But I will say that PCSO and elections uh department has responded very well and there are officers available not just at our district but throughout the the county for those areas that that or for those school districts that are sharing uh as well as quite frankly any other um uh facilities. So I would uh recommend approval and this will be for the uh through the November 26 election. Um so if we have any election this November as an example, this would cover that. So recommend approval as presented.
There's some specific reasons related to family retirements. We we always have a number of those situations occur. Uh but um we're not seeing salary as the reason we're not seeing uh you know poor working conditions. It's just been encouraging to see that. But again, we're continuing to survey as as people early district. Well, congratulations again. Thank you. Appreciate it. And Mr. Becket, I just I just want to make a comment. It's sort of similar to what um you miss Lupin or Rothchild just discussed. I want to just highlight it's not just salary. I think that's bringing people here and I want this district to be a district where people run to and not have run out of um it's also the working conditions. It's also the education and training which is pretty significant and it's things like we have not increased our health care costs to the employee a lot of employees this year.
Um we clean about a dozen districts throughout Illinois and we want to grow our reputation with districts like Kerry 26 to go other places as well. So this is 100% what our our motive is and and really to keep things growing and improving here at carry 26. Perfect. Yeah. Thank you. I know one of our big concerns of the board was our existing custodial staff have been very dedicated and um they've been through a lot so you know we really want to make sure we can keep them as part of you know D26 family if possible tenure and you know tenure in our business with employees is what keeps the consistency and cleaning within facilities at the top of the game and and and that's so important you know, taking care of people, making sure that they feel that their job is appreciated and and really just giving them, you know, making sure obviously that they get paid and uh the right the right amounts in these markets today.
I feel like it's it's an important piece and we spent a lot of time on it at that time and we do refer back to it quite often. So it's for me I've sat up here when and for all I believe everyone here has sat up here when the community has demanded accountability has demanded transparency has made demands and everybody's expectations are different everybody's feeling feeling of what's subjective. I mean, everybody's feeling of what's transparent and what is accountable is all subjective. And I feel like I've read the policy manual and this is very easy to understand language. You don't have to go searching for it. It's in the right part of the policy manual. Um, it's I specifically like the that accountability requires that expectations are mutually understood. I specifically like that there needs to be a reasonable balance between expectations and our capacities.
So that means that in the summertime when I present data, you're able to look at cohort data from year to year. That's not going to be this case. It is just where did the students start at the beginning of the school year and where are the students midpoint this school year at this time. Um this is one data point I want to preface one data point. Uh there is no one singular point of data that truly gives us a snapshot of an individual student because they are so unique and individual and multi multiaceted that we have to take into consideration so many different data points. So we do look at STAR, we look at AR, we look at DESA, we look at SECA, we look at the whole child, social, emotional, academic, um, and everything in between. So just want to remind you this is one data point.
So with this debt service structure, we would not anticipate a tax rate increase assuming assessed values remain constant. So with that, I would be happy to turn it back over to the board and answer potentially any questions the board would have. Questions? See none. Thank you, Mr. Tanzel. We will now open the uh public hearing. Remember, if you would like to speak, ple please sign in on the sheet which is located in the back of the boardroom.
This is a number that I presented uh and that they actually fully supported and I want to make that clear. This slide here Mr. Shakyra gets a little, you know, looking at the slide, 79% is is greater than half of the of the of the pie, if you will. But, uh, you know, his OCD kicked in yesterday. He's like, "Jim, I" and honestly, I couldn't quite figure out how to adjust the pie. Okay. I just I can get the I can get the actual percentages in there. I mean, right. So, so if his eyes turn away, it's my fault. Um, but but you know, a little bit of levity, right? 51. Actually, our salaries are about 79% almost 80%. Right. That's that's what it is. Um, with 15% going to contracted services, that's a lot of different things that make that up, but but out of district special education costs um are are included in there.
