001e e e everyone thank you for joining us today it is now 6:13 and with that we will do a recall to order of a regular session Jackie can we please start with a roll call Ernest here Fred Davis here Steve here Ariel Owens pres Chris for boys herez uh present bam Jenna Zim here okay next item is public participation and recognition public comment members of the public who wish to speak to the board shall complete a request card prior to the start of the meeting the section of the meeting will be reserved for comments from the public all comments should be limited to 3 minutes criticism of individuals is not in order Jackie do we have any comments no thank you all right next item is board correspondence do we have any board correspondence
002sure uh I had to miss last meeting due to work but before that I did stop by Huntley middle School the Friday before had a very cool basketball tournament uh that was a lot of fun um I don't remember which grade one off the top of my head it was a while ago um and uh I did I know a bunch of board members noted how good Willy Wonka was I also was there and it I wanted to second that oh awesome any other updates or anything that you all want to share um Jenna and I scheduled our first meeting with Maria the incoming student board member so we're very excited about that awesome that's that's always exciting um any any other things oh okay thank you for that next item is student board correspondence
003okay so um the steam con people and I are super excited for Saturday this is it's coming up and I'd like to thank everyone who is involved with that the committee as well as um the ebre club um the techn ology Department we got FFA music department Esports engraver club and a few others if I didn't mention it but thank you all for helping and I am super excited that this is off going and going to happen we packed bags yesterday there's some cool steam kits ready for the um participants on Saturday so that's that um I've been working with Maria and trying to get her in the loop and making sure everything's going to plan but that's about it thank you can I just say something you're talking about steam can your face just
004totally l so you know I'm I'm I'm excited just for the mere fact that I see how that excitement is in you I look over over at Rita and she's all excited too but just the aura that you're kind of presenting says a lot about these expectations so I want to thank you U for being a leader in that chart charge so thank you so much thank you all right next item is uh consent agenda um item a approve consent agenda items it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the consent agenda items 5B through 5f four minutes um 3 from 31825 personal action items purchase order requisitions ihsa membership for 25 26 school year and DF Grant Grants awarded for spring 2025 as attached is there a motion still moved second roll call
005Fred Davis yes Steve buers yes Ariel Owens yes Christopher Boy Yes J yes bam yes harness yes thank you um the next item is presentations Roe inspection results for 2024 2025 um and that is brought To Us by Miss Tammy Carson thank you so annually annually we are inspected an all of our buildings inside and our outside buildings by our regional Office of Education as well as the State Fire Marshall and at times we also get some of the local fire department that join us we typically do these in November December is it's usually trying to schedule a times when we don't have students and staff in the building because we can get in and out of all of the spaces quickly and I will say based on a lot of the efforts from not
006just our facility staff but also the teaching staff Administration uh we had an excellent inspection reports for this year so that's what I'm bringing forth included in the packet are a list of the violations there are always going to be violations I'd love for everyone to be clean every time but it's just not possible but are they are things that we can manage many of the times it could be an extension cord when there shouldn't be one and we didn't weren't aware of it or ceiling clearance concerns so a lot that we can address and things that may have to go into a work order that could be a summer project so um in this year's reports we have 13 buildings that were inspected total seven of them had 10 violations or less and for
007a district our size with the age of the buildings that we have and the number of Staff members in those buildings that is a significantly low amount compared to other districts when it comes to Roe violations fortunately we've had support from the board and administration to put the funding and the time and effort towards correcting violations when they are found and we do try to stay ahead of them but again just kind of to put that out there and for everyone to take a look at there should be going questions I can answer but again just to really appreciate all the support we've received from staff and our Administration and board over the years any questions thank you thank you good job all right next item is old business item a PD request argu um
008argument driven inquiry for July 14th through the 17 this is an action item it is recommended that the Board of Education approved this request for the district's theme managers to attend the ADI facilitator PD in Austin Texas from July 14 through the 17 2025 so moved motion second R call no Ariel Owens yes Christopher Boy Yes St yes bam Amanda harness yes Fred Davis thank you Item B Northern Illinois Association service agreement for 20 2025 2026 this is an action item it is recommended that the board of education approve the service agreement with Northern Illinois Association for the 2025 2026 school year is there a motion so moved second R call Ariel Owens yes Christopher Boy Yes sty yes Vante bman yes Amanda harness yes Fred Davis yes Steve buers yes thank you item C
009school counselor and web coordinator summer hours for 20125 this is an action item it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the request for summer hours for Middle school and middle and high school counselors as well as Middle School web coordinators is there a motion so moved second R call Christopher Boy Yes Dy Ramirez yes yes Anda hernes yes Fred Davis yes Steve bers yes AR yes thank you item D National Association of School nurses conference from June 26 through 20 through June 29 2025 this is an action item it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the out of state travel request in order for the health service manager in three csns to attend the National Association of School nurses conference in Austin Texas this June is there a motion some move
010second roll call DZ yes s b yes Vanda harness yes Fred Davis yes Steve buers yes Ariel Owens yes Christopher boy yes thank you item um a under mitro Elementary School business mitro Elementary School updates this is our network connection for a moment my [Laughter] password right rest of the month board meeting I always like to provide updates on the progress in the construction and we we are so close to completion there are very few floors that are left to do um so again always very excited if you haven't been by the school in the past week or so they did uh put the covering over this entrance piece this is right at our front door don't worry that little Shadow around the circle that you're seeing is just plastic that has not been peeled
