001Kristen Bailey here. Atwood here. Steve Buyers here Christopher Boy here and Maria Bell Rodriguez. And now for the pledge of 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. Next portion will be public comment. Jackie, do we have any public comment? No. Hearing no public comment, we'll move into board correspondence. So, I guess I'll get the ball rolling just real quick. So, as you guys read in the weekly board update and the email that uh Dr. Garcia Sanchez sent out, we had met with Sycamore about potentially looking at what a collaboration on ELDC would look like. Um so we kind of just want to I guess first I'll lean on Dr. Garcia Sanchez and our
002director of facilities, Tammy, to kind of go over those two options just in person real quick just so that you know we're all on the same baseline. Basically what we did was had a visit actually at their new education center which is on road. Um it's a former I'm sorry. Thank you. It was a former Nyore office. Is that correct? Okay. Anyway, they're already doing some um adjustments to the building. I guess they had a roofy uh roof that was leaking and those kinds of things, but the president of the board reached out and was suggesting that perhaps a a cooperative agreement between Decal and Sycamore could occur where we would actually move our ELDC into the Sycamore offices, uh build out their offices and then have our students transported from here to Sycamore. Uh,
003so a couple of things just on top of that is that and Tammy will can go into a little bit more about the square footage if it would be able to host the 16 classrooms that we needed and the additional four, five, six classrooms that they were hoping to get. But just on top of everything else, uh first of all, first and foremost, just remodeling that uh what the cost of that would be and on top of that is the um transportation costs that we would have to incur uh from moving our students from Decal into another district in Sycamore. So in this case, we would have we would be required to transport those children. uh whereas some of them are not being transported by us now by change by moving there we would have
004to do that uh in addition to that there were just other uh things that I felt that we needed to consider such as the safety eld right now even though it's at shared space with Huntley has its own space where uh adults and other individuals don't come through their space whereas um based on what they were considering there at Sycamore offices for administrators would be across from classrooms where ELDC would be and uh there would be two different spaces where children would have to cross where other adults coming from the outside into the building would also cross. So I definitely had some uh safety concerns on top of the financial concerns. Tammy, do you want to add any uh you know highlevel information please? After the conversations, we have been looking at the square footage
005plans and the information is is in front of our architect to just kind of give a preliminary overview because obviously the most important the two most important things are is there enough space even on the property to be able to manage that size of a that addition of a building and still provide place for playground activities and the proper parking to keep everything separated and bus drop off. So that's one of the first things is faced and then as Dr. Garcia Sanchez mentioned too is the safety concerns because the building in the center is where the administration offices would be down the center and then to the left and to the right are the vacant spaces that potentially could be built out for an ELDC. But how to get students across that where the adults
006are of the Sycamore Administration building can be very challenging. It's um I would call it more of like a 70s kind of look building that has multi levels with multi- stairs connecting each side. It's kind of a unique look. So those type of things would have to be addressed first. It's in front of the architect so that first we're getting that space piece of it and then if the space is there then we could make a decision whether we want to proceed with putting in an estimated budget to it. And just correct me if I'm wrong, outdoor space, was that sufficient or insufficient? And didn't the children then have to cross, would they have to cross a parking lot to get to their recreational space? That parking lot on the north side would most likely
007be removed and would be building the building out that way. So, that isn't as much of a concern as it would be the how are we how could we utilize both the north and the south side of the building while maintaining administration and adults in the middle. Yeah. And then the bus the bus you have to have separate you know bus drop off. They would need separate parking because of their visitors and staff. They also are planning to have their transition program in the lower level of that building which also requires specific uh parking spaces for their transition staff and um their busing for that program. So there's a lot of variables to consider and we just we're just in the very preliminary stages of that. But I'm hoping by mid to end of July,
