001All right, there we go. All right. Since >> since 601, the board of education has been in close session to discuss to discuss um the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees or legal counsel uh including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or legal counsel to determine its validity. The purchase of or lease of real property for the use of the school board, including meetings held for the purpose of discussing whether a particular parcel should be acquired and collective negotiating matters between the school board and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules or one or more for one or more classes of employees. I'll entertain a motion to come out of close session. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Motion has been sec moved and seconded.
002Please call the role. Miss Matt, >> thank you. Kush >> I >> Blaster >> I >> Winski >> I >> Kazinski >> I >> McMillan >> I >> Gerky >> I >> The motion passes. We are in open session. Good evening and welcome to the February 2nd, 2026 board of education 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. Miss Matt, >> board members present this evening, Charles Kush, Christine Gerky, Amanda McMillan, Joe Kosminsky, Holly Blastic, and Mark Winski. >> Please join the board of education in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance 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
003justice for all. All right. Item four, recognition. Item 4.01, good news. >> Okay. Um, Neapville North High School's Black Student Leadership Association hosted their annual Martin Luther King Day celebration on Thursday, January 15th at 6 PM. We bring up the slide deck, please. This year's theme was Dare to Dream, featuring guest speaker Muel Maize, CEO and founder of Maize Music Center of Excellence, who discussed his realized dream to become an entrepreneur. Neighborville Central and Neville North High Schools have been officially recognized on the 2024 2025 AP school honor role. This distinction is awarded by College Board to schools that demonstrate a commitment to increasing student access to advanced placement courses and supporting them on the path to college success. The award highlights the significant schoolwide effort, dedication from teachers, counselors, administrators, students, and parents to
004make AP access a priority. Both schools received the silver distinction. 161 Neapville Central seniors and 164 Neapville North High School seniors were named 2026 Illinois State Scholars. The state scholar program recognizes high school students for outstanding academic achievement. Great job to those seniors. And then finally, we're excited to share that starting next year, the district is shifting the dual language program to balance enrollment, improve equity, and strengthen student connections to their home communities. As continuation of our multilingual expansion commitment, the Southside site will launch at Lincoln Junior High. This ensures students remain on their homeschool trajectory, attending with neighbors and classmates to foster a sense of community and belonging. We look forward to this student centered shift. We'll work with staff, students, and families to ensure a smooth transition. Um, that's good news for tonight.
005>> Awesome. All right. Item five, public comment. Uh, we have reached the point in our agenda for public comment. The board of education welcomes comments from the public at its meetings. Citizens who wish to address the board of education should identify themselves by name. Comments by individual shall be limited to three minutes. If the individual is representing multiple individuals or group, they shall be allowed to speak for five minutes. The board respectfully requests that speakers refrain from commenting about specific individuals. Is there I don't have any slips of paper. Is there anyone in the audience who wishes to address the board? Seeing none, this will conclude our public comment period. Item six, action by consent. Item 6.01, adoption of personnel report. >> Make a motion to approve item 5.01. Nope. Yes. >> 6.01. >> Not
006the public comment, the action by consent. 6.01, one please. Thank you. >> Second. >> Motion and a second have been heard. Any discussion? [snorts] >> Please call the role. Miss Matt. >> Blastic. >> I. >> Kazminski. >> I. >> Gerky. >> I. >> Kush. >> I. >> McMillan. >> I. >> Winski. >> I. >> The motion passes. All right. Item seven, communications. Item 7.01, 01 board of education reports. Is there anyone on the board of education who would like to give a report on something that they've done as part of their duties as a board of education member? Amanda, >> I'd like to share that I um got a chance to visit Kennedy again. Um Kennedy Junior High is my adoptive school and this time I got to sit in on a couple um classes.
007I don't have my notes in front of me, but um it was really great to see a couple a science class and also one of the um uh language classes. It happened to be the day before calling the school day off. So, they were all preparing for a possible e-learning day and they looked at me, I was like, I don't know. And an hour later, we all knew. So, um but anyways, it was really great to just to see the teachers in action. That's where the magic happens. And as a board member, it's always a privilege. So, I really appreciate them sharing their classrooms with me. It was great to see how engaged the students were and uh just to see the learning and practice. So, thank you. >> Which explains why I wasn't with
008you for that visit. >> That's explains why you were not with me for that visit. Yes. >> Joe, Mark and I had uh the opportunity to attend the carbon action plan advisory committee uh last week. Um it was a really uh uh engaging meeting where um we learned about the um recycling committee that's been uh developed, a subcommittee of that group um and some of the uh initiatives that they're uh working on to um around education around recycling uh keeping waste out of the recycling streams and such. >> [snorts] >> Um we uh got a presentation from the uh engineers uh who are designing the uh transportation center uh who talked about the geothermal systems that are going in there. Um so it was a really interesting uh presentation as well. Uh as well as
009um uh just uh kind of showing the uh solar capacity on the roofs which we saw back in I think a meeting in October >> [snorts] >> uh here in the board. Um so it was a a great meeting uh good discussion and our next one is at the end of April if I remember correctly. >> Anyone else have a report? Okay, seeing none, um let's see, we're moving on to item 7.02, president's report. So, couple of things that I would like to highlight. One, um we had the privilege of having our board of education self-evaluation. Is that last week or the week before? Like two weeks ago. Two weeks ago. Wow. Okay. Um self-evaluation. Um, and uh, as always, uh, first of all, I'd like to take a moment to thank our IASB rep,
