001Good evening. Okay. Since let's try that again. Good evening. Oh, very nice. Since 6 pm, the board of education has been in closed session to discuss uh discussion of minutes lawfully closed under the open meetings act, whether for purposes of schoolboard approval of the minutes or semiannual 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 employee or legal counsel to determine its validity. and 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. I will take a motion to come out of close session. So moved. Second. Motion has been moved and seconded. Please call the role. Mrs.
002Patton McMillan I. Gerie I. Blastic I. Winsky I. Kush. I. Kazinsky. I. Motion passes. We are in open session. Good evening and welcome to the Monday, June 16th, 2025 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. Uh, please join the Oh, please call the role, Mrs. Pen. Board members present this evening, Charles Kush, Christine Gerky, Joe Kazminsky, Amanda McMillan, Holly Blastic, and Mark Winsky. All right. Please join the board of education in the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one indivisibley and justice for all. Quick housekeeping detail. Um would the members of the board of education be okay if we do our good news and recognition um next
003and then open up the public hearing regarding the budget? Yes. Yes. Do we need to vote on that? I think so. I don't think so. Okay. No action on this one. All right. So, just for members of the audience, um we are going to do item five before we do item four. Okay. Just swapping those. All right. Okay, I'll turn it over to Superintendent Bridges for good news. Okay, we'll start with the good news. Uh, Elwood alumni who are now 2025 Neapville Central High School graduates returned for a special clapoff celebration following their recent graduation. Staff were thrilled to welcome back these familiar faces and see how much they've grown into outstanding young adults. We're incredibly proud of all they've achieved and can't wait to watch them continue to do great things in the future.
004We have a little video here, too. Congratulations. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Congratulations. [Applause] Very, very nice. Okay. Our Madison Junior High eighth graders wrapped up the school year with an unforgettable trip to Washington DC. Students explored museums, toured monuments, and made lasting memories with their Madison Junior High School classmates. An amazing way to close out their time at Madison. Lincoln Junior High wrapped up the school year with a special send off for our incredible retirees. A final victory lap complete with a drum line and confetti cannons. Grateful to the lasting impact these outstanding educators have had on our students, school, and the entire Lincoln community. Their dedication and passion have truly made a difference. We wish them all the best as they transition from Lancer to leisure. I can't take credit for the text. I'm
005just reading it. That was a good one, though. Congratulations, Naval North High School badmitten co coach Heather Shield, who was named Illinois Association of Bad Mitten Coaches Coach of the Year during the state tournament in May. Proud to celebrate this well-deserved recognition and the incredible leadership coach Shield brings to April North's bad mitten program. Congratulations, Coach. And then as of June 4, more than 3,700 students have kicked off a summer filled with exploration, enrichment, and academic growth. Elementary students are diving into reading, math, robotics, arts, and afterchool camps. Junior high uh courses continue to spark curiosity, including a special visit from local author and game designer Kevin Rogers in the log logic, reasoning, and strategy games class. Over 400 high school students are earning credits through flexible online courses. Summer music is in full swing
006as students prepare for upcoming performances and science camp launched with our new Our Animal Friends class featuring visits from animal experts. We're proud of this strong start and look forward to sharing more highlights throughout the summer. That's our good news. This time I'm going to invite Neighborville North High School principal Jay Wal to join me and we will introduce our state champion water polo team. Why don't we do uh uh John Carrero, our athletic director, is here. We'll start with him and then we're gonna do the coaches, guys. Head coach Kelly Refe is here tonight and assistant coach George Horn is here tonight. Now let's do the players. Jack Budman's here tonight. Ian Brick not here. Luke Bum. Alejandro Delgado not here. Landon Phinema. Ben Hansen, Mason Hoffman, [Applause] I get it. Nathan Lee, [Applause]
007Jacob Podcassic is not here. Samuel Ree is not here, but Jack Reich is John Reordan, [Applause] John Sanford. JP, I know it's JP. Carter Ciple, Cameron Self, Ethan Shen, is not here. Axel Sujitz, Kaden Sao, and looks like Caleb Usan is not here. [Applause] Okay. Uh, congratulations to uh, the team. Thank you for representing Neighborville North and Neville 203 uh with your excellence both uh in the classroom, in the community, and in the pool. Congratulations uh and good luck to your future endeavors. Let Mrs. Exagga here take a picture of the group. We go and I'll put coach on the spot here. Kelly, if you want to if there's anything you want to say after we take this quick picture, then I'll let you say anything about the team. Okay, coach. Just wanted to say
008uh thank you to the district office and um our wonderful athletic director and principal for all your support throughout the season. Um it's been a wonderful year and we felt very supported all year. Extremely proud of all the guys and their hard work, grit, and dedication throughout the season, but especially in that last game. So, um extremely proud of all you guys. This is not something that comes easy. Um, and so, uh, I hope you remember it for the rest of your lives. [Applause] There's any, uh, friends or family members who'd like a closer picture, you're welcome to come up here in the opening for a moment. Congratulations and thank you so much for making a little bit of time on such a beautiful night to be here to be recognized. Thank you. There you
009go. All right. Well done. I'd now like to invite Principal Thornton to come in and help me recognize our boys long jump state champion. I think Coach Tack is here too as well. Thank you so much for giving us this opportunity. With the change in the IHSA season this year, the track meet actually happened after our school year ended. So, we didn't have the opportunity at Neighborville Central to properly celebrate Zolentary and his accomplishments. So, I'm happy to be here tonight to do that. U and I asked Coach Staff if he wouldn't mind telling us more about the long jump competition. Uh we're we were really excited. So uh Zo is a first time uh uh with us this year as a junior. Um and just really was a student of the sport. Really uh
010aggressive, confident, calm, cool, collected. Uh went into uh the state finals in 10th place uh on his very first jump. Moved to first place and never looked back uh with a jump of 23. And that was with a jump of 23 feet 2 and a half inches. Uh so he he was flying. So most importantly, Zoe, I want to thank you. Uh I want to thank Mr. Bridges, the school board for taking the time to acknowledge uh this, Miss Thort, Mr. Placket, and everyone at Navville Central and uh the wonderful community we have. And just one more time. So congratulations [Applause] up there. Right up there. We're gonna be right up there. That works. Yep. There you go. Whatever. Whatever you want. Congratulations. Hold on one second. Anybody else? Any other pictures? Thank you. Come
011on forward. Congratulations. Thank you for being here. Okay, back to our regular schedule program. Uh, item 4.0 public hearing 2025 2026 budget. All right. So, I would like to call to order a public hearing regarding Neighborville Community Central Unit Community Unit School District 203's 2025 2026 budget. Um, the hearing will begin with comments by the administration. Uh, the administration's comments will be followed by public comment. Uh, there is a sign up form for those who want to make public comment. indicate that public comment will uh oh sorry public comment will be made in order the the request uh to speak or receive um individuals will have three minutes. Uh public comment for at this time will only be in regard to the subject of the public hearing for the budget. Public comment regarding other matters
012will be heard during the regular portion of the meeting. So there is another item agenda item item 6.0 which is on public comment on other matters. Uh and so then after the public comment, board of education uh will then provide comment and then the superintendent and his staff will make make comments. So we'd like to begin the public comment. Um I will say though that I do not have any public comment forms requesting to speak on the subject of the budget. Uh did any member of the public wish to speak to the board regarding the budget at this time? Do I close? No, you bring it back to me. No. Okay. All right. So then I will invite the superintendent and his staff to make uh comments. Okay. Uh in just one moment I will
