Regular Board Meeting December 18, 2025

001All right. Good evening everyone. I'd like to welcome everyone to the regular board of education meeting tonight, December 18th, 2025. We're also streaming on the DPS 109 YouTube channel. like to call the or the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. May I have a motion to approve the agenda? >> So move second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Uh first on the agenda is a public hearing on district 109's intent to withdraw from the True North Educational Cooperative effective July 1st, 2027. The purpose of this hearing is to seek public comment on the district's withdrawal from the True North Cooperative with an effective date of July 1st, 2027. At the at the November 20th, 2025 board meeting, the board took action to approve a resolution to rescend District 109's previously approved June 17th, 2025

002resolution to withdraw from the True North Educational Cooperative with an effective date of July 1st, 2026. The district refrained from rescending our withdrawal was sooner while awaiting the true north finalized articles of agreement and reorganization proposal. In addition, we were informed recently by the Illinois State Board of Education that our comprehensive plan which is essent which which is an essential component of the withdrawal process could not be approved for a July 1st, 2026 withdrawal date. As required by Asquired, the True North member districts have been notified of this public hearing for public comment on district 109's ultimate intent to pursue a July 1st, 2027 withdrawal. A new resolution reflecting this is being presented for board action later on tonight's agenda. The hearing is now open at 7:02 p.m. Does anyone wish to comment? All right,

003seeing none, thank you. May I have a motion to close the hearing? >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I hearing is now closed at 7:02 p.m. All right. Next on the agenda, stronger together in 109, Kathy. So, with um today being the first evening of break for our students and families and teachers, um we don't have any kids to present to us today, but we've had some great Stronger Together um events across the community. Um our students, if any of you were at the um winter celebration, the tree lighting, um all of our schools contributed a really cool ornament to the village tree. Um, so if you stop by Village Hall, you can go see their artwork. They're really great. Um, and today was the um second of our two pickup days um for

004the recipients of our Together We Give Drive. Um, in addition to collecting gift cards and winter wear, um, we also had food from a collection for the food pantry um, last month and the food pantry wasn't ready to accept it and they said, you know, what would be great is if you can distribute it directly to families. Um, so at pickup, um, families had an extra gift with them. Of course, our community was really generous in supporting families in need. Um, we got items for 50 families and 197 people. Um, that need grows each year. Ally Croman and Joanna have been involved in this over several years and they said that every year we're supporting more families and um there was a lot of gratitude um at pickup over the last couple of days. Um,

005and that is it. >> All right. Thanks, Kathy. Um, next on the agenda, superintendent report. >> It's going to be a brief uh update on the uh the ISB uh delegate assembly. I got to turn so I can see. It was held on the 25th and our board member Ryan Quo was pleased to participate and vote in that uh as part of the joint annual conference. Uh the one there was one resolution regarding school bus safety funding which was approved. There were 10 uh constitutional amendments each of which Mr. Quo appreciated uh were also adopted by more than a twothirds majority. And during the meeting, members uh elected uh a president and a vice president to serve two two-year terms. That's an update since the uh since the triple eye meeting. Thank you, >> Mike.

006Could you could you just do like a 10-second clarification? When you say a resolution regarding uh the safety bus safety funding was approved, what is IASB do with that resolution? That's not the state of Illinois is not funding school buses. What is IASB responsible for? >> Yeah, this it's a good clarifying question. So what the delegate assembly does is they have a legis set of legislative priorities and what uh the delegate assembly does is determine uh whether or not uh the the associations uh or the schoolboard association should advocate for specific policy changes and uh does not mean that it will become law but it's an advocacy position. of the group and it is an influential group on a variety of different things. Uh this year was not a controvers controversial year at all. Um

007and Mr. Qu any further comment on that? >> No, other than that one resolution was related to um advocating to the legislature to fund um the recently passed school bus safety requirements that are going to go in fact in 2030. Um right now it is yet another unfunded mandate um that will be out there. So >> want to make sure you got your moment in the sun there. >> Yeah, it was an interesting experience. >> All right. So you good? Is that it? Okay. >> Thank you. >> All right. Next on the agenda is our first opportunity for community participation. District 109 has two opportunities for public comment whereas many organizations only offer one. Our policy stems from the community's long-standing commitment to to public discourse and representation. We take all public comment very seriously.

008And while public comment isn't a back and forth, but instead an opportunity for the board to listen, please know we listen very carefully. Our first period of community participation is solely for items related to the meeting's agenda. And the second period of community participation near the end of the meeting is open for all matters. If you wish to comment, please fill out a community participation form located on the podium. And please hand that to Rebecca Rudd sitting in the green here in our in her green jacket. U we will call you up one at a time to the podium to speak. Please limit the length of all comments to more than three minutes. Do we have anybody to you? Oh, okay. You can also Do we want her to fill it out before or you

009want to do it? >> Is that okay? Just clarify. >> Yes, it's a referendum. >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Good guess. [clears throat] [clears throat] >> Yep. >> Oh, sorry. >> Hi, I'm Deb Singleton. I have lived about a block and a half from Walden School for 42 years. and my granddaughter is a student there now. So I am quite aware of the dire status of our aging school facilities. As a lifelong educator, I am keenly aware of the impact of highquality facilities on the education and future of our children. So I am very willing to invest in our school facilities. As a homeowner of 42 years, I am in Deerfield. I am also aware that the value of my home is highly dependent on the quality of the schools in our community. So it

010makes sense to me to invest in them for that reason as well. Therefore, I will be v voting in favor of this referendum assuming that the board proceeds with it, which I see as an investment in our children, our home values, and the quality of our community. I am also a lifelong ecologist, current chair of Go Green Deerfield and a climate resilience coach, which means I am very aware of the potential impact of climate change on our school's facilities and functioning. Therefore, I and other go green Deerfield board me um members will be advocating in the coming months for district 109 to incorporate sustainability and climate resilience measures into the facilities renovation and rebuild. These measures will not only help ensure our schools can remain functional in the face of unpredictable and potentially hazardous weather

