Mendoza. She is my support at all times. She gives herself over and beyond and I not only appreciate her, but I appreciate her family like you too, Maria. I appreciate your family. Up for giving us her every day. Her students adore her. She is so easy to be friends and have support from. She makes every child feel seen, valued, and capable. She is the ELL teacher in our building, which is the ESL. So, these are students that come in and don't speak English and she makes them feel like they are a part of James Madison School number 10. What makes Jennifer so special is her dedication. She pours everything into what she does. She just co-ran the Multicultural Night that was a huge success. She has kids performing, food. She gets everybody in the community to donate. Amazing. I can't say other things. She is James Madison's true teacher of the year.
Throughout this year, I've witnessed many students use their voice, and it warms my heart to know that every student is willing to always speak up when they feel they need to, and they have their teachers right behind them to support them. What more can I say than that I'm proud of every student who has dared to come and voice change? It truly is inspiring, and I am grateful I have been present in this room to see it all unfold. With that, I want to emphasize to students across the district that your voice matters, and you are the future. You're the ones to push change and to make change happen within not only your school community, but anywhere and every everywhere you may go in life. So, as I graduate in exactly 2 weeks and 5 days, as of today, I'm not counting. Uh I hope I leave behind a message that whoever it may be sitting in this chair next year fully embodies what it means to be a leader and someone willing to speak up for those who can't.
Our teams meet about once every 2 weeks. And so, we're doing individual work in each building. And then, you know, we took some time this year and we built some incentives to try to help with our ILEARN checkpoints as we're doing those throughout the year just because that's a lot of testing sometimes for students and how can we continue to keep them engaged? So, trying to reinforce student effort. And then I think it's just demonstrating our commitment to distributed leadership. I think as a leader one of our main roles as a leader is to grow more leaders. And so, I think providing this opportunity for our teachers is a way to do that. And I I I would I'm I'm sure my colleagues would echo me in terms of the success of our guiding coalitions so far this year. So, I'll turn it over to Mr.
So, my poster was their poster and also it was on all of the shirts and the merchandise. So that was uh really gratifying to see that not only was I skillful at it, but that I was competent on a professional level. Hi, my name is Molly Burbrink. Uh next year I will be going to Purdue to major in natural resources and environmental science. Uh my favorite teachers have probably been Mrs. Porter, who taught me AP Chem and AP physics, and Dr. Harrison, who's been my English teacher these past two years. Uh, my favorite high school memory is probably when I went on caving with my paleontology class. Congratulations. >> Congratulations. >> Good work. Thank you. >> Appreciate all the hard work. Thank you. Good luck. >> Thanks. That's why they were Thank you. Before uh before we move on too far, I want to ask if there were some teacher names that came up.
I think we should explore it. Are we not getting those funds now for the pre-K program that we have? >> No. So, we we use a YMCA pre-K program. So, we don't we don't we don't get I mean, we get money from the Y, but it's it's actually a trade-off for services we provide. I don't see Mrs. Lemon here, but how is the micro-school stuff we talked about? >> She She had a couple meetings. She got some students interested, but they were all internal students. So, nothing from out of town, nothing coming in from there? No, I I actually I'm going to give Mrs. Jordan a pat on the back here. You think the one thing that has probably the least amount of hoops to jump through to good grow would be some outdoor kindergarten stuff. Cuz I think we can grow some kids there, and I think we can get some from both districts.
They feel like they are in a museum and it's really exciting. We actually had to make it two different months because we had so many people participating that with their parents. So uh as you can see there's lots uh more that I can go on and on and on about the partnership but I just want to uh bring your attention to the way that we are um partnering with you to make our students and um are more successful in the in our community. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thanks for appearing and we appreciate the partnership and the work you did here tonight. Thank you. The second patron registered to comment tonight is Phil Anderson, but I don't He was here earlier. I don't know if he is he is present now, so um Do we want to see if Mr. Anderson's available in the hallway?
We will now open the public hearing. Remember, if you'd like to speak, please sign in on the sheet, which is is located up here. So, if you didn't get to sign in on it, wave at me and I'll make sure you get in on that. As I mentioned earlier, we will ask that you state your name and address, limit your comments to the proposed rent to be paid under the lease, keeping the comments to 3 minutes, and avoid being repetitive if possible. And I have the sign-in sheet already in front of me. Did anyone not get to sign the sheet that was placed out there? All right, we had a couple people come in late. Speak now and forever hold your peace. Very good. So, no one like to speak? If so, there we go. Thank you all who participated in the hearing. I have everybody that spoke.
