BOE 12/16/25

001Okay, ready to get started tonight. We'll we'll start tonight's meeting with our truth and taxation hearing. Um, I'll call the truth and taxation public hearing to order and ask Miss Bradford [music] please call the role. >> Mrs. Tyus, >> hi. >> Mr. Wetzel, >> hi. >> Mr. Jiner, >> I >> Mr. Cleger, >> hi. >> Mr. Reynolds, >> hi. >> And Mr. Hail, >> hi. 6 I zero nay one absent. >> Okay. Thank you. We'll turn the hearing over to Dr. Curry. >> Thank you for the opportunity to talk to you tonight about uh property taxes. The truth and taxation hearings is required. If at any point in time the board anticipates um levying more than 5% than uh they did the year before. U before we get started, thank you to Maria for pretting

002up my presentation. We have to start each uh budget and um truth and taxation hearing with just a recap of our cash and fund balances as of June 30. Cash and investments was at 37 million in the ED fund with available fund balance of 28 million. Um and as you can just work your way down through uh the list. Again, we've presented the same thing at the budget hearing and at the tenative uh tax levy hearing or discussion. Our EAV as of 12052025 for the district was 969 million and change. It has dropped about 500,000 since then as of just this last Friday. Uh it may continue to drop. Just remember um a year or so ago it dropped and then at the very end it was was bumped back up. Okay. So I was

003tasked with providing multiple options tonight. Um so let's start with the big one and we'll work our way down to nothing. Um so this is the full levy growth which is projected at 6.63. It's obviously gone down a little bit since then. If you look at the this little flower oh thank you hard to see but if you look over here on the on the left hand side doesn't work very well. Uh it says extension 3834690896. That's going to be the same on all the options because that's what we got last year in the levy portion not including bonds and interest. And the blue box on the far right um is the levy ask with a full 6 um 3% increase at 40,889 310. So that's the first one. On the next page you'll see

004what the tax rate would be. The tax rate before bonds and interest would be 421 and with bonds and interest $4.70. So that's the first one. Okay. The other option after that is a reduced levy. A lot of districts will just do 4.99 because it's easy and you don't have to do the truth and taxation hearing. So I threw one of those together as well. I've been in districts where that was the magic number. 4.99. I could could probably just pull out my cell phone and call 10 CSBOs and half of them did 4.99. Okay. So on a 4.99 we would get 40,259310 the tax rate would go down to $4. These are guesstimates because things change and fluctuate. With these particular numbers, if they stay true, $463, I would go ahead and in your

005brain go ahead and add a penny to each one of these because of that half a million dollar drop. So be $464.81 and somewhere in that general area. I was tasked with providing a 4% EAV growth. And so again, the new number on the far right is 39,879310. And I do want to draw attention to the tort fund. I'm taking all of the reduction out of the tort fund. The tort fund pays for things that I can cover with other funds. I don't want to hamstring the other funds. So instead of five million, we're now we're down to 3.3 million in the TOR fund, which will those costs that are going to be a lot more than 3.3 million will be eaten up by the education fund. Uh that makes the tax rate about 460

006uh overall. >> Mike, the five million and the tour >> uh sorry here uh if you go back to the very first one >> oh the first five >> the very first one if you go to we're about 4.35 million. So not quite five but 4.3 million and each successive option it lowers to 3.7 3.3. >> So you use the tort fund >> just taking the money away from the tort fund. Yep. It's still ch it's asking for less money which is what the what what the task was and that's the best place to take it from without hamstringing any of the other um tax rates. So, a lot of my pel I know I bored you to death with that. I'm sure Kevin, Mr. Hail could tell us all about it, but my PTEL

007colleagues are all using 2.9% as CPI. So, I did a CPI version. Um, that brings us down to 39,459 and takes TOR down to 2.9 million. That tax rate is $4.55. And then I'd heard that somebody wanted to see what zero growth looked like. Um there was really no way to do complete zero growth um including the uh raise in the bond and interest. So this is a 0.05% levy option. So going from 38346 to with a tax rate of $444. So, what does all this look like? So, here's an example of the dollars and how they drop. Um, if you look at the far left, that's 24 for 25. That's the last one. That was our last tax levy. Um, the lowest increase that I provided you tonight is 38,6 and the highest is

00840,889. the levy differences. So, you would be leaving potentially $2.5 million on the table if you did the 0% increase. Uh, nope, sorry. That's $2.52 million more this year than last year if you do the full 6.63. Uh, if you do the 4.99, you're going to bring in about 1.2 million, 4.0, 0 1.5 million 2.9 1.1 million and just the 300,000ish for the nearly zero levy levy dollars difference. So if the board were to choose the 05 increase that would leave approximately $2.2 million out there. If it were to choose the 2.9 that would leave $1.4 million out there. The 4.0 increase would leave about a million out there. And the 4.99 would leave about 630 million out there. And obviously there would be nothing left on the 6.63 tax rates. Two years ago, our

009tax rate was 4.81. Last year it was 478. This year it could be anywhere from $470, which is an 8 decrease nearly um all the way down to $442 estimated based on the numbers as they are finalized into February by somebody not named Mike. Now, before we get to questions, I want to talk a little bit about what this means for different homeowners who's tasked with providing some information. >> You're welcome. I have an extra one. >> Okay. So, looking at the document in front of you, the first data run, the first data point shows the projected receipts at each rate of each rate of tax. The second line shows the increase over last year's. The third line shows the amount of lost revenue potentially and the fourth line shows the estimated tax rate. That's

010what we've talked about so far. The next set of graphs or charts show the cost to the homeowner. So, if a homeowner lives in a $150,000 home, which according to the most recent demographic study that I just started reading tonight because we got the draft, is 85% of our constituents. Um, you you do the math, you divide it by 3, you take away the 6,000, and you're at 44,000. It would be $2,69 at $4.70 would be the bill. And at 44 or at $442, it would be one one $1,944. And then I was asked like, what about the increase? So, I I'm not sure how much everybody's house went up. So, I just picked 6.27 because I feel like that's kind of where our EAB is going to land. Um, or at least our levy

011is going to land. So, if if your home was $150,000 and you saw a 6.27% increase this year, that now valued at uh assessed market value of 47,135. So, you would pay $2,000 and change um or you would pay 2,200 and change. If you look down at the bottom chart, those numbers are the difference between what a person whose house is worth 150 this year versus what somebody whose house was worth 150 last year and has seen the increase that has been I'm assuming applied to almost all the homes here in in uh our boundaries. And then if you flip it over, the data that you see represents the estimated savings for homeowners versus the full levy with an EAV increase on each property of 6.27 by taking each property value by the savings in

012between that of a home with one with 150 250 350 this year and 150 250 350 this year um by the 6.27% 27%. So, um, again, we're at the the the taxpayer may save $123. If you go with a 0% increase. If you go with the 44499, they would save $30 over the original 663. [music] And the difference between the two homes is the increase is $8, $4, $3, and $2. Um, 13% of our families live in homes between 150 and 350 according to the demographic study that I was draft [music] that I was looking at just tonight. Um, and then the rest are that leaves that's 98% of the district's homes. Any questions? Any guidance? Because I have to go upstairs and do math. If you don't pick one of the five in front

013of you, if you pick one of the five in front of you, I have to go up and change the resolution. But that's okay. And if you want a different number, I can go up and redo the math. But I'd like to do it one more time. I've been doing it a lot lately. So, if you have a number that's in in your head or a discussion that you'd like to talk about, I'd be happy to make that happen on paper. Any thoughts, comments? Because I know we need to move on to public input and then if we need to have you go up and do something. All right. So, no questions for me. >> I don't think right now. >> Okay. >> M. Bradford, any public input? People who would like to address this

