001Next. Roll call, please. Sorry. >> Miss here. Mcker >> here. >> Missfield here. Miss >> here. Miss >> here. >> Miss Reyes. 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. >> We now open the floor for public comments on agenda items. Do we have any public comments this evening? Okay. Well, then we will move on to our recognition. Mr. Hansen. >> Good evening. This evening, we are honored to recognize one of our finest with the District 76 diamond award. Tonight's nomination actually came in from a substitute. And I know as we move to our diamond awards, not just being stafftoaff recognition, but
002actually allowing those outside um the community to recognize, whether it's parents, students. So tonight's came from a substitute teacher and what she had to say was uh pretty impressive. She said, "Marina constantly has a smile on her face, is nothing but professional, welcoming, and very helpful. Not only do I witness her great rapport with students and staff, she has been extremely helpful and kind to me as a new substitute teacher. Not to mention, she is very well organized. A school would not survive without their administrative support, and this is 100% true about Marina. Marina, it's always special when someone from the outside of our daily environment actually sees exactly what we do every single day here. The subsaw we witness day in and day out. Your incredible work ethic, your professionalism, and most of all,
003your consistently positive attitude and always great lunch suggestions. I'm just saying. She's always got a good tip for a great place to go for lunch. People are drawn to Diamond Lake District 76 because of colleagues like you. You make this a place where others want to work, learn, and grow. Recognizing you with the Diamond Award today is not only fitting, it's truly welld deserved. So, thank you for everything you do to make District 76 sparkle and shine. Come on up. We invite you to get your diamond award. I think just about everybody in the community knows Marina too. Um our next award is for the first time we are doing this award. The board of education implemented a new award for above and beyond. And this is for students who go above and beyond what
004happens day in and day out in the school. So it might be things that they do beyond the school day and it might just be how they carry themselves well beyond just the work that happens in the classroom. So with that, I'm going to turn over to Mr. Peterson who's going to recognize one of our middle school students. I didn't realize I was like the inaugural uh above and beyond award giver here. So that's awesome. Uh good evening everyone. Uh it's my honor to celebrate uh Jack Lories this evening to be as he truly as he is a truly exceptional student and person that goes above and beyond uh here at West Oak Middle School. Jack was nominated by numerous uh numerous D76 parents for his instrumental role in making our recent back- toschool bash
005such a tremendous success. He was he was there to help set up. He was there he he worked the entire event and he also assisted our parent teacher organization with with cleaning up afterwards. Uh just a a a phenomenal person here. Uh these parents um these parents saw firsthand what we see at at West Oak. uh we see they saw what we see at West Oak every day. A student who whose dedication and positive energy shine brightly. Uh we are incredibly proud of Jack who is not only a great student but an even better person. Uh embodying the values we cherish as our district. Uh Jack's leadership qualities and commitment to service are evident in his involvement in student ambassadors for the last two years. Uh he's a natural leader, always willing to step up
006um and help his peers and and the school staff. Uh Jack's genuine kind heart and warm magnetic presence are are unmistakable and his and his smile is a perfect reflection of someone who seems to never have a bad day. Um thank you Jack for all you do for our school here at West Oak Middle School and our district here at D76. Congratulations. >> I was told he was supposed to sing here according to Mr. Becker today. So that's >> um I don't have much to say but thank you to all of you. >> Right. Well, fantastic. Congratulations, Jack. Congratulations, Marina. Thank you so much for all that you contribute to our district. >> And now we will turn it over to the superintendent report. Um, if you would like to stay, you are more than
007welcome, but you will you will not hurt our feelings if you sneak out. I think Mr. Hansen might want to take pictures if he didn't already do that. >> Yeah. if we dive in. >> Yeah. Go right ahead. Okay. We'll go ahead and give an update this evening. We're excited to update the board of education on one of the district's really significant focuses this year related to the 2025 student attendance. So, um, as shared with the board of education in the fall, we've had three really significant goals at a district level, at each of the school levels, at the team level, and at the classroom level. down to the impact we know that this has on students. So those three goals were PLC's, professional learning communities, PBIS related to behaviors and social emotional supports for
