001Good evening. Since five o'clock, the board has been in close session to consider the following. the discussion of minutes lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purposes of school board approval of the minutes or semianual review of the minutes as mandated by the act the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees or legal counsel including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or legal counsel to determine its validity. collective negotiating matters between the school board and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. Litigation when an action against, affecting, or on behalf of the school board has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the school board finds an action as probable or
002imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. and for the sale or purchase of securities, investments or investment contracts. I will take a motion to come out of close session. So moved. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Kush. I. McMillan. I. Fitzgerald. I. Cuzinsky. I. Gerky. I. Juan King. I. The motion passes and we are in open session. Welcome to our March 24th, 2025 meeting. Our mission is to empower students to develop a learner's mindset, demonstrate adaptability, communicate effectively, think critically, and become global citizens. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton, board members present this evening, Christine Gerky, Kristen Fitzgerald, Joe Kazminski, Amanda McMillan, and Donna Wani, and Charles Kush. Student ambassadors present, Lexa
003Kendai, and Arwa Hamid. Please now join the board and our friends from steeple run for the pledge of allegiance. Good evening. The superstars are here to say the pledge with you. Would you like me to introduce them quickly? All right. Please introduce yourself and say your name. Hi, my name is Frankie Pulli and I'm in fifth grade. Hello, my name is Libby. I'm from fifth grade. Hi, my name is Iman and I'm from fifth grade. Hi, my name is Vivon and I'm from fifth grade. Hi, my name is Arat and I'm from third grade. Hi, my name is Zuben and I am from second grade. Hi everyone, I'm Katie Flesner and I am one of the student council sponsors and I also teach second grade at steeple run. And I'm John Melatia, the principal of
004steeple run. We'll go ahead and get started to the flag of the United States of America and to the stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Great work. Thank you. If you guys will slide that way just a little bit. We're going to take some pictures. Right about kids. Slide over just a little bit. Right about there. Great. We're going to have Dr. Hagens come forward and take a picture of this group and we'll have them stay right there. If there are parents or friends or other various paparazzi who'd like a picture, please feel free to come on up a little bit closer to take a picture. Please join me in thanking our friends from Steel Run. We've now reached the point in the agenda for good news. We actually have a
005lot of good news tonight. Building the ark to kindergarten. On March 17th, over 200 Anne Reed ducklings attended kindergarten preview at 14 elementary schools preparing for the next step in their educational journey. Over 60 Anre staff members join students and parents to provide support and build bridges from the Anread Early Childhood Center. Andre staff also secured interpreters to assist families with the transition from early childhood to kindergarten. This marks the second year that the Andre Ducklings have participated in kindergarten preview. Both elementary schools and families have provided overwhelmingly positive feedback. The Take a Breath Club at Maple Brook Elementary helps students start their day feeling empowered and refreshed. Through light yoga and mindfulness activities, students develop mental strength, balance, and a positive mindset, setting the tone for a successful day of learning. Our Ranch View
006Elementary students had a special opportunity to make history. Each student and staff member signed a large steel beam, symbolically leaving their mark on our school's new addition. The event was made even more memorable with coverage from Neapville Community TV, capturing this exciting moment for our community. On March 13th, Elmwood Elementary hosted its much anticipated Taste of Elmwood event, uniting students, families, and staff in a vibrant celebration of diversity. Attendees shared traditional foods, clothing, and cultural insights, creating a meaningful learning experience for all. A standout highlight of the evening was the student fashion show, showcasing cultural pride and creativity. The event was a tremendous success, fostering connection, celebration, and a deep appreciation for the rich diversity within our school community. On March 17th, three Madison Junior High eighth graders, Riley, Noah, and Bo, bravely shaved their
007heads at school in support of the St. Baldrick's Foundation, a charitable a charity dedicated to funding childhood cancer research. Their inspiring act of generosity and awareness make us incredibly proud. Riley, Noah, and Bo, off script for just a second here. The last time I had hair was the last time I did St. Baldick's Day, so be careful. Mr. Lungus will remember that was on the stage at Westerore High School, actually. Okay. Uh uh Ashu Suvali, a seventh grade student at team Phoenix at uh Kennedy Junior High, won first place in the American Legion essay contest. She was honored on Saturday, March 15th in a special ceremony uh by Tom Jorstad, commander of the American Legion Post 43, Neighborville. Congratulations on this outstanding achievement. Sneak peek of a celebration we'll have in just a minute. The
008North Husky Science Bowl team won their ninth consecutive state championship, earning a spot in the 2025 national tournament in Washington DC. I'll hold the rest of my comments for when they're out here in a little bit. And then April North students Jeffrey Tong and Jacob Quay took part in the state superintendent student summit at Illinois State University on March 14th. Jeffrey played a key role in planning and facilitating the event which brought together students from across Illinois for meaningful discussions and collaboration with the state superintendent Tony Sanders. That's our good news. [Applause] We will move to our recognition portion now and I am going to invite the cohort leaders for the national board certified teacher program to come join me up here. Congratulations to the 2024 National Board Certified Teachers. The National Board for Professional
009Teaching Standards is one of the most prestigious credentials a teacher can earn. Those who achieve the status of national board certified teacher have met rigorous standards through intensive study, expert evaluation, self assessment, and peer review. To date, more than 90 teachers who are currently employed by district 203 have earned national board certification. They join 82,000 teachers throughout the country who have achieved this mark of excellence. I am going to let Dr. Carol make a few comments and then we'll introduce our folks being recognized. All right. We thank you for uh supporting our national board candidates and tonight we'll be recognizing those who have earned their initial certification for national board and we'll also be recognizing those who have earned their maintenance of certification or their renewal for national board. So I will be calling their
010names and superintendent Bridges will be handing out certificates and pins for those uh successful teachers. Okay, we'll start with Jacqueline Barker. [Applause] All right. Maria [Applause] Garcia, Paige [Applause] Lungquist, and last but not least, Aaron Mian Browning. Okay, those teachers earning their renewals or their maintenance certification. Uh, we have Christine Bell, Phoebe Connor, Nicole Epstein, Christine Halbender, Angela Kat, Jennifer Noly, [Applause] All right. Aaron [Applause] Prout, Elizabeth Scopek, and that's a process I'll be going through this year myself. So, next year I'll be up here myself. Um, so we like to thank you for your support and I also like to thank our facilitators, uh, Betty Canel and Janet Park and also not here, Connie Kremans, for all of their help facilitating our cohort. Thank you. Once again, after Dr. Hagens is able to get
011a couple of pictures for the district, if there's anyone like to come a little bit closer for a picture, you are welcome to do so. Awesome. Congratulations. Stay there. Please stay there. Congratulations. Your hard work is just such a testament to your commitment. So, thank you so much. I would like to now introduce principal Neighborville North and and welcome him up here at Jay Wackal and uh Coach Kevin Fel. So, as previewed earlier, the Neapville North Science Bowl team won their ninth consecutive state championship this past weekend held at Nepil North High School. Kevin, dare I say, a dynasty, right? Competition was fierce as the team accomplished amazing victories against William Fmed High School, Stevenson High School, the Illinois Math and Science Academy, and then this makes it good, beating Nua Valley High School twice
012to earn them the state championship. Uh, this accomplishment earns them an expense paid all expense paid trip to Washington DC to compete in the National Science Bowl. The energy department created the National Science Bowl in 1991 to encourage students to excel in mathematics and science and to pursue careers in those fields. More than 200,000 students have participated in the National Science Bowl through its 23-year history and is the nation's largest science competition. Most teams are coached by teachers from the students schools and spend several months preparing for the regional competitions. The regional tournaments, which host 15 to 50 teams, are sponsored by federal agencies, national laboratories, institutions of education, and nonprofit organizations. And let me repeat this, we have won our ninth consecutive state championship. Congratulations. All right, first up, Emily. [Applause] Jeffrey [Applause] Tong,
