001got it going. >> My fault. >> Let me again acknowledge that Dr. Gray will be sitting in tonight for Dr. Clark. Uh that sounds better now, so we're good. Uh, board of education has been in closed executive session to receive an update from legal counsel on an employee disciplinary case, discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the public body, pending litigation, and collective negotiating matters between the board and representatives of its employees. No action was taken during closed executive session. Would everyone please join me for the pledge to To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. >> Do we have a recommendation for tonight's agenda? >> Yes. Uh we do.
002I recommend the board approves tonight's February 10th, 2026 open session board meeting agenda as presented. >> Got a motion to move. >> Second. Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Those opposed. >> Motion's carried. Okay, we'll move on to district highlights and we have Dr. Rodriguez. Floor is yours. >> Good evening, everyone. Um, let's see. I did bring notes just to keep me on track because I know I have a time limit. So, um, good evening, Board of Education, Dr. Gray, and Miss Bradford. I'm happy to highlight Eisenhower High School this evening. First, I do want to take a moment to celebrate the people who make Eisenhower High School what it is. I'm proud of our instructional staff, as in a few moments, you'll see the fruits of their labor.
003But I also want to ensure that every team member who pours into our students each and every day knows their value and their worth and knows that it truly does take a village to move our students forward. our custodians, our security team, our secretaries, our teaching assistants, our Aramark cafeteria staff, as well as my administration team. The work does not happen without these folks. Your dedication and care. Okay, your dedication, your care, and consistency means more than anything, and I am deeply grateful to work alongside this amazing team. Before we dive into the academic achievements that are listed in the PowerPoint, I do want to highlight some things that are not on the slides. Because at Eisenhower, we are committed to the entire whole student. From passions to interests to sportsmanship, creativity, and scholarly practice,
004we are truly growing friendships and shaping futures at Eisenhower High School. This year, we have two Panthers advancing to sectional competition and wrestling this weekend, one boy and one girl. And we are very proud of this growth in our program. In our a center, something truly special is taking place if you're keeping up. Under the leadership of Mr. Laoritzen, our students are building a 9- foot panther sculpture that they are welding to be placed on the outside of Eisenhower High School. Um, this has been extremely impressive. Our students are doing the work. This project is creativity, skill, and leadership all coming together. In fine arts, three of our students recently performed the ILMEA Allstate Orchestra, and one student was selected for the ILMEA Future Music Educator Seminar. All four of these students were also recognized
005by Milikin University with $4,000 scholarships. That is excellence on a statewide level. We are also excited to be in the middle of our third annual gold letter initiative for our senior class. Families, friends, and community members are invited to write letters to seniors to celebrate their graduation and reflect on their accomplishments. If you have seen the impact that this has on our students, especially at graduation day, you would understand how powerful these moments and letters are, I encourage you to write letters to our seniors and academics in the arts. One of our Panthers recently placed second at our local poetry out loud competition. An incredible achievement. I also want to take a moment to celebrate our English department chair, Mr. Liebarger, who recently published his first book of poetry. Even more special from this accomplishment,
006a portion of his proceeds will benefit the Milicanin Homestead here indicator. Our principal advisory committee has also been busy and I did bring you a little sample of that work. In partnership with Kroger, our students developed Eisenhower's very own popcorn blend, Panther Spice, which you may have seen in the news. Um, after sampling more than 10 flavors, they created Oh, thank you. They created a mix that they truly felt represented their peers. Savory, bold, and a little spicy. Finally, I want to extend an invitation to all of you to one of our favorite events of the year, the annual Black History Month art exhibition at Eisenhower. This will take place on Thursday, February 26th from 6:00 to 7:30 in the evening. This night will feature performances from our band and choir. A nationally recognized poet
007Aubrey Barnes and student artwork will be available for purchase. It is a powerful celebration of culture, creativity, and student voice. Our academic growth is also a true point of pride at Eisenhower this year. When we look at our data, we see what we see is progress and an upward trajectory for our students. in reading. As you can see on the table behind you, our growth goal for the five years or for the year is a 5 percentage point increase from the start of the school year. As you see in the table, our ninth grade did experience a dip in in our December assessment. However, I want to emphasize that our 10th, 11th, and 12th grades have all met or exceeded their annual growth goal already. Because of that success across across multiple grade levels, we
008are approaching our overall schoolwide reading goal. In response to what we saw with our freshmen and also from historical data, we implemented a target course designed specifically to address learning gaps and better equip our nth grade students for long-term success. This is exactly the kind of responsive work that helps move our entire system forward. In math, our goal is also a five percentage point gain from the start of the year. Our 11th and 12th grade students, oop, sorry, our tw I'm sorry, our 11th and 12th grade students have already met or exceeded that goal, and our 9th and 10th grade students are making steady progress towards theirs. Again, this reflects consistent growth across the building. Our freshman on track data currently stands at 75% as of January 30th and we are optimistic and confident that