010uh, our lineup atard, as well as Gary, um, her partner in crime, who, um, uh, were able to help with our facilitation of that program. Um, they did a little bit of an innovative thing. We actually had the chance to do some serious self-reflection, not just in self-reflection, but they actually had us watch some of our as homework assignments. They had us watch one of our board of education meetings that they picked randomly uh for us to all take a look at and then answer some questions around so that we could uh make that the basis of our discussion. Um, and I'm really particularly proud of us as a group for one, sometimes it's hard to watch yourself on video, but uh I I applaud the fact that we are willing to kind of take
011a look at ourselves and and take a critical look at ourselves um and we got a lot of great things accomplished. Um we were able to observe some things uh in ourselves and that uh that we felt that we needed to address going forward. And so, um, we have some plans and process in place that we're going to, uh, put into place to make some adjustments. So, just wanted to make sure the community was aware of that. So, in case you see some things start to change, um, that's where that came from. The other thing I'd like to highlight is the fact that um, there is a um, Depage Regional Dinner for ISB that will be happening tomorrow evening and we will be receiving our governance award at that meeting. I unfortunately will not be
012able to attend. So, uh, uh, several of us will be there, several of my colleagues will be there to hold down the fort and, um, and accept the award on our behalf. Um, again, the ISB does a wonderful job in putting those programs on and we're so honored to be receiving that recognition, uh, yet again. So, really excited about that. And that's it from me. All right. Um, item 7.03, 03 action related to board self-evaluation. >> So the board as part of your agreements in the work that was done during the self-evaluation uh resulted in some potential change to kind of procedures for which you operate under the board meeting. It was recommended that uh you take action on that and I think Mr. Kazminsky is going to make a motion in regard to that.
013>> Yeah. So um thanks for kind of setting the stage on this. Um basically um what we what we wanted to do is uh find ways to make our meetings a little more efficient and streamlined and uh really focus on uh the governance issues. So what [snorts] we did was we came to a consensus that would establish time limits of uh three minutes per board member uh per agenda item and we would go kind of round robin around the table >> [snorts] >> uh after everyone has a chance to speak or or up uh not to um uh if people if a majority would like to go around again we can we can do that and and continue the discussion otherwise we'd move on to the next agenda item or the vote. Um so [snorts]
014the um the motion uh that uh we're putting forward um I move that we approve uh a pilot until the next board self-evaluation whereby each board member is limited to three minutes to speak on each agenda item before moving on to a vote or the next agenda item unless a majority of the board desires additional rounds of discussion and questioning in which each board member would still be limited to three minutes per round. Second. >> A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Ms. Matt. >> All right. >> Cosminski. >> I. >> Kush. >> I. >> Winski. >> I. >> McMillan. >> I. >> Blastic. >> I. >> Gerky. >> I. >> The motion passes. Um, so to that end, are we going to take the verbiage that Joe just said
015and use that to amend our documentation? Awesome. Yes, perfect. Thank you so much. Um to that end, um one of the things we also talked about was um if if and when we moved forward with that that we would look to rotate that responsibility among the board members um not to create any undue uh burden for anyone. So um I'm looking for a volunteer. >> I don't mind. >> Just is okay. >> Yep. Joe, you want to go for it? So, so Joe, thank you. I love it. >> Thank you for volunteering to take the uh to take the first watch on that one. Um and then um typical with sorry, as is typical with our other assignments, Christine, if I could ask you to put together the schedule that we would then the rotation
016schedule from there for for Joe being the first person and then Well, you're starting tonight. So, there we go. Awesome. All right. Any other thoughts on that? No. All right. So, item 7.04 04 superintendent staff school report. >> Okay. Um our report this evening is going to be um shared by [clears throat] Mr. Francis, chief financial officer. This is anformational presentation and update to the 5-year financial forecast that was last presented to the board of education on November 17, 2025. Um Mike will share with you the updates that he has made to the forecast. Uh while there is no formal action being requested of the board, we are seeking uh guidance in in terms of uh the previous directive that was provided by the board of education in November about working toward a balanced budget
017um for uh presentation to the board in May for the 2026 2027 school year. So Mike, >> thank you. Uh at the November 17th meeting, the board reviewed the initial 5-year forecast. Since that time, the final 2025 calendar year consumer price index value was published by the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics. The results of the forecast have been updated to reflect the final value for the CPI. All other assumptions and anticipated budget amendments remain unchanged from the original presentation. A copy of the original projection presentation is also available for review in board docs. The final CPI for 2025 was 2.7%. This will be used in calculations for our December 2026 tax levy, which limits our maximum increase to that value for taxes paid in the summer of 2027. This factor is the main source
018of revenue for revenues driving the FY28 budget. The estimated CPI used back in November was 3%. So this is slightly so this slightly lower value has a negative impact on revenue moving forward. Any salaries that are also tied to CPI were also adjusted accordingly. You can switch. There you go. This updated graph reflects the CPI change noted and is very similar but slightly worse than the results in November as reflected by the downward slope of the green fund balance line. Board policy 420 requires us to maintain a fund balance between 10 to 20% of expenditures as reflected by the parallel blue lines. This chart reflects the same projection information in number format. Next year's [clears throat] current projected deficit remains greater than $12 million and will continue to grow as annual expected expenditures outpace the
019change to expected revenue. As we look at our updated financial forecast, the measures on this slide reflect how we are responding responsibly to the gap between revenues and expenses. First, we are focused on maximizing existing revenue. This begins with continued advocacy for state for additional state funding. We will work with our legislative partners and statewide organizations to advocate for funding levels that more accurately reflect the true cost of the mandates districts are required to meet. As you will see tonight, we are also reviewing fees to ensure we align with CPI increases or increases to cost uh and services. Any fee considerations will be approached carefully with attention to access and affordability and will be brought forward transparently. At the same time, we are being very intentional about how we manage expenditures. We are reducing discretionary
