001The time is now 7 o'clock and we'll recall to open session. Jackie, roll call. >> Kristen Bailey >> here. >> Gwood >> here. >> Steve Buyers >> here. >> Christopher Boy >> here. >> Mark Sherbot >> here. >> Bino >> here. Rodriguez >> here. >> All right. And we'll now do the pledge of allegiance. >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> All right, we'll now move into public comment. Members of the public who wish to speak to the board shall complete a request card prior to the start of the meeting. This section of the meeting will be reserved for comments from the public. All comments should be limited to
002three minutes. All righty. We'll start with Brent Macintosh to talk about middle school class size. Uh dear members of the school board, um I'm a teacher and parent of Delp School District. I have spent 28 years in the classroom, all within the DELV school district and who has taught both at the elementary and middle school levels. Additionally, three of my children have gone through our school district with number four now a sophomore. First, thank you for your decision to support the construction of Mitchell Elementary. That decision to lower elementary class sizes is a massive step forward, and we know firsthand that those lower numbers will immediately and profoundly enhance the teaching and learning our youngest students and their teachers deserve. Now, we urgently ask you for your support in addressing the reality of our middle
003school class sizes. The next critical step is to find a muchneeded new home for the ELDC and allow those 10 classrooms at Huntley Middle School to be repurposed back into middle school classrooms. This is the tangible solution we need to finally meet our class-siz goal of 30 at the middle school level. At CRMS for the past six years, we have operated at maximum capacity. We have had to overflow our sixth grade students to HMS for five consecutive years now. And this year, our seventh and eighth grade, our eighth grades have only a few seats left before they too hit capacity and face overflow. Our current class averages hover between 32 and 35 students per classroom. This is where the physical space translates directly into student opportunity. Our current classroom capacity is 35 students. The potential
004of utilizing those 10 available classrooms at HMS would be a gamecher for every single middle school teacher and student in our district. This moves this move allows you to fulfill a necessary commitment to lower our middle school class size cap to 30 students. A class size of 30 allows for effective differentiation, group work, more one-on-one support, and an improved ability to meet the complex social and emotional needs of our students. This decision is more about just managing overflow. It is about providing the optimal learning environment that benefits our students well-being and overall educational experience. Please put the best interest of our students and staff at the forefront by continuing to commit to the st 30 student cap through the utilization of the HMS classrooms. Thank you again for your vision and your commitment. We look
005forward to your support in making this essential change happen. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Mr. McInt. I'm sorry. Can may I please have that statement? May I have that? >> Thank you. >> I just want to make sure that I >> keep notes on what it is that you said. Thank you so much. >> No, no problem. >> And Ericson, impact of class size in an elementary school. >> We're like twins the same. Good evening, school board. My name is Ben Ericson and I'm the assistant principal at Lincoln Elementary. I want to thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak tonight regarding my perspective of smaller class sizes during this evening's board meeting. While in grad school for educational leadership, I was able to research the impact of smaller class sizes as this
006was a topic that I took particular interest in. The research shows that smaller class sizes really do help move the needle in almost every important category. Improved academic outcomes for students, more personalized instruction, improved student engagement and participation, increased graduation rates, positive social and emotional development for students. I was very glad that our district made the important decision to decrease class sizes for elementary schools in District 428 by the opening of Dr. for Leroy A. Mitchell Elementary School. So far, the research really has matched my experience at Lincoln when visiting classrooms this school year. I've noticed teachers working with smaller small groups or spending more time with fewer groups. This has led to an increase in early intervention for academic areas and an increase in SEAL supports for students. Since teachers have been able to
007spend more time with fewer students in their classes, students don't feel lost in the crowd, which has led to more participation in class discussions and activities. I have noticed that there's more space for students to spread out since there's fewer desks and fewer students in each room. As a result, small classroom distractions can be handled easier because students don't feel like they're packed in right next to each other. Those issues may have previously turned into bigger issues with a class size of 28. Our resources are not as spread as thin as they have been in previous years, which has led to an increased morale from the staff as well. I understand that there can still be a wide variety of experiences with a class size of 25 or even fewer, but I firmly believe that
008the decision to reduce class size at the elementary level will continue to make a positive long-term impact. I want to thank the board, past and present, for their dedication to this worthy endeavor of reducing class sizes in district 428. I look forward to seeing the work continue as this board discusses plans to address an increase in early learning opportunities for our community and a decrease in class size at the middle school level. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You guys did a lot of my research on this. >> Katherine Norris, ELTC building. We need more space for our early childhood students. We need more space for our middle school students. I know it, and I would like to believe that you know it, too. Recently, it was also known that we needed more space for
009our elementary school students. The school board correctly and within their rights saw fit to resolve this need by building Mitchell Elementary. Since then, apparently we've received push back from the community for building Mitchell without a referendum. Uh, sorry. And now it seems you think offering the community a referendum for a new preschool building to vote on will somehow rectify that push back. What does push back from the community even mean? During the 2024 election cycle, four of you were voted into your positions. Deal has a population of approximately 40,000 people. On the high end, some of you received over 2,000 votes. On the low end, less than 200. that ranges from 5% to less than 1% of the community voting you into this position. Now, while I don't understand, I do respect and appreciate the
010amount of effort and work that goes into running for and being elected into a position. I must ask though, don't you think it might take the same amount of effort or even more to educate the community so they can make an informed decision? The last time we had a referendum, it was during a presidential election, which notoriously brings more people out to vote. Even then, less than 25% of the population voted on that referendum. If during a presidential election we were still only getting less than 25% of the population to vote on a referendum, how do you plan to make this time different? After all, you want community feedback and involvement. Sorry. After hearing from staff and community members for several months now about this need for more space for middle school students, more space
011for early childhood students, you continue to say you want community feedback and involvement. How do you plan to inform and motivate the community to educate themselves and vote on this referendum so that you can get an appropriate level of community feedback approximately five times or more than you did previously just to be elected into your position. Unless of course it's only a specific section of the community that you want to hear input from. for a group of people claiming per their own website their mission is to provide an equitable and inclusive education that supports students holistically providing >> just notice you're at time >> Yep. Liz Welter. Class size difference. Hello, my name is Liz Welter. I'm a fourth grade teacher at Lincoln Elementary. I'm just touching on key points on the class size difference
012from when the cap went from 28 now to 25 in elementary schools. Last year, I had 27 students for the majority of the school year. I greatly appreciate the decision to decrease the class sizes for these reasons. There is now room in my class to move and have more opportunities for group work for my students. I now have room for a rug in my room to allow for more transitions from their desks to the floor. I have room for daily SEAL morning meetings, allowing students to sit in a circle and be able to share what's going on throughout the day. I also have the ability to check in with each student daily rather than monthly or when needed for problem solving. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> You don't have to rip it out. >>
013No, it's fine. >> Sorry. Thank you. >> Sarah Mack, ELC building. >> Hi there. I am speaking on behalf of the staff and most importantly as a voice of the students at the ELDC. We are disappointed to hear that the goal of the school board is to take the proposal for a new ELDC building to referendum. We 100% believe community conversation should happen about why we need a new center and we 100% believe in educating the community on the importance and the urgency of building a new center and how that benefits them as a whole. But that can all be done without a referendum. There is evidence from ISBY stating that Dalb is a desert area and in need of more prek and therefore needs no referendum to be built. There is evidence from our
