DeKalb CUSD 428 Board Meeting 4/21/2026

001It's now 7:00 p.m. and we'll call this meeting back to order. Jackie, roll call. Kristen Bailey. Here. Nick Atwood. >> Here. Steve Byers. >> Here. Jose Jaquez. >> Here. Christopher Boys. Yes. >> Mark Cervenka. Here. Nancy Fiala. Here. Maria Melendez Rodriguez. And now for the pledge. 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. Jackie, do we have any public comment? None. All right. Hearing no public comment, we'll move into board correspondence. Do we have any correspondence for the board? I guess I'll just come out real quick. Um on Thursday, I will be going over to Jefferson where we'll be having lots of fun guest and visitors to come hang out with our

002PE teacher Kelly Zerby for the day. So I'll be over there doing whatever I'm doing over there for that day. And then just something as a heads up and reminder for the board, we do reelect our executive committee in the first meeting in May every year. So that will be coming up. If the board would honor me with it, I do plan to seek another term as president for another year. So if you would like to support me in that, I would appreciate that. If we have anyone else that would be interested, we also do welcome great diversity in thought and opinion on the board. So no one else have anything else for the board. All right. Hearing nothing, I do not have any student board correspondence from Maria, so we will move into the

003consent agenda. As Reagan Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5K, board minutes from April 7th, 2026, personnel action items, purchase order requisitions, payroll for February, financial reports, accounts payable for April, IAS membership for CRMS, acceptance of gifts and donations, renewal of materials from middle school and high school, post-secondary planning resources, School Links employment contract for Yura, CRMS assistant principal as presented or amended. And just real quick before we accept the gift, just to give you guys a little background, the gift is a $10,000 grant donation from the Cassie Family Foundation which helps our wrestling program across the district. So I really do just want to take a moment to thank them so much for the contributions that they give towards our wrestling program, which I'm sure as you guys are well

004aware is absolutely booming ever since we introduced girls wrestling to the district. So just want to make sure that we're continuing to support that program. Oh, my mic's not on. Anyways, with all of that said, do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Nick Atwood. Yes. Steve Byers. Yes. Jose Jaquez. Yes. Christopher Boys. >> Yes. Mark Cervenka. Yes. Nancy Fiala. Yes. Kristen Bailey. All right. And then we are moving into old business. The first item is item 8, 2026-2027 FTE request. I will first entertain a motion and a second, and then if we have discussion about it, we will do it at that time. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Do we have discussion on the FTE request for 2026-2027 school year? I know at the last meeting

005we were going to discuss any of the positions that we either wanted to keep or omit from this request. I'm not sure I I I can go first or if any of the other board members want to lead, but um this does trouble me in terms of some of the items here. We discussed the items that are covered under grants, and I do want to make it clear there the one item that's completely covered under grants. We kind of got to kind of a breakdown in the updated agenda that was posted was the uh grant for the facility operations, I'm sorry, for the um uh Sorry. There we go. For the student success and family engagement specialist, three full-time positions. That is totally covered under the grant from what I'm told. The other items that

006were covered under the grants were partially covered under the grants was the math interventionist and also the partially covered was the dean of restorative behavior for Mitchell Elementary School. Um that is only covered the dean is only covered for the amount of 27,430 out of the 109,722 expense. So I I do have a little bit of a problem with that, so I know we were going to discuss which positions we wanted to go forward with. I am not in favor of that particular uh position. I'm not sure if we motion to make amendments at this time for the rest of the board to go one by one. >> to amend the document, yes. Okay, so we have a motion to amend the document, but in terms of a uh I'm sorry, we got to ask

007for a second, I guess, on that item. Can you clarify exactly what you're looking to remove so I can properly state the motion? >> we'll go one by one. The dean of restorative behavior for Mitchell School because it's only covered at 27,000 out of the 109,000 from the grant. And and I do have a follow-up on that as well since uh we do have another dean of restorative behavior at Mitchell as well. If that position can also be covered under the grant, that would totally change it. Okay, so dean. Are there any others? Is that just the only role that you would like to >> I'm I'm going to have some others that I want to remove, too. So would you like to do that individually or >> We I can Yeah, I can mention

008I don't know if we want to do it collectively or if I should do it one by one. What would be the preference of the board? Can we Can you say which ones you want to pull out and then we can pass the ones [clears throat] that you don't that no one has an >> Right. No one has an issue with, and then we can talk about the ones you want to pull out. Uh the other ones I'd like to pull out the uh district assistant athletic director. I'm not in favor of that one. The position for the special education teacher for the the district-wide position. The da da da da, the dean of restorative behavior. I I mentioned that one already. Go one [snorts] by one here. The on page five the teacher middle

009school SOAL sole, also the special education teacher middle school uh intensive for Huntley Middle School. The These are all not covered by the grants. Huntley Middle School home school liaison. Teaching and learning for Huntley Middle School, the dean position, which is at $117,000. I would like [snorts] all those pulled. I'm in favor of all of the ones for all the math positions, so I'd like to keep those in, but those are the ones I want pulled. All right. So as it currently stands, we have a motion from Mark to remove the district assistant director for athletics and activities, the and you are keeping the student success and family engagement specialist, just to be clear. Yeah, that's completely covered by the grant, 100%. >> was the special education teacher elementary sole, Mhm. the special education FTE

010at Huntley Middle School, >> Mhm. then the teacher middle school sole, and then the special education teacher middle school intensive, the home school liaison at Huntley Middle School, and the dean of restorative discipline that was assigned for Mitchell. Mhm. Do we have a second? I know I don't, but I have a question. Is that is You I want to know like which of those positions that were listed are legally like for us to stay in legal compliance, are necessary cuz I think like I'm seeing that the the elementary school one, for example, in order to stay in legal compliance >> for us to have Chris, can you finish the motion and then Yeah, you'll have to You'll have to second it just so we can have discussion on the motion. >> Second. Okay. Because that

011has to be what we're discussing on the floor. So, all right, now you can Do I need to rewind? No, you can You're good. Now, admin can respond to your question about what's legally required. All right, if I missed part of the question, let me know. The special ed teachers are all required under law due to the rising number of students that require special education services. Can you explain IDEA for us, please? Sure. So, we're required to provide a free and appropriate public education to all students that are eligible to receive it. [clears throat] Um, and what that means is they qualify for specialized instruction and services. So, in order for us to make sure that we maintain good standing with the federal government, good standing with our state compliance, but also the funding that

012we get through IDEA um, it's imperative that we have these positions so we are able to support what our students need legally. And these would be paid by local funds, right? Uh, correct. >> tax dollars, okay. They would be paid in the same bucket that we pay for all of our, uh, services outside of grants. Right, property tax dollars, right? So, Kyle, >> [clears throat] >> if I remember last meeting, you mentioned that some of this is anticipatory because we believe we're going to have more students. Right? Correct. Okay. Yeah, we projected out, um, that we have to add these classrooms in order to fit the number of students that we need for next year. Okay. So, this isn't a current We're we're short this We are short but we're not short to the point

013where we have to hire more. No. So, for next year. We're not short. So, think about you, um you have an incoming group of our little Barbs coming up and what we've noticed our trend is a lot of our youngest learners when they come into kindergarten have either received services through our Grady LDC, so we're maintaining those services or been quite a few students that often qualify for specialized, uh, services early in education. So, based on what we project that we know are going to roll up assuming they register with us and then what we project in time in terms of like normal growth that we would see year to year we absolutely need to add the class. You also look at that, too, from fifth to sixth grade and you look at how many

014sixth graders in Soul, for example, are going to go to seventh grade, how many eighth graders are leaving for the high school and then can you reallocate from another building? And if you can't, based on the numbers there, that's when you have to add the position. So, this is a projected need, not a projected want. 100%. >> Okay. We don't know when we're going to Do we know when we're going to need this, though? I mean, are we going to be hiring like right away for this or are we going to wait till the population is there? We're going to start tomorrow. Um, hiring every Finding and retaining special education teachers, related service staff is extremely hard as you as you guys know. So, we know the need's there. Um, we can look back at

015over the last four or five years as a district and we've seen our special programs grow. We've seen our multilingual programs um, and that's a really good thing, but with that growth comes additional needs and services. So um, we know we need them. We know it's going to be hard to find them, so the earlier we can start on this process, the better. Can you explain to the board, too, how you're talking about an additional classroom, but an additional classroom in a specialized program is not the same as a in the gen ed? Yeah, uh, depending on the type of program, school code allows you to only have a certain number of students in those classrooms given the level of services that you're going to provide. So, when you look at a self-contained classroom, school