020spending by eliminating or scaling back non-essential expenses. This includes reviewing professional learning and travel and professional services that can be reduced or brought inhouse. Additionally, we are consolidating duplicative dup duplicative resources to ensure we are not paying multiple times for tools or services that serve the same purpose. And finally, we're streamlining staffing to align by aligning positions to current enrollment and student needs and where appropriate returning to pre pandemic staffing levels. This work is guided by data and focused on long-term sustainability. Together, these budget balancing measures represent a balanced, responsible approach, one that prioritizes students, uses taxpayer dollars wisely, and allows us to remain financially stable over time. These strategies will also form the foundation for our broader communication with staff in the community, ensuring clarity, transparency, and shared understanding as we move forward. Be
021happy to ask answer any question from the board. If I can just add just a couple of things in terms of timeline looking forward. Um obviously Mike's presenting to you the updated five-year financial forecast with the new information that we have. Uh our departments are currently in the process of uh preparing uh their detailed budgets for the business office and cons consideration of the building of the budget with direction from uh the business office. uh cabinet is in the process of going through its staffing projections uh and kind of under the as Mike talked about the the sense of streamlining our staffing uh where appropriate and necessary uh uh as typical in March at the March 2nd we will present to the board of education a staffing projection uh looking for action on that in
022the 16th um and what we're looking for this evening is just affirmation of the board's direction that was provided back in November of uh directing us to work toward uh closing that gap this year as close as we can to get narrowing and closing that $12.5 million projected deficit. Um and so if there's additional questions that you have um we be happy to entertain those. Um otherwise any any clarification on direction um from the board would be appreciated. >> Comments Amanda. >> Start the timer Joe. All right. Um [clears throat] my question is around additional state funding, right? So I know that the state funding has um kind of like a formula and we're considered one of the um richer districts. Um and so what does it mean actually to advocate for state funding? Like
023who's doing the advocating? Who are you talking to? Is there actually a chance that might happen? We we actually have already started that process at one of our at the one of our recent uh land meetings, which is our uh advocacy group. Um some of the local legislators were that are in DuPage County were at that at that meeting and we talked about the different types of state funding and tried to educate them on how um tier four districts like ourselves or even tier three or tier 2 districts are falling behind because they're not receiving um a proportional share of evidence-based funding dollars. and on and the on the other hand also getting less reimbursement because the state is prioritizing putting money into that EBF formula really uh prioritizing over keeping mandated categoricals fully funded.
024And so the result has been the proration of the mandated categoricals has continued to fall over the last few years to fulfill that promise of of funding EBF at the at the high level which is not helping districts like ours or other districts like ours in DuPage County. >> So if I can just add to that then who's doing the advocacy? Uh in addition to lend, it'll be associations like the Illinois Association of School Boards, uh Illinois Association of School Administrators, Illinois Association of School Business Officials. Um and then each of us who will have a responsibility as members of those organizations. Um I do know that um IB is planning a lobby day this year and so I think it'll be important for us to have a team that is able to be there
025to speak on the importance of uh those mandated categoricals receiving uh more payment. >> Um thank you. Uh that's very clear. I guess the only thing isn't quite clear, but it's advocacy is like how likely is this to happen, you know? Um because I know the state is pretty strapped for money. Um the other component is so this is a combination of revenue and expenses. Um, do you think that with this combination or at least that's what you're pitching here is that with this combination of potential new revenue and expense um, cuts that we'd be able to make up for that.3 that we're missing in the CPI or from what we originally projected? Well, it the projections were updated for the the.3 that was um uh off of the projection, but there was the there
026was a much bigger deficit that we need to make up for that was there in November. That really hasn't changed much because the [clears throat] that CPI doesn't affect for two years out. So, we still have that same gap um uh for next year that we need to close um that we're and but unfortunately I don't believe we're going to know information from the state level by the time that the first budget needs to get brought to the board. Now, we can continue to advocate and hopefully um there is a there hopefully something happens for the next budget year for the for the state or maybe sometime in the future. But the state typically doesn't uh pass this budget until the end of May or sometime in June. And we've already presented a budget uh
027to have already brought the budget to the board. So I'm not going to be rolling the dice thinking that there's going to be that the state is going to fund more. So the projections that you see right now are are very similar um proration levels to they we've seen over the last few years. Couple things about the projections also as a reminder for the board is that um again upon the direction of the board of closing the $12.5 million as you look at the projections we still project deficits and outy years as well. So it's not just a one-time done and we we have some adjustments that we need to make. Second, the projections that are presented uh in Mike's presentation assume no changes to anything. It rolls everything forward as is. So to your
028question about making adjustments and closing those gaps, every one of those adjustments we make, whether it's additional revenue that we're able to advocate for and get or looking at uh reducing our discretionary spending, streamlining, all of those things are going to help close those gaps because that would indicate changes to some of the factors that create this projection. Christine. >> So along the lines with the advocacy question, um the state day for IASB is March 24th. So, um there's the opportunity for us to go down to Springfield and if um if you haven't, ISB also has a podcast that they they have out and the most recent episode from January 21st outlines IASB's priorities, both federal and state, and they talk a lot about funding and mandated categoricals in that episode. So, it might be
