[6/23/25] D65 - School Board Meeting

001Good evening everybody. Welcome to our regular board meeting. Uh I'm going to ask a deal to do the roll call, please. Today is Monday, June 23rd, 2025. This is the regular board meeting for district 65. Um roll call. Opike here. Wilkins here. Wymer here. Anderson here. Hernandez here. Thank you. All right, let me read the land acknowledgement. Last item. We take time to acknowledge that the land we meet on is the traditional homelands of the council of three fires. The Pawatami, Ojiu, and Odawa. This land also served as an important meeting place for Miami, Ho Chunk, the Monamin, Inoka, Sack, Fox, Poria, Arapjo, Cheyenne, and other tribal nations. This land has long been a center for indigenous people to gather, trade, and maintain kinship ties. Located at the intersection of several great waterways, the region

002has become the site of travel and prosperity. We acknowledge Evston and John Evans are tied to the massacre of the Arapjo and Cheyenne for railroads and westward expansion upon which John Evans developed his wealth and founded Evston. This land was violently taken under settler colonialism through genocide and open warfare and the region that is now Illinois and Chicago land is still home to thousands of native people who are actively struggling for sovereignty, self-determination, and justice. The genocidal acts of settler colonialism extended to peoples of Africa and their enslaved descendants. Despite Illinois eventually prohibiting slavery, slavery was an accepted practice before and after statehood. The vestage of slavery remained throughout the United States and helped define the African diaspora. The genocidal patterns of violence against peoples of African descent and indigenous people have been replicated to

003exclude and harm people from many intersecting marginalized identities in the United States. religious, minoritized, disabled, and LGBTQI identified peoples, black and indigenous people of color, and people of color at large. These patterns demonstrate that the pursuit to end state action violence against BIPAC is a daily struggle for liberation from continued social, political, and economic anti-black racism and oppression. Today, we acknowledge that we are living, breathing, loving, grieving, laughing, and sharing space on unseated territory. May we learn to honor the historical and contemporary presence and power of the people and their belief that we must be caretakers of the lands and waters for the livelihood of future generations. We encourage everyone to continue to expand their knowledge and reduce their harm through the awareness of local mutual aid models for survival and through engagement with online

004and local resources such as the Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative and the the Shorefront Legacy Center. All right, so the next item up on our agenda is our district update. So, I'll give it over to our superintendent. Oh, oh, I'm sorry. Approval of meeting agenda. Sorry, I'm skipping here. Um, yes. I move that the board of education approve today's meeting agenda as presented. Second. Yes. Wilkins, yes. Wymer, yes. Anderson, yes. Hernandez, yes. Now we're up for our district updates. All right. Tonight we are recognizing our May recipients of the High Five Celebrating Excellence in District 65 award. The final recipients for this school year. This is always a joyful moment in our meeting and I can say firsthand that our new format of surprising staff and their schools with special recognition in front of their

005students and peers really makes this a takes this up a notch. I would like to thank by line bank for its continued support and sponsorship of the program. Our recipients received a gift card frame certificate and high- five uh water bottle all sponsored by Bine Bank. In May, we were delighted to recognize Eva, I know I'm pronouncing Miss Eva's name wrong, Shilaman, school age child care coordinator at Dwey Elementary, and Brenda Martinez, a classroom educator at Dr. Betsy Rhodess. Thanks to Kamika and her Hannah for the work they did to make this recognition series possible this school year. Let's turn up the J factor with a short video recap. [Applause] I want to bring my song about [Music] [Applause] [Music] my sister and professionally respect. Thank you. Those are all of the comments. [Applause] Thank

006you so much. And on behalf of the board, again, I appreciate all our high- five recipients. uh hoping that they and as well as all our teachers who just again um finished up school are having a a restful restful summer. Uh the next item up on our agenda is public comments. Members of the public are welcome and invited to address the board during open public meetings. Speakers are discouraged from using the public comment period to air specific concerns about staff members, being mindful that the public comment period is not a suitable form for factf finding or resolution of disputes. Rather, we encourage members of the public who have concerns about specific district employees to follow district communication guidelines found in the student handbook. Please remember to state your name and that you have three minutes

007to address the board. Also note that it is not customary for the board to respond to public comments. The best way to correspond with members of the board is by emailing schoolboard district 65.net. And with that, Adila, do we have any folks? Yes. Um, we'll start off with Jason Orof followed by Terry Shepard. Good evening. So, my name is Jason Oroff and I am the father of two district 65 students students. I'm also on the um the fiscal committee and I'm wondering has anybody heard that our that at our last fiscal committee last Wednesday that that light fixture was hit by the divider and crashed into us. Ironically, as I have been advocating for the need to address maintenance because it wasn't that it hit that thing once. The meeting before it was hit and

008it didn't fall. the meaning before that it hit was hit and it was it didn't fall all the way back to its installation has probably been being hit and the metal has fatigued and that fatigue is what happened that broke it failed catastrophically and thank God it landed at us the fiscal committee instead of a preschooler. So in advocating for us to consider the need for maintenance, the deferred maintenance that has gone on for what 20 30 years now. I would I would like us to consider it as part of the financial problem today. that our problem isn't just the $ 13.5 million of the structural deficit, but also the $200 million in deferred maintenance from all the other school boards of the past who stole from the future to pay for their present. We

009are left holding the bag for a $200 million problem. Now, part of our charge is to come up with other ideas and uh I think there's one worth considering because we're in tough times and it's easy to close down and move into cut close and sell mode. But if you keep cutting and you keep closing and you keep selling, eventually there's going to be nothing left of this district. And instead of closing and selling, instead of a fire sale on our school buildings, considering that $200 million deferred maintenance, what if we were to close the four schools and instead of selling them, renovate them? Because we have a historic opportunity right here with our low enrollment. It might feel like a crisis, but it is also an opportunity. With 50% enrollment, we could move those

010students from one school and send them to a sister school. We could renovate that first school. We could close four or five schools and have enough to pay for the renovation over several years. And when that's done, those students could go back to their home school. And even better, the hosts for those four years, they could join them and their schools could get fixed and they could rotate out. we could cover the entire school district so that by the time 10 years from now when there's an ombic surprise baby boom or there is a successful push to bring in uh mixed income housing and our population grows and our students grow in 10 years we will have the facilities still to serve them. Thank you. I was at the meeting when the light fell. I

011saw the light fall. And he's telling the truth, every time you open the door, the light just swung back and forth like that. And that Wednesday night, it just went kaboot. Okay. My name is Terry Sheepard. However, I'm not going to read a document that I wrote. This is from Nidra Barry. Nidra Berry was a kindergarten uh teacher for 15 years at Oakton Elementary School and she taught ACC. So I asked her to write something and she did. So this is from her and I'll give you this so you know it's not from me. Okay. Dear board, my name is Nidra Barry and I began my career working for district 65 in 1982. I worked at Oakton Elementary School and retired in 2015 after rendering 33 years of service. My years at Oakton were incredibly

012rewarding, especially in 2006 when the ACC program was introduced. The program launched with three grade levels, kindergarten, first and second grade. I was one of the three founding teachers along with Claudia Braithweight and Dita Francis. Our mission was to empower students by providing them with a curriculum that reflects their heritage, identity, and unique experiences. We approached this by infusing the curriculum with African culture, history, and values. We are proud of the success of the ACC program. Students who enrolled from kindergarten through fifth grade not only excelled academically, but also developed the skills necessary to navigate the world with confidence. Our students finished the program with a strong sense of self and an even stronger sense of pride. The program and curriculum were designed to foster cultural pride and build self-confidence. As the program grew and

013additional grades were added, we faced the challenge of developing our own curriculum. This was successfully accomplished under the guidance of Dr. Jamila Pittz. For the ACC program to continue its success, it needs the full support of the board. Below are a few suggestions to help ensure that. Promote and advertise the ACC program on various social media platforms. This will help increase enrollment. Enrollment wouldn't be a recurring concern if the district made a stronger effort to promote it. Continue to offer professional development to ACC staff. Bring back Dr. Scott and other experts in the field. collaborate with staff to learn more about their thoughts and professional growth needs. Expand the program, open a second strand at another school. This was a promise the board made years ago but never followed through on. The program should be

014available to all students in district 65. In closing, I would like to leave you with a quote from Nelson Mandela. Education is the great engine of personal development. It is through education that the daughter of a peasant can become a doctor. That the son of a mine worker can become the head of the mind. That the child of a farm worker can become the head of a great nation. It is what we make out of what we have, not what we are given that separates one from another. This is the essence of what we offer our students through the ACC program. the belief that just like their ancestors with hard work, determination, and a strong sense of self they can become anything they want to be. Thank you. Nerberry. [Applause] Next, we have Tasha Shepard

015followed by Tracy Wallace. Right. Good evening, board. My name is Tasha Shepard. Um, clearly I'm an Evston resident, born and raised here. I am an ACC parent. My daughter is a rising fifth grader in the ACC program who has been flourishing in that program. I spoke a few weeks ago on behalf of the program going to um the foster school. And so I am speaking on behalf of Rebecca Raa Rawa Buo. Um she is presently in Africa right now on vacation, but these are her words and I'm speaking on her behalf. When I joined college in America, I was thrust into a liberal arts education system in which to be white, male, and rich was the norm. I was black, a woman, and not rich. So I was quote unquote other, but I was also