016code will say you can have eight students per certified teacher in that room, but if you go above eight, you have to have a paraprofessional and then you can go up to 13. You're not allowed to go beyond 13 in a self-contained classroom. Whereas, as you know, with our class sizes in, um, other classroom settings, we have our own internal caps, but they're not always capped necessarily by school code like special education is. Can you speak just a little bit to who governs, um I guess who qualifies or the what those qualifications are. I'm just anticipating public questions about this. Like force, uh, special ed services. Um, is that something that we have any say in or who Where does that come from? It's a really good question. I Stop me cuz I could probably

017talk about this longer than you want me to, but, um, there's a lot of different ways students can be referred to receive an evaluation to see if they qualify for special education services. Referrals can come from a parent or guardian. It could come from school staff. It could come from a teacher. It could come from related service staff. Um, and you know, we talk about MTSS, multi-tiered system of supports. It's a lot. That is a school team monitoring how students are progressing in comparison to national and local norms and then [clears throat] they intervene. And if students aren't making progress despite those interventions, they may say, "Hey, it's time we need to look a little bit more. Maybe we get consent for a special education evaluation." Once that process starts, a parent or guardian has

018to sign that they consent to the evaluation. School teams have 60 school days to complete the evaluation. Bless you. And, um come back and hold a meeting to determine if a student qualifies. Once a student can qualify, there are different categories that have their own criteria that pertain to each one. So, some students qualify in one area, maybe a specific learning disability due to some academic needs. Some students qualify in a lot of areas such as, um, we could have a cognitive impairment. We could have multiple disabilities and another health impairment because of very complex needs. Um, every year we're required to have an annual IEP. So, if the student qualifies, we write the initial IEP. The team has to come back and review that with the parent, guardian, and team members that pertain to

019that child's education at least once a year. But, similar to a referral, at any time a parent could say, "Hey, I have a concern. I want to call an IEP meeting." And the team would be uh, available to make that happen. Now, the [snorts] qualifications govern like at the state level, the federal level? Federal level. Okay, thanks. There's some state nuance and there's definitely local nuance, um, but that's a whole 'nother road we can go down. Yeah. Thank you for the question. I get that one a lot and I don't always get the chance to answer in public, so I appreciate it. With the With So, with the motion here, with the Dean of Restorative Behavior, why is it that only a portion of the $109,000 salary is covered under the grant from Mitchell? How

020did we come up with that number of 27,000 of 109,000? I'm kind of curious how we can >> [snorts] >> partially fund this. It's actually for us, Emma's here today and she understands the grants more, but there's guidelines that we have to stay within the grant. We can't use 100% of the money just to pay for personnel. So, I don't know, Emma, if there's additional that you want to add to that, but you can come up here and Uh, to Billy's point, there are restrictions, but I think also ensuring that the grant funding is equitable. So, if we pay 100% of a salary out of a grant it's going to take away from the other services that we're funding out of the grant because we only get certain allotments. So, can the other Dean that

021we have at, uh, Mitchell be covered under the the grant that we're using for this new position? Possibly. Um, however, again, that's going to take away from something else within the grant. >> Right, but that's something we could always look at to see what else is in the grant. That's That's why I kind of want to go through all these grants to see if we're using these properly as effectively as possible. So. May I also have any questions? >> Does anyone else have any questions or comments? So, we will now have to vote on Yes. >> thinking if I had a question. I think I do. >> [laughter] >> Um, about the the the Dean at Mitchell. Um The three So, it seems like there's a some overlap with the other three positions that are

022fully grant funded, right? To deal with the stuff that the ROE can't help with, right? Mhm. Um but this job is different because it's situated within this one particular school. Correct. Right? Um, can you help me understand like how that, um how we would avoid overlap, uh, I guess like redundancy in those roles. Um, and then also give I'm trying to think of how to ask this. I'm sorry. Um, I didn't think about this before. Um given the challenges that we're seeing at Mitchell, is this what we think is like going to make a difference in terms of support the teachers and students need there right now. Yeah, so to answer that last question, yes. Um, I don't know if you remember, but we asked the board if we could reallocate, um, well, we didn't

023ask cuz we already had the allocation. We informed the board that we were going to reallocate the Brooks Restorative Dean over to Mitchell and then see how that went, um, and then if that was successful, we would we would then have that allocation go back to Brooks and then come back and ask the board for a restorative dean for Mitchell to be there permanently. So, we >> is? >> And that's what this is here. Okay, so this will be permanent and so the other Okay, so the other one's going back then. >> Yes. >> Okay, okay. That wasn't made clear. So, there's But in the thing it says there will be two. So, >> oh, did we borrow one from Brooks and so we had two? So, we've had Okay, thank you. Billy, on that

024same question, looking at the description and going back to Kristen's thought my overlap, it does seem like a good percentage of the justification behind the Dean of Restorative Behavior for Mitchell is attendance-based which would be covered under our truancy people. Yeah, well, I mean, some of it, but that's not the key The key focus is the restorative practice of of the position. So, and because physically that person is there at Mitchell, um it comes out of the what we'd call the Mitchell bucket of title uh money. So, just I was just emphasizing the wrong part of the wording of your defense today. Okay. And I think for what it is worth, as a board member who is in there recently, from when I visited Mitchell at the beginning of the school year to when we

025moved those additional FTEs to that building now, I mean, it was a night and day difference when I visited 2 weeks ago. Where teachers seemed like, you know, they were really having a lot better time with class management. The restorative rooms in the building actually had someone that was fully staffing them the whole time to really be there to engage with the students who needed that additional support. So, I found that that extra restorative dean position has made a night and day difference, at least from my experience visiting Mitchell. So, I definitely think that is a position that is well worth having at that building. And I want to second that. I Yeah, people that I've talked to who work in the building have said it has greatly improved and changed the dynamics there. So,

026Chris, same question that we have a laundry list of of people that um the positions that we want to pull out of this. And we're going to give a yes or no vote to the whole list. So, is there a way we could just ask the board members if there's anyone on the list that they would like to kick >> [clears throat] >> If they If they're considering a no vote to pull them out, is there one that maybe they would Sorry, I think of Robert's Rules of Order. >> Right. I can seek consensus and then based on that consensus, we can do a motion to revise the motion to revise the motion. >> [laughter] >> Or or I could pull it and we can go one by one. That might be the easiest way.

027>> will jump in and say um FTE are um They're our responsibility, right, as a school district to um ensure that we have the appropriate amount of FTE and what we need in our schools. It's not the grant's job to to fill those positions. We've been lucky enough to be able to utilize grants and have them uh look through our guidelines and cover some of those. So, the fact that we're able to cover for some of that that FTE through our grants is a big deal. >> [clears throat] >> Some districts don't even have the opportunity to do that and we've done that and we've have heavily utilized heavily utilized our grants to be able to cover that. But, I know um board member Shirazi, you're you're saying you want to make sure that we

028are um utilizing the grants the way that we should and I would say when we're getting our kids software, materials, and things like that, that we are utilizing the grants the way that we should um and we are still staying within our guidelines. Um so, I I just for what that's worth, I I need the board to understand that the the grant's job is not to fill FTE. That is our job as a community to ensure that our schools have the FTE that they need. If we can utilize grants to be able to to help with that, absolutely, but that's not the sole job of our grants. So, Billy, I have a question about you just what the way you just mentioned it. Let's say 3 years from now we apply for the same grant

029that's paying paying for the restorative um dean and we get more money. We get extra. Is it Is this Is the system in place to where we then we can cover more of the salary if it's allowed by the rules so that our sa you know, our our district fund balance for salaries would actually go down. Yes. So, there's a I forget what I'm going to call it the word, but um it's very highly depends specifically to that Title 1A grant and the amount of students we have on free and reduced lunch. So, let's say we have 70% of students at Mitchell on free and reduced lunch. We can utilize 70% of um we can pay for 70% of the rate, say like a reading specialist at Mitchell for their salary because we have 70%

030of our students are free and reduced. If we only have like at Lincoln, I think we're like 40-ish [snorts] percent, right? So, we can only pay up to 40% of that. But, if they have a smaller pot and we take 40% of a smaller pot, we're taking a lot of a lot [clears throat] away from Lincoln and that's why you see the 0.25 FTE there covering but that's by the 1003A grant, I think. >> [clears throat] >> So, okay, before we make a motion to amend the amendment, is there any of these positions that other members of the board in a quorum fashion are in favor of removing? There There is one I have a question for, but I did not include it and this is a general question. I'm not sure if It's It's

031I just need some clarification on the custodial position and and the numbers on here. So, I don't know if I should Since we made the motion, it would be probably to bring this up. >> on this motion and then we'll go back to the main motion and we will discuss. So, at this point, Jackie, roll call. >> What am I roll calling? You are roll calling. >> [snorts] >> On the motion to amend. We have a motion to amend to remove home school liaison, special education sole teacher, Dean of Restorative Discipline, District Assistant Athletic Director, sped teacher that was a district-wide position, another sole program, and one more sped position. They already have a motion and a second. So, at this point, Jackie, roll call. C Byers. No. Elizabeth Jacques. No. Christopher Boys. No. Mark

