001All right, at this time I'd like to call the regular meeting of the Board of Education of March 18th, 2026 to order at 6:00 p.m. Andrea, can you call the roll, please? Patricia Bocock? Here. Andrea Del Zotti, here. Allison Downs? >> Here. Tina Iwanio? Here. Stephanie Fiori? Here. Ina Soda? Here. Jennifer Zigler? Here. Also in attendance we have Dr. Cartsmiss, Dr. Stavrou, Dr. Leyva, Miss Miss Meganello, Mr. Humbles, Mr. Grolby, Mr. Moranto, Miss Grolby, Miss Hallett, Mr. Amsler, Miss Sendelbach, Miss Fischels, Miss Medloni, Miss Fastler and Miss Buell. We have a quorum. Please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Okay, I'd like to entertain
002a motion that the Board of Education establish the consent agenda as presented. I'll move. I'll second. Any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, Andrea, can you call the roll, please? Downs? Yes. Iwanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Soda? Yes. Zigler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. Del Zotti, yes. Motion passes. I'd like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda. I'll move. I'll second. Any questions, comments, concerns? Still none. Andrea, call the roll, please. Downs? Yes. Iwanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Soda? Yes. Zigler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. Del Zotti, yes. Motion passes. There were no items removed, so we'll skip to the next item. Up next is public participation. I don't know if anyone wishes to speak before the board. There's sheets on each side to fill it out. There'll be another one at the second half meeting.
003Okay, seeing none. Um next is the principals' report and enrollment reports. Yeah, we were very excited. The principals um put in their reports for the board in your packets some events that were taking place over the course of the last month. Um we'd like to thank our families and our parents for coming and attending spring conferences on March 11th. Again, that was a a really great way for us to engage with our parents and talk about our student progress. Um we want to thank our community helpers. I'm sure some of you have seen on social media that our preschoolers are learning about community helpers. Last week we had members of our fire department, including um Fire Chief Hatcher, that visited all of our preschool classrooms. And today we had members of our police department. And
004they brought quite a few. I think there were many cars in front of the preschool door that may have caused a little stir in the neighborhood. But they were sure to bring some goodies. They brought sunglasses for all of our preschool students. They were really excited. So I just wanted to thank our our community partners. And I think the the relationship with the village is continuing to grow and our students are growing their trust with all of our community helpers that they see. Um special thank you to our school resour- resource officer um Detective Orozco. He was just really wonderful to see him engage with the students today. And I think you guys would all agree. So we want to just uh give a special thank you to our community partners. We also want to
005uh give a big thank you to Washington School. The musical Beauty and the Beast was outstanding. So Um special thank you to Kathy Meganello. She created, I'll pass this around, um a little keepsake for some of our members of the community who came to see um from the village, from the historical commission, from Autumn Leaves, Grace Park Condos. So they're going to be gifted with a little momento book um to thank them for attending our senior luncheon and coming to support our students um and support the musical. So thank you, Kathy, for putting that together. It's really, really beautiful. Thank you. Um we also want to have a big shout-out to our members of our special education team and our Lincoln School teachers for hosting Project Unify. Um it was it's always an amazing event
006and many board members who were there could probably attest to the same. So thank you very much. We always love that all of our students are recognized in District 81 and all have a place to shine and thrive. So thank you for putting on another amazing um Project Unify game. So I thank you to the board members who were able to see that. I think it was a really special afternoon. Thanks for sending the video and the pictures, too. Of course. It was so sweet. Like all the helpers were so adorable. They were so patient, so kind. But I had to talk I had to turn to Miss Harris and be like, "Who is this boy?" And he's like, "Oh, that's Leo." And you know, he was just all smiles. If the student wanted to
007go this way, he went that way. There was one kid bouncing the ball. I think he wanted to see how high it was going to go. And he was just like, "Okay, keep bouncing." It was the sweetest thing. And you know, while they were all so kind and so patient, he really exemplified that. And he's really a great leader. I think he's an eighth grader, right? So he's going to he'll be missed in Lincoln Hall, so I'm sure. Um congrats to our Lincoln School Scholastic Bowl team. Um we had a chance to celebrate our JV team who brought home second place. Um so again, just great opportunities see students in District 81 have the opportunity to find their place and their niche and thrive and and really shine. Um we're also super proud to see
