001May I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the agenda as presented? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Yes. >> Yes. Any abstentions? Motion carries. May I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Second. Are there any items to be pulled for individual discussion? Maria, please call the roll. Sarah Talley? Yes. Brent Seaver? Yes. Amanda Kapala? Yes. Lynn Steiner? >> Yes. Natalie Katarski? Yes. Terry Taylor? Yes. Farah Ahmed? Yes. Motion carries. Okay. Um public comment. Anyone wishing to address the board may do so at this time. If multiple individuals wish to address the board on the same subject, the group is encouraged to appoint a spokesperson. Please state your name and affiliation with the district. You're asked to limit your comments to 3
002minutes and abide by the public participation policy of the district. Please understand that the board will not respond to your questions and concerns during the meeting. A member of the administration team and or board will follow up with you after the meeting. Okay. Um moving forward with the school board presence report, self-monitoring report, I have not received anything. Um Dr. Castillo for board discussion. Yes, for board discussion or board information, we have uh placed the uh meeting dates and times for the 2026-2027 school year there. Uh really it's a mirror of this school uh school year just uh was in next year. So, I don't think there was any big issues with uh with the dates, so we just went along with those. Uh finance and facilities, Sarah. So, we met on Tuesday, April 14th
003at 6:00 p.m. You'll probably hear more details of this later, but this is the brief overview part. First, we got an update on the 2025 tax levy. If you remember, we worked on that in the fall. The final levy was submitted in December. The county assessor's office then reviews all the tax levies from everybody taxing the property owners and made the final calculations on EAV, new construction, and tax exemptions. So, in early April, the county notified the district of final tax levy extension, and the projected extension for all funds we thought was going to be 20,622,364. This is why you study place value. The final extension actually is going to be 20,000 20,613,220. So, a little bit less than what we were expecting because of the changes in EAV. The committee also discussed the five-year
004financial forecast for the district, um looked at end-of-year projections for the current year, reviewed revenue and expenditure assumptions for next year and the subsequent years. The committee reviewed spending trends and ending fund balances for each of those five years come. Next, we discussed contract renewals, which is stuff that we just okayed. Um there was a contract renewal for GSF, which is our custodial services. GSF agreed to lower the annual rate, saving the district 39,630. District also is seeking a one-year contract renewal with Whitsons, which is the food service people. Whitsons agreed to lower their rate for school lunch from 5.85 to 5.65 per meal, which is a savings of 3.6%. Finally, the district has a one-year other extension with Makers Maintenance, which is the district's landscaping company, and they're going to hold rates flat or
005the same as this last year. Lastly, we talked about medical insurance rates, which are not staying the same. Um we are with the educational benefit cooperative, so a whole group of school districts in order to get the best rate possible, but even so, PPO medical will increase by 12.2%, HMO medical will increase by 14.4%, HMO dental and life insurance will remain the same. Um the average loss ratio was much higher than expected for the insurance company, so that's the change in rate. Um the average increase for member districts overall, not just us, but overall, will be 16% and Keeneville's increase is actually lower than average. Um there's not a lot you can do with medical and dental benefits just going up. Um yeah. The next finance and facilities meeting is scheduled for May 12th, starting
006at 6:00 p.m. Thanks, Sarah. SUSD, Dr. Castille? Yes, the SUSD uh Board of Directors met yesterday. So, we took action on several items including uh the approval of um to submit the fiscal year 27 tentative budget to the governing board, the approval of new substitute rates, approval of insurance renewal, similar to us, uh for fiscal year 27, and then the approval of the administrative and non-CBA staff salary increases for the following year. Uh for discussion and information uh items included enrollment, staffing, strategic plan progress, uh board committee updates, and the two items that took the most uh most of the time during the meeting were the review of the revised uh joint agreement bylaws, and the facilities planning update. So, in the next few weeks, I'll be uh sending you some additional information regarding those
007two items. I'll also be uh contacting Amanda just to make sure she has all the information for the uh next governing board, but there's a a lot of changes coming so a lot of good things. And then we did have a closed session that closed session was used to talk about negotiations and that as well as other personnel matters. Thank you. Moving forward with dashboards, the financial dashboard Brian. Great. Pull that up here. As usual the finance dashboard goes through year to date through March 31st. We'll take a look at the revenues here first. It's about 75% of the school year about three quarters of the fiscal year I should say. Great. So we'll look at revenues. These are the revenues through March 31st so beginning of the year to March 31st. Most revenues are
008on track virtually all local property taxes have come in. The CPPRT line that is trending low. There are some payments in the second half of the year. State revenues and federal revenues you can see kind of where they're trending. To be honest and we talked about this in committee state revenues might end the year a little bit lower than expected due to where tier two and EBF funding a little bit less in transportation claim. Federal revenues might end at or a little bit more than we budgeted for. National lunch program next month in grants, Medicaid revenue that's all federal revenue. Total revenues through March 31st as you can see there to 26,769,507 are about 93% of budgeted revenues. The next slide is expenditures through March 31st. Most expenditures are on track. The first two lines