032Shirazi. Yes. Vince E. Bynum. No. Kristen Bailey. No. Inga Wood. No. Now, we return to the original motion and now you can ask your question on the other position. >> Okay. Uh it's the first one on the list. It is and I just need some clarification on the numbers here for the custodial floater, second, third shift, full-time at 115,000. The I read through this paragraph several times and I'm trying to make heads or tails over the cost difference from what we are paying right now for the overtime. So, by having this new position and hiring this new position, it says an estimated savings of 13,300 in overtime cost. So, are we spending 115,000 to save 13 three or are we saving on the total amount that we're paying? So, I'm confused by the numbers as

033it's listed in here. So, I don't know who would have >> If I'm correct, before you guys can say anything, we're currently spending about 125-ish thousand in overtime for our custodial staff. Okay. I wanted to make that clear. So, it's at 13,300 which seemed like a good deal. Okay, so we are paying 120 So, we would actually save money by having this position. Okay, that clarifies that. So, I'm all right with that one. Is there any other questions or discussion on any of the other items on the FTE request? >> [snorts] >> I'll ask one just to kind of clarify for myself. For the third student success and family engagement specialist that will be assigned to ELDC, since attendance is not a requirement at the pre-K level, ELDC level in the state of Illinois, I

034I guess are they going to be helping with like the summer assessments and the I don't know what the word is for it, but what Shannon qualifies student eligibility? To screening. Yes. >> Yeah. So, I get sometimes get stuck on attendance and think, okay, getting to school, right? If we go upstream a little bit and we think about what are the factors that have a student come to school or not, right? And especially with our little ones, they don't really have a whole lot of choice. Uh mom, dad, guardian, whoever gets them up, gets them to school. We know that in order to be able to start a good foundation, not just for our kids coming to school regularly, but our families, whether they be new families or families with older kids, engaging them around

035their child's education is huge. At the ELDC, they have a lot of different ways that they engage. Uh screening is one way that we try to engage community members [snorts] as part of our child find responsibilities so we can identify students that might um be enrolled at the ELDC or need some sort of service. So, I see the individual at the ELDC being a little bit of a unique unicorn compared to the other because it is about attendance, but it's really about how do we engage our families in a way where they understand how they can advocate for to kid from day one, how important it is that when school starts in kindergarten that you're coming every day. I thought that we'd be remiss if we didn't start at that level and work up. >>

036[snorts] >> So, are these Are are the three of them going to follow the kids as they go? Like a loopy? Is that kind of where they loop with the students? Yeah, because if you if you if these people make a connection with the student families before you leave the seat. Yep. But yet still the family has a need has some something that that they're they're leaning on that specialist Yep. to help them. And then all of a sudden they start kindergarten and the specialist is like, "Hey, I'm going to pass you off to No matter how good they are, that family's going to feel kind of like, "Well, what am I chopped liver?" So, is there going to when needed, I'm not saying that that's mandatory, but they're going to be allowed to follow

037along follow through if necessary and just like the the the elementary and the secondary might reach down for the next sibling that would be coming up into their program. Yep. So, the way we've kind of envisioned it and I don't know if we can say that yep, they're going to follow the families throughout, right? There are many variables and I'm just going to be real. Turnover in that position might allow us to have to reshuffle our best laid plans, right? Um what if we don't fill all three, right? Then we might have to get creative, but the the exciting thing to me is that we would have more case management of our families. So, we could have a student at the LEC, one in elementary, one at the high school and we would still have

038a conduit for all those schools. That said, and I want to be clear just for my own purpose of saying this is this isn't a person that is responsible for making sure engagement happens with the school. School staff is there. After they've gone through your tier one, tier two different interventions and we're still not connecting with that family [clears throat] and we know there's barriers there that the school staff just quite frankly doesn't have the time or capacity to address, maybe even outside of hours, that is where we can utilize this individual to help break down those barriers that we can't reach with our school teams. So, this adds a tool to our toolbox to make our whole system better. Do we also envision this person working with like some of the community organizations to

039help get people into the ELDC program once we expand that and build new building cuz obviously there's lots of people that have been on wait lists and we're going [snorts] to want to make sure we're reaching out and so that'd be part of this job description as well. Yeah, and I'd say it's part of it, right? I'm looking over there cuz they're going to do it, too. But yeah, it just gives us more capacity to do that. Um a lot of our tours that we did around the ELDC, um I think we do so many great things with our community. We don't have the facility to bring them in like we've seen other buildings do, right? And when you know you bring the families in, you bring the community resources in and you're the nexus

040of that, that is where I think we can be more impactful than maybe what we've been doing to the best of our abilities up to this point. So, yeah, it's going to be making sure that we're engaging our families to know that hey, there's an ELDC that exists. Here's what it provides. What do you need in order to get your child here? Transportation's a big one, so I'm sure it'll be centering around that and how do we work with partners to provide more options there. I guess that was yeah, I had a question that sort of overlapped with Nick's but about the breaking down the barriers and what that looks like. I know just from people who work in community health in this area, um that sometimes those barriers are like things you would not

041even think about. Like sometimes the kids are having to work for their family um or [snorts] the kids have profound anxiety and parents don't know how to to deal with that sort of stuff. Like I think those are like two of the most common is my understanding. Um but are you able to speak to that a little bit? Like what that means just to help us understand these positions a little bit more? Yeah, um school refusal for whatever the reason, right? It's this inability to want to come to school, whether it's for disability related purposes or some other thing that's going on in a child's life. I think what the philosophy is there is we're not looking to necessarily pry into everybody's business, but we also know that this is something that all families face

042to varying degrees at times when they have children. And so, what I think we're going to be able to do a little bit differently is meet them where they're at. So, for example, and I know that ROE staff did this. You had a kid who wasn't coming to school and hey, it phone rang, it's 8:30 and they're they're saying, "Hey, I'm not coming." All right, cool. We're going to head out there and we're going to talk and we're going to talk to the student and see what there is we can do to get you to school today and then tomorrow. So, that way if for example, there's some school anxiety that pops up, um one of the things we haven't been able to do yet as a district is get in on the Iris referral

043system, which connects people to all those resources in the community. So, I see these positions doing that, sitting down, saying, "Okay, here's what we need to find in the community. Here's where they're at. What can I do to help connect you with those?" Thank you. Yep. Any other questions or comments? >> I I do. We're we're voting on the overall motion. >> Correct. Okay, so I have a overall money question and our mayor, I'll kind of direct this to you. Just to kind of follow up on what you said at the last meeting and find out what the exact close enough exact cost would be. I believe the total here is 1.28 million and then we have 262,000 in grant. You mentioned at the last meeting that we're going to have a number of retirees

044that [snorts] are going to help defray the cost and I think we came out with like a 1.1 million dollar cost. Was that including the retirees, what we're going to save as a result of the retirees or will the dollar amount be less as a result of the retirees? Was the amount you gave including the retiree figure or without? Correct. So, when So, regarding the budget for the new FTE, we are combining the savings from the retirees, which is about 600,000 and including the the organic growth that we normally give every school year. About 500k. So, the 1.1 million local funds, it's mostly coming from the the retiree savings and the organic growth. So, So, that's with that include so that that would be the amount that taxpayers would be paying. Okay. Correct. Thank you.