013Michelle [Applause] Cong, Kyle Wong, [Applause] and a member of the team not able to join us tonight, Adi [Applause] Bawaskar. There you go. Same process. We'll take a quick picture here and then uh invite anyone who needs to come forward for a picture also do so. Yes, please feel free to come forward at this time. Okay, congratulations once again. Thank you for being here this [Applause] evening. Okay, six students from district 203, more specifically Nville North High School have been selected as candidates for the United States Presidential Scholar Program. program was established in 1964 by executive order of the president to recognize and honor some of the nation's most distinguished graduating seniors. Scholars are chosen for leadership and service to school and community. They demonstrate exceptional scholarship, visual, creative, and performing arts talent and accomplishment
014in career and technical fields. Up to 161 US presidential scholars are chosen annually. All scholars are invited to Washington DC in June for the National Recognition Program featuring events and enrichment activities including the Presidential Scholars Medallion presentation during a White House sponsored ceremony. So this evening we're pleased to introduce to you our students who have been selected as presidential scholars. All right, first up we have Khloe Chen. [Applause] Anukica [Applause] Perk, Sophia [Applause] Shei, and Kathy Yang. Also, uh, presidential scholars who are not able to join us tonight, Jay Gupta and Anderson Ping. Once again, congratulations to each of you and thank you for spending a few moments with us this evening. Hey, next we have our student ambassador reports and you can decide who wants to go first. Hi everybody. I hope you're all
015having a great evening. So, on the central side of things, we just had our senior party on February 22nd and our senior cap and gown pickup happened at the beginning of the month. So, for seniors, it's starting to hit the end of the year with exciting events and a way to conclude our um experience in high school. Our winter sports also all wrapped up for the season and our spring season has begun as well. All of our spring seasons are off to a great start start, but we want to especially celebrate lacrosse as both the boys and the girls team has won their first two games of the season. We hope to continue that streak for the rest of the year. And our indoor track season wrapped up last week with the girls track team
016finishing second at the DVC meet Thursday and the boys team winning the conference championship on Friday. Central's Got Talent will be um occurring next Friday with singing, acting, and other unique performances along with student MC's who will support the entire performance with fun introductions and character. Underassmen will have the state ACT and PAC testing on after break on April 9th and 10th. And prom is April 26 and the theme this year is masquerade selected by the junior class council. Arsenic and Old Lace. The theater central's latest musical was a success and Theater Central's musical Greece will open on May 1st. The 4.0 academic awards ceremony is coming up on April 16th where all students will be recognized for their academic success. And we are looking forward to spring break, also known as duck break at
017Central, where students and staff members can take pictures with ducks that they can bring with them either on vacation or staying at home so that everyone can recognize and see what they've been up to during break. The students who have the best pictures and the staff as well will be recognized with fun pictures celebrated throughout the school on the slide decks and monitors around the building. That's all from the central side of things. And on to North is it on? Okay. Good evening. My name is Lux and I am currently a junior. Uh, I' I'd like to start off by saying thank you for taking the input of teachers and students about delaying the block schedule until the 26 and 27 school year because many North students and teachers are very supportive of the decision
018and it is just very beneficial for those that were high stress. In other news, North Sports just started and we're looking forward to a very successful athletic season. The Neighborville Sun released their all girls sports all all area girls basketball team with Natalie from Pong, a junior, making the first team and senior Anna Richards getting an honorable mention. In the theater department, our annual 1X just showed on March 14th and 15th, and we had six very successful performances created by students with students as the performers and directors. We held our annual St. Baldrick's event last Friday and passed our goal raising over $27,000 for kids cancer research. And we also had our air band last Thursday with a lot of amazing choreography and funny performances. A few upcoming events are the multicultural show taking place
019on the 28th and next week is spring break with a few trips planned like uh the choirs from central and north going to Italy and a trip to the Gopagos Islands that I am very excited to be going on. After spring break is a big week for students because as she mentioned um we have the ACT and the PSAT. A lot of teachers have been working hard to help us prepare and I bet students can't wait for it to be over, me included. Thank you. Thank you both for your reports. You're welcome to stay for the meeting, but if you need to leave, that's understandable, too. We have now reached a point in our agenda for public comment. The board of education, excuse me, the board of education welcomes comments from the public at its
020meetings. Citizens who wish to address the board of education should identify themselves by name. Comments by individuals shall be limited to three minutes. If the individuals representing multiple individuals or a group, they shall be allowed to speak for five minutes. The board respectfully requests that speakers refrain from commenting about specific individuals. At this point, I would like to welcome Kristen Kolkowski, who will be followed by Julia Elmo. My name is Kristen Kolkowski and I'm a kindergarten teacher in Neighborville 203. I have been a member of the Neighborville 203 family since 2009 and have successfully contributed in a variety of roles. Additionally, I live in our community and have two children who attend our schools. The elementary teachers in our district are hardworking, dedicated, and mostly quiet group. We enjoy teaching young children and working with
021their families to build a love of learning and high achievement. Often, we keep quiet because teaching is more than just a job to us. Much of the conversation surrounding the proposed school day changes has focused on high school and middle school. If elementary has been mentioned, the conversation has exclusively been about the early start time. Therefore, I would like to share an elementary perspective, especially with regard to classroom teachers who would be most affected by the proposed changes. At the elementary level, classroom teachers have the most instructional minutes compared to the other levels. Elementary, 1475 instructional minutes per week, middle school, 150, and high school, 1250. Elementary also has the most supervision minutes per week before and after school with 120 minutes. While the instructional and supervision minutes for elementary are significantly higher than the
022other levels, the plan time for elementary teachers is significantly lower. Elementary 150 minutes per week, middle school 420, and high school approximately 400. Elementary teachers teach for a significantly higher amount of time each day, and we receive the lowest amount of plan time. We also teach seven subjects and do not have consistent daily plan time. We plan for many different subjects per day and develop additional daily lessons for numerous targeted win small groups. We also plan individualized activities for the other students to do during the win targeted time. Additionally, elementary teachers are most at risk of losing our very limited plan time as well as lunch throughout the week as we work with young students. The proposal for elementary would add an additional 15 minutes per day and 75 minutes of instructional time per week
023with no additional plan time during the school day. Many of us have had no voice in this process and our questions, concerns, and feedback have gone unanswered. These changes particularly affect classroom teachers. Finally, I would like to address the idea of innovation within the elementary proposal. Meetings are already happening and have been for many years at the elementary level. The wind targeted time is also already happening at most elementary buildings and has been for many many years. These are not new ideas. The recommendations specific to elementary are not innovative and do not improve staff morale for workload. An elementary proposal needs to include equitable instructional minutes. Thank you on behalf of the board. Thank you for your comments. Next is Julia Alamo. Hi there. My name is Julia Elmo and I'm the parent of a
024kindergartener. I also have a younger child, so I expect our lives to revolve around the district 203 school schedule for many years. In my professional life, I have a doctorate in sociology and I conduct research to improve government programs using participatory research methods. It is with all of these hats that I'm here tonight asking the board and the district to incorporate input from the community before voting on the proposal to change school start and end times. As we've been hearing in these meetings, changing school start and end times has drastic implications for parents, teachers, students, and more. The fact that the current proposal was developed without the input of these groups is troubling. How can the district be sure that the proposal best addresses their concerns if they've never asked what their concerns are? At
025the last schoolboard meeting, the superintendent said that the district worked closely with a transportation consultant and ran every option it could before developing the current proposal. However, the district has not shared any information about what other options they considered and the pros and cons of these options. For instance, did they consider renting buses from neighboring district districts rather than adding to their fleet? What about ride share options which a growing number of districts across the country are using? What about reducing the number of bus stops to make bus routes more efficient? The district also hasn't shared basic information about what transportation issues they currently face and how the proposal would fix these issues. For instance, how many students are dropped off at school unreasonably early? If it's a small number, is it worth changing the