014preschool for all state monitoring visits that show a lack of appropriate space for prek learners. There is evidence that funds are available and it will have no financial impact on the taxpayers. There is evidence that the middle school will need that space in two years. There is evidence from the staff who work day in and day out at the ELDC telling you the space is not working anymore with the growing needs of our community. Evidence. Evidence to back up any communication with the community to justify why we can and most importantly why we should make this decision without a referendum. You committed as a board to tackle the issue of class size across the district and what happens if there goes to a referendum and the community says no. Because to be honest, no matter
015how much you tell them it won't affect taxes, in the back of their minds, they will associate the word referendum with raising taxes. And are you okay with taking that 5050 chance of it not passing and how it will impact the lives of all the students you took an oath to help? Are you okay with the negative impact it will have on all students in our district and the community as a whole? And are you okay with setting the next board up for failure? So they have to clean up the mess and maybe spend more money in the process to get things done way past the current needs of D428. All because we're ignoring the evidence in front of you. It's time for you to trust that evidence presented by the state by D428 staff
016and administration. The needs of our youngest learners and our middle school learners aren't going away. And we don't know if you just don't understand that or if you don't care. We are asking you to dig deep and think about what side of D428 history you want to be on. Do you want to be remembered as the board that dismissed the glaring needs of the students and community? Or do you want to be remembered as the board who took action because it was the right thing to do for our students and the growth of D428? Because we are one barb and it starts here. Thank you. And next we move into board correspondence. Does anyone have any correspondence for the board? >> So I guess I'll just quickly say we had our annual self-evaluation with the
017Illinois Association of School Boards yesterday. I personally feel it was a very productive conversation that we as a board were able to have where we could really I feel like maybe start to figure out some policies and procedures that we're looking forward to do together as a group with Dr. Garcia Sanchez and I feel it was very collaborative and helpful. So [Music] >> I had an opportunity to stop by um Mitchell at release. Sorry I'm putting away my charger. Um, and I experienced very friendly staff who I forgot to bring this, but they still identified me. Um, and it looked very organized and getting them out of the building. Um, the traffic on normal was something I do want to see if there's something we could discuss because it was backed up pretty far. And
018it's not just us. It's not anything Mitchell's doing. It's the nature of the beast of having that many cars show up at the same time. But I think it was uh from a organizational standpoint, it seemed like they were doing a really good job considering they're six weeks old. >> I went um visited Clinton Rosette Middle School the other day. Um it was a lot of fun to be there. It's a great school. Everything was going pretty good. The uh kids in the recess area outside were having a good time. Um, I also went to the high school where I was forced, I would say, to try the food from our vendors. Um, it was actually quite delicious. So, um, well done. I think that's a good partnership. At least at DHS, the food was
019very good. Um, I couldn't eat as much as they wanted me to because that would have been bad. But yes, that was fun. Um, I was wondering, are we going to get a public update on our process with the everything in the ELDC at some point in one of these board meetings? >> Second. >> So, my understanding is we are currently working on, if I'm not mistaken, we should be soon going through the process of allocating a part of our budget to be directed towards funding for ELDC. Now once that occurs that's just earmarking funds in the budget. Then we as a board are still going to have to decide how we take the ball and run with it from there. So that's really we can start the conversations towards the end of this meeting
020for what we want to see at the next meeting if we want to start that discussion. It's up to you guys. >> I think a lot of it has been kind of waiting to see how tax levy goes so then we know exactly what we're working with. But I know that everyone, especially within the ed center, is working on getting everything ready for that. So, >> okay. Thank you. >> Anyone else have anything else? Maria, student board correspondents? >> Yes. So, the mini board had their student exchange with Genanoa um last week. We went to Genanoa on Monday and we got to walk around and go to their classes and see their school. Um, black block black schedules are certainly something. Um, no, it was really, really fun and we really got to see some
021of the things they do to hype up their students and we really liked a lot of their things and um, they came to Decal and they saw DeCalb and they really liked DeCalb and some of the classes we offer and so we're just going to meet sometime and come together and be like, "Hey, what were some things that we really liked about Genanoa and some things you guys really liked about DALB and just talk about all that and hopefully get some projects started because of for that. Um, also the mini board's working on a lot of like really really big projects and I'm very excited for you guys to see those. Um, happy breast cancer awareness month. That's it. >> Yeah. >> Uh, I'm just I'm really curious. Can you just give me a teaser
022about something that you're thinking we might be interested in doing here? >> Um, we're working on a parking lot renovation. So, we're h coming up with floor plans on how to renovate the Decalp High School parking lot. Um, some cheaper options, some a little bit more expensive, some things just to make the flow of traffic and all that. Um, easier in the Decal High School for pickup and drop off. Um, safer for students who are walking home, people who are going to Mitchell, all that sort of thing. >> We have a lot of things already prepared. I just need to meet with people. I can see that Tammy and Matt are all a globe with >> Thank you. Oops. >> All right. Moving into the consent agenda. It is recommended the board of education approve
023the consent agenda items 5B through 5F. Board minutes from the September 16th meeting. Personnel action items. Purchase order requisitions bilingual staff recruitment spirit cultural exchange program. Host school agreement renewal. ISBE visiting international host district intergovernment agreement renewal as presented. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Do I have a second? >> All right. >> Quick comment. >> Yes. >> And I don't need anything removed. I did have a question about item E, the bilingual staff recruitment uh spirit cultural exchange. Looking at the agreement that is attached, it says fiscal impact on the main summary is NA, but I see on the final page of the document, it shows a number of fees, none of which are checked off. Can I get an idea of what the what the cost is or what what
024I know this is a renewal, so what what what was it before and what is it now? Do we expect? So those check boxes on the final page of the agreement are ones that the district would be telling spirit that we are committing ourselves to paying. We are not committing to those. Those are ones that will be the responsibility of the candidate. The only thing that um I did talk to spirit about it. Um there is one listed $3,000 recruitment assistance fee. They um I actually advise them that that should not be there because that is a fee that they are going to start imposing on all of all districts for Spanishspeaking bilingual staff members. But other than that, none of those boxes are checked and we are not covering those. >> That's what I
025wanted to check on. Thank you. >> Yep. >> All right. Any other questions? >> Hearing no other questions. Jackie, roll call. >> Hey, >> yes. >> Steve, >> yes. >> Jose, >> yes. Christopher Boyce, >> yes. >> Mark Sherbot, >> yes. >> Bino, yes. >> Kristen Bailey, >> yes. >> All right, moving on to the next section. We've got presentations and we will have our tax levy information presented by director of >> business. >> All right. Well, uh, so yeah, it is tax levy season. Uh, we're going to start our levy process. So uh before I before we actually get into the nuts and bolts of the tax levy uh we always bring forward a little bit of presentation get the basics uh get some information um how we move forward uh remember that the
026property taxes is actually the the largest share of the revenue to the to the district. we were getting towards a um where the federal and the state was getting more than half of the revenue coming to a district. However, with the things that are happening now uh in DC and in Springfield, uh we're seeing that the importance of our property taxes is kind of jumping back. That is not the situation we wanted. That was not the trajectory that we're going into, but that's what's coming up. And we just finished the budget, approved the budget for this year and the and the next cycle for the budget for the following year is actually the tax levy. So what you adopt in December for the tax levy will be used for the budget of the following year.