014issue. read the first name, but I think it's Owens is the last name. >> Amy. Oh, I'm >> Ann. Okay. Hi, Ann. Good evening. First of all, I want to wish you all a merry Christmas and a happy new year. I appreciate your service. I'm also here to remind you that our people are forced to live within a budget. this day and age, they can't raise taxes to pay for groceries, to pay for medical bills, or anything else. You also need to reme remember that while he's saying small numbers for a homeowner, [clears throat] we have a lot of businesses, a lot of small business people that own their property. So, it's going to affect them as well as landlords. If landlords get a higher tax bill, they have to raise the rent. I'm sure

015a lot of your students live in rented housing. So tonight, I'd like to remind you that if you raise property taxes, whatever amount that you raise it, our people expect to see a coordinating rise in the test scores of all of our students. So, I think that would be a fair trade and I appreciate you. >> Thank you, Mr. Robertson. >> Good evening, school board superintendent. Last year, uh, the school board passed the largest dollar tax levy increase in the entire 160year history of the Decar public schools. What's especially tragic about that is the Decar poverty rate is 21% over 21%. Almost twice the state average. Decar median household income is 40% lower than the state average. [snorts] And yet property taxes indicator are already 40% higher than the Illinois average and one of the

016highest county rates in the entire country. So we got to look at it from where we are. Not just how much we're adding, but where we already are. High property tax rates are a barrier to firsttime home homeowners. We know that. High property tax rates drive families out of the city to the surrounding communities. High property tax rates drive businesses out of the city and they discourage businesses that are going to remain here from investing in the city. So none of these things are good for the future of Decar's children tonight. Do the right thing for the community. Manage within your means. Manage within the community's means. reduce the overhead that's grown out of control. The county has held their line by keeping their tax levy at 2024 levels this year. And the city of

017Decar listened to citizens this year, altered their trajectory and held their tax levy flat with last year. Join them. Do the right thing. Hold the line on property taxes. That's it. >> There any other comments from anybody in the room? Okay, seeing none, we'll move back to board comments or questions, further questions for Dr. Curry. So, if we did the same thing that the city did and left things the same as they were last year, what what does that do? >> Well, we talked during the budget hearing about the facade of the $5 million that came late to cover a potential deficit that will most likely hit us next year. The costs of everything is [music] cheaper today than it will be tomorrow. We've got negotiations coming up. We've got new things to purchase. We've

018got buildings to fix. So what would happen is that lack of revenue would have to be we had talked at the budget hearing about strategically finding ways to reduce costs. This would not be a strategic way to reduce costs. This would reduce revenue and we have a pro a protracted revenue problem like most people will over the next five years. So, a a flat tax levy would leave I think the number was 2.2 million out there, right? >> For the district that we would not receive. Yeah. [snorts] >> Other thoughts? >> Can I clarif Sorry, can I clarify, sir? Sure. It's not really about the negotiations, just about the rising cost of labor. We've been negotiating. We've made contractual obligations to our to to all of our employees, and those will continue to increase over

019time. I think to fuel a little bit more conversation last year, at least my personal position on this was that I agreed last year with the increase because of the tiff and we captured the tiff and we went to a higher rate because that's a 23-year capture of that revenue and that's why the high really the high revenue last year was the tiff. So, you know, I personally would be in for the 4% rate this year. Um, any way you look at it, when you you're going to increase taxes, you're going to increase people's tax [music] bill. You can talk about rate all day long, but you're still at the end of the day when somebody looks at their tax bill, their taxes are going to go up. And what can we do to [music]

020be part of helping mitigate that tax increase? The primary income of the school district comes from state. Correct. >> Correct. Over 60 million. >> So, uh, what is it like 33% comes from local sources >> be close? Yeah. 40 million. And then there's 10 to 12 if you take out ESSER, [music] 8 to 10 federal. Local sources include CPPRT, not just the property taxes. So I add another five million to that property tax level. I will not vote for the full levy. So um I think zero might be a little irresponsible, but I fall in the in the four in [music] the half range 4%. But I won't vote for the full of it. I won't vote for 499 either. Um, I could do four as long as we get the plan together and know

021what's coming and [music] get this roadmap 2030 thing done, get our building sorted out, getting getting our children in a better path [music] forward. So, um, as long as we can deliver that in 26, you know, I go with the four. Other thoughts? >> I'm comfortable with the four. >> I'll do four. I was between four and 2.9, but we can do four. >> Okay. >> I concur with the four. >> Okay. Well, this will this will come back up again in the formal the actual formal roll call part of the meeting. So, I think the I think you got your consensus here to where we're going to be. >> All right. I'll do I'll redo the resolution and hopefully your action item will include the four percent 4% increase. Okay. I've been noted. Thanks.

022resolution. >> Yeah, I'm gonna go do it right now. >> All right, >> unless I No, that's it for me. >> Okay. Having given an opportunity for public participation, oral and written testimony, I declare the truth and taxation public hearing closed. Um so we'll consider this public hearing closed at this point in time. We'll move on to our open session part of the meeting. Board of Education has been in closed executive session to discuss the appointment, employment or compensation of specific employee of the public body and legal counsel of the public body in pending litigation. No action was taken during the closed executive session. I would now ask everyone to join me in the pledge. >> Pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands.

023One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. You have a recommendation for tonight's agenda. Okay. Sorry. Okay. >> Yes. I recommend the board approve tonight's December 16, 2025 open session board meeting agenda as presented. Do >> I have a motion? So move. >> Any discussion? >> All in favor signify by saying I. >> Those opposed? Motion's carried. We'll move on to our district highlights. Uh we'll open up tonight uh with Monasuri Academy for Peace and Principal Nate Talent. All right, let's see if I can grab this clicker thing again. All right. Uh good evening members of the board, President Clevenger, Dr. Clark, Miss Bradford. Um I'm going to talk to you a little bit about Monatory Academy of Peace. I'm Nate Talent, principal. I have with me uh Miss Helm and Mr.

024West back there, both my assistant principles. I also have a teacher, Miss Click. She's at the back. And I have a student that I'll introduce you to here in just a little while. Um to start out with my presentation, I'm going to go through a little bit of data. But before I go to that, President Clevenger, I'm going to address you a little bit. Um I started this position in the winter of school year 22 and 23. um brand new to the space and we were working on trying to figure out where um I would go with the building and work with students and teachers um and we were talking about uh improving test scores, improving performance and I talked about growing Monastery inc increasing what we do with Monasuri and you had asked I

025was going through my notes earlier and you had asked uh do you think do I think that will work? um do I think monastery is is is [music] going to work is going to help us improve um and I I told you that we will see those were basically what I had written down at that point in time uh so we're a few years later than that and I wanted to talk a little bit about some of our data and where we are um so this is our these are our current fastbridge scores for 25 and 26 up there in the corner and then I have the past three years starting from when I started in the district or actually at the building um as lead principal um we have seen a rise um in

026average from the fall all the way through um each year for about 3.8% in the winter we saw a rise of 3.2% in the spring we saw a rise of 4% from year to year as we went through overall my building has seen an increase in fastbridge [music] scores of 3.6% overall. Now uh when we go through data we're always looking for things that we can improve on and where we can grow. One of the pieces that we started to notice though when my team was looking at it was there is a drop from fall to spring it seems like every year of an average of about 2.2%. But I will point out that last year if I can find my little dot there from fall to spring was the first time we saw an

027increase of 38.3% to 40.5%. So overall what I would say is that what we are doing at my building is currently working. Is it working at um a rate that I would like to see? I'd like to see that rate increase. But overall, our performance is increasing. That blue is indicating uh the students that are at the 50 percentile or higher. And if you notice that blue is getting larger each year that we go forward. Um and I'd like to see this year us improve from some uh from each area from either fall to winter and then winter again to spring and see that rate of increase improve. Um after that year in 22 and 23, we were designated a targeted school. It was the first time that we had had that designation um since