026schedule of every family in the district to fix this problem? Or are there other solutions we could consider? The district is asking us to trust that the current proposal is the best option, but they haven't given us a reason to trust them. Instead, they've presented a lot of cherrypicked evidence and halftruths. Despite the hundreds of parents and teachers who have written emails and spoken at these meetings expressing their concerns, the district has made no changes to the proposed start and end times. But there is a silver lining. Now that the implementation of the ISC has been pushed back a year, there's time to gather the community input needed to make the proposal as strong as it can be. Over the next several months, the district should hold listening sessions with parents, students, and teachers to
027understand the pain points related to bus schedules and start and end times. They should then work with the transportation consultant to develop new options that address the concerns of the community and minimize the introduction of new concerns. As Donna and others pointed out at the last schoolboard meeting, engaging the community in the process of revising the proposal means it will take longer. But the decision about when to start and end school impacts every family and educator in the district, and it is imperative we get it right. It doesn't make sense to rush forward with voting on the proposal as it stands. Please use the extra time to gather the necessary input, generate innovative ideas, and come up with a proposal that has the support of the whole community. Thank you. On behalf of the board,
028thank you for your comments. I do not have any other slips at this time. Does anyone else wish to address the board? As a reminder, because the questions raised in public comment address district operational matters, the board has designated our superintendent as a spokesperson for the district as our design to respond to public comment and he will apprise the board of education accordingly. This will conclude our public comment period. Item six, monthly reports. The monthly reports have been loaded in board docs for review. We have now reached the point reached the business portion of our meeting. As a reminder to the community, the board understands and has affirmed through our board agreements that it is each individuals each individual member's responsibility to prepare for each meeting. Additionally, we understand that it is our individual responsibility
029to effectively communicate our concerns either to the superintendent or board president prior to any meeting in a timely manner. Board members have also agreed that avoiding no surprises is paramount in displaying respect for all district administration and the community. In the spirit of no surprises and in accordance with IASB best practices, the board has tasked itself to send questions in advance of each meeting to the superintendent. This practice allows the superintendent to provide the best possible answer for the community. Additionally, it allows for maximum efficiency during the community's meeting. The same submitted questions may also be asked in open session along with new ones that may arise during discussions. If you do ask a question, please state if you sent that question ahead of time. Mrs. Patton, what time did the email sent to board
030members what time was the email sent to board members alerting us that board docs was loaded and ready for review? A link with the board agenda was emailed to each board member and delivery confirmed at 4:02 p.m. Thursday, March 20th, 2025. And no emails bounced back. Thank you. Mr. Bridges, did you receive questions from board members in advance of tonight's meeting? I did. I received it from six board members. Okay. Thank you. Item seven, action by consent. Charles, hi. How are you? Um, if possible, could we pull item 7.11? I just have one question on that one. Which one? 7.11. Sure. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. Um, I had the pleasure of doing bills and claims this month and um just wanted to as always um give a shout out and a very nice
031warm thank you to Michelle Swope um for answering addressing any questions that I had um uh you know Michelle and team do a wonderful job of uh you know digging down the information and really um providing providing answers to the questions um that we have the opportunity to ask. So Michelle, thank you for that. All right. So, with that, um, I will move approval of, um, let's see, a warrant number 1066845 through 1067459 and warrant number 900 0 0 1 07 totaling 28,14,00 256.71 for the period of February 19th, 2025 to March 24th, 2025. And items 7.02.03, 7.04, 7.05, 7.06, 7.07, 7.08, 7.09, and 7.10 of the consent agenda as presented. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Kazinski I. Kush. Hi. Wanke. McMillan. Hi. Fitzgerald. Hi.
032Gerky. I. The motion passes. Item 7.11. The transportation contract renewal. Yeah. Thank you. Um I I and I submitted this question so I just wanted the opportunity to just kind of ask it. Um uh you know the transportation contract renewal. Um we recently had an um presentation on the carbon action footprint and I know that we have very um good goals to reduce that. My question was uh have we considered putting language into our contracts possibly not this one but going forward to influence uh the vendors to reduce their carbon footprint um so that we can contribute to our overall reduction efforts. Yeah. Pending action by the board of education this evening to approve the c the carbon action plan. that is something we can consider for future actions. Um and particularly on this one
033uh private transportation companies have seen some of the same challenges regarding electrification of the fleet that we have cost availability infrastructure and whatnot. But uh once the plan is approved will certainly be something that we'll share with each of our vendors. Yeah. And it just went on this it this occur it occurred to me on this because of that point, but you know, as a as a major purchaser of goods and services, you know, any any um influence that we can have over not just for the inputs that we're getting for our carbon action footprint in terms trying to reduce that, but then, you know, trying to be an influence for good in the community, I think is helpful if we can do that. So, other questions from the board. I will take a motion
034for item 7.11. So I'll move approval of item 7.11 as presented. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Kush I. Fitzgerald I. McMillan I. Cuzinsky I. Wanke. Gerky. I. The motion passes. Item eight, communications. 8.01, written communications have been loaded for review. Item 8.02, the board of education reports. Does anyone wish to give a brief update on something they've done in their official capacity as a board member? Donna, I just want to remind us that the Neighborville Education Foundation Building a Passion Breakfast is coming up and um you know, please join us. It's a opportunity for us to support uh programs in our schools that all schools and uh have benefited from. So, thank you. And I believe they said too that this is the biggest that
035their RSVPs are the most they've had so far. Did I hear that? I think so. Yeah. So, maybe get those RSVPs in quickly. Okay. Any other board reports? Kristen, I just wanted to give a brief report on the um most recent meeting we had for the state assessment review committee and thank Patrick Nolton for his help in preparing for that meeting. Um the SARKC is working to review the new performance level descriptors. Um I will say um there was some dialogue um and I feel particularly concerned about it that um while we're working to um make sure that we accurately reflect the national standard for proficiency i.e that we match up with with now ACT before SAT. Um that we not overcorrect and um you know call you know have it be inacc inaccurate that
036we're rating our students proficient and then they're rated by the National Assessment for Educational Progress at the NAPE you know that they're not proficient. So on math there's quite a bit of variance where we could correct we are saying fewer students are proficient. Um but for ELA we're not we're saying that they're proficient and the NAPE is saying that they aren't. So I know that we're so you know there's a lot of dialogue about the NAPE. Um but um that national standard is super important and so um I I know that the SARKC is considering whether or not there will be a statement made on behalf of SARKC with regard to the performance level descriptors. Um I made comments to this effect. Um but um I know that you're working to I know that all
037districts are working to comment on the performance level descriptors and like in much more technicality. So we did not do that. Um they have mentioned that they would give us some opportunities to do so. I have not seen that. So I will forward it as soon as I as I as soon as I can with the understanding that we do have spring break coming up and it's I think that the deadline is the fifth I I believe so for the first level. Um, so you know, if I get anything, I I am working on finding more information, but I do think that um I think it's important for continued confidence in our proficiency standards that they are as close to the NAPE as we get as we can get them so that then when you
038look at the national report card, it matches what we're seeing in our Illinois report card. Donna, I just have a follow-up question on that for either you or Dr. Nolton. Uh maybe for the community to understand that uh when we look at national rankings uh currently, is it correct that the Illinois standards are higher than those across the country and so very often we appear to be ranked lower and that's why we're doing this balancing. Is that correct? or I don't know if it's that simplified but maybe we can you can simplify it for us maybe um I mean it's a polit it's political right to some degree but the reality is that the threshold for being considered proficient in Illinois um and ELA and mathematics and this and we look at fourth and eighth
039grade specifically because that's what NAPE assesses um we're among the hardest or most difficult or most challenging states to meet that threshold so that results in what a lot of people have characterized as the proportion of students that are deemed proficient or above seems kind of anecdotally too low given the proportion of kids that go on successfully to not just college but but career opportunities. So, I think the intention is to try to realign that a little bit. And I think Kristen's concern has to do with um making sure that that lines up reasonably with the national assessment so that it's not kind of I mean it's not going to be ever exact, but I think we want it at least in the ballpark and it looks a little misaligned right now. I think that
