001Okay. At this time, I'd like to call the regular board meeting of [snorts] December [clears throat] 17th, 2025 to order at 6 pm. Andrea, can you call the role, please? Patricia Bok. >> Andrea Deladi here. Allison DS here. Tina >> here. Stephanie Fiori >> here. >> Ena Sada >> here. >> Jennifer Ziggler >> here. >> Also in attendance, we have Dr. Clarksmith, Dr. Stabroo, Dr. Lea, Miss Maganelloo, Mr. Humbles, Mr. Groby, Mr. Moranto, Miss Groki, Mr. Amsler, Miss Sendelbach, um, Miss Fishells, Miss Meleone, and Miss Bulo. We have a quorum. Please stand for the pledge. I pledge algiance 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. >> I'd like to entertain a motion that the
002board of education establish the consent agenda as presented. Only questions, comments, or concerns. >> Seeing none, Andrea, can you call the role, please? >> Ziggler, >> yes. >> Bocock, yes. DS, >> yes. >> Juanio, >> yes. >> Fiori, >> yes. >> Sada, >> yes. Motion passes. I'd like to entertain a motion that the board of education approve the consent agenda. >> I move. >> I'll second. Any questions, comments, concerns? Seeing none, Andrea, call the role. >> Ziggler, >> yes. >> BCO, >> yes. >> Delati, yes. DS, >> yes. >> Fiori, >> yes. >> Sada, >> yes. >> Motion passes. There were no items removed, so we'll move on to the next item. The next item is public participation. Do we have anybody who filled out a form? Hey, we just asked if you'd like to
003speak. There'll be another second participation at the end of the meeting. And if you could just fill out the form, they're found at the end of the tables. Hey, up next is the principal's report and enrollment reports. So, we had quite a busy month um at all three of our schools. In our board packets, you'll see some photos that were shared by the principles. Um we have basketball season and cheerleading in full swing at Lincoln Middle School. We were really excited to um have our first meeting of our seal buddies. So that is an opportunity where students that are younger in district are matched up with a buddy in an older grade and so they have an opportunity to get to know each other, feel comfortable with an older buddy in the district. Um and
004they uh all of our older buddies visited Kennedy School this past week. So that was really an exciting time. Uh lovely to welcome back some of our older students back to Kennedy School. They sure sure seem a lot bigger when they come back as eighth graders. Um, but that was lovely. Um, we also have had our special education, our SLC and SLBC winter celebrations where our students have the opportunity to transition up to that next school that they will go to when they um go over to Washington or then eventually over to Lincoln. So again, opportunities to really build on relationships and connections with students and with staff. Um at Washington we were really proud of the students colonial fair for many of our students. That was the first time that they presented um a
005presentation and made a trifold board and had costumes. So great job to our students at Washington. Um they are really mastering their math facts with their around the world competition. Uh musical rehearsals are in full swing. So we're very excited about Beauty and the Beast that will be showcased at Washington School in February. Um, all three schools celebrated the 67th day of school, which, you know, [laughter] 67, we're all very excited about that. If we can't, you know, beat them, we're going to join [laughter] them, right? 67. Um, we're really proud to showcase our qu our winter choir concerts in just a little bit. We'll see a preview. We thank all of our families who are here tonight and brought their students to perform a little preview for tomorrow night's Lincoln um band and choir
006concert. Um, and that Kennedy, they've been really enjoying um, the bustle of the holidays and the winter spirit. We had our Thanksgiving feast. We had our gingerbread hunt, which remains to be an amazing, memorable day in kindergarten. Um, we had a winter BPAC event at Washington School. Um, and all three schools families were able to join and participate in winter activities. and we're really looking forward to um a lovely winter break, but also coming back in January and continuing with the positive momentum that we've seen in all three of our schools. So, we thank our staff. Thank you for keeping the spirit alive, but also the focus on teaching and learning. Um and we thank our families and our students for all the amazing um talents that they share with us and the magic that
007they bring to our school houses. So, it's been quite busy, >> quite a busy month. So, thank you principles for putting together those collages and sharing all the things happening. >> Yeah. Thank you very much. It's very nice to see what's happening on the school houses. And I say it every month, but I don't think there's any month where you're not going to say it's a busy month. So, [laughter] and this month is a short one where you squeeze it all into three short weeks. Um, up next we have our favorite part of the board meeting, which is our examples of excellence, which I'm sure is why you are all here tonight, for us to see our band, our choir and band more. >> So, tonight we're really thrilled to be able to show the
008board um and everyone in the audience a preview of tomorrow night's concert. This evening, we have Tori Cornettowski, who is our Lincoln music teacher. She will be having our sixth through 8th concert choir students featuring um a a medley that they will be singing. And we also have our band director, Mr. Louise Soliss, who has brought the jazz band members who will play a preview. Um again, the evening concert is tomorrow here at Lincoln School at 6 p.m. So if anyone would like to see the full show, you're welcome to join us again tomorrow evening for our winter concert. [snorts] So, thank you the families for bringing your children out to preview um our concert this evening for our school board. And again, everyone is welcome to join tomorrow evening, 6:00 p.m. here at Lincoln
