001Please rise 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, we now open the floor for public comments. Do we have any public comments on our agenda items this evening? Okay, there being no public comments, we will move on to recognitions. >> I'm going to turn over to Mr. Peterson. is going to introduce Mr. Peterson. The floor is yours. >> All right. Uh well, good evening everyone. Um thank you for for this opportunity and just this ability just to highlight some special people. Um I I think they're seeing their pictures right now. Um really I today is just kind of an honor just to uh just
002to recognize a a group uh but also a a sponsor uh in the form of theater our theater club uh to be part of this above and beyond recognition. There's a little bit of a story behind this. So I just wanted to kind of take a moment before I I turn it over to Miss Fangled Fischer. really this was, you know, at our school, we we talk a lot about, you know, student voice, student choice, student agency, and and really if if kids come to us with an idea, we we we try we try to see what we can do with it. Um, two years ago, this this was an idea that was brought up. Um, there was a ton of interest in theater and and acting and and that kind of stuff. Um, we
003we we had some challenges in regards to finding a sponsor, trying to find somebody with some acting um some playwriting background. Um, we dabbled with it. There was a huge amount of interest at the beginning of the year last year. Uh we lost our sponsor. But really this year though, we were able to we were fortunate enough to pick up a a phenomenal uh teacher um in Miss Emily Fine Goldfisher. She's our comm arts teacher, sixth through 8th grade. And uh she she said she she hasn't she hasn't done a acting, but she's helped with building uh sets and whatnot at in college and in high school. So, um, so she, uh, was willing to to take this on and and has found a phenomenal group of of young people that have kind of latched
004on to this and they are they are so enthusiastic. It is just fun to watch them uh, interact with each other and just you can tell that's a passion of theirs. So, I'm going to turn it over to Miss Fine Gold Fisher to talk a little bit about their their club and then we'll introduce uh, all of our students. Hello, my name is Emily Fineoldfisher or Miss FF to many of you. I have had the honor of working with this fantastic, creative, and delightful group of students. They come in every Wednesday with positive attitudes, ready to make each other laugh and build each other up. During club meetings, we play theater games, develop scenes, laugh a lot, and we will be learning more about the technical and backstage elements of theater. They have created an
005amazing community at our club meetings where everyone feels welcome and encouraged to try something new. From our very first meeting, it was clear that this group was ready to take on any challenge and go above and beyond to be fantastic leaders and group members. All of the students recognized here today, have had moments where they have built others up and served as leaders in the theater club community. Many of them have taught us new games and all of them have contributed ideas during brainstorming sessions and helped to make the club a community that feels safe and welcoming for all. I regularly think about the funny creative choices and ideas that they present during games, scene writing activity and performances for one another. When they got the opportunity to present a scene to Mr. Peterson, it
006was fun to see them come alive and go above and beyond to showcase their enthusiasm and hard work. Theater Club, I am so proud of you and excited to continue to grow together. You all are so deserving of this recognition. Keep being yourselves and sparkling. When I say your name, um, please come and shake hands with the board. So, our eighth grade club leader, we've got Lou Martin. And then we've got Gabe Madden, who is not with us today. Um, Leah Eleanor, who is also not with us today. Selena Radia, Italo Miller, CHARLOTTE OSHAPECONE ROSALES, Elena Sanchez, Solomon Strauss, then Louisa Strauss, who's not here today. And last but not least, Maya Torres. That's it for Okay, congratulations everybody. Fantastic job. We're so excited to see all of you. Um, that wraps up our recognitions
007for the evening. You are all more than welcome to stay for the rest of the board meeting, but we also understand if you would like to get home to your homework or any other things you have going on this evening. But thank you so much for joining us tonight. And uh with that, we will move on to the superintendent and administrative report. I don't know if it's the appropriate play on words, but that's a tough act to follow. >> Thank you. Those were sympathetic class. >> Exactly. We need a little drum set. Very cute. Well, good evening. This evening, we are really looking forward to updating the board of education on the professional development offerings aligned specifically to the work that happens within the district really armed towards supporting not only the academic achievement but