029a good starting point for board members like to listen to the podcast um just to hear kind of an outline. Um but then um I guess we should decide um how many of us can go down. It's a I think it's a Tuesday or a Wednesday. Yeah, I knew it was middle of the week. So, um then we could also work with administration on talking points and data. Um we know it's effective. We had we've seen positive results from our federal advocacy. So I don't see why um we should you know um not expect something positive from the going and doing this on the state side too. >> Mark, >> thank you Charles. Um on the slide uh you talked also about increasing the fees. uh we'll have some discussion without action later on the
030fees. So what are and you talked about the timeline and and so we're kind of looking at the fees now but we won't be looking at the the budget um until a little bit later after that. So what is your thinking currently about what we should be expecting to see in terms of fees as we go forward over the years that are in the forecast? In the forecast currently, there are no additional increases to fees besides the ones that you see for tonight. That could be something that if the board wants further exploration for, we certainly could explore that. Uh remember the fees overall fees are a very small portion of about 1% of the budget and that's all general and participation fees included. So even if we tripled them, they would not balance the
031budget. So, it's a and what we're asking for tonight is a small thing which will help close that gap, but it's certainly not going to solve solve the problem that we have in front of us. >> Right. Okay. So, we we're not to your point though, we're we're not expecting to see a forecast come back with tripling of fees or anything like that >> unless the board direct me otherwise. No. >> Okay. No. And like you look at this evenings in terms of our our general fees, they just follow our pattern of increasing in accordance with CPI. Um when you look at the high school course fees, those are simply the cost of materials. So you've seen that actually some costs are down, right? Um our recommendation includes uh driver's ed. As the board remembers
032at a previous meeting, it did authorize us to file a waiver seeking uh payment up to $500. So that would be our recommendation. That doesn't even come anywhere close to um covering our costs on that particular program, but it it does that's the limit of where we can go to. >> Right. So, so it sounds like what we're saying is a lot of this is expected to come from the expense side of the of the ledger. >> Yeah, we we we do have to I mean we do really have to look closely at our expenditures for sure. That that that's going to be the place that's going to help us close this gap most. Great. >> Thanks. >> Holly, >> um [clears throat] thank you first of all for the presentation and and updating and
033how clearly it was stated. And I think thinking about guidance and and um our perspective or at least my personal perspective on where we need to go. I love the idea of advocacy. Um but I want us and I appreciate your point that we're not going to get anything new from the state this year. This budget's already in and on May 31st or on May 300 whenever they get to it in Springfield. Um it's not likely there's going to be a lot of room because all across the state and all agencies are very tight this year. Um, so I appreciate that that recognition. And so looking at this, um, I expenses, like you said, it's 1%. It's also more regressive than other ways of dealing with and funding the school. So my perspective and kind
034of my guidance and priority is really looking on the expenses. Um, I appreciate the mention of travel. Um, especially out of state travel. I think we have Zoom now. There are a lot of conferences and learning experiences. we can still get great things without paying for airline tickets and hotels and all that expensive travel. I'm glad to see that's in there. Um not a fan of adding to fees. Um I really would hate to see um studentf facing staff reduced. I know that may be required. We have tw you know it's a 12 million or so shortfall and it's only going to get more expensive if we wait. Um, so looking at that, that's kind of my priority when we're thinking about where we want to cut is less student facing, more things, discretionary things,
035travel, those redundant resources as much as we can find there. Um, because we want as many educators and staff hands-on with our kids as possible. Um, you know, and the fees aren't going to make the difference. Springfield, at least this year, is going to isn't going to make the difference. But as hard as it is, I do recognize that nipping this now and addressing it now is going to save us money down the line because each it's compounding. It's compounding. Um it it's just going to compound. So I appreciate the presentation. It's a difficult topic. Um but looking at the ledger, I don't believe we're really going to make up anything too much and rely much on more coming in. So really as much as we can focus on discretionary things, administrative things, material things,
036um that's my two cents on where to focus. >> Joe, >> yeah, thank you for the uh the update on the the financials. Um and uh he said you're looking for consensus and and I'm also on board with um you know it's going to be kind of pulling off the band-aid and and you know uh it's a tough to cut 12 million and um I think Kie laid out priorities really well um [snorts] you know the trying to cut as few student facing uh you know staff as possible uh would be ideal Um and uh you know I I think you know it is going to be some tough decisions and and um you know uh but I think [clears throat] it's the right thing to do in in the long run right we need
037we need the finances healthy for the long term and if we keep pushing it forward it it's just going to compound so um yeah I I also agree that you know we need to try to, you know, close this hole. >> Amanda, >> I just had a question for Christine. You had mentioned about ISB having an advocacy day um in Springfield. Do you know if they're providing transportation? >> I don't know for sure. I know it was something that was >> typically they don't. >> Yeah, typically they haven't, but I think there was some talk about maybe trying to help with that. I I can try to get clarification on that. I don't know. >> I'd love more information if you can get it. >> Yeah, I'll see what I can find out. Um but
038yeah, I haven't heard anything special. >> Okay. >> It's typically viewed as a like a mini conference by AASB, so those who wish to go >> can >> responsible for getting there. Right. >> I'll I'll try to have the information like there's a fee or lunch or whatever that kind of I'll try to have um if I so they haven't done it since >> preco I think the last time they did it was 2018 >> and if I remember um the history that I was told I did go in 2018 and they did it every other year so then 20 >> everything got messed up. So, um, at that time it was it was like a a full day and some the people who I can't remember all who went. I did go and I