011off and finished and painting that still needs to be done because they do need to seal it but the purple uh colors of Mitchell are very proud and right at the front door so that's exciting as you know we always have the circles and the shapes throughout the building our main Corridor so as soon as you get in through the front door and through the office this is the first thing you see um to the left is the cafeteria if you remember to the right is the gymnasium and we are full of color so that's what all of this is those sound panels are in there as well as U the new new lighting very different lighting that you're seeing throughout this building so that's kind of a glimpse of that as well as you'll
012see some close closeups here this is the cafeteria side there is a retractable glass wall so again gives us some space for additional space since we don't have like an auditorium or a stage in this this area uh and then the beautiful mural that's been added to the entrance area uh if you don't remember the we are the Mitchell monarchs at this building so that is was put together with all of the input of Rita and uh Maurice putting together some great ideas and getting that put up I think it was just last week in the cafeteria this is just a glimpse of the cafeteria kitchen you'll also notice some again some unique lighting that's been put into that space you'll see this kind of lighting throughout the building in different spots but um this
013is again just some other areas the gymnasium the floor is one of the last things that'll be going in but for the most part the rest of the area of the gymnasium has been finished the sound panels are up the painting is done basketball hoops are up and the curtain is up in the middle just want to show you one of the completed innovation a pods uh the second and third grade wings are pretty well done except for some finishing touches down the hallways but this is one of the Innovation pods I believe this is I don't know if it's second or third grade but as you see there's a bottle fillers there's a lot of storage there's sinks this is a carpeted area so it can be utilized for if they're doing pullouts in
014this area that there there'll be some unique Furniture coming into it which creates more of a flexible seating plan out there media center again that same type of lighting is brought into this space they just started the floor in the media center so we'll be seeing that come into play art room the steam room these are spaces not a hot steam room not a I just want to make sure that's thank you for clarifying there is a specific entrance for the buses right off of the bus Circle Drive which is off of Ridge Road so just to show where the and then there's walkoff what they call walkoff carp coming in from there that it takes in um the debris and any weather that's on people's feet coming in it walks off a lot easier
015before it gets onto the hard surface to the left of that that green wall area that's the first grade Innovation pod and then we are on track we did have to make a slight adjustment we had hoped to be in our classrooms this week starting to clean at our level um the punch list is actually going to be done by our architect on Friday and then some of the major major punch items that need to be done before we start putting our head custodian in the building to start cleaning those spaces um that has just been delayed till April 14th is the anticipated we don't expect any concern with any other further delays the May 1st date is really the one we're looking hard and fast at that uh we're going to start moving furniture
016in the week of May 5th is that's scheduled to take about three weeks to get all the furniture brought in into place it's being assembled offsite so that's nice because then when it comes in it just gets put in place directly into the rooms made sure it's exactly what we've ordered and then we're still on track for June 1st the exterior turned over so we'll be at substantially completion by June they did try to pull a terrible I Fool's joke on me today tell me that the plumbing all had to be redone in the corridors which was going to require all of the ceilings to be taken down and I stayed extremely calm and just asked how that would impact our schedule and I asked it twice and he finally looked at me and goes
017you're supposed to be getting upset and I'm like he goes they give you a schedule date then you right exactly they didn't tell me any other anything that got me upset at that point you're exactly right so any questions that looks beautiful thank you for sharing 30 days away that's amazing so just a reminder we do have ribbon cutting on August 8th Friday August 8th 11:00 a.m. uh make sure you put that on your calendars hold it for us and then on August uh Al after that ribbon cutting from 11 to1 at around 2:00 on the next day on the next day we will be having uh oh after um back to school yeah after the B to school bash on Saturday uh they'll be hosting an open school for the community to come out
018and check it out and do walkthroughs and things like that so if anybody's interested in doing that that'll be on August 9th at 2 o'clock more to come more information to come but very excited to see what's going to happen so thank you and thanks for the work that you've been doing to make sure that we stay thank you so much thank you any questions from board members all right she said Thank you thank you all right onto new business and administration item a DHS FFA FFA National Convention request for overnight travel this is an information item brought To Us by Dr Larson good evening everyone um exciting news we have three dial FFA members uh that will be receiving the highest well Rusty we go sorry about that okay we have three members uh
019that are going to be receiving the Illinois FFA uh State degree which is the highest award that you can you can receive which is very exciting for these students eight members are going to be uh requesting to attend it's in June June 10th through the 12th and it's the Illinois FFA convention we'll have two sh rooms that are going it's in Springfield Illinois so very exciting news that's what we're asking for any questions congratulations to them very exciting that's awesome thank any questions from board members all right consensus to bring this back thank you thank you and congratulations again to those receiving recognition Item B um NIU mou Elementary after school program this is an information action item brought To Us by Mr Billy woral good evening everyone turn that mic on good evening everyone
020um so what you have in front of you is anou with uh NIU we actually corand and Malta received additional 13A money which is the designation money that we get for being a designated School uh courtland's out of designation but they have to stay in that threeyear um time frame that the state puts us in so they got additional money we were looking to see what kinds of Hands-On inquiry based activities we could provide for our students um in addition to what they already received during the school day um have the opportunity to partner with NIU the reason it's info action is because we just got the money a couple weeks ago and we want to get started as you can see I think it was like April 7th or something like that yep April