009we will reach the 85% or higher by the end of this school year. We're also seeing strong momentum in our graduation data. Last year our graduation rate increased by nearly 8% and we are on pace for another significant increase this year. I do want to pause and speak directly about attendance. This is where we need the greatest partnership with our EHS families and communities. Attendance matters. Often our students are that are in class directly impacts their academic progress and absentee remains our biggest challenge at Eisenhower. While our current daily attendance rate is around 88%, we know we can and we must do better. As you can see, the number of students with 90% or higher attendance varies by grade level. And increasing that number is a priority for us this year. Our data is very
010clear. When students are in the classroom, they are learning, growing, and making progress. Supporting strong attendance is one of the most powerful ways that we can continue this positive trajectory. On the side of this um graph that says percentage of students with 90 plus attendance, you can see that is the total number of students in each of those grade levels. So if you wanted to break down the math and this is as of January 30th. So with the 106 school days, you can see that we definitely have some areas that we really need parental support and community support to ensure that students are coming to school because when they're in our classrooms, they are learning, but we have to get them there. I would be happy to take any questions that the board may have.
011>> Any questions? Do we know why there's such a significant falloff between ninth grade and tth grade? >> Um, I think that our our ninth grade, you're talking about two very different populations of students for sure. Um, I just think our ninth graders are really excited to be in high school. I don't know if they have kind of hit that point where it's extremely challenging just yet. Um, I do know that there is some challenge, but I think that they you can see the love of school, you can see the love of learning, and I feel like 10th grade year is just traditionally a harder year. Um, but there's also about 20 more students in that cohort than there are ninth graders, but we still have to get them there. And this, you know, this
012takes into effect them coming to school late, tardies leaving early. Um, so this all plays into into it. We have to have them there all day. And that's what I really hope that the community recognizes that we need students in our buildings all day long to get them what they need. >> I do know that um one of the things that we do is um incentives for little kids, you know, to keep them in school. Um are there any incentives that we do at the high school level? >> We do incentives um typically quarterly. Um, for attendance, we do try to do incentives in order to recognize students that are coming. Um, but with our current code of conduct, our students can miss up to 17 days of school. So, that's what's written as our
013as our benchmark. So, it is kind of difficult um because as of January 30th, that's 106 school days. So, I believe those are kids that have missed at least 12 days of school. So, they're still kind of within that threshold. So, that may be something that we want to look at going forward. Any other questions? Seeing none, thank you so much. >> Thank you. I will leave I will give the popcorn to uh Miss Bradford if you would like to sample it after your meeting. >> Thank you. We appreciate >> we have to wait. >> Okay, we'll move on to public participation. Board of Education would like to note the following during public participation. Identify oneself and be brief. Comment should be limited to three minutes. Any public comments submitted to the board secretary will
014be included in the record. Please note that during any board of education meeting and public participation, board members do not respond andor comment to public comments. All comments are referred to administration. Furthermore, the board refrains from referring to specific students or staff members by name and requests that public commenters refrain from doing so as well. The request that you omit names is made to protect you from allegations of liable or slander or from violations of the Illinois School Student Records Act. It is not intended to shield an employee from criticism. Miss Bradford, do we have anyone wishing to address the board this evening? >> Jason Johnson. Hello, my name is Jason Johnson and uh I just feel like uh slavery should be removed from school because school is an academic for learning and maybe athletic
015athleticism but it's not there to be stroking another race ego and uh and I just feel like if it's so long ago then we just need to move it to a museum and uh if you can pay for the field trip and you could take them there but as far as school goes where you have to be there and sit down for eight hours I believe slavery should not be in there and just the math and you know maybe a couple wars maybe today up to date stuff you know what I'm saying but things that happened like two 200 years ago and I'm a I'm a uh I'm a witness to that. So, you know, just just watching Roots and you know, you really can't learn nothing about watching anything. So, you know, I just
016laughed about it and laid uh laid my head down and thought it was a joke. So just uh remove slavery and be more academic towards the schools and stuff and maybe you know my kids will come in, you know, they freshman and stuff like that. Maybe they'll come in and try to learn something instead of somebody trying to run what they father been through. You know what I'm saying? Or what they seen from their father. So that's about it. Thank you. >> That's it. President. >> Okay. Thanks to everyone who makes comments and are there any more comments from the audience? Okay, seeing none, we'll move on to board discussion and I think our first item here will be uh an update on our road map uh from board member Wetszel and board member Tyus.