011and climate, they will also help the district save money in multiple ways in the coming years. Go Green Deerfield is very grateful that the district has been open to hearing our ideas already and we look forward to further collaboration in the coming months. Thank you so much. Thank you. >> Is Bruce Heitzinger. I live at 1441 Berkeley Court. Been in Deerfield for over 42 years. Served on the planning commission for 15 years. And I'm just here to uh voice some concerns as for the plans for district 109. Uh first of all, we've had tremendous amount of change in our tax base here with office buildings being converted to residential. I think there's probably five different residential developments either proposed or underway within the community that will bring several hundred units to to the community. And

012I'm curious how that is going to impact the schools with children and kids, not to mention the tax base. Obviously, Chicago was suffering from their downtown office situation. Deerfield was very dependent upon corporate headquarters and the strength of the real estate tax base. If you look at Walgreens, they're probably 25% of what they were at their peak. Um, I've also looked at the plans, looked at the presentations. I'm sorry I haven't attended earlier meetings, but I'm a little concerned in the fact that I understand the issues that we have with the existing buildings, but none of the none of the information supplied really shows in detail how those are going to be corrected. For example, one of the comments was the fact that there's scheduling problems because the gyms are used for cafeterias, but no

013one's indicating whether you're building a cafeteria and a gym. There's talk about having um a ADA issues and you show a a picture of stairwells, which is probably the worst stairwell in that school, but lifts are used in a lot of buildings that have split levels and they're a lot cheaper than doing elevators. It's a lot cheaper than tearing down a building. I understand that these are old structures. The schools I went to in Glen View in the 60s, sorry, I'm kind of giving a sense of my age, but they're all up and functioning. Their junior high was two stories. I know that they've gone through renovation, but I don't know what renovations we're doing here. When I look at 240, I'm sorry, 247 million. And if you look at the two junior highs plus

014the two schools that are going to be updated and remodeled, it's about $350,000 square feet. 247,000 works out to about $700 a square foot. $500 a foot seems to be the high end of everything I've researched on new construction. That includes site work, includes some land acquisition. $700 a foot seems exorbitant. And not to know what the scope of that is, not to see a red line that shows how you're changing classrooms. There's a talk, there's discussion about a a counselor having to sit in a closet with a student for counseling. So, how many offices are we putting in for that? We should know. When you're looking at asking roughly $40 to $50,000 per household, we should know those details. They should be available. Plain and simple. >> Am I done? >> Thank you. >>

015Keep going. Can I [laughter] Can I Can I do somebody else? Thanks. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] [clears throat] >> All right. Hi there. Oh, sorry. I don't want to start too soon. Okay. Uh my name is Kyle Manders. Uh [clears throat] as a Wilmont and Cruso grad, Woo. Uh parent, teacher, and taxpayer. I'm here in support of placing a referendum on the March 2026 ballot. Learning environments matter. I have the privilege of teaching at a new school facility, Maple School in Northbrook. When I first stepped foot on this campus, I was in awe of the school's expansive wooden learning stairs. Simply put, my teacher mind raced with all the ways I could leverage this instructional space for my student centered learning. As a teacher, my innovative potential and best practices have been unleashed by

016a school designed with learning environments which promote student movement, discussion, intervention, and enrichment. I've spent my career as an educator serving in a range of roles across multiple states. I've taught in classrooms that were 90° in the winter, infested with bats. That was crazy. Uh, and overcrowded with far too many student desks. In all of these instances, students paid the price of poor instructional spaces. As citizens of citizens of Deerfield, it's our turn to make a necessary investment through the referendum so our children's futures aren't limited. I can't fathom the idea of kicking this problem down the road to future generations. Let's be forward thinking and do what's right for our community. The voters of North Brook Glen View School Dist School District 30 voted to pay $475 per 10,000 of property taxes for one

017new school. So why can't we pay $359 per 10,000 for four new schools? Those who initially weren't in favor of this proposal had a fair point. Taxes in Deerfield feel high. That said, the Redefine 109 task force and the district met their obligation of coming up with a fiscally responsible plan B solution. Uh demonstrating they listened and are serious about tax concerns. No one is coming to save us. If we don't support the proposed referendum, we'll be putting good money after bad. the $177 million to keep the schools operational, the maintenance only plan over the next 20 years, plus the cost of major renovations, sewers, and ADA compliance will end up costing more than the proposed referendum. The district's surplus will be depleted and will have nothing to show for it. We need to figure

018out this problem together as a community. We're stronger together, Deerfield. Let's do this for our kids. Thank you for your time. >> Thanks, Kyle. No worries. >> Good evening everyone. >> Hey George, [laughter] >> they know me already. >> George, everybody knows you. [laughter] >> Okay. Um, George Clkey, 611 Amblesside Drive. Um, I'm a contiguous uh neighbor to the Walden School. And when uh I went to the first public meeting in September, which is three or four months ago, we learned what the plan was for the Walden property. It was a big uproar. You all know what occurred. You said you would work with the community and you did bring us in and we met with the architect. I learned at that meeting that the architect's job, the scope that was provided to the architect

019was to build a school on the same parkland that the current school is on, but not in the same location as the current school. That was the scope that was provided to the architect. And they did that. They moved the school north that would affect every single property owner on that park negatively. Regardless of whether you know property in general will uh you know go up in value because of a new school the the people around Walden property values will go down. We came up with a number of different ideas and solutions for the district swing sites temporary classrooms and other and other things apparently wasn't even thought about until then. And since then, we've been told that a swing site is the number one priority of the school district. And it should be. Why?