028the conception of Monastery Academy for Peace. So um we have several years to kind of pull ourselves out of that. Um and since then 2324 and 2425 we were rated a commendable school. And if you look at our our uh IA I scores both in reading and math you can see an increase in uh both the amount of students that are above or at college preparatory level in both reading and in math. Now, math, I'm seeing a little bit less growth compared to reading, but either way, I'm seeing growth overall. Um, and so I just wanted to point out that uh that we are seeing some increase, and I do believe some of that increase is due specifically to what we are doing in my building when it pertains to monastery. Um, and I know

029a lot of these presentations we focus on a lot of kids, and we're going to see some kids here, but I really want to focus a lot on what my teachers are doing. We've done we've made some changes in the building and some improvements into how we kind of do PD with my teachers and improve some of our monastery practices. Um so first of all we looked at our community partners. Um we've kind of gone through and tried to increase how we'll use them. I have them broken up here a little bit. I have four churches now that really kind of provide the backbone to a lot of our community partners. Antioch Christian Church, the Cross Church, Lambstand, and Hillside Bethl. Um, these four churches actually coordinate together now to kind of see how they

030could support my staff and my students. Um, Antioch Christian Church, the Cross and Lampstand all actually cycle through and provide food and refreshments for my entire staff at every one of their staff meetings. Um, Antioch Christian Church has hosted a career fair for us and they've supported many family events actually we've actually had at their facility. Um, the Cross Church, I called them this year uh to kind of join us as a community partner. Actually, I didn't even call them to join us as a community partner. They we were just kind of looking for a venue for our retreat, which I'll show you some pictures from here in a little bit. And uh they called me back and they said, "Actually, we'd like to partner with you. We'd like to offer you our facility and

031provide you refreshments for all of your staff as well [music] to so that way something you don't have to worry about. You can focus all on your PD." um lampstand. They provide an alternate location for our students whenever we have an emergency and they also provide overflow parking whenever we have events or just general pickup. So all of these churches including Hillside that has also provided snack bags for students have been a big support to students and families within my building. Richland Community College, Milin University, Hartland Technical Academy, and Clinton High School. Um, we've started to partner with them over the years and I've built partnerships with their teaching programs or teacher preparation programs and they send students to kind of just check out and see what monastery is like within our building within our

032district. Um, and I really think that monastery with indicator at Monastery Academy piece we really run a really quality program. I periodically have principles, superintendents from other districts come and contact me want to walk through our building. Um, and thing about Monasury is she never really trademarked the name. So, you can actually put that name on just about any school that you would like, whether you're actually doing it or not. I've met other people at other schools that do monastery for a couple hours a day, which is really not monastery in that aspect. [music] And, uh, every response I've gotten from people who walk through our building, they stop and they look at me and they say, "You guys are really doing it." Um, so I I really hope that this board and community are

033really proud of the program that we have that we're able to provide to a lot of our students. We also partner with Decater Public Library. Wendy's did some partnership with me. um True Colors. They were part of my um they're a they're a program that worked through my [music] retreat, DPS Foundation, Riculous, and we have many other partners as well that I'm sure I'm missing. And if I missed you, please reach out to [music] me and I'll gladly include you on my presentation and make a note of that to the board. So, I was talking about my staff. Um some of the things that we've tried to do is improve how we not only work with students, but how we work with each other. Um my staff work best if they are part of Monasuri

034is all about the prepared environment prepared adult. Um so if the adult is prepared, if the educator is prepared, they are ready to receive kids. Um so we spent our entire staff retreat learning who we are as educators, who we are as individuals, how we communicate a little better and we had some fun together. Um I I really firmly believe that it is important that the people that I work with, the people that we work together with, if we're having a good time, then we are creating a positive and flourishing environment for students as well. So um it's important to me that they're coming to a place that they enjoy uh that they're around people they enjoy and they also know the people they're working with. So, we've started to implement. I took some of

035my 24 hours for meetings that we have to have teachers uh attend. And uh I asked the teachers some things that they wanted to do. And one of the things that they realiz is that their days are very busy. They're in their own classrooms. They're working with their own kids, but they don't often get the opportunity that myself and my admin get to do, which is see all of the great things that [music] are going on in their in their colleagues classrooms. They don't get to see how they work with students, how they communicate with students. they they're kind of wrapped in their own little environments. So we institute these monatory practice days where basically once a month they come in for a half hour in the morning and they've all signed up and they

036teach their colleagues just as if they were students. They have them sit in lessons and so they can hear the cadence, how they speak to students, how they invite people to lessons. Uh they can pick up uh techniques and qualities that they don't otherwise would get to see because they don't get the chance to walk around and see the great things that my my administration [music] myself get to see. So, this is just an opportunity for them to go reflect with their other teachers, see how they teach, and also give some feedback on it. Um, they've they've come back with lots of reflection pieces on how they've picked up different things from their colleagues and use that in their classrooms. So, this has really become a a kind of a staple piece to things that

037we've kind of incorporated. We've also started to incorporate um I have a monastery excellence committee. So I have a committee of teachers who work together and their job is to improve monatory practices within [music] our building and how we do things. Um sending a teacher to monastery training is very expensive, takes up a lot of time. Trying to get to conferences, they are often out of state, they're often enriching education for my teachers that I just don't get to get to afford them the opportunity. What we did realize is that I have some of the longest running tenure teachers [music] in the district in my building many of which who are experts at Monastery because of how long they've been teaching how long they've been practicing and so they decided that they would like to

038start hosting some of their own PD sessions. So they have actually put together an entire PD setup where they are uh on our half days and during some staff meetings they are presenting to each other. they pick out different aspects of monastery and they are presenting things that we would otherwise receive possibly at PD. So we're trying to supplement some areas where when I can't take everybody to a conference, we [music] have experts within this district. We have a quality program. Um and so we're trying to capitalize on the resources that we have and I'm allowing my teachers to kind of run with that and provide some of that PD for each other. Um and sometimes when they learn from the people that they're in the building with, they have a little bit more buyin.

039These are people that they see every day, people people that they work with every day who work with the same kids, same students, same community. Um, and they seem to really be thriving off of this. Um, so we're trying to see how we can develop this a little bit more. Uh, we'd like to see this grow. Um, they've requested a couple more opportunities for me. So I I will let you know how this starts to develop as we continue with that as well. So, another aspect of Monastery that I want to make sure that you're aware of is that part of what makes the program work so well is the consistency. Um, we have multi-age classrooms, so students experience the same teacher, the same environment for three years in a row. Um, that eliminates that

040whole trying to re get to know everybody every single year. [music] And I want you to take a look at the practices that you see in the pictures here. These were just some pictures I had just taken in the first couple days of school. And I want to point out up here in the corner right up here in this right under where my title is, that's an EC classroom. These are early childhood students. If you look the next line of students that I have here, these are all elementary one students. They're first, second, and third grade. The next line diagonally here, I have elementary 2, which [music] are fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. And right here in the corner, I have middle school. The same practices that are occurring for my preschoolers are occurring at

041my middle school. These are consistent practices that help keep an environment that is stable, consistent, [music] and able for my students to thrive and focus on learning rather than the consistent changes that would otherwise consist in in a in a sometimes [music] a traditional educational environment. Um, the way that my teachers work together, develop their practices, and duplicate those practices help keep students aware of their environment and why they're there to focus and why they're there in the first place. Um, so I just wanted to point out how how common some things that you'll find even in a pre-K classroom all the way up to middle school. We also have done some extensive career development the middle school level. my counselor. Um she's been working really hard to expose students to careers. We took our

