DeKalb CUSD 428 Board Meeting 5/20/2025

001709 and we will recall back into our open session. Jackie, could you please start with a roll call? Chris Bailey here. Nick Atwood here. Steve Buyers here. JJ Joquez here. Christopher Boyce here. Mark Sherat here. Dante Bman here. Maria Bellow here. All right, going through the roll call. We did move one thing around on the agenda real quick. So, we're actually going to do the pledge of allegiance now. So, if you all stand for the pledge, please. 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. And now we'll move into public participation and recognition. Members of the public who wish to speak to the board should complete a request request card

002prior 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 three minutes. Jackie, do we have any public comments? I didn't know. Oh, that's okay. Go ahead. Okay. All right. And we've got a member of the public here to make public comment. You ready? Would you mind uh stating your name, please? My name is Jeffrey Oligar. Thank you. So, okay. Not here. Um, good evening. Tonight, I stand before you as a parent of a autistic child who goes to Gwendel and Brooks. I'm here today to ask the board to address several issues that are affecting students with special needs. Uh the first is the district's transportation. Uh despite my child being the first one that's picked up, our bus is

003always late. Uh the bus's arrival time is also inconsistent. And since the GPS app rarely works, it is difficult for us to plan when to be ready. This often frustrates my child as he has difficulty when his routine is broken. Uh while this is a challenge, what concerns me more is the recent policy changes regarding busing. A few weeks ago, the district removed Westside Children's Therapy as a approved drop off without notifying parents uh effective at the end of the school year. Westside provides one-on-one therapy prescribed by doctors for children with developmental delays. I can't speak for the other affected students, but my son's IEP is explicitly calls for curb to curb bus service and Westside is well within the busing area. It's important to address these issues because abrupt changes are difficult for autistic

004children. It is forcing families to scramble for safe and appropriate care. It increases the child care burdens of parents who are already juggling demanding schedules and it discriminates against students with special needs. I understand the district must manage costs, but this isn't the solution. I would respectfully ask the board to reinstate Westside Children's Therapy as an approved drop off, improve future communication by notifying parents before any policy changes, and review the bus company's contract in light of its performance issues. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. I'm going to ask that Mr. Kyle Gertis, uh, director of student and family services, uh, support you and and your question and and he can give you some answers if you don't mind stepping out with him. Thank you. All right. And for the next portion on

005to part B, board correspondence. Does anyone have some correspondence or things they'd like to share with the board? Mark. Yeah. Like to first welcome all the new board members and great to see members of the public here this evening. Um, we really didn't have a chance to address the board at the uh first meeting uh a couple weeks ago, but I'm going to give a brief report. I promise my reports will not be this long going forward, but uh for those who know me and uh you've probably seen me around town before, but I'm a huge proponent of transparency on the part of government and have been an advocate of making sure that the public has access to every bit of information as permitted by law that district officials and the school board have and

006have easy access to get that information without having to fight and jump through hoops to get it. When I see something that runs counter to that, I do commit as a board member, I will vow to bring that to the forefront. Uh, above all else, when a member of the public takes the time to come to a board meeting and ask a question or express a concern, that individual does deserve to get an answer to their question rather than blank stairs from the board or staff. That has been done in the past. I'm hoping that's going to change with this board. I feel very positive about this new board. Uh far too often I've observed public bodies where members of the public who participate in meetings are often considered unwanted guests. I want to make

007sure everybody who speaks before the board is known is known to be welcomed to the board and have the ears of the board and full attention of the board. From personal experience as a public participant, I've observed this kind of behavior at meetings from the Dalp City Council to the township housing authority and this school board in the past. I think going forward there's a lot of positive changes I think we're going to make here as a new board. At meetings I've attended and spoken before as a member of the public. I've often observed members of the board scrolling through their text messages having side conversations witnessed firsthand some public officials even interrupting speakers because a member of the board the mayor the board president or presiding officer doesn't like what the individual has to

008say. Now, in my opinion, I've seen some of this go on on other, not so much this board, but other boards. We can do better. We have a new board, and this gives us and the community new opportunities and a fresh start from public and private conversations and discussions with new board members and some of the current board members. I firmly believe that this board is going to go forward in a new direction that embraces transparency and respects all members of the public, including those who take the time to participate at board meetings. Now, I'm keenly aware that board policy currently states that board members should not engage in conversation with a member of the public who participates in public comment. Now, I know this board is going to be reviewing all of its policies

009later this summer and look forward to a conversation with the public and the board and review and perhaps update and revise this policy. I don't see any reason why if a member of the public who comes forward to ask a question or expresses a concern about an item that is on the agenda and up for discussion that that individual cannot get his question answered before the board moves forward on that item or moves to uh vote in favor or against that item on the agenda. I know we have a knowledgeable staff here especially when an item is on the agenda and perhaps can get that question answered. it's the right thing to do. Now, I'm not saying we're always going to have the answer to the question, but if it relates to an item on

010the agenda, we should probably have an answer, and chances are there may be other citizens or people watching at home who might have the same question and other board members have the same question. Now, if we don't have an answer, and I like what I heard tonight for the individual who just spoke that we acknowledge the citizen who comes forward to speak and get an answer back to them at a later time, either via email, phone call, or if the item is an uh information item, we get an uh we get a discussion on this before we vote on the item as an action item. Now, if the member of the public comes forward with a concern or issue that is related to an agenda item or not related to an agenda item, seeking an

011answer, we we owe it to them to get them a timely answer as well, not leaving them hanging. I do have a suggestion though on the public comment cards we have outside, maybe we can add an optional line for contact, phone number, and email so staff can get back to them at a later time. The criticism of individuals is not in order section of our public speaking portion of the meeting where that's read it recited at the beginning of every meeting. I don't believe this complies with Illinois statute. The public access counselor has ruled that public bodies cannot prohibit expression or opinions or criticism of public officials during public comment without evidence of disruption. I hope to see that portion changed going forward. A couple other quick bullet points and I'll wrap this up here

012real quick. Um I'm hoping that the board will have a discussion in the future on how it handles FOYA, which is the Freedom of Information Act. Agenda publication. Often I've dis I've discovered this in the past. You see the agenda before the board meeting, the PDFs or backup material is not published. And I think that's a disservice to the public. Recently, we passed an award of 278 sick days to the superintendent. That document detailing the agreement did not appear on board docs to the public until two weeks after the vote. If we can see it and it's available, the public should see this at the same time and uh I will leave it at that for now. So, thank you. Thank you. Sorry to interrupt, but if you guys are speaking, can you make sure

013you turn on your mic? There is a room mic, so pick it up. But when you're individually speaking, make sure you interrupt me if I forget to turn it on. Thank you. All right. I just want to um congratulate the eighth graders of the district. They went through their recognition night tonight. Um and tomorrow I and tomorrow um spoiler alert, Murva. Uh I'm adopting one of the middle schools and I just I'm uh let everybody know I'm going to approach the principal say hey as the adopted board member I would love to be there for that because it's a pretty special thing for them. I mean high school's memories that we still have today almost almost all of us for some unknown reason. Um and I think board representation at something like that is almost

014just as important as for representation at the high school graduation. All right, I guess my real quick things. I just wanted to take a moment to just appreciate and really give kudos to Peter Goff and Mark Sykes at the high school. I had the opportunity to stop into the bad mitten state tournament this weekend and I mean they did a phenomenal job. The IHSA representative that was there, one of their directors told me just how glad they are that Decal hosted every year, how amazed they are by the work that we do, and how proud they are of our facilities. And I know that they already told me they're looking forward to trying to sign a contract for another three years. And just to give you guys an idea, talked with the visitors bureau this

015weekend. That 2-day tournament brings in an estimated additional 150 to $200,000 of economic activity for the community every time they host it. So, it's things like that that one make sure that we continue to be top of mind for people in the state, but it also generates a lot of great activity from outside tax dollars so that we're able to fund a lot of great programs without it coming from us. So, just something that I just wanted to take a moment to really just say we would be truly in a detrimental position without the hard work that those two put in day and night. Just to tip in on that, um I was part of the original organization to get it there the first year and I don't remember his name, but the bad mitten

016coach did all the heavy lifting for the planning. Hopefully he's still there and we have to tie him to the building so he doesn't leave. Um but he did he also did a lot of hard work for that. You have anything Kristen or No. Oh, you just Oh, well that's the next. All right. So, hearing nothing else from the board, Maria, do you have anything for us tonight? I do. Um, the mini board would like to give a little summary of the year. Um, this year some of the presentations we had was lunch feedback back, school safety, class feedback, um, leadership workshop and optional finals as well as security guards. Um the projects we did today um this year in mini board were girls flag football barb time presentations shared calendars um barb steam cons

