>> I appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate it. >> We are considering a motion to approve resolution directing the superintendent of schools for Lake County, Illinois to certify to the clerk uh county clerk of set county the question of imposing a retail occupation tax and a service occupation tax to be used exclusively for school facility purposes, school resource officers and mental health professionals for submission to the electors of set county at the general election to be held on the 3rd day of November 2026. Motion >> Sesco. >> Yes. >> Patterson. >> Yes. >> Enters. >> Yes. >> Johnson. >> Yes. >> Peter. >> Yes. >> Lions. >> Yes. >> Bennett. >> Yes. Anybody have a motion to approve? >> Motion. >> Second. Sesca, >> yes. >> Enters, >> yes. >> Bennett, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Peter, >> yes. >> Lions, >> yes.
Uh with this, again, we hope that we're able to persuade the IHSA to pause for a year until we can rewrite or amend the bylaw. In a worst case scenario, this could be a a one-year blip in the radar, all right, for us. If if all things go well, ideally we would have something soon by the IHSA before next school year starts so then we can help plan uh and have, you know, a scenario where hopefully our teams would still be able to participate and our individuals would still be able to participate. And again, at the end of the day, we're we're always trying to provide uh meaningful opportunities to our student athletes. Um and if anything changes along the way, anything with the IHSA or what our legal counsel would provide us, we'd update uh everyone here and including the community as well. But where we are right now, again, with our with our data from students student athletes and and parents, coaches as well, um and also what our surrounding school districts and things are doing, uh we are recommending to to stay with the co-ops for for the time being.
The speech season might be the longest of all. There truly is no off season and I know there's some other extracurriculars in Avon that are like that and those who have those kinds of seasons know what I'm talking about. We talk about it in June, we talk about it in September, we do it from October to March and everywhere in between. And it's truly passion. Uh, Linda and I were inspired by two high school coaches who are both now deceased. They were married. They meant the world to us. Um, they meant the world to us long after we had left high school. And, um, if we're even doing half of what they did for us, then then we're doing okay. And I can speak for Mrs. Langford and all of the the the students who love her very dearly that she's doing a wonderful thing.
>> Thank you. >> Um, next up, I have review and approval of out of country trip presentation by Miss Kemper. again. You're >> always going somewhere. >> Are you Are you tired of me yet? Oh my gosh. Okay. >> Very envious. >> Here we go. >> Oh, go ahead. Yeah. Sorry. Okay. Um, well, sorry. Here I am again introducing another trip somewhere else I want to go. I'm the crazy art teacher for those of you that don't know. Lindsay Keer. So, here's our track record so far. First, we went to Italy. This year, for spring break, we went to Bise. When school gets out just after graduation, we're hitting DC and New York. Japan is planned for 2027. And rumors are flying. Where are we going for 2028? Here's some snapshots. Of course, the uh the pictures say everything. Just look how much fun we had.
That's one of those being additional room right now. So, if we were to redistribute the population you know, by creating three buildings that are K35, that would allow better utilization for that space. It would take kids out of Demorest and move them into what the location that is now the intermediate school or to Wheat Field and maybe have a more balanced distribution of enrollment. Which would be a big advantage if in utilizing your spaces effectively. So, you have three elementary buildings and you'd be talking about transferring them into three elementary buildings. It's just the difference in the grades that are there. And so, there aren't I you know, a lot of huge structural needs that are changes that would need to be made. Certainly the restrooms at the intermediate school would have to be addressed. There more than one way you could do that. And then might also want to make a changes in the intermediate building because you'd be accommodating primary students and not the bigger kids like you currently have now.
>> It'll be $50 each building. $50 >> per student. And I would say the building fee is it's going to be the same in any building you go to. And that would be reviewed on an annual basis and could be 60 the following year, whatever it needs to be. Correct. The the cool thing for in Logansport is we also which I'm going to talk about in my comments, have the CEP, so the community eligibility provision, where everybody gets free breakfast and free lunch, too. So, I mean that's that's a that's something parents aren't paying for, they are also. So, anyway, it's been something that we've been tossing around a while, just trying to wrap our arms around it. This is our first reading. It's available in the superintendent's office for review if anybody would like. And we'll come back in May. Um going backwards to number five and I apologize, this is our presentation.
