I was fine. Any other discussion? We'll proceed to vote. All those in favor of accepting the consent agenda say aye. Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Aye. Motion passes 4-0-2. Who else abstained? Sorry. Katie and Kyle. Okay, thank you. Next would be the finances. Yep, so monthly budget report. Um this would be the end of month March. It's like so late in the month this year or this this month. It was like when I was looking back just thinking back uh this is the March report. Um so anyways, just our um current fund balances with ratios again uh in a really really good spot as far as that balance, our fund balance to the annual um appropriation. Um and then right there at 3 months, we should be right around that 25% mark. Again, January was a three-may three-pay month, so the Ed fund's still a little bit high.
So, I am just like Marin, I'm so grateful for the opportunity and so humbled and honored to be a part of this and and thank you guys for everything you've done to allow me to to do my work. Thank you. Congratulations Marin and and Dr. Freeman. It's It's real easy to see why you made the selection so easy for the committee. You exemplify what we want our administrators and our teachers to to sound like and look like and and be like to our kids. Gosh, Dr. Freeman, I remember when I called you Andy and you wore a little league outfit. So, you've come a long way. Still can't hit a curveball, but that's all But thank you very much for for all the work and and your passion. And I think that's what that what shows than anything. So, thank you. Next, we will move on to action items and we have Good evening, President Duckworth, members of the board, and Dr.
So, this is where we really focused um uh a lot of our attention in terms of developing our vision. Where are we now? You've heard me present numbers for MLs in the past and I believe at our last meeting. At this moment in time, we're about 4% of our student population is identified as a multilingual learner. There's that visual there that says that there's no magic wand. This is important because part of our work through our analysis around curriculum is that this idea that there isn't a set of instructional strategies. There isn't a curriculum that goes from A to Z that's going to meet the need of every ML learner and is going to magically allow them to acquire the English language. That's an important concept because what we're looking at is that high-quality tier one so, high-quality tier one instructional practices and then additional scaffolds, access points, entry points, just-in-time scaffolds so kids can access content.
And I appreciate your committee's commitment and also acknowledging that you see the inconsistency and you recognize that our cake care feeling that gap every day. So, thank you so much for all of your support. The products are in the school, the infrastructure is there and this resolution and the one that you passed over to the house is making sure that the knowledge follows. So, mahalo for your support and your time. Thank you very much. Anyone else wishing to testify on this measure? I don't see or hear anyone. Members, we are in decision-making. Uh we ready for that. So, it's House Concurrent Resolution 181. Uh this is affirming the Section 20302A-116. Um the recommendation is to adopt the proposed SD1 and the rest of it should be fine. Any comments?
Is that a bad thing that our school spirit is decreasing? Because we know that culture constantly shifts. Is that a bad thing that students aren't dressing up as much as they do aren't wearing Patriot things? If they're proud to be a Stevenson patriot, is that a bad thing that they aren't outwardly showing it as much? If I talk to them, I will be. Is that a bad thing? Is that a good thing? I don't know. And I'm leaving that up to you guys. So you guys, you know, you can think about that what, you know, do with it whatever you want. But this is very much thinking about it in terms of a student government perspective about what can we do or should we do something or should we not do something? Is it fine the way we're going? And now we're just in a culture shift right now.
Um and staff feedback was just overwhelmingly positive with the process. not only with the resources but the support that they received throughout the pilot from instructional services as well. Staff are super excited that they were able to really build on language comprehension with rich texts and lots of writing activities. So, we're very excited about those um those resources. Uh for uh goal two learning environment, um North Families is something that we have is continuing to be a focus at North School. So, as a reminder, North Families is an opportunity once a month where we stop all instruction, divide all 600 students into 55 North families um and across grade level. So, kindergarten through fifth grade might be in your North family. That is every single certified staff has North family. And we really wanted to do that to just increase that sense of belonging for our students across the building.
So, >> all right. Uh, and then last up for uh, North, unfortunately, she could not be here tonight, but I'll just give her a quick shout out. U,, we have Campbell Thulan. Um, received all state honors. third team all state from the IBCA and second team all state uh from the Illinois media. Uh she is a um a leader on a team here that has won uh 30 games in two consecutive seasons which is a very uh difficult thing to do. Um won the regional championship this year at home which was a great experience for our kids. Um and then lost in the sectional championship to the eventual state champ. So, uh, a leader, uh, a hard worker, endless, um, you know, and always in the gym, very, like coach Pastor Elli said, very coachable. All these athletes that you see that are achieving these all state honors are incredibly hardworking, very coachable.