045All right, at this point I'll be calling the vote. Jackie, roll call. Steve Byers. Yes. Yes. No. Yes. Item B, Midwest Management Summit. It is recommended Board of Education approve the travel to attend the Midwest Management Summit. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion? Hearing no discussion, Jackie, roll call. Yes. Yes. Thank you. Item C, Western Governors University Levitt School of Health Outreach Affiliation Agreement. It is recommended Board of Education approve the Western Governors University Levitt School of Health Outreach Affiliation Agreement as attached. Do I have a motion? >> Do we have any discussion? Hearing no discussion, Jackie, roll call. Yes. Item D, ELDC Building Design Update. It is recommended Board of Education approve an increase of 3.75 million for the construction of the new ELDC. Do I have

046a motion? >> Second. I have quick discussion. I still have very big concerns about us doing a 20-room building over 24. We as a board approved 24. I know there's some oof, can we staff it? I'm going to be honest with you. It is not the board or the students' problems for us to staff it. That is the administration's job to fill those rooms so we can take care of the number of students that are on that wait list. And as I mentioned before, we didn't build the high school big enough, we didn't build Mitchell big enough, and now we're cutting on building a building big enough again and within 5 years, I know Shannon's going to be back here going, "Guys, we need more rooms." And it's going to cost us $20 million to

047put those rooms on instead of the extra maybe five to six that it would cost to do it now. So, I just want to make sure >> [snorts] >> I'm not going to get saddled with a giant bill in 10 to 15 years cuz we didn't do what we needed to do today. I look at Tammy, she'll be gone in 5 years. >> [laughter] >> That's a good question. It is and that I don't want to speak for the whole team. If anybody wants to jump up here and add in, but I think we we went back and forth with that a little bit, too, and ultimately came to the realization that and I don't mean to be redundant, but we had to invest in those other spaces before we considered four more just kind

048of squared rooms. Um I wish I could stand up here and say like, "Hey, we're not going to have a huge increase. We're not going to have a big interest that's going to take our numbers." I'm just going to be honest. I've been in this job 5 years and I don't think I would have predicted some of the growth that we've seen over those 5 years, either in certain pockets. So, what we are meaning to do is design something that's going to meet our needs as we project them now. Now, we haven't quite gotten to this phase, but just I think what we did with Mitchell is maybe a design where we are able to add on if and when that need arises. Um in doing that in maybe a way that's more thoughtful, playful

049that okay, we can do one or two here instead of all four. So, that would be kind of my It's a really good question and a good thought and one we've kind of wrestled with, too. Um if we do come back, we'll say, "Hey, Mr. Boyes, you were right." Um But I also think we have some contingencies to be able to be responsive in that. But I'm I'm wondering just to follow up on that. If the board is willing to entertain to ensure that we are doing the 24 classrooms and those spaces, is that something that you're the board is willing to I mean, I think that is a discussion for the full board. I know that I am in favor of that, but Yeah. I This is a concern I've had as well and

050I wouldn't mind seeing numbers if that's doable. All right. Is this something we should maybe postpone till the next meeting and maybe get some more information? Cuz I'm I'm making a several million dollar decision on the fly here kind of throws me the wrong way as far as amending. I don't think we're making The thing is technically we wouldn't be amending anything. We approved the 24 classroom building. Like that's been approved. Admin for the first time in history was like, "Well, we'll actually scale it back for you, board." >> [laughter] >> So, one one of the things that I would before Tammy comes up and tells how we cannot back this up anymore. >> [laughter] >> We When in 2013 we opened up the high school in Huntley had all these extra rooms. They were

051using classrooms as book storage rooms and within 3 years when we opened when we put an ELDC in there, then all of a sudden we're we're scr- scrunched for space and we're looking for more classrooms. Now we're going to take the ELDC out of there and we still don't really have as much space as we'd like to have. Last meeting someone I don't know which one of you said it or maybe Kyle said if we build it, they will come. So, I don't know why we're why the thought process of going down and you know, not having the same facilities. We approved 24 and you guys say we need these really [clears throat] cool gym playrooms. Which I agree we need them. You're saying it's but and that's part of the that's part of the

052design. That was That's That's what we approved. We approved for 24 classrooms and the design to have it run properly. So, I don't think we really have to amend anything to go to 24 rooms. Have your your architect go to 24 classrooms. Just open up your pocketbook. Financially. I hate I I hate spending the money, too, but I'd rather spend it now than 10 10-15 years from now. So, I'm going to defer to Tammy cuz I know we're on a tight timeline. What I can say is the the design team would entertain going back and revising those plans to accommodate that, but it I worry about our timeline. As he should. >> [laughter] >> Uh we do need to get some definitive numbers to our architects and engineers so that we can make the August

05320, 2027 opening date. Otherwise, even pushing back to this date is kind of scrunching our design time and bid time, but they'll do their best and we'll get it done. Um just to give you an estimate on this, if you're adding four classrooms straight out, that's 4,000 square feet at 1,000 per classroom, four classrooms, plus you will have two more Jack and Jill bathrooms in between. You're adding corridors to that because you got to have a way to get there and potentially some other spaces in regards to if the needs are for the gross motor and the gym spaces to be able to accommodate the amount of minutes that are necessary to I've learned a lot in these >> [laughter] >> a lot. That That will have to be revisited. So, I'm just looking at

054the proposal that's in front of you today that we brought forth that called for 6,000 additional square feet and it's 3.75 million is the increase. I would say we were are looking at at least doubling that. So, I would anticipate we're probably near more and again, I'm not the architect. I would have to go back and confirm, but we're probably upwards of another $4 million added to the 3.75 that we've already asked for. I can get hard numbers from the architect. I can probably turn that around pretty quickly, but I can't stand up here and say it's a good idea from the timeline to push this back two more weeks. We have to get started in the design. If we can at a minimum get some guidance of and some whether it's approval on this,

055what we already have in front of you that you intended to review and potentially approve tonight at the additional 3.75 and then with assurance that if a number does come in at whatever is reasonable in your eyes, that we can continue to design it in that way. But we already have ELDC meetings design meetings set with our architects and engineers so that we can get this going with the additional 3.75. I'll be honest, I already told them to start working on it because of just the feedback we got from the last meeting and they will do that for us and know that we might have to pull back if we had to. But this is also now a a whole 'nother level of change that they weren't anticipating. I have a question. Um I guess

056I don't know if this would be Armir, Billy, peop- anyone who's involved with the finance committee. Um have we talked about where that might come from? Like have have you guys done any sort of like just based on the feedback, you know, that we've had so far, do we have any ideas of where we might pull if [snorts] we needed another $4 million to do this? >> [laughter] >> Um so, we are always expected Yeah, the ELDC has always been earmarked out of the e-zone monies. So, depending that the development grows continues or at least it's on track as it's been mentioned as of as we know so far. Uh We would be able to I guess very slimly, I guess, but we have to go back a little bit on that projecting board on

057how that kind of money fits in and all the >> [snorts] >> uh the developments that are coming in and how we can stretch it also for other projects that we have such as the vision 428 and so forth. So, So, there is a few items here, but again, ELDC has always been earmarked out of the e-zone growth. So, there's there's a chance that if we did add this extra money, it could take away from our vision 428. We would be using some of that money. So, okay. So, I'm a little uncomfortable with that. So, I I I believe the the answer is more about it doesn't take away from it, it just extends the timeline. Right? The the money the funding's going to be there coming from the e-zone. It's just that the scaffolding

058that we've done in order to make sure that we're >> [clears throat] >> uh paying bills on time within the time that it's being constructed is what we're alluding to. So, that it might take [snorts] us a little longer to pay something off. It might mean that we might have to wait another November scheduleds, right? For a payment to come in. I think one of the things to consider is that we just spent 20 minutes 10 minutes ago discussing how we're trying to get make sure we have access to the kids and get them into ELDC. And if like say we get done 3 years later, 4 years later, 5 years later, Shannon comes us and says, "Hey, we can't." Are we going to [snorts] wait 13 years again to be able to put it

059back up? I mean, and and the thing about it is that we can build 24 and we still have the same problem. We could still have It might take 6 years instead of 5 years. If we build it and we advertise it and we say how how excellent it's going to be for our students to to to get that education that 1 year or 2 years earlier, we may fill it anyway. So, whether it be 20 or 24, so, we have to decide whether what we want to fight the bulldog on, how much we want to spend for 28 and all of that or stuff. And as you probably all are aware, if we would have to come back to you at a later date and say we need four or six more classrooms, whatever

060that looks like, the cost at that time will be significantly more than this $4 million or whatever it it comes in at and disruption it will have to the program because an addition takes 18 months to build. So, this is not like a quick 10-week summer project. This is going to be a significant disruption to the the students, the staff, the families while four more classrooms are built on. So, if there is any consideration to this, now is the time. We'll make it work when it comes to construction side of things. We always do. So, I have a question for Dr. Garcia-Sanchez and Billy. Having the view that you do of the entire district and the needs that we have and the the sorts of priorities, the ways the chess pieces need to be moved,

061right? To achieve our goals. What are you most comfortable with? Like what if you, you know, what do you want us to to do? I don't know if that's the right way to ask it. Kind of I think like what's the projection and how does vision 428 fall into it? Is I mean, I guess I'm cuz when I think about this, I think like ELDC is critical because at this point in kids' lives, like it is a you know, dominoes, right? Everything is affected from there. And we're in a child care desert, too, which is also a whole thing. Not completely, you know, tied, but um So, when you think about priorities and where do we borrow from you know, this bucket? Yeah. So, I think, you know, Armir talked about how we've been earmarking

062or tracking that E-zone money and I think as you all know, when we max the bait and we under levy additional, we're given back some of that money that's given back really that E-zone is providing us. So, that's going to be some things that we're going to have to think about as uh as a school board and and see like maybe it's time that we don't totally maximum abate and under levy. Um it's just something that we really need to think about if um I know you're asking for four additional classrooms. It means four additional teachers, maybe um nine additional instructional assistants. So, we have to think about staffing and yes, it is our our problem. Um no, it's not even a problem. We get to do it. That's our job um to do, to