008students, and the third P is presence. And that's really been focused on making sure that our students are present and here and available for learning each and every day. Um, I'm happy to share the action steps that we put into place in the fall related to the district goal for attendance or presence is that we would implement and maintain consistent schoolwide attendance procedures to improve accuracy, accountability, and early intervention for attendance concerns. Our goal was let's not wait till the end of the year um to be like oh no we've missed x number of days and to be really proactive early on so we can get students here as often as possible and to make that personal connection. So that that action step was the district-wide action step. Schools made specific action steps at a
009school level that aligned to that that really put a personal touch I think that you would see in each of their action steps related to how to connect with families in situations where attendance does come up. Um, the other action step districtwide is to increase staff and student and family awareness of the impact the attendance has on student learning achievement and school success. So these two action steps along with the work that has taken place with all of our staff in each of our three buildings, the cabinet team, the entire leadership team, the building principles. I'm happy to to share an update on the first uh 30-ish days, 32 days of school. Um, our Diamond Lake attendance at this point is 87%. Um, happy to say that with preK taken out of the mix, we're
010at 96% at Diamond Lake. Um, preK is a little tricky because they are only here for half the day. So, I think some of that attendance is a contributing factor just related to that. But 87% is still really significant and we continue to work at Diamond Lake to make sure families know even two and a half hours of the day may not seem like much to miss, but it adds up when there's more than than a couple of days. Over at West Oak Intermediate, I'm really happy to say that there is 95% attendance so far this year. And over at the middle school, 95%. I will be honest, it's like 94.8% and they made us round up. Um, so you you can definitely tell there's a healthy competition even going across schools about the presence
011is so significant significant. How do we make sure that every day counts and that we're there? Um, but this is for the first 32 days of school attendance. We're going to continue to monitor it, but I'm I'm happy to say that I do feel like the action steps that our schools have created, the action steps that the leadership team has created and that the schools have created really are mirroring what we're seeing in students coming to school. Um, you also see students getting PBIS reward tickets for coming to school and then grade levels are celebrating when there's an announcement on the the um overhead intercom system saying, "Hey, all of our sixth graders are here today." I mean you hear the the collective cheer in the building and students excited to be present in school
012is a really great feeling. So um did want to provide the board the update related to that and just knowing that that continues to be an area of focus. We're celebrating the first 32 days. We know that every day after this still counts and is really significant. But just to the kudos and credit of the work that our staff is doing making the personal phone calls to families, that personal connection that they know is really significant and important is paying off. So we'll continue to work on PLC's, PBIS and presence again at the district level, at the school level, down at the team grade levels and then in the individual classrooms and we know that has a direct impact on our students. So um that is all I have for an update for the attendance
013report for the board. >> Yeah. >> Um what were the numbers last year? >> That's a great question. I don't have them off the top of my head, but I know Robin and I were just talking about this. Uh, we were just talking about this. We were not as high. I do know that, but I don't have the exact percentage. >> We could go back and look at the to compare percent to percent at the end of the year. I pulled data in terms of how many students and it was close to 50% of the students more than last year, which is significant. Um, so but I didn't pull I guess. So we definitely can look into >> Yeah, >> absolutely. And then my other question you just said that is% what is >> with
014the prek is recorded but I don't know that their half day counts as a full day of attendance. Robin correct me that their go into that. I don't think it is. >> We don't have to have that for those. >> I don't think it's reported. >> I think I know for sure. >> There is an attendance piece related to the grant. >> Yes. >> So, I do know we do report it or have to report it to the state for the sake of the grant. Whether it actually physically makes it on our school report card, we could look into >> it. It would sound great to say 96%. I I think DLS would be really happy to be able to say that. But it does show we do have work to do that even the
015half-day program there is significance. Those half days, especially for the students who are identified to be in our prek program, it's critical that they are here every day. That's part of why the attendance is included for the grant and is a critical part of the grant funding, too. So, yeah, but we'll pull the existing to share that, too. Thank you. The second item we have for uh the update is in your folders this evening. I did include um a proposed district calendar for the upcoming school year. I just wanted to highlight a couple of things for the board tonight. Um this is not up for approval or review. It's nice and small font for for all eyes to see. We got it on we got it on one page. How about that? >> Thank you