040mathwise we what you say stated is absolutely accurate mathwise English not not accurate but SAT it's also accurate so like there's we had to do we had to realign sorry I'm sorry I'm not talking the microphone we had to realign the performance descriptors because we changed to ACT so they had to do that there and so and in SAT correct me if I'm wrong we are saying fewer students are proficient than SAT would say. So like that that was absolutely correct. It just on that math portion for fourth and eighth grade, yes, we're high. We're saying fewer people are proficient in English. We're saying more. And so it's just making sure that they all as closely reflect that national standard as we can when we're correct. Any other board reports? Okay. Item 8.03, the president's
041report. I do not have a report tonight. 8.04, the superintendent's report. Yeah, just a a brief comment here. Um, recently, um, I have and the board has received some questions regarding any changes or potential changes that may occur at the federal level that could impact uh, public education. Um, so just along with our legal counsel at the board and along with our legal counsel and various statewide advocacy groups, we continually monitor these policy decisions. Um, we also have to consider any state and local mandates that are in place as well. Uh, but regardless of any potential changes, Neapville 203 will remain committed to its beliefs, its vision, and its mission. And that includes continuing to be advocates for funding and programming to support each of the students in our district. So, I just want to
042make sure that you are aware that we are monitoring and following along. Thank you. Item nine, discussion without action. As a reminder to all board members, I will recognize each individual to ask questions or comments. As per our board agreements, we share time with with other members. After each person has had a turn, we'll go back around if necessary. If you ask a question, please state if you sent that question ahead of time. Item 9.01, the innovative school experience. Okay, just a quick reminder in terms of uh where we've been. Beginning on January 21st, uh administration has uh presented uh a series of presentations and reports to the board in regard to the strategic focus blueprint regarding the innovative school experience. Um with a future focused mindset about education. Um it is a commitment within
043our strategic plan uh and that plan serves as the vehicle to implement many commitments uh in our district. The school day recommendation itself uh is in response to board guidance that we've had over time about providing opportunities to reduce achievement and opportunity gaps, enhance multi-ter systems of support and continue to work to strengthen a sense of belonging. Uh so the recommendations that have come forward regarding the experience itself are rooted in best practice research with a student first mindset. Obviously we continue to experience some challenges regarding this. Um we know that there are collective bargaining implications that we we need to address with each of our groups. Uh the change to schedule obviously as we we have heard during public comment and other messages uh is of concern to a number of stakeholders. One way
044we've responded is trying to provide more time uh to prepare and adapt for that change to allow for professional learning. Um, one of the concerns that we have heard has also been uh especially with the ta the the the amount of time between the elementary start and the junior high start. So very early on working at what opportunities with community partnerships or even potential zero hour type STEM uh activities or work could be done to provide as an opportunity at school for care for kids. Um regardless of um kind of what we do at the school day, uh we do have some operational inefficiencies that we have talked about uh quite a bit in regard to um our transportation schedule. Um and so, you know, we have looked at a number of different schedules um
045and identified the amount of time that we must have between each uh of our um routes by level. uh all of our presentations and information that we have shared with the board continue to be loaded uh in board docs. We do need to update I need to update the uh questions that have come in from the board um to and help update our FAQs and we'll continue to work through that. Um we have taken a look at additional purchase for buses but essentially what we would need to do is purchase enough buses to run a whole level and shift from a three- tier system to a two tier system which is just not a recommendation we're comfortable making. Um so the a lot of you know input or a lot of feedback from the board
046as well as community about making sure that we are hearing voice. So we we would still need to work through a plan about uh additional engagement. Um but I our goal tonight really is to seek to understand questions that the board has information it needs to have for us to be able to move forward. So I'd open it up then to questions. Um we the board did submit some questions uh in advance of today's meeting that will have to be added to our document and posted in board docs publicly uh for the community to be able to see. But this time we'd be happy to take any specific questions that the board has so that we can help to seek clarity uh from you uh on what it is specifically that needs to be answered.
047Okay. Thanks for the update there. Questions from the board. Amanda, I want to thank you for um you know, hearing uh a lot of our questions and concerns, especially about the gap between the elementary and junior high levels. I think that's something that we uh need to take very seriously and to um make sure that we have a plan that is communicated to the community and they uh the staff in the community feel comfortable with it. I with the uh current plan as proposed and having the roll out move to the following school year 2627. Um what are your plans as an administration to engage? So you've talked about like um engaging staff and preparing um you know trainings, professional development. What um as our public comment we had earlier, what are your plans to
048engage the community and hear their voice about what they would need at each of their schools and levels to help them prepare for this proposed change, right? We don't have a a formalized plan just yet. However, things that we have talked about is leveraging many of our parent groups, for example, BPAC success, uh the home and school, other parent groups to almost like a focus group type setting to continue to identify what the issues are so that we can continue to work to provide options or to resolve those issues. Um but obviously uh both from board as well as community members, we have heard about um making sure that we do fully understand and hear the concerns about specifically about the start and end times. Thank you. I appreciate that. Other questions from the board,
049Kristen? Um, so I did ask this one ahead, so I I know you've got the prepared answer, but in terms of so in terms of expressing um more um just a few more details about what it would mean to do the busing chain, like what you mean? Like I know you just mentioned um you would have to do another tier of transportation. Can you share with the community what that means in terms of number of buses, number of um you know costs per bus, like those kinds of things so that it gives it a little bit more understanding to what you mean by that in terms of why you aren't able to recommend that in terms of a change. Yeah, there's actually a number of factors at play here. Um and we have taken a
050look at I want to thank Cindy Leornne for giving some preliminary information in regard to this. Um but you know regardless of what we do uh with the innovative school experience, we still have some um issues that have to be resolved about early pickup time compared to school start time. Um so if we really want to address uh the arriving so early um those types of things uh maintaining the current times we would need uh approximately 60 full-size buses, 19 half-size buses, three wheelchair buses, all of that uh coming to a total cost of about 12.5 million. Uh but then we'd need the additional space to park those buses. um we don't have a location on site to be able to do that. Uh the additional routes would also lead to the need for additional
051staff and mechanics. Um we have 111 route packages that exist currently. Um and we currently have 107 drivers. So we're already scrambling to cover a lot. There's a number of days when office staff mechanics or even member of our print shop staff cover routes um or weren't able to completely fulfill some routes. um 75 to 80 new drivers. We're already kind of struggling to hire drivers. So, I think there's, you know, a legit a lot of logistical issues that are going to need to be addressed, fuel cost, so on. And can you um put that in context? So, we currently have how many full set? Like, so to add 60, we we currently operate how many Sorry. Okay. So, probably we can get the full the correct information, but No, and these are just follow-ups
052as we're just putting things in context. So, I get that. So, like what you're saying, I think with your large numbers is that you would be adding a third more, which is what you said, but it helps to have numbers um to kind of understand that in terms of like what that means and how how much that would cost. The other question that I was interested and I this is this is still on transportation. I know that I think what you just said is that you want to address the concerns with regard to the students who are getting picked up so early and having such a long time no matter what. Is that correct? That's correct. What what what p do you know about what percent that is in terms of students that are is
053it the majority? Okay. So the majority of students are getting picked up that early and having that long period of time. So and majority of what percent of our students ride the bus? So 10,000 students and the majority of whom are getting there with 45 minutes to an hour or or more. Okay. Um I'll let one of my colleagues guess another question. I have more, but go ahead. That was helpful. Thank you for that, Charles. So, uh, I have I have a couple of questions as well. Um, so I think I mentioned this at the last board meeting when we talked about the um, new recommendation from administration to move the implementation date from this coming fall to the fall of 2026. Um, and I said at the time I thought that was a good