027So uh so that's what makes this a very important uh decision making and that's why we need all the information we can for it. So the next all right so we can start first with the timeline of the tax levy. So um what we're doing right now all the tax tax agencies uh we have about nine taxing agencies in decalp this includes our library district our park district the city the county uh kish water reclamation uh so kish college and the water reclamation and so and of course the school district we all go to the county we look at the appraisal we look at their uh assessment of all the properties so we we look into it and we see what uh the county will uh has prepared for uh for the tax base that
028we are going to rely on to get the tax levy calculation. So we're very early in that assessment cycle. So the county is still assess uh gathering value. They presented one in September 17, but we keep uh calling the county asking for information, asking for updates and and that's where the relationship with the county is important because that assessment keeps uh keeps being refreshed. The numbers that coming keep coming in. So even when we adopt in um in December uh that final at assessment value is really not the final value and that's why the tax rates that maybe even the tax amount is is doesn't get finalized until actually in March. So uh we get the final numbers in March because between January and March uh we get a lot of tax objection. So at
029that time those numbers the numbers that we are showing might might continually uh change. So um so what are the three items that we really need for our levby calculations? You will hear this a lot. We talk about it a lot. It's called the EAV. That is your taxable value. That is a third of the market value of your property. So if you have a property that is about 300,000 the taxes are actually collected at the third of it right. So uh and that is one way you can think of EAV. The other part that we need for our calculation is that the CPI, the consumer price index. Uh we always use the the more uh stable and u the number from December of the previous year because that's what the county will establish as
030the CPI for that year. The other part we need is new construction. That is important because this new construction are uh coming into the tax roles and we need to capture it right. uh those are uh areas that the law kind of allows us to use for our tax levy. Now um there has been instances where some taxing agencies u miss out on this new construction and we had that here in the happening and if you don't capture that new construction you lose out on it forever. So you so that's the the the importance of uh you know uh calculating the levy correctly following up on what's new construction and uh using that for the tax rate. Uh so what are we going to see in the next months uh in November we will come
031in we'll bring a few options we will look at what we need to run our schools and the amount of money we or the levy amount that we would be recommending. So you will have a few scenarios at that time and we will need that uh the established or at least uh some recommended number from the board so that we can post it in the newspaper and we need about 20 days uh for the public to kind of review it. Uh and it's part of the uh the these are all procedural uh part of all uh the the the process and the laws uh guiding the tax levy. So once that is um has been is out publicly, we come back and we adopt it in December. We really have until the last Tuesday of
032December to um to submit this to the county. So we really need to adopt this by December. At that point, I'm still in contact with the county and I'm asking them the ladies numbers of the assessment and and then we establish that tax uh levy amount. At that point, the rate will always change. Like I said, we will probably be seeing about three numbers throughout this whole process. We're going to see one in December what the board will adopt and then come March looking at all the objections the the uh uh the joint uh the board uh of assessments uh that number will change and the county will come back and say all right you this is as much as you're allowed or this is your rate for this year. So after March uh there's
033also a collection the tax bills comes to uh property owners uh between May and May through uh November. Uh we have two installments at that point. So that's when the tax bills are collected. Even at that point there's about a 1% loss that we establish of that of uncollectible taxes. So that's why I say there's three numbers throughout the process that we look at. So again, tax rates really are finalized come March and April. Any question on that process? Um I wanted to give a kind of a a historical view of what's been happening in Decal and uh how the the footprint or what uh areas categories are bringing in the most revenue to the district. So, uh, back in 2020, uh, you can see that I have a gray area of percentage in there.
034The residential or the homeowners were really contributing about 56% tax revenue to the district and at that time the indust industrial section was really in its infancy in decalp. So, it was really contributing about 8%. Now if you move forward um the in 2025 you're seeing that the home owners we have expanded we moved from about 450 million to about uh $728 million worth of uh property value. Uh but that contribution to the district revenues has shrunk to 36%. So you can see the jump where the the uh businesses and industrial sector is picking up more of the tax collections to the district and that footprint is growing and it will and from uh pro uh from the projections it will continue to grow and the the property owners homeowners will be contributing less and
035less share revenues to the district. Uh so it's a great success story. I mean this is what we want to see. We want uh the uh the home owners uh contributing less to the revenue and having the businesses and the industrial sector to start picking that up. Right? So if is as you're seeing the biggest jump is been from in the industrial side from 8% and jumped all the way to 42%. This is nothing new for everyone. You guys have seen the Ezone, the south corridor, Meta, Facebook, Meta, Facebook, Ferrara, um, uh, Amazon and, uh, many others. And, uh, we're looking at about 60% is being picked up by the industrial and the commercial side. This is great news on that end. All right. So, On the next slide, we we want to talk about
036the role of consumer price index. Right? We said there was three factors. So this is the second one. So the CBI is very important. So we when we establish when we adopt a tax levy amount, we don't establish a tax rate. We're really constricted as a school district. Maybe other taxing agencies may not be part of this law, but definitely the school district is. What the the the state law allows us is to only pick up inflationary increases, which would be the CPI. Now, for those of you who run our operations or ask for POS and get some contracts for your school, uh we almost never match the CPI that's been established from December 24 in this case. uh we're seeing increases from tariffs to uh um many other reasons of cost of doing the
037business but at this point by by property tax value we can only pick up the inflationary increase that is adopted by the federal government uh which is for this year would be 2.9 uh again it is on the lower end here is a little bit of his historical perspective on the CPI we're supposed to be at 2% which is that red line there the red uh uh line and but our CBI has been zigzagging all across the board there from as low as 0.1 to 7 just a few years ago. So we have because of the CPI this law only allows us to pick up uh what CPI is or 5% whichever is less. So in this case um we are less than 5%. So we have to have an inflationary increase of 2.9 knowing
038also that our cost has been increasing. All right. Any question on this? All right. The district has done his due diligence. Uh we have lowered our levy over the over six years. that presented here is about four years. This is a kind of a nice snapshot of what the school district is compared to other school district across the county or with uh school districts that have boundaries in Decal County. So as you see all of those bolded are school districts that are actually having a way that have higher uh uh tax rate than uh what this district 428 has. So we had the most dramatic decrease in tax rates. So from 22 if you look all the way to the right we were at 6.8 and just previous year was 4.8. So this came in
039with uh utilizing every options that was on our table from uh taking from the new construction uh utilizing property tax relief grants abating bonds uh which is uh the bond for our uh referendum bonds for our uh high school and Courtland and other uh where we issued uh debt to pay for them uh and uh through a referendum it was being picked up at a tax levy. But what we did is we discounted that to provide some form of relief. So, uh, through a combination of, um, abatements, property tax relief, and under levies, uh, this came in as and now we're, uh, we, this came in with a dramatic decrease into our tax rate, and now we're really, uh, lower than almost, uh, every maj uh, and we're the biggest uh, district in the in
