Across the Board in D303
Notes from the District 303 School Board Meeting
March 13, 2023
All agenda items, documents, and recorded meetings are available to view on BoardDocs.
School Board
Joe Lackner, Vice President
Becky McCabe, Secretary
Jillian Barker
Kate Bell
Matthew Kuschert
Ed McNally
Superintendent Report
Recognition of Lida Burgos
Congratulations to Lida Burgos of St. Charles East for earning the Girls Bowling state title! She won the championship with a 72 pin lead. Lida and bowling coach, Tom Cole, were recognized in front of the Board for her achievement.
National Merit Finalists
Congratulations to Matthew Hall and Nathan Throneburg of St. Charles East, and Andrew Nesterov of St. Charles North, for earning the designation of National Merit Finalist! They are among the top 1% of high school seniors nationwide who will compete to earn scholarships from a pool worth nearly $28 million.
Norton Creek Polling Designation
Norton Creek was recently designated as a polling site by the DuPage County Clerk for the April 4 election. Under the State Election Code (10 ILCS 5/11-4.1(a)), District 303 is required to comply with this designation. In the interest of student and staff safety and in order to minimize disruptions to the school day, Norton Creek will conduct a remote learning day on April 4. Classes will not be held on site that day, and all before and after school activities will be canceled. This scenario does not impact any of District 303’s remaining schools within Kane County, as those polling locations had already been established elsewhere.
Norton Creek families and staff, as well as all District 303 staff, have been notified of this decision. District 303 will be requesting that the DuPage County Clerk’s Election Division review how it determines designating polling sites in order to minimize the impact of future decisions.
Elementary Capacity and Enrollment
District Administration is currently determining the minimum standards for elementary building usage, from the number of sections to space for specials. Administration has been working with elementary school principals to define the standard needed for optimal classroom use. The standard will be presented to the Board in April. This work follows an extensive enrollment and building capacity study from demographer RSP & Associates, with whom the District contracted last fall.
Data Dashboard
The Data Dashboard provides a monthly summary on the health of District 303. This chart, which will be updated monthly on the District website, provides an overview of nine important measurements in the categories of Academics, Operations and Belonging.
Reports to Board
Strategic Plan Development Committee
District 303 staff are being provided the opportunity to share their feedback on the draft Strategic Plan. The Strategic Plan Development Committee, which has been preparing the draft since last fall, will make any necessary adjustments based on staff feedback. The committee will gather feedback from the community later in the spring.
Board Committee Updates
The Learning & Teaching Committee reviewed the updated Student Achievement Report and progress towards District goals. There are several areas of celebration as well as areas of concern, as outlined in the Across the Board Committee Report below. The next Learning and Teaching Committee meeting is on April 3.
Business Services
A special Business Services Committee meeting was held on February 23 to review the results of the Demographer Study conducted by RSP & Associates. These results were discussed further during the regular committee meeting the following week. Justin Attaway, Assistant Superintendent of Business Services, also presented an overview of Tax Increment Financing (TIF). Details for both meetings can be found in the Across the Board Committee Report. The next Business Services Committee meeting is on March 23.
Policy
The Policy Committee did not meet in February. The next Policy Committee meeting is on March 23.
For Discussion
Capacity and Facility Usage
The Board continued the discussion of next steps following the results of the Demographer Study presented by RSP & Associates at the February 23 Special Business Services Meeting.
- The Cabinet will continue discussions with building-level administrators to determine standards of classroom usage for each school level. Standards will be brought to the Board before returning to RSP for review to determine next steps.
- These standards will be based on how buildings are currently configured with considerations for classes without a permanent classroom. These are minimum standards to assess current functionality, and are not aspirational standards.
- Cabinet will take into account the best practices for current building sizes previously set by Wold Architects and the Citizen Advisory Committee.
- Elementary level standards will be presented to the Board in April.
- Middle and high school level standards will be presented to the Board in late April/early May.
- Discussion will continue on specific aspects of the demographer reports at future committee meetings, including student heat maps and early childhood.
- The standards are for planning purposes, and will not lead to any physical changes to buildings for the 2023-2024 school year.
Consent Agenda
The consent agenda was approved by a vote of 7-0.
The consent agenda includes items such as:
- Minutes from previous committee meetings
- Personnel Reports
- List of Bills, Treasurer's Report, and Payroll
- Resolution Authorizing the Destruction of Verbatim Recordings of a Closed Board Meeting
- GSF Night Custodial Contract Renewal
- Award of Healthcare Benefits Consultant Contract
For Action
Resolution to honorably dismiss selected non-licensed employees at the close of the current school term
Motion was approved by a vote of 7-0.
Some educational support personnel will be dismissed at the end of this school year because these positions for 2023-2024 cannot yet be determined. This dismissal is honorable and no complaints have been made against these personnel.
For Information
Informational reports are typically provided monthly to the Board. There is no action taken.
District 303 Financial Report
Mid Valley Financial Report
FOIA Requests
District Enrollment
New Business
An opportunity for Board members to bring up items that they would like to discuss at a future Board or committee meeting.
- Open campus: Administration will review the possibility of opening high school campuses for lunch and bring back a recommendation during a Policy Committee meeting
- Handle with Care: Representation from the St. Charles Police Department will provide more detail on this item in April