001It is now 7:00 p.m. and we will call this meeting to order. Shauna, roll call. Stephanie Levine Here. Nick Catone Here. Dean Byers Here. Rodey Jackson Here. Michael Boykin Here. Marshall Abbott Here. Nancy Ryan out? Here. Maria Balderrama Rodriguez All right. And now for the pledge. The flag is over there for anyone that needs I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, we will now move into public comment. Public comment is for members of the public who wish to speak to the board. You should complete a request card prior to the start of the meeting. This section of the meeting will be reserved for comments from the public. All comments
002should be limited to 3 minutes. All right, our first speaker is Cassie Winchell and this is support for transgender, non-binary, and all queer folks in every community conversation. You need the microphone. Why though? I'm a teacher. I'm just coming to share my perspective as a high school teacher in Aurora and as a mother of three boys raised here in DeKalb, this wonderful district. Griffin Winchell, if any of you know Griffin, he's mine, Ben Sutton, and Cal Winchell. And as a kind human in a world that is often not. Transgender, non-binary, and other queer folks are some of the most vulnerable among us. Any move we make to protect these humans is right. We must protect these people, especially younger members of these communities, in this room and after we leave it. I just want everyone
003to remember that our kids are learning from everything we do and say to show them and their classmates love, grace, and openness. And they learn from everything we do and say to show them the opposite. Our kids, District 428 students, know what's right, just like my students in Aurora. And they'll be fine if we give them the space and opportunities to learn and love and be. They'll thrive and we just need to stay out of their way. Thank you. And then, correct me if I'm wrong, Frankie Di Ciaccio? In regards to DOJ and SOGI? Yes. Hi. My name's Frankie Di Ciaccio. Really appreciate that pronunciation. Um I want to start and say I know there's a lot of celebrating happening tonight and say congratulations to everyone being honored. Um I'm here tonight also about the
004uh Department of Justice uh investigation that was announced last week. This is the first school board meeting since that announcement was made. Um and it is an investigation into so-called SOGI or sexual orientation/gender ideology and so-called single-sex intimate spaces. Regardless of what unfolds with this investigation, its mere existence already threatens harm. It continues dangerous narratives that queerness and transness are somehow unjust, duplicitous, inherently wrong, or something that requires investigation. It undermines the academic and speech rights of our educators. It's scary, it's mean, and how our leaders respond to it and navigate in the coming weeks and months will be very impactful. It can be really difficult to be a kid these days. Studies reflect staggering mental health concerns across the board, and they're even worse for queer and trans kids. And gender and sexuality often
005compound other marginalized and underserved identities to make life even harder, educational and healthcare systems even more difficult to navigate, and community support even more vital. And so, I have some asks for D428 educators, families, administrators, staff, and board members. One, be on the lookout for scapegoating and shut it down when it occurs. Do not allow queer and trans kids to bear the brunt of political posturing or electoral brinkmanship. Two, continue to include material featuring queer and trans characters, themes, and stories. Do not be intimidated. Three, turn out for queer events. Next month is pride. Four, if you're unfamiliar with this topic, do some research and connect with community members who can help you learn and better understand. Five, recognize the power of your words and actions. Speak with empathy and act with courage. And finally,
006um I was once a queer kid who occasionally wondered if the world would be better without me in it. And I was lucky to have adults in my life both at home and at school who helped straighten me out. Well, you know, so to speak. So, if any kid happens to hear this, regardless of who you are or your identity, I just want you to know that from where I am in my life, I know that the world is a better place because I exist. And in the same way, I know that the world is a better place because you exist. And I invite everyone in this room to continue that message forward. Thank you very much. Thank you. Emily Steven, DOJ investigation. Hi. Good evening. Congratulations to all the lucky retirees. My name is
007Emily Stephen. I am a resident of DeKalb. Uh I'm a proud student, former student of District 428. I own a home here. I'm highly invested in seeing the district succeed. All my education occurred in DeKalb, pre-K through graduate school. The school district is being pressured by a DOJ investigation into course plans, bathrooms, and sports teams. I just want to state for the record this is a pro a result of outside political interference from this groups like Awake Illinois, uh PAC funded by billionaire Richard Uihlein. You're being targeted by an outside political agenda. It's like not the actual concerns of your constituents and neighbors. Um My father chose to live here because the public schools in this district are really good, at least comparatively. Or they I don't know now. And people still continue to move