063staff it. Um but we also need the dollars there to be able to do that. So, if you're okay with us moving forward and and you're open to us looking at additional costs for additional four classrooms, doing it the right way um we can work on that and then um we'll see how that impacts our Vision 428, but we're not stopping the Vision 428 work either. Do we believe we could fill it if we added those [snorts] extra classrooms? Like would those rooms immediately be filled because the demand is so pent up? With students? You're asking? Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, what are the options, Chris? So, I mean we can motion because the the building's already been approved for 24 classrooms. So, we don't have to amend the building to be 24 classrooms. What

064we do need to do is amend the amount of money that the board has allocated towards the construction of ELDC. So, just based on your back of the napkin math, we would need to increase the allocation. Just in my head, it looks like to 7.75 million or I guess eight if you include contingency funds. Or no? And maybe you need to round up a little bit more. >> Honestly, I can't give you an exact amount tonight. I don't I don't feel comfortable doing that without getting feedback from the experts. Again, back of the math napkin math, that's what I'm coming up with is we're probably in the range of eight-ish million. But I I would hate for you to vote and then I come back and it's 10. I can find that out. And this

065would just be cost of the building, not staff pensions. Correct. Yeah. So, there's a bigger cost as well down the line. Can I vote on it yet so we can You can always do that. >> a special board meeting on Wednesday. This can be tabled and that can come back as a older business item for you all to vote on Wednesday. Is that going to be too late for Tammy or no? We have a special board meeting on Wednesday next week. You um one thing I'm I'm looking at the resolution right now. There's nothing about money in it. There there's I mean, so There was another resolution that allowed this funding to be set aside, which probably has two resolutions. Our our votes and into this resolution that doesn't have the money. So, I think

066really what we have to do is decide whether we want to drop down to 20, which is changing resolution or stick with 24 and the money is what it is. We can't vote money is what it is. We've got to know. >> [laughter] >> Right. Like what's our threshold? Until I pay my taxes. But if we if we if we if we voted to go 24 the the we can tell them, "Hey, we want 24 at this cost." And then we'd have to start dropping some of the amenities we want to put in there. But we didn't >> [clears throat] >> I I get it. I don't I'm not I'm not blind to what I'm I just said. But to say that well, we we want to go to 20 because we can't spend the

067money. It's like we didn't vote on the money. We voted on the number of classrooms. That's [clears throat] the problem we had when we voted on the number of classrooms. So, just to clarify that so that we're clear as a district side is what I what I'm hearing you say is that because you've already approved 24 classrooms, [snorts] that whatever that cost is, then that's the expectation of the cost. I'm I'm I'm hearing I'm just I'm clarifying. So. No, I I what I'm trying to say is that to to base the cost on the number of classrooms rather than what we put in the 24 classroom building we should be discussing the cost of what we're putting in the 24 classroom building not the cost and then how many classrooms we fit in for that

068cost. Well, my understanding is that they dropped the number down because they realized that the original estimate was going to be so much higher based [snorts] on the things that we need in the building. So, it was kind of a concession that they made is my understanding. That is correct. Yep. So, we started with where is our square footage at 24, what are those elements that we need to get in there, and then we really worked backwards from there to figure out three toilets versus two or yeah. I'm sorry, I'm going to backtrack on something because I just remembered the way you just described. Didn't one of you over there say that really realistically those multi- functional rooms are really classrooms anyway? They're instructional spaces. Yeah. Yes. So, we we do have 24 classrooms. Technically.

069Right. They're not your classroom with your tables and all your things. They look different, but they're instructional spaces. Yes. ELDC classroom. But they had they had desks. There's a purpose already where students would be receiving instruction and All right, I'm going to jump in here real quick. Tammy, based on the great timeline if I tell you you are going to aggressively work until Wednesday next week to get us some more finite numbers, does that completely destroy the timeline or is this a Chris, if the board tells us this is what we're doing, we're doing it and we'll make it happen? >> [laughter] >> Tell us what you really feel. You want to retire tonight. >> [laughter] >> I can't. Um you know I'm always going to stand up here and say that no matter what

070you guys want, I'm going to get it done and I will push the architect and the CM to get it done. The text message has already gone out to the architect asking the question of what happens if we wait till next Wednesday and can you get me a cost for four more classrooms and how does that impact other spaces that are necessary? Um he hasn't answered yet. That's unusual. Um but if that's what you want done, that is what we will do. It could mean, I'm going to throw a concern is that we might not get like with Mitchell, we got the building early May and started moving furniture in and took a good two to three months to settle in. There are some already discussions that ELDC, the wing of ELDC at Huntley has

071to go into renovations the summer before we open the new building. That means summer school has to go somewhere and we were hoping to have summer school for ELDC at the new building. That might delay that if we can't push all of this through. So, then we have to look at other options of where do we put the ELDC summer school program for the summer before the opening. So, just throwing that out there because I'm not going to be here when that time comes. We all know that, but it is a factor that's always in my mind and is in my planning will be handed off to my replacement. So, knowing that knowing that it could mean that we're in a little more mad rush to move in than we were on the Mitchell side

072of things if things can't get done on the original timeline can we get it done? Yeah. We'll get it done. The architect and CM are not thrilled with my statement, but yes, we can get it done. They always come through. Next Wednesday, right? The only options, just to make sure I'm understanding this correctly, to cover this would be reducing abatements and levying higher. We would just be taking more from the fund balance. Or that. Okay. That's why I'm just trying to figure out, yeah, where is this coming from? Which would slightly push back Vision 428 because then we need to recover that money from the E-zone to then put towards Vision 428. Okay. So, can I make a motion to the motion to table what to next Wednesday? >> just need to read the motion

073to say just the same agenda item, read a motion. You're going to make up the motion right there on the fly and say we'll be moving this to the whatever board meeting. And then I'm going to roll call it. I have a motion to table this to the April 28th special board meeting. It would be motion to postpone, right? Postpone. Postpone. Well, I think There's there's a difference. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Motion to postpone to the April 28th board meeting. So moved. 29th. Wednesday the 29th. 29th. As long as that guy doesn't come back in 5 minutes and say It's so moved. Sorry. Second. Second. Jackie, roll call. I'm sure about that. Yes. Fantauzzi Bynum. Yes. Justin Bailey. Yes. Mickey Wood. Yes. Steve Byers. Yes. Rose Jacquez. Yes. Christopher Boyce. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Item

074E, summer hours secondary school counselors and web coordinators 2026. Is recommended the board of education approve the summer hours for the middle school counselors and web coordinators. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Do I have any discussion on the motion? Hearing no discussion, Jackie, roll call. Anthony Bynum. Kristen Bailey. Yes. Nick Eggleston. Yes. Steve Byers. >> Yes. >> Jose Jaquez. Yes. Christopher Boys. >> Yes. >> Mark Charvat. Yes. Item F, summer hours for the high school counselors for 2026. It's recommended the Board of Education approve the summer hours for the DHS counselors. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Kristen Bailey. Yes. Nick Eggleston. Yes. >> Steve Byers. >> Yes. >> Jose Jaquez. Yes. >> Christopher Boys. Yes. Mark Charvat. Yes. Anthony Bynum. Yes. Moving into new

075business and administration, Innovative School Summit. This is an information item. Hi, good evening again. I [clears throat] have uh Erin Bean here. She's a third grade teacher at Mitchell Elementary. And she is going to request to she would like to bring back to Mitchell Elementary some um effective teaching strategies that she feels would um help Mitchell overall, but I'm going to let her talk about it a little bit to be able to attend with Lauren and Lauren Lauren Faster who's another third grade teacher and this would be paid out of our grant money. Hello. Um so Lauren and I both found a Innovative School Summit that is taking place in Nashville, Tennessee um late July, July 25th through the 29th. And it aligns with all of the high needs that Mitchell has right now, especially

076for teachers as well as the students. Um it's our first year we're establishing our identity, our systems, our school culture. Um there are many different targeted sessions that we could attend at the summit. Um and there are multiple conferences all taking place within that area, so we would have a vast amount of sessions that we could choose from. Um some of them focus on students um trauma-informed practices that you can use with them, uh behavior supports, and the relationship-centered based teaching. Um we're really working hard over at Mitchell right now to build a good culture within the building, outside of the building, and building that trust with the community. We feel like if we were to go to this, we would be able to bring it back to Mitchell, share it with everybody there, with