008also the social and emotional well-being for students. So this evening, Dr. Cunningham, Dr. CL are going to support with updating the board of education on the professional development on both fronts, the academic and the social emotional. So um each of the each of the areas for professional development are really focused in in what ways can we as a district support the development of our three goals. So in terms of professional learning communities, PBIS and presence, how can we design professional development that supports staff development in each of those areas? So that if we do that districtwide at the school level, at the team level and classroom, it'll have a direct impact with student growth and student goals. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to to Dr. Clip and Dr. Cunningham to really
009dive into what does that professional development look like within the district. >> Thank you, Dr. Null. So our goal is to be succinct, but hopefully explain to the board really how we're using multiple mediums and formats to provide professional development for staff and hopefully it'll look very focused to the board in terms of where it goes. So, if it's things you've heard us use terms for before, that's good because it means we're staying consistent. So, these are really the probably the nine major ways we provide professional development for students. Um, our early releases, our late starts, each team gets usually one to one and a half curriculum planning days where they're working during the school year, which is what that one is. Our instructional coaching both individual and uh in groups. Um, and then we
010have some some team planning workshops. For example, what we mean by that is we're working on what's our criteria for common assessment. So team will come together and work on that. You'd call that a task force even. Um we also have PD on demand, our new teacher advocate program was our mentor program that we've rebranded. So I'll highlight some of those things, but in the middle our PLC's, which um we're just going to have to take a minute to say how excited we are about this presentation, how well it look good it looks. I I just really want to make sure we're seeing how good this looks. Um, so thankf >> Yes, that's literally what the button says. It says beautify this. So, >> yeah, I know it's like it's a lot of judgment. This
011is not This is just I felt we had to take a moment because I just want to be clear. This is not created by Dr. Cunningham. So, >> we didn't think it was. >> Well, okay. Well, good. That's okay. Perfect. So, really the reason this is here is that PLC's are truly at the heart of what we do. Um, that's really been a that's why it's PLC. Um Dr. No has really come in with that clarity of what we want to do during that time. And so everything is about questions one and two which is what do we want students to know and be able to do and how do we know they've learned it or they can do that. And that's really weekly our teams meet and we're training them more and more to
012not just when we have our scheduled time but to constantly be trying to work on this and what we want students to know. During those PLC's principles facilitate a lot of those sessions. Our coaches will facilitate those. Our Marzano Associates will, for example, Crystal was working with the middle school today and the intermediate tomorrow. The middle school set a goal. They would use a scale with students to help build their agency over the next month. That was the goal they set and the reporting out on that progress. Uh, and then um team leads facilitate those meetings. Um, so third grade team lead, fourth grade lead to make sure those times are um effective. And then teams will plan to adjust ELA math subject area workcl behavior instruction are we make sure we address that piece
013as well. And we really try to put data in front of staff as much as possible. And really we're still learning our flow in terms of how often we look at that and making sure that um we're making we're adjusting in real time. Um and so I I already mentioned PLC questions one and two. So our late starts, early releases, curriculum days. This is a team right here working on updating their scale what they really want kids to know and be able to do with writing or know this one was with math and so I just want to emphasize the teachers have done a ridiculous amount in my opin my opinion I guess hopefully all of our opinion on an amazing amount of work this year really they have gone they're in the process of
014going through 1400 different scales that's really what they've created uh and they're very robust and there's a lot of debate at this table I sat with this group and they were debating different elements of how they're going to work math and what really they want at the higher level for what students can do with geometry. And it's a it it's amazing to watch the staff build their confidence and ability to articulate what is really a high standard for them. Uh and what they're working on as well is is now can we set goals with students based on that? That's really what you do with standardsbased is students are able to set goals to know where they're going. And then question two is we have some teams that are just beginning to redevelop their assessments which
