DeKalb CUSD 428 Board Meeting 4/7/2026

001Now 7:00 and we'll call this meeting to order. Jackie, roll call. Here. 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. And next we will move into public participation. Members of the public who wish to speak to the board should complete a request card prior to the start of the meeting. This section of the meeting will be reserved for public comment. All comments should be limited to 3 minutes. Jackie, do we have any comments? All right, no comments, we'll move into board correspondence. Does anyone have anything for the board? So I guess the exciting things that I get to do tomorrow, Meta will be having their annual grant

002ceremony where they'll be recognizing all the organizations they've been assisting. So I will be representing the district there tomorrow along with a lot of our administrators. And then just because why not keep the fun rolling, Alderman Powell and I from the fifth ward will be going to visit Mitchell in the high school tomorrow to just check in and see how all of our friends are doing. So that's going to be a very fun full day. And that's what I've got going on. All right. Hearing nothing else and I haven't gotten anything from Maria, so we don't have any student board correspondence. Item five, consent agenda. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5G, which is the board meeting minutes from March 18th, personnel action items, purchase order requisitions,

003employment contract for DHS assistant principal, IESA membership for Huntley Middle School, and Northwestern Medicine athletic trainer amended restated professional service agreement as presented and or amended. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. Jackie, well first we have any discussion on those items before we vote. Hearing no discussion, Jackie, roll call. Yes. All right. And then moving into old business. First item is item A, Fusion I N W A map conference. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the travel to the Fusion I N W E A conference. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Yes. Item B, admin stipends from the 1003A title grant funds. Do I have a motion? So moved. I didn't read the motion. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the additional pay for

004school level administrators for additional duties aligned to school improvement. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do I have any discussion on the motion on the floor? Yes. Um I know the board discussed this at at the last meeting and unfortunately I was I wasn't unable to attend the last meeting. Um I I have a little bit of difficulty with this particular item. I know the board has approved this in the past and I was just looking through the listing of what we've spent money from this fund before and I think, if I'm not mistaken, we don't have to spend this money until August 31st, if that's my understanding. Last year, this fund received $840,000 in this grant and this year we're having 606,000. And and I'm not discounting anything that was mentioned at

005the last board meeting. I know the folks who would receive this money do a fantastic job. I realize they all work extra hours. But I was looking at other items that this fund money has been spent on in the past, things like tutoring, student subscription services, student materials, professional development for purchase services, um learning software. We even spent money this year on a math assistant for funding for that, things that directly affect our students. I would like to see if perhaps we could postpone this and look at items similar to what we spent it on rather than putting money toward administration as far as bonuses as far as I'm concerned. I I don't think it's a great expense. I don't think I think we could prioritize students with this money rather than provide bonuses. And

006again, I'm not saying that the administrators, they do a fantastic job, but I would like to see the money go directly to things that affect the classroom directly. I'm not sure if there's any other interest. Just uh last year 24-25 9.4% was toward the stipends. This year, the amount of the the money from the grant is 14%. That's a huge hike. So out of $606,000, we're going to spend $85,000 on this. I'm very uncomfortable with this. Just so I understand what you've said, are you making a motion to table the current Yes, or postpone, I should say. That'd probably be the right word. Is there a second for Mark's motion? Hearing no motion, that motion dies, so we will return to the motion that was on the floor. Jackie, roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. No.

007Yes. Item C, Building Thinking Classrooms workshop. It is recommended the Board of Education approve for six Cortland teachers and four administrators to attend the 2026 Building Thinking Classrooms conference June 29th through the 30th, 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Item G, bid results HMS HVAC abatement. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the Huntley Middle School HVAC abatement base bid in the amount of $37,200 and alternate bid number two in the amount of $2,800 to Nationwide Environmental and Demo LLC from Franklin Park, Illinois. Yes, do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion on the motion? Yes. Can you just clarify, this is the one that you gave us that was lower than what you originally Yes, the projected

008budget on this originally was 125 to 150,000. Yes, the original budget that we put forth when the bid the original bid results were brought was the 125 to 150,000. This vendor did come in significantly lower, but as lower, but has been fully vetted out by our um environmental consultant and we have no concerns that it will be fulfilled at the rate that we're looking at. Thank you. You're welcome. All right, any other questions? Jackie, roll call. Yes. Item E, bid results Huntley Middle School band room flooring replacement. It is recommended the Board of Education approve the alternate bid results for the Huntley Middle School band room flooring replacement in the amount of $34,980 to Rockford Carpet Land of Rockford, Illinois in the amount of $54,740 to Alliance Environmental Solutions LLC of Wheeling, Illinois. Do I

009have a motion? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion on the motion? Jackie, roll call. Kristin Bailey, yes. Nick Ewald, Yes. >> Steve Byers, Yes. >> Jose Jacquez, Yes. Christopher Boys, Yes. >> Mark Schuster, Yes. Item F, summer 2026, teaching and learning TOSA LOA. It is recommended the Board of Education approve this request for the T&L TOSA LOA regarding the 2026 summer hours. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion on the motion on the floor? Hearing no questions, Jackie, roll call. Kristin Bailey, yes. Nick Ewald, Yes. Steve Byers, Yes. >> Jose Jacquez, >> Yes. Christopher Boys, >> Yes. >> Mark Schuster, Yes. Item G, marching band travel request, and MB Super Regional competition. It is recommended the Board of Education approve this request for the DeKalb High School

010marching band to attend the MB Super Regional competition in St. Louis, Missouri from October 22nd through the 24th of 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion on the motion? Hearing none, Jackie, roll call. >> Nick Ewald, Yes. Steve Byers, Yes. >> Jose Jacquez, Yes. Christopher Boys, Yes. Mark Schuster, Yes. Kristin Bailey, yes. And that's down with new business, on to Vision 428 business. Oh. My mind just says no. Okay. Let Billy talk. All right, is it my turn? Yes. All right, so I'm just here to I know at our last board board meeting we asked if the board would come with um picking one of the options that that we provided. After talking to various subcommittee members, our committee stakeholders, um we're still going to move forward with

011Vision 428. We're just going to do it um in a more deliberate and at a more deliberate and measured pace. Um we want to make sure we're fiscally responsible and we're doing this the right way and not get stuck in the middle of something and not be ready for it. So, um the work is not stopping. We're going to continue to work with the subcommittees. Right now, my task will be uh to work with our team to make sure we can backwards plan a new timeline, and then from there subcommittees will be reaching out to their members and begin planning again. I'm guessing probably over the summer. Uh probably won't meet much, but um after that we'll probably kick off in the fall. Any questions? Not necessarily a question, but I wanted to thank all

012the committee members who are here and anybody who's listening will listen, whatever. It was an amazing amount of work done in a very short period of time. And the fact that we were appreciative of just pumping the brakes a little bit says nothing about the work that was done. It's a great job by all, I think, but just looking from a 50,000 foot view, maybe the accelerator's down a little too fast. Sure. Yeah, I appreciate that. All right, thank you. Now, moving into new business. Item A, resolutions abating a portion of the taxes heretofore levied for the year 2025 for the educational fund levy. This is information and action. Armir? Yes. Uh so, uh in the board agenda item we have two resolutions. Um one for amending the tax levy adopted in December of 2025.

013We would like to maintain our commitment to make sure residents and businesses pay the same tax rate as the previous year, holding the line on the district's share of their property tax bill. So, we're bringing our recommendation to revise the tax levy uh by $2.6 million to reach a 4.83% rate, uh which holds the line from previous year. The recommendation to hold the tax rate uh will uh will hold a residential property tax rates flat, providing the relief in forms of the rate. And however, the flat rate doesn't necessarily mean the same tax bill amount as last year because it has to take into account the appreciation of the houses uh the house appreciation increase. Uh so, we only have until tomorrow and uh at till 10:00 a.m. uh to submit this. So, we're looking

014for an information action item. A quick question just uh for transparency purposes for residents, if we do not do this, their tax bills would go up even more. I think the amount was like $100 more if we did not approve this. You're correct, we're still going to see a tax increase average person between 300 and 400 for the average home, but otherwise it would be 500 if we don't do this. So, uh appreciate the fact that the county uh allowed us some extra time to do this, and so we can save the residents some money. So. All right. No other questions, it is recommended the Board approve the resolution abating a portion of the taxes heretofore levied for the year 2025 for the educational fund levy by the DeKalb Community Unit School District number 428.

015Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Steve Byers, Yes. Jose Jacquez, Yes. Christopher Boys, Yes. Mark Schuster, Yes. Kristin Bailey, Yes. Nick Ewald, Yes. Steve item B is pretty much the same thing and same topic, so I'm just going to say it is recommended the Board of Education approve the resolution approving supplemental certification to the county clerk of the 2025 levy below the maximum amount permitted under PTEL by DeKalb Community Unit School District number 428. Did you want to add anything to that, Armir? Sure. So, the to the first resolution is actually um abating amending more abating further down from the December. The second resolution is a resolution of under levy. So, uh this uh by going further reducing further our tax levy, uh we're going under the under levy territory.

016So, this resolution uh reflects that. All right. And so basically what that means is we could take more money with a higher rate, but we're electing not to in part because taxpayers have been hit pretty hard already this year, and so we're essentially just going to make do with about $6 million less over the last 2 years. About right? Yeah, uh so the under levy is uh we're just reducing further from what we're maximally allowed to do in order to provide the taxpayers relief. And so this year that was like $2.6 million or so. Uh we did abate already uh in December. This is a further abatement from December. So, it's uh it is uh additional to the December money. So, we're looking at about 12 to 14 million abatements. Overall? Overall. Okay. Thank you.