If somebody's going to teach a half a year or full year and not have their prep, number one it has to be needed, number two it has to be something that we couldn't do at another time but number three it has to be within our budget. This fits all of those categories very well and the district benefits and certainly our outstanding teacher has done this with the understanding that he would be compensated appropriately at some point and I appreciate his patience and professionalism during this process but I also appreciate Mrs. Babcock solidifying the process here that we'll bring forward but in the July meeting hopefully contractually in the future. Yes. And I'd like to add that on the HR report you will see his his stipend and now associated with that resolution. It specifies it in the HR. Before board I get to you'll see the annual expulsion examiner agreements.
The first course that we would like to recommend is printmaking. What this course is going to allow us to do is align with the new diploma and A to F accountability. It allows us to expand with our fine arts diploma and and offerings when we ask that each student completes two fine arts credits by graduation. So again, printmaking will help with that. The next course I bring to you is a recommendation of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps. This recommendation is actually for the 2027-2028 school year. We currently offer the Civil Air Patrol program. What this course will allow us to do is to work with Fort Knox and the 7th Brigade and grow much like our area schools, our surrounding schools, who offer the JROTC program. So again, this will go through a recommendation. We will do an application with the 7th Brigade and then hopefully be recommended to offer the course.
I was looking down the papers. I kind of missed what just happened over there, but we'll just keep on playing on. So, not only is Westwoods a really good offensive team, but even when their offense has to turn the defense, they're tough to defend as well. >> That's a goal by number two, I think, against number two Bridget Hughes. Definitely one of their top scorers. score of 11 to four. >> Again, not surprising for all of their wins, they've scored 13, 15, 18, 17, and 21. So, one thing about this Ash lacrosse team, a lot of fighting them. They don't they never quit. Always playing hard. Some of these keys are right over here on this face off. If we can uh win some of these faceoffs. There you go. Lily Vidy trip over to keeps herself over to Maggie McInness. Maggie over to Alyssa, freshman.
>> No. But he's already had a couple. >> He's had some points. He only has one goal. >> Oh, okay. Wow, that hit mesh, it looked like. >> that was a goal. >> Yeah. >> Atwood. >> That looked like a goal. >> that Olsen or Atwood who shot? >> that was an Atwood. Yeah, Atwood's Yeah, that was a goal. I'm going to go ahead and say it was a goal. >> Yeah, but refs are the ones that make the call, so this was by No, it was by Atwood. >> Yeah, but it's like a non-goal goal. Cuz we saw it here, and if you're watching, you saw it there. Here, wherever you are. But it's not that close of game. It's actually 10 to nothing. Sure, if it was closer, that would be maybe discussed. >> Well, you know, it's close enough for me to for that 12-goal lead that we want going in the fourth.
Thanks, Coach Liz. Ke with the ball switches off the stick. Calling out the offense. Turns around. Goes by one. Pulls back out. Gets the ball over to Kylie Morino. Kylie Marino scoops it up. the cage rolls around the corner. Keep going around the corner with it. Nothing there. Goes out. Fires it into Julia Illings where Illings with a nice grab. Try to do a Twizzler. Good save by the goalie. Quickly getting the ball up the up the field. Good job by the Spartans to slow that play down. back into the territory. Balls loose and crim almost comes away and Green comes up with it this time by Kylie Marino. Gets the ball to Sinkz up on top. Tries to go by Keney. Turns around takes a shot. Nice save by Julie Gray. Drew a great great save. Quickly gets the ball off to Mack Witworth.
Uh, talk about advocacy. uh she cares and advocates for every single special ed student out there. She doesn't miss anybody and uh she has worked hard uh tenaciously to get some of these like the transition program, the reading program, all these things we've never had for students. At one point, uh we didn't have a program for dyslexia students and uh last year was the first year we started to have one. So, can you believe we didn't have that program here? So, and it was because of her belief in that we had to have provide services for all kids that has made it possible. Um, when she comes down the hallway, I go the other way. No, only kidding. I'm I'm really uh proud of the work that she's done and how much she how much it matters to her. So for me, it's easy to support her because I know it comes from uh caring and from the heart and really wanting kids to succeed in the worst way.
You said seven. And then, some districts, if we don't use all seven, it's kind of like a get-back in the year with half days if you want. We don't get it, but some districts you get back in the >> Does that Does that at all affect the instructional curriculum? Like, if they're planning for the last day of the 18th, how like what would the last >> We We would have to build it out to be similar. You know, we'd have to look at that. But, I think we would keep the last day still a half day. >> You keep teaching no matter what. >> Yeah. You You keep teaching. >> I mean, like, does it mess up like the way the curriculum like if they they we get to the end and then they have like three days where they have nothing to do. No, right?