016so much. We appreciate it. >> Yes, >> this year is really a a unique year and I know that out in the community there could be uh families sharing or discussing even with board members related to the construction project at Mundeline High School and the impact that that's going to have on the start dates over the next two years. For the next two years, they will be starting after Labor Day. Um, typically with our feed students feeding into both Mundeline High School and Stevenson High School, a a consideration we typically try to make is to mirror the schedules as closely as possible. Um, this year obviously there are significant discrepancies. So, we do have to prioritize. One thing that we have to prioritize as we create our calendar is that our high schoolbound eighth grade
017students are fully able to participate in summer school programming. So, as you look at this calendar, that's a critical piece that I I want you to be aware we are taking into consideration that all of our students are available whether they go into Monollayian High School or go into Stevenson, that our eighth graders are prepared and ready in time to be available to attend the summer school programming. This year in particular, we want to be mindful mindful and solution focused with our calendar that it takes into account that our families do rely on the older siblings and we know the discrepancy this year in particular is a critical part. We have been working with the park district to see what offerings we could align. We have a meeting tomorrow with our um grant, our FCSA
018grant to be able to see if we could potentially continue to have funding through this summer. We know that was a substantial piece last summer. We're hoping that funding does continue. They keep telling us maybe next week we'll know for sure. Maybe next week we we will know for sure. But as of now, December is when that funding would end. We're hoping the grant does get extended, but we're working with the community partners to try to be solution focused because we do know there could be an opportunity where families need that additional support. Um the proposed calendar that you have in front of you tonight was shared at the superintendent advisory council team last week which is individuals three individuals from each of our schools. They come to the meeting. Um they're able to take
019a look at this. They were really empowered with going back to their building teams to share this and gather the staff feedback by October 17th. Um, we'd like to collect their feedback and bring a final proposed calendar along with considerations for our families to the November Board of Education for you to review. We want you to have the initial draft in front of you and then um potentially approve then the final calendar in December. We think it's critical for our families in terms of planning to be able to have as much time as possible um to have that. So in front of you, what you do see is a typical start date similar to a start date that we have this year. Um you'll see in the proposed calendar that went forward to our staff
020three teacher institutes versus two with the idea that we would focus potentially on a district day, a school level day, and then an individual teacher day for institute day to start out the year. You'll notice a couple other changes um including we are looking to potentially run a half day on the day of homecoming for Mundeline High School. What we did notice is a lot of families because they do the parade at 3:00 um pulled students out early and we had some attendance issues related to that. We also want our students to potentially fully participate in the homecoming parade if they'd like to and a lot of our students do um with different groups and organizations. So we are looking to potentially include that. I am happy to report Halloween is on a Saturday. So,
021um that is a beautiful thing. So, for the next two years, we will enjoy the uh Halloween on a weekend. Um so, we have Halloween on a Saturday. So, you'll notice we do not have the half day on that on the calendar in October. Some additional things to highlight that are on the proposed calendar is we did align our spring break to 1275 um and over to Stephvenson High School so that all of our spring breaks then would be in alignment. So I think that that's critical with our families in terms of planning for uh vacations. And then the last day of school that we are proposing with the current schedule that's you see or calendar you see in front of you would be the Friday before Memorial Day. I don't know that our attendance
022is necessarily ideal when we go a day or two after that. I think families tend to um view those as less critical days. So, um this mirrors similar in a lot of ways to our current calendar, but um just wanted to highlight those changes. Again, we'll gather staff feedback by October 17th. Bring those feedback that the staff provided as well as uh potential solutions to that gap. Right now, if we end on the 28th, the gap between our end of our school year and the end of the Mundeline High School school year will be approximately 8 days. So, that would be the difference. So, just wanted the board to be aware of that at this point. And then we'll gather the feedback from staff and bring that forward for uh November review and December approval.
