Hearing none. All those in favor? I. >> Any opposed? Motion will carry. Have approval request for an overnight ghs diving state championship February 27th through the 28th of 2026. >> Yeah. So, this is a request that I shared with you for approval uh via email because there wasn't another board meeting for that trip. >> And in this case, uh it's just really awesome opportunity for for Cyrus to represent Greencastle High School. finished in 37th place, I believe. 37th place. That's just a significant accomplishment. We haven't had somebody advanced like that. How was it like 20 20 or so years since >> we've had pretty significant >> I would like to ask that the board approve this request as presented. Outstanding experience for Cyrus, I'm sure. All right.
So, this is definitely a bittersweet moment. I am very pleased. You know, adult and child obviously has been in our community for a lengthy period of time. So, a wonderful choice and then Jane Pauley obviously as well. My one question is going back to the fact that we have had this really strong fabulous partnership with Gallahue. How do we anticipate and obviously, you know, not going into the weeds, but transitioning and is there an opportunity for those folks that currently have built relationships? My own daughter included has built some really strong relationships with some fabulous Gallahue employees. So, I'm just wondering what that transition might look like. Part of our process is all vendors had to show how they were going to transition. Basically, us from the world of Gallahue Community Health Network into whoever our new vendor was going to be of which they both presented very strong strong examples of how things would be done.
And so what they've done is work on the other end. increase that uh right >> so that there is no net increase. The other thing uh I guess for the record and I'm not sure if he's on the call or not >> but I did speak with uh the head of DPW this week about uh after we got your plans to see if he was uh >> he's here. >> Oh, so Doug, do you want to uh speak to this issue? >> Sure. Come on for me.
So the sustainability question is a very valid question and concern. >> Yeah. >> Roughly speaking, if we weren't able to use that fund for offsets, what does that do to us in terms of FTEES? I mean, we're talking about school choice, so we're we're looking at, you know, six FTEEs average, right? And we've talked about um you know, everybody knows it's like these rainy day funds or excess and deficiency END accounts, etc. out there are for rainy days, right? And we know it's raining, right? Literally and figuratively outside right now. It's pouring. It's not just raining, but you build up some of those. And I know that the city obviously tries to do that as well, too. Um, during good times and probably not too many of us can remember some good times in the sense when you've been able to put some some money away in the bank account, but now we're spending that account and there's not many years left of that.
Um other entities which may be um not controlling significant procurement, not managing people as actively, the idea is that they sort of have less direct um oversight of something that might be as of critical importance, those are confidential filers. Correct. Okay, so when you mean confidential, what does that mean? Does the public get not get to see them? >> does not see them, correct. Um So, they are filed only with the Ethics Commission. Ethics Commission would use that if there is a complaint or if there is an allegation, if there's a suspicion that there was a conflict of interest, we could then look at it and try to address it. Typically, that's a after-the-fact review. We certainly don't have the resources to attend 200 boards and commission meetings and be there in real time to try to address things. So, at that point, things are already have happened.
Our community is asking not just for recognition during a single month, but for continued leadership. We ask this this board, every board, all elected officials to keep highlighting the contributions of people from every walk of life, gay, straight, trans, non-binary, Asian, indigenous, just people with disabilities, but particularly the trans community. They're being used by this administration in an unprecedented way to pit people against people to other people. And every one of us is potentially next. And when we do speak up, we must do it clearly and loudly because when we do, people around us notice. Many are quietly looking for signals about who it's safe to be around, who it's safe to learn from, who it's safe to grow into the person they truly are. Moving through life, not knowing who your allies are or who you're safe to be, is a burden no one should have to carry.
If I can add one more thing, we do provide um our informal minutes to the board during the weekly updates. So, you do get those on a weekly basis. You can understand the content of the discussions. Maybe at the building levels, you guys could just have deeper conversations at your PTC meetings and then ask them to represent you at the committee one, you know what I'm saying? Thank you for that amazing idea. You're welcome. I try.
