001Good evening. Since 5:30, the board has been in close session for the discussion of minutes lawfully closed under the open meetings act, whether for the purposes of school board approval of the minutes or semianual review of the minutes as mandated by the act. The appointment employment compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees or legal counsel, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an an employee or legal counsel to determine its validity. collective negotiating matters between the school board and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. And for the security procedures, school building safety and security, and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual, a threatened, or a reasonably potential danger to the safety of employees, students, staff, the public,
002or public property. I will take a motion to come out of close session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. >> Blastic. >> I. >> Winsky. >> I. >> Kelly Black. >> I. >> Cuzinsky. >> Hi. >> McMillan. >> I. >> Gerie. >> I. The motion passes. We are in open session. Welcome to our May 18th, 2026 board meeting. Our mission is to empower students to develop a learner's mindset, demonstrate adaptability, communicate effectively, think critically, and become global citizens. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton, board members present this evening, Christine Gerky, Joe Kusminski, Melissa Kelly Black, Amanda McMillan, Holly Blastic, and Mark Winski. Student ambassadors present, Brilan Parti and Sharia Kunamath. Okay, please now join our friends from Maple Brook Elementary as
003they lead us in the pledge of allegiance. >> Hi, we have some fifth graders from our Maple Brook Student Council. My name is Megan Forest. >> Hi, I'm Lucy Mihan. I'm Eva Smile. >> Debbie Cummings. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Okay, if you will stay right there for a moment, we're going to grab a quick picture or two. And I want to thank our student council reps for coming here this evening on the last board meeting during this school year. Now, if there are fail, stay right there. Family, friends, others who'd like to come a lot closer, please feel feel free to come on up. >> Excellent. Okay, thank you again
004for being here this evening. Enjoy the last two days of school. >> [applause] >> Okay, we are now at our point in the meeting for good news. >> Okay, we have a lot of good news to share. Uh the 2026 Associations for Black Student Leaders Celebrate, Educate, and Empower with Success Scholarship Banquet was held on Sunday, April 26th at Nepal North High School. Uh Tyron Taylor, uh Raia Matthews from April Central, Jael Batty, and Brooke Welch from April North received $1,000 scholarships each to support their postsecondary endeavors. Speakers and special guests included Dr. Janice Williams, Councilman Benny White, Miss Kimberly White, Mrs. Danielle Brown, Mrs. Jafira Batty, and Dr. Rakita Leaks. [applause] On May 6, 2026, Neighborville 203 hosted its annual future teacher signing day at the Neapville Municipal Center. The event served as formal
005recognition of graduating seniors who have committed to air to careers and education. 34 seniors committed to a wide array of institutions from local partners like North Central College and COOD to major universities like UVI, Missou, and Kentucky. Additionally, 32 students earned a career pathway diploma endorsement. Uh the event reinforced the homegrown educator pipeline celebrating students who intend to return to the community's professional educators. Congratulations to all the students and a huge thank you to the cooperating teachers who helped guide these students. [applause] On May 2nd, Neapville 203 staff were honored by the DuPage County Regional Office of Education. We're incredibly proud to celebrate the finalists and winners who represent our schools with such passion and dedication. Congratulations to Quit Moaning. [laughter] >> Congratulations to Todd Hullenberg, high school educator of the year winner. Carrie Gustoson,
006educational support person of the year winner. Erica McCann, middle school educator of the year finalist. And our own Dr. Meredith Hagens, administrator of the year finalist. To be recognized at the county level is a huge honor. These educators prove that excellence lives in our classrooms every single day. Congratulations to all of them. [applause] Neighborville North High School has been recognized as a 2026 school honore in the inspire the future first recognition program. This prestigious worldwide honor celebrates learning institutions that go above and beyond in providing STEM for everyone and empowering students to reach their full potential through robotics and technology. Neighborville North is home to team of 3061 Husky Robotics, a highly successful first robotics competition team. The school was selected for this global cohort due to its commitment to fostering an inclusive student-ledd environment
007and its impact on the local community. In the 2026 season alone, the team demonstrated its leadership in the field by winning the regional first impact award at the Midwest Regional, the highest honor in FIRST, recognizing the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. This recognition places Neighborville North among an elite group of international schools dedicated to preparing the next generation for a STEM driven future. [applause] Last week, Kennedy Junior High welcomed families and guests aboard the Ocean Odyssey, a culminating celebration inspired by the novel The Lost Whale. Through a student-ledd guided tour experience, students showcased their learning, creativity, and reflections on themes of courage, hope, resilience, and the impact humans have on the natural world. The event highlighted authentic student- centered learning as students
008confidently shared their work and brought the story to life in meaningful ways. Congratulations to the students and staff who made this memorable experience possible. [applause] Neighborville North High School's automotive and business students recently swapped the classroom for the showroom during a collaborative field trip to the Lexus central area office and training center. Mr. Lentino and Mr. Horsouser students spent the day engaging with a highle panel of Lexus professionals including corporate and area service managers, technical trainers, and diagnostic specialists through specialized breakout sessions. Students explored the intersection of technology and commerce. Students included highlights included deep dives into hybrid systems, business management pathways, and an uplose look at Lexus's latest high performance vehicles. Thank you to Lexus for that opportunity. [applause] Neighborville 203 recently hosted its annual Bilingual Palooa, a vibrant celebration of the district's dual
009language program. The event brought together more than 600 students, family, and staff to honor the power of bilingualism, biiteracy, and multiculturalism. The event featured student showcases with interactive projects and performances where students demonstrated their English and Spanish fluency, opportunities for families to engage with the dual language community and celebrate their shared cultural pride, and a tribute to the dedicated educators who drive high academic achievement and language development for a multilingual learners. This the event reflects District 203's mission to foster inclusive environments that prepare students to thrive in a global multicultural world. >> [applause] >> And innovation was on full display at the 2026 incubator pitch night. Students from Neapville Central and Neighborville North showcased months of hard work, creativity, collaboration, and innovation as they pitched their business ideas to judges and the community. Through this
010authentic entrepreneurship experience, students journeyed through the entrepreneurial process while learning foundational business skills in marketing, finance, communication, and problem solving. Out of six impressive finalists, including Runraar and Wildcards, Flip Clip, and Plan Planet Promise, excuse me. Three teams took home top prizes. Calm in third, Looped in second, and this year's grand champion, Plantpal. Special thanks to our mentors and sponsors, NEF, Molex, and Calamos for investing in the next generation of entrepreneurs. The future of business starts right here in Neighborville. [applause] Neighborville Mayor Scott Worley presented a proclamation honoring Mr. Seth Brady for being named the 2026 Illinois Teacher of the Year by the Illinois State Board of Education and for the lasting impact he continues to make on students, colleagues, and our community. We are proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition and grateful to have
011educators like Mr. Brady representing Nepville 203. Congratulations. [applause] And that is the end of my good news to share. But I'm going to ask our student ambassadors to continue good news because we forgot to put that on the agenda today and we knew this was their day. So we're sorry for that. Maybe we assumed that with graduation and other things maybe we wouldn't show up. But we're glad to have you here. So glad to have you here. >> Yes. Thank you for having me. So as for our good news, I'm going to start off with sports. uh Batman in one sectional and all team members advanced to state and they placed 10th overall. Boys gymnastics qualified four athletes to the state final. Girls soccer became DVC champions in the same for softball. Girls track and
012field were DVC champions and so were boys track and field and we were excited to host IHSA Batman and sectionals and in the next two weeks we will be hosting regional baseball, regional softball, regional soccer and sectional soccer. So [laughter] yesterday, seniors graduated, so we hosted a lot of events leading up to it, including spirit week, senior sunset, commemorative cookout, senior beach party, and graduation. Uh students also took their AP test and are finishing up finals right now. And we also celebrated teacher appreciation week earlier this month, and many students left appreciation notes for their favorite staff members. The personal finance team also competed at state and won the state title for the second year in a row. Senior awards were also held and many scholarship and endorsement recipients were recognized. Social studies teacher Seph
013Brady was announced as the 2026 Illinois teacher of the year uh during a surprise ceremony in the learning comments and new rowdies for next year were also announced. The software engineering class also had their presentation night last Tuesday and presented their apps, all of which are going to be actively used next year, which is the first year that this has ever happened. Yearbooks were also handed out and one acts performances took place last month and many students participated. Students of the year were also recognized for each academic department and Mr. Homeberg is also raising money for private research and conservation and is selling artifacts to raise money for that. Uh, additionally, I will be studying computer science and astronomy at UIC next year. And I wanted to thank uh all of you for this giving
014me this opportunity to be a district board ambassador. So, thank you. [applause] >> As a similar on a similar note, I'm from Nepville North. Uh, name's Brayen Parti and we're just wanted to start it off with our performing a performing arts program where we had a major event. Our spring musical, The Little Mermaid, gave students a chance to showcase all their talent through acting, singing, music, and stage production. We also had the vocal pop concert which highlighted the hard work of our choir, music, and our music students. These events showed how important the art arts is to our school. We also held several major uh student events with uh the recent senior graduates. Uh we had uh the centennial beach party similar to uh uh nepril central and there was a commemorate event um Thursday
015night. On Friday we also held the all schools uh all school awards assembly and a senior brunch recognizing school achievement uh students achievements and celebrating the graduating class. Finally, commencements was held on Sunday marking an important milestone for all our seniors as they move on to the final chapter of their lives. The freshman jamboree was also held bringing students together and building a school spirit as well as prom held on May 2nd at the Abington giving students a memorable night to celebrate together. On a similar note to what you said, the incubator final pinch night also took place where students were also able to present their business ideas and demonstrate creativity, problem solving and leadership. On our schools also continued its tradition of service as the plight of Kim and annual bud blood drive was
016held on May 9th. This event gave students and staff the opportunity to support the community in a meaningful way. In school spirit news, the 2026 slipped up for Napville North was released and it was a great way to show energy, pride, and personality for our school. On athletic note, uh we've had a strong season with baseball being becoming back-to-back DVC champions and the major accomplishment with the boys um gymnastics placing second place in state as Stas Kablia uh I probably butchered that so I'm very sorry became the state champion in the pommel horse. Bad men placed fourth in state with Erica Lynn taking third place in singles. In addition, both the boys and girls water polo won sectionals and will be playing super sectionals this week. We also want to recognize the girls lacrosse and
017track track and field team for their work and continued efforts this season. They've been doing wonderful. Overall, these events uh show a wide range of achievements of of our students and school and I'm just been great news all around for at the end of the school year. Thank you so much. [applause] >> Thank you both for being here. You can certainly stay if you want or if you want to start your summer vacation, you can do that also. [laughter] Thank you. >> Okay, we are now at the point in our meeting for public comment. I do not have any slips. Okay, there is some uh public comment loaded um for board members to read. Um is there anyone in the audience that wishes to address the board? Okay, we will close our public comment period.