039went down the night before and stayed the night because it started so early. Um, but they did have lunch and they had it was almost like a the the first part of the day was kind of a learning thing um with different speakers and such and then the second half of the day we were in the capital talking to our very similar to Cosba, you know, talking to your specific legislators. So, um, but I'll I'll try to get the info. So, I'll report back at the next meeting with anything I can find, but if I find anything beforehand, I'll email everybody just so you have more of it ASAP and then I'll report it out at the next meeting. That helps. >> Thank you. Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you. Um and uh you know, just
040to add my perspective as well, I do think that um uh excellent job in terms of laying out the priorities and things like that. I'm pretty confident that the administration will take the direction that we provided to try to get the b the budget as balanced as possible recognizing [clears throat] that anything that we were able to do this year will help us you know because the gap kind of just compounds. Um but one of the questions I asked ahead and I'll just kind of marinate because I I think it's important to understand just order of magnitude. Um, we we spent a lot of time talking about state shortfalls as it is and as it stands right now just in terms of how underfunded we are from the things that the state requires. I asked
041the question of how much of a hole is created every year by the state shortfall in the funding for mandatory expenses. And just as an example, there are two areas. One for transportation. If they were fully funding transportation, it'd be an extra $2.3 million. So on the reverse side of that is because they're not fully funding it, that's $2.3 million that we have to make up from other things. Um and the cost of transportation continue to increase year after year. And so that that the state by even keeping things flat is creating more and more of a hole. So um there is a there's a lot of work that needs to be done. And I think that uh you know the closer we can get to closing the gap in the first year, the better
042it'll be for us. And I um again trust the administration will do everything that they can to make sure that we are maintaining the level and standard of excellence that we become accustomed to in this district um and only cut those things that are necessary um and uh and and limit the things that are student facing that are cut. So looking forward to hearing what you guys come up with. All right. Um any other discussion on that topic? Okay, moving on to item eight, discussion without action. Item 8.01, general and optional fees. >> Okay, as previewed as part of the previous agenda topic, uh discussion annually, uh administration does review its general and optional fees to make recommendations to the board of education for the coming year. And as noted uh you know this comes
043prior to our budgeting process but it does help us then identify revenue uh as a result of this changes but also it's required because of the registration process and timeline. Um and so uh our recommendations for next year as as briefly mentioned um are loaded in board docs. Um I'll turn it to Mr. France if there's any comment you wish to make or highlights and then be happy to answer any questions. Um yeah, just real briefly, the there are uh three areas or three attachments to the to the memo. The the first one um shows the proposals are highlighted in yellow and really in three main areas as the um u the fee at uh for the anid community um payments, the general fee, and then finally the uh heartstrat monitor fee for sixth grade
044are all highlighted in yellow for increases for next year. And then finally, we did remove the uh yearbook fee from the junior high from this table just simply because parents buy it directly from uh the publisher. Also included were the two surveys we just for more forformational purposes. Um uh the one is shows area school districts or or uh private facilities for um early childhood what they're what they're charging. And then secondly, our our typical unit unit school districts um that we typically do comparisons with what their general fee is. It was pointed out that there there was the general fees. Every school district does have a general fee, but they're not all apples to apples. And I want to point a few just just to for clarification and transparency because I this really should
045be uh maybe asterisk at the bottom especially for a district like Bington. Bington doesn't have course fees. They roll everything into the into the general fee. So comparing their general fee to ours is not necessarily apples to apples. And the second piece I'd like as an example Indian Prairie does not charge a technology fee. So their general fee is inclusive of the technology fee where we have a separate fee. This table only reflects the general fees which are listed at that which every school district has. So it it's not when you look at this you do have to there's a lot more to it sometimes than than than you see. But these these are on on average our general fees if you're rolled in some of the supplementary fees are still on the lower end
046of of our comparisons. Questions from the board. >> Just as a reminder just before questions, no action required this evening. Um questions, guidance. We be looking for recommend or a action by the board of education at the February 17th meeting. >> Holly, >> um I want to thank you for that point on apples to apples because I did send a question ahead that I think when I wrote it was quite sharp. So I want to apologize to you by how that was written. um because I was looking at our fee and going I have never in all my time in this district written a check that small um so I was quite shocked by the comparison um and I think it is because there's a technology fee there you know all these additional things that
047we pay for and so it was shocking to see that um and kind of a comment in line with that when we're looking at maybe fees on this budget is maybe doing more of the Bington model because it really does feel like doing this comparison it's kind of like the old ticket master like there's one fee and and there's additional fee and then there's an additional fee and then there's the PE and you know if we had one larger one um it'd be a little less sticker shock for parents if we're looking at it anyway in our funding but thank you for that clarification I wanted to apologize for the way because it's a structural thing not anything in how the the table was presented today and especially the um the way we're in line
048with the other preschools I think we have a wonderful deal here at Reed and we are providing wonderful services for these fees um but I think it would help for parents less of that sticker shock if down the line or when we're reviewing these we do roll them into one. So, it's just not continually adding on. Um especially the heart monitor strap is one that really stands out to me too because you buy now it's $32 to use two times and your child loses it. And it's, you know, it's another one of those sticker shocks. So, if there's a way some of these things that if every ELA class is going to have a novel and every students is going to have an ELA class, maybe we could work those into the the general fee.