013ask Mike Francis, our chief financial officer, to make the comments on behalf of the administration. Uh just share with the the board and the community that contained uh in the public content within board docs are a number of items including Mr. Francis's presentation, final copy of the budget book, the ISB form, which will be submitted, uh resolution for the board on the adoption of the budget, statement of anticipated revenues um for the budget, as well as questions that have been submitted by members of the board uh in regard to this year's budget uh and responses from the administration on there. As a reminder, we have discussed this since its initial presentation at the first board meeting in May. Mr. Francis, I'll turn it over to you. Thank you. Uh tonight are the last two steps
014in the process for the adoption of the FY26 budget. First with tonight's public hearing and then later the formal adoption by the board of education. Included in the agenda is a copy of the final budget book which includes more detail in a fund by fund analysis with comparisons to FY24 actuals and the FY25 budget figures. Also included is the state board of education budget form which will be submitted to the county clerk's offices the du page regional office of education and the state board of education. This again is a review of the timeline. The budget was reviewed with the citizen finance advisors committee and the two and the two workshops gave the board an opportunity to ask questions for which we have posted answers. As you can see tonight brings us to the end of
015the timeline with adoption later this evening. While there are no changes in the in the final budget from the tenative version presented in early May, I'll summarize the budget at a high level with comparisons to the current year's budget. This table highlights total revenue by fund comparing the current year FY25 budget to the budget for FY26 and summarizes the dollar as well as the percent change. Through this comparison, we see the total revenue increase of 11.3 million or 3.3%. Uh this table highlights total revenue by source. Also comparing the current year 20 FY25 budget to the to the budget for FY26. When breaking down the revenue by major revenue source, you can see that the vast majority of the revenue change is coming from local property taxes as well as an increase in the other
016local line due to increases in investment income expectations. As outlined recently in previous presentations, state and federal funding is estimated to be lower for the upcoming year. Total revenues projected at 355.5 million for the upcoming year. This table sum summarizes the total expenditures by fund as compared to the current year's budget and shows the dollar and percentage differences for each is also summarized by operating funds. Those funds which we typically have annual ongoing expenses. Those funds are at a 12.1 million increase or 3.5%. The all funds change which includes cost for debt service and capital construction is 23.2 million or 6.5% increase over the current budget. Please note remember that the capital projects fund which we reestablished two years ago for the addition at steep run. The FY26 budget includes over 22 million of estimated
017spendown of our fund balance for the upcoming year on projects previously approved by the board of education, including the addition at Ranch View, expansion of the connections program and work in Neapville North High School. When breaking down expenditures by major expenditure objects, salaries and benefits are planned to increase by 4.24% over the current budget. The increase in capital outlay is for the construction projects previously mentioned. Overall, this tenative budget shows expenses at $379.5 million. This slide brings revenue expenses together, showing individual projected fund surpluses and deficits for the upcoming year in the estimated end-of-ear fund balances. Overall, we're projected to spend about 24 million more in the upcoming year than we're projected to bring in on the revenue side. However, as previously noted, almost 21 million of the projected deficit is the anticipated spendown of
018the capital projects fund for one-time construction costs. And finally, as part of public act 1020895, we're a to annually disclose our fund balances. These are our fund balances through the month of April 2025. That is the end of my presentation for this evening. Thank you. Okay. Um again, I have no uh forms for folks requesting to speak on the um uh on the budget. Is there anyone who'd like to speak on the budget public? Sorry. Okay. So, I will then uh open up to board members with questions. Amanda, um not necessarily a question. And I just want to thank Mike and your team for um you know your excellent process with this you know giving us a very detailed um you know budget breakdown that's over 50 pages you know because this is a really
019serious um you know component of what we do is about the fiduciary duties and really understanding um where all the money comes from where we put everything. Um and uh in the four years that I've been part of the board, you've really gotten it down to like between less than 1% of accuracy each time. And so I just want to uh thank you so much for your um diligence on this and also uh allowing us to see the questions that each of us board members throughout over the uh past month have asked. uh really allows us to see a broader scope of like where all of us from our different angles are asking and that helps educate all of us um as well. So I just want to thank you again for your uh time
020and attention to this and um you know so I just appreciate all your work. Thank you. Other questions from the board? Yeah, thank you Charles. Just a just a comment. And I also want to thank uh Mike and Tracy Angel who is on his uh staff who met with Holly, my my colleague across the uh room here uh orienting us onto how the budget u uh comes about. Uh so we were able to ask some very specific questions uh get a lot better information about the background of creating the budget and how that's done and that gave me a lot of confidence in this whole process of where we are today. So thank you for that. Other questions? Holly? Well, mine is also a comment because with the onboarding as a new member, um, I
021really appreciated that meeting going fund by fund and explaining for us how we got there. Um, and the process in the past and where we, you know, the transparency of how we do this as a district. And I just really appreciated you both taking the time on a Friday to answer every question for you could possibly come up with now and asking questions into the future. and it was really helpful as a new member being onboarded to understand how we get to this budget book and this budget. Thank you for your time. Other questions, comments, Joe? Sure. I'll I uh just want to echo uh what my fellow board members have um been uh saying about uh the budget process and and all the work that's done. Um, it is a very important process and
022uh I I really appreciate the diligence taken and getting all the questions posted and and the process that has been established with um you know being able to see everybody's questions and and posting them for the public as well. Thank you Christine. Again, just another thank you um to Mike and and your office um for answering all the questions and answering them in a way that somebody who doesn't have a financial background understands it. So um I guess thanks for putting it in Christine terms whenever I asked a question. Yeah. So just to pile on a little bit. Um can't thank you enough. This is this is this is a very robust process. Um there's a lot going on and you and your team bring a tremendous amount of professionalism and expertise to this. Um
023we are fortunate in the district to have you and your entire team working through this because as you've heard from my fellow board members, um this is these are not easy subjects, but you can tell when somebody really understands something because they can explain it to you 15 different ways. And uh you and your team do a wonderful job of that. Um and so it's it's good to know that we are in really great hands. Um I would also direct the community the um a couple of board members mentioned the process of having the questions posted. Um I know that my fellow board members and I always like to you know take the approach that we're sitting up here as representatives of of the community. So we want to make sure that the questions that
024you would ask are the ones that we're asking and get answered. So I would encourage you to take a look at the questions that are there. they're there for everyone to take a look at. Um, so you can understand the depth of understanding that we have around the budget and that Mike and his team are providing. Um, so that's it. Any other questions or comments from the board? Okay. Well, with that, um, item 4.04, I will close the public hearing on the 2025 uh, 2026 budget. We are not going to vote on it right now. That will come later in the agenda. All right, item 6.0 is uh or item six, sorry, public comment. And so now this is the time where we would talk about the other topics of for public comment. I have
025slips of paper here. The way this process will work actually, let me read my little thing here. Got so many scripts up here, it's not even funny. We have reached a point in our agenda for public comment. Uh 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 an individual is representing multiple individuals or a group, they shall uh they shall be allowed to speak for five minutes. The board respectfully requests that speakers refrain from commenting about specific individuals as I call an individual for public comment. I will also designate the next speaker so that they have appropriate time to prepare. In accordance with board policy, issues raised in