020Because you're not going to have kids learning in a school immediately adjacent to a construction site. The noise, the dust, the other issues that go along, the construction equipment in and out of uh the construction traffic, you can't have kids learning in that environment. You need a swing site. And when you get that swing site, you can then build the school in the same spot it's in now. You told us that it was $245 million. You couldn't cut a nickel out of that. Last week, we heard at the task force meeting from Paul who said, "You can't put this referendum forward. It's not going to be supported by the community." Why? Because Deerfield taxes are too high. So at that meeting with the strike of a pen, everyone agreed to take $22.2 million off of

021the price tag. Where was that before? Temporary classrooms would cost you 3.3 million to put them somewhere else and let the kids learn. The reason everybody's worried about taxes in Deerfield is that the taxes the effective rate is 2.96% in Deerfield. Highland Park 2.83. But Northbrook, we're the new school 1 uh 81 1.9 in Wanetka. All these communities surrounding us don't have the same uh taxes that we have. So I would ask you to reconsider this and I think it should whatever you do, I think it should be on the November ballot to get everybody to vote. Right now you're pushing it into March, which everybody knows hardly anybody votes. So I would ask you again to delay this. Thank you. >> Thanks, George. >> Good evening. Um, uh, my name is Brian Kurchchen, and

022like George, I am also a contiguous neighbor of Alden Elementary, right next to the baseball diamond. I'm in complete support of improving learning environments for our children and and our community. I agree that learning environments matter. I am not asking to vote down facilities improvements, but I am asking the board to pause and require a different approach before placing this proposal on the ballot. The district's own public opinion survey shows that this proposal does not have a majority support, that parents oppose it, and that the tax concern is extremely high. A significant portion of the community has low confidence in how the bo how the bond funds would be managed. When discussing Redefine 109 with friends and neighbors, many told me the messaging about the financial impact was confusing, and many were confused and not

023aware that the tax burden would persist for 25 years. The district survey results should be a moment to step back and reassess the underlying assumptions of the plan, especially the decision to pursue a two plus two model. Instead, what we've seen is a narrowing of options. The task force itself has acknowledged that the most impacted families were not meaningfully represented. Had those families been at the table, a 2 plus2 recommendation would not have been proposed, nor the cascading compromises attempting to somehow make this approach a viable option. When concerns are raised about the cost of the project, the district found a way to reduce the proposal by more than $20 million. Yet, when residents asked why Walden could not be rebuilt in its current location, we were told that an alternate approach was impossible because

024it would cost an extra $20 million. That contradiction matters. This is not an abstract planning exercise. It is a decision that asks some families to pay both for the referendum and absorb a disproportionate harm from it. I respectfully ask the board do what good governance requires. Do not place this version on the ballot. District administration to come back with an approach that reflects the community feedback, includes impacted families, and distributes impact more fairly. Thank you for your time. >> Thanks, Brian. >> Anyone else? All right. Thanks, everybody. Uh, one Oh, you got one person. Okay. >> Yeah. Yeah. No worries. [laughter] >> All right. Here we go. Um, >> can you help me? >> Will you read it for me? >> Oh, do you mind? Would you mind? >> Sure. So [clears throat] >> here

025we go. >> I recognize the complexities of this facility crisis. >> Our name first and then we'll let you go. >> Sorry. We have context. >> Jennifer. >> Yes. My name is Jennifer Lee Kamaraskki. I'm a parent of three children in the district. >> Thank you. >> This is my new best friend. Actually my daughter's the parent of my one of my daughters especially good friends. [snorts] and he is truly doing me a favor by doing this for me. I don't think I can. >> It's okay. >> And so, thank you. This is everyone's here though tonight. >> Uh, I recognize the complexities of the facility crisis uh the board is facing. I offer comments today regarding the ongoing facility issues the district is currently facing. With an open mind, I've added numerous community meetings,

026filled out with surveys, and has spoken to members of the board. I regardless of this direction of the referendum 109, our schools need immediate facility support. Our schools are outdated, too small, face near daily facility issues, including HVAC and plumbing. How do I scroll up? [laughter] I got it. I got it. I got it. Uh, more specifically, I want to continue to highlight that space issues for Walden. At present, there's not enough space for all the children to learn nor teachers to teach. I wholeheartedly asked the board and thorough thorough thoughtfully look at the space crisis at Walden. These spaces are a crisis, a problem for created by adults, but were asked our children to make sacrifice to solve the problem. I believe this is terribly unfair. I asked the board to think about the

027next decade of 109, but I also asked issues concerning our children are facing today. I'm getting just as nervous. Is that it? >> [laughter] >> That's all of it. Yes. >> All right. >> There you go. >> Thank you. >> Any other comments? >> You going to wing it? I'm a stakeholder. >> I um is I am against this and I'm embarrassed that 109 has behaved the way they have. when you started this project and you failed to include the neighbors of Walden. I think that's shameful and foolishness. Um, I also firmly believe that this is an outrageous ask of the village of the citizens of this village and I too believe that you should go back to the drawing board and come up with some other alternative plans and be more open with us

028with regards to what the cost would be to attend to the matters that are important. I don't disagree that things need to be fixed in our schools, but your plan as it is is an outrageous ask given the current economic climate and the fact that every year our taxes are going up. I'm also kind of I know none of you here none of you at this table. Well, John, Kathy, um, were here. When was that? 10, 12 years ago when the air conditioning was put in. But I feel a little duped by 109. Why weren't they telling us? Whoever was you were here, whoever was managing these buildings, why wasn't it told to us, hey, we can spend all this money on air conditioning or we can save it because we're really going to have

029to rebuild schools. Certainly, this must have been known. And if it wasn't, that's another embarrassment for 109. You used our tax dollars to put the air conditioning in and we all wanted it, but you failed at that time to tell us that there were more growing issues that would need the care and the tax money to be taken care of. And now you come to us and you want I I can't you I'm so dizzy from your numbers, but it's crazy. My house is 100 years old this year. It's got problems. I'm not going to tear it down and build new, especially in this economic climate, especially with tariffs on the on goods that you would need on building materials. I'm asking you, like several others, that you go back to the drawing board and

030you come up with other alternatives for us and you be more open and more honest with us and you put it on a November ballot where most people will go to vote instead of sneaking it in March when you know it's low voter turnout. Y'all know my name, by the way, but I'm a stakeholder. All right. Uh, thanks everybody. Uh, oh, you're great. Okay. While you're coming up, I want to ask if you've spok spoken tonight, you haven't filled out one of the participation forms, just try to complete one before and just hand it over to Becky before you leave if possible. Thanks. >> This one? >> Okay. Yeah, I'll take it. I'll take it with uh my name's Jason uh Jason Wright. I'm one of the Walden neighbors that would be directly affected by

031this. I have two kids in the schools district. Um, look, I'm we moved to this community for the very reason of these schools, but honestly, I'm disappointed to be here today. And it's not because, you know, we don't need new schools. I'm disappointed because it seems like we're just in this forced march towards a predetermined conclusion which is this referendum being smacked on here. Um I attended these meetings from the beginning and then just kind of after the realization that it just seemed like they were being disingenuous even with some of the fix fixes and proposals our me uh Walden people came up with ideas. It always seemed like it just fell on deaf ears. Um, I believe that Walden's community was completely neglected when this task force was being created. Um, it it just