017>> You want to go first or you want me to? >> You can. Um, so we had our first meeting on January 28th as the restart and incredibly excited. It was a full room. Uh, we had some new faces and some returning faces and we're uh we thank everybody that's been a part of this as we move forward. And what we looked at is really where we were, uh, how we got there and what our future uh, looks like for the process more specifically. And so we're going to meet again on February 17th and really look at uh February 18th, I'm sorry, February 18th and really look at uh not uh our SWAT analysis, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. Re-review what the committee had come up with last time to see how we uh can
018start to uh make sure that that data is still up to date uh especially with the update from the demographers report. Uh the other piece to this is also uh looking at what we call our high lever strategies around education and how we are really going to affect education and what strategies we're going to be putting into place there. And so really the process of this until May will be about coming up with our strategic plan, our key performance indicators and our mission and vision. So after the um the next thing coming up will be the staff forum which is March the 4th and then we'll have two community forums that will be March the 11th. So we'll present our strategic plan on page. We'll uh balance scorecards and provide stakeholders with opportunities uh to
019bring ideas. >> Okay. Any other any other comments from board members? >> Any board members have questions? Okay, seeing none, keep up the good work. We need to keep this process moving forward. Okay, we'll move on to our consent items. Does anyone want any of the items pulled from the consent calendar? Uh, seeing none, Dr. Gray. Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the consent items as presented, which includes minutes of special close session meeting January 21st, 2026. Special close session meeting January 23rd, 2026. Openclo meeting January 27th, 2026. Special close session meeting January 29th, 2026. B. Freedom of Information Report C. Bills D. School Board Policies and Exhibits from the Press issue 120. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Reynolds.
020>> Hi. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi. >> Mr. Clevener. >> Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. Hi. >> And Dr. Laoren. >> Hi. >> Seven eyes. Zero name. Motion carried. >> Okay. Okay, we'll move on to our roll call action items uh for our listening audience. Roll call action item A. Consideration and action on a possible suspension without pay or termination of an SIUA custodial employee has been pulled from the February 10th, 2026 open session board agenda. So, we will move on to roll call item B. Uh do we have a recommendation for the personnel action items? Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the personnel action items listed in the memo from Monica Wils, director of human resources in the human resources department as presented.