008I'll at least have some of those answers back from the architect as it relates to space and then be able to move forward with some very high level cost estimates. And as uh we were all there sitting, one of the things I suggested was perhaps uh instead of putting in various millions of dollars into their space that perhaps us building ours out and then maybe them coming over to us might behoove them because then our building would definitely be suited and more appropriate for our youngest uh our youngest students. So, um it's it's I think what it sounds like from the president of of and and the superintendent is that there is a high interest of doing something collectively and I know that uh in special education and with student and family services. I believe
009Kyle and team has already probably discussed uh some kind of partnership over with the transition center or them being able to facilitate some some things there. So, I I know that there there's a want for that and I think that I'm more than happy to do something that could be collaborative. I just don't know if this is in my in my humble and very experienced um opinion. I don't see that this particular space is going to do justice for what it is that we need. And then if one day they say down the road we want our space back, that means we would still have to go out and build something at that time. And uh who knows if we would have enough time to be able to do that as well. Tammy, anything else
010you want to add to that? So, thank you. Thanks. And just to kind of second and add some other context, just in talking with their board president, this is a very expensive and big project that we would all be taking on collaboratively. Sycamore based on their current fund balances and tax revenue would not have the funds to take on a project like this for another five years at the soonest. So, I don't know that that necessarily meets the time frame that we would be looking to launch an ELDC for our students either. So, that's another really big factor to consider. So, I just want to remind everyone that the DCTA was here and did very lightly reminded us that we need to make sure that we're looking at a classroom size for middle school. So,
011you know, the only way that we're going to be able to ensure that there's a smaller classroom size at the middle school is by expanding Huntley into a more uh a complete middle school and therefore finding space for ELC. So, you know, I think that we don't really have five years to be able to do that. So, kind of the big thing that we as a board have to get consensus on during this board correspondence is Sycamore is looking for a response from our board at some point this month, I think. So, we kind of have to give a a we're not looking to pursue this or we are looking to pursue this. So, I think collaboration is great, but I think collaboration looks better for everyone involved if we are the ones flagshipping it
012within our district. So, my preference is that we would not move forward on something with their education center. I don't think it fits our needs. I agree. Actually, I have a question, Timmy. the um the other half of your building. Is that even a feasible possibility to which building of um your office building over at Mena? Yeah, Mena. Thank you. I couldn't remember the the the school name like the timing of it the size of it all you know any capable of building on is that even a possibility to to have that the well the current space that Mena occupies is not sufficient enough I should let me take a step back the building itself even if our department vacates the five off or the offices we use the food mart we find another location
013for them and we just take the existing structure that is not enough space for the number of classrooms we need to support ELC. And I'll also add that we're landlocked. Uh we explored this when we opened up Huntley Middle School. The location at Huntley Middle School. The park district land to the east is all of that is owned by park district. We had tried to consider a land swap with them with the Brooks property back years ago and it was donated in a way to the park district that does not allow them to swap land. So they will always own it. So we don't have any flexibility to add on to that building in a way that we could gain enough square footage to be able to add our program there. I was just that
014popped into my head about a possibility. But I think working with Sycamore in this element makes sense, but you guys saw the building. If it's not going to work, then yeah, let's bring them over to us. I don't think we should shut off working. Yeah. No. And I I think that the plan that we were thinking about was looking into essentially they would be charged a tuition rate per student that they would send over that Sycamore School District would then essentially instead of them absorbing that cost per student, they would pass it to us and then they would still be going through our schooling system with DCTA members and all of that. There was some discussions I know where some people talked about maybe a co-op. I'm going to be entirely honest with you, that's
015pretty much involves creating a whole another body of government. So I don't view that one as a very feasible plan either. But so I'm mostly just seeking consensus, opinions, thoughts, and questions from the board at this point. I like the idea of working together with them, but I do think we should be hosting the facility. Okay. and then Kristen. All right. So, I am hearing it sounds like we have consensus from the board that we'd like to let Sycamore know that we're open to collaboration, but we would like it to be done under our facilities and within our district. So, um what I'm committed to doing is drafting that on behalf of the board along with Tammy. Uh once we've done that, making sure that the verbage is correct, we'll run it by our communications