040the county, but we have the lowest tax rate from a number of county school districts. So that's important to note. Um this is uh for those of you who have home ownership in the district uh and especially if you had it since all the way to 2018. This is a kind of a nice snapshot what you've been paying throughout the years, right? Remember EAV is a third of your market value of your home, right? So let's say you came in in 2018, bought a $270,000 home, a third of it is 97. That would be uh column two. Uh the equalization factor indicates the the increase in market value of your home. So every year the county uh provides a equalized factor for all the properties in the city of Decal uh to uh to utilize
041it for the calculation of the levy. Right? So, some of you might have seen that in your tax bills. Your tax bill was lower or your home value was lower than the neighbor next door. So, that always happens, but that's where the equaliz equalization factor will kind of shore all of those uh changes under one number. So when your market value of your home went up to 3.51% back in 2019, you had 101 thou a $1,000 home, EAV, right? That's a third of your market value. And you get a homestead exemption, which is your primary residence exemption. That is actually pretty generous for the county. Each county has its own. So, uh, you don't right there, you get a taxpayer relief, right? You get the $6,000 homestead exemption. Uh from there you get the tax
042the final tax uh taxable base for you from your home and you multiply that with the school rate the tax rate from the school and that's how you get your taxes which is your last column. If you notice between 2019 to 2024, every year your your home has been growing in value, right? And and and Decal is probably one of those that has seen some very dramatic increases in property value. It doesn't seem like it's going down any further. I mean, even this year, we're looking at about 9.51 increase in market value for your homes. So in 2024 you uh your home which was had an EAV of 101,000 it jumped 43% to 143,000 but take a look at to the right in 2024 you have paid way less than back when your home was
04340% less and and this is all the efforts of the school districts throughout the year to provide a taxpayer relief form and again uh we cannot stress enough uh that this did come with sacrifice uh with through abatements under levies uh and also utilizing any type of forms. All >> quick quick quick note. >> Sure. >> The equalization factors, this is strictly decal township numbers. >> City of Decal, >> the city of Decal, correct? Decal Township within the city of Decal because Aftton Township, they've had lower equalization factors. They've saved a lot more money. So lucky them. But if you live in Courtland or Malta, your figures may be different. So correct. So yeah, this so our uh actually our school district covers about seven uh townships, but the one that I'm presenting here is
044city of PAL because that's just simply not the biggest the largest share of where our uh properties reside. All right. And uh and this year uh seeing what's happening at the federal and state level uh we h we will have operational cost impacts. So as we make that decision for our tax levy calculations, we have to think about how to keep running our schools knowing of all of these uh um uh uh things that we don't have control over all of these costs that have been affecting us and that came up this year. Uh the transportation is a major one uh where the state is starting prorating. We're seeing symptoms from the state that starts to kind of uh shift from those obligations looking to prorating. Um we're looking at uh insurance renewal rate that
045came in as a surprise for us and uh and we had a renewal of three collective bargaining unit agreements. Uh that's were effective as of July 1. That's about 400 staff members that got uh a uh a a good standard of living increase in a sense uh which really contributes back to the economy if you want to think of it back to the local economy. Um but we had about 400 members uh getting u a renewed collective bargaining unit. Uh we have state federal government also kind of not picking up their obligations when it comes to funding such as Medicaid um uh EBF tiers uh and also in our own budget we had to defer a few sources for sources of funds we had to defer them uh so we could have a balanced budget
046and remember long term we're also looking at ELC and any other uh uh renovations that we we are needed facility-wise. So why do I bring this up? Uh we do we have provided many forms of uh savings and tax relief to property owners. We are not seeing a significant canoe construction coming in. Now this year we're not seeing it but projected that in the future we might see craft hinds come into place kamemed substation uh the Marriott hotels something that's happening between Fairview and um peace road uh so I think future uh we will we will see maybe a significant new construction but because this year it's just been no there's nothing significant it becomes comes a challenge for us to provide that level of relief that we may have afforded previously. So, uh it
047it is a it is a very tough year this year. Um and uh just uh we will we are presented with a lot of significant challenges. Um but again in the long term uh we might see something better. One thing that when we do list tax levy uh we have to remember that under levy should not be an option uh because that uh it does not allow us to future recoup uh our revenues. It deprivives the district from revenues for each year in the future and it also deprivives the future board members to make decisions on these tax levies. So uh kind of trust the experts. We do have other ways to provide taxpayer relief that uh are not as long-term. So, I'm kind of closing it with that, but uh please uh if you
048have any questions, uh let me know. Yeah, >> a quick one and I know every year I' I've followed this many years before I was on the board that come November, December, three to four options like on screen number three are given to the board to look at. I certainly hope at least from my perspective that once again we will at least have an option or two that will hold the taxpayer harmless. And clear definition terms means you would pay the same amount on your property taxes. For those watching obviously for those who don't know 60% of your property taxes you pay are to the district. So I hope to see an option brought forward that does hold the taxpayer harmless. And that's my particular position on this right now. So, and I know I
049know we have challenges, but I want to see at least that option be brought to the board. >> Yeah. Uh the only thing I would want to bring up um remember that um the your market value of your homes has been steadily increasing at about maybe 30 to 40% throughout these years. and the taxes being paid let's say compared to 2019 are kind of uh even less than back in 2019. So uh you have to take in consideration that the the tax base is growing uh as well when your market value of your home grows. >> Right. But we did see a reduction uh we saw an increase from 22 to 23 and it was brought down a little bit last year. So I'm just pointing out that we did It hasn't been in in
050a straight line down, you know, it's been trending downward overall, which is good, but if we can try to at least have an option to keep >> hold the taxpayer harmless, I'm looking for that. >> Yeah. And just explaining that uh that at that point we did have tax uh relief grants from the state which we and so we try to explore every level of uh shortterm uh uh relief forms in a sense that doesn't hit the revenue of the district uh permanently. So, uh, yeah, at that time we did have it. Um, and this year we just, um, uh, the state froze providing that relief grant. >> So, Mir, you mentioned the term under levy. You mean lowering the tax rate, right? >> That is uh that is different. So an under levy is
051an actual permanent um a permanent decrease uh affecting future revenue and f and freezing the uh future board from making decisions. So there's under levy, there's abatements and there's other forms of relief. So an under levy is actually not only uh not taking what's allowed for you but going further into hitting the permanent reduction. >> Okay. Thank you. Now, we did abatements last year, right? Because >> when we we levy for a certain amount, that is our levy amount that we could use the 2.9% on. So, we set the ceiling higher and then we abda the amount to go below that. Correct. >> Correct. >> All right. So, >> so I guess just a question for me since CPI was only 2.9% this last go around. I know one of the I don't know if
052I want to call it benefits but one of the things we were working with before is you know we had a year where CPI was 7%. Yeah. >> So we actually had the full ceiling that we could use. >> Correct. >> So you know we had more wiggle room to decide >> with a CPI of 2.9. Do we even really have much wiggle room or is it pretty much a hey this is what you can take >> sure >> to pay the bills we got to take it. >> Yeah. And and that's what the state law. So when we whenever we bring that pel unfortunately we are one of the taxing agencies that we are constricted by this law and that law does only give you the inflationary increase and the new construction. Well this