023>> So, when does Mundeline get out? Mundeline doesn't get out until they eight like eight weekdays or 86. >> They get out I believe those June 9th if I'm not mistaken. It's it it's eight school days. Yes. So the weekends aren't included in that. >> Nth or 10th. Yes. Thank you. >> Yeah because we have Memorial Day in there. You are right. Anyone have any questions? >> Um, I just want to come and say like I appreciate that we're looking at the interest of both of the high schools. Um, I think it's awesome to give the kids a half day for homecoming. It's really nice to allow kids to participate in that. Um, especially since it is such a big kind of community event at this point and they've kind of expanded as they were
024talking about as Corey was talking about today. they've changed the route so it goes through neighborhoods and stuff and it's nice to allow um families to be a part of that and I also appreciate that consideration is taken for the eighth graders that want to attend summer school at Stevens in high school because that is you know about 20% of that class and due to their attendance rules they really can't miss any of those days. Um, and it's it was a sad year, the time that we had to change our calendar because of our own construction when all of those eighth graders had to miss all of the fun kind of end of the year activities. So, I mean, it's always nice to be able to celebrate them and recognize their accomplishments. So >> just
025to piggy back on that even this year's calendar um if your student graduated on a Thursday they started summer school the following Monday >> Monday or Tuesday quote me on that but it's there's no turnaround time there's because high schools generally are off the week before >> so that that staff has had an opportunity to prop that is appreciated because a lot of those. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. We will move on to the business agenda. We have one item up for action um which is the omnibus vote agenda. My papers are sticking together. Um items under the anus votage under are considered routine and non-controversial and will be approved by one motion. If anyone board member, staff or administrator or citizen wishes to have a separate vote on any item or items,
026that item or items will be pulled from the omnous vote agenda and voted on separately. Um please note this is and I probably should have said this before I started reading the motion, but this is a little bit unique because of um the timing of this month. We want to make sure that the district can pay its bills on time. So, we are going to be authorizing pre-approval not to exceed a certain amount. Um, so 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? >> Yes. Crutchfield. >> Yes. Yeah, >> that motion is approved. Um the next item on the business agenda is just for review and that is reviewing the latest
027um press issue which is press 119 for policy updates. Um as usual today is our meeting kind of to review. If people have questions or would like to discuss we can definitely do that and we will vote on this at our next meeting which isn't until November. Um, so if anyone would like to discuss, we can do that. If you feel like when we get to November that you would like more discussion, we can do that as well. Um, did anyone have anything they wanted to discuss or anything that concerned them? It was relatively short this time, mainly the fiveyear review. So, okay. Um then if nobody has any questions, we will move on to board discussion. Um for board discussion this evening, I know that there's been kind of a flurry of meetings and
028so I figured this would be a good time for those um board members that attended the various meetings just kind of give an update. So do we want to start with the Mundeline feeder schools meeting? I believe Tina and Nikki and Erin, you attended that. I don't know if anyone wants to give a specific update or >> Sure. So, um, one of the big things that was discussed is Mandeline's, um, new ordinances, um, for infesting. Um, they tried to align them with some of the neighboring villages, but something got kind of skewed along the way. So, um, Fremont is experiencing like I think they're getting like less than 30% or somewhere around 30% of what they been previously getting um for new development. So, if you're not familiar with impact fees, like that's what a
029developer would pay to the school um just to cover potential like future construction costs um for the students, the new students that would be added. Um but yeah, so it they are planning on putting together a letter to send to the village um just stating that we would like them to re that. And um >> I think one of the things that did come out of it is they were looking, Fremont was looking to see if all of the feeder uh school district board of educations would be willing to be included on the letter to say maintaining the impact fees as they currently do exist and not to um reduce the impact fees because the reduced impact fee would essentially impact all of the taxpaying body as those are fees that also go to the