015are going to be very powerful ways to communicate with school and home which I'll show in a second. Oh, I'll show it right now. So essentially if I was to like follow what are the outcomes we really want to be able to say to the board to the community based on some of our work if we have better skills that are aligned to what our state is asking for and our standards and that's for ELA that's for Spanish language arts. We provide accommodations support our English language learners, those with exceptionalities. Teachers should really have a clear idea of what they want students to do and student our outcome should improve. Our testing score should improve. All that is linked because it's directly correlated with what we're asking. It's pretty incredible to watch. I I I've
016had a number of teachers and I know the principles have had this, all of them have had this where they brought work samples and say, "This is incredible what students are starting to put out this quickly." And there was some of our students taking the access test. They aren't supposed to show me what they wrote, but they did. So, don't tell anyone. Not that it's in public session or anything. Um, but they just incredibly proud of how students were constructing their writing in third grade. So, that that is a really great sign of what we're trying to do because we're connecting it to what those outcomes should be. Practicing using those with students. Really, what that is is students now understand what they need to do. It increases their agency. So, any teacher at any
017point or any of us walking around could walk into a classroom and talk to student about what they are trying to work on. And it's amazing watching a kindergartner explain that they're a seed right now. But once they can count to 100, they're going to be at they're going to be um a tree and then when they can do it by twos, fives, and tens now they're they have they've borne fruit on the tree. They can say where they are, what they're going to do to work on it, where they want to be. That's like it's a 5-year-old doing that. It's outstanding. We've watched kids with writing curriculum be able to explain, "Here's where I put my details. That's why I earned this badge my teacher gave me." Um, and then they point out their
018action words and what they used. Um, I had a debate with an eighth grader the other day who was who told me that before they even finished their project, she's know she's between a three or four. Um, and it was on cit citing sources properly. So, she's like, "Absolutely, I can totally do that." And my next step is I'm going to evaluate if somebody else's is any good. That's really what the next is. but she can articulate and she's like here's my evidence of why it is. So that's very powerful. I'm just taking a moment on that. That's a very that's a very exciting thing for our students to do regardless of subject area that can be band choir things that they're really connected to or subjects that um they just need to understand wherever
019I'm starting from. There are these are the steps I have to take the vocab I need to know. So last piece is once as we continue to write our assessments and PLC's that's one of the most important thing PLC's do is to write their assessments together and evaluate them. Once that's done, that's clearer communication with home about we're going to have at least x amount of assignments. We're going to clearly articulate to home how students are doing. That's it creates better communication. There's less guessing of where students are and students can articulate where they are. So that's really what we're building toward is the framework of what we expect each teacher to do. And there there some teams that are that far ahead have started to develop them and we've got the framework for them
020to work with them. So Dr. Sure. So our commitment to student success goes beyond academics. We know that when students feel safe, connected and supported that achievement follows. Um so this year our SEAL coach has provided personalized professional development to teams in each of the buildings. staff are strengthening their implementation of CHAMPS for clear expectations, PBIS for consistent systems of support and trauma-informed practices to better respond to student needs. We've also invested in Ukuru training for crisis response team members in every school. This ensures staff are equipped to respond to dysregulation in ways that prioritize safety, dignity, and uh as well as relationship building. Our social workers meet monthly to assess trends, identify student needs, and plan professional learning opportunities based on that data. They are also leading implementation support for our new curriculum, character
021strong, to ensure fidelity and consistency across buildings, which builds that common language. In addition, we hold monthly district nurse meetings focused on updating health practices and protocols that directly impact student presence and social emotional well-being. Our nurses review attendance and health trends, collaborate on preventative strategies, align responses to student mental health needs, and ensure consistent procedures across buildings. Um, this coordination with the within the nurses, which there's only two in me, so just the three of us. Um, but that does strengthen our ability to proactively remove any barriers that um are preventing students from being in school regularly and supporting the whole child. Um this layered approach amongst all of these different teams along with the coaching um crisis readiness ongoing collaborative professional learning really builds the adult capacity so that every classroom is equipped