026public comment will be taken under advisement by the board of education but will not be addressed this evening. Issues raised during public participation may be added to future agendas or addressed by administrative staff. Because the questions raised in public comment address uh district operational matters, the superintendent is the board's designate to coordinate response to public comment and will apprise the board accordingly. Uh board policy 212 encourages understanding and interaction necessary for responsible citizenship. The board of education seeks to create a learning environment in which, among other things, all families, students, teachers, administrators, and staff are welcomed, valued, and respected. As outlined in Board of Education policy 2.230, individuals addressing the board should conduct themselves with respect and civility towards others. Individuals are free to express their criticism regarding decisions or policies, but the board of
027education expects that they refrain from personal attacks on our superintendent, board of education members, and administrative staff. Uh, at this point I would like to welcome Jason Copeland and our next speaker will be Sarah Forester. Jason, good evening and welcome. Good evening, Jason Copeland. Uh, the names on the signs behind me are the names of girls people are here to represent and the sports the girls play. These are girls your continued inaction is impacting. While it wasn't needed in the past, it's now clear the board needs policies in place to preserve spaces created exclusively for males and females. I'm asking the board to adopt the following policies. Number one, about athletic participation when competing in single sex designated divisions. Students can only compete in the division which aligns with the sex listed on their original
028birth certificate. Bathroom and locker room access. Access to single sex designated facilities will be based on the sex listed on the students original birth certificate. Beginning in sixth grade, unisex facilities will be made available. These will include individual stalls with privacy safeguards for students who are not comfortable using single sex designated spaces. The board's position is that having such policy would put them at odds with guidance on the Illinois Civil Rights Act offered by the Illinois Department of Human Rights. The key word there is guidance. In fact, the guidance on the IDHR website is titled nonregulatory guidance relating to protection of transgender, non-binary, and gender non-conforming students. So, what does that mean? It means that the board doesn't have to follow the guidance. It's not compulsory. The board can adopt the common sense policies I
029suggested. Yes, that could mean legal challenges, but this community will support you just like federal law will support you in fighting to preserve the spaces created exclusively for males and females. By the way, what kind of guidance suggests that offering unisex facilities in addition to single sex facilities isn't sufficient? It's an incredibly reasonable solution, but the IDHR guidance specifically rejects that. Really makes you wonder. And what kind of guidance ignores biological differences between males and females when it comes to creation of muscle mass, which impacts strength and speed and creates an unfair environment for females when males are allowed to compete against them. Here's some guidance. Explain those differences to any child with gender dysphoria when you explain why, despite how they may think or feel, when it comes to sports, they need to participate
030in the single sex division aligned with their biological sex. If the board refuses to stand up for our girls and put common sense policies in place, we'll find and elect a board that will. This is the Hill. Thank you for your time. [Applause] Our next speaker is Sarah Forester. Sarah will be followed by Simon P. Sarah, good evening and welcome. Hi, good evening. Um, thanks for letting me speak tonight. My name is Sarah Forester. I'm a Neapville resident, homeowner, and the parent of two district 203 students, one in high school and one in elementary school. Um, I just wanted to kind of walk you through like what I think about when I think about um, girls and and kind of why why I see it as as a concern when we look at some of
031the issues that are going on today. Um, one of my favorite books is Pride and Prejudice and and and Jane Austin wrote Pride and Prejudice in in at the turn of the century around 1800. And that work is fiction, but at that time women, girls, females at that time women and biological females were basically equivalent. There wasn't really a difference in how people interpreted those terms. Um, at that point, biological females could not own property. There were no rights for biological females. And until 1919, biological females were barred from voting in the United States. I feel deeply for the suffering of trans girls prior to women gaining the right to own property, to earn a living, to vote. But I w wonder whether these trans girls would have lived out their gender identity when their
032biological sex, male, afforded them rights out of female reach back in those days. 1972 was a momentous year for biological women when Congress enacted Title Nine which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sex. It was momentous for biological females for our girls. At that same time, Congress passed the Equal Rights Amendment. Unfortunately, only 33 states ratified that ERRA and so that didn't become part of our constitution. However, that equal rights uh amendment was meant to be a prohibition for the states as well as for the federal government to discrim to not discriminate based on sex. Since Title N was passed, the number of females in in girls sports has gone from 300,000 to 3.5 million. The number of males has gone from 3.5 million to 4.5 million. The number of girls is still lagging. The
033number of boys, the purpose of Title 9 was to create equitable opportunities for females. Time Our [Applause] next speaker will be Simon P. Simon will be followed by Carl Shreer. Yeah, I'm I'm Simon P. Uh 203 parent. Four of my children so far have been at Central. I'm going to discuss not going to discuss the finer points of uh gender and sports because I think everyone did a really thorough job last time. So, probably be a waste of time going through that, but there's a few things I want to address. First of all, I want I want to address the explicit attack on women. Essentially, the trans community is a is a passionate group, no doubt, pushing an ideology they feel strongly about. Um, they do generally do not have a concern though for the
034collateral damage, which is really what what we're talking about here. uh as long as their freedom at any cost is upheld and society celebrates and validates them and and and that I think is is the bigger issue. With freedom though comes responsibility. It's bit cheesy but that that's that is true to pursue that freedom with with integrity and not to damage other groups of society at the same time. Women have fought for rights throughout history. Moreover, in recent history, women have created their own sports brands which we see with soccer, basketball, very good examples. But the current situation is a huge setback for women's morale and women's mental health and girls. Obviously, I'm I'm obviously including that in this particular situation because um it is going to affect their morale and that will affect mental
035health and there's a lot of girls and there's a lot of women. Anything anyone says here is not going to convince a trans activist to see any of the collateral damage because they have a single focus. It is up to the more moderate folks in the room in that particular uh community and the school board to carefully examine the crushing of female sports with a view to what's fair and to protect those affected. We're all asking for is for these girls to be protected. To add color to this broad topic, I think that a real life example illustrates well the dangers. I have a real example from three years ago um at an apeville gym. My wife and the 10 my 10-year-old at the time were changing in a female changing room after a swimming
036lesson at a local gym. A biological male walked in nonchantly and in front of all the women, younger and old, changing. A few comments were made. Management knew about it and were comfortable with the situation. This biological male also showered while my daughter was also showering and she was 10. Right? In any civilized society, this cannot cannot be okay. a young girl being subjected to a naked biological male that she has never been subject to before. That's abuse. I don't I don't know how else to describe that. That's just abuse. That was three years ago. In conclusion, we need to look very carefully at who has been affected by unregulated behaviors. Common sense above all and some adults in the room is essential to avoid these obvious abuses. If we do nothing to call this