042um entire middle school over to Farm Progress this year. So, these are just some pictures of them at Farm Progress. They had a great time. Um I got to head over there as well and kind of visit with them. Um this is this was just a really incredible event for them to just be able to see some of the careers and opportunities that are in the area around them. Um, as somebody who grew up in Decar, um, but did not grow up in a farming family, there are a lot of careers and things that I wasn't [music] even quite aware of. And being able to expose our students to things like this that sometimes we take for granted, we assume that they're aware of, um, was just a really neat opportunity. My middle school has

043also been working on some other aspects of not only career development, but also self-development. Monatory is all about educating the whole child. um they put on an entire Thanksgiving dinner for each other and for several staff members. Um they invited my admin team and all of their teachers and they prepared a meal. Um and they tied this into some of their academics that they were doing. Um my social studies teacher did prior to this um a whole unit on indigenous people and the people who lived in Illinois and around central Illinois um prior to settling. Um and so prior to this meal, they had an entire um kind of speech and and talk session where the students just kind of gave thanks to all of the indigenous groups that were here before us um before

044preparing and then serving food. And then uh their teachers and myself, we all got we all got place settings. I got a little place setting there. They Oops, we'll go back. I got a little place setting here where they uh they identified uh adjectives and words that describe me. put little pictures on there that they had they had identified that went with me and they did that for everybody's play setting and had me sit at a table. Um, and I just got to enjoy a meal and conversate with some middle schoolers. Um, and all of our teachers were set at different tables. It was it was a really interesting and wonderful experience. Not only at middle school, we also have great things going on in every part of our building. And uh, I do not

045have enough time or slides to uh, share everything, but this was a really cool piece. This was our wax museum. They put my elementary 2 puts this on every year. For those of you who aren't familiar, elementary 2 is fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. And uh students can pick any person, any famous person they want. Um and their job is to basically become a wax figure of that person and then to give a little spiel and talk about who that person is. I actually have one of those people here, McKenzie Click. >> So this is one of my elementary two students. Uh she was Mackenzie, you were Jordan Larson, am I correct? And who was Jordan Larson? >> She was an Olympic volleyball player. So, I have Jordan Larson here. And Jordan Larson has a

046uh a little uh Monasuri kind of swag bag for you there. I've got a a bracelet and a koozie and I think a sticker in there for you from uh from Monasuri. So, I felt since I had somebody famous sit in the crowd, I might as well have them handed that out to you rather than myself. >> Thank you so much. Uh this is this is a really incredible event. My elementary 2 puts this on every year. So if you happen to check out our Facebook or see an invite to that, please I encourage you to come out. Um they put this on and they invite my entire school, the rest of the school to come. And so every teacher in the building signs up their class and they end up walking through every elementary

0472 class to just meet all of the famous people that we have researched within our building. And uh the kids really go all out. If you see some of these costumes here, I got Orville Redenbacher right up there in the corner. Um, so just some really incredible events, guys. If you if you ever hear about any events over at Monastery, please come out and check out things that we're doing. Um, we also have some really cool family events. I just wanted to just throw some pictures out there, some things that we do. Uh, up here in the corner, these little kind of dark pictures here. My, uh, music teacher, she puts on a concert every year that is a glow concert. The kids dress up in costumes. She's got black lights set up all over

048the auditorium and they they do they have these actions and little light up things. It's it's really quite the production. Um, and then this was our gourd gala that we show that we host every year. Um, where students can come out in the fall and they have all sorts of fall games. That's my uh PE teacher right there in the dunk tank. They got dropped in there a few times. He took the early shift. I got the cold shift later on. Um, but um, our church partners really came out and this is this is just a really wonderful event. So, if you ever have the opportunity, please come out, come join us for some events. Um, and that is most of what I have to say about my staff. I wanted to end with something.

049I I sent out a quick poll to my staff. Um, I grew up in this town. I'm a I'm a DPS alum as well. I went to Garfield when we first started the monastery program. I was in the second class to go through. I went to TJ and I graduated from Eisenhower. Um, sometimes the publicity and things that go around Decator Public Schools is not it's not the greatest, but I I I'll be honest, I'm very proud of being a DPS grad and I wanted to showcase how actually really proud my staff is. I have 24 DPS grads on my staff alone. My entire admin team are DPS grads. We have six more outside of that that attended DPS. And not only when I asked them if they were DPS. I just wanted to know,

050hey, how many of you graduated from DPS and how many of you were grads? These were the responses I got. I didn't just get responses that said I graduated from here. I got people saying that I'm a proud running red. I got MAC 91 with all these little hearts. Um I've got I got schools here now. I've been in the district for a while. My grandmother was a teacher in the district, so I know a lot of schools. I did not remember Oglesby. That one stuck out to me a little bit there. But uh I just wanted to point out that uh Monatory Academy for Peace, we are I'm very proud of the program that we have. I see us growing. I see us improving. And uh my staff, 24 of them are DPS grads.

051That is 24 extremely successful teachers who graduated from Decatur Public Schools and are providing a quality program for the students here in Decator public schools. That is all I have for you this evening. Thank you. >> Can I ask you one question? >> You can ask me anything you like. >> I I apologize for losing track of this, but you had a a housing issue a year or so ago where your house burned down from what I >> mean personally. That was actually this year. Yep. In September. >> How how is your family doing? How are you doing? >> We are doing okay. I I appreciate you asking. We are doing okay. And uh the other thing that I'll point out, I didn't even include this in my presentation. I wasn't going to talk about

052myself here, but uh the amount of support that I have gotten and my family has gotten from DPS and the community has been unbelievably overwhelming. So, uh regardless of whether you are proud to be in DPS or proud to be a student DPS, like being a part of this community, um going through a tragedy, it says says enough for itself. Like we are we are doing we're doing all right. There's there's some processes that we're working through with that, but I appreciate you asking because the amount of support that we've gotten from uh not only community, but from DPS, from the families that I work with, from the teachers that I work with, from Oh, they turned my mic is a lot louder. Uh from uh administration, from district leadership. Um it's it's been overwhelmingly

053wonderful. >> Good. I'm glad to hear it. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. Any other questions about me, my school program? All right, I'll leave you guys. >> Thanks, Nate. Thank you. >> Thanks, Nate. >> Okay, our next report for the evening, um, Dansby Ellsworth Dansby Junior Magnet School, [music] Dia Jackson. >> Yes. Good evening. Good evening. Thank you so much for having me here this evening. Um, I just wanted to give a little update on the Dansby Flyers FFA for the middle school since it is a very new concept and I kind of consider us a little bit of a pilot program in my own wishful thinking for the entire district to consider at some point. And so I wanted to put out the information, give you guys some kind of stats. Mine is not going to

054be as colorful as Mr. Talons for sure um because I wanted to provide a little bit more um data for you. Uh, so just kind of a summary, we did the farm progress show as well. [music] I chose three of my students to attend that day. Steve came out from the district. He's obviously super fantastic for us. He always wants to document anything and everything going on in the district, but I definitely feel like he is a a number one champion for the A program at all times. Um, so just a summary that we're just exploring careers, we're exploring steam, we're exploring agriculture, and we're getting to these students at this sixth, seventh, and eighth grade level where [music] sometimes we could have some growth in that innovative programming at that level. So, curriculum, what

055we have gone over, and this is just my first quarter. Um, like I said, mine just might be a little bit drier than Mr. Talent. Uh, like I said, just want to get some facts out for you. So, we went through um talking about FFA, we went through a steam challenge, we went through food science and technology, and then we also went through and discovered agriculture in the past. So, that kind of gives you a little bit of information for the day that I'm presenting. Um, so our enrollment breakout, I have 18 eighth graders, I have 38 uh seventh graders, 43 sixth graders. [music] our demographics pretty much match up across the board for our district demographics and then our student grades. Um, obviously not every teacher wants to put out their grades and show,

