President and Board of Trustees

123 Madison Street Village of Oak Park Oak Park, Illinois 60302 www.oak-park.us Meeting Minutes President and Board of Trustees Wednesday, November 18, 2020 7:00 PM Virtual Remote Meeting Joint Board Meeting of School District 97, School District 200 and the Village Board of Trustees with the Collaboration for Early Childhood. Remote Meetings of the Oak Park Village Board of Trustees is authorized pursuant to Section 7 (e) of the Open Meetings Act. The Village President has determined that an in-person meeting is not practical or prudent due to the COVID-19 outbreak during the Governor’s disaster proclamation. It is also not feasible to have a person present at the Board’s regular meeting location due to public safety concerns related to the COVID-19 outbreak. I. Call to Order Tri-Board Chair Jung Kim called the meeting to order at 7:07 P.M. 1. Roll Call - Oak Park School Elementary District #97 Present: Board members Jung Kim, Holly Spurlock, Katherine Liebl, and Cheree Moore. Absent: Board members Gavin Kearney and Rob Breymaier, and Board President Keecia Broy. 2. Roll Call - Oak Park High School District #200 Present: Board members Craig Iseli, Tom Cofsky, Dr. Jackie Moore, Gina Harris, Matt Baron, and Board President Sara Dixon Spivy Absent: Board member Ralph Martire 3. Roll Call - Village of Oak Park Present: Village Trustees Boutet, Buchanan, Moroney, Taglia, Walker-Peddakotla, and Village President Abu-Taleb Absent: Village Trustee Andrews II. Public Comment No public comment III. Special Report Village of Oak Park Page 1 Printed on 12/9/2020 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 18, 2020 A. ID 20-320 Special Report: The State of Early Childhood in Oak Park and River Forest 1. Overview of 2019/20 program year. (Led by Collaboration) 2. Data discussion. (Led by Chapin Hall) 3. Open Discussion: Opportunities for Future Early Childhood Impact. (Facilitated by Collaboration) Mr. Borrero began with an overview of how the Early Childhood Collaboration (Collab) serves the community for the goal of ensuring all five year-olds are as prepared as possible entering kindergarten. The Collab utilizes coordinated intake and works with physicians & health care providers, families, early childhood staff, and kindergarten teachers to meet developmental needs of all five children entering kindergarten in Oak Park and River Forest. Four areas of services are community engagement, family engagement, health and development, and early learning. Equity is encompassed in early learning as an area of focus. Mr. Borrero included data information on how many children, programs, and teachers the Collab works with. The percentage of kindergarteners who attended preschool in Oak Park or River Forest scoring proficient in the Kindergarten Readiness Test over the past three years was; 78% (2017), 81% (2018), and 84% (2019). The Collab 2020 Symposium held in January was attended by 446 attendees, which was a record high. 1969 children received developmental and social emotional screenings. 1,118 text messages were sent to families via Ready4K's text-based family engagement during the 2019-20 school year. 240 community supporters attended the November 4th screening and panel discussion of the documentary No Small Matters. The pandemic highlighted the need to address health equity. The Collab was a strong advocate for pushing for daycare facilities as an essential service during the pandemic when small businesses began to open. The Collab also had an active voice for racial equity in 2020 reminding us that systemic inequities continue to perpetuate negative life outcomes for Black children in our community. The Collab has hired an agency to audit their services with regard to equity. Mr. Borrero highlighted the success of a summer enrichment program "Ready, Set, Kindergarten" as a collaboration with E-Team and a pilot program funded by a grant from the OPRF Community Foundation; Classroom safety practices which will include a document to be shared community-wide historically recording the communities response to COVID-19. Mr. Borrero also introduced a social determinants of health framework that guides the Collab in addressing; food security, access to health care, housing, income & job security, mental health, transportation, education, isolation, and environment & safety. Collaboration for Early Childhood Data & Trends in 2020, Robert Goerge, Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago. Mr. Goerge defined the role of Chapin Hall as an independent policy research center that provides public and private decision-makers with rigorous research and achievable solutions. This partnership is in its 8th year to develop, maintain, and analyze data on young children in Oak Park and River Forest. Mr. Goerge introduced results from the Kindergartener Readiness Test (KRT), pointing out that participation has gone up overtime, providing more security in Village of Oak Park Page 2 Printed on 12/9/2020 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 18, 2020 the results. The challenge is that it is understood that children that are less likely to take the test may also be the same kids that would not score as well. Scores have gone up. There is a desire to better understand the situation around young people that do not do as well. Mr. Goerge spoke about the great range of changes in financial circumstances for parents related to the pandemic; whether loss of income or increased income followed by halt in income resulting from discontinued Federal stimulus package responsive to the pandemic. He explained reasons for anticipated challenges in collecting Census data. Child poverty has likely increased in the current economic recession but a disruption in data systems due to the pandemic mean that we do not actually know to what extent child poverty has increased. Vision and hearing screenings decreased due to spring closures of screening partner sites. New survey information included in the Census provides some insight into food, rent, and budget insecurities. Mr. Goerge stressed the need for improved access to real-time data and identified what limited sources Chapin Hall is attempting to leverage (e.g., KIDS, INCCRRA data, public program records). There is a dire