017in the um comments board in the like a commons poster board in the commons um and boys volleyball. Um, some goals for next year are more presentations, obviously. Um, we're hosting club representative meetings every um, Monday mornings, the beginning of the month, first Monday of the month. Um, we're planning um, a summer kind of get together for the current people who are on the mini board to kind of get to know each other a little bit more and um, discuss about next year. Yeah, good job. Thanks, Maria. All right. And for the final portion of the public participation and recognition, we just wanted to as a board really take a moment to thank our members of DFSA, FIDAS, and DFSS for just to me what was truly a phenomenal and flawless negotiating season this time

018around where, you know, we weren't there at the final hour going, "Oh boy, are we going to have a district next week?" Like truly I think that we were able to as a district and organization get together and say what is going to be best for the people who are serving our children so that you guys can continue to empower and grow our children. So I just truly hope it does not fall on deaf ears and that you guys know we appreciate the work that you guys do day in and day out for our students and I hope that this was a way of showing that to you. I also do want to take a moment just to also on the district side. I want you to know that the district came in very very

019heavy-handed with the board and told us like you need to do right by our frontline employees and do something to make it so it's equitable for the hard work that they're doing. So, I truly also just want to highlight our district team for all of the work that they put in to truly be advocates and fight for you guys in that. So, that's what I have to say from that. Do any of our other board members have anything to say? What Chris said? Yeah, 100%. Uh, thanks for bringing that up. We do owe a lot of gratitude to everybody who helped with that. Thank you. All right. I want to thank you guys. I'm the only one that was able to come tonight and to represent DFSA and we want to thank you for being

020is kind and gentle to us and knowing that we deserve what we receive. So, thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Of course. I don't know. Rita, you want to get a picture? I think we should have the board and anyone that was on negotiating teams from either side. We'll do a picture real quick. I love pictures. I think there's only one. I hate my pictures. I hate my pictures. Taking smell pretty. No. No. You'll be all right. Well, how about your pants? How about if you guys come up? Oh, so everyone here, should I just take the photo? We're just going to get smiling. It's okay. They asked us to stand. No, you are not. Squeeze it. Consolidate your Hey, we got everybody in there now. See everybody? I think I can see

021everybody. Okay, on the count of three. One, two, three. Got it. Somebody was fidgeting. Hang on. Oh, hang on. Another one. I could see movement. All right, got it. Thank you. I wasn't fidgeting. [Music] Put it in the middle. All right. And moving on to the next portion of the agenda. Before we get into the consent agenda, we will be removing item H to be its own line item. Were there any other line items that we wanted to pull out? I would like to pull item D, purchase order and requisitions. So, are there any other line items that we'd like to be their own standalone? I've got some questions about G. All right. So, D, G, and H will all be their own standalone items. I think we should also uh remove item I to

022contract. All right. So items D, G, H, and I will all be their own agenda items. Any others? All right. So then at this point it is recommended the board of education pres approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5 I with the removal of D, G, H, and I, which would be the approval of board minutes, the approval of personnel action items, the approval of payroll for April, the approval of accounts payable for May, the approval of financial reports. Oh, salary increase. Oh, approval of salary. No. Huh? Just end at the accounts payable for me. Oh, okay. You're right. You're right. So, just items that I said without G being in there. All right. Jackie, could you do the roll call? Quick comment. Yes. I I just And this is one of the things

023I brought up during the board minutes that we're approving as part of this. I have no problem with uh what what's contained in there. They were not populated on the agenda until today. So, I was looking for this since the agenda went up on Thursday night. Going forward, I would like to see these items populated quickly or at least when the agenda is posted. So, I I know in the past I've seen this happen before where items suddenly pop up maybe an hour before the meeting. I think for the public, they should be able to see this when the agenda goes up. So, if we can make an effort to do that going forward for transparency, I would appreciate it. Thank you. All right. Do I have a motion to approve the presented items of

024the consent agenda? So, moved. Second. Second. Jackie, could you do the role? Oh, Mark and Steve. Okay. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. JJ, yes. Christopher Boyce, yes. Yes. Red. Yes. Antib. Yes. All right. Now, we'll move on to consent agenda item D, which is it is recommended the board of education approve the purchase order requisitions as attached. And what questions or additional comments did we have for that? Well, since I was the person as a person who brought it up, um, couple of things. We're approving a conference that was approved. Um but the rationale given to me when I asked about it um we had the outgoing president appear go to this conference. We paid for her to go to conference essentially you know all expenses paid trip to Colorado 30

025days before she was leaving office. Um I don't I don't understand why we'd be doing that. Um even if she is representing us. There's we could have spent that money on somebody who would go there actually present come back and present something and bring something back to the district rather than have the president who's outgoing who had one meeting and that one meeting was to like tie up everything in the bow and walk out. So, you know, I you know, in March there was another uh conference that the vice president went to. I'm not sure what she came back with. Um once I don't know what the date would be, I think you mean the secretary talking about Ari. Ari. So, sorry the secretary. Um you're the vice president. You were um I don't know

026what the the deadline would be, but that close to somebody the end of somebody's term. I I don't I don't know what the purpose of sending a board member to that would be and if they are doing if they are presenting something they're bringing something back then they need to report back and say what they did and I listen to the board meetings and I don't remember them ever saying that hey they went to this conference this is what happened and here's what I presented or here's what I went to the high school because this was a a freshman cons uh um conference I went to the high high school, you know, worked with the administration and, you know, things like that are why we should be sending people to conferences, not all expenses paid

027vacations to Colorado or to Los Angeles. I 100% agree and I'd like going forward when we do approve if we approve further conferences to provide that whoever is attending the conference or as a group collectively that the public and the board get a report on what was gained from the conference. Maybe some useful ideas that we could put forth in the district with that. Also, regarding the uh purchase order listing, there's a lot of um letters like TVG acronyms that I have no idea what they stand for. Some of them we we were given kind of a cheat sheet of a lot of the acronyms that the district uses. I think for transparency purposes when it says funded by TVG, I think I finally figured out what that one is, but I see massages, chiropractic,

028hair treatments. There's there's a lot of expenses on here that don't exactly fly with me. It doesn't make any sense how this relates to education or if there is some rationale for this, perhaps the board and the public get some sort of guidance for this. But acronyms, I'd like to see going forward that we actually indicate what those are. Uh if they're local funds for all of these or if they're grants, I think that should be specified as well. That would put me at a lot of comfort knowing whether it's grant money or local tax dollars going for hair treatments and nails and all that kind of stuff that I see here in this purchase order listing. So, more transparency. Thank you. Uh just to pick up just I'm sorry just for clarity um we

029can do that we can change the uh instead of having acronyms we can put that out there. Thank you. TVG is the teacher vacancy grant. I I finally figured that out after a lot of I apologize. We'll make sure that I'm looking at the cabinet making sure that you know you put the full title of it and then you can put in the acronym so as you repeat it then you can then use the acronym. But at least the first time, let's put in the full title of whatever that acronym is standing for. Uh, and then did you need an answer to the second question? Well, since I brought it up, that would be helpful. Um, basically, so the teacher vacancy grant, right? The teacher vacancy grant is an ISBY grant that we were awarded

030for um three years. We are in we're ending our second year. Um as long as the governor funds it, we will get it next year as well. Um part of that grant is we had our grant manager reach out to Isby to find out uh creative ways that we could spend the funds. We also met with DCTA and talked about ways that or ideas that they had to uh reinvest back into staff. So we talked a lot about wellness. So that was funding that we allowed staff members that have direct impact with students to submit receipts for different wellness initiatives to be paid back. Wellness is very important because it helps keeps our employees balanced, helps um prevent burnout, things of that nature. That is one of the very common um expenditures throughout the state

031that districts are spending their teacher vacancy grant dollars on. Okay. So I also want us to make sure that we touch upon um JJ and Mark's question around conferences and who attends why do they attend right so I know that specifically let's talk about preparate. Sure. We sent a team to prepare. The request went out earlier this year. I don't remember what month. It's in the board agenda when um we elected to potentially send a team. Why I say potentially is when I presented I said the numbers would depend on who was presenting versus who was just looking to attend a conference. So we received very late notification from College Board. That's a College Board um conference. It's not a vacation by any means to Colorado and the team presented there. So Dy and Chris

032both presented with the high school team to talk about the collaboration and partnership that's taken place with the board and leadership in the district including the high school administration about um their initiatives with freshman on track graduation rate the partnership with the University of Chicago and the successes that they've had and also attending sessions while they were there. So I think my team can attest to the fact that no one goes to a conference unless they're bringing something back. So we're not doing anything just to send people on whatever that you know happens. When they come back there's an expectation of what needs to happen. My team also knows that when I go they get a lot of work. Everybody you know like they all know that thing that things come back. We make certain