017that uh we forgot from collecting. All right. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Jose Jacquez, Yes. Christopher Boys, Yes. Mark Schuster, Yes. Kristin Bailey, Yes. Nick Ewald, Yes. Steve Byers, Yes. Item C. Thank you, Armir. Item C is Midwest Management Summit. This is information presented by Director Bale. Hey, good evening, everybody. Uh Jeremy Hernandez, our system analyst two, is looking to attend the Midwest Management Summit, which is a 5-day conference held in Minnesota. Uh conference runs from May 3rd to May 8th. Uh hotel passes are covered under the just under $3,000 cost, and then it's about $780 in gas and mileage and treasuries. Uh but it covers many of the topics on systems that Jeremy oversees, mainly on our Microsoft environment. So, this is kind of the centralized conference that

018he tries to attend every year if possible. Uh and this will be coming out of the technology budget, um specifically our travel line item at a cost of $3,679. Quick question. Um this is out of our local funds, correct? That's all. There's no way we can get money from any of our other grants or anything for this, right? I'm assuming we we couldn't use that. I'm always a little uncomfortable using local funds for travel. >> I wish. With the unfortunately, a lot of the grants don't align towards technology. >> Right. They they allow for specifically like a curriculum-based sort of conference, but not usually a technology-based conference. So, we tend to be kind of like the red-headed stepchild on some of those some of those grants. This is already budgeted money, right? We already have

019this money. >> This is budgeted money that we have. Um so, typically within the travel budget, there's maybe about two out-of-state conferences that it can handle, but then the rest of that budget pays for all the in-district mileage for all the FTE and hourly employees who drive in between buildings with their own vehicles. And which those costs are escalating as well. So. It's all your fault. I sincerely apologize. Are there any other questions outside of Mark's? Do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. All right. Thank you. And next item will be item D, Courageous Principals Leadership Development Program, June 2026. Because of timing, this is info and action. Um Good evening again. Uh so, this Um Ben, is that is there enough time to respond if the conference is in May? Yeah, they

020said it would be all right. Thank you. Thank you, though. Thank you. Oh, you're good. Wait. So, Courageous Principals, we've sent uh a couple of our administrators already. Um, they went to round one. We It's a cycle, so there's Courageous Principal one, Courageous Principal two. We like to send them out to two. Um, and any new administrators that we're hiring, um, if they're able to internal that are internal now that are moving into the admin role, we'd like them to also be part of Courageous. So, our Dean of Restorative, um, our Restorative Dean at the at Malta Elementary is currently a teacher and will be moving into a Dean position, so we um have invited um that person as well. Billy, how does this differ from the we approved back in January for I think

021there's a conference coming up next week if I'm not mistaken. Is it the same topic areas that are going to be discussed? Is different administrators attending this one as opposed to the one that's next weekend? >> Yep. Uh, same topics, different administrators. There's a cycle, so we want all of our leaders to go through one and two. So, uh Jackie and I looked at the list the other day and we're like, "This person hasn't been to one, this person hasn't been to two." So, they run at the same time, one and two. So, um some of them will be going to one, some of them will be going to two. Once they're done with that cycle, um that's they're done going. And this is all grant money, so Correct. >> people know that. All right.

022>> Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Jackie, roll call. Uh, Nicole Christopher Boyce? Yes. Arlene Rutz? Yes. Nancy Buck Oh, I'm sorry. Kristen Bailey? Yes. Nick Atwood? Yes. Steve Byers? Yes. Oséas Cruz? Yes. All righty. Item E, ELDC building design update. This is information that will be presented by Kyle. All right. Good evening. Really excited to be here tonight in a a little bit more of a formal presentation style uh to kind of update the board and community around what the ELDC schematic design team has been up to the last several months and to make a request to the Board of Education for your support. Um, I'm joined behind me and in the audience and online tonight by a lot of people who have put a lot of time, energy, and effort, and

023thought uh into not only what we're going to present tonight, but just the dream of having a new and revised ELDC uh for our community. Um, as a reminder, our mission is to start the process to build a state-of-the-art environment that fosters cognitive, social, and emotional development for our youngest Carbs. Um, and in doing that, we keep a few things at the center of our decision-making, equity, future readiness, and our impact on our community. A recap on our road to get to 2028. Uh, so in November of 2025, the Board of Education took action to approve a 24-classroom ELDC. In March of 2026, which is really present day, we are coming forward with the board to the board to give an update on our schematic design in where we're at. And then as we move

024forward, once we have an approved schematic design, um our architect will begin the design process. That'll be taking several months to put that together. Um, and then when we kind of iron that out in October, we'll start the bidding and project awards. Spring of 2027 will be when we could begin construction. That'll take about 16 months. Uh, fall of '28 we'll have our grand opening. Sorry, fall of 2028 we'll have the grand opening. And then I thought this was kind of cool. Spring of 2043, those students walk through the door old That'll be the first first cohort that'll graduate uh from DeKalb High School. Wow. And it hit me while I was writing that that I have a daughter about that age, so But anyway. So, through this process, um and I think I've alluded

025to this throughout board reports, is we started with one vision and we kind of challenged ourselves to push that our thinking, right? Um, you know, Dr. Garcia Sanchez always said, "Dream as if Disneyland built a school, right?" And then figure out where you have to walk back from there. Um, it's been a fun process to try and push ourselves outside of the the schema that we have. Um, but in order to do that, we had to get out of our comfort zone. So, what we've been doing is going on uh different site visits both inside the district as well as outside the district. Um, we've been having conversations with people who are at either the district level, uh administrative level at the buildings, or even at the teaching level at other schools. Um, sometimes it's

026to learn what lessons they learned when they were building a building or what did they want What did they wish they would have thought of 5 years after the building opened. So, it's been really powerful to talk and learn from other people. We've also leaned on our state and other local agencies to learn um that as we design this, we're making sure we're fitting the requirements of different grants that we will be hoping to maintain or acquire. Um, and then kind of that last piece to this, which is now we have to revise our schema, what we thought, into now what we know we need in an ELDC, and then communicate that to the board and ask us uh for your support to get us across the finish line. So, with that, I am happy

027to kind of share our request and then I'm going to be quiet and let some of the people behind me kind of talk a little bit more in detail. Uh, November of 2025, as I mentioned, we were approved for a 38.03 million dollar uh facility. That was going to be about 54,200 square feet. As I mentioned, we've gone through a little bit of a process to refine what we initially thought we were going to need. Um, and we are coming forward tonight with an adjusted proposal and request uh to build an ELDC that would be a total of 41.78 million, uh which would increase our footprint to 60,055 square feet. Um, and that total adjustment would be about 3.75 million. And now I'm going to tell you why that is necessary for our ELDC. I'm

028not going to tell you, the people behind me. Okay, so um like Kyle kind of mentioned, throughout this process, we've really pushed ourselves to design what we really would like, but also scale some of the things back. And there's been like three areas where we have come to find are necessities for an early childhood center. Um, I I know like the how the process started. Like Kyle sat down with the team, right? And they discussed like what a building would need. When we look at that, it looked more like an elementary building. And which is I can see that understanding, right? We all can. Um, when you really think about it, we're building an early childhood center. So, it is going to look different than an elementary building in several different areas. So, one of

029our first areas is gross motor space. So, um we've been to several different visits. We went and saw Mitchell. We were at Portland. Those are the only in districts, I think. Um, and then we, you know, we've looked like I've been in Brooks, so I know what their gym looks like, things like that. Um, originally, it was like a traditional large gym that you would see PE classes happening in. Throughout our process, what we've realized is for an early childhood center, we're not teaching physical education. So, we're providing students with opportunities to develop gross motor skills in a different way so that they're ready then for those physical education classes when they do enter elementary. Um, so we've kind of pushed around some ideas. We've seen some centers. Um, those are pictures from one of

030the centers we actually saw. Um, what we're proposing is three smaller indoor gross motor areas opposed to one large gym. Um, we're going to have a lot more students. Every class has to have 30 minutes of gross motor time a day. If we were to do that in one large space, we'd be having like 120 kids in a gym. Not just 120, 123 four and five year olds. Okay? Um, that would be very chaotic and at times very unsafe. If we are able to do the three smaller gross motor areas, you'd be having about 40 students in there at a time, which then would allow them the opportunity to engage in all those gross motor activities we have available. Um, through our grant currently, we have to provide seven different gross motor skills that students

031are working on at that time. So, we have to have bikes, we have to have balls, we have to have climbers, um all these different things for the seven different areas that they can work on. Um, this has been one of the biggest challenges I would say for us is like how how can we make that work? How can we make it safe? And how can we provide and facilitate those activities in a really large gym. It just we could not we couldn't get there. Um, so that's one of our proposals. To make it a safer, you know, we have to have a climbing structure, um not just like a climbing rock wall. Um That one of those pictures is a bike path. You know, something like that where kids can ride bikes and some

032balls and they've got mats for tumbling and things like that. So, that's one of the areas that we've really kind of been stuck on and how can we make that work for early childhood students, three, four, and five-year-olds. Is that Can I get that pretty good? Do you want to do The next one? You want me to? Can I ask a question about that one? >> Yeah, go ahead. So, am I understanding it right? So, for the you need to have three separate spaces because you're going to have like the bike path in each one and the climbing structure in each one and that's because you have the groups that are all going at the same time and so, you couldn't like do one of those like field house dividers because you still have to

033have separate equipment space and separate bicycle space. Okay. >> Yeah, that's we kind of talked about that cuz when we went to Mitchell, I was like this is when we were still like we could make a large gym work. We could put the divider down, do all that. Um, we've kind of tossed around ideas that each one would look a little different but have like the same activities available and then we'd kind of do like a daily rotation through. So, maybe Monday I'm in this one, Tuesday I'm in that one. Um some other ways to really make this a utilized space is two of the programs we went and observed have doors that open to their outdoor gross motor space as well. So, when it's nice, that space can also be utilized and not just

034when we're stuck in because of the weather. And most of the winter we're stuck in cuz we don't go out if it's below 20. So, um yeah, so that's one of the ideas we've tossed around, too. I just had a question really quick. >> Yeah. I was just curious, um because we we're talking about 40 kids in each one. What is the square footage of these smaller spaces? What do we have written down on that? No. I feel like it was like 1,600? Or close to of each? Each. Oh, okay. Cool. I feel like I'm having a mini heart attack looking at these photos. Like, oh my god. Oh, no. 40 of my daughter in that space. Yeah, no. That That's That space was probably a little smaller, um, but it was one of them

035we saw that's one of the newer builds. Okay. Um and kind of like some things I've seen at other places that I've worked. Um definitely you have to have that climbing structure in there. So, you got to have the room and the measurements and all those things for it to be I I suppose up to code. Do we know how much how big the the original gym was going to be when we were going to do the single? >> Yeah. I don't think I'm looking at that Tammy has all the numbers. All right. Not in Not in my head. Um, originally we were looking at a a gym that was going to be 5,000 square feet and the gross motor spaces we're looking at now are closer to 1,700 square feet for each of them.