032kind of sad. Um, I don't know. I think that's kind of about it. I'm just disappointed even today. I just think that it's you guys are just marching right along even when you realized that most people weren't in favor of this with your survey and then you said, "Hey, we can just wipe off 22 million." Well, where was that kind of openness when we were having these meetings in the the first half of these? So, yeah, I don't know. It's I I hope the board can stop, slow down, come up with another solution and then move forward with Yeah, we do need something to happen for our schools and our school system. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Any other comments? All right. There will be a second opportunity at the end of

033the meeting as well. Um, next on the agenda isformational items. 7.1 Freedom of Information Requests. John, >> there's two in your packet. I'm happy to answer any questions the board may have. >> Any questions on FOYS? All right. 7.2 two interim administrator agreement. John or Dale? >> Uh in front of you is potential contract for an interim administrator to uh cover for the absence of one of our building level administrators that will be out on a leave of absence. The person mentioned in the contract has done multiple covers for us. Any questions on the contract? All right. Thanks, Dale. All right. Next is the resolution approving the withdrawal of Deerfield Public School District 109 from the True North Educational Cooperative 804 effective July 1st, 2027. >> As Mr. Quo uh read in prior to the

034board hearing on the resolution to with uh uh withdraw from the true north true true north cooperative. The district had previously applied for withdrawal effective uh July 1, 2026. We learned in the meantime from the state board of education that we would not have sufficient time to complete uh the process necessary for the July 1, 2026 withdrawal. We then rescended our uh July 1, 2026 withdrawal and are now submitting for a July 1, 2027 withdrawal. I recommend the approval of this. uh this does not preclude remaining in the co-op should our questions of the co-op come back in such a manner that encourages us to remain in the co-op. If we do not pass a resolution in the month of December this month, uh we will be late on our timeline for that July 1,

0352027 withdrawal. And uh we as yet have not heard uh gotten a response back from True North. uh to be fair uh to them uh they have uh not had a great deal of time to respond to those. But this allows us to exercise that July 1, 2020 27 withdrawal if we so choose. I do want to uh be clear, however, that I believe it is more much more likely than not that we will seek a withdrawal from the co-op. uh remain lingering questions uh that we seek answers to from the co-op and then we'll have uh a greater discussion on that um going forward. >> Any comments, questions? >> My only question is would it be helpful to do the committee report on True North now prior to action or do you want me

036to save that for the end? It doesn't matter to me. >> It if you think there's information that would be meaningful. >> It's six of one half dozen of the We had a board meeting last night. >> We can um I would save it to be honest. I mean I think the one thing that I will say just for those that are either not aware of the true north or the actions and the the journey that we've taken to get here um you know this is part of the fiscal discipline of of the board and a philosophy to ensure that we are utilizing um dollars to in the most optimal way. Um, one of the concerns I think that we have related to the iteration, while we're I think more than happy that True North

037has found an option to continue in some shape or form and in a reduced um reduced scope to a certain extent and I think we would have been happy to remain should we have been able to evaluate the risk um from a financial standpoint to be um a lot more I wouldn't say transparent um solid or solidified. Um, I think there's enough open questions where we have to make a decision and um, basically stop the back and forth, right, in terms of where we're going to stay or we're going to leave. So, this is our action and the timeline that we got back from the Illinois State Board of Education related to 18 months kind of forces us in a position to be able to do that. So, um, this does, I think, serve the

038purpose of what we're we're trying to do from a from a taxpayer dollar management standpoint. Okay. All right. Uh, next on the agenda, FY27 budget calendar. John, >> yeah, we do this one every December. Um, this is board action that sets in motion creation of a budget for the 2627 school year. >> Any questions on the budget calendar? Guessing it hasn't changed and >> same calendar for 10 years. Y. >> All right. Next on the on the agenda, school boundaries designation Venpoint development. >> Yeah. So, as the board will recall, um we work very closely um in partnership with the village and our demographer to look at annual enrollment updates uh for the district uh and to project 10 years out. Um as part of that work, the demographer identifies any new developments that are

039coming online within uh our uh school district boundaries. Um and one of those developments is [snorts] uh a a number of town homes uh to the west of the tollway, the Venpoint development. Um [snorts] we have discussed uh the number of students that uh the demographer anticipates that that um development will generate. Um and their recommendation uh is that we zone that new development. Uh if you look at their current enrollment maps, that property area, even though it's not currently developed for residential, would fall within the Wilmont boundaries, but their recommendation is that we zone that for the South Park boundaries. Um and that would then align the Venpoint uh development contiguously with uh Thorngate where students are already attending South Park. Does the demographer at this time have any potential projections of number of

040students? >> Yes. Uh and those are factored in. I mean there are three new developments that are impacting the district right now. One are the homes that are being built uh uh immediately across the street from South Park. Um this development uh Venpoint and then there's also a redevelopment of the Solo Cup TIF area um which is being reszoned to residential. I'd have to go back and look at the exact numbers uh attributed to this development, but this stabilizes the district's enrollment for the next 10 years. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Do we know when developments come online? >> Believe it's next summer. >> All three of them at the same time. >> Uh no. I mean, the homes that are are are in under construction at South Park right now. Um and then these

041I believe will come online next summer. Uh so we could potentially see some students generated for 2627. Thanks, Any other questions? >> All right. Next on the agenda, public act 103-0394, the reserve reduction plan. John, >> yeah, this was a new one from the legislature last year. um although all it did was uh codifi um an existing [clears throat] uh ratio in terms of uh accumulation of funds in any one of the district's operating funds um and um the so-called Miller rules uh is such that uh if cash and investments to our expense ratio is greater than 2.5 um we would be subject to the Miller rule and uh subject to a reserve reduction plan. Um here we are not uh going to approach that number. Um so our report is simply to be published

042annually and that's the extent of it. >> So the requirement is to publish it regardless if you hit the threshold. >> Correct. >> Great. Okay. >> And just so everybody is aware that's on our that's on our action item agenda. It's something the board has to approve annually. So any qu any other questions? [sighs] All right. Next on the agenda, the resolution providing for and requiring the submission of the proposition for issuing $87,780,000 school building bonds to voters of the district at the general primary election to be held on 7 the 17th day of March 2026. Wants to start. I'll hand off to uh Kathy and uh we are u we have Paul Hanley who's conducted our public polling um with us uh to speak to this. So um with that Kathy. >> All right.