0217th so next week that's why it's info action for everybody any questions oh okay all right and because it is an information action item it is recommended the Board of Education approve theou with NIU steam to provide Elementary after school programming on side at Courtland and Malta Elementary is there a motion so move second roll call yes Amanda harness yes Fred Davis yes Steve buers yes Ariel Owens yes Christopher Boy Yes AC Ramirez yes thank you all right next item is item C courageous principles leadership velopment program this is an information item brought To Us by Mr B yep so I'm going to go ahead and take this one too uh C's principles our leadership development program you've heard of it a couple years now we the feedback that we get from our building leaders
022and our administrators um nothing but good stuff uh really it's helping you develop on how to work with people who might have different uh Personalities in you like a Pioneer I an integrator like I I I like to build relationships with people and stuff uh so how to work with different Pioneers Guardians integrators and what am I missing driver driver drivers yep I'm not a driver so but really working with different personalities in the work that we do um and so many other things on how to work problem solved through things how to develop strategic plans around things um so we're um we're wanting to send our folks that haven't gone to Courageous principle one to go there and if they've done one to two as well to continue that development of our leaders because
023it's so very important to make sure that we have great leaders in our buildings and throughout our district that includes our new principles correct corre okay our new St thank you yep and this would be paid out of title two Grant correct funding okay I know before we've gotten scholarships on it so awesome to see that we still be able able to obviously get some support with GRS or other initiatives so thank you um any questions about it how many people are going uh 17 I think this is up to because a lot of them were right so we're still um confirming with everybody that they can go but it was up to 17 and just so that you know the light will uh respond to us up to 25 on a on each trip
024so you know they will give us scholarship for up to 25 every time we send somebody very nice oh awesome any other questions all right consensus to bring this back yes yes thank you item D 2025 2026 unaffiliated benefit summary this is an information item brought To Us by Miss D Salis and mrir Oka good evening so attached is a document and I want to to let you and the public know that this is an updated document the original document that was posted to the board doc was replaced with this one because there's been a change after legal review so the one that was previously posted showed that uh the CH there was a proposal to change the length of the contract um for to two-year contracts after legal review we have removed that because
025there's some language and school code that if we offer multi-year contracts that it could um impact those administrators that have tenure within the district so at this time we are removing that so the only proposed changes are those that you see that are highlighted in yellow oh there we go make it a little bigger so folks can actually see it all right so annually we come to you with this um unaffiliated benefit summary to request um your approval for C certain benefits as related to our unaffiliated staff unaffiliated staff include those that are not part of a collective bargaining unit um so this year our proposals are highlighted in yellow on this document the first being annual increase annually the increase has been CPI um but this year the recommendation is to do 5% as
026it mirrors some of the contracts that are in place for some of our collective bargaining units so that recommendation is 5% across the board for unaffiliated staff uh the next section is our TRS and thhis member contribution this is not a change in practice but it's a change in language in the past it said 100% of 100% so we've updated it to say 100% of earnings because there has been a change in The Language by TRS and imrf the next category down is for IMR F and is the same thing a change in language so changing that language from just 100% to spe specifying 100% of earnings moving down under our postretirement benefits the first section is notice requirement this is um because we need to um update our practice currently staff can provide a
0274-year notice of their retirement but it did not have a deadline and retirements could be anywhere within the calendar year so the proposal is to change a language to up to four years retirement notice must be for a full school year submitted by June 1st when individuals submit a retirement notice that puts them on the retirement track for up to four years and each year they are eligible for a 6% increase well the reason we need the deadline is um there are individuals that get well everyone gets a increase at um um the start of the fiscal year July 1 but for those that are off cycle for retirement let's say December 1st then they become eligible for another increase December 1st of 6% so to limit the um double increases we are requesting to
028have a deadline by June 1st and that is for the full school year and then the final recommendation is for um this is new but a payment for unused sick leave days currently for unaffiliated staff this benefit does not exist it does exist for our dcta um collective bargaining unit members and that is that upon retirement they can take up to a 100 of their unused sick days and they are paid at the rate of $50 per day so we are proposing the same thing for our unaffiliated staff members those are the items that are different from the previous benefit summary any questions I can answer up here I I got a question about this is life insurance right about which one up here at the very top here it's 250 200,000 so now is
029that all the way across the board everybody in the district or just administrators not just administrators this is for unaffiliated staff okay can you talk about who's that includes so that it's clear that it's not absolutely so at the top of this document we have different categories and the categories specify who what um employees fall under that so it ranges from our cabinet level members to our principls and our assistant principles including both 10 and 12month our teaching and learning and student services managers and coordinators including 10mon and 12 month uh moving across our certified unaffiliated staff any coordinators or managers Specialists administrative assistants technology members as well as our classified registered nurses they are registered nurses are separate from our health assistant and our certified School nurses and then finally our annually employed substitutes
030are these unaffiliated positions um primarily contracts are renewed based on valuation kind of like dcta and everything else where yeah I mean that's districtwide everybody is expected to be evaluated based upon the cycle for their um group but unaffiliated are um evaluated annually okay thank you I guess the only question I would have is so we've got the we made the switch from twoe to one year so I guess since they are unaffiliated staff part of that is that they are not a part of a targeting unit correct so couldn't I guess any administrator I guess kind of negotiate their own multi-year contract if they wanted to and then the board could just approve it at that point or so yes and no um technically we do one-year contracts because of the limits of the
