They don't even touch the topic of technology from the times that I have met with them which is we meet frequently throughout the school year. Um and what they tend to focus on are curriculum aligned topics whether it's writing whether it is public speaking is a big one that comes up. um which our junior high has really shifted to supporting that public speaking piece because the kids were struggling in high school when they got there and they weren't able they weren't comfortable with standing up in front of a class and talking and so it's been more so those executive functioning skills or social emotional skills that's been the bigger topic when we get together um as a collective what's come up I've never once had anybody come up and talk about the technology I can pose the question the next time that we're other um just be curious like I mean I know it's I don't know just for me I feel like it's like handing me a handing me this and then handing me a a laptop I'm going to >> I mean kids right they have their phones which is a smaller version of an iPad and and again I'm just stating the obvious >> thing because an Apple device is way different than being on a Google device they're not anywhere close to the same >> and I I just Like in my mind, I feel like we're preparing them for high school.
I would tell you that there's many districts that are starting to move more towards what we're doing than there are moving away from. So, >> and that Thank you, Todd, for saying that. That that was what I was going to say is I know there's rumbles about other schools that are moving towards the full fall week. How how does Crown Point do it? Why? We were one of the first in our area, if not the first. And I think there's a move towards it. It's it's a great break for family and what Dr. Terrell said is true is is I never got a spring break in high school and this has always been a thorn on my side is why why do half the kids who play sports or you know extracurricular activities participate and they get a spring break but if you're in the wrong season you're hosed and I've always felt that way.
Um so how do you strike that balance? Are we going to train uh are you going to train kindergarteners and first graders and second graders to throw things and attack gunmen? No. The answer is no. Or at least my recommendation is no. Let's here's a here's the recommendation before the report. No, we're we're not going not going to to do that. Then the question becomes can you really take with proficiency train upper level kids to do that? So the key is what are you saying on paper that your training is? How does that work with fidelity of implementation? Are you doing what you say you're doing? So it it's it's definitely has to be tailored age and developmentally appropriate. Um and uh you know you have children in in a number of your uh schools just a couple that we've been in today at the elementary school that have their self-contained units with uh with kids with variety of learning disabilities and special needs.
>> Yeah, there is typically a resolution that's approved when you're transferring money into the rainy day or out of the rainy day. Yes. And so, yes. >> Any further questions or comments? All righty. Let's vote on the motion. Motion passes 6. We'll move on to 2026 mileage reimbursement. >> So I ask the board to approve the mileage reimbursement rate at the federal rate which is 72.5. >> Thank you Mr. Babcock. I'll entertain a motion reference the mileage reimbursement change. >> Motion to approve the 2026 business mileage reimbursement rate. >> Thank you, Mr. Melture. Is there a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Mr. Carl. Any further questions before we vote?
Please welcome Coach Man to the Lawrence Township and Lawrence Central. >> Okay. Thank you for having >> welcome. Great to be your teammate again. >> Congratulations to Coach Man. He is already wearing the Bears collars on his top. HE KNOWS THE DRILL. AND COACH, COULD YOUR FAMILY please wish everybody happy birthday? >> Congratulations again. Moving into our administrator and board comments 5.1. Would anyone like to go first? >> Okay, Miss Lawrence. >> Yeah. So, first I just want to wish everyone a happy Black History Month. Thank you to uh Dana for posting all of the things that she's been posting all month long. It's been really inspiring to see um to see all of the uh information that is out there and available for our community to um to absorb. I pulled this up on my phone because I wanted to make sure that I set it right because um also within this Black History Month, we lost uh Reverend Jackson and I was reminded of uh by a friend of mine who is both an activist and leader in the unions in Chicago just how active he was for the totality of his life fighting for change and justice.
This year they're resolving to go up to 1.2 million. So really a combination between that and the district. We will see that our employees have the ability to not see an increase in their premiums. Um and as always we review this our finance department reviews the trust monthly statements on a monthly basis. We review them throughout the year with the trust board. And so if by any chance anything changes for the coming year obviously we'll bring that to the governing board for your consideration for for any changes. So that was information our health plan. Now we'll just briefly go over our supplemental and voluntary employee benefit programs. We um we offer a prepaid dental plan through TM through EMI um health. And so the plan it offers an employeeon no cost option. The district does continue to offer u a $10.50 monthly cost per employee for um on all of our employees on the various plans.