009salaries benefits are probably trending a little bit below budget so we might end the year a little bit under budget on salaries benefits. Uh there's another line there, other objects. That's primarily or a big chunk of that is tuition for outplaced students. And we're trending high on that. And that's simply due to services for students who are outplaced. Most other expenditures are on track for the year. Uh total expenditures as you see there, about 23,355,733. We're about 72% of budgeted expenditures. This next slide is the overall fund balance through March 31st. Uh so total revenues there, about 25.4 million. Total expenditures about 22 million. And then the ending fund balance for all funds on that bottom right there is 23,247,103. And then the bottom is operating, so taking out debt service and capital. Um operating
010funds are about 22.8 million. We're about an 81% fund balance through March 31st. This is just a visual representation of the of the all funds fund balance. And that's 23,247,000. So that yellow bar is the current year, following same trend as previous years, but kind of spending down that fund balance. And the next slide is just operating, so again taking out debt service and capital. Um so fund balance for operating funds about 22.8 million. Um we're about a 57% fund balance. A pretend year. Then lastly, uh the CPI. This is the March CPI. Uh a little bit higher than previous months. Uh the data shows inflation is about 3.2% in March on a year-over-year basis. So as you can see, that's a fairly big increase from previous months. That's in line with what economists had
011expected. A lot of that is due to the record high gas prices on that CPI. And then I'll leave that December, that first um one is December. That's that'll be used for the tax levy, the next tax levy, and this is kind of a reference um throughout the year. So, we'll see where it lands at, you know, as as we go on throughout the year. And then I just wanted to This is in the board packet, uh a couple contracts, but one of the big ones is the health insurance renewal rates. So, I just wanted to give a quick overview to the board. Um so, we're part of EBC, uh health insurance co-op. So, this is the 26-27 health insurance renewal rates. So, as you can see, PPO medical going up 12.2%, HMO medical going
012up 14.4%. Um and then on the bottom there is our cost as a district, so what we pay as a district for all of our our share for staff our benefits uh next year is estimated to be about 2.9 million. Uh this year is about 2.6 million, so an increase of about 340,000 or about 13%. Yeah. Mhm. And actually talking to feeder districts and other districts in the area, most are seeing a health insurance increase of about 11 to 19%. Um just health care costs have just going up, and insurance companies are trying to recuperate those losses, so the rates are going up next year. And these rates we can never predict, correct? There's nothing you can do about it. The big thing is they calculate what's called a loss ratio, so they look at,
013you know, last year the year we're currently in now, and there was a much higher loss ratio than expected. So, the lot of that increase is to kind of recoup those losses. Um typically it's anywhere from 5 to 7% increase, so this is higher than, you know, the past years. Um but again, it's a little bit below average, and it's it's on the low end of what a lot of other districts are increasing. And then I just wanted to give a high-level overview of what we offer our staff members. Through EBC, we offer Blue Cross Blue Shan Blue Cross Blue Shield plans, a PPO, HMO, dental, vision, life, voluntary, accidental death and dismemberment. Those are our health insurance options that are available to staff members. Um the open enrollment's going to be the first 3
014weeks of May, and then it goes into effect July 1. And then through EBC, there's a lot of wellness benefits. There's a health and wellness online management. There's a Blue 365, which gives us uh discounts and health and wellness gear, gym memberships, uh Teledoc health, employee assistance management, which is um like a confidential um almost like a hotline for crisis and counseling, you know, in an immediate sense. And then well-being portal has all these fitness challenges and healthy recipes, and we're actually in the middle of a fit steps fitness challenge right now through this portal. Um so there are a lot of benefits uh that that they offer that we like to offer our staff members uh under this collab. And I think it's it. Any questions? Right. Student and staff dashboard? Yes. >> Yeah.
015So if we go to the first slide, so we see Green Brook. Uh so if you'll notice uh some days in common between uh the buildings where they had over 10% of the students out. Uh so Green Brook had had the 13th, uh the 16th, 17th, 20th, and then April 10th. Uh two of those days were noted as religious holidays. That's why um most had students out. On uh March 16th, remember that was that day of the uh bad weather, so uh we had a lot of students out on that day. And then uh sick day for uh the 17th. Very similar, uh, when we look at Waterbury. Uh, Waterbury had 3 days and and they were in common with, uh, Greenbrook, the 16th, the 20th, and the 27th. Again, the 16th a bad weather
016day, uh, the 20th a religious holiday, and then, uh, the 27th we had a a number of families that left early for vacation. And then Springwood. If we look at Springwood again, uh, we had two of the days in common, the 16th as well as the 20th. Uh, and same reason, one was weather, uh, and the other one was, uh, religious holiday. If we look at, uh, the staff attendance, again, Fridays, uh, continues to be our our day as well as Monday. We're, um, we have the most absences when it comes to teachers. Uh, again, look day of the week, Friday and Monday. And then by category, meaning administrators, support staff, and teachers. Yes. Thank you. Moving forward, uh, our Superintendent's Report, Dr. Christine. Yes, I have a few items, uh, to report, uh, this
017month. So, the first is we were going to recognize our assistant, uh, principals at this meeting. Uh, unfortunately, they couldn't make it to the meeting, so we're going to, uh, move it till next month for their recognition. Uh, the second item is our AI Advisory, uh, committee met for the first time last, um, last month. Uh, again, we're very excited to, uh, have this, uh, advisory committee so we can, you know, continue implementing some of the AI tools with, uh, our teachers as well as with our, uh, students. And additional information will come out once we start rolling some of those things out. You know, we have a lot of parents here, so information will go out to parents as well. The second item is or a third item uh Raptor Emergency Management. Uh so,
018for next year, we're also going to be implementing a new uh the Raptor Emergency Management Suite. Uh so, that covers just uh it's a management system where we can account uh for students as well as release students. Uh did um what did what did digital uh component or a digital tool. This would have been very helpful for our our Waterbury water main break that we had uh earlier this school year. Uh very helpful to be able to manage that uh emergency a little quicker. So, we're looking forward to that. And I had one more. I have one more. >> have one. Okay. Um What was it, Maria? Summer hours. Summer hours, yes, there you go. That's an important one. That's why Maria remembered. Yeah, the summer hours. So, just like in the past, I would