053year we don't have a significant new construction. So we have to pick up at least the inflationary increase. >> So just based on your cuz my personal feelings at this point is we haven't had that new construction. So, I guess my goal isn't to say, "Hey, people's tax bills aren't going up this year. I'm just going to be realistic. I just don't think that's going to be reasonable with the increases we're getting hit with that. I don't know that we'll be able to do that." My question is based on just what you know now, and I know we don't have final numbers yet. Do you feel that we'll be able to keep the tax rate around where it is? >> So, we we will provide an option that keeps the tax rate the same. Uh
054I believe that every taxing agency will have that issue as well because of the no new significant construction coming in. Uh but uh because of all the challenges that we have, we want to keep it uh so that's why this table is kind of important uh we want to keep it where we're we're either uh 4.8 to some some very fair range. So uh but we will provide that option. Thank you. >> And I just want to be clear when we say we're going to keep the tax rate the same with that multiplier you indicated of 9 51% which is so if that rate stays the same everybody's taxes increase approximately about 9.51% to the school district approximately. >> Yeah. So it's a different there's a difference between tax rate and some by using that
055terminology and I've been critical of that in the past. we're going to hold the tax rate the same with the multiplier increasing uh by 9.5%. That's something to keep in mind. So, you have to factor both of those things in. So, anyone else have any other questions for I'm sorry, uh could you just share with us how much we've actually abated in the last five years in total? >> Sure. Uh so and I think uh if I focus only on the debt levy. So the debt levy is what the voters requested when the high school was built back in 2011. uh that was picking up the debt for the high school, Courtland, uh and uh other renovations that every year we have been using uh for the past six years we've been using uh a
056form of property tax relief grants and uh a form of our own abatements. Uh so we're looking at a mil $43 million about 30 million we've been using either through a combination of abatements and 13 million has been picked up by the uh the taxpayers. So really the the payments for the debt for the high school that was voted on to be paid by the taxpayers, we have actually tried to look for abatements of it and the taxpayers have only picked up about uh 25% of it or one out of four dollars of it. All right. Hearing no other questions or comments. Thank you, Ar. >> Thank you. And next thing that we'll move into is old business. Next thing will be solar energy project. These are the RFP results that we got in. It
057is recommended the board of education approve administration to contract with Sun Peak Power Holdings for solar panel installation projects. Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Jackie. Roll call. >> Steve. >> Yes. >> Jose. >> Yes. >> Bailey. >> Yes. All right. And item B, temporary facilities reports, Courtland, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Little John. It is recommended the board of education approve the temporary facility applications for Courtland, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Little John. Do I have a motion? >> Still move. >> Second, >> Jackie. Roll call. >> John, >> yes. >> Mr. Bailey, >> yes. >> All right. Now, we'll be moving into new business. Item eight, tenure life safety report brought to us by director Tammy Carson. >> Thank you. Um, as I'm coming forth tonight, I am presenting the 10-year life safety reports.
058What those reports are, it is required for all Illinois schools that every 10 years, our buildings are inspected by our district architect and then any violations are noted and then they are sorted by category A or B, priority A and B. That gives us a timeline for what we need to um improve on those buildings. A have to be done within a year. B have to be done within five years. So the reports are in front of us. We do just for a reference our average age of our buildings is 42 years old with our oldest building being founders which was started in in 1953. >> So that is our oldest. We have four of them that were built in the 50s, two in the 60s and three in the 70s. So, as you can
059imagine, buildings of that age and the size that we're dealing with and the amount of use of them, there are things that do get addressed consistently and then there will always be some violations that are noted. This is in addition to our regional office of education inspections that are also done annually, which we work on correcting those on an annual basis. I did ask Scott Johnson, our district architect, to come and just briefly go over the uh tenure life safety reports so you know what they entail and also just his role in this and how it how it impacts our next five years. >> Thanks Tammy. Um so yes, as Tammy mentioned, every 10 years an architect needs to go through each of the schools. The main objective is to look for violations of code
060and look for safety features. That that's the main draw. Um the tenure update uh includes a few different things. One, the first part of a tenure update is existing condition report. The state of Illinois tells us exactly what we need to look at when we look at the buildings and we then give that information back into a form to the district. So it's things like what's the square footage of the building, what type of water services to the building, what kind of mechanical systems. So it's about five or six page document for each school. The second part uh which I believe is the most important is the violation section. So each school will have a list of violations um how to correct those and estimated dollar amounts to correct those violations. The third part is
061um drawings and includes a site plan and the floor plans for each school building. So that encompasses the complete tenure update. Um with your buildings, uh you guys do a great job of maintaining your buildings. I think out of what do you have 10 12 buildings? How many are there to 15 buildings? Wow. I walked a lot of buildings. Um >> the amount of items violations are is really low. I mean, I've done school districts where they'll have like one school or two schools and there's like 80 items per school. I think the most we have is 10 12 on one of the schools. Some have a couple schools have no items. Um so you guys do a great job and none of them are really big ticket items. There's a lot of smaller type
062items. Uh I'll just comment on a couple common ones that happen. So 10 years ago when the uh walkthrough was done, the the state and the ROE have changed a couple things that they require us to site. They were always code issues back 10 years ago even. But they said for instance like classrooms need to have door closures on them, meaning the doors are always in a shut position. Uh in the past they said well teachers going to put wood wedges or they'll put something in there to keep them open. So don't enforce that. But they are now enforcing that. So that's one item that's probably on every school. Uh the other item that's come up from the fire marshall when they do their walkthroughs is a lot of the smoke doors and some fire
063doors. they need to actually physically latch. So in a fire, you've got a lot of wind conditions could blow those doors open and help spread that fire. So they're cracking down on making sure we site that those doors need to latch. Those are some common ones that are in each school. And then each school has some uh odds and ends of other items uh violations, but nothing major. Um all in all, just a great report for the tenure updates. >> Thank you. And thank you Tammy and the team. >> Nice work. >> Y >> Tammy, >> um it was mentioned that we do a great job of maintaining our buildings and I know I seen that action at work. Did you separate like the the the the fiscal impact of $696,000 over five years? Does
064that take out the stuff that you would normally be replacing and updating already or is that just kind of like their estimate? This is how much it's going to cost. So, it actually may not increase the cost to the district to fix these because they eventually over the next 5 years they probably would have been fixed anyway. There's a portion of that that is included in it, but as Scott mentioned, because some of these things being like the door closers and the fact that certain fire doors didn't close and latch properly, those may not have hit our list in our plan. Um, one significant dollar amount that's on there is uh that was not on our plan is replacing the stucco on Clinton Rose Middle School, which is the exterior of the the school. That's
065$300,000. So, that was not initially on the plan. Um, but now that it is, it will need to be done in the next 5 years. So, we'll be looking I will be looking to revise our 5-year project plan to make sure that these items are reflected, especially the bigger ticket items. One thing to note in the report is a lot of these are smaller items that our maintenance staff have the skills to be able to handle on their own. So the quote that or the estimate that is in here could potentially be at a higher dollar amount than it will actually come in at because our staff has the abilities to do it without hiring an outside company. That includes at the bottom of each report, Scott references a contingency and architect and engineering costs.
