Will County Gazette

Crete Monee Community Unit School District 201U Committee of the Whole met Oct. 10.

Here is the minutes provided by the Committee:

CALL TO ORDER-At 6:30 p.m.

Present:

 Jennifer Gasbarro  Nelson Albrecht  Jeanine Galbraith  Cheryl Roop

 Mike Turay  Lyle Neal  Ken Surma  Laura Hirsch

 Pam Pansa  Ellen Belotti  Keith McLean  Juan Lyle

 Terri Tobin

Absent:

 Nakia Hall  Maurice Brown

The Pledge of Allegiance was recited and Mission Statement was read aloud.

It was moved by Turay and seconded by Albrecht:

“To move agenda item 5 - PUBLIC COMMENT to precede agenda item 4 - HUMAN RESOURCES.”

On voice vote, ayes were unanimous. Motion carried.

PUBLIC COMMENT

Catrina Johnson-Here to gain a better understanding of why National Investigations Inc. has been hired

 Feels that a certain demographic is being targeted; concerned that there are those who will not feel welcome – she is fearful that students will feel unwanted and “less than”

o President stated that the district is not targeting; all will be reviewed Rev. James Hunt-Board policies

 Understands that Board members are not able to respond to issues that have been discussed in closed session; however, he is asking if Dr. Cunningham has failed to meet any expectations as listed in BP 2:130 (Board-Superintendent Relationship)

o Board members did not reply

HUMAN RESOURCES

Technology Staffing Needs

Points of Discussion:

 District administration presented a proposal for additional staff needed within the Technology Department

o Infrastructure needs greater support in conjunction with the number of devices this department has to support throughout the district

o In talking with district cabinet, this is a good time to look at reorganizing the department to gain better coverage by adding:

 Three technicians; two in buildings and one to cover the “Help Desk” (this position would be housed at Central Office)

 Director’s assistant

o Decreasing:

 Senior Network Administrator (currently have two; one has resigned and is finished at the end of this week)

 Annual cost of this proposal is approximately $113,000

Questions:

 Are the buildings capable of supporting what the staff needs, in regards to infrastructure, wiring?

o District administration just met with Sentinel; the district is set regarding infrastructure

 Are the salaries set a fair market value – are we getting what we pay for?

o District administration stated that there are base qualifications; some of our systems are specific to our network and there would be a small learning curve

 Are we using systems that are the best bang for our buck? Yes

 Do we keep a “bench stock” of common, spare parts?

o This is an area that needs improvement; a minimal amount of common replacement components is key – optimal storage of these items would be at district office

 What has our capital outlay been for equipment over the past few years?

o A ballpark figure would easily be roughly $2M

 A valid reason to offer and explain to the public is that the district has spent this amount on technology; approval of spending $113K on staffing to support this technology would be justifiable

 Board member asked for clarification on how salaries were decided upon for support technicians and director’s assistant; does not believe that the director’s assistant should be paid more than a support technician

 District administration is asking the Board to approve the posting of these positions

o Board agrees that the three technician positions can be posted 

Crete Elementary Staffing Update

Points of Discussion:

 Three teachers are on the Personnel Report of October 17, 2017; currently working as guest teachers in the building

 There will be a “Meet & Greet” night for these three classroom teachers; the Board would like notification of these times

 Did parents have any input to determine which students are moving to another classroom teacher versus staying with the same teacher

o Administration stated that data regarding class composition was taken into consideration when determining the needs of all involved

OLD BUSINESS

 Various clubs/teams-Board member would like a discussion to determine what level of involvement the Assistant Principal of Athletics has in each of these entities

o Board member distributed a document used by one of the High School clubs to ask specific questions

 President Gasbarro suggested postponing this discussion until Assistant Principal of Athletics is able to attend the meeting to offer more detailed information when questions are posed

 District administration will talk with HS Principal and Assistant Principal to gather information to share at the November COTW; both will be notified that their attendance is expected

o How are participation fees determined; Board members want the name of a contact for the middle school and the high school

 Add a discussion of the dress code to the November COTW

 Board member had an inquiry concerning IDs at the middle school; issue at hand – student photos that were placed on the current ID were photos from several years ago

o IT Director will check into this; district administration has included new ID machines/software in FY18 budget

o New system will be maintained appropriately to avoid this issue in the future

 Board member requested Dr. Clark contact her to discuss the FOIA request regarding a mailing

 Board member asked what the status is for the items on the surplus sale list

o None of the items were able to be sold

o Update will be brought to the Board at December 2017 Regular meeting on how long the process will take to empty the Sixth Grade Center building

 Board member asked if there are any consequences to employees who do not report issues

o District administration stated that depending on the severity, this would be handled on a case by case basis

NEW BUSINESS

 There is a need to appoint one additional SPEED representative from our Board; Mr. Turay is currently one of our representatives: President Gasbarro asked if anyone is interested

o This will be on the agenda of October 17, 2017

 President would like to review policies regarding PUBLIC COMMENT, as well as how to handle situations when employees and/or board members are verbally attacked

At 8:00 p.m., it was moved by Turay and seconded by Galbraith:

“To retire to closed session for the purpose of discussing the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees [5 ILCS 120/2(c)(1)].”

On roll call, the following answered aye: Turay, Albrecht, Roop, Galbraith, and Gasbarro. Nays: None.

Absent: Brown and Hall. Motion carried.

CLOSED SESSION

At 9:04 p.m., it was moved by Turay and seconded by Albrecht:

“To return to open session.”

On voice votes, ayes were unanimous. Motion carried.

ADJOURN

It was moved by Turay and seconded by Roop:

“To adjourn.”

On voice votes, yeas were unanimous. Motion carried.

Meeting was adjourned at 9:04 p.m.

https://v3.boardbook.org/Public/PublicItemDownload.aspx?mk=50261080&fn=minutes.pdf