001Mic. [Music] >> Okay, I think we're ready to get started. I'll call the public hearing to order. Uh yeah, our first note of business tonight will be a public hearing for the DPS FY26 budget. I'll call the public hearing to order and note for the board and public that this hearing is to give an opportunity for the public and board members to express any written or oral testimony or comments on the subject of the tentative budget for Decar Public School District 61 for the fiscal year beginning July 1st, 2025 and ending July 30th, 2026. Board of Education had a tentative form of this budget prepared by the business office and the board secretary has made the same available for the public for inspection for the past 30 days prior to tonight's action. Mr. Bradford, have
002we received any written comments? >> No. >> Do we have anyone signed in wishing to speak on the budget? >> No. >> Is there anyone present tonight who wishes to speak on the budget? Seeing no one, Dr. Curry, the floor is yours. >> Thank you for this opportunity. Uh so before we get started, I want to start by thanking my team. Uh this has been a pretty long ordeal. Uh trying to figure out exactly when and where uh to put uh the revenue that we've received and what funding streams that we can count on, etc. Um we did a deep dive in expenditures. Um, so with Cheyenne Patterson and Allison Lancaster, their time and effort on this has been invaluable and I always lead with this. This is my 14th school budget and just like
003all the others, this is the best guess I can give you at this moment in time of the things that we know and we only know a few things. We know most of our salaries and we know our evidence-based funding. Everything else is just kind of forecasting and projections. So here we go. Budget priorities. We talked about this earlier. These are the things that that we we uh focus our work on providing necessary tools for students to reach their potential safe and healthy learning environments. The new one this year is fiscal efficiency as we move away from the benefit of ESR 1, two, and three. Uh we still have to maintain aging infrastructure in several locations and we're going to need to determine a path uh forward with unknown federal funding. The budget timeline uh
004and the process March and April departments give their input. July and August, we start drafting August and September. Uh we're redlining and we're redistributing funds. Here we are at our September public hearing and final adoption hopefully and it will be sent off to the ROE here and the state very soon. So projections by fund. So let's first talk about overall our total revenues are projected to be 151,628,191. Total expenditures is projected to be 154 853598. So that's a net balance in or in balance of -3,225,000 and change. One of the things we need to think about here is how our total revenues to expenditures is misleading in two ways. First, a large portion of that excess overage uh the 3.2 2 million comes from two funds, fund 60 and fund 90. Those are savings accounts
005and reactionary accounts. So when you have to fix something, you save your money to fix it. So um when you take that out and you take a step further and just look at the four major operating funds, which is education, operations and maintenance, transportation, and working cash is about 130 million and 131 million. There's an extra five in there. Disregard. Uh the net difference is then only about 700,000 in the red, which is much more palatable, but still not something that you want to make your everyday. The second misleading factor is we received a final late payment of $5 million from the federal government that they sat on from April through June and then paid us in July. That has to be booked as FY26 revenue. So that's 5 million more dollars into our fund
006balances. But what it does is it's going to show as it's basically a cover for the fact that we would have been in deficit without it. Uh without that payment, our deficit would be closer to $6 million for this coming year. Transportation, as we go through the numbers a little bit later, you'll notice has got a pretty significant deficit as well, about 1.2 million. Our transportation uh system here is convoluted. We'll talk a little bit about it when we get to that slide. But preparing for this moment in time, we have overfunded it with evidence-based funding the last two years. So, we can ride out a couple years of negative revenue to expenditures. TOR, on the other hand, um has been underfunded for the prior two years. uh the escalating costs uh that include most
007of our security costs and our our insurance costs will have to be a focus of next year's tax levy. So those are two that I'm concerned about as well as fund 20 which we'll talk about when we get to it. So now we'll put all those pictures into words. Revenue to expense problems were massed by a $5 million of late money. But the good news is we're starting with a large fund balance that's been planned. So over the last three or four years, we've received what I would call extra CPPRT money. We've talked about this every year. Instead of spending it on things, we have banked almost all of it to be in this position right now where we're starting with a bit of a runway for when we do have to think about what
008we're going to uh adjust and eliminate. So, the late revenue allowed for an additional year of planning and supporting other struggling funds. Without the onetime late revenue, we would be at a $6 million deficit this year. But how math works, if it' come in July or if it' come in June, we'd be sitting on a $34 million fund balance in the ED fund versus 29. So, math is math with the money. But as far as a paper budget, it came in FY26, so it has to be recorded as FY26 revenue. So, uh, throughout this process, as we looked through, um, the excess spending, potential excess spending, in a conversation with President Clevenger, he asked that I note a few of our current programs that have been funded in the past by grants such as ESSER
009or TIDLE, um, that that the public might want to know a little bit more about. So, programs and services no longer covered by title funds, our extended date is projected to cost us $1.6 $6 million this year of which uh Mary Brady was able to get about 300,000 covered by title one and we received a $200 plus thousand grant from the state for after school programs. So together they make five. Um supplemental counseling program costs about $300,000 a year and our summer voucher program is projected to be 300,000 this year. >> When you say supplemental counseling program, which counseling program is >> that would be Kohl's counseling. Okay. Other high-cost variables that the public may not know about our SRO's are invaluable in our schools, but they are nearly a million dollars a year. Uh,
010and internal subbing last year was almost $2 million. Where does the money come from from the ED fund? And we'll focus on the ED fund because it's the largest and most flexible fund that we have. Um, about 62 million comes from the state. Um, as you can see, federal sources recently has been as high as 22 million. And then property taxes and etc come from or make up about 29 million. So as you can see we're heavily dependent on state funding. Break it down a little bit more. 23 million comes from the taxes. 3.7 million comes from CPPRT. 58 million of evidence-based funding was put into the ED fund. Um 8.7 million comes from title hopefully. Uh and five million uh other other grants. the ED fund. Again, we talked about this. It's just the
011words that match the pictures. Overall, projecting 1114,710,000 in revenue, some expenditures, salaries, benefits, purchase services, supplies, materials, other of that 14 million, 13 million special ed costs. We are projecting 114.6 6 million expenses, which is not on there. Um, looks like it's below. The difference is 28,000 or so. This is another visual of where ED fund money goes. If you look at it, you'll see salaries are our highest um expense, employees benefits are third, purchase services are second, uh and then that other object that 13 million 13 million of that other object is special ed costs. The on&m fund, the main source uh of revenue include evidence-based funding that I can put anywhere, but I have to put 3.3 million of it into the operation and maintenance fund. It received 4 point it's projected to
012receive po 4.4 million in property taxes and I had to put 1.5 million in CPPRT in uh because the expenditures are are high in this um particular fund. It's never been self- sustaining. It's not like this is a new thing. It's never been self- sustaining. Um salaries are 3.2 million. Benefits are 600,000. Purchase services 600,000. Supplies and materials 4 million. non-c capital equipment 135,000. So an overall budget of 9.4 million. Inside those supplies and materials, you have the daytoday operational things from mop heads to um Kleenex, but also you have all of the motors and condensers and units that we are fixing in all of our age locations. Um we're constantly we've got several air handlers and several HVAC units. We've replaced motor after motor after motor after motor in some of our older locations.
013Net difference is $20,000 um with an ending balance of 1.9 million, which is in line with what it usually ends at year-over-year. Somewhere in the 1.6 to 1.9 million starting balances. Debt service, pretty straightforward. 4.5 million in property tax, 4.2 million in sales tax. Uh hopefully some interest will be earned bringing in about 9.2 million while we send 4.7 out the door for the taxpayerback bonds and 4.1ish um in the alt revenue bond that we pay with the sales tax. And then we have a yearly lease for the new driver's ed cars. Um so the total is 8.8 transportation revenues property taxes evidence-based funding mandated categoricals. These are the repayments from the state. They're prrated and this year they're guesstimating 72%. So if it was a $100, we'd only get $72 of it, but it's
014obviously a whole lot more. Early childhood block grant has helped out quite a bit with the early early childhood transportation costs. So we're ballparking 5.9 million uh in expense or in revenues. Purchase services, the busing contract, $7 million. And that's we are so convoluted. We take kids everywhere in Decator. Um we whether it be magnet schools or enrollment balancing. Uh we've got kids that ride a bus past three schools on the way to the school that they go to. I I don't have an answer to fix that. So we're uh all in we're about $7.2 million. The net difference of 1.2. Um estimated fund balance is still going to end at 5.3 million. that was planned so that we could ride out a few years of a negative um deficit. Capital projects, capital projects is
015the money from the 1-cent sales tax. So into the capital projects fund is anything that doesn't pay the bond. So if we make only four million in sales tax, there'd be nothing going into the capital project fund. it would all go to debt. We are estimating making u bringing in an additional 2.75 million uh that we can be used for construction, renovation, major repairs uh and anything involving new capital equipment. But we do have some hefty expenditures already. Um we're estimating about $4 million. That includes the cost of the modulars for one more year. Also the surface chiller for the underperforming geothermal loop at um Eisenhower that was projected to be 800,000 but it did come in quite a bit less. So that's very helpful. Um but I think the key is that last bullet
016any other health life safety work necessary over and above fund 90 will come from fund 60 as you determine when and if you will issue health life safety bonds before the end of the four-year window. Um, not to put you on spot spot, Mike, but uh, how much health life safety work is still outstanding? >> Um, all of it. >> So, $24 million. >> No. So, some of the things, you know, as 2030 progresses, you'll decide which buildings you're going to continue to inhabit and how you're going to inhabit them. So, some things will not need to be fixed. I would ballpark $15 million worth of work depending on what buildings you continue to stay in. >> And that's just to get them to base. >> That's just to get them through the process. Yes,
017that's just meeting requirements. Uh working cash, this is your savings account. There is no expenses planned. Um and we're supposed to bring in around 447,000 worth of property property tax. The tort fund revenue property tax, we had a big this was the first year we increased the property tax in the tort fund. We to 3.2 million. We added $250,000 worth of CPPRT, but there's a lot of expenditures. So, DPS, security, staff, and supplies cost over or nearly $2 million. SRO's are nearly a million. We did go in and and take every school to uh a um I would say a sufficient number of metal detectors. That was about 200,000 one-time purchase. Our property casualty insurance went up 21%. Um, you know, we just added a beautiful brand new building, so it was bound to go
018up, but everybody's across the country or at least across the co-op went up um mostly because of climate impact u natural natural disaster coverage and our workman's comp estimates are near 700,000. So, I'm going to just read this. This fund has carried a lot of the cost of our security program over the past couple of years to alleviate pressure on the education fund. Remember, it's the education fund is the largest and most flexible, but a significant portion of those costs are going to need to be shifted back to the ed fund over the next couple years. Um, unless we address um the shortfall in the property tax collection of the torque fund. So, the net difference um is a lot, 1.5 million. And more concerning is the starting fund balance at the end of the
019year of $194,145. Fire prevention and safety fund. The revenue, property tax, and interest. So, not bringing in a lot. The only other way to build this fund balance is by issuing health safety bonds to complete the approximate 15 million in board accepted 10-year health life safety repairs. You didn't put me on the spot. I had the same number uh expenses. So, we're going to continue to chip away at the required repairs until the fund is depleted. And that's about 1.6 million. And we're going to run it out um if we have to. And that's because that's all you can use this money for. Real quick, another visual. Expenditures just in general. We're looking at about 21 million across all funds and categories and benefits. 66 million across all uh funds and categories. For salary, there
