I've had a lot of teachers who pushed me through here as well from um really early with Mrs. Seeber. Uh I would specifically thank Mr. Spellman as well. Uh through band, he has taught me a lot of discipline of course cuz it's the class and a lot of real life lessons that I wouldn't have gotten without uh teachers in this place. Um I would like Mr. Blessey as well. I've gotten a lot of real life experience talking to him about a couple of problems that I've had and he really made me think deeper in math. Um and Mr. Graydon, his finance class is one of the most rigorous classes I've ever taken in school and it's really pushed myself and others to apply concepts at a higher level that I wouldn't even imagine would be a high school class. Uh and outside of academics, I've been involved in the chess club, the math club and of course the jazz and pep band.
For third grade, Palmer Rule, Colton Marty, Jordan Williams, and Isla Kuhn. For fourth grade, Savannah Tate, Ari Parsons, Ainsley Johnson, and Braden Richardson. Sasha, come make a new row behind them, please. Good job. For fifth grade, Emmett Faulkner, Audrey Myers, and Aslyn Pitchford. And for sixth grade, Branson Wallace, Raylan Dashner, and Claire Paris. So, great job for doing a great job at problem solving in the month of March. You can take a picture, okay? Make sure you don't hold the side down. She's going to take your She's going to take a picture, I think. Jack, eyes up right here at me. 1 2 3 Ainsley, look over here, please. Got it. Good job, guys. Congratulations. Okay, our next one is going to be We had two perfect scores on our I-Ready 3, which is just an amazing accomplishment. Um so, I wanted to bring up Billy Brant and Cohen Coraho.
Education, Brian Bobbitt, North High School, STEM educator. Rick Cameron. Nasha Dilworth. She's a student success mentor at Evans. Sandra Moore, EVSC literacy leader. Lauren Nordine, vocal counselor. Brittany Welch, educator at McGary. In government, Ariah Lairy. She's a North graduate. She was an outstanding athlete in track at North. Projects and programs. Th- This is what impressed me. Flavor Lab, innovative after-school programs for Bosse and Glenwood students. EVSC I Read Tutoring Program. Heilman Park STEM Academy, Land Between the Lakes. Mr. Austin Cunningham, that principal's back there tonight. New Tech High School STEM Fest. Arts and Culture, Bosse Instrumental Band Boosters. That's a non-profit. For all all the students in the Bosse district, they help them. Inspire band participation. Thanks, Larry. Thank you, Larry. Appreciate it very much. EVSC's biggest cheerleader right there. I'm telling you. Appreciate it. Next is consent items, Dr. Hoover. Good evening, President Duckworth, members of the Board of School Trustees.
I am aware that the curriculum board is using research to support improved outcomes for lower bands of learners when they are grouped with higher achieving students. However, I think it is very important to point out that there are several studies that also exist showing a negative impact on the growth of your highest achievers. A comprehensive meta-analysis was published recently in Review of Educational Research. This study examined nearly a century of data across hundreds of different independent studies. And they found that when high-achieving students are grouped or accelerated, they see measurable academic gains. However, in non-differentiated settings, there is no added academic growth. 100 years of data is telling us this. Could you explain that? Sorry, you keep going, but I just want to make sure I understood that. >> Yeah, so a meta-analysis we know a meta-analysis is basically taking individual studies and looking at what the trends and what the data you can pull when you group studies together.
Um and then it is reevaluated at the end of every year. Um goes through the board approval process onto the governor and then to the legislature for funding and we have requested the position to be funded by the legislature since 2022 for the last 4 years, I believe. >> And so the fact that the legislature have not funded it, meaning that we don't agree and that the intent and of course we're the ones that write this, right? The legislature. And so now that you know clearly the intent of the legislature is for these positions not to be renewed every year and so basically you're forcing us to have to re re-amend this measure, but knowing that that is the intent and that circumvents the legislative process that that measure could be taken away completely as the next school year round. Um Senator, uh the legislature did approve though the private secretary for these positions.
And it's something that we talk about a lot and I was like, let me share my kind of insights and ideas with this and a lot of that comes with the season of celebrate because school spirit, we have a season of spirit. I know I told you guys about that. We have a season of spirit, serve, showcase, and celebrate. And right now in the season of celebrate and um but I feel like school spirit directly ties to season of spirit. Makes sense. But I feel like school spirit and school pride connect to school to season of spirit. But I also feel like school pride connects to celebrate because if you want to celebrate, you got to be prideful of your school. That's kind of why I'm talking about this because there's a lot of stuff coming up. The senior boat trip, senior sunrise. Also something I want to bring out.