037out, we're all complicit to what might happen and what has happened in some communities. And to the board, doing nothing protect to protect these children will shield you from some verbal abuse because you'll get that and maybe save your job, but your conscience should keep you up at night. At least I hope it does. Do the right thing and speak up time. Our next speaker will be Carl Shreer. Carl will be followed by Jim Best. I'll help Carl. Good evening and welcome. Thanks. I'll I'll help you. It's Carl Sheney. My uh apologies. I hope that I speak more clearly than I write. My apologies. So, no problem at all. Good evening and thank you for the opportunity to speak. I'm here tonight to raise awareness about the the mission of some of the collaborating groups
038that have targeted our schools. And while they claim to be focused on gender and sports, that issue is simply an entry point. In many cases, the real agenda seems to be far more concerning and far-reaching. Some of these groups follow a predictable playbook to disrupt communities and pressure school boards into aligning with narrow ideological and religious views. And their goal appears even to dismantle public education a district at a time. We see in cases where they operate by manufacturing outrage, targeting gateway issues, and disturbing disturbingly even targeting individual students. We see flood flooding districts with uh Freedom of Information Act requests, often seeking library book lists to ban content that doesn't reflect their worldview. We see folks launching lawsuits designed to drain district resources and scare communities into silence. We see groups harassing educators and
039administrators online, sometimes even resorting to illegal doxing, generating sensational headlines to disort public perception. So, I'd like to offer some perspective. Last year, only three out of 320,000 student athletes in Illinois requested a waiver to compete in girls sports. Three. Yet this issue is inflated into a moral crisis because it fits a strategy to divide us and and to so fear. This playbook has played out in Deerfield and Lake Forest, Downer's Grove, Wheaton, and other communities. Why should Neapville Why should Neapville be next? So regardless of where you fall politically, I would I would think that there's something we could agree on that outsiders can partner with intolerant insiders and cause real harm to our kids, to our families, and to our schools. Such a movement does not reflect the values of our community where
040we believe in inclusion, care and truth, and we cannot allow extremism to take root here. Thank you. Our next speaker is Jim Best. Jim will be followed by Lauren Ruby. Good evening and welcome. Good evening. My name is Jim Best and I'm a longtime resident of Neapville in District 203. Lived here over 45 years. I attended BB Elementary, Jefferson Junior High, and graduated from Neapville North High School and North Central College. I've always been proud to call Neapville my home. But now, one of our residents has recently gone on a very public media blitz about this school district. They intentional intentionally shot a video of a child and sent it to known hate groups in a highly immoral and illegal move. And I have to ask why. Why antagonize one's neighbors and community? Why target
041a child? Why instigate personal attacks on teachers and school officials? And finally, why go on a local and national media with this deplorable and unethical campaign? Shame on these individuals and their co-conspirators, many of whom don't even live here, who are intentionally targeting children and putting them at risk of harm. These words and actions defy the values of any collaborative and great American community, and they certainly defy the values of Neapville. I can answer the why behind what's been done here. All of this is happening in the service of known hate groups who have targeted school districts across the country and in our region. The key objective of Awake Illinois, Moms for Liberty, and other conspiring organizations is to subvert public education under the guise of parental rights, which includes dismantling the US Department of
042Education, eliminating teachers unions, and controlling school school boards through tactics of fear and hate against minorities. I believe the residents of Neapville are too smart and too informed to be duped by the dark money behind these organizations. We owe it to all of our students to keep this kind of politics out of our school district. Thank you for allowing me to speak. Our next speaker will be Lauren Ruby. Lauren will be followed by Mike Abram. Good evening and welcome. Good evening. I speak tonight as a concerned mother advocating for every girl in this district. Title N is not about excluding trans students. They are welcome in all extracurriculars, including robotics, art, theater, debate, and every other activity except in cases where biological differences create an unfair or unsafe advantage. To those failing to protect girls
043safety in private spaces, you're stealing joy, confidence, and opportunity from young girls. by willfully violating federal law. Fairness and safety must come first. We cannot have boys in girls bathrooms. We cannot have boys physically competing against girls. This is common sense. This is not a radical position. It's radical that we have to come here to the schoolboard meeting and demand a stop to this. to the board. Your disregard for for title 9 exposes taxpayers to expensive lawsuits and jeopardizes student safety, not only for district 203 students, but for all students in the 203 athletic conference. The public has voiced concerns repeatedly. Yet, you've taken no action. Should harm occur, you will be held liable. We implore you to comply with Title 9, protect girls, and ensure safety. We are putting our children, you are putting
044our children at risk and we will not stand for it. Thank you. [Applause] Our next speaker is Mike Abram. Mike will be followed by Thomas. Good evening. I'm Mike Abram. I'm a District 203 resident, taxpayer, homeowner. I've sent three boys and three girls through Neapville Central who got a great great education here. Love this place. And I'm not an outsider. I'm not part of any dark forces. I'm just a dad who wants to protect his daughter's safe spaces, uh, very private spaces. My daughter is an outstanding uh athlete in track and field and I'd like her to keep going as and and compete in in the female races without any biological boys competing without anybody being in her locker room without anybody being in her bathroom. That's all I have to say. I'm just a
045dad. I'm here to protect my daughters and her spa my daughter and her safe very very private space. Thank you for listening to me and board. Thank you for taking up this topic. Our [Applause] next speaker is Thomas Tame. Thomas will be followed by Callie McKinnon. Good evening and welcome board. I too am a longtime resident of the district since 1973 to be exact and my remarks are protected under the first amendment which includes the right to voice opinions, criticize public actors, and comment on matters of community interest. So, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to do so. So over the past several weeks, fellow parents, grandparents, and I have taken time to better understand Awake Illinois and their partner organizations which are actively working against District 203 and many nearby communities, Deerfield, Skoi,
046Lake Forest, Downers Grove to name a few. And we followed their social media, webcasts, emails, and we've seen in their own words is is deeply disturbing. Um, online harassment targeting individuals by name, putting their safety at risk. Hostile threats, some implying violence. Children targeted under the false banner of parental rights, including a middle schooler, a child for God's sake, whose name and image were sh spread on social media. Uh, demands to roll back curriculum to outdated exclusionary worldviews. calls to turn in schools as part of coordinated witch hunts just like we've seen here in and filing of frivolous complaints designed to overwhelm districts and with legal costs. So, our district is now facing mounting expenses to defend itself. You'd know more than I probably about that. For context, Deerfield Illinois has build $44,000 in two
047months following a similar lawsuit and their invoices are still coming. So, let's be clear. This affects all of us. Look at your property tax bill. A large portion goes to support our schools. Whether or not you have kids in this district, you're you're paying for these attacks. Awake Illinois and their partner organizations represent neither kindness nor compassion. They employ shame and ridicule in place of dignity and respect. And none of us should tolerate these actions and behaviors. And let me tell you, as a longtime resident who loves Neapville, there is no place for hate in Neapville. Thank you. [Applause] Our next speaker is Callie McKinnon. Callie will be followed by Lane A. I just have the last initial. Guess they didn't trust me to pronounce their name. So, Callie, good evening and welcome. Hi, I'm
048C. Hi, I'm Callie McKinnon and I'm a fifth grader at Maple Park Elementary School. I'm standing up for the girls who ran in the track meet. They worked really hard to get there and a boy just came in and got first. And the boy made a fast girl not get the place she deserves. Men and women are very different. This is why there are boy sports and girl sports. I love sports and I would hate it if a boy came in and beat me. My favorite sports are soccer and swimming. Um, both of these sport both of these sports um in both of these sports boards and girls are separated because boys and girls have different strengths. I think Neighborville should keep girls and boys sports separate to make it fair for everyone. Thank you