054uh, initial step. Um my question is originally we were supposed to be making this decision now for a fall implementation. So am I to presume that if we were to make this decision 12 months from now for the fall you there'd still be enough time to be ready? The reason I asked that question is because um I'm trying to get at the opportunity for there to be more feedback. I think several of my colleagues, several community members who've come to speak, teachers I've talked to have just stated the the desire to have more time or for there to be more specificity in place about what this would look like, what some of the impact could be, you know, how parents could solve some of the daycare challenges and things like that. Why wouldn't we take
055some of that time and still be able to make the decision earlier prior to implementation than we were expecting to do this time? Great. Thanks for the question. Uh I understand absolutely how you're thinking on that on that timeline and we'd actually hoped to have this decision approved by the board um beginning of February. That was the initial timeline we had hoped for. Obviously, we haven't hit that. So, we got a couple of months there. Why does do we believe the decision has to be made sooner rather than later? Um one to ensure that we have a professional learning plan with fidelity in place. I you know um I think that would be a challenge for our our administrators and our educators to go through a year of professional learning on something that ultimately maybe
056isn't implemented or to delay professional learning around it um until a decision is made. Second, we we we have heard um positive feedback about allowing families time to make adjustments if necessary. Doesn't necessarily mean that families all still like that time, but wanting as much time as possible to make any adjustments to schedules as possible. So, I just think the readiness of it uh to prepare for the shifts and changes I think is extremely important. Um so, the sooner we have answers about our direction, I think it's better for all. Okay. Um, my other question was one was a carryover from last last meeting as well and I did I sent this one ahead too. Um, to understand the the cost implications and impact for you know families who are going to require additional child
057care options to support this. Could you provide an update on what we know there? Yeah. Um, so Alison Boute has uh worked with our community partners who currently provide before and after school at the elementary level uh and both have indicated a willingness, openness and and kind of just desire to be able to support us in this. And so Allison, you want to speak a little bit to some of what you've learned? Yes. Specifically to the middle school. So it's a it's a difficult question to answer because I don't know what care families are currently doing, if they're doing before school, after school, how many students they have. they have students at different levels. But I can give an update specific to the middle school as we know that was an area of concern. Um
058morning care opportunities for two middle school for middle school families specifically. We have two community partners still um interested and awaiting if uh we will want to have a proposal um contract with them. One um both of them would start at either 6:30 or 7 o'clock in the morning. Uh which does give a lot more time. Currently our school day starts at 8 o'clock and we don't have that before school program. So that is a nice option for families who maybe currently are leaving the house early um with even with our current school day. Both of them have uh drop in care options and allow families to choose what would be best for them. One, two, three, four, five days or pick as they go. Uh they have like punch card options. Uh both partners
059do not foresee a weight list issue at the middle school level. both of them uh one spoke to um hiring and the ability to host up to 50 students to start but that they would continue to add a guaranteed for like a ratio of 1 to 15 um or 1 to 20. So being in compliance with that really looking at um activities that middle school students would be interested in as well in addition to uh homework help time as well. Um the obviously the monthly rates um vary because this is for 267 and we don't have a signed contract, but uh one did issue a five-day monthly rate of $195 per student, a three-day monthly rate of $153 per student or punch card 20 visits for $240. So that would be uh before school program
060starting as early as 6:30 or 7 in the morning potentially until 5 to 10 minutes before school starts providing uh morning snack and care. Uh that was the monthly price. Any student who qualifies for free or reduced lunch uh would have discounted waivers potentially up to a waiver for complete cost. So that those are two paid options that we do have um on the table as opportunities for us that may be welcomed by families who are working now and have to be out of be out of the home. Um in addition to um Superintendent Bridges had mentioned, we are looking at a potential zero hour option for students to get it closer to the current start time and using a community partner to continue to build our STEM and pathways program to align with the
061high school. So that is uh new and us looking at what that could look like. Um and we will need more time before we can bring that back. but between inter mural opportunities that currently exist in the morning. Um looking at when we offer our homework club which is currently funded by NEF. Um possibly a zero hour as well as opportunity for child care uh with no weight list uh according to both community partners for all five middle schools. Um we do believe that we are m you know going to be able to offer families a lot of options um should this go through to support the innovative school day experience. So continuing to plug away to make this um and ease the transition as much as possible for the middle school families. Go ahead
062Charles. So could you repeat the part you said something about capac something about 50 50 students. What was that in reference to? I wasn't sure. So they will start we'll we'll do an intra survey on if if this passes and it's yes we want to solidify a contract for before school care programs. We will overview the partners you know that then their proposals they will start with making sure that they have staffing for up to 50 students but we they are asking for us to take survey how many middle school families do want this service before we hire a lot of staff and then maybe don't fill all the spots. So just so I'm clear. So the the number that they're start starting with again there need to be an interest survey and figure out
063exactly how many but the number that they're talking about is about 50 students you said to start with 50 per school. Yeah. Per school per school. Per school. Okay. That that that sorry a lot like 50 students. Yeah. No 50 per school,000. each school would have each home school neighborhood school would have their own morning per and then we would go from there after every 15. Okay. Uh thank you for that. The other question I had um and I sent this one ahead as well. Um and you parti it was partially answered based on one of Christian's questions in terms of the portion of the population that's negatively impacted by the current scheduling and situation. Um do we know I'll just say it is my belief that there is no perfect solution right so the
064question is do we know what proportion of the population would be negatively impacted by the new proposal because there's always people who are positively and negatively impacted in any change that's made. So my question is, so we've kind of figured out, okay, here's who's negatively impacted and how by what's currently happening, do we know what the downside or the the the downside would be for um moving to a diff to this the current proposal? I have a clarifying question. Are you talking about the start end times or the level recommendations for innovative school day experience? I'm talking about the the negative impacts of the um the scheduling the scheduling itself. So not necessarily talking about what happens during the day talking about some of the logistical challenges that uh have been expressed. I don't know
065how I can necessarily put it on the positive negative, but obviously a change of schedule is going to impact every family, right? And then so um I suppose through some form of um next level engagement or something, we could get a better sense of that. But obviously, I mean, we know the change it's going to impact everybody systemwide because of because it is a change. So to that point just this is not a question but it's more commentary the idea of gathering some of that feedback to understand what the what what it would look like um one of the concerns that I have expressed before is that um as we were talking about this as we were mapping this out a critical piece of information in terms of the and I know it was because
066you didn't get the information until a certain point in the process like when you were having the discussions earlier on, you didn't have the information to from the consultant about how much when the days would have to start in order to make this all work. Um but I think that given the extra time we have for implementation based on the recommendation to move it out and then also um you know some of again some of the concerns that we've had and some of the homework that's already been done to try to figure out what costs could look like. Um, I think it's would be important to kind of have another regroup and get some information from parents to say now that we have the information in terms of here's what the scheduling looks like, here's
067what the um um expected benefits of this whole structural change would be. And then uh I I said this before as well, similar to when we had the students presenting from the carbon action plan and providing their support, information, and ideas, having a panel of parents saying, "Yes, we think this is great. we've we've talked through all the issues and here's some potential solutions and how we we could work through that. Um I I I I think it's important for us to take the time, the extra time we have now to get some of that information so that um we've worked through some of those issues so we can get some sense of how many people are going to require some of those additional services, what that looks like, what that costs, and and then