022to support students socially, emotionally, behaviorally which directly aligns with our goals within PBIS and presence. >> Dr. Cunningham. >> Thank you. Another thing that we do offer is PD 247. Um really just want to give a shout out to Mr. Hansen for how he continues to make sure that staff have on demand training. Uh many of our staff need support whether it's in assessment, whether it's in as simple as how do I use the phone and with your new teacher um to what are some of the AI protocols we need? Uh there it's really a great place where it continues to remain updated and staff of course can earn their PD. So that exists and really um there's also a week and just to bring it to life, Mr. Hansen does a great weekly message
023to staff where he highlights important technology tools. He knows the metrics of how long people actually watch the video. So he times it really well. Um so it they're actually outstanding. So it just a great online presence for on demand PD. That's really the reality of the world we live in to find that and sometimes we love for our staff to know what we allow in the ecosystem versus what maybe I AI says they should do to solve it. So, we want to make sure we're connecting those pieces. Some of the other important PD work we do, just to kind of round out what was in that grid at the beginning, we have our statemandated trainings, of course, um in fact, some of those get updated in board policy. Some of those tonight will show
024up. We offer a summer professional learning institute. So, that's four days in the summer. We usually have about 85% staff attendance at that even though it's voluntary. Uh we we do because of that, we do a lot of really important things we can't necessarily fit the beginning of the year. So if we have a new reading or math program, that's going to be the time we introduce that. A lot of the things Dr. Clip just highlighted from PBIS roll out to a new SEAL curriculum to CHAMPS, which is a classroom management framework. That's going to be during that time. Um we did that was the student engagement training. Um some of the work with students with exceptionalities training can get everybody together that really matters. So that time has been extraordinarily valuable for our staff.
025Our teachers have to constantly revise units. We've basically told teachers this will when you retire, um you're going to you just do you have to constantly revise what you're doing. So that is built into the machinery of what we are doing to make sure that's staying current. Especially if a new teacher comes in and they can't navigate where they are, the team knows it's time to update that. So that's important work. Um a lot of curriculum implementation and support. Our coaches provide a lot of that. We're going through some We are always piloting and refreshing every year. This year it's looking at our word work. So we're doing that work right now. um new teacher mentor which we branded advocate training and meetings. Our teachers meet with their advocates monthly. They have they have to
026log kind of what they're doing. They're observed and then we have meetings with them as well. Um and those obser observations are not um valuatory but they're we provide that uh instructional coaching. We'll have those metrics at the end of the year for the board, but it continues to grow. Like we mentioned, there's a lot of things academically we're putting on staff this year. It the the coaches are very busy. If if any of us want to meet with them, it's like a two week in advance thing because they are they are going all the time. We design we always trying to find like where do you push just enough that staff have to ask for help but they can get the support when they need it and so we we seem to be in
027a very good spot with that. So our coaches are very busy all four of them. Uh and then our PBIS team training is that's been a really comprehensive process and it continues that those meetings are happening at the building level, district level, a lot of data training. We've gone to a new system this year as well. So something I need to highlight that. Okay. So uh in terms of next steps, um really we have kind of three major areas, but essentially it comes down to listening to staff needs and aligning our PD for further supports. We're constantly getting the information whether it's through qu qualitative or quantitative information. We're looking at student data to see where gaps exist. There's some different tool tools and and data warehouses we're looking at constantly to try to find
028those pieces and we want to make sure our PD aligns. Yes, that some of the there are some really cool graphics that are illuminating some things and then we're ensuring there's multiple ways for PD to continue to exist wherever we can plug that in. So hopefully just this presentation shows that a little bit in terms of what we're trying to do. And with that, it all comes back to our mission and vision. We want to embrace empower excel each child each day. And questions. >> Um I don't have questions. I just want to say this is outstanding. I know I gave you a hard time. Uh really I I feel like since all of you have kind of joined the administrative team. We've seen leveling up. We've seen improvement every year. But this to me