016from a large wonderful world that was a lot of things. It was diverse, Sunfield, made of large, loud families, and offered joys that were incoherent to capitalistic structures. As an undergraduate, I did not know that the system was not meant for me. I knew that it did not feel good. And by the end of my college education, thanks to the very, very wonderful teachers that I had, I realized what I was missing. I understood why classes on African women writers and poetry from the Caribbean were more enjoyable than the rest. So when I returned to America with a child, there was no doubt about my placing her in the African center curriculum at Oakton. Every time I join the community at the annual Quanza celebrations and crossover in May, I cannot believe how lucky we

017are to have such a program in a public education system. My daughter has been in ACC through kindergarten, first grade, and she has just completed her second grade with Miss Francis this academic year. She reads and learns about blackness in the fullness of the black world, not as an outside of the system, but as part of a world that is both hers and others. As a parent, I was afraid that she would come to hate herself for this thing that she cannot change. With the ACC, I got something different. I got celebration and the expansion of the world. This year she read to me some Langston Hughes poetry. She dressed up as Amanda Gorman and wrote a biography of her and she decided that she wanted to be just like Sonia Sodtoayor when she grows

018up. It is beyond the social studies too. She approaches hard math problems without pause and I find all kinds of experiments ongoing in her room. I know without a doubt because I have been a student that it is because her identity and her place in the classroom is not a question. She sees herself every time she walks into her ACC classroom. She recognizes the stories and she knows the sound of that room and all that means her mind can just settle in and learn. And a cur if a curriculum can do that for young learners and the ACC 100% delivers on that then every chance to give learners this opportunity should be taken. Thank you. [Applause] Good evening. My name is Tracy Wallace. Um, I am a lifelong Evstonian member of the the first desegregated

019class to go through district 65. I attended Central School and Nicholls where my generation learned to read from Dick and Jane and watched Spot. Where we were taught a version of history that praised our founding fathers, men who enslaved my ancestors. We were told the Civil War was about states rights and Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves. The first time I saw people who looked like me in a textbook, they were either stereotypically characterized or packed shouldertosh shoulder in the belly of a slave ship, drawn like furniture in a shipping diagram. This image never left me. 25 years ago, Terry Shepard asked me to join her as co-chair of the strategic planning district for district the committee for district 65. which was supposed to address the achievement gap. I learned civic engagement by sitting at the

020feet of my elders. They saw something in me that I hadn't yet fully realized in myself. Through hard through that work, through the wisdom of her husband, the late Lloyd Sheepard, my fraternity brother, I began to shed the skin of assimilation. Brother Shephard showed me that what it looked like to speak truth, not just for comfort, but for change. That's when I started using the phrase drive by diversity. Because in Evston, diversity often serves as a window dressing feel-good language for white folks while the needs of black children remain unmet. and too many still carry the fear that anything designed to uplift black students somehow diminishes their own. The real fear is a level playing field. I was proud to serve on the committee that fought unwaveringly for the African centered curriculum at Oakton. At

021the time, I didn't fully know what an afroentric classroom would look like. Somewhere in the back of my colonized mind, I could hear the whisper, "White folks ain't going to let you do it." But they did reluctantly. And for 19 years, the ACC at Oakton has proven the its value, not as a theory, not as a test run, but as a lived success. academic gains, cultural pride, empowerment of children, black students thriving in classrooms where they were centered, seen, and affirmed. So, I'll close with this. Marvel has a series called What If? Stories that ask how a single change could rewrite the entire universe. What if the new Foster School, currently named for a Northwestern president, Randall Sinks Foster, who stayed for just four years, was renamed to the Dr. Hardy Murphy School of Academic

022Excellence, honoring a person who dedicated his career to working here in the district. What if the halls were lined with portraits of Dr. May Jes Fanny Liu Hamer Webb De Boyce Zoran Neil Hursten George Washington Carver Barack Hussein Obama not just for decoration but a daily affirmation. What if the curriculum curriculum was guided by Mayat truth justice for order balance? All the children learn through All the children learn through African- centered frameworks that promote inquiry, dignity, and community-based problem solving. Would black students benefit? Without question. Would all students benefit? Absolutely. Would some people be uncomfortable? Maybe. But discomfort is not injustice. Ignorance is. As we move forward, let's remember the same kofa, the Guyana pryan principle that says we must go back and reclaim what is lost in order to move forward with in power.

023The ACC is not about exclusion. It's about restoration. It's not a departure. It's a return. It's a return to truth. a return to cultural excellence. A return to teaching that affirms identity based on based instead of erasing it. This doesn't ask for permission. This is about standing in legacy. What if we build a school where every child could see themselves reflected in the on the walls, in the books, and in the lessons? What if we finally stopped whispering equity and started living it out loud? Thank you. Next we have Carl Wellelbank followed by Mary Rematowski. Cara was signed in. Oh, okay. Okay. So, no. Great. Okay. I believe that concludes public comments for tonight. All right. Thank you members of the public for sharing your comments, concerns. Um, next up on the agenda is our

024discussion item, which is the SDRP update. So, we're going to be hearing about some school closing criteria. So, I'm going to give it over to Dr. Stacy Pearsley. The I think the presentation is more broadly an SDRP update. Correct, Susan? Yep. And we'll category and criteria will be part of the presentation tonight. Perfect. So, good evening board. Um, we're here to provide you with an update on SDRP phase three part one. Um, thank you. So, um, we really always want to ground ourselves on what is the work and what has been done to date. So, first we're going to give you some background. And tonight I'm really pleased to bring forward uh some of our committee members and our staff that have led the various groups and subcommittees that are working on the various facets

025of what we're trying to accomplish as part of um strategic deficit reduction plan uh phase three. Um so just always good because not everybody's always following this as closely as we all are probably in this room. Um the problem was identified in FY24 and quickly the staff turned into uh what are some immediate reductions that could take place to um address what we know is a structural deficit for the district. Um they identified $6.5 million of reductions for this fiscal year and that went into place. um in FY25 um went into a hiring fees freeze, eliminated some positions, uh made some immediate reductions to our purchase services and work to develop the SDR framework, which is really important of including stakeholder engagement. And tonight, you're going to see how that is working specifically with the

026subcommittees. And we'll also talk about how we continue to ground all the things that we do in alignment with making sure whatever we bring forward to the board that we understand what we're getting as stakeholder feedback. Um in January uh we worked alongside Dr. Turner and the staff to identify for first uh phase two how we can stabilize the district and we recommended originally $15 million worth of reductions. I think the final amount that we came up was is 13.3 in reductions that the board approved and so those will go into effect 2025 and I know the staff is working diligently because a lot of that uh represented uh reductions in staff um and primarily specifically a lot of positions here at central office. Again, we grounded our work in what the community um provided

027to us and that was the proposal that got brought forward to the board and was approved. So, now we're in phase three, which is how do we get to financial sustainability? Um, at this point, uh, Andrew, I think last time you called us out on this, we're still waiting for the, uh, final, uh, close out of the fiscal year 25, and we're looking at anywhere between 10 and 15 million of reductions. We will have a better number for you probably early August. Um, and really understanding, um, I know Dr. Turner has put a lot of good measures in place to really get their hands wrapped around how do we get that number addressed as closely as possible right now and put measures into place and um I know there's been some areas in the budget

028that are trending well so those should carry through. The expectation though is we would engage in phase three. uh we have multiple parts. We'll go through that at the very end of how we're approaching this work. Um because it isn't it's a very complex problem to solve. Um the plan is we began our work in February and the uh final proposal will be brought forward to you October, November of what are our next steps to get us to financial sustainability with the plan that those reductions would go into place in July 1st 2026. want to just make sure that everybody understands what our problem is. Um this is what our ending um surplus would uh deficit would be in the bottom right hand corner um right now projected um FY26 even with the 13.2 2

029million or no if we did nothing. I believe I'm not sure which one this is, but we would be $36 million in the red by FY28 if we don't do anything. And then what days cash on hand would be there as well as what we've historically seen. So in 21 and 22 we did have revenues exceeded expenditures but in 23 24 and what we're projecting for this current budget and again that $16.7 million is prior to the $13.3 million in reduction. We would see uh the district operating in multiple years of deficits. And what that means is you are taking your savings account and using it to pay for those um deficits. One of the pieces that um is going to be brought forward tonight, which is we've had the facilities committee working on if

030we were to consider uh any consolidations and closures, what would that criteria uh and waiting be if we chose to consider closing schools as part of the deficit reduction? Um, part of the rationale behind that is again that could be a component of financial stability and again we'll bring forward to you some of the recommendations for the finance committee on what some of that could look like. Um, as was mentioned earlier tonight, there are buildings in need of significant repairs and improvement and the district has been experiencing declining student enrollment and underutilized schools. This represents some of the data in which we're working with. Currently, the entire budget for the district is 189 million. And again, over the last two years going into next year, we will have made $20 million in operational reductions. But

031even with that, in order to return the district to financial sustainability, there's still an additional reduction that needs to take place. Part of the structural piece that's there is expense growth is outpacing revenues by 2.3%. So if we keep spending more money than we're bringing in, that creates the structural deficit that we're addressing. As well as the fact when we go into the second phase, we have 18 school buildings, eight square miles. The average building age is 79 years old. And based upon a uh two to threeyear-old uh facilities uh review that was done, there's $188 million of repairs and maintenance that needed to be done to the 18 school buildings. And each of those buildings were evaluated between poor and very poor. The last piece that again, why are we looking at consolidations and