043I'm going to talk about um our tour of the community throughout the fall to um share the information at our information sessions on our website um through social media and gather feedback um on the proposed plan. Um so here we are now. Um the plan was developed um even before you see on this timeline from a steering committee um in 22 23 um up to today uh where we are talking about the feedback from the public opinion survey and how the ballot question has been refined. Um, we sent out a mailer to the registered voter households in our community. Um, in October, uh, another one in early November. Um, we shared informational videos, long form, short form. Um, we had the presentations in person and a virtual presentation that we also recorded and shared on

044our website so people who couldn't attend could watch um that we had a website and we still have a website that has been updated with questions that were submitted. We have the asked and answered frequently asked questions. Um, those videos were there. um a tax calculator and multiple ways for people to get information about the proposed um referendum question. We were on social media with great engagement, so we know people um saw our messaging and were able to get the information um about this community conversation. Um we had articles in the Tribune as well. Um and that's a summary of outreach. We had about 381 people attending the in-person sessions. Um 70 were live on our virtual session and as of uh when we put this out for the task force and the committee of

045the whole meeting for the board it was 148 views of the recorded session and again the registered voter households. Um and then after that outreach um in early mid November, we sent the survey in the mail um as well as text reminders about the survey and people had the opportunity to take it either um on paper and mail it in or um online. And the feedback we heard um first in those sessions, we had a survey um that we shared in those sessions and that was also on our website for people to take at any time and share their input. And again, this is a thought exchange that we use to um gather qualitative feedback on um you know the themes of what people are thinking and talking about and asking about. They can see

046other people's um thoughts and rate those. though um what's meaningful rises meaningful to the community rises to the top. Um the number one theme that emerged through the thought exchange were financial concerns um including um thoughts about other taxing bodies and and their plans in the community. Um people talked about the educational improvements, the need for them, um questions about them, um community engagement and transparency, the logistics of what will this look like, how it will how the construction will impact teaching and learning. Um and people talked about environmental and safety concerns. >> Yeah. So as we were um workshopping a number of these concepts um we can look at uh two of the campuses where we received significant feedback. The first was Walden looking at what could we do um to alleviate some concerns

047that were raised particularly around the Walden campus. The first concern of which is the proximity of the proposed original plan on the left uh to neighbors to the north and to the west of the property. um as well as concerns about a proposed ring road uh around the the property that was intended to help with some of the issues of traffic queuing in the neighborhood. Um and based off of the feedback that was received uh the architects were uh able to pull that building back uh further from the property line and also step the building back. So incorporating some first floor uh elevation to the north of the building. Um although it's a little the the building's cocked here so that the uh north of the building is facing Amblesside Drive there um to to

048reduce the scale and the feel of the building um and to push that building about 90 to 100 ft back from the property line. Um one of the challenges uh here is that um because we need uh to do significant work on uh Kipling and South Park schools have to find a location to house those students. so constrained here in this design to be able to wrap this building around the existing campus so the existing campus can stay open to serve Kipling students while we do a significant renovation of that building. If you advance to the next slide, we can see uh revisions made to the Walmart uh to the Wilmont Elementary campus. Um so on the left you see the original concept tucking the two-story building and that two-story elevation to the corners of

049Deerfield and Wilmont Road. We're concerns about the proximity of the building uh to the road um and a desire for the building to be set back from the road as far as the neighbors are across the street from Wilmont Road. So it would have a similar feel to a um a yard lot in terms of uh the you know the distance the building is set back but also similar concerns about stepping the building down so that it could have more of a firstf flooror elevation uh uh that it's facing the homes towards the west there. Um you know we heard other challenges and concerns. We heard concerns around um you know uh what would happen if we were to renovate these facilities all of these facilities. What would be the impact? Could we put students

050potentially in remote classrooms? Um, we we've looked at that. Um, that would extend construction for each of these campuses for four years. So, students would be moving in and out of mobile classrooms on an active construction site throughout four years. And given the scope of work that needs to be done to these buildings, jackhammering open floors to access sewer piping, we would be trying to, you know, do instruction while we're immediately adjacent to heavy construction. Um other concerns that were raised were um you know one about a desire to have buildings knocked down and reconstructed in the same location that they are uh or concerns from parents about u the proximity of two schools operating on the campus at one time and could we find an alternate site to house students and staff to host

051school. Um those are very costly uh proposals. Um and the district did double down on this and hired a um commercial real estate broker to look at different options. But even in the best case scenario uh when you consider all-in cost factors uh for uh leasing facilities for putting dollars into those facilities to open them for district 109 students and staff, uh transportation for students that would be needed. Um construction cost escalation and others. um you're looking at a best case scenario of in excess of $10 million uh if you were to do that for one side of town and well in the 20 to $30 million range if you were to do it for all sides of town. And as Paul will share in the polling, um you know, we need to look to

052reduce costs, um not be growing the scope of this project. >> And our board members were at all of our information sessions and out in the community in meetings um and at the farmers market. Um so just board members, take a minute to share what you heard from community members. um any themes that emerged in your conversations. And we should note um the board did have a meeting um a committee of the whole meeting which is a meeting where the board discusses um no actions taken. It's a public meeting. It was posted and held last week. So some of these conversations um the board has been able to process and and think through um before tonight. So >> I'd like to share just a little bit. Um I think uh the sessions overall were really

053nice just to have and be in the communities. You know, usually we're here once a month and anyone can come in, but it's not interactive. And so to be out in the community talking about um schools and I really enjoyed getting to know a lot of our neighbors, right, um that are outside of my little tiny little circle and learn I learned about the history of Deerfield, Clarissa's Corner at Wilmont. Who knew? Um I just, you know, I want to I want to keep listening. Um, and I I appreciate all everyone being here tonight, too. Um, because everyone's voice matters in this. And so, it was just a really nice opportunity for us to get out there. So, thank you, Kathy, for organizing them. >> I mean, I' I'd like to echo the same thing

