001I mean, usually I'm relatively loud, but okay. >> Calling to order the combined meeting for Diamond Lake School District 76. Roll call, please. >> Miss Bis here. Mr. Becker, >> here. >> Miss Crutchfield here. Miss Hail >> here. >> Miss Holland here. >> Miss Reyes here. >> Miss Sullivan >> here. Please 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 on agenda items. Do we have any public comments this evening? Okay. There being no public comments, we will move on to what I'm sure all of you are here for, which is our recognitions. >> Yeah, I'm
002sure. Yeah, >> it's a packed house and this is wonderful to see. Um, we've got two recognitions this evening for the board of education. We have our diamond award winner and then we also have our above and beyond. So, we are really excited this evening to start with our diamond award winner for the month of November. Um, tonight it's really an honor to recognize someone whose name has become become synonymous with connection, care, and community here in Diamond Lake District 76. Our mission is clear to embrace, empower, and excel each child each day. And Sammy embodies that mission wholeheartedly and consistently. Sammy's outreach is nothing short of remarkable. There isn't a staff member, a family, or a community partner who doesn't know who she is. Sammy makes her makes it her purpose not just for
003them to know her, but for her to know all of them. When people hear Sammy's name, they think immediately of District 76. She has become the bridge that connects our schools to the community and the community right back to our schools. This year alone, Sammy helped bring our community together in a lot of powerful ways. From organizing a vibrant and meaningful Day of the Dead celebration to coordinating the distribution just on Saturday for a thousand pounds of chicken to families and neighbors who were in need. These events weren't just moments on a calendar. They were acts of care, strength, trust, dignity, and connection across our district. Through Sammy's warmth, her presence, and tireless dedication, she ensures that every family feels welcomed, every voice is heard, every student benefits from stronger, more meaningful connections beyond the
004classroom walls. Sammy, thank you for living our mission so authentically, for strengthening the heart of District 76, and for reminding us every day that community is not something we serve, it's something we really truly build together. So, please join me in celebrating the November Diamond Diamond Award winner, Sammy, who truly sparkles every way. In every way, >> thank you guys. It really means a lot. Thanks. Say hi to Brandy. Not only is Sammy an award winner, but she's also helping to recognize our next group, the above and beyond students as well, pulling double duty with Mr. Peterson. So, I'll turn the mic over to them. I was just saying here at our at our PTO meeting last last hour, it's like Sammy is everywhere all the time. I don't know how she does it, but
005um she's pretty amazing. Um anyways, here uh good good evening everyone. Uh Miss Smith Miss wasn't able to be here today, so I I'm I'm definitely speaking in her place and um you know and I think of of some individuals that that are definitely deserving. So just want to highlight them tonight. Uh tonight we have the uh the distinct pleasure of recognizing a group of students whose creativity and dedication transformed our recent Dia de los Muertos event into a truly vibrant and communitywide success. Uh the Dia de los Muertos celebration was by all accounts the most engaging yet and at the heart of the success was a powerful studentled initiative uh our voices our shirts a community art project. The the project was was wasn't just a contest. It was an invitation for our students
006to take ownership of an event from the ground up. We asked them to express what Dia de los Muertos means to them and to our school community through design. Uh their response was overwhelming uh showcasing incredible talent, deep cultural understanding, and an immense passion. Uh, Andrew, Bianca, Eloise, better known as Lou. Uh, Jazella, Griffin, Leila, and Spencer. Uh, thank you. Uh, you didn't just design a t-shirt. You designed a piece of our community spirit. Uh, your design created a lasting legacy of cultural pride and unity within our school. Uh, please join me in giving a round of applause to the students who participated in our voices, our shirts project. What? All right. We are so proud of you uh of your leadership and your ability to use art to to make such a profound positive
007impact. We look forward to seeing how your creative voices continue to shape our school environment for years to come. So, thank you everybody. Appreciate it. Come up. Don't be shy, guys. Got we got a goodie basket for you. Andrew. congratulations to all of you. Um, we are now going to move on to the superintendent and the administrative report. You are more than welcome to stay, but we understand that you might have other things to do this evening and it will not hurt our feelings if you decide to go home. But thank you so much for joining us and congratulations to all of you. >> I know if you had on the jacket. >> It's the jacket. guys feel bad. >> I mean, if you had on the jacket and Robin's boots that that would that
008would be a money maker outfit. I mean, people would know that you meant business. There was going to be a real presentation. >> Be like fireworks. >> Well, get right on that. Okay. Well, no disrespect to our diamond award winners, but this is the event of the evening. So, I'm very excited uh to talk about the 2025 tax levy. So, this is the tenative tax levy, and I just want to provide an update on the uh time frame of events here. The tenative levy needs to be approved 20 days prior to the adoption uh of the official levy and the levy hearing. Uh the levy needs to be posted no more than 14 and no less than seven days. So we're anticipating it going in the uh December 5th edition of the Daily Herald and
009on December 16th we're anticipating the adoption of the official levy and I just need to file it before the end of December. So I'll electronically file that with the county clerk's office. So I'm just going to provide a little bit more of an overview this year since we have some new board members about the tax levy process and what it really entails. So, it's the annual process of uh a school district requesting the amount of money it needs to op operate in the subsequent fiscal year. So, really the first step a district needs to do is determine the amount of revenue it needs to fund all its programs, staffing, salaries, and benefits because the district really uses about 75% of its money from tax levy to operate for the next year. Uh the district is
010under uh the PEL which is the property tax extension limitation law and that's really a mechanism to protect taxpayers from large increases that they might see on their tax bills. So PEL is 5% or CPI whichever is lower. So for this levy cycle CPI is 2.9%. Uh and also with it includes the addition of new property. So new property is not really known until March of the next year. So we do our best to estimate and they we're fortunate to be in Lake County where they do offer a good estimation of what our equalized assessed value is going to be and the new property. But again, it's it's still determination on on what the final tax bills come in at and what the time the final assessments come in at. So right now I'm currently
011projecting about 5% growth on existing property. And then the tax our property tax revenue is made up of a pretty simple formula. It's tax rate times the equalized assessed value and the district is held under the uh Illinois program accounting manual and Illinois school code that throughout this process we request revenue and required to uh deposit it in certain funds. So we uh we have to initiate at this process how much money is going to go in our operations and maintenance fund to make sure our buildings are operational, transportation fund, things like that. This is a historical look at what our consumer price index has been over the last few years. So you can see in 2022 and 23 we had those high years of CPI. So in those years it was 7% and 6.5%
012respectfully. But uh because of PEL, we were limited to 5% in those years. And then I just have a CPI trend. We do get this every month just to kind of do an analysis on where we're going. So right now we're hovering around 3% for September. And uh it's updated throughout the year, but it came in a little cooler than expected. They anticipating 3.1%, but at least still kind of saying at a manageable rate where uh historically been between 2 and 3% for our CPI. So also from a historical perspective is the equalize assessed value and our tax rate. So really traditionally it's an inverse relationship where as EAV goes up our tax rate decreases because of some of our high CPI uh years that wasn't really the case. So because EAV didn't didn't rise