008here because of that, including many of the people that we employ at NIU. It's exactly what drives our local economy and the property values. And I implore you to look at the math and legal realities before acting further in compliance with the DOJ investigation. The federal government provides like you would know, 10 12% of the district's budget? And like the other 88% comes from the state and the taxpayers. The majority of that 88% comes from us, the property taxpayers, and the constituents. You have the financial independence to lose those federal funds. You can act in compliance with Illinois state law and still run at full capacity for 8 months. You're not being forced to comply just to keep lights on. You have the financial reserves to fight this in court. And it wouldn't be ideological
009to do so. It would just be economic. In this state, it's illegal under the Human Rights Act to discriminate based on gender identity. Even children. And if you follow federal suggestions that contradict state law, you're choosing to bring the district into a massive legal liability and maybe lose state funds and force the taxpayers and parents and children to suffer for your collective lack of spine. You have the money to fight. You have the state law on your side. Please don't waste our taxes defending a violation that you're intentionally choosing to commit. Thanks. Thank you. Kilian Baker, gender ideology in schools. Hello everyone. It's good to be with you here tonight. Like many of you, I am also here to talk about ideology in schools. I am a non-binary trans queer educator, informally of course, but
010I am the adult that I am today mainly because of the safe adults that I grew with here in this school, in this district. It is really important that we support queer kids. Growing up, it wasn't always easy. I didn't have the vocabulary to explain what I was until I was about 15 years old. And even then, I wasn't taken really seriously. But as I grew into my identity, some of you knew me by a different name and a different look. But, I'm here today because of that strength. Because I had people in my life that did support me. It's up to you now to support kids as they grow up and find their way. Everybody deserves to grow up. Everybody deserves to have the right to their education, to their safety, to become the
011adult that they're meant to be. This isn't about turning kids gay. This is about making sure that gay kids survive. Thank you. That concludes public comment at this time. We'll now move into board correspondence. Does anyone have any correspondence from the board? Yes, ma'am. Y'all check your mailboxes today or yesterday? These came. Our property tax bills. Um I got mine in the mail just today. And I know that residents received them between Saturday and today, and many are not happy. Um I heard from seven constituents who were absolutely shocked by the total bill increase. I'm not just talking about the district here. Many offered me words that unfortunately I cannot repeat here. Um tax bills in DeKalb Township, which is a majority of the taxpayers in District 428, increased by about 10% across the board.
012Every homeowner, every small business saw this increase. My bill itself went up about $557. Many who brought this up to me at the local grocery stores told me theirs went up a lot more. So, I went back and looked all the way back to 2014, which everybody can do. You can go to the county website and look up how your taxes have increased or decreased throughout the years. And um it was an all-time record. I've never seen my tax bill, and I checked some other addresses, and it's not just mine. We're all in the same boat here. Went up probably more than they've ever gone up before. Now, keep in mind the CPI that we were working with from the government uh increased by 2.9%. And tax bills overall, 10%. Now, I don't know how
013many homeowners and households in the district hit saw their household incomes increase by 10%, [clears throat] but I would guess probably not too many saw theirs increase by 10% over last year. If you did, great. But, I can assure you most people didn't. Your neighbors probably didn't. You combine this property tax increase of 10% with the increase in grocery prices everybody's dealing with, the cost of gasoline, skyrocketing utility bills, and you end up pricing people out of their homes. Now, again, the property tax bill total is not just District 428. When it comes to property tax increases, at least my line item was about $371. I went through and calculated the top five rankings in terms of the percentage of property tax increase among all the local taxing bodies, and keep in mind, you have