033connections with other uh um partners so that we can also get additional supports and services in the district. Sometimes they're free and sometimes there's a small, you know, a very um much reduced fee that we can get those services and supports from other uh companies, right? Vendors or even uh consultants, right? So, we have that opportunity to be able to do that. In this case, uh, College Board asked us to come again in the second year because the first year we had such high accolades on the on the information that we shared around uh, culture and climate and our SEAL and student advocacy that they wanted to know what we were doing in this in in the aspect of high school. So that's why uh with the with the success that we've been having with

034Freshman on track and our partnership with University of Chicago with the partnership along with the board and how it all intermingles, we wanted to make sure that it showed. And so Chris can attest to what that felt like while he was there. If you you can ask additional questions but uh anyone that goes on conferences no they have to come through me and have to explain why individuals should be attending and who should be attending. And to your question for funding with that, that was paid through title two, which title two specifically is for professional development. And I know this year the team came back with a wealth of information about what other additional systems, supports, and curriculum we could be offering to our students to make sure that they're having an even further rounded

035experience. When we send a staff member, especially a teacher, to a conference, does this occur often during the teaching week or is this specifically on a weekend? In other words, do we have to have a substitute fill in at taxpayer expense at local fund expense when we send someone out of conference? Sure. It really depends on the conference. Oftent times with classroom teachers, as an example, their conferences are during the summer or on the weekend. It is not very often that they would go during the traditional work week. Okay. If they do during the traditional work week, then we make sure that we cover the subs as well as we can through grants. Okay. Through grants. That's what I want to check. That's always our goal. That's I had a followup about the TVG just

036briefly. And uh so I looked into it a little bit and I guess we got around 340,000 from the state for that. And my question was basically how do we allocate those funds? Like I understand we're using it for wellness programs and things like that, but is there a priority listing? Because for example, those funds can be used for, you know, like classroom reimbursement for teachers who are expending things out of pocket. They can also be used for hiring bonuses. Like for example, I saw we've currently got eight special ed positions available, but there's no indication that there's any bonus that's associated with that. And so my question goes towards have we already allocated set funding for those types of things before we go into things which I agree are great as far as from

037a wellness perspective, you know, massages and things like that, but I'd rather prioritize how we're spending that money before we get to something down that's that's not necessarily frivolous, but not something that goes directly towards, you know, improving hiring and retention from in the context of providing bonuses or showing our teachers that we want to support them in their classrooms and and when they're spending money out of their pocket. are we reimbursing that and running out of these funds based on those requests? That type of thing. So, just what goes on in the background, I guess, as far as the decision-m. That's a really good question. Oh, sorry. Were you saying you've got it? Yeah. Oh, sorry. Well, I can start it since I already started talking. That's a really good question. We first and

038foremost start with the collective bargaining unit on what are the priorities and how can we work collectively and collaboratively. You had mentioned about tuition reimbursement. We absolutely have funds set aside to help support teachers trying to obtain additional lure or endorsement in hard to fill areas. And I mean like just like school supplies like for their own classrooms, that type of reimburse. So we actually have title one uh that we utilize to be able to provide uh teachers with classroom stuff. So we want to use those title one funds before we use the TVG. The TVG's is when we look at it, we look at sustainability. So we only have this for three years. So, for us to say for three years we'll give you uh up to $200 for materials and then year four

039say we're not going to give you anything past that because we don't have the TVG. We want to make sure it's sustainable. So like those bonuses, same thing. We don't think we'd be able to sustain those after year three if TVG goes away. So we sent out a survey to I think it was like teachers from like first three years and then like like four to six and then right and hands down it was health and wellness that that's what they wanted us to take care of. So that's what we prioritized like you said what were our priorities it was that and we were able to talk to our state um ISB representative Emma our grant manager and we wanted to include not only our certified staff but our assistants see students every day in

040the classroom um it's stressful and we understand that. So she asked a question and she said as long as they are in the classroom supporting the students then they qualify as well and the assistants qualified as well. So you will see that you're probably going to see um meals that are like um catering that principles are going to treat their staff to to meals and stuff like that out of TVG as well or teacher vacancy grant. Um so we can right my I don't want to dispute individual charges or things like that. But I just want to be like, do we have a a framework of priorities in place where it's like these are the things that we most need to addressing? And and I know you can't plan beyond three years if you're only

041going to get it because you may not get it next year with the state's budget issue. But if we have eight open like special ed positions now, I'd say the money would be used now as a hiring bonus to fill those positions and then once they're there, you know, we can if we get money for retention bonus or they can take advantage of the massages, the funds for that guy if the money shows up. So I just think, you know, and I don't know what we have. That's part of being a new board member. But, you know, it's a conversation I'd love to have, you know, at a later time where we can talk about like what do we have, what can we spend it on, what's our most important needs, and then just set

042some kind of a metric for measuring that and allocating those funds accordingly. Yeah, we um will most likely meet with uh the committee again. So, we'd love to have you there so you can get some insight. Thanks for your answer. I appreciate it. Absolutely. Any from Yeah. One more thing. Um, this is one of those nitpicky things that I hate to bring up, but um, Tammy, when did we open a new high school? 2011. Okay, so 2011, the Decal High School no longer had wood bleachers. And there's a PO on here for wood bleachers at the Cal High School. Okay, that's it's Huntley. We know Tammy. I don't need to speak. I'm not looking for these kind of mistakes on here. raise eyebrows. I mean, I don't know who's look who's checking the PO thing

043to look for like mistakes like that, but those are the kind of things. There was um Frontline uh July subscription $27,000. And I asked, was that just a month or was that a year? And I think you came back with that was a year. Well, in the in the item it says for July, there's a couple of things that in the P in the HR report. Somebody needs to be looking at these things and making sure that all our eyes are dotted and te's are crossed, especially before it gets put out to the public because we're going to have people due respect Mark. We have people like Mark who are going to look at it and tear us to pieces because it we're making mistakes that should not be made. So noted. Do we have

044any other questions or comments for that agenda item? Not hearing any other. I will entertain. I have one thing. Um sorry, I just wanted to come back to the the conference's question. At what point um do we discuss I know you had brought up uh JJ the um some sort of measure of accountability or whatnot from coming back from from conf conferences or whatnot. Um is is now just an appropriate time to say that that is something I would also like to discuss later as somebody who has been to many conferences and finds them incredibly valuable um as a as a professional as an educator. Um but there is there is something that is different about coming back and sharing that knowledge not only what you've presented and I don't know if maybe they did

045do that or not I don't know um the presentation you want to share you want me to take they do come back and depending on what the conference is who attends and what the purpose is why they go then they would report out to those various groups so it may be at a building level a PLC level a grade level a content area uh specific job position Okay, is brought back. Got it. So, not it's not just about reporting out, but if there's something, for instance, when we send uh Matt to a security conference, he comes back empowered usually with a new vision and he wants to talk about the priorities and he's put together a pri a strategic plan just for for that, right? So each one depend, you know, I hate to bring

046Ben into this, but Ben goes to all these things and everything that he does out there brings back and improves our systems and our structures and things like that. Tammy, when she does go out, it's anything that has to do with improvement of facilities, new policies, new rules, making sure that she's making great connections. When it comes to curriculum and instruction and those kinds of things, it is intended either for improvement of instruction or it is for improvement of um teacher supports right and coaching and mentoring teachers or if it could be of us gathering information right so uh us learning how to do something so that we can come back and improve the efficiency in the district so I don't think there is any conference that we don't attend that something comes back to

047it right and when they do the directors are the ones that are supposed to bring it back to us and what are we taking from that and bringing into the district. That's what Yeah, I just wanted to know that very well. Okay. Yeah. Thanks. I think if we had some sort of receptacle on Google Google Drive or something for a trip report, if we're spending thousands of dollars of taxpayer payer money or grant money that could go someplace else or sending somebody that someone else might have been better suited for in our eyes, then that trip report could say these people were selected for this reason because it's it's not like it's very easy and I I stand corrected. you know, if if they were if if Daisy was presenting on behalf of the district,

048then she should go for that. But that's not if all we're getting is this, you know, and sometimes it's it's mentioned, other times it's not going to go. All we're getting is what what's on the All we get is the the payment and then the one before it. I know what you're going to say. He was in the board presentation. That's there's a board presentation, but it's not always like what's going to happen. It's you you define how important it is and we hear it and then it's voted on but something for the record of receptacle saying we went this is what we got out of it this is and it could be one page. So I think that part of it does come back in the board presentations that we do that the reason

049the purpose of sending someone is part of that board presentation. So, if what we're looking for is now that they've returned, maybe in our weekly updates, would that make more sense so that you know what they're bringing back or I mean that that might be a good place to do that because I imagine how many of us go out to professional development and conferences, you know, in a month. So for us to present all of that during a a board meeting, we could probably do something that would be very, you know, simple simplified by informing you in a in the weekly update as as that happens. And or if we do something maybe on a quarterly basis when we do the state of the district, that could be another way that uh we can also