056you know, everything that's going on, but I do I wanted to be transparent with that and show, you know, definitely we're having high success rates. Um, we're working on those D's and Fs in my classes. Luckily, that's only eight. Um, and then my I have 15 students that are in our special education department taking classes with me and it's really awesome. Um, I would say the average reading level of those 15 students is probably around second grade. Um, so to see that they're all passing this content that I'm giving them, obviously it's a differentiated content [music] is amazing because I, you know, we present a lot of heavy content, careers, um, all of that that they can also be involved with as well. So, student survey. So, I just asked my students on a random

057Tuesday. I said, "Y'all, I have a really quick survey for you. I want to know what do you think so far? And I want to put this out to the community. I want to show them what our students are learning and what they're thinking. Right? So I said, "Answer these few questions for me." So our first one was, "I understand how agriculture connects to science, technology, engineering, art, and math [music] because at DNS, we we are a steam school, and I always want to connect agriculture to steam because agriculture is steam. [music] It is all of those things." Um, so you can see those are the percentage of our students that responded. We have over 70% said they agree, strongly agree. Most of them are, you know, part of them were neutral, but we're seeing

058most students are green. Yes, I'm understanding these concepts going, you know, getting this information through agriculture. Um, my activities and labs we did helped me to understand. Um, so you can see our results there. We're getting high retention, high understandability, um, comprehension within what's happening in the classroom. and I learned about new careers or jobs related to agriculture. The really interesting thing was we would go through and we're talking about these careers and some of the students would say, "Hey, [music] wait, my mom does that. My grandma does that. Somebody I know does that job." And I'm like, "But did you know that that was agriculture?" And they're like, "No, I didn't. They live here in Decar." And I'm like, "I know. That's the really cool thing is that you guys have this opportunity coming

059to you or you may be sitting in an agriculture family and you don't realize it yet." So that was a really fun thing. Um activities, FFA activities. I wanted to show you the impact that this has had on our students. Um community service hours. The two things that we have done, we have packaged meals for our own students to send home over long breaks. Um we suffer with a little bit of food insecurity within our school within our school district. Our FFA members came up with the idea. They said, "Well, why don't we pack bags that we can send home? We used to get those last year, but we haven't gotten them yet. I'm like, that's great. So, we put the boots to the ground. We found some money, got some food donated, packed up

060stuff for long weekends for us. Um, Farm Progress show, we did horse evaluation CDE, which was horse judging, state officer visit, which was a really cool experience. They came in and put on a whole workshop for three of my classes. Um, [music] archery was really fun. The students really like that as well. and then uh food science CDE where they got to discover and be tested on everything a food scientist [music] does. So you can see our impact numbers. You know I have 99 students. I guarantee I have more participation in my activities than 99 up there. Uh another student uh survey I wanted to share was our FFA activities. You know I asked them I said have you participated or have you not participated? And then I also wanted to include in there, no

061I haven't because we have a lot of students involved in sports [music] and so I wanted to include no I haven't but I want to. Right? So that's showing almost 40% of my students want to compete in an FFA in an FFA activity or participate in an FFA activity of some kind. But I also have almost 40% of of them already have. So, we're looking at 80% of the students are interested in FFA and what that can bring to them. So, I thought that was very encouraging. Um, do you enjoy coming to agriculture class and would you recommend this class to students? And I'll tell you, obviously I would be concerned if I didn't have at least a few students say no. Right? Like every class, doesn't matter where you're at. Um, you're always going

062to have somebody that doesn't like it for some reason. And that's okay. That's, you know, that's why we're here. Um just a few pictures of kind of what we have been doing. We've made salsa in class. We visited the farm progress show. There's a picture of us packing their lunches, those bags to go home. Um definitely when we feed them, I feel like we get a lot more retention. You know, that's a lot of fun. And then um just wanted to say thank you to you all. Do you have any questions about the AD program or anything that we're doing? Sounds wonderful. Yeah, >> nice job. >> Thank you. I think we have a lot of fun and like I said, I just wanted to bring about just kind of show what's going on. Sometimes

063we don't always get a view into a particular classroom or into a program and I wanted to make sure we share that information out with everyone. >> Let Ann report from administration. Okay, moving on to public participation. Okay, we'll now move on to public participation. Board of Education would like to note the following. Identify oneself and be brief. Comment should be limited to three minutes. Any public comments submitted to the board secretary will be included in the record. Please note that [music] during any board of education meeting and public participation, board members do [snorts] not respond andor comment to public comments. All comments are referred to administration. [music] 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

064that 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. Sam Mills, Board of Education and Dr. Clark. My name is Sam Mills and I'm the DEA president and I first want to recognize two people with a lot of passion for their programs, Nate and Dileia, who you just spoke to. Love talking to them at every chance I get. If you get a chance and you're interested in what they do, go talk to them. She'll talk to your off about a loves it and Nate will tell you everything you want to know about Monasuri and and they're they just love what they do. It's it's a special thing.

065Okay, so I came to you tonight to talk about the roadmap process and I noticed that it's on the agenda so I might be jumping a gun here a little bit but here I am. Uh during the planning phase of last year's process, the DEA expressed interest about teacher voice and union representation on the committee. We didn't agree at the time at the selection process for the committee, but after listening to board uh discussions and and other things from the board this year, we have some hope that the makeup of the of the committee will change for the upcoming process. My concern I come to you tonight is that it's December and I'm the president of the largest bargaining unit that you have and I haven't been part of one discussion about who's on the

066committee, when it's getting started, and what's happening. So, there are some concerns there for me. I'm hoping that this time around we have a better result from this process and I feel that different voices are needed at the table for that [music] result to change. My ask is to be a part of the process and to be able to help select DEA members for the committee so that we can find solutions to the issues we face as a district. We want to work together with you. We just need to be allowed to do so. I also want to address the issue of Dennis school. While I understand that this will be a part of whatever strategic plan that we have coming up, the lack of the communication on the future of Dennis School casts a

067shadow over both the staff and the student families there. [music] It causes rumor and discontent. They deserve to know what's going on. They deserve leadership on the future of their school. There should not have to be a fight about this to get movement on what's going on with that school. I urge you to make Dennis a priority and make it a priority to communicate to those families and that staff what's going on. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Uh we thank everyone for their input. Uh we genuinely appreciate that. Moving forward, um move on to board discussion. Speaking of road mapap 2030, first item on board discussion. >> I got something I'd like to present here. And thinking about our strategic plan and our roadmap for 2030, I believe if we really wish to

068show our parents and our constituents how serious we are about educating our children and setting them up for success in life, we should do the following next year. I recommend that we make or create a K through third grade school and that's plural that are separate entities that teach only reading, writing and arithmetic exclusively. I include cursive writing in this uh in this. Also, we are all in agreement. I believe that no one can succeed in life if they can't read, do basic math, or write down their thoughts in complete sentences. Our test scores show we are failing our kids. We can't continue in our current methodology. With the setup of these schools, after the third year, I see I I recommend that we test the third graders competencies. If they pass that competency test

069and only then we promote them to the fourth grade, otherwise they repeat third grade. If the principles of these schools happen to instigate school uniforms, I would support them wholeheartedly. Fourth, fifth, and sixth grade would have their own separate schools. Seventh, and eighth grade, junior high would be separate. With our declining population, it's becoming evident to me that we need to prepare to consolidate our high schools like we had a long time ago. In my opinion, it's past time we bite the bullet and do something outside the box to get our children in a position for success. Thank you. Uh since we're on the topic of road mapap 2030, um will thoughts on where we are right now? I know and from my perspective we need to get rolling and I think we could probably

