H-F Board Notes 2/21/2023

This is a summary of the happenings at the Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School District 233 Board of Education meeting. It is not the official meeting minutes, but rather a summary to assist the H-F community in understanding the workings of the Board of Education. The official minutes can be found on the H-F website in the School Board section once approved by the Board.

Meeting Date: February 21, 2023

School Board President Gerald Pauling expressed condolences to the family of junior Angela Clayton.

He also shared that HF won more Illinois State Board of Education Those Who Excel Awards than ever in school history. The school took home awards in every possible category.

• Teacher Special Recognition Emily Carroll
• Administrator Meritorious Service Lawrence Cook
• Teacher Special Recognition Andrew Gaus
• Educational Support Personnel Meritorious Service Candice Hall
• Community Volunteer Excellence Dr. Aginah M. Muhammad
• Early Career Educator Meritorious Service Cody Rudnik
• Student Support Personnel Meritorious Service Lauren White
• Team Meritorious Service HF Resiliency Project
• Team Meritorious Service Co-Taught Social Science with Reading

Superintendent Dr. Scott Wakeley shared HF is participating in the Minority Student Achievement Network as a way to connect with other high achieving schools across the country that serve a multiracial student body. The MSAN website recently shared HF's eNews announcement highlighting our work with MSAN and it has received 13,000+ hits from all around the world. Our goal in being part of MSAN is to raise the expectations and standards for all HF students.

Principal Dr. Clinton Alexander shared several highlights.

Black History Month Festivities

• Student-Staff Discussion: On Being Young & Black in 2023 —Tuesday, Feb. 21, 3:15-4:15 p.m. in the Viking Room

• STEM Panel: Village of Flossmoor and H-F present: Local Black STEM professionals share their experiences and advice with students —Thursday, Feb. 23, 3:15 p.m. in the Viking Room

• Black Excellence Showcase — Tuesday, Feb. 28, 3:15-5:45 p.m. in the South Cafeteria

Teachers of the Quarter (2nd Quarter)

1. Reginald Brown

2. Ameera Odeh

3. Fatima Simmons

4. Matt Raglione

5. Rick Pavinato

6. Kanoa Mulling

7. Danny Gould

8. Paul Fasse

9. BJ Engrav

10. Jeffrey Corso

Winter Sports Updates

Competitive Cheerleading

• IHSA State Qualifying Team.

• 7th Place at the IHSA State Final (The team was in 1st Place in the Preliminary Round).

• Head Coach, Zenia Boyd received the IHSA Country Financial Teacher Spotlight Award.

Boys' Wrestling

• We are very proud of the three individuals that qualified for the IHSA State Final: Jermaine Butler placed 7th, Vincent Robinson placed 3rd, and Deion Johnson placed 2nd.

Girls' Wrestling

• The team has six individuals that qualified for the IHSA State Final. The team travels to Bloomington this weekend.

• IHSA State Qualifiers: Ini Odumosu, Alima Toheeb-Lawal, Jocelyn, Williams, Basirat Sodiq, Nina Hamm, and returning State Champion Attalia Watson-Castro.

Boys' Swimming and Diving

• The team placed 2nd in the IHSA Sectional. The best finish for our team since the 2010-2011 school year.

• IHSA State Qualifiers/Sectional Champions: Charles Niemiec in the 100yd Breaststroke and Christian Curtis in Diving.

• Christian is currently seeded 2nd in the state.

• Diving Coach, Rick Carlson was named IHSA Sectional Coach of the Year.

Girls' Basketball

• SWSC Conference Champions.

• IHSA Regional Champions. The tournament was hosted at Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School. The team travels to Romeoville tonight.for the first round of the IHSA Sectional.

• The Athletic Department recognized sports writer, Tony Baranek for his 50 years of service before the championship game.

Principal’s Advisory Committee

The PAC continues to meet monthly with a focus on a Profile of a Viking competency at each meeting. In January Dr. Wakeley shared about Communication and Collaboration. Dr. Alexander highlighted that the students used their communication and collaboration skills to develop 5 key requests of the administration earlier in the school year. They were able to celebrate the achievement of all 5 at this meeting:

1. Performance Incentives

2. School Spirit Calendar

3. 2nd Semester Pep Rally

4. SEL Check-Ins

5. School Spirit Decor

The next Principal Advisory Council meeting will feature Michelle Chen, an alumna who is an engineer with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and was a lead engineer on the NASA DART Mission to change the trajectory of an asteroid. She will present on innovation and problem-solving.

Board Member Steve Anderson congratulated all of the sports team and athletes for their recent accomplishments. He has been able to attend several events and it has been fun to see them compete. Tryouts for spring sports are upcoming.

