001in session. The regular meeting of Fairview District 72 Board of Education is October 15, 2025 at 7:10 p.m. We have established that we already have a quorum. I would like to request all members of the public be respectful of everyone at this meeting. Ensure that you have silenced your cell phones and please join us for the pledge of allegiance. To the flag, United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right. May I have a motion and a second to um approve the minutes of the September 24th, 2025 meeting? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All those in favor approving the minutes of September 24th, 2025, say I. I. Anybody oppose, say nay. And it's approved. Next item is
002approval of payments of bills. May have a motion and a second to approve the payment of bills in the amount of 236,64755. So moved. >> Second. Anyone have questions? For secretary, can you please call roll call? >> Yes. >> Jaclyn, yes. Saji Phillip, >> yes. >> Tamura, yes. >> Oprah Witwward, >> yes. >> Diana Dakis, >> yes. Christine. Yes. Thank you. >> Next item is PTA report. Um Sylvia is not here today, but she sent me a message. Um she wanted to say good evening. We kicked off October with our PTA fall fun room parties last week as well as our first committee meeting. Upcoming is our big PTA Halloween party October 24th from 6:00 to 8. Hope to see you all there. And that's all our update for now. Um school activity report. Does
003anyone from the border administration have any good news? So, I am giving good news about the schools on behalf of both myself and Mr. Leeka. He is on duty tonight. He was at the volleyball game earlier and I just texted him and he is headed over to the soccer game. So, I have good news for both primary and middle. So, just wanted to start off by letting you know we had an awesome institute day on Friday. I know it was no school for kiddos, but we had um a lot of training with our new reading curriculum. We also had CPR training is which is something that we do every other year to make sure our staff is all up to date with their CPR training and then we had a lot of ma mandated trainings
004working on our curriculum mapping. So just a lot of a lot of different things happening and a lot of great work. We also kicked off last week our read to succeed program. Miss Bastion from the library is working with in conjunction with the Chicago Wolves and so kids read a certain amount of hours and they can get um a sheet to get a free ticket um which is pretty awesome. So yeah, it's been it's it's fun and kids love to go to to events. So it's a great family event just to reward people for reading which we love when they do that. October is bullying awareness month and our team always does a really great job of providing activities and um just information for our teachers to do with our students um during the month
005of October. This week happens to be spirit week. So today we saw a lot of orange all throughout the building to um unite against bullying bullying. And then tomorrow is be unique by wearing your favorite color. So each week has a theme. and it's a lot of fun, but it also brings awareness to um you know b like bullying and how it's not acceptable and we don't we don't want that at Fairview. We also have the Skoi bookmobile coming next Tuesday and the following Tuesday. All students in middle school and primary school will have a chance to go on the bookmo check out books if they want to or even just see the bookmo which I think is really great. That's an awesome when you think of our services that we have here all throughout
006Skoi. It's a great partnership and it's the bookmobile is actually really cool. If you've never been on the bookmobile, you should check it out. And they're going to be here next Tuesday. In um both middle school and primary clubs have started. So both are the Fairview clubs which our teachers host. For primary those happen during lunch, for middle school those happen, some during lunch, some after school. And then we've also partnered with the Skarki Skoi Park District. And those clubs have also started this week. So that's exciting for our students. And then at the middle school, it's all about sports as I just shared. Um, happy to report news just in that the girls volleyball varsity, they won their two matches tonight and they are in the finals on Friday. Don't know who it's against,
007but that's very exciting. Park View. Okay, Park View. There we go. The varsity so uh soccer team is they have their final game tonight. I'm not sure what place they're playing for, but I know that they are under the big lights, which is always very exciting for students when they get to do that at the high school. Uh, also JV volleyball, girls volleyball, they will be at the their volleyball tournament this Saturday, which we're actually hosting here at Fairview. So, it's a wonderful way for the other township schools. They're all part of it and they get to see our amazing, beautiful facilities. So, that's great. We are hosting and that will be that tournament happens all in one day. So, there's no like, you know, separate days. And then finally, girls basketball is next week.