008our band and our chorus students performing at the Chicago Wolves game last week. So that was that was a great time. Uh thank you for sending videos of the students. And then our chorus sang. Yeah, it was it was really it was really nice. It was really neat. So we just love all these opportunities. Thanks for highlighting them, principals. Our kids have a chance both in and out of the classroom to shine. So thanks so much for all these opportunities. It's been a great month. And a short month. I can only imagine it's going to be like five pages when we get to the end of the year. No, that sounds very fun. Um speaking of all the fun things, our next item up is examp- example of excellence. So our Scotty Awards, that stands
009for student citizen of the year. And in collaboration with West 40, the Scotty program recognizes students who are chosen by their schools as good citizens and models for others to emulate. So we're excited to ask our principals to please come up tonight to proudly introduce this year's Scotty Award winners, who will be honored and celebrated tomorrow evening at an award ceremony at West Leyden High School. Um so first up from Kennedy School, we have Miss Sasha Perel Plenka. Sasha is an outstanding third grade student who is who consistently strives to grow both academically and personally. She is very kind, thoughtful, helpful, considerate, creative, and always friendly to those around her. Each day Sasha arrives with a positive attitude, eager to learn and contribute to the classroom. She actively engages in all subjects, embracing any challenge
010with enthusiasm. Sasha consistently goes above and beyond in her work, setting a high standard for her classmates. She is a reliable and supportive peer, always ready to lend a hand when others need help. Sasha's passion for learning and her dedication to excellence make her an exceptional student and her efforts shine both in our school and throughout the community. So we are so very proud of Miss Sasha. Next we have Anastasia Herchyniak. Anastasia is a hardworking and dedicated student who consistently gives her best effort in both English and Ukrainian. She is also a committed dancer, showing genuine passion and perseverance in all that she pursues. Anastasia brings a positive energy to everything she does, approaching her work with focus, determination, and pride. She is always willing to help her classmates and demonstrates true kindness through her
011words and actions. Anastasia treats others with respect and encouragement, helping to create a supportive and welcoming environment for everyone around her. Through her positivity, responsibility, and strong work work ethic, she leads by example each day. Anastasia is a wonderful role model and a valued member of our school community. I am honored this evening to present to you Lucas Lopez as a Scotty Award winner for Lincoln Middle School. Lucas is a genuine student that shows respect to all of his peer peers and anyone he encounters. He brightens everyone's day as he enters a class with a quick smile or a kind remark. He truly embraces the values of good citizenship modeling positivity, empathy, and responsibility for others. Lucas is one outstanding young man. His impact is felt across the board and even today I've got an
012email from another student wanting to do a assembly on kindness and highlighted Lucas as the person who that they want to have help do that assembly. So Lucas was an unanimous unanimously chosen by his teachers um because of who he is and how he acts every single day here at this school. We are so proud to present Lucas Lopez. Congratulations. Well, we would like to thank the families for taking time out of your night. Um I I I can see that it's been a like you're taking them on a tour to get all their awards for how great they are. So you should be so proud parents and if all three winners could come take a picture together um and then you guys can feel free to go continue celebrating at home. You don't have
013to stay for the rest of the meeting. >> Yeah, enjoy the ceremony tomorrow. And enjoy the ceremony tomorrow. And families, if you want a picture with your winners, go right on ahead. So cute. Good job, guys. Parents, you want to come up and take a photo with your award winners, with your children? So exciting. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Congratulations. You get to work on that assembly. So cute. Well, thank you again. Um next item is board business. Um on April 9th uh we will be hosting the IASB West Cook Division meeting. Doors open at 5:30 and it starts at 6:00 p.m. We're really excited to be the host school. It's an honor to um invite all these guests. I think Kinga mentioned right now our RSVP is up to 60 guests attending.