049So, just a thought out there, but thank you for that um explanation. >> Other questions from the board? >> Mark? Thank you, Charles. Um just uh a followup to Holly. Um I I I think she raised uh a very good point about trying to consolidate the fees, but just from a historical perspective, what was the reason we broke them out the way we did? Was there kind of a different thought about it at the time or did we just continue to add things to the general fee over time? >> That's hard to say exactly because they've always been broken out. It's not like they were consolidated at one point and then broken out. Whereas I know Bington recently consolidated their fees within the last I think five years. Uh some other school districts have done
050the same too that there are some pros and cons to that also. There's not a perfect system for this. Um and there are lots of different fees. You can see that table has lots of different rows on it for various fees. The general fee just being one one of them. Um >> yeah, I think some of the mentality honestly was um kind of pay for what you're using. Um so on the other end, um not sticking kids who aren't selecting courses that may have a high course fee or material fee with a with an increased general fee to help offset that, right? And so it's okay if we're going to take the you could argue then we're discouraging kids from taking certain types of classes, right? Because then they have to pay a fee on
051top of it. It is probably something when you look at the length of the the optional fees uh to look at a different approach. Um I would say other part of the rationale on breaking it out is that as has been explained before um those optional fees are intended to just cover the cost of the material. This is not like a a revenue income source for us is just to cover the cost and those fluctuate um on the market or even on curricular changes or recommendations from our teams on what resources should be used. So, it's really trying to I think I think the intent the bill's big to try to keep it as as low as possible and only for what the student is going to be using. >> Right. But with the general
052fee, every student gets charged that. >> Correct. >> Right. So, so I I think to Holl's point um probably consolidating that I I totally understand the optional fees and whatnot um reflect the actual cost for a student taking [snorts] that course, but the general fee is charged to every student, >> right? >> So, kind of consolidating that I think makes sense to me so they don't feel like a parent doesn't feel like, well, I'm being nickeled and dime for towel fees and heart monitoring. >> Well, those Yeah. Okay. I understood. Okay. Yep. Okay, fair enough. >> Other questions? Amanda, >> going to the um tuition increase for Ann Reed. Um approximately what percentage of children would be affected by that because I know that there's some children like uh preschool for all and children with
053IEPs that don't have to >> they do not pay a fee. [clears throat] Um I I don't know the exact percentage. >> Okay. Um, >> is there a general like idea of like what revenue it would increase to or like you know? >> Yeah, I have a general idea of what that would be. I think there are I don't want to say the wrong number. >> I didn't have that for you. >> We can get that we can get that information to you. >> That'd be great. Yeah, if I can just get an idea of more like the numbers there that would really be helpful. Thank you. Other questions, Christine, Joe? Okay. All right. So, this comes back for action next time around. >> Yes. >> Okay. Awesome. All right. Item 8.02, high school course
054fees. >> Okay. High school course fees are also presented to the board of education this evening for discussion without action. So, no action needed this evening. Um, we've talked a little bit about this again over a couple agenda items uh annually. Uh these fees are brought to the board of education for approval and these do represent those individual course fees that are selected by students. Dr. Cohen works with the high schools on establishing those. Um we always talk about uh liking how close we get the two schools and I think we're so close and that's very good. So Dr. Cohen, anything to add you want to highlight? >> No, other than the fact about 90% of the fees have remained the same. Uh handful up and handful surprisingly down, but that's due to new resources
055and going, you know, using some open educational resources where possible. Okay. Questions from the board. >> Going once, going twice. Okay. All right. So, again, that comes back for action at our next meeting. Item 8.03, establish hourly rates of pay. >> Okay. We welcome Dr. Hagens up to the table this evening. Uh, annually, uh, we also review our hourly rates of pay for a number of our employees here in the district. And uh this is again presented for discussion without action. So no uh decision needed from the board of education this evening. We'll take your guidance though recommendations as we come back and look for action approve an approval at the February 17th meeting. Um so we have background material provided uh in board docs for you as well as a little bit of a
056comparison. Dr. Hagens, any highlights you wish to make or any information you want to share? >> Sorry. Um, no. I hopefully the study that we did with the 22 schools in DuPage was kind of helpful. I I I don't have much to add outside of that, but it's always good, especially with our substitute uh rate uh both permanent building sub and our daily rate just to make sure that we're competitive with our neighboring school districts. >> Okay, questions from the board. Amanda, >> I apologize. I did not send this in advance either, but um do you have any idea of I know in the past we've in included like some incentive programs like if you sub like 10 days you get a $100 bonus or something like that. Just wondering how effective those are and
057if that's something that's being considered in this too. >> Yeah. So um last year in 2425 we paid out that bonus. Um there was 930 and I want to check this to make sure but uh 938 times where we paid like a a surge amount or that incentive. Um this year so far to date we have done 470. So one of the best things about this district is our kind of added that in the board questions but just our daily fill rate. Um I come from I've had experience in other places where a rate is from 40 to 60% your daily fill rate. The fact that here in this district we are above 90%. I told you in January the average was 94% fill rate like that warms my HR heart. So we are very