049for listening. [Applause] Our next speaker is Lane A. Lane will be followed by Nathan Clappage. Clapatch. Good evening and welcome. Thank you. My name is Lane. I am a member of Gays Against Groomers. We are a coalition of gays, lesbians, bisexual who have grown tired of a radical gender ideology being spread under the name of gay rights. We stand against the indoctrination, sexualization, and medicalization of children. I used to have the classic symptoms of gender dysphoria growing up, partially because of my interest in women and growing up in a dysfunctional home. I hated being a girl and would do everything to present myself as masculine. Buying men's clothes, cutting my hair, and even damaging my voice to make it sound deeper. I hated everything about my womanhood and wanted to become a man. So, I
050want to acknowledge the trans experience because the inner struggles of gender confused individuals are very real. But instead of spreading transgender ideology, which is only a band-aid to the human condition, we must address the wounds that trigger gender dysphoria. The spread of transgender ideology is a result of a society that is growing sick. More and more children are growing up in broken homes, fatherlessness or abandonment. The modern-day church is lukewarm and offers very little guidance. Transgenderism, I want to be clear, is a symptom of a dysfunctional society without God. See, my family didn't know how to meet my emotional needs. And the schools failed me, the churches failed me, and I didn't know who I was. So I searched for answers in atheism, ideologies, even in Satanism. I explored the opposite gender, hoping to fix
051my fractured identity. But nothing brought lasting healing. But when God rescued me from the coils of death, it was revealed to me what was behind my gender confusion. See, gender confusion isn't just psychological or a cultural phenomenon. It has spiritual roots. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, powers, and spiritual wickedness in high places. And I know this may sound crazy, but stay with me because it's not just mental health we're battling against. We're battling spiritual forces. When I had this encounter with God, he showed me that my brokenness wasn't just a result of trauma. He showed me that much of my afflictions were spiritually in influenced. There was a demonic assignment against my identity, focused on wounding, distorting, and confusing me. When I began to confront these demons, renouncing them
052and getting delivered, that's when I saw breakthrough in my healing for the first time. And I want to expose these demonic entities because this is how we set our children free. It starts with a spirit of rejection. When a child's true identity is not affirmed, this spirit enters and begins to distort how we see ourselves. Then comes a spirit of trauma through abuse, neglect, or abandonment. And it develops a deep fracture of identity to a child. This then gives a foothold to a spirit of shame over your body, your experiences, and who you are. And shame leads to self-hatred and the lie that I need to change who I am. From there, a spirit of rebellion enters. You start to fight your family, your biology, and God's design. And finally, a spirit of pride settles
053in and you're unable to see the truth because now you're a prisoner behind a spiritual fortress. And they've convinced you that anyone who tries to take you out of this false identity is the enemy. But these spirits are liars. They're here to kill and destroy. They whisper, "You must change yourself." But God says, "You are fearfully and wonderfully made." We're tired of this radical ideology being pushed in the name of gay rights. And we're tired of promoting disorder, robbing girls of their opportunities and emasculating our men in the name of progress, the men of tomorrow. What will happen to our country if we successfully emasculate the coming generation of our men? Transgenderism is a demonic assignment to abort the identities of the coming generations, erode the unique beauty of men and women, and destroy our
054society from within. Transgenderism promises freedom, but it brings confusion, deception, and death. But Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. And your gender is not a mistake. You're a masterpiece, and there is another way. And for my personal testimony, I have to say there is deliverance, and there is healing. But it begins with rejecting the lies spoken over your true identity and returning to the truth about who God made you to be. Thank you. [Applause] My next speaker is Nathan Clapatch. It's a clay patch. Clay patch. I don't blame you. A lot of people get that wrong. Okay. Well, I don't feel bad then. Sorry. Thank you. Good evening and welcome. Yes. Good evening. As So, my name is Nathan and I am a former track athlete at the West Chicago Community
055High School. So, obviously the issue of a boy competing in a in a girls track meet does kind of concern me due to this due to it being a sport I participated in. As a solution to this, I think it would be a good idea to separate these to separate boys and girls by sex rather than gender because sex is a bit sex is a bit more easy to verify. Some people call somebody called it an outdated standard, but really it's an oldie but goldie standard. It's one that it stood the test of time and it's reliable with gender identity as stated by the previous speaker. Who you It's kind of difficult to tell. It makes it difficult to tell if a person is telling the truth or if a person is confused about the
056gender that that person should be due to the upbringing or if that person just doesn't really understand what makes a man a man and a woman a woman. So, and as for what makes a woman a woman, I'd like to bring up the definition of a female, which is of or denoting the sex that can bear offspring or produce eggs. That is so aside from that biological differences, there are differences in how in the hormones and that are produced and the body and the differences in the body between men and women and those are the kind that kick in around middle school. So that is why if you look at records with IESA and IHSA, the guys tend to do better than the girls in track. So for instance in the 400 there are the
057best records of the girls that you'll find are within the 50 to 60 second range and the best things for the guys are within the 40 to 50 second range for that same race. So, it's important. I think it's important for you to comply with Title 9 because because if you don't, you end up with incidents like this where somebody does not better than the where a guy does not better than the girls because he's he's a guy and was and had a and grew a bit differently than the girls. Ignoring this issue won't make this go away. Having guys competing in girls sports is happening and it's not good that it is. Okay, I have uh no more slips of paper. Um so that will conclude our public comment. All right. Um, next item
058on our agenda is item seven, monthly reports. We have uh a number of monthly reports loaded into board board docs for your viewing uh ability to view those. Treasury report, investments, insurance report, budget report are all there. Uh item number eight, action by consent. I believe Joe. Okay. 8.0 bills and claims. 8.01, sorry, bills and claims. So, um I had uh bills and claims this time around. And um I want to uh thank Michelle Swopee again for uh helping me out uh with with that um uh answering um all my questions about uh different u uh bills and and purchases that were made uh over the the last month. Um, I uh am especially appreciative uh of u her ability to work with me online while I was away at a conference last week and
059uh you know really made it uh easy to to get this done. Um so uh with that um I will uh I move approval of warrant number through 1069009 and warrants uh warrant numbers 900 017 [Music] and 9 000000119 [Music] um totaling 29,750,63023 for the period of May 20th June 2025 to June 16th 2025 as well as uh items 8.02 8.03 8.04 8.05 05 8.06 8.07 8.08 8.09 and 8.10. Second. Motion has been made and seconded. Please call the role. Miss Patton. Kazinski. I. McMillan. I. Winski. I. Gerky. I. Blastic. I. Kush. I. The motion passes. Um, item nine, communications. Uh, 9.01, written communications. 9.02, board of education reports. Does anyone on the board have a report to give um with respect to their other committee assignments as a board of education member? Okay. Item
0609.03, president's report. I do not well one thing I will um talk about we have um our board self-evaluation that will be happening between now and our next board of education meeting um really looking forward to that just for benefit of the community that is a time where the board of education is able to get together um and as part of good governance boards are um and and self-improvement we look to kind of reflect on our board agreements and uh and other topics that we're able to talk about we have a facilitator from IESB come in um to guide us through that process process and so that will be happening on the 25th and um we're looking forward to that. All right. Item 9.05 superintendent staff school reports. Do you want to make any comment?