As Jeff mentioned, the variety of reasons for there, but by state law, if we're making those kinds of changes with more than five people, we need to provide the opportunity for the public to comment on those changes. So, we'll go into that public hearing in a little bit that uh will allow anybody to comment on our riffs and changes. The big takeaway is the bottom line there for you. We are able to do all of this, offer all of these opportunities, be up 1.6 FTE in people, but still be down in cost, primarily as the work that Scott mentioned that's happening over at T99 to return our own students to us at a lower cost and to to bring in some other students and service those and have a an alternative form of revenue that we predicted when we expanded T99 years ago. So, uh thank you to the entire team for pulling all together [clears throat] and for the board and community support to get to this point.
So, you want to be able to have the ability to schedule and accommodate any of those bubble years or a program expansion or something like that that goes along. So, along those lines, we're using as a as our starting point the state guidelines for capacity and whether or not a facility is overcrowded, being used efficiently, or underused. So, you'll see those go on. As we create a core master facility plan team and and incorporate um input from the new superintendent and the other um administrators, we may want to suggest different targets based on your goals. But right now, this is where we're starting off. Um and then again, the space use um surveys, we really just want to understand how you're using each space so that we can better understand how the programs are distributed and if there's any potential reorganization opportunities and um and and and all of that information can go into our capacity calculations to make sure that we have enough spaces and um for the students.
>> I. >> Dr. Hall. >> I. >> Mr. Salish. >> Hi. >> Zitra is an I. Mr. Gagos. I >> Mr. Brown >> I motion carried. Continuing on with number eight under action report alpha number three. Can I have a motion to approve the resolution providing for abatement of the 20 25 levy adjustment? >> Moved by Bill. >> Second. >> She she got you by a mic. That was you calling me, was it? >> Sorry. Okay, we got the motion on the floor. It's been second.
That'll be income that we don't get, which which gives us a $536,000 decrease in funding. So, if you do your math and you look at what we saved, sorry, what we cost avoided, $285,000 in 2026, $147,000 in 2027, that's $432,000 in cost avoidances. And then if you do the math even further, you compare the cuts that Senate Bill 1 forces to make minus the cuts we've already endured and we're still $104,000. Uh we we'd still be over $104,000. Now, I I want to be clear on that. There's one more set of information that I want you to hear me say. So, we have added these added concerns, uh added factors. Senate Bill 1, I gave you the first two years. The third year, it's $330,000. So, that's a significant loss. We also have a local income tax which I am trying to get the correct information on this.
Do we need to waive the first reading first and then do them all together? Uh wait, you'd waive the second reading to adopt that one. >> Yes, waive the second reading. Yeah, but you can just do that in the vote. So, do you want to do that first? If we want to do that first, that's Yeah, you're welcome. perfectly fine. But I think we need to treat, you know, them all 3011 And you can And you can just just vote on it separately if you like and then take the others. Okay. So, if you want to adopt that one singularly, you could just waive the second reading it. Yeah. Motion to adopt 3011 as revised. Okay. I move we waive the second reading on policy 3011. And adopt And adopt as revised. Second. Moved by Gina, seconded by Katie to waive the second reading and adopt policy 3011.
That's it for me. >> Comments from other board members. >> Just one comment. Um Steve Sheller won the prestigious president's award. Welldeserved award. He does a lot for OUR [applause] just somebody who flies under the radar but does a whole lot of stuff. Um he sees our buildings as more than just a building. And that is so important because it's more than a building to a kid. They go they go to Halloween parties. They go to dances. It's a it's a K through 12 experience. and he enhances those experiences by having beautiful um like parklike uh you know just our playgrounds and and just are I I'm just so proud of our buildings and Mr. Michelle, I really applaud your efforts and helping our children. You you did stuff that I can't sit here and just say because there's just too many of them, but you and then Rick Cameron's done stuff also.
Any questions on that? All right. Can I get a motion? >> So move. >> I have a second. >> Second. >> The motion to second on the floor. Any discussion?