036And uh correct me if I'm wrong. Did you say that you're having the same equipment in each one or just different equipment with the same general Yeah. >> like movement types, right? Or skills. >> Yeah. So, initially we had thought we we tossed around an idea that each one could look very different and work on a different skill. But, the more you look into the grant, it say it states that you have to have seven different motor skills that students are working on while they're in the gym. You have to have seven things available for different gross motor skills. So, so we would design that they'd all have the same thing but maybe the climbing structures in each one are a little different, um, so that it's not the exact same. Got it. Yeah, that's

037what I was wondering. Any other questions on the gross motor space? I see you're looking at it. >> No, it it's a bigger question. So, go ahead and I'll You might answer it on the way. Okay. Shannon? Yeah, absolutely. Hi. Um, so as we're looking at this second, um, proposal, we are, um, you know, understanding the needs of our students and what how to support them. Uh, so our rationale for this is two separate sensory rooms. So, looking at a space for them to go into and help calm themselves down when they're having, um, you know, in crisis. Some children just need to, you know, get out and movement and sometimes the swings can help. Um, being able to provide them with that sense of support in a calming environment, um, to allow them to

038just get out whatever it is that's bothering them out, um, whether they need to scream for a minute or maybe they need to do some movement activities, um, being able to provide them with that support within the environment, um, to help calm them down. So, when we think about designing these two rooms, um, you know, we are really hoping that they can be, um, separate from those OT PT rooms due to, uh, the fact that some of our OTs and PTs will go into the rooms to do, um, whether they treat with different with different equipment or, um, you know, whatever it is that they're doing with those individual students, we don't want to add more to a child in crisis. We want to allow them to have that time to process and um, support

039them as those sensory needs. So, this was one of our rationales as far as, um, as we're looking into some proposals, um, and the reasoning behind some of these. Questions? I have questions about this. >> We have three bedrooms and one of those is a sensory room in my house because we believe so strongly Isn't it amazing for this? It's perfect. Um, I'm curious how two will be enough and what size they will be and also why you've decided to do like two bigger ones as opposed to like maybe more smaller room I I'm just like cuz 120 kids I have two. Yeah. You know. Yeah. Um, and also how how are those governed? Like, is there an adult I mean, there's got to be an adult in there but like how is it staffed

040all the time or is there one >> specifically would be open to anyone that needs to use them. We have noticed right now um, what we're what we're we are seeing, um, there isn't a spot for them to go. So, the teachers are trying to do that in the hallways uh, and try to you know, support them as best as possible. Um, so this would be open to anybody to use. Um, there can be multiple children using them at the same time depending on the situation and how they're, um, you know, their demeanor and how they're feeling at that moment. Um, let's say, you know, kiddo wants to use a swing while another one is using, you know, some heavy work or whatever that looks like, um, to help get them their body ready to

041go back to class. Uh, and then one maybe even used for just that, you know, major crisis and you know, what that looks like. So, I do know that when we were talking through the design plan is providing multiple little spaces built within whether it's, um, kind of pods like Courtland has or something similar as that classroom design to having those individual spaces for teams to also go, um, in the moment if it's, you know, something that's a little less traumatic. Um, you know, can do that there or if they need to use that those sensory rooms. Having those um available for students. So, I'm not as I'm not 100% sure on this Yeah, yeah, absolutely. So, kind of how she mentioned we were saying like maybe even like a little nook off of a

042hall where if a if the crisis isn't too big, you know, we could take a student into that area as well. So, trying and it wouldn't have as much available in there but, you know, like some weighted blankets or things like that. So, um, that was one of the other things we've kind of tossed around is having the two rooms but then having kind of some smaller little nooks where students could go to. Um, a lot of our students at first are going to have a difficult time transitioning when they're in a crisis. So, making sure that those smaller little nooks are kind of near classrooms for those students who do have difficulty transitioning. That was exactly my question and concern was yeah, what kinds of tiny spaces are going to have calm down. Absolutely.

043All of our classrooms will have, um, calming corners and we will be teaching them how to, you know, help their bodies calm, get ready to learn, um, you know, even when they are in crisis in the moment. If it's not too big, then they can, um, have that within the classroom but there are times where they need you know, they need to exit the classroom and just, you know, have a little bit more support and time to just de-escalate. Any other questions? Jack and Jill bathrooms. Oh, yes. Ready for the next one? Jack and Jill bathrooms. Yes. So, this has been something that, um, our team has kind of gone back and forth on and it has been um, you know, as we start looking into the guidelines and, you know, what our PFA grant

044says, um, you know, when we currently, um, you know, with our classroom situation not having bathrooms nearby, it takes us out of compliance. So, making sure that we have adults in the room, um, and when we are changing a kiddo or they need to go to the bathroom, they, um, two adults are present at the time. So, there's an adult supporting, um, you know, changing the child and then there's an another adult supporting them um, in that sense just as that a second set of eyes. Uh, so we came to the idea of Jack and Jill bathrooms, um, conjoining classrooms to that way we have that opportunity for multiple adults. Um, and some of our EC classes have those currently, um and our proposal is to just add a couple two stalls in there that

045way they can each classroom can have their own stall but still be within that code of conduct for changing and bathroom and not have to have staff members exit the classroom and they can have the doors open and more adults. So it's been mentioned by both of you the PFA grant. Yes. I am ignorant to that because I don't I don't know it's very apparent what we're required to do. What what's the get for all the give? Absolutely. So the PFA grant is our preschool for all grant so that is our grant that pretty much funds our program and that so we there's a set of guidelines that we have to follow and every 3 years they come for a state monitoring visit. So they go through the compliance checklist and we all have that

046and we're working our team it does an awesome job and have been working towards you know maintaining gold status and so with that we just follow the guidelines and ratio is a big thing with our grant 10 students for one adult and so in some of our pre-K classes when one adult has to leave the classroom with one or two children depending on what that looks like they are out of compliance with you know 18 children with one adult in the classroom so we would like to have those Jack and Jill bathrooms within every two classrooms to allow for one our code of conduct for the district as well as complying with our grant. So not to dive too far into the weeds that's again you hit you hit me with requirements and it funds

047the program what is it what is it is it funding like is part of the 41.78 million dollars coming from that grant? Yeah our grant is people back there paid for by the grant what what is what's the get? Our so our grant currently it's based on the number of students that we have in the program and it funds some of our teacher salaries not all of them but teacher salaries assistant salaries as well as materials that are needed in the grant. So not the building. Not the building not the construction no. We can always look into that. Does that grant scale up as we expand the amount of students as well? So yeah it definitely has the opportunity to expand and scale up so we when we apply and there's another one that we

048are hoping to apply for is that preschool for all expansion grant which is that full day programming as well. So there are two different grants that we're hoping you know will bring in hopefully a good chunk of money for that but we don't know right now what that will look like we when we apply we'll get that information. You're welcome. Did you say those are the state funded grants or okay. Any other questions? Now speaking of local funds how many more square feet and how much more money do you guys need? I'll take this one. So we are going to need about 3.75 million dollars to execute this plan to increase our square footage to 59,055 feet. That'll bring our total proposed budget up to 41.78 million. So back to the napkin math that's why

049I thought I might have missed the PFA grant information. The original proposal is 701 dollars per square foot and this one is dollars per square foot is that right Tammy? Okay. So this one we're getting more for less. That right? Okay. Least expensive square foot. Getting the Costco version. That's right. Okay. So we're going to look at this number right here. I think that we all see that it sounds good. Is there any more questions? I'm curious obviously we're not approving anything tonight but I'd be curious to find out since we're using our reserves for this how this will affect our reserves going forward and budgeting for this difference cuz it is what is it about 10% more so just to see how that's going to affect things but I assume we'll get those numbers

050later right? You want you want that answer now or you If we have an answer now that'd be great I wasn't planning if if our mayor had information on that cuz we we did set aside a certain amount and I'm just curious We're not using setting aside there's a little confusion it's not setting aside it's sitting in the fund balance. In the fund balance all right. >> are tracking fund this money separately to ensure that we have it so that we can use it for the purposes of the development of the buildings. So I just want to make sure because we've had a problem with the terms that I said. Right. Okay so Yeah and so it will be taken out of the fund balance it is uh projected to with with a forecast it

051allows for the the fund balance to take to get it out of uh for the increase for that so I mean we're unfortunately the while we're doing all these under levies and tax abatements I mean that does affect us operationally but it is something that we do have it in our fund balance. You turned off the mic again I mean So I mean just kind of remind us of what what we initially requested this we had already stated that we had a certain amount of money that we were tracking Right. for the purposes of this so just kind of reiterate where we are with that maybe Sure. So our initial plan was to take it out of the e-zone money so currently we have about 26 million dollars we don't want to use the word

052set aside but it is something that we were earmarking from from the meta tax collection. So currently we're at the 26 million and we're expecting that by November 2026 we receive an additional 17 million which would put us all the way to about 44 million so Okay So just so so that we're clear if we've already earmarked the 26 million and we're earmarking the future 17 million that we expect to gain from meta November Yeah. Where does that at that moment then leave the fund balance do you have that number or percentage? So Yeah we we have it it's I I would say I don't know at that time yet but we do have it as a part of our five-year program. >> And we can get it to them if we don't have it

053right now we'll make sure that we get it for you tonight. I guess I'll ask the question in a way that might just make it easier. Let's just say our fund balance is for easy math right now let's just say it's at a hundred million dollars which I know it's ballpark a little more but whatever. If it's at a hundred million today is the money we receive from meta and e-zone for the next two years until this thing is fully done going to keep the fund balance at around a hundred million or do I expect the fund balance to be at 60 million once ELDC is done? So so the phase construction it is between about two or three years so it's not going to be a the construction payments are not going to be

054an even number right so we are looking between 70 million to maybe a hundred million in the in the next years. That's helpful very helpful. Thank you. Left in fund balance. Yes okay I just want to make sure I understood that correctly. I just had a quick question for Kyle just to clarify what the extra 3.75 million is for is for those two sensory rooms and the Jack and Jill bathrooms. >> Yes yes. How many how many Jack and Jill bathrooms will we have actually? Our schematic How many Jack and Jill Oh sorry. I believe there would be 10. Okay so you're just changing all of them to be Jack and Jill. Yeah. Okay. From the original design. I guess it was Kyle's question. So so what the ask is Sorry. Okay so so we

055came tonight because in our planning process we are over the square footage that we had originally been voted on for us to have. So what we're asking for is just that more square footage to make those three areas possible for us. Does that make sense? Yeah and the three areas are the two sensory rooms and then expanding the bathrooms. And the two Jack and Jill. And the what? The gross motor areas. Yes thank you. For clarification is this a 20 room or 24 room >> That was my next question yeah cuz it's Okay so I don't know if I can speak to that but Some of our schematic designs right now that we're drawing up are first 20 and the reasoning for going with 20 is for that classroom space. If we went with 24,

056our classrooms would have to be like 800 and some square feet or 900, I believe. And when we went with 20, that allowed us to have classrooms of 1,000 square foot each. Um which again, per our grant, there's like so many centers we have to have and right now some of our rooms are like at 800, 900 and everything's just kind of crammed in there. Um and then we went and looked at I think some of Mitchell's kindergarten rooms are about 1,000 square feet, so we went and observed those. Um and some of our other buildings in that classroom square footage would allow us to have all those centers available for all of our students all the time. So. So along with asking and not this isn't a critical question. This is let's understand things.