031school code um but there are some people that that provision does not um speak to so if individual came forward and asked for a multi-year contract that would be at the discretion of the superintendent if that's something that we wanted to entertain or to offer anything you like to add I I I believe that there's a benefit and then obviously for us removing it it was because some folks didn't feel that it was a benefit the the benefit is that it's a level of protection uh that ensures that there's a stability for that contract to exist for more than one year it also it becomes a performance evaluation so that at the highest level of an evaluation that person does not have to be evaluated in that one year could be evaluated one time in
032those two years uh and then of course the the the con or what some might consider a con is that if they were a uh tenur principal here who became a tenur administrator because they're tenure here would lose their tenure ship um then that causes a problem so if they were to lose their position uh someone who is currently a tenur teacher becoming a tenured administrator would have an opportunity right within the same district would have an opportunity to be demoted into a teacher position whereas someone who doesn't have that 10e teacher uh ability at the same district would end up just being released of their duties a couple questions well that being said so if they be if they're demoted would they still uh get to carry their uh seniority with them and benefits
033that had it or would they start all over they would then if they're reclassified to teacher status they are then under the dcta contract so they would carry their District seniority but their seniority within the collective bargaining group would change and then their benefits would be of those that are part of the dcta contract okay second question so with the multi-year contract I wouldn't be opposed to it all the years I sit on the board everybody was always a one-year contract except for superintendent um is this pretty normal I mean is it normal is there other districts out there that's had you know I have people in multi-year contracts you know there are absolutely um you know so my terms it are that contracts are made to be broken so there there's an out in
034each contract but the contract um being multi- year does give some sense of satisfaction or not even satisfaction but comfort that okay I know I at least have this length of time to prove myself within the district um for some they don't want to sacrifice their tenure rights because whether they M maintain their level of administrator or were to be re-classified to a teacher they may have decided that this is the district where that that they want to make home and if that is the case whether it's in the administrator or the teacher role this is where they want to be there are districts that entertain both ideas or they limit it to certain positions um to have a multi-year contract or because they want someone to come in and have enough breath of experience
035before making a decision that you did or did not meet the mark on performance it varies every district has their own reasons why they would choose to or not to do it so I guess my question I guess to go more into it is I get for you know when we've got people that are you know within the building level I get some of that like where I understand you know with people helping with nursing and stuff where they might be hesitant for those kind of things and not having it solidified one way or the other but I guess I don't get why with you know directors principles those kind of things we can't let them allart if they want to versus a onee like I guess why are we boxing ourselves to a one
036year or a two-year when at the end end of the day it is at the discretion of the superintendent at the board what we want to offer them for a contract as long as we're not breaking the law or school code why can't we let each individual director decide I want a two-year I want a one year or whatever that could be a little chaotic but it's probably an option um I will say when our Meir came back to the district he did come in on a two 2-year contract when he was selected for the position Cindy um wanted him to have that have that comfort that he was committing to coming back to the district but that year one was his learning year of the csbo role and then year two was his year
037to do the job so he was offered a two-year contract and the board approve that so there have been some different instances and that is in fact the case and I guess just because I don't understand how the education World Works versus like I just work at the bank and I just work at the bank and I don't work at the bank why is that I guess not an option where it's just you work here until you don't work here that is an option that is an option contracts are made to be broken and there's always an out for both parties within a contract so that could happen I mean we don't want that to happen because it causes causes instability in a school right so just as an a district you want to be
038able to have stability over a long period of time when people feel unstable whether it's because what they make on an hourly rate or because they don't have a contract that that that stabilizes them it causes them to have more angst more opportunity to look elsewhere to see what else is out there but when people feel comfortable feel like they're being valued and trusted the likelihood is that that you know and that they're being taken care of the likelihood is that they'll want to stay right and so all I was I'm just going to say all I was trying to do was to protect folks from what could happen in the future if I'm here or not here and the changes that are being made over the course of time I just want to make
039sure that our that our our folks that lead and that work and support the schools and everybody is feeling a sense of belonging a sense of respect for the work that they do so that they want to stay in this District we have a hard enough time finding folks to fill our gaps I don't want to lose more people because they think they can go somewhere else to find something better the green the grass isn't always green or somewhere else else right and so I would rather take care of folks here so that they want to stay here than to go somewhere else if I'm going to be just blatantly honest no no no and I I get that and I would just to me it feels like the annual increase goes more to that
040than I guess the how we contract with them cuz like I mean I'm not talking about annual increase can we jump into that really quick because I I I think that's an important factor here you said CPI is how it was before what is CPI right now 3.4% okay why are we changing it to 5% because we just right set these salaries two years ago and gave some large increases and 5% on aund and something thousand salary is a lot compared to a 5% on someone who may be making 70 you know I mean to me 5% seems like a lot when we have just given a lot over these past few years to this group of Associates that had their salary adjusted and some significantly five I mean five is a lot there's a
041number of factors contributing to that and you are correct about the um the salary study that we did however every year that salary study begins to get further and further out of line the thing that happens when a district does a salary study the surrounding districts do salary studies and or gives increases so then the the competitiveness just increas Ines year after year after year so we recently had a candidate that we extended an offer to and we lost that candidate because um the the salary it was the salary solely um wants to be here wants to be in the role but because of the salary decline the position so although we did that a few years ago it's an ongoing quest of continuing to keep up with that I think sometimes when those uh