013as fast as the consumer price index the rates had to increase faster to make sure the district did get its revenue that it was uh entitled to based on our extension. Now, as the EAV is decreasing, the levy remains con and the and the levy remains consistent. Um, we're able to get the same amount of money spread over a wider tax base. So, our rates are decreasing. So, as mentioned, about 75% of 76% of our revenue comes from our property taxes. And so, this is really the most important slide. It just indicates what uh we are requesting for this year. There's a lot of subsequent documents in board book that kind of describes this little snapshot here. But our last two years from 23 and 24 extensions are there. That's our actual received amounts. The
014yellow column is the most important from my perspective. That is what my best guess is for this. So what we do is we take into account the prior year's levy, the CPI estimated new construction, and they're estimating about $16.7 million is our capped levy. Uh what the blue le uh column indicates is what our levy request is. So I'll describe that in the next page. That's really what the balloon levy is referred to as where we give ourselves a little bit of wiggle room just in the event that new construction comes in at a higher amount. The EAV came out came in comes in at a different amount. But overall, I'm anticipating about $400,000 of new money versus the prior year. Uh the balloon levy itself is about an 8% increase over the prior year.
015So anything over 5% is what triggers the tax hearing that we've got to do in December. So as I can indicated why we do a balloon levy, it really just gives us uh a big cushion because if we underlevy, we can never recoup that money that we gave up. And at the time EAV is unknown and we'll know that around March, April of the next year. So, but in terms of taxpayers, that PEL limit is still in play where we can request a 100% increase in the prior year, but we're still limited to the PEL limit of 5% or CPI. So, one of the newer uh additions last year was the Miller ratio, and that's really designed to make sure school districts don't have uh excess revenue or uh sorry, excess fund balance accumulation. So
016those districts that are sitting at 250% their fund balance to expenditure ratio and they're not repurposing it into their programs using it to buy down maybe some ex existing debt. That's what this purpose is for is to make sure they're just not sitting on a pile of cash. So um what it does is it looks at the last three-year average of our operating funds and make sure it's not over the two and a half times uh the limit there. So our Miller ratio calculations for this last year really comes in at overall about 110% uh fund balance expenditure ratio. Now those are very high reserves for us considering if you remember the budget presentation we hovered around 15 20% a couple years ago. So it's steadily increased. Our biggest fund that we have is our
017on&m fund. We've really been doing a strategic uh underlevying of the that fund the last couple years. So I'm planning for slight deficit spending just to reduce this ratio. So we take the little bit from the on and m fund and put it in the education fund or other funds that we may need. I try to include an estimate of what a taxpayer might see as a result of our uh tax levy here. Now I'm still estimating district 120's taxes, but really if you had a $300,000 house, I'm estimating a 5% increase to the existing property value. So, at $315,000, we're estimating your tax bill to go up, you know, around 70% or $70. But all things being equal, as I explained in my frequently asked questions slide, houses don't rise at the same amount.
018It's how you're in relation to your neighbors and the other properties that are in the area. So, I won't go over all the frequently asked questions, but it tries to describe, you know, really why we levy, what we do. If we underlevy, we can never recoup that money. That's really the most important one. There are mechanisms we can look at uh as far as maneuvering the levy for one or twoyear uh breaks in that in that regard but uh we've never requested more than what the ptel limit really requires. We just make sure we appropriately use that for future planning. And last just uh how we compare to some of our peers in terms of our equalized assessed value and tax rates. So we are decreasing which is good and uh that's really a result
019of a lot of these property values starting to rise and as some of our tiff property eventually starts coming off the books our values are going to rise even further and uh tax rates subsequently drop. So if there's any questions I'm happy to answer it now or um I would strongly encourage you we can always set up a time just to talk a little bit further about what all these numbers mean and how some of these assumptions are calculated. Thank you. insert fireworks. And so we're going to present this at the next meeting for approval and you guys are going to have a bunch of documents to sign. So thank you. >> Cool. >> Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to the I results. >> Rogers, outstanding job. It's good work. really excited to
020share about the our results tonight. There's a lot of great stories to share. Been looking forward to this for quite some time. Uh in this presentation tonight really we're going to focus on we have the three Ps initiative in our district this year. In this case, we're particularly honing in on the PLC side which is really focusing on measuring student learning tonight. So, first thing we're going to talk about tonight is our Illinois assessment of readiness results. really this there's so many I get to present this but really there's a the everybody at this table the principles our staff are just our students ultimately just really proud of the work they've done so we're just and thankful to the board for just trusting with resources with personnel with initiatives we're doing and um just thank
021you to Dr. as well as just making sure we're focused on the right work um and where our focus needs to be for proficiency moving forward. Uh and some of the research and background you'll see um is thanks to some of those um connections and things and and research that Dr. No understood. So again, I get to present it, but there's a huge team that is involved with this. So the first thing to understand with the IR results is they've been reormed. We talked about this a little bit this spring essentially that Illinois kind of was over was too difficult is the simplest way of putting it in reading and math scores versus what things were happening nationally and really what the college board's expectations was this SAT. Um and so this would result in
022us be considered failing even though we'd be outperforming other states. So to kind of show a graphic of that there we are at the very end. So we had essentially the hardest proficiency cut lines and ranges in the US um prior to adjusting. So that gray area is really the the zone from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. That's an assessment you hear about a lot that students take nationally at certain grade levels. So again, we were seeing students that were in high school taking AP coursework, but yet were considered failing by the results of the measures that that Illinois uses. Uh but that this is pretty a powerful graphic to see some of those different pieces. Another graphic that shows how things have changed over time. Really the context here is that Illinois, we
023decide what our proficiency is. We decide what that line is. We decide what we think proficiency should be. So you can see early on in ISAT for those that of us that were taking that as students um it's always funny with our new teachers they were not born during some of this um but ISAT during that time period the vast majority of our students were considered to be passing um or proficient uh there was a decision made that really especially as we got to race to the top and some other things with the every student succeeds act those uh cut lines changed and so proficiency changed uh the park assessment took over which was rebranded the Illinois assessment of readiness as Illinois take took greater ownership of their standards. But you can see we reormed
024it again in Illinois, decided what proficiency was, which again dropped that and actually put math below reading. And the new cut lines is trying to correct some of that, which is why you see the trend going up. This is another example of what they've done with actual scaled score. A lot of those went out to families. They should have gone electronically last week. really the old score was a 750 all the way down um in terms of the actual score and you can see now there's kind of a progression as students get older. Um and then science actually we we the correction went the other way that students are could be considered ready when really we were gi too easy is a very simple way of saying it but the adjustment went the other way.