008So, we're running going right from volleyball to basketball. So, a lot of things happening at the school, a lot of wonderful things. And yeah, any questions? Okay. >> I don't have a question, but I'll make one comment. I knew something was up when I would come downstairs in the morning at like 6 o'lock and Jackson would be reading like intensely, and I'm like, wh why why are you doing this? I I'm trying to get a Wolves ticket. I really want the wolves ticket. I want to go to a game. And I was like, uh, okay, makes sense. So it it's a very good motivator for sure. >> What's really cool about this program is that they have a list of games and so once the kids fulfill their hours, they are able to then pick
009they and then the parents send it in or text it or whatever it is and then they send the tickets directly to the parents. So it's kind of cuts out the school as the middleman. Like we're just like, "Hey, read." And it's working. So thank you for the feedback. Thank you. >> Hello. The Falcon Snack Shack is going strong. Um, our students from NTDSC and our district special education classes are practicing their communication skills, their management skills, and their social skills every Friday. Um, and it's a really, really cool opportunity for our students and our staff um, to participate in that. So, which is awesome. We are also hosting our second annual Halloween lights, which will be next Friday, the 24th from 3:30 to 4:30. students in prek and our NTDSC classes and our special
010education district classes are all welcome with their families. Um we will be in here um as well as in the lobby over there um for students who um you know the big party is just too much um it provides an opportunity for them to participate that's more meaningful for them. So there'll be sensory activities in here and then quieter activities um out in the lobby um which is really exciting. So we're excited to have it. We're looking forward to it. uh met with high school last week for robotics articulation and the Fairview team is back on. Miss Peterson is coaching it which is fantastic. So uh we have three events this year again. Two of which the high school are hosting and then one will be at McCracken. So we won't be hosting this year
011but the kids are excited and very excited to uh get going. And then as I'm sure you read it in the digital backpack um YouTube was blocked on Friday. One of the things that was covered in the strategic plan was screen time. And when the admin team and I were looking at what sites kids were spending the most time on, it was YouTube by far. More than double any other site. I believe the straw that broke the camel's back. And one week there was 42,000 hits on YouTube and only 18,000 on Google Classroom. So as of Friday we blocked it. It was down to about 800 hits which this the the teachers can still assign YouTube assignments and the kids can get to those but they can't just free roam. So that's going well. But
012we've heard from several parents and they are very happy that YouTube is being blocked. >> So my son is one of those 42,000 maybe all the 42. So it caught him. I had no idea he could do that. And then when that came out I said do you know what you I like okay I was a little tough but he he didn't realize that you guys can like see all the things. I'm like all the things Georgie all the things. So it is just homework now. So thank you. It's amazing. Yeah I appreciate it a lot. Okay. Um, next item is our board discussion. Would the superintendent please introduce the reports to the board? >> Absolutely. Um, we thought it would be a great time to provide an update to the community um, publicly as
013to where we are at in the superintendent search process. Um Jeff Far um has led the search uh and has done a wonderful job um over the course of many months now um trying to um engage parents and community members and board members and teachers and staff. Um and so we thought at this point it would be a great time to give a brief update of where we are at. >> Thanks Dr. Whitaker. Um, so as she said, I'm going to go through the process up to this point right now and hopefully gives you a good synopsis of everything that we've done since April, which is is crazy. Um, we started back then and we had the the board at the time we presented a timeline uh to make sure the process was as thorough
014as we could be uh given the parameters that we had. Uh, and Dr. Dr. Whitaker of course made our announcement and then we had the the job posting which was that posted on the major websites for school administrators, school business officials and school boards. Uh we had the application deadline is set as July 31st. Now I know this seems a bit early in the process but we wanted to make sure to get ahead of the game and other jobs that might be out there to make sure that we secured the best candidates possible for the position. Uh we ended up having about 50 candidates for the role and following that we assembled an application review team. So the application review team was made up of staff members that we thought were invested in the future
015of Fairview. Um particularly people that have been there for at least 10 years and that will be here for the foreseeable future because they'd have to work with this person closely. Uh we had those groups go through all the applicants and based on fit and the the results from our survey that we did on the community and the staff based on the data we got from that try and find the person or the people that best fit what the community and the staff was looking for in a candidate for the next superintendent. Most of them just said a copycat of Cindy which no one named Cindy Whitaker applied for the job. Uh after that process we came to the 10 10 candidates we thought were best the best fits for the role. uh myself, Mr.