And the transportation deficit has started to come back down as as well. Fund 50, that is a deficit that we are celebrating. I know that sounds odd, but that is one of those funds that has had too high of a balance. So, we want that deficit to be fairly hefty at this point. And as far as our investments, we did make another round of investments. You can see those highlighted in light blue. I should mention that in June, we are going to be taking about up to $6 million of maturing investments, shifting that back to the education fund so we can make a transfer to capital projects. Those funds are going to help finish paying off the transportation center and also fund the solar projects because those are projects that we're not using referendum funds for. If we don't need all $6 million, the fund transfer will be less and we will reinvest whatever funds are left outstanding.
Um they came in at I think it was like 362. So, um we had five people that came over that. Um the lowest one was $301, which I thought that was cute for 301. >> [laughter] >> So, um Yeah, so this would bring in $91,948 to the district. So, 362 was the winner. Yes. And who are we recommending then? Let's put two. Um Mad Farms Partnership. What was it the past 2 years? You had to know I was going to ask that. >> [laughter] >> It was a lot more cuz it was $104,000. >> Right. It was 451. Both? Both years. But, they had some financial challenges. Right. And some bankruptcy notices came, so we got lucky. Um we got paid. And this bid is at the high of what we received, correct? Yes. I think for context, too, that everybody on the board should know that at the end of the day it it doesn't always come down to This is very similar to like it's not always high bidder.
So, it's kind of going both ways, letting everybody Yeah. talk about things. That's all I have. I have a quick question on this. >> Yes. Are you guys finding that like the data that's coming from the state test is reflecting student performance like in the classroom assessments and in the Or is it like Just so we kind of have an idea. So, the checkpoints don't give us good data yet because our curriculums are aligned to the checkpoints. We would have to realign our curriculum. Which Reveal Math has done it for us this year. So, we could start looking at that. But CKLA does not and it would be a big endeavor to do it. And so, they're first year. So, we're not going to go there yet. So, the checkpoints don't give us any data. So, I learn has it. I read has. And we could look at that list and we knew exactly those students that didn't pass.
It really does. I think you kids are all honest. That's pretty special. It really is. Thank you. There's nothing better than your kids talk about the experience they have. That's That's That's all good. Thanks, you guys. Appreciate [clears throat] it. >> We'll move on to consent items. It was quite the list, so bear with me. Approval of minutes from the March 16th regular session board meeting and March 30th public work session, excuse me. Approval of the March 10th and March 25th payroll and claims for March 17th through April 20th. Personnel, acceptance of resignation of Luke Leffers, sub bus driver. Allison Morris, junior senior high paraprofessional. Tiffany March, [clears throat] varsity cheer coach. Acceptance of termination of Andy Price, bus mechanic. Recommendation to hire Charles Aikman, junior high language arts teacher. Kelsey Sloan, part-time child care worker. Spring coaches. Caleb Mooney, junior high golf coach. Whitney Byerly, JV softball coach.
Um and then that, you know, has trickled down as you get into two-pay months. We don't have another three-pay month until the summer again, so it'll kind of trend low and then it jumps back up again because of Ed fund. Um obviously the the payroll is the most significant piece of that, so um operations trending really good. Debt service um just just on a point of that just in case you if you look at that and you say, "Man, we're over spending that appropriation." Um so that we had three debt service payments um this year because we encumbered uh at the very end of 2025. Um our debt service payments are right there December, January and we don't get our tax money fast enough to turn around the payments um because you get your tax money right there right after Christmas um to try to turn payments around, so we encumbered that money.
Hoover. Tonight's action item 6.01, in accordance with ISBA legal counsel and as part of the corporation's ongoing policy review and cleanup, the office of the chief of staff recommends that the board entire policy is 4113.02 and 5610 respectively. Uh the first 4113.02 implemented provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act has been superseded by the Every Student Succeeds Act. The second 5610 reflects an outdated program evaluation and accountability framework and neither policy is required under current state or federal law. Okay, so moved. Second. Are there any further comments or discussion? All those in favor signify by saying I. I. Opposed? Carries. You are first on the agenda for information items. You want to take 7.01 and then we will talk to Tony Hamilton and then we're going to let Dr. Underwood take us home. I got to clean up tonight. >> go. Yes, 7.01 for your information tonight, policy 1131.1 or no, 6660.
