Oswego Community Unit School District 308 met November 14.
Here is the minutes as provided by the committee:
I. Meeting called to order at 5:30 p.m. by Board of Education Member and Committee Co-Chair Heather Moyer.
Members in Attendance: Jared Ploger – Board Member & Co-Chair (by phone at roll call), Heather Moyer – Board Member & Co-Chair, Laura Bankowski, Tina Gonzalez, Kelly Hastings (arrived at 6:45), Toia Jones, Linda Long, Dr. Patti Marcinko, Dr. Debra McDougle (arrived after roll call), Beth Meier, Eulalia Valdez
Guests in Attendance: Matt Epperley, School Community Resource Coordinator; Shannon Lueders, Director of Junior High Education; Jamie Max, Director of High School Education; and Melissa McDowell, Director of Elementary Education
Members Absent: Candace Fikis, Yanhong Ochs, Dr. Lisa Smith – Associate Superintendent for Educational Services
Recording Secretary: Cindi Krachtus
II. Motion was made to approve the October 17, 2017 meeting minutes by Heather Moyer; seconded by Linda Long; all were in favor.
III. Social Emotional Learning
a. Mental Health (Presented by Matt Epperley, School Community Resource Coordinator)
Mr. Epperley presented a power point entitled “SD 308 Title I SchoolCommunity Resource Coordinator” (See attached)
The figures indicated under “Hospitalization Data” indicates number of students, not number of incidents
Various building meetings are held at the Title I schools for anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, self- harming behaviors; PD for staff; process for hospitalization and re-entry; parent education; student services support; establish monthly meetings
The Plan of Action in creating the various steps for the district was outlined
Timeline of implementing the Plan starting with the 17-18SY was outlined
Questions/Comments:
Question was raised with regard to the pilot currently taking place at OE and whether that was related to programming needs?
o OE has one less counselor than OH, which made that school a good choice for the pilot
o Scenario: Student walks into student services department and indicates they need help (not suicidal)
District would determine if it is a case to be referred out
If it is a case to be referred out, the outside agency would contact the family and assist the family in navigating the services they would need
Wouldn’t students who not only hurt themselves but also who threaten to hurt others also need to be addressed?
o Deans also address those types of issues
When you undermine and are not proactive, you end up being more reactive
What types of costs are involved with this program?
o Majority of costs are PD of the staff to give them the expertise to understand/see when a student needs assistance
Question was still raised as to what that cost looks like. Do we have the resources that we need to implement this now?
o Title II grants cover professional development costs on ACEs. If you want a quicker implementation, then you need to use district funds. It depends on how fast or slow you want to move which also determines costs.
o Mr. Ploger indicated that perhaps we are piling more onto teachers because we can’t move fast enough and that perhaps is also a cost because teacher morale goes down and their mental health also is at jeopardy
o This program provides an opportunity to bring in more bodies without putting more pressure on our staff
We pay Linden Oaks approximately $6,014 for the pilot phase from January 1 to May and that will provide us with the data that we need to move forward and inform phase 2
It was suggested running a pilot at the junior high level would be beneficial since that is a different environment from the high school
Program would ultimately need to be tailored to what the data would show
Partnerships: Fox Bend Counseling, Linden Oaks, Kendall County Interagency Council, Illinois Children’s Mental Health Partnership, SD308 Mental Health Resource List
Any demographic data based off of the hospitalization numbers?
o Data was sorted by school and gender
o Where is the highest data by gender?
That was not the focus for this report and there would be a need to go back and look at the data to provide an answer
Committee Member asked the board: What would be needed prior to this presentation going to the school board? Perhaps the wrong individuals are sitting at this table hearing the presentation due to the fact that these individuals have already “bought into it” and we need to have the individuals who have not “bought into it” hear the presentation.
b. ACEs (Presented by Melissa McDowell, Director of Elementary Education; Jamie Max, Director of High School Education; and Shannon Lueders, Director of Junior High Education) (Presentation attached)
Partnership between District Administration Team and OEA
Three categories of ACEs (Adverse Childhood Experiences): Abuse, neglect, and household dysfunction
As the number of ACEs increases, so does the risk for negative health outcomes, such as: lack of physical activity, depression, diabetes, heart disease, COPD
A trauma-informed school recognizes that we must reach students hearts prior to reaching their minds
o This year, our district is focusing on helping our staff have a deeper understanding of the brain science behind ACEs and complex trauma
Timeline of where SD308 has been:
o February 2017 – OEA and District Leadership team introduced ACEs
o May 2017 – Core team was developed
o August 2017- Movie Paper Tigers was shown at convocation
o September 2017 – Certified staff participated in world café activity
o October 2017 – 8 buildings were identified to pilot practices of a Trauma Informed School
o November 2017 – Community screening of Paper Tigers/expert panel discussion was held
Where are we going:
o A small team will visit Lincoln High School, which was the subject of the Paper Tigers movie
o February 2018 – Resilience will be shown to all district staff
o Jan/Feb 2018 – Pilot teams will receive training on Senate Bill 100 and Restorative Practices
o April 2018 – Youth Mental Health First Aid training
o Professional ongoing learning for all staff
o Community events to raise awareness
o Partnership with OPD and Rush Copley
OPD has asked for SD308 to come to them to provide training
o 18-19SY - Additional building teams will be established
Questions/Comments:
Understanding as an educator how to deal with students who have had a history of adults who have failed them, is their guidance for those educators and is that a piece to this?
o Its students who are different in many ways and with different experiences and building the trust for the student to trust who they are talking to and letting them know it’s okay to risk talking to those individuals. Also, if the adult knows of another adult who might be a better fit for the student, being able to go and get that other adult and fitting that adult with that student.
Suggested to have supports for staff also to process information being given to them from the students
IV. Public Comment (3 minutes each) – none
V. December 19th Meeting
The Board Members indicated that the December 19, 2017 meeting would be cancelled; no one was opposed.
V. Curriculum Review Cycle
The Board Members indicated that the Curriculum Review Cycle was presented at the board meeting last night and was not approved (3-3 vote). Discussion was held.
VI. The meeting was adjourned at 7:35; all were in favor.
Next Meeting: Tuesday, January 23, 2018
https://www.sd308.org/site/handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=9955&dataid=45563&FileName=11.14.17%20Teaching%20and%20Learning%20Minutes%20Final.pdf
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