016Leaka, and uh Miss Gross conducted screening interviews of those 10 candidates were about half an hour to 40 minutes each. In those interviews, we didn't want to just ask them the typical questions to interview. We wanted to try and poke holes in areas of their resume we felt were maybe blind spots or maybe would make them not a good fit for the district. Following that process, we came to about four candidates that we thought were the best ones to bring to the board of education and the best fits for the future of Fairview. Um we then had here the superintendent search on the surveys for the staff and community. We asked people if they were interested in being part of the process. It was an overwhelming number of people that decided to be part of
017the process. Uh we collectively administratively selected some people and reached out to them uh to be part of the interview committee. Each one of the four candidates was a part of an hour and 15minute interview. one with the staff and then one with the parents and the groups are listed on the board. So myself and Miss Chivoka led the group of parents and then Mr. Leak and Miss Gross led the group of faculty and staff. Uh after those interviews we had a survey which I believe was 18 different data points on a scale of 1 to five rating each one of the candidates and how they did in the interview on those on those data points to try and get as much data as we can to make an assessment. The next steps going forward
018is to take that data secured from the interviews and then have site visits which each one of the candidate each each one of the candidates we select uh with individual meetings hopefully if we can get this done with with myself um Cindy and then uh Diana. Uh we also gave each candidate an onboarding project and what this project was was to test their communication skills and to look at how they would respond to situations in the community and also what their onboarding plan is for the district. Um, so that will be due in advance of the final interview with the board of education. We're obviously also going to check references, double and triple check them. In November will be the board of education interviews and then hopefully a selection of a candidate with contract negotiation
019taking place between November and December with hopefully December being board approval and the community announcement. And that's it. I just ran through all that really quickly. Any questions? >> No, thank you. I I'll just say um I know a lot of other districts that have hired like search firms to do this and um I'm glad that we didn't do that because I think right Fairview is super special and nobody really knows that unless you're here and so I just want to give a really big kudos to to Jeff and team. Every time I say Jeff, he he always says it's team two and and I'm not it just right. He's sort of giving relaying all the information so he's the face. But um for doing such an excellent job um for being extremely thorough um
020ensuring that right the process flowed very nicely that we all had the information that we needed. It was well organized, well executed um and so just kudos to you all and and I really appreciate it. I know the board members uh feel the same way. So, thank you. >> Okay. Thank you, Jeeoff. Next up, uh we included in the packet the Illinois Association of School Boards has an annual conference. It takes place in Chicago. It's the weekend prior to Thanksgiving. Um year, every year they have this conference. In years past, board members have attended the conference. Um it's really kind of hit or miss um whether or not board members attend, whether they want to attend. There are sessions offered. Um there's opportunity for networking. Um so it's always something that is open to board
021members if you'd like to attend. It's t tricky because that's the weekend before Thanksgiving. A lot of people try to travel. Um but I just put this in here because uh I wanted to remind you of the conference and if you're interested in attending to please let me know so Daniela can register you for the conference. Um, and another component of the conference is this delegate assembly. And as members of the Illinois School Board Association, you have the opportunity to send one member of the board to participate in the delegate assembly. Um, the delegate assembly is basically um this booklet that I put into the packet. Um, it they take positions and ideas on behalf of school boards. And what they do at that assembly is they ask um board members, delegates to put forth