020is about $2.2 $22 million worth of vacancies built in to that number. Some of those will be filled with a certified or a full-time employee, whe whatever category it is. Some will be filled by subs and some will not be filled. But that 66 million does include 2.2 million in excess uh well not excess in vacancies that are not filled. Healthife safety, you can see that we only have 1.6 to spend. Debt service is 8 million. It's going to be that 8.7 million for the next 15 years. Um, safety and security all ends about 3.3 million. Energy 3.1 million and I uh the two large projects at Eisenhower and Steven Decar are not looking great right now with uh the the process with Amron. Uh we have yet another meeting with uh the the provider
021uh later this month, but uh Mr. Bolt and I Mr. Mr. Bolt sat in for me and then gave gave me the the lowdown, but it it they're concerned about the two big projects uh being green lit by Amarind in time. So, just keep that in mind. Um support services and instruction. Just real quick, if you don't know what those are, instruction is anything related to the instruction of students, teachers, and supplies and intercolastic programs. Support services are everything else about school. Couple things to think about. Our starting fund balance is in a really good spot. I mean, if you look from 2019 to now, 14 million po pre- pandemic is where we started in the ED fund. We're starting today, well, July 1, 29 million, right? That 29 million is from saving. It's it's
022a runway. Uh 2023 is a little uh skewed because we got a bunch of reimbursements. Ending balances overall funds also heading in a good direction, but that trend line will start to dip the other direction over the next three or four years because the revenue is not going to match the expenditures. So projected fund balance changes, look at the little green boxes on the right. Um, fund 90 is going to be uh in going to spend more than it brings in. Uh, but we're planning that. Fund 80 is going to spend more than it brings in. We we don't want it to be that way, but that's that's just where we're at with the tort fund. Um, fund 60, again, you're spending things that you've saved to spend. Not worried about that one. Uh fund
02340 uh is transportation and we already know it's going to be in deficit for the next couple years but we plan for that. So here's final outlook. The challenges ahead. Federal and CPPRT revenues decline. Reduced funding sources signal tighter fiscal conditions. Declining enrollment. Fewer students impact funding formulas and resource allocations. The only bright spot in the evidence-based funding is when all ships rise or all ships go down in student enrollment, the ratio and the percentages kind of stay the same on what you get of the big bucket. So, we're not the only school in Illinois losing students. Illinois itself is losing students. So, if we're 70% of a 100 students and we're 70% of 95 the next year, we're still getting 70% of that bucket. that makes any sense. But I will say we're tier
024one this year and we had this conversation in our one-on- ones. We were tier one this year by 0.2%. Tier one puts us in the lowest adequately locally funded bucket, but we were barely in it um by 2%. Had that shifted either way or if that if that had shifted the other direction, we would have been short $1.3 million as well. So being in tier one this year was very helpful. Um aging infrastructure uh is a problem um for us. Increased maintenance and capital investment needs are coming forward. Couple of things though there what I would call opportunities and strengths. I stole that term from Dr. Marino. Saving of excess CR CPPRT over the past four years has allowed us this runway. Dr. Clark and I saw this coming. the CFOs and the superintendents in
025urban districts, uh, LUDA districts that had been seeing lots of ESSER funding all saw this coming, but nobody listens to Chicken Little when your bank is full. Nobody listens. Dr. Clark and I saw it coming. We'd really hoped we had another year of runway. Um, uh, and luckily we got it when the when the money came late. But in the end, the runway is only so long. Um, you're starting with solid fund balances in the largest and most flexible fund. Um, but we need to enable a phase and stable approach to making expenditure adjustments over the next couple years. And this is a Maria Robertson slide and it's wonderful. Thank you. Do you have any questions? >> Does everybody understand what CPP CPPRT is? >> No. >> Okay. Why could you? >> So, um, CPPRT
026is a it's based on a formula from the 70s where corporate corporations are not taxed at at a specific rate every year. They they are it's based on their profits. And I'm making this super simple. And profits were up during COVID. People were spending and and postcoid as well. Kind of that lock lock down euphoria afterwards just buying and buying buying. So they made a huge profits and then so then their tax return to the state was much larger and it was low in the mid5 millions for us in the 17 181 19 and then boom 12 11 8 and so that that's the CPPRT money that we have tried to to responsibly use and save for the rainy day which ironically it's raining today. So, >> I appreciate you breaking out what at least
027in in my mind would be our core mission and then the ancillary programs to that core mission. I appreciate you all breaking that out so everybody can have a look at actually where we are with core mission and everything else we do to to support that core mission. But >> there is core mission. I actually had one question, but you answered it in your PowerPoint presentation already. So, I >> heard it was coming. >> Yeah. So, I'm just kind of going to I'm going to restate. So, when we first started talking about this, we felt we had three years before we would be looking at making uh cuts based on student enrollment and all the things that are happening in terms of needing money. Um, but now based on what we're are receiving and what
028we're looking at, we are now really at year one currently of that threeyear when you and I first started this conversation. Um, knowing that how soon should we be looking at some possible uh cuts in any direction? >> Well, you don't have to push the panic button now. Mathematically, at a $7 million deficit, you could run three years and make no changes, but then you'd be leaving somebody not named Dr. Curry and not named Dr. Clark in the lurch uh of trying to figure out what to do with minimal fund balances. So my recommendation would be this is the year to start thinking about what do we need, what do we want, what can we eliminate, um and what can we supplement. You know, some of the things that we're doing we're doing at no
029cost. We could do those with with a cost. Um, so this is the year to start thinking about the decision and the direction the board wants to go with the majority of its supplemental offerings. I know what your your feelings are about this and I agree with you this health life and safety issue. We we have not we have not moved on making decisions about our buildings that we're going to fix and the buildings that we're not going to fix. I I think it's important that the board understand that if we issue these health life and safety bonds, we don't necessarily have to spend the money all at one time. And there is an opportunity with this money to earn interest and earn other funds that can help us. And it's not an immaterial amount
030of money. But I want to encourage the board to give strong consideration to making decisions about these buildings such as Dennis, you know, such as French Academy, such as uh STEM Academy, the the dreamers building. Because in reality, we really can't move on the repairs and the and the improvements that we want to make until we make a decision on those buildings. Have I said that? >> Yes. And first of all, I need to thank you and Miss Tyus because that you two are two of the most engaged members of the finance committee the other night when we had our speaker come and talk about health life safety. um and understanding the process and where we are in the four-year window now instead of five. So, um I thought that was one of the best
031finance meetings we've had. Um but, uh to your point, you can you you don't have to wait for 2030 to do the health life safety bonds. The there's already approved projects in buildings that we know are still going to be used for kids that you can issue bond work for. Uh and then to to uh Mr. Reynolds point, we missed out a year on some really good interest rates. Not trying to make money on money, but when you have an opportunity to, we missed out of a year on that. >> I think that speaks to the real need for us to get our planning process back underway so that we consider all the factors that go into that decision making. And we need to get our foot back on the gas feed and >> keep
032moving forward with that planning process because particularly these large infrastructure projects um they're not cheap and they they affect core mission >> uh and how we provide that educational opportunity for kids. But to make those decisions in a vacuum, one off, I don't think from a personal perspective, I don't think that would be prudent on our part to start making one-off decisions right now. Anybody else? Anything else? Okay. Well, thank you. I'm gonna step. >> Thank you, Dr. Curry. >> Appreciate your work. >> Okay. Having given an opportunity for public participation and oral and written testimony, I declare the public hearing closed. Now, we'll move on to our regular board meeting. Like to call the open session board meeting to order. Can I have a motion? >> Move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Miss Bradford.
033Dr. Lorenson >> here, >> Mr. Hail >> here, >> Mr. Reynolds hi, >> Mr. Joiner here, >> Mr. Clevenger here, Mrs. Tyus >> here, >> and Mr. Wetszel >> here. >> All present. >> Okay, I' would ask everyone to join me in the pledge. >> I pledge allegiance 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 you have recommendation for tonight's agenda? >> Yes, we do. I recommend the board approve tonight's September 23rd, 2025 open session board meeting agenda as presented. >> Have a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Any discussion? All in favor signify by saying I. >> I. >> Opposed. >> Motion's carried. Now move on to our district highlights. Um, we have
034Principal Cordell Ingram from MacArthur High School to lead us off tonight. How >> you doing today, guys? >> Good evening, President, Superintendent, Board of Education. Uh, I'm excited to uh come to you today uh with some highlights from Marta High School. Uh we are off to a great start uh to our 2025 26 school year. Um and though I can talk a lot about our 4-0 football team right now and our volleyball team uh that has won more games already this year than they've have over the last couple of years. Last year when I was here, I handed out a one pager uh that's very similar to the one that I handed out today. Uh, and I got a lot of comments uh after I had sat back down uh that there was some great
035information on there that really should have been publicized instead of you guys just receiving it. So today I decided to just take a moment uh to talk about uh those particular things that have happened at MacArthur High School over the last uh four years. And so if I can get clicker >> the green. All right. All right. So, each of these are going to show you uh progress over the last four years uh from 2022 to 2025. Uh the first one is our AP scores of three or more. As you know, a student takes an AP class and if they receive a three or higher on the uh scale from one to five, they receive college credit for those that course. So, as you can see, in 2025, uh, our students achieved 35% of our
036students received a three or higher on their, uh, AP testing last year. Uh, and, and you can see there, that's up about 6% from the year before, but I also think you'll see a pattern uh, over the last four years of gradual uh, increase um, that the things that we are doing uh, are are showing progress. The second one is our freshman on track rate. Uh, and this is something we're super proud of because you bring in freshman every year and you have no idea what you got. Uh, but by the end of the year, it's your responsibility to whip them into shape and to show increase. Uh, this past year, 2025, our freshman on track rate, uh, is the highest it's been in our school. Uh, in the I've got about 25 years of
037history. Uh, and it's as high as it's been in that range. But as you can see over the last uh four years there's been a constant increase. Uh and this past year's increase uh is almost 9%. Uh so we're we're we're we're super excited. It's 7%. We're super excited uh about our freshman class. When we have freshmen who are on track, we can expect results in our graduation rate. Uh and so the next slide uh shows our four and fiveyear graduation rate. same progress from 2022 to 2025. These are from the state report card. The newest numbers uh have not been published yet, but we've got this data uh from internal. Uh we can see that our 2025 class graduated at an 81.1% rate. Uh and so that is almost a 3% uh increase. Something
038that we're super super excited about. uh we're getting students in and we're getting students graduated uh with plans on what to do next in life. And then the final one here is our attendance rate. Notice I use some color uh because this is the only of the four important components of a high school and high school success uh that you see took a slight dip. Uh last year our attendance rate uh was 87.8%. So even though uh it's higher than 2022 2023, we were on a trend uh heading up and that trend kind of kind of buckled a little bit. What that did for us at MacArthur High School uh was it forced us to wage war. Uh so we have waged war on truency at MacArthur High School this year. The information has been
039out to parents uh out to our students. uh and I want to show you just a few things that we're doing uh to help us uh in that particular situation. So the first thing we did is this past summer we did home visits for every student uh who showed uh chronic truency from last year. Uh we used a a a a number uh 20 26 uh seems like a lot of days. It is a lot of days. Uh but as you know anyone who's over nine days is considered a chronic truent student. That's nine unexcused absences. Uh and so we found we had a large group of people from 15 to nine that just needed some education. Parents who were not calling their kids in when they had doctor's appointments and those kinds of things.