016manager and then we'll send it your way uh for any feedback and any additions that you'd like and and then the sign off will come from the board. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else have any other correspondents for the board at this time? I just wanted to um give a big thanks to Monaco and her team. Um they taught me I missed last the last meeting. I would have said this at the last meeting, but two meetings ago, they put up all the slides with the colors and the pictures and all that, and I got the gist, but I didn't understand. I It didn't quite make sense to me. They sat down with me for well over an hour, explained everything, and I could not be more appreciative of that time. So, thank you. Thank
017you for that. Anything else? Kristen and I got that same presentation on a different day, and it was extremely helpful. Okay, hearing nothing else, we'll move into the consent agenda. It is recommended the board of education approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5J board minutes, personnel action items, purchase order requisitions, employment contract for elementary restorative dean, agape therapy service agreement, speech and language therapist and sunb belt staffing service agreement as attached. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second, Jackie. Roll call. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve, yes. Jose, yes. Christopher Boy, yes. Christa Bailey, yes. All right, moving into presentations. Energy efficiency update by director of facility and safety operations, Tammy Carson. Thank you. So, I want to pull this up. It's a lot of small numbers and some pretty colors, but I'll kind of
018explain it. So, back in um 2021, there was ESSER money that was available, and one of the things that they were encouraging school districts to do was to use the money for energy efficiency programs as well as air quality improvement, HVAC improvements, and such. We were fortunate that our board and administration at that time supported using a significant amount of funds for that. And one of the projects that we brought forth was through our Alpha Controls company, who is a company that manages our, it's called DDC, Directorate Digital Controls, which is what runs our HVAC, our heating and air conditioning systems throughout the district. So, our maintenance staff that um are trained in this, they're able to get onto the computer, no matter where they're at, see any space, adjust it, change it, whatever they
019need to um to make sure that we're within ranges. that has been in place since we opened Courtland in '09. And then uh this program came about with the energy efficiency program which gave us the opportunity to add some not a lot of equipment. It was more the software management side of things that we now have that allowed for occupancy sensors and the ability to program and um connect our Google calendars, our high school, it used to be 8 to 18 program or snap uh activity management program to alpha controls so that our HBAC system knows what's going on in our buildings and when and it turns our HBAC systems on and off appropriately. So if there's a a meeting at 9:00 a.m. on a Saturday morning in a specific room, if it's on the
020calendar as it should be by 9:00 am that building will be at the comfort level that's been determined. So it doesn't require the the personal management that is was required in the past. And what it has done is gained us significant energy efficiencies across the district. It wasn't a cheap program. It originally cost 2 almost $2.1 million. Fortunately, again, it was all ESSER funds. So there wasn't any funding out of our operations budget that was that was required to put into this. And when it was done, there was also a number significant amount of rebates available through Kameed at the time that did offset some of the 2.1 which again then became more money available to the district to utilize. Back then when we implemented it, we started the project implementation in September 21 and
021it did take us until November 22 to get all of our buildings online, our staff trained properly because it also requires office staff to um manage their building calendars properly. So, we make sure that rooms are tied to the events and such. When we put this through, we anticipated that uh we would be saving $280,000 a year. And when I say savings, it's cost avoidance. It's hard to it's not necessarily like a check in the mail, but avoiding energy costs by reducing how much energy we are using is because of the management of the system versus just human intervention, human mistakes, and or turning a system on and letting it run all weekend because there one event coming in and somebody didn't turn it on or off appropriately. We have been fortunate that the system
022is working better than we anticipated and we actually originally had an ROI of uh 6.1 years anticipated. We're currently on track for a 4.6 years of ROI. So we've reduced it and currently up to date we have had a cumulative savings of approximately $932,000. So, and that amount is 233,000 more than we anticipated at this time. So, we're very excited because it is one of those where it was hard to it's it's not a it's not something I could put my hands on and say, "Look at that cool new boiler. It was just something that just needed to work and we put a lot of trust in it that this was going to work. Other districts had implemented it and it is working for us." The chart you have in front of you just breaks