058blessed. We are very grateful for our substitutes who come back and that incentive is utilized quite often because I think people want to be here to sub and it's great to have people who are familiar with the system coming back and serving our students and our school communities. >> Holly, >> I apologize. I did not send this in in advance. um for like bilingual subs, are they under specialist or do we provide any additional pay for someone who would sub into like a dual language classroom? So, we do have a category for our like substitute specialist, the daily rate. Um but that is similar to our our daily substitute rate. So, we don't differentiate at this at this moment. >> Other questions? Mark Joe. Okay. All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Again, this
059comes back for action at our next meeting on the 17th. >> All right. Item 8.04, draft of the school year of 20. >> Yeah. >> 28 school year calendar. >> All right. Everybody's favorite topic. Um, one of those ones we know we do not please everybody. Um, so I'm going to dillydally here until Dr. Nolton gets up here so he can provide a little bit more of the report, but we are bringing to you again for a discussion without action. Uh this is the 2027 2028 calendar. Uh we'd be asking for action uh by the board of education at the February 17th meeting. Uh you'll recall we brought this back in December uh november, one of those months, and uh presented it for review. Uh sought additional feedback. Dr. Dr. Nolton went back to the
060committee. Um, so I'll turn it over to Dr. Nolton to share the recommendation from the committee and then we'll be happy to answer your questions. >> Um, so based on community feedback, parent feedback, staff feedback that we collected through a survey, we went back, well actually we did a survey of the calendar committee. Um, and just as a reminder, the calendar committee has about 20 members. It's parents, guardians, um, membership from all four unions invited. uh we've got district level administrators as well as building level administrators and myself. So we went back to that committee and said, "What do you think?" We've gotten feedback about the start date, the uh the 13th, sorry, the 12th, which is a Thursday. We talked about whether or not the 12th would be okay. What do you think comparing
061the 12th to the 13th, which would be the Friday, or the 16th, the following um Monday? And so based on survey results from um the committee, the favor fell upon the uh 12th, Thursday the 12th. And that's why I'm coming back to you with that recommendation. It's essentially the same version that I think we shared back in uh November right before we shared it with other people in the other stakeholders. Can you take a moment and talk about the the board criteria used to establish it and how it's the importance of the interplay among the three? >> Yeah, I can. Um, thank you. The um we reviewed this I think it was the 8th of October. We had a conversation just reconfirming with you the three parameters, the three criteria that have been in place
062um for calendar construction. um that includes a balance between the first and second semester with respect to the number of attendance days not calendar days. So um no no greater than eight. Uh people prefer to see a later start in August as possible. Um and then the other issue has to do with high school students a desire to have high school students wrap up and take finals before they leave for winter break. So those three criteria have been fulfilled. Um sometimes people have questions about Memorial Day like why is it so close? ized it so far. Um, if you uh if you become proficient at calendar construction, you'll know that um it's always the last Monday of May, right? Without sometimes there's five Mondays, believe it or not. And that actual date, even though it's
063always a Monday, can range from the 25th to the 31st. So, um this year it looks closer. If you look at our calendar for the year we're in, you'll see a closer end date to the actual holiday itself. In some cases, you'll see a later date. So that's a little bit about um the relative position compared to where Memorial Day actually falls and how that varies year to year. >> Yeah. And I think it's just one other thing historically. Um the board provided the guidance and this guidance is probably I'm going to guess 12 years old, maybe 10, maybe it's time we have to revisit that and have conversation about is it still the appropriate one or the waiting of the uh of the priorities. uh there has really been no established weight or priority
064to those three. Operationally, the way we've looked at it is the one that is almost I would say fairly non-negotiable is ending the semester before winter break. Uh especially if you talk to our high school students, which after presenting the calendar, I spent some time speaking with our superintendent student advisory council in small groups about how do you feel about semester exams after ending second semester after winter break and they're adamant absolutely not getting them done beforehand. So then when you take into consideration then how we balance the two semesters the first semester ending before winter break in the second semester and the directive of staying within eight days then that kind of the latest we can start is you know is is not like the end of August or we'll have an imbalance right
065and because anytime you move the day you actually take the imbalance by two days right because you're taking away one day from the first semester and adding a day to the second semester. There is a lot more flexibility in time in the second semester. Uh we have just simply have more days. So just a little history in terms of the construction of it. Um but it is something that every year we we do this. There are questions about it and and so it may be time to revisit criteria, but this does in terms of how we've constructed historically uh fall within the parameters of how how they've been applied historically. As an aside, this is a 4-day the start date that we're proposing on the 12th results in a 4-day uh in favor of the
066spring semester. >> Um just really quickly, so if we were to want to revisit when is the best time for when the next time this is, you know, would be relevant like what time frame within the year again? Reminding >> we historically have asked for board um affirmation of the criteria in September or October, I think this year. So, I would say it would probably be a um conversation that we would look to bring to the board probably uh summer. >> Okay. Questions from the board. Amanda, >> this wasn't sent in advance, but I just noticed that March [clears throat] 17th is green. Is that because of St. Patty's Day, or is there >> Yes. >> Really? >> Yes. [laughter] >> I mean, February 14th should be red then. You're right. You're right. Sorry. I