He also shared his thoughts on gun violence in America including his personal experience as a student at the University of Iowa in 1991 for one of the first recorded school shootings. He encouraged community members to take action, write elected officials, and have conversations with children.

Board Member Pam Jackson shared her gratitude for the updates from the staff at the meeting. She appreciates hearing about the Student Choice Awards for outstanding teachers. Several of those recognized were among her children's favorites. She also extended congratulations to the sports teams for their successes this month.

She also is excited to see that the Principal's Advisory Council has a forum to share their voice and their ideas. She wants the community to see the impact this group is having through the implementation of their ideas. She also posed the question of how we can get students involved at Board meetings since we have such strong Social Science, Politics and Government offerings that students are excited about.

Board Member Nate Legardy shared that he and Steve Anderson were guest hosts on VTV. He applauded the professional quality of the studio, students and teachers. He also thanked Dr. Jen Hester for the work that is being done in equity professional development. He attended the Institute Day workshop after serving the pancake breakfast to staff and was impressed with the engagement of staff in such an important topic.

Director of Curriculum and Instruction Dr. Jen Hester shared about the equity professional learning through Institute Days as well as PLCs. Staff are exploring the work of Zaretta Hammond and implementing strategies for culturally responsive learning in the classroom. There are three priorities of the work: 1) Equity in instructional practices, 2) identifying barriers to equity and 3) addressing those barriers and implementing the work.

On March 6 and in April staff will be working with the GLSEN Institute related to the LGBTQ+ community. The organization's mission is to ensure that every member of every school community is valued and respected regardless of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression. Inclusion and safety will be the first focus, looking at language and then practices for inclusion. Future work will include an equity audit and establishing measures for implementation.

Director of Human Resources Jodi Bryant shared that last year we had a large class of retirees. This year we have none and know of one mid-year next fall and we anticipate small numbers in the following years. We also know that there will be openings created by staff leaving the district for personal reasons. On March 4 HF is hosting the 4th annual job fair with the South Suburban Human Resources Administrators that will include 25+ districts in south suburbs who are hiring. The event runs from noon until 3 p.m. in the North Fieldhouse.

Director of Communication and Community Engagement Carla Erdey shared that the HF social media accounts have featured history-making Black HF alumni throughout the month, including:

• Susan Page, Class of 1982 — First United States of America Ambassador to the country of South Sudan
• Sophia Danenburg, Class of 1990 — first African American and the first Black woman ever to summit Mount Everest
• Dr. Nnedi Okorafor, Class of 1992 — First FEMALE BLACK Writer for The Black Panther Series (Long Live the King)
• Alana Mayo, Class of 2002 — First Female African American President of a Major Motion Picture Company (Orion Pictures)
• Dr. Seun Adigun, Class of 2005 — First African Summer & Winter Olympian; 1st Nigerian Winter Olympian
• Ron Bowden, Class of 2008 — First Black Technical Director for the Illinois High School Theatre Festival in its 47 years as the TD for this year's All-State production of Shrek the Musical
• Jarad Higgins, Class of 2017 — His album, Legends Never Die, is the biggest posthumous debut of the 21st Century

Dr. Scott Wakeley shared that the Net Zero Science Building Project is progressing well. The Board of Education has been reviewing plans for more than a year and the project is set to go out to bid in late April. DLA Architects have been working closely with HF teachers and administrators to design the space around the school's current and future needs. The new building connected to G Building will house state-of-the-art science classrooms, collaborative spaces, a Net Zero learning installation, an outdoor classroom and an educational garden.

The administration and architects have been working with the Illinois Clean Energy Foundation to secure a $2 million grant to support the creation of what would be only the second Net Zero educational building in the state of Illinois. The building will include solar, geothermal and green construction materials and methods. From a pool of 80 proposals, the Foundation has narrowed the grant applications to a very short list with Homewood-Flossmoor High School being the only one remaining. The Foundation is particularly interested in the HF project as it will serve as an educational hub for those around the country who are interested in net zero construction.

A building of this size would typically incur energy and maintenance costs of around $84,500 annually. As a Net Zero building that cost will be reduced to $0.

The overall cost of the project including building the new Net Zero Science Building and renovating existing science classrooms is estimated at between $17,665,000 - $20,855,000. The school district sold bonds last year to pay for this project.