077admin, um and then also possibly with the district. Does anyone have any questions? Hearing no questions, do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Item B, DHS FFA State Convention. This is information presented to us by Dr. Larson and looks like two of our FFA students. That's right. Good evening. So um we are requesting uh we have our um FFA advisors that are FFA officers that are here tonight, so I'm going to let them do the talking. Ladies. All right. While we are at the Illinois FFA State Convention, we will be attending sessions hosted by our Illinois FFA major state officers. We will be receiving state-level awards. One of our members is receiving their state degree this year. That's the highest honor that Illinois FFA can

078bestow onto their membership. And we will also be um voting on a new slate of Illinois FFA major state officers. Oh, yes. And our alumni association, our DeKalb FFA alumni, will be paying for all of the expenses. Amazing. All right. Does anyone have any questions? Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. Yes. Thank you, guys. Item C, DHS Student Council attending the state meeting. This is an information item presented to us by Dr. Larson and one of our student council members. All right, more exciting news coming from our students. Um I do want to introduce Cameron Moore who has uh been recently elected as the Illinois Association of Student Councils Board President. So he was elected just recently, so he's going to talk to you tonight about what uh student council will

079be requesting as an overnight stay. Cameron. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you. >> [applause] >> So basically the what we're requesting is to for me and my advisors to be able to go to the Illinois Association of Student Councils meetings. So these will be August uh end of August, uh there'll be one in November, and there'll be one in January. It also includes the state convention, but that will be requested separately at a later date. Uh those are just the three board meetings that only uh myself and the advisors will be attending. Um all of the funds for these will be paid by the student council. Um And so basically what Illinois Association of Student Councils is is it is a separate nonprofit, um but it has membership from all across the state. I believe there are

080upwards of hundreds of schools who are members and it is growing to record numbers every year. Uh they host a state convention at the end of March, which we are able to go to this year as we have been for the past many, many years. Uh and that is where we have the elections. Um the board I can consists of I believe around eight people, and I was elected as the board president at that convention uh with I don't know if I said this around 700 people who attended that uh along with dozens and dozens of schools. So it was a great honor. I'm really excited to serving to be serving in this role. Uh basically what it entails is going to these meetings and um presiding over them as a board president does. Some

081of the functions of the IASC are of course to plan that state convention that they host, which has different types of speakers and leadership breakouts for students all around the state to come learn and talk about student leadership and things like that. They also host uh workshops all across the state which different schools are able to host through the IASC, one of which DeKalb was able to host earlier this year. Um and so they do a lot of great things and they also have a uh state service project. I forgot to mention that, which they try to get a lot of student councils around the state involved in either donating money or items, and they choose and myself and the board will be choosing a nonprofit to uh give some of these funds and items

082to in the coming year. So that's a few things that the IASC does. Um basically I'm hoping to get your approval to be able to bring myself and the advisors with the student council funds to the meetings which I will be presiding over this year. Yes. Are there any questions? Hearing no questions, do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And on to item D, which is the fiscal year 2027 Consolidated District Plan which will be presented to us by our grant manager, Emma. >> [clears throat] >> And Sarah and Kylene are Good evening, everybody. Um thanks for being here. I know this is a very long document and I'm going to try not to inundate you all with a ton of information tonight, but I know that a lot

083of questions come up around our different grants. So I thought I'd take the opportunity in presenting not only our Consolidated District Plan, but presenting on some of the federal grants and how those align with our district specifically. Um if I don't do a good job tonight, you can blame Peter Goff cuz he was my speech teacher in high school. >> [laughter] >> Um okay, so the CDP, I like to think of this as um the district's household plan. So if we were a household, um this plan outlines the strategy behind our federal grant funding, how it shows where the money goes, why it matters, and how it helps our kids to succeed. Um so we have our federal funding streams, um and then I work with T&L as well as our building leaders to allocate

084all of those resources that will not only meet student needs, strengthen instruction, improve outcomes, but we also have to stay compliant and be accountable by state and federal standards. Um one thing I wanted to I guess ca- um make sure that you are all knowledgeable in is that this gets um confused with being an application for grant funding, and that is not true. You'll notice that there's no actual budget included in the CDP. Um and it doesn't guarantee federal funding. However, with that said, we have to have an approved CDP on file before the state will even review any of our federal grant applications. So as those start opening up for us to apply for funding, we need to make sure the CDP uh precedes that. Um so the different grants that are included in

085the CDP, um and I do have to make a correction because in the agenda item, it states that there's 12 um federal grants, and that is not true. If I meant to correct that before I submitted it, there is only eight federal grants. If we included state grants, that would [snorts] be 12, but the CDP just encompasses our federal funding. Um and as you can see from this image, it includes Title I, which is improving basic programs, and in partnership with that is our school improvement grant. We also have Title II, which is supporting our high-quality teachers and leaders, so a lot of our professional development gets funded by that. Title III supports our multilingual students and immigrant students. Title IV is focused on student support and academic enrichment. And from this image, you can

086kind of see that all of these funnel up through our district goals, but at the top, we also have to meet those state and federal [snorts] goals as well. Oh, and I'm sorry, I also forgot IDEA. So, um, that is broken out between our IDEA flow-through and pre-K, and pre-K supports all of our pre-K students, so it's really just, um, broken up between the different age groups. Are there any questions thus far? Okay. Um, so, I'm going to start with Title I. This is really a supplemental grant. It's probably our largest grant, and I would like to say our most restrictive grant. Um, the purpose of this is to help our students who are most at risk of not meeting Illinois state standards. And there are quite a few requirements, um, that come along with

087this grant. So, they do require that we set aside funds to engage parents in their students' education. That is something that's required, um, as well as a neglected delinquent set aside to support those students. Our homeless student set aside, and then we also have to provide a propor- proportionate share to our non-public schools. Um, >> [clears throat] >> and the purpose of that is if we have students who are attending those schools but living within our district boundaries, if those schools were to close tomorrow, by state and sta- state and federal regulation, we need to set aside funding to support those students because they would technically be our students if that were to happen. So, as you can see, we do have three schools that benefit from that, and it follows the same proportionate share

088of low-income students. So, if they have low-income students living within our boundaries, that's how their share is calculated, just like it is at our district. Um, St. Mary's DeKalb does have the largest number of low-income students, so you will notice as we go through some of these slides, they also benefit from Title II and Title IV, whereas St. Mary's Sycamore and Aurora do not because they do not have the number of low-income students to benefit from those grants. Um, specific to our district, we run a school-wide program. Um, there are two ways that you can run a Title I program at a district. Targeted and school-wide. Targeted is really, um, relevant to smaller schools. That's when you're taking your Title I funding and you're allocating it just to specific students within the district who are

089low-income and need those extra supports. That would be really hard to do at our school district because we're so large. Um, school-wide ensures that all students at a Title I school benefit from this funding. Um, the grant budget specifically supports our supplemental staff salaries and benefits, so our reading specialists, literary literacy assistants, math interventionists, and then our ESL itinerant. Um, we also pay for district-wide student subscriptions and materials. We have a bucket of money that supports our elementary staff, um, mostly in the summer for planning and curriculum writing. A lot of that is done during the school year on PLC days, so a lot of that gets spent in the summer. And then we also offset our field trip entrance fees, transportation, um, offset, and then supplementary student programs such as, uh, Little Barb Summer

090Academy, and then NIU summer STEAM programming. Um, and then DHS and ELCD ELDC do not receive Title IA funding, and the purpose of that is they DHS is really too large, um, and you'll kind of see that in the next slide as I talk through how the proportionate shares are calculated. ELDC uh uh is supporting such a specific subset of students that they wouldn't be comparable. The state does require you to compare schools of certain sizes to ensure that you are allocating the correct amount of funding, not just from the grant, but from state [snorts] and local dollars as well. If DHS and ELDC were included, especially DHS, it wouldn't really allow us to allocate any funding to the elementary schools because they're so large. Are there any questions on Title I? Okay, in terms

091of how we calculate the proportionate shares, uh we get our total allocation, which you can see at the top, and a lot of times we get an initial allocation in the beginning of the year, and then within the middle of the school year, we might get some more money as, uh, the state is calculating unused funds from the previous year. Um, so what we do is we take any of our district-wide required set asides, and we kind of skim that off the top of our total allocation, which you can see from the math in the, uh, bottom left-hand corner, and then that leaves us an amount left to disperse among all of the schools that are Title I. When we take get that number, we dis- or divide it by our total low-income students, and

092that provides us with a per pupil amount. And that per pupil amount, by regulations within the grant, we are supposed to be spending that per student. And I used Mitchell as an example, so they had 320 low-income students. If you multiply that by our per pupil amount, you get this total share for Mitchell's, uh uh school, and it's really important that we spend >> [cough] >> no less [clears throat] than that amount at Mitchell. Um, the the grant won't even won't even let you kind of move forward in the application until you kind of get all of these numbers to match up. Um, are there any questions on how these proportionate shares are calculated? >> The the overall number, how has it been trending throughout the years? Like, this is the 2026 amount. What did