019like to implement the summer hours for our our um offices, similar to the high school, so it's always nice to have a day off uh on that Friday. So, if uh the power needs to be turned down or all uh the water needs to be turned off, it can happen. So, we you know, due to construction and those type of things. So, uh we we are seeking to have summer hours again uh this summer for our offices. Yeah. Okay. All right. Thank you. And for our next report, uh we have uh Dr. Buckley. Good evening. I'd like to start by saying thank you to everybody who came out to our BPAC International Day of the Child Night and to all of our students who performed. This year we focused on really more of our student
020performers, and I think that probably helped with attendance as well, because we were packed. It was fantastic. So many families. It was great to see all of our student student performers celebrating their culture or the culture that they're learning about within their classroom. It was really a fantastic event. So thank you so much to our BPAC, our staff volunteers who were all there all night, our parents who brought all of their students very early to participate. So thank you all for coming. Um in math, we just finished up a book study building thinking classrooms in mathematics. We had 27 staff members, elementary, middle, administrators all participate. And we're very excited to help move this book study into the next level next year, especially in elementary pet trying to build eight to 10 classroom leaders with
021this type of research where their instruction is very different. It's less teacher talk. It's all student talk trying to figure out work together. Not Cannot in their seats often talking through giving giving a kind of a question and learning about it and then trying to talk with each other and problem solve around it was really what we learned about. It was fantastic. It was a great book study, and we're looking forward to moving forward with that. And next year we're also moving away from Amplify Science. I'm sure some of our students here won't be too too upset about that. Amplify is a great resource. However, it was very um literature driven. At the middle school, it was very computer based. So we're going to try out next year a program called Open SciEd. It's completely
022free. So that is fantastic. However, it is also highly rated. So it's a highly rated program that is free. It's going to be more hands-on for students. It is absolutely phenomena based, so they the students have to figure out a question or by based on a video or something the teacher presents to them, and they try to figure out the science behind the why that happened. Our middle school teachers are already trying out one unit and they're they're they're enjoying it. Some of our elementary teachers tried it out as well. It is available in English and Spanish. The Spanish versions are just still being built. So, we're very excited to move to um, OpenSciEd next year and again, it'll be a year of practice and a year of trial to see how much we like
023it. It will be um, a good cost savings mhm, with a stronger science-based hands-on resource. We're excited for that. In our tech um, in our tech department, our Seesaw ambassadors um, participated in some trainings with Mrs. Engstrom to develop a comprehensive presentation for staff on how to use Seesaw in a different way. We're still focused on cybersecurity and we are very excited that out of the 101 staff members that were sent a phishing email, zero clicked on it. So, we've made a lot of progress in the cybersecurity area. And then, as Dr. Castillo said, um, Miss Engstrom and Dr. Castillo are working on all things AI and with their AI committee and working through um, the Learning Technology Center of Illinois with Eric Santos presenting at the beginning of their meeting. Any questions? Thank you.
024Ms. Flores. Uh, student services, we're continuing to plan for the next year and one of the um, cool things we're introducing next year is a new program that's designed to um, meet the needs of students who are previously outplaced. Um, we're partner partnering with SASED, our cooperative to bring some of those programs back to the district and have them district run. Um, this is the program's going to be called the functional academic program and this program supports students with significant needs across multiple developmental domains including academics, communication, social emotional functioning, behavior regulation, sensory processing, and functional life skills. Um, these needs cannot be effectively addressed within a less restrictive environment even with supportive supplements um and supports. So, the um FAP program will emphasize student safety, structured and individual individualized skill development, measurable progress towards
025greater independence, and then meaningful and community engagement. Um the next area is it's April, one of my favorite months. So, it's Autism Recognition Month. Um it's a time dedicated to promoting understanding, inclusion, and acceptance for individuals with autism. Throughout the month, our district has engaged in activities that foster empathy, celebrate neurodiversity, and highlight the strengths and unique contribution of our students. Um in honor of Autism Acceptance Month, a group of Keneville students and staff will be attending Lake Park's Transitional Assistance Program um annual walk and roll event um tomorrow. The event celebrates inclusion, promotes awareness, and supports individuals with autisms and other diverse diverse learning needs. Um we would like to invite our whole entire community um Keneville community to join us in celebrating our amazing neurodiverse students by wearing rainbow colors um tomorrow as
026a symbol of acceptance, unity, and support. Um we remain committed to partnering with families in creating inclusive environments where all students feel valued, supported, and empowered to succeed. Lastly, I want to remind everyone that our Special Olympics team is having their first ever um event on May 2nd and 3rd. We are called the Keneville Cobras. And I wish I would have brought the shirts up, they're very cute. So, I'm incredibly proud and excited for our athletes to compete and represent the Keneville district. So, any questions? Thank you. You. Great. Thank you. Mr. Toliver. All right. Now to the most important reason why we're here. So, I'm going to call Mr. Oliano so he can introduce our guests. Our guests here. So we got a big group here. I was just talking to them uh I