066If we're handling it in in-house that those costs do not apply. It is a cost of our labor for our staff and then the materials. So we will see some of the cost less is my hope, but also costs are going up for everything we're buying. So projecting out five years is challenging. >> Thank you. >> Any other questions? >> All right. Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> All right. Next item is B. National Interscolastic Athletic Administrators Association National Conference. >> Say that again. It's a long one. >> Say no. >> Okay. Just making sure it's on. Good evening, everyone. I'm really short. Hold on. I just put it closer. Okay. Uh director athletic director uh Peter Goff is not here tonight. His name Mckenry. Our girls flag football team
067qualified to the next uh the next level for regionals. So, he's supporting them. So, exciting news there. Um, Pier Goff is um asking to be in attendance for the Illinois or well as the Illinois Athletic Director Association for the IADA. Um, he's asking to go to the National Interscolastic Athletic Administrators Association National Conference. So that'll take place in Tampa, Florida, December 11th to the 15th or to the 14th, my apologies. Um, and the total cost that conference is $2,135.71. It will be taken out of that athletic travel budget. So he's requesting for that and that is an information item. Anybody have any questions? >> Okay, >> hearing no questions. Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> All right. DHS student council NCD winter retreat also I'm assuming presented by Dr. Larson.
068We have a lot of items students from the high school. >> We have some students that are here that were patiently waiting. Ladies >> um I'm doing D. She's see, but we're just together for moral support. Um, okay. Go ahead. >> Okay. So, my name is Ivan Ortiz and I'm part of the Decalp High School's student council. Um, and what we are asking is that um we have an overnight trip and GreatWolf Lodge in Gurnie. It's for our North Central District um winter retreat. So the we're requesting that um or no sorry we're um we have members who are part of the NCB board like Kumaya and Maria and um we will engage in activities to learn about leadership um communication collaboration with other schools and networking. So um the activities will probably include um
069learning about leadership about um improving our own skills that so that we get ideas from other schools um to bring back to our council. Um we'll be expected to pay only $50 and then student council will cover the rest which is $100 um which will be for hotel, food and any other activities that we do. Um, all three of our adviserss will be attending the event. Um, and we'll be taking two mini buses to and from the event. We'll leave DHS on Thursday, December 4th, and then return that Friday, December 5th. So, yeah, that's it. >> Are there any questions? >> Do I have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> All right. And then item D, student council IASC state convention overnight trip request. >> Hello, my name is Kamar Calvin. I'm also
070on the DHS student council board. Um so we're requesting um an overnight stay at the IASC state convention and ISAC stands for the Illinois Association of Student Councils. So that's basically where we go and we are collaborating with other Illinois student councils. We are actually graded and rewarded for all of the things that we do as um a council and we're also able to collaborate and get ideas from new schools and trying to find better ways to further our council. Also this year we have a member from our board I think who is planning to run for the state board. Um, not Moria. I just I was just looking at her for confirmation. Um, I don't know how right that is, but I'm pretty sure that we do. >> Yeah, we Cameron Moore, if you
071guys know him. Um, he's planning to run. So, for him to run, it would require us for us to actually go. But, um, I've been to the state convention. This would be my third year. Overall, I think it's a pretty amazing experience. um you get to see literally hundreds of different peoples from different schools all over the state and it's just a really good opportunity for us to collaborate and get new ideas. I feel like the best way to better us as a council is to go out and get new ideas and bring them back and implement them in the school and the state commencement is just one of those ways that we can do it at a very low cost and the way that um helps improve us but also builds team bonding and
072just grows our skills as a council and as individuals. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Also, before we go, we want to thank you guys for giving us the time and we want to thank Dr. Larson, Rick Davis, and um Sarah Jennings, and our adviserss for allowing us to be here today. So, thank you. [Applause] >> Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> All right, moving on to item E. DHS AP Euro Italy field trip out of country travel request. Also presented by Dr. Larson and Abby Hanland. >> Hi, I'm Abby Hanlin. Um I teach AP Euro at the high school. Um so my goal here today is to get an approval for students who take AP Euro to get to go to a summer trip to Italy. It would
073be June 1st through June 10th in 2026. Um, this first started through the old AP EO teacher, Miss Walkner, who was actually my AP Euro teacher. Um, it was supposed to be like a bi-annual trip every other summer. And so now that I'm the new AP Euro teacher, this is my second year teaching. I'd like to keep that tradition going if I'm able. Um, so I'm using the same travel company that she used before, Explorica. Um, they have good insurance policies. I have a schoolboard packet for all of you to see for questions about that. Um, but this trip in particular to Italy was chosen by the students. I had students rank a series of 10 different cities in Europe and they overwhelmingly chose Rome. And this particular trip, I chose it through this um,
074travel company because it identifies and goes directly with our course content. Um, so we'll go to places like Rome, Venice, Florence. Um, and we talk a lot about the Italian Renaissance and we look at the art and the culture. um which is something that's the kids get really really excited about and kids have shown to have a really big interest in that. Um already I sent out a Google form to students and I've had 26 responses so far but out of the 26 22 have said that they are seriously considering it if it were to get approved. Um and I remind them it's not approved yet. Um and I have even shown them the prices and the details. Um but they seem really excited about it in that sense. Um, so for this trip in
075particular, like I said, it's from June 1st to June 10th. Um, it's 10 days. And so the price that I'm going to tell you that includes air travel, um that includes uh onour transportation, um accommodations, so hotels, that includes uh breakfast and dinner daily entrance fees to the attractions we're going to do the guided sightseeing tours, a tour director, um 24-hour emergency services, um and then also a tour diary where parents can see what students are doing from home as well. So, it's a a really neat opportunity and I'm really excited about it. Um, so for this trip in particular, there's also different insurance options for students to pick from. So, their basic travel protection, it covers things like injury, sickness, um, illness if they lose their passport. Um, there's no visas needed for this
076type of trip because it's only 10 days. Um, flight cancellations because of strikes or bad weather. Um especially if we look at what's going on right now in terms of you know air traffic control and whatnot loss of luggage the the basic plan has a very good protection plan when it comes to that. Um but then there is a plus plan that families can purchase individually where that is like a cancel anytime for any reason. Um so that is an option that students have in that the total fee for this trip is $4,838. Um, that is something that the students would be paying for. Uh, this trip doesn't cover transportation to the airport. I've been in contact with the old AP Euro teacher who did this before and she said historically they've done car pooling.