054that Kate said. I think for me as a new board member, this was very eye opening and it was again really humbling to be out in the community and to hear and learn the voices. I'm also a new Deerfield resident 2015, not like many of the residents here that have been residents for 40 years plus. But you I moved to the town because of the schools and talking with the residents in Deerfield. I really learned how much of a generational town this is and how we have generations who had their kids in our schools moved to this area because of the schools and then their kids got went to college and left and then they came back to this area. so that their kids which are you know grandkids now are in in these schools

055and the idea of how it was paid forward to me was really came through when I entered and the passion that people have in Deerfield both for the students their kids their community and the schools really came through. Um I think this is just a really difficult place. I think what I learned is that many residents understand we need to do something. I think at the same time many residents understand that you know taxes and finances aren't in the best places right so I think what I learned is that this is a difficult decision um but people understand the the need the value and just the severity that the buildings are in right now >> um one of the things I got to see and I've been I was on the steering ing committee back

056in 2022. So, it's about three years of this process. And a lot of the people that have had an opportunity to walk some of the buildings, specifically Walden and Wilmont, um kind of walked into it with an idea of what they thought could be done with our campuses, you know, renovations and just making sure spaces are lighter and brighter and then left the tour going, "Wow, I had no idea. I had no idea that the pipes were 18 ft under the ground of the entire wing of Kipling." And so there was just a lot of um open minds and a lot of learning and I appreciate the district putting on the tours and and answering questions. Every person that I spoke to at the farmers market and Patty Turner had really good questions. We funneled

057a lot of questions to the FAQ page. Um Mike answered a ton. Um John had said something at the committee of the whole which just basically referenced the attempt to tick as many boxes as possible. There is no way with the scope of a project this large that we're going to check every box. I don't think that's our ambition. Conversely, we also can't go forward with a project that doesn't check enough boxes. So, I think the mission of this board has been to find that hopefully right space where we're checking conceivably the most amount of boxes we can for kids, for staff, for the community's dollars and their requests um so that this decision could be made with that level of thoughtfulness. Um I um I echo what everyone said. Kathy, could you go back

058to the slide where you have where we are right now? Do you mind? Um [clears throat] one of the things I found very helpful was that you know Kelly mentioned that she was on the steering committee 2000 like three years ago 2022. Um, so to see this, you know, come together in this way after we've had the opportunity to to meet with community members is really has been and I keep like writing more notes and taking more, you know, feedback from the community members. Even tonight, um, it has just been very, it's [clears throat] been very eye openening to me to see the different schools. You know, I'm a I'm a Walden family member, so obviously I'm only in and out of Walden. So, it's really interesting to see the differences in school sizes and

059the differences um in locations, but yet we all of these schools have similar needs. Um, and very similar to what Kelly said, how do we check all these boxes, um, and listen to the community members who have concerns over taxes, who have concerns over spaces. So, it has just been very enlightening to me. I've enjoyed meeting every neighbor. I've enjoyed every conversation because I've learned from all of them. So, I think it's just been really beneficial to me seeing where we are right now and just understanding what the administration has been doing prior to three years ago because it's not just that this came h that happened overnight. I mean, there's been a lot of planning. We've listened through these meetings. The administration has gone back and made changes. So, you know, it's not like

060we threw it out there and we're like, "Okay, this is let's see if it sticks." We've been tweaking it. And I really just want to give you guys credit. um for the t for the hours you've put in and really credit to the community for showing up and asking these questions really tough questions because it really resonates and it helps us to just see where we can you know how we can move forward with this. So, um, and lastly, I want to say that no matter what, I think everybody could agree that education is really important to our community. And I think that's the most important thing, the most important takeaway that I took was just how important education was for everybody because it impacts it it'll impact generations. So, that's my my takeaway. Thanks.

061like um Kelly mentioned the steering committee. Thanks. Um I was on the steering committee before I even joined the board. We had an opportunity. I think Rosie and I were um able to do that. And starting from that point, I remember there was an exercise of all that we there was papers everywhere in this room writing down all of the needs that the schools had and creating this list of dots and what projects could hit this and this and this and this and this and this and this and bringing together a whole group of people trying to figure out what's going to work. I mean, there's an optimal plan, but there's also needs to be compromised, and we need to talk to the community and try and figure out what like, yeah, what's going to

062check the most boxes? There's something I mean, there's so many needs, but there's also financial needs and financial concerns that are going on. And something I heard in these meetings um when we um we went out to the community this time, I was at a couple of them and a lot of the community really heard and understood the needs and felt really concerned about kind of the ask and I appreciate everyone here talking about it. I think there's there's the financial ask and there's what's going to change uh for the schools and are we doing the right things and um how we came to the decisions that we came to or not we I mean the administration really they're asking us to this is all kind of committees and task work and how that came

063to be and I think it's I think it's really right to be asking those questions and I've appreciated that and I've encouraged everyone who I've spoken with that's asked these questions to come and talk to the people that made the decisions and made made the determinations because I think there's been a lot of really great answers and I hope that people will continue to seek out answers for any concerns that they're having and come in with an open mind. Good faith discussion I think is going to go a long way because this community we're we're we're going to be stronger together no matter what we do here and it's important to me that we are doing this together as a community. So I'm just appreciative that everyone's come and talked and feel free to continue

064doing so. I can go quick just I agree with everybody and don't need to rehash what was said. Just things I want I wanted to stress was I just can't stress enough the work that Mike, John, Kathy and the whole team has done to put this together. Again, I'm similar. I haven't been here for 20 years, but in the time I have been here there's a lot of work that has gone on behind the scenes. There's been a lot of listening from the admin administrative team, from the board, and a lot of feedback that's gone into reshaping the plan to get to where it is today. And no matter the outcome of of what happens after the vote today, I will say that the team and the board will continue to listen. So, we still