>> [applause] [cheering] >> Thank you, Ms. Alfonso. Uh Garfield Middle School, Ms. Abawi. >> [applause] >> Good evening and congratulations to all of tonight's award recipients. On behalf of the Garfield administration, it is a privilege to recognize Garfield Middle School Teacher of the Year, Mr. Francesco Fasulo. Since joining Garfield Middle School in February 2020, Mr. Fasulo has become a cornerstone of our school community. In his classroom, he doesn't just teach, he inspires. He challenges students to think critically, engage deeply, and believe in their ability to succeed. But, his impact extends far beyond the classroom. As a team leader and class adviser, Mr. Fasulo consistently steps up, leads with purpose, and puts students at the center of everything he does. He is fully immersed in the life of this school, supporting colleagues, building connections, and creating opportunities that leave a lasting impression on our students. Outside of the Garfield Middle School, he his service continues as a councilman in Elmwood Park, where he brings the same professionalism, leadership, and dedication to his community.
Thank you so much, everyone. Well, we'll see you in 2 weeks and 5 days. Excited to see you guys there. Um you know, I I did have question because you brought up, you know, ways to improve. You know, we were actually talking about that right after the interview process. What could we do better? Um how can we make it a better environment? How can we help you shine? Um you know. Anything to add? No, I was just going to say thank you, both. I You both have done such an amazing job not only like your leadership with the student event, which was I mean obviously all of our board meetings are fantastic but that was absolutely the best one and I'm sure we all agree. Um but also your constant representation of not only your own voices but the voices of your peers which was great and then I think the thing that I was most impressed by with both of you is like how comfortably you inhabited your roles and how you just felt so confident in asking questions and like even um you know, no offense Mr.
McKinney to talk about data dives. He didn't have to shove me off the stage. Well, and we were saying uh we can really clear out a room here. Everybody left when we were getting ready to dive into our presentation. Uh yeah, I think my favorite thing about those uh coalition meetings is you really get the opportunity uh to involve your teacher voices. So, at the middle school level, uh that is really huge. I mean, they they want to be able to to be part of it, part of the planning, part part of the decision-making. So, kind of helping steer the ship. Um and I can speak to my building and their buildings, too. We have awesome teachers. So, adding more people to that kind of leadership um you know, that coalition just makes us makes us better schools. So, uh another thing that we focused on, you heard me reference our two students who scored perfect scores on their ILEARN checkpoints.
Uh if you're a teacher in the room and one of these students mentioned your name, would you please stand so that we could recognize you two? And then I also want to recognize and thank the parents of all these students, parents and caregivers who supported the students during their journey. Thank you for what you do. You chose BCSC. We appreciate it. We hope we didn't let you down. These are some great students. Congratulations to the parents too. At this time, Dr. Stalbomb, please come up and tell us about our classified staff members of the year. Most most people don't know. BCSSE employs about 2,000 total employees and about 800 of them are certified, meaning we have a license to teacher, be an administrator. So, the overwhelming majority of our employees are actually classified staff who fill a dozens of different roles across the district and each year they uh each building elects a classified staff member of the year.
But again, I I want to be clear. Adding five, seven, eight, 10 students is not going to That's not going to make Selby. It'll help, but it's not going to make Selby small. Could we not do the outdoor learning here? Yeah. Oh, yeah. We can do the outdoor learning here. And I think Mrs. Jordan prefers to do that, actually. So, back to the pre-school. We don't get those funds. Right. If we're talking only about money here, but we do get an opportunity for students who may not otherwise educationally get to pre-school, they get to attend pre-school, which serves our community in another way. Correct? >> Correct. I I listen, I'm a huge pre-school fan. I We We the number of students who come to kindergarten completely unprepared is unbelievable. >> [cough] >> So, I would be a huge proponent of anything we can do to get any kids prior to grade K in our buildings to at least figure out what school is about.
If not, we'll move on. Okay, he might have just signed in cuz his daughter was getting an award. Okay. All right. Thank you for checking. We'll move on to item four, the consent agenda, Dr. Terrell. >> Thank you for your consideration this evening. We have 4.01, the executive session minutes from March 23rd. Uh also the regular business and public hearing minutes from March 23rd, and then our special session minutes from 4:15, and lastly our executive session minutes from 4:20. It's been a busy month. Also, we have 4.02, our personnel agenda, and then 4.03, the the voucher of registered checks as listed. >> Thank you, Dr. Terrell. Board members, you heard the recommendation of the administration to approve item 4.01, March 23rd, 2026 executive session minutes, March 23rd, 2026 regular business meeting public hearing minutes, April 15th, 2026 special session minutes, and April 20th, 2026 executive session minutes.