029is like a huge jump from last year even. Like the amount of work all of you are doing is tremendous. And it's exciting to see in all of these areas like you're really supporting the whole child. You're really supporting the whole teacher and it's nice to kind of see that continued momentum of for you know forward progress. So I just wanted to say thank you. >> It's a lot of fun. The credit is >> good. I mean you seem you all seem very engaged and excited >> which is also great to see. >> Credits to the staff obviously the teachers and what they're doing. It's incredible. >> That's awesome. Thank you. Yeah, there was I I had to leave a few things off of the slide. We would have been here for a very long
030time. But yes, um this year we implemented the sabers um doing it twice a this year. um in terms of looking at where students are at. Um teachers rate the students in the three different areas and then students in grades three through eight also rate themselves. And then it gives the social workers and the PBIS teams in each of the buildings an opportunity to really look at that data and determine are there any kids that we might not see um outwardly or in externalizing behaviors but in those internalizing behaviors that we might need to really address and help support them in who they are as a learner. So yes, that is something that we've implemented this year. and it just allows us to be able to provide those additional interventions at the tier 2 level
031that we would not do based on other forms of referral data that we get, you know, and so it it has been very helpful and very eye opening, I think, even to the staff to be able to see that because I do think kids are harder on themselves than we are as adults, hard on them. And so I think we forget that. And so when we actually get to see it and be able to do something to help them, it's just so powerful. >> Well, yeah, there there really are. Thank you. I appreciate that. This is fantastic. So, thank you very much for sharing that out and thank you all for your the work that you're doing and that the staff is doing. It's exciting. >> It also looks very nice. Okay. Um, we will
032now turn the floor over to Mr. Rogers for his moment to shine. >> It is the Mr. Rogers show for quite a while on this agenda. So, there's a lot of items. >> We're excited. >> Um, well, good. And my presentation is not as uh bedazzled as theirs is. So, >> I know you really need to look. I'm going to do an interpretive dance to show you all the creative summer projects we're going to do. So, >> we're still waiting for that sequin jacket to come back out. >> I I I promised you I will definitely wear this next time. So, I got to put my money where my mouth is. Um couple summer projects we've been considering for this uh this upcoming year. I I will note that uh there's no dollar values tied
033to any of these yet. The reason being is these are smaller projects and a smaller dollar amount where we're going to be below thresh bidding threshold we believe on the majority of these and a lot of the bigger vendors that we work with they might be already tied to a couple projects. So we'll be looking at a lot of local vendors for these projects and a lot of long-term partners that we've utilized. So the first is the continuation of the Diamond Lake sidewalk project. We replaced uh some of the northern part of the sidewalk. We're going to continue that and replace all that. We're just trying to determine if we got to do the stairs and uh some ADA accommodations as well. So once we get all these numbers, we'll be presenting to the board
034for action as well. So uh the most exciting project that we are exploring is the West Oak uh intermediate courtyard project. So we are utilizing a a newer procurement method called the design build uh concept. So you're in theory you're able to take out a couple of the middlemen with your architects and construction managers and you kind of combine it all into one roof. So we are exploring that and that has a very formal process of solicitation receiving bids. There's matrixes and interviews that we have to do. So moral story is we are going through this process. We are utilizing a a third party consultant just to help with some compliance elements. So it is a relatively very low cost to utilize their service. uh bids are due on March 2nd. At that point, we'll
035determine if we're going to bring it forward with the board. We'll have a further discussion about funding mechanisms and everything like that. So, the the way this is written is uh completion by summer of 2027, but there is an option of potentially starting that this summer, which why I'm bringing up. Uh we mentioned a little bit about the Diamond Lake garage. It is a very dilapidated garage that doesn't serve any purpose right now. So, we are applying for the 50-50 school project maint project maintenance grant. I said that acronym right? Uh which would cover roughly half the cost. We believe it's about $100,000 project on the high end and it would allow us to build this bigger space with storage and community closet uh space. So, that'd be great. Uh the cast iron sewer replacement,