009School. But big thanks to Mr. Soliss and Miss Tori Cornowski for preparing our students [clears throat] to showcase your wonderful talents. So, thank you for being here. Here we go. One, two, one, two, three, four. [music] >> [bell] [music] >> Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] [bell] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [bell] >> [bell] [music] [bell] [music] [bell] >> Heat. Heat. [music] [music] >> [music] [music and bell] [bell] [music] >> There you go. Thank you so much. >> [music] >> Dashing through [music] the snow in a onehorse open sleigh. [music] Over the fields we go, laughing all the way. Bells on [music] making spirits bright. What [music] fun [singing] it is to ride and sing a slaying song tonight. [music] Jingle bells, jingle bells, jingle [singing] all the way. Oh, what fun it is to ride in
010a one-horse open sleigh. Jingle bells, [music and singing] jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it [singing] is to [music] ride in a one. [music] >> Jingle bells, jingle [singing] bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what [singing and music] fun it is to ride in a onehorse open sleigh. Jingle [music] bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. [music] Oh, what fun it is to [music] ride in a onehorse song. [music] >> [music] >> A day or two ago, I thought I'd take a [singing] ride. [music] And so my friend and I went side by side. [music] We laugh and take all day out playing in [music] the snow. until our fingers [music] grow and then we have to go. [music] Jingle [singing] bells, jingle bells, jingle all the [singing] way. Oh, what fun
011[music] it is to ride in a one horse open. OH, DASHING THROUGH THE SNOW. A ONE-HORSE OPEN SLEIGH. OVER THE FIELDS WE GO, LAUGHING ALL THE WAY. Jingle [singing] bells, jingle bells, jingle all the way. Oh, what fun it is [music] to ride [singing] in one horse open [music] sleigh. Our rock singing spirit. What a joy it is to be a sle bell, JINGLE BELL, jingle all the way. Oh my god. [music] [music] >> [music] >> Jor, jingle all the way. [screaming] [applause] Hey, boys and girls, you guys did outstanding. We can't wait to see the full concert tomorrow night. So, great job. There are cookies in the back. Thank you for coming. Parents, you're welcome to stay, but once they get their coats and cookies, we thank you for coming. We know you're going
012to have another late evening tomorrow at the concert, so thank you for coming. [snorts] Outstanding. >> What' you guys think? >> Really, really good. >> Impressive. >> So impressive. Well, we have one more example of excellence um that we are featuring this evening and that is the winners of our holiday card artwork contest. So, this year we put a contest out to all the students in district 81 to submit a piece of artwork that would be featured on our holiday card. So, we were really thrilled uh board, you have a copy at your seats as well, but this year we featured um artwork from our students that were selected as winners. So, tonight we have our winners with us. Um, the board helped us select the artwork. So, you're looking at the judges, boys and
013girls, who who picked your artwork. Um, we're going to start off with our third place winner. [snorts] So, families, thank you for bringing your children with us tonight. When we call their names, if they could please come on up. Um, board presidentio and board vice president DS are going to present um their framed artwork to you. We also have a small little gift that we're going to give you. And we'd love to get a photo of your entire family in front of our step and repeat. But we're going to start off with our third place winner who is featured on the back of the card. It's a kindergarten student in Miss Villa's room. She's also here to celebrate you tonight. We have Joey and Graphia. Come on up. [applause] Come on up, Joe. Yeah. Come
014on up. Come on up over here. >> We also have We're so excited. There was a tie for second place. So, the board could not decide. We thought both were amazing. We have both of our students who are tied for second place are from Washington School. We have Ariel Tlesz. Come on up, Ariel. Congratulations. And we have Emilina Basmaji. Please come on up. Congratulations. family, come on up. We'd love to get a photo of you as well with Emilina. Ariel's family, come on up. Congratulations. [snorts] And then we have our first place winner from Lincoln Middle School. We have seventh grader Victoria Iwinsky whose artwork was featured on the front. So congratulations Victoria. Super proud of you. Come on up too, mom. [snorts] So really proud. 155 entries were submitted and narrowed down. So across
015the district out of 155 entries, we're really proud to celebrate your talents and your artwork. Every single family in school district 81 received a copy of our holiday card and it features our staff that serve students but also your winning artwork from your students today and your children. So congratulations. We hope you feel so proud of your artwork. Thank you for sharing your talents and submitting an art art piece. So congratulations to our winners. We're really proud of you. [applause] They were all really, really pretty and it was hard to judge. [laughter] It was hard to pick them. They're very, very pretty. Well, thank you so much. Um, you we have amazing students here from singing to playing instruments to drawing. Um, we can't wait to see what else you do for the rest of
016the year. Um, we're going to move on with our business meeting, but you are free to go as I know it's getting close to bedtime. Thank you for coming. >> So, thank you so much for coming and happy holidays. >> And Mr. Amsler, where are the band and chorus students going to meet their parents? >> Wellspace sounds great. >> Thank you for coming everybody. Thank you. >> Uh, next up is board business. Um, just a reminder in the packet that there's the Leiden area board dinner on Wednesday, January 28th at 6 PM at East Leiden. >> Um, also we thought it would be really nice to kind of share some takeaways that we had from our triple eye weekend that we had uh the weekend before Thanksgiving. Um, I'll go first. I uh at your