023it out by different buildings. If you want to look just to see how each month has tracked to see which buildings Obviously, the high school has significant dollar savings because that building is a very difficult to manage if you're doing it manually. All the rooms are not always occupied, but they are randomly occupied. So, we always make sure that we're trying to make sure our schedules match it so we can handle it properly. So, that's where we're at with this program. I just try to provide an update to this probably at least annually to you, I'd say. Um, but I'm open any questions that anyone might have. That's great news. Thank you so much for that. Although it's not a cash in hand, it's definitely not a check out the door. So, thank you so
024much for for making sure that we did that. What's the big I I see that the high school and you just explained that. What's the big change in Rosette? Why is that such a, you know, I don't have a really hard answer on that except that potentially that building was running more often than it needed to be because middle schools also can be a little more challenging as events or I'm sorry, groups start coming in and out that it was running more often than it should have and now we're managing it. And for the most part in the summer, most of these buildings are shut way down. Even though we have custodial staff in the buildings, if we don't have students in the buildings, if in areas that do not have students or staff in
025uh for example at Huntley, the office is running on a schedule because the office staff works 12 months, but the rest of the building is pretty much down at a you know set at a higher temperature level to keep the air from turning on. I just feel like we're just managing everything so much better that we're seeing significant amounts uh increases over the years. So just so I want to make sure I understand it was fully funded with federal grant money from the ESSER program and we've already saved almost a million dollars on that. So it was correct cost us nothing and we get a huge return every year from it. Absolutely. And we will continue even after that 4.6 years after we have paid back that investment. Um we're going to continue to have
026those savings. Great. Thank you. Thanks. All right, moving into old business. First item, a parent student handbook 2526 school year. It is recommended the board of education approve the 2526 parent student handbook. Do I have a motion? So move. Second. All right, Jackie. Roll call. Steve, yes. Ser, yes. Christopher Boy. Yes. Mr. Bailey. Yes. Atwood. Yes. All right. Item B, differential committee request for approval. It is recommended the board of education approve the recommendations from the differential committee totaling $77,41249. Do I have a motion? So move. Second. Jackie. Roll call. Yes. Christopher Boyce. Yes. Bailey. Yes. Nickwood. Yes. Steve. Yes. All right. Item C, staffing request increase of 2.0 registered nurse FTEES. It is recommended the board of education approve the increase of two registered nurse FTEES. Do I have a motion? So move. Second.
027Jackie, the roll call. Christopher Boy, yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. Atwood, yes. Buyers, yes. Jose, yes. All right, moving on to item six. Mitchell Elementary School Business, do we have an update for us today? Welcome back again, Tammy. Just some really quick pictures to share. I haven't been here since sometime in May. We've been doing a lot of outside work. The inside hasn't changed a lot just as teachers are starting to settle in. So, I just wanted to share some outside pictures if you haven't been by. Uh the north parking lot just on Ridge and and Normal at that corner. The black topping is done. We actually had to remove the pavers because they were in such uh damage and not in good repair. So, we removed the pavers. Hasn't been striped. hasn't been completely done,
028but it is the black top is laid and they anticipate all of the black top and curves will actually be done by the end of next week. The visitor parking lot, this is just the southside. That's uh the south fence line that is to our neighbors back uh backyards. So, that's been installed. As you can see, landscaping has already come in. Just like everybody else, we're dealing with weeds, but the contractor will be handling that for us. So, those will be gone before our ribbon cutting. playgrounds. They're not there yet, and that's intentional. We don't want to have the playgrounds installed until July. So, they're fresh and new. We have it scheduled. Um the these where you see kind of the grassy area growing, that is actually the large or the big kid playground. And
029um there's curbs around it already built in, which is a nice feature. We don't have that at our other buildings, but with the new building, we were able to put that in. The then the center is the black top playground surfaces. You can see some brand new basketball hoops up there. And then there'll be some other paintings done on the uh for foursquare and hopscotch and such. And then you can't see it, but the green on the other side is actually the small kid playground that'll be installed. We also have these benches. You may see them in some other pictures uh strategically placed around the building. So, we have some uh seating around the building. The bus drop off lane uh does not have the black top yet, but they're working on it when I