036I feel like I've been talking about this with you Nikki about thousand years. Uh we've fixed it. We've had partners in place. We've had people back out at the last second. So we we we are continuing continuously pushing to get that done. Uh the problem has kind of alleviated itself a little bit, but this needs to be completed. So we're we're going to be working hard to get a partner in place at a cost effect approach. And then there's some other just general maintenance items from air handler replacement, door replacement, um that we're going to be doing in the summer. And we are have we do have a couple future projects that we're going to be pricing out and hopefully presenting you guys for consideration. uh one of which being a turf, sorry, a running
037track and possible turf field at uh Westo campus. So once we get pricing, we'll bring it to the board for approval and if necessary, we can hold other uh you know finance related committees just to talk about what long-term approach is going to look like. So just an update for now and more to come once we get numbers. >> Thank you. >> Any questions about that? Yeah. >> No, thank you. >> Super helpful. Okay. Um, we will move on to the business agenda. Virtually everything on the business agenda tonight is for action. Um, we will start with the omnibus vote agenda. Items under the omnibus vote agenda are considered routine and or non-controversial and will be approved by one motion. If anyone board member, staff, administrator, or citizen wishes to have a separate vote on
038any item or items, that item or items will be pulled from the MUS vote agenda and voted on separately. Be it resolved that the Diamond Lake 76 Board of Education accepts and approves the omnivous vote agenda items A through D as listed. May I have a motion to approve, please? >> Yes, >> that motion is approved. Um Moving on to personnel. Let me just pull up. Okay. I just wanted to clarify. Okay. Be it resolved that emulate 76 board of education accepts and approves the personnel items as depicted on the agenda. Uh we have two resignations. May I have a motion to approve, please? Yes. >> That motion is also approved. Um the next item up for action is the food service contract. U Mr. Rogers, do you want to speak to that at all?
039>> I'll just do a couple brief ones for each of these three if you don't uh if the board prefers. So Witson's been great partner. We still utilize District 75's kitchen at Carl Sandberg. They're excited to have us as partners and uh Witson's has been the best food service vendor that I've worked with in terms of just uh consistency. So, I know food options are always they always eb and flow, but uh we had some cool things this year. Guest celebrity chef guy was on Chopped. It was really cool. Kids loved it. And uh they're they're the first time in my entire uh since being here I've had kids writing me letters about the food program and ways to improve it. So, they're getting engaged and uh it's pretty cool. So, this is just a
040one-year renewal. We still have one more left on this contract after this. So, 3% increase on that contract. >> Anybody have any questions? >> No, I have a comment though. Um and I just wanted to thank Mr. Rogers for the work that you do to get the kids involved. I mean, I know that my kids but um have been part of, you know, the taste testing and um you know, such a huge improvement like with how much they enjoy the food and especially the new strawberry milk. I and I tell them, you know, if there's something you like or don't like, advocate for yourself. And I love that you just take that on and appreciate that. >> We know we can only imagine. >> Okay. Um be resolved. The Diamond Lake 76 Board of Education
041accepts and approves the 2026 2027 Witson's Food Service joint contract as presented. You have a motion to approve, please. >> Yes, >> that motion's also approved. Also pass along our thanks to Mrs. Better for everything she does, too. >> Um, do you want to speak as to the transportation? Yeah, the transportation is the only one we're going to see a little bit more of a change than our other two items on the agenda. The we were informed by about two weeks ago that Lakeside is being purchased or bought out by First Student. First Students the largest transportation provider I believe in the country if if definitely in Illinois. So sometimes you get bought out by these larger conglomerates like okay great what's happening? So met with their leadership team. Moral of the story is our
042team staying the same which is the only thing that's important for me. We have a gentleman named Jeff Green who's just the best, most responsive guy we have. So, he's the general manager of our fleet. And so, we've got a lot of pride in our partnership with them. Keeping it the same is going to just allow us some consistency. But with First Student, they've promised a lot of cool ideas, uh, cool to me, I guess, and parents. But they're going to be providing GPS app finally for all busing, all buses, all parents, and one that works. So, I've already talked to some people that use it and they say it's great. So, >> it does work well. Like I use it because they use it at Steven Center. >> Yeah. So, that's good. Thank you