Um we also you know have a lot of fun at Cumberland and one of those things is um practicing you know or engaging in different staff outings and social events. You can see in the bottom middle picture there is was actually a first time we did this this year and that was um during March Madness. Um our staff had a March Madness and we had a shootout and it was organized by some teachers and it was great. kids participate or I'm sorry the kids were able to cheer on their uh teachers and you can see we took advantage of a nice spring day there and we all went outside and we got to give a a shout out to uh Laura uh Gershowitz our kindergarten teacher who took it home and she is a crowning March Madness champion over looking at go for uh families and community we have a very active school staff and PTO that really brings a lot of wonderful events to Cumberland um incling including a literacy night, a math night.
So thank you so much. I was going to say and I'm sure when they the north people coming up there was um 1,800 people competing at DECA state this year. So >> wow. >> Congratulations. >> All right. I'm excited to introduce our North High DECA students who have also qualified for nationals in Atlanta. Our sponsors had previous commitments tonight. So I am the lucky one who gets to introduce our students. So um first off we have um Ethan Winer who is at a volleyball game. I've learned. Um so again, we have all of the competing things in the spring, which is amazing. Um he was second place in state uh human resources. Um and we do have uh Kate Whitmer here tonight for fourth place in state for financial consulting. So congratulations. For fifth place in state, we have Bin Burkhart and Rowan Herd. I don't think they are here.
There's no doubt that as this situation evolves, whenever it ends, whatever may happen, there could continue to be some volatility. But, I wanted you to kind of see where rates are now relative to where they were when you sold your bonds in 24, also. So, in general, on the shorter end of the yield curve, the one, the five, the 10-year bond, those three lines at the bottom, they're they're they're not too far off from where you sold. And again, if we updated this today, the difference in where rates were then versus now, that would be smaller. It'd be a better, slightly better. A longer on the yield curve though, rates are a little bit higher, and that's where there has been more of that volatility certainly as of late. So, I guess my message for you is know that there is a lot of demand still for municipal bonds.
Any discussion, questions, comments? Roll call, please. Ward? Yes. Dogan? Yes. Gorman? Before I say yes or no, um the state of the economy these days is a concerning to me anyway. Um one of the reasons I voted no for the uh teachers contract for 5 years was because of the salary and it's basically 5 and a quarter for 5 years. Um status quo is that we always put what the teachers get into a merit pool, merit increase pool for administration. So um to keep up with status quo, I'll vote yes for this because that's what we've always done even though the amount seems a little too high. So yes. Hurst? Yes. Mervich? Yes. Pappas? Yes. Wasson? Yes. Motion passes. All right, next I need a motion and a second to discuss and approve the board policy manual. So moved. Second. So before we take uh take a vote, um we had multiple board members involved in this and so maybe Andy you can take a swing at this and kind of give the whole process of what's happened.
And I wanted her to first be recognized and I know she didn't really want me to do this necessarily, but for accepting an award on behalf of Audubon Elementary at the state for 100% proficiency. But really 95% of you guys got 100%. 100% proficiency in reading. And and that's that's a great honor. I know I said congratulations to her and she said, "Well, it wasn't just me." And I said, "I know, but you played a larger role." And so, congratulations to her. Something that also she's going to present a short presentation on our MTSS meeting. Something we're really proud of this year. She plays a major role on that that team along with Chris Burgett and myself. >> [clears throat] >> And she's going to share a little bit about what those meetings are and how they've affected our students, teachers, and just our school in general.
I have almost two years of work experience um and that's gave me a lot of real experience, social skills, and time management. Another thing I do outside of school is I have a lot of work in meteorology. I collaborate with the National Weather Service and I'm certified spotter. I also want to run a weather platform >> [snorts] >> that's a part of the weather weather ready nation ambassador program. My platform has over 8,000 unique viewers on multiple platforms and that's something that I built independently but it's been supported through by the foundation of skills and discipline that I developed here and the help of teachers that I had. Something Central does well that has provided these opportunities but more importantly allowing students to take those opportunities and push them as far as they want. So that goes into my advice for any incoming students or something that is to apply yourself.