032closures? roughly 6,200 students that we have, but we've had continuation and declining enrollment. A big factor that was identified in the uh demographers report is we have an aging population. Um uh houses aren't turning over, people are staying in their homes and therefore that leads to the students that are currently in the system are in the houses and then parents aren't having or people aren't having students in their schools. Our overall occupancy rate, right? what is the number of students that we can house versus the number of students we have is roughly 65%. Um the census of 2020 continues to reflect um a decreasing of our youth under 13 and the district's enrollment average is at 79.3% uh prior to pre prep preandemic student enrollment. So just as an overview again, we were charged with

033how do we make sure as we approach this work for the board through the direction of Dr. Turner, how do we get community voice as part of what understanding what the problem is and helping be part of the solution. Um what's really important is how do those pieces work together? What's important at the end of the day, the final recommendation is the boards to make. And so our working through these committee is how do we come up with some recommendation that we believe that the community will get behind but ultimately we're engaging with the finance committee, facilities committee and student programming committee. Um we will talk about what their work has been what their uh focus has been for this first part and we actually will have them present to you on what they discovered

034through this process. Um ultimately everything we do and even starting as early as next week uh the work that has been brought forward by the facilities committee will be going out to the community for additional feedback and information that we will disagregate and bring back to the board to inform the final decision that you will have to make. So overarching again what each committee subcommittee's charge was finance is really focused on the budget deficit and returning to financial sustainability. Had a lot of really strong people that have a strong financial acumen that's within that group that have been diligently working on challenging Tamara and I on how do we get ourselves to a place that returns us to financial sustainability. We heard some of the creativity earlier tonight. Um the facilities committee uh led by

035Dr. Beardsley is really looking at declining enrollment in an aging facilities and they had robust conversation. Um we work closely with uh Dr. Fenau from my firm with Stacy. Stacy's team has done an amazing job on facilitating what will be the biggest portion of tonight which is what the committee has come forward with their recommendation on the criteria and waiting if we are to move forward with closing any schools. How would we do that in a systemic way? And then lastly, Dr. Spth has been working with the programs committee um in alignment with the district's finances and facility challenges. How do we maximize and ensure not going into curriculum, not going into what we teach and how we teach it, but how do we maximize the programs that we offer in this district to make

036sure that it's provided in a way that is done with a very focused approach with knowing that we've got limited finances and we do know that we've got diminishing enrollment. So I believe the next phase is Oh, and then additionally, what's really critically important that we've done and tried to align ourselves with every step of the way as we've been charged with our work, which is making sure that we ground each facilities uh each subcommittee's work in your racial equity impact assessment. When we did this work for phase two, we came forward and provided an overview of what we brought forward as recommendations and making sure you understood what we felt would represent impact to racial equity in each one of those scenarios. we will do the same and each committee's been um provided that

037background information as well as the sustainability plan that was presented probably about a month or two ago on how do we also look at incorporating good sustainable practices as part of the ongoing plan understanding we have to still get ourselves back to a balanced budget. So, next I'd like to invite up um Tamara Mitchell, your chief financial officer, and Kevin Jack Jackson and Mary Ramatowski, who served on the finance uh subcommittee. Good evening, everyone. Um I want to give Kevin and Mary just a moment to quickly introduce themselves and just say a couple of sentences, two or three sentences about yourself. Sure. Uh Kevin Jackson. I've lived in Evston since 2023. Uh my son goes to Kingsley. Um, and I'm the CFO of an energy company. Hi, good evening. I'm Mary Ramatowski. Um, relocated from

038St. Louis, Evston a couple years ago. Have a rising fourth grader at Dwey. Um, currently an audit partner at Ernston Young. All right. Thank you both very much. Uh, so we'll get into the next portion of the presentation. So, as Dr. Harkin mentioned the purpose of the finance subcommittee really was to focus on the district's budget deficit and the return to financial financial sustainability. The first part of this phase three work of the SDP is to develop a comprehensive list of options to address that structural deficit and facility improvement needs. So that's uh what the finance subcommittee has worked on over the past six meetings. This is the full finance subcommittee members. We just want to take a moment to thank all of those members and acknowledge their service during this process. Not everyone was

039able to make all six meetings, but we did have a majority of people there for all of our meetings. So, it was really um good to see so much community engagement, so much passion and interest and commitment into this work. So, we did want to take a moment to thank those community members, um, parents, caregivers, everyone who gave of their time for those six meetings. Our first couple of meetings were only an hour and a half in the evening. I say only an hour and a half, uh, because the next four meetings were two hours long. So, um, every other week, giving up that hour and a half or two hours of time was a definitely a commitment for our committee members. So, I'll start from the bottom up here on this slide and talk

040about what we covered for the six meetings of the finance subcommittee. So, for our very first meeting on April 9th, Dr. Harkin and I laid the groundwork of what we call finance 101, school finance 101. And that's where we shared the basics of school finance to kind of set the groundwork um and level set so that the subcommittee members had an understanding for school finance, the terminology that we would be talking about um and were more comfortable with how we would be moving forward with the discussions we were having in terms of language that would be used. that next meeting on April 23rd because we had so much robust conversation that first meeting on April 9th, there was some wrap-up that had to happen uh of that school finance 101, but then we did get

041into some vulnerabilities of cost reductions. So, some unintended consequences uh that could happen with cost reductions as we were walking through that process. May 7th featured a visit from the district's municipal adviser from PMA Securities. During that meeting, uh he shared some financial levers available to the district to address our capital needs as well as that structural deficit. On May 21st, we developed an understanding of the racial equity impact assessment and the group participated in an activity centered around how those uh actions that we may take as far as cost reductions may have an unintended consequence on our marginalized groups. So really applying the RIA tool to the various cuts and reductions we're talking about. On June 4th, we continued to review those financial levers available to District 65, uh the levers that Mr. Lewis

042from PMA Securities came out and discussed with the team and they were really able to apply what they learned during that May 7th meeting uh to work on running scenarios that would determine the feasibility of school closures using all of the known data available. And then our last meeting, which was just last week, we finalized a draft of potential revenue enhancements and expenditure reductions to address the structural deficit. uh and that's what we will get into in just a few slides. So I will now turn it over to Mary and Kevin and they will talk about uh some of the things that the finance committee learned. Thanks. Um so when we thought about what we were what we were trying to undertake, we all came from various backgrounds and various uh levels of understanding here.

043Um the thing that was kind of the most enlightening here was this issue does really stem back all the way to you know basically 20 years ago. Um the metric that we were using to to use that was that cash on hand that we looked at earlier. Um the only years where we had enough cash on hand to sustain ourselves were the years after referendums had had taken place. Um when we thought about the the challenges that we face, it's it's kind of a combination of all the things that that we do in the district. So how many buildings we operate, how full they are, and how that impacts the financials. And you'll see later in the the list here, what we really need is all three of those to really work together in a

044in more of a integrated operating plan um as opposed to just a budget going forward. Um the the economic conditions in the in the environment today are going to make this problem worse for us. Um whether that be interest rates that are going to stop people from moving into the community and selling their houses um or you know macroeconomic pressures from the federal government um things like that that push put more pressure onto the states put more pressure onto the the local school districts. Um to address this challenge we did look at scenarios that were as many as four schools closing um as part of the process here. Um, one of the things that that really was surprising to the community that was there was the building capacity at about 65%. And that the enrollment

045projections really do validate that's going to continue over the next few years, which does typically justify a lower lower school count in the future. Um, the the lack of integrated operating plan was was uh I kind of mentioned before like we we really need to see how all of our plans work together. We've got a facility plan. We've got a budget. We need to now start to marry those programs all together um and give a more multi-year view of of the future here. Um and then we did want to talk a lot about how we engage with the community um to continue to build trust and understanding of the issues here. It was surprising to lots of folks as to how you know intense some of these problems really are um and that you know

046frankly the the district may not be able to afford some of its enhanced offerings that we have in place. Um we had nothing really specific that we were looking at there but just the idea that creating a a set of benchmarks to understand what was a you know nice to have versus a need to have in some context there. Yeah. So we wanted to just provide a quick summary of as a group the the items that we came away with are you know are fell kind of to the top of the list as it relates to both revenue enhancements as well as um expenditure reductions because as Tamara said that was really the charge as we set out. Um I won't read them here but happy to take or address any questions. I will say,

047you know, these were put together over a six meeting period with, I would say, pretty limited amount of, you know, data underlying. As um Tamara mentioned, the um district will be closing out the fiscal 25 year. And so the expectation is when we return after the break that we'll have some more detailed information. Thank you both for that. Um, so just a few additional areas that we will review in the fall. So as we return from summer break and begin discussion again in the fall, we'll explore the items listed on this slide. So I'll go into a bit more detail for data processing and software cost. We'll uh this will include a deep dive into technology related contracts to determine the opportunity for eliminating some or reducing services for annual outsource staffing costs. We'll be

048analyzing those costs as compared to hiring in-house where possible. For special education services, we uh have engaged with a firm to do a special education audit. So, we'll be reviewing the outcomes of that special education audit as it relates to delivering services to our students. So, that will be uh any impacts at all to delivering those services to our students. from a community services perspective considering paid preschool or paid uh head start. So that is what that bullet point details for transportation. We will continue to explore ways to bring transportation costs down and that could include revisiting the free preschool transportation question and whether or not we should continue to provide that free preschool transportation. Uh and then for other purchase services, really evaluating all other purchase services expenditures that are uh hitting our budget.