018Item six are monthly reports. The monthly reports are loaded for board review. Are there any questions on our reports? Mark, go ahead. >> Thank you, Christine. Uh, yeah, this is a question for for Mike. Um, there was a question that I had submitted where uh concerning the insurance adjustment we should expect for the end of the year. Can you just expand a little bit more on how much we're expecting that adjustment to be and whether or not we have that included in our uh amended budget for 2026? [clears throat] >> Yeah. The um as we've been talking about the insurance adjustment, we've been looking at the insurance fund report for the last number of months this year when uh claims have been exceeding the premiums. And um you can see that on this month's report
019too. Really, even though actually receipts exceeded dispersements this month, but overall uh dispersements have exceeded uh receipts by over $6 million. And so when you're on the so in the narrative on the budget report, the budget report from our financial system comes out uh and reports on the board contribution for premium which is on the insurance fund report the receipts. Okay. But when the end of the year hits and the auditors look at our self-funded insurance plan, they make an adjustment, sometimes positive, sometimes negative, depending on the actual activity in the self-funded plan and then hit the expenditure report, the expenditures in the financial system accordingly. So based on such a large variance in year to date from uh expenditures to receipts, we're expecting a large um audit adjustment on the expenditure side for benefits
020because if you just look at the insurance or the budget report, it looks like benefits is actually doing pretty well because it is compared to budget. So I think and to answer the second part of your question, do we amend the budget? We did not. the budget was set um um higher than expected in that area and I think we can absorb somewhere between three to four million of an adjustment but not six. >> So it really depends on how the last couple months turn out to know what that value is going to be. We never we have never amended the budget in the past for this type of thing. Now this is kind of like an extreme situation. We've we have had adjustments in the past as high as $2 million of say claims
021exceeding um uh premiums, but not anything near like where they are today. >> Got it. Okay. Thank you, Mike. >> Any other questions? Melissa, >> I can go back to the report for the insurance report. Um, so how much have we I know we've transferred funds already in to cover the difference between the dispersements and the receipts. How much have we already transferred? >> We actually haven't transferred anything. We sold long-term investments to make them more liquid to make the payments. >> And how much was that? >> The that was about 58 million. But that was that was simply long-term investments that were were sold to the education fund long-term portfolio to make way for more liquidity investments so that we could pay the monthly blue cross bill. There was no in infusion of additional
022funds into the insurance fund. >> Okay. And then I have a question. As a board member, I know that one of the things we did as a board was we authorized the clinic and we and we part of obviously our logic in doing so was that we would save there would be a savings by having a clinic for our employees to go to. I have not found out the final costs on how much did the clinic cost. Do we have savings and and how does how much do we pay to maintain and run the clinic monthly? >> That's certainly a report presentation we can provide the board at a future meeting. An update on the the clinic or at least [clears throat] parts of it, at least an update on its use. >> That would
023be great. Thank you. Just a uh just to help my memory, we're still in our first year or just completed our first year. >> Yeah. No, clinic opened in August. >> In August. Okay. >> Yeah. So, we're >> um I'm okay with like just my personal opinion. I'm I would like a report. Do we need it to be open longer to get some of those numbers? I just don't want to do a report if we don't have enough time yet to report. >> Well, we certainly can pull some information together. It's something that the insurance committee looks at on a monthly basis. We have an insurance committee meeting tomorrow and that will be on the agenda. >> Okay. Any other comments? >> I'm sorry. That's the insurance meeting is on Wednesday, not tomorrow. >> Okay.
024Okay. Other questions on the reports, Melissa? um with the Treasury report that has the fund balance for the end of this month and for the year comparing last year where we were at this time and this year. Um one of the if I'm to remember correctly my fellow board members can remind me is I noticed that we have listed uh the capital projects. I'm not sure as board members. I thought we had requested to know what what projects have been funded so far this year. What what portions of projects so we know where we are in the time frame of the projects and what's been spent already. I think at one of the board meetings we talked about getting an update on that. If not, could we have one? Yeah, I think we could we've
025put together some information I think on on uh part of budget questions I believe right >> we have put some information together on budget questions we've created some infographics on each of the projects and showed how they are um go over a period sometimes one year sometimes up to four years different fiscal years >> right >> um >> so I guess if you review those if there's more specific questions that >> yeah to know specifically I know we got global kind of timelines, but is I don't know if we got specifically um what expenditures were going to be done and what percentage of money would be spent each year. I can go back and check. I can ask this question again if you would you mind sending me the link to any information you'd like
026me to review to make sure? >> Um >> yeah, that was in the budget questions, right? Yeah, the infographics are actually in board docs under the budget uh topic for tonight's meeting. There's a a visual for every single one of the capital projects. So, that may or may not answer your questions >> for the individual we where was it for individual >> capital projects? >> Yes, it's um listed under uh agenda item 10.01 2026 2027 budget workshop. It's posted there. No, just so you know, my um at noon today, my board docs kicked me off. So, so thank you for that. So, you you were ahead of me before I even asked for it. Um my next question um was reviewing where we were at the prior year. So, this time last year, and I'm
027looking at I've jumped to the budget report. Um, and I noticed that, and I'll just say this, I know you've already answered this question. I think it's in there, but for the public, that there was a big jump in revenue in federal um on the front page, but that was the we had a dispersement. Correct. That was why the graphic shows we had point we had 0.2 for federal and now we're at 1.5. Is that correct? >> Yeah. Federal revenue doesn't come in um the same every year or every month. So that graphic on the first bottom left of the first page >> is just showing you the federal re revenue received last year during the month of March and the federal revenue received this year in the month of March. And sometimes we get
028a dispersement for a particular federal grant and sometimes we don't. We don't have control over that. >> The next month might look just the opposite. Yeah. >> And then you could ask the question why is why did it go down? Well, it didn't go down. It's just a matter of timing. >> Yeah. No, I knew that and you had specified that. >> I just want to let you know in the timekeeper, you have 10 seconds left. Okay. So, just to let you know. >> Okay. For was this for each report? I would get three minutes for each report, not collectively for each agenda item. >> I didn't know you were jumping around. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Um, no, I just wanted that so people know. I appreciate you had you had actually spelled that
029out to us, but I thought the public it would be nice to them for them to know how it works. Um, my next question was last year at this time we had a spending deficit projected at 5.8 million and at this same point this year we have a 24 $24 million deficit. What's driving this? >> Can you um point to the report you're looking at or the numbers? I'm not following the question. Is this >> where if you look at >> is this the budget report Melissa? Which which one? >> We're on the budget report page two of the current month's summary. Then you have prior year to date and current year to date. And if you look under surplus or deficit, you will see under the financial year actuals from last year at this
030point, we had about a $6 million roundup deficit, but this year at the same point in time, we have a $24 million deficit. So what's driving the differences? >> The the differences, one is an actual numbers that would be found in our annual financial report. The second box the under the current would be the current uh adopted FY26 budget which will be updated or is estimated to be updated when we when the board votes on an amended budget um next month. But isn't the amended budget the deficit we we budgeted I see I know that we've been going with the fiscal year that we just have that amount because that's what our budget said it would be but on our amended budget I believe and I could be incorrect that we're actually going to be
031looking at more of a $40 million. >> That's correct. But I don't want to presume that the board will vote on that. So, we keep the current budget in this report because this is through the end of March and the board has not approved an amended budget yet. >> No, I'm just pointing it out that I guess I want to know what's driving that you have. We went from a $6 million deficit at this time to what we budgeted, what we're guessing is going to be a$ 24 million, but will looks like it will actually be $40 million deficit. the what's driving from last year to this year and from what we budgeted to where we're ending up. >> Yeah, a lot of that answer or that question or a variety of that question is
032found also in the budget questions under section 10.01 01 which really uh talks about the capital projects that are the district is currently undergoing >> and um okay and then I noticed going over the percentage of budget compared to last year and this year under capital outlay that we are already we're we're we're much more ahead. We're about 20% more ahead this time of year. Is that related to those capital projects? Then >> I don't know ex that's most likely due to the timing of uh expenditures for capital projects. Um that would be the logical answer but I don't know have the specifics nor was that question answered asked in advance for me to look at that. >> Okay. And then where it says right under that we have 80 it would be 81% that
033we've already spent on other objects. So myself and the people know what what in our budget is other objects. >> Other object the the the majority of other objects is uh a private placement for special education students. >> And are there any concerns if we're already at 80% and this is for March? >> Yeah. Yeah, there's a slight concern. And then if you another again in the board questions, one of the increases we made in next year's budget was specifically to that line item. And one of the reasons we increase that line item we talked about right sizing the budget is because we are ahead of the budget current in this current year. >> Okay. Um, >> and if I can just to build off of that, um, part of the our rising cost on
034that is that partially impacted by, uh, reduction in MCATs or >> No. Uh, no, it's not. I mean, it it does some of those costs do impact our revenue both on the say the federal and on the state side, but those are listed as re state or local or state or federal revenues. And then this question might be more for Mr. Bridges. I'm not sure. Um I noticed reviewing the past budgets that the amount of private placement we have for special ed has has gone up quite a bit. What's driving that? >> I miss you. Can you share anything on that? >> Yes. Um since COVID we have seen a change in behaviors of students and in order to um meet their needs and ensure that they have the education that meets their needs um
035has required an increase in um outplacement of students to therapeutic day schools. >> Okay. Because um one of my questions and I I hear two things from parents that their concerns. My question would be why are we outsourcing it? Why are we not providing these services? Because what I noticed is we spend an absorbent amount of money for tuition for special education. I also noticed looking at the transportation budget that we spend an enormous amount of money transporting these students. So why aren't we trying to attend to the needs of these students in our own schools? >> Um we definitely do that. I'm not sure that aligns with the budget questions that we're talking about now. Um but I think that's information we can get back to you at the next board meeting. and we're
036um presenting on all the work we're doing through a strategic blueprint commitment that is focused specifically on uh the program within our district for specialized and um an analysis of those services that we have conducted. >> Missy, if I'm not mistaken, we do make every effort we can to fulfill the needs of our kids within programs that we have within our district prior to, you know, >> absolutely within our district. We're incredibly lucky to have the resources that we have for our students. We work hard to ensure that all of our students um are receiving their education in a least restrictive environment. Uh for some of those students, a least restrictive environment is a therapeutic day school. >> I happen to hear a lot from parents about this and I know that sometimes it really
037is a blessing. Um however, it can also be difficult if kids I hear a lot from kids families that have special education children a a disproportionately amount that that they struggle to get services. So, I think as we talk in the future and we do our budgeting, we want to make sure we're investing that money evenly. >> I think from a budget perspective in 10.01 in the budget questions, there's a response related to this as well that those are IEP team placement decisions and not decisions that are made by administrators. >> Thank you. >> I Yeah, I'm not talking about the IEP placements that I understand. I want to make sure that we have the services available so our kids can stay in their home schools and that parents can get the services they want.
038So it's a twofold. >> Okay. We'll we'll look at the you we have an upcoming report you said. So um okay which item which report is this? um the budget report and all I want to take note of because I know this is >> I just want to that our revenues have increased as we talk about budgets and the page shows that 94% of our our revenues come from our local taxes and that people that think that we are not getting the same funding changes being made because we don't have the same funding. We actually are our revenues are up. Is that correct? >> I just want to make a correction. 94% of our revenue does not come from taxes. >> It just says local. So I'm not sure who made this graph what they
039were referring to. So if you could >> which which graph are you referring to >> on revenue summary on the budget report? >> On the Can you can you show it to me? >> Sure. >> I mean you could just hold it up. I just I just I I just want to know which one you're referring to >> under revenue summary page. >> Oh, okay. The revenue dashboard. Let me let me take a look at that. >> So, you were referencing which numbers the local the which which graph are you referencing? >> Uh year-to- date revenue by source. Uh yeah, the the number is at 94% because typically we've received all of our taxes by at this point. So that number will get smaller as more state and federal revenue comes in. And then going
040to the expense summary page. One of the things I've noticed I like I said I hear a lot from parents and their concerns about changes being made and about you know funds and services for our pupils. I notice under top 10 expenses yearto date. >> Number one is regular programs. Number two is support services for businesses. Are you not going to let me ask a budget question? >> You can. We've had six minutes. Yeah, we've gone over like time per board member, but some of these if you can send them ahead, that'll give Mike time to answer it more thoroughly. And you can send >> and I've yielded when he has said that. I'm fine with >> or Amanda's been timing. Um >> the other thing is um you can send the budget questions like
041at any time. You don't have to wait like till before the meeting. So like even tonight if you wanted to send them you can um so that they can start working on some of the answers for these. >> Well this one is not this is more observation >> is that >> well we we did agree as a board that we would limit ourselves per item. >> Well that's unfortunate that we would limit the time. If other people were asking questions I might not ask as many. >> We agreed it would be three minutes per board member and you were also part of that. That vote passed seven to nothing. That's fine. It's all fall under budget so I can ask it later. But thank you. >> I I would like to at least partially answer
042that question. >> Okay. Go ahead Mike. >> Um because it does it does on the surface it might look like it. Why is it why is support services business the second largest expenditure? >> Well that covers many many things. It covers all the expenditures in the operation and maintenance fund which is significant. It covers our food service operations. It covers our transportation operations. uh as well as some things in the education funds a as well as capital projects. So all of those things added together are make up that make up that number not just expenditures say within the education fund. So when I look at that the first thing I get a lot too is like that's my department. Well we're not kind spending that kind of money. No, because if you look at this
043at the the state uh Illinois state um board of education budget form and that would be function 2500 that encompasses almost every single fund with a variety of different programs. Yeah, just if he asked the question, I'd like to specify Melissa, why are you not Melissa, you've not been recognized? >> Those are always maintain respect to do with educational outcomes, right? >> I just want to specify those are do not go to people's services. >> Melissa, will you please resp have respect and maintain decorum? You were not recognized. We're not going to argue with staff. Mike was providing an answer to some comments and questions that you had. This is not a time to argue. >> It's a time to ask questions. You've exceeded the time that the board has agreed upon amongst them ourselves.
