area teachers are going to learn great strategies in their district. Also, area teachers are going to visit our district to observe our teachers work with instructional coaches, and I’m extremely proud of their hard work for our districts. 

Joliet Junior College and District 54 partnered to complete ADA restroom work in Shabbona. Electricians completed a few electrical changes, and the plumbers updated fixtures and toilets to be compliant Initially, we were going to use the existing flooring and baseboards, but they needed to be replaced once the plumbing work was completed. So, we replaced worn floor tile with new flooring and baseboards. JJC paid, approximately, $15,000 for the electrical and plumbing repairs, and District #54 paid $2,300 for the flooring replacement. This is another example of the effective partnerships between District #54 and community partners. 

PMA Financial/Bonding Update We are beginning our annual work with PMA to sell bonds to pay for salary and benefits. Over the next few months, there will be various commitments we must meet to be in compliance, and we’ll have everything in order by the spring. This is a yearly process, and PMA will work with us to make sure the process is effective. 

B. Administrative Team’s Report - Principal Report - Mr. Raffel:

● All of our Back to School/Curriculum Nights have been completed. I received good feedback regarding the new 6th Grade Orientation Night for Parents and students. Our 5th Grade Curriculum Night had the lowest attendance of all the evenings. I will do some reassessing of our Back to School Events with the Building Leadership Team and come up with ideas to condense and/or adjust our system of these events.

● We continue to build our Health Curriculum for 6th-8th Grades. Mr. Lafond is teaching the Jr High Health courses. He is using a text series from Goodheart-Willcox, as well as covering such State Mandated topics as: Erin’s Law, Family and Peer violence/relationships, Suicide Awareness, and Safe Haven Drop Off. This is a continuation of what we started last year. He has worked with our Instructional Coaches to create his curriculum map of these topics.

● The Admin Team lead by Marie Stover and Tammy Dransfeldt have created Evaluation Tools for our Parapros and Interventionists. Job Descriptions are being checked that they align with our current expectations and to these tools. They will be shared with these employees by the end of September and evaluations will be completed by the end of the school year.

● Ashlee Geiss, Molly Kaminski and myself met with the leadership at Park Pointe to discuss continuing our partnership for the upcoming school year. We will continue to have our students work with their “Grandfriends.” We are also looking to have a September 11th Celebration and a Memory Walk in October. We will continue our traditional Halloween Parade as well.

● We have begun planning our Fall Benchmark Testing. I will take place between September 3-20. K-2 will use Fastbridge (replaced AIMS-WEB) and 3rd-8th will use NWEA MAP. MAP scores will be sent home to parents this school year.

● We had a Morris Principals’ Meeting on Friday, September 6th- we discussed are upcoming Articulation Day (9/25), we coordinated graduation dates (5/19 for MGS), we discussed doing a combined Institute Day in January and we had a discussion on eLearning Days.

● I am once again offering a Book Study for our Teachers to get CPDU credits. We will be reading the book The 5 Powers of an Educator by Mawi Asgedom.We have about 20 teachers signed up for it. Associate Principal Report - Mrs. Boe:

● On Thursday 9/5, I had the opportunity to speak with the Advanced Education class at GAVC. These are Seniors in High School who are serious about going into Education as a career. Some of the topics I discussed where professionalism, confidentiality, and social media etiquette. These students are regularly in the classrooms on Tuesday-Thursday for 2 hours each morning. They get a real life experience in the educational field and we are so happy to host them here at Morris Grade School.

● Myself, Ashlee Geiss, and the Kindergarten team attended the Initial Fundations Training on Thursday 9/12 in Oakbrook. The First Grade Team along with Molly Kaminski will attend on 9/23. Some of the teachers have already started to implement the Fundations program in their classrooms, and it has been great to see. I am excited to continue working with the teams to gradually get this fully implemented as the year progresses.