057Along with asking for the more money for more square footage, you're at also amending the ask for the number of rooms. This will be chaos. I mean we went around and around about this that the the original the original motion that was passed was for not up to 24 rooms, but for 24 rooms. So we would have to change that. Well, but remember we're asking for these other These other rooms are considered classrooms. So the other three rooms, the sensory room, those are all considered classrooms. So we're actually making building more classrooms. They may not be the same size, but they are more classrooms than what you've already approved. So we're talking three, four, five. So now we're over the resolution. Either way, something might get amended. Can I make a clarifying point? This helped

058me, right? Again, elementary versus where our new frame of reference is. I was always thinking, yeah, 20 or 24 classrooms, that's where the magic happens, right? In the classrooms. The LDC and other schools do to the instructional elements are embedded throughout the school. So those gross motor spaces really are an instructional setting, just not your traditional classroom. So when we got in there, we were like, all right, we got to stop looking at this as number of classrooms, although we got to come back to that. We got to look at this as how much square footage do we need in order to be able to instruct the way that we know we need to either per grant requirements, best practice, that kind of thing. Then we came back to the classrooms. So that that or

059just so that again, so I can kind of understand. Part of this ask is that going into it, you didn't know what you didn't know. Um that's always the case. Um but I'll even I'll say this. We're always going to be open to learning and revising based on what we learned. Just like we did with vision, right? So we we didn't know what we didn't know till we got into the vision planning and then we realized we had to pivot a little bit. That's what we did this time except we pivoted a little bit to where it increased what our needs are. Um but I will say I reserve the right to pivot again if a better idea come up or something different, but um yeah. Okay, thank you. Pivoting to a similar topic, with

060this new configuration, do we anticipate additional staff being required as a result of this? Yes, and we are working um kind of in collaboration with the vision kind of um to make sure that we map that out with our financial projections. If I may make a comment regarding the square footage cuz you asked if those three initiatives were the total increase to the square footage, there were a lot of adjustments made from the original space allocation back when the original budget was approved all the way today. These are the three biggest things that have made the adjustments, but there's a lot of give and take that has happened through many discussions with this team. So it's it I don't want anyone to come back and expect that when you add all the square footage up

061for these three specific areas, that you're going to see exactly the increase of 6,000 square feet. It's it's give and take across the entire building that has caused this increase, but the net increase is what you're seeing in front of you. And the net increase doesn't really change the footprint enough to where we're worried about space on that land. Not at all. Okay. Thank you. Do we have a sense of Remind me if I'm forgetting. Um like number of students, like are we going to run the risk of running out of space very quickly? Like How many students cuz I don't remember how many students we currently serve? And we said this will Dave 120. Yeah, I'm going to let Shannon talk to the numbers, but one of the conversations we had and I just

062want to just put this out as a side note. When we talked to a principal who opened a new building in August, you build it, they will come. So even that building which they projected out the numbers, she goes, we're already out of space and that's because we have this new facility that people want to come to. So I just want to say that was a little bit of a learning curve for us is like, oh, we have our projected numbers, but everybody keeps telling us that this does attract more families to come. Yes, absolutely. Thanks, Kyle. So when we're looking at this new construction, this new building, opening up more classrooms, we are looking at doubling the number of students that we currently have. So I think we're currently at 300 and 65. Thanks,

063Ellie. So then we're looking at as we're putting these projections together, we're looking at 600 close to 630 to 650 >> Armida and Deecher about, you know, what are the levels of staffing to make sure that that we've you know, are able to meet all those students' needs. So are we are we committing to making sure that we have full-day options available or is that something that your grant still requires some additional approval on that's pending? Absolutely. So we would have to apply for the Preschool for All Expansion Grant and that is something that Emma and I have kind of um talked about. Uh it's been on my radar for, you know, pretty much since I've gotten here. Um so that is something that we're going to look into and determine when we need to

064apply for that and what that will look like. There's a PFAE conference that you all approved us to go to that's next week. So we're going there to learn more and and um hopefully get more information about how to make that a reality. I mean I think we need that too, but one thing I wanted to to clarify, so if we're going to have kids that are there all day, like what are we have we already factored in the lunch situation here in this or are we going to have to come back later and and revise that? No, that's a great question. So we have looked into that and we do have um what we're kind of proposing as a um service kitchen. So we wouldn't be cooking necessarily the food, but it would be

065um food delivered, so we would just have that. >> do. That's fine. >> Absolutely. So we have looked into that um and making sure that we have that space available for that um as an option. Cool. Thanks. You're welcome. All right, do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. Yes. Thank you. I have an F Western Governors University Lovett School of Health Outreach Affiliation Agreement. Deecher, I know you can get through this one quickly. I can. I don't know about my next one though. Um so Western Governors has approached us because they have a student who is pursuing their PEL to be a school nurse, certified school nurse. That person needs to um be needs to work under a current certified school nurse. We don't currently have an agreement with them for their school

066of health. So, this agreement is to allow students in their school of health to come to us as clinical students to work towards a PEL. That sounds amazing. Do you have any questions? We have consensus to bring this back? Yes. Amazing. Item G, summer's hours, secondary school counselors and WEB coordinators for 2026. This is information. Sure. In addition to whatever was provided in the board notes, these are just some talking points that we plan on covering today so you have a reference point. By the way, my name is Doug Porter. I am one of the WEB coordinators at Huntley. I'll let some of the other coordinators introduce themselves. I'm Jen Madabala at Rosati. I'm Andrea at Rosati. I'm Carly Harper. I'm at uh Huntley. I'm Jenny Smith. I'm at Huntley. And this I will let

067her introduce herself, but she's also coming from Huntley WEB. I'm Nayeli Collins and I'm sophomore. So, I'm going to set the table and get out of the way. Um this is one of my favorite things to ask the board for every year. Um it's our where everybody where everybody belongs program, which has been at our middle schools now for I believe 14 years. 14? Um and it it is they're going to tell you more about it, but it is a um we talk about belonging and having people feel welcome in our schools is one of the coolest things that we've done at the middle school level since I've been in the district. So, Hello. So, the basic idea is that in the summer the coordinators will collect uh between 60 and 80 eighth-grade students to

068spend about 10 hours training them on qualities of leadership and curriculum that these eighth-grade mentors, WEB leaders, will be presenting and working with our incoming sixth-grade class essentially to help them see that their school is a safe place to be. Transitioning to sixth grade is a scary time for pretty much anybody, and we want to try and make that transition as smooth as possible. So, WEB aims the coordinators, the adults in the room, we train those after getting certified as WEB WEB coordinators by the parent company of the Boomerang Project. We run them through this training for 10 hours in the summer so that they can facilitate an hour and 15 minutes of small group curriculum to eighth-grade WEB leaders or three in rare instances with a group of six to 10 sixth-grade students. This

069curriculum isn't meant to be academic. It is meant to be a form of icebreakers and community building and a chance for students to get to know each other and connections to happen before the school even opens its doors. So, that when those sixth graders walk into the building that they feel welcome. They feel like this is a place that they belong. And so, we want to try and help these students, both our eighth graders, develop these leadership abilities and our sixth graders to feel like this is a really cool place to be. So, Nayeli, would you feel comfortable talking about what your experience was as a WEB leader? Sure. Um I'm nervous. Um Well, when I was in seventh grade I heard about being a WEB leader and I was like, "WEB?" But then my

070grandma kind of explained it to me. I was like, "Yes, I want to do it." Cuz I remember when I was in WEB, I was so like nervous to talk to the sixth graders cuz I know like I'm older, but those kids are scary. But I could like immediately be the um like the summer camp kind of. The training. Yeah, the training was a lot of fun. I learned so much. Like before I was like could barely talk to any other kids and like even like when I would try to when I was in seventh grade too, the um training helped a lot. And then when we for orientation, talking to the kids, it was like you can just see like them let their guard their guard down like they're like, "Okay, so they're they're

071cool. I know who to come to for help." So, like even now I've um I don't know if you guys know, but I'm in Connecting Crows and it's kind of like that, but for freshmen. And so, I go back and then come to it cuz they're like, "Wait, I know you. You're from WEB." And I was like, "I am. I am. You should do it. You should do it." But it's just like it kind of helps them explore if their kind their type of leadership. So, like I've noticed that usually when I was in a WEB group, I would be the only one like talking out loud to the kids. And the activities were fun. They were also like leadership building. Um it kind of helped me to get comfortable like with this sixth grader

072than like when I went to um high school, it helped me to like kind of like understand what I want to do so I could join a council, mini board, etc. And yeah, I just I just think that even now my little sister, she's not even middle school yet. She's heard about WEB leaders and she's like, "I can't wait. I want to be a WEB leader." And I was like, "Okay." So, yeah. That's all that I have to say for now. And I think one of the other things that we've really done over the last few years a lot is we've actually taken this WEB program and we've extended it beyond just inside the wall of the four walls of our building where we've taken our WEB leaders and we've gone outside and we've actually

073done volunteer opportunities outside where we've taken our WEB leaders where we volunteered at Feed My Starving Children. We've taken to elementary schools and we've allowed our WEB leaders opportunities to be able to volunteer at the elementary school, the Brook Fall Fest, things like that that really allowed our students to be able to have those opportunities to be able to show those leadership skills. And that goes beyond. Um I did have an opportunity today to kind of ask um some of my sixth graders at today that we kind of saw like what was meaningful for them for WEB. So, I just kind of you know, have little tidbits for you. Some of kind of some of the things that they said. Um they did they said it was a lot of fun. Being able to come

074to orientation, they said it was fun. Meeting new people. They said that they were so less nervous coming to middle school to be able to kind of know what it was like coming on that orientation day. They loved that they knew older kids. That they could come up and they could ask questions to if they needed to. Um they said the tour, it's a much bigger school. They're used to this elementary school and then they're coming to this much bigger school that now they got that tour. They got to find out how to open their locker and things like that to be able to get around. They felt more comfortable. Um and they they saw these eighth graders that they looked up to that they felt that they were, their words, confident, helpful, and welcoming.