043for the feedback on that. Yeah. So, it's that's going to be good. And we'll we're going to try rolling that out. Uh in a perfect world, a little pilot study on this at end of the year. If not, it'll be for the first day of school next year. So, excited about that. The increase is a 5 and a half% increase. So, just a reminder, the last two we've had is a 9% and then 8%. So, it is nice. We're dropping a little bit. Um, in reality, there's not a lot of options we do have as a district with getting transportation providers. So, uh, I've been told that they've been doing a lot of CPI increases with first student, though, which is what I told them we need to start getting tied to. So, I'm I'm
044hopeful we're going to start getting some long-term uh, budgetary options together. We just we're not going to be yearbyear, but just a new company. They're going to start slapping the new logo over the summer on the new buses. Does anyone have questions? >> No, it is a separate kind of bucket. We do pay district 75 for our fuel. It's kind of a conglomerate. We buy it all together 75 and 120 and we do get some reimbursements for it. But there is a separate line item on our budget for fuel costs where busing is its own cost. So there's really personnel and some of the maintenance of the buses. So it drops a little bit, you know, with the fuel costs, but our budget is about 85 grand for gasoline every year where transportation is about
0451.2 million. >> We get a discount for accidents. >> You know, we've had a little bit more than we like this year. Uh we're going to make sure they have >> I just wonder if that's an option. >> You know, it's >> a KPI like >> the amount of time it takes me to go to accidents and everything. That's what it be like, you know, two accidents, 5% discount, >> two for the price of one. We'll make sure. I'll work that in the next bid document. >> Might be interesting to see if there's any leverage. Anyway, okay. Sorry. Does anyone else have any questions? Okay, then we will go forward with um approving this for you. Be it resolved the Diamond Lake 76 Board of Education accepts and approves the 2026 2027 first student transportation
046contract as presented. And we have a motion to approve, please. >> Yes. >> That motion is approved. I'm giving you back the floor for the custodial contract. >> And then the only reason I'm going to mention this is kind of a two for one deal or one for one, whatever you want to separate this out. So this agreement, we're kind of putting two proposals forward. One is the standard uh increase for GSF. They're they're a great partner. We've had a couple vendors since I've been here. These guys are are true professionals and I I appreciated the partnership. So, they have a 2.9% CPI increase, which is, you know, very fair for us. So, the other part was we have an employee here, uh, Ruben is just the greatest. He's uh, extremely hardworking. He's the guy
047who's here any weekend that we need him to, any night event. He's the one that manages our a night crew. Uh so we I wanted to advocate on his behalf because he didn't receive a raise this year is for the board to at least consider a uh a mid-year raise for him which would be uh retroactive to January 1st if not to consider a raise for the upcoming school year on July just to recognize the the true work that he does put he was making $23 an hour 2350 an hour and this would put him at 2550. So him and his wife both work here and they're very passionate about the district. So that's that's why I want to mention it's a two-part one, but if the board wishes to voted on any one of
048those items separately, they certainly can. >> I'm happy for any questions on that. >> I don't think we wish to do that. I think that we've recognized Ruben before, right? And for his outstanding work and that sounds more than fair compensation. >> Yeah, it's very low compared to the position he is in in the area. not low. It's it's competitive in the area, but he's he does half maintenance role, half kind of custodial role, does our drive district food trucks. We give him a lot of responsibility and all he does is ask for more and more training and so ideally we'll eventually have him as a district employee in the future, but we'll we'll see how that works out. But thank you. >> You're welcome. Okay. Be it resolved that the Diamond League 76 board
049of education accepts and approves the 2026 2027 GSF custodial contract as presented. I have a motion to approve, please. Yes, >> that motion's also approved. Okay, moving on to um the approval of the press policy issue 120. I know our policy committee met this evening. I don't know if you guys want to give an update. >> Yeah. Um, so we read through everything. Um, the couple things that are most likely to have an impact, um, potential update to, uh, the handbook, um, cyber bullying now includes, uh, AI generated images as well. Um, and then uh talking about eliminating the names and email addresses in the policies um and just transition to job titles just to streamline it and make it so you don't have to update it anytime somebody leaves. >> Fantastic. Thank you guys