014about 10 different taxing bodies that comprise your tax bill. We weren't number one by percentage as far as the highest increase, but we were in the top five, the district. The park district, 12.1% increase. DeKalb Library and City of DeKalb tied for number two. You saw an 11.8% increase. This is in terms of dollars paid. Your Your amounts might vary a little bit depending on what part of the city you live in. Kishwaukee College, 10.4% came in at fourth place. DeKalb School District was number five at 10.3%. Keep in mind, all of this with a 2.9% CPI. The lowest lowest percentage increase was DeKalb Township. Theirs increased by only 7/10 of a percent. The road district at the township, 1.8%. DeKalb County, 2%. Forest Preserve, 2.1% and Kishwaukee Water Reclamation District of 2.7%. Big differences
015between the highest and lowest. Now, I bring this up knowing that costs across the board went up and I'm not pointing fingers at anybody in this district. I know our staff does due diligence when it comes to planning and finding savings. My message is simply, as we go ahead and go forward, that we can do better. As a board, it's our duty to make sure we don't forget that we represent the entire community and all the taxpayers in District 428. Budget planning time for this year is probably is coming up just around the corner. And I'd like to challenge staff and this board in the next year to find efficiencies, to contain costs and do everything we can so that taxpayers never see a tax hike this big. And again, I stress it's not just
016the district, it's all the taxing bodies. But I'd really like to look forward to efficiencies, maintaining the best education we can for our students at the best cost that we can go do going forward. So, that's my soapbox on the tax bills and let's hope that next year we don't see this. Does anyone else have any correspondence? >> Um I do. Uh want to apologize to Mrs. Rexroad. I'm guessing I'm going to jump on something she was going to say in her closing argument or closing statements. Um I was invited this week to the honors ceremony that's going to be happening next week. Regrettably, I'll be out of town, but I did want to congratulate Donna and her staff as we have 320 students that qualify for academic honors and 70 that received the Seal
017of Biliteracy. Um, and I For those of you who don't know, I ride horses a lot and I get to go be part of a cattle drive next week, which is like a lifelong dream of mine. So, I can't come back for it, but I actually considered it. Um, cuz if this is that's I'm incredibly happy about those numbers. That's great. Good job and congratulations to the students if you'd please pass that on for me. I can go. All right. A couple things. Shout out to our retirees. Congratulations on retirement. I hope it's as amazing as you dreamed it could be. You'll hopefully also miss working with kids cuz they're pretty great sometimes. Um, thank you to the folks who made some public comment tonight. Very nice to hear from the public always. And I
018went to the I was invited to the Scholastic Bowl regional tournament at Huntley Middle School the other day. Um, and I have to say it was our first time being, I believe, our first time being a part of IESA and we got asked to host. And our first time and Pat Kylie, shout out to Pat. Um, if you know him, he did a phenomenal job with the team putting on a great tournament and DeKalb did really well and won. So, that was awesome. That's all. All right. Couple things from me. >> [snorts] >> First thing is, got to stop in the ELDC the other day. Made lots of fun friends. It was when it was that nice warm day last week. so got to go out on the playground with them, have a lot of
019fun, learned that kids have allergies, and it turns out there's a lot of snot to wipe from their noses, so that was a ton of fun. But, super ecstatic over there for the building that we approved, so they're really just kind of gung-ho moving forward and ready for that. So, they're just extremely excited for that. Some kind of quick housekeeping things. We do have graduation coming up later this month. That's May 23rd, right? May 23rd, so make sure that you're coming out to support all of our students that are graduating. That is literally the pinnacle and the climax of why we do everything that, whether it's the board, administration, teaching staff, maintenance staff, that is why all of us are doing what we are doing to get our students to that point. So, I would
020just like to remind the board and remind our staff, I think it is very important that we're there for that day to show our students that support for hitting that achievement in their lives. Other big housekeeping thing, June 12th, more of an athletic foundation thing, but they have their annual golf outing coming up. So, it's very important, you know, if you want to make sure that our students continue to get the uniforms and all of the things that they need, we support that program. So, one final thing. This is going to be more of my just official putting on my president hat right now. As you guys are aware from the public comment, our district is currently with other 35 districts in the state of Illinois under a compliance check from the Department of Justice.