049For next steps, uh we will provide additional information on specific items with dollar amounts. So all the things that are on that previous slide, we will attach dollar amounts to as many as possible. We'll continue exploring and identifying all potential revenue enhancements and expenditure reductions as well. And then we will build a model to develop scenarios that take into account potential school closures, funding sources for current and future master facility and health life safety projects as well as addressing the structural deficit. Uh one key li one key highlight from this slide that I want to note there at the bottom uh what was identified was the fact that we have many different components but not necessarily an integrated operational plan. So Kevin spoke a little bit about that. So for instance, we have that master

050facility plan. We have a 10-year health life safety plan. We have financial projections. But what we don't necessarily have is all of that information braided together into one operational plan. So that is uh a goal that we have as we move forward in this work. And I will now turn it over to the program subcommittee. Hi, I'm uh Katie Sp. I'm here to introduce Terry Shepard and Cara. I'm gonna That's good. Cara Welping. Cara Welping. Um Cara and Miss Shepard will actually do our presentation. So, you want me to drive for you? Please. Okay, there we go. Okay. As introduced, I'm Terry. This is Cara. we're going to present as a team on our structural deficit reduction program subcommittee. Before we get into that, I just want to let you all know this was a

051lot of work. It was a lot of work. I don't think any of us knew what we were getting into when we volunteered. It started off at an hour and a half and then we thought we don't even know what we're doing. We got to go to two hours. And we went to two hours and we could have probably used another 30, 40 minutes. It was a lot. So, I'm uh really happy that I had the opportunity to participate and I hope that uh we did our charge well and when we get to who was on our committee, if there's anyone here that served, I think you should stand up because this was a lot of work. We deserve everybody should know who you are. So, um we'll get in. We'll go right in our

052programs and our our subcommittee purpose. Now this slide outlines our committee purpose and the focus of our work during the six meetings we had. The purpose was to provide feedback on optimizing student programming in alignment with the district's finances and facilities challenges. Our part one focus was inventory of district programs. We evaluated their effectiveness and made recommendations to the facilities committee. The subcommittee will provide input around a cohesive plan that optimizes program placement and ensures equitable access to educational opportunities. As I said, I'm going to list your names because I think you should be not noticed and applauded for all this time we gave because we did notes around this room for six weeks trying to put everything in a in a cohesive order. So, uh, Dr. Sp, she was our, uh, our staff committee

053leader. Trisha Baker was from the staff. We have Liz Burley, Aaron Booker, John Brownley, Natalie Cooper, Melissa Denton, Claire Donovan, Scain, Dr. Susie Harkin, Jessica Isaac, Jessica Lang, Max Leasur, Michael Makans, Cooney, Carla Odonu, Matthew Roberts, Melissa Rosenwig, uh me, Jamie Wallace, Butcher, Carara, and Henry Wilms. So, thank you all. We We deserve a round of applause. We really do. That's a lot of work. Okay. Okay. All right. Um so we met on the same meeting dates as as the first committee. Um and running back through them um we met first on April 9th um to build a shared understanding of the programs across D65 including ACC twe u the dual language program early childhood and magnet programming. Um, our second meeting on April 23rd was a deep dive into the African- centered curriculum, magnet

054program, including its history, enrollment, and data. Then third meeting was a deep dive into Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Literacy and Fine Arts School, which is a magnet school, including its history, enrollment, and data. There's the theme. Um, the fourth meeting, we did a deep dive into the 2A immersion tweet program, including its history, enrollment, and data. Um and then a deep dive into the early childhood programming available in district 65 also including history enrollment and data. And then our last meeting we reviewed the data from the poster exercises we completed in each of those um deep dive meetings to prioritize our top recommendations. Okay. What the program subcommittee learned. This is the process we followed as we analyze each program. The tweed dual language and early childhood presentations included information from the SAP 3

055process. For each program we reviewed uh AC for I'm sorry for each program we reviewed academic seal and demographic data. Academic data, IRA, SY24, SEAL, attendance, chronic absenteeism, five essentials, ambitious instruction, involved families, supportive environment, and panorama data, demographic, enrollment, student resiliency and access, residency, I'm sorry, student residency and access. And for each pres uh presentation, we use guiding questions to inform our work. And that's those big tablets we had around pasted on the wall and everybody had to give their opinion. And it was it was really interesting. It was interesting. And on many of them, we felt the same. On some of them, you couldn't even tell we were the same people. Um but our process included reviewing academic seal and demographic data for each program. The tweed dual language and early childhood presentations

056also included outcomes from the SAP 3 process and the committee then analyzed data and information using the following guiding questions. Are we spe are our specialized programs located where families need and want them? This was very important to us. We thought this student should be near to what he needed. Shouldn't have to cross the city for it. What does the data tell us about student residence patterns and how does program location affect access and travel time for families? Which programs are producing the strongest student outcomes? And what facility or location factors contribute to their success? And how would school or program relocations, closures, or consolidations impact students, families, and equitable access to specialized programs? And how can we optimize use of space and resources while ensuring programs have the necessary facilities and support to maintain

057quality? All right. So, um, so then we get to our next steps. Um, So, we're going to go through each of those four programs and the the steps that we got to that we think would be ideal. Um, so for the dual language twe recommendations, um, our first recommendation is to consider establishing maintaining at least one twe program in every middle school feeder pattern with a focus on historically underserved neighborhoods. Um so making sure that all of the feeder pattern elementary schools have or um the elementary schools that have a tweet program feed into one of the three middle schools. Um then maintain the 6733 classroom composition and prioritize walkable access for TWWs students particularly across hazard zones wherever possible. Um and then the third for this is minimize disruptions to existing TWWI communities if

058changes are necessary involved twe families early in planning and ensure the transition preserves program quality and cultural integrity. Okay, if I could just add one more thing to this slide. Um I want to let you know the dual language and tweet presentation and recommendations were informed by the SAP 3 process. Yeah, thank you. All right, we're a team. The 6733 um number also comes uh for program um integrity. So that is the the uh percentage that's required for it to be a TWE program. Correct. Okay. Now we going to the African centered curriculum program. Okay. We want we found we're finding ways to align and or replace the general education program in the fifth ward foster school with the ACC to reduce travel burdens and increase enrollment. We want to strengthen communication strategies and outreach

059initiatives to build broader awareness of the an African centered curriculum. We want to conduct equity impact analyses before any program relocations or consolidations. Okay, next steps. I'm going to cover Dr. Martin Luther King uh prep, not prep the school, I'm sorry. Okay, so Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. literary and fine arts magnet. We want to keep, and we were all in agreement on this, keep the K8 model at King Arts and continue to build a strong, welcoming school community. And if changes are made to school choice or transportation, make sure students from all neighborhoods can still get to King Arts. And then for our early childhood recommendations, um we wanted to expand neighborhood based early childhood access. Um together with that, conduct data informed facility and programming planning so that we're knowing where those um

060neighborhood based programs should go and then strengthen program branding, communication, and family choice. Okay. All right. Thank you so much. You're awesome. Okay. All right. Dr. Thank you. All right, I'm going to come on over for the facility subcommittee. And if I could have Elliot, Seth, and Kirby come on up. Yes. All right. Um, so Elliot and Seth, want to introduce yourselves really quickly? I'm listed as a parent. I'm now a grandparent in the system, not a parent. You're always you're always a parent. Now you're a parent. parent parent left the room a long time ago. They're gone. Um and I'm also a community member. I've been on preservation commission and I'm an architect in Evston. Thank you. And Seth, uh hello board. I'm Seth Winer. I have two children in the district, actually only

061one child in the district now. I have a rising uh junior at ETHS who was K through eight at Lincolnwood and Haven and a rising eighth grader at Haven who also went to Lincolnwood. And um professionally why I'm on this committee, I I worked for 20 years for a large publicly traded real estate services company where I ran global corporate development. So I had responsibility for all the firm strategic planning, mergers and acquisitions transformation and looked after strategy for a 12 billion um facilities management outsourcing division of the company. Thank you, Seth. And then Kirby's over there. He was basically Kirby helped co-f facilitate this. You want to quickly introduce yourself? Go for it. Hello board. I'm Kirby Callum. I'm director of strategic project management for district 65. All right, moving on. So, facility sub

062I got to get on the mic. Facility subcommittee. Essentially, our primary goal was is to evaluate and provide feedback on the district's declining enrollment and facilities. In the long term, we'll be developing a facilities improvement plan. In the short term, we're focused on defining categories and criteria in order for us to eventually define s um scenarios for potential school closing for you to start considering as early as September. This is our committee. Um in the interest of keeping it moving, I'm not going to necessarily name all of them, but I will say that we are a fabulous committee. Um, we had a really an incredible, I think, opportunity to bring folks in from all but two wards, a range of different professional backgrounds, as well as folks that are yet to have kids in the

063district all the way through grandchildren in the district. So, in great group, highly committed, and we got a lot of work done together. Um, essentially our process, we met six times, same kind of hour and a half to two hour meetings. We started by connecting as a team and focusing on our task which was to develop these CA categories and criteria and waiting that we will share tonight. We then moved into a data dive where we developed some foundational knowledge. That initial dive was really around our district master facility plan, our demography report from 2024 and our enrollment projections report that's presented for the board every November annually. The reason we do both of those was the demography report in 2024 gives us information on the future attendance boundaries with Foster whereas the enrollment and

064projections give gives us our current information and projections. Once we did that deep dive, the team began to do some iterating and wondering. They began developing in small groups some categories and criteria. That naturally brought up more questions, more hey, do we have this data, that data? So, we went back for a second data dive. That's where we began to take a deeper look at where for instance our twe students native Spanish speaking as well as English speaking were living around the district. Our King Arts students. We also took a look at a whole range of data including very specifically the input from the student parent and caregivers group as well as the community engagement sessions were very important parts of the data inputs that we took into our process. We then moved into a