017seats you'll see a copy of Damon West's book, The Coffee Bean. So the full board participated in um this opening keynote and listened to Damon West, one of the speakers. Um really I thought a great message about not letting your environment really dictate um and choosing to make things better and you that through life you'll always have challenges that are presented to you, but it's about how you respond to them. So, I thought that this would be a great read for us as as a board and as a team about um continuing on with his positive message. >> Thank you. It was really inspiring and you know, Andrea and Stephanie were so kind to get out there and get a line that we have to get his signature on his >> got his autograph. >>
018It's awesome. >> Yeah, I really enjoyed his speech. >> I don't I don't think I've ever been to a keynote speaker that I didn't enjoy. I've been to somewhere like you're just sbing because of their story and >> what they what they've been through. I mean it was it's always very very good. I thought he was very good too. I don't know if I've ever seen it that crowded. >> Yeah. No, it was really crowded. >> I don't Yeah. I Yeah. [laughter] I don't remember ever seeing it as crowded. It was packed. >> It was great. >> It was very inspiring. >> Yeah. Me and Joe does speech a lot. It makes you like understand more stuff and knowing and I like it. [laughter] >> On Friday we went Allison and I went and saw
019fierce conversations, right? >> Um and kind of when you hear fierce, you think fiery, hard, but they really talked about having conversations that are difficult but not necessarily bad, right? um and how you approach them and how your approach and your mindset has a lot on how the conversation goes. >> And so you really should if you're going to have those difficult conversations that you should make sure that you're in the right headsp space so that it will even though it might not go swimmingly right at least you have good intentions. M >> I thought that was really good because a lot of what we do here and we can bring that back. Bring what we learned back here. >> Yeah, I thought that was a good one, too. >> I had a great weekend.
020>> Thank you. Yeah, >> we so excited to have you join us and get to know you like you >> you join like full force like join [laughter] hello Sunday fun week >> weekend of learning. Absolutely. >> Yeah, it was great. It >> was a great weekend. >> Thanks for sharing. >> Thank you to the full board for your commitment because it's it's not always likely we're all seven members of the board, CSBO, superintendent. So, we really, I think, set a great example for district 81 that we're continuously learning and that we're committed to being a team. So, thank you for your commitment to that. It really means a lot and it speaks about your your drive and your commitment to keeping district 81 the great learning community that it is. So, I thank you
021all for sacrificing your time with your families to participate in the learning for the full weekend. And everyone was there. >> I think it's nice that we all go together as a board. Um, in some of the sessions people will say, "Well, I'm the only one here for my district." You know, no one else wanted to come, but I did. And I think that's kind of sad. I think it's a great opportunity to go as a board and it was another weekend of bonding and and just >> finding out more information about being a good board member. >> So, I appreciate us having the opportunity to go and thank you. >> Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, next up is old business. There's no old business. We'll move on to new business. There's no new
022business. So, move on to action. Um, I'd like to entertain a motion that the board of education adopt the 2025 levy as presented. >> I'll second. >> Any questions, comments, or concerns? >> No. Lovey was in the packet. Same as last month when Pasquali presented it to us. Can you call the role, please? Sigler, >> yes. >> Box, >> yes. DS, >> yes. >> Fiori, >> yes. >> Sada, >> yes. >> Motion passes. I'd like to entertain a motion that the board of education approve the resolution 2604 authorizing reduction of certain fund levies for the 2025 levy year as presented move. >> Okay. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, Andrea, call the role, please. Ziggler, >> yes. >> BCO, >> Yes. DS, >> yes. >> Fiori, >> yes. >> Sada, >> yes. Okay. Um,
023we do not have executive session tonight, so we'll move on to personnel. I'd like to entertain a motion that the board of education approved the personnel report for the month of December as presented. >> Any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, Andrew all the role, please. Ziggler, >> yes. >> Loc, >> yes. >> Delazi, yes. DS, >> yes. >> Iwanio, >> yes. >> Fiori, >> yes. Sada. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. Okay. Next is public participation. They left. Um so before we during the board meeting, I just want to thank you guys for your dedication to the to the district. Um I wish you guys all the happiest holidays. Um and take a nice restful break. It's welld deserved. Um, I know holidays are a family time to spend with pe to it's a time
024to spend with your families and a lot of us have lost some loved ones re recently and in years past. So hold on to those memories, keep them close to your heart and we love you all and thank you for everything. And with that, I'd like to endure I'd like to entertain a motion that the board of education adjourn the regular board meeting of December 17th at 6:26 p.m. Andrea, call the roll, please. Ziggler, >> yes. >> Boa, Deladi, yes. DS, >> yes. >> Iwanio, >> yes. >> Fiori, >> yes. >> Sada, >> yes. >> Motion passes. Meeting adjourned. Happy holidays.