030was there today. um some of our our neighbors decided to put some handprints into the concrete over the the weekend. So, we have we're replacing some of that, but other than that, it's been going smooth. Uh Normal Road, this just shows the crossing zone on front of Normal in case you haven't been there. So, as you can see, as there's that area uh between the lanes, so if a student is crossing, there's a place for them to be safe if there happens to be a car coming from the other direction unexpectedly. And then last is just a main entrance picture. I just thought this ended up looking very nice. And the flag pole is all up. We don't have our sign up yet, but that will be the sign. The digital marquee will be up
031before the grand opening also. And that's it. Thank you. Thank you. Um I'm sorry. I'm just wondering, Rita, do we have any update for the uh ribbon cutting that you want to share at this time? other than um that we're moving forward with all of that. Um it will be August 8th from that should be on everybody's calendars. That's more of a formal acknowledgement of the building coming online. On Saturday the 9th will be a much larger communitywide celebration and we're really excited about what families can come in. There's going to be I hear hot dogs and all kinds of things and and booths and and resources for families. So that will be on Saturday the 9th following the back to school bash. The Friday event is a little bit more formal. We're moving along
032with that and I think we're in good shape. I just want to thank shout out to organic life. Yes, we're working with organic life. We're hoping that'll be partners with us on that event to help feature some of the items that they offer for our students. Excited about that, too. And there'll be a special shout out to a nice sponsor from the Ezone, but we won't spoil that. surprise. Not yet. Just a hint. Not yet. But thank you. Yes, absolutely. All right. Moving into new business. The first item is a staffing request to add 6 FTE for DHS drivers education. This comes to us as information and action so that they can get this person hired before the start of the next school year. This is presented by director of human resources de and I
033may need my partners from the high school to assist. Um so driver's ed is a requirement for graduation from decalp uh decalp high school. So with that um they have looked at the number of students that need to get through the program both the driving and the classroom aspect of the class and based on those numbers the number of staff we have and the number of seats available we need to um add an FTE. We looked at the option of doing overloads per the contract it would exceed the limitations of the contract and the contract states that we should not be using overloads in place of FTE. So we are looking to add a 6ft FTE for driver's ed that will support um the current car aotment that we have as well as give space
034for more students to complete driver's ed both the classroom and the behind the wheel. It does not get us caught up but it allows us to get more students through the program because this is a less than a 1.0 FTE at the end of next school year that um position will not yeah the position and the person will come out of that and then we will look at what our needs are for next year and then come back to the board if necessary. What questions do you have? How many kids do we have taking driver's ed every year? Do we know? That is a high school question. Y very good question. We can currently accommodate 456 students. um 300 uh three6 336 during the year and 120 with summer school. This cohort is 515. I
035imagine this would probably make scheduling quite a bit easier for the students as well as far as getting time to drive with the instructor and that kind of thing. Yes, because the students require 12 hours in the car. Each student requires 12 hours in the car. six six hours behind the wheel and then six hours observing another student driver. Okay, thank you. Sure. So, I don't mean to insult anybody with this question, but I have a feeling someone that would normally be here a couple seats over would have this question. Um, so you kind of have to wait until the students start setting up their classes to accommodate for anybody who decides to take PI driver's ed privately before you can come up with the number that you need for the year, right? So, it's
036hard to Yeah, that's exactly right. So, it it's hard to perfectly project what the number is going to be. We have kind of a ballpark. We Some kids are like, "Yeah, for sure I'm going to take private," but we don't know until we get the yellow form back from the private company that says, "Yes, they they did it." So, we can get them off of our roster and make that space for another kid. Okay. Just checking. Thank you. Yeah. Yep. A lot of moving pieces. Yeah, it's an eb and flow. Any other questions we can answer? As President Boyce mentioned, um it is for implement action because they do need to get students scheduled for next year um and try to decrease those numbers and then see what may be left or what other options