Um she is the most competent uh superintendent, educator, human, one of the most competent humans that I've ever met. Um I've known her for 15 years. I've known her as a colleague, as a principal, and now as superintendent. And I just hope that whatever conversations are happening include her as an expert because as Luke mentioned, uh, making these proposals based purely on numbers doesn't make a whole lot of sense. You know, I have a small calculus class. We have nine kids in class. So, there's 15 extra desks, but I can't fill them with seventh graders. Okay? So we we just because we can hold the students in the building doesn't mean it makes practical sense the way that our school works, the way that schedules work. And I think it just you really need to include some of the the folks who know how these things work in the conversation.
I understand it is hugely expensive, but you know, we got $700,000 in the servers and switches and we keep having continual failures. I think it's something we need to look at a little more in depth before we dump another 300,000 into something. Yes. So, you'll have um So, John and I had a conversation today, so I've asked Mr. Brutder for all of that information. You'll have it by Friday in the weekend. Yeah. I I just I I know we've gone down this journey and other things around here and we've we've discovered some interesting facts as we've gone along this journey in the last year or so. So, I just think that's a tremendous amount of money that I think we need to look at with the amount of failures we've had and and I know it's challenging when you guys lose your connectivity and things go down.
Um, anyone have any questions about any of these? was very precise with our 97 cents. Yeah. Every penny account for um all those in favor of the motion, please say I. I. I. Uh anyone opposed or abstaining? Are we all set in finance? Well, later on in the agenda, we have some bid waiverss for We have to do bid waivers for things that we just transferred. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, we'll do it then. Did we say special ed is never changing the landscape? I didn't. I think it was assumed. Well, let's make sure we were covering everything. All right. Um but there is So that leaves us after these approved transfers that leaves us with a balance after the transfer request of the 314,000. Um so later on in the agenda, we'll talk about the approval of mitting 150,000 to FY26 budget. You want to do that now?
And essentially, our program is simple. Mentors and mentees meet together once a week, usually it's during um lunch period or a pretty period like flex at the high school. and they're there and talking and listening to each other, sometimes playing a game and someday getting to know each other and building a really positive connection that will often last years into the future. And we know this really matters because a student that does have a mentor that has someone checking in with them are more likely to stay in school. They're more likely to show up to school. Um, we know that student forwards the days their mentors are visiting them. um they're more likely to have higher self-esteem, have um better grades in school, and our long-term goal is to really keep kids in school, keep them happy, and then want to um pursue a good career that will help them for their lifetime.
Good evening everyone. You know, I just want to preface it all by I will not be as entertaining as Ian, but I am super jealous of his hair and I hope you don't pull up a picture of me 32 years ago because I've been in the district for 32 years. So, I definitely have hair of that. Just some of the things that we've been doing at Stavro is really focusing in on key pieces on the math curriculum and standards and same thing in language arts. I think in years past as a principal when we see our scores we want to fix everything. We bite off way too much than we can do. And I think K5 curriculum is so indepth and so deep. We try to fix it all in one in one school year and we can never accomplish that. And we've learned that throughout time.
Do we do we not do a first one so soon for training or do we well it it's not even just about that because I get you know that was a high number and so it does look like we've got growth right because like let's just take second grade for instance that at the beginning diagnostic was 92% of kids were one or more grade levels behind and now at three we have 70%. So, we still have a huge number of kids in all grades that are that are way below where they should be. And I know that's what we're working on, right? But that is what we're trying to decide in the board like how do we move forward? How do we get, you know, but teachers don't we don't even understand what I already what the questions are? Like it says they're low in geometry.
I believe the district board members should take a risk and start investing in us teachers again. Let's not waste our negotiation team's time taking them away from their classroom counseling and leadership roles, deciding what you can't give us because of the unvalidated reasons or excuses, but instead start looking for the money that we do have, especially from the consolidation and the teacher layoffs that just happened. we sorry uh but instead start looking for the money to give us a sense of hope and security so we can continue educating our students the way we want and know how without sacrificing our well-being. We are all making adjustments next year, but one very important adjustment should be agreeing to the raise and improving the working conditions of which we are currently requesting and negotiating. Please don't expect us to do more and more each year with the same amount of resources or even less at times if you aren't willing to invest in us more and more each year.