044Thank you for that clarification, Mike. Okay, we have now reached the business portion of our meeting. As a reminder to the community, the board understands and has affirmed through our board agreements that it is each individual member's responsibility to prepare for each meeting. Additionally, we understand that it is our individual responsibility to effectively communicate our concerns either to the superintendent or board president prior to any meeting in a timely manner. Board members have also agreed that avoiding no surprises is paramount in displaying respect for all district administration and the community. In the spirit of no surprises and in accordance with IASB best practices, the board has tasked itself to send questions in advance of each meeting to the superintendent. This practice allows the superintendent to provide the best possible answer for the community. Additionally, it
045allows for maximum efficiency during the community's meeting. Those same submitted questions may also be asked in open session along with new ones that may arise during discussions. If you do ask a question, please state if you sent that question ahead of time. Mrs. Patton, what time was the email sent to board members alerting us that board docs was loaded and ready for our review? Email was sent and delivery confirmed on Thursday, May 14th, 2026 at 4:01 p.m. and no emails bounced back. >> Okay. Thank you, Mr. Bridges. Did you receive questions from board members in advance of tonight's meeting? >> I did. I received uh from six board members, five of six in attendance this evening. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Um we are now at item seven, action by consent. Mark, >> yes. Thank
046you, Christine. Uh yes, I had the opportunity to do to do bills and claims this month, and I want to thank Michelle Swoop uh for pulling all the information together and answering all my questions. Uh we met here in PAC on Friday morning and uh Tracy I see Tracy in the audience there. So Tracy, thank you. Uh Tracy sat in uh pretty much after we were were done and we spent some time just talking about general financial matters. Uh so I found it uh very interesting talking with Tracy and getting her thoughts on some things as well. Um but Michelle was able to answer all my questions and show me the documentation. Um, and uh, you know, she did a terrific job. Um, so I'd like to uh move to approve uh warrant number through
0471075886 and warrant number 9000000159 totaling 26 million695,80056 for the period of April 21st 2026 to May 18th. 2026 as well as uh what we have on the agenda for 7.02 through 7.05. >> Second. >> Okay. A motion and a second have been heard. Any uh comments or questions, Melissa? >> No, I just if we could pull the bills and claims item. You could do the board meeting minutes together as an item. So, you can pull it and put those two together and then pull the music bid. Okay. So, >> so it leaves the adoption of the personnel report. >> So, we that would stay on the consent. Bills and claims will be pulled. So, it will be separate. Board meetings minutes can be pulled and put together for a vote. And then the music bid
048pulled. >> So, we're going to do each item individually >> from except for correct. >> Um, hold on. Melissa, were you absent though one one of the meetings? >> Yes, she was not on April 20th. >> April 20th. >> Okay. >> She'll either have to abstain or >> Okay. So, we're going to have to we're going to pull So, each item is going to go individual. When we do the board meeting minutes for 7.03 and 7.04, we're going to take each meeting separately. >> No, you don't have to. >> You'll you'll have to abstain. >> Yeah, that's fine. >> Okay. But so, we still have to pull it apart. We have to do >> or you'll just Okay. Sorry. Okay, I got it. Okay. So, right now we're just going to do 7.03 and 7.04
049by consent. Is that what I'm understanding? >> Sorry. Two, three, and four. >> No, no, not together. So, we'll 701 by itself. Adoption of personnel report would be the one we would do and not be polling. >> Okay. So really the only consent agenda item is 7023 and 4. >> No 702 adoption of personnel report can be voted as a consent agenda. The board meeting minutes need to be pulled but they can be combined to just one and then we will do separately the music bid. >> Okay. So let's start with 7.01. Right. We'll just start there. Okay. So yeah, we have already had a motion and a second. So any uh discussion on 7.01? Joe, >> am I I'm am I thoroughly confused? >> Actually, we should revise the motion to uh not include
0507.02, 7.03, 7.04, and 7.05 such that we only vote on 7.01. So I move that we remove 7.02 through 7.05 from the original motion. >> Second. >> Any qu motion and second have been heard. Any questions from the board? >> You don't have to read the zeros anymore. >> Okay. No questions. So we can vote now. Correct. No, >> we have to vote on an amendment. >> We have to vote. Okay, first. Oh my goodness. >> Or we could just flip it back and just do the consent, then go back to >> vote. Okay, so we're going to vote now on amending the motion. >> Okay, call the role. Mrs. Patton >> Winsky >> I. >> McMillan >> I. >> Blastic >> I. >> Kazminsky. >> Hi. >> Gerky. >> I. >> Kelly Black. >>
051I. >> Okay. The motion the amended motion passes. So now >> now we can vote on the original motion with only 7.01. >> Okay. the original >> the the the the we've now removed 7.02 through 7.05 from the original motion. We're only voting on 7.01. >> Okay. So, I need a motion now. >> No. Call the RO. >> Call the RO. We've already had a motion in a second. Call the RO. Mrs. Patton. >> Kelly Black. >> Nay. >> Winsky. >> I. >> Gerie. >> I. >> McMillan. >> Hi. >> Kazminsky. >> Hi. >> Blastic. I >> the motion passes. Okay. 7.02 adoption or sorry. [laughter] >> Okay. Um so now we're on 7.02. Okay. I need a motion to adopt a motion and a second for 7.02. >> Yes. I will make a motion
052to approve the adoption of the personnel report 702. >> Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Are there any questions? None. Okay. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. >> Blastic. >> I. >> Kelly Black. >> I. >> Winsky. >> I. >> Gerky. >> I. >> McMillan. >> I. >> Ksminsky. >> I. >> The motion passes. >> And if I could, prior to going on to 7.03, uh, as a result of the board's action and approval on 7.02, to the adoption of personnel report. It's my pleasure to introduce to the community the next principal at Maple Brook, Jackie Peters. Jackie, you stand up. [applause] Jackie is uh currently the assistant principal at Prairie and we are really super pleased to have her um take the leadership over at Maple Brook. Ironic that they said
053the pledge to them tonight. [laughter] >> I know it was exciting to see them. Um I just want to thank you all so much for this opportunity. I've so enjoyed um my time serving in Neighborville at Prairie. Um, and while I'm sad to see, you know, my time at Perry end for now, I'm so excited to be at Maple Brook. Um, I've heard just wonderful things about that community, and I can't wait to get started working with the students and staff and families. So, thank you so much. [applause] >> I don't I don't want to embarrass you or put you on the spot, but looks like you have a fan club in the >> You want to introduce your fan club? [laughter] >> [clears throat] >> Thank you. >> Thanks for being here to support
054her. [applause] >> Okay. [clears throat] Item 7.03 the board and 7.04 4 >> board meeting minutes from 420 and 54. >> So I will make a motion to approve board minutes uh 420 2026 542026 on items 7.03 and 7.04. >> Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role or sorry any questions. >> Okay. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. >> Kelly Black. >> Abstain. Blastic. >> I. Winsky. I >> Kazminsky >> I >> McMillan >> I >> Gerky >> I. The motion passes. Item 7.05 the music bid. >> Uh I'll make a motion to approve the music bid in 7.05. >> Second. >> A motion and a second have been heard. Any uh questions from the board? Melissa. >> I had a question as to how it works with the
055um the district has uh $80,000 for instruments. How does that work with our students? Do they purchase their own instruments? Do we purchase the instruments? Combination of all of the above actually. Um, sometimes our students rent our instruments, sometimes they buy the rest their instruments. We also have instruments um in our band for some of our students play more than one. So we purchase them um and so that they can have both in instead of incurring that expense themselves. We also if we think about a tuba and a tuba on like a fifth or fourth grader taking it back and forth they might have a tuba at home and then we keep one in the building because that's a very large instrument for students to move back and forth. So for these instruments um do
056we know what are they for students? I'm just wondering um you talked about there's multiple purposes that we might have them. >> So this these would be instruments that might be serving any of those purposes. >> Any of those purposes. Also we are free and reduced lunch students. Uh we have um they get instruments through us free of charge. Um, and even at the high school level, some of these are higherend instruments because of the technicality of the older students and what they play. >> Okay, good. Thank you. And then I just had a question. This is strange. What do we cycle through instruments? >> Sure. Yep, we do. And we actually work very closely to repair our instruments. So, you'll look at all of our musicians in our district. this the this few amount
057of instruments doesn't um cover every single student. So, we cycle them and we actually go to repair as well. And then we'll keep an instrument as long as we can until we say, you know what, it's outlived its repair. We need something different or we need um maybe some have been damaged before as well. >> Okay. No. And just wanted to know how the program worked and um I know that we have a great uh music department and our kids are very involved in music. So >> and usually we do this so you'll see this yearly. >> Um last year we didn't. We took a pause last year but you'll see another one. So this typically is a yearly >> and I did notice that I I want to say two years ago the list
058was very big. I was shocked. Yes. And then so but that explains you probably did an inventory update because this is much smaller. So >> and during COVID it was taking a long time for them to actually make instruments and send them to us. >> So we're kind of backlogging right now. >> All right. Thank you so much for sharing. >> You're welcome. >> Other qu other questions from the board. >> Okay. A motion a second have been heard. Please call a role. Mrs. Patton. >> McMillan. >> I. >> Kelly Black. >> I. >> Blastic. >> I. Kazinsky. I >> Gerky >> I >> Winsky >> I >> motion passes. Item eight, the policy consent agenda 8.01 press 121 policies consent. >> Yeah, simply looking for a motion to approve the policy consent agenda. Uh
059these have been presented to the board previously and only represent recommended style changes, footnote edits, or potential changes in legislation. No changes to the policy. >> Motion to approve. >> Second. A motion, a motion, a second have been heard. Questions? Melissa? >> Trying to get clarification. We have this listed under the consent agenda. And then we also have it listed under um discussion with action. So, is it all the press updates or which ones are we specifically are on the consent agenda? >> So, that's noted in the memo that's loaded in board docs on uh item 8.01. Uh and all of the policies listed there are ones that represent again uh style changes uh edits to footnotes or any legal reference uh under the item agenda item of 11.01. Um those are policies that have
060been pulled that either had questions by board members, further discussion by board members or requests for additional information. So policies are listed within each agenda item in the documentation in boardex. >> Okay. I can I ask a favor? Um, as you know, I was unable to access uh board docs. I have some that I had some questions on. Can I ask you since you can see what's on this? So, how can I do this that I'm willing to do consent for any items that I don't have questions on? >> I'll defer back to the board. It's been brought for conversation. Direction by the board of education at the last meeting was to uh come for action um on the consent agenda. Obviously, if there are questions, I can respond to questions. But again, as noted
061in the um um memo in in the agenda item, these are either style changes, footnote edits, or changes in legislation without substantive changes to the policy. So >> Melissa, do your questions pertain to the ones on the consent agenda or the the >> I don't know. That's the problem is I could not access board docs. So that's kind of what I'm asking you. This may be irrelevant. They may these might not even be on the consent agenda. So what can somebody just list what's on Okay. Yeah. Just what numbers are they? Um two board meeting procedure 4165 6170. >> I can do a quick search right here. Can you just slow down? Give me the first number. >> You know what? Why don't I give you the list of the Okay, >> go one at
062a time. What was the first one? >> Okay, two two and then I'm not putting in the >> recommendation to adopt the amendment is presented that is on the consent agenda. >> Okay. And then >> ask the question then >> what is Yeah. >> Is there an >> what was the question? um that why don't we go through them >> because that one that that that 22 zero is on this consent agenda. So why don't you ask the question? >> Oh, you know what? The the clause are changing. I'm gonna I'm fine with that being on there. >> But thank you for asking Amanda for and allowing me that opportunity. >> Yeah. Do you want to give the next number? >> Um 2250. >> That's on the consent. >> I just had a question on
063there. It has a clause about we have the option as a school board to ask them to verify they're a person. Are we going to do that? And how do they verify they're a person? >> So this is an update. The policy and footnotes are updated in response to changes to the Freedom of Information Act that requires requiring requests for public records may be made in the body of an email, not a linked attachment. And then if there's um a specific concern uh by the foye officer which permits the public body to ask the requester to verify that they are a person. We have had instances where we have seen before and we've seen this across really the country of uh electronically generated um foyer request by bots. So yes, we would we would leverage
064this um if there was a suspicion that it is a a bulk or um [snorts] um electronically generated for you. >> But but are you saying that you only enact this if you have a reason a suspicion or is this going to be all our parents? >> No, only if there's a suspicion. >> Great. So then we can leave that on consent. um >> is uh 6170. >> It's on the consent. >> My only question with this really had to do more with and and I was gone for some of this. Um with the the uh procedures we have title one schools that talks about we have to have a district level parent family engagement. It discusses that. Is that something we will be having? >> It's previously been in policy. Um the policy only
065changes to the policy are changes to legal references, cross references, and footnotes. >> So it's a current practice. >> So this is a current practice that those kids have. Okay. Thank you. Um bus conduct conduct. >> It's on the consent agenda. >> Um it mentioned with cameras, do we currently have cam? There was a difference in language the policy to what we had and it mentioned that it was due to I think it was with cameras. >> The only change to the policy is a minor style change. Legal references and footnotes have also been updated. Those are the only changes to the policy. We do have currently have cameras. >> We do have then why was it listed that they did not recommend that there was a change that was different in the wording? Am
066I in >> if there if there's a recommendation that would be in the the 11 uh that's the next uh policy further [clears throat] down >> it says heading electronic recordings of the language neighborville 203's policy in the heading electronic readings on school bus this additional language in 203's policy is not being recommended for change. >> What is that? >> That would be 11.01 then with action further. So you can ask that question later. >> Great. Um, and then 750. >> It's not on the consent agenda. That'll be in later. >> Then we can go ahead. Thank you so much for being patient and allowing me to ask questions. >> So, I have a motion in a second. Any other questions on the policy consent agenda? >> Oh, wait. Do we have one more? >>