067might be biased with my first name. >> No. [laughter] Okay. Um, no. Thank you. That was really it. I was just wondering why it was a different color. So, >> nice. Very nice. Mark, then Holly. >> Yeah. Thank you, Charles. Um, Dan, thank you very much for the explanation on the criteria. Um, the the eight days. Um so that's something that um is is just has been determined by this board in this school district. It's not a state or regional requirement. So this is totally within our control. I just wanted to >> All right. So when the when the criteria was established, there had been some concern expressed by board members and some had expressed that they'd heard it from uh some of our faculty and staff about um semester long courses being totally different
068experiences. If you have it in the first semester and it's a shorter by 10 days, you're essentially wiping out two weeks, right? And so the second semester would have a completely different experience, right? And so we kind of worked on what makes sense, right? uh and and for uh I don't recall the rationale. We agreed that it can be no more than eight days and I think the eight days was set kind of looking at the the cycle of the calendar and what's typically going to be the worst spread and it's eight days. Now I believe we have fewer semester courses than we used to. So that may be a criteria we can look to. Okay, is this still relevant? But I would definitely want input from uh our curriculum department. I would want input
069from our our high schools as well, our department chairs especially in terms of their instructional approach and what it would mean for their courses. Um, so it it definitely is something that that could be looked at. >> Thank you, Holly. >> So, I think it's no secret that I really do [clears throat] not like this calendar. Um, and and one of the things is I feel like I've not gotten an answer to explain why we have four days off before Christmas. High school finals don't go longer than four days. We could start on the 18th, shift back, get an entire week of summer back for our families because when with an August 12th start date, locker jams, student registration, all of those events are now the first week of August. There will be no August
070vacations. There's no August family time. And if families don't go, especially at the high school level, to that registration, we're seeing longer and longer lines of everyone going on that makeup day because kids are in sports all of July and all of the high school kids are now coming in on that one day when it's not fully staffed with volunteers trying to register because they don't get their schedule otherwise. Um, so August is lost to families, which a problem for our younger learners. It's a problem for our high school. I don't think any family wants that and I don't understand why we can't move the four days. We still have room for finals before break. It doesn't change what we do at the end of the schedule and even moving then back the next semester
071start. The other concern I have and this is for our younger students. The park district programs and summer camps and all those things don't start in May. Those programs don't start until June. So we've got an entire week. We go back a last day on Monday which families hate. A lot of people are going to leave. they're going to go on vacation. It's going to be part of our statistic for students missing school and there's not going to be childare options for those families. So looking at this calendar and I understand the committee likes this but the board policies are latest start date. This does not reflect that. I don't see why we can't move back four days. We still have a balanced calendar and we still have finals before um break. Those are the
072board policies. This doesn't reflect it. We weren't given an alternative. These things were raised. Parents have reached out. This board does not reflect or this calendar doesn't reflect what families need. And the lack of child care, the lack of family time, the lack of parents being able to plan to be home with their kids. This is just not an acceptable calendar to me. And I'm disappointed we didn't even get an alternative. And I understand there's a committee behind this, but that's not all parents. It sounds like it's weighed a lot towards staff, and that's important. What they need matters, too. But this one is a non-starter to me. And I know this is we do a lot of things that affect every part of our education and families every day, but this is a huge
073one to families and I don't think it reflects their needs. So, um, wanted to put that out there. If there's a reason we couldn't start on the 18th, I know the Thursday soft start is nice, but I I don't see why we can't do a Wednesday the 18th. Give families a little chance at vacation. Still have time for Christmas break and Christmas Eve for families that celebrate, and it gives families a chance to get their kids in childare in May or in June. So that's those are my two cents. >> Other questions or comments? >> Amanda, >> I just want to say Holly, I think you bring up some really good points. So um I think you know that makes a lot of sense. So that's all >> other questions or comments? Okay, seeing none,
074uh this is also coming back for action at the okay at the uh February 17th meeting. Okay, next item on the agenda nine uh discussion with action 9.01 press 120 update. >> I feel like press 120 has been on the board agenda for a year now. Um it's been a few few board meetings anyways. Um and and again our recommendation is that you approve um the administration's recommendations of acceptance or not acceptance as presented in the board memo. We have as uh we shared last time shared the board questions that have been asked about uh policies. I'd be happy to answer any additional questions that the board may have. Otherwise recommend you approve the press 120 update as presented. >> Question from the board. Okay, seeing none, I'll entertain a motion. Actually, I should probably
075have done that first. >> Okay, >> move approval of item 9.01, press 120 update. >> Second. >> Motion and a second have been heard. Any discussion? >> Okay. Should have done that the other way around, but okay. Um, okay. Seeing none, please call the role. Miss Matt, >> excuse me. Wenski. I >> McMillan >> I >> Blastic >> I >> Cosminsky >> I >> Gerky >> I >> Kush >> I. The motion passes. Okay. Item 10, old business. No old business. Item 11, new business. Item 12, upcoming events. Item 12.01, schedule of events. Uh February 16th, Monday, February 16th is President's Day. Uh we schools will be closed on that day. So our next board of education meeting is scheduled for Tuesday, February 17th. >> Okay. Thank you. Next item. Item 13, adjournment. I will
076entertain a motion to adjurnn. >> I move to adjurnn. >> Second. >> Motion and a second have been heard. No discussion, I'm assuming. Please call the role, Miss Matt. Winski >> I >> Gerky >> I >> Lastic >> I >> McMillan >> I >> Kush >> I >> Cosminsky. >> The motion passes. We are adjourned. Thank you. Stay warm and get home safely.