040We talked to parents who had honor students who were like, "There's no way my kid is truent." Well, do you remember these doctor's appointments? If you don't call our secretary to tell them or bring in a doctor's note, it counts as an unexcused absence. So those were the lowhanging fruit and we were able to handle those. But we went and looked face to face to parents who had students who missed over 28 days last year uh to talk about a plan to talk about uh what our expectations are and how we can fix that. The second thing we've done and and we're already seeing amazing results of is we improved our documentation from our secretaries on cleaning up attendance data. That's that situation where uh you've got a teacher who forgot to mark a kid
041or marked the kid absent by mistake and did that secretary follow up with the teacher to make sure that that you stays there? Was that a mistake? Do we have a student that's skipping there or did we have a substitute in that class? Um and so by doing that, we meet with our secretaries. They turn in a report to my assistant principles every day by four o'clock. That report has has proof that they have gone back, reached out to teachers, sent emails to teachers, called teachers uh to make sure that what goes out on our robocall at 5:00 in the evening, it are legit numbers that have already been checked uh and parents can react and and and and do actions to those. The final thing was creating some incentives to motivate students to attend
042regularly. Uh our motto this year is every day matters. Uh and with that I press my teachers at the beginning of the year to understand it matters for you but it matters to our kids. You can't miss 25 days of school and think you're getting the same level of valuable education as those students uh who are graduating at 81% or who freshman on track rate uh is 85%. We have already started to see some great results out of the things that we're doing. Our current attendance rate is right about 95% between 94 and 95%. And our goal now is to just keep pressing the right buttons that keep those numbers up. Uh we've got an ice cream social coming up next week uh for our students who we went and visited last last summer and
043they've shown the improvement that we want to see. We're we're going to pull the ice cream out. Uh Mr. Ingram loves incentives. Uh I love uh blessing kids who are doing what they're supposed to be doing. Uh so we're looking forward to uh seeing at least the 10%. Our truency rate over the last five years looks very much so like the last three charts you saw. It has improved every year from coming out of COVID at 72% we went down to 62%. Uh from there we were at 53 and last year we were at 46. So it's come down every year. Our goal this year is to be below 30. Um I have a goal to be a distinguished school uh as I near closer to retirement. Uh and I've got my entire team fighting
044that fight with me. We believe if we can get our truency our chronic truency rate uh where we needed to be. uh that is one of the major obstacles that's stopping uh MacArthur from moving from commendable uh which is you know which is pretty good to to being able to be in the distinguished category. So any questions you guys have for me you had a disturbance at the football game on Friday? >> Yes, sir. And what I was told was the cheerleaders or the u the band that was supposed to do a program at halftime were not able to perform their their their program because it was said that there's not enough time. >> So there were a couple factors Dr. Gray and I uh really worked hard on on making decisions uh Friday night.
045I want to start uh by saying the disturbance that we had at our football game Friday night was not related to our students. Uh these were adults uh ages ranging from about uh 19 to 23 uh who decided that something they could have done anywhere else in the world uh they decided to do at our football game. Uh so from there uh what we wanted to first do was create order. Uh we were able to do that. our our our uh security team and our police officers did an amazing job of making this a 45se secondond event. You know, it it's always a disruption, but it was a 45se secondond event. Um our next move, Dr. Gray and I both went out and talked to the police department. The decision was made then that we
046were not going to end the game uh over the actions of about six 20 to 23 year olds. Uh but that we wanted to finish the game but eliminate the concession stand so people were not moving around uh and try to beat the sun as closely as we could from a standpoint of we had to stop the game for about 15 minutes. So we had already lost about 15 minutes. Um so when that decision was made uh we closed the concession stand so that we did not have that movement going on. We still had our um hall of fame ceremony that had to happen at halftime that was already 10 minutes long. Uh, and so I went and spoke to my band director, uh, and she was very much so, uh, not only on board,
047uh, we made some promises, uh, to her, uh, that we're going to do some some special things, uh, for our kids, and she has a big competition this coming Saturday. So, in her mind, she was she was okay. So, she has a competition this Saturday. We have homecoming next Saturday. Um, and then we are going to be working together. the guy with all the money uh to make sure we do something super special for our band kids. But it it was it was disappointing. Uh the but the halftime uh would have been an extended 20 minute halftime. We had to take into account our our referees. the information we got from our police liaison who were probably a little shaken that the potential of these young men coming back on our property uh as it
048got dark was was was a was a determining factor too. So that was part of it. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> No problem. >> Okay. And if you want to add >> Yeah. Oh, he did a great job. We did I did uh reach out to the band teacher and extended u my apologies and again let them know that we'll be working with them to do something special because the band uh students are are they're value they are a value to uh just the whole atmosphere and uh we wanted to let them know they're appreciated as well. >> That's great. That's great. Really >> thank you. >> Other questions you may have? >> Um I have a question. Um, what did the home visit show with those kids that were absent over 28 days?
049Like were there like some themes to why they were gone? Were they high school specific or I >> I I think um as a district we have to look honestly uh in some of our households and where the value of education is placed. Uh we talked to parents who had some legitimate excuses in their mind. Uh, you know, I I you know, I got other kids, so if they sick, I can't stay home from work. Johnny's got to stay home because I got to go make money. Um, and and I think the great thing about my administrative team, I've got several who are from Decatur, so these people know them. Uh, but but we we are empathetic while at the same time making sure we drive home the importance. Uh, at the end of the
050day, we're trying to help students, families break generational curses, the only way for us to do that is to pour this education in. So, as you make that tough decision on who's got to stay home, keep your kids valued education in mind. Uh, and then communicate with us so that we can have resources. Our kids have mental health days that can be used. They have uh, you know, there's there's a window of days that we have the ability to excuse. So it what we find is it's more about the lack of communication even than it is about you know the fact that I wasn't there. You didn't communicate with us. So we had to write that down as unexcused instead of it being a valid reason that we could have potentially excused and not had
051your kid in that situation. >> Yeah. >> But I would say the common theme is uh that that apathy to to the importance of education for some households uh is definitely def definitely real. >> Yeah. I've also heard of a lot of kids indicator who have to think serve as caregivers >> which I think that our community really needs to look at because you know that's not fair for anybody. >> Very tough. >> Anything else? >> Okay. >> Thank you guys so much. >> Thank you. Okay. We'll now move on to public participation. We Okay. 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 be included in the record. Please note
052that during any board of education meeting and public participation, board members do not respond and or 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 liel or slander or from violations of the Illinois School Student Records Act. It is not intended to shield any employee from criticism. Miss Bradford, do we have anyone wishing to address the board? >> Gloria Chalmers. My name is Gloria Tomers and I'm a proud DPS alumni, parent of a soon tobe graduate of the DPS Prep Academy and a licensed sub with the district. According to the Learning Policy Institute, as of
053June 2025, there were over 40,000 vacant teaching positions throughout the United States with an estimated 365,000 positions filled by alternative measures, including long-term subs, retired teachers, and teachers working outside their content certifications. Among these shortages, special education, math, and science hold the highest number of long-term vacancies. To bring those numbers closer to home, last year DPS had an 11% vacancy rate, meaning that over 50 classrooms were without certified teachers, and the current vacancy postings online show a similar number for this year. These vacancies are detrimental to student achievement and classroom stability and can have adverse effects on not only students, teachers, and administrators, but budgets and funding as well. Having worked as a substitute to fill some of these vacancies, I could tell you firsthand about the effects that these certified teacher shortages have on
054our students. But that is not why I'm here. I came here today to say how proud I am of Decatur Public Schools for being innovative in recruiting through the International Teacher Program. This program has brought highly qualified, experienced, professional, and passionate teachers into our classrooms and our community. These educators are filling in these long-term vacancies in special education, math, science, and other content areas at some of our highest need schools, providing stability and consistent curriculum-based instruction in classrooms that have seen constant turnover. I can say from personal experience that these teachers are some of the kindest, most gracious individuals. They are resilient, resourceful, adaptable, and deeply committed to the success of our students and our district. They are grateful to be welcomed so warmly by our community and excited to settle into their new lives
055here. Although the main purpose of this program may be to address staffing needs, this is also an opportunity for cultural enrichment for our students and our community to get outside of their own neighborhood or social media feeds and take part in intercultural activities, learn global perspectives, and become more connected and inclusive. This program aligns with our strategic plan and mission for DPS to unlock students potential as prepared contributing citizens in a global society through learning experiences that are culturally diverse, relevant, and innovative and to create meaningful and lasting connections within our schools and the community. So, thank you board of education and all those who had a hand in bringing the international teacher program to DPS in an environment that often highlights the negatives. I want everyone to know that the international teacher program is
056a net positive for our students, our district, and our community. >> Thank you, >> Kathy Briggs. Hi guys. Um, I'm also going to speak about some positives. I want to give a shout out to Maria and her team. I tell her personally, but I think that she's doing an extraordinary job of staying ahead of narratives and getting positives out there. I've seen video after video on social media. I think these are wonderful. People are sharing them saying that's my kid or that's my school. And that's just wonderful. I think that that helps the news cycle too stay on top of it. And so, good job, Maria. Oh, and the weekly email blast like the Friday good job. I love those. Okay. Also, I had a really great positive uh focus group. So, thank you whoever
057put me on that invite list for parents for the new superintendent um search. I think it went pretty positive. Yeah, it was really good. Okay. Um it made me proud to be a DPS parent. I we talked so much about all the positive things that we do, the various avenues that we have for kids to take um and all those things. So, it was really really great. Also want to speak on the international teacher program. Um, while I'm not teaching currently at a school with an international teacher, I've had the opportunity on personal time to meet many of them and being around them is infectious and their attitude about being here has changed uh my outlook as an American in tumultuous times. So, that has been really helpful. It's made me so proud to be
058a member of Decar because our community stands up, backs you, supports you. I mean, it's overwhelming how much, right? And we see that in teacher emergencies like every day, right? If a teacher has something they need or if somebody in your community at church has something they need, the community backs them. And just seeing that in this program has been wonderful and has made me really proud to be here. My kids have learned about various cultures and different I'm learning geography myself because I'm an art teacher, so I'm learning which country goes where. Um, and just being a part of the Decatur community, they're such a wonderful asset. And I don't do math, but I'm assuming they're going to be an asset to the budget and that $1 bajillion dollars we spend on internal subbing,
059right? Just saying. All right. So, thank you. >> Thank you, >> Maggie. >> Thank you, Maggie. Um, I'm here to share. First off, I'm a Monasuri mom and I'm not an employee of the district. I'm here to share it's been a wonderful welcoming our international teachers. I've been fortunate to know about this program through my close teacher friends and have enjoyed getting to know them, learning about their families and cultures. It has been a privilege and the community support has been nothing but positive and welcoming. While the gaps in our classrooms have been very real, difficult to manage, and quite a challenge over the last several years for the entire district, my hope is that we can all extend the same level of gratitude for them as I know they have to be here for
060this opportunity. I can only begin to imagine the positive effects coming of having this unique circumstance of added cultures and perspectives among our already thriving and diverse teacher community. It is exciting to see how this may continue to bolster the excitement for our district from transportation, sharing meals or learning about gaps in their awareness of our culture and our community because there are many. Um these connections have been about genuine friendship and not handouts. The gratitude has gone both ways and it has enriched our schools and community in truly meaningful ways. This is a public thank you to the entire community for your support and encouragement. It has not gone unnoticed and this truly is decater strength when we realize we all want the same thing to love where we have planted roots but we
061have to support each other in order to make that happen. Shifting to communication I want to thank the district for making parent square the central communication tool. As a parent of three it has made the start of school the smoothest I have ever had by a magnitude of measure. I can't even tell you how much better it has been. Um everything is in one place. Nothing gets lost. I feel truly empowered to stay engaged. I encourage the district to use this consistently for all comms, including surveys and announcements so families never miss something important. Clear, centralized communication is one of the best ways to support both parents and students. I'm asking for specific data to be provided after this school year on parent engagement. If we can get a baseline immediately and determine if we're
062seeing increases because I can almost guarantee it's from communication and if we use it well and consistently across the district, I can only tell you it it's only going to go up from here. Many of you up there know I've been asking for this for years. So please know it has not gone on notice but I highly urge you to connect with staff and parents to ensure they are given clear simple steps for setup how to use it. Set up notifications and do this with unwavering focus. We must move on from the multiple iterations and forms of communication with parents or allow parents to tell teachers how they want to get information. Social media is not an effective tool of communication for parents. Um and but you need to tell them how they can expect
063to get info and you need to stick to the plan and execute that. I don't recall getting any information about parent square from the district. I have though from my school and my administration and they've done a fantastic job. Um, finally, in selecting our superintendent, two priorities must be front and center, accountability and incentives. We need a leader who can hold staff to clear fair standards using data and trust so teachers feel supported while expectations remain high. We need systems with that reward excellence through incentive based pay or advancement opportunities so we can retain our best educators and leaders. Strong accountability and recognition are what we must have to move our district forward. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Sarah Van Kirkley. Good evening and thank you for this opportunity uh to address the board.