025So uh another important thing to understand when we're going to talk about sometimes there's a it's important to clarify when we talk about versus star test what the difference is. So in this particular case when we say proficiency we're talking about what Illinois has decided is proficient. Uh and then when we talk about grade level or how students compare to other students across the country at grade level we're typically talking about star so it measures things a little bit differently in the hopes that might clear some things up. There are three really important concepts here that we'll show on graphics in a second with the new proficiency benchmarks. First one is that there is a lot of variation in the rigor from grade level to grade level and it's not a simple equal progression every
026year. So it's really important for everybody to understand that. Second one is that most districts in Illinois will see a drop from third to 8th grade in math. It has nothing to do with what's being taught or kids losing math. It has to do with what Illinois did to set their cut lines. And I'll show you a graphic on that in a second. And that most districts will see ELA much higher than math when the reality is students score about the same to give an idea. So I'll show that in a couple graphics here. First one is this one which is showing that when ELA was revised in Illinois, now to be proficient in Illinois, you sit at about the 50th percentile nationally for performance. So they put it kind of right in the middle.
027They did adjust math, but math is still very high, very high in some grades. So, if you're an eighth grade student to be proficient, you have to be higher than 69% of the country at math to outperform 69% of the country to be considered proficient. And again, that's Illinois picking this. So, when they right- sized it, reading was kind of in the middle. Math is still much higher. So that also ends up looking like this graphic or this is a state measure not our district but this is through 2024 so before this year's measures you can see what happens by grade each year proficiency drops and that's an that's a policy decision in Illinois not a that we're we're losing the plot in math every year if that makes sense. So another way to show
028that is if I was to take fifth grade based on the 2024 scores, 51% of students were considered proficient in reading and then 36% in math. The reality is they're about the same. 51% in reading. Think of it as about 51% in math. That's really where it would sit in reality if the cut lines were where they would need to sit. So that's just important context for the board to understand as we look at the discrepancies in reading and math that you try to think of them as equally as we can and wherever reading is that's where math likely is. The other piece is that we were using a four kind of score band scale for science and for the ACT or SAT and now we've gone to four with the I as well so
029that we just are consistent all the way through. We're trying to make sure that those skills build appropriately toward the ACT all the way through. Uh and then the last piece is how we actually get our scores. So about half of our score as a district is based on growth in reading and math. It's done separately. Illinois is currently shopping um and shopping around or really they're on a tour listening and speaking tour of how they're looking to change these again. Um but right now half that's 50% of that score and then another 15% for your proficiency. English learner path to proficiency goes in there as well as the climate survey that we gave it. And then there's some other pieces. Chronic absenteeism also plays in which is why our other P presence matters so
030much that we focus on that. It does play in here. This of course we want students here to learn. Uh but that also plays in here. Uh there just to kind of give some context of Diamond Lake school since this test is only taking grades 3rd through 8th. The way Diamond Lake is measured is their proficiency score is based on how third graders do and their growth score is based on how fourth graders do. So they're dependent on those two grades at West Oak Intermediate School to give a bit of context. Okay. So here are our results. All three schools are in the commendable range. The reality is we made incredible one outstanding. I'll show in a graphic in a second. One-year improvements in growth very much driven by growth in our English language learner
031population, our students with disabilities and IEP population. We're going to highlight the middle school in particular. uh outgrew the state average growth in both reading and math. Uh and even though the current proficiency levels are changed, we can still see all the old scores. So we did the scores by hand and our reading. So if they had not changed our proficiency, our reading proficiency would have been the highest we've ever scored in reading and then math high since the pandemic. But it's been adjusted. So then we can't go look back. We had to do it ourselves. But we just needed to really understand, are we seeing both growth and proficiency improvements because we need to. So I did put a little bit in there to say about 6% higher to give a little bit of
032context to look at it graphically. So our growth in 2024 is in gold and then our growth measures in 2025 in terms of how we compare the state average is always 50. They just set that's the they balance themselves in the middle. So we're really excited to see that growth make a huge jump in ELA over one year. Uh and math also cross the 50th. And just to highlight the middle school, we just wanted to put them on there. Uh we love all of our schools. It just was a nice data point to put there just to show as as students are moving toward high school how great that is. Middle school, massive jump one year in reading and massive jumps in math. And we'll talk a little bit about why we think data went
033that way. The percentage of proficiency as you can see. So we're really excited with growth because we need to make that kind of growth because we're we're very much focused on trying to work toward that proficiency and be aggressive to do that. So the state level now these are all new as they adjusted. So the state level sits now 53. Um we're at 36. And then math 38 we're at 23. And then you can see science we're um about 3 about 3 to 4% different. That test test is taken in fifth grade and eighth grade. So again that growth really matters because we're really working more and more toward proficiency and it's a big deal for us and we're really excited for the progress being made. Also something that we have not reported on but
034we should be reporting on um to the board is access test scores. So every year our English language learners which is growing closer and closer to 50% of our student population very close at this point. I think we're at 46% right now of our students are taking this test um a series of four tests over four to five days. You need to score 4.8 to exit. And I know I'm speaking to some that are educators and know this um and are intimately involved in this process. So we you can kind of watch where we've been over the course of the last few years. We are just a tick.1 above the state average this year and we had about another 4% that were one point away from exiting. So we'll continue to work with those students
035and support them. That would push that would have pushed us to about 11% exit rate which would have been phenomenal. So, what we're working on right now, especially with there's all there's many different types of things we're working on with speaking, with writing, and we're monitoring growth and language development, especially fourth and fifth grade. Those are the years you really want to see exits. That's really how the test is designed. Those are the years they really do exit. Uh we're also a lot of our students scored perfectly in reading and in listening, but um speaking and writing, particularly speaking, they do not. And there is some practice that you need to get used to talking into a microphone um because we know they can talk. We see them talk in class. So we know they