050share what we've learned and how we've brought it back, make that connection because that's definitely how we make the connections with our priorities. So those those are at least two ways off the top of my head right now. And you said weekly updates. I know the board gets an update, but a weekly update or at least agenda update for the public as well. So So I'm So just remember that people that go out to these things don't come back within a month, right? Sure. Sometimes we do this in advance. So what I'm I'm I'm asking then is that we do the state of the district three times in the year, beginning, middle, and end. if we during those times then present you know so like at the whatever we attend in the summer at the

051beginning of the year then you'll know what it is that we got from the summer and how we're implementing it and we might be implementing it by the time it happens right and then or between um September and December we present in January and then from uh February until through the end of May then we would present in June right so would that be enough for us to be able to get back to you and have that information or you know like I I would hate to see that we would bog down on a meeting with a lot of a lot of that. I think there's so much minutia for the volume of reports that we couldn't possibly do that. So I think it's a good compromise you know because there's a process I imagine

052like they're requesting to get approval to go on this in the first place. So they're telling you here's what we're doing here's how it applies to the work that we're doing and in the department that we're in. then they go and then they learn and then they can come back and it might take time to implement it. I think that's all well and good. We don't need to have you know immediate book report as soon as someone comes back or something like that. So there's you know mechanisms in place. I think that you know we don't have to worry as much as long as we see in the end like what did you learn? How did we implement that that type of thing? Okay. I think that for the time being we'll probably put it

053in the weekly update and then we would um um showcase what we've learned and what we've done during uh your um strategic plan updates. That way you can tie it directly into the strategic plan and talk about what it is that you brought back and then how that's working uh within the district. Okay, guys. Thank you. All right. All right. Any other conversation or questions? All right. I'll entertain a motion to approve item D. So moved. All right. Second. All right. Jackie, could you do the roll call, please? Steve, yes. Uh, Jose, yes. Mr. Boyce, yes. Mark Shervat, yes. Bum, yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. All right. And now moving on to item G, approval of financial reports. What did we have for questions or conversation on that? So, I had one I

054had one question on that one and it was just looking at the uh statement of expenditures for the month of March and I noticed that you know we had about 150 million budgeted for this year but we're already at 147 million as far as our expenditures. So, I just wondered where were we at on that as far as for uh April and May and then June to finish out the fiscal year. like what would did we run into some costs with Mitchell or you know just some background because I wasn't on the board in the past so I'm not sure if this was planned or what yeah uh so this uh has to do with the operational side when you think of about the salaries uh it's normally under the education and on&m that's more

055the operations the rest most of it comes from the construction uh of the building uh which is actually near completion it's actually a little bit uh uh getting much earlier than we anticipated. So, you can see the expenditures are coming in. So, uh that's pretty much what it looks like. It's most of what it what it most Do we know how much we're planning to be over by the end of fiscal year? Uh over the the budget. Yeah. Um I don't. And then how will where funds for that come from to make up that deficit? Yeah. operationally I think I I think we're we're okay because we're still waiting for some state funds to come in. So um so it will uh I think it we will be even out but I will project it

056and give you an answer also. So quick note on that on the education side on the statement of expenditures that Nick brought up the capital outlay for education it indicates that the original budget was about 3.02 2 million and we are currently at 5.25 million. So we are 2.2 million over. That's kind of a big number here. Can you can you explain what's going on here? Uh I can give you I can give you a more detailed answer. uh because I don't I don't know at this time like what the capital outlay it's that's most that could be um equipments uh any uh uh so I I'll give you a better detail I see it's at 174% of budget so that that's large number that's just a little over so yep well uh and it

057could be uh grants that we use so that's why I'll have to give a more detailed answer Any other questions or comments? Then at this time, I'll seek a motion to approve approval of financial reports. So move second. Jackie, the roll call, please. Jose, yes. Christopher Boy, yes. Shvat, yes. Bum, yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. All right. And now for H, the approval of salary increase for unaffiliated staff. Just one quick note, consent agenda item H was amended and updated today as of 5:00 p.m. All right. Any questions, comments from the board? Can you can you explain what was amended as of 5:00 PM? [Music] So we uh uh reviewed and double reviewed a lot of um members. There was about five of them that came in midyear. So uh

058a lot of their contracts were prrated. Uh and we did uh the first estimate that we had for their full contract um was just revised down by uh HR. So uh so we we kind of uh went back and forth a little bit and that's this is the final uh answer with concrete numbers. I don't know if you want to touch on and the updated information actually decreased the total overall cost. It was u initially posted as 442,000 and it decreased to $438,000. With the 5% increases across the board, what is the do we know what the additional expenditure to the budget is? Because everybody's pretty much getting a 5% increase here. What's the And is has this been budgeted already? Yeah. Well, and this will be for the following budget year. Um the we

059are going to present a budget in August u for approval in September. higher fiscal impact just to answer that is the $4387 $7769 that they Now I realize the previous board went forward with a lot of this. That doesn't absolutely mean that this board has to go forward with it at all. I just think the 5% increase is well above the cost of inflation and I'm having a pro problem grasping that myself. So I thought um are I should say are we doing something similar where it's going to be merit-based based on the following year with these same the same thing that we approved that the board approved earlier in the April meeting. Yes, that is in fact uh what what we are following. Uh we are moving administrators to two-year contracts. So in the

060first year it was 5% across the board because everyone has already been evaluated. They didn't know what the game plan was going to be. They didn't know. They just didn't know. So the board approved the 5% in the first year and the second year which will be next school year is based on merit. So based on the rating of the evaluation will determine if they get 5% or a lesser amount because they did not um excel on their evaluations. Okay. I do know that the board was not unanimous in its decision back in April. So, um I know when it passed back in April, it was a information item and then an action item and we put this item in the consent agenda. So, if we vote if we move forward with this, it's an

061action item. Am I Am I correct in that, Chris? Correct. Okay. All right. Thank you. All right. Do we have any other questions or comments? Not hearing any questions or comments. I will entertain a motion. So move second. All right. Jackie, the roll call, please. Nick Atwood, uh, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. Uh, Jose Jawz, yes. Christopher Boy, yes. Mark Sherbot, no. Vante Bino, yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. All right. And now for item I, employment contract principal for our early learning and development center. Questions, comments. I think we should just acknowledge um the individual when we have when we're hiring a principal or an executive at the district. I think rather than just putting in the consent agenda, that individual should at least be acknowledged. So So perhaps we can tell the public a little bit

062about the individual that we're hiring. I don't know who wants to do that. I can kick it off. Yeah, if you could. Thank you. Um, so tonight we have before your recommendation to hire for our early learning and development center um a candidate Shannon Armstrong. Shannon is currently employed in another district as an uh early childhood teacher, but does possess all of the required um credentials in order to move to administration. The interview team consisted of staff from current staff from the ELDC as well as a number of directors and um members of uh not only DCTA but also uh the FIDAS union and DFSA union. Um we interviewed candidates. We asked a lot of questions. Um we look for a lot of things. We look for fit, we look for experience, we look for

063education. Um and Shannon was just a really good fit. unanimously the group felt that she would be the right person to lead the um the ELDC because of her experiences and because of her calm spirit, her calm nature and um the challenges that she's looking forward to facing and bringing forward to the ELDC as we continue to support preschool for all. Thank you. Anything other details or specifics you wanted? I'm good. Okay. Thank you. She does in fact hold her um administrative pel or um type 75 depending on when anyone got licensed has different names. So she is qualified um and she also has ELDC endorsement um or I'm sorry not ELDC um early childhood endorsement. When we were audited this year we were cited because um we don't all of our directors have not

064had that. So this is really exciting for us because we are closing in a loop on some things that we were cited for. So as we move forward with action um plans and corrective action plans, we are living up to what we are saying we are attempting to do. Any other questions or comments? So moved. All right, Jackie, the roll call. Oh, it is recommended the board of education approve the attached employment contract for the 2526 school year. So move. Second. Jackie, the roll call, please. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. Jose Jquz, yes. Christopher Boyce, yes. Mark Shervat, yes. Dante Bum, yes. Christy, yes. All right. And before we move into the next item, it is past 8:00 now. So, Maria, if you just want to go home, relax, and get ready for summer,

065that's okay. Yes. And any of our members of staff in the stands, if you're ready to get prepared, you guys are also good to go home if you would like. You don't have to stay for the whole meeting. Just want to make sure you know that, but we want to see your beautiful faces. Thank you. All right. So, then we'll move into agenda item six, presentations. And director Cammy Carson, do you have any updates for us on Mitchell? I do. I'm very excited to share the pictures tonight. Uh the furniture, we have over 95% of the furniture's arrived and been inventoried. So, I just wanted to quickly show you the different classrooms and what these look like. So, there is a glimpse of our kindergarten classroom. I will be showing you some differences in the