And just really evaluating the whole purpose of this is to evaluate what we have, evaluate the efficacy of it, and look for updates or um replacements where needed. And so just to add to that, one area that uh we also want to address um because it comes up is why are we starting with mathematics? Why is that the first area? Because one of the things, if you look at a curriculum review cycle, it should take place over 5 to 7 years. That's really the length of time it takes from the time you examine what products or curriculums are out there to the time you pilot them, to the time you make uh some team decisions to adopt them and then implement them and monitor that. Um you know, that takes about 5 to 7 years. So for mathematics at the elementary level, we've used Bridges for the last 5 years.
To to as big as um Well, also as minute as why did you have cucumbers from Mexico? I mean, you have to account for that and explain for that. So it could be very very small or it could have been you know, large like if we um were serving spoiled food or we were serving meals that were not reimbursable um which would have a financial impact. Okay. On the on the Jones Trust Grant, the last sentence we aren't sure if this grant will continue to be funded in the future. Is that from the state funded? No, the Walter Evans Jones Testamentary Trust Grant funds grants for three different counties, Lyon, Coffee, and Osage. These are oil men that had a lot of money and didn't have family to give it to, so they put this this grant uh that they loved teachers, they loved education.
Just wanted to make sure cuz I'm not familiar with that name. I do appreciate and understand, especially now with um some of the discussions that have been had about the direction things are moving, wanting to have be sure that they have representation. Yeah. So, I don't Do we need to approve him tonight, or like if we have him come to the next board meeting, could we meet him and then approve him and have him take the oath right then? [clears throat] Yeah, I can have him ready cuz I think that's what we did with Shawn last time after she came in and introduced herself, so we visited, and then we can have him sign the oath that night. I'll make that motion. >> [clears throat] >> And I can reach I can reach out to him and schedule it for the next board meeting or there's another board meeting between now and then to have him come and visit with you guys and tell a little bit about himself.
I'm happy to provide additional information or assistance in any way that's appropriate. Okay, so that was a good Yeah, thank you. We were here for what was like a 2-minute thing, but since it's an agenda, I didn't connect and expand a little bit more. So, we're obviously you guys know I'm perfectly like tried to work on the track and field for the last 3 years or 4 years. Um cuz we all know it's it's time. Ronnie's a coach, he's got all these boys older ankles. My husband coached and there was a ton of that. Almost every fact is something to be hurt because of the field. So, then we took it to the booster club, we formed out and we're like, "Okay, what can we do to help the field?" And as we dove into it more, we realized, "Oh my gosh, this is going to be a big expense." Um and so, for Can I I put next?
Um the trust, our provider, our insurance provider has let us know that it's it is past time to replace two worn out pieces of playground equipment, one at Territorial and one at Del Rio. So, we're currently working um Play It Safe was here um to go over the removal costs or the replacement cost with us. Brandy, I think you walked and Ed, did you guys walk with Play It Safe? >> Yes. >> So, we're working on we're waiting on their final quotes for that so we can remove old equipment. Some of it is um One Piece has been there since Territorial opened, so it's no longer safe for play. Um we also have um just as a an aside regarding the new building, um Chris also walked with our with the trust, our insurance provider, on the same day they down the playground equipment, um and asked [cough] them about the removal of our buildings at our end of useful life.
Uh again, I think it's when we talk about with our athletic directors across the state of Illinois who voted in favor of this bylaw, um a lot of this doesn't impact other schools. You know, we are when you talk about the number of 3,500 students, um we're close to that in one building, let alone two. Uh so, most schools and school districts don't have to really take this in consideration whatsoever. Uh but the reality is we do. It does neg- negatively impact our students. And so, it's really an information campaign for us as we move forward to uh if we're rewriting bylaws or proposing that. And again, our conference schools are with us. We've talked about this at athletic director meetings about rewriting that bylaw to make it work for us. Um you know, one of our conference partners here in Plainfield, uh they co-op four um four schools going into one swim team.
And again, back to my first point, thank you for helping us all find her voice. All right. Can I have the Avon Accents show choir come on up? And as they come up, I'm going to go ahead and read their commendation. The Avon Community School Cor uh Corporation Board of School Trustees would like to congratulate the Avon Accent Show Choir with passage of the following resolution. Whereas the Avon Accents won the 2026 Indiana State School Music Association, ISMA show Choir State Championship in the mix division. Whereas the Avon accents had demonstrated perseverance to achieve excellence at a high level and have demonstrated excellent work ethic. Oh, I skipped one. Let me go back. Actually, will you turn around so they can see your smiling faces? And then I'm gonna I skipped a paragraph. Whereas this win uh was the second that was too notable to for me to skip.