067Yes. is 44. >> I didn't think so, but okay. >> Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Cosminsky, >> I. >> Winsky, >> I. >> McMillan, >> I. >> Blastic. >> I. >> Kelly Black. >> I. >> Gerky. >> I. >> The motion passes. Item nine, communications. Item 9.01, written communications are loaded for review. Melissa, >> I had a couple questions with the um written communications. >> Um >> I don't know that we can discuss because the the there's executive content involved there. >> Oh, no. This is but the this has to do with the FOYA. There are questions. It says somebody sent in a FOYA. It says any current engagement agreements, contracts, retention agreements or free schedules with legal counsel in effect at this time during the past three fiscal years. The response is there
068are no documents response to this request. So we don't have any current legal agreements, contracts, retention agreements or free fee schedules for legal counsel. Is that correct? That seems odd. We don't have any fee schedules, contracts, engagement agreements. Is that unusual? Is this because we use the click? We do the Are we covered? Why don't we have like an engagement agreement with the the attorneys we use or a fee schedule or a contract? Anything. Okay. Um the next one somebody sent in their question was uh student transportation on time rate uh on time rate for 2023 24 for the past three years. And they said to clarify I'm looking for the number of times a school bus arrives to pick up late versus the number of times it arrives on time or early. A pickup
069would be any stop including the final stop at a school or a student's home. And again, we have that we have no data or information. Do do we not collect data on on the times that pickups are late? >> We didn't have a record responsive to the request by the foyer requester. So that's not a report that that we can produce and nor are we mandated to create a report that doesn't exist. >> No, but we don't as a district keep a report. >> I just answered your question. Don't shouldn't we keep a report of how so we know if how late to know performance? Okay, then this goes to the other one. If the district does not this person said this, the if the district does not track this, I'd like to request any
070metrics they track for the performance of student transportation for these school years. So, how do we evaluate the performance of student transportation? I would have appreciated had received that question ahead of time as part of the board norms and agreements so that I could have prepared an answer. I don't have that information available right right now. >> That's fine. Would you like to get back at the next meeting? We could do old business. >> Can you can you submit those questions so that they can be prepared >> and they can get those answered for you. >> Okay. Any other questions on 9.01? Okay. Item 9.0 02 Board of Education reports. Does any board member wish to give a brief report on something they've done in their official capacity? Ali, um I'm going to get the
071acronym wrong, but we the superintendent community um advisory committee, I know I'm getting that wrong. >> Council, there we go. Um met again. It was their third meeting and parents, you may have seen the information come out with the communication survey and that was what we had. great discussions with at every table. Um they went through and and tested the survey in advance and gave their feedback and so um please fill that out if it's still live and it's been it was really created by this really engaged um thoughtful group of community members. It's a unique um council and they are very direct and straightforward with us and what they want and it's really informative and really helpful. So, they helped form that um survey and the administration was really fast and responsive to get
072it out in time. So, it is in your hand. So, please fill it out and thank you to all the members of that council. >> Amanda, did you have your hand up? Okay. Um, I just wanted to say that I did have an opportunity to um work with the workforce innovation and community partnership uh group um at the innovator before the innovators thing um and get a chance to network and uh meet a lot of the different u business partners um that have been working with our youth in the internship programs. and what an amazing experience and how highly they spoke about that uh program. Not only is it a really beneficial for the youth to participate, but I think it's really beneficial for the the leaders as well in the community and just it's
073really great to see how that program is blossoming and how um how much it enriches both sides having that engagement of businesses in our schools and schools and our um businesses. So, just want to thank um that group that I know is going to give a a presentation later tonight, but that was a really awesome experience. So, it was nice to hear that personal testimony component. So, thank you. >> Other board reports, uh Mark, >> thank you, Christine. Yeah, one thing, a couple of things actually I just want to mention. Uh so, home and schools uh they had their last meetings uh of the school year and I attended three of my four adopted schools. I just want to say to the home and school leadership and all the parents who uh donate their time
074and and money to the home and school so that our students and get the best experience possible. I want to thank them for all their hard work um and uh all that they put in to make our schools the best that they can be. So, thank you to all the home and school folks. Um also uh it was the pitch night that I attended for the first time and that was uh incredible. Uh there were so many people there supporting our our students and just seeing the financial acumen they had uh marketing knowledge uh manufacturing knowledge um was just incredible that high school students are capable of of these types of things. Uh it just puts me to shame. Um and I just was blown away by uh what they were able to do. Um,
075also I attended the uh proclamation for uh Seth Brady and I I I really did see why he won the award because it wasn't about him receiving the proclamation. He used it as an opportunity to have his uh students ask questions to the mayor and other folks who attended uh about what they do. So he really flipped it so it wasn't about him. And I really understood at that point in time why he uh really won the award uh as uh the best teacher in the state of Illinois uh this past uh year in 2026. So he did an absolutely incredible job. Um and then as my colleague who uh was the senior from uh North Central um I uh Neighborville Central rather I I I attended the software engineering night uh that Dr. Miller
076had organized and it's just incredible to see these kids take real problems that are happening in the school and create applications uh that can then be used by the school uh to benefit all the students and and in some cases visitors and guests to the school. So it's it was really incredible seeing that uh solutioning uh to real world problems. So and and then of course it was the commencement this weekend. So, I want to thank my colle uh congratulate my colleagues uh for the students who graduated um and the folks at uh Neapville Central and Neapville North who organized these incredible events. I know the wind was uh outside anybody's control. Uh but uh it was a great event. Uh I attended the Neighborville Central event. Uh it was fantastic and from what I
077hear from the folks who attended the uh the one at North uh it was also fantastic. So, thank you everyone who organized those uh graduation ceremonies. They were truly incredible. Thank you. >> Time. Wow, that was good. >> Any other board reports, Melissa? >> Um, actually, I am gonna have to ask Jackie Claremont might not need to help me with this one that uh as a 203 board member and a Rotary member, we gave away some >> Can you I'm sorry to interrupt. Can you speak into the microphone? >> Oh, I'm sorry. I wanted to look at Jake. So, um, many of the people from our district were at the Rotary meeting. The Rotary, um, Club of Neighborville gave away, um, scholarships. And Jackie, I don't know is it 25 scholarships >> $24,000 >> and
078many of the scholarships were taken by or given to students in our school district at both our high schools and they were amazing to hear their background. So I want to congratulate those students. I want to congratulate all the people in our staff that helped them along their way and supported them. Um, so that was a great opportunity. And then yes, we had graduation and it was very windy, but again, I agree with you. It was it's my favorite um task as a board member is to hand out those diplomas and tell the students what a great job and congratulate them. And again, our our district employees did a wonderful job organizing executing those even with the possible rain and weather and wind. Um they got this planned outside all our students, their families could
079attend. So, thank you. >> Any other any other board reports? I just have um one um uh one one thing I guess in general um I know each meeting we all kind of have our own style but um being that it's towards the end of the school year now I wanted to thank all of my adoptive schools um for the visits that I had they were all wonderful whether it was just u me going or when um uh Mr. Bridges and I went together. Um, very welcoming. Um, I know when a board member comes in the building, there's a disruptive factor to it. Um, so I appreciate that they take time out of their day. They're very flexible so that I can also manage my work schedule and still make those visits. Teachers let me
080come in and read to the kids. It was always the best part of my day when I could read to to some of them. So, um, I appreciate those school visits. Um, I appreciate the welcoming um the the just the welcome that I receive every time I go in. Um, I also our committee assignments for the year are wrapping up. Um, going to hear from one of my committees in just a minute. Um, but I wanted to thank Dr. Leaks, the diversity advisory committee, the the work that that you guys do throughout the year and year after year. Um, it gives insight into the puzzle pieces that go together to give our kids the experiences that they have. There's so much work in the background that our kids don't see necessarily. Um, but it helps
081them when they're in their buildings progress each year. And so I wanted to thank you for the work that you've done and it was I was happy to be on the committee again. So, um, that's just my overall report as we slide into summer. And then, um, like I said, my one committee is coming up, so I'll save those comments for later. Item 9.03, the president's report. We do not have one tonight. We I know he didn't send me anything. Um, so 9.04, the superintendent staff school report. excited to have our team uh provide an update to the board of education this evening on the work of our workforce innovation council and connect how it relates to community partnerships that we've built across the district. Um as you know um exemplary school districts really rely
082on collaboration among its students, staff, parents and community to do the amazing things that we do. Uh and this is an area where we've continued to grow and excel uh and excited to provide this update to the board of education. So, we have a team of people who are going to present and share tonight. I'm not exactly sure where we start. We're going to, but I'm going to say we've got Jane Willard, we've got Matt Langus, we've got Jackie Claremont, we've got Andrew Shapansky, all here with us. And so, I'll hand it off to you. >> Okay, first we're just going to introduce ourselves. My name is Jackie Claremont. I'm the director of community relations here at Neighborville 203. >> I'm Andrea Shapansky. I'm the lead principal of educational innovation and workforce development. >> And
083my name is Matt Langus. I'm the director of innovation and learning. >> Tonight we have the I have the opp we have the opportunity to talk about one of my favorite roles here at Neighborville 203 leading the coordination of our workforce innovation council. Our goal this evening is to share more about the council, highlight the impact this group is having on our students and community and outline the next steps for this work moving forward. The creation of the Workforce Innovation Council is a direct response to strategic focus 4, commitment three, which calls on the district to engage in strategic business partnerships, including a business advisory council to support pathway development and provide students with meaningful work-based learning experiences that prepare them for post-secary opportunities and career success. The Workforce Innovation Council is a collaborative partnership
084of leaders from the business industry, higher education, and our community who work alongside Neighborville 203 staff to help ensure students are prepared for college, career, and life. The council was created with a shared purpose developed collectively by its members to ensure educational programs remain responsive to current economic and occupational needs through ongoing advisement and evaluation of district programming. To provide expertise that strengthens students opportunities. Focus on workforce and career development through purposeful long-term planning and partnerships. Recruit workforce and post-secary alignment opportunities. promote authentic learning through a centralized network of stakeholders and encourage innovative future focused public private partnerships. So they have their work cut out for them. The council helps strengthen career focused programming, align opportunities with workforce and postsecary expectations, and create authentic learning experiences for students, including supporting internships, mentorships, job shadows, classroom
085connections, guest speaking opportunities, and experiences like career motivate. The council also helps support the development of the Neighborville 203 profile of a learner skills by helping embed durable real world skills across all disciplines. Members provide feedback on curriculum, share workforce trends and industry insight, and help students better understand future career pathways and post-secary opportunities. In addition, the council members serve as ambassadors who help strengthen connections between schools, families, businesses, and the broader community. Out of our 17 non-staff members, the council represents a diverse cross-section of our community, including municipalities, higher education, the trades, marketing, real estate, economic development, healthcare, nonprofits, financial institutions, and entrepreneurs. The council also includes member of our internship coordinators, learning services teams, teachers in classrooms, cabinet members, board of education representatives, and the three of us. A special shout out to
086Wendy Gutch from the Neighborville Education Foundation who also serves on the council. Through NEF's support like incubator and student internship opportunities continue to grow with their support. This work truly takes all of us working together. The Workforce Innovation Council is built on a reciprocal relationship. Each group contribute to and benefit from the partnership, creating a shared investment in preparing students for their future. In the past few years, the exchange has been evident in meaningful ways. A council member led a discussion on a trust recession and why it is shaping the future of work. This offers valuable insight into the evolving expectation of today's workforce. We participated in a field experience at North Central College where we explored the career for health sciences and engineering and saw firsthand how hands-on applied learning is preparing students for
087in demand careers. Through an update from the Neighborville Development Partnership, we learned that companies across Neighborville are seeking a skilled workforce, reinforcing the importance of aligning our work to real economic needs. And most recently, as some of the board members said this evening, our council hosted a networking event ahead of the final incubator pitch night. We strategically held that event on the same location to encourage our business partners to experience the excitement and energy of the studentled business showcase and pitch competition firsthand. One of the highlights of the evening was seeing students excited to connect and meet Mayor Scott Worley during the event. Together, these experience highlight the strength of this partnership where learning flows in both directions, relationships continue to grow, and our collective work. Our collective work better prepares students for college, career,