066furniture so you can see some of the unique features that we'll have in this building as it relates to flexible seating which is a kind of a hot topic in our in our schools. So our kindergarten classroom moving on into our first grade level classroom, second grade, we are missing a few blue sound panels around the top. Those are getting installed. Uh but that other rest of that room is complete. Our third grade classroom, fourth grade And finally, our fifth grade classroom. So, as you can see, the colors do mesh from one room to the next and from one wing to the next. They blend very nicely. Once you're able to get out and see the building, it's got has a very fun feeling and it does really evolve nicely as you walk through. This

067is to show you how one of our sole classrooms is. And as you notice, there's some different style desks that allow us to pod them together. So, we can do group settings as well as individual settings. Our music classroom looks pretty sparse right now, but a lot of times with music they're sitting on the floor, but we do have also student chairs that they'll be able to utilize. Our art room has very colorful since all grade levels will be part of that. And again, um some different set different furniture in there, including if you notice there's a display table uh for the teachers, so as they're working on something, there's a reverse mirror so the students can see what they're doing on the desk in front of them. Our steam room is extremely unique in

068that it has many different tables as well as um some features as in uh this stand with the tubs down the middle is a whiteboard on each side so it can be utilized for dual purpose as well as this blue table has edges to it because it usually involves small bits small pieces of things that the students use. They won't fall off the table as easily. some flexible options that are in our classrooms for seating and in other spaces. Up at the top left, these are called lily pads. These are pads that different rooms, different settings have that students can pull out to sit on and can easily stack up in the corner. Then our typical horseshoe table has a little bit of a different look. And then it has these ottomans that are soft

069ottomans. So it gives you some soft seating options that can be pulled around the building. And then this is an example in the middle of a reading corner at some of our younger grade levels. It's in the corner where there'll be books and then the small carpet and then this bookshelf and the arch is actually a bull bookshelf on one side and a whiteboard on the other so we can utilize that as another display for students to use. The top right is just a different shaped table. It's a wave table. And then the bottom right is actually a very low sitting table so students can sit on the floor and the table's only about a foot off the ground and again gives another flexible seating option. Just a glimpse of our gym/storm shelter. The the

070lines are now all painted in there. The media center, very unique, very exciting. Uh these tables do pod in different ways. A lot of bookshelf options both on front and back side as well as the caterpillar who I assume will be named at some point by our Mitchell students. um the circulation desk and again another reading corner for the uh media center assistant to be able to pull out those lily pads for our students to utilize. And in there there's also this other room that's attached and that's the top left picture. That one is actually a media production room. There'll be actually a green screen that'll be placed behind that. So for productions, they'll be able to do a Mitchell media room in there. Resource room. Restorative classroom. We do have a full-size classroom devoted

071for a restorative classroom. These This is called foam core furniture. So, it is made out of a foam which is lightweight. And we tested it in our buildings this year before we purchased it to make sure from a cleanability and destructibility standpoint, how it would hold up. And should this, you know, anyone actually the furniture be moved around, it won't hurt if it gets moved around the classroom. I don't know if this video is going to work. It's not. I wish I didn't link this in the way I should have. There's a video here that shows the lighting in this room. This is unique lighting as it's been shown that different lighting affects students in different ways. So on this wall, there's a control mechanism that allows the lighting to be changed to a warm,

072a cool red, green, blue, yellow, orange, pink, and purple. So, when you're in the building and doing a walkthrough, I recommend you stop into that room and take a look at how that can be changed by just a push of a button. Our main office, including the plaque that's been installed in the main office, recognizing the board that did approve this project, as well as uh the board that was there for what was in place for our groundbreaking, our conference room in the main office, uh one of the administrative offices, and then the front desk. The front desk will also have Dr. Leroy A. Mitchell Elementary School across the front when it's finished. And that's my last slide. Any questions? Well, as beautiful as that building is and the light that shows through and the

073new car smell or the new building smell that it has, it's all fantastic. Um, I really can't wait to see the additional color that'll come in when our students work starts going up on the walls and teachers get a chance um to do what they need to do in their classrooms and they want to do in their classrooms. But definitely a building worth walking. So, you know, obviously feel free to take a walk even before the ribbon cutting. Let Tammy know or myself know and I'll be more than happy to walk you through the building. Tammy, I have two questions. One, the foam core desks are they are is the foam core also the desks or just the chairs? It's also the desk. That's so cool. All right. And then, um, the school I work

074at has rugs in almost every one of the kindergarten. Are the teachers going to be able to choose those? buy them, but choose them from the groups that you're going to allow or those were already selected by a group um from each of the different departments. And we also involved staff from those different grade levels or departments so that it wasn't just administration choosing, it involved staff members also. So each space has at least one large carpet and then there's others that have small carpets depending on the grade level and needs of the programs. Thank you. All right. Now, we're moving into old business. Old business item A is bid results for additional renovations. It is recommended the board of education approved the base bid, alternate bid number one and alternate bid number three for

075the additional renovations at Founders Jefferson and DHS be awarded to Girki Construction of Decal, Illinois for a total amount of 286,250. It is recommended that the board of education reject alternate bid number two and alternate bid number four. Do we have any questions or comments? Tammy, I told you this one was coming. I'm sorry. No, you go. Um, I'll follow you. There are two estimates that are almostund like 20% off. How did that happen? But if you followed me in the past and any architects that we the arctic we've been working with that is very unusual that the bids were off by that significant amount. There's a few reasons behind that. These were very last minute bids. I don't remember in my 16 years here bringing bids this late to the board for consideration. And

076in doing that and and we needed to do that because of the movement of our special programs around the district which have also required some needs of additional U bathrooms to be built and available for those programs. There's some other pieces in there too but that was a primary crux of bringing this at a later date. When it was brought in March to the board as a request to bid, we did not have our typical timeline to even put our budgets together. But we knew going in that even with the budgets being that weren't exactly where I would have hoped them to be going into this that we still have the opportunity as a board to consider that and as administration to consider it when the final bids come in because a request of it

077is never a commitment to allocate the funds. Some other things that came into play with the shortened time frames are that with the the late bids that we opened, contractors already have their You need to tap the microphone. I'm sorry. Uh contractors need to I'm sorry, contractors already have a lot of their schedules full for the summer. Many are not seeking additional projects because it's May and literally our projects in this district start next Tuesday. A week from today, construction will start. So they are not in there sharpening their pencils at the same extent because they're not as hungry for business as they were when we put our bids out last fall and early winter. And then the last thing that I will say when uh the final details were put together before the bids

078went on the street, we were doing an assessment at with the architects and engineers at Lincoln and Jefferson. And with the bathroom renovations that were being recommended, we were going to need to be removing and um purchasing a new cubbies for those classrooms based on how the the design isn't. And those cubbies had a concrete base to them also. So there was much more concrete work that was involved as well as the cost of replacing those cubbies which is a high t higher ticket item. So between the late planning, the late bidding and then the last minute design changes we had to do before it went on the streets that would attribute to the higher bid results. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Question as well. Um, so along those lines, I'm curious why we're recommending

079the alternate number one versus like alternate bid number two. Um, what are the because both of them are substantial overages from the budget, but one is substantially cheaper. Um, so to kind of minimize the total um, overage. Um, and I'm also curious what is are there two things that are happening at Jefferson that you're wanting to happen? The toilet room and sensory room is what is I can explain that. So, uh, first let me start with that one. The Jefferson project is it's in the current kindergarten room which will now be a developmental communications room and there is currently a very small bathroom in there because this was built back in the 60s I believe it was. We are we need to have that at an ADA qualified for ADA. So with making that one

080larger, it also creates an opportunity because this is a superersized room in the building to add a sensory room space to that building which that building does not have a designated sensory space. So that allows for the programs that are coming into that building to have an ADA bathroom attached as well as uh the sensory space. So it's all in the same current room footprint. We're just able to design it in with one project at Jefferson. Do other schools in the district have a sensory space? Majority of them do. Okay. So, this is just bringing this up in line with the others. Correct. And then in regards to your questions about the choices over the alternate um choosing to do alternate was it one over two? Yeah. The reason there is um base bid for

081founders and alternate one are uh at Jefferson are both were tied into the needs of the special programs that are being moved into those those buildings and the changes because founders is getting a fifth sole classroom in the and it's the second one in our lower level and then Jefferson is getting a developmental communications room brought over and so those being that for special programs the the alternate two for the kinder bathroom. There is a bathroom in the kinder classroom now, just like Jefferson's. It's small. The sink is located outside the bathroom. It's not in the bathroom setting. So, we were since we were bidding out, we figured we would get a quote to have an idea if we could budget it and move forward with it. I would have, but because of where we're