061There's there 9.04. I skipped one. Sorry about that. 9.04 which would come after 9.03, right? Yeah. Okay. Um board member assignments. Um, I'm gonna have Christ turn that over to Christine to talk about those. Okay. So, loaded, excuse me, loaded is um the adopt to schools and committee assignments for the upcoming school year. Um, if I missed any conflicts that you sent me, if by chance I put you where one of your kids are at school or if I missed a conflict you might have with work, just let me know and I can rework it. Um but um if I don't hear from anybody in the next day or two, um I'll just leave the document as is and we'll go from there. Amanda, old habits die hard, huh Christine? Yeah. Um uh I just
062want to thank you, Christine. Um, I know that this is like a huge matrix of trying to figure out like who's been where in the past two to three years and where are your kids and like it's like a big old game of clue that you're playing by yourself. Um, so I just want to thank you for your time and effort and putting in that and I'm I'm excited for my assignments this year. Thank you. Thanks. It is it is an Excel spreadsheet. Yeah. Yeah. It's so exciting. Other comments from the board? Okay, I will echo. Thank you, Christine, for going through that whole matrix and figuring it all out. Appreciate that. All right, now item 9.05, superintendent, staff, school reports. Okay, this is our annual time to uh provide an update to the board
063of education on our academic progress with a focus in on our NWA MAP growth results. And so, Dr. Dr. Patrick Nolton, our assistant superintendent for assessment accountability will uh walk through the data and information for you and kind of where we're at. Uh and then the team and I as along with Dr. Nolton will be happy to answer any questions you have. So Patrick, thank you. Superintendent Bridges, Board of Education. It's always my pleasure to summarize where we are with respect to academic performance at the end of um this school year. This does not include information about the high school level. This is strictly limited like Dan said to um K through eight performance based on NWA MAP growth. Um some of you may remember we adopted this platform in uh 2019. The 1920 school
064year was the first school year where we adopted this platform. Next slide please. Um so we're going to review briefly district level. We're not getting into school level performance. We're strictly going to talk about district level map growth. Remember, this is a core measure of English language arts, reading, and mathematics. Um, we'll take a look at this by grade level, a little bit by sociodemographic group across the last few academic years. Um, we'll talk a bit about the shifts in assessment and accountability that are on the horizon, some nearer than others, and then a little bit about the accountability timeline. Um, as has been communicated by ISBY recently. Um, like I said, NWA Map Growth continues to be our district elected. This is not a mandated assessment. This is an assessment that we choose to
065use. Um, frankly, it's the gold standard for assessment. We didn't buy this at Big Lots. Um, this is a a good product. Um, it it does well. Um, it stands up relative to other opportunities to purchase other products. Um, we use it universally, which means we're interested in how all students are doing. Um, we test 99% or more of all students in this district in K8. Um, with some some exceptions, but very few. Um, like I said, it's an assessment of reading and mathematics. Um, we're not talking about SEAL tonight or anything like that. It's it's really um assessment related to alignment with the Illinois learning standards. Another reason we purchased this product, um, we administer this fall, winter, spring. Um, it allows us to compare our performance in terms of achievement as well as
066growth to a national sample. So, both of those things are important. How does our typical student stand relative to peers nationally? and how much do our typical students or high or low achieving students grow relative to a national sample of peers. We're going to talk a little bit about a normative update that's going to happen. Um, if you're good with a calculator and pre-alggebra, um, this reflects about 65,000 tests. So, that sounds a little crazy. It's 1,200 students roughly per grade level. We do this three times a year and we give two tests. So, if you do the math on that, um, it's quite a bit of data. I want to express appreciation and gratitude for not only district level staff but building level administrators and staff that allow us to carry this out. Um
067it's a big task. You know we do a lot of other assessment beyond this and so um this is it's a large operation. Um then lastly the bullet at the bottom I'm going to talk a little bit about the enhanced item selection algorithm. Um if you remember last year me talking a little bit about this it's caused some inflation of mathematics performance. The intention of this organization was to get better at presenting grade level specific items to students both in ELA and mathematics. In the area of mathematics, we've seen higher levels of performance than expected. That will all be leveled out in July when the 2025 norms are in place. So, some of the phenomena that you asked questions about earlier are reflective of that. It shows up at a few grade levels, mainly third
068and fourth most dramatically. Next slide. Um, I've always shown this by stacked quintile. If we were in an ordinary place, which we're not, those numbers would all say 20. Um, the darkest is the basically the 99th to 80th percentile, followed by the 80th to 60th, 60th to 40th, 40th to 20th, and 20th to 8th. So, a statement you could make based on this chart would be, for example, 38% of our students in the spring of 2025 fell at the 80th percentile rank or higher relative to a national sample. That's remarkable by most people's standards. Just to give you kind of a a primmer on the proportional shift in performance relative to a national sample, our typical is always between the 7, it's usually around the 75th percentile rank. Our 50th, our local 50th percentile student
069functions like a 75th percentile student nationally. Um, if for example on a test like this, you were at the 50th percentile nationally, you'd be roughly around the 25th percentile locally. So there's I was called a quartortile shift that shows up in all kinds of achievement measures shows up on ACT, SAT, um performance series which we used prior to this product. Um it's it's a phenomena that we see that shift is just a reflection of how you know how how skewed we are with respect to positive academic performance. Um the next don't make much of a go sorry go back. um the proportions don't change over time and that might look mundanely uninteresting or boring but maintaining this level of academic performance through a pandemic and beyond is remarkable and also considering other you know societal
070issues that are happening right now and we still continue to deliver. You won't find in any of these charts an indication that we took a hit based on pandemic um anywhere like a lot of places have. A lot of places still continue to struggle and recover and try to figure out how to support and fund post-pandemic recovery. We've done quite well as we've made it through. We'll take a look at some of those examples by grade level. Next slide is a breakdown of uh the median percentile by grade. So this is going back to the fall of 21. I started showing it well I stopped I cut off a few of these because it got a little crazy. A lot of not enough pixels even on the 120inch screen. So, um, we're very stable and
071we're very consistent. And this is where you can see, you know, where our performance is always somewhere in the 70s. That's the median, the typical, that's this the percentile rank that divides the top half from the bottom half of our students. Um, and that shows up across time. On the next slide, I've done a breakdown as we have in the past looking at race ethnicity. You can see over time Asian performance. Again, this is limited to reading. African-American black performance is trending up which is positive as well as Hispanic Latinx performance. You'll see some variability in terms of two or more races and white is remarkably stable as well. So this is postpandemic data. Um we're at a place where we were testing most all students. I don't know if you remember back during the
072pandemic and shortly after we weren't able to test all students because we weren't fully in person. So these are reflections of when we were able to do this uh with the majority of the student population. Next slide is uh look at breakdown by student group special education performance meaning. So again the way you could interpret this would be in the case of students with disabilities or they're falling into special ed services in the spring of 25 our typical students scored at the 31st percentile relative to a national sample. So that's those are just an example of a statement you can make. um economic disadvantage. That student group looks remarkably like a national sample, right? Look how that hovers around 50. Um that's tremendous. That's not um this is a level of performance that's unmatched if
073you were to compare this to an average middle-of the road typical um US American K12 or you know prek beyond school district. Same thing with English learners. We just have a very high level of performance by all student groups. There's gaps for sure, but everything is higher. Everything's exaggerated. On the next slide, I think I go into math achievement. You can see here the last three cycles, fall 23 to spring 24, fall 24 to spring 25. Kind of see that stairstep increase of students proportionally falling into the higher quintiles. That's a reflection of that enhanced item selection algorithm. When we obtain the post-pandemic norms, 2025, I know we'll farewell because we do, but you're not going to see as much variation in performance. It'll all that'll be leveled out. The next slide is a grade