070all concur and agree on that. This >> this needs [music] to be >> two primary focuses for a superintendent search and roadmap 2030. >> Um I I can say since the last time we met in uh November, I personally have been [music] dealing with a very pregnant wife and now a newborn. So, uh, at this juncture, my hope was that someone could kind of help fill that in and maybe I wasn't as clear to that as but I'm ready to meet with administration and Dr. Clark, I'll get with you after this meeting uh, so we can get something started here [music] so we can so we can get the ban back together. Uh, the other thing is that you handed out uh, earlier this evening a copy [music] of the uh, prior committee and um,

071I I guess to clarify what is that for us to review? What would you what would you like to see there? >> Oh, you want I can talk to you about it right now. Okay. So, uh one of the things that was asked about who was on the prior committee, how many um people were asked, where were they from? All of that because the conversation was primarily circling around why didn't we have so many um uh educators on the uh committee. So, let's first kind of like dive into that. We were trying to make sure we had balance across the board from all staff members, not just teachers, because roadmap 2030 affects [music] everyone, not just the EA. We were also focusing on those individuals that live in the district who send their children to

072the district. Um afterwards, it was discussed how can we get more input. So we had uh meetings where anybody was available to come could come and they had community forums and yet you still have people that said they are voices but not heard. We did a FAQ where you were able to submit questions um and you didn't have a lot of people that do that and yet we still have people that said their voices was not heard. So what I wanted to do was show you the people that we reached out to before. We already know that we're going to have to fill some slots. Um, to be honest, I was waiting on you guys to unpause because I did not want to get caught up in sending invitations and then it did not happen.

073I'm just going to be honest. [music] I was being very lery about doing that. But all we have to do is press in and we're ready to go. Now, in terms of the back field, as I said before, I talked to a number of you. You wanted more um staff. We've already started seeking that information. Someone actually said, "Hey, you know what? since it's big um a big discussion about having um the union leadership regardless of whether or not they live in the district on the committee uh we were like okay fine no problem so as soon as this board unpauses we are ready to press that button I also uh asked like well who else like we had some administrators to give us even more names of staff members that would like to participate

074because we know we have a lot of backfield to Um, there's also a piece that I want the board to play and I don't know if you're ready for me to talk about that right now. Was that a yes? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um, so I do know that Will and uh Christina will be the two board members that are on the committee. But I also sat down with the team and I said, since all of this keeps coming up about feedback, why don't we do something different? Let's think out of the box. So, I met with um Bill and I said, "How do you feel about you and I reaching out to and I don't mean this disrespectfully to anybody, but the big leads and let's do the same SWAT analysis that we did

075when we started it, but I would also like two board members to do the same thing for the east side, two board members to do the same thing for the [music] west side, and then of course two board members to take north or south to give people an opportunity to say to you what they probably would not have said to us. Regardless of the numerous opportunities that's been given, but the focus would be on SWAT analysis and what natural conversations that come of that, you will have it and be prepared to present. So, I'm making this up. Let's say Mr. Hill, you're [music] West Ender, >> West Side. >> So, you and I'm making this up. You and Karen took the west side and on I'm making this date up. In a month you had

076a community forum, but on that same day, Mark and Devon, you did something. On that same day, you and somebody would do something and everybody will focus on that same questions that will be given to you and all of that natural information will come back to the committee. So that's another way to try to capture what everyone believes was not enough feedback from the community as well as the staff. But the FAQ is still live. They can still utilize that as well. That's just another out of the box way of doing it. [music] And we are already um ready to go with our dates. as soon as you say unpaused. We've already decided that the first meeting is going to be January the 28th. Thank you. Um, so we are ready to go, but I

077don't want to be premature in thinking we're going to move and something happens. So that's where some of this is coming from. Do we need to back field? We absolutely will be backing. I thought that we had said yes, we wanted it on pause in November. So if we we need to clarify wasn't clear. I apologize. >> Let's clarify this right now by consensus. Everybody on this board, are you ready to move forward with this thing? >> Yes. >> Okay. >> I move forward. >> Okay. So, thank you for that because I apologize. >> Okay. >> So, January 2 >> is the first meeting that we had scheduled. >> What date? the 28th. >> 28th. >> Yes. And so, yes, Will [music] and and Christina, absolutely, we can meet. >> Okay. >> How many questions

078are you thinking about? >> So, with the SWAT analysis, it's really just a natural Yeah, it's just a natural conversations where you're talking about strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, those things, [music] and it generates your natural conversation from the community. >> Do a mailer. >> No, it would be in person. So, we did in person, we did online, right? Um, it was just easier to get everybody to get their information out there, to get their comments heard. Other comments, other thoughts? Okay, I think we need to kick it in high gear and >> we got it. >> And if you have additions, deletions, whatever from the list that was passed out today, please pass those along to Dr. Clark. Okay, I think we had uh one item for board discussion too was the superintendent evaluation tool,

079but Karen family emergency was unable to be with us tonight. So, I think we'll put that on hold till the next board meeting and then we can have a better discussion of that. I think Mark and Karen both were prepared to talk about that. Are you okay with that, Mark? >> Yeah, I I can mention it right now. Okay. >> As far as there is a company out there that has a very good network of places that they've been involved in and doing evaluations on superintendent and it's a methodology that can be used not just for the superintendent but it can be it can be used for um other people in in administration. Um, if I remember correctly, the the cost of it was four $4,000 to hire them. Um, the references that they offered

080were was was pretty impressive people that that have used them before. Um, and I I thought of it as a kind of a neutral or unbiased uh way in which a board can evaluate their superintendent and keep personalities out of it and and be able to use, like I said, a a third party and in in a formal it's a formal process. So, I was very impressed with it. Um, I don't know. Christina, were you there too? I mean, in my opinion, I would use them in a heartbeat. >> It gets rid of like the paperwork. So, it's like it generates the uh survey of the superintendent and then everybody can go in theirelves and do the personal evaluations online. It's a computer program. >> Okay. something else that obviously we we need to have

081some more conversation about and if we're going to move in that direction, [music] we need to be teeing that up for uh as we move through the superintendent selection process. >> Before we select the super >> Yes. >> Okay. Anything else? If not, move on to reports from administration. I will ask Nikki Fenderson, uh, principal at Robinson Charter School to present their annual RCS update. >> Hello, President Clevenger and Superintendent. How are you guys? >> Good. Good. >> Thank you. >> Good. So, my uh presentation will be short and sweet. It's a video just highlighting some of the things that have taken place at Robertson from the beginning of the year. Um, so what you'll see in the video are pics from our first day of school where we had some men from the Alpha

082fraternity come out and greet our students. Um, pictures from our family fun night. We're also going to um, highlight pictures from our chess club. We just started that this year over the lunch hour with um, our middle school students as well as stage stars where we're teaching some of our kids um, how to act. Um we'll also see highlights from our honor roll assembly and our um honor roll field trip. So for the skating field trip that they did this first quarter, we had over a hundred students that were able to participate because they um because of honor roll. Also have pictures from our kindergarten extravaganza which they were learning formal dining etiquette [music] and our sixth graders also. Um, you don't have to push play. I was giving you a kind of open. Okay.