064I want to also make some positive comments about our international teacher program. Um, first of all, thank you uh for the extensive frequently asked question section on the website. I want to refer anybody who has questions about said program to that list. It is quite extensive. Um, and I I want to just share with you a couple of proverbs um that that ring universal. I know we've all heard it takes a village to raise a child. Um, and I'm sure a lot of people have heard honor a child and they will will honor you. It kind of breathes the same respect that monastery um expects between adults and children. I am a monastery parent and an Eisenhower parent. You may have also heard a child can be taller than his parents but never older. Um,
065work the clay while it's still wet. A tree is bent while it's still wet. Education is learning a lot about how little you know. These are all African proverbs. Um, and we've probably heard an American reiteration of a lot of them. Um, maybe you've said before, the more I learn, the less I know. Um, a child who asks questions is not stupid. That's also an African proverb. And I think the American adaptation of that is the only stupid questions are the ones you don't ask. Uh, my undergraduate degree includes a minor in international studies. Um, I chose that minor when it was not popular. Uh, 20 years ago in the wake of 911. Um just real quickly I want to share the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, United States Department of State, um highlights
066that international teaching exchange programs enhance understanding of the world, build friendships, as has already been referenced here, broadens the global mindsets of our students, which I think in today today's uh environment is even more essential than it was 20 years ago. Um, a lot of these teachers are positive role models for other immigrant families that are in our district. Um, they bring with them experience and a potential to collaborate on an expanded level. As has already been said, they address teacher shortages. And I know our we're currently trying to focus on um enrollment and attendance, which I understand because they drive uh funding so much. But let's remember the discussions that we had with substitutes about working one to three months in some of these positions as opposed to one to three years um for
067some of these substitutes, God willing. Um the other thing that I want to share is I've also had the opportunity to meet um several I think almost all of the international teachers and I think each and every one of them is an asset to our district and will be a blessing to our students and I just want to again thank our district for having the program. Um, and I hope we move forward with it and keep it. Um, and I hope that our teachers can move towards permanent residency. Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Abby Steel. Good evening. Um, my coming tonight, um, truthfully was sparked from a pretty self-centered place. As a result of the experiences my daughter and her classmates had last year, I developed a pretty intense bitterness toward the district and
068several specific individuals. However, I recognize holding this bitterness is not healthy and it's not where I want to stay in the remaining years of my family's relationship with DPS or even be beyond. I made the conscious decision to really hear, see, and focus on the positives that I'm seeing um in the hope of healing and felt that it was worth sharing. Um so the first one, it was shared with me by a very grateful counselor that our union president came into one of the high schools on the first day or so. Um he saw an obviously overwhelmed counseling office and when he could have walked past, he walked in and simply said, "What can I do?" Um, second thing, my daughter has had has the opportunity to take a high school math class as a
069seventh grader. Um, my husband and I's work schedules and the inability of others to problem solve or think outside the box. Still working on the bitterness, um, was going to lead her to have to take the class via Zoom. While I appreciate having the virtual option, um, learning in person is not what's best for my daughter. And if you may recall, she had minimal instruction last year and so she'll probably need some extra support this year. in this class. Her teacher went above and beyond to ensure she could take this class in person knowing that that was the best way for her to learn and we are continuously grateful. Um the MacArthur High School booster, this group is a welloiled machine that pulls out all the stops. Um, he didn't mention that I guess in
070the closing, I wasn't present Friday night, but in the closing of the concession stand, they made lemonade out of the lemons and apparently they went into the stands and continued to sell. And um, it I was just so I was sad that I missed that opportunity. Um, they open multiple stands when there are multiple sports going on. They're organized, inviting, fun, and the real kicker is that probably the majority of the members don't actually have children at MacArthur anymore. Um, sure they have grandkids, nieces, nephews, but their children are grown and that's next level commitment to continue to um come back and help and be needs to be recognized. Kudos to whoever had the new idea to use a search form made of previous superintendents as we get begin the task of finding our next
071district leader. And I can't say enough for district employees who in getting to know their new international colleagues learned of some household items that they were still needing. This was not asked of them, but because of the general care and compassion of DPS employees that they extend to each other as other colleagues, a beautiful storm was put into motion. With so many moving parts across the community, it was heartfelt to see the whole town getting involved, embracing the new professional colleagues in their community, and I hope they will continue to be embraced and respected and appreciated. I know all too well how much our students need them leading our classrooms. So this is not an extensive list, but that was just a few things that I could fit in three minutes. >> Thank you. That's
072it. >> Okay, I think that brings that portion of our meeting to a close. Is there anyone in the audience who didn't sign in who wishes to speak? Okay, thank everyone for their comments. Uh we truly appreciate those. Uh before we start board discussion, uh I'd like to recognize Dr. Clark. She has something to bring to us. >> Thank you so much. Um it seems like everything has been said. It was on our international teachers and I just kind of want to um clear the air on a few things. Number one, thank you to the community, um our business partners, our churches, our um our families, our staff because you have been doing some wonderful, wonderful things um to assist our international teachers. Um but there are some rumors that I really do have to
073address um and I think it's important. We meaning teaching and learning, HR, uh DEA, um uh leadership as well as um help me with the word um Peoria school district. Thank you. Um we have been working very closely together to provide support as needed to our international teachers and that is going to look different um every time they come together to meet. So what we're doing is we're trying to problem solve. Um we're trying to help them be as independent as they possibly can be. Uh keeping in mind that we are talking about individuals who um have really high degrees and is like she said brings a wealth of knowledge and is going to be great for our kids and we're doing everything that is within our powers in some ways beyond to make sure
074that they are set up for success. There are some things that we will not be able to do for them and I'm going to allow the team to come and talk a little bit further, but I won't get into a lot of their personal finances. So, when you're asking questions like that, we're not going to discuss those things. um when we're having meetings with them or when they're meeting with their uh Peoria team, that is for us to continue that relationship building and to make sure that we're providing them what they need. Um and we are asking for DEA leadership assistance in some of this as well because we want to make sure that we're being respectful um of them as a professional as well. We're not going to talk about those things because we
075are trying to build that personal relationship. What we will talk about is how grateful we are for them being here and how grateful I am to the community and to DEA leadership because they have joined us at the hip to ensure this program goes off um as positive and as successful as possible. Are we going to have some hiccups? Absolutely. because we still don't know what we don't know yet, right? So, give us an opportunity to learn and to grow and watch us do better every single time. We plan to update you. Um, it's not going to be every week. It's not going to be every month, but we want you to know how well we did and what we can do to improve, okay? But we just want the opportunity to do it. So,
076at this time, I'm going to ask for uh Monica and uh for Maria to come, I'm I'm sorry, for Mary to come up um and just kind of talk about um what you've seen. And Sam, I don't mean to put you on the spot, but I would love it if you would come too. >> Good evening, board. Um Dr. Clark, I don't think we can actually match that. I think you said everything perfectly, but we will give it a try. Okay. Um so just in general we wanted to share a little bit about how the international teacher experience is going um and provide some updates as several questions have come in so we just thought we would provide some insight. Overall the experience and as you've heard um from others has been incredibly positive. We're
077learning a great deal and we're growing throughout the process. Um the staggered arrivals as we know weren't what we initially envisioned but we've adapted. We've managed to transition the teachers in on a weekly basis since late July and as of today we are up to 26 teachers. No, 36 teachers. 36, I'm sorry. 36 teachers. >> Yes, 36. >> Um, with only four more teachers remaining. So, um, that is going very well. Um, part of the learning curve has been in developing our communication strategy with the teachers, but as Dr. Clark mentioned, um, we're now excelling with that. We're now meeting with them very frequently. Um, and we now have an open exchange of communication. Uh, we're meeting regularly and we're able to provide support from everything from transition and adjustment questions to then proactively um,
078providing professional development and training. And I'll turn that over to Mary. >> So, we have found that there are examples of both outstanding pedagogically sound teachers and teachers who require some support in a variety of areas. Common areas include, but are not limited to the development of routines and procedures, culturally relevant teaching, classroom management, and the use of technology. As we have talked about previously, we one of the other supports we have in place is that we have the continuation of long-term substitutes and classrooms that weren't filled when because of the staggered arrival. Those long-term substitutes are staying in those classrooms through the end of the first semester in order to provide that support to our teachers. An international exchange professional development uh teacher professional development learning community has been formed to provide more tailored
079support. They are getting specific and tailored professional development as part of this PLC utilizing our new educator professional development time and district-wide half days. They also receive professional development quarterly from Poria and we have bi-weekly communication that has been developed and will be delivered to share information, motivate and provide resources for support. As we are meeting with the teachers, we are getting their feedback. Specifically, we are having them identify successes and challenges so we can celebrate their successes and we utilize their challenges to adapt and shape future professional development throughout the year. So overall, um, it's been a very rewarding learning experience. Um, it's allowed both our teachers, staff, administration, and our students to learn through a cultural exchange, and it's brand new to the district. Um, as the program has been implemented, we've integrated
080many, many, many community resources, and Dr. Clark put it best. Our community has been tremendous. Um, and we've integrated those resources into the structure of their onboarding. So from day one, we introduced those resources. Um, we are appreciative so much of our union partners, and I'm going to turn it over to Sam here in a second. Um, and our administrators for embracing the new program and working tirelessly in its implementation. So, we consider this our freshman cohort as we're just getting started. Um, but we're looking forward to seeing all of them grow and succeed and then seeing how our students benefit from them being part of the DPS family. >> I didn't know I was speaking on this tonight. But I can tell you I have a very unique perspective here. I've worked with the
081district on this. I've worked with the international teachers. I've talked to community members. I've talked to my own members. I've talked to everybody and they have all told me everything they think uh without much filter. So I've seen it all. And and the one thing I can say about that perspective is every one of those groups wants this to work, wants this to go well. They have passion. They every single part here is working. Are we all working at the same speed or maybe in the same way? No. But you know, and I used to work with you, Kevin, you know, I'd say this. If we're going to get somewhere, we got to row together. Everybody's rowing right now. We're going to find that rhythm. We're going to row together. And this program will be
082successful. I do believe that. So, we're here as a union to stand for these teachers. I think every single one of them so far has joined our union which is a fantastic thing. Um and I do believe this will be so successful. Thank you. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. Anything else you ladies want to add? >> Any questions from the board? >> So what's the total number we're going to have? >> 39. So we had 40 arrivals. One had to return home. We will have 39 total teachers. >> Okay. And that leaves our our vacancy and teacher level certified teachers at what? >> 59. And you remember back in April, we started at 120. >> Thank you. I've got a question for the three of you. The scaffolding you're setting up that has been beneficial
083to the to the uh new teachers that have come here to help us. Um, do you think there's anything we can learn from it to help our rookie teachers, you know, uh, uh, new teachers to the district? Uh, and, uh, any teacher that comes, uh, scaffolding set up because it looks like this partnership that's working for our international teachers is something we could use to help our everyday teachers. And I was wondering if you guys had been kicking that can down the road. >> 100%. Absolutely. We're learning a lot. And these are the these are the conversations that Sam and Mary and I have been have often that what is applying to our international teachers can and should be applied to all incoming teachers. >> I was hoping I'd hear you say that. >> Yeah.
