I know a lot of them kids are >> Oh, no. >> They're not farm kids. They're just kids that interested in that kind of stuff. And and uh >> Well, that's the other thing, too, is don't forget that, you know, our number of students that actually come from a home base, from a farm or are few. Um, but the careers in agriculture are wide open. I mean there's and that's the great thing about going to convention is they get to they get a chance when they go through the expo uh to talk with colleges from all over the nation, employers from all over and they get to see different things that they get exposed to. It's it's kind of fun to, you know, hear them come back and hey, you know, I went to this booth, talk to this person. That's pretty cool. I found something pretty interesting.
He works hard to achieve his goals and never gives up. This year, he has made impressive progress in advocating for himself. He enjoys answering questions and reading aloud. And he even stepped outside his comfort zone to perform a solo Christmas program, a huge accomplishment. Gage has overcome any obstacles with pride and integrity. We are all incredibly proud of him, and he should be proud of himself, too. Thank you, Dave, for your classroom. [applause] >> All right, next we have Adeline Laughler. >> Adeline is a fourth grader from Mr. Walker's class. >> Mr. Walker said, "We are fortunate to have Adeline as a student at BCEES. Adeline always does her best. She is kind, respectful, and helpful. She sets a great example by participating in class in a thoughtful manner. She does a good job in her role with the student council as well. When we think of a student who follows the oracle way, we think the battle.
>> I that passes rule one. >> Okay. Next up this evening under the new business. Um I'm going to I'm going to share with the community tonight. We're taking on several issues of school security. Um you know this is something that we see each and every day. Um unfortunately I think even today there was a school shooting at a high school. Um So, this is a new visitor management system. Um, what will happen is when individuals come into the school building, uh, they will have to scan their driver's license, it will go out to a sex offender site and immediately check to see if that individual pops up as a sex offender. If it if that person does, it will alert the secretary and principal and possibly even school resource officer that we can then take additional steps to make sure that person does not come into the school.
Any questions or comments? >> Hearing none. Uh could we have a roll call vote, please? >> I'll start with Vice President Moore. >> I. >> President Duckworth. >> I. >> Trusty Kefir. >> Hi. >> Secretary Dere. >> Trusty Helingsworth. Hi. >> Trusty Ragland. Hi. >> And Trusty Gley. Hi. 70. Thank you. Um, that passes. Next on the agenda is our district spotlight with Dr. Hoover. >> Yes. So, tonight I am excited to have a student who's coming this way right now, Ella Roden, who is a Harrison senior. Is that right, Ella? >> Yes. >> And Matt Croppy, who's our director of ASM. Uh, it's an exciting time for ASM. There's a new building renovation in place, and it's a it's a program that's dear to my heart. It started when I was a principal at Central, so it's been around for a long time. It's one of our biggest innovative models.
Um so hopefully by this Friday we'll have something out. The game plan is uh mid March to have a flyer or a postcard going out. Um, at that time flyers will be delivered to the preschools and then uh it'll open up April 1st where they can do everything and hopefully it'll all be online. The goal was to make it one day or night for the uh parents and that's what we're looking at accomplishing. That's all I got. >> Thank you, Chris. >> Yep. Uh January financial reports. We're we're putting your board packets this morning. Um couple projects. Uh the water project went out to bid last week. We'll have a bid opening coming up on February 17th. And the intermediate school chiller and controls along with the part of that job is also a valve replacement at the middle school. The that project will go out to bid on Thursday and we'll have bid openings on March 3rd.
>> Three for three. >> I think you cheer them on. Okay, next up is uh our first opportunity for public comments um on agenda items only. If you have a public comment, please come to podium and state your name and address. >> I've only got one. It's it's it's it's just strange to see Mike McCord over there. I just want to point that out that he's over there just minding his own business over there. We got a club over here. >> All right. Next up is the consent agenda and the items contained are A through H. Uh minutes of the January 12th, 2026 executive session. The minutes of the January 12th, 2026 organizational school board meeting. Minutes of the January 12, 2026 board of finance meeting. The minutes the January 12th, 2026 regular school board meeting. There's personnel recommendations, donation request, treasures report for December and claims.