065whole great group iterating 2.0 0 where the group then started working as a whole group to really bring forward a final set of categories, criteria, and weights. And that's where we are tonight. I am going to present the first category and set of criteria. Then I'm going to hand off to Elliot and Seth and then Kirby will talk about waiting. The first category that we're bringing forward tonight in and just to give you a sense, these categories and criteria will be used to develop essentially school scorecards. Each school will have a profile using these categories and criteria. The scores on the school scorecards using these categories and criteria will help to inform which schools and what combinations of schools we use in modeling scenarios. All right. So the first category is equity. The committee essentially

066defined the category with a brief statement. In this case, equity is focusing on minimizing disproportionate impact on any historically marginalized stakeholder groups. The two criteria that we are going to look at or we're recommending in these this category are the number of students changing schools. So specifically, if Beardsley school is closing, what are the number of impacted students? And then in that group of students, who specifically is being impacted by that closure? And you can see the specific sets of groups that we're looking at there. The group really spoke in this particular category about one wanting to learn the lessons from closing the original foster school and having a disproportionate impact in that situation. And then number two, that clos potential closure impacts all families. yet certain groups that have been historically marginalized, it may

067have a potentially larger impact in that transition. So, we want to pay attention to that in our process. Elliot, great. Um, okay. The the second criteria was geography, which generalized as being minimizing the difficulty of a student getting from home to school and vice versa. And what's important here, and they're all in yellow, and I think we should stress it up front, they're completely dependent on the scenario. Meaning, as soon as you choose to close a school or two, I've heard four today. I never heard four before, but um whatever you do, as soon as you close one, that changes all of these ratios because we're talking about walkability changes and things like I do and all the rest. As you can see, walkability. We started out, I think we started out at half mile

068and and one of our committee members in fact made a whole series of maps for us that showed what happens and you start leaving areas of Evston that are more than half a mile immediately. So then we we eventually, you know, sort of focused on three three quarter actually literally covered the city, covered almost every single school district. uh it wasn't by taking one out. And then of course you've got ID dot hazards in terms of what happens when you have to cross particular streets. You know what is it like to cross McCormack things like that? And then the notion of are they going to need transportation because of the state mandate of when do you have to bus them and and then the idea of how close are you to any three schools and

069does that change it? are you still within half a mile, three quarters of a mile and so on. That took care of geography. Moving on. Um, and then we have functionality, which sounds pretty good. Um, and and what Stacy didn't mention and was I think important, we visited all the schools, every one of them, including park, including this building, etc. And I think it was very important. I think most of the committee visited. I think we started out not as many but by the end everybody visited most of the schools and I think it taught us a lot about the schools what you actually saw there which is not the same as looking at the numbers. Um I like them but I'm an architect doesn't count. Um so the first criteria was ADA and simply

070are they accessible how accessible can they be and so on. There's numbers we had the numbers for costs but it's not the same again when you see the school you know will it need an elevator how bad are the bathrooms and so on and so forth. Uh I'm going to skip the second one for a moment and go to the third one which are the number of teaching stations. And that had to do with just how many classrooms are there. And the more classrooms the more flexibility you have as you start getting into special programs and all the rest because it allows you to do more within the building than when you're at the minimum number. The third criteria which was in the middle there was cafeteria and gym as separate spaces because as you

071probably know uh they don't all have that and that limits flexibility in terms of programming because if you have a separate cafeteria the gym can keep running all day long and you can do things in the cafeteria when it's not being used as a cafeteria and so on. That doesn't happen. That's pretty much it. that. Thanks. So, I'm going to talk about two of our categories, income and expenses or revenue and expenses. And we've heard it a couple times tonight. There's only a couple of ways you can address a structural deficit. And that's by either raising revenues or cutting expenses. And so, those are our last two categories, income and expenses. On the income side, people often, I think, are conflating a school closure with a school sale or a disposition. And that's not necessarily

072the case. If we're going if we're going to close a school, there's a number of options for what you might do with that. from mothballing to leasing to reuse to public private partnerships through disposition. And no one in this room, no one person is smarter than the market. So we're going to talk to the market about what uh those options might be and Kirby's going to be running a process for that. Uh this is one of the categories where we have the least amount of relevant information. We need to go collect it. There are a number of criteria obviously that um can determine what the what the potential use or reuse of a building might be or what the value of a building might be if you were to sell it. And that's what we're

073going to be exploring on the uh income side and Kirby might share a little bit more about that process which he'll undertake in the next uh few weeks and we will feed back into into our modeling and our research. Now on the expense side which is the next one building cost side this is a bit of a different story. We have ample data uh around our our our facilities and what's right and what's wrong with them. But when you think about what it costs to run a building, you really have to cut it into two different types of expenses. Capital expenses and operating expenses. And capital expenses, again, we've got facilities plans, we've got audits. We we kind of know what the deficiencies are are there and what it would cost to bring our buildings

074uh up to up to the standard that we expect. But that's different from the monthly operating costs, what it costs to keep the lights on literally and and figuratively. And uh we've explored in our work what it costs to run each of our buildings when it's full of students and there it's being used as a school and we've contemplated what it might cost us if if it was empty and we were mothballing it um so to speak. And so we will we will sorry so we will uh continue to explore the both the cost and the income side. And uh these are just two of the categories. Each of them have a number of criteria embedded within them and Kirby's going to talk to you a little bit about how we looked at these categories

075and assigned weights to them. Thank you, sir. Thank you, Seth. So, the the end results are what you see on the slide here is the waiting that we've prescribed or ascribed to each of the categories. Um, a little bit about the process. We followed the analytic hierarchy process which is a well- established um meth method. Uh literally asks each of our committee members to compare each criteria in relative importance compared to each of the other four criteria and then moving on throughout the whole process. So it's a repetitive process. Um we trained the the committee on how to use the process and go about ranking uh following the the the prescribed steps. Um and after doing that we really set had a whole other meeting to kind of go over the initial results and and

076we really wanted the committee to really understand how the results skewed across the distribution of different votes and how people felt and asked them to kind of explain their reasoning and why they voted. So, it was a very public process. We got to see each other's votes. Some people weighted uh equity much much higher than building cost and other people weighted building cost much much higher than equity, so to speak. And so, we we really went through a process of understanding where they were coming from. And then we did an iterative process where the committee members hearing that could go back and reassess and recategorize their votes. Um, and by doing so, it give them a chance to really understand whether we really reached a consensus. So, as you can see, um, geography came out

077the most important, uh, followed by equity and building cost while building income was the lowest. And we really kind of like tested that with the group and said, does this feel, it might not match you, what you thought was the most important, but does it feel like the consensus of what we talked about through the six meetings as a group? And I think the group felt pretty strong that this waiting uh, was a consensus basis of where we all feel in terms of the weights, the criteria. Thank you K. All right, just last slide here is basically looking forward. We essentially will take the categories and criteria to two community engagement sessions tomorrow and Wednesday because today is still Monday, but tomorrow and Wednesday. And essentially, we're also pushing out tomorrow a stakeholder survey with

078a quick video that will allow folks that cannot attend the community sessions to kind of have a brief overview of these categories and criteria and to give us some feedback through the survey. From there, we'll take a look at that. And what the committee does understand is as we do the pattern finding from any feedback after this presentation, should it feel like there's something substantive that we did not talk about as a potential gap that we'll gather again via Zoom to talk it through. This group spent a lot of time constructing this. Um I'm sure there going to be questions about why not this versus that. You know, the committee found it very important to stay focused on deficit reduction. They found it very important to make sure that they were actually criteria. And as

079we processed ideas from different places, we heard lots of good ideas, but you've seen those reflected in the finance committee and the program committee. An example might be one of the things that came out of the community sessions were kind of a number of ideas around preschool. The facility subcommittee said, you know what, those are ideas that are more programmatic. Our charge is to put together solid criteria that could help us to define scenarios for potential closure that belongs elsewhere. So if it does feel like we get feedback that identifies a gap, the team's going to hop on a Zoom. We'll talk talk it through and see if any revisions are necessary. But I would say as a group, we feel very strongly about what we're bringing forward tonight in regards to the comprehensiveness of

080the work of the team. So feedback sessions, we'll adjust based on uh any information if needed. We'll develop scorecards and then begin modeling scenarios. These guys will come back in August looking at some initial scenarios. We'll keep tuning those to bring something back to the board in September. All right. Timeline. I'm not sure who I'm uh Melissa, you pay. Oh, Susan. All right. And we can take So, one of the biggest takeaways that I hope you have seen tonight is we're building capacity. Right. This is a very complex problem and as we move forward we have no anything set out as here's the plan but what we're doing is really making sure we're engaging with the public to help guide what's in front of us. So again we uh began our work with the stakeholders

081in April. Um they worked diligently many hours and I do also just want to thank everybody that's here tonight that they came out but also that the time that they took to show up at our meetings. Um we are here tonight as we had promised to finalize the criteria and then over the summer um you've heard some of the work that the team has to do in finance. We've got to get the audit or the financial statements closed and really give more detailed information in some of the areas that are still we don't have as good a handle on it. uh we will continue to get feedback on the criteria and waiting to really ensure that we landed in the right place and then work on those scope scorecards and then um we'll continue to

082just final finalize anything that the program committee has been working on as their next steps. Then uh we will reconvene these groups and then there's going to have to be a merging and marrying between the groups. There's going to be tension between these three groups. We heard it tonight. But that to me is the place that if we facilitate that appropriately, we get to the right answer, right? Because at the end of the day, we're talking about our kids, we're talking about our community, and at the end of the day, we do have um a financial challenge in front of us. But how do we make sure that we aren't reacting to this? And I will tell you, when I was first brought out with the previous board and some of the current board members,