075And they they were excited to come. It was also really kind of cool to go on the eighth-grade perspective to kind of see like how did they feel about being uh WEB leaders? Um in I quote this. They said, "Well, we need to be contributing members of society." And I said, "I'm literally going to write that down. That was great." Um literally in quotes, "contributing members of society." And I said, "You're right. That is a really good way to look at that." Um they also said, you know, one of them said they're like, "When high school, we have to get like volunteer hours. I feel like this is a really good stepping stone in order to get to that." And one of the students talked about going off into going into college and really thought

076that this was a good way and I thought that was great. Um the leadership skills. They said getting to meet new people, even getting the opportunity to mentor sixth graders and being able to help them felt that that was a good skill. And one of my eighth graders even said that being able to help a sixth grader made them feel good about themselves. So, it was it's just a really really good. I have an eighth grader who was an incoming sixth grader, interviewed to be a WEB leader as a seventh grader, and is a WEB leader. And she would have done it in a heartbeat. So, We see We see WEB as a fantastic program. We want to share it with you all. We We are grateful for the funding that's provided by the school

077district each year. We want to answer any questions you might have about the funding that you generously provide. What can we answer for you? I think this sounds like a phenomenal program. No questions are needed. I have one tiny question. Just And I just And a comment. I'll be very fast. Um I'm just curious, are are the the middle schools combined for this? Or So, they are done separately for the orientations. Okay, cool. Um and I just >> We have done like volunteer things together. But I mean like for the sixth-grade experience. >> are separate. Those are separate. >> Okay. Specific to the school. Yeah, I just want to say as a parent like I have been very concerned about Vision 208 like having to postpone that and what not. My daughter's about to go

078into fourth grade. And so, I was thinking a lot about Chase Charlot's transitions and I worry about that that jump to sixth grade in in being at the middle school. This has provided like such a profound sense of comfort to me. I think knowing that this exists now and that or that it has existed, but I mean knowing that it exists. And we're very thrilled about the the WEB program has hit some bumps especially when COVID came around. The Boomerang Project is a very forward-thinking program in terms of they provide regular edits to the activities. I am a coach that works with the Boomerang Project, so I bring back those regular edits to both crews at the middle school level with the idea that Boomerang and WEB is always improving. It is a place where

079everybody belongs. And when we expose, even if students don't make it to the orientation in August, our WEB program impacts every single sixth grader in both buildings multiple times every single year, which means that we have ballooned. We we turn students down and we we know full well that the that the school board and or superintendent may get some upset parents that their kid didn't get admitted into WEB because it's a highly sought-after program because our buildings are students. And that's the most important part for us is we know the students see WEB as a valuable program because it's about creating not just contributing members of society, leaders leaders that are adaptable. Yes, and is one of WEB's tenants and I will spare the board my soapbox. If you want it, come and get it.

080I will happily provide it to you. Everybody else that knows me already knows this the spiel. We're excited about it. So, we're grateful for the support that you provide for WEB, absolutely. And we do things monthly. I guess I don't know if you said that, but like we do things monthly. Like our eighth graders do things monthly with our sixth graders in these small group activities. So, it's not like it's to maintain those connections. So, it's not like we just do it once and it's one and done. We do it throughout the beginning of the year to make sure that our students are getting acclimated throughout the entire first semester going into like January, February. So. I'm just real quick comment that I love the fact that it's still going. Cuz it's been going for

081>> going to ask how many years have we had this? 10 14 We're going into our 15th year and I don't know if you noticed on the sheet that that means by August of 26, we will have had trained between the two schools 1,800 leaders for our school community. I think that that part, the leader part, my son did not go through the sixth grade part and for various different reasons he he was not able to do the eighth grade part, but his friends were and they loved it. So, yeah, this is an awesome program. Thank you. I think a really another big part of it is that we have students from all walks of DeKalb life. So, it's not just the jocks doing it or it's not just the brains doing it. You know,

082you get into those stereotypes. We get the quieter kids who might not, you know, look like they're going to be somebody who's going to be a great leader, but guess what? They're like kind of in the shadows and they're going to connect with the quieter sixth grader. We really try really hard to make sure that we get a good um cross section and sample of the students that are coming to the school so that when kids come in, they see like I see somebody that looks like me. And they're making it here. Right? Do we have a consensus to bring this back? Yes. All right. Thank you, guys. Next item is item H, which is the 2026-2027 FTE request. As amazing as we can, Deidra. All right. Annually, we come before the board in the

083spring to do our FTE request for the upcoming school year. Each year we work with all of our building principals as well as department leads to find out what it is that they need or that would help them be able to meet our strategic goals, increase test scores, improve behaviors. What what is it that they need when it comes to staffing to be able to achieve a variety of goals. Um building and departments submit those and then as a cabinet, we look at those. We look at the cost. We look at what the request is and then we're not just looking at a title. We're looking at the job description. We're looking at how it's tied to the strategic plan. Also, what what is the data telling us? Is the data telling us about achievement?

084What is it telling us about behavior? All the things that we bring to you at beginning of the year, middle of the year, end of year data. Um and what can we do to help our buildings and our departments meet goals. This year, we have um are bringing forward a total of 14.75 FTE. Of those, 5.75 are district-wide. 4.0 FTE are in our elementary schools and 5.0 are in our secondary schools. Um the total cost comes to 1,281,106.48. Of that, um $262,075.21 is anticipated to come from grant funding with the balance coming out of our local funds. Our mayor, when he does projections annually, he budgets for a set number of positions um taking the average of what the cost of those potential positions are including the salary and the benefits. Um so, then we

085work within those confines to determine how many positions. That is dependent on if it's a certified position or if it is um TRS or IMRF, if it's hourly positions that might result in overtime. So, we look at a lot of different factors to determine what positions we're going to bring forward and what positions are going to give us the outcomes that we are seeking. This year we do have a quite a large number of retirements. So, looking at those retirements and what those costs are have allowed us to be able to have more money in our budget to bring forth positions that will help us in the upcoming school year. I am happy to go by line go line by line. I'm happy to entertain questions. We also have building leaders and department leaders here

086that can answer any detailed questions that you may have. How would you like me to proceed? Can you run back what what you said before you kind of ran back ran quickly by me? What number is the amount we have from grants to pay for this versus local funds? >> Sure. The total cost of what we're bringing forward for all 14.75 is 1,281,106.48. The grant dollars total is 262,075 and 21 cents. The positions that would be grant funded, is it listed specifically? >> not because um That would be helpful to know. >> Yep. And and I can update that document um but for everyone to know, it is the student success and family engagement specialist. It's three positions that are in the first section under the district. >> Okay. The second position is the Lincoln

087math interventionist position under elementary. And then uh the third is dean of restorative behavior. Um and that is also under elementary. So, the math isn't mathing. It's not the total. It's not the total of the expense of the position. It varies for the positions. >> Okay. Um and then the DCTA or the affiliated ones, DCTA, IMRF, whatever, depending on where they are in the salary schedule, though the the costs may change. That is correct. So, every year what we do is we take an average of those positions. It could come in higher, it could come in lower. Um but that's with any and every position that we have that falls under the certified. And then the last question I have is the student success and family engagement specialist. Um choose my words very carefully. The

088ROE truancy person, Mhm. Well, they're grants, not person, but a full grant. No. Okay. Sorry. Before they got rid of the the their people, um their efforts to affect truancy were challenging at best. Um There were challenges. Because the way the way the Illinois state the the way this Illinois state law deals with truancy is challenging for anybody who's trying to go through the process on either side. Um what's different with us? So, those positions covered DeKalb County. So, it's not just our district. So, all the districts in DeKalb County, they had to service the needs of truancy. By us just so that everyone knows the the the situation that we're currently in, the regional office no longer has that grant to fund those positions. So, those positions have gone away. Um that has now

089in turn given the responsibility to deal with truancy to the districts. Um and we really we don't have capacity in other positions to get that done. So, the idea is to bring that in house and then to service the needs of truancy. And Kyle can give more details. I think you were reading between the lines of what I was trying to say, right? Maybe. Let's see how I answer. I think in our conversations either with ROE or Like sorry. With our conversations either with the ROE or our building staff, whether it be administrators or office staff or clinicians, even teachers, when we asked them, okay, what are the truancy efforts that have really been effective in the past? It was the outreach. So, it was the the families that you're having a really hard time

090engaging or connecting with for a variety of reasons, having the ability to go in, you know, this is sit down, knock on their door, have a conversation, meet them where they're at, and try and figure out what barriers exist to help them get their child to school. That has been probably one of the things that it more anecdotally they said have been really helpful for families. Um where I think we we as a district can do a lot of lifting is um tier one and tier two. I'm not saying we couldn't utilize our specialist to help support some tier two needs, but what we really I think need support is a lot of that outreach. And that's not to say these three positions are going to be able to knock on every door of students

091who aren't coming to school. Um but it will give us the uh ability to help those individuals fit within our already existing systems and to kind of help with that personalized touch. You did. Thanks. So was that that grant funding when that was eliminated was that for this school year? So are they not providing anybody this year? And how has that affected like I know we've had a problem with chronic absenteeism. So like what was their impact if any? Yeah. Um it it's been a transition year um to say very honestly it it was hard I think to pivot the hour that which we had to pivot and it kind of changed some systems. So I think we've done a really good job. Has it been the smoothest of years when it comes to supporting

092those processes? No. Um but what it has allowed us to do is identify like where are our gaps? Like what are we able to kind of manage on our own? Um I do we are having some conversations currently about that current grant that already didn't get awarded last year and how we could either uh work with them to help bolster their efforts, maybe secure that grant in the future, or is there a possibility for us to to pursue that as well? Was that a federal grant or a state grant? Um I believe it's a flow-through grant. I don't quote me on it, Nick. I'm not sure. >> Sure. And then I guess secondarily to that um since it was a countywide, you know, program through the ROE, how many truancy officer officers for lack of

093a better word were they actually assigned to like our district amongst that? Do you know? And does this fill that gap? Uh And can we do a better job with our own people, I guess, is another follow-up. It's a tough one. I don't want to answer it in a way that diminishes the ROE's efforts in the past. >> I'm just saying that it is allocation of resources. It's not you know, it's just a simple question like that. >> I'm very confident that we we can do um a lot with those resources um that can be impactful for our most um our students that are struggling the most or the families that need the most support. Um I believe they had around eight um that were assigned for the county, but I don't know how many

094for our district. So So there were eight assigned for the county. They didn't necessarily call them truancy officers. Um I forgot the term they called them, but depending on the caseload, it would be anywhere between four to five just working with our um school district. >> And I guess now we can sort of coordinate areas within our district and things like that and have like more control over how we're going to allocate these resources and address that chronic absenteeism problem. I guess I'll get more into the meat and potatoes with my question, just be very direct. The ROE had people that were going around in the county trying to help this. At least from what I have looked at truancy rates across the county it's not like that grant money drastically reduced absenteeism across the