077Um, had had students kind of figure out that transportation during parent meetings. Um, and she said that's worked great and everyone always gets there with plenty of time, especially when you're dealing with a trip of this size. Usually kids are going to make sure they're there on time, especially with car pooling and whatnot. Um, that's the total fee, but there are payment plans that are optional. Um, so there's six month pay payment plans and other adjustments and that's getting played directly to the travel company. I'm not collecting any checks or anything like that. Um, there is also fundraising support as well though because that was a big concern for a lot of students which that's also a concern for myself which is part of the reason why I chose this trip. It was one of
078the most affordable ones compared to the other extravagant ones they had while also still relating to the course content. So they you can set up your own personal fundra fundraising page through explorica. They have that option. Um they also have need-based uh support for certain qualifying families which is all confidential through their own services. Um and the payment options are very easy where they easily accept uh credit cards um donations from friends and family. So, the students do have an opportunity to raise some of that money. I've personally looked into some other fundraising things that maybe we can do. Um, this is kind of a it was my first time doing it, so fundraising was something that I'm still learning as we go, but it's something I'm looking more into down the line to make
079this even more affordable if it continues. Um, if I'm able to get it off the ground. So, yes, that's what I >> So, since this is going through a a company >> Yeah. that 4838 is essentially locked. >> Essentially, yes. Um, and that price in particular, that was a part of like a special they were doing for the summer. Um, and with the person I've been in contact with, they've extended that for board approval because it's supposed to end in September. Um, I've talked on the phone a couple times and so they're extending that um, at least in our situation um, to get that locked down. If it doesn't get approved, then if you were to like go on their website right now and try to book a trip, the price is higher. Uh, but
080that is locked down. There is an opportunity for that to lower as well. The more students that sign up, the more that price goes down. Um, and in this trip in particular, I chose this one as well because it's a guaranteed trip. So, there's other schools or other people who have signed up to also go to Italy and do this tour. We have our own hotel rooms. The students are only staying with they would only be staying with other students in school. They would not be rooming with anyone um outside of that. But that also helped lower the cost as well because all of that stuff is it's already planned essentially. Um so that's pretty locked down in terms of the price. >> Excellent. >> Any other questions? >> Do we have consensus to bring
081this back? >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. DHS ac cappella trip request presented to us by Dr. Larson. >> All right. Good evening again. So we have DH I know we have a lot of opportunities. It's amazing, especially growing our own with coming back, you know, it's really great. So, thank you. Uh, only a couple more everyone. So, we have DHS AC Capella is requesting um an overnight out of state to attend the AC Capella Festival in Port Washington, Wisconsin. It's not until April uh 10th, so it'll be April 10th to the 11th. Um the cost is $100. $45 the registration fee is going to be uh that's per student, and that's covered by our student class fees. Um, so the student the remaining cost will be $50 to cover um a portion
082of the hotel. The food will be um requested by our music boosters. So it's really important that we have our boosters and our um one barb athletic foundation now to cover things like this. So this isn't until April. Anybody have any questions on this request? >> Hearing no questions. Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> All right. And the last thing from DHS, FFA National Convention travel request. >> Great. Okay. So, this one's a little different. This one's information and action due to the timely uh nature of this request. So, the FFA National Convention um this is going to be October 29th through the 31st. This is our national convention where we have students that are going to attend with some FFA members as well as um our our leads. It's
083$375 per student. It's fully covered by the FFA chapter um and the FFA alumni. So um it's exciting to see that they're able to do this for our students especially through our auction in the fall. It's always a good time. Um the adviserss will be Sarah Peterson, Alex Turk, and Dana Anderson. Um and it's fully covered growing our own. >> Have any questions? Hearing no questions. Do we have consensus to bring this back? >> We got a vote on action. I did not see that a >> I did say that. Do I have a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All right, Jackie. Roll call. >> Yes. >> Bam. >> Yes. >> Mr. Bailey. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Item H, which is info only. Northern Illinois University Speech Language Hearing
084Clinic service agreement presented to us by director of student and family services Kyle Geris. Thanks. Red green color blind doesn't help me brown. >> I know. All right. So, this one isn't directly associated with DHS, but it could benefit DHS is uh that's my connection. So, um I'm actually excited to kind of talk with you all a little bit tonight about a kind of a new venture that we are um entering into or hoping to enter into with NIOU and their speech, hearing, and language clinic. Um, as you all know, I'm occasionally up here in front of you talking about the need to fill u an opening for an SLP. Um, sometimes we're able to, excuse me, sometimes we're able to hire for that directly. Sometimes we have to go uh find a contracted SLP
085through an agency and hire them at a higher rate per hour. Um we started to engage in some conversation with NIOU actually last year around some possibilities to partner with them um to be mutually beneficial for us as a district and our students and families but also for them as a graduate program to have their graduate students get um hands-on experience in our district doing all the different things that our SLPs can do. Um and so what I'm presenting to the board tonight is a master service agreement with niu uh that would run from um pro approval um when the board approves it through actually a almost a three-year period of time. Uh what that allows us and niu to do is to kind of predict what um opportunities are going to be available for
086grad students from semester to semester for the foreseeable future. For us as a district, what we benefit is the uh ability as needed to utilize NIOU for uh speech evaluations, uh evaluations that are more tailored towards autism, uh direct services within our schools, as well as um other services that they could provide um in regards to supporting meetings or um attending um um IEP meetings or other types of meetings. uh related to that. Um there is a charge to this. So if Oh, I'm sorry. I totally forgot about screenings. Uh sorry guys. Um our prek and community based screenings that our ELC does a pretty heavy lift. That is one of our biggest child find opportunities that we have with our little ones. um our our ELDC staff and SLPs are great, but they get
087pulled from their regular assignments to do those screenings, which does um obviously pull them away from their other duties. So, by allowing NIU's grad students to come in under supervision with some of our speech paths, it'll allow us to kind of um maximize our resources. Um, we do plan on utilizing the screenings, uh, niu for the screenings as well as some evaluations when we have an SLP go out on maternity leave, um, later on this school year. Um, this is a more coste effective way for us as a district to cover the needs when we're not able to fill them through a traditional hire. Um so for example um a threemonth uh 12 month 12week leave um at about $130 an hour which is the high end for a bilingual SLP um would cost the
088district around $58,000 um whereas we will be able to provide services to students and provide more people that can deliver services to more kids at a much um more effective cost. So for all those reasons I would like the board to um consider the service agreement. And with that, I'll open up to any questions. >> Quick question. You said it's a three-year contract we're looking at. >> Uh, yeah. So, it would go into place obviously once the board approved it, and it would run through June 30th of 2028. >> Do you know the approximate total annual cost? I've seen the itemized cost, but what do you anticipate on a yearly basis? >> It's a good question. So, I guess I'm going to come back to probably an o answer, which is how's our staffing levels