030libraries, the park district. So our tax base while it wouldn't necessarily impact us with additional students, the Ivanho subdivision wouldn't necessarily impact us with the the new students and additional facilities that we would need, Fremont does need, it does impact our tax base related to that. So they were looking for potentially maybe just a straw poll from the the board if they would be in support of the letter. um myself, Trisha Cassandra, the the Fremont superintendent, and Pete Hanigan along with Corey Tafoya from um the high school district would be the the individuals that would help to create the letter if the board would want us to be a part of it. >> Excellent. I'll I'll submit the letter to all of you to see and view previous to anything being submitted, but excellent. We
031meet next week as a leader superintendent group. So we should have something by the end of that meeting. >> Remont feels into Stevenson, too. >> Yeah, they're sticking kind of with their original calendar, >> but I know Yeah. 75 is is completely switching to follow >> and Hawthorne is sticking with their current calendar. >> Yeah, I think that was the largest part of the conversation from that meeting. Eric, that's a little concerning. H okay. Um then from the there was the Mundling area joint officials meeting this morning. Um I'm trying to see uh the mayor shared that they have an Ivanho website that's updated. They're going to have a drone show on October 24th. Um there should be information about that and the and it's there's going to be food trucks and it sounds like
032kind of a fun family event. Um they basically were talking about the um the Walnut Ridge annexation and the FNC development moving forward. Um that was kind of their update. Um the Lake County Education Foundation was there and they talked about um the Dolly Parton Imagination Library um foundation and so they gave everyone a bookmark where you can scan it and get those free books. So that's fantastic for students. um it's like up to five years old. Um but anyway, that it's fantastic program and and they're really working to try to get, you know, any child that would like a book to have a book um to make sure everyone has books in their house, which was fantastic. Um Erin talked about and I mean I'm gonna preview something she'll probably talk about um in
033more depth later, but just was asking for assistance with the potential I do um program uh construction that's going to basically go right in front of our schools by the railroad tracks um and obviously would have a significant impact on getting kids to campus but also for any kind of um safety services whether that's the sheriff or um being able to access the campus. Um >> really looks like that could be a potential nightmare for quite a few years. So um it looks like we uh I guess the mayor said that they had just gotten something and she was going to send that to Erin and then uh Senator Hills was also going to connect us with someone from I do. So that was great. And then um h and then we talked about transportation
034costs as well because I think as you all know that um with uh kind of the increase in the McKini Vento students and busing them to different areas our transportation costs have dramatically risen in the last uh year or so. Um so that's something obviously we're concerned about. Um, I'm trying to think. There wasn't a lot uh more going on, I don't think. Um, Fremont did discuss the the uh impact fees. Um, and so obviously that's an ongoing issue for them. Um, I don't know if there was anything else. I don't think there's there was it's great opportunity though, this collaborative opportunity to put all of us in that same room. Big shout out to the sheriff, the Lake County Sheriff. >> Oh, Sarah. She an absolutely remarkable job. She's been keeping us updated as
035a district and then in the the meeting related to reunification opportunities for us to sit through trainings. I know um there's been some trainings that both Robin and Eric Rogers have gone to and there's one the three of us are going to be going to in December coming up. So she's been these opportunities to come together a great opportunity because it does make a connection and then she thinks of us when other things come up too. So, she's also looking at the ID dot opportunities that it would have in terms of lack of access potentially to our campus for um in the event something ever would happen. So, she's on it and doing some investigation from us and as soon as I get anything from the mayor, I will forward it along so we're all
036looped in. Um but yeah, it'll happen sometimes right now between 2025 and 2030. Right. A little window. Yeah, it's a little window. So, okay. So, that's kind of that update. And then I know that Emily and Erin attended the Verden Hills joint officials meeting. So, I don't know if you guys want to give an update on that. I don't think there's like an ordinance here yet. We did discuss that this morning too because um basically it seems like every town is slightly different and you not everything could be enforced. So they were talking about potentially looking at legislation at the state level because basically um the Mundeline police chief I think said this well like the technology has outpaced the law on this and so nobody really anticipated um kind of I think the popularity