095county. Why is us personally now spending $200,000 going to make a different impact that a grant that already funded a position to do that pretty much didn't impact? Are we just creating positions like I feel like we've kind of been doing since I got on the board to address problems and yet none of the metrics ever change when we make these positions. It's a great question. Here's why that's a great question. The complexity of anything that we have an FTE go to try and solve, right? And I'm going to chronic absenteeism. Why a student does or does not go to school has so many factors to it. It could be I'm just refusing to go to school cuz I don't want to get up today. Or there could be food insecurities, there could be housing

096insecurities, there could be trauma, there could be um something going on at school, there could be bullying, there could be There's so many reasons that could prevent or disrupt a student from coming to school consistently. So we should have opened with this isn't going to be the magic wand that fixes chronic absenteeism. But what this does is it gives us more of a local control over a tool that we have seen be effective to a degree at the ROE and across probably other ROEs in the state. What I can say is within our um systems of MTSS when our buildings have the autonomy to take a problem and do and they have the resources to do it like a tier one chronic absenteeism and a lot of lot of you are here, right? They're going

097to do all the things they can do with those resources. If I said, "Hey, and we did ask this question, if you had an individual who could take what you're doing in your school and be an extension to the families that you're having a hard time getting in, would that be helpful?" Like yes, that would take us to another level. Why that matters to us is because we want kids in school so they can learn and be productive members of society, right? Whatever that But there's also a financial benefit for us as a district for having students come to school consistently and that is historically something that we are uh rated on by the state of Illinois. So we're investing in something that ultimately is going to help us hopefully improve in an area um

098that we're struggling in across like many districts and ultimately reflect positively on our evidence-based funding funding formula. >> So I I guess though that doesn't get to the root of what I'm saying. Let's just make it an easy analogy for like person who owns a house. There's water in my basement. Why there's water in my basement could be a very complex issue. My bathtub could be on and the water's flowing down. I could have a crack in a window. My sump pump could fail. But if I say, "Well, we're going to hire a plumber. He's going to come in and figure it out." And I come back a month later and there's still water in my basement. And the response is, "Well, we need to hire a plumber and then we need to hire another

099plumber to assist that plumber." But there's still water in my basement. Like you haven't addressed the issue. It's just we're saying it's a complex issue. We just need to throw more money at the problem and that somehow will fix it versus the money we already threw at it. Like A plumbing problem is a solvable problem. When you're dealing with kids that have a myriad of different challenges. >> would we throw money at a problem that's not solvable? Because we owe it to those kids to do our best by them and make sure that we can give them the support that we can so that they can succeed in in education. >> we not spend $200,000 to hire a frontline staff that could help the students who are showing up? Well, we have to we have

100to, you know, weigh the cost-benefit of all these decisions. Can I ask a question? What it kind of I think might get at a little bit of what Chris is saying. What are we going to do differently with these positions from what the ROE has been doing? Yeah. So what I think um it's a good question. There's going to be things that mirror, right? And if the building principal wants to get up and talk a little bit about their experience um I'm going to come back to a broad answer which is that we have that um we have more of an input on what that looks like and how it how that execution happens and how that communication flow comes back. That's not to say that the ROE wasn't doing a good job with that,

101but it's different when you have someone on your team that's going to do that versus um somebody who's supporting through an external or a third party. Yeah, you took the words out of my mouth. No, no, it's good though. So currently right now without the support from the ROE and Kyle touched on it your people, right? The consistency that that person is coming to check in. Right now our deans and we're down one they are spread out where they go on home visits in the afternoons. So they take a counselor and thank you for for all of the grace that you give us for that. But right now they're doing all of that and we're trying to trickle it across the district to see how we can reduce that. But those check-ins and attendance contract

102like that's the consistency piece that even when the ROE was coming, it was when they could because of the county. Like they had so many other places that they had to be. So having that one person and we work with like each dean has that grade level. So we meet once a week as a student services team. We talk about attendance, academic, and behavior. Who are our kids that we need to go out that have not been here just to check in see how they're doing to a home visit and keep that consistency with that same person. The ROE was not doing that consistent enough. Or it was one person that was trying to come in when they could because they were so yeah, it's just a it's a turnover in the in the cycle.

103Yeah, and turnover by the position. So with having this person to be dedicated to check in with us and go to those SST meetings, um you think of 2200 students, but when you're looking at the students that are chronically absent um that list for one person and if that's their responsibility to check in with families, but then also be the liaison between the school and home, we might need to know that this one student is going through something traumatic and we can offer a different service. And then there's where your results are getting um especially when you're with your designation um and all those percentages matter and they add up in for our students to get the support that they really need. So it's hard to do when that person is not on your team

104every single day and going into these meeting spaces to talk about the students and what they need. I'm going to I think that what you're talking about an unsolvable problem and I think that that might be where the point of divergence is here. That I think we've got different kinds of solutions. So what I'm hearing here reminds me a lot to of like community school models. Like not the same but it's getting at the sort of the roots of the same sorts of problems and there is a lot of data indicating that that are successful, those efforts are successful. So, I think that we got to be careful saying this is not this is the same band-aid for the same problem or whatever, the same fix. I'm getting the sense that it's going to be

105different based on the things that that Donna just said that about, you know, So, I guess I'm going to make my last kind of devil's advocate position. Under Illinois state law, chronic truancy is a class C misdemeanor. According to state law, that is restricted described on as long as the school has exhausted other supportive services. So, if we create these three positions where we're having people actively going out there and doing this, are we going to expect then the city to uphold their part of the deal and enforcing Illinois state law on parents who aren't doing their duty if we're hiring three members to do this? So, I believe it would be the district attorney that would have to pick that up. And I'm So, I'm going to just say my experience, 27 years in

106the game, they really don't prosecute to that level. Just because I I for whatever reasons, I've talked to multiple people at that level. And um he has been attending meetings, but it's because it just it ties up the court system. And they would like to use the court system for criminal activity instead. Um I'm looking at a former SRO who we had this conversation meeting years ago. What I will say as well is that um if you just look at clock hours and there are people sitting in the audience, I'm looking at Edly, I'm looking at um Miss Cox, I'm looking at people who like do this a brand, they do this every single day. Just clock hours. So, I'm going to paint the picture for you, okay? From what I have seen in the

107last 19 years. So, we have people from the ROE who used to work um and then and they would come in and they would come in and meet with someone like Edly who did attendance and am I telling the truth? And they would come like once a month. And it would be like a rush rush, I have my papers, I'm going to sit down, I'm going to talk, let's go over this little thing or or it'd be an email exchange and you're talking about I would say anywhere between 45 minutes to an hour. Is that true? That's correct. Per month. For all of the students that have not been coming to school consistently in one school building. So, you're talking about almost 900 kids, I get less than an hour a month to really problem

108solve. This will allow us to have someone full time. Like you go down you go from like an hour a month to someone however many clock hours, you know, that we can get out of them, of course, we try to get the most out. And uh so, that that really just clock hours alone it's changing the game. It's changing the game. I promise you this this I'm going to make I'm going to say this public statement. There will be people that will try to model after us once we do this. It It because it's an opportunity, but the opportunity was created by a pretty much a tragedy that ROE don't have the resources. But I mean gives opportunity to fashion something that does not exist. And I wouldn't be surprised if our neighbors are like,

109"Hey, can you show us how to do that?" So, I'm looking at two different directors. It says that this these positions will be under Kyle's student services family services. But who's going to be their boss? It's a great question. So, we are working within uh my team to kind of identify the correct supervisor. Um when we think about attendance, I see attendance, I want to back track. These purposely are called truancy officers or attendance officers, right? They're they're wellness. So, we're talking about attendance, but really what I want to talk about is what are those things around attendance that are getting in the way? Are they resources? Are they SEL needs? Are they behavioral needs? Are they So, to me it makes a lot of sense that this would fall within our MTSS structures as

110um kind of a tier three support. So, within that um we have SEL and MTSS A and MTSS B supports, so it fall within that. Okay. And the I don't need to know the details of it, but one of the frustrating things I had as an SRO and some of the principals that I worked with is that that one hour also included talking to the administrators, which they never had answers for. So, there will be something in there that would require some reporting to the prince to the building administrator on the activities of the for the students in that building, right? Um if they're MTSS, they would be, right? Yeah, so just like >> what they're doing is showing up to them so they can see it. 100%. Yeah. So, I just want to ask

111one about So, we're looking at for the ELDC as well and allocating one of these positions to work with the ELDC. And so, that's not compulsory attendance, right? And so, how are we envisioning utilize Is this like somebody that's going to be like, you know, reaching out with like the county for like Wick eligible parents and being you know, giving them opportunities like, "Hey, like here's what we have for you that you're eligible for to attend the school etc." Is that like what we're envisioning for that like what what other For ELDC it is. It's that type of community connection. So, we do community screenings, we do different um we have transitions for um EI to EC um and we need support there for families. Um again, not calling this an attendance or truancy officer,

112professional development, having community um conversations around things that might be pertaining to parents of kids three through five. Um so, we really want to make it we we don't want to limit its scope in just attendance. We want it to be all the things that can get in the way of attendance from transportation to maybe some mental health needs in between. Which I mean, if we're going to be investing this much in a brand new ELDC building, I think we want to make sure that, you know, if we build it, they come and that we we tell them here's how to get here, you know, and what we can provide for you. So, I like that idea. And it's not that the ELDC isn't doing a good job of it now, but we know we

113can do more with more. Thanks. Yep. Does anyone have any questions about any other positions? >> got I'm just looking at the overall cost. I know last year when this came before the board, I wasn't on the board at the time, but it was like $1.7 million. I'm trying to justify all these new positions with any potential increase in enrollment. Have we seen an overall increase in I'm trying to justify why we're putting 14.75 new positions and I don't believe we've seen sufficient enrollment to justify all this. I I cannot speak to enrollment, but But I don't I don't think we have, you know, at least the figures that I've seen, so Well, I'm I'm just wanting to make sure that the enrollment piece is tied to the positions that are required per classroom. So,

114maybe that's what we need to speak to which which ones are the ones that are tied to classrooms that we need, you know, like the ones that we need for the high school, the ones that we need for early childhood based on student population that we currently serve. So, within the request, um if you look at the elementary and the secondary levels, in those positions, um starting with elementary, um we have So, let's jump down to the special ed positions. And Kyle, you might want to come back and support that. But the special ed positions are based on the number of students that have qualified for special ed service special education services um and the need to be able to support them and the limits that are um that exist for those classrooms. Yeah, that's