088and life. Tonight, I'm going to talk about the impact of our work in our CTE departments and beyond. In addition to strategic focus 4 that Jackie previously mentioned, the council work is directly anchored in strategic focus number one. As a reminder, this focus calls on us to design and implement effective practices that enhance academic, social, emotional, and college, career, and post-secary readiness for all students. Specifically, the council has dedicated its efforts into commitment number one. We are moving beyond the idea of career readiness happens only in specific elective courses. Instead, we are working to design and embed college and career skill building across all disciplines. Our goal is to create a seamless integration where a student in a math class or in a literature seminar is developing academic rigor, social emotional learning, and workplace readiness
089simultaneously. By doing this, we ensure that we are serving all students regardless of their post-secary path. A good grounding place for us is to create a common definition of college, career, and life ready. In Neapville 203, we focus on academic, college, and career, workplace, and wellness, and life skill building for students. This next slide outlines our college and career pathway endorsement wi which recognize students who in intentionally prepare for post-secary success through a structured multi-year experience. Our current endorsements span multiple career clusters including human and public services, information technology, agriculture, finance and business services and health services connecting students to real world skills and post-secondary opportunities. We currently offer 13 endorsement options providing students with meaningful choice while maintaining consistent rigor across pathways. This year, we are especially proud um to launch our new pathway
090in global and domestic policy. We're happy to partner with our social studies department to get this going. The Workplace Innovation Council continues to play an important role in strengthening these pathways by providing intentional feedback and industry perspective during team-based challenges and student experiences. Their partnerships help ensure our endorsements remain aligned to real world expectations while giving students authentic opportunities to apply their learning, collaborate, and de develop career ready um skills. This next slide highlights um the continued growth of our diploma endorsement earners across multiple career pathways. Since 2023, we have seen strong momentum, particularly in education, entrepreneurship, and IT software. Education has also grown significantly. Entrepreneurship remains one of the largest pathways, and IT software continues to show steady increases. We are also seeing participation expand in pathways including health sciences, accounting, finance and s
091uh systems technology demonstrating students are engaging in a wide range of career focused opportunities. Overall, this data reflects the intentional work happening across our schools to build coherent pathway experiences that lead to endorsement attainment. Based on our current enrollment trends and projected completions, we anticipate continued growth in the number of diploma endorsement earners each year. In school year 27, we are um about to apply for two additional pathway endorsements in the area of engineering and welding. To frame our progress, we must look at both our successes and our opportunities for growth. While 86% of our students transition directly into post-secary settings, our persistence data shows we must better prepare students not only to enroll but complete their degrees. At the same time, our district is doing a strong job preparing students for a wide range
092of post-secary opportunities, including careers in the trades, military, apprenticeships, and two and four-year colleges. In response, we have aggressively operationalized our career readiness framework. Today, 97% of our students in grades 6 through 12 have completed their career interest surveys. 90% of sophomores have identified an area of interest, and the number of students pursuing a career pathway has nearly doubled from 1,200 to 2,300 students this year. We are preparing this planning with rigor and real world skills. Students are on track to earn more than 1,400 industry credentials and 76% of our seniors have completed at least one dual credit course. By school year 27, students will have access to more than 40 early college credit opportunities. This work is also reflected in student engagement. 84% of our seniors participated in multi-co or multiple co-curriculars and 5%
093maintained consistent year-round employment. As a result, 94% of our seniors has have completed one college application with College of DuPage remaining our top postsecary destination. The success and sustainability of this work depend on the strength of our workforce innovation council members and community partners. Their collaboration and commitment to continue to expand opportunities for students through mentorship, career exploration, internship, and authentic real world learning experiences. Together, these partnerships are helping students connect their education to future careers while moving the vision of the district forward. All right. So, as we look forward to the 2027 school year and beyond, our focus will be on enhancing the bridge between our classrooms and the evolving professional world. At Neapville 203, we believe that our future of our students is built on the strength of our community partnerships. So, what
094does the road ahead look like? We have several really exciting initiatives on the horizon. First, we will implement a workforce innovation council panel. This is unique because it'll be hosted by our high school students, allowing them to directly engage with leaders and understand future workforce needs and trends. This will be reversing previous panels and giving our students a chance to learn directly from the industry experts. Next, we will be returning to our industry uh site visits with council members and students to allow everyone to explore the innovative instructional strategies in action both the workplace and in our schools. We will continue to provide ongoing community updates for our uh valued industry and community partners to ensure our curriculum remains relevant to the changing workforce. And lastly, we are providing specific health occupations programs update to
095give an overview of current pathways available to our students. To make these programs successful, we must constantly expand our work. We are actively seeking um or I'm sorry, we are actively supporting the Workforce Innovation Council's commitments by seeking new industry connections. Specifically, right now, we are looking for agriculture and hospitality partnerships for our students. They are key sectors where we want to grow our vocational and experiential learning footprints. So, as we reflect on the impact of the Workforce Innovation Council, we also wanted to highlight some of the voices of council members through the quotes above, which reinforce the continued value of this partnership. Their testimonials help reinforce why this work matters and how these connections support our students growth as communicators, collaborators, and future ready learners. Their commitment connect to our profile of a learner
096competencies, specifically global citizen and communication. We want our students and staff to feel or to value embrace uh diverse cultures, unique perspectives and lived experiences through mutual, respectful and open dialogue. These meaningful dialogues are cyclical. It's not just about sharing our own ideas, but also listening, reflecting, and responding to others. So, obviously, we're very excited about this forward momentum we have building. We'd now like to open up the floor to any questions you may have. And just beforehand, thanks for your time, your partnership, and your commitments to our kids. Thanks so much for your report. Questions from the board. >> Melissa, first, thank you for your hard work. Um, when I was on the committee, I was able to attend. It was wonderful. And I I'm happy to see you're doing more of the field
097trips. Um, and hopefully board members can also see. I think it was wonderful to actually see what our kids were doing and even to talk to the people that teach them and find out, you know, what's working, what's not. But and I want to thank our community, the community people that sponsor us. So I always get this question. So I'll ask this one right off the bat is people always want to know how do I get on the committee? So how do we select the people that are on the committee? So many of our members um are through existing partnerships that we already had um or a teacher had a speaker come into a classroom um or a mentor for incubator and then the the relationship just grows from there. Um so right now we
098we did solicit two groups that we are looking for. Um we try to have all of our members have a different expertise or come from a different pathway so that we get we get all of the information to help our students be ready to be their staff members someday. >> Okay. So great. And I like the idea the concept of having all the different areas covered. So you are soliciting for more and you need to cover all the different pathways. How would people watching this and interested? How do they contact who they just give me a call? I'd be happy to talk with anybody that's interested. >> Okay, great. And with with our members, some are parents, some are not. And I think that's also a good perspective. Um or somebody might have grown up
099in 203. Um so it's just really good um information from all sites. >> Oh, so people can contact you. Sure. Great. Um, and then you talked about your valued industry and community partners, and I know that you were wonderful and gave us the names of the people in the committee. Are there other partnerships, community, industry partners that were not listed? Sure. >> Yes, we have about 45 other businesses that we work with um in terms of placing our students in their internship, their work-based learning opportunities. And so, um, Brett Thompson and Peter Hoster work directly with those 45 other partners >> because I would love to get that list and publicize and thank them publicly. >> Yeah, we we do that. Oh, am I on here? We do that after all of our events as
100well. And I would say our community partners are not just this council. It's also all of our mentors for incubator. It's our speakers in classrooms. It's um our internship hosts. It's anybody that attends Career Motivate. That really is um you know an industry partner for for all the students. >> Yes. And that that also is another wonderful program you do. >> Um, so internships, I know back before it was a struggle to get internships. Where do we stand with being able to get in internships in the different uh areas? >> That's a great question. We are growing and expanding. Um, as you could tell by the data in our program um or in our slide deck um we have a increased number of students each year and so we are always seeking more partnerships. um
101we are struggling to find um partners in the area in the healthc care area and in accounting and finance. So that's where we're seeking more partnerships. We are relying on our workforce innovation council Mary Gro in particular who has been helping us in the healthc care industry um but right now she's the um department chair at North Central College. Um and then um we are relying and working actually with Mark over there um on some of our accounting and finance. He's provided us some good guidance on that. And if anybody is interested, it's a 60 hours that the the students have to complete in an internship. Um, so it's kind of a micro internship really, but it's just really good experience for for being um in the workplace for our students >> because that was
102one of the questions when I was talking to people who were considering it is they wanted to know that 60 hours like is there a set can >> it can be remote, it can be in person, it can be whatever works best for the student and the employer. >> Is there criteria or there is criteria? Yep. We have all of that laid out. Um Brett and Peter do a great job as our internship coordinators at each high school. Um and they sit down and go through all what's required from the student and the employer. So it's a really good um partnership for both. >> Okay, great. And then last question is I noticed that some of the um we had great growth in some areas but some of the um pathways did not have as
103much growth and are smaller. um how do we evaluate that and do we plan to keep all the pathways? Do we plan what are the plans with that? >> Um yes, we um evaluate the enrollment in our high school courses and so if an enrollment were to dip then we would of course re-evaluate the effectiveness of that pathway. Um so we are always looking to expand as I mentioned um in the area like of welding. We're going to partner with our our folks at Technology Center of DuPage to put that application forward. Um, and then we have just stood up, we're going to be in year three next year of our engineering roll out. And so now we're at the at a place where we can um submit our application for endorsement and we have
104several other um curricular areas on deck. So it takes it takes time to build those partnerships. Um, we have to ensure our teachers are credentialed. we have to ensure our students are um at the proper um place in the sequence of courses. >> One other thing that I will add is when you look at welding or like cosmetology, we don't offer those courses on our sites. We offer those at Technologies Center of DuPage. So, you will just historically not see as many kids in that because some students may want to go into that, but they don't want to travel to another site. So our students, those just tend to be smaller, but we don't want to lose those endorsements or opportunities for kids because the technology center of DUP page is excellent and houses some
105programs that we can't house. So that's a great point. Thank you for sharing that. So I did notice like some of them I was kind of surprised about like EMT and some of those is do we ever ever evaluate like that maybe these aren't a good fit if we're not getting people doing it? Like is there a minimum enrollment we have for maintaining it? >> There is. I mean with for the things that we offer here, we go by board policy of 15 students and most often we do, but with the TCD that's a a um we're in that we're a partner with other school districts. So we actually historically have been adding more and more. Like when I s first started 14 years ago in this role, we were sending about 20 from each
106high school. We're up to >> we're about 75 >> from each high school. Yeah. >> Oh, in total. >> Yep. Total. So >> 75 I'm sorry students are are attending like this school year um at TCD. And I will say overall technology center of DuPage their enrollment for next year is up 200. Even though we have a declining high school enrollment, their enrollment is up 200 students for next year. But they don't participate in there. Are they part of this pathway of our students? >> Yes. We partner with them in writing the pathways. >> Okay. So if we see a lower number or something, it wouldn't be because our students are going somewhere else to get it. That is part of the career pathway. >> They are going somewhere else to get it, but it's
107part of Neapville district 203. >> Okay. They serve the county. Okay. Thank you. And again, I you do such a wonderful job. So thank you. Other questions from the board? Joe? >> Yeah. So, uh, more comments. Uh, I just really appreciate all the work on this. One of my first board committees was business partnerships when, you know, kind of the groundwork for some of this was being rolled out. Um, and the growth has really been incredible. uh e even you know going before high school and thinking about career motivate and getting them thinking about you know pathways that they wouldn't even think about as an eighth grader right um and then moving uh in uh in into these pathways in high school um and I'm really really impressed by the growth and kind of having
108seen firsthand as a a parent uh you know the kids going through these pathways and the experiences that they get um it's really amazing. I mean uh taking courses, you know, coming out with college credit, getting experience in areas where they may go on to college, uh or finding out that, you know, that's not what they want to do, um and and saving themselves college tuition. Um there are just so many benefits to uh to to these programs. Um so I I'm just really impressed where where this has gone um you know in the last seven years or so. Um so the um I I guess the one uh question I did have that um kind of played off the um answer or your your comment about uh partnerships or internships in the health sciences.
