Action Items
-The Board of Education voted to approve rebranding costs associated with the renaming for Jefferson Middle School and Webster Middle School. The estimated cost is $60,000 for each school, and includes new electronic marquees and a single sided aluminum wall mounted signs for the buildings’ main entrance. On July 1 Jefferson will officially be renamed John Lewis Middle School, and Webster will be renamed Edith Smith Middle School.
-The Board of Education voted to approve a preventive maintenance agreement with Smiths Detection for preventive maintenance services for district X-ray machines, totaling $26,819. The Crisis/Safety department is recommending entering into an agreement for preventive maintenance services with Smiths Detection for all district owned X-ray machines. This will assist with responsiveness of repairs and help minimize downtime. There are currently seven (7) X-ray machines that would be serviced as part of this agreement.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the adjustments to the graduation requirements for students who held senior standing in school year 2020-2021 as recommended by the Administration in interim policy 2003-2021, Graduation Requirements Class of 2021. Due to the ongoing, worldwide COVID-19 pandemic and how it has impacted the Waukegan community, the graduating Class of 2021 has completed their graduation requirements under extraordinary circumstances including extended school closures and a fundamental change in how instruction is delivered through remote learning for the majority, if not all, of their Senior year. Given these challenges, the Administration is recommending that the Class of 2021 graduation requirements mirror the State model for graduation credits and course participation for students with Senior standing during the 2020-2021 school year. The vote reduces the number of credits needed to graduate for the Class of 2021 to 17.5.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the modifications to the policy suspensions previously put in place by the Board of Education. Due to the progress in slowing the community spread of COVID-19 and the distribution of vaccinations nationwide, the Administration is recommending that the Board modify its policy suspensions put into effect as a response to COVID-19 health and safety concerns as set forth in the resolution attached below as part of the District's graduated transition to pre-pandemic operations.
-The Board of Education voted to approve the COVID-19 Board Resolution #10. This resolution would support non-Union staff members being able to work remotely when their health and job responsibilities allow and also provide them with administrative leave to support consultation with a health care provider or to obtain COVID-19 testing in the event they are identified as a close contact or have symptoms of COVID-19.
Personnel Items
-The Board of Education voted to approve the appointments, resignations and retirements of eight employees.
-The Board of Education voted to authorize the travel of the Human Resources department staff for the purpose of recruiting teachers for Bilingual, Diverse Learners, Math, Science, and other hard to fill vacancies in a variety of job markets to include but not limited to Mexico, Puerto Rico, HBCU Network, and others as new recruitment opportunities arise in support of a successful recruitment effort at a cost of $18,000.
-The Board of Education voted to establish a COVID Carry-over Leave Bank with individual employee vacation balances as of 6/30/21 which is defined as employee earned vacation days in excess of 10 days that can be used during their tenure in District and/or unused days paid post termination, resignation or retirement at the FY 2020-2021 base rate of pay. Due to COVID19 and responsibilities associated with increased workloads, employees were not able to take allotted leave during SY2020-2021. There are 226 employees with vacation balances that exceed 10 days totaling 3,127.375 days. As a result, it is the recommendation of the Business and Financial Services Department that leave days in excess of 10 days be tracked in AESOP, be available for use by individual employees and unused days paid out post termination, resignation and retirement at the FY 2020-2021 base rate of pay.
Procedural items
-The Board of Education voted to accept the Canvass of Votes Cast in the April 6, 2021 Election.