027call her Pukes, but it's Nikaya, I'm sorry. But Miss Nikaya um does a really great job and we were just sharing back that this has been our favorite group. Um well organized and sometimes and JHS likes to do fundraiser fundraiser and this year was all about community. Everything they chose was everything um majority outside the school and with the community. Before I start with them, I want to share one thing, only one thing I'm going to report, very um very important to um Miss Nikaya and I, but I would like to say today she didn't she didn't want to come and join us on it cuz she's a little bit more um reserved. So today we want to celebrate the amazing journey of Joanna Sirka, our amazing EL teacher for the grades of 6th through
0288th. She has earned an award of excellence in the classroom teacher category at the 52nd annual Those Who Excel in Teacher of Awards recognition on last Saturday at Bloomington Normal. She told both of us this um months ago, but she's the type that didn't want to go public and we kept on bugging her. And Jolene, you joined her um just this last weekend and it was so moving for her and someone who's well deserved. So I would like to say Joanna came into this country over 20 years ago without speaking English. Yet she held onto a dream of becoming a teacher. Through hard work, resilience, and heart, she turned that dream into reality. And we are better because of it. When Joanna joined the Springwood family, she stepped into a place where the needs were
029always changing. Year after year, she was given different tasks, new challenges, and shifting roles, but she never backed down. Instead, she adjusted, adapted, and continues to find ways to meet every student where they were. She made sure all students were supported, pushed, and cared for. That's who Joanna is. She's not just a teacher. She's someone I personally depend on, someone I learned to grow alongside, someone who brings honesty, passion, and deep commitment to doing what's best for kids. Joanna, you didn't just join the Springwood, you became an essential part of who who we are. We are proud of you, grateful of you, and lucky to call you Springwood family. So, I don't know if she's listening, but she deserves a huge shout-out. She has ever since I've met her from the very first day, I
030think Craig Beringer, our our principal at the time, made her stand up and and speak, and she froze, and that was not her style. And what she's doing today is quite amazing, and it's so much I've learned so much from her, um just sitting next to her, and her being excited. She's in my office almost every single day. I am honored to know her. I'm honored to work alongside her, and I wanted to share that story with her. She did not want to come here and not She's just not that style. So, if you see her, give her a email, give her a shout-out. We'll really appreciate her. Okay, now, we love Joanna, but we love our students, too. Uh this wonderful group, they did a great job. So, I'm going to introduce Miss Tuxbury
031or Miss Nikhaya. Hi, good evening. I am the advisor for National Junior Honor Society or NJHS at Springwood. Good evening, everybody. I brought everybody with me and this evening um they will be sharing their community service project. I just want to say a couple of words about this group cuz they are a fantastic group. I've been doing this for a few years now and it's always neat to see the kids grow and see all their leadership qualities. And this group is one of the kindest, most hardworking, genuinely awesome group of teenagers. And I'm so thankful that I got to meet you guys because I'm not always seeing these kids in my classroom personally, so I really love meeting all you guys. So thank you so much. Um okay, our first slide. I think I'm handling
032the first one. Okay, so on a Saturday, February 14th, this group of awesome teenagers came and met me at uh Feed My Starving Children in Schaumburg and they worked hard for an hour and a half packing meals. And I think we had some fun along the way shouting and screaming and um it was a huge group that day. We ended up packing enough meals for like 48,000 people. It was pretty amazing. Um so it was a very good day on February 14th. Good day to spend. Okay, next one. Our next community service project Uh we did super superheroes to help serve um our community including the Hanover Park Police Department, the the fire department, the police the fire department and the mayor. Um we served two different kind of soup, minestrone and um chicken um
033cream. We also served bread and crackers and they had such a in hot Sorry. had such a great time enjoying, talking, getting to know each other, some laughs, and I learned personally that to like multitask while having conversation while trying not to spill the soup on them. So, that was really helpful for me to like multitask and to have like a nice conversation with people I haven't met before since I live in Roselle and they live in Hanover Park. So, it was really nice to meet most of them. And our therapy dog also came in the one day and they just loved her. They felt so comfortable at Springman. Thank you. Good evening, guys. So, me and my group, we went to Waterbury Elementary School. Thank you. Me and my group, we went to Waterbury
034Elementary School and we talked to them all on Spring Run Middle School. We really wanted to make sure that when these kids come to Spring Run Middle School, they feel as comfortable as we did because middle school, it's a brand new school, a lot of new rules. We went over three very important topics. To start off, we went over the basic information. This year at Spring Run Middle School, we started a new bathroom pass known as Smart Pass and it was a little confusing at first, but we got through it. It was something that we wanted to make sure that they know about cuz it's not like your normal pen and paper sign out. So, you want to make sure that they were comfortable on that. We also talked on academics and how important academics
035here at Spring Run Middle School is. We wanted to make sure that they knew that as classes get harder and harder throughout the year, every single teacher here at Spring Run Middle School is willing to do whatever they can to make every single kid succeed. Whether it's going to homework help, you know, talking to them after class, meeting them for study hall. The teachers here are really amazing. They will do anything they can to help you succeed. And lastly, we talked about the sports and clubs here at Spring Wood Middle School. Spring Wood offers a variety of sports and clubs for every single student. It was really amazing cuz as we were coming into Spring Wood, we were like, oh, I hope they have this club and this club. And to our surprise, they did.