074if I remember right, a grade by grade percentile. Here you can see some you know some things that visually at least really stand out. You'll see even um fourth grade 90th percentile was the median um in the spring that also those spikes are an artifact of the enhanced item selection algorithm. We're not concerned about that and we'll see that normalized with the new norms. Um I think we'll do I just frankly think we'll do quite well with post-pandemic norms. I mean, just given everything we've seen in terms of how we've done on other assessments, including accountability, um I think I think we're gonna we're going to be in a great spot. Um the next slide is a breakdown of race, ethnicity, and you can see the stability. Again, I don't want people to overinterpret the
075increase among African-American, black, Hispanic, Latinx, two or more races are white. That stairstep increase for the last two years is like I said a function of the process of trying to get better at delivering um grade level stand item content reflective of standards. Um the next slide is again a breakdown of special education. I don't want to sound like a broken record but um you'll see that sort of increase especially as we go from winter to spring in mathematics. Um and then the following slide, this is uh just more about just a couple points to be aware of moving forward around what's happening in the world of Illinois assessment. And these are all decisions that are made that apply to all public school districts um in the state of Illinois. Other states have done things
076like this, but we really just care about where things are in Illinois for the time being. Um there's a there's a uh process underway where another look is going to be taken uh at determining whether or not the performance levels that result in proficiency are reasonably based. So uh word on the street is um the bar will be lowered because that second bullet has to do with the fact that I think there was somewhat consensus at least anecdotally that uh many of our tests were false posit or false negatively identifying students that were appropriate were ready for college and career but the tests and the thresholds and the benchmarks determining proficiency were saying that they weren't and this was really noted on the SAT in particular we had lots of students that for one reason
077or another didn't meet standards didn't meet proficiency on the SAT but have gone on and done quite well um in a post-academic setting. So that's an attempt that's being made. We have among the highest thresholds for our state accountability test. Every state can develop their own IR or ISAT or sorry I or ISA. Um we have a very high bar in the state of Illinois. In fact, if you look at how well you need to perform on MAP relative to being proficient on the um on the IR, you have to be around the 80th percentile rank on the NWA map. That's remarkable. And so there's kind of a disconnect between how high you have to perform compared to a lot of other states that use different assessments. Um that's being adjusted. Um there's also an
078effort to unify um into four performance levels. I don't know if you remember from a while ago we were at warning below meets and exceeds and then more recently since park and then into AR and SAT we had five performance levels all these assessments should now have above proficient proficient I listed them up there approaching and then below to try to keep you know a common number of performance thresholds and um that standard setting process it sounds like a fabulous opportunity probably not for me but it's in the middle of July it's a week where uh teams of people will be sort of resetting those performance levels to establish cut scores. They're not changing the standards. They're not making the standards easier. They're just deciding what's the level of performance that suggests somebody is falling
079at the proficient level. One more slide, I think. Um here's accountability, future directions. Um if you're dialed into the summitive designation process that we've been um we've worked through the last several years um there's going to be some changes in terms of how schools are identified and what are the expectations to be recognized as exemplary or proficient or commendable. Um, so the criticism recently has been that getting a designation status is based on it's kind of like grading on a curve. Like the top five to 10%, bottom five to 10% well that's determined based on how all schools do in the state of Illinois. There's no like clear specific unchanging performance level. Um there's a consideration to changing that and making that um not a moving target um where schools feel like well you know
080some other schools might do better, I might not make it. be like grading on a curve if you were in a classroom and and the cuts are more dependent on student performance in the class. Uh one of the criticisms was that 70% of schools are designated as commendable. That's a remarkably homogeneous group of schools if you think about or heterogeneous group of schools if you think about it. It doesn't really clarify or distinguish um schools or districts that need support from those that don't. We've had certainly schools that are recognized as commendable in the past too that we know based on our own data are exemplary by our own standards. Um there's going to be an attempt by the state to connect areas of need um with strategies to address problems like achievement gap issues.
081They have to retain I bulleted out or I listed out some of the elements that have to be retained in any accountability process. Um they have to keep achievement and growth in their grad rate English learner progress to proficiency. If you remember we have five years to get students out of EL. um if we're on track, if we're doing that effectively, they need to retain school quality, school success, that includes things like absenteeism, climate survey on track. So, some of those elements are still going to be a part of this. It's just going to be reworked into a different into a different format that they want to make more meaningful, I guess, and more uh more understandable and usable. That won't happen until not the school year we're about to start, but the one after
082next. So, we're still going to see the old model, the old summit designation model and the calculate the calculations and process like we have for the last several years. This fall, next fall, it's anticipated to be launched. Um, do I have another slide? I think I've one more. Oh, here we go. Okay, so summary of findings. This is always the best. Here's the headline. Um, continue to demonstrate exemplary overall levels of English language arts and math relative to national norms. I know it doesn't look interesting, but it's remarkable. And there's many places that would pay good money to see results like this. We take them for granted after a while. Um, keeping the plane at altitude is an effort. And so, and we do that well. That's, you know, recognition for our parents, our staff,
083our supportive community, and of course, our administrators as well. Um, growth continues to be above average compared to national norms, student group achievement gaps. We're very transparent and open about that. we orient and write school improvement plans recognizing that not all students are performing at a level that we expect and how we can address that so that that's that still exists and you saw that very clearly in some of my charts and then we talked a bit about the upcoming changes to assessment and accountability. Um I'm confident that whatever formula whatever process or method the state of Illinois comes up with um we're going to do quite well. And so that concludes my uh presentation. if you have any questions. All right. Thank you, Dr. Nolton. Questions from the board. Joe, thank you for your
084uh presentation. Um, always great to hear the latest data and uh see the the really high achievement of the students in the district. Um, I I sent a couple questions ahead. I appreciate the um responses. Uh, and I want to some something else kind of came up during your presentation and I I just want to uh I was kind of putting a couple pieces together in my head and I want to see if I'm thinking about this right or um so when we're looking at the fall uh winter spring uh tests uh are we able to think about that um as kind of a a pre-est midyear test post where they're all kind of starting at the same level? um or I mean this is an adapt an adaptive test right so um are we
085kind of starting at different points in fall winter spring assuming that by winter the students will have achieved something and we want to measure kind of that that midyear mark and then at the end we want to measure kind of that endyear mark um and um how does the how how does the norming work between fall winter and spring uh you know is all norm to fall. You know, fall is normed, winter's normed, spring's normed, or is it kind of the year is is normed? Um, yeah, a lot of questions. Good questions. Um, I'll try to remember in reverse order. Um, the uh yes, there's different norms for fall, winter, spring. Um, this organization has norms down to the number of weeks of instruction provided. So, we have to tell the system how many weeks