042studies come about too we were trying to play catchup yes you know in comparison to other districts right um and that's not to say that obviously the amounts are not high you know or the salaries are not high in some of these positions but the responsibility also comes with those salaries right um but also again when you're doing assessments of salaries that usually comes because we know that we are not maybe as competitive as we as other you know surrounding districts or things of that nature so then we kind of have to play that game of we need to compare ourselves to where we are at so that we can try to identify where our gaps and where you know we're falling a little bit short you know in in cases and so I I
043get what you're I we did bring them up and then they've been receiving raises on top of that so I'm just saying 5% is a lot more on $130,000 salary compared to someone who's making $60,000 here well just to put in perspective for $100,000 it's $5,000 is that correct okay so it's so for $100,000 it's $5,000 and and that's a lot of money there's it is I'm not denying that right over the course of 12 months it becomes less and less but you're right here you're absolutely right it it does appear to be that way and it is that way and if I were anybody else I'd probably say you know you're right I get it we did a lot when we did the the salary study though at that time the board as you
044may recall had said that they wanted to stay at the 50th percentile but when we came back with the numbers then we were asked to push it back even further so we went down to the 30th percentile so we're at the 30th percentile of a Luda district and across I can't remember how many schools are within the district right now but within the Luda District itself my my concern is that back then which is now four years ago uh that was it it made a big difference but now we're four years in and you know keeping up just with you know the cost of living is one thing but what we're now doing is we're competing against our neighbors for the same people and they are opting to go somewhere else it's paying them better
045and you know like I would say that if I had a a number of people to pick from I'd be okay but when I interview when we interview seven eight people and we break it down to two I mean like people here have been interviewing and you get two people and you're like hoping that one of them will say yes and then neither of them do because the pay isn't there we spend more money then on doing it again right so at the end of the day we're spending the money on on interviewing and going through all this process where if we would have just given that little that that would have made a difference and we would have been able to get that person the first time that also means that for anybody who
046might be considering leaving I'd rather them feel like we're valuing them saying I I got a good here I got this 5% there's no reason for me to look somewhere else so another question since we can basically write whatever kind of contract we want why are we sticking it to 5% across the board because you could have someone who's like a rock star right and they're getting the same as someone who's just coming in and punching the buttons every day and going home so I mean I would be upset if I was you know rock starring it out and getting the best review and I know my coworker isn't doing the same but they're getting the same raise as I'm getting so is there any way to kind of have it based on Merit like
047a scale from three to I don't want to I don't want to throw a number out there because I don't any but I'm just saying I mean because to me this is just saying hey you just got to come and do your job and you know you've got Donna here rocking it out at the high school you know I'm just using you're sitting in front of me you know you know and and someone else may not be you know so it's kind of to me the starting B my like starting at the C I'm trying I'm trying to think of so what if it what if it says up to 5% right I don't know so here's the thing well for instance uh with having with providing a multi-year contract that they could have actually
048and we should have included everyone who gets a contract on this conversation not just some people my bad but the thing is is that if we did that then they become performance-based if they can become performance-based then something like that would make sense right but right now we we don't have that we lack that right and so because we lack that then we only have one way to go so why do we lack that if we do reviews for them annually I tried okay I don't I'm just I'm just trying to say I mean I know in like my field I do sales like I have an incentive that I can have a quarterly bonus and an annual bonus I'm going to knock it out of the park because I want that money and I
049want to hit the highest level I can get right so I'm going to pound the pavement to get my sales and I'm just saying we want to see that the same here because then it's reflective on how they're engaging with you know like the principles are engaging with their school and you know the directors are engaging with whatever I don't I'm just throwing it out as like cuz I'm just seeing five I'm like God that's just saying anyone just has to come in and do their just be mediocre we don't want mediocre we want our Superstars we want everyone giving 100% every day yeah and if there's that incentive that we can do up to five or we can do up to seven you know then that scale and Air's probably sweating over I was
050like did I hear [Laughter] seven we all heard seven she didn't mean that where it could be I mean where you I mean I can see where where you're going with that am right give and take in starting with the CPI being that 3.4 and then going up to that 5% even right and thenur I think just yeah I mean I hear what you're saying I it makes sense but I think it would just be no no do not want anyone claiming they're not coming in and doing 100% every day I'm just saying when I look at that I'm just thinking they are higher salary rolled or positions in our district like I want to see everyone coming and giving their 110% and knowing they have the ability to you know I I'm going to
051get a three or I could get five you know depending on how we can do that we can if we're performance-based right out and I agree I totally agree and I think performance-based could be the way to go I also believe that a multi-year contract would help us to do that I think there are folks out there that are worried about losing their tenure ship because they were teachers here before I I'm just going to put this out there I'm going to say this like because I got to say it right but if I'm a principal in this District or Cabinet member and I'm about to lose my job because I wasn't doing my job and the choice is to go back and become a teacher the likelihood for of me saying is going to
052probably be no I'm going to want to leave before that happens to me I mean I'm not I'm not saying that everybody would do that but I'm just saying most people would probably consider that so you'd have to weigh the differences and you can only have tenure if you have tenure in this District so if you taught at Elgen and then came here it doesn't count it's only if you taught here and then became an administrator here correct correct so if you have tenure elsewhere look tenure 101 if you have tenure in another District the uh ISB has different rules where you can bring your uh tenure with you it's called tenure portability so there's an option to do that there's also an option to accelerate your tenure if you're re ex If you're receiving