083this takes time. So, um really look forward to re-engaging with these folks. They're committed to doing it. They're obviously here tonight. Obviously, we'll continue to provide updates to the board as this work progresses with the expectation that we will begin to provide some initial scenarios of how do we address our our our buildings, how do we address our facility needs, how do we address our deficit while maintaining our programs and services that we feel are very important to our families and students. Um if we move in a direction to close schools and again if that was a recommendation that the board because ultimately you will have to decide whatever the final scenario that you want to move forward with that we would have to hold public hearings and ensure that we comply with all of

084the rules and regulations related to all of that. Um it is our expectation for this goound. When we uh made the part two phase two reductions, it really was pretty limited on what we brought forward because at that point in time, we really had a lot of things that were off the table. We really looked at how do we preserve what's happening in our schools. In this goound, we will be providing you with various options that we will be able to manipulate in a lot of variety of CA categories from closing four schools to closing zero schools to revenue enhancement, right? All of those pieces. So, this one will have the ability based upon us working alongside these committees with different ways to approach this work to then determine what the next steps are. So

085it will require um really active engagement from the committees to really shape and and bring that forward and that tension we just talked about as well as in the board's input on what they feel comfortable as we move forward. I will tell you the finance committee and I'm I'm assuming Dr. Beardsley and Dr. that you know from the beginning to the end there were changes and shifts on what the committee felt because right at the end of the day this is our kids right and so again all of this and again you've got these beautiful schools that need some TLC right and how do we address all that so um that's the timeline as a reminder we are approaching this in parts um so we've just completed part one today with once we finalize the

086engagement Part two is us then going out and and gathering information and giving the subcommittees a little bit of a break, but having lots of data ready for them when they come back in the fall. Again, that will be where we'll present proposals. Then we'll create proposals. We'll reconvene and bring those forward to the board with the expectation of whatever the outcome is that we begin preparing for the implementation of where we're going to get to to get the district back to financial sustainability. So, and again, we really do want to approach this from a perspective, which is how do we don't approach it again, the finance committee, again, you know, it's easy to be people that say it's easy to balance a budget, but I think they're really committed to how do we bring

087something forward that really is building a brighter future for current and future generations. And I'm confident we're going to come back with some recommendations to you while this is uncomfortable and we've got some uh challenges in front of us that we will continue to consider how this impacts the community and the students we serve. So, and with that being said, I think I'd call up the uh subcommittee chairs because I'm assuming that was a lot of information, but if you have questions, I really want the subcommittee chairs to be able to answer any questions you might have or you've got mics so we can leave you where you are. I just want to thank you on behalf of the board for the wonderful work that our committee community members have done uh volunteering uh your

088valuable valuable time and your talents to help us as a board and as a community really try to resolve once and for all our structural deficit as you can see and I want to reiterate this has been an issue for decades right I mean we're going back to 2003 so again to now be able to lean on the expertise that is so abundant that's in our community is is incredible and and just the background that folks bring as parents as as folks who are professionals who in finance it's it's just phenomenal. So again, I think it's just a a really model way. I think we're modeling a really great way in regards to engaging and leveraging the community talent that we have uh here in our community. So So I just want to start with

089that, but I'll open it up for any questions to from our uh colleagues here. I just want to second that too. It's it's so apparent how much time and commitment all of the committees put into this. So, thank you so much. We appreciate your time both parent, caregivers, community members, and then also district staff because I know you all have been doing a lot of work on this as well. So, really appreciate how much time and thought everyone is putting into this. And it definitely shows um you know I I have some questions but uh it's apparent just how thoughtful um this process was and then also you know with the criteria and the different things being considered um it definitely there's a long way to go but it all fits together and so appreciate

090that thought being put into it. Um I think I I've got one question. I've got a few but I'll start and then we'll go from there. Um, one of the things that kind of jumped out at me is, um, the thought that it seems like, you know, two to four schools seems like the number um that would end up being recommended and I think that came initially from the finance um subcommittee. uh that number, you know, was a little surprising to me and so I just wanted to understand where sort of how that how you kind of came to that number and then also um just sort of how you're thinking about in terms of final recommendations where you know sort of what's being thought about in terms of what the recommended number would be.

091So that's just the initial as we wanted to throw anything up on the paper. We will bring you proposals where we're not closing anything. So it will be zero to four. But when we asked them and took them through a math equation on if we've got to cut 12.5 million and roughly $2 million is and again with very limited information that we provided to the committee. If we estimate $2 million of of per school, that's a quick way to take $12.5 million down to $4.5 million. So that was just a consideration. I will tell you they also did look at some very rudimentary projections and again when we look at what our current rudimentary capacity is we we do believe that there's some efficiencies with you know how we could consolidate school with the declining

092enrollment. But again, we will bring forward to you, you know, if there's no because we want the board to have options. But they landed in which is if we got 12.5 million to cut and it's 2 million per school, some people said that's probably an easy way for us to approach closing the current revenue expenditure gap. Got it. So just sort of it seems like just calculations looking on the looking at the number, but that doesn't necessarily we would land there if we would have different options to absolutely this is just the list that we will build out we will tie numbers to it and then we will run projection modeling which is okay zero schools here's what it looks like but it again if we got to close it then we may need some

093revenue enhancements right or we may need to figure out if there's other areas within already probably cutting about $25 million already out of your budget over the last couple years where can we So that's probably outside your current collective bargaining agreements, right? Because there's pieces, right, that we're pretty locked into just by the nature of how school districts operate, right? So So that was part of our conversation. I'll jump in first to say thank you because it's we're we're about to change the whole structure of our city and our schools. So, this is a very um comprehensive undertaking because it'll affect the whole community. But two communities that I'm especially interested in are there was a lot of talk about the prek programs. So, when you say prek, we're talking three to five year olds.

094Is that correct? Right. That's how you define it. Uh there was talk about uh exploring expansion into the neighborhood schools. Um but that would require some um significant upgrades to whatever classrooms that would involve. Uh my other concern is about the mention for some type of co-pay for preschool and how that will be determined. um especially if you're going to include Head Start because that whole program is based on income. So just to make sure that that's addressed. Um another another part of the co-pay was the talk about transportation um and how that sliding scale would be configured to make sure that it doesn't impact uh participation in the program. So those are some things and then since we are talking about building a new school foster school um has there been any consideration about

095putting a prek classroom in that building um because of its location and the need in that community. So these are just all things that I'm thinking about especially as a member of the community and knowing that family focus is right next to the building and that all that programming is going to be modified, shifted, whatever is going to happen with that. So those are just some of the things I'm going to pay particular attention to. Not that I won't look at the whole picture, but those are just some questions I have right now. Terrific. Thank you. I know the team is tracking that and keeping that at top of mind. So, thank you. Pardon so that we have those questions. Oh, yes, I will. I will. That's all I'm saying. Send me those questions. Thank

096you. I just want to also say thank you to the community members. Um, we have to do a hard thing, a very challenging thing. Uh, but it feels like we're doing this in a good transparent and a community- based way. Um, can you talk a little bit more about the contradictions between committees? For instance, there was in the programming committee, you know, emphasizing keeping King Arts programming the same, whereas I assume the facilities committee looked at King Arts among all the other schools besides Foster. How are you going to handle those um when you bring us sort of this an integrated proposal? So the process to evaluate school closings will reside with this waiting and criteria process that has been established. So that will be the way that we say here's the school report card

097here's how they ranked here's the based upon that ranking how that plays into all of it. So that's why this waiting in criteria is very very important right because that will be then as we look at it if if if all we decide is you know and again I'm only saying this as an example I'll even say you know if if all we're going to look at is revenue generation and we keep every school open we don't need anything from the facilities committee so let me start there because right as soon as I say what we're doing right people are going to um put on it but you know say we don't decide to close any school thank you facilities committee but your time will have been wasted. Uh but anyway but right but but

098again we're really approaching this with this we have no preconceived notions right we're bringing it all together but if we got to that we want for schools we will have for the board the criterion waiting and ranking for what would be the schools we would look at first and right and the detailed expenditure reductions that would come along with that. So, so at the end of the day, right, they're going to marry together and and come up with that if does that answer your question? Yeah. Yeah. And then there were previous versions. I thought I'd seen a version um that said half a mile with walkab. So, we're we're pretty comfortable with 3/4 of a mile as walkability as a group. We um so they're on the walkability piece. What the committee really dug in

099on initially is we talked about the fact that school code transportation is required beyond 1.5 miles. We will capture that when we're looking particular transportation costs. So on the walkability portion, the committee went back and forth about what the appropriate distance would be to capture for that walkability criteria. And that's where the maps that one of the committee members created helped us capture like with a 0.5 mile walkability range as opposed to a 3/4 mile or a one mile what is the degree of overlap between our schools and so with the 0.5 essentially that visual allowed us to see and we know criteria need to help us to make a decision. So if you create a zone that is either too small or too large, you move away from the idea of a unique criteria

100that's going to help to inform a decision. That 75 became a number that the committee was able to get consensus on. Um and then additionally we also checked with chat GPT about average walk times for 0.5 75 one mile. It all seemed comfortable and the group has acknowledged that like you know depending on age could be a little bit of stretch but this felt like the appropriate number for our criteria and it was one way not round trip. I actually don't have a question shockingly but I did want to just thank everyone for all of their hard work and thought um and you know past and going forward. I think it's really important for us to continue to engage the community. We have so much expertise here um that we really need to leverage uh