084>> Any other questions? >> Um do you guys think it would be worthwhile for all of the teachers in the district to have some sort of like facilitated training of how to get like along with each other culturally? Have there been any bumps that way or have there not? >> I really don't know because I don't this is the first time this has been asked. >> Yeah, unless you want to jump in. Uh none to my knowledge. I'm sure there are bumps that will come. I I think any training like that for cultural understanding will be a good thing. Um there have been some bumps that I've had when I first talked to them about being a union. that means different things in different places which I hadn't even thought about. So yeah, there are
085going to be those bumps and I think any training that we can offer would be a good and positive thing. So >> good question. >> Any other questions? >> Thank you for your hard work. >> Okay, thank you. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you Dr. Clark. We'll now move on to our presentation by Dr. Carmen Ayella, Illinois Association of School Boards Consultant and Executive Searches. You brought the whole team tonight. >> Good evening. >> Yes, I have my colleagues with me. Uh I will introduce our uh director for executive searches, Jim Helton. and Vic Zimmerman who was one of the consultants that also was here last week during the focus groups. And so last week we had uh focus groups and uh we'll talk a little bit about that coming on. But before I get
086started, I do have to acknowledge uh someone in this room who was amazing to put together 18 sessions and that they were organized. They just flowed. We had everything that we needed. I can't thank Melissa enough. Thank you, Melissa. So, we're going to dive in and talk about the survey results uh which the district uh participated in the survey, the focus group summary, and we'll get a look at the announcement of vacancy, a draft of that announcement of vacancy. And I am going to have uh Mr. uh Helton uh address the survey results. Hello again. It's good to see everybody. uh in your packet there is uh also the deep dive within kind of the generalities of what we'll talk about but uh as of right now the survey had six board members uh 32
087administrators 381 staff faculty and staff members 112 parent and guardians 167 community members and 11 students for a total of 9 total participants. This survey basically is used statewide and was developed in consideration of the professional standards for educational leaders. It identifies the traits and skills needed for that educational leader success. Now, this is the quantitative part. We're going to get into the qualitative part a little bit sooner where you sit and listen and record and then report out. And so this is one piece of what your community and your stakeholders said. Participants were asked to select five out of the 15 characteristics that were the most important to them. So we force matched. So not only did we force match, but they wanted to choose more than five, but then we had congruence amongst
088all of the stakeholder groups. And so they were asked the uh also about the superintendent should have experience as a teacher, as a principal, district level, central office experience, experience as a superintendent, and whether or not it's important for the superintendent to reside in the district. the results showed and again what I tried to do is whenever we evaluate this is you as a board operate off of a 47s correct for majority and so that was kind of my baseline to find significance and so as we're going through here the number one survey result amongst all stakeholder groups was it fosters a professional culture for educators focused on engagement, accountability, and empowerment. That was across all number one across all of the groups. Your second most important trait was developing and working cooperative and effectively
089with a board of education. That next superintendent must have written and verbal communication skills and generally collaborative. The inclusive safe school environment was incredibly important for all stakeholders. Rigorous a clear system for curriculum instruction and assessment and then facilitating continually improvement through the data program analysis. These six traits were found across all stakeholder agreement to be the most significant for your next superintendent. And again, it's that quantitative piece. We also ask if they had previous experience. Was it important as a teacher? Yes. So that educ that that classroom experience is important. Experience as a principal. Yes. Very important. again that building leadership teaching and learning previous successful experiences at district level or central office. They recognize that this is a large district and for that new next superintendent must have some experience coming out of
090that um larger district setting. Now there wasn't agreement on whether the next superintendent should be uh should have experience. I guess there was on on here. I'm sorry. Experience about the next superintendent having experience. Uh and then the important uh the superintendent reside in the district. That's part of policy as well. Correct. >> And so and then we also ask open comment theme. So the open comments that were at the end of the quantitative survey said that the commitment and longevity avoided turnover stayed five to eight years is important for this community. Community investment a superintendent should understand Decar and ideally live in the district. Visibility in schools and community not just the central office. Discipline and accountability was a theme. Strong expectations for students, parents, and staff. And then trust, collaboration. Build respectful relationships
091with staff, board, families, and community partners. And again, in your packet, this packet embedded within the group that you have, you find all of the u background and the data to go into that. Garmin. >> Thank you, Jim. So, as as Jim mentioned, that was the numbers, right? The survey gave us some numbers, some data. We had the focus groups. There were 13 different focus groups, but we had 18 different sessions. Melissa did a fabulous job really working with the business and community. We had five different sessions to accommodate their schedules and we kept saying the board values and wants your feedback and your opinions about the qualities and traits that your next leader should have. And so that's why we ended up with 18 sessions. And we held those sessions last week here at
092the district office and at the um alternative site kind of kitty corner from the office. We had a couple of sessions there. Here we had 169 in-person participants and all of the participants were asked the same questions. Now you're going to start to begin to see some themes emerging and we'll talk a little bit about that. But here were the se seven focus group questions like the survey. We wanted to know what kind of experience should your next superintendent have? What should their communication be like? What do you expect in terms of visibility? Why should anyone apply to be the next superintendent in Decar? Some interesting thoughts there. And what is unique about Decar? What are the points of pride for this district? It was so wonderful to hear some of the public comment today.
093Um very very prideful on a program that you have. And then on the flip side of that, what are those challenges that the district is facing or will be facing in the next we said three to five years. And the last thing that we did was we asked the participants, we want you to think about the characteristic, the strength or the trait that your next leader should have and describe it using one word. That was hard for many of them, but they came up with the one-word answers. And so you're going, as I mentioned, you're going to begin to see some themes. and I'm going to go through the first couple of questions and then my colleague will be um taking the next set of questions. So what kind of experience should that next superintendent
094have? The majority of the group felt and I'll begin with this one because not two seconds after I asked the question the comment was made longevity. That was the most common word that was made. They want a superintendent that is that it that is going to be in here and be a part of this community and that it won't be a stepping stone. Those were the words that were used. The experience from classroom all the way up to superintendent was something that was very common. And the other thing that was common in terms of experience, having a leader that understands a community like Decar and the union relations, the recognition right away about the number of unions that this district has and the challenges that sometimes that may present and to have an individual who
095would understand that and would be able to work with that. Question number two, what did the participants want in terms of communication? Obviously, clear, honest, and transparent. They want communication to be consistent and predictable. A very common statement that was made was, "We seem to hear about things when they happen when they're not as positive, and we really would love to hear more positive things occurring." Lots of kudos to Dr. Clark were given for her videos, right? But they want to see more positive kinds of things, inclusive communication, two-way communication. Um and they want to make sure that the communication is reaching all levels of the organization. What can we expect from the next superintendent in terms of visibility? For most of the groups, they want the superintendent to visit classrooms and schools as regularly
096as possible. Recognizing that it's a tall order in a district this size, right? The superintendent has a lot of responsibilities. But they felt that visibility is something that is very important. Not only visibility in the classrooms and schools, but community engagement. stopping into the local barber shop or beauty salon and just saying, "Hey, how's it going?" introducing yourself, attending community events and taking active roles. We had a little conversation about that and they said, you know, the superintendent needs to be the face of this district. And in order to do that, they have to be out there visible, engaging with the public. And so that means their number two, their number three needs to be very strong to handle the day-to-day things that happen in the district so that they can be more present in
097the schools and in the community. Students also wanted a voice. They like the idea of having regular uh conversations and communication with the superintendent. I'm going to turn it over to my colleague Vic who will go over the next set of questions with you. Thank you, Carmen. So, uh, question four, why should someone apply to be the next superintendent of the Decatur School District? So, the common themes, uh, throughout all of the focus groups, we have a dedicated staff and a very supportive community. We have unique opportunities and programs for our students, strong partnerships with with city uh employers, and the opportunity to of the potential to have a lasting legacy as a superintendent if they stay for an extended period of time. Question five, what's unique about the Decar School District compared to other
098school districts and what are some strengths and points of pride? Again, innovative programs for students that are offered. Our our staff is very dedicated and hardworking. We are a diverse school district that believes in inclusion. There's strong community support and we have a very strong financial position. Question six, what are some challenges and issues that the district is currently facing or or may face uh down the road in the next few years? Declining enrollment and population, staff shortages and HR inefficiencies, academic struggles for some students, behavior and discipline among some students, facilities and funding looking down the road, public perception and board and union dynamics. And then question seven, the question that Carmen mentioned that we ask each uh participant just to give us one word in regard to what characteristic, strength or trait that
099that they would be looking for in the next superintendent. And then she divided up into different categories. Integrity and honesty, commitment and longevity, approachable and relational, a strong communicator, and a vision and a visionary with bold leadership. I would say that I had the opportunity to to work with five different focus groups. Um I would shout out they all did an excellent job. I thoroughly enjoyed the time. I think my favorite one was the student uh group. There were 12 to 15 students from um the two high schools. It was it was a little difficult to get them going right from the get-go, but you have a wonderful set of students who are willing participants. And what I would say, and Carmen mentioned this earlier, student voice, ask them. They know what's going on. Ask
100them and and they'll provide some input for you on on anything that that uh goes on in schools and things that we can improve on in DPS 61. So, Carmen's going to move forward and and talk about a combined the quantitative survey piece that that Jim went over and then the focus groups that Carmen and I completed. So there were six key themes that emerged uh from the survey and the focus groups. The first one was um experience and background. We've already talked about how the participants not only in the survey but in the focus groups feel that the superintendent for this district needs to have that full system background. We did have a few people that felt, well, no, maybe that's not necessary because if they have strong assistant superintendent, directors, and so on,
101that person can really be the orchestra director that manages all of the pieces, but really focuses on being this face of the district and promoting all the wonderful things that are happening in this district. addressing those areas of challenges. But I have to tell you when I finished the two days of focus groups, I was so energized by just the wonderful positive things that so many people shared about this district that simply doesn't get out and they want it to be celebrated. And that's the second part, the communication. They want it to be transparent. They want regular updates across multiple platforms. There were so many groups that talked about this narrative that is out there that is controlled not by the district but by outside um influences and they want to control the narrative. They
102want that narrative controlled. two-way communication that's inclusive and the students using their platforms using videos, Tik Tok, Instagram alongside those traditional methods. Visibility was the other theme that was very apparent from both the survey and the focus groups. something with the visibility. Um, they really want to see the superintendent inside classrooms and schools and they don't want it to be let's set the date on the calendar and everybody knows the soup is coming and we make it all look pretty and nice. No, they talked about they want drop in visits. They want to see the superintendent out in the morning talking to the parents, welcoming the students, and at the end of the day saying, "Hey, have a you have a good day. Come back tomorrow. We're glad you were here." Um, and just to
103have that visibility and that relationship building with students and community, as I mentioned, the barber shops, the salons, the grocery stores, uh, they really want to see the superintendent out there. The other thing that they talked about, and I'll say this from staff to parents to administrators, to really work on positive recognition and really acknowledging the successes that are found in this district, not just in the moments of crisis. We all know that those things unfortunately happen, but that sometimes we dwell too much on those things and really want to shift that focus. They definitely want the superintendent to be personally invested in this community. And they said, "Look, if the person comes in and we develop relationship and we know they're headed in in the in a good direction, we will back them up.