053excellent um evaluation and then there's a talking as a teacher a as so someone in another District could have tenure and come to our district as a Teach as a teacher and bring their tenure with them someone in our district that is a teacher that has tenure and then becomes an administrator continues to hold their tenure but they have to have gain tenure in this District at the point that they become an administrator to maintain their tenure and we have a few people in the district at this level that have that and I think that those are choices people need to make now I'm you know Chris mentioned would I want some that do some that don't that's just too much to manage right uh I'm like I don't I don't see us doing that
054I think it needs to be if we're going to do multi-year it's going to be multi-year for everybody if we're going to do Performance Based it's going to be Performance Based for everybody and I think that makes sense right it drives you it motivates people extrinsically so I totally get that right right and that makes sense I don't think that today would be a day that we could then put this out there uh is this is this a would this be a consensus of word for us to have uh again additional conversations to be able to propose something that might line up to what Amanda is suggesting if everybody you know if like we can come up with something like that that makes sense then we can you know bring that forward to the board
055at the next meeting I will be open to I think that's a great idea Amanda and I just have one more question could you just refresh what the um the yellow for the payment for the unused sick days what was it prior D that provision didn't exist for unaffiliated so they never they could not get paid out for correct yep okay that is correct I am I would be totally on board with that Amanda and setting it at the you know in those conversations start with at least the CPI and putting it at something that is that won't give armir heart attack um I will totally be be we got a defibrillator he'll be obviously with having the conversation then at that point you know to also possibly change to an evaluative Performance Based versus
056you know and obviously leaving it up to those conversations to be had um I will be open to that where are the rest of the board members no I don't I think my only concern is that um in my experience evaluations and education can swing pretty wildly based on who does them and so if we're going to be paying different people based on that that I think we need to ensure that we're doing our evaluations well across the board I'll just say as someone who's been evaluated um that our process is very inclusive of both the administrator and um Dr Garcia Sanchez who um evaluates cabinet and the principles because we do a self assessment where we rate ourselves and then she does the evaluation and then we meet collectively and then we talk through
057that so it's not one-sided um we don't always agree but we work through that to understand what opportunities exist what strengths and weaknesses there are and then determine what our goals are going to be to move forward right that's kind of similar to how it was with dcta but when you have one principal who maybe just has more of a scientific approach sure uh to evaluating it can yield very different um numerical values than uh somebody who has a different approach to it sure sure in the principal world they're very intense Collective uh teamwork really you talk about student performance your own per like professional growth as well um and you meet consistently it is an ongoing very thick document but in a very reflective way so even before um this process it was it's
058much different it's it's way more reflective and um just ongoing so yeah I appreciate the process thank you providing evidence giving details um talking about how you did or did not meet your goals what factors kept you from meeting that goal what made it easier for you to meet that goal and what can you do next year to continue to build on that so that you're just not riding on Easy Street and that you're increasingly making it more challenging for yourself and for the district to have better outcomes but I I hear you yep I mean based on where the you know some of the things are that that Amanda pointed out and just looking and reflecting as to where we are at I mean I will be open to if you all felt that
059that would be you know something that wouldn't just add on a you know a bunch of additional work but as as Dr Larson just you know shared if this is something that is productive and there's a way to provide you know and it's a smoother obviously process that provides feedback in evaluation if that is something that we will be open it that's an opportunity for you know for us to continue to grow on that I think it it's important for us to at least explore it but really so I just wanted to jump in because I heard feedback one of the things that we are going to do with our leadership team and within ourselves as well is provide professional development on specifically what Mr Byers is talking about and how do we give mediative
060feedback and reflect more um I think a lot of with so much going on in in the school right in in the building um sometimes you lose track of how important the conversations are that you're having with the staff right on really having the staff be reflective and giving that medior feedback so really it shouldn't be just the administrator talking to you telling you I saw this was great I saw students engaged that was great actually you shouldn't even be saying it's great because that's subjective it should be something to a point where like I saw four to six students engage in the activity how do you get the other two students engag in the activity and what was your planning process right and then let the teachers or the staff whoever you're an administrator
061evaluating so that they're reflecting on that because if we don't progress monitor what we're doing it doesn't get done so with that mediat feedback is the progress monitoring and it's a whole continuous cycle of improvement that we're working on so um I have ideas on you know now that um you all have talked a little bit which I will share with uh Dr Garcia Sanchez and the board um because you all bring up great great ideas um and so my wheels are spinning right now but I will share with I will share that with everybody else here you look I love I do here's the thing is is that I'm very excited about the fact that they're speaking to this the way that they are because it's taken us a while to get here right
062and I've seen the growth I mean like I'm very proud of all of our leaders all of our leaders have grown have they they they're just fantastic I think that I get very emotional and very um excited about this only because I would hate to see any of them leave because we can't you know make them feel fulfilled and appreciated in this place and all of them don't want to go anywhere right I mean unless they're going to become a superintendent yeah they're not going anywhere they're going to be here right and they're going to they're going to do continue to do great work we still have a lot of great work to do so I definitely don't want them to go anywhere right I mean Donna Donna is rocking it but so is you