101to come with innovative and creative solutions to our very complicated problems. Thank you. Thank you everyone. Appreciate it. Um I have one additional question about the criteria and just looking at the criteria it all made makes a lot of sense the categories you have and um just the different items that you're looking at. I do have a question about equity in particular. Um, and I'm really happy to see that as one of the criteria being included, but I'm wondering if you sort of thought about um, equity from an instate perspective as well. So, for instance, like walkability by different historically marginalized groups in addition to like who would be impacted in the change um, and sort of how that factored into so how I see that part. Right. So right, the criteria is just how

102are we're using data points to score schools. When we went through the process for phase two, we went through each one of the scenarios that we presented. And again, they weren't a vastly different, but we took the RIA, your racial equity impact assessment tool, and really did an analysis. So that to me comes in over the top on the scenarios we bring forward. Right now, right? So there will be ways to bring in what does it look like from a a finance, what does it look like from a programs, what does it look like from a facilities and do that, use that tool to help develop a score for that piece of it. So, so I think while we've got some broad pieces here on equity, I think at the end of the day, it

103would be our commitment to you to then grade using that tool to say, okay, here's how we did an evaluation of this scenario we're bringing forward to you and again looking at all facets of it. Here's what that score would be using that tool. Great. Okay. And I'm familiar with it now. So, it's a really nice tool that you've developed here that we were able to use and it worked very effectively. Okay, I'll jump in again. Um, how does Park School fit into the consideration for consolidation or closures? So, I will turn that over to Stacy, Dr. Beers. So the way the committee has addressed Park, Park was one of our stops on our tours. The park school and programming is an essential asset of district 65 and would continue. One of the things that

104the committee noted is that the building does need significant improvements. And so as we move into the scorecards and scenarios, park will be in that conversation. If something is decided around potentially closing a park school building by the school board, it would require us building a essentially essentially moving park to an existing school and ensuring that it is built out as a highquality facility that serves the needs of those students. and that would have an additional capital cost. And it's just one of those things that if we should decide to do that, we need to make sure that we make the investment to build the type of learning space that that student population deserves. Thank you. There's uh some wording that caught my eye on slide 14. Um enhanced service offerings and I'm just curious

105what I think it was financial. Yep. I'm curious what we were thinking of. I think it's one more. Okay. So, so again, these were the the conversations that we had with the finance subcommittee. And there are things that as part of the district that aren't necessarily being provided in other school districts. And again when we have to cut 12 a.5 million if we don't want to close schools again that tension and pull would be potentially do we eliminate some programming right maybe some afterchool program that we typically have paid um you know so all again this group's approaching it from everything's on the table right so so at the end of the day again that tension between lack of revenue not wanting if we don't want to close schools then right same as we went

106through part two where we really tried to avoid doing anything to our programming in our schools. At this point, we're now to we if we don't have revenue, we don't close schools, then where do we go to next, which is really evaluating whether or not um we have enhanced services. But again, guess what? We have not put together anything on that front. We just really the committee really felt it was important to lay everything out there. And again, committee members, tell me if I'm wrong. So, and I think to kind of help answer the question. So, I'm looking at slide 15, right? So, that's so so that would be some of the enhanced services that that might be that are at least some of them that are named. I imagine there's more um like early

107education bus services, right? Yep. Yep. Four school closings of purchase services. We're doing a reduction from 10 to 30%. Um Yeah. What does district write at school mean in this context? So I believe it's a paid for. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Can you partership with school? Right. I think she knows what right at school is, but you're curious what the reference is particularly on this side. Is that about potentially bringing more revenue in with the right school potentially charging for it? And I don't know if that's an option for this program, but it right it probably could some of these could go on either side, right? Which is if we got rid of the program or ask parents to pay for the program, it would be a revenue enhancement. I I think in this case Yeah.

108I think I think what what I was asking so Wright writed school is is already an outsource vendor for after school programs. Um and I think they've been managing those programs for what two to four years maybe somewhere something like that. It was a PTA. Uh, thank you. Uh, and so can we do we have we done any analysis on basically what the potential revenue is or can we in the future? Yeah. So again, we're going to put Yep. We're going to put numbers associated with every one of these line items as we work on this this this summer. And so yes, we will get very um Okay. specific on what that number will look like and make sure if even if there is a revenue offsetting is there, you know, is there an overall

109cost in relationship to what it costs to run the program versus what we're collecting. And again, we'll do that analysis. And I believe Dr. Spuff, I think Dr. Oer is also in the process of contract conversations with right at school. Yeah. So, right, this is a program that's just offered in a few schools, but what we're talking about here is district-wide implementation of right at school as a potential revenue enhancement. Right. And and yep, we'll go through the details and look at right what is the revenue, what's the expenditures, what options do we have? And and again, is it and again that's I think a good example of right a lot of district there aren't districts all districts that are doing that. And if it's an extra cost to the district based upon how it's

110currently structured, is that something we're going to continue offering or is there a way for us to get additional revenue to offset if there it is a cost to the district? I'm I'm Am I not the only one who doesn't so I'm looking at expenditure reductions in solar ponds. Is that like are we capturing is that capturing solar energy to help power our our schools? Another one that could probably be on either side of it, right? Which is either we're going to reduce our operational costs associated with electricity for our schools, right? Or right, are we selling it and using right some of the buildings and using it to then sell back to the grid. So that would be one of the innovative things that we're thinking through that the committee is thinking through. So

111is an investment in developing solar ponds an initial outlay. However, over the course of the next, I guess, you know, decades and decades would be a cost savings in alignment with their sustainability plan that came with. Okay, cool. And then um Oops. Sorry. When we're looking at uh reductions in uh spending for special education services, will we have information from the special education audit to inform that? Yes. I'm going to Okay. Yeah. Yes. So again, we're waiting for the audit to be done. Again, we don't want to put any placeholders in. So that again, at the end of the day, that we aren't in alignment with IEPs and all the things that we're required to, but there's the the audit should give us is there a way to ensure that what we're doing um reflects

112some opportunities for savings. So we want we will be digging into these which is additional you know again if we want to move away from closing schools are there in these buckets uh potential savings. Yeah, another thing to consider in the early childhood analysis and I know Pat you mentioned you know the three to five right that's how we define it but I also want to define too that you know the zero to3 piece and how that actually when we when we when we're able to and particularly when we think about equity and our most marginalized students to be able to identify students with uh any developmental issues as early as possible so then we can again save money in the long run around special education services. So, I'm hoping that as as we look

113at the special education analysis, we also look at uh early intervention, um home visiting, uh whatever funding that we utilize right now to really impact and and really engage families have children from zero to three, right? Um and not just our program, but maybe also our sister programs across the across um the community who we eventually receive, right? Because I think again the earlier and again it's just the research is really clear if we can identify children having any developmental abilities between zero and three this is just the most critical age it ultimately it saves us money and it and it saves actually people's lives uh if we're able to identify students and help them get through the developmental issues they have as early as possible. So just as we think about that analysis, just

114want to make sure that that's noted and that's something that we look into as we do this analysis around um early childhood expansion. Any other questions, colleagues? Okay. All right. So thank you so much. Yeah, you're welcome. And thank you again community um that's been involved in it. Thanks you for the staff. They put in a ton of hard hard work. we really appreciate all the work that you do to help staffing these uh these these committees to to get us the information we need to make uh a well-informed decision. So, thank you to our staff as well as our community members. The next item up uh is our action item. So, I'll hand it over to All right, I'm going to Oh, yeah. I'm going to move the um we're going to move the

115personnel compensation to separate Okay, I got you. Okay. All right. So, I move to pull the personnel as it relates to compensation from the consent agenda. Second. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Okay. All right. Now we can have a discussion I believe on on this particular piece. Do the other one first. Okay. So I move that the board ofa education approve the items accept the recommendations outlined in the attached group motion and approve the personnel appointments leaves and separations May 2025 board of education meeting minutes June 2025 bills payable and gift approval for Willard and D65 libraries. Second yes. Yes. Wmer. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. So now we can have our disc. So now we can have our discussion. And then make the motion once you're Okay. So I move that

116the board approve the recommended personnel compensation for nine staff salary increases. Second. Now we can And now we can discuss. Yes. Okay. So, I think what so the board wanted to you would like to discuss just making sure that we are being fiscally and financially transparent in regards to any type of uh increases that we do uh particularly um um you know for for personnel and staff. Um I know the board is is just really wants to be very uh mindful uh and open with the community in regards to how we approach uh any type of uh financial compensation. Uh also knowing that again we given that we've reduced uh our central administrative staff significantly uh that we will we are going to be relying more on our directors as well as building principles and

117assistant principles uh to carry out the work of the district as we again move towards uhru structural deficit reduction uh and moving back into a central from a centralized approach. Um in in managing school districts to be ensuring that our school district and building leaders are able to um manage and and be these instructional leaders that they need to be and and that they have the support from their directors uh here at central office to be able to do their job effectively and impact outcomes for students as well as our build capacity of our educators. So colleagues any any comments and and around that um h how we go about uh I think at the table um what's being proposed um and recommended by administration is that we do a 4% uh increase in in

118the non-union staff and again that is some of our support staff is in um you know who are directors uh here in central office for the the remaining folks who are here uh any thoughts on that? Yeah. Yeah. I just wanted to um you know this discussion I think is really important to have in an open meeting so that we have the uh transparency that uh we need as a as a board and can begin to rebuild trust with our community around our structural deficit issues. Uh and this particular issue regard is regarding uh salary increases for our non uh union staff. So uh we were presented as a board with a with a recommended increase uh of 4 to 4 and a.5%. Um we were uh presented with a comparison of the percentage increases