036can do that. So there are pieces that we really want to help them um to execute. But we are doing specific progress monitoring around those exact two elements. We benchmarked in August. We are benchmarking again this week with students we've targeted that are close to exiting to support. But it's another pathway and another measure of what we're working on. So, these are some factors that we believe contributed to this. We implemented a district-wide PLC process last year. We did have PLC's, but we really dialed in on what do we want our students to learn and be able to do and how do we know they've learned it. So, what that meant was we updated all our unit plans across all subject areas last year with a clear scope and sequence. We also increased our inclusion
037of special education English language learners in the classroom. I'll talk about in a moment how we changed our proficient our tiers to the 25th percentile from the 30th. Part of the reason we did that is because I or STAR recommends that for reading but partially because for English language learners really the best places in the classroom and that's usually 20th percentile or above. And so by doing that we really believe we more exposure to tier one interventionist supporting in the classroom led to some greater growth gains. Uh, also we implemented a standardsbased report card with scales. We're continuing that work and we'll talk about some of that at the December board meeting of some of the things we're doing to really focus on the exact proficiency as measured uh on IR and really what our
038standards say. Uh, also aligning some of our skills and knowledge to what's on the IR test. I guess an example would be instead of saying what is an author trying to say, we start using the terminology what is an author trying to convey and that allow just building students schema to understand how things are asked on the test. We were intentional about that last year and even talking to students qualitatively as they came out much more confident in what they were able to answer and how they were able to execute and it was nice to see that come out on the test. Um, and also making sure the vocabulary used in this environment of the IRS, things that we're using and that that terminology is not it's not the first time they're seeing it. So
039all those things certainly mattered uh moving forward. So just really excited about that and we're just going to show you a little bit different. In the past for Star, we've shown a number of different things. We've we're consolidating this right now hopefully just to show things a little bit shorter. First of all, STAR does measure uh and really as I is kind of a one-time piece that we measure, STAR we do three times a year. It's our consistent measure of progress, which is why we report on this. STAR does trying to predict how kids will do on the I test. Some years more accurate than others. One year we it overshot us. This last year it undersshot us. We outperformed it. So this is showing in reading an an a we would improve based on
040this year based on how our tickets score in the fall and in math we would also see an improvement then you can see how it breaks down but you can see you watch how math does that right you can see that proficiency change so it doesn't mean there's a major differ basically if 39% in west oak middle are scoring that in reading that's about what it is in math if you think back to that graph of how the state did it so this is what we project based on fall we'll see another projection in the winter and we'll find out in the spring how accurate it is once we get or really in the fall once we get everything back. But Star tried to adjust with the new cut lines to see. So these are
041our tiers and there's a few different things that are on here and hopefully I'll explain this clearly enough. There's what says all and then duel. So if I look at just the columns that say all, these are showing the students in tiers and again we pick the tiers. So we chose them as a district. So we chose 26 and above was tier one. So even without the 26 as there's not that many kids that are sitting between the 26 and 30th when we adjusted we're not talking about very many kids. This is still really in many ways the most students in a while we've seen sitting in year one coming into the year which is what we need to do if we want to keep building toward proficiency for all students. Uh you can still
042see if we have if I was to use 80 let's look at that 60 up pick diamond well let's use west oak intermediate just because they take I 71% of them are in tier one. And if I was to go back, 42% of those are tracking to be proficient, which means you have between the 25th and about 48th to 49th percentile, you have a chunk of about those students, if you do the math, that are sitting in between to give you an idea of like tier one versus proficient. Um, just to try to make the numbers make sense a little bit of where our kids sit, but they really are supported. Again, we're seeing supported best in the classroom with their interventionists working in the room. The dual column is because STAR introduced something called
043the biiteracy trajectory where they ran dual language programs across the US to compare dual to dual. And so when we add that in it changes the tier for where a student may be especially for our native SP actually for both. It changes it for English and Spanish speakers. So if I was to take intermediate again I'll use intermediate because all three grades fit into that study. You can see you go from 71% in tier 1 to 81%. And you can see we drop down in tier 2 and three because compared to other dual language students and other programs, our students would be considered we'd have a student that might be in the 24th percentile, but then when we put them in the dual language trajectory, some would jump as high as the 68th just comparing
044to other students. Again, doesn't mean they're going to show proficiency on the IR. It tells us where they are relative to other dual programs, and lets us know what's the trajectory they're on. Is it faster than maybe what we're seeing in other dual programs, both for English and Spanish speakers. So, again, we're really excited for the trend we're seeing where we have many more students in tier 1, and we want to continue to see that happen. So, this is showing star reading, and then this is star reading in Spanish or star lecturer. There's not a lot that changes when you add the dual trajectory in um in Spanish just because the numbers of students that take this is not that different. But you can again general idea you can see tier one is very high
045which is wonderful to see all the way through. Uh and then for then math is the last one. Just a caveat Diamond Lake kindergarten is not normed for kindergarten. It's normed for first grade even still actually our kindergarteners did extraordinarily well on this given that we gave it to them the second day of school. We tried right away there. We will never do that again. Uh because it was like, "Hi, welcome to your first day of school. Let me teach you how to standardize assessment." It was like, "Welcome and we're going to give them a little time." So um and then that for the tier three for Diamond Lake that there was largely of the second grade group and they've really they started progress monitoring them right away and Chris Nordlin our interventionist has spent
046a lot of time in those rooms and she found the score is very unusual because first grade they did much better and they've already shown major growth and we expect the winner scores to look much different for math and second. I just want to point that out because that number stands out. But again, it's great to see the tiers where they are where we're looking at generally 60s or higher and we want to continue to see that trend. And not only that, can you see the students that are bumping above the 50th percentile in tier one because that means they're heading in the direction of proficiency and where we want them to be. So, um, just really exciting data overall. So, some of these next steps we're looking to ensure growth that we're working on