021>> A motion to move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleer. Hi. >> Mrs. Tyus. Hi, >> Dr. Lorenson. Hi, >> Mr. Hail. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, and Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi. >> Seven eyes. Zero name. Motion carried. Do you have a recommendation for the community summer program scholarship agreement with Decatur Public School District 61 for the fiscal year 2026? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approved the community summer program scholarship agreement with Decar public schools district 61 for fiscal year 2026 as presented. >> So move. >> Any discussion? I'd like to thank everybody in that inserted that language into the agreement, the academic component. Uh, we appreciate that. >> Uh, Miss Bradford, >> Mr. Hail, >> hi >> Mr. Cleger. Hi, >>
022Mr. Wetszel. Hi, >> Dr. Laorenson. Hi, >> Mr. Joiner. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, and Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi, Seven. Zero Name. Motion carried. >> We have a recommendation for the contract renewal for Lamar Digital Billboard and for recruitment. >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the contract renewal for Lamar digital billboards uh regarding recruitment as presented. >> A motion move second. >> Any discussion? >> I got a question. >> Do billboards work? >> So I shared some information with the board earlier today. Um, billboards, I'll say they do work. Um, but producing data that tells you that billboards work is difficult to do. Unless you put a unique QR code so that everyone that scans it with their phone counts, you don't get a data point for the amount of exposure that
023you get with our billboards. What I will tell you is that um, every community I've been into where there's a billboard, the minute I say I work for DPS, they bring up the billboards. when we are interviewing candidates for jobs, we just recently interviewed candidates for the ret retention and recruitment specialists. I said, "Tell me what you know about DPS." And they said, "The billboards." So, part of the reason that we use the billboards um is just for general awareness to promote the district, but to also let them know that we're hiring. Is there a direct way to track? The only way we have is by using the referral source for our applicants. So far, 4% have said the reason they applied is through the billboards. However, um the number one is word of mouth,
024and that's always going to be our top referral source. So, when you ask, do they work? There's some evidence that says that they have an effect, but I can't make a direct correlation. Does that answer your question? >> It does. >> Okay. >> So, so in your data, it says that billboards I mean, I'm sure not everybody is it says billboards are more effective than job fairs. >> They have listed on their application that yes they heard about uh you know DPS but was the source for your referral to DPS and yes they're noting the job boards more than the job fairs but are the billboards more than the job fairs but I mean we know that folks come and they attend our job fairs. Um, but one of the things I listed is we
025it's a layered effect for recruitment and marketing. And so they may have heard about the job from a friend. They may have seen the billboard. They may have heard a radio advertisement, seen a social media post, and then decided, I'll come to the job fair. So it's really difficult for them to identify all of those things on the application. It doesn't allow you to select multiple. Um, so that's just a snapshot we capture at the time that they start the application. This is funded through the teacher vacancy grant, right? >> This is 100% funded through the teacher vacancy grant. Um and I will say last year the campaign we went really aggressive. It was 181,000 and this campaign um there's an $83,000 reduction in that. We're ramping it down, but we still would like to
026have that impact and have that exposure for the district. >> Change at all the types of images that are going to be on the billboard. part of the um uh the contract um is to refresh the billboards. Um so, not to give everything away, but one of the things I'd like to to do is for the ones that say, "I love what I do." I'd actually like to use a DPS staff member on the billboards. I think that would be more effective. That was one of the recommendations that we received. Um so, yeah, we're going to switch up some of the marketing to keep it fresh. We've reduced the reach. So like um we're looking more for those uh areas where it may be commutable for someone who may want to come join the district.
027So uh we've reduced those areas that are maybe two hours away, right? I think when I did the international teacher presentation, Poria said they have billboards all over Peoria, right? Um but we are reducing it um and ramping it down some, but we're going to stay in those areas that might be commutable to the district. >> Have we did social media ads? We absolutely do and that's one of the uh referral sources. So um Miss Robinson does social media ads. We do um several forms. So we do them on LinkedIn, we do them on Facebook, Indeed. Um we also do them on Snapchat and uh what's the other one? Instagram. >> I've never seen one. That's why. >> Okay. >> Because you're not targeted. >> I I can tell I can tell you after the
028board meeting how that all works. Thank you. >> Any other questions I can help? >> Question. >> Okay. >> Thank you, Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> Dr. Laorenson. Hi, >> Mr. Clevenger. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. Hi, >> and Mr. Joiner. >> I >> 7 I zero nay. Motion carried. >> We have recommendation for the teacher MacBook and iPad upgrades. >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the teacher MacBooks and iPad upgrades as presented. A motion. >> Make a motion. >> Need a second. Second. Any discussion? >> I'm I'm going to vote no against this because I I am really convicted that the technology that has has been introduced into schools is has led to a decline in my opinion of