082standing in budget and so late in this year, we're going to hold off on that one with hopes that we know a better dollar amount now for future better budget planning for future summers. You're welcome. The uh 61,000 that we are over, what will be the source of those funds? Well, be one advantage to starting late in the summer is a lot of this pro these projects will not even really get started until closer to July 1, which will be in our next fiscal year budget. And so that what that potentially means will be when I'm coming forth in the fall with proposals for summer projects for 2026. then I will need to factor in that the these dollar amounts were actually coming out of our 2526 budget year rather than my current budget year

083with our projects that are starting now on May 27th. Many of those we've already paid for um equipment and uh doc I'm sorry equipment that's already waiting in stock so that they can do the install right away because these things have to be ordered ahead of time and architect and engineering fees have been paid ahead. So there's a lot of front-loaded expenses before a project actually even the first wall is knocked down. So a good portion of my summer projects are funded and paid before July 1. Even though there would be work happening after July 1, the projects split between two fiscals. Any further questions or comments? All right. Not hearing, I will entertain a motion to approve the bid results as presented while rejecting alternate bid number two and alternate bid number four. Do

084I have a motion? So move. Second, Jackie. The roll call, please. Steve Buyers, yes. Jose, yes. Christopher Boyce, yes. Mark Sherbot, yes. And Bino, no. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. All right. And for item B, differential committee meeting minutes. It is recommended the board of education approve the recommendations from the differential committee meeting held on April 23rd, 2025, totaling $22,959.74. Do I have a motion? Some moved. Second. Any discussion on that motion before a vote? All right, Jackie, the roll call. Jose, yes. Christopher Boyce, yes. Mark Sherbat, yes. Dante Bum, yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve Myers, yes. All right. Item C, Professional Relations Committee, DCTA program course approval, salary schedule, credit, and CWC course approvals. It is recommended that the board of education approve the college programs courses and/or CWC courses

085as recommended by the professional relations committee. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do I have any comments or discussion before we do a vote? Hearing none. Jackie, the roll call, please. Christopher Boyce, yes. Mark Sherbat, yes. And Binham, yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. Nick Gwood, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. Josequest, yes. Moving on to item D, approval of board of education meeting schedule for the 2526 school year. This is just what we talked about at the last board meeting. Just again approving that we will start at 7 p.m. Close session will be beforehand. Do I have a motion to approve the calendar as presented? So moved. Second. Any comments or discussion? Hearing none. Jackie, the roll call, please. Mark Shervat, yes. Dante Vinyl, no. Justin Bailey, yes. Nick Atwood, yes. Steve Buyers, yes. Jose, yes.

086Christopher Boyce, yes. Item E, fiscal year 26, consolidated district plan. It is recommended that the board of education approve the consolidated district plan for fiscal year 2026. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Do we have any discussion or comments on the motion on the floor? Hearing none. Jackie, roll call, please. Yes. Kristen Bailey, yes. At Gatwood, yes. Chris or Steve Buyers, yes. Jose, yes. Christopher Boyce, yes. Mark, yes. And item number eight, we can ignore because we did a future elementary school update under presentations. So, we can just move on to nine, which is new business administration. First one is a 2526 sub rates and annual employed substitutes pay and benefits. This is going to be presented by director of human resources, Dietra Salis. only information. Oh yes, information. Good evening. So annually,

087excuse me, annually we bring forward these sub rates so that um the board can approve the rates that we pay individuals to help meet our needs. Subs go above and beyond our classroom teachers and our assistants. So you will see what is before you um includes a list of different positions. Those that are in yellow are the changes that are being recommended for the uh 2526 school year. So I'll run through those and if then if you have questions I'll be happy to entertain those. Currently, we don't have a classification of subadministrator, but we have found ourselves in a situation where we've needed administrators to cover a building because the principal and or the assistant principal is out for an extended period of time and we need to start building that pool. So, we have

088individuals to meet that need. Um, I did check with other districts to find out what rates they were paying and these are very comparable to what other districts are doing as well. Secondly, I'm going to save annually employed sub for last because it has a little more detail included with it. Um, we are not recommending increases for our substitute teachers or our retired substitute teachers. What we've learned and in talking with my fellow HR colleagues is if one of us raises rates, then the other one raises rates, then the other one raises rates and then we raise rates again. So, it's an ongoing um cycle of raising rates. individuals are subbing where they are having a good experience, where they feel valued. So, we are focusing on making sure that individuals that come into our

089buildings and our classrooms are having a good experience when they do come before us. But our rates are competitive with our local our surrounding districts. Next is our substitute instructional and non-instructional assistance. This is our DFSA union. We are recommending increasing that rate to to $1850. they have um gotten a pay increase um for the union members with the new contract and they also have language in their contract that um their sub rates cannot be at the same or exceed the rates of their members. So that's why we are recommending the $1850 amount. Same for subsecary and sub nurse or subsecaries um and subcustodians. I'm sorry I missed a highlight there. as well as sub cooks that uh sub cooks and subcustodians are our DFSS union and our sub secretaries is our fidasp union. So

090we are recommending $1850 for all of those across the board. Then we have our substitute nurses. Those are are our RNs and those are individuals that hold a nursing license but they are unaffiliated. The rate was $20 an hour. looking at what some of the surrounding districts are doing and what's happening within that nursing industry, we are recommending that $30 uh that rate to increase to $30. Then we have an hourly position called student monitors where individuals come in and they support the arrival andor the dismissal and the lunch room supervision and recess for students. That does not require any special training or license. So we are increasing a dollar increase from 15 to 16. And then our primary language tutors are individuals that do translations and a variety of things as related to language.

091We are recommending a rate of $1850 for them. Uh we have special event staff. Last year we increased that rate to $28 for uh DCTA DCTA members. That aligns to the contract. And then for others that served in that capacity, they were paid a rate of $24. Um, a variety of staff came to us and said, "We all do the same job, so why are we being paid different amounts based on our classification when that it does not drive the work?" We heard them. So, we are recommending that everyone across the board gets that $28 an hour. to go back up to the top to annually employed subs. Annually employed subs are individuals that are substitutes that are assigned to a building and they come every day. So they work the school year 180 days

092and they serve in whatever capacity is needed in that building dayto day. It could be a teacher, it could be an assistant, it could be helping in the office, but they are there every day. They build relationship with students. um the administrator counts on them to support all the different teaching and learning needs of the building. So, I talked to other um HR directors and districts that have it. And we've talked about the impact of having an annually employed sub, what life was like before and what life is like now that we have them. Many districts pay those individuals according to their teacher salary and or align to the recommendation that we have. We are recommending a salary of $46,213. That is the base salary of a teacher with um a bachelor's degree and no

093years of teaching experience the first year of the the current DCTA contract. So as of 2023, a brand new teacher with a bachelor's degree and no years of teaching experience came in at 46,213. So, we are recommending that same thing. We are also recommending uh changing their pay so they are paid during the school year um instead of spreading out, excuse me, spreading it out across the entire um calendar year because those individuals oftent times if they hold a PEL are hired into a teaching position and or it's a stepping stone throughout their career to move to another um type of position and or become a full-time educator. In addition to that, we are recommending 10 sick days. Those individuals are in our buildings. They're exposed to a lot of different people. They do get

094four personal days, but they are they they do get sick. We all get sick. So, we are recommending the 10 um sick days for them. And I think that covers everything. Questions you may have. Is that a 10-month appointment? I'm sorry. Is that a 10-month appointment? Yes. For it's a school year, so 180 days. Yes. So this would be a new position with pension and all that, right? Which one? The the annual No, it is not a new position. We're just recommending a pay change to it, but they do pay into TRS. That is correct. Okay. So this So we currently we we currently employ. Yes. Okay. Yes. Mhm. So what's the change then? The increase to the pay. The pay previous was um based on per day. It was $170. Um, and we we

095have some really great and valuable people in those roles, but we're seeing it be very transient and we could keep some people and really support the needs of the building by increasing that pay. What What are the requirements for them? You had said that that's the same pay as somebody with a bachelor's degree. Yep. They have to at least have a substitute certificate and that does require a bachelor's degree, but a number of them have an actual teaching pel and haven't secured a teaching job yet. and then when the school year ends, we hire them into a teaching job. So, it's really a very strong path um and a pipeline for us and um making sure that we have quality educators in our classrooms. For the student monitor position, um is that something that the

096uh we have a lot of vacancy in or is that uh dollar amount enough to keep those positions filled? So, it changes. It depends on the building. Um, oftent times there are individuals who have students in that building, so they like to be in the building, keep their eyes on their kids. Um, or folks that are in school and they're looking for some part-time work. It's not a full-time job. It's 20 hours a week, up to 20 hours a week. So, it's flexibility and it works for folks. Okay. Um, a lot of vacancy. Comes and goes. It happens. Yeah. Yeah. You can always use more people though. Yeah. Absolutely. But I mean, if we paid more, it would absolutely attract more. Um, so that's the board's pleasure. What's the total cost of this whole plan