068have um have everyone understand what that looks like before we commit to 100% to moving forward. But that's a comment, not a question. Say that again. I was saying that was a comment, not a question, right? That's Yes. Other questions from the Joe. Yeah. I'd like to uh just thank everybody for uh a lot of the updates that have been made um uh regarding the the questions that have been asked um the the much more detailed list of references uh that have been uh put in uh as well as um you know updated outcomes uh and metrics um from this whole innovative school uh experience. Um, regarding uh some of the outcomes and metrics, uh, a lot of them are aligned to, um, you know, things that are going on uh, in the school. Um,
069is there going to be any, um, uh, kind of followup with, uh, various groups, parents, students, uh, surveys and such to get a feel for how things are going? Um, you know, if this, uh, is implemented. Yeah. Um, we're actually Dr. Nolton and I worked on these metrics together and we created how we want what we want to measure. The next step would be looking at what what uh do we want to gather and how do we want to gather that. So absolutely especially now because um we're so focused on that student voice. Student voice absolutely will be part of this. Um and then we will utilize some of our other um avenues such as homeschool, some of our other parent groups to gather feedback as well. um that will come kind of the whole
070setup of how we will gather that will be coming as we formulate um the plan once we know implementation timeline. Thank you. Um yeah and I um regarding the block schedule and and some of the uh curricular uh or pedagogical changes that are are going to be made. Um you know I I think there are a lot of uh positives to uh this new uh innovative school day. Um you know and I do um agree that the um that that there needs to be that professional development and uh time to do that uh very well for a fairly smooth uh roll out. um because it's not just kind of cutting classes in half and and rebundling them. Uh it's uh really redesigning the pedigogy and um yeah, I think they're they're is great for you
071know stems my field. Um but you you know more time for projects and labs and uh you know practice uh right there in the class. Um but also in in other uh you know disciplines you know things like history or or English where you know we're we're dealing with uh AI and things right now. Uh this gives students a time to really you know kind of free write you know peer review communicate talk to each other dialogue. Um, so I think kind of doing some of those, you know, things that aren't behind a screen, um, and really think critically, which is, uh, and problem solve, which are skills that are are really, uh, important, but it does take a, a different, more active learning style. Um, so, uh, I think more time for that, uh,
072professional development is really important, and I I really appreciate pushing that, um, implementation time back, uh, a year. That was my biggest concern at that first meeting uh that we had. Um and I was not ready to start next year. Um and then the increased math time at the middle school also uh very good. Um and then just one other uh kind of question that I had um that I thought of while um we were talking about some of the uh early drop off on structured time. Um, if I remember the number correctly, it was uh 30% of uh disciplinary cases happened during that unstructured time. Um, and I'm kind of curious um how many other discipline cases aren't necessarily during the unstructured time, but they start with things that kind of happen during that
073unstructured time and then fester throughout the day and uh occur later on. Well, uh I don't think we've completely quantified that. However, if the middle school principles or probably high school principles were here to speak to that, they would say that uh rough starts to our morning lead through and and bleed throughout the day or during uh lunch or recess um if we have an additional unstructured time. That's typically where we um see that most of the time it is in the morning even versus after school. But we can look into that next year. uh Mark and I can for the 7190 presentation and see if uh we can give you some more specifics. But um you know I think part of it is if you go by the middle schools around 7:20 in the
074morning, the buses are starting to arrive or have arrived. So the students have already been on the bus, then they're held on the bus and then they get off the bus and we don't have them come inside until 7:50ish. Um, and so their their bus ride is somewhat supervised, but we know that if you've been on a bus recently or any time with students, um, it's not the most structured. And then that outdoor time, we have supervision, uh, but it's not, um, it's it's not the most structured use of their time. To follow up on that, at this year's 7190 presentation, we did take a considerable amount of time to look at the disciplinary referrals that have been handled at the high school level this year. And when we had the meeting last week year-to
075date between both high schools, we had approximately 4,600 disciplinary referrals in our infinite campus system, 1,600 of those referrals were tardies, over 50% of which are the first hour. Another 1,400 uh referrals were for um truency, which is basically absence longer than 20 minutes without cause up to an entire day. Many of those are students who are just more than 20 minutes late to school in the morning. And the high school students that were part of that review very clearly expressed how it is challenging to, for example, get up get on a bus at at uh 6:15 in the morning. If you're a varsity athlete who has a contest and you're not making home till 7, 6:30, 7 o'clock and then you're starting your homework and you're not going to bed till after uh you
076know after 10 11 o'clock after you know working on your academics. um you know that 5 5:15 get up is a little challenging for them and so they often sleep in. Uh one parent commented that they live 20 minutes from Nepville North but because there normally be I'm sorry they live five minutes from April North but sometimes it takes them more than 20 to get there depending on the light on Ogden Avenue and Mil Street. Um so because we have so much traffic um it does beg the question whether or not ridership would go up if we had a lot less time um that wasted time uh in the morning where students are waiting around. Um, but we do see in our discipline data a clear attendance link uh between the volume of referrals we
077handle and how many of those are related to the beginning of our school day and and students not making it to school on time questions other questions from the board. Donna um mine are more comments but uh to reiterate questions I asked before. So, um I just want to thank uh the staff, our design teams, um our administration, and our superintendent um for all of the work on this innovative school day because it's critical and it's super important work. I remember when we had these discussions, I think back in 2018, and we had some bumps in the road and then it kind of got pushed aside and I that's the last thing I want to see us do with this is push it aside. this is too important for our students and for um their
078academic progress and we're hearing about all the other benefits to um their social emotional as well as discipline so and their sleep right so I think that this is really critical work um I also want to thank our superintendent our administration for listening I think we have come a long way from the very first presentation and I hear Now, a lot of the concerns that we're hearing from the community and from staff being reiterated from the administration and the superintendent. So, I feel like we've bridged a big gap and I think that's really important. So, thank you for that work. Um, I'm going to challenge us to continue to um get feedback from our staff and from our community so that we can continue to bridge that gap because it's not quite all the way
079there. Um I also early on in this process asked a question that I think in the in the process of before like start times came out and things that my my big concern is that we have a lot of initiatives that we're always working on in the district. And so as we do work on the professional development for this and as things continue to um understand the concerns and we address those and we get to the point where this is hopefully approved. That would be my my hope. Um I still want to challenge us to look at what we're expecting of our staff at each grade at each level and at specifically also at each um academic uh strand to make sure that we are not overwhelming them with you know three four initiatives at
080the same time. If we need to pull back on something else to make room for this, I think, you know, just like we shift sometimes our projects, our building projects, I think some shifts might need to be made. And so, please continue to challenge you to look at those shifts so that we can uh be respectful of the staff rolling this out appropriately by maybe rolling something else back. And um thank you, Kristen. Okay. Okay, thank you. Um, so I I had a couple of other follow-ups, but I also just I did want to make because I started right in with the transportation, but that was just on my mind because we were talking about it. Um, I I do also I really appreciate the work that you have done to um undergard this with
081the research that you're you're looking at. Um, specifically looking at um continuing to drive the academic achievement as well. I I think as well the and the sleep and the other aspects of that. But um just as I made those comments about the SARKC and about the math, I mean I I I can't help but um be grateful that we are taking so seriously the math disparities particularly at our across the board, but really looking at the high school level that where our kids are at their junior year and whether or not they're prepared in terms of math. And so I appreciate your efforts to look systemwide at that and ensure that we're um doing our best to do that. And I know there's a lot of other things that are a part of this.