036So, we really wanted to make sure that the students got involved here at Spring Wood Middle School so that they can make new friends, learn new things, learn leadership, courage, all that kind of fun stuff. Overall, it was an amazing opportunity to go meet these students and enlighten them on Spring Wood Middle School cuz this is a great school and I would come back every single year. Natalie? No, Alexis. Oh. Hello, my name is Alexis and I was one of these four girls who went to Waterbury and talked to them about Spring Wood. Um to begin, as they were learning, I also learned and acquired many new skills myself. Doing this really improved my leadership skills, being able to go there and represent Spring Wood. And this also improved my presentation skills by me pushing
037myself out of my comfort zone and talking in front of all of them and teaching teaching them. Doing this as my community service project really helped me gain new powerful skills that I'll carry with me forever. Hi, my name is Natalie and I'm so happy that I got to be a part of this project. But, I would like to speak a little about what we found most memorable about this amazing experience. So, a big component of what we really found that was so unforgettable was when we got to connect with the incoming sixth graders about some of their interests in the sports and clubs that are here that are here at Spring Wood. Um it was so amazing just to see the excitement in their face when we spoke about certain sports or activities that
038would they were so excited to join when they got here. And another thing that was truly unforgettable about this experience was getting to hear what kind of questions they had about Spring Wood and um it was really I'm sorry. It was great just getting to hear all the things that they were curious about our school, about what kind of things they want to get into involved with, what kind of clubs, what kind of sports. And overall, the entire experience was so unforgettable, and getting to do this with some of these girls was so amazing, and I'm so happy that I got this opportunity. And it was also so unforgettable how we got to make an impact on them, and I really hope that they're so excited to come to Spring Wood now. Yeah. Hello everybody.
039My name is Bianca, and this is my group. This is Kate and Shaya. And so, what my group and I did is we went to Greenbrook Elementary School, and we presented to the incoming fifth grader or incoming sixth graders, and we were preparing them for Spring Wood, because I know I was really nervous for the first day, because middle school looks really scary, but we wanted them to feel safe with Spring Wood, and we also wanted them to feel welcomed and have amazing time, and make sure that they feel included. And we were also making them like get involved in sports and clubs and stuff like that. We just went over all like the things and stuff. And um yeah. Hi, my name is Kay, and um my overall experience that I had with myself
040and my group is that we got to see a lot of new faces, seeing the new sixth graders incoming. We got to see a lot of our old teachers. It was very fun to hang out with them and just like go back and like talk to them and see them. And they were like very surprised to see us all grown up. And it was just very like memorable to see all their faces getting happy. Like they were very excited to see and get ready to join middle school and it is very stressful to get into a new school especially with another school, but we made sure to comfort that comfort that on that and just like make sure that it's going to be okay. Hi, my name is Shaya and some of the skills I
041learned while going to Greenbrook is how to like present in front of people. One thing is that when I get older I do want to like have a job where to present in front of people and just getting started now is a really big step into that. Another thing is to branch off my ideas from my head to like be able to talk and elaborate more on the things and the last one is to not panic. It might sound dumb but it's to not stumble over our words and to like just say it'll be okay and it'll be fine. Hello, my name is Zoe Arceo. And my name is Natalie Robles. For our volunteer we went to the Rose Hill Public Library and helped them take down their old winter decorations and prepared to put
042up their new spring decorations. We were able to learn many real life skills in our experience such as making appointments. During this we would email the library staff back and forth. We would set dates, times, and etc. in our emails. Another skill we learned was creative skills. This was through cutting out designs and organizing our supplies. These designs were then placed onto the spring decoration board. Uh one thing that I found memorable during this experience was all the effort work and energy that the librarians put in order to make the library a welcoming place for our community, especially the fact that they have multiple librarians working at one time in order to complete different tasks and they have decorations throughout the entire library so it's a pleasant place for our local community. One thing that
043was memorable Yeah, one thing that was memorable for me was bonding with both my volunteering partner and the library staff. We made thoughtful memories while also helping out in our community. Thank you for your time. Hi, good afternoon. I'm Roselyn. I'm McKenzie Beuter. And I'm Evelyn Liang. For our project, my group members and I decided to spend time and spread encouragement at The Grove. The Grove is an assisted living facility where elderly people that are not able to take care of themselves 100% live and stay. To show these people that they still matter and are important, my group members and I decided to spend decided To show these people that they still matter and are important, our group member had over a 2-hour ice cream social including serving ice cream to the residents, conversating with
044them and staff, and overall truly making them feel like they're not alone. As part of our service, we made we made inspirational cards and everyone made a minimum of five cards, but most of us are very excited about this and made more than five cards. The cards had a fun play on words giving encouragement and laughter to the people living in the facility. Many people who live in the facility have conditions that make it hard to live their day-to-day lives that make And sometimes all you need is a little bit of words of encouragement and kindness to make your day better. While we're making these cards, everyone really took the time to think about how these people truly feel and if they really feel alone or if they feel seen. And as a group, we
045hope that making these cards gave them encouragement and had the feeling of knowing they're seen and they're cared about. Um so, I I be telling you about some of the stories and experiences that some of the people at the the Grove that shared with us. So, our first woman, her name is Deborah and she was a um Sorry. She She went to the retirement home because she was in a wheelchair and she couldn't walk and at home she had stairs, so she couldn't walk up the stairs and she had no one to help her because she lived alone. She grew up in a small town in Indiana and her elementary school was actually held in a college. Um Deborah and her sister would uh drive in a car around um just for fun. I'm hopefully
046safely. Um and once she grew older, she took up a job at an elementary school as a social worker for kids. Um Our second guy, his name is Sam and he was actually diagnosed with brain cancer because he had a tumor in his brain. He had a crazy life. He had his first kid at 13, that's what he said. Um probably by accident and he graduated He graduated high school at 14 years old with a full ride scholarship in education and in basketball. Um Once he got older, he could finally drive and he had this dream car and so when he got to his like early early 20s or something like that, he finally got his dream car which was a red Porsche. Thank you for listening to the stories that they shared with us.