089look and what opportunities do we have during a year to provide additional coverage. Um, I think every year we uh don't quote me on this, but I think more years than not we have at least one FMLA um cover, leave to cover, and we don't normally know that until the individual tells us that they're going to be on a leave. Um, the variable that we can predict is we're probably going to have difficulty hiring our SLPs in the future. Um, so I I can't give you an exact dollar amount because of those moving pieces. Um, but what I do predict is that we're going to utilize um for screenings for sure on a year-to-year basis and evaluations on an as needed basis. >> I just have a question about um is this preferable? it's preferable
090it sounds like to have somebody full-time in this position instead of is it more cost effective >> so >> to do that or >> we yeah thanks for asking that question because I do want to have the opportunity to say we always want to try to hire our own SLPs and that's not going to change so if we have an opening we're going to try and hire if we're not able to hire for that position it this is a more coste effective way of doing it than it would be to hire a third-party um SLP that isn't directly hired through the district. >> If we don't need these services, do we pay anything? >> No. >> I mean, if we are able to hire them, a wonderful world. >> Correct. We don't um you know,
091there's part of this where, you know, we're having uh we're entering that partnership with NIOU. So, I want to recognize that we're we're doing this to give their students an opportunity to learn and grow, too. It's also a recruitment and retention strategy for us. A lot of our SLPs are former NIOU students. So I I do again want to make sure we partner with them. I would live within the budget uh that I have to do that and screenings is a place that I feel confident we can always go to them for. >> Cool. >> All right. Any other questions? Hearing no other questions. Do you have consensus to bring this back? >> Yes. >> All right. So then we will move into the superintendent update and then I will have a few things after
092her report to go over. You know what that means? Except he's got something after me. So, it's going to take us a little while longer. So, did you notice that when Kyle said his budget, he looked at me? I'm just saying. I'm just saying. Okay. So, I get that. Um, but I wanted to start off with some great news. Donna kind of stole my thunder a little bit, Dr. Larson. Um, so you know, uh, Peter isn't here today, um, AD golf because he is over in Mckenry with our girls black football at the regional semifinals. And so this is this the girls black flag black football team. This is their second year and they've done amazingly. They've been winning their champions. So go girls, you know, power to the girls. So thank you so much
093for that applause. We got another young woman who uh needs to be some applause. So doc u I'm sorry Amanoet Parker is now Dr. Amanet Parker we're going to get all kinds of alphabets in this place. So we're going to continue to do that. Congratulations to her. And then I'd like to be able to talk to you a little bit about thanking Walmart. So Walmart, we might not always give them the kudos they deserve, but Jackie Pringle went over to Yes. Jackie Pringle went over to Walmart and spoke to the folks that be so that they could support some of our families, specifically our children that are at the middle school that needed some assistance with getting to school other than walking. And Walmart has donated some bicycles to them. So, we want to shout
094out to Walmart. You know, a couple of meetings ago, we had some conversation around um that uh the roundabout that we were going to be putting over at Clinton Rosette. Uh and we've been talking, you know, uh we've been talking with the city manager since then and they've come up with a very innovative, more natural way of having that traffic area be safer without having to put a roundabout on there. And so I'm very grateful that the city manager has been very collaborative. Uh city's been very collaborative with us and having conversations. So, I just wanted to make sure that we gave a shout out for the new configuration of that traffic flow on that corner that will continue to have the the lights, the crossing paths and no no roundabout, but definitely a little
095bit of a change. So, we're very excited about that. So, thank you and kudos to the city for working with us. So, yes, we want to >> And here's the thing. I get really excited to see the kids come and and uh present uh because we have been trying a lot to get children to advocate for themselves at a lot of different grade levels. Uh Maria, thank goodness we she's our third board member, student board member that's been here. We're really excited about the kinds of things that she's bringing to the table. I can't wait to have my first uh advisory meeting with my mini board and see what they're coming up with. That's why I asked for a little teaser, but that's great. They also support um the principal advisory at the middle schools
096and then we hope to have something similar at the elementary schools. So we will continue to uh really um get children to advocate and advocate let them for themselves but also for the district that it's total. So you know that lunch that you had at DHS the only reason you could have that lunch is because the kids said that it was time for a change and it sounds like it's pretty good isn't it? It was. >> Yeah. So, you know, I got to give it up to the kids for all the work that they do for us to support that. So, so that's it for me. Turn it back over to you. >> Great. So, first thing to go over is the triple eye conference is coming up next month. >> I forgot something. >>
097Oh, >> sorry. Jackie Jackie will get upset with me and I'll be upset with myself because since 1990, the third full week of October has always been designated as principal week. And so, we got one in the house here. uh and two I'm sorry two I'm sorry two oh and down to three okay I don't know how to count this year it is October 19th through the 25th uh and principal's day is specifically on October 24th so we invite you all to join us in honoring the hard work of all of our school leaders even though I don't know how to count and I've been looking at you all night thank you in advance and then thank you to all of those out there that are listening and we're really excited to be able to
098celebrate you and all of the hard work that you do for us. So, thank you so much. Now, >> okay, so the triple A conference is next month. That's going to be the Illinois Association of School Boards, Illinois State Board of Education, and the Illinois Association of School Administrators conference in Chicago. I don't know if you guys remember, about two board meetings ago, you guys got a packet with a bunch of resolutions in it. I was supposed to remind you guys to review those resolutions so that the next board meeting we can start to decide how we want to vote on the ISB resolutions and what the Illinois Association of School Boards are going to push as their priorities when they go to the Illinois State Board of Education. So, if you guys still have
099those packets, make sure that you're reviewing them so that you can come up with a decision. If you misplaced those packets since I forgot to tell you they're important, reach out to Jackie or I so that we can get you another copy of those. So that's for that. Next part is search update. So as I'm sure many of you have now gotten through Parent Square, your emails, social media, we have officially launched our superintendent search process. That first process is us sending out an email so that we can hear from all of you in the community, whether it's staff, parents, just community members, what you guys are looking for and the next leader to go for our district. Now, this is only going to go until October 15th. So, it's very important that if this
100is something that you're wanting to partake in, and actually, I'll rephrase this. This is something that we really need you guys to partake in. It's really essential that you do an imperative. So, I'm asking the principles that are here, talk to your staff members, members of our unions, reach out to your fellow peers to say, "Hey, this is important and it matters so that we can make sure we get the feedback we need as a board to make decisions for what's going to happen within the next year. Now, on top of the survey, we have also launched a section on our website that just goes over the superintendent search, where things are at, and upcoming timelines. Now, just to give you guys kind of an update where we're at as of today, since that survey
101launched within the last week, we've already had over 270 responses from people in the community. So, I mean, compared to I'm sure you guys know, like the five essentials survey, we're doing really good for survey responses so far. So, just keep up that speed and tempo, guys. Besides that, that is everything from me. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> So, move. >> Do I have a second? >> Second. >> All right. All in favor I. >> Yeah. All in favor. >> Amazing. >> Thank you everybody.