104They are ready and willing to back the superintendent up, whoever comes in to really work on the relationships. Some strengths and points of pride. You'll see in the draft of the announcement, there is like a page and a half of all the programs and things that this district offers. And there were comments about, you know, Decatur offers more programs and more opportunities for students than any of the other surrounding districts in this area. And they were very, very proud of it. Almost all of the focus groups mentioned the A Academy, the prep academy, the magnet schools, the fact that we have students here that graduate with a high school degree as well as an associates degree and the strong extracurricular offerings that this district has for students. the staff, many of the employees are DPS
105graduates themselves who have their children coming to this district and they have long-term loyalty and believe in this district. Tonight you heard about your international teacher program. Amazing amazing things happening. the community support, the partnership with your uh institutions of higher learning, Milikin and Richland. They said, you know, how many areas do you know that have a community college and a university within the same town? We have that and are capitalizing on those partnerships, but they want to see more um resilience and pride. You know, they consistently describe Decar as a community with deep pride and the word that was used was Decar has a lot of potential and the next superintendent coming here can really build a legacy and can really take this district forward, but we know there are challenges and we talked
106about some of those. They recognize, it was just so interesting to me across many of the groups declining enrollment and population. They see the future that there are going to be school closures. They don't like it, but they know that that's a reality. Staff shortages and human resource gaps. They talked about the numbers of substitutes that are covering classes and the the teacher shortage. And they talked about some onboarding. I love the question that um Kevin asked about what are we learning from the onboarding of the international teachers that we can bring on for our uh teachers, our regular teachers in the district. Wonderful things to do because there was a concern for the onboarding. Nobody slid under the table the low academic achievement that was brought out that was discussed and and they really
107want to see uh some things happening there. facilities, finances, the aging infrastructure. I heard almost from every group about the modules and not knowing what's going to happen with the modules and what's happening with road map 2030. They're wanting to know where where the district stands with those things. They want a strong communicator. These are the traits that they want from the next superintendent. commitment and longevity was high on the list. They really want this person to invest in Decator's future to be approachable and that's the being out in the community to be empathetic visible and to be a strong communicator. So those were the results of the survey as well as the focus groups and I think that there is a lot of just wonderful wonderful things that were shared about this district. Certainly
108some challenges that the district faces. But there there was one statement that kind of stuck with me that I thought wow. One of the participants said, and I promised them this was totally anonymous, but the participant said, you know, we offer students here everything from welding to Wall Street and our students are successful. And I walked around and I see the posters upstairs all the individuals who are successful that have come through the Decar public school system. And I think that that's something exciting for a new superintendent to come into. Yes, challenges, but also a lot of excitement. And so kudos to the leadership here um for making all of these things possible for the students. So in your packet there is a draft of the announcement of vacancy. It should be on your I'm
109an old kindergarten teacher, so I always have to think which which side I'm pointing to on your left side. And this is a draft. I'm going to get with you, Melissa, because I I I want to make sure we're using the right logo that you want to be used for the district. And I think I'll need it in JPEG. Um the first page has some information that is on it that goes with a requirement that we have as of January. All search firms, all postings are required to have a salary range and benefits. And so we are working through that with your board president. He'll be working with you um to give us that information. But it does have a projected timeline. We're hoping to have this uh post this announcement of vacancy finalized by
110the end of this week, early next week. The position would be posted and it would be posted through October 30th. We analyze all the applications. We do a virtual screening with the applicants and we determine uh a slate of candidates that would then be brought to this district. that will occur on November 11th. It is a close session item because you're dealing with personal information about the candidates. After that, the board will interview the candidates and we had put down around midn November. Uh there would be a first round interview. You would narrow the six candidates down to your finalists and there would be a second round interview. Some districts do stakeholder interviews with the finalists. That is something that this board would have to decide. We generally have around four groups. We have um
111staff, administrators, parents and community. And we have the questions um and we would be present during those stakeholder interviews. These are pieces of a puzzle that you, the board, receive the information of those pieces so that you can make the best informed decision to hire the employee that you will be hiring. And so the tentative timeline indicates that the new superintendent would be appointed around December, January. It is a tight timeline. I'll be perfectly honest with you. particularly with the holidays and the the you're going to need at least two additional meetings, the first round interviews, the second round interviews um and your time to uh digest all the materials on each of the candidates so that you can make the best decision as well as all the information that we will be providing to
112you. So this is a tentative timeline. Um you can um adjust it. We can take a look at other dates. As long as you have the superintendent approved and ready to start July 1st, you're good. So, you have time. Time is on your hand. Okay. Um, but I think that the posting doing it now, having it through October 30th is is a very good time because we get good ca a lot of candidates during this time of the year. Um, the rest of this document is really the information that you have provided to us, the information that you want us to highlight about the district. So, I had suggested to Melissa to possibly have your communication staff take a look at it to make sure that it's the right information. Um, and then your board
113president will work with you on the salary range. And those are the just the missing pieces that we need to finalize this document. And then it gets posted. It gets sent out to almost 8,000 individuals that we correspond with minimally four to five times throughout the posting period in addition to being posted in major organizations that we work with on a national scale as well as statewide. So with this, I will entertain any questions that you might have, any comments. Was this what you expected? What was a surprise? What wasn't a surprise? I just talked with lots of people who participated um in um your guys' chats and they were really help really glad that they were um so heard. So I appreciate your guys's hard work as well. They were awesome. They didn't hold
114back. They were great. And like I said, a lot a lot of pride >> in this district. Yeah, like the focus groups went really well. >> Yeah, >> I'm glad we had so many. >> Yeah, >> seems like everybody had an opportunity to have their voice heard. >> For the quantity of respondents, is that a is that a good number for a district of our size? >> Generally, yes, it is. You know, good survey research, if you get 10, 20%, that's really good, right? So, I think that you got a good number, a good representation. The only group that we did not have as much but understandably so were uh was the students on the survey as well as although we had about 14 15 students in the focus group uh they were a good
115representation. One of the things that Melissa worked very hard on was making sure that those focus groups were as inclusive as possible. And by that I mean that they represented different programs, different levels, right? Uh all the dimensions of diversity as I call them. Uh so that all of the important voices were present and represented. So, what I will need from the board, here's your homework, the salary range, and any edits to the um announcement for vacancy. >> Okay, I think that'll be our task over the next uh few days to get that information put together for you. And uh Monica did some work on that, some preliminary work. So, we'll continue that and um all board members can take a look at that. We'll continue to get you some more information and we can
116get that to you and we'll make that happen. >> Thank you. >> I think we're off to a really good start in a transparent process that's going to carry us into who we select as our next leader of Decar public schools. Anybody else have comments? No. I've got questions. Um, yes. Um, actually I just lost it. Sorry. >> How do you how do you get somebody to commit to five to eight years? How how do you do that? >> I mean, no, nobody >> a ball and chain. um >> you know when you're when you're interviewing and when you're speaking to the candidates and you ask you know a question because you can't really ask that right but you can say where do you see yourself what do you see in five years uh 10
117years and you'll get a response um there are no 100% guarantees because life happens right something could happen in the family emergencies things happen. But I think that Decar and the community and what I experienced last week with the focus groups, if that superintendent can tap into the visibility, the communication, the relationship building, they will love this community. I met with a group of parents. It just I almost cried. They said, and I will tell you that these parents are parents who are not always welcomed. And they said, coming here to Decatur, we feel welcome. We feel like we belong. And they were just so appreciative of the teachers and that they are not your I'm only going to work from 8 to 3 or whatever the school hours are. They work extended hours and
118they go beyond what they need to do to help their students and to help them. That's the community that Decar is. And if the superintendent can feel that, can live with that, can engage with it, they will just fall in love with this community. I truly believe that. >> Too bad I'm retired. I would apply. So I just I got just some input. Um we're asking a lot. This community is asking a lot. >> Yeah. >> You know, and we do a lot of assessments with the individuals we bring to our programs with my organization. What we have learned is that the initial assessments we do uh the answers are what we they think you want to hear until you build a rapport. Then the answers start to become honest and they change. I think
119what we're uh wanting from a superintendent um we haven't heard from the community what we are willing to do to get those things. Um to bring someone in and hire them and not make a commitment to them to make sure that they have the tools that they need to meet these demands. I don't know if it's fair. So, you know, uh I think the rebuttal should be what is our community willing to do to help the superintendent superintendent achieve these items we're asking for? >> Yep, that's a fair question. They want a superintendent with backbone and they want the superintendent to make the tough decisions. They don't want somebody coming in that's going to change things. They've been through that. They've been through that. They want somebody to come in and spend the time learning
120about the community, listening to people, listening to and and and and observing what is working and what is not working to keep the things that are working and enhance those and to say this has got to go. Those were some of the conversations of the focus group. And if they see a leader, taking that kind of a stand and being inclusive and drawing community in, then I think that that statement about we're going to be behind them and that leads to longevity. But you're right, it's it's we always say it has to be the right fit and it's always well for the board you have to select a superintendent that's the right fit. It's two-sided, right? >> Has to be the right fit for the individual as well. >> So point well taken. >> Can
121I make a comment? >> Sure, please. So the average superintendent tenure nationwide is is about three and a half years. So that's the average. But I know plenty of superintendents that are in districts 10, 12, 15, 20 years. And and one of the key pieces if you ask them why they stayed is that they've got a board that's all rowing in the same direction. >> They're allowing their they're hiring the superintendent and then allowing the superintendent to run the district. And and I think that's, you know, that's one of the key pieces to longevity. To answer uh your question, uh Mark, about how do we keep somebody, it's it's row in the same direction, support your superintendent, and allow them to do the work that it takes to be the superintendent. >> Other board comments.