047this year. Let me just catch up my own notes here. So PLC question one, what is it we want students to know and be able to do? We are working really hard. We talked in the spring about how we're partnering with Marzano resources. We're working really hard working with scales that are aligned to our Illinois standards where teachers are going to be assessing really what is considered grade level and rigor. And I and sometimes teachers perception of what that is versus what's really assessed doesn't always match. And so we're working very hard on that. We're teachers have been embracing the work and we're really excited. We're going to show some examples because we do have scales online. That's really what we consider our early iteration. What we're going to be able to show is some
048really concrete dialed in specific skills that if students can track their own progress, parents can understand exactly what students are working on. They're really we're just really excited about that work. Uh we're also aligning our unit plans to those scales. And really we've been pushing hard for a more rigorous curriculum. Part of the reason that we really believe you saw that at the middle school level is we pushed our ELA program pretty hard and our science program in middle school last year to really um the text they were students were being exposed to um the level of vocabulary the amount of reading they were being asked to do was much higher than we might expect before and students really rose to the challenge of that. Question two is how do we know students have learned
049that our teachers are spending their late starts early releases developing common assessments based on these more rigorous scales? lots of really good discussion about how one teacher is going to assess it versus another and how they really need to get an alignment of a higher more rigorous standard. So really great conversations that are happening with our teams that are already starting this work. But really the goal is that all these scales and things will will get up on our website for that we'll be using in the fall. But the work has already begun. We're already making those adjustments. The other piece of that falls into the two Ps that are relevant to this data. PBIS positive behavior supports is a huge part of what we do. It just student engagement matters and there's been massive
050success with that. And then presence, you have to be at school to learn. And again, we've we've been tracking that data very closely um as we've worked the principles. Really a lot of credit to the person next to me. Um not you, but you did a good presentation earlier. But um and trying to gather a lot of that information and putting our student attendance is really dialed in. Like kids can't get away from like two weeks without teachers calling them and the school tracking them down and us looking at the data as a as a group. So you have to be here. We just can't. And it starts from kindergarten, first grade, second grade, prek even to set those trends. So all those things extraordinarily important. And with that Oh, sorry. I didn't click so
051you could see that. But any questions? Well, two comments. One, thank you. Thank you to everybody for summing this. I think it was really helpful. Also, just as someone who's watched the data presentations for a long time now, um I think it was very easy to understand all the test score pieces and it was very clear this year. So, I like this format. >> Wonderful. >> It wasn't like that crazy graph that none of us understood and then you had to try to explain it to us and we had >> Blame >> we had no idea what you're talking about. >> Blame it all on Steve. >> Yeah. >> Right. We were like, we don't know what any of this >> Yes. Well, we can we continue to hear the feedback and hopefully that's digestible
052and it's clear with where we're trying to go and it's it's not just growth, it's proficiency. That's really what we're trying to get across to the board is it's it's again not just growth, it's proficiency. >> No, this was very helpful and it was very clear. So, thank you. >> They just tested low. They just tested lower and it really wasn't there was like they ironically ended up in like two classrooms which made it really easy to provide classroom based intervention, but one was a duel and one was not. and they it just they didn't test like they did in the spring cuz the reality is you could also one thing we didn't talk about coming into the fall when we have so many kids at higher tiers. We did talk that in in some
053ways some we we talked about a study that came out of co a couple board meetings ago that summer school is really too short and too boring to be effective. So we try to counter both this summer as we did as we did a lot of work on trying to have that be a full day and engaging that does play in and factor in I would think to some of our fall data and in terms of learning loss versus gain and we did vocabulary work this summer uh which was a new piece but we really believe the research was saying you need to do that so we did make that focus the second grade end up being an outlier group but based on the progress monitoring that we do with them they're they will likely
054not be sitting being that way in the winter. No, it really it was a I Yeah, unfortunately it didn't have like a certain trend that stood out in demographic other than they are already trending to to do much better. It could Yeah, it could be. And again, we tested these students a second day of school this year. We've never done that. So, >> great. Thank you. >> Okay. Awesome. Moving on to the calendar. >> Excellent. Thank you, Dr. Cunningham and Mr. Rogers. Those were both riveting presentations. I would ask you to bring the bar down just a little bit as I talk about the 26 27 calendar. I don't know that it will be merely as riveting. Um, Dr. Pennington, can I ask you just to click to the next? >> Oh, sorry. >> No,
055yeah, >> I apologize. >> No, that's okay. Um, in your packet and and posted online, we have the 2627 calendar. We have brought this to the board already. We did bring it to the uh superintendent advisory group and they did provide some additional feedback just some key things to highlight for the board. Um within here we do have the three institute days. That was really the superintendent council feedback from staff was they really liked that one day will be district work, one day will be school level and one will be individual teachers. So um we're really looking forward to to that being in there. Um you'll see the start date then for students would be August 20th and 21st would be their first two days. Our teachers really liked the idea of easing into a
056first week rather than a Monday. um they think that it's beneficial for them and the students in terms of those first few days. So um you'll see that you'll also notice our end date aligns to the summer school start. Uh we want to make sure that our students when they leave us in 8th grade are able to attend the summer school in either Stevenson or potentially Mundeline High School. So, um, what you'll see with our end date being on May 27th is that's going to afford our students the ability to, uh, be in the, um, be in the summer school programming over at Stevenson High School. So, that that is the alignment. We do know there's an 8 to9 day overlap where uh, Mundeline High School will not quite be done yet. We that is
057related to their construction. So, they have a little bit longer summer window. They won't actually start till I think I have the date up there. September 8th is when their Mundellan High School will technically start school. I think we're really worried about the child care on the back end of that. I do I did share with the board to Sammy's credit and and all the work that she does with our partnerships in the community. We are working with both the Mundeline Park District and Vernon Hills Park District has been just to publicly acknowledge absolutely delightful to work with right now and they have they came to our day of the debt debt event but they're willing to also see what they can bring in even in house to offer to to have some opportunities for