I know one of the key elements is really utilizing current staff and current therapists we do have and being able to have conversations with them and being able to have them apply, interview, and potentially come on into with the new companies. Wonderful. Thank >> be the ultimate goal. Excellent. That's which I know we had spoken about, but I wanted to make sure folks did know because I it's so important to the point that you were making. Our mental health, we know it's so difficult sometimes to have individuals who are children trust and to have those relationships that have been formed over period of time. It'd be wonderful to keep as many of those wonderful people as possible. Thank you, board. Any other questions? I do. I do. From my understanding of SB 246, which you have a lot of value towards this, but it's to have access to licensed therapists, counselors, and social social workers, if our partnership is ending with our current providers in June, will we have more access to counselors?
>> Uh yeah, thank thank you. Um thanks Carl. Um, yeah. I mean, it's it's um I I thought Jean asked a really good question there about how far to the covert are they actually going to go. So, that was that was good information. I was under the impression that we were going to be able to see the inlet side um during the the construction, but um as far as um like you said, Carl, by by not increasing by decreasing the peak flow or making it level um that kind of um changes things for in our like who respons responsibility is it? You know, so and obviously this is a very complicated covert. Um I I don't have an answer yet. It's it's something that that the town we're going to have to plan appropriately, you know, as far as figure out when when we can replace that actual culvert or or shore it up.
>> Got a question? Go for it. >> Um, I kind of semi- know this answer. How many in the budget you presentation you just gave us? I know that we do not we do have some vacant positions that have gone unfilled for most of the school year. I'm just going to use the Academy of Early Learning for example. Like they do not have a full-time building based sub there. They haven't had one all year. I know they don't have um an adjustment counselor and they haven't had that there all year. How many vacant positions do we have that we're reporting on in this budget? And then my next question was I just want to like confirm what the mayor said that the number we're seeing right here is not for 65.8 FTEES. The number we are seeing is for the 58.8 full-time employees for Greenfield Middle School.
And so, we have uh cases where, you know, millions of dollars of decision-making has occurred, and we are after-the-fact going after the employee for conflict of interest. So, are you complaint-driven, or are you are you actively looking? We do audits, but those tend to be um difficult. Again, with we have well over 100 boards and commissions. Um some of them, like the Board of Regents, has a lot of substantial information. Um so, for example, one property transaction might involve dozens of parties, multiple parent companies to be able to try to do that kind of review to try to identify specifically all of the potential financial conflict of interest in real time is very difficult. So, since the 2013 legislation passed, has the Ethics Commission done a review of if if it's if that legislation has done what it was intended to do? Yeah, so for example, last year we received six inquiries from Board of Regents asking about potential conflicts of interest.
Safety is the basic human need. Our students are watching how adults respond in moments like this. They learn what leadership looks like by seeing whether we speak up, speak clearly and fiercefully, or if we just sit back quietly. Hate has no home in this community. It can't flourish enough when good people show up and all these amazing people show up. and you did a wonderful job by posting that. When we use our voices, we do it for those that can't do it for themselves because an attack on all of attack on one of us is attack on all of us. Thank you. And our final speaker is Elizabeth. >> Hi everyone. Uh my name is Elizabeth Eckleston. I am a citizen of Betavia and I've also am a mother of a student at Grace McQuain in the ILP program. Um, I also want to address the post of Sarah McBride for Women's History Month.
So, if you have any questions, we'll bring that back next month for approval, but uh Mr. Harrington will look at that language there and whatever if we choose to change something on that, we'll send it to the whole board. Okay. Thanks. Um next we have approval of closed session minutes of February 17th, 2026. I move that the board approve the the session minutes of February 17th, 2026 as presented. Second. It's been moved and seconded. Can I get a roll call, please? Kearney? Aye. Matos? Aye. Morley? Aye. Burton? Aye. Delgado? Aye. Garrett? Aye. Thank you. Next, I need approval of the consent agenda, please. I move that the board approve the consent agenda items, which include approval of the personnel report, approval of the intergovernmental agreement between the city of Des Plaines and School District 62 for the National Night Out event, approval of the staffing plan for 2026-2027 school year, authorization of contract approvals, approval of minutes business meeting of February 17th, 2026, District 62 net payroll for February 2026, District 62 warrant register and report of bills for February 13th, 17th, 24th, 27th, for which there are two, and March 3rd and 10th, 2026.