050for going to this. >> Um, does anyone have any questions about any of the revisions that were in this issue? Okay. Then uh we will move to approve the press plus issue 120 policy updates. Um whereas policy creation and updates and changes to adopted policies are provided for the district 76 through the subscription to policy reference educational subscription service press from the Illinois Association of School Boards IASB and whereas the policy committee reviewed the policies and a first reading of the policies was held at a committee of the whole meeting on February 3rd 2026. Therefore, be it resolved that Ivan Lake School District 76 Board of Education moves to approve the policy changes as presented and reviewed in IASB press issue 120. I have a motion to approve, please. >> Yes. Um, that motion is
051approved. It's raining. It's weird, huh? Okay. Um, and then the last item on our business agenda is approving the release of the executive session minutes. Be it resolved, the Diamond Lake District 76 Board of Education approves the release of close session minutes from the board meetings held between July 2025 and December 2025. List of executive session minutes is as follows. August 5th, 2025, August 19th, 2025, October 7th, 2025, and November 18th, 2025. May I have a motion to approve, please? Yes, >> that motion is also approved. Okay, that concludes the business agenda. Moving on to freedom of information requests. We had one that was fulfilled. Um, notices and communications. We do not have any this evening. Um, move on to public comments and petitions on non-aggenda items. It does not look like we have anyone
052to ask any or to make any public comments or positions on non-aggenda items. Um so we will move on to others. Under others, we have a um CLC Jawa update from Mr. Rogers. >> All right. The Central Lake County Joint Action Water Agency, the worst acronym ever, CLC Jawa. So, they reached out to us a couple weeks ago, a couple months ago I guess at this point about um uh making us aware of this uh water line they're looking to put to Lake Zur from Lake Michigan so Lake Zurich can get the Lake Michigan water. So, they approached us and and came up with a proposal on here's an easement of land that they're requesting. Um at this point, it's we really have no idea what you guys are asking for. um are you going
053to give us $10 million or $1,000 and what does this all mean? So, we're really just in a data gathering phase as a district. We were hopefully going to meet with them on Friday. They had to cancel based on I think some feedback that they've received. And what they're trying to do is uh they discovered there's an easement that exists northwest in the Diamond Lake property. This is right along Diamond Lake Road that we granted in 1994 to uh the village of Mundeline. So there's already an existing easement there. And then their their proposal now is to kind of go in the northern part of our border down south to connect the water line. So we really don't entirely know what this means for the district in itself. We're just trying to gather some data
054and once we do get that information, we'll make the board aware um and then we can kind of decide what next steps. Um moral of the story is it it's we we asked for a couple options. One of which was a u they they're proposing a monetary amount. I believe we were asking if there's an option of connecting Diamond Lake to uh city water here to Lake Michigan water rather than well that's the only thing that would have a tangible benefit for the district as it would come as an extreme cost to hook us up but that's not something they would consider. So um to be determined and I'm hoping to get an update at some point this week. lots lots of updates and lots of information that we do need from them. Timeline um
055directly what they're asking or right now proposing just for our area. We know this has had a substantial impact well beyond just Diamond Lake school as they're looking to go up and down Diamond Lake Road and other areas. Um but lots of other things, timeline impact to school. So when we do come back with the proposal potentially if they do give us something that we think is a recommendation to bring forward to the board, we also will include the additional details that I know Mr. Rogers and I keep going back and forth on is um we can't just be shut down for a period of time to have the parking lot not accessible. Um so other things that potentially maybe aren't factors as they're looking at other areas as well. So just want the board
056to be aware. We we understand it's multiaceted for a school district to impeded by this and this is not something to my knowledge we've been exposed to or asked to do in the past. So um with no benefit to the school district itself as well. So just want to add there's other pieces and layers to it just cost. Okay. Um does anyone have anything else for others? Okay. Then we will journ to executive session for the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the district or legal counsel for the district including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or against legal counsel for the district to determine its solidity and for student disciplinary cases. May I have a motion to adjourn to executive session? >> I know you do.
057I have no idea. >> It's actually very challenging. I did see that out of my >> Yes.