109Um and some of those numbers are lower and you know some of those are newer programs so you know we should see growth over time. um does the you know number of uh internships kind of also govern how many people actually get the endorsement because there are people who take a lot of these classes but don't end up with that endorsement right so I mean it's not just that there would be you know seven students or something in in some of these classes >> right a majority of our um in like internship students are all pathway students um early on and when we were starting our internship program, they weren't all necessarily on a pathway, but um this year they're all pathway students. Um and so that's really important to to recognize that. >> Uh
110uh I guess my uh question was a little so the internship is kind of that capstone for them. >> It is a capstone experience. Um but yeah, if there aren't enough internships, there may be students who are only missing the internship or maybe you want one course and the >> internship. >> We've been lucky where we have not had that opportunity where we could not place somebody else. Oh, great. We have not run into that. Um and we've been very lucky to partner with even our district 203 family to have students placed with IT 203. We had our first health services um intern. she was able to um work with our our our local um OTPs in our district and have an experience. So that was wonderful. >> Okay, good. So that there's not that
111issue. >> We have not had that issue yet. Okay. >> One of the reasons that has really helped us is when the board approved um both of the FTE for the work or um the internship coordinators at both high schools. That's been three that we're in year three for that. And so Peter and Brett do a ton with our business council to go find internships. So that's had a huge help. They teach the internship course. They also prepare our students to go out into the field, but a large part of their job is making relationships with our community and our business partners through this council. And so that's that is one of our areas that is a huge thanks to the board three years ago because we couldn't do it as successfully as we are
112without those two coordinators. It really does make or break your pathway program and we're fortunate enough, excuse me, [clears throat] to have that. >> At the network event, um Peter and Brett actually got three new contacts for internships just at that event. So that's just a success of of getting people together in the right room. Thank you again for everything. >> Other questions? So, this this is one of my committees this year. Um, and Joe Joe alluded to it. Um, it's been fun to watch this evolve over the several years. Um because what I see um because I think it was one of my first committee assignments um is like how we're looking at what the students are asking for um but we we're finding out from the employers what they want. So there's this
113nice little you know marriage of how do we prep, you know, how do we prepare the [clears throat] kids for the workforce they're going to go into, not what we think it is or what we went into. Um, but I think it's um it's also important I think um it was mentioned in the presentation that not everybody or maybe one of the questions not everybody that's part of the council is even a parent here. So I see like the community is the workforce has a horse in this race too. They get to shape what they need. Um and and we have insight into what fields the kids um h have a high chance of getting jobs really quick which like career motivate to me is like getting kids thinking I really like the subject but
114what do I do with it? You know I don't know what I'm going to do with it. I just love sitting in that class. So it gives them ideas of how um so many things are not like the the thing you see, you know, there's the people underneath something else that make something happen. So, the fact that we've expanded it, that it's evolved, um I think has just been a great opportunity for our students and and the work that goes into it is um uh I often don't say much at that at those committee meetings because to just sit there and listen to all of the ideas from the community members involved and the the dialogue and the interaction and then to hear our students give when they do their panels about what they loved
115and what they didn't love and how they know they're not going into that career. And um mom and dad are going to save a lot of money for that, [laughter] you know. So, um it's a lot of words to say this. I really appreciate the work that goes into it. Um and really any community members that are listening, I would highly recommend if you can talk to your employer or if you have a business to get in touch with um this team. Um I think it'll be just as rewarding for you as it would be for our students. Christine, I know you didn't ask a question, but I'm going to respond because like this is >> if you caught something in that spiel, please. >> No, I did. Like, and this is my first year
116also ever interacting with this committee. I've been in the elementary world in our district for the last seven years. So, you know, workforce innovation looks like, you know, bring your, you know, so like the community members are coming into the kindergarten classroom to tell them what a vet veterinarian does or what a firefighter does. But now to be able to see the progression we offer in Neighborville 203 for the youngest exposure of you know here's college and careers and like post-secary opportunities to then getting to see career motivate for the first time in my career. Um you know even having military representation and just all the different choices and then the CTE program the stuff Andrea and the high schools have done over there is like amazing. So I guess I'm also just talking right
117now, but like it made me very proud to see the full scope of what we provide in our district now getting to this level. So I just appreciate all the support you guys have provided in that and um and I guess even to me to now allow me to see that. So thank you guys for all the support. >> Okay. And with that we will go on to >> Thank you. >> Yes. Thank you again. Get my Okay. So, we're going to move on to item 10, discussion without action. And as a reminder, I'll recognize each individual to ask questions or comments. And as per our board agreements, we share time with each other. Um, after we've had a turn, we will go back around if the board agrees more time is necessary. And once
118again, Amanda's our timer. Okay. 10.01, the 2627 budget workshop. >> Okay. Uh just as a a point of reminder, uh at the May 4, 2026 board of education meeting, the board received uh and had an opportunity to review the tenative budget. Uh it has since been put on public display. Uh this evening represents the second opportunity to have a workshop to engage in discussion regarding the draft tenative budget uh for the 2026 2027 school year. Uh the board will also have opportunities uh to discuss further at the June 1st meeting and then on June 15th uh there will be a public hearing where the board will have opportunity for input and then later in the agenda additional opportunities um for questions and discussion in regard to um the tenative budget uh with um a request
119for action by the board of education uh at the June 15, 2026 meeting. Uh you'll find in board docs a couple of things that were shared with the board last um meeting on May 4th which includes the presentation, a copy of the budget book which you also received a hard copy on the May 4th meeting. Uh then you'll also see as has been our our standard practice over the last several years a compilation of questions that have been submitted by board members in regard to the FY27 budget and responses in and information provided by the administration to those questions. Uh again for the community uh we do this process just because of the size of uh the information and the documentation that goes into the budget and knowing that we have uh over two months
120to discuss it. um an opportunity for board members to uh submit questions uh as they come to them or as they review them and they are posted in board docs for public's consumption as well. highlight a couple of things uh in there. Well, I guess also added in there and this actually was an outcome of some discussion and input provided at the superintendent committee advisory council in a follow-up conversation um that the administration had with one of the board leaison uh to that committee on really very clearly posting information about use of fund 60 funds. So, you'll see those infographics in board docs also. Um so we'll you again all the questions that have been received that were received up through Thursday May 14th uh are posted in Borox. Questions received between May 14th and
121this evening will be added to that document. Lisa or Mike anything any regarding communication information that uh we need to share we just Okay. We'll take any questions from the board. >> Oh sorry. Um, questions from the board. Amanda, >> I just wanted Could you open up the fun 60 infographic uh to show I think this is so cool. I mean, it's just like so pretty and full of stock full of information, you know. Um, so this I think answers a lot of the questions that Melissa had earlier, but you know, just really breaking down the four major projects that we have had. um outlining the start and kind of projected finish for them and um the overall cost and kind of like what we really anticipate getting um as outcomes from these. Um so
122I mean usually I'm used to looking at like bar charts and pie charts and you know needles and numbers and no offense Mike I I do love a good uh uh you know numbers chart but this is pretty. Um, so anyways, I just think it's really great and I just wanted to highlight it for the community um to really give uh I think it really does a really good job of summarizing the core things that we really want to know. How much, why, when did it start, how long is it going to take, you know, and that kind of goes into a lot of that crossbudget kind of funding things. And this is all coming from that um uh you know that funding component that um is around these capital projects that help enhance um
123our our things. And our you know our biggest one here we we have the transportation but I think Neighborville North uh addition and renovation is really the the the biggest one but man it's going to look uh stellar um when that's finished but not till FY28. So, um, anyways, I just wanted to open that up because I thought that was really, um, extra in a good way. So, thank you. It's just a comment. So, thank you, >> Joe. [snorts] >> Yeah, mine's also um more just a comment. Um, I really appreciate the fun 60 uh slides uh as well. Um and then uh I had asked a number of questions uh today uh and uh we'll wait for those uh responses until uh next time. Uh but I I I just really appreciate the budget
124question document um because I only had to ask a fraction of my questions today. Um you know there is so much uh you know very clear document uh documentation already present. um and being able to kind of sift through that um as I was going through the budget and and just kind of checking things off uh was really helpful. So I really appreciate um kind of that that transparency and it's there for everybody to see um in board docs. Um so I will uh wait on answers uh to my questions that I sent in this morning um and uh we can move on to whatever the next questions are. If I could just briefly uh piggy back on something that was said actually by both board members. Um you also on speaking of transparency and
125access to the information just want to remind the board and community that on the district 203 website at the top on the homepage is a budget reduction tab uh which takes you to uh again links to the tenative budget the budget presentation and the board questions. So not only do you have you don't necessarily have to go to board docs to find and look for this information. It's posted very clearly on the district web page as well. >> Any other questions from the board? Oh, Holly, sorry. >> Um, I'm kind of going to hit two things. I think one was a question I put in the budget report, but I think it's um my I didn't ask it then. Um, we did have an increase in um interest revenue and I know the state did
126as well. And I just kind of asked about if we'd what we're hearing from the state budget, which I know doesn't come out yet relating to that and if there's any hope of an increase in our funding and kind of the predictions there. >> Yeah. Well, you know, the governor makes a proposal and the state board of education makes a proposal. Those are not the same. The state board has asked for more. It's unlikely that's going to happen. The state hasn't uh adopted a budget yet. So, we don't know exactly how we're what we're going to get. We also even after their budget is adopted then there's a process of every school district for transportation submits a transportation claim and then once all those claims are submitted which happens over the summer then they divvy
127up that allotment from the state budget. We don't know what we're going to get for transportation reimbursement until next year until next fall or this fall. Um that being said, the governor is proposing a slight increase in uh mandated categoricals. Um the majority of the funding again is most likely going to go into evidence-based funding which really does not help our school district. We would like more money in mandated categoricals, but that in that small increase, but we do anticipate an increase in mandated categoricals. Um but that increase is anticipated to not keep up with those claims that all the school districts will submit which will further erode the proration of funding. That doesn't mean we'll get less, but we're only going to get probably a little bit more in transportation at least and um
128special education services. >> Thank you. That was really what I was hoping to narrow down on in those categoricals. And then actually I also really love the infographic and if it's possible to put it up again there are a few things I wanted to point out that I didn't appreciate for some of these projects. I think some were approved um before my time on the board. Um I especially appreciate the inclusive design and the accessibility which is so important to all of our students and having that in all of our buildings and I'm really glad to see that highlighted here. Um, and also the removal of the mobile units because as a parent who's had kids in those units, that is such a critical safety piece for all of our students and all the different
129forms of safety from the increased tornadoes we're seeing across Illinois um, and other things we're seeing. I am really grateful for that part of each of these projects and I'm really thankful for this slide and I hope we can share each of these out with the community so they know all of the pieces plus the carbon action plan um that is part of each of these projects. So, thank you for creating those. >> Any other questions, Melissa? Yes, mine has to do I've been getting an overwhelming response from um parents and staff members. Um I know that to deal with the deficit and I see that on our budget the one to be approved that our revenues are going up. Um so it's not a reduction in revenues but our expenditures are going up higher.