021In this letter, they have informed us that they have the intent to request some additional information from us to review our compliance with Title IX. In our efforts to be a diligent district, we will be making sure that we continue to follow all applicable federal and state laws at this time, and we intend to fully collaborate and work with the Department of Justice in their compliance review. Besides that, that is the official statement from the district on that. Hearing no other board correspondence at this time, and I do not have anything from Maria. So, we will move into D recognition for the Illinois State Board of Education's award for meritorious service in the classroom. So, the Board of Education would like to recognize Veronica Garcia Martinez of Little John Elementary School. And cherish, I do
022apologize. If you want to help me with your last name, I think it's Olivo Wiola? Olivo Wiola. Okay. Olivo Wiola. Olivo Wiola. Olivo Wiola? Wiola. My Wiola. Okay, Wiola. Okay. So, if you two would like to come up and be honored. >> [applause] >> Okay, I'm in it. And then on to the next one, which is the recognition for the Word Sword. I believe Dr. Lofthouse, you handle this, correct? Good evening. I'm so excited to be here tonight and first of all, I want to thank the board for your tireless work. It's a hard job. And I would like to to also thank the speakers because I taught in the school district and I'm very proud of the work that we've done over the years. Could I have the Wertz Award people, the nominees, and
023Ashley Carlson come up? The Wertz Award celebrates teaching excellence in District 428. The award was established in 1989 to honor William Alpha and Janan Wertz, who are deeply committed to DeKalb's educational community. Educators across the district are nominated by peers for innovative teaching and exceptional student impact, also their contributions to the school community. The um Wertz Award each year is actually decided by a committee that's made up of um teachers from the district, retirees, community members, people from NIU. It's quite a a large committee. And each year we get the nominations that are written by um usually it's a fellow teacher that nominates the person, and then we have letters from students and ex-students, and there were quite a few letters that we had this year that were in support of each of the people.
024It's always a very difficult decision to make because everybody is worthy, and I just want to tell you there are so many wonderful teachers in the district that it's always hard to just bring it down to that one person. But um once again this year it was quite a quite a chore to decide. Um I'll do this in alphabetical order. I think. Um, first from Cortland, reading specialist Abby Aska. Oh, Tyler Elementary. What was Cortland in the letters? And then from Brooks, the principal, Dr. Donna Henley and she or Henry and she's not able to be with us tonight. So, we'll send that for her. And then from Little John, you're still at Little John, right? She's a great second grade teacher, I know, because she had my grandson last year. Um, Carol Zalaya. And
025this year's winner, you may have seen some pictures on Facebook. There was quite an assembly last week. Yeah, last week at Malta. They had, um, a fake assembly for Arbor Day. That was really pretty interesting and it it ended up with, um, quite a quite a celebration for Ashley Carlson. Congratulations. Ashley's going to just say a few words. I've been I'm completely blown away by this experience. I knew I'm not from around here. So, when I got my, um, degree from Northern Illinois and did my student teaching in DeKalb, I knew that this is where I wanted to have my home. And it's been an incredible honor to work with the students, the staff, the families, to do what I love, to empower students to see the potential that they can have, to show families
026that students, their children have what it takes to be everything that they wish their children to be and more. So, I really thank you for this opportunity and I am so grateful to do what I love every day. Thank you. All right, and then F, which is recognition of district retirees. One thing I'll throw in there before we get going. This is a fun, exciting time for you guys. Truly just want to say that you guys are the lifeblood of everything that we do in the district. And I also know once you guys are done, you're very excited to hang out and potentially go home. Want to make it very clear, once you guys have been recognized, you are more than free to leave at that point in the board meeting. Don't feel you have
027to stay. I do ask though that once that is done, if you are planning to stick around and conversate, that you would bring it to the front of the building so that we can continue the rest of the meeting. Thank you. All right. This is the fun time. Rock and roll. Congratulations to our Words Awards winners. Um right now we're going to do our retiree recogni- recognition and then we'll transition right into the um the service awards for our staff that continue to work in the district. So, um I'm Deitra Sales, director of human resources, and this is truly my favorite time of year because this is This is the goal, right? You've worked hard all these years and you've achieved uh the milestone of retirement. So, congratulations to everyone. This year we have 21
028um retirees and after doing some quick math, not probably good math, but quick math, we came up with five over 500 years of experience. So, let's give a round of applause for that. I know that some days um in the classroom, in the district, one day feels like 500 years. So, thank you to everybody for your hard work. We are going to ask that our retirees that are present, please come up. Um, kind of start lining up right here in front of the cameras. We're going to ask our board members to come from behind the table and our superintendent and come in front of the table so that um, you can greet our uh, retirees. So, hopefully um, each of you have one of the programs. For those that are watching from home or from
029wherever, the program is uploaded to the board agenda. This year [clears throat] we have 13 teachers that are retiring, two instructional assistants, two custodians, a payroll coordinator, uh, FOS supervisor and one administrator. So, congratulations to our 21 retirees. I will call names. If you're present, please come forward. Um, you'll receive a flower on behalf of the district and the board. You'll be greeted by uh, the board and the superintendent and then we have a gift for you that you will receive after going through the line. So, to start, we have Jennifer Brock, fourth grade teacher. Bev Gorens, payroll coordinator. John Hahn, art teacher. Julianne Hoffman, special ed resource teacher. Vicki Johnson, mathemat- math teacher. William Johnson, fourth-grade teacher. Mary Clouse, instructional assistant. Rick Kohler, custodian. Sue Kramer, our head custodian here at the high school.
