November 20, 2019

Board Highlights for the Nov. 19, 2019 Meeting of the Board of Education

Here is the Agenda for the meeting

The Board of Education began the meeting with a moment of silence for the loss of a beloved member of the BPS101 family, Monica Acquaviva, who lost her battle with cancer last week.

Celebrating Success

Chris Owen, Band Director at Batavia High School, along with band leaders Mia Chahmirzadi and Iliana Williams, gave a presentation on the Marching Band. It was evident that each of them considers the band a family. They thanked the District for their support and celebration of their successes. From the 100-degree summer practices to the freezing football games, this great group of 115 students never quits.

Public Comment

Ann Heinja and Sylvia Pelech of Moms Demand Action began by thanking the Board of Education for sending a delegate to IASB and for voting against Resolution 1. They are asking the Board to reconsider and vote no on Resolution 3. Batavia is lucky to have a trained resource officer at BHS but not all communities have that. They believe that Resolution 3 is too generic about the training of the officers and that it must be specific. Details on the resolutions can be found HERE.

Student Ambassador Report

Girls Swim! Two individuals and one relay qualified for state! Dance Placed 2nd and 3rd. Lots of clubs helping to support local families through Adopt-A-Family for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Two of three Mamma Mia! performances were sold out. December 3 is Kaleidoscope which sold out all 1,600 tickets in 10 minutes. No shave November is on a BHS, through the National Honor Society to raise money to fight cancer. And…there is a new PA system at the High School.

 

BPS Partner Reports

Todd Swanson, Batavia Education Association President, began by thanking the Board of Education for the moment of silence for Monica Acquaviva. Todd then stated that he was thankful for our collective family and that we support each other through good and bad. He gets very emotional when he reflects on the amount of care that we all have for each other.

Committee Reports

John Gaspar mentioned that nominations are being accepted for the 2020 Hall of Honor. You can find information on the nomination process HERE.

President Dremel was very thankful for the smooth period of Open Enrollment.

Draft of 2020-21 School Calendar

Brad Newkirk presented the Board with a draft of the 2020-21 School Calendar and highlighted some dates of note. August 12, 2020, is the first day of school. Seems early, but falls in line with other Districts. It will reset next year and be a bit later. BOE member Meitzler expressed concerns about Columbus Day and Veteran’s Day. Combined a couple of half-days into one full Institute Day.

Tony Inglese presented the Annual Title I Report.

Waubonsee Community College Manufacturing Partnership

Brad also presented on a proposed Manufacturing Cohort Partnership with Waubonsee Community College. It will jumpstart kids into the workforce quickly, giving them hands-on experience and possibly enough credits to walk out of High School with a certificate from Waubonsee. Lots of details HERE.

Building our Future Together: Phase 2 Update

During Phase 2 of the Educational Master Facility Planning Process, DLR Group hosted a series of workshops to gather input on BPS101 educational programming and learning environments.  A culminating event for Phase 2 was the Community Open House on September 26th. The video, presentation slides, and surveys are available to anyone on the BPS101 website.  The Core Team met for the second time on October 17th to continue their work in reviewing the Phase 1 and Phase 2 findings. Here are their 5 takeaways from that meeting. The Core Team met on November 7th at Louise White School and continued to make progress in creating guiding principles for the plan.  The Core Team will next meet to tour several educational facilities in the Chicagoland area on Wednesday, November 20th.

The 5 Key Take-Aways and list of community presentations are posted on the BPS101 website.

Tony then presented to the Board the 2019 Tax Levy. By law, the Board of Education must certify and submit to the County Clerk the total property tax revenue required to operate the School District for the coming year in the form of an annual tax levy. Lots of detail on this subject can be found in the Board agenda packet under 7.1 on the meeting agenda. The motion was made by the Board and it was approved unanimously.

Dr. Hichens, BPS101 Superintendent then presented on some Policy Updates in safety measures we are updating in the Policy Handbook. These are recommended changes from PRESS. There were also a couple of procedural changes, mostly regarding visitors and volunteers in our schools. Details on these policy and procedure changes can be found in the Board Agenda under item 7.2.

Final comments from the Board:

Jon Gaspar – congrats to the band. Thanks to Administration. Happy Thanksgiving.

Erin Meitzler – Ditto what Jon said. Looking forward to IASB.

Craig Meadows – Monica Acquaviva was a family friend that will be missed dearly. Thank you to all who came out to her service.

Tina Bleakley – Monica was a good person. Miss her already.

Chris Lowe – Happy about Women in Business breakfast event. His wife participated and loved it. Congratulations to the girls and boys cross country teams.

Sue Locke – Thoughts and prayers to the entire Louise White School family. Happy Thanksgiving!

Cathy Dremel – Overwhelmed by the fact that we celebrated so many things; sports, music, theatre, and manufacturing. She loves how our community, our District, and our families all work together. Thank you!

Meeting adjourned at 8:27 pm