122>> Okay. President Clever, can I get some clarification? Sure. >> What is the time um the deadline that you want the salary range and any edits to the announcement of vacancy? >> She's awesome. Deadline >> Tuesday of next week. >> Tuesday. A few days. >> Okay. Okay. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you all. Are there any other items for board discussion at this point in time? >> Um, yeah, kind of two pieces I think that we need to address as a board and I won't keep us very long here. The first is I know that we are uh looking at a lot of work headed into the superintendent search, but I feel as though and I don't know how everyone else feels that we should probably have some sort of study session where we
123don't have a set agenda. uh the city does this so we can actually have a conversation between the seven of us to do a few things. First to have a better discussion of what we what we each want and what we want to see uh this district become and have that open and honest conversation because honestly we we haven't had that opportunity. We've had so much work to do that we've have haven't had that. And then secondly also to set our our priorities as a board because you know we have a lot here and I think all of us want to do and see different things happen but once we set those priorities and then put them on a calendar so we can better communicate with the community what's coming next over this next year.
124You know, we already have some of that with uh have some of that with the superintendent search, but we also need to do that with roadmap 2030 and then communicate that out as uh as this is the pathway that we are charting and I think that that will go and uh take a lot of fear and a lot of uncertainty out of this community. That's all I had. Okay, we can take a look at uh a study sess a study session uh probably in the in the very near future to get this stuff kicked off because we really need to get roadmap kicked off again. We're we're kicked off with a superintendent search and the issues that keep coming up are building utilization and and we can't lose sight of the academic curriculum as well
125and that really needs probably to drive what we do is our academic achievement and where we're going with u the academics of district 61. So we'll try to get that on the docket. Everybody in agreement with that to have a study session? >> I I think we ought to try and set a date. There's no there's no reason not to. >> Let's just let Melissa get around with everybody, get a date, and then we'll get it on everybody's everybody's calendar. >> Okay. >> Will you take care of that for us, Melissa? Thank you. >> And and to clarify, this will be a public open session. >> Yes. >> So, >> okay, we'll move on to reports from administration. Uh Dr. Rodriguez. Good evening. >> Good evening board members, President Clevenger, Dr. Clark, and Miss Bradford.
126I'm here on behalf of Eisenhower High School to present a proposal to name our EHS press box at our football field. I was brought a proposal in order to begin the process of potentially naming our press box after somebody from our community that has passed. Um, and because what the process looks like is we build a committee within the building, we do have to get a 100 signatures before that committee can happen. And we did go ahead and do that. So, we did hold the committee meeting and the committee has agreed on um the proposal that I am showing to you tonight. Oh, sorry. Okay. So, the proposal is to name our press box um after Scott Busboom. Now, because I am not from Decatur, I did have to do a little bit of research
127and also um pour into my committee members a little bit for some information. Scott's voice was a staple of the Decatur public schools, number 61, athletics. um really in that broadcast realm. He broadcasted over 1,200 games during his career, including high school athletics going all the way into collegiate athletics. Um he is known, and this was definitely prevalent in our committee meeting, that he was known for the enthusiasm, the charisma, the professionalism, and genuine care for the athletics, but more so the students as individuals. Um, Scott became a beloved figure in the community and he made significant contributions to the high school sports through through that broadcasting. So much so that he was inducted into the Illinois High School Hall of Fame for broadcasting. Um, even after his retirement, he did maintain connections to Decar
128um through the his broadcasting days retelling stories. And I do know that the athletes, the coaches that worked with him and had the pleasure of working and knowing him were very admirable of any contributions that he made to us. So the press box committee did meet last week and it was unanimously confirmed that we did want to bring the proposal here to the board tonight to rename our unnamed press box at the current Eisenhower Field, the Scott Busboom press box. Um just some information for the board to know is that signage will be donated. So there will be no cost to the school boosters or the district. Um that has already been arranged. And the naming ceremony will take place next football season in 2026 at our September 26 game due to his family wanting
129to be present. They don't live locally, so they would have to travel and it would be extended family, not just his spouse. Um, so like I said, we did actually meet as a committee. That committee was made up of community members, um, booster club, former coaches, as well as board members. And, um, it was actually decided that we would like to bring this proposal for your consideration this evening. Do you have any questions that I can answer for you? uh just so that the board knows she has um fulfilled all the um requirements in doing so and I have documentation with me this evening. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> All right. Thank you very much for your consideration. >> Thank you, >> Dr. Gray. Good evening, uh, Superintendent Clark, Melissa, member of the boards. I'm
130here to talk about our spring assessment update, and, uh, just paint the picture. what an outstanding job that our teachers have done, our students have done and um I it really wouldn't be possible without my team and the professional development department. So, uh I'd like to thank all my coordinators and uh strategists and my two directors. So, I'm going to paint a picture with our data this evening. Going to give you guys some of the highlights of things that went good in the 24-25 school year and talk about some of the things that we're going to do better uh during the 26 uh 2526 school year. So, the first piece will be the uh reading data which is measured by our fast bridge and star. Uh on this slide you'll see the K8 uh fast
131bridge. And I just want to point out that uh grades five through eight had growth. Um and then second grade again that goes back to the level of commitment from the board. You'll see the growth there. Uh the teachers and the TA did a great job of collaborating. So you see that 5% 5.3% growth there in the second grade. But I also want to draw your attention you see u kindergarten is six you know 6.1 but that gap is closing because then it's 1 point um 1.9. So again the work that we're doing uh in uh in the collaboration with the TAs and the teachers is really paying off. You see that gap closing. Uh the other thing I wanted to point out, you won't see any uh prek data on here because I didn't
132want to sing out one school because there's only one school that had prek in there. We're still looking at the data and TNL is working with them to make any adjustments with that. >> Hey, Dr. Gray. >> Yes. >> Uh since this is a first time for our new board members going over this, can you explain uh what these numbers actually mean? uh specifically like what what we're looking at for growth and how that's measured. >> Sure. So everything is measured at the 50th percent 50th percentile. Uh meaning that uh I'll give you the first one. If you look at uh the fall uh 50th percentile of 2020 uh 24 25. So you see 31.3% of our students in the kindergarten scored at the 50th percentile or higher. So that's not saying that 30% of
133our kids can read. Uh it means that they've scored at that level higher. So it's at least half. Um so that's how it's measured with the percentiles there. >> And and so this is set uh I I guess there's there's three periods here and over this third period you have a standard that you're setting that you're setting against it. what you should see growth in what learning outcomes and how how well students are doing in the first to the second because those aren't the same. You're not measuring the same standards, right? Because they're supposed to be learning more over, >> right? So, it's an adaptive test. So, it gets harder as it goes. >> Okay? >> Here you'll notice a trend line that is trending in the right direction. You'll see a positive trend line.
134Um, a couple things that we start to think about and we've noticed from this. Uh, Mr. Wexel just mentioned that there we're testing three times. So, there's a fall, a winter, and a spring test. Other things that we've talked about that, uh, goes into this testing that we need to consider. One is test fatigue. I've heard board members say in the past, hey, there's there's a lot of testing going on. Uh but it's crucial that we have these three tests so teachers can understand what they need to do in order to change their instruction so students can be uh successful. But we are we are mindful of testing fatigue. And then we also understand that some kids uh when it come to taking a test if we're headed into a winter break they may be
135just want to hey let me get this test out the way and move on to the break. So being able to stop and do a reset with them and say, "Hey, it's, you know, your test scores are critical. Please make sure that you take your time with it and just talk to them about the test importance." And we've always seem to be trending where we score higher in the fall, have a little dip in the winter, then make it up in the spring. So if you notice that, that's our test trend indicator. Uh this is our base year for STAR testing at the secondary level. grades 9 through 12. And um you notice again there's consistent growth here. Uh shout out to the high school. Uh they seem to done a great job this year
136with the STAR testing. Um and we're also using this again as a ACT predictor. So measuring how our students are performing here will give us a better idea how they will perform on the ACT. And this is again a baseline uh year for this testing. uh trend data again trending in the right direction. Uh you notice that there is a upward trend. Uh the next slide is uh reading my buildings. Um want to just lift up monthly real quick. If you notice that monthly has had some great growth. Uh, and one of the things that we're going to talk about in our principal PLC is how are you getting the results that you're getting and uh, so we look forward to having Miss Wiggins kind of lead that conversation. But just really wanted to talk
137about the growth they're getting at monthly. So that staff there um, in the reading has done an excellent job. >> Quick question for you. I'm sorry. I don't want to stop your your stride here, but I'm looking at um Parson Steven D Southshores uh minus uh 0.2 uh 0.6 0.3. Um explain that low number because that's not a student or a percentage of students. What is that? >> You know what I mean? Like the the even though they went down, it's not by a huge amount. So what are we looking at? Is it maybe I missed the question? maybe I didn't finish the test. Like why so minimal? >> So it again um what we're seeing there Dr. Clark is that kids are are off maybe by a question or two. One of the things
138that we're going to talk about uh also in our PLC's the students that are on the bubble. So this could be a bubble kid that hey I missed this achievement level by one or two questions. So going back and taking a look at that and uh by using others data we're able to retach some of those skills that they may have missed to cause them to score. But what you don't see is the huge gap. And so that's again it's it's not the growth but again we're closing that that gap in reading there. So what you don't see again is like there's a huge number where we're in the double digits of kids not being proficient. Now the other question um because I'm hearing this from some of the uh administrators too. They talked about
139mobility rate and I know that you're working on that. Can you give us a little insight on that? >> Sure. One of the things we want to uh look at uh the testing rosters and see are we testing the same students at each iteration of the test. So do I have a student that tested at monthly uh in the fall at bomb in the spring and then at MAP in the winter? So just making sure that we're looking at our mobility rate and seeing if we have students that are in fact moving around and maybe missing instruction because of uh miss school or different places. They may come to a different school and be in a different place. So we are examining that mobility rate. >> Thank you. So, the next slide, uh, she actually
140just talked about it with the mobility rate, but, uh, knowing that this is just our K8's and really, uh, locking into what they're doing and notice again that it's not a huge, uh, when you look at the reds, there's not double digit numbers that we are closing that achievement gap. And again, just want to point out monthly, they seem to have uh, really hit their stride this year. again with the star reading at the high school. You'll notice that both uh MacArthur and Eisenhower had growth there. So that's a positive. The next is going to be the uh fast bridge uh math and um know earlier you had people come up and talk and I'll just you know I'll address it there. uh you see that the only people that didn't make uh serious gains
141would be uh grades uh four, five, and six. And we can uh talk about uh you know, they may have missed out on instruction because those were some of the harder grades to fill with substitutes or longtime long-term uh teachers. So we know that we have a little gap there and we'll be working with them uh through the TNL department. Um >> so Dr. grade can. So, you think staffing might have been key in those grades? >> I believe so. Yes. Cuz I know a couple schools where we had issues with >> you had long-term subs and >> or couldn't find any. It was just a day, you know, a sub dayto day >> sharing classes. I'm sorry, splitting classes. >> Right. Right. Right. >> So, >> uh look at this slide and you'll notice
