Any questions on nothing new? No. Sue, you sufficiently recovered to the move on to the next agenda item. Okay. Item 6.3, committee updates. Anybody have any committee updates? Okay, Raquel. Uh so plaque had a meeting last Thursday. Um we kind of went over the ISB professional development requirements as a minimum of two training sessions to teachers who interact with EL students. Um so they're kind of saying do they want these sessions to be during department meetings for grades 6 through 12 or staff meetings for elementary remote trainings and also there is no time required for the trainings like so like training doesn't have to be an hour can be 20 minutes 30 minutes. So um that's that county institute days for staff learnings and trainings. Do they organize those by buildings or what the teachers teach and they give them three options like a conference meet with the team PLC or attend district approved professional learning.
Um, and I think they had been that county had been in earlier conversations about a potential consolidation, but it never happened. And so I think there are a lot of things that have led up to a representative making a decision to put that into a bill. Interesting. Which opens it up. I know. I think it's Travis to count as a fire. Yes, it does. Yes. So, and really the session by statute supposed to end by April 29th, but they say that they'll probably try to finish this week. So, we should know a lot more answers um by the end of the week as far as House Bill 101 with the budget. Um we already have the property tax information, but that's what we want to go over next. So, we'll just go over that um quickly here. This is effective July 1. Um, I guess Dr.
No, they're uh their trainers, you know, they replications of either engines of airplanes or brake systems or but the trainers had to be special ordered and they take typically anywhere from a year, two and a half years to build them and get them to us. ones that are not here yet. We're going to get I think there's six trans coming in June and then we still have about eight more seven or eight more that are going to be done until later. Uh but because we have the air aircraft, we're going to be okay without those trainers get but we are hoping to have the trainers in by June because our grant ends in June and we have to have in order to get the cost covered they have to be here by by the end of June. So to tight it's really a tight timeline.
Uh, which states, quote, "No person in the United States shall on the ground of race, color, or national origin be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving federal financial assistance." End quote. So if we say as a collective society, like the Civil Rights Act does here, that we no longer can legally discriminate against specific individuals from accessing privileges granted to others in society, we by legislative design are then legally required to be inclusive. And now that we are inclusive, we have more students present thanks to this newfound inclusivity in our public schools, we create a more diverse environment. Since we now have more folks here with varying backgrounds and experiences that we are legally obligated to provide for as public education rightfully should be, we can better utilize our tools to learn how to be more equitable when providing for this diverse and inclusive society.
Um so what we what we are trying to show there is even our students that are multilanguage learners and special education. Um so with 23% of our population is multil- language learners, 12% um special education students, they are also growing and and um at the same rate as our general education students and our students who have more experience. Um I I always love uh the fact that sometimes our students have IEPs or 504s, but they're our strongest dancers. And many times this is where they excel um on physical things. And so that that's always been very joyful for us um to like have a place where everybody can shine in in their own way. Yeah. Um so I just the SPS dance one data was really interesting that 25% 17%. If I'm not mistaken, those are some of the biggest leaps, Lori, of any team that we've That's why I That's why I had to put it in.
Um they also give an update and I think this is kind of important for SIGDS pro update um and they kind of found that black male students in BPS have a four times chance of being labeled with a disability whether that's emotional or behavioral. So this is a system problem. They are examining our systems and the hypothesis is maximizing core instructions for the black males and we're seeing progress and addressing that. So that's kind of good news. So sent out um to elementary swap dates for Illinois literary train literacy training. Um, and they picked July for their retreat date and then they shared the PLC, I'm sorry, the plaque dates for next year and they are meeting on the same days as CAC and student services in case they ever want to potentially combine uh meetings with CAC or student services. They have like a common theme in them and that's all.
P and I hope to talk a little bit about this, but I'll just let him chime in. He'll do a lot more to continue on here. But, you know, schools with debt service tax rate, the 70 cents must use referendums for new debt. It used to be 80 cents. Um, and so that's a new law. That was a new law just a couple years ago, right? because when we built our debt plan, we obviously made it so that we wouldn't be close to that threshold of 80 cents. Now, with the property tax relief and the loss of assessed valuation that we'll see happen, well, when your assessed valuation goes down, your tax rate goes up. And so that could push us up to that 70 cent threshold, which would then really limit our potential for future borrowing because to borrow over that 70 cents, you'd have to go through a referendum, which makes it really unique for situations like our partnerships with Hartland Career Center.