037and then also the speed of these the bikes. Yeah. Yeah. No, the only thing the the police chief added is um families are afraid to call 911 potentially because of they think the police are working in conjunction with ICE and in turn when things are happening they may not be getting the support that they need and really emphasizing to our families if there is an emergency you can still call 911. there's no connection um at a federal and state in a local level related to that and that if families do need support, they should be calling 911 in an emergency and they will get the the local support that they do need. So, um but they're finding that families aren't calling 911 in fear that there's a connection. So just I'm discussing that again. This
038was our first Vernon Hills and I just want to emphasize it's been a great part it it was a great partnership and a great opportunity for us to make connections. There are parks that directly impact our families that were discussed. Um a lot of things that absolutely impact D76 families and it was great to be able to have a seat to be a collaborative partner in that room for the first time which is great. That's great. Thank you for doing that. Absolutely. It's great. >> Okay. Um I think that concludes board discussion unless anybody has anything else. Um we do not have any foyer requests, notices and communications. We do not have any. Um do we have any public comments or petitions on on non-aggenda items? Okay. And moving on to others. I did get
039the um did just I get this? Okay. So, I did get the um the resolutions report from the um from AISB. I we will I will get you guys a link to this because they have it online. Um and we can review it at the next meeting and we will probably need to vote on it at the next meeting too. Um Tina volunteered to be our delegate and so Hyram registered her for that today and then like I said we'll get you guys um all link to those resolutions. Normally they email them to us too but I don't did anyone get an email any of that. Okay. So since you didn't get an email with that um I'll make sure that we get you a copy of that and then um we'll go through and
040kind of discuss them and vote on them. I just got this tonight, so I haven't like previewed anything to tell you if there's anything controversial or interesting or anything that would impact us directly. >> Oh, you do have it. Okay, good. >> Okay. >> Oh, it's in your packet. Okay, perfect. No, it's because she's gonna >> Oh, because you're in the delegate. Never mind. >> Okay. I don't remember. Okay, if you got in the email and that's perfect. I don't remember seeing it, but I also >> Yeah. >> Great. >> So, a while ago. Okay. If you don't have it, send me a note. Um, it's on their website, too, and we can go from there on the ETH. I don't actually That's funny. Um, okay. Uh, that is my update on that. Also, I
041was going to say that I don't know if everyone got the email from the Stevenson High School feeder. Did you all get that? Tina didn't get that. Elizabeth, did you get that? >> There's two events. Yeah. So, I will um I don't know if they got the the new board members. I know Erin didn't get it initially. >> Yeah. You did get that. Okay. So, they um so they're on there is two events that they're planning. The dinner is open to the entire board. Um they basically the setup for that is they will mix our board up with the boards of the other seven schools that feed into or six I guess because it's seven total that feed into Stevens. And so there will be um administrators there. There will be board members there from
042all the different boards. And then there's going to be discussion on AI um with that we all can attend. There's no MA issues with that. Um and I know uh some of us attended that last year. >> Okay. >> Re Yeah. She's like the uh 125 secretary. Yeah. Um and then the uh the following meeting is the one that we can only send two people to because it it will um for the legislative meeting uh because it will have impact. So um but that's not until next year at this point. Um so if you I don't remember if in her email there's RSP instructions for the dinner if it's just to get on the calendar, but I think they generally follow up and there's like a Google form you could fill out to RSP. Um
043but it's a very interesting event because you'll get to meet people from all the different school boards and um obviously 79 is usually there too. So over >> Yeah. I thought it was collaborative. >> We can all attend. >> No, we can all attend because it's not there's no uh board business being discussed. >> Yeah, it was a very nice event. So, if it works for your calendar, it's great. Um yeah, so that's I just wanted to get that on everyone's radar. Does anyone have anything else for others? Okay. Then we will adjourn to executive session for the appointments, 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
044determine its validity. May I have a motion to adjourn to executive session, please? Okay, thanks everybody. It's nice to see all of you.