142again second grade made growth. Uh hats off to the collaboration again between the teachers and the TAs. And uh the other thing that I want to talk about with the math, this is uh we had a pilot year uh the previous year and now that we have a a math uh curriculum that is aligning K12. So um the teachers had buy in and selecting the math uh curriculum. Uh we piloted three different ones and they decided that they would go with big ideas which is align with what we have at the high school. So there's actual vertical alignment with K12 with our math curriculum. And you'll see again the positive trend and you'll notice that there's growth every year here for the Star Math data. Um every grade level made growth. Again, I think the
143high school teachers may be on to something in terms of making math exciting and making those connections and kind of filling in those gaps. And they're using their PLC times and also those early release days to really dig into this data and talk about what's going good and also things that they may have to retach or some of the gaps in learning that they may see with our students. And you'll notice again with the math, you're going to see kind of trending upward. >> Dr. Gray, um, and I don't remember what meeting I was in, but it's my understanding that middle school may now be looking at utilizing STAR. So we we're we're looking at using uh star maybe 612 and that'll get us the uh some more alignment data but also it is is
144uh star is going to be a better predictor for our middle school students and how they will score on the uh IRA assessment. So on this slide when we're talking about uh math by buildings uh you notice again I'll just I'll lift up monthly for what you know reading they did well and here again in math so I'll just lift up that staff one more time and then this is our K8 slide and you notice you know it's not a huge gain but it's growth in a positive direction uh when you just look at our overall district high schools still trending in a positive direction. Uh and looking at the assessment again both high schools made growth uh from 9 to 12. So the next up is our district writing assessment and uh let me
145just give you a little background knowledge uh in regards to the district writing assessment uh where you see total words written uh that was year one of the assessment uh and we're where uh the 2425 school year was the the final year of the roll out of that third year of the roll out. And so in year two they uh students had to do total words written and also correctly spelled words. And then finally in the 2425 school year they had to do total words written uh correctly spelled words and then correctly written uh sequence. So as you notice that there there's gains all the way through and uh especially in the fourth and sixth grade they did well. Um and there it is just in a a barge graph to kind of see you'll
146notice the growth still. Uh and I can tribute that again uh the collaboration between the teachers and the uh uh teaching assistance is key and noticing that growth. >> So I just want to make sure I'm understanding. So in the light purple what or fuchsia of that color year one the teal year two the yellow year three and each year they had to continue to build as they were learning or being assessed on a new concept >> almost closed doc you got it pretty close so the the till is going to be uh total words written and that's going to be the first that's going to always be there so that was just the first year and the 23 winter of 23 spring of 22 2 that we accessed that and then we added uh
147the following year 23 24 total words written also correctly spelled words. So what you constantly see is growth each year that they're adding something. So we're demanding more out of students in this writing assessment and their study rising to the occasion. >> Okay. So they didn't lose, they continue to grow. Okay. I got you now. Okay, >> sir. Um and we're able to track the students from sixth grade. Well, pretty much from seventh grade through the high school with this graph as well, right? They're progress. >> It changes back from 22 through 25. And so through through your elementary, through your junior high schools into your high school. Is there a set of students that tested them on in the different levels? >> You see what I'm saying? >> Yeah. >> Yes, sir. >> So,
148this is this is just the third year of this test. 2425 was the third year of the test. >> Okay. So what level? Is that what you're asking? What grade level? >> I'm asking the the six the uh elementary kids that went into junior high school. Okay. >> They would have received testing at the seventh eighth grade level. Correct. >> Right. >> And then when they then in the 2425 they would also receive testing in the high schools. >> Different test but yes. >> Yes sir. So and so that's what I'm saying. So we've watched their growth. >> Right. That's what I was asking. >> Yep. We can see their growth. >> Yes sir. Okay. Uh next up is the big test, the Illinois assessment of readiness. And uh I just want to point out
149a couple things. It took a while for this data to come in because the state uh this will be a baseline year for this data. The state previously had uh five different categories that they were looking to score students in and this year with the new cut scores they went down to four. So the four uh categories are above uh proficient, proficient, approaching proficient and below proficient. And so uh with these new cut scores, you see some growth from our district. So uh it was a good year for us as it relates to the Illinois assessment for readiness. But we understand this is just a baseline year and some of the things that we're going to do is uh really focus in on those students that are approaching approaching proficiency. That way we can help
150them get over the bubble. So we've identified those are some of our bubble students to make sure that they're successful. And uh moving on to the ACT for high school. So, the ninth graders took the ACT. Um, and wanted to just point out a couple things. Uh, they scored kind of what we thought that they would score. This is the first year we remember we're making the move from SAT to ACT. So again, uh they're switching up on um how they answer questions to now a whole different type of uh test prep and making sure that uh we're able to help them be uh successful on the test. So just uh the one positive piece I can talk about, you see there was a little growth with uh science at Eisenhower. Um and so now
151that we're hoping that to see more growth uh now that the students kind of have this baseline year out the way uh and we can do some more with predicting of how they may score. So >> this uh this uh fall pret is that 13.6 is that a percentage or is that the ACT score? >> That's the ACT composite score. >> That's their pre-EST. >> Yep. And uh one of the things I can say uh uh if you notice just looking at the numbers in parenthesis, we tested more students in the fall than we tested in the spring. And that's one of the things we're going to kind of go back and look at and figure out what happened that we end up testing more students. Uh but we have our kind of fall benchmarks
152and we know what we need to be working for and where they should end up at in the spring. So everyone that took this test test 9th, 10th, and 11th, this was their first year, their baseline year. So the ones that we are really able to track is your true freshman cohort and your sophomores now, >> right? So we'll be able to track the freshman and then the sophomores because as a junior this year, it' be their last they have two years of data just taking this test. >> Okay. Now, will these benchmarks um in the boxes will that change over the year or is that staying status quo for now since they just started back to ACT? >> Well, Dr. Clark, we are in Illinois and anything is bound to change. We may even
153go back to SAT. So, uh right now I would say that those benchmarks are probably going to stay consistent for now. Uh if there's any change, I would definitely come back and let you know. Uh This is um the 11th grade and so they were pretty much one and done when they took it as 11th graders. This would uh be to fulfill their graduation requirement but uh not really a baseline year for them because as a senior they don't take the ACT. They're done testing and the only other difference would be with the 11th graders. They actually took the uh writing test, but it uh as not part of the uh practice test. It's only administered in the fall. So, I mean in the spring, so they just had the writing score as well. And
154that 5.1 on a on a scale of 2 to 12 is not bad for taking a test the first time. So, uh we have some things that we can learn from that. Uh the next data I'm going to talk about is summer school. Um this summer we invited 11 uh 118 students to attend summer school. Out of that 118 actually uh 70 students attended were in attendance um with an attendance rate of 68.3. uh as we start to look at things, uh I'll probably come back before you guys and talk about what's the best use of our time in the summer for our uh K8 students and probably have a different recommendation for next summer because we want to make sure that whatever we're doing that we're yielding a positive result for our students and
155uh just to have 70 out of 118. I don't know if that was a great use of our time and resources. So, I have a couple I'll probably have a couple recommendations for next summer. Now, at the high school level, um it's all about credit attainment. Uh you see that we had 248 students at um Eisenhower and 178 at MacArthur with an attendance rate of 72 uh and then 53. Uh the key piece that I really want you to focus in on is the 983 credits attained because in high school you have to have credits in order to move forward. And uh one of the things that you guys are here in April, not April, but in October, we're going to talk about increasing the number of credits uh that you need to graduate. So
156we'll be coming back before you to talk about that. So, we're going to tie everything in to make sure that our students is having a a rigorous high school experience and making sure we're in line also with the other schools uh within the county in terms of number of credits that's required to graduate. Uh what are we doing to support students? Um the biggest thing is our our multi-tiered system of support. making sure that with our tier one strategies that's for everybody kind of the universal piece that we're uh helping students be successful. Uh our tier 2 our bottom 20% making sure that we have interventions in place in order to uh help students kind of you know find their way back. And then that last 3% their tier three these are students that are
157in need of intense um interventions. So, they also may be on the a spectrum to be tested for special ed services and things like that. They can use um typically what I would say maybe a shake up in their schedule where they're saying, "Hey, it's really hard for me to do math in the afternoon. I've had lunch. I'm tired." So, we may say, "Hey, let's talk with the counselor, give them math in the morning, give them gym class in the afternoon." So, you know, something different in order to help that student see school a little bit different and start to uh experience success. Um you have teaching and learning uh strategists out of my department and they do a great job of kind of uh building the educator's capacity uh in terms of uh coaching
158uh monitoring lessons uh modeling researchbased practices. Uh they also uh go in and help facilitate and design curriculum that meet students at their level. So, uh, a teacher may need some help with differentiating and they may go in and help with that. And, uh, they really use data in order to, uh, drive instruction in the class. So, they'll talk about data driven decisions or, uh, strategies that they need to use that are data, uh, sensitive. Um, and then our coordinators, they do a great job of really helping our teachers uh, work with the curriculum and aligning uh, some of the instruction uh, with their practices. um they usually support teachers and join and joining the uh MTSS team and kind of giving their view of what's going on from a curricular standpoint and then they
159do a great job of working with us in terms of textbooks that we may need, curriculum that we may need and uh like with we talked about the math pilot earlier and uh Kelly Murray from our department was very instrumental in just putting it all together, working with the vendors, going out and talking with the teachers, going into their classrooms and watch use the materials. So, just a great system of support in in order to help our teachers be successful and making sure that our students have what they need. And uh with the behavior interventionist, if our classrooms are not um orderly and in fashion, uh then if kids are are uh disrupting the class, you have a behavior interventions that can step in and pull that one kid out, help get them back together
160so he can be ready, he or she can be ready to learn. So you have that the behavior support and then we have supplemental resources that we use uh from Orton Gillingham to uh EXL. Uh you've heard Parsons come up and talk about the 95%. Uh and then there's Read 180 and Math 180 uh that we're utilizing throughout the district, but especially as Stephen Decar for some of our students that may have some special education issues. And then uh the principal PLC that's where a lot of the conversation happened about uh good instructional practices data that we should be looking at. Um and then any questions that relate to students being successful coaching teachers around instructional practices. Uh we do a lot of that work in our principal PLC in order to support teaching and
161learning in the buildings. >> What's PLC mean? >> Professional learning community. >> Okay. Before you leave, Dr. Robinson, um there were some questions regarding RTI, so I want you to speak on the high school level and I want uh Mary to speak at the elementary level. >> Good evening. Uh board president, um Mr. Clevener, uh the remainder of the board, Superintendent Clark, your excellency, >> Miss Bradford. All right. So, uh Dr. Ray uh just uh talked to you at length about the 2425 uh data for our schools. Um we do have a few updates for uh the fall testing that was recently finished. So,