030I'm pretty sure this is bittersweet for her because she usually sets this up, so. Uh Leslie Larson, first-grade teacher. Ellen Moser, instructional assistant. Joanne O'Malley, custodian. Tracy Pazoda, kindergarten dual language teacher. Michelle, or as we know her as Shelly Plagadis. Jeff Potter, facility operations supervisor. Sherry Shambo, science teacher. Stephanie Spooner, kindergarten dual language teacher. Nicolia Stallings, middle school assistant principal. Carrie Stringer, third-grade teacher. Mark Sykes, driver's education teacher and everything after school. >> [laughter] >> And Susan Wilson, third-grade teacher. So, our retiree with the most service time of 35 years is Jeff Potter. He's not here with us tonight, but 35 years. And then coming in second, we have Tracy Pezzotta and uh Leslie Larson with 34 approximately 34 years. So, on behalf of the district, the Board of Education, the students, the families, the
031community of DeKalb, thank you so much. Without you and your tireless efforts, our children will not would not blossom into the beautiful scholars that they are. So, thank you so much. You can take your seats. Chris, are you okay if I go into the service awards? >> Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Our service award recipients, um they are also acknowledged in the program, but I do want to highlight one um of our service award recipients. With 20 years is our Words Award nominee Abby Aska. So, tonight is a dual um [applause] celebration for her tonight. So, on behalf of the district, service awards, they're just as important to us as the achievement of retirement. Service means that you're on that path and one day you will get to that retirement goal. Um all of our service
032award recipients will receive a token of appreciation from the district and the board um at your buildings uh if not this week, next week. Thank you for all you do and thank you for coming out tonight. >> [applause] >> All right. Anyone who would like to leave can do so at this time. We will now move into the consent agenda. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5I. Board minutes from 4/21/26 and 4/29/26, personnel action items, purchase order requisitions, DEF grants awarded spring 2026, DHS 2024-2028 amended graduation agreement, amended NIU Emmett Middle School summer STEAM agreement, DeKalb Huntley Middle School and Clinton Rosette Middle School girl league girls wrestling cooperative team agreement, employment contract with the director of facilities operations as presented and/or amended. Do I have a
033motion? >> So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion? Shawna, roll call. Yes. We'll now move into old business. Item A, Innovative Schools Summit. It is recommended the Board of Education approve for two teachers to attend the Innovative Schools Summit from July 25th through July 29th of 2026. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Any discussion? Hearing no discussion, Shawna, roll call. Yes. Item B, DHS FFA State Convention. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the DHS FFA group's attendance at the Illinois FFA Convention on June 10th through the 11th, 2026 in Springfield, Illinois. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Shawna, roll call. Yes. Item C, DHS Student Council attends state meetings. It is recommended the Board of Education approves the DHS Student Council members to attend the Illinois Association
034of Student Councils meeting as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Shana, roll call. Mr. Boyd? Yes. Mr. Brabant? Yes. Nancy Bina? Yes. Stephanie Daley? Yes. Mr. Edwards? Yes. Mr. Meyer? Yes. Jose Garcia Sanchez? Yes. And at that point, that concludes all old business for this current seated Board of Education. At this point in time, we will now adjourn sine die. Adjournment sine die means without assigning a day for a further meeting or hearing. To adjourn an assembly sine die is to adjourn it for an indefinite period. It is at this point in the meeting when the old board officially adjourns and the new board will take its place. At this point in time, we will now appoint Dr. Garcia Sanchez as the president pro tempore of the Board of Education. Thank
035you. Good evening. I'd like to call this meeting to order. Shana, roll call, please. Mr. Meyer? Here. Jose Garcia Sanchez? Here. Mr. Boyd? Here. Mr. Brabant? Here. Nancy Bina? Here. Stephanie Daley? Here. Mr. Edwards? Here. Thank you. At this time, we will open it up for the election of officers. Nominations will be opened for the president, vice president, and secretary of the board, after which voting will take place for each office. At this time, nominations are now in order for the office of president. Any member, please feel free to nominate. I'd like to nominate Chris Boyd for president of the Board of Education. Chris Boyd is nominated. Are there any other nominations for the office of president? Since there are no other nominations, any further nominations for the office of president? We will now I'm