058students. We are working through summer school so hopefully that will align and be able to take some of those days but child care on the back end I think is our number one thing to make sure that our families have that available. I think I did share with the board at the last meeting, but if not, we have about 66 families that check that they do rely on child care for an older sibling. Um, that's part of our registration process. That's been longstanding here, which is absolutely wonderful to have that data. So, we know there's 66 families that do count on that. Um, so we do think getting this calendar out in front, we're going to ask the board to take action to potentially approve it. The sooner we can approve it, the sooner family
059families can prepare for that. Obviously, it's on the back end of the calendar, but still more time is always beneficial for that. And we're going to continue to work with the park districts planning our summer program offerings. Um, we're still pending where the FCS grant will sit at that point in time to be able to offer that full day like we did this past summer. So, did want to put this in front of the board, just update you on the the key things in here. I do think ending before the Memorial Day weekend does behoove us too because I do think attendance tends to go down after that as well. So, um I think that that'll that'll work out and we'll be able to provide rich opportunities for students in terms of those 8 to
060nine day overlap. So, there any questions from the board? Excellent. >> Yeah. >> How many hours do we need in a school day to have it count? I was just curious about our um late starts and early dismissal days. >> So the half day technically counts as a school day. So you'll see that when we have early release late the late start we're we're fine with. The half days are where it absolutely counts. We have to stay within a window of time that is designated at the state level. Um I do believe they went back to the last day of school. It can be one hour again and it still counts. I don't know that they changed that I feel like five times in the last three years. >> Um, and I know you guys
061laugh and nod your head. One time it was they have to be a full day. Then it was no, if it's just an hour it counts. Um, but it does there is a recommended number of hours that they must be in school and our half days align to the ability for that to technically count. So those half days that you see within there technically count as a day of school. >> Okay. And then my other question was um I know there was a note about possibly the homecoming half day. Do we have any more information about that? >> So, we don't. You'll see on the calendar it right now sits as a TVD, homecoming half day, it will be a Friday. I do know that aligned to Mundeline High School, we had I think I
062did share with the board at the last meeting, low uh attendance on that day or often parents would come to pick their students up half day. Um, and I think it's a great opportunity. We've been working with our band director in just an opportunity for our students to potentially even be involved in the homecoming parade. So, as soon as they set that date, you'll notice I added the little caveat at the very bottom of the calendar, just that the the calendar is always pending. And I say that because the state at any point in time can also mandate things that will require us to go back and adjust the calendar, but we'll we'll solidify that date as soon as we have that from Underline High School, though, so our families have that. >> They probably
063have it now. >> You think so? Well, I I randomly know that Stephvenson just got all of their football games assigned last week. So, I'm assuming all of the high schools did at the same time. >> Beautiful. I meet with Corey Tafoya, the superintendent over in 120 on Thursday morning for breakfast at 7:30. So, I will definitely ask him if they have that date. So, yeah, that'd be great. The sooner the better for our families. So, thank you. Any other questions? another great resource. Yeah, super. The park districts are right now talking about potentially offering some scholarships too for our families. So, we're we're still in early conversations about that. nothing is solidified. So, I don't want to put that out there as a promise necessarily yet. Um, but that's something they've been they've been
064suggesting could be an option. So, but we'll include that, too. Thank you. Then that wraps up um superintendent administrative report. So, now we'll move on to the business agenda. We have like five items for action this evening. The first item for action is the omnivous vote agenda. Items under the omnivous 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 any item or items, that item or items will be pulled from the omnivous 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 is listed. May I have a motion to approve, please? Second. Okay, that motion's approved.
065The next item up for action is personnel. Be it resolved, the Diamond Lake 76 Board of Education accepts and approves the personnel items as depicted on the agenda. We have one maternity leave, one resignation, and one leave of absence. May I have a motion to approve, please? Okay, that is also approved. The next item up for action is approving the tenative tax levy. Whereas the taxing district must determine not less than 20 days prior to the official adoption of the aggregate levy of the district estimated amount of taxes necessary to be levied for the year. And whereas the truth in taxation requires a public hearing if the estimate of the aggregate tax levy exceeds 105% of the amount extended the previous year. Therefore, be it resolved, Diamond Lake School District Board of Education approves the
066tenative levy as presented and will hold a public levy hearing on Tuesday, December 16th, 2025. May I have a motion to approve, please? Yes. >> Okay. And then the next item up for action is approving the press policies update. Did anyone have any questions or or want to discuss any piece of that? >> Yes. >> Well, there is that miscellaneous piece on the second page um regarding board member just options. >> Okay, thank you. >> So, I just wanted to make that discuss it. >> So, that is um including the sentence that would say consult the board attorney for guidance when considering any type of disciplinary action or sanction against a board member. Um so, we need to determine if we want to include that or not. Right. >> Okay. Um so, does anyone have
067any feelings on that? Yeah, it seems to make sense to include that. >> Okay. So, it looks like we're all in favor of that. Um, so, Hyram, when we do the press update, can you make sure that's included? Okay. Okay. Thank you for bringing that up. Um, do we have any other discussion? Anything else? Everything else looks pretty straightforward is mainly the five-year review cleanup stuff. Yes, a lot of stuff. Okay, then we will um move forward with taking action on this. Whereas policy creation and updates and changes to adopted policies are provided for district 76 through the subscription to policy reference educational subscription service from the Illinois Association of School Boards is IASB. And whereas the policy committee reviewed the policies in a first reading of the policies was held at the combined meeting
068on October 7th, 2025. Therefore, be it resolved that Diamond Lake School District 76 Board of Education moves to approve the policy changes as presented and reviewed in IASB press issue 119. May I have a motion to approve, please? Yes. >> Okay, that is also approved. Um, and that concludes our business agenda. Oh, no, no, no. Sorry, sorry, sorry. We have the calendar. I Yes. Okay. Then the last item is the calendar. You resolved that item I'm like 76 school district board of education accepts and approves the 2026 2027 school calendar as presented by the district. Can we have a motion to approve? Please >> okay now we're done. >> Okay. So um moving on. We had four foyer requests. Um, they seemed kind of all over the place. >> Notices and communications. There's a lot