093we get last year, and do we have any idea what we're going to get for 2027? Does Does it vary quite a bit [snorts] each year? >> Uh, it doesn't vary quite a bit. I will say last year, with this current administration, a lot of our grants were up in the air. We had no idea what we were going to receive. And Title I got announced way later than it normally has. Normally, the CDP comes out this time of year, end of middle to end of May, we usually see Title I applications start rolling out. Same with Title II, Title IV, and I don't think we saw it until like close to August of last year. And in the beginning of the year, we really didn't receive as much as we have received in past

094years, but the carryover amount that we received in the middle of the year has kind of brought us up to pretty close to what we've received year over year. So, I wouldn't say it's fluctuated much at all. >> Okay. I just have a question about Are there guidelines or or rules in terms of how you have to disperse those funds within a school? Like, once you've got the proportionate share, do you get to decide where to put the You get to decide, however, there are restrictions. So, there is, um, some res- there's some resources on ISBE that will tell you what you can and cannot spend your money on. Um, and they do like to see that you're spending it on supplementary, like, staff and, uh, materials. So, they do recommend that you're spending it

095in certain ways. But there's not like proportions, like, you need to spend 40% of it on X type of thing, and Not necessarily. Okay. Thanks. [snorts] By the way, Maria, you're good to go if you have homework or other things to do. All right. Thank you. >> [laughter] >> All right. And I think too, uh, this slide really does kind of show why DHS would not be included because their low-income student count would be massive, and as you can see, they would take up half, probably, the share of Title I dollars. Um, moving on to school improvement and planning year grants. Uh, the purpose of this is to raise the achievement of students in lowest and under- underperforming schools. And how this works is designations come out in the fall, and if you are designated

096as targeted or comprehensive, it kind of kick-starts a four-year grant program. You start in planning year, and then you move into a three-year implementation program known as the school improvement or 1003A. Um, funding has to be used to develop, implement, and monitor school improvement plans. Comprehensive designated schools must work with an approved learning partner. Most of our schools are working with the Dekalb ROE. However, we do have a consultant at the state level that can make recommendations dependent on the changes that they plan to make within their school improvement plan, those different priorities that they're focusing on. And comprehensive designated designated schools must also work with an American with the American Institute for research. So, they come in and do an Illinois needs assessment, and then schools can use the data collected from that to

097also enhance their school improvement plans. And that's all done within the planning year, and then the following 3 years are really focused on implementing the changes that they've created in that first year of planning. Uh specific to us, we have paid for support staff salaries and benefits, student subscriptions and materials, staff shared tutoring hours, so they've been able to increase their tutoring through this grant. Additional staff planning and curriculum hours, PD PD textbooks for staff. And I will say that almost every school is working with an approved learning partner despite their designation status, which I think is telling of our building leaders in our schools. And you will also see that again some within the budgets, sometimes the amount of hours that our teaching staff are putting in is less because they're doing a lot

098of that work during our their PLC [clears throat] days. And then I'm improvement grant funding will continue regardless of positive changes to their designation status. So, DHS and Courtland have been designated commendable now. They're still in school improvement though. So, they don't necessarily rip the rug right out from underneath you. They do want you to finish those implementation years and they will continue that funding until that 4-year program is over. A quick question. This says you said this is the 1003A, correct? >> Yes. This year, I think last year what we got like 800 something thousand from this fund. This year it was only 600,000, right? Yeah, yes. >> I recall cuz the last meeting that's where we approved the stipends. So, it comes from this fund. So, just want Why did the amount to

099600? Does that fluctuate a lot, too, or is this one? >> It it does. And last year we received a lot of extra funding in the middle of the year. So, I'll get an email from the state and it's just an extra amount. And it's really dependent on all the unused fund funds from the years before. So, any unused funds from all the districts, they kind of put it back into a pot and then they redistribute those funds middle of the year. So, that's why you might see an increase in funding in January or February. >> don't always know at the beginning of the year they can just suddenly say you're going to get more money which which is good when they do that. >> good, but uh yeah, if you have 5 months to

100spend it, it can be difficult at times. >> to spend it by the a certain time, right? Otherwise >> Yes, you have to spend it by uh if you are running an extended project year, uh usually 8/31. All right. So, Title II, this is pretty heavy on professional development, recruitment, and retention strategies. Again, you'll see the requirement of the non-public proportionate share for St. Mary's. Um specific to us, we're funding secondary staff development and curriculum hours. So, Title I, we give a big pot to our elementary staff and leadership to put in those hours. Um we pull from Title II for secondary. We also are funding um supplementary secondary programs as well. And for Title II, we do take a collaborative approach to professional development requests. I will say that T&L works really hard to

101I mean, with Title II, you have to look at being equitable [clears throat] across the district, which can be hard sometimes. And so, we've looked to implement working with our building level staff to coordinate biannual rotations of conferences to ensure that this funding is equitable and that we're being fiscally responsible with Title II money. >> [clears throat] >> Do we know how much money was in this fund this year? Not off the top of my head. I think it was close to 305,000. Just wanted to get the numbers on each of the grants. >> be getting that confused with Title IV, so >> just approximately, I wanted to see. Uh Title III is our grant that helps our English learners and our immigrant students. Um and our immigrant students are not required to be English

102learners to be eligible for Title III services. So, this is broken out between two different grants. Our immigrant student grant has a much smaller budget. Budget allocation does include our ESL software, things like development opportunities for our multilingual staff, and um our bilingual parent advisory committee as well. And I work pretty heavily with AJ Kroc on that grant. Well, both of those grants. Title IV supports um student academic enrichment. As you can see, there are some requirements uh associated with Title IV in terms of percentages of allocation. So, technology, safe and healthy initiatives, well-rounded initiatives, we kind of have to meet certain percentages within the budget. And St. Mary's does benefit from this grant as well. Again, we do like to make sure that DHS is our priority with Title IV because they are not

103receiving any Title I funding. It does provide an opportunity for us to support a lot of the extra things that they're not getting that elementary is getting from Title I. So, as you can see So, as you can see, we've funded uh tutor extra tutoring hours, their subscriptions and materials that are supplemental, technology needs, student program needs, and then our Seal of Biliteracy and AP assessments always come out of Title IV as well. We usually cushion our budget our like materials budget line item for DHS out of Title IV because we know that throughout the year we're going to get requests for specific things. And some examples of that might be that smart boards give out, we are able to replace those um because of the technology requirement and that might help Ben with his

104budgets that he has uh because of the safe and healthy requirement, this year we got a request from CRMS, their choir risers were starting to like fall in, so we replaced some of those. Uh and then also the music department worked really really hard to fundraise and pull from a lot of different grants to fund their baby grand piano, and they came to us and asked said that they were short like three grand, so we were able to kind of a lot some money to them. So, again, we this is kind of a grant that we have a lot of flexibility with um and we do get creative throughout the year to make sure that we're being equitable with the use of this as well. And how much is in this grant this year approximately?

105Uh this was close to 300, but I think a little bit less. Okay. And and I'm just curious with the St. Mary's factor, it says non-public proportionate share. What percentage does does the grant say, "Hey, this percentage goes to St. Mary's?" Or does It's all based on their low income percentage. Yeah. So, Title II and Title IV will follow the same Title I requirement of low income percentage. And that's kind of how they dictate how much they get. So, that will fluctuate year over year dependent on how many low income students they have in our boundaries. >> Off the top of your head, do you know the percentage that Uh I don't. >> Okay. Maybe get back to me on that later. >> All right. Lastly, we have our IDEA grants. Um and the purpose

106of these are to uh ensure that children with disabilities receive a free appropriate public education in a least restrictive environment. Um it's broken out between the two age groups. Again, St. Mary's does receive a non-public share from IDEA as well. And one of the requirements is that we host a timely and meaningful consultation with them year over year to make sure that they are staying compliant with the grant as well. Uh and just to talk through how they plan to use it. Um and funds from this grant are contingent upon verification that schools state and local budgets for special ed services meet the maintenance of effort through the state. And really that just means that we have to report how much state and local funds we're using on special ed services is comparable to what

107we are uh allocating year over year. Funds that we uh budget for out of this grant are curriculum subscriptions, transitional services, um our IEP data processing software, as well as our NIA services for hearing, vision, OT, and PT services. And that's like a $1.3 million cost. So, it This grant makes a huge difference within the district. And I'm going to sound like a broken record, but do we know the amount we get for the Part B IDEA grant? I'm sorry, for the >> How much How much does we get How much What allocation do [clears throat] we get this year? >> well, it covers most of NIA, so it's, I believe, pretty close to a million dollars. >> Okay, that's a big one. Okay. So, this is a lot of information, uh, and you might