037may exist for students to register. All right, hearing no further questions. Since this is info action, it is recommended the board of education approve the 6 FTE increase at DHS for driver's education for the 2526 school year. Do I have a motion? Second, Jackie. Roll call. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. Jose, yes. Christopher, yes. Thank you. Moving on to item B, resolution exercising the option to purchase 1240 Normal Road to K Illinois Mitchell Elementary School Building. This will be presented to us by our CSBO, our Mayor Doa. Thank you. So, we're bringing forward a draft resolution authorizing the exercise to purchase uh the the real estate, including the land and the building at 12:40. um uh 1240 Normal Road. Uh so back in 2023, the board approved a lease to purchase
038agreement with NIOU. Uh the option there was that after the 24th payment, uh we exercise the option to purchase. So the agreement uh was so that we can purchase that building. We finished ahead of schedule and we're under budget and we would like that the upcoming school year comes under our leaders under our ownership. Uh there was a law that permits early acquisition if we increase kindergarten classroom size. Uh and we would like to exercise that law and uh use it to our advantage and have the students start their school year with a districtowned building. questions. Any questions? This one's just information hearing no questions. Thank you, Arens. Oh, yeah. Consensus to bring this back. Yes. All right. And now, Dr. Garcia Sanchez, it's time for your report. So happy. So, first and foremost, I
039want to thank everyone who works summer school, including the ladies that are sitting here in front of me and all of those that are no longer in the district for taking their very uh needed rest for the summer. I appreciate that we were able to serve students anywhere from um sixth grade all the way through 12th grade. So, thank you so much. I Yeah, sixth grade through 12th grade. This year, we weren't able to do elementary school. That doesn't mean that next year we won't, but uh thanks to everybody who's who's done that work. I really appreciate it. Uh just to make sure that we keep that movement and momentum going. Registration, if you haven't registered your child yet, please do so as soon as possible. Students that will be registering for from preK through
040fifth grade are and new students to the district are required to bring in proof of residency as they are registering. uh sixth through 12th grade are not required proof of residency. Again, I will repeat preK through fifth grade and any new students coming to the district will need to use to have proof of registration, proof of residency or registration. Uh I I said that correct, right, Miss Pringle? Thank you so much. Okay, I just need to check with her because we wanted to make sure that I didn't say something inappropriate um or incorrectly. Uh, and then, um, I think that everybody might have heard or been told that, uh, the booster, the bar booster club is no longer in existence. Uh, it's not so much that it's no longer in existence, it's that we currently
041are in the need of an executive board and additional volunteers. Tomorrow, a letter will be coming out from the athletic and activities department signed off by Peter G and by um by the rest of us approving the request for uh individuals or families, groups of individuals that are interested in uh helping us to continue the booster program to ensure that our students have a equitable and a wonderful uh wonderfully um funded and supported program either in athletics activities. So if you're interested in that, look out for that letter tomorrow. If you don't see it, feel free to reach out to Peter G via an email or Rosa Marquez, myself, Donna Larson, or any one of us that can make sure that we get your request to be a part of the boosters over to us
042to help us make great year for our students. When students are doing these extracurriculars, it really brings joy to their lives and it gives them an additional sense of excitement at being a part of school. Athletes and students that are a part of activities feel a sense of accomplishment and they really do engage much um closer and better with academics. So, please, please, please look into giving some of your time to the bar booster club. um they're they've done a great job and we want to continue that um that repertoire that we have of doing a wonderful job for our families and our students. And uh that's it for me. So I'm going to turn it over back to our president. I guess just one final closing comment I would make off of that booster
043club thing is on top of that we also have some of what I would say are our most successful PTAs and PTO's in the district also I know at Courtland and Jefferson are also facing that same dilemma. So I think it's really important that we just highlight it takes a village as a board, as administrators, as faculty and staff. We can put in the work 100%, but if we don't have you guys there to partner with us along on that ride, it makes it a lot harder for us as a community to move forward. So I just really encourage parents who are interested, reach out to your building principles, find out how you can get involved and really be a part of that momentum and change in our buildings. Great point. Thank you so much.
044All right. Does anyone else have anything for the good of the board before we end? All right. Oh, yeah. So, I'd like to make a motion to adjourn. Second. Jackie, the roll call. All in favor. Oh. All in favor? Yes. All right. We're done.