It is not only commitment at this point, it's passion that we all have for this sport. Um thanks to them, we were able to win this year, bring the win and humbly share this experience with everyone. And I wanted to say that it is possible for anyone to accomplish this. We're still waiting for the boys, right? Um we we are cheering them on this year and every single year so that they can also bring something and share experiences with the school. I want to thank the school as well for sponsoring us and believing in us and giving this opportunity for us to bring something home and make history. Thank you. Hi, my name is Emilia Kerino. I am a senior as well and this is my fourth year during cheer. Um when we started the team looked very different us three we were there from the very beginning not the beginning beginning but basically since co since co um and it's it's been a wild ride but we had our controversies I'm very grateful for this team um and I'm very happy that we were able to make it through pull together and I think everyone has done an amazing job this year and every other year and I'm just proud of everyone.
Any questions on that? I don't think we should shy away from people that are being rowdy as long, you know, we have support. Yeah, I don't think we should shy away from it. I think it's something we should show the community that we're standing for that liberty that we need to have everyone. Our real our our only real issue is um uh at Harmon uh just due to the nature of the way Harmon is constructed. Uh and we did have a situation I can't remember if it was two or three elections ago where someone went off and dropping fbombs where we have kids in the it's in the in the hallway area next to the gym. There kids in the gym, there's kids at lunch. So that's the real issue is if someone goes off here, there's nobody around. But when you go into Harmon, all a sudden you have little kids that are hearing language and stuff they shouldn't.
So there's a lot of stuff going on. And so I just want to say good well done to the board for not just focusing on one thing but a package um for the for the school district and it seems to be working. I mean 92 93% retention rate I think anywhere is pretty high year over year. Thank you. Now I motion to approve. Awesome. I motion that we approve the HR agenda. Second we have a motion second. Shante Rosschild. Hi. Ben Owens. Hi. Carolyn Lopez. Hi. Patty Kushra. Hi. Robert Downey. Hi. So moved. Mr. Becker, I believe you have another announcement. Yes. I got a couple of introductions to make. I'd like to start out with Kevin Stomayor, our new high school principal at Maropa High School. It's great to have him here. And and a familiar face. Usually he's stuck behind that window back there, but Christine Dickinson will be our Butterfield Elementary principal for next year.
It's it's very uh it's it's it's very challenging, but that's that's how we have built our business thus far, and that's how we plan to continue. Thank you. All right. May I have a motion to approve the custodial service bid submitted by citywide building maintenance for one year in the amount of 720 thou sorry $722,44042 as presented. So moved second. Any further discussion? I I I do want to thank you for coming Katherine Potter. Hi. Thank you. I did have hesitation because your bid did come in so low. Um, but your references checked out and they were impressive. You being here tonight to answer any board questions is also impressive. So, thank you very much. Um, my hesitation has gone away. Mr. Mr. Shepard, I want to thank you for getting the contract up for us to view and um uh again, I just wanted to thank you and it it does help because your bid was low and I hope that this is long term.
Um, this is I feel like not just between the board and the community, but also the board and admin and the and everybody. And it's just kind of like a guide. I don't um I I don't feel that I'm turning my back on accountability and transparency, but um isn't the strategic plan kind of discussing those principles too or pledging us to those principles because I think some of the language in there reflects the original strategic plan that we had as a district that was formulated about 2012. So I I guess I would think that maybe this uses uh I don't know a little more older verbiage. It kind of matches the first uh strategic plan and um I think since in the other one we just we cite I mean the district's philosophy should be toward accountability and transparency. that is our philosophy or part of our philosophy.
Another reminder are our instructional shifts for the 2425 school year. We have been hitting the ground running since day one. Our overarching emphasis has been on literacy instruction. As you know, we started that last school year and the re rationale for that was that literacy is truly the gateway content area into all other content areas. Every other content whether we talk about science, social studies, literacy or math, reading is a foundational piece of those courses and that is the reason why we chose to start with literacy. Some of the things that we have going on this particular school year is implementation of our teacher created standard aligned K8 ELA curriculum maps in tier 1 instruction. That has helped us create more of an equitable learning environment across the district ensuring that students are learning similar standards at the same time with similar uh texts. However, there's teacher autonomy and how they are um teaching the students and interacting and getting them engaged.