063know Jan and so are Melanie and you know everybody I'm not going to name everybody but you know who you are so you know everybody's racking it and I think that would be an appreciation for us to be able to have a conversation around a performance-based contract that would be multi-year and an opportunity to be extrinsically motivated to be able to meet you know maybe higher expected goals or goals and you know not just meet them but exceed them right meeting them is doing your job every day exceeding them is when you are really you know ramping it up right and that's what we want to be able to see right so that there would be more conversation so I don't know if because by law do we have to have contracts approved by a
064certain date or are we okay because I know all of them were done all of the evaluations and things that needed to be done by March 1st were done the evaluation is what's driven by uh school code so the contract issuance is that peace of mind that satisfaction that I have a job next year or for the next two years so we have time to do that but we do want to get it done because we want folks to have that peace of mind all right and is this something you think you can get done and have for the next meeting for us to look at okay that would be I'm I'm just asking is that enough time me I know it's two weeks and that's kind of short but we'll do our best all
065right no that's cool yeah I think I think one of the things we need to do is get the principles together and cabinet members together for uh some of the conversation and then once we do that then we can probably pick apparently Billy's ideas and move forward from there so we'll hope everyone I I hope everyone realizes I wasn't saying it because oh0 5% I'm just thinking when I look at that it's kind of like I think about when I get reviewed and and I'm knocking out of the park and I'm doing all this stuff and if I'm sitting there knowing the one next to me that's working 3 hours a day and and just I'm using this as my world example I'm like we got the same raise like what what am I doing
066you know so we reward those and strive and I think that that encourages people to stay because we know that the person sitting next to me may not have gotten that five they got the three you know and next year they're going to try even harder to get that five you know because it's we all love money we don't come here for free I mean we do we do we do but I mean everyone else I me we all work for money we have we want to have a you know take care of ourselves and and and have money so um I just think reward the good and and I'm not saying that someone else is bad it's just like you said when we're taking it to the next level you know we want to
067be able to reward those individuals and that's another encouragement knowing that hey I knocked it out of the park you know and I'm being rewarded for it and just thought and to pigy back off of that our administrators they do not have a 840 to correct 335 job right and when you ask a lot of our staff would you ever be an administrator it doesn't matter how much you would pay me I wouldn't be an administrator because there's so much to it right we want the we want the best so we want to make sure we are compensating them the way that we should be compensating them I know as you're thinking about the raises yes it's on 100 and something thousand but it's closing the Gap and when you have somebody who's been um
068teaching for 15 years and they now want to be an administrator a lot of them turn down in an Administration position because they're already making enough where they should it's not worth their like monetary wise or they make more or they make more right so that's something to think about as well I know we think about the first thing that people think about is that administrators get paid so much but they don't think about the actual hours that Administration puts into the job 100% I mean same thing with me when I'm on the phone with China at 10 p.m. right people aren't thinking about that when they're in their bed and so they're like oh you you you know great yeah but do you have to be on sometimes at 10:00 at night when I've
069worked a 9 hour 10 hour day corre so you know I mean I totally get when we get emails from Ben on the weekend because something went down I think about that okay there was Ben work would you get a text from me at 3:30 in the morning sorry I was in California and I did not put on my do not disturb because I had to be at the airport and I didn't want to oversleep and I'm like just think about times no exactly no but you know again and it makes sense and we appreciate the work that is done and that's why you know actively when people share you know oh look at how much money is being spent on people going to conferences and things of that nature I always tell people like
070it's an investment in our professionals yes when we invest in our people greater things are going to come to our district because they come back with that knowledge and that knowledge is shared with with with the staff whether it's through actual trainings and professional development you know that is shared with them or whether it's through actual like communication that that you know gets it's enhanced whatever it is that that conference came back with is an investment in our professionals so that's why I'm always you know huge I've always been a huge supporter of you know conferences and things of that nature because especially when they're being paid out of Grant I mean God why wouldn't we right but it's an investment in our people and the more that we invest in our people and we
071show people that we care I mean hopefully that that that continues to encise people to stay here you know so that is our goal and I appreciate all the work that you all are doing and thank you Amanda for bringing those points up and you know if this is something that can help you all take and Elevate those conversations to to that to get to a point where it would be a greater benefit to the district I'm definitely open to that and you know I hope everybody else is open to it too um and if we do have consensus to that is everybody okay with that mhm yes yes okay thank you so thank you all thank you again for all the work all right so consensus to bring this back once those conversations are
072are brought or have they thank you thank you all right um item e crossing guard multi-year agreement with Andy e fre and this is an information item brought To Us by Mr armir Doo um it is renewal year for our contracts for crossing guards we have about 19 crossing guards currently uh and we will uh allocate more for Mitchell Elementary uh we have been using Andy frin it was passed a service from the city back in 2018 we have used them uh since 2018 uh they have reached out for a multi-year contract and it is uh very favorable rates uh we're looking at about 3.6 the first year 2% and 2% afterwards and these are numbers that um I think are very advantageous uh and if we can lock in this multi-year contract um that