086have kids been instructed before they take the fall test or the winter test or the spring test. I mean that's the level the wealth of like data points this company has with respect to the number of students they've done this with is remarkable. Um if you were here in the spring I think to get at your firstish question. If you were here in the spring the system the following fall remembers that and starts in the approximate area of that of of where that you know where you ended the year before where you ended the spring before and then that picks up winter picks up where you left off as a starting point. like you said, it's adaptive. Um, for people that aren't familiar with adaptive, it's not a fixed form test. Some tests in education
087are everybody sees the same questions. It's the same length. It's it doesn't, you know, the content is no different. You we could be sitting together and we're taking the exact same test. Um, this test has a higher level of precision based on the fact that item difficulty goes up or down based on accuracy of response. So, if you start getting questions wrong, it'll drop down to a lower level of difficulty. you start getting those right, it'll rise back up. So, there's a um it does well in terms of really trying to get a reliable accurate measurement of where you are. Um you know, students their growth from fall to winter and winter to spring is based on their starting point. So, if you're looking at fall to winter, for example, expected growth projections are based
088on well, where was that student in the fall? So, let's say that student was at the 25th percentile in the fall. The anticipated growth to the winter or the spring is based on that starting point. So students are compared to peers that have the same starting point. Does that make sense? So whether it's like fall to winter or winter to spring or fall to spring. Um those are all unique and you know dependent on where the student kind of left off. So does that did I get it? 80% of them. Yeah, that that's really helpful for uh kind of understanding how howchanics of Yeah, the mechanics of the test. Thank you. I going to ask me an ISA question. Other questions? Okay, seeing none. Thank you, Dr. Nolton. Appreciate that. Uh, let's see. Item 10,
089uh, discussion without action. We have no discussion without action this evening. Item 11, discussion with action. 2025 2026 budget adoption. Okay. The administration recommends that the board of education approved resolution contained within board docs which adopts the fiscal year 2026 budget as presented and would authorize the administration to execute all necessary documents and file all the same with the required government agencies. Earlier this evening, we had a public hearing where we had an opportunity for administrator comments. We opened for public comment and received none. Uh board members made comment and uh we have no additional information to present this evening. There are any other questions by board members? We be happy to answer those. Otherwise, I recommend you approve the resolution as presented. Any uh additional questions or comments from the board? Okay, I'll entertain
090a motion. Motion to approve item 11.01 2025 2026 budget adoption. Second. Motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. McMillan. I. Ksminsky. I. Blastic. I. Kush. I. Gerky I. Winsky I. The motion passes. Item 11.02 um Kennedy Junior High School project. Okay. Back in October of 2024, the board approved uh the family and consumer science project lead the way renovation at Kennedy as part of its annual capital plan. In December of 2024, uh after a recommendation by the board, the board approved delaying that work to determine if additional needs could be met at Kennedy during this uh renovation. Loaded in board dice is a memo that summarizes additional um projects that could be completed as a result of this. U we recommend you approve this as presented. Allison Boute, Mike
091Francis, Melanie Brown, or I would be happy to answer any questions you have or anyone else. uh questions from the board, Joe. Yeah, thank you for uh you again kind of looking at uh this project more uh holistically and uh um doing that swap between Kennedy and and Madison um to to uh you know kind of do a few projects at once at Kennedy removing the the uh classroom pods and uh so forth. Um the question that I had uh sent ahead um in the discussion in in December there was mention of um if not an installation evaluation of uh Kennedy's use for um uh solar panels. Uh, and um I I was just uh curious to hear uh you if that's going to also be part of the um Kennedy renovation project at least
092kind of evaluating the the roof um for the uh suitability for um putting an array up there. Yeah. Just as a brief summary and then I'll ask Melanie to maybe Oh, you have a microphone. Very good. Okay. I was giving you time to walk up here, but I'll quickly say uh as part of our facility assessment process, one of the things that we did do at the I think the seven secondary schools, is that right? Was an assessment in regarding to its ability to receive solar. So, just for a reminder for the board, that's something that we did wasn't necessarily to happen, but that we were going to do that assessment. So, as a part of our carbon action plan, we may consider that. Now, I'll let Melanie answer the question. And that was my
093answer to the question. Um, but I will just add that that report is due this fall. Um, so what we're looking for is not only are our rooftops accessible um, and have the right structure for it, but also that it has the build buildability and accessibility. So, while we may have rooftops, they may not be suitable for solar. Um, but any new roof that will be built if this project is approved will have the structure in place to allow for solar should we choose to do that. Thank you. Yeah. And just because you asked that question, I am reminded. I want to remind the board we are in the process, the board approved uh us to do a a a life health safety review as well as uh facilities conditions assessment. We're still in the
094process of wrapping that up. Uh and we're far enough along to know, you know, have a good sense of some of the things that will be coming. We know we have other facility needs. Uh we have, you know, as an example, transportation comes to mind. We kind of put a temporary thing in place there. So, I anticipate coming back to the board sometime early fall with uh additional recommendations uh also aligned with our policy 420 um framework. Other questions from the board. Holly, um it's only a comment. I just want to say um I really appreciate the foresight to flip these plans and make this comprehensive Kennedy plan and getting rid of the outdoor pods is wonderful for staff and students and I'm really thrilled to see that you took the time to plan and
095and achieve that with this plan. Because you said that, I will then also remind the board as part of that we are looking at transportation, our mobile units as well as one remaining then at uh Riverwoods which will be a part of our facility uh recommendations later in the future. Other questions or comments? All right. I will just uh echo um just the appreciation for the thoughtful approach um not just on this but you know uh really taking the step back and saying hey let's you know be flexible within um um our ability to really take a step back and look at it and make sure that we're designing the right spaces being as efficient as we can with spending. Um it's it's not uncommon for this administration to do that and I just wanted
096to echo how much I appreciate that as you've heard from some of my fellow board members as well. All right, with that item 11.03. Oh, sorry. We have to vote on that. 11.02. So, I will accept a motion. Move approval of item 11.02. Uh, Kennedy Junior High Project. Second. Motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Kush. I. Blastic. I. Winsky. I. Kosinsky. I. McMillan. I. Gerie. I the motion passes. Now item 11.03 consideration of board of education expenses. Board of Education policy 2125 requires all board member expenses for travel and meals and lodging be approved by roll call vote and an open meeting of the board of education. Included within board docs are receipts and expenses for the joint annual conference hosted by IASB, IASA and ISBO uh in
097November. The board participates in that conference annually. Recommend you approve them as presented. Questions from the board or comments rather. Okay, I'll entertain a motion. Motion to approve item 11.03 on consideration of board of education expenses. Second. Motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Gerky I. Blastic I. Ksminsky I. Kush I. Winsky I. McMillan I. The motion passes. Item 12, old business. We have no old business. Item 13, new business. We have no new business. Item 14, upcoming events. 14.01, schedule of events. Uh, the first I will note is um the district will be closed on Thursday, June 19th, in observance of Junth. Next week on Wednesday, June 25th, the board of education in um alignment with the Illinois Open Meetings Act will conduct a board self-evaluation in close
098session under the supervision of a representative of the Illinois Association of School Board. That uh that'll be on Wednesday at 6:30. And then our next regularly scheduled board of education meeting is Monday, July 14th, 2025. Okay. Item 15, adjournment. I'll entertain a motion. I move to adjurnn. Second. Motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Kush. I. McMillan. I. Cuzinski. I. Blastic. I. Winsky. I. Gerky. I. The motion passes. We are adjourned. Have a great evening everyone.