083Uh, because it's going to be short and sweet and then we'll be done. Uh, [laughter] and then um yeah, so our sixth graders got to go to the Illinois Supreme Court and meet um, Justice Lisa Holder, which was pretty exciting. Um, we have pictures from our sports team. Um, our boys are undefeated right now. Our girls actually performed at the Indiana Fevers game, the WNBA this summer. They'll be they'll be uh performing this spring at an NBA game. Our art class worked on a card for Downtown Christmas Lane. So, that will be the end of the um the video. So, we are now ready Hey, [music] hey, hey. [music] end. [music] Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] >> [music] >> I'm fire. [music] >> [music] [music] >> These pictures right here are from our IA busters. trip.

084We had 69 students [music] that met who were in with their IR school. And this little part, you can't hear it. Um, but that was an activity in which [music] middle school students did with kindergarten and their six seven activities. Of course, doing that movement. Any questions? How many students do you currently have enrolled at? >> Currently 283. >> All right. Thank you. >> You Thank you. >> That will end our report from administration. >> Okay. We'll now move on to our consent items. Uh does anyone want any of the consent items pulled? Okay. Seeing none, Dr. Clark, >> I recommend the board of education approve the consent items as presented, which includes a minutes open close session meetings November 11th, 2025 and special open close session meetings November November 17, 2025. B. Close session

085meeting minutes and close session meeting audio recordings. C. Freedom of information report. D. Bills. E. Financial conditions report October 2025 and November 2025. Treasurer's report October 2025 and November 2025. Do >> I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> You don't have monthly bills in there. You me you meant to have them in there. Monthly bills. >> Oh, okay. Go ahead. >> Oh, I thought you were coming to answer the question. >> No, I didn't hear a question. Oh, what's Oh, thank you. >> Monthly bills are part of the consent, are they? >> Yes. And you said what about it? >> I didn't see them on the list here. That's all. >> Is it D bills? >> D bills. >> Dills. [music] Okay. >> Any other questions? >> M. Bradford.

086>> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleger. Hi. >> Mr. Wzel. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi. >> And Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. Six I zero nay one absent motion carried >> okay we'll move on to our roll call action items do we have a recommendation to ratify a contract for the director of making piatt special education [music] district for the 2026 27 2728 28 29 [music] school years >> yes I recommend the board of education ratify and approve the contract for Elizabeth Lang director of making pyth special education district for uh 2026, 2027, 2027, 2028, and 2028, 2029 school years as presented. Please note the min payet special education district executive board approved this item during their November 18, 2025 meeting. >> Do I have a motion? >> So

087move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? [music] >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleer. >> Hi. Mrs. Tyus hi >> and Mr. Hale I >> six I zero nay one absent motion carried. >> Do we have a recommendation for the contract extension for the interim school health services administrator? >> Yes. Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the contract extension for Kayla McCreary and health services administrator as presented. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move second. >> Any discussion? >> Is are we sticking with interim or you have plans to >> She will become fulltime. We're waiting on the state to certify her. >> Oh, okay. Okay. >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. >>

088Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleger. Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. Hi, >> and Mr. Wetszel. >> I 6 I zero, one absent. Motion carried. >> 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 Wilks, director of human resources and the human resources department as presented. >> Do I have a motion? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Joiner. >> I. >> Mr. Clevener. Hi >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi >> Mr. Hail. Hi >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi >> and Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi. >> 6 I zero nade. One absent. Motion carried. >> Do we have a recommendation for the Mley Elementary School fiber conduit? >> Yes. I recommend the

089board of education approve the Mley Elementary School IC and fiber conduit as presented. >> Second. [music] Discussion. Having done fiber conduit uh and overseen those projects in the private sector, this is a pretty good price. >> Okay, >> that's it. >> Mr. Bradford, >> Mr. Reynolds, hi >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. Hi, >> Mr. Wetzel. Hi, >> Mr. Cleger. Hi, >> and Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> 6 I zero nay. One absent. Motion carried. >> Do we have a recommendation for the Palo Alto firewall support renewal? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the payload auto firewall support renewal as presented. >> A motion. >> Do we have that presentation? >> There's no presentation. >> The numbers that I have in front of me, are they aren't they red being

090redone? >> Mike, didn't you redo them? >> No, no, no. We're talking about some We're not there yet. >> Oh, okay. Sorry. >> That's okay. >> Okay. I still need a motion. >> I make a motion. >> Second. There [music] a second. Any discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Cleger. Hi. >> Mr. Wetzel. Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi. And Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi. >> 6 I zero nay. One absent. Motion [music] carried. >> Okay. Here we go. Do we have a recommendation for the resolution and certificate for tax amounts necessary to be levied for the year 2025 paid in 2026? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education adopt the resolution and certificate for a 4% tax rate to be levied for the year 2025

091that paid in 2026 as presented. >> So move second. >> Any discussion or further discussion from the previous discussion? >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleger. Hi >> Mr. Wetzel. Hi >> Mrs. Tyus. Hi >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi and Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. Six I zero nay one absent. Motion carried. >> We have a recommendation for the international teacher cultural exchange program partnership with Peoria [music] District 150 for the 2026 2027 school year. >> Yes. I recommend a board of education approve the international teacher cultural exchange program partnership with Peoria District 150 for 2026 [music] 2027 school year as presented. >> Have a motion. >> So move. Second. >> Any further discussion? >> Uh just quick clarification. You say that there are 38 international teachers but uh this uh impacting our

092vacancies by providing up to 40 to 50 new teachers. Will that be does that mean 78 to 58 uh 78 to 88 or does that mean 40 to 50? >> Good question. Oh, thank you Miss Wils. >> I'm sorry. [snorts] Uh Mr. Wilson, could you repeat that question? >> Yeah. And I'm sorry I didn't catch this. Yeah, I catched this earlier, but uh it says for additional years of uh no no DPS currently has 38 international teachers employed for the 2526 school year. >> And then um further down it says partnering with PP uh PPS for the international teacher exchange program could positively impact our vacancies by providing up to 40 to 50 new teachers for the 2627 school year. So is that 40 to 50 total or is that 78 to 88 total? >>

09378 to 88 total. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Yes. Okay. Mr. Bradford, >> Mr. Joiner, >> I >> Mr. Cleager. Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hail. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> and Mr. Wetszel. Hi, >> Six. Zero nay, one absent. Motion carried. >> Do we have a recommendation for the International Exchange Teacher Professional Development with Square One Strategy Group? >> Yes. I recommend the board approve the international exchange teacher professional development with one square with square one strategy group as presented >> move >> discussion could you just tell us a little bit about that what that's going to be what that's going to look like going forward >> thank you Mary >> so this will be a series of professional development that's going to take place over the year. We'll start

094it in January meeting with the international teachers once a month and then over the summer there'll be more intensive [music] training in order to go back over just kind of that adjustment period but then also filling in some of those holes that we need to address in order to have it happen over the summer and then it'll help us with the new group of teachers also bringing them on so that onboarding can all [music] take place. Any more questions? >> M. Bradford. >> Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Reynolds. >> Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi. >> And Mr. Clevenger. >> Hi. >> 6 I zero nay. One absent. Motion carried. >> Do we have a recommendation for the Raptor Technologies badge alert? >> Yes.