119in like district like like districts uh in our community. Um and uh the concern here is is that as we are, you know, having conversations about closing schools um and hardship on our families and our community uh and that we are facing a structural deficit that we are then also voting to increase uh the salaries of our administrators. So this is the assistant principles, the principles, the um administrative central office staff. Um and so as a board we want to be uh mindful of this uh of this ask um and then also be able to fully understand the impact of that in the context of what we've um already undertaken. uh and I was um you know we we we face the the challenge of deficit reduction and then on the other hand we we

120face the uh motivation and um empowerment of staff and uh allowing the superintendent uh to continue to operate a highly qualified team. So um you know Pat I know you had some thoughts there that wanted to share. So, so I know um one of the things that um put this in a more positive light for me was that it was something that was already figured into the budget. Um and so it's it will result in a gross increase in expenditures, but it won't directly affect the planning for phase three as we move forward. Another part of that, I don't know why I always lose my voice in here. It's just still dry. Anyway, we have reduced the central office staff considerably. We reduced the school-based um principles and APS and instructional. And these are the

121these are the the uh members that are actually going to implement the phase three reductions. Um these are the people that we are going to work with to come up with a plan that helps us sustain our best facing instructional methods for our students. the so we my my input on that is that we need to compensate them. We need to retain them so that we can move forward with um fidelity in implementing the plan. Um, and as a former employee, I know I know what that means in terms of respect and a signal of value to the staff. So, that's that was my um take on it. But as the board we will decide on whatever scenarios we decide will be the best but the implementation of those scenarios will be at the school

122level and through the central office staff. So, I want to make sure that we retain the best talent that we can, and I want to make sure that the workforce that we're going to co-work with is going to have a sense of their value to this plan. It's the board makes a decision, but the implementation of that decision happens as they say on the dance floor. So that's my take on it. What was the um Tamara, can you just remind me that the and the board the the total amount of reductions that have been um made in personnel going into the next fiscal year. So if we compare FY25 total salaries to FY26 salaries if we freeze those salaries. So that's the best way to do it to compare apples to apples. That reduction would

123be roughly $2.4 million. And what is the amount of the increase uh in dollars? Sorry, bless you. What's the amount of the increase that we're uh proposing in dollars? That budgetary impact of 4% is uh roughly $574,500. Okay. And how many people does that cover? about 250 employees. So that's our administrators, um their support staff and their lunchroom supervisors, etc. Okay. So um and Tiffany, one of the other things that we um that we were concerned about was the um the evaluation procedures that you have in order to, you know, better compensate people for the work that they do. Can you just talk a little bit about what's in process there? So we talked about this year actually going through like a pilot year of evaluation. We talked about this year we went through like

124a pilot through a full year of the evaluation process and ensuring that as we move forward we um administrators are held to a certain standard and we continue um we'll be on the full process as of next year and it will it will be actually implemented. So no longer like a pilot situation is what we talked about. I also want to flag this is for all non-union staff. So not just administrators. And can you speak a little bit about how our pay scales and the current the administrators that we are proposing raising the salaries of compare to the our like districts in our region and how that's impacting your ability to hire and retain employees. So, um, the North Cook area actually has a salary study and in pulling the actual data from the study

125for our experienced staff, we are not comparing. Um, and just as recent as today, uh, in in attempting to hire on qualified staff, we're at times falling short greatly. And so it requires me to do a bit of advance um and trying to just lay out at this district some other things could that could potentially supplement um you know the salary because you know typically we can't make the salary recommendation uh that people are looking for for their years of service. Okay. Uh yeah, I just say um again I'm I'm echo I'm really glad we can have this conversation in in public session and um just be transparent about where we are. uh we have a hard task um as a community and as board members and I really um the words that I believe

126it was Jason who was sitting up here on the corner and part of the perhaps the finance committee or the buildings committee um said right we can we cut close and sell mode um is kind of where we may find ourselves but if we keep doing that right there's nothing left um and so while we have this challenge of we have to cut uh we may have to consolidate and close But we also have to have an eye on the future. And this is kind of what we're doing here is we're having both a responsible eye on the current budget and also looking towards the future and making sure that we are respecting our folk and um that we see hope um for um a right-sized sustainable district. And I think part of what made

127this uh decision um you know shifted my own thinking um is that we're actually coming in under budget here. Uh this will this will um save money from our budget. we' budgeted more than this. Um and um you know we are we need to remain competitive um as a district so that we can keep um um being attracting the best talent that we can get. Um so what's that's what we're doing here is we have to deal with the present cuts but we also have to keep our eye in the future. I think what what what I learned from this process is that um you know we have a plan to make sure that we're much more systematic uh in the next year of of how those evaluations may impact um so we can continue

128to attract and retain more importantly qualified staff um in our district. Yeah. I mean at the end of the day the people who work here they are who make the district successful or not successful and I think it's really important for us to have a high performing winning culture because that's what's going to impact our students on a daily basis and we're we are in the midst of a huge transformation and we are expecting a very high level of commitment from everyone who's a part of the district and I I believe that people should be fairly compensated for that as well. Should we go ahead and go for a vote then? All right. So, I move that the board approve the recommended personnel compensation for non-union staff salary increases. Okay. Second. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Wymer.

129Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Next item up is our adoption of resolution for dismissal of administrative support staff as noted. So I move that the board adopt the resolution for dismissal of administrative staff support as noted. Second update. Yes. Yes. W. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Next item up is our click insurance renewal. I move that the board approve the FY26 CLIC insurance renewal premium payment yes yes yes yes Hernandez yes next item up uh selfworkers compensation renewal I move that the board approve the renewal of the district's participation in the self workers compensation program and authorized payment of the FY26 premium in the amount of $321,95. Update, yes. Wilkins, yes. Wymer, yes. Anderson, yes. Hernandez, yes. Next item up, resolution abating the district's working cash fund FY26. I move that the board approve the

130resolution to abate the working cash fund in the amount of $3 million and transfer the funds as outlined. Second opt. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Wymer. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Next item up is general obligation limited tax bond. I move that the board approve the resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed 23 million general obligation limited tax school bonds series 2025A. the purpose of refunding certain outstanding bonds and increasing the working cash fund, providing for the levy of a direct annual tax to pay the principle and interest on said bonds and authorizing the sale of said bonds to first reserve thereof. I just want to point out that we talked about this in the last meeting um and that we're saving some money in the retiring of old bonds and issuing new bonds. And

131then there is a piece for working capital or working cash fund um that will allow us to pay the um the second half of the leaseold certificate payments that come due in December. Um and that that will allow us to have a to bridge until next year uh when we have a more uh comprehensive financial picture. So, um, well, I know there's some discussion about that in the community. I wanted to make sure we were transparent. And if you have questions about, um, what we're talking about, please, uh, look back to the minutes of the last meeting. We had a long discussion. There was a presentation about it. It was very late. Um, but it was comprehensive. So, reference that. That was the committee of the whole on June 2nd. And rough, this will save

132us roughly $1 million. Thank you. Um yeah. Um and we're authorizing this now so that we can um make sure we capture the right market environment for bond sales. Great. Do we have a second? I second. Updike? Yes. Wilkins? Yes. Wymer? Yes. Anderson? Yes. Hernandez? Yes. Next item up is the approval of treasures bond renewal for school year 26. I move the board approve the renewal of the treasurer's bond for FY26 and authorize payment of the premium in the amount of $34,919. Is there a second? Second. Updike. Yes. Wilkins, yes. Wymer, yes. Anderson, yes. Hernandez, yes. Next item up is site renovation bid recommendation. I move that the board approve the recommended bid contract for 2025 site renovations at Chu Haven Nichols and Washington inclusive of the base bid and alternate numbers one and two

133only be awarded to Chicago land paving contractors for the total contract amount of $177,600. Second upte. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Wymer. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Next item up boiler replacement project. I move that the board approve the Omnia cooperative pricing for the boiler replacement project at Daw and JH by Primear in the amount of $549,100. Second. Updike. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Wymer. Yes. Anderson. Yes. Hernandez. Yes. Next item up is chiller replacement project. I move that the board approve the Omni Corporation pricing for the Chiller Replacement Project at Washington Elementary by Premier Star in the amount of $21,650. Hopte, yes. Wilkins, yes. Wymer, yes. Anderson, yes. Hernandez, yes. Uh, next item up is the approval of press plus number 118. I move that the board approve the press plus 118 as presented. Second. And can we

134take a moment and just give an update about we're going to keep exploring inclusive language and what the implications of that with council um and finding a way forward. We'll have more about that when the next press comes forward. Absolutely. Okay. Optek. Yes. Wilkins. Yes. Wymer, yes. Anderson, yes. Hernandez, yes. All right. Any other business before the board, colleagues. Okay. So, with no further business, I adjourn this meeting at 8:33 p.m. Uh, for folks out in the community, we have an FYI. There's monthly financial reports, the foyer report, the fiscal year 2526 organizational structure, SAP 3 update for twe so these are like the larger memos of what partially what was presented sap 3 around early childhood foster school construction update and the annual safety drill report. Is there something I was just going to

135remind people that the information sessions are happening at Kingsley and at community center. Thank you. Um tomorrow and the next day 24th and 25th. So the presentation that we saw will be presented again and I imagine there's community conversation that will happen. Right, Dr. Turner? Yeah. Okay. Great job. Please attend. Yes. All right. Thanks everybody. Have a great rest of the week.