It was awesome. Here's some pictures from Bise if you haven't seen them yet. A cooking class, pottery class, we went ziplining. The kids got to kayak and canoe at one of our hotel resorts. We um were out of breath climbing to the very top of that ruins there. And here we are. I would like to go to Italy and Greece in summer of 2028. So, here's the stretch of time. our little travel window, if you will. This was the best time for the price of all the things that we're going to get to do there. And here's the breakdown. So, we'll go to Vatican City, the Systeine Chapel. We'll do the Colosseum and the Roman Forum. And then, of course, we'll go um see some famous Renaiss Renaissance art in Florence. We'll visit a UNESCO site, the Castle in the Sky. Um, and of course the Temple of Apollo and the Parthonon.
So one of the biggest pieces of course would be your relocating of equipment. Materials that you have in the primary buildings needing to be shared with what would be the new K5 situation that is now the intermediate. Moving furniture around so you have age appropriate furniture. You have you'd be essentially servicing the same number of kids and so you have those materials. It would just be a question of how do we organize it and relocate it so that we can use it more effectively if the kids are redistributed. When we look at staffing um at your English school district um you have what many would call a what? A wealth of instructional staff which is a you know, can be a very wonderful thing certainly to have. If you average the number of students in self-contained classrooms it comes out to 19 just over 19 kids per classroom.
We have See, she's back there, I can't see her and you're up. Wanted to give you time to like regroup after your It's so energetic. I don't know. I get It's with flips and cartwheels with me, I don't know. It's not a bad thing. So, we [clears throat] want to thank the board, Mrs. Starkey, for having us here tonight. Um we we're pretty excited um the the the presentation today should not last very long. So, we did get some hints >> [clears throat] >> um about not and not going And we got the repercussions. We've heard the word. [laughter] We got it. So, so we we're we It was I well, I didn't know. No. So, we're we want to talk about things that have happened in our our building this year um in regards to morale building. And so, our teachers have taken surveys and um specifically the one at the last the end of the year.
Next year will be year six. So it's uh at the elementary level, the time period where they would be looking um you know, to see what's out there. And certainly continuing with Bridges is a possibility. Um but you know, this is an opportunity for us to really achieve that vertical alignment piece, pre-K through 12, by making sure that we engage um you know, across uh the the district up and down the levels. Um and so that's that's why we find ourselves starting with mathematics. Um but as Katie alluded to as well, like it's important that we stagger the different disciplines so that we're not looking to um you know, we don't have the cost of any new programs all in one year. So that's kind of the idea there. In terms of that 5 to 7-year cycle, the work is what you see kind of on the screen here.
This is the history that I've gotten from uh representatives with the Jones Trust Grant. Um and so they um they just they put money into education and funded a lot of different opportunities. Uh um So, we'll see we'll see if it continues. So, we don't have any action. It's just if it's available then we get it. We don't have to apply. I hosted the Jones Trust people here because they had new leadership, two new one new leader, I'm sorry. One Greg, I'm like I'm drawing a blank on Greg's last name. But, anyway, I hosted them in January here in Burlington to let them know what we've done with the Jones Trust grant, the baseball, softball, restroom, concession stands. We've done the Belk. We talked to them and invited the man to Briggs and Garland Wong to join us to tell about what Amanda does and what we accomplished.
>> [clears throat] >> If that's what you'd like me to do or like us to do. I'm good. Good direction. Okay. I second that motion. And item number 10, the Wilson Elementary Daycare. So, we discussed this a little bit last board meeting. Um Mr. Keith reached out to me before the last board meeting and was trying to work with some people to see if there was a way that uh somebody would kind of take that over and run it. We we really haven't any takers at this time. Um I think some of the uncertainty is the amount of kids that's going to be there after school's let out. I know we have a kid or two that belongs to a couple teachers that are not going to be staying in the district, so I think that's a little bit of the uncertainty about the exact number of kids that we have moving into the summer and next year.