047Overall, this experience has shown us that we should be grateful for what is given to us, show appreciation, learn how to be more patient and have fun in life because you only live once. We took the life advice that they gave us because they have more experience in the world and their opinion can and will be used and influence on influence upon us someday. So this Springwoods to our Springwood students, this was more than a project. Thank you guys. Hello everybody. My name is Olivia DeNuzzo and for my community service project, I decided to go to the Ronald McDonald House. I went two times. The first day it was December 26th and the second time was um March 15th. Both of the times I went with my mom and my little sister. When I was
048there, I did cookies from the heart, which is where I made four batches of chocolate chip cookies and the second time I did two batches of brownies. These were for the families who were staying at the home during this time. What I learned from this experience is that community service helps people more ways than we can imagine and even the little things. It doesn't have to be a big thing that you do, but even the smallest things can put smiles on people's faces and have a great effect on their lives and can make their days better. What was most memorable to me is that after we were done making the cookies, they um the girl asked me if um we wanted to have a house tour. And she gave us a whole entire tour of
049the bottom layer of the house and there were so many different sections and one of them was like a gaming room and it's up there in the picture. It's uh it's like a Pac-Man. It's the one under the gaming room area and they had um controllers, they had different games for the people to select from if they just want to relax and play some video video games for the day. Then next to that room, there was a little family room which had like a really long couch and a bunch of pillows and families at the end of the day if they were tired or if they just want to have family time, they could spend time together and watch a movie. The room next to that was uh little play area for like little toddlers
050and they had like this little area where they could play like grocery store or something with like different food items and um like shopping carts and there was also baby dolls and other things for kids to just have fun with. And I thought that was really nice of them. Um such a way to think of others and to um let them get the little kids to like use their imagination and um really just entertain them throughout the day. Towards the end of the house tour, they um had this one area and this was the first time that we went there with the cookies. They uh had this area with um a bunch of toys that people had donated. And it was like a little shop set up because um families weren't able to go out
051and get the time to go get gifts for their loved ones. Um since it was right across the street from the hospital, they could just walk over and get a gift for them and bring it to them. Which I thought was very friendly of them. And um also after we were done making the cookies, I saw um this little kid with like a pineapple plushy walk up to the cookies and he was really happy and he had like a smile on his face. And I thought that was really adorable. Um but in the end, this was a very fun experience and I hope to come back soon and I hope to encourage others um to have the same experience and the people there were really nice. Um it was such a positive environment. And that
052was my community service project. I hope you guys enjoyed it. Hello, my name is Amina Alibasa. My name's Olivia DeNezza. For our community service, we did Kids Against Hunger on April 18th and it's very similar to Feed My Starving Children where you pack food bags and each person has to scoop out food and put them in the bags. What me and Olivia did is we sealed the bags, we weighed them, and we also packed them. When weighing the bags, we had to s- follow a specific range of grams and if it was in that range, we got to yell out bingo. And after that, we got to we got to seal the bags and then we would take turns putting stickers on them and then putting them in the boxes. After that, we got to
053color on the boxes and even write notes. What I learned is that you need communication in order to succeed. You need to work together and be able to tell each other what to do and if they need more or less in their scoops. And the most memorable memorable thing is just being there with a friend and knowing that you're doing a good thing for the community and also being able to gain new experiences with people that you don't even know and just talking to them and seeing how their life is and just knowing why they came and being able to learn from them. Thank you so much. All right. So, my name is Constantine. My name is Ben My name is My name is Vamsi Anant. We went to this organization called Phil's Friends where
054you pack care packages and help kids with cancer and it was a really nice experience. It was cool for all of us and it was really joyful. Um we helped a lot with packing boxes and coloring cards for them. And I'm grateful to have been part of it. Uh some skills that we learned at Phil's Friends were leadership and also uh we learned uh the pay what the patients want in their care packages and what they need. And uh it was very heartful heartfelt because you were making someone's day and because they needed the care packages. I still The experience at Fields Fans will work in there. It was like a chilling cozy place. So, with my part is making cards and the thing about it is it's really thoughtful and like making the time
055for it. With the with this quote on the board saying, "Lord, it's time for me to go to heaven." It's basically him like like Phil, the actual owner, he asked he actually expressed like I can too like I you know what I mean? And he was very honest death bed, but when his continues saying is, "I dedicate the rest of my life to you and what you have planned for me." Is that not not everything's granted and like So, all things considered, we encourage everyone here to take part in Fields Fans mission to make a positive change in the world. Thank you. Matt Bluyak and I'm Nathan Pueblos. Uh so, what I did for Rosa Public Library, we had or it was only me cuz me and Nathan had to go separately cuz they didn't
056have a project for both of us. I did the bags on that side of the screen. I had like macrame uh rainbow things to do where I had to cut up long strand strings of yarn yarn and weave them together to make little rainbow for future kids that would come and so they could walk around the library and put books in to have just free books for them to read. Uh I mine is on the left and it's basically me putting uh coupons in tote bags for a a later event. And um some of the skills we learned is basically communication. Being able to communicate with kids from like ranging from 5 years old all the way to like high school students. Like helping them find all their books is like honestly one good way