014And I believe the deadline is next Wednesday. So we have some really personalized innovative things, little personal touches that you'll see and we're really excited to be the host school. I think it's a wonderful privilege to showcase the newest building in our district. Thank you to the Washington staff for giving tours um to our guests. So I'm glad you feel that way. Thanks so much. We're very excited. We're excited. >> Let's see. Volunteer them. Um there is no um old business information. Um and new business information, the April board meeting location. So our original intentions were to host the April board meeting at Washington School. Um but since our example of excellence next month will be a preview of the Lincoln musical we feel the students would showcase here, you know, best on their stage
015with their microphone system. So um we will adjust I'm making a recommendation that we adjust next month's meeting to be here at Lincoln. And we'll make sure that it gets changed on the website and that we reflect the location change on our agenda. Does that sound good? Yes. We look forward to that, Lincoln. I can't wait for your musical. Yeah. It's always fun. No pressure. I mean, Beauty and the Beast was pretty good. But I feel like every year they get better, better, better. I mean, I haven't seen a bad one yet. Did the kids go see In the Heights up? Mhm. They sure did. Did they enjoy it? From what I heard, yes. Okay. Mhm. I thought I thought it was really good. Yeah. I was like, I have a reminder on my calendar.
016Yeah. Mhm. Wow. And as I watched it, I'm like how long did it take them to memorize those lines because it was just Mhm. Yeah. Yeah. So natural. Mhm. It was it was really, really good. I don't know how you like always find kids that can sing so well. Because you put me up there. Yeah. No, they probably wouldn't. No, they wouldn't. You and I would be in the audience. I mean, I always wanted to sing, but yeah, no. Okay, so now we have new business action. I would like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education approve resolution 2606 providing for the issue of not to exceed 7,175,000 general obligation limited tax refunding school bond series 2026 for the purpose of refunding certain outstanding bonds to the district providing for the levy of
017a direct annual tax to pay the principal and interest on said bonds and authorizing the sale of said bonds to the purchaser thereof as presented. That's legally as it can get. It's as long as it can get. But just as a reminder um Pasquale and I participated um on the ratings call with S&P on March 2nd and we are really excited to be able to share that um we received an upgrade on our rating. So from AA- to AA. So this is um a resolution that you're approving tonight uh that outlines the parameters for us to refinance. Thanks. Very nice and you're making it sound very easy, but that I know was a lot of big deal. I'll move. I'll second. Any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, Andrea, call the roll. Downs? Yes. Ewanio? Yes.
018Fiori? Yes. Sada? Yes. Ziegler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. DelZotti? Yes. Motion passes. Excuse me. I'd like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education approve the 2026-2027 school calendar as presented. I'll second. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, Andrea, can you call the roll? Downs? Yes. Ewanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Sada? Yes. Ziegler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. DelZotti? Yes. Motion passes. Um I'd like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education adjourn to executive session at 6:18. 6:18 p.m. to discuss personnel and collective negotiating matters. I'll move. I'll second. Uh Andrea, call the roll, please. Downs? Yes. Ewanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Sada? Yes. Ziegler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. DelZotti? Yes. Motion passes. Okay, I'd like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education reconvene the regular board meeting of March 18th, 2026 at 8:00 >>
01901. 01 p.m. I'll second. Andrea, call the roll. Downs? Yes. Ewanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Sada? Yes. Ziegler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. DelZotti? Yes. Motion passes. Okay, I'd like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education approve the personnel report for the month of March as presented. I'll move. I'll second. Any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none Andrea, can you call the roll, please? Downs? Yes. Ewanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Sada? Yes. Ziegler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. DelZotti? Yes. Motion passes. Um we don't have any public participation. Are you sure? Um so I'd like to entertain a motion that the Board of Education adjourn the regular board meeting of March 18th, 2026 at 8:00 02. 02 p.m. I'll second. Andrea, call the roll. Downs? Yes. Ewanio? Yes. Fiori? Yes. Sada? Yes. Ziegler? Yes. Bocock? Yes. DelZotti? Yes. Motion passes.
020Meeting adjourned.