115right. So, we're seeing a increase in need um and we have seen this trend for students that require self-contained programming either in our sole or intensive programs. And as those numbers go up and as those students roll up, that requires us to increase sections. So, those are all due to those rising special education enrollments. And that's in both uh elementary and secondary levels. Would these be positions for the 2026-2027 school year or if we were to approve this all these positions? They're not specified for one school year because those students continue to roll up, so the need still exists. But we're always um evaluating if classrooms are needed or positions are needed or not and then make decisions on positions. Um also in for secondary, there is a math teacher position at the high school

116and uh that information is in the rationale part and it uh gives the data based on the number of students that have been recommended for um algebra algebra one support and the need to have an additional teacher for that reason. And that's one of the things that I stay consistent on is I like having more people directly in the classroom. So, really of all these positions, the only one that at least I'm in favor of is having the math teacher to be honest with you, so. And the fact is all these one point the 1.281 million is going to increase every year by a four or five percent salary, so this isn't going to be an ongoing uh budget item that will be added to for at least for local funds to our budget every

117year, so. The cost just kind of turns me the wrong way, so. Does anyone else have any other questions or comments before I see consensus? Yes. >> Trying to think of how to say this. I just want to challenge us though the way and I I want to say this publicly um how we're thinking about education and what counts as education. Um as an educator and as a parent, like I know that being in the classroom is not that only space. Like um that is not the only place where students are deeply impacted also as a parent of kids with certain kinds of needs like my duty as a parent is how do you come once you have kids maybe you start to realize like how profound and complicated that is. My kids were an

118hour and a half late to school this morning. Why? Because my husband is out of town all week for his job. I work and I'm trying to figure out just how to keep them together. So like we struggle sometimes and we have a two-parent household and two incomes and to get our kids to school. Not to mention all of the issues that we deal with behaviorally and and with transitions and things like that. So I think that to some extent we have to be aware of the challenges that that parents are facing and disproportionately too. Um and I just I guess I just really want to remind us of that. Um so when we're looking at these budget items, we're thinking in those ways that the kids' lives, kids' education are much bigger and and

119impacted by more than I think we often want to say that they are. Also though, something that I am struggling with and trying to understand is just where and I think this is going to have to happen in information gathering outside of tonight's meeting but like how much where does this money come from and how much like what does this do to you know the many different line items I think we'll have to be you know I'll have to sit in on a finance meeting or something. Um but to understand better what are we giving up by increasing here or what are we going to have to give up? How are you making these decisions? How did these positions get prioritized cuz I'm sure there were some that you had to get rid of. Um

120if you had to whittle this down further, what is absolutely crucial or Yeah, if there was a priority ranking of sorts, you know >> Yeah. This just for the rest of the board, I think JJ was on the call when we discussed the FTEs. The list was over 20 FTEs and they cut it down to these are the priorities the district needs. So I mean this is the this is what we need. Mhm. positions I see you're staying there. So Dr. Bailey, just to piggyback off of you were asking and Mark, we did prioritize like Chris said. Um we had to ask our mayor what is our our budget. Um our mayor typically allocates for eight new FTE. So we had eight new FTE. We're obviously asking for more. Um but wanted to know what

121is our like that's that number and we're at 1.1 because of the retirements that we have and the offsetting of the average of who we would have coming in. Um and hiring, right? Kind of how Dietrich just said we average out the cost of a hire. So we were able to stay under that 1.1 with the what the grants are covering. So like the the position that we just talked about, the three positions, those are going to be fully funded by our grants. So we worked with them on the make sure that we stayed under that. Um so if we're at the where are we at? We don't know the the actual whole cost. Oh, 1.2 um and 262,000 is being covered by the grants. We went we're under that 1.1 that our mayor said

122we need to make sure we stayed under. So that was the big thing is looking at the 23 FTE request that we got and narrowed it down. Um Tammy's obviously doesn't touch students but it does it is a cost savings. So that one just made sense, right? I I should I should amend my comments the students cuz keeps the the school clean, right? I I should probably amend my comments. The the grant money positions, you know, I'm okay with as well. Um I I I'm just concerned and fortunately we're not in this position yet but you never know what the future like I just heard that Freeport today announced that they are getting rid of a lot of positions and there's a number of other districts. It's been all over the news lately and I

123just don't want to see a where we have to do the same. It it it's >> it this way. What's that? Don't call it this way. I but it's I'll I'll I'll leave it at that. So So I'll just say that is concerning for all of us. That that's not just news to those that see it on social media or hear about it or know people that's being affected. That's always something we're keeping in perspective. Um yes, our enrollment is flat but our students are continuing to roll up and we offer whether it's special ed programming or our dual language program or any of the AP courses, we can go on and on about the variety of offerings we have. But we have to be able to support those offerings. We have to have the

124talented staff whether they're teachers or support staff to be able to make sure that that happens for our students. So we are very aware and cognizant of that and when we can shift services somewhere, we do. But we just can't always do that with the volume of students that we service. I do have a follow-up on the dean for Huntley Middle School. That that price tag kind of sticks out. Why do we need an additional dean for Huntley Middle School at 118,000? So based on our salary schedule, the range of pay and then the projected cost of benefits that that's how we got number but why do we need a new additional dean? >> Um It is what it is Dr. Shaw. the staff here and Sarah as well. What what is the question? Did

125you want us to come up there too? Here we are. Thank you for That was the big price tag on it. So I didn't see the price tag but Um so we talked about we came up with a dean. Our first thought was a restorative dean because um our the disciplines that we see in our building um we didn't want to push that to student support services and that was more of the dean role. We wanted to reduce our suspensions and be able to provide those interventions within the building. We do have a dean already um and wanted to be able to increase the services um with her being able to push into the classrooms, be able to do restorative lessons. Um our admin to student ratio, I don't have the number on the top

126of my head but Sean does. Sean always has the number at the top of his head. What was the ratio that we came up with? Um our the state average for admin to student ratio is 136 to 1. Our district average is 126 to 1 and Huntley Middle School is 213 to 1. If you were to approve this FTE, it would bring us down to 170 to 1 which is still much higher than the district and the state average. I argue with math. Just as a dean, the numbers really don't lie but as a dean we really are working till I do restorative work with our students and not just here's the consequence, here's your discipline and send you on your way. And to do that, you have to have time to do that. And

127average situation, if I'm trying to do peer mediation, if I'm trying to do a mediation with the student and the teacher which is what we really want to do to repair the harms of the student you can go back to the classroom and succeed there. It takes time. And when you're the number of referrals that we're getting every day, I mean if I really do it right, I'm spending 30 minutes with every student that I bring in my office. And so I'm a dean and I still do evaluations. I still do other pieces as an administrator in the building but for our ADPs, they have you know they're taking care of all support staff, scheduling, multiple factors that I don't even have to touch. And I struggle sometimes to get through the referrals I have

128every day. So and then it also impacts teacher retention. Teachers are frustrated. One of the number one complaints across any school is that teachers feel like they're not being heard, behaviors aren't being addressed in a timely manner. As a teacher when you send a student to the office or you write a referral about a behavior in your classroom and it can't be addressed for multiple days by the time you go to address that behavior, the student doesn't even remember what they did in class. Right? And now I'm trying to address their behavior that happened four days ago or two weeks ago for that matter depending on the behaviors that are coming across the desk. And you never know, kids don't ask us. Some days I come in and I have nothing on my calendar and

129two fights break out, you know, they don't you don't know what the day is going to bring every day. So it's just a reality of the numbers of our building. We have a big school. We have a lots of students that we really want to do our best to create a space where they can grow and and thrive in our building and get better. We aren't just trying to be punitive. We really want to make a difference in these students and to have that time to build those relationships, I've seen the difference. And this is my second year this is our second year having a dean and the referrals from seventh grade to eighth grade are it's just drastically different this year because of the work I was able to put in last year with

130seventh grade and where those kids are this year. I mean we still deal with tardies and I still you know I still even then I'm able to do that more consistently because of my role. So having another dean in our building I think would make a drastic difference in how we're able to really address needs in a timely manner that's going to support our teachers. It's also going to really strengthen our students which is our number one priority. And allowing us to be able to become really instructional leaders as APs. Um giving us more time to really get into classrooms and helping our teachers um really hone their craft um so that we're not spending as much time processing discipline. Thank you. Can I follow up on another position as well? I know Peter wants

131to talk about the assistant athletic director. He's standing there. He's ready. I know he's got all his background. So before we get to that though, I do want to point out one of the most common complaints that we see a lot is dealing with like classroom disruptions and things like that. So I do think it is important that we make sure we have the tools in place to help with that so that the learning environment does not get disrupted as frequently. And and I I also just want to point out before we talk about you know any other position, we know we we're spending a little bit more money here. Like a lot of it's offset by people who are retiring, but we also abated $2.6 million in taxes earlier as well. So I mean

132you know we are trying to balance these needs of you know taxpayers versus you know students. And and it is tough like you know I just hope that we can do this sustainably long-term because I don't want to be like one of the other districts where it's like now all of a sudden like we brought these folks in and then we run into budget issues and now we're trying to deal with having to get rid of some of them down the road when we know we need them. So just something to think about like there was a little bit for everybody in this one. Can I just jump in there too and say um we actually under levied even more. So we already max abated and we under levied even more tonight with that resolution

133of 2.6. >> There you go. Under levied Which would cover and Bentham, right? If we would not have under levied. But that's something that that looking forward we need to make sure that we're all on the same page um with the under levying and everything because we do need to give our students what they need um and our staff what they need. I was just going to ask a question regarding the assistant director of athletics. What what's the rationale behind this? Well, I did research on this. Becky, can we pull up my 27 point He has one. That's not a joke. And I do. Here's the thing that has happened since 1993. We went back that far to look. Yeah. And back then the total sports were 20. 2025, we have 28 sports now. This

134is just a high school right now. That's a 40% increase. Team levels goes from 40 to 65 93 to 2000 to 2025. That's a 62% jump up. And then coaching staffs from 51 in 1993 to 122 coaches in 2025. So that's a 130 139% jump. We're looking at you know we're talking about attendance and and things like that. It's kind of a three-pronged attack with the assistant director. It talks about engagement, attendance, and belonging which will get kids to school. Okay? That's and that's just not at the high school. It's through the whole district. If you know I have the numbers for the middle school because I went back and looked. In 1993 sports programs back then were seven. Now they're 16. We have 16 sports. That's a 128% growth. Levels of play from eight