So, this idea is super super important. You've seen these numbers before. We currently are at that 180 multilingual learners in our district. You've seen this progression here as well, how we've increased over time. This is an important visual here. This states that these are the former ML students who have passed the last links assessment. So, they're currently still in our school. So, at the elementary level, we have about 24. At the middle school level, we have 22. And at the high school, we have 32. So, total of 78. That's an important number because MLs have exited based off of that last links criteria. However, we still have to monitor them. We still need to make sure that they're getting what they need in order to be successful during daily instruction. So, we have to keep an eye on that. Even though they've officially exited by that criteria, they might still need some language supports in order to be highly successful.
Any discussion on this measure? Hearing none, uh Chair Wooley, aye. Members, HCR 181 Chair's recommendation is passed. >> Unamended. Chair Wooley, aye. Vice Chair is excused. Senator Fukunaga is excused. I vote aye. Senator DeCourcy. >> Aye. Chair. Senator, is it not amended? It's amended to adopt the proposed SD1. >> Oh, so we're passing the amendment of the SD1. It or Yeah, we are amending the HCR 181 HD1 to a the proposed SD1 that was posted. Okay. >> an SD1. Okay. Got it. Okay, my vote is still aye. All right. Same vote. Yeah. All right. Adopted. Thank you. Uh HCR 42, this is urging department to meet criteria necessary to officially recognize cheerleading as a sport. Uh we did pass this one over as well. Recommendation is to pass as is. Oh, I'm sorry. Technical and non-substantive amendments, so when in SD1. Members, HCR 42 Chair's recommendation is passed with amendments noting the excusal of Senator Kidani and Fukunaga for this measure and all others.
You know, we we talked about Mr. Gobble talked about Patri a little bit last meeting and something that I love to do and we had that change because we kind of saw the culture changing and we wanted to change with it. We wanted to bring the students something new. So the culture we just we saw the culture was changing. Is it changing in this sense too and is that a good thing? Is that a bad thing? I don't know. And I'm leaving it on a cliffhanger which may suck. I hate reading books that leave on a cliffhanger. But yes, that is what I have for you today. So thank you guys. Thank you so much. Do we have any visitor statements? >> Yes.
So this year um you know we've really kind of looked at our families and say how can we continue to um beef this up a little bit make it a little bit more rich time together. So this year we've really shifted the topics to really focus on the four C's. So creativity collaboration critical thinking and communication. So really trying to build those skills for our students. So we've done some STEM activities. You'll see up in the upper leftand corner. uh last month we gave them a big piece of con cardboard tape and said go. So that was all that they got. So it was really cool to see the students collaborating and working together to see what creations that they came up with. Um also this month our staff participated in educating outside the lines. Um it was the first time this year so each grade level participated in age appropriate activities about disability awareness.
Uh, they're there day in and day out. Um, and they are, as coach Sipple said, they're they're setting a standard and they're raising a bar for a lot of our younger athletes. Uh, they work incredibly hard, they do all the right things, and they're a great example for all the younger kids. So, um, you know, we've had a couple successful years here and it and there's a reason for that and I think it's because our upper upper classman and our coaches set a great example. So, uh, congratulations to all of our athletes, uh, that are here TODAY from South. Um, we're celebrating our basketball coach, Zach Miller, along with student athlete, Adam Flowers. So, I'm gonna invite them both to come up. Um and Zach is going to celebrate um the all state third team that Adam made. Uh yeah, super proud and honored to be up here.
And finally, I would be remiss if I didn't mention, but we were notified, I believe a week ago, that we received the certificate of financial excellence from the Association of School Business Officials, the International Association. So, kudos to the business office staff for their hard work. That report would not be possible without their daily efforts.
It's also who is financially sound and who is going to be a good steward of the ground. As we saw with our last tenant farmer, they paid a substantially higher quoted rate, and they went bankrupt. So, we potentially were in the farming business, as we would retain that crop had the payments not been made, and that is why, you know, that crop sat out there all winter. So, what comes into this is is part of that, and then the clarification of the 28 acres, the FFA lease is totally separate from this. That that relationship is also in the process of being renewed with the alumni association. So. But, we did take the highest bid. We did. Yes. But, but not because of the money. That spread is I mean, aside from the market, potentially that spread is I mean, there is always if you were to do this once a week, there potentially could be somebody that would be like, "I'll pay X." And if it fluctuates and If they can't pay, then the number is irrelevant.