057to communicate. And just being able to communicate in a new environment all so suddenly is one of the most important skills to have. Some memorable experiences I had. Uh doing the bags was new experience. Really haven't done anything like this before. It was fun to do something for the community and help out help out kids find more find new books they want to read and make uh younger kids excited to go to public libraries like this one from cuz people do volunteering like us to make fun uh activities for the kids to enjoy. My favorite memory is seeing all the little kids so interested in books cuz nowadays most people are just either on their phone or not really being able to um read books. It's honestly so amazing to see little kids so excited
058to start reading and all that. Yeah. Hi, my name's Evelyn Guevara. I'm Layla Colon. And I'm Antoine Cotton. For our project we went to the Early Childhood Center by Greenbrook Elementary School and when we got there the staff was very nice and very welcoming. And the kids were also so sweet and super nice. And as soon as we got there they wanted to give us a hug. For our activities I did a three rule animal guessing game. Basically where I give out three hints describing the animal and the kids have to guess it. And they loved and got every animal right. Next Layla she read them Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and they were so interested in Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. I kept saying Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Lastly, Evelyn gave them color by numbers and
059even though they didn't get all the colors right, they had so much fun. At the end, we just played with the kids and I felt like a kid again. I had as much fun as they did. Um some of the skills we learned during this was flexibility. Like at the end we had to cut our time short because it was a Wednesday. And also how to deal with kids because they gave us the experience and knowledge on how to act when kids aren't listening or when they're talking over us. Some of the memorable experiences I think I would say I have is honestly just spending time around kids younger than our age cuz um every day I'm hanging out with kids that are my age and I already know how they're going to react to
060things, but spending time with little kids who like see the world so differently and react to things so differently. It was honestly very memorable for me. And also just like how it's happy they were to see us. Like they were so happy and we made their day and that was like just so amazing to me. I I think I can say for all of us that we would definitely do it again and I really hope that in the future for NJHS that more people will do this with the kids cuz they honestly had so much fun and I'm so happy I got to do it with these people. And thank you. Good afternoon. I'm Bella Solorio. And my name is Marsha Shad. And what we did to help our community, we volunteered at our local
061library Popular Creek and we helped with our the Loteria night event. And if you guys aren't aware what that is, is just think of it as a Mexican version of bingo. So um we helped set up it. We basically took the workload off the teen coordinator who would have been, you know, usually doing it by himself. So, first we have to set up like all the tables and the cards for people to play and the snacks and the prizes, too. And we also had like a little place to take photos with um those who came to the event. And yeah, I was um it was it was really fun and it was just a great combination of culture and a good event for the community to join in. Volunteering at the library's monthly Noche de
062Loteria like event was actually like a great experience. I got to learn about Mexican culture through hanging up the decorations, watching the Loteria cards getting called, listening to the music, hearing the language they were speaking, and through some of like the candy and the beverages that they were serving. It also helped me learn some new Spanish words like el alacran, la dama, el el sol y um la luna. I think what was most memorable is just being able to hang out with our community. All those who came to participate, they're all very kind and I liked being able to talk with them during the game and you know, just like interacting with them like while they got up to get their prizes. And not just that, but we also had other teen volunteers with us
063while we worked at the Loteria night and I think they made it a lot better since you know, we weren't the only ones. Our memory from the volunteering definitely was when we got to play Loteria ourselves after all of the people were situated. Um like eating the snacks, putting like beans on the card when our boxes were called, almost winning many times. It was like overall a fun experience. What thank you so much for presenting. Great job, kids. Mr. Kaya, thank you for the work that you do with the kids every year. Wonderful projects. Thank you. You guys want to get a group picture up here? Let's get a Let's get a group picture for you. Let me get the team picture. Can I put them in front of the board? It's well done. Yeah,
064for sure. One girl in the front is like in the jumper. Yeah, she's like Yeah, literally being a little bit like Yeah. Like with the hand I was like, "Only hand in the back." She's like hanging out and feeling too much. Her hands were going. Mail it to your own parents. Who do you think hates the worst? Yeah. You do not have to stay for the rest of the meeting, so uh unless you want to. We made this really good. We're almost done. I know it was a good presentation. Maple Leaf attractions in the city of Toronto from Saturday morning to Friday afternoon and I don't think I can make it. We are photo op How are you guys doing? Let me do this all. That's it? That's it Dr. Pacora? No more report? Is
065that what you're saying? His work is done. Wow. Mr. G. You were losing? He's trying to get them to rally and so we give them a rally. Oh yeah. Oh. They do the pledge and then they do the pledge allegiance to the good attitude today. I will do my I will treat with respect. Does that not work? It's a good pledge. I make my employees do that at work. I really like the pledge. Where's he going to take a picture of them? I was a student trying to >> I'm just taking a picture of it. Did somebody get a picture? Michael. Yes. Oh, I didn't see Michael back there. All right, Mr. G, if you have a report, you're next. Mr. G. How is your report? All right, good evening. Um the students at Stanford
066were working really hard in the third trimester here to finish up their school year strong. Um we recently completed our one book, one school program, which featured If I Can Build a Car by Chris Van Allsburg. As part of this experience, students built cars at home using recycled materials, helping strengthen the connection between schools and families. I can't say enough about the materials and everything else in our families and what they built. We had at least over 20, 30 cars that these kids built at home and everything else on display. It was phenomenal. Um every student received a copy of this book to read at home and at school. They also designed their own cars on paper and described them in their writing. Mr. Barr, our assistant principal, used AI to bring these ideas to