069of information from seedall. Did you have you attended a meeting in between? >> December is the next one. Okay. Gotcha. Gotcha. Um, we also have the October uh moment of the month and then we have the October issue of the Diamond Edge. And this is like the moment of the month is adorable for the coffee shop. That is absolutely an incredible initiative. How cool for those kids. I'll improve. >> Yeah, I'm sure. Um, okay. Then we uh now open the floor for public comments and petitions on non-aggenda items. Do we have any public comments or petitions on non-aggenda items? Okay. And then we will move on to others. We have a couple things for others this evening. Um the first is uh we have a memo on that um the new impact fees for that
070new development that we discussed at like the last board meeting. Um that I'm still not 100% exactly where this is just by looking it up. looking >> like I live right by it but I don't >> it's right like if you were going like instead of it kind of if you're coming from 60 like town line onto 6083 it like you know that intersection kind of >> just a little bit to the left if you went straight like it right >> yeah I know I just think that that space does not seem big enough for these 21 town homes and like there's one house there right now >> I think it just goes back a little bit further than it seems I don't know >> the village board meetings have been busy >> I think
071because of the above >> not courthouse on the corner like >> no side of that >> it's like yeah so it's it's that neighborhood that like we know people that live in that neighborhood if you went straight >> okay like that like longed so it's back there >> yes but it's on the edge of the street back >> like so essentially it's closer to like garden like the the actual >> it just does not look as it doesn't look big enough for me like to to wrap my brain around how it would accommodate that. >> Yeah, apparently. >> Um, do you want to talk through this or do you want >> Sure. Yeah, I'm happy to talk through this. I did want to just uh provide the board just a quick update related to to
072they're calling it Salaria Crossings, the new subdivision. I I do know there's been several uh individuals attending the village board meetings related to the number of units that are going into the size of that land. Um and particularly what I have in here for the board is I just want you to be aware of the impact fee and that impact that it has. In April of 2025, the village of Mundeline did make an adjustment to impact fees. Um while we don't have a lot of open land that is buildable, I think you'll notice at the very back end what we did do is create a estimated cost of the approximate loss of um income that would come to District 76 related to impact fees. That cost uh would be reduced to 37,954 less dollars we
073would get on every three-bedroom unit, which is what they're anticipating putting there than we would have gotten previous to that change happening. Um, in addition in here or in the communications I've had with um, Joy, we've also talked a little bit about uh, communication out to our community to make sure our community is aware of the impact that these impact fee changes have had for lack of overdoing the word impact there. um that that will have. This is the one-time opportunity for a school district to recoup fees that are going to be necessary necessary for facilities for adding those additional students. That then isn't passed along to the current tax base. And it comes directly from the builder, probably passed along to the homeowners that buy those units. But from the units that we used
074to or that we were getting, we were getting approximately $2,700. And you'll see that on the first page. 2,700 for the the three-bedroom units attached single family. And this is the ones behind scooters. If you know where that area is, of those town homes that were built over there, those three-bedroom units, we were getting about 2700. Um, where the change from Mundeline would bring us down to 923. So, we do have something in terms of an awareness we want to make our community aware of related to that. We have some communication. I've worked in partnership with the Fremont Superintendent 120. Um we've also worked with Hawthorne Woods because that's also a district that would be impacted by this. Um we do plan on going to the November 24th village meeting to provide a joint statement.
075Uh just regards to the impact, we want them to truly understand what that is. Depending on where that sits in terms of any changes or movement on that impact fees, we would like to send something out to our community to make sure that they're aware. They're going to be the individuals that do absorb the additional tax impact that it would have. And this is not exclusively for schools. This is also the park districts. This is libraries. This is every public uh resource in the community that then does become a additional tax that they're impacted on from these new communities. Um, so just wanted you to be aware of it. This sums up the impact it has on us just exclusively in Diamond Lake. Uh, again, like I mentioned, Thursday morning I will be meeting with
076all of the superintendents that feed into Mundane High School. We are going to be talking a little bit about this and our conversation that'll happen at the village board meeting on the 24th. So, um, stay tuned, but I wanted you to have the specifics and the dollar figures that we're estimating is going to be the, uh, adjustment for us. more to come. Okay. Do you want to go? Good. >> Uh for the county tax. >> Yes, I'm happy to go through that. Uh in addition in the others, what you'll see Eric Rogers really put this together. We we need to determine as a board of education each each Lake County school district is provided an opportunity to see if we would be interested in putting on the ballot. So, we would not determine this. The
077taxpayers would determine it. If we would earmark 1% additional, this is a it's a one-time thing that you can go ahead and do in a county to be able to ask for an additional 1% that goes exclusively to facilities. And Eric Rogers can probably speak to this way better than I can. that goes exclusively to facility uh work within a school district. It's up to 1% from the tax. It would be in addition to what currently those in Lake County are taxed. There are things that are excluded, medication, groceries, like it is exclusive to just some things. So, what you'll see in here is essentially, you know, again, to Eric Rogers credit, he put together a real great summary for you to kind of understand that as a board, we need to determine if we
078are in agreement with this going forward as a potential opportunity for taxpayers to vote yes or no. Um, we do need a majority of 51% of students represented in Lake County in order for this to go forward. So 51% of students, which would mean 51% of our school boards would have to approve it in order for that to be the case. So Diamond Lake doesn't count as one of the school districts. It counts for each student that we have if we agree that we wanted to go forward. Does that make sense? High schools are really critical in this. Uh I I know I've talked to Joy a little bit about this. There's uh benefits and opportunities here with this. that additional cash flow prevents us from having to go back out to the taxpayers later
079and say, "Hey, we do need some additional facility work and we need some additional funds. This is able to sit into that fund in particular or have a stream of funds coming in that goes right into that fund for us to be able to utilize." That is something and again Eric can probably speak better to this as I continue to go on than I can, but um this is something that that cost just fluctuates so much on some of these and particularly right now that to not have an additional funding source coming in does make it really difficult to be able to uh plan without having to go back out to taxpayers for the additional money. And Eric, please jump in if I missed anything. >> No, fantastic. And like Dr. said that this could