And the vendor does all of that billing. That billing is not done by the school district. >> Okay. So, the the district incurs soft costs but not hard cost >> as a result. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Any other questions or comments for Dr. Mhallen? >> I'm sorry if you already mentioned this. Um what's the timeline for being able to um see the you know the possible partner? >> Um Community Health Network, their contract ends June 30th, 2026. So our hope is is that um we would be interviewing and know who the new vendor would be in a March time frame. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you for that question. I think we all agree the importance of mental health services for our students and adults. So thank you Miss Neee. >> Moving on to 2.03 request for RFP for student devices. Mr. Harsha.
Terrific. >> Thank you. I'm just writing down that you're going to be playing at the Z. [laughter] >> Do you have a date on that, Isabella? >> I do not. >> No [laughter] worries. I actually do have it on my calendar. Let me just take a check. >> I'm thinking March 20. >> Never mind. My internet's not working. [laughter] >> Okay, never mind. Well, thank you very much. I do have the date. I'll send it to you. Um, and you're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. I know the next up, um, a spotlight on kids will be fascinating, but if you have homework or other obligations, feel free to leave. >> Okay. >> Thank you very much. >> No problem. >> Thank you, Isabelle. >> And now, Dr. Steven McGuire, we have spotlight. >> Yes. Clearly, we have quite a crowd here this evening, so I will invite Mrs.
Um again, I have confidence in our legislators that they're working on the on the formula, but uh until I see it, um we have to be we have to be very cautious. Okay. Um we intentionally not, you know, diving into a lot of um there's a lot of things with the with themies that we want to get involved in. You can see uh the pictures here. There's, you know, when you do great things with students and provide opportunities and you're heavy CTE and STEM, there's equipment that comes with that. So, we want to be able to responsibly sustain that moving forward. So, um we have some room in our budget this year to to buy a lot of equipment. So, we're we're planning for our needs for the next year or so by p purchasing some of that equipment now so that we can take care of themies and make sure the pathways have everything that they need.
Um it is free to kids, one breakfast and one lunch. >> Um but we um we do a congregate model which means that we don't deliver. We have the kids >> come and have have the meal there at the school. However, outside kids can come and participate. So, they would come and have lunch or breakfast, but they're um at the elementary school before the program starts and there's some parameters that we that we put on that as far as time goes and then we submit for reimbursement for that for the state. >> Thank you. >> And if you would like to head on out to stay or you can You're up. >> I do want to talk a little bit about you or have a chance to first of all build right now so far. So that's been positive. Um but a big thing right now is that our 21st century grant is for request for proposal um to try to get granted for the next five years.
Um, we held our local spelling be on the 20th. We had over 60 spellers. Whitley Simpson took first place and Abby Griffin took second place. will take our top eight spellers to compete at Ellsworth at our county spelling be on the 25th. We just celebrated our hundth day of school last week. Hard to believe we've already made it to the 100th day.
She is a good listener who pays close attention to her teachers and classmates. She is also a great speaker whenever she shares her ideas during classes, during class and during playtime. She always puts her best foot forward in her work and has shown strong academic academic growth. Miss Blanco is very proud of Violet. Violet wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up. Beautiful. So, get ready for the hearts. >> Look at all the love you >> congratulations. >> All right. For our first grade student, I don't know if she's here. uh from Miss Hernandez's class, Kayn Lewis. Don't see her here. Um let's go to second grade from Miss Cypriano's class, Marcelina Acriman. Marcelina deserves to be student of the month because she is kind, respectful, and friendly. She is always ready to learn. She demonstrates responsibility and dedication. Marcelina tries her best and works hard to finish all her assignments.
Um, being out there, welcoming them, you know, in at the beginning of the day and then seeing them off at the end of the day. Um, I think that's huge. I think the other guys all find that just extremely important. It gives us a chance to see how they're how the kids are feeling, you know, be that that smiling face that they get to see first thing. Um, you know, Dr. Moody's normally out there with me at Del Rio and sometimes we'll have a kid that comes up and you can tell they're just kind of off that day. Not their normal. Some kids just aren't morning people. I am not either. So, I totally get that. But there's other times where you're like, "Yeah, something's not quite right." And then I pretty much need to stay out there because I'm that that, you know, stopping point on the way in, but Dr.
The AP season is during the spring tennis season as well. So, it's a lot to manage. It was hard to keep up with classes for me because of a struggle my junior year. It was hard to keep a high level of tennis plus keeping good grades. And so, you know, I realized this like as I said, if you remember my December meeting, I talked a lot about timing and that sacrifice that students make and actually is making a sacrifice here. He's playing a sport he loves, but at the same time he, you know, he realizes that there's going to be increased stress due to these academics at the same time as having that less free time because of the sports. He realizes that this is a struggle going on. So I asked him, I was like, "Do you regret doing any of this junior year?