022a vote on whether or not they should pursue these efforts. So they might be lobbying for um uh consolidation of school districts. That could be one. Um now they would likely recommend do not adopt that recommendation, but all it is is to basically help them focus their legislative efforts over the course of the next year. So none of this is set in stone. it's something that's going to happen that has to happen. Um but it helps guide them in what their work will be going forward. So I would encourage you take a look at this. Um we don't there's really nothing to discuss this evening. I wanted you to have a chance to look at it. Let us know if you want to go to the conference. Um and then um if there's any further
023discussion if somebody is going to attend and wants to be the delegate then we will talk about this again. Okay. All right. Um, the next item is the October superintendence report. Um, so let me just get to it. I will need to look that up and get back to you. I don't remember when the registration ends. Oh, I'm sorry. I don't know that off the top of my head. Um, yeah. So, the October superintendent report, uh, just we're getting into full swing here. We feel like we're finally getting into our routines of school, which feels pretty good to all of us. Um, you know, some of the nitty-gritty that at the beginning of the year we're still trying to work through, um, you know, has sorted itself out at this point. We are looking for
024an additional teacher assistant for special education classroom at the primary grades. So, we're spreading the word because there aren't many individuals who are looking for these types of roles. Um, but you know, if you know of anyone who would like to be a part of a school community and work, you know, in a school classroom, um, send them our way. Um, but yeah, just getting ready for, you know, fall activities, the sensory light party, um, you know, just kind of business as usual, but it feels good to really be into our routines at this point. So, any questions that I can answer? No. Okay, that's my report. Thank you. All right. Next item is our board committees. Um, Chucky, any updates from NTDSC? >> Um, we have a meeting next week. Uh, I'll have more.
025I know last I mean last month there some key points is that enrollment continues to increase. So, there's a rental space that architect is on looked at for more space there and um yeah, we'll have more next month. There's a meeting next week. And then Christine, any further updates for PT? No, I wasn't able to to dismiss the items. Um, next item up, Freedom of Information regarding Freedom of Information Act request. I can report that there were no Freedom of Information X received since the last boarding board meeting and we do not have any submission for information items and correspondence. Um, final item. >> Oh, get that. Sorry, we have one online comment. Um, we do have an online public comment, so I will re read it. Hello, my name is Corey Hol and I'm
026one of the social work interns working at Fairview this year. It's been wonderful getting to know this community so far. I'm wondering whether there's been discussion about what we as a school would do if there was ICE activity around the school and if an officer attempted to enter the school. ICE was active in Evston today, so it's not outside the realm of possibility. I know this is a sensitive topic, so I appreciate you all hearing me out. Um, and I know we don't normally respond to public comment. Corey's here, so I I will respond. Um, at last month's meeting, President Diaakus read a statement regarding this. This was also shared with the staff on Monday staff meeting. Um, so I'd be happy to talk with you more about that at another time. All right. At
027this time, I'd like to invite members of the audience to address the board and public comment. The comment period is designed to gain input from the public and not for immediate response by the board to the question or comment presented. If you wish to address the board, please come to the microphone and state your name. Three minute time limit will be set. board secretary will keep the right uh final items. Um there's no action items to approve today. And last but not least is future consideration. Does anyone have anything they'd like to share? Good. Okay. May I have a motion and a second to adjourn the regular meeting of the Fairview Board of Education at 7:30 PM? >> So moved. >> I'll second. Board secretary, can you please call a roll call vote? >> Yes.
028Uh Hobber Wait, >> here. >> Sarah Tamura, >> yes. >> Saja Phillip, >> yes. >> Raphael, oh no, he's not here. Sorry. Jaclyn BJ, yes. Christine, >> yes. >> Dana Dak, >> yes. Thank you. Awesome. >> Thank you everybody.