036sorry, if there are no further nominations, nominations for the office of president are closed. Shawna, roll call. Mr. Atwood? Yes. Mr. Byer? Yes. Mr. Hayes? Yes. Mr. Boys? Yes. Mr. Novak? Yes. Mr. DeAngelo? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Congratulations, Mr. Boys. Thank you. Turn the meeting back over to you. All right. We will now accept nominations for the office of vice president of the Board of Education. I'd like to nominate Nick Atwood for vice president. All right. Nick Atwood is nominated. Are there any other nominations for the office of vice president? Are there any other nominations for the office of vice president? Hearing no other nominations, Shawna, roll call. Mr. Hayes? Yes. Mr. Boys? Yes. Mr. Novak? Yes. Mr. DeAngelo? Yes. Mr. Bailey? Yes. Mr. Atwood? Yes. Mr. Byer? Yes. All right. Which now means that
037our vice president is Nicholas Atwood. Congratulations. We will now accept nominations for the office of board secretary. Do we have any nominations? I nominate Steve Byer. Steve Byer nominated as board secretary. Do I have any other nominations? Do we have any other nominations for the office of board secretary? Hearing no other nominations, Shawna, roll call. Yes. All right. And All right, we will now need to nominate, I believe, a new board clerk. So, it is recommended the board of education appoint Jackie [clears throat] Pringle as the board clerk. But you said a new one. Yeah, I So moved. Is there a second move? Yeah. Yep. Second. Shawna, roll call. Yes. And then, we have the appointment of board treasurer and approval of treasurer bond renewal. It's recommended the board of education appoint Armir Doka as
038the treasurer and approve the renewal of the treasurer bond. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Do I say Jackie or Shawna now? Shawna, roll call. Yes. All right, that concludes all of our appointments and elections for the board of Education. We'll now move into new business and administration. First item is item eight, Space Academy for Educators. This information. Good evening, everyone. Let me bring this agenda item up. Let's see, let's see. All right. So, I have a Ms. Stephanie Walsh. She's a fifth grade teacher over at Malta with the request to um attend the Space Academy for Educators, and she's going to tell you a little bit about it. And then she's going to show you a lovely video of how engaged our students get when they have those hands-on experiences. Hi,
039good evening. I'm a fifth grade teacher, and this year we have our new IDUs. Those are the interdisciplinary unit. It gives us a chance to teach science and social studies integrated along with our grade level literacy instruction. One of our units this year is Patterns in the Universe, and it's all about space. The science part of our unit, we learned about why our shadows are changing throughout the day. We learned about Earth's rotation, revolution, and orbit, why and how day and night happen, how the seasons happen. We learned about the moon and the moon phases, and why the constellations are in the sky on a seasonal basis. And then for the reading side of it, we read a novel that is a murder mystery taking place in the future on the moon. And it just
040so happened this was happening at the same time that NASA's Artemis 2 mission was taking place. It was awesome as a class as we learned about the astronauts, what they did on their mission, and we followed along with their journey. It was very, very exciting. My class is very curious, and they had a ton of questions, and we just had a blast learning about space while living alongside this relevant current event that's coming to life. We were applying everything we were learning about, we were talking about it all the time. And then I found out that NASA has a space camp for educators that's just for teachers, and they share lessons and resources aligned with the common core standards and the NGSS. I heard about this from a former colleague that I taught fifth grade
041with in my previous district. She attended the program and shared that her experience was very directly connected to the same topics that we teach about in fifth grade. So, I see a rather unique opportunity to attend this program knowing that next year and the years to come where there's going to be more missions, with things happening in real life alongside what we're learning, and it just think it would be so cool to be able to connect that and bring it to life for our students. I would like to attend this with our building school improvement goals in mind. We're trying to raise our math and reading scores, and I'd like to find intentional connections for my instruction in this unit to boost those things for my students. Our behavior goal is working to reduce aggression
042and horseplay, and IDU time is when my students are very engaged in what's going on. They love it. And so, to conclude my statement, I have a very short video clip to show you. It's my class and I, we did an ecosystems IDU where we got to dissect owl pellets. And as I mentioned, we want to increase student engagement, we want to reduce aggression and horseplay, and I think this video kind of shows that experience that when students are excited about their learning, they need less behavioral reminders from me and the off-task behaviors decrease. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Yes. Oh. Oh wow, that is super sharp. Yeah. Thank you very much. You're very welcome. So, just to add to that a little bit, um the teacher vacancy grant is what would