So we did ask we already asked extension beyond June and supposed to get back soon. Thank [Music] you. Anybody have any questions on the admissions report? John, you want to go through that real quick? uh continue um taken in recently or just accepted another. Yes. So um we we just got up to our final enroll number prerege number 485 that was exactly the number that we were looking for. I think we sent out another round of roughly 80 applications and some of those students. We have our our accepted students day Saturday, May 3rd. Questions on that? May 3rd. Is that like the last round of acceptances for the incoming freshman? No. So May 3rd is just the day that the um freshman the incoming freshman and their families can come um and they're the admissions department is setting up a fun event. U typically in the past they would do an assessment that day.
The idea that all of our students can have the opportunity to thrive can be realized. Miss Mlennon, correct me if I'm wrong. Public education institutions like that of the Higgley Unified School District have been legally obligated to follow the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and any subsequent Supreme Court cases that have further defined what this laws mean, what this law means since its passing. Is that correct? That's correct. Thank you. And furthermore, Miss Mlennon, any instance of a violation on Higgley's part would mean that Higgley could have been sued since its passing in 1964. Is that correct if we violated this? So typically, Miss Wade, madams, and the governing board, typically the uh suit would be precluded or be precluded unless there was a claim filed, okay, with the EEOC or the Office of Civil Rights Prior. But once those prerequisites were met, correct? You have been subject to that.
That's why they kept telling me the story of just leave. It was Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Like, so I mean, not we'll see 5% maybe 7% but nothing like that. And when you shared it, it um the idea that you know may maybe leading with technique, you know, was something we did the year before, but leading with community is I felt like there was more you could say about that. So just can you add any commentary to that because I know that you guys are passionate about dance technique and you want kids to you know kind of learn the the craft and yet you know when you jump that high something significant is different in the class and to your point about the enrollment we know something because we can track you know from our vantage point we see the enrollment fluctuations as a factor in what's happening in the class.
Okay, anyone? So, stipen committee met. Um, I think there was there was a thought that we could wrap up uh our work um and approve all the stipens at the last meeting, but um there were some more questions uh that needed to be investigated. Um so, we're going to do that uh do that due process work and um we have a meeting early May, I think May 3rd, and uh we should be wrapped up by then. But um my comment here really is I appreciate the thoroughess of thoroughess that is going on with these evaluations of these requests. They're not being taken, you know, lightly. It's um there's really some real work going into investigating um getting feedback um benchmarking in certain cases um the request. So um I appreciate the thoroughess. Any others? I I just uh I'm on the insurance and benefits committee.
And so, for example, you know, it we're trying to look at ways to um help uh make improvements with that facility because there hasn't been any improvements since it's really been built in the 70s. And you know, there will be school corporations that we are members with in that that will be over that 70 cent threshold. And so how how does that relate to does that mean we all have to try to pass a referendum to to be able to improve that facility? Is it just those? You know, I I think it just creates now some bigger obstacles that we weren't really anticipating when we, you know, built some of these um processes, I guess, to say. And we did meet with our professionals, our financial and our um other professionals as far as uh you know, attorneys with the rest of the members of Heartland Career Center.
this this year and they're not doing an assessment. Um so they're going to have you know the clubs and activities set up. There'll be um anformational um video going in the pack um book fair in the library. U so really an opportunity to come in and kind of connect with people have have fun um just learn a little bit more about the the school. What time somebody ask me about I would have to look I don't know exact or 9. Is it 9 to 10:30 or 9:30 to 11? It's something like that. It's just it's an hour and a half in the morning.
Thank you. So, we've been beholden to this law. This has been again have been true for all public education institutions since its passing in 1964. Over the course of the last 61 years, we have collectively moved towards a public education system that is more equitable and inclusive, which has a direct result in our education system becoming more diverse. We continue to improve because continued marginalized groups pushed under the Civil Rights Act to expand or further changes. So, for example, individuals with disabilities education act or IDEA, the use of individuals uh individualized education plans or IEP. We also have title nine restrictions that says we have to spend the same amount of money on sports regardless of gender. These are all things that are going back to more equitable practices as a result of the Civil Rights Act. I would like to now look at the uh later part of this agenda item.