Timeline

• March 2023 submit Illinois Clean Energy Grant Proposal
• April 2023 Illinois Clean Energy Grant decision
• Late April 2023 issue bid
• May 2023 bids due
• June 2023 construction begins
• September 2024 construction complete

An expansion of the Culinary course offerings including the addition of a commercial kitchen that will allow students to earn restaurant management certifications is also in the works. This project, which was bid out earlier this year but came back with costs significantly higher than anticipated, will now be included in the larger Net Zero Science Building bid. HF and architects anticipate that a more favorable bidding climate this spring as well as a connection to the larger project will bring the costs for this project down significantly. The anticipated cost is $3.1M for this project. The bidding process will be as inclusive as possible to attract a diverse bidding pool for the project while following all legal requirements. The space needed for the expanded commercial kitchen will allow fashion design classrooms to be moved into newly renovated spaces. These classrooms will better serve the growing student interested in these career paths.

Timeline - established in collaboration with culinary teachers.

• June 2023: Construction begins

• August 2023: Current space renovated for start of the school year.

• January 2024: Additional commercial culinary lab ready for the second semester.

Dr. Cook shared an overview of the Property Tax Relief Grant. The Board approved the resolution to abate property taxes as a result of its participation in the 2023 Property Tax Relief Grant program (PRTG) in the amount of $2,090,552.

For the owner of a $250,000 house, this equates to $619 in savings.

From FY19 through FY23, HF has abated $18M to the taxing body. This includes all possible abatements over the past 5 years.

The Board of Education approved the school year calendars for 2023-24 and 2024-25. Collaborated with HFEO and feeder districts on creation. The administration had hoped to be aligned with both major feeder districts and are very close but not exact on start dates. Thanksgiving, Winter and Spring Breaks are aligned. The HF start date will be August 16, 2023, for freshmen and transfer students.

Links to calendars:

2023-24 calendar (PDF)

2024-25 calendar (PDF)

Planning Committee Chair Nate Legardy shared highlights from the Planning Committee. Rob White Math Department Chair presented the Integrated Math approach the district is pursuing. A Committee of the Whole Meeting on March 16 will bring the presentation and details to the entire Board. The committee recommended instructional resources to be moved forward. An additional meeting will be scheduled to complete remaining items from the agenda.

Personnel Committee Chair Debbie Berman shared that the majority of the meeting was in closed session regarding personnel. There are administrative contracts on the agenda to be approved tonight.

Finance Committee Chair Steve Anderson shared that DLA Architects presented the Net Zero Science Building and Culinary projects and a discussion was held regarding upgrading door lock systems, the Property Tax Relief Program, results of the Annual Financial Report (including a very good 3.8/4.0 score for financial rating), investment returns, legislative update, and the budget calendar.

The Board of Education approved two-year administrator contracts for the following individuals:

• Carla Erdey, Director of Communication & Community Engagement - 2023-24: $140,400.00 and 2024-25: $146,016.00
• Jennifer Hester, Director Curriculum, Instruction & Professional Development - 2023-24: $185,399.28 and 2024-25: $192,815.25
• Matthew Lyke, Director of Athletics - 2023-24: $140,105.47 and 2024-25: $145,709.68
• James Patterson, Director of Operations and Maintenance - 2023-24: $130,326.00 and 2024-25: $135,539.04
• Gail Smith, Director of Activities - 2023-24: $120,000.00 and 2024-25: $124,800.00
• Shannon Swilley, Associate Principal - 2023-24: $132,500.00 and 2024-25: $137,800.00

Suzette Diaz was approved as Executive Assistant to the Superintendent, in light of the upcoming retirement of Pat Gnaster. Dr. Scott Wakeley shared that he is excited to bring Ms. Diaz over from the Principal's Office to the Superintendent's Office. He also shared that in his 19 years as a Superintendent, he has never worked with someone like Pat Gnaster! Her retirement is well deserved and Ms. Diaz will do great in the role. Ms. Diaz' current role of Assistant to the Principal will be posted soon.

• Regular Board Meeting Minutes, January 17, 2023
• Acceptance of the Hearing Officer’s Findings regarding Student Discipline Matter -Placement Hearing – Student #30024
• Extended Field Trips - Scholastic Bowl Team and Varsity Baseball Varsity Baseball
• Approval of Expenditures, $2,114,181.76
• Approval of Imprest Fund, $56,127.12
• Ratification of January 2023, Payroll, $2,706,328.03
• Extra Responsibility Contracts for Activities, Athletics, Auxillary and 6th Assignments
  
• Authorized the annual Career Preparation Network Intergovernmental Agreement between Crete-Monee School District 201-U, Bloom Township High School District 206, Rich Township High School District 227, Homewood-Flossmoor Community High School District 233, and Prairie State College District 515.
  

The District 233 School Board meets at 7:30 p.m. in the school's South Building Library - unless otherwise indicated. Upcoming meeting dates:

Tuesday, March 21, 2023 - library

Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Tuesday, May 16, 2023

Tuesday, June 20, 2023