043cover this expense to be able to go to this PD out of state. Hey Billy. Yes. Um Stephanie, do you know Amanda Baum? Okay. She left the district a few years ago, but she went to that and it truly was transformational for her, so uh I I support the effort. I think it looks really cool. Um my only kind of thing I think we could do a little bit better is try and send more than one teacher. Uh I know when you go to it looks like this is 4th of July week ish the date. Um And it I feel like if we send more than one, the collaboration you can have, the discussions you can have about the things you can learn from each other it just like doubles our bang for our buck
044if we have more than one teacher. So if there's anybody else who wants to go, I'd be in favor of sending more than one. >> All right. It looks like we have more than a space mission, Ms. Voss. We're going to find somebody else to go. Hearing no other questions or comments, do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. Yes. All right. Moving on to item B, resolution approving the purchase of 530 Charter Street, which is our one Barb Transition Center. Correct. At the October 3, 2023 board meeting, the board decided to search for a location to use for the 18 through 22 transition program that was being housed here in the high school. Uh we searched many properties. Uh we looked for a favorable lease agreement, and we found that new home at
045the 530 Charter Street, and night which is now called the old one Barb Transition Center. It's approximately about 4,800 square feet. Uh it was an established daycare business uh before, but we were able to uh improve, rehab it, and make it into a transition program. The district entered the lease agreement at that time for a rent of 3850 per month for a term of uh 9 years with the option to purchase at the 25th month. Well, 25 months has passed and uh we are uh ready to purchase it and uh put it under our ownership. Uh as part of the agreement it was the purchase price of a 315 would not change and we would have credits for our security deposit and 25% of all accumulated 25 rent payments. So, currently uh after working and
046negotiating through and having established a closing date of June 1st, uh we're coming to the board for the resolution to purchase this property at 283,237.50, which is the purchase price take away the discounts uh that uh that we had already uh established back when we entered into this agreement. This is informational uh and we uh will be looking for uh to bring it for a vote on the next board. Quick question on uh how is the condition of the building? Is it uh Do we anticipate any major repairs or improvements? Since the first floor is pretty well gutted and just started back from scratch, I wouldn't anticipate anything in the near future that will need to be done there. There's always consideration that can be given to renovating the lower level if we'd like to
047expand the program moving forward. Um if that could be a project we could consider. Other than that, again, nothing that would be something that we'd be coming forth as a major expenditure. Hearing no other questions or comments from the board, do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. And final item of new business for the night is differential committee request for approval, which will be presented by Deitra Salas. Good evening once again. So, before you our recommendations from the differential committee for the addition of new differentials for the purpose of the costs. They are before you. If you have any questions, I'm happy to speak to them. All right, hearing no questions that what waiting I don't know. Hearing no questions, do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. Thank you. All right.
048Now we'll move it over to the superintendent report over to Dr. Garcia Sanchez. So, the only thing I'd like to report out today is a big congratulations to all of our retirees. I thank you so much for your hard work, for everything that you've done for the district, for our families, our students, and definitely for us as teachers to being good collaborators and great colleagues. We really appreciate you. You will be missed, but if you feel like you're missing us, feel free to to come back and you we'll be happy to put you to work. Um on top of that, I'd like to congratulate all of our words winners. Ashley and um an extra shout out just to her. She I've been in her classroom, she's an amazing teacher. I would definitely have recommended her.
049And then you know, but all of our words winners are definitely great teachers. So, thank you to them for that opportunity for for for celebrating them on this opportunity. And then I think that's it. Yep. Oh, yep, that's it for me. So, I'll turn it back over to our president. All right then, at this point in time the Board of Education is going to adjourn to closed session. Please note that the Board will adjourn from closed session and not return to open. So, this will be the official ending of open session once we go into closed. It is recommended the Board of Education adjourn to closed session for the purpose of collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of
050employees. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. I'd like a roll call. Yes. All right, the Board is now going to adjourn to closed session. Any of those who are not directly involved, please leave.