073would be great the only question I had air what is considered a holiday when I'm looking at this under the OT holiday pay what do they classify as a holiday did I miss it somewhere in here do they Define that uh a holiday Bay I think that's is that for super the 174 student days it just any under the on page number on the second page first page still on the first page right towards the bottom under the contract the 2526 each year when you break down the three years you have the billable rate the bill rate and then you have OT holiday I was just wondering what is defined as a holiday by them in the charts yeah was it in here somewhere the table that's right there right there on the right so
074yeah right there where you have the OT holiday re what's defined by them as a holiday um I think this is overtime or uh if it is I don't think it is on the date of holiday because we wouldn't have attendance days but um I didn't know if they had like maybe some additional calendar days where we have school and they classify him as a holiday then we'd be paying 3444 I guess that was my only question when I looked I just was wondering it caught my eye are there any times just to go off of that I'm just wondering if this will help clarify is there are are there any times or moments in which we would use their Services during a holiday um I I haven't I don't recall ever using it but
075if there is a event I'm assuming where we will need an a crossing guard then that would be the holiday pay so there's probably never really time that and it's just something that they provide in that's all in case but I think I think would was asking yeah it wouldn't be a bad idea to get it clarified anyway right just to make sure but I think it just doesn't happen and they put it just in case it does yeah cuz I didn't know if like maybe cuz we have school on like indigenous people day or you know something like that and they classify that as a holiday you know day yeah or president we don't have school on President's Day um so yeah something like that okay yeah um so let's just double check I'll
076get clarification thank we'll bring that also minimizes too Manda because I don't even think they they put in 40 hours either so the OT I think will be very if any very limited because they only put in a couple hours in the morning and then some in the afternoon correct yeah that was everything else looked good that was the only thing that caught my eye any other questions no all right consensus to bring this back yes thank you all right item F fiscal year 2024 2025 limitations of administrative cost waiver process isby reached out to us regarding uh administrative expenditures between the two years um due to to uh the new administrator for the new elementary school and kind of being a transition year for us uh the administrative cost has gone exceeded the 5%
077limitation uh and for ISB we are one of the one of the lowest at the 24 lowest 24th percentile of school districts unit districts uh that has a low administrative cost per pupil uh and and if you see ISB ranking here we're about 370 out of 382 so we're at the lowest percentile uh this gives us the option to wave uh that uh administrative uh cost limitation of 5% for this year due to the new school so because we're opening a new school we've added an administrator two administrators to it so that caused our administrative 5% to go up based on our last three years trending right so even though it's always been low the fact is that they look to see what the Nu the differences are within the last three years in this
078case we've added two positions which now raises that beyond the 5% which is what they're saying they get it so they are asking us to complete a waiver in order to say that it's not something common practice it just happened because this year we at we're opening a new school and added the two positions is that right yes and this is afforded to us because we're in that lower percentile U for cost cool we're asking to bring this back it will have a public hearing and a approval role okay Co any other questions consensus to bring this back yes yes yes okay all right next item superintendent report you know what that means everybody's waiting to see how this voting thing is going right uh so first and formost for most I hope everybody got
079a chance to go vote if not the polls calls at 7:00 so we wish everybody luck and you know let's see what what what the turnout looks like um so first and foremost second I wanted to say that I've been watching the three of you kind of like with this in and the surprise and whatever I I just want to say um to the three of you and as you as representing all of our staff in the school buildings that are not DCT right and that are affiliated is that I hope that our good that we have brought Goodwill and that you understand that we're trying to make everyone have a piece of happiness and the and that we value them right so you know that that we're trying to right siiz and and be
080just and fair is a part of what this is really about this year so I'm really proud of that work of the work that has been allowed by this board to be able to get done the work that the team has been able to do with all of you and um with all of you to make good things happen for the people that work for us I just want to say that that wasn't on my written thing but I just want to make sure I saw that because I was watching the three of you uh but here great news on top of that is that uh the bar baseball remains uh undefeated our young men are ranked number 16 in state is that still true yes yes yes absolutely applause applause I'm happy for you
081guys um Jenna's not here anymore but I was going to turn over to her and say congrats to our cobotic team which Jenna is a part of for placing third at the Great Lakes Regional competition that over spring break that's another great thing our kids are doing fa fabulous things and then one last thing before I turn it back to our president um today was April 1st I didn't get any April Fool jokes I hope uh I haven't found anything out but you know my kids are still awake so they probably are going to try to do something to me we'll see but anyway uh I wanted to give a shout out to our fabulous registration and enrollment team uh because today was a kickoff and I can't wait to see what that looks like
082we are we want all of you at home who haven't done what they needed to do to come on out and get it done uh Before Time that way you get the pick of the place that you need to make sure that your children attend um and that um you don't have to worry about it during the summer it just gets done and all you have to do is wait for them to start school back up again this is the end of the year now coming back from spring break you know what this means right everybody's a little ancy everybody's a little excited um so we want them to be but that doesn't mean that we lower our expectations we want to make sure everybody's coming every day everybody's doing the work that they need
083to and that everybody's engaged in the work that they we all love doing so uh with that I'm going to turn it back to you so that we can oh I don't have to give you this but turn it back to you to end the meeting thank you all right any last minute questions from board members comments concerns no okay it is now 718 and with that uh we will I would like to make a motion to adjourn to a Clos session I mean to close session oh my God what am I talking about I'm not saying I'm not either we finished right let's try this again we don't have to do this adjourn I do not you don't have to show us anything i' like make a motion to adjourn the meeting the second
084motion I thought we were going back to 12 session I apologize all right I would like to make a motion to adour to uh to to adj the meeting everybody else all in favor say I thank you one