095I recommend the board approve the Raptor Technologies badge alert as presented. >> Motion. Make a motion. >> Second >> discussion. >> So, who's going to get this? >> How many is every teacher going to get it? Every custodian? >> Well, not that far. [laughter] >> Yeah. All staff members will get it >> in every school that we have. >> Every school. >> Mr. Tally, could you explain to everybody exactly what the badge alert will do? >> You have someone behind you, too. Oh yeah, I'll I'll have Melissa. >> No, she said behind you. >> Oh, [laughter] okay. >> Oh, a representative from Raptors here just in case you wanted to to ask a question. Uh, essentially u what it does, it's uh it triangulates through [music] a beacon uh configuration where individuals are should something

096negatively impact our school district. Can you tell me why we need this? >> Uh we we [clears throat] the reason why we need it is that uh Illinois lists as one of the top 10 states [music] in the country for active shooters uh at 190. And just current events, if you look at it, uh uh the uh uh Brown University just had an active shooter. And then uh while we were uh uh honoring Dr. Clark, uh Kentucky State University had one. We had we have a staff member who has a child going to Kentucky State. And then if you look just a little uh uh 15 days earlier, you had [music] that uh what is it? Mississippi High School at their homecoming game had an active shooter all in double digits. [music] So the alert

097allows us to have control over uh negative situations in the district. And then just to let [music] you know uh 19 states are pending legislation where it will become a mandate. 10 states already have. >> So all staff will wear this. >> Yes. >> And then if there's an int intruder in the building and I see him in the gym and I'm located there, it'll triangulate where I'm at. >> Correct. >> And notify law enforcement. >> Correct. >> You I mean, what is the transition to that? >> Uh we configure it how we want to. So if it's a medical emergency, they'll activate the button and it won't go to 911. Uh, but if it's an active shooter, somebody hears gunshots or somebody hears a scream, they see a guy with [music] a knife, they

098press it again, then it activates 911, alerts our SRO's in the building, and then they deploy other law enforcement. >> It reduces response time. Correct. >> Yes. And that that's what that's what that's that's what we're up against. We're up against time. Yes. >> The renewal on this after a year, what's what's the cost on renewals? >> It's uh $120,000 per year for 36 months >> For the entire district and that would include our fields. So, if we have homecoming games, uh it will triangulate there as well. >> And this might be for the Raptor Tech. Does this sit on their own infrastructure or our infrastructure? >> Good evening. Um yes. So sit on on your network. There are one device that connects. It's called a gateway. >> Um these are uh it's a long

099range radio frequency >> uh device. So it works on its own um unregulated if you will uh transmitter, right? And so then that device uh the gateway is the receiver, the badge is the transmitter. So that will [music] plug into an IDF and MDF closet. Very secure. Okay. And that is the only required the alert and trigger everything. The beacons are there to help try and we don't rely on the beacons for any other communication. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> I have a quick question, sir. >> I'm sorry. Go ahead, Mark. >> Is there anything that blocks this? Yeah, that's lost. >> So, it's not like Wi-Fi. Um, we do put in redundancies. So, these gateways, we typically [music] put anywhere from uh three to five per building. Uh, that will then and then

100during our testing because Raptor will install all of this. It's part of the [music] service. We also maintain um you have full visibility into all the equipment, the health of the equipment. These badges are rechargeable. Um the badges actually will send a signal to the staff member if their badge needs to be recharged. Um the gateways again from a redundancy standpoint, we put multiple gateways in a building. Once all the gateways installed, then we do extensive testing to make sure there are no areas uh on the entire campus. [music] We're talking fence to fence coverage to ensure that uh wherever a staff member is that initiates an emergency from the badge, they will get the appropriate response and [music] 911 if so configured as well as district administration, building administration all are notified as [music]

101well as the entire staff of where that emergency is. Um there's a mobile component as well. So, anybody that has a mobile device that would wish to download the app will be able to see where that emergency is. The uh device uh I'm sorry, district issued devices, so it's teachers with laptops, desktops, they will also be able to access um where that [music] emergency is through the uh web interface after they are alerted because no matter what device you're on, you're going to be notified that there's an emergency. >> Does that help answer the question? >> Yes. What does it look like for replacing loss? Those things are very little. >> Yes. Uh there are no costs to the district for replacement. Raptor as part of your subscription service. We handle all the equipment. So

102any lost badges, [music] uh replacements, additional badges as more staff come on board are all covered under the annual. >> Other questions? >> And this integrates with already existing raptor technologies. >> Correct. So visitor management when you have visitors in the building volunteers substitutes issued badges. Now I apologize when I'm talking about um the integrations. So when a visitor signs into the building there's another phase of this emergency called accountability when you need to account for people in the building which is part of what the district already has. um they would be included in that, but substitutes can be given badges. Again, training Raptor will be on site to be doing trainings uh with all of this as well. Um and also handling an on-site reunification drill come uh April, I believe. Correct. So, [music]

103we are here as partners. Raptor only works with K12 schools. We take your feedback very seriously and improve on the product. And uh we're we're excited to be a partner already with the Cater Public Schools. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Questions, >> Miss Bradford. >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wetzel. >> Hi, >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi, >> Mr. Clevenger. >> Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> and Mr. Hail. >> Hi, >> Six. side. Zero nay, one absent. Motion carried. >> Do we have a recommendation for the Raptor Technologies annual renewal? >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the Raptor Technologies annual renewal as presented. >> So move. >> Second. >> Discussion. >> Miss Bradford. >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi. >> Mr. Cleger. >> Hi. >> Mr. Joiner. >> Hi. >>

104Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. >> Hi. >> And Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi. [clears throat] >> 6 I zero nay. One absent. Motion carried. >> We have a recommendation to approve the Magnum Math subscription agreement. That was a mouthful there tonight. >> Yes. I recommend the board of education approve the Magma Math subscription agreement as presented. >> So move. Second. Discussion. >> Miss Bradford, >> Mr. Cleger. Hi, >> Mr. Reynolds. Hi, >> Mrs. Tyus. >> Hi, >> Mr. Hail. >> Hi, >> Mr. Wetszel. >> Hi, >> and Mr. Joiner. >> I 6 I zero nay, one absent. Motion carried. >> Thank you. Before we move on to announcements, uh, I think I was a little negligent here. Elizabeth Lang, we'd like to recognize you as our new administrator over there. So, I was a

105little dilitary there. totally fine. [laughter] I prefer it that way. >> You can't get off that easy now. >> Um but I just I want to thank all of you and um the making PA special education executive board um for giving me this opportunity. Um I know I have big shoes to fill um given Cathy's experience and and wealth of knowledge. Um, but I do look forward to serving the students, [music] families, education, educators, and administrators of all the member districts in our cooperative. And thank you. >> Thank you. >> Okay, moving on with announcements. I think we'll probably see these up on the board here very quickly, but um our condolences to uh the family. Ronnie Jean Kelshimer passed away Friday, November 6th. Mr. Kelshimer was the father-in-law of Vicky Kelshimer, purchasing analyst in

106our business office. Uh Sarah E. Brady, who passed away Wednesday, November 26th. Miss Brady was the mother-in-law was the mother of Mary Brady, u our director of teaching and learning. Our condolences to the families of both those [music] individuals. Oh, I still have a couple more here. I'm sorry about that. Um Andreas Woodland, who passed away Thursday, November 27th. Andreas was [music] a student at Persing Early Learning Center. David Krauss, who passed away Friday, December 12th. Mr. Krauss was a husband of Jerry Sue Krauss, retired teacher from Southshore Elementary School. Once again, condolences to all the families of those individuals. Uh some important dates, December 19th, the end of the second quarter. Uh the 22nd to the 31st, no school for [music] students, holiday and winter break. 24th to the 26th, Christmas holidays observed and

107all district offices are closed. Uh district offices will reopen on Monday the 29th. January 1st, New Year's holiday, no school and all district offices are closed. District offices will reopen January 2nd. Uh no school for students on the 2nd. Winter break continued. Uh the second's also an optional work day for teachers. Full day of school for all students on the 5th of January. The 9th is report card distribution day. The 14th, January 14th, district-wide half day of school for all students. Uh you check with your school on that. Uh special closed executive session of the board of education 4:30 p.m. at the Kyle administration building on the 14th as well. Public portion of the next regular board meeting will be 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, January 13th, the Kyle administration building. Uh do we have a motion

108to adjurnn? So >> move. Second. >> All in favor signify by saying I. I. >> Those opposed. We stand adjourned.