130And so what's concerning and I think some of our parents came and expressed it at the one meeting is their focus on spending the money on student student services or on expenditures that increase student learning. And what I'm concerned about is I have a lot of communications um from staff members um for two things. And I think first of all I would like to ask that at some point we did have some of some people did not get rifted but we did have some reduction in workforce and we had people moved around and the concern is that a it appears as if a lot of the people moved around maybe left positions where they were more supporting our students that are most at risk or our student group. So, it would be nice to know
131where we stand with the staff with this reshuffleling, how that's going to impact where exactly how much how much support staff are we going to have, how many classroom teachers because many of those classroom teachers that previously did support are are moving the class back to the classroom. So, that number one, I would like that data to see that because I know parents and and staff are concerned. I'm also concerned because we're hearing from staff members who are concerned about the changes not enabling them to meet the needs of their students and I know it takes a lot for staff members to speak up and put their name on it. So I commend those that advocated for our students. So, is there any type of analysis that has been done or will be done to
132see how staff changes are going to impact the learning of our students, Mr. Bridges? That's for you. >> Yeah, it absolutely is. And I'm just really trying to unpack a lot of what was said there. Um so first of all we ensure that every one of our staff members are are placed in in in a position uh within the district for which they are fully endorsed and licensed to be able to teach. Uh we have a responsibility to balance our our um staffing across the district uh based on you know student enrollment needs, student needs and on direction from the board of education. Uh in March of this year, the board of education approved uh certified staffing levels uh for the district. Uh it also then determined uh that it would not complete a reduction
133in force. Uh the board of education did however approve um you know all of the other um you know kind of staffing things that were done in March in terms of um dismissals and and things like that. So, uh, with the the notion of more addressing budget deficit through attrition, um, and and so resignations, retirements, and things like that. In terms of our evaluation of how our staffing levels are, um, supporting students needs, we really do that through our school improvement process uh, in the goals that are identified by our schools based on the data that they have. And if we're not seeing progress uh in those areas, then we've come to the board and asked for variations in staffing levels, types of positions or things like that. Uh and so, you know, we've not
134uh eliminated or taken away programs or supports for kids um coming into the school year. Um and so, you know, that that's kind of where we're at. >> Okay. So, to follow up, so you said certified staffing levels. So, do we know in the reshuffleling where the percentage of staffing members hold what positions? Like how many math interventionists do we have now? Do we know and and can we get that information? >> We do know that level. Um >> could we have a breakdown of that so we could see because that way when parents talk to us we could see what it was previously to what it is now. It would be nice to see the two data. >> I I don't suppose that there's a reason we we keep I don't know what that's
135going to solve for you. Um if there's a parent that has a question regarding staffing, you should direct them to contact first through the building principal um or the district office. >> Well, I I think that what I'm hearing number one, I want to know because these are overwhelming. I keep hearing the concerns and as we make financial decisions, if we're going to be making staffing changes, um I would like to know what those staffing changes were. Number one. Number two, >> I like I would like analytics and matrix to the impacts on our students. >> Can you can can we have that can you send that question like a please go ahead? >> Yeah. One thing I will just add is that the the staffing won't be finalized until after June 11th. Um, and
136so if we receive additional resignations or things like that up until that time, there still might be changes. And so that's why uh information regarding which positions maybe would be eliminated has not been provided because it's not finalized. >> Other questions on the budget? >> Okay. So, we'll see this again the first meeting in June. >> And a reminder for board members, as you do go work yourself through the the budget book and have questions, send them to me. I'll work with staff to provide those answers. So, we would be looking for um any questions that you have uh to be posted in the June 1st meeting by uh prior to uh May 28th. >> Okay. So, that's just after Memorial Day. Okay. I had a procedural question. Is there any way for um I
137know that we have a hearing that uh people from the public can support submit questions about the budget before that hearing so they can be considered by the board. Uh members of the community are always welcome to submit questions via let's talk. So if you go to our website, it says contact us can submit questions through let's talk and we're happy to answer them >> and and board members will get those questions too. Correct. >> It depends on how they they do it through let's talk if they say contact the board. Yes. >> Okay. Because as a board member I always like listening to my fellow board members or the community because sometimes they trigger thoughts that I hadn't thought of. So yeah, thank you for sharing that. >> Sure. >> Okay. So we'll see
138this June 1st. um questions in order to make the next document in board docs to show have it show up in board docs have it submitted by May 28th. Um any any more questions that come up? Okay. Item 10.02 policy 792 use of ride share services. >> Okay. So, uh I'll kind of explain to the board what we're asking you to do here. Uh our recommendation is share a little rationale behind that. Um, we're recommending uh that you uh adopt a policy um 7.92. This would be a new policy for the board uh titled use of ride share services. Uh and essentially what we're doing is looking at adopting a policy that strictly prohibits the practice of private rid share services during school hours for students under the age of 18. Um and it's been
139presented to you for your first time this evening. uh press ISB's press service does not have a model policy for this and one of your key indicators on that is the policy number a number that ends in a two is a unique policy to the district. Um we worked with legal counsel to draft the policy uh and a rationale uh and driver behind this really is we have been seeing an increase in the number of students whose parents are arranging for their students to leave during the school day uh via a ride share service. And so um knowing that uh we have some responsibility for the safety of our kids uh along with the parents um we sought advice of our legal counsel uh and it was a recommendation that we do adopt this policy
140uh for students specifically especially under the age of 18. Um and so um there you know if if the the board wishes not to uh follow the policy or whatever they are re the council is recommending a a waiver and liability form uh that would uh protect the district. So uh we've had an opportunity as a cabinet to review it work with legal counsel it's presented to you for your first review be happy to answer any questions that you have. Um Dr. Co will be back at our next meeting. I know um other qu so we may just take some questions and need to get back to you but really happy to answer any questions. >> Okay, questions from the board. >> Melissa, >> uh so you had mentioned in the background information does that
141the administration went to the legal council what prompted the discussion about >> Mrs. Boute brought an interesting and a handful of scenarios to us at cabinet. We're specifically seeing this at the middle school level. I know the high school does too, but they do have open campus and students with more flexible school hours. So, uh sometimes students have medical appointments or maybe there's discipline or uh medical situation and parents are not able to come get them or would like them to take a ride share service home. So instead of them coming into the school and signing them out, this is during the school day um where parents are asking for their child to for us to release them to a ride share service and it's lift and Uber don't come in and sign the child
142out, right? And we don't know if a parent would always want that in going in the future. Um, and so sometimes we understand, that's why the waiver is there if there was an emergency circumstance, but it is not recommended by legal that we just allow our students to walk out and get into a ride share service because if something would happen to them um on their way home from school or to wherever they are going, uh the liability could come back to us and so that is why we are in this situation. So I would say it is an increase um amount of times that this is happening throughout the school year and so it would be really helpful in those conversations. Right now I would say it's uh a recommendation and procedure um when
143it happens that we don't recommend this. Uh here's the liability. Maybe we have to have like a school resource officer help us follow up with conversations just to ensure people get home safe. I've personally wrote in ride shares before because I'm like this is not a great idea. If a student is not feeling well, I don't really feel comfortable with them being in there unsupervised should there be an emergency. Um but that's not a sustainable practice. And so that's why we're here today. >> Thank you for sharing that. That was very enlightening. Um, I I can see some of the issues has because I see that there's the liability. I also would be uncomfortable just having a child go out and get into a ride share with somebody um on the opposite side playing devil's
144advocate just trying to get to what about parents who say maybe they cannot go and they cannot make an appointment or their child would not be able to have a medical appointment if it were not and then so there's that but I guess my in conjunction with that would be. Is there a way we could have them just have to sign that liability? Not that we're comfortable with. What other options have you considered? >> Yes. So, there is the waiver form that we could do for one-time situations. We wouldn't do a year-long. We were asked like, would we consider just a wave a waiver for a year-long consent? I would give pause on that because a parent may sign a consent in September and then in January their kids like, "Oh, my ride share is
145here." And um we're not exactly sure if the ride share is really taking them to where the parent thinks. Um not to think that our students I want to assume positive intentions, but uh especially in adolescence, they may be motivated to socially go do something else. And so we need to make sure that it's a waiver every time that we consider. So you can have a policy with the emergency waiver um attached to it. So in those situations where a family doesn't have a car, they're out of town, they're at work, hey, I'm not going to be able to get there. Can you at least have them meet me? If the parent would give electronic or written consent with that waiver, then that is something that we could obviously authorize. But not having that in
146writing is a concern on behalf of legal and administration on what do we, you know, principles will call and say, Ellison, what do what should we do? A student's like walking out on this ride share and it's 11:30. >> A draft of the um ride share transportation waiver and release of liability is also in board docks. So, we do have that available. >> Yeah. And elementary. >> You don't need to be exact. >> Yeah, I don't have um uh any numbers from the elementary school to know that that's happening. I would guess probably not as much due to the age. Um I think what has made this interesting now is also some ride share services do have teen Uber and things like that. So, um, but still it's not something that we want to get
147into determining what the level of certification or security is on these rid share services. Um, I can't quantify currently um, you know, during the school day. It's not as much outside of the school day. And so that's why also you'll see in the policy it's kind of saying at your own risk because we know parents do use this for athletics and extracurriculars to and from school, things like that. and that is not something that we can actually feasibly um monitor and supervision supervise. However, during the school day um I would just say that it's uh at the middle school level I it's definitely one to two per month at least where I'm getting phone calls of students walking out of school to get a ride share service and it's on the increase. >> Okay. So
148that that gives me a good good benchmark though that it's one or two. So that's the number is high isn't that high, but I see the concerns. I definitely say that if there was any talk of doing the policy waiverss, I agree with you that it would need to be every single time. Um, >> right. And it's it is something that's on the increase and our attorneys did say that it's it's kind of new talk and um when Dr. reached out to press. They have not decided if they're going to do something on this. But um you know I would say that anytime we look at one student's safety it's never where I want to be put in a situation to put someone into a situation that might jeopardize their safety and so like one
149student would be enough for something to happen and that's kind of why the admin team is recommending that we consider this. >> Yeah. Thank and then yeah the IASB do we know of any other districts that they have a policy like this? >> Not yet. We've been asking if others are considering it. Um. >> All right. Well, thank you for sharing that. >> We're on the forefront of that. I don't know if that's good or bad, but here we are. >> Yeah. Yeah. I don't It It certainly is not an easy [clears throat] issue at all. So, thank you. >> Other questions from the board, Holly? Um, thank you for being on the forefront of this because it is a hard situation to be in for our leaders to have to worry about kids as
150young as junior high and and you started to answer one of my questions, I think, but I I wanted to see I was thinking about when I was viewing this in Boardocks, I was thinking, oh, it's someone who has an orthodontist appointment or it's a planned absence, but thinking about our sick students really gave me pause. Um, so if they don't, you know, a parent's at work, this happens to me, I can be in the loop and I get the call and it's too bad you have to be in the nurse's office. Um, what are we kind of trying to urge the parents? Like I I'm trying to picture that kid who is so sick that we don't know about them going into a house or without an adult. So, this is going to be
151kind of part of the waiver, too. >> Yeah. I mean, I think anytime there's a medical situation or a question of safety, the school administration probably would not release um or have serious conversations. We have emergency contacts for all students. Um or there would be a level of supervision. I mean, that's why administration call the level superintendent to have these conversations. What can we do? What should we run through? Um and the majority of parents would not be comfortable, I would say, sending their kid or not electing to do this yet. and probably if their child was really sick would be questioning like, can they at least stay with a nurse until someone can get there? If someone were in a spot where we didn't think they would be safe or be able to be