Um, so it's really just resetting those expectations. Did the staff talk about an idea? I know um with like rolling out windows of opportunity for parents that they want or feel the need to see more and then opening up windows later for parents that to your point we know they're doing well but they like to have that face-to-face contact. Have we talked about like rolling it out so that the the parents that we want to get into the school have more of an opportunity to get into the school in front of the teachers? >> Tried that historically. The challenge is is that students are scattered across multiple courses so that when you do release it that way, there's no way to just like release it so that they can sign up for one teacher and not all the teachers. So it kind of fills up anyway because a student is generally if they're struggling struggling with a single course.
Questions? Uh when you say the RDA uh with you're talking about that agreement is that the agreement is with the developer and the village and then there's a second agreement with the developer and the school district. I no because No, because it'll probably be agreement. I think it'll be an agreement with all three parties involved because you have an interest in getting something from the developer, but you also have an interest in getting something from the village uh because of because of what you're contributing to the village with this property. >> And any of the three entities can back out of that. >> Any of the three entities can back out. >> Okay. So, we could be in agreement with the the draft document and then the village backs out and then we go back to square one. Is that correct? >> I I I think that I think that you'll know before you get to a document.
Uh if you have any questions, please email me. Next, I wanted to highlight district collaboration. So, we've talked about early learners, we've talked about our parents, and now I want to highlight our staff and just other districts that are coming together to partner with Kerry 26. Um, a couple weeks ago we had Sandwich District 430 reach out and we had a mutual meeting together um to discuss. They asked us many questions related to our literacy um systems and structures. And so what started as what they thought was going to be a simple conversation just delved into in-depth conversations surrounding again the standards by trimester, the task that or or the route that we took to build the curriculum maps and so on and so forth. We then also hosted car our Crystal Lake District 47 last week. Um and again was it today? No, late last week.
So, we want it to be a smooth >> And I think that's also the beauty then of what we have because our kids have access to the Google uh the Google I just aged. I aged myself. They have access to Google features, right? We're not just using iPad uh tools. They have access to Google Suite. So, in that sense, it transfers over. >> Okay. Um, so there are some nuances of what we are doing that help support them. So Google Docs, Google Slides, all of Google Suite is >> I I >> is accessible. >> Yeah. I just want I just want to add I think the the skill set that we should be worried about with our students is device agnostic. We need to be teaching them the skills to use technology effectively in their everyday lives as well as their educational process and not worried about what device they're doing it on.
So, I will validate that that school corporation north up here and you know they begin with an M and end with an R um has contacted me being that I'm friends with a board member and one of their cabinet members. How can you get to that one week off or fall forward? So, they are in the works of trying to get that that moved to their calendars as well. >> Now, I I would probably tend to agree with Miss Basin as well on both of these calendars. I I personally think that we have three great months of weather here and that is like August, September, October. So any days that the family can be together in August, I'm a fan of it. I think the worst months are December, January, February, I think it's pretty simple, pretty straightforward. If you let kids off on the 20th, they're going to sit in their home while their parents work.
So if you have you are how how are you going to deal with children with autism and other types of learning disabilities mobility impairment how are we going simple question there is even if you have to evacuate your campus how are you going to evacuate what's your plan for evacuating those children that's if you're evac evacuations are something we're we're taking a close look at in emergency planning what's your evacuation site have you been to that site how how are you going to do parents reunification. What would that really look like? These are the pieces that really get into the the weeds of what makes a difference. It's not glamorous and it's not shiny objects, but it's what really makes a difference. It's in and day-to-day stuff. And if a parent wants to reunite with their kid if an incident happens and they they're trying to find out where my kids and you're trying to figure out whose kid went with who, those could be ugly situations and it takes some detailed planning.
Hearing none, we'll vote on this motion. That motion passes 6. Move on to E4 administrative stipen request. Perkins grant >> board. Uh Mr. Allen uh for your consideration tonight. Principal Drummond is here at my request. Um she does an amazing job. Uh, as you know, we are our own little entity now. And so the internal fine is always one coffee in this district. So now you have evidence. Uh, and so uh, Principal Drummond, I'm glad to see you tonight. And, uh, one of the things Tiffany does is not only amazing job at the learning center, we know that it is a tremendous amount of work that we've become our own uh, entity. And one of the things that you have in front of you tonight, I've asked her to bring forward. And that is uh she did the Perkins uh grant, which is a tremendous amount of work that takes a coordination of a lot of different people from Huntington North and Learning Center.