067life. The students were so thrilled when they saw what they created and how he was able to bring it to life. And even more challenging was as they wanted to add more details to see in their writing and just what could happen as the name became to life all together. On another day, we had the students work with their classroom buddies to build cars together. Then on Friday, I can't say enough for Miss Hess, uh her dad and his car club. They brought up a couple cars. Miss Tunzi-Colone, her dad brought up his car, a Dr. Buckley, her husband, and a couple of their friends brought up their car. We even had Mr. Manny had his car out there and everything else like that. And the kids got to go out for a car show
068and see what it's like but it really cars are out there and everything else like that. Again, just connecting that home and school community piece. Also, our Greenbrook PTO had a book fair and bingo that same week. Again, to kind of just celebrate and strengthen our school community home. Our gaming club has officially started at Greenbrook. And when you think gaming club, we're thinking electronics and everything else. Well, we're old school over at Greenbrook. It's all about board games over there. So, we're learning the board games and playing a variety board games to kind of build our social skills and our critical thinking. In addition, the poetry and story club is currently working together. This club has started from fifth grade and then it went to fourth grade and now we're on our last group
069of kindergarteners are finally making their puppets. At the end of this time when they finish this, they put on a production of the story with their puppets that they made and everything else like that. We also are having our fifth graders step in and become leaders in leading this kindergarten group in their last. And today I was there as they were finishing up and it's just amazing to see the lights and the things on their faces and they're so excited on what they created. Um, I just can't say enough about how excited we were to welcome the Springwood eighth grade band to perform in our Turner school. It's just amazing to watch the students that are eighth graders and everything else as they interact with us in the band thing like that and just to
070see the look on our kids faces like someday they could be up there doing that and doing this in the school. And then our fifth grade here the district had our band concert and just to watch what they started as a beginning band in fifth grade and then finally do our last spring concert, it was really amazing to see from step one to that. So, thank you. Thank you. Mandy. First and foremost, I want to say that um we loved having the National Junior Honor Society come. We told them, "The kids are going to They're going to love you. They're going to want to be." And they did. They walked in and the kids were in the circle and one of the kids stood up and the teacher said, "Well, you need to sit down.
071They're going to turn." She said, "I just want to give them a hug." So, they This is, I think, the third year, maybe, that we've done it. And um they have knocked it out of the park every year. So, it's And it was interesting for me to see some of these kids that I had in speech a million years ago in preschool um to hear them up and talking was was uh really exciting. Um and to see that they're becoming leaders in their in their school. Um So, in my previous board report, I talked about that we were going to be going to the Poplar Creek Library for our family engagement activity. And um that happened on March 27th. And honestly, it could not have gone better. We were so happy. We We've had um
072We've gone and done a field trip to the library. And then we've also had our community partners come in and talk about what they have to offer to our families and we combined them this year. Um so, our students and their parents came to the library. They The students did story time while the parents then listened to a dual language presentation um for kindergarten to prepare for kindergarten um which was spearheaded by Dr. Buckley. But, our staff presented that The kindergarten staff presented that. Um and then um they had After that, we had crafts, we had snacks, we had um a scavenger hunt through the library the children's area, which is really If you've never been to the Poplar Creek Library, it is a really cool place. Um and so, they were able to do
073that. And we had our community partners. I think we had eight different organizations there, and they had their tables out. And so instead of doing a presentation, they they had them out, and so families could kind of come and go, and they had giveaways, and they gave out information. Um and it was really a fun morning. We got a lot of positive feedback from our families. Um our staff loved it. The kids seemed to love it. So it we're definitely going to do that again. Um but it was really a fun it was a fun way to incorporate all of those all of those things. Um We Oh, I do want to give a shout-out to Lisa Favors at the library because she she met with us several times in organizing this, and anything we
074needed, we said, "Okay, well, we'll get this at Oh, no, we've got it, and we've got, you know, this earmarked for our community engagement." And you know, she really really made it easy for us. So um it was really nice to partner with her. Um We have our last preschool screening of the school year tomorrow. We the screening is full, so we're getting ready. These will be for next year. Um and then we also we have kids already signed up for August. Um so we're we're excited to get more students as our you know, a lot of our students go to kindergarten. Um and then we're also just encouraging everyone to continue to register for next year. Um for our returning preschools, I think we have about 3/4 of them already registered. Some aren't sure
075if they're going to be here next year or not, if their lease is expired, things like that, but we have a quite a few. Joanna Jensen does a good job of of reaching out to those parents and really getting them um to register. So preparing for finishing this year and preparing for next year. Thank you. It concludes our reports. Thank you. May I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the educational benefit cooperative health insurance renewal rates for 2026-2027 school year as presented? So moved. Second. Abstain. Maria, please call the roll. Brandy Heffner? Yes. >> Amanda Coppola? Yes. Lynn Steiner? Yes. Natalie Kaczmarsky? Yes. Terry Taylor? Yes. Farah Manley? Yes. Sarah Zeller? Yes. Motion carries. May I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the non-certified staff salaries for 2026-2027 as
076presented? So moved. Second. Abstain. Maria, please call the roll. Amanda Coppola? Yes. >> Lynn Steiner? Yes. Natalie Kaczmarsky? Yes. Terry Taylor? Yes. Farah Manley? Yes. Sarah Zeller? Yes. Brandy Heffner? Yes. Motion carries. May I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the administrator contracts 2026-2027 as presented? So moved. Second. Abstain. Maria, please call the roll. >> Lynn Steiner? Yes. Natalie Kaczmarsky? Yes. Terry Taylor? Yes. Farah Manley? Yes. Sarah Zeller? Yes. Brandy Heffner? Yes. Amanda Coppola? Yes. Motion carries. May I have a motion that the Board of Education adjourn the meeting? So moved. Second. All those in favor? Yes. Abstain. Motion carries. What?