029our student achievements. I think we're too heavy into technology versus just having good old books in the classroom. >> This is for teacher materials. >> Correct. Yes. >> I I would vote for teacher material. teachers need materials to work for. But I do believe that as a district, we need to do away with student oneonone. I think um or at least at all grade levels or think about how we're using them. Um I think that teachers obviously need to work. Um but I think that we need a real hard look at what we're giving to kids um in the when it comes to >> I I pass the idea along to the district and I've talked about it with you guys that uh I think the devices need to remain in the classroom in the
030charging carts and then be used as a resource only not a device to be carried around. I think the damage that is done from students carrying them is great cost to the district. And I think that if we centrally located them and put them in the teacher's care and then when the teacher had a project they were doing take them out of the carts and then put them back in the kids could have an ID a code they put in to use each iPad. I think that would cut great cost still would let us use them and as my esteemed colleague Mr. Reynolds said maybe use technology a little less and um let's get back to old school a little more. So, do we have a cost analysis on what it would uh the difference
031in using electronic versus trying to uh constantly update books? Are we talking about a population now that might not give a damn about books and if they get damaged and we have to continue? I think that's a place for study. I really think we ought to be looking at why why has since the introduction of all this technology things have plateaued or gone downhill as far as student achievement since we introduced all this technology. >> I don't think it's just a district issue. I think that's a national issue. >> I agree. I agree 100%. >> And it's all about attention. So you know what you have exposure to that will distract you. But I think >> I'd also suggest that this probably is a subject that's worth some time in a in a future board
032meeting, a discussion of iPads versus different mediums in electronic in our electronic digital world today. So if teaching and learning and our IT department can kind of get together and let's have a conversation at a board meeting about uh the future of our electronic devices and what direction we might go and what direction we might not go. >> But these are teacher tools, >> right? >> These are teacher tools tonight. >> That's something to be thoughtful about. >> My comment was more directed at the student. >> Yep. Yep. >> Y >> Mr. Mr. >> I I've actually got a question specifically about uh this uh so I see that this is the equipment. Will there be another support agreement coming or does that roll into the already support agreement that we've purchased >> the agreement
033with Apple? >> Well, so be more specific for these. So, are we doing like a three or five year warranty on this stuff through Apple or we do use >> No, I don't warranty teacher devices. >> Okay. >> We do self self warrant selfrant. >> Do we do self-repair too? >> Yeah. Uh >> minimal. >> Okay. >> Repairs, but um all student devices do come with a warranty for every device. Um because there is some breakage there as you mentioned. But I we just self- warranty uh teacher devices. >> We haven't had a large breakage rate for those. So the cost to for insurance greatly outweighs the benefit. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Anything else? >> Miss Bradford, >> just to clarify, there's a motion and a second on the floor for teacher
034MacBook and iPad upgrades. >> And I I understand that and I I'm just not willing to blame technology just on the children. The idea that the teachers have had to make an adjustment in their teaching methodology because of technology to me still leaves me wondering where the where the problem lies with this the fact that our our student achievements are declining. So I I don't believe it's just student technology. I think it's teacher technology too. >> Just want to clarify. >> Mrs. Tyus >> I >> Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. Mr. Clevener. >> Hi. >> Dr. Laorenson. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> No. >> And Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Six. I one. Nay. Motion carried. >> We have a recommendation for the amendment to the Mon Patt Special Education
035District joint agreement. >> Yes. I recommend the board of education reject the amendment to the Megan Piatt special education district joint agreement as presented. Do >> have a motion. So move. >> Second. Discussion. >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Cleer. >> Hi. >> Dr. Laorenson. >> Hi. >> Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> Hi. >> And Mrs. Tyus. >> I. >> Seven. I zero N. Motion carried. >> Thank you. Okay. We'll move on to our important dates to remember here. February 11th, the district-wide half day of school for all students. Um, check the website or your local home school for release times. The 16th, President's Day holiday. No school district offices are closed. The 17th, Family Empowerment Night, earn summer vouchers. Keep that in
036mind. MacArthur High School 6 p.m. Attend a session and earn $50 in DPS summer vouchers for the session. up to $200 total for each DPS student. February 18th, roadmap 2030, team meeting, Hope Academy cafetum, 5:30 p.m. The 25th of February, community members, business leaders, principal for a day, 8:30 to 11:30 a.m. throughout DPS61. The public portion of the next regular meeting of the board of education will be 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, February 10th, 2026. >> 24th. >> The 24th. I'm sorry. Today's the 10th. So, we need to help me out on that. >> 2026 at the college administration building. Do we have a motion to adjurnn? >> So, move. >> Second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. Those opposed