135to 24. That's a 200% growth. Coaching staff 20 to 28. It's a 40% and then activities even at the high school back in 1993 there was or 749 student athletes. Now there's 1,562. That's a 109%. Then you go to all of the Well, here's the thing I'll tell you with tardies. Non-participants is only 33%. You know if if you don't participate, they have 33% tardy rate. With athletes in activities, people who are participating in that, there's a 20 to 17% range of tardies. Attendance, if you're non non if you're not in anything, it's 89% coming to school. Activities and athletics is 94 or 94.2 for athletes and activities it's a 94.42. GPA non-athletic 2.27. Athletic 2.92. Activities 2.95. So the more you're involved, the more you're going to come to school. And one of the

136the big reasons for this that I've I've talked to you about anyone that would listen to me about this is that it's really it's it's not a luxury to have this. We have had the same thing since to now to have an assistant athletic director. I looked at the stats of all the things that we have done. So multiple events. I went back to 2024 2025. 265 days of activities throughout the school. Um only 20 days were where we didn't have an event. So out of those 265 days we had 514 events going on at the same time. And in my slide about why we need this is that no other administrator role carries the level of required supervision outside school hours than this position that I'm in. Yes, I knew what I was signing

137up for because we do it for our our students. We need that other person cuz you can't expect me to be in all these places at once. And another big thing is that with that position if you looked at it, we need I I'm in charge of activities for the IHSA. The other activities go to Donna. Go to the assistant principals. Now with that it comes into my office where the students know where they can come when they want to do another another group or whatever they want to do. And it takes that so they can meet with our new position to help with attendance and and do all that other things. So there's it's a it's a three-pronged attack on how we can get people in. The biggest thing is is I have been

138there and I can share it with you is that once they get in, they know where the niche they find. They find someone so they can be part of the One Barb family. And Barb, would the person who assumes this position be assuming some of the duties of the athletic director or would they have additional duties that are They kind of So right now the position is only like part-time. Where they do a lot of the practice scheduling and do a lot of uh uh conference you know scheduling of games. Just to put in perspective, when I first started here we were in the NIC-12 where we had 12 schools. Now we're in the DVC where we only have six. I'll use basketball as an example. You get 31 games. With the DVC you only

139get 10. So we have to schedule 21 more games. Back then we didn't have to do all that scheduling. So that is a good portion of the day that they do. I do my position does all the tournaments. I do baseball, softball. I you know we do all that stuff where it all balances out. Back in 1993, it was an event director. Now if you could see all of the different hats that the uh the director does is that it's a the liaison between the IHSA IESA. Uh you've got to go through Title IX, all the dealings with the IHSA, technology innovator, things that we can do to make things better which we have done. And then a culture builder. The One Barb thing is running you know great here in the eight years that

140we have been here. So it it's a big position that's changed from 1993 to what it is now. Mhm. So Don't forget the I'm sorry. Don't forget that you're adding our itty your itty your little children onto the activities. >> And the thing that in the strategic plan that I presented to you back in the fall, it's how we're going all the way down to try to reach into the you know first, second, third graders with with with making things to where the people that are in off-season we can go and do like little open gyms for them. I know some people at the little giant they've done a intermural volleyball just to get just to get kids doing things. So that's what we're really doing is that we're trying to get down to those

141lower grades. One so they're excited to come to school. If they're excited to come to school, they're going to get better grades and through the whole you know coming all the way up. I mean I have granddaughters that are in this district. They're going to make these lifelong friends and feel part of something and want to come to school. I also think it's important for us to just note in the athletic and activities department, Mark Sykes is retiring which is institutional knowledge that we can't even fathom. Peter will be retiring soon which will be more institutional knowledge which means that we will have no one in athletics and activities that has institutional knowledge on how this stuff works anymore. So this is awesome. >> Well, yes. But we we need a But like I said,

142we're still following a 1993 model to where I've been really the only administrator. Now we put that other administrator in there. So, if you know, we can split up things a lot more than what we did. And then it leaves me kind of to do a lot of more culture building and get down to the lower levels that we've talked about to make that better. So, what effect does this have on the two additional duty ADs at the middle schools? What does that do? Well, that means that I'm more supportive with them going down to there and making sure that we're doing what we need to do. You know, have we added a lot of stuff down there? As you can tell, we haven't added a lot of stuff, but now with girls wrestling coming

143it it's just things are going to blow up where to where one of the fastest is girls is flag football. I mean, that's coming. So, there's a and then paddle ball sometime is going to be coming up. I mean, it's unbelievable the things that are are in the pipeline heading up here. So, I like the two the two questions I had for for Decho, you're answering one of them. It's that their list is district positions. So, this this assistant AD position is literally going to be a district position. You're going to be working with elementary schools, the two middle schools, and high school. We we do that. You're you're assistant, right. Yes. But this is going to allow more interaction and more development of those different programs. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Even with vision, a

144big part of the discussion was about athletics and activities and how that's the I'm sorry, vision 428 and how that's going to impact things. When we go towards that model, that changes so much for the district. Definitely at our elementary level, but then even at the split levels for our our middle school. So, there's a lot of work to be done and there's a lot of work that is going on. So, Yeah. I one other question about different position if anybody has something for Peter. No, I'm just I'm always concerned with the interested in comparable districts of our size or similar to our size. Oh, don't ask him that question. Do they have this position? Burlington Central has it and they're smaller than us. So, there there are quite a few and a lot of

145people just that we always compare to the DVC, they have two assistants per season. And we only have one. It's Mark and myself. So, that's a one and a half. One and a half, yes. So, there is I mean, Burlington Central has them. You get a I mean, mainly it's two two people per in our conference. And don't ask what they pay them. What do we want to >> Are you going to say it's more than No, no. They pay more at Burlington? You already put it down. Um teacher that uh this sole teacher, you list as district. Is that because they're going to articulate all the way through? Start Start low and go higher? No, because um it's to be determined where we'll fall. They uh student services student family services have to look

146at uh needs, the number of of students that have um tested in or have new IEPs and determine where the allocation needs to fall. It's just to be determined. We know we have the numbers, but we have to see where the grade levels are. And uh one side note, doesn't have to do with this particularly. If we could use the term student facing instead of touching students or student touching, I'd appreciate it cuz it just sounds weird. Student facing is I I I believe it's kind of industry wide that that those are people who have direct interaction with students, so that'd be a sounds a lot better if it comes out in the newspaper that we're talking about student facing positions than student touching positions. On that, no, do we have consensus to bring this

147back? >> on. One one more question. >> Yes, Mark. I see Armir standing. Any I think you were going to If I'm not If I'm wrong on this, tell me. Were you going to speak on this as far as its impact on the budget if this is passed? >> Yeah, and I did want to bring up that uh when we cost these positions out and I know the sticker shock is quite high. Uh we actually take into account an insurance and elective insurance at the highest tier. So, uh we do the uh the the highest plan that we have available. So, that's why the the numbers look very high uh from salary of 870 to about 1.8 with including the benefits. So, this year particularly we have the highest retirements on track where we have

148about 21 retiring with a very uh high range in salary. So, even including a a a very generous replacement cost, this opens up a little bit more on the budget and um so, we like Billy mentioned before, organically we have about eight FTEs that we re-want every year uh due to IEP numbers or uh whatever particular reason. So, in incorporating a combination of grants, uh the retirees uh replacement outside replacement cost, and um and the organic growth, that's where these numbers came from. So, so just that's all I wanted to bring up. And one final thing before you before we bring if the board does provide consensus to bring this back, are we going to then look at each of the positions for the next or we going to approve this as a So, I

149mean, should the board get back to the board president, other members as far as which position this So, what we would do and what we've historically done with projects of whether it's FTEs or whether it's a very big bid, is we just give consensus for the full slate to come back. And then in that vote, you can make a motion to remove an item if you would like to. Okay. That's at least how we did it last >> last year I know the discussion was very brief. Can I ask um if there is one that maybe could be a possibility of wanting to remove that there's any questions get asked. So, like for example, the math intervention is there's been no questions asked about that. So, I would hope that at the next board meeting

150that's not one that somebody would want to pull and then uh they didn't get the opportunity to answer any questions on the math interventionist position. So, um just asking that favor from the board if if that's something that you're thinking, any questions that you have for them right now would be the best time to ask. All right. Do we have consensus to bring this back? Yes. Yes. Amazing. Item I, summer hours to come high school counselors 2026. This one seems pretty straightforward, Kyle. I think you can get this one done quick. All right. See what I can do. This is another annual request our high school counselors for Stephanie Larson. She's a High school counselors are required to kind of um spend time over the summer um doing a variety of things um adjusting course

151schedules um you know, scheduling students for the fall semester, scheduling students for summer sessions. Um within the last couple years they've kind of opened up an office hour, so every Wednesday they would want to make sure that the high school staff so that way families, students can drop in. Um they do new tours throughout the summer. Um it's busy um getting ready either cleaning up the previous year or getting ready for the fall. Um and so historically the high school counselors have um proposed a request of 110 hours um for the summer per counselor um which is generally what we have approved or the board has approved. So, we're bringing forward that same request. The total fiscal impact would be 70,009 dollars and 60 cents. Any questions? If there are no questions, do we have

152consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. Yes. Thank you. Dr. Garcia-Sanchez, take it away. Very briefly, I would like to send a shout out out to homes. Uh registration was opened on April 1st and um I want to shout out the fact that we had 800 returning students registered on that first day. I will say kudos to H to the high school. Huntley and Cortland led the way in the number of returning students on that first day. Today, oh and then by the way, we also received 48 new students. For those of us that want to know how many new students we're getting in the district on the first day of registration, 48 brand new students. One of those is mine. Thank you. Thank you. Um as of this morning at 9:30 a.m., we had

1531,400 returning students registered today. Again, the high school's in the lead. Huntley's getting there close second. Cortland third, but Founders and Clinton Rosette, you guys are fighting it for that Huntley spot. So, I say you keep trying to get those families back and registered. Keep it going on. I'd like to see this fight go down to the end, making sure all of our children are registered before school lets out this year. Remember, everybody who wants to return must register as soon as possible. Don't wait till the last minute. You don't want to wait till we come back because then you'll be standing in line and I know people are not happy about standing in line. So, please come early, get yourself registered and ready to rock and roll for the next school year. Uh and

154that's it for me. So, I'm going to turn it back to you. All right. It is recommended the board adjourn at 9:05 p.m. Do I have a motion? Second. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Steven Nick, I don't know. I don't know.