>> But the the part that we looked up the amplifier, they don't that company doesn't even exist anymore. So it's it's pretty old. >> And then you're just recommending do you option one? >> Yes. Just the amplifier and the um new microphone and soundboard. >> This just the hard that cost. >> It's hardware, um, extra mics, labor, um, cable runs, um, yeah, just all that. >> Any other questions for Matt? Anybody else have questions? >> All right. Can I please have a motion to approve the upgrade repair school gymnasium and system option one motion >> second >> Joe and Tiffany >> yes >> right we accepted a resignation uh retirement from Jul transportation driver effective February 13, 2026. [snorts] We have any public comments? >> Pardon? >> Okay.
So it's an unbelievable honor and unbelievable to do it six times. So Hunter, come on up. He'll introduce Mo. We are celebrating All State Theater. >> Good evening. I'm Hunter Evans, um scenic designer for Newsies and tech director at Downer South. Um this was um this over 500 students from all over Illinois auditioned for this. Um 48 made the cast, 46 made the crew, um and 18 made the orchestra. So it's quite an achievement. Um there's um there's a a pretty rigorous interview process that the stage crew kids go through. Um, obviously there's a there's an acting audition that the actors go through and a musical audition for the for the orchestra. Um, but I've been involved in this organization. Um, as long as you do theater in Illinois in a high school, you get involved in this organization. So, um, I've had the honor of designing six times.
Um, so we're going to give you an overview of the students that we are um, serving during summer school as well as more specific details about the things I mentioned like academic support, credit recovery, enrichment, as well as acceleration. So to start off, I'm going to share a little bit about what our elementary students have opportunities for over the summer. Um, we have something called summer connections. We do this annually for kindergarten through 7th grade. Uh this year it will be hosted at Fox Chase and Grand Park. You can see the dates listed um on the screen as well as the times. Um in addition, we also um provide um more learning opportunities using a uh curricular resource called called Scholastic. Um and that is for English and math and our students have opportunities to continue to build on skills in those two areas. We also offer something called step up to kindergarten.
Miss Taylor said, quote, "We are truly the pulse and the leaders of this building. We have taken on more responsibility for the daily activities than normal. This brings us much proud. We thank you for inviting us today to celebrate our >> Orioles. >> And I do really I just want to say that I really do celebrate these kids, all 40 something of them. And this is just a small representation of the leadership that they have shown this year. Like they said, um our Mr. Kan needs help with the concessions or the scoreboard and they're there and it counts as their volunteer hours um after school on Tuesdays that we have study tables for kids that are having trouble in um some of their subjects and these being the uh National Junior Honor Society their scholarship is very high and they're able to help those kids and we do it on Tuesdays because the activity bus is available and I am very new at this and I'm not the best presenter or I I like to lead kids but I have difficulties with navigating things that need to be done in the building and these kiddos just step up and they do like genius sign up and they do presentations and they help kids around the school and they've really been an asset um since we don't have a student government.
Then for our engineering one, we highlighted Mr. Whit and his program. He's doing wonderful things over there and we've done a lot of they highlighted a lot of the cool things they do. Like they're making a blimp this year, I believe. And then they've worked on t-shirt cannons to play at basketball games and at our pep session. So it's just really cool stuff that they're doing. >> And then finally, we've also done just some miscellaneous projects here and there. So I worked with Mrs. Fisher to get a video and explanation kind of sort of thing with Katie Hearn for conscious discipline. So when she came to town and was teaching parents and teachers what her program meant, Mrs. Fischer approached me and wanted to make kind of a video so parents would know what to expect when working with her. So I made that for her.
I might be want to pursue that. So >> cool. Anything else? >> Yeah. >> Thank you for all that you >> appreciate it very much. All right. >> All right. Moving on here to our stellar employee of the month award. First >> first ever. >> Um tonight is special because tonight is our first Covington Community School Corporation Stellar Employee Award. We're excited to start this. This will happen every month at the school board meeting. Um, and we've had some wonderful donors in our community put forth um, the financial support to um, support this and um, we're excited that tonight the donation came from our county market here in Cington. Um, their support is invaluable and we're grateful for their partnership. The stellar employee will receive a wonderful plaque with their name on it each month and then a check for $100. Um so without further ado, our first um stellar employee of the month is Anna Shal.