So can you how's that going? How did you guys feel about that? It was hard. Thank you. It was really hard. That's what I thought you wanted to say, but feel comfortable saying it. So, can you tell us tell us how that made you feel? We have more classical training and I So, we wanted to lead with spend a lot of time on, you know, the just anatomical parts of things. And we realized over the course of the last couple years when we would do a fun jazz phrase or when we went to the schools, the theater schools, and we did like just a fun, more athletic upbeat, the kids were so engaged. And so we said, "Well, we're showing them that we do this when we visit, but in our class, we start like this and maybe we need to get them where they're at and build on that love and build on that community and then start to really say, "Okay, so do you want to get better at that leap because we can show you how to do that, too." And yeah, we didn't want to lose the integrity of what it is we're trying to do.
They have two pretty important meetings and they might even hold more if they need to. They've got some important topics to discuss that they're trying to complete by the end of this year. So, I'm just throwing it out there that they've got a meeting next week and then I think one following two weeks after that that if a board member is able to be assigned to that pretty quickly, it would probably be a good idea to have somebody there. Unless you want to volunteer to R.J. I'm continuing beefy through the end of the year. Oh no. So not unheard of for you to continue your committee. Taking my badge, so I won't. So close. You should let him. I'll look for it. Josh already said his goodbyes to me. So I don't think I could go through those goodbyes again. Too hard. It's too hard the first time.
And there's some different ideas to go along with that, but it is going to be very challenging. That's just bottom line. So there I mean that could impact us. That's one of those that could really impact us for the future. And I think we sent this to the pack and I don't know if you had a chance to look at it, but you can see the value changes with the homesteads, the farmland, the commercial, um, and then the circuit breaker losses there. So here again, great for um property owners um and different people like that, but when it comes down to it, it will affect municipalities and also schools. Not sure this Chris, but so the the big thing with it is that they the legislation use has used the term a decrease in the increase. So you know, we'll still receive an operation fund levy.
Any questions on that? You're going to be in bed early tonight. Personal health considerations none of Katherine Murray Murray special education special effective June 27th 25 I think Katherine's been here since 2006. Yeah. Retirement employment advanced manufacturing instruction instructor effective April 7th, 2025. We get a motion to enter into executive session. Motion to enter. Let's go to executive session. All right. Closed. more 30 seconds. Good. Does anybody have anything further? Can we put a motion to adjourn? I sort of going to bring up the yellow dress again. I know you and I have talked about it. Um hearing the guidance felt that it would be uncomfortable for some of the student I think you're playing to a a small minority of the student population you know the performance usually when it comes to the school it's usually seen by what 600 700 students at once if you talk to a very small group then the larger audience is not getting education that performance It's too late for this year.
It states, quote, given the text of Title Six and the insuranceances you have already given, any violation of Title Six, including the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion or DEI programs to advantage one's race over another is impermissible. The use of DEI practices can violate federal law. The continued use of illegal DEI practices may subject the individual or entity using such practices to serious consequences. And then I'm going to paraphrase here those consequences are termination of funds or potential litigation. End quote. I wish to repeat it states including the use of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs to advantage one's race over another. In no way does DEI anything provide advantage of one race over another. DEI quite literally provides more equity regardless of demographics which race is included in this. Of note, at no point do we have any definition either from our current administration or even Superintendent Horn on what they actually mean by DEI.
And yes, Eric, it was really hard. It was hard. I felt like there was something behind that. I was like, what? I really appreciate you sharing that because that that that tells me that this was a meaningful change for you and that it it's having an impact. And yeah, I appreciate you pushing that a little because the one thing and they they told a beautiful story almost a year ago, I guess, at this point when we first had the our conversations about not only did they move to this just leap, but really the importance of them of they did not compromise the rigor or the integrity of the dance that by the time they get to the end of their programs and when you look at the dancers who went to New York, all of those things still remain. And yet to their credit, it really embraced to Steve's original question of how do they complement each other?