And uh what my favorite quote from Reverend Jackson is both tears and sweat are salty but they render a different result. Tears will get you sympathy. Sweat will get you change. And in a year uh where we have been at odds sometimes with our state house in a month where our uh kids at both Lawrence North and Lawrence Central walked out of our schools in protest. I just say to this community, tears get you sympathy. Sweat gets you change. That means voting. That means advocating. That means making your voices heard because sometimes one voice for a long and d and for a long period of time like Reverend Jackson can actually make incredible change in this world. >> Thank you, Miss Lawrence. Well said. board. Any other who would like to go next? >> Dr. Mahaland. >> I'm surprised that nobody mentioned yet that it is public school week, but so >> but we've already been celebrating on social media.
And so you see that is a slight 2% increase for the coming year. And so you see those rates noted there. Beyond that, no other design or plan changes. We offer a Delta Dental PO plan uh for employees. And so that one there's no plan design changes. And so while it has no rate changes, you will see we are being consistent as a district and offering that 1050 monthly cost um for both dental plans. What we are recommending a change to however is our benefit provider for our vision. Um we have received much employee feedback on our current uh provider which is the visas. Um and so we worked with our consultants to determine what is a better option. And so VSSP it does offer more more options available for employee has a much broader network for employees and what it also offers is two new plans that they can choose whether if it's a base plan or a buyup plan.
So what ends up happening is yes they sign up for the actually we have found that when we do offer early sign up people don't take advantage of it. They tend to wait for the last minute no matter what. Um but when we have done that early sign up and they do come in and sign up. They will sign up with the teacher if they sign up with the teacher they're struggling with. They get in there, but then they get in all of the other classes where they're being successful. So, the overall perception to teachers is I'm just seeing the kids that are doing well. Well, they signed up. They did they came, they may have come in and met with the one teacher that they're not doing well with, which is one of seven teachers, right? But the other six teachers that they see, they're doing doing fine in, right?
I think you'll have a good idea of where you're at with the village and with the developer and and and and yourselves uh whether you can make this work. And if you come to general terms that I think is when you would start putting pen to paper >> and and getting you know down to the details of exactly what's going to happen. >> But it's very important I think from the administration's perspective and I think your perspective it's very important that we have an agreement with the village regarding uh some contribution to the district for the benefit that you're providing to the village and the developer in this instance. Uh, will the RDA be worked on um before or after the developer does their due diligence as far as environmental or >> ISIS >> geotechnical or any of that stuff. >> Once uh once the school district and the village enters into the initial purchase and sale agreement in March, that's when the developer will go and start doing their due diligence.
So last week they came not only to learn about our assessments through the I Ready platform and then to learn about progress monitoring, what we're doing, what we're continuing to do, areas of success, areas of continued growth, lots of rich conversations centered there. But then they also went to uh Three Oaks to observe the day-to-days that take place at Three Oaks where we talk about not we they they talk about uh in-depth conversations every single student and they're um progress monitoring the reflecting on student data and they're engra engaging in reflective conversations to goal set with our students surrounding our students both in literacy and math. And so from both of those, district 430 and 47, the key takeaway is sometimes I forget all the work that has transpired over the past three years. When we leave those conversations, their recognition of the work that our teachers have been doing over the past three years is just immense.
>> Touche. Um I will bring the question up though next time that we meet just to ask and just pose and get feedback from them on that one. >> Yeah. I'm just thinking like you can get a Chromebook for a lot cheaper than an iPad too. I mean it's just you know I mean I understand it's it's the applications we're using etc. But just a question to pose. Yeah I will. >> Yeah. >> I do have another question. Sorry about the laptop cost for the teachers. So >> basically $1,000 a laptop. Um are do we have like a big purchasing company? Is that and and is that reflective of the current cost of memory right now? And is that expected to like when when are they going to be purchased? >> Uh hopefully next Tuesday. >> Oh, okay. So, so pretty current then. Okay. Because we know memory is going up almost.
That's just my opinion. I I think their parents are going to go to work. Nobody gets two weeks off and they're gonna they're going to sit in their house and wait for their parents to come home and wasted family time, wasted opportunities for children. So I would I would personally support go to school the 20 21st. I think that does bring credence to December 16th and 17th to be functional, fully functional school days because otherwise I do think students will get antsy and they'll start bailing out on the 16th or 17th of December. So for me, I also think that pushes more dates to the beginning of the calendar where we have that issue. We have a shorter session the first semester. So to me, moving a couple more dates up in that first semester makes sense academically. So I I would probably push for the 20 21st, go to school, and then come back.