080potentially help us build up some more capital projects later projects. So, u as we anticipate this, we've heard a little bit of numbers out there sales tax figures and how that might uh what actual number might hit the district 402 per student that came to bring us. We're all kind of digesting this, getting more information, not including this as part of any budgetary assumptions yet, but um it could present some opportunities to facility work for us possibly on the back end tax. So we should plan appropriately and do analysis. >> What's the timeline for all this? Okay. No, that's totally fine. >> There's like a sold. >> Sure. I just want to know like how how quickly we would need to decide, you know, whether or not sort it. I mean, one thing to note
081is that like uh the memo mentions, like Erin mentioned, you know, we're a tiny district. like whether we support this or not, if the majority districts support it, then then it would end up on the ballot. But again, also if the majority of the district support it, do we also want to be supportive of that? You know, looking at how how that um kind of factors into that too. >> Yeah. I don't know. I mean, I think it just depends on the area and if you feel like the the families in your area maybe are hit very hard by this. But I will say that I mean I think Nikki you and I were at a meeting where they were talking about um this was done in southern Illinois very effectively and paid for some
082pretty significant facility development that the school district never would have been really able to fund or would have had to really levy significant amounts of money from the taxpayers. And because this is like a sales tax, it would just be anywhere you're shopping in Lake County would, you know, go into this fund. So it's not even necessarily on the line. It could be, you know, anywhere. >> No. Or medicine or >> Well, I mean, I think, you know, in general, nobody likes to pay more tax. >> So, >> but but I I mean, I think that obviously be very beneficial and it would be nice to it, especially when funds like this are needed, not to have to go back to the usual suspects of our, you know, all of our neighbors to say we
083need more money from you because, you know, everyone knows everybody is feeling squeezed by the tax. So, >> um, is this subject to that Miller rate ratio? >> This would not be because we'd be putting this money in our capital projects fund. So, that's not considering a main operating fund. Um, but yeah, like like Joyce said, some of the bigger districts are talking about this. they're they're kind of the primary decision makers if they have 57,000 plus one students really that's kind of what gets to that number. So, but some of the other districts also were talking about there's property tax relief that you can use to pay down existing like we have debt certificates. We spend out $400,000 a year that come out of our uh operations and maintenance fund. We collect taxes in
084our operations and maintenance, write that to pay off some of our bonds. So these are some mechanisms that some districts I think are anticipating that even if you don't have facility work that year, you can also give some property tax relief. >> Should be nice. >> Okay. So yeah, just let us know about the timeline of that and then we could, you know, look at making official uh decision. >> Yeah, absolutely. >> Great. At end of the day, it's really just putting it in voters's hands. >> Correct. Well, exactly. Right. I mean, we basically facilitate it being on the ballot. >> Okay. And then the last the last item we have is the most fun by far tonight, the IASB resolutions committee report. Um, had I realized at our last meeting that there was literally
085one resolution, we would have taken care of it at the last meeting, but generally there's many of them. So, imagine my shock when I opened my packet and saw just the one. is very confusing. Uh but apparently they were very busy and decided that since there's just the one, we will have lots of constitutional amendments. Um so they were very active there. I will say in reading through all the constitutional amendments, most of them are very um beneficial because they just really streamline all the language and they get rid of some of the extra kind of junk or requirements. did I know I kind of sent you all a note asking if you could review these before the meeting. I don't know if everyone had the time to do that. Um it we can go
086through them one by one or if you felt like you reviewed them and they make sense we could also just agree upon adopting them. It seems like we've consensus today. Okay. So Tina for the delegate I my I think but I could be wrong because I'm not as um up on the Robert's rules as these people will be. I think they can probably just adopt this through like a a single like consent agenda. So it'll probably just be a one um motion to adopt all of them. So then you would just vote yes on behalf of the district for that. Yeah. >> Oh, see you missed the fun when it was all the guns. >> And that was out. >> That was interesting. That was hours and hours. >> The one I was at, they
087had to take the same boat twice because they >> they screwed up the technology. >> Well, they screwed up how they set it. It was really goofy. Yeah, the clicker was the clicker was enhanced technology because the first year I think I did it on paper. So or no or maybe I raised a paddle. It was very official. >> So I think that they aren't I my guess is they'll do it all as one. >> What? >> Yes, absolutely can. So, if they ask for one to be removed, then that one will be voted on separately and then everything else will be voted on together. I I'm not sure for the constitutional amendment if anyone's going to bother doing that because it's not normally the other if when you have a lot of resolutions, different
088people have different special interests and so they'll pull pieces out. Um, but this time I'm not sure that that's going to happen, but I guess you'll see and then you can let us know. But I hope it does go fast for you because those may they can be very long. But anyway, so moving on. So we're all in favor of adopting the constitutional amendments. The next item is the consent agenda and it's um the it's essentially the school bus safety funding. So a lot of I think a lot of uh times many districts feel like um there's a lot of mandates without funding from the state. So a lot of laws get enacted that we must do all these things and then there's no money that goes along with them. So then everyone has to
089scramble and say well how do we actually pay for this because we already have all this money allocated to actually educating the kids and now how do we do all these other things? So um this is just essentially for the new requirement that school buses have the three-point harness installed. Um it's also um essentially recommending that funding goes along with that. And all these do for anyone that's not familiar is this is essentially what we're going to lobby for. Like us saying yes, we want the funding does not actually give us anything. Just says that our lobbying dollars in Springfield will be spent towards advocating for this. Um so anyway, so to me it that makes perfect sense to do. I don't know if anyone feels differently. No. Okay. Well, this was the easiest one
090I've ever done. Um, so, so we would essentially vote to adopt for both of those. And then if you could at the next meeting, just let us know what happens. Um, normally they do a press release like immediately from the ISB. >> But I don't know that they're going to do that this year because it's not it's not really exciting. I feel >> I feel like you I mean up to you. >> Yes. The the key thing is for you to know that when you read when you get your stuff at the conference, you need to just go get your special PIN or whatever because you'll need that to get into the room. >> Yeah. Because they are sticklers about that. be attached >> anyway. Okay, fantastic. Well, that was way faster than usual. So,
091now we will mark a move to adjourn 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 complete latch against an employee or against legal counsel for the district to determine its validity. May I have a motion to adjourn to close session? >> Yes, Mr. Thank you all. It was nice to see you. I feel like we haven't seen you in weeks. So, and since