065want to make sure that we're incorporating feedback and doing what's best for the community with the resources that we have and kind of the the the feel of the community and what we think is is best for our students and our education system here. So, again, thank you all and really thank everybody at this table for all the work that goes on behind the scenes on this. have a couple comments and then a couple things to um to cover as well as it relates to um potential next steps um beyond today's action. So, you know, we obviously represent the entirety of the community, whether you are a parent, whether you are just a a resident um that have had children or grandchildren that have gone through the district um or have not just are a

066member of the of the village in the community that the district in which we um are elected to represent. Um balancing the tax burdens that um that are applied to that community, to the people that we represent. Um and with the oversight of the use of those funds um and balancing those with the mission and vision of ensuring that our kids have the best education that we can possibly provide with the resources that are allocated um by the community is a extremely difficult job. And it's even more difficult um when there are a when there's a lot of uncertainty that exists right in the world. Um, I'm personally, um, you know, I I look at the tax impact of what we potentially, um, what we will be voting on today, and I recognize that for

067my own personal finances that it's, you know, that it's a hard thing to take on. And I'm empathetic to, um, the communications and the feedback that we've gotten from the community and not only empathetic, but I, you know, I feel it personally in terms of what what it is that we're asking. That said, um we also recognize that there are decisions that need to be made and sometimes those decisions are over a longer time period um and impact a longer or a broader future than other decisions and this is one of those that goes out 25 years. Um it will impact not only the taxpayers that currently live in the district but district but members of the community that will live here for that next 25 years. So it is a significant decision. [snorts] We

068do need to take action. And the board, I think, has been consistent on this since we started this initiative, which is the reason why we started the facility planning that we recognize that our facilities are in a in a shape and form in which action needs to be taken of some shape or form. We need to do something, right? And so there's been years of work um and years of discussion that have been that's been going on for the last 5 years um to answer those questions to identify what those needs are of those facilities. identify the needs and desires of the community associated with it and try to figure out the most effective way to do it. But while recognizing that we we have limited resources as a community to be able to apply

069to it, it's not going to get cheaper. Whatever we do, whether we wait, whether we do it now, all right, it's not going to get cheaper if we wait. Our district is in a financial position, the best financial position that it could possibly be in at this point. It's taken us two decades to get here after some significant financial challenges in the early 2000s. Um, and we are not going to be in a better financial position going forward. Every year that goes by, these buildings get more and more expensive to operate and will continue to increase in terms of their cost and our financial or our financial obligations will increase and our financial capability to be able to execute a project of this size is going to get more difficult. So there is a timing

070aspect to to what we do. Now I think there are legitimate um questions right and concerns that are associated with this But it's a like I said earlier, it is a extremely difficult decision. It's not one that I take lightly. I know none of the our my fellow board members take lightly lightly as well. Um but I just recognize that something needs to get needs to happen. We need to do something and otherwise we're just kicking the can down the road and we're going to burden future taxpayers in our village with a much much bigger bill. So that's my um my comment as it as it relates to it. We did meet um last Wednesday. Was it Thursday? >> Thursday. Right. So the task force um of community members and staff members um met last

071Wednesday to take a look at the results um of the survey. Um those were published in our agenda. So if you haven't seen them, you can go to um our website and actually um access those results. Um we we discussed those results. The discussion to reduce the dollar amount wasn't something that came was developed or come up with within that meeting. The administration did some significant heavy lifting to determine and soulsearching as Mike says said it um to determine what we could give up. What were the things that were the really really really nice to haves but we can get by without um based off of the feedback in terms of the tax sensitivity. Um and we did we took those options or the administration put those options in front of the task force. They

072made a committee uh a recommendation related to a couple options that was presented to them in terms of how we were going to reduce the tax burden or the amount that we were asking of the community within this referendum. That recommendation was presented to this board last Thursday in a committee of the whole. We had a pretty lengthy conversation surrounding the results with Paul's help to explain it to us. Um and we took um and we came to a consensus, no action, but came to a consensus that we would be voting on that option that was presented to us by the task force and recommended to us by them um in tonight's uh meeting. So, the dollar amount that I just read off of 87,780 um 87,780 um,000 is the amount that was recommended after

073the reduction of just over $22 million. >> We'll get into the details in a little bit. Paul's going to go over the polling results, show how we kind of got to that. >> I I do want to say this though is that from a role of the board, it doesn't stop here. So if we the the action that we will take tonight and whatever outcome that does o occur or happen in March um the financial oversight and the discipline of this board in terms of the management of its finances will continue. So that is not a blank check. It is not a dollar amount should the voters approve or should we vote to to put it on the ballot tonight and should the voters approve it in March. Um, this board will be committed to

074ensuring that we we remain significantly involved with a high amount of oversight related to the use of those dollars. Um, and we will also be looking at reviewing some designs internally that are being that are being developed to ensure that those meet not only the needs of our children and our staff, but also the needs of our community based off of feedback that we've received associated with that. So there will be additional work that will occur um between now even between now and that referendum should it be put on the ballot um to ensure that we have that oversight. So I just wanted to make those comments. I I find it um extremely difficult to ask for a dollar amount this big. But at the same time I recognize personally that the $177 million do

075nothing option is not a viable option. It just is that $177 million option only is to maintain our buildings. And the reality is is that in once those that infrastructure fails, which it will, um that dollar amount will increase and will only become more expensive if we don't address that in an urgent manner. Sorry, I got ahead of you in terms of the survey results. I should have waited but good evening. Uh again, my name is Paul Hanley, managing director of Beyond Your Base. Um we were responsible for doing the survey, which was both a mail survey and an online survey. It was sent to 8,214 registered voter households. Uh 10 days after it hit mailboxes, we sent out a text message that went to 10,431 registered voters who we identified with the cell phone

076number. And then approximately 10 days after that, we uh did the text message again to try to boost uh participation. And so we ended up with,468 completed surveys. That was an 18% response rate. We usually get um 8 to 17% response rates. So it was above what we normally see. In the end, uh 47% filled out the snail mail version. Uh 28% participated via the QR code and then 25% um completed the survey online via the text. And so in terms of who participated um by gender uh if you look on the bottom left you'll see that you as I mentioned um at the committee the whole that voters are creatures of habit and so when we look at future elections we can predict who's going to show up to vote based on based on