082I know we're also trying to re-engage students. I know and we've seen, you know, with the attendance rates that there's been a lowering of that and I know that's a national problem, but I appreciate our efforts to do that and as well to look forward in that forward thinking way of how we how what we do in the day is connecting to what they're doing outside of the day. Those are the just the general comments. So I just but I I think it's important to state them just because I know that that's the the other part the other part of it and I am um grateful for that work um and appreciative of those um goals. Um I do also in terms of looking at the the um thank you for the additional um facts
083on the transportation. I had a couple follow-ups with regard to what you just said about zero hour. It's just not a term I use. Could you just define that a little bit better so that people understand what you're saying because I feel like it's I don't know what So we're in early conversations of what that potentially could be. That could be offered with in partnership with a community partner. It could be a paid stipen position. It could be some districts uh flex staff day um and they have maybe some staff who teach a zero hour but then don't teach the last hour of the day. So you mean like a early hour that's what you optional just the different ways to look at that. that we have um are in the early stages of pulling
084together community uh community partners, admin staff to further talk through what that could look like. We're looking at creative ways um on how we can continue to expand our STEM and pathways programs. And this looked like one that might bring another opportunity to the table to help with some of the concerns on the table um around the start time and the delay between elementary and middle school. So, we're trying to bring as many opportunities for families and for our students as possible to ensure that they can get an innovative school experience. And when you're talking about I just want to say when you're talking about those kinds of things, you're talking about the idea and I know that this is early and you have lots of conversations that you have to do, but you're talking
085about things being free like in by contrast of what you were talking about before where you're also evaluating a paid option. You're looking at how you could potentially find something that would be free for students that would Yeah. Uh free or low cost for students and families. Uh, but there would be a cost potentially to the district because we would have to pay for the program, right? And staffing. I know, but I just mean in terms of for people that are hearing that 195 or the 150, you know what I mean? That's a lot. And so like just kind of I'm just your brain. We are looking at additional opportunities for families or maybe the opportunity to do both because some working families need to be at work by 7:30 or 7 in the morning
086and they still have the concern and they're probably doing some form of care right now. So could we offer an experience for our families to that is uh better for them now even if they have to pay. Maybe they're paying but they're at home but they could bring them here and they're already here and and with our staff. So we are looking at just the overall student experience some time to start and end time changes or innovative school experience but also just ongoing monitoring of what are things we could do better at the level for our students and families. Okay. And thank you for that because I know that that's that gap between the elementary and the when the elementary drops off and then the that's something that we have heard. Okay. In addition, can
087you talk as well? I know that you are doing significant work in this area, but it is something that I've heard concerns about that we we've talked about a little bit. But in terms of um all the work that you're doing to try to um make it possible for students to be able to participate after school, even if the time is later in both the athletics at the at the junior high level as well as whatever they do outside of that, like whether it's an additional sport, whether it's additional activities, but you know, just knowing that we're looking at a time that's later than it is now. kind of the ongoing work that you're doing with the variety of different people to try to understand what the options would be to keep all of those
088opportunities available for students. So there are many of us working uh and having conversations with different community partners. Um and uh specifically though, uh you know, prior to this recommendation, there was a conversation with district or conference administration to let them know um that this is something that was going to be talked about and that they would probably definitely hear about it. Um and just kind of um seeing what their response was. In addition, our athletic directors do meet often with other ath um athlet athletic directors in the conference. Um and it's a topic of conversation. uh there is uh I think a little bit of reprieve that yes this is now potentially a 267 and we have more time to really look at different opportunities. The goal is to allow our students as many
089extracurriculars and more. We never want to change that. That was never part of the recommendation and it wouldn't be something that I would attach myself to to be honest. Um, but if we have to adjust start and end times of athletic conference sports, we are looking at what time that would be. And as transportation continues to get firmed up. Currently, our our start times are supposed to be 4:00. Many of our middle school staff and families would probably tell you it's rare that we do start on time because either us or our conference schools have transportation issues currently. that it is more likely for us to start closer to 4:15ish um than we currently do anyways. Um however, some days we do start early and some days we start later than that. So, we're looking
090at the number of times that's happening on the frequency level. Um the benefit to being last, and I know it's hard to for everyone to see all the benefits, but one benefit is that the transportation, the buses would be available because everyone else is home. And so we would be able to leave at dismissal where now we're waiting from 2:50 until 3:30 3:40 to get on the bus many days. Um and so if we could get out and just get on the bus, which is what the transportation consultant worked on us with, that would be helpful for us. Um but there's continued conversations with the athletic directors, the building administration. Uh we have an upcoming meeting with all of 204 athletic directors and principles, myself, our principles, our athletic directors um to continue to follow
091that up. Uh we already have um sometimes events where it's all of district 203 and 204 evening events like the the conference cross country meet that has hundreds of people in it and we chase the sun right in the fall as it is. And so one possible uh venue change that we're looking at uh for that event, make sure we have lights as it is. Um and you know, when we looked at the high school and talking with their athletic director, some sports that chase the sun do release early on a regular basis, their student athletes to change or get on the road. We could look at that for a big event if needed. Um you know, could we change 10 minutes at the end of the school day to make sure we can get
092right on the bus and get out for a conference meet? like those are things that we would need to weigh and look at our student scheduling. So, we're looking at all viable options to ensure that regardless of what is decided for start and end times that we can try to continue to offer our students, you know, the best afterchool experience as possible and allow them to still do their other other activities. So, thank you for that ongoing work and I know that you are most likely I didn't hear it but I I assume that you are talking also with like represent representatives from like outside activities to help them understand too the communications department and director of commun uh community relationships has spent a lot of time talking to different community partners about that. Okay.
093Yeah. So, thank you for that. And I I am sympathetic to our efforts to kind of have some certainty towards where we're going so that we can continue to pave the way um in a way that is, you know, taking advantage of all that time so that we're able to just get as much as much as we can nailed down in a really positive way. So, thank you. Other questions from the board? Okay, we'll move on to item 10, discussion with action 10.01, the carbon action plan. Okay, at the last board of education meeting, uh staff and students presented its recommendation to the board of education for a carbon action plan. This is aligned again with the focus 203 strategic blueprint commitment 3.1 to reduce carbon footprint. Uh we have no new information to present.
094Recommend you approve it as presented. questions from the board. Joe, uh, not so much a question, it's just a a comment. Um, uh, I just want to I just, uh, appreciate all the work that's gone into this, uh, carbon action plan. Um, it's really going to advance the strategic goal to reduce uh, greenhouse gas emissions uh, from the district. Um I also think that uh the way this was uh done is really a model of student engagement in um you know making these plans uh uh really giving them some ownership uh in this going forward and uh I really look forward to their continued involvement and uh regular updates um involving the students as well uh in the carbon action plan. Thank you. Other questions or comments? Okay, I'll take a motion for item 10.01.
095I move to approve item 10.01, the carbon action plan, as presented. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton, Fitzgerald, I. Wanke. Kosinsky. I. McMillan. I. Gerky. I. Kush. I. The motion passes. Item 10.02. Career 203 update. Okay. In collaboration with NUEA, district administration has reviewed the career 203 model and made recommendations for improvements to the program. Um Shelene Nelson was here at our last board meeting and presented those recommendations on behalf of the committee. Recommend you approve them as presented. Questions or comments from the board. Okay. I'll take an motion for item 10.02. Motion to approve item 10.02, career 203 update. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Wanke. Gerky. I. Kush. Hi. McMillan. Hi. Cuz I. Fitzgerald. I.