097as it is as far as So, we really can't cost it out because we don't know what the needs are. Substitutes, you know, it depends on how often staff are out, whether it's in our um teacher ranks or if it's in our assistant ranks, if it's in our cook ranks. Everything is so cyclical and so different, we really can't cost it out. It's one of those things that we look at at the end of the year and evaluate so we know how to move forward. For the annual annually employed subs, we pay in the TRS contributions a district like we would otherwise. Our mayor, can you help with that? I believe they pay that they pay that on their own behalf, but I'll let our mayor speak. normally substitutes uh they uh they pay their

098own TRS. Um I believe the annual employed sub u because of the nature of their job we do cover some parts of it or particularly that group. Okay. Um does that vary depending on what role they're serving because I didn't know if if office personnel are also paying into the TRS pension or not and no TRS are only certified staff members. those that have a PEL or a teaching or license administrators. Um, anybody that is not a certified member pays into IMRF. Okay. Illinois Mutual Retirement Fund. How does that work if they're doing different things at different times if they're in an office one day but maybe in a classroom the next day? So, they're employed as a building sub. So, their overarching responsibility is a certified role and they're working off of their substitute

099teacher license. So, they pay into TRS. And do they receive benefits for that position as well? They do. uh health benefits for individual coverage. Thank you. Previously it didn't. So we um we heard from them. They were like, "Hey, I would really like to do this job, but there's nothing that comes with it." So over the years, it's really um become a position and they feel more valued and we're getting a better quality of individuals serving in those. I think it's an efficient use of the funds. I just wanted to understand what Absolutely. Yep. Um, for the special event staff for outside rentals, will that $4 increase be reflected in the rental rates? Because I know we have a you pay this much for staff members when you rent. The short answer is yes. Uh,

100we are going to be reviewing all of our fees and costs and making changes based on some of these that are being presented. All right. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions or comments? Do we have consensus to bring this back for the next meeting? Yes. Yes. Thank you. All right. And now for B press 118 release first reading. This is information. It is my turn. Hello. So um over the course of the year you'll notice that we'll be um uh sharing Press Plus with all of you. Press plus is an association rejoin that allows us to bring in the u school code and any policies ISBY or others may be bringing on to um the districts and we take those codes um they give us a summary and then they give us the full

101version of it and we adopt them into our policies in the district. Just an easier way of being able to take school code and law into the district instead of individually. So they do all the work for us. So um normally what we do is that we give you the full version of it and you get u two up to two reads. So this is the first read that we're sharing with you tonight and uh you'll have an opportunity to go read through it the next meeting. We will then determine if you need a second read. U we'll answer questions and anything you may have and then you can vote at at that time. Otherwise, you can request an additional two weeks for the next the following board meeting if you need more time or

102if I'm answering questions and you still want to go back to it. Does that make sense? So, you get up to two reads after the first read if you'd like. As I mentioned, we can put it on and then or say we'll wait for the next vote for the next time. In this particular one, I'm just going to give you um the uh highlights. We have a title n revision, a reversion to the 2020 regulation. We have ensuring success in in school law. We have uh artificial thing um artificial intelligence. So there's updates on that. There's updates on the federal uniform guidance for awards. Sexing 103rd general assembly lane duck session uh overview. Then uh the fi anything that's in a review and any additional miscellaneous that might pop up that might pop up um

103you know during session or that just clarity or whatever. So the what you have in front of you is the full gamut of what that looks like. Does that make sense? All right. So, uh you got two weeks and then at the next meeting I'll ask if you need an additional two weeks. Otherwise, you will vote on whether or not we'll accept them and then they'll be um introduced to our policies in the district. We'll accept them. Okay. Any questions? So, you want questions on what you gave us now or in two weeks? I'm sorry. these these two documents you gave us. I read through some of them and I have questions if you want to hold on until next week. Yeah. I I'd like I'd like for everybody to actually get an opportunity to

104read through them and then we can do that. The other suggestion if you don't mind uh if it's a possibility if if you can read that and and send me your questions then I can prepare to be able to answer them and then we can answer them in in during public session. Is that okay? That way everybody has access to it. I just want to make sure that I'm prepared to answer the questions. For which document? Pardon? For which document? For the document for the press. Yeah. So, you'll read the full gamut of each of those areas that I said. Okay. Thank you. All right. So, while we're all taking a look at that, um, do I have consensus to bring this back for the second reading next meeting? Yes. Yes. All right. And then

105item C, NWA fusion conference professional development. This is information and action based on the timing of it. And this is being presented to us by Jessica N. Hi, thank you for letting me speak to you. I'm asking uh to inform you and also to ask your approval of our travel to the NWA fusion conference. NWA is the company that publishes the map benchmark assessment. So anytime we do the presentations with charts that have four different quadrants with the data on how our students are performing, that's the MAP test that they're taking three times a year. MAP is being reormed this summer. So the norms that we're currently working on are 2020. I'm personally very excited um to go learn about what that will mean and how that crosswalk will impact how we can talk about

106growth data in particular because it's one of the major metrics that we use to determine um program evaluation and how individual students are doing and what interventions we might need for individual students. Um I apologize that is coming relatively late. The conference is the end of June, but we had a grant um that we earmarked for attendance at a conference at NIU which has been entirely cancelled. So I wanted to go to this conference anyway. It wasn't in the budget. It turns out now it will be. So we'll be taking hopefully taking a team of five. A Monacoet and myself will be representing the um uh the INI department improvement and innovation as inaugural members of that department which is super exciting. And two of our elementary principles will be joining us. Candace Coleman from

107Tyler and Donna Henry from Brooks. And Bobby Honeyman will be representing our teaching staff as a middle school teacher. So, we're I'm pumped to come back and tell you everything we learned about it, especially in our first data presentation in the fall that as far as I'm aware, we'll be using those new norms that are um going to be postcoid numbers. I'm happy to answer any questions you have about it. So, you're you have $20,000 for a grant registration. Oh, never mind. I was at it looked like you were driving there and I Oh, I hope not. No, I I prefer air travel if at all possible. Yes. Never mind. I would rather take a train. So 100% of this is going to be paid for by grant funds, no local funds. That is correct.

108Okay. Now, I guess just my back of the napkin math. I mean that I'm assuming that we've put in some pretty to me very conservative numbers for ground transportation and flights because I don't expect we're going to be paying almost $1,100 per person round trip and I just can't fathom any world where we're paying $5,000 to Uber people from the airport to I think the idea on the estimates was to ensure that we were not going over the grant monies in any Okay. Um I was looking at flights again this afternoon to make sure that we're ready to pull the trigger tomorrow morning. Uh were you were you multiply not dividing by the five people perhaps? Well, no. I misread ground transportation which was 1,500 versus hotel which is that the numbers make way more

109sense now. Okay, great. I'm glad to hear it. I don't anticipate the flights being more than about $200. Um, I'm pretty good with Google Flights, but I also uh we we don't want to dip into any local funds and we recognize that, you know, we're this is a hard cap. Yeah. And this is a situation where we lose the funds if we don't use them. Right. That is my understanding from Monaco. Are there any other things we can spend these funds on? It's difficult to come up with professional development opportunities that would be so well dovetailing with our needs again because NWA is being reormed. um map is um something I spend a lot of time thinking about and and the numbers I deal with an awful lot. Certainly, we could try to read up

110on these things, but to be able to learn from the people who are doing the the new calculations, I think will be very helpful to our district, especially to our two principles that are leading buildings that are really doing deep dives into that data. So, to come up with something else that takes place before July 1 that we could still register for that would be this beneficial, I think that would be a stretch. It's it's actually I'm pumped because I again I was hoping we could go anyway. It wasn't in the budget for this year. So, this is um a very bright silver lining to the fact that another conference was canceled. You I I'm not sure if they answered your question, but I have a question on that. If you're going to lose these,

111why can we not send somebody else or a couple more people to I mean, it sounds like you're pretty far under the grant allocation or are there other things? Can you use that grant allocation for additional I think it's always our goal to use every penny. If we start booking things and find that there's a um several thousand more dollars then we could certainly investigate the option to bring additional teachers for example. Um I again I think it's just trying to be very conservative with how much we actually have to spend because there are times when you go and then it turns out a cab to take you 20 minutes away is $55. And so I think we're just trying to avoid um spending any local funds, but certainly that's something we can investigate. And

112I'm assuming things like pdeium and food is covered under the grant as well. Correct. It is. Um we will not have to pay for lunch or breakfast because they're included for the conference. So that cuts down on the pdium costs. I'm sure it will. If someone wanted beignes, I think that they have to pay for them out of their own pocket because the conference is covering the cost of breakfast. Can I come? I'm just kidding. All right. Any further questions or conversation? Since this is an action item, it is recommended that the board approve the travel for four to five district educators to attend the NWA Fusion Conference, which is scheduled for June 24th to the 27th of 2025. Do I have a motion? So moved. Second. Jackie, the roll call, please. Kristen Bailey, yes.