They are here. There you are. I actually didn't see you. I wasn't sure if you were here. These guys deserve uh huge kudos for not only taking a test um that is just such high pressure and high stakes, but literally did not miss a question. Absolutely perfect. So, congratulations. We are so very proud of you. Great job. And then, our staff member of the month, if Mrs. Perkins would come up. I have to get my cheat sheet so I say all the right things. I'm going to say all the right things, I hope. Um this month, it is my pleasure to recognize someone who has been a steady and uplifting presence at Clinton Central for many years. This is Mrs. Sarah Perkins. Um she has served our school community as long as I've been here, so at least 8 years. And in that time, I've had the opportunity to watch her just really grow in so many ways.
We have five consent items for your consideration tonight. They are 3.01 consideration of the minutes from April 6th, 2026 regular board meeting, 3.02 consideration of the allowance of payments including invoices, net payroll, payroll obligation for a total allowance of payments of $15,951,574.79, 3.03 consideration to approve the renewal with PowerSchool for School Messenger Communicate, 3.04 consideration to approve change order number one for the Bossier High School Stadium Renovations Project 2025, and 3.05 consideration to approve a week care rates. These consent items are presented for your approval. Second. We have a motion and a second.
So, it's a study of studies. So, this is in the scientific rigor in the absolute highest form of data that we can have. They went back through 100 years of studies and they found that if you take you can look at the bottom level, they actually do do better. That is correct. If you take the highest level students and you place them in a group where they are with other high-achieving students and those groups are being accelerated, that they do better long-term. If you take them and you put them in a group where they are the only or some of the few students who are working at that faster pace, they do not have the same gains. So, you're essentially stifling the growth of your top students. So, I stand here today disappointed in what I considered the minimization of academics within our educational system.
Right. And so we can undo that which is certainly being discussed because there should never be permanent positions for temporary positions. So, um I guess if there's not cooperation, then the alternative would be for us to introduce a measure next session and to do away with this ability to create a position create positions temporarily if in fact you're going to make it permanent in the sense that you will renew it over and over again which means it circumvents the It it's not it is not um so Senator, after after it's not a automatic year over year >> know that, but you're going to review it >> It is it is a review and based on the uh the need for the position, we we will we will department determines whether we need to have that position reestablished and then from there we go to the process to go through the board and so forth.
I know in the past um at our spring fling we have burgers and hot dogs for the students to have. That's where they can come and play um different sports. They can come. We're playing yeah flag football, kickball, cricket, and volleyball this year. If any of you guys want to come out and, you know, cook burgers or cook hot dogs or do anything that for the students, more than welcome to. You can reach out to me or, you know, anyone and I'm more than happy. We're more than excited to have any of you out there. So if you guys want to do that, you can feel free to reach out to me. But >> you can also just ride around on a golf cart if you'd like. >> That is true as well. You can watch the students play some. There's gonna be >> I know guy who has a golf cart.
Uh we partnered this year with CPAC to bring our sensory and slime night back for the second year in a row, a culture night, which was the first time we did it last year at the end of the year. It was a hit. It was like standing room only. Um so we're bringing that back this year again. Um little plug for that. May 20th in the evening for our culture night. Um and those are two pictures on there highlighting just some things that we had at that evening. Um and then we also have a lot of um really active events too including our hot chocolate walk run stroll and our walk-athon which always brings um really great participants in um to our school. Uh we did this year get to invite local Miss Illinois Nico Nicolina Vousich who she was crowned in May 2025 as Miss Illinois.
>> They have track and field. >> Track and field. Thank you, Ryan. um they were fifth um for integrated marketing um for their campaign. And um for our last recognition here, we do have Ryan and Vivian Metropolis here this evening. Um they were entrepreneurship team decisionmaking. So um you certainly don't have to come up and say a few words, but if you would like to, you are more than welcome. But again, congratulations um to all of our DECA students who have qualified for nationals. It's a really amazing thing and this is one of the things that as I think about my own student, my own kids going into high school, I'm going to push them this way to DECA, too. So, it's awesome. >> I can say a few a few things about DECA. So, um DECA is a club that prepares emerging leaders in finance, accounting, marketing, law, fashion, merchandising, buying and selling, economics, and business administration.
Bonds are selling every day, particularly for strong credits like your school district. Your bonds will sell. They'll sell well in the market relative to what's happening in the market, but how markets may change by the time we actually sell your bonds, that I don't have a crystal ball for, but I can tell you that the news that's been coming out as of late from day to day, some of it which has been positive about the situation being resolved, oil prices coming back down. On those days, the bond market's been reacting well. So, I realize things can change from day to day. Can you remind me, and I I believe we covered this during the first sale, we have a window, correct? And then when you feel that it is go time, it is go time, or is it do we make do we have to make the call, or how does that work again?