096The motion passes. Item 10.03. EC through 12 certified staffing and district special ed projection. Okay. Annually, the district administration reviews uh enrollment projections and staffing projections for both K12 and our EC through2 and special education and recommends to the board a staffing projection for the coming school year. Uh presented this evening for action by the board is the 2526 um staffing projection. Recommend you approve it as presented. Questions or comments from the board? Okay, I'll take a motion for item 10.03. I move approval of item 10.03, EC through 12, certified staffing and district special ed projection. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Fitzgerald. I. Wanke. Gerky. I. McMillan. I. Kazminsky. I. Kush. I. The motion passes. Item 10.04, the debt service levy. Okay. Okay. Um the
097recommendation based on feedback from the board as well as the citizen finance advisors is to fully abate the 2024 debt service levy. Uh the abatement has been accounted for in all forecasting scenarios by our CFO Mike Francis. This was first discussed back in November, presented on March 10th and then uh for action this evening. Recommend you approve as presented. Questions or comments from the board? Amanda, typically I would um jump into abate this, but I do have concerns about um the current climate and dissolving the board of education and other types of anticipated um stressors that might be coming to our district. And I wonder I'm wondering if it might be advantageous to um hold on to this to be able to use uh in situations where we might have to make difficult decisions. Um
098I'm just curious about your thoughts about that. Okay. So administration's initial recommendation back in November when we did the U financial forecast was to actually collect it. Um it the abatement would be for about $98,000 to $150. Um impacted taxpayers is about estimated by our CFO to be about $2 to $3 per household. Um so it's a decision that the board would have would need to make. I think we have two more years at this rate and then a larger balloon payment at the end. So, um, administration modifi modified its recommendation based off of the board conversation in November and also input from the citizens finance advisors. Um, every dollar is an important dollar, but this is one of the least impactful um, debt service levies that we would collect. Kristen, um, I I that
099was my question last time was how much it was going to benefit the average taxpayer, and it's $2. Um I guess my concern would be we have numerous things that are uncertainties. Um we have our you know the federal uncertainty in terms of um continued federal funding. You know 10 million for us which I don't know where we would make it up but it's also our our current five-year forecasts have the largest deficits that we have had ever and we have not yet completed our negotiations with our staff. We don't actually really know what our costs are going to be and so we're already in deficit. So my perspective would be that we should not abate this time because we we are we don't have the money and it's a very limited benefit for taxpayers.
100Um and you know $98,000 it's you know that could be a position and we don't have um we don't have our budget yet. um you know like we did our very best to keep just these that we just passed the special ed and the EC through 12 so that there wasn't a net but that's that could even change based on population based on if there's additional enrollments that we didn't expect and so my perspective would be that we not abate this time Joe yeah I um I have similar concerns about a lot of the current uncertainty. I I've always wholeheartedly uh supported the abatements uh in prior years. Um but at at this point um you know I am concerned with um the the possible uh uh future funding directions. Um and uh I'm not
101uh not really in support of the abatement at this time either. Charles, I was just going to simply say ditto. Um, yeah, similar concerns. You know, the the the uncertainty is is is what what gives me pause on this one. Um, and uh I do think that the again given I'm glad thank you for the for the number of the the level of impact to the community, $2 a household. Um but at the same time I do think that um we need to make sure that we preserve dollars that we may need for for what we don't necessarily know we'll need them for right now. But it's that's the problem with uncertainty is we we're not whereas in the past we've been pretty certain that we would be fine um in terms of funding. I
102think that we need to to hang on to this particular set of funds at this point. Donna. All right. Okay. Well, I guess I might be an outlier here because I feel that when I'm out in the community on a regular basis, uh the most important thing that I hear from our community is uh a concern about our property taxes. This is yes, it will not have a huge impact, but I think every piece that we can do to uh hear that voice is important. This is I asked at the last board meeting. This is less than 1% of our budget. So it will not have a huge impact one way or the other. And I feel like if we um don't listen to the larger community, especially our seniors that are on fixed incomes
103um and their needs of uh just how their property taxes are causing them to have to move out of the out of this uh out of Neapville is really alarming to me. So, yes, I agree with you. It will not have a big impact one way or the other, but I want to hear the voice of that uh group of our constituents and try to do everything we can to keep on the table um any opportunities to reduce our property taxes. So, I would say that we support the the debit service levy as the citizens advisory committee advised. Uh for me, I'm struggling to support the recommendation not as a slight to administration or the citizens finance committee because I take both of those both inputs quite seriously and I think my voting record shows
104that. Um but given the changes that we're looking at and um Allison mentioned something about it some of the before school stuff, it's not all going to be free. Um, and $98,000 in the grand scheme of our budget is really tiny, but it's $98,000. Um, so for me, it's it's looking excuse me, it's looking at the changes that we're considering. It's looking at our financial forecasts. Um, and this I don't feel comfortable abating this time. Kristen and I I do want to remind the board because we have taken very seriously the concerns by taxpayers um this you know as we talked about this would be a very limited impact but we took actions previously that impact our levy every year. So that the the the that when we reduce the levy that $2 million that
105$2 million comes off every levy, which means that we have reduced the levy every time in in understanding of the burden of our taxpayers. And what we do is we balance it. And in my opinion here, the balance needs to be on ensuring that we can continue to provide, you know, our staff, you know, with compensation, our our students with appropriate programming and and to even have the flexibility to try to be innovative and if there is a cost having a little bit of, you know, additional funds that we can work work within that. So I I think that we are working very hard understanding the burden on the community but also understanding that our primary responsibility is for our students and ensuring that we're able to continue to fund the programs we need to
106fund. So listening to um board dialogue here I I think there's a couple of things that the board um well first just on behalf of administration just a reminder that was our recommendation initially in November in responsive to board dialogue and the citizen finance advisor uh input we we changed that so I don't ever expect always getting getting our our way on a recommendation um so that that administration is fine with what I've heard from several board members So, you have a couple of ways to do this. Technically, action is not required if you're going to collect the levy. It's already established and already set for. You take your action to abate it. Um because the recommendation was brought to uh collect or to abate it. I'd recommend that there be a motion uh with
107the administration's recommendation um to fully abate and then vote how you vote how you see fit. I'll move to approve. Are we are we ready for a motion? Go ahead. Go ahead. I'll move to approve item 10.04, the debit service levy abatement as presented. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Kush. Nay. Fitzgerald. No. Wanke. Nay. McMillan. No. Gerky. Nay. The motion fails. Okay. So then on item 10.05, there's no need for action by the board of education because there's no need to transfer the funds to be able to pay that. So um just might as well table it. Yep. So item 10.05 will be tabled. Yep. Sorry. I need a motion to table item 10.05. So moved. Second. A motion and a second have been heard.
108And I just I Let's just be clear on it too. um table it indefinitely because they're not going to table it and come back next meeting to do that. Vote no. Just vote no. That's fine. Just vote no. Just make the motion on the on the actual recommendation and then vote no. Okay. So, I'll I'll move to approve item 10.05 the resolution transfer of funds for the debt appointment as presented. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Call. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Fitzgerald. No. Cosminsky, no. Gerky, no. Kush, no. McMillan, no. Wanke, yes. The motion fails. Item 10.06, UGP. Okay. Administration has completed its work in response to a universal grievance uh that had been filed. Um, need action by the board of education in regard to that action. Any questions
109from the board? Okay. Item uh I'll take a motion for 10.06. Okay. Item 10.06, the UGP. I move based upon the and after the board's consideration of the written appeal filed on November 8th, 2024, pursuant to board policy 2.260, 260 uniform grievance procedures as well as the information submitted by the administration related to its uniform grievance investigation that the board of education affirm the superintendent's uniform grievance decision dated October 29th 2024. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton Wanke. McMillan. I. Fitzgerald. I. Kazminski. I. Gerie. I Kush. Nay. The motion passes. Item 11, old business. We do not have any old business. Item 12, new business. We do not have any new business. Item 13, the schedule of events. Okay. Spring break, spring vacation next week. Uh,
110Monday, March 31st through Friday, April 4th. The next board of education meeting is on Monday, April 7th. And we are scheduled to be back at the public school administration center starting at 7. Also, as mentioned during board reports, just a reminder to the community, NF's building and passion breakfast was to be held on Wednesday, April 16th at 7 a.m. at the Matrix Club. Please join us. And item 14, adjournment. I need a motion to adjurnn. So moved. Second. A motion and a second have been heard. Please call the role. Mrs. Patton. Kush. Yes. McMillan. Hi. Fitzgerald. Hi. Kazminsky. Hi. Gerky. I. Wani. I. The motion passes. We are adjourned. Good night.