152home or need to be medically supervised, we wouldn't release them until we had a parent or EMTs or some other kind of transport. >> Thank you. because that was really what I was thinking of because I'm trying to balance that concern of not wanting those sick kids going home in an Uber, but also it is an equity issue because there are parents who can't get there and they're junior high or high school kid, they just need to go to the orthodontist because their bracket broke and it hurt and you just want to get them there. Um, so I understand why parents really need to do this and that it's happening. Um, so looking at it, I have a lot of concerns, but I do think personally I think the waiver offer option, especially if we're
153being very careful with sick kids, clearing knowing what their condition is and making that very explicit to a parent before they say yes, put my sick kid in a lift and send them home. >> I agree. I think it's there would be certain scenarios where we wouldn't even offer we would say I'm sorry we can't offer the waiver at this time due to the nature of the situation. Um and I do trust our school's medical staff and administration to make that call typically. Um and then if usually if there would be a disagreement or a parent really not reachable sometimes school staff do go with children >> to the hospital or the ambulance or things like that. I think we a big part of this policy and procedure is really trying to address are the
154foreseeable, you know, if I'm gonna schedule this. Now, I know as a parent, I have to I have this step I have to take in order to do that. Our our principles, our district administration has always worked with families in those emergency situations to come up with a solution that's best for the child. >> Yeah, we want to be sensitive to people's personal uh situations and definitely are um looking at this from an equity lens. that's why we are even um considering uh because at first with legal counsel they said just do a policy and then we were like well you know we do have families that we want to offer these opportunities to and they said well like you could consider a waiver in addition to so that's kind of how we evolved to
155that thank you and that reminded me of one of my other questions um that I did send ahead can you clarify the difference between when we have like a McKenna Vento student who we're providing transportation or they might be going in a taxi versus like the vetting and the process and required there versus these these lift and Uber services. >> When we have students that are mechano and uh they require a different type of transportation, we work um to in collaboration with those companies um for vetting of the drivers. >> Thank you. Other questions from the board? >> Mark, >> thank you Christine. Um I had asked this question in advance but I I I think it's also important for the u the families to understand this this waiver will be combined with their release
156form. So it won't be additional burden to the families to send in a waiver and then se or release and then separately the waiver because it's going to be done um at the time they're requesting the child be released to go to the orthodontist or >> correct it. So I mean it would be one form asking waiver asking us to release them at that time day and time. Um some families you know in the moment um they would need to be able to email us or uh provide written communication. So we would ask that they do that as much as possible prior like the day prior to um with appointments not you know calling us at 9:15 for a 920 release um because then it's like where is the paperwork and things like that and
157making sure that it is all set. But I think we'll continue to work through that just like we are now. And really this is just a safeguard for the district and for the students, but for the district. >> No, no. And I appreciate you guys thinking of this ahead of time. And it does sound like it's an additional risk to the the student um and to the district. Um and we want those kids to be able to go where they need to go safely. Um so I think it's the right thing. >> Other questions? Joe. >> Yeah. Um, thank [clears throat] Yeah, thank you for uh kind of being uh in front of the the game on this one. Um, so I guess at the high school level where it is a little bit more
158of an open campus. Um, yeah, you wouldn't necessarily know if the car they're getting into is a lift or an Uber or what have you. Um, but I guess having a policy like this would at least offer some protection, legal protection to the district and and you would educate the students about this policy right during like home room and and things at the beginning of the year when you go over uh the the kind of general conduct and policies and things. >> I think this would be a policy that our schools would call out especially at the beginning of the year if it were were adopted by the board um just in case it is a change of practice. Um with open campus we don't have complete control over that or ability to monitor that
159as much at the high school level. However, this policy would provide a layer of liability um for the district and protection is kind of where our legal took stance. Yeah, thank you for uh thinking about this and and putting this policy together as well as the waiver because I I think it is necessary, you know, sometimes when uh that that for for some families um to you have to use that every so often, but you know, running out to you know, McDonald's for lunch is not really the >> Yeah, we're not encouraging this by any means. Um for sure. >> Any other questions? Okay, we'll see this one back next meeting. Correct. Okay. Item 11, discussion with action 11.01, press policy 121. >> Okay. Uh these are the policies that out of the press 121
160update uh that um we definitely differ from uh the press recommendation uh or just presented a little bit more changes than um just simply just footnote changes. Um, so there are six policies here. I will say one uh looks like it should have been part of the policy consent agenda and that's policy 550 because we recommend adopt as presented and it only brought um legal references and footate updates. Um but a definition of on call has been added. Uh then we have two policies that we're recommending you do not adopt the press 121 revisions. Uh which means that our current policy would remain in effect. uh and those are policy 440 and policy uh 7280 and 7240. 7240 uh is our code of conduct policy. We have our own procedures in place for that. Um
161and so we would maintain our policy that is in place now. It models after um the press policy, but it includes kind of a more of a customized policy or components to it as a result of our committee input. And then policy 440 uh and 7280. policy 440. Um we have u you know again kind of have our our own language within the current policy. It is one that the board u may wish to discuss further. We I know we had a recommendation submitted um by an individual board member regarding that. Um, so the recommendation for action this evening would keep the current one in place, which would then open the door for us to look deeper in policy 440 moving forward if that's what the board would like to do. Uh, because the changes
162that were recommended were not press recommendations. Uh, the same for 7280. Dr. Cohen's actually already working on a draft of that that he would intend to bring um at the next meeting. Um, so our recommendation um Oh, sorry. And then I forgot there's two others. Uh as noted in the memo, uh 5250 and 5330. U there's uh an amendment added to each of the press policies. The recommendation is we keep our press our our policies because they're connected to collective bargaining agreements, but to include and adopt the amendment uh for each of those as presented uh which relates to the family neonatal intensive care leave act. So happy to answer any questions. Recommendation is that you approve the policies the pol press 121 memo as presented. >> Okay. I need I'll take a motion um
163for 11.01. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. A motion and a second have been heard. Any discussion? Mark. >> Thank you, Christine. Um one one question I have on on 440. um is um and it was my recommendation on language change. Um and and the one thing I I just really have a question about is the part of the current policy where it says the board shall be given expedient notification of any need to incur debt outside these guidelines. And I I have total confidence in the current administration and and whatnot. Uh I'm just thinking ahead and my concern is is that if if a administration were to decide to do something outside of these uh boundaries that have been set whether in the current policy or in the revised language, it it seems
164like it doesn't matter if the board approves it or not because it'll just get done based on the current language. Would that be correct? >> Yeah, I guess that's the way the the language would read. Um but that a change to that is not a recommendation from press. That's why we're saying just maintain the current policy now and then we would take a deep dive into that policy itself. So rather than implementing changes from press which don't match ours anyways >> and then coming back and doing the policy again. We're saying just reject the press update for now. Keep our current policy and then if the board wishes we can take a deep look at that policy individually. >> Okay. Yeah. because that's really the one thing that I think bothers me is that again
165I think the current administration would not do anything that is going to harm the district but I don't know what's going to happen in the in the future 10 years from now. Um so I I just think that if if a administration were to go outside the boundaries that we we as a board have that approval. So, I would really appreciate it if we could take a look at it um and and at least look at that part of the language uh so that there's a little bit more control, I guess. >> Yeah, Dr. Cohen did also indicate he will um have recommended language reviewed by legal counsel and then that'll help us draft the signage for a policy for the board's consideration. >> Thanks, D. >> Other questions from the board? Okay, Melissa, >>
166actually, could we go through the numbers real quick of each item and maybe discuss them for each policy? >> So, >> okay, policy 44E is incurring debt. Our recommendation is do not adopt the policy as presented by press because our policy differs from theirs. Um, that's the policy we just discussed. >> And it differs how? Oh, our version includes additional uh information regarding debt debt management and it's not required uh by press but it establishes uh you know more guidelines for us. Um so our recommendation is that we do not adopt the press policy because if we adopt the press policy part of the the language that has been elected for this our district would would go away. >> And what was elected for our district? Can you be very specific on what is the
167wording? >> This was all >> it it's in our board policy um that you can find either through board docs or through the website. >> Okay. >> And we've had this is our third meeting. This is our third meeting with the press 121 update. >> Yeah. No, I take my time to read everything and do all my research. So it does take quite a bit of time. So I was just asking if it this could expediate it but okay. So what is the next policy? >> 550 drug and alcohol-f free workplace. We recommend adopt as presented. No change. Uh definition to what it means of on call has been added. >> Any question? Next one. >> Policy 5250 leaves of absences. Um we recommend we only adopt the amendment language regarding uh the addition of
168information regarding the family neonatal intensive care leave act. uh our policy is uh specific to 203 uh and governed by collective bargaining language. So we would recommend we essentially keep our policy but add reference to the family neonatal intensive care act. >> The next one >> one second I I'm confused as to why we're reading through each policy. I wasn't able [clears throat] before to get I wasn't able to access board ducks to get I have on mine the notes for each one. So it's a little harder for me to keep track of what you're doing because like right now we're not pressed on it where it's even is there a list I could even look up and see it was because that is why >> Well, okay. So I'm I need to clarify. You
169said earlier that you could no longer get into board talks this afternoon, but we've had this in front of us for three meetings, which is >> Yes. And that's why I took notes on them and that's why, but I did not have this specific because I don't do all my I don't do it all today. >> In the future, it would also be helpful if you can't access board docs to let us know so that we could try to assist. >> I have had in the past with that my website and it's taken a while to rectify. So, >> well, in the in the future though, remember with when it comes to policy, you can find it through the website. It's not just housed in board docs. >> That's it's it any of our policies.
170So, like when you're asking Mr. Bridges to compare what the press update is to what our current policy is, I just feel like this is a little tedious for the community to have to sit through when the issue seems to have just occurred this afternoon, but we've had this in front of us for several weeks. >> It's not just that. Like I've said, I think you're kind of I don't agree with your review of it. So, I would say that if you don't want to do this, the board doesn't want to do this, I am fine. If the rest of the board members don't want to go through it, I'm fine with that if that's what they decide. >> Amanda, go ahead. >> So, Melissa, back when we were doing it back in earlier, right,
171with the consent agenda, >> you had specific policies you had questions on. >> Do you remember that? So, did you check off the ones that you had questions on >> that we answered? So, could we go back to that list and just answer your specific questions about the policies that you had outlined? >> That would that would be a lot more productive. >> Thank you, Amanda. That was really nice of you to do that because that is the best way to do it. So, thank you. Um, so 750 I can't decide. Do we Is that on this one? >> It is not. >> Okay. and going by the other ones that I've checked off. Um, you're right. We're we're good, Amanda. >> Thank you. That was that was really [snorts] >> Thank you for working
172with me. >> Okay. I've heard a motion and a second. Um, please call the role. Mrs. Patton. >> Winski. >> I. >> Gerie. >> I. >> Blastic. >> I. >> McMillan. >> I. >> Kazminsky. >> Hi. Kelly Black I. >> The motion passes. Item 11.02 the 2627 board meeting schedule. >> Uh draft was presented at the previous meeting in May at the May 4th meeting. Uh noted that um uh we were going to recommend that we change the September 21 meeting to September 22 um due to Yam Kapoor. So that has been done. No other changes been made. I recommend you approve this calendar uh as presented. >> I'll take a motion. >> Some second. >> A motion and a second been heard. Any questions from the board? So with that change, both September meetings
173will be at Tuesday. Okay. >> Okay. Um motion and second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton, Kelly Black, >> I. Astic >> I Winski >> I >> Cosminski >> I >> McMillan >> I >> Gerky >> I the motion passes. Item 12 old business. I do not have any old business. Item 13, new business. I do not have any new business. Item 14, the uh upcoming events. The schedule events. It looks like it's getting smaller. >> It's getting smaller for the current school year. The last day of student attendance is Friday, May 22nd. Uh we will be closed on Monday, May 25th. In observance of Memorial Day on an export of education meeting is scheduled for June 1st right here at PSAC. >> Okay. At this point, I will entertain a motion
174to return to close session for the purpose of the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees or legal counsel, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or legal counsel to determine its validity. >> Second, move it. I'll second that one. I want to assure the community that the board will take no action in close session, but will simply adjourn at the conclusion of our close session discussion. I've heard a motion and a second. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton, >> Blastic, >> I Kazminsky, >> I >> Girky, >> I >> Kelly Black, I McMillan, I >> Winsky, I. >> The motion passes. We are now enclosed. Good night, everyone.