108be wondering how we stay aligned on how to use this federal funding throughout the year, not just while we're compiling the consolidated district plans. We do run a fine line of ensuring equitability and fiscal responsibility through processes. And really, the goal is collaboration to ensure that we don't leave money on the table, especially right now in a time when federal funding is so uncertain. When we get that carryover, a lot of times we've gotten that in the past, and we uh, want to make sure that we're not banking on that anymore, and that we're really spending every single dollar and not relying on that. Um, so, I did want to touch on some processes that we've put into place to ensure, uh, some of these things, um, really that that is kind of our goal

109throughout the year. Uh, one thing I did this year was looked at Title I compliance. It seemed like there were some misconceptions at the building level on what was needed to be compliant for Title I. Not necessarily that we weren't compliant, but I felt that some schools were doing more than they needed. And then we were also keeping everything in print. So, this year we're working on digitizing a lot of the compliance paperwork related to Title I. And we've also worked some of the necessary documents into registration, so it's digital and no longer needed to print, um, so wasting a lot of district resources, sending it home, not getting signatures back, and it's also a lot of work on our reading specialists and our building leaders. Our reading specialists at the buildings, because they are

110they have a, uh, percentage of their salary paid for out of the grant, they have historically owned some of these extra things that are needed for Title I. Uh, we've also worked really hard to inform our building leaders on their budgets. So, I created grant trackers for every single, uh, school that's receiving grant money. They have tabs that are titled with their grant budgets, and I meet with them in the beginning of the school year in January, as well, to make sure that they know what their budget looks like, uh, how we can shift funding to meet the needs of the students and the staff throughout the year, and so that they're just knowledgeable on, uh, really what the grants also have to offer to them. And then, we also came up with a new

111grant PO system within the business office to ensure that POs are placed in a timely manner, and that there's no real confusion when POs get placed. A lot of times, uh, if an a wrong account number is used on something and I don't see it, uh, if it doesn't cross my desk and I don't see it, I can't expend that money from the state when I'm submitting expenditures on a monthly basis. So, to ensure that there's, you know, no loss on, um, our part, that's really cut down on that, as well. And then, we've also gotten creative with using our grant funding. So, uh, there are some initiatives that will fit the purpose of multiple grants. Uh, and so, we've always made sure to prioritize our state grants first if that's the case, because we

112know that they are on a payment schedule, and then we'll tap into a federal grant that might have a budget line item for the same thing, because that ensures that we don't have to pay the state back money when it's time for the grant to conclude. Additionally, we can braid federal funding. So, uh, as you've seen tonight, we have, uh, curriculum writing and planning is a huge initiative across the district. It's important for our teachers to have that time, and we do have budgets out of multiple grants to focus on that. Um, so, it really is a collaborative effort between all of us. And then, lastly, um, how do we know this is working? So, the consolidated district plan and school improvement plans are tightly connected. Uh, they are really the same goals on different

113levels. Both plans are built from the same data, so we're consistently looking at test scores, attendance, behavior, surveys. Uh, while the CDP prioritizes If If you notice that the CDP has something prioritizing math scores, you should see this reflected through school improvement plans. Um, they're very closely tied together. Um, funding alignment, the CDP determines how the funds are used. And school improvement plans really guide how they're spent at the school level. It really ensures that money's not random and is in meeting each school's individual goals within the school improvement plan. We do have dis- district-wide initiatives, and those are outlined in the CDP, but school improvement plans show how those systems are implemented day-to-day in each building. And it's something to kind of keep our building leaders and our school improvement teams like with those

114at the forefront of everything they're doing throughout the year. Both plans follow the same cycle. Again, we're analyzing data, setting goals, implementing strategies, and monitoring progress throughout the year. School improvements, uh, school improvement plans really feed real-time progress back to the district, which informs updates that we make to the CDP year over year. And accountability, the CDP is ensuring that all of our schools are working toward a common expectation and equity goals, while school improvement plans allow flexibility based on those schools' unique needs. So, the con- consolidated district plan really does align funding and district priorities, while the school improvement plans translate those priorities into targeted actions at each school to improve student outcome. Are there any questions? What are you talking about braiding the federal funds? So, as an example of that, like you

115can take Title I and Title II and use those to offset the salary for like a math interventionist? Is that how those would be eligible? Uh, you could, but you need to make sure that the initiative fits each grant purpose. So, as long as it fits each grant purpose, you can braid funding. Um, but again, Title II has different restrictions compared to like Title I. So, you might have an initiative that fits Title I's So, like academic achievement in Title I and like hiring in Title II or something. Would that fit both, cuz you'd be hiring a person who is also going to work towards improving academic achievement? Sure. Yeah. >> [snorts and clears throat] >> And the funds get distributed based on just the percentage of low-income students. You have your formula in Title

116I. Is there a variation of that for all the different titles, or is that the same formula that each title is using? So, if it's like if 60% of students at Mitchell are low-income students, so like that per pupil funding or whatever, 60% of the funds allocated. How's that exactly work? You're taking the total low-income students. So, to find that per pupil amount, you have to take all of the low-income students. And so, then for each different like elementary school, where they all have different numbers, like that's just going to affect the amount each one of them gets allocated. Right. So, there's not exactly an equity per se. I mean, there's different More students is needing more resources, obviously. So, is that impacting the ability of some of the elementary schools to like hire additional

117people, because they simply just don't have the same volume of grant funding available? And like, what are we doing, I guess, to like help offset that, cuz like, you know, you know, I think about like math interventionists specifically. When I was reading the plan, I think we only have, like it said, a few of them, you know, district-wide or whatever, but like, obviously, that's like a huge problem we have academically, cuz like our students just aren't scoring well. They're getting better, which is great, according to the numbers, but it's like more hands, you know, how do we how do we get more How do we get a math interventionist in every school, and how do we maximize the grant funding, I guess, to help offset that? So, that's like what you guys are working on,

118I suppose, right? Okay. Yes. Absolutely. >> to like see if I understood how that works together. Thank you. There there was one fund that I didn't get a number on, I apologize. If you could go back to Title III LIEP, approximate allocation. I'm just getting all the numbers down for each of these. Just a Just approximate. We get approximately $80 per students out of that fund. So, I think this year we got up around $106,000 to start the school year. I don't have any questions. I just wanted to say thank you for this like this presentation is incredibly helpful. I am bookmarking it. Like the slides are so well laid out. Everything about it is so helpful. So It's a lot of information, but if you have questions, feel free to >> excellent though and

119it's yeah, it's really helpful. So thanks. >> And Peter, she should have gotten a A because I don't remember >> [laughter] >> one um during the hesitation. >> Thank you. Just your grade will you? All right. Any other questions or comments? Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. All right. We'll move on to the superintendent's report. Dr. Crutchfield-Sanchez, take it away. You know what that means, right? We're rounding the corner. So, first and foremost, the boys volleyball team played tonight. Peter, how did we do? We won the first set in the in the freshman and then lost the next two games. When I left to come here, it started a little late. We were I think it was like 10 to 5. I haven't seen anything yet. >> Okay. >> But the

120place was unbelievably excited. It was loud. >> Yeah. So, this is the first time we're playing boys volleyball in this district. You know, we played girls uh flag football last year. That's how we kicked it off. We got boys volleyball now. Let's see what happens next, right? So, excited about that. Um another thing that I'm excited about is registration. Let's make sure that we get registration so that by the time school year starts, we're not having those long lines on the parking lot when people trying to register. Let's just get it done, people. Get in deadlines now while they're short. Well, and then finally, I'd like to make a I just remind people this is storm season. With storm season, sometimes we get some, you know, tornado warnings. And I want to let y'all know

121that if you are in one of our buildings with our children, either on a bus or anything that has to do with our school district, we are by school code and our policies um required to hold on to individuals in a uh shelter in place and not to release anyone until the warning has been lifted. I got that people are a little unnerved and you know, they don't want to be stuck in a room and you know, all of those kinds of things, but we do that for your safety. If a child is there without a parent or guardian, that child will not be released to anybody until the storm the so that we are lifted from that storm. I just want to make sure that we are clear. Please know that our staff, all

122of our staff, whether they're custodians or the uh the assistants and the administrators and teachers and everybody else that is there, they are there and they know the protocol and are there to make sure that everyone stays safe. So, please help us um by, you know, keeping for keeping you safe and just pay attention to what the it is that we're asking of you so that we can make sure that the the storm seasons, which are usually spring and the fall, are a lot safer for everybody. And that's it for me. Turning it back to you. All right. Meeting time is now 8:40. Do we have a motion to adjourn? >> So moved. Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. That adjourns the meeting at 8:40 p.m. That's an early one.