need to look ahead and plan for recovery from the pandemic now. Discussion: John Borrero introduced a time for open discussion by sharing ways that the Collab is currently partnering with each governmental partner; Village of Oak Park, District 97, District 200, Oak Park Public Library, Park District of Oak Park, and the Oak Park Township. Mr. Borrero shared a general description of Senior Citizen volunteers in classrooms of young students through a partnership with the Township. The COVID-19 response includes purchasing tablets fro seniors for participation funded through a grant from the OPRF Community Foundation. Poverty and access to resources in our community John Borrero pointed out that a challenge that exists related to poverty is that federal guidelines defining poverty are lower than what is a challenge in Oak Park (relative poverty). A family may be above the poverty line but still struggle to afford access to childcare, healthcare, housing, mental health and wellness, food, and environmental safety particularly related to COVID-19. 7% (279 children under 5) of children in Oak Park are beneath the federal poverty level of $21, 720. 10% (390 children under 5) of children in Oak Park are at 130% poverty level ($28,236). The average rent in Oak Park is approximately $1800.00/ month. 13% (544 children) are at the level of still qualifying for free and reduced lunch with an income of $40,182 for a family of 3. D200 Board member Dr. Jackie Moore requested that racial data be included in the future as a standard benchmark for evaluating equity and poverty as a Tri-Board. Mr. Borrero compared the child poverty rate to the adult percentage of poverty in Oak Park. The rate of poverty is slightly higher for adults. He suggested this raises the question of tracking the rate of mobility. D200 Board member Gina Harris stated this raises the question of what more the community can do to support addressing moving from poverty. Mr. Borrero led a discussion on Village of Oak Park Page 3 Printed on 12/9/2020 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 18, 2020 identifying opportunities for partnerships that already exist? After-School mentoring programs, E-Team, ShaRhonda Knott-Dawson Black history/race education, Oak Park Mutual Aid Fund, housing partners, Library, Township, and other community groups that aid families in need. D97 Board member Cheree Moore suggested this dialogue should be asset framed; including the contributions of Black people as positive to not turn off members of the community that contribute greatly in ways not related to access to money and effectively loosing out on what they could contribute to the dialogue in response. Mr. Borrero acknowledged that this requires more mindfulness in his presentation and he will work towards that goal. Gina Harris further clarified approaching the discussion acknowledging the skills and value that individuals bring to a conversation in order to address systemic challenges. D97 Board member Jung Kim drew a connection from this dialogue with the senior partnership with the Collab as a positive example. Dr. Jackie Moore highlighted that people are capable of telling us what they need. What are the obstacles to our community response? Work alongside versus taking on a savior role. Dr. Jackie Moore asked the question of do we really know as much as we need to about obstacles for families so that we can target our resources to make a greater impact and address access as a resource rich community. Village President Abu-Taleb thanked everyone for their work and partnership. He left the meeting at 8:28 P.M. Village Trustee Walker-Peddakotla acknowledged Arbor West as a resource to tab to understand intergenerational conversations. Mr. Borrero thanked everyone for aiding him in doing the best job that he can by engaging in the conversation and challenging the work for greater expectations. Dr. Jackie Moore suggested the challenge is also for all three Board's to respond in a more cohesive way moving forward for progress. Mr. Borrero suggested the Collab would like to have a role in bringing the community together. IV. Financial Report B. ID 20-321 Financial Report 1. FY20 Year End Financial Statements 2. SY2021 September Year-to-Date Reports 3. Administrative Agent Report and IGA Administrative Fund 4. Informational Attachment: Audited Financial Statements for FY20 Collab Board member Gordon Hellwig presented the financial report. He reported that the audit went well. The Collab invoices bi-monthly for $220,000. The did not invoice for the final two months of 2020 because program expenses were under budget by approximately the same amount ($220,000). The Collab is in good financial health. They have a policy of maintaining three months of expenses on hand and have a goal of a zero based budget. Patrick King with D97 provided a summary report of cash balances. He confirmed the excess that Gordon spoke of that resulting in not taking all of the Village of Oak Park Page 4 Printed on 12/9/2020 President and Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes November 18, 2020 scheduled draws. He confirmed that all of the accounts set-up for this purpose accurately reflect the percentage of contributions from each governmental partner. He shared the balances from each bank account for each partner as well as the reserve bank account. V. Adjourn It was moved by Village Trustee Boutet, seconded by D200 Board member Dr. Jackie Moore to adjourn at 8:50 P.M. A roll call was taken. The motion was approved. The roll call was as follows: 1. Roll Call - Village of Oak Park Present: Village Trustees Boutet, Moroney, Taglia, and Walker-Peddakotla Absent: Village Trustees Andrews, Buchanan, and Village President Abu-Taleb 2. Roll Call - Oak Park High School District #200 Present: Board members Craig Iseli, Tom Cofsky, Dr. Jackie Moore, Gina Harris, Matt Baron, and Board President Sara Dixon Spivy Absent: Board member Ralph Martire 3. Roll Call - Oak Park Elementary School District #97 Present: Board members Jung Kim, Holly Spurlock, Katherine Liebl, and Cheree Moore. Absent: Board members Gavin Kearney and Rob Breymaier, and Board President Keecia Broy. Respectfully submitted, Vicki Scaman Village Clerk Village of Oak Park Page 5 Printed on 12/9/2020