113At Gatwood, yes. Steve, yes. Yes. Boy, yes. Yes. Yes. All right. And moving into the superintendent report. Dr. Garcia Sanchez. Hi. Good evening. Um, so this is actually the last meeting of the school year of this actual school year. So, um, I'm going to start off with a big thank you to everybody for all of the hard work, for the dedication, for the persistence and consistency in showing up every day and making sure that either we're teaching or we're learning. So, this goes out to our staff as well as it does to our students and and our families for making sure that they get here every day uh to do what they need to do. As you know, our student board member, Maria, had to go and study for finals. We want to make sure

114she's out there doing that. We wouldn't want to hold her back. So, definitely looking forward to the children actually getting to pro be promoted to their metriculating to their next year. Graduation is this Saturday, by the way. So, um looking forward to seeing everybody there. Uh first and foremost, I'd like to then uh go into building assignments. So, we do have some assignments. Uh we are still missing a couple of uh signups, but u I'll leave that with the president. So help me uh continue that on. So as of right now uh the ELDC is assigned to Mr. Boy, President Boy. Courtland Elementary, uh Mr. Atwood, Jefferson Elementary, Mr. Charbat. Lincoln Elementary, Mr. Atwood, Malta Elementary, Mr. Charbat, Mitchell Elementary, Mr. Hakis, Tyler Elementary, Miss Bailey, Clinton Rosette, Mr. His and then the high school

115is getting both Mr. Boy and Miss Bailey. Uh we do have one, two, three, four schools that are left to be assigned. So I'm going to turn it over to President Boyce to have those filled and then we'll announce those next time. So principles, school leaders, now you know who your person is. Feel free to reach out to them uh to connect them to the building. Next up is the district administrative committees. So the MTSS be um B which is the behavior committee district committee Mr. Hakis and Miss Bailey will be uh have signed up for that committee. The parent teacher advisory school board committee Mr. Hawkins has signed up for that one. The responsive educator committee Miss Bailey has signed up for that one. Our curriculum council Mr. Atwood has signed up for that

116one. The strategic plan committee Miss Bailey has signed up for that one. We don't have anyone currently for our parent student staff council uh which I believe um uh is imperative obviously for any of the policies that we have. So we are looking for a representative there. Our safety uh task force Miss Bailey and Mr. Charvat have um volunteered for that. Our benefits committee is Mr. Atwood. Differential committee is Mr. Boy as well as Mr. Atwood. Recruitment and retention committee, Miss Bailey and Mr. Atwood. Evaluation committee, Miss Bailey. We need someone for the mentoring committee. Uh, three assess, I'm sorry, three, threat assessment committee, we have Mr. Atwood and Mr. Hakis. The finance and facility committee, we have Mr. Atwood and Mr. Charvat. And then the advisory task force is uh Mr. Hakis. So, I'm

117going to again leave the um the signup sheet with our board president so that he can get the rest of those filled out. Um next up, I want to share with you if you hadn't seen it, our thank you teachers issue that has been shared. So, we have published over a week ago features 20 of our educators, including the front cover with Drew Hoth, who student taught at Jefferson this spring and just graduated from NIOU. We're white. Uh we're very excited to welcome Drew who will be teaching fifth grade at Mitchell. So we appreciate the local paper that uh devoting an issue to our local educators which gives our community the opportunity to learn more about our exceptional individuals and programs that are available to students and families throughout our education system here. We are

118also fortunate to have so many talented individuals working on behalf of our children. And this issue helps reinforce that. We are leading the way to a stronger future for our youth. I mentioned graduation this Saturday is the most rewarding day of the year. I love it. I love watching 500 DeCalb High School students accepting their diploma and then transitioning on to what is their next step in life. I I can't believe that we have 500. Uh we'll be over at the niu convocation center on on Saturday. So excited about that. Last week, uh, the high school hosted the senior awards night where more than 110 students were recognized and more than 860,000 in scholarships were awarded. Um, by the way, our uh, vice president Hakis is going to be um, giving this year's Memorial Day

119keynote address and then it's supposed to be a parade. So, you might want to check him out uh, for Memorial Day. while he's doing that. Uh we are also celebrating our project search graduates. Four of our students completed a one-year internship at Northwestern Medicine Kishwaki Hospital as part of the transition program. Uh this helps students with disabilities gain real life work experience, career exploration, and training in employability and independent living skills. Thank you to Brian Bemis, Toyota and NIU for their generous gift of $4,000 to the Beyond One Bar Transition Center. The gift comes from the Toyota Touchdowns for Education donation with Brian Beemis Toyota of Decal in partnership with NIU athletics which took place throughout the football season where $200 was donated for each touchdown scored by NIU football during MAC games. So, we're

120excited about that. We'll take that money. Thank you so very much. Um, we also want to thank the Decal County Foundation Board of Directors and the Youth Engagement and Philanthropy, it's another acronym, Yep. Um, committee for awarding $2,200 in Yep. grant funds to support D428's bilingual classroom libraries project. Um, the project is intended to enhance students reading abilities in multiple languages and increase their interest in reading a variety of genres. You'll find much of this information and much much more in my newsletter which will be shared tomorrow with all of our families and staff. I hope you will take a moment to take a closer look. I'm going to say um all of cabinet is a part of that and uh but Rita and Jackie really take the lead on making it look fantastic. So

121I want to thank them for their work on it. So please please take a look at it. Okay. So along with our newsletter, um our district and school Facebook pages are always full of great pictures and information. But I'm going to turn this over to Rita so she could talk about it because I'm very proud of the work that Rita has done and how much uh information and sharing has gotten out to our community and beyond and beyond. This is that's the fun part of the of this work. So uh just real quickly because I don't want to hold this up any longer. I know we we've had a lot on our plate tonight, but uh we do take time to make sure that the the stories that we're sharing, the content that we're stories

122has sharing has some strategic uh thought behind it. We're not just sharing pictures of what we're making for dinner. We're really out there talking about what's important in our schools and what our achievements are. So, um you know, we we take a minute to reflect on that. We look at May and April, very very busy months naturally. But if we look at the last six weeks, uh we've had more than 416,000 views on our pages. So almost a half a million people are seeing what's going on in Dalp and that's fantastic. It's passing through their uh their feeds. Our reach is more than 127,000. That's unique individuals who've seen content at least once. Uh we like to have fun. We're trying to get into more video content. Um that's getting easier to do with a

123couple of us uh in it. Now we did some quick reels from SteamCon. We did a quick reel with uh Melanie Bickley at Jefferson when she was presented with a surprise award. uh just four little reels in that six months period have reached 32,000 views and it amounted to 2 days and nine hours of viewing time. So I don't know if that's good or bad that people are watching that much stuff but we love that they're seeing uh what's happening in our schools. We're also on top of that when we talk about TBG the teacher vacancy grant uh we're using funds for that specifically to target recruitment and build uh a digital presence with recruiting. and you may see some of our ads passing through your feed if you're hitting the right demographics and the

124right uh geo fencing and feeds. Uh that grant alone uh we revamped a whole bunch of video content again to shorten videos u refresh that for the month of April we saw a 3,000% hike in traffic to the landing page for that campaign. So that's tremendous. That means our hopefully potential teachers and educators are seeing that taking some interest in going to visit to find out more about DAL. Uh we've also had uh more than 8,000 interactions with that page and we're seeing more active users and event counts on our own site on D428 and that's the goal. Drive them into where we have more substantial content. Uh with that we you know we're seeing top visits include the homepage up 11% in April. Uh the registration page up 46%. That makes a whole lot

125of sense because we're pushing registration real hard right now. And the parents page is up 16%. So that's just a look at kind of the the boring numbers side of all of this, but really what we're focusing on is telling our stories and celebrating our staff and our students and their achievements in a nutshell. How's that? Thanks, Rita. And uh before I turn it back to our president, I just want to one more time talk about, you know, as we transition into summer break, that doesn't mean I know that you guys are going to have a great time. We're going to behave ourselves. We're going to do what's right for us. We're going to be working. We're going to be learning. We're going to be traveling. But, you know, make sure that you know that

126we expect you to come back to school already and that we want you to come back ready to to to take on what the next year is going to give you. So, please, please, please rest up and take your time getting um through the summer. Don't rush through it. And then finally, we'll see you back in the new school year. So, I'm going to turn that back over to our president. Thank you. All right. Before we adjourn the meeting, does anyone else from the board have any final comments that they'd like to make? All right. Hearing no final comments, it's recommended the board of education will adjourn at 8:50 p.m. So moved. Second. All right. And this is just all those in favor. All those in favor say I. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you.