Special Populations Director Report - Mrs. Stover Special Education

● We have had 15 students with IEPs move in to the district. We are currently holding in-take meetings to ensure that we are meeting the needs of our students. 

● With the passing of House Bill 3586, there have been many changes regarding providing information to parents prior to IEP and Eligibility meetings. We have received guidance from Kriha Boucek, as well as GCSEC, to best implement these changes. English Language Learners

● Mrs. Linda Larson is continuing to identify and screen students to determine whether or not they are eligible for ELL services.

● La Junta took place on August 26th.

● Mrs. Larson will be attending ISBE’s Bilingual Directors conference in September. Morris Community Preschool

● Morris Community Preschool received notification at the end of August that our Preschool for All program will be monitored during the 2019-2020 school year.

● Preschool is planning a trip to Heap’s Pumpkin Farm on October 1st. We are excited for this experience for our students and their parent/guardian. Dean Report - Mrs. Dransfeldt Discipline Report - (August 14th-September 6th) 0 In School Suspensions (ISS) 0 Out of School Suspensions (OSS) 3 After School Detentions 0 Saturday School Detentions Proactive Measures:

● Attended school safety training: “Student Behavioral Threat Assessment” - took away some valuable information to update safety protocols at District #54.

● Presented Policy 4:190 Targeted School Violence Prevention Program to the policy committee. This program shall be a part of the District’s Comprehensive Safety and Security Plan (policy 4:170).

● Held Behavior Bootcamp stations with all grade levels. On Thursday and Friday of our first week of school, Administrators went through bootcamp stations with all students. We reviewed expectations of appropriate school behavior for all facets of the school day.

● Completed the mandated Bus Evacuation drill with all students during bootcamp.

Athletic Director Report - Mr. Anderson: 

7 new members to Braves Booster Club increasing total number to 12. Next meeting Monday 9/16 5pm Fall Season off to a great start with 130 Registrants 33% of total Jr High population and more joining 

Baseball - A record 3-2, B record 2-2 

o IVC 2019 tournament Champions! 

o IVC B tournament 9/5, 9/7 hosted by Reed Custer 

Softball - A record 8-2, B record 4-4 

o IVC A tournament 8/29, 8/31 hosted by Morris 

o IVC B tournament 8/30, 8/31 hosted by Coal City 

o Morris A team placed 2 nd in the IVC · 

Soccer - 1-4 with 16 registered on the team 

XC season off and running with 40 participants o first home meet 9/9/16 vs GSW and Odell 

Girls Basketball tryouts 

o 8 th grade Sept 6 Morris Grade School main gym 

o 7 th grade Sept 9, 10 Shabbona main gym 

New Coaches - B baseball Matt Lafonde, Cheer Cassie Kilgore 

Cheer Tryouts a success with 22 making the performance squad, 12-15 will make the competition squad Schedules are almost finalized · Working to improve 

Wrestling schedule · Just received Track schedule from High School so we can schedule Activities like Chess Club, Student Council, Speech beginning this month Recent Purchases · XC – 10x20 awning, Stopwatches · Baseball – 10 New youth helmets, baseballs for the season, lineup cards · Softball – Lineup cards, standing batting net system · Soccer – 10x20 awning, Agility Cones, Soccer balls · BBC – 2 10x10 Tents for concession, 4 Coolers Concessions Amount taken in – $685.25 Investigation into purchase of new Roth Field Scoreboard · Following groups have agreed to be involved in the investigation o MAA, MCHS, Morris Tomahawks, BBC, City of Morris, VFW 

C. Board Communication - None

VII. Executive Session -None 

VIII. Return to Open Session-None 

IX. Action as a Result of Closed Session - None 

X. Adjourn

Motioned by Hitchcock, seconded by Cap to adjourn the board meeting at 6:28 p.m. Aye: Mrs. Cap, Mrs. Bogard, Ms. Hiller, Mr. Hitchcock, Mr. Stevens Absent: Mr. Sikora and Mr. White Motion Carried

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