077that. So on the bottom left you see that the upcoming March election will probably be 46% male 54% female. Um and you can see the response rate um in terms of gender 41.8% female 34.7% male and then there were those who com multiple people completed the survey in the household. So 13% uh more than one person completing it. So it skewed a little more female um and I thought that was that made sense given the uh percentage of females who would show up for March. But what we see is that um it always happens uh typically a higher percentage of females uh complete these male surveys. And then as far as age breakdown, so if you look at the middle column again, voters are creatures of habit. So we can look into the future for

078the March 2026 election, who's going to show up to vote based on historical voting records. 8% will be 18 to 34. You kind of go down the list and then you look to the right and then you see the survey respondents. So we we had an under representation relative to the March election of the 18 to 34 year olds and then we had a over representation of the 35 to 54 year olds those green boxes and then at the bottom we had an under representation of the 75 and older. But what's interesting is that the if you look at all of your registered voters um in the district 13% are 75 and older. So that's why it's really matters. These elections are very the turnout is very different from one election to the next in

079terms of age, party affiliation, etc. Um I didn't read anything from this other than we asked the question, what's your neighborhood school? And for those who knew what their neighborhood school, here's the here's the breakdown. Uh if they have a school age, if they have school age children, which schools do they attend? It's going to break down to that. Do you have any grandchildren attending a district 109 school? 6% said yes. How aware of this proposal are you? So, I'm happy when this gets to 70%. That's what we usually see, 70 72ish kind of thing. Uh, here you're at 85%. No some or a lot about this measure. Uh, and I think it's testament to um the effort that was made to try to get the word out and to try to to listen to

080the community. How likely are you to vote? um 93%. Most most folks who participate in these surveys are what I call super voters. They're high propensity voters. And I think you see that in uh in how they're answering that question. Of all the questions that we ask on these surveys, and I've been doing these for 33 years, um this is probably one of the most important because this is what I call a trust question. So, if they gave you a really if they gave you really low grades, you'd never have a chance of passing any kind of tax. But here, you're getting 80% an A or a B and only 13% a CDF. And of all the surveys we've done over 33 years, that 80% is the highest that I've ever seen other than Sunset

081Ridge School District, which was also 80%. But they had a slightly higher A grade. And then we had uh like Wka 36 was like at 77% A and B. So I applaud you on whatever you're doing, keep doing it because um you rarely see these higher grades. But then we ask grade the district facilities and if we saw really high marks then you should be concerned because you would have realized that you didn't get your message out with regard to the qual to the condition of the schools. But what you saw was that a a 30 basis point or 30 percentage point decrease in a grade. Um so again grade the district in general um was much was 30 percentage points higher than that a grade in the facilities. Then we asked about parts of

082the package. And so these were really presented per school. And what you see is that the and it was on a Lykart scale from uh one low priority to five high priority. And then the the far right column is simply taking the 4 + 5 minus 1 + 2 looking at net favorability. So we ordered these based on that. And at the top uh in terms of the mind of the voter, Kipling Elementary School, Wilmont Elementary School, then Walden, then South Park, and then you have the two middle schools uh in terms of um how important these projects are uh to the community. Then we tested arguments for and arguments against. And so the arguments of the ones that resonated most, the one at the top, I'll just read that one first. So portions of

083the aging water and sewer systems beneath District 109 schools have already failed while others are at risk of failure. A major breakdown could shut down a school for months and that's the truth and and voters found that um very persuasive. Second to that was uh multiple security vulnerabilities at the schools. The third one was that the district had skin in the game in terms of half the total cost uh being addressed with non-referendum dollars. You kind of go down the list and then we tested arguments against and when we test arguments against we don't use like softball questions which you can see um property taxes are already too high. That was one of them that that pulled at 62% very convincing. And that's that's much higher than we often see in Illinois because oftentimes in

084this state they're always a little bit higher than many of the states where we work, but this one was particularly high. Uh second to that was that um this concept there were just kind of too many moving parts, too many projects at once. Uh and then the third uh message that resonated was about economic uncertainty. And then lastly, um this one didn't resonate. So it read, while it would be more expensive, more disruptive during construction, all four of district 109's aging elementary schools, not just two, should be replaced. That received only 7% very convincing versus 50% not at all convincing. So then it's rare that um so the question was how confident are you that district 109 would manage funds for a voter approved bond measure responsibly? It's rare that this is a high percentage

085but this um this skew is a little too low. So that 52% is usually in the 60s sometime like with Wana it was like at 67% somewhat are very confident and I think that what's happening is that if you if you had a modest tax impact or you were lucky enough to have debt rolling off that allowed you to do no net tax rate increase that that percentage would be much higher. But those participating in this survey knew that that tax impact um was fairly hefty and so you're paying the price on this page um as a result of that I think. And here you go. So we ask about tax sensitivity and uh here we have 79% were somewhat or very concerned and then only 19% not very or not at all concerned. And

086again, the I've worked on hundreds of tax related referenda for 30 years. And that 79 that 79% should be at a maximum about 55%. That's the most that's the most we'd ever see where we where the referendum was successful. And so you're well beyond that. And you're also you're also at 53% very concerned. So when I saw that, that's one of the first things I look at other than grade the district. Um, I knew that, you know, there would have to be modifications to to have a chance of this passing. So then we asked the ballot question, 121.42 million, improve two elementary schools, replace two elementary schools, improve two middle schools. And we get 43% yes, 49% no. Usually looking for 56 to 58% support. on the yes um in in addition to just the

087total yes, I I always look at the what I call the intensity of it all. So definitely yes versus definitely no. And for those that have been successful in the past, that definitely yes usually needs to be 30% or higher. And that definitely no is you is usually never exceeding uh 20 to 25%. Here you're at 36%. Um so for that particular question, the $121 million ballot measure, now we look at support across various demographics. So males are slightly less supportive than females and it's common for for male voters to be less supportive than female voters when it comes to tax related referenda other than fire districts. Um but um what what concerned me the most in terms of your chances of success are the low number for females. So this is usually much higher

088than 48%. Whereas 40 whereas the 44% sometimes I see that even you know even in highly successful referenda and then for those who filled out the survey together we're at 47% support. I would expect that to be actually lower because when when a couple works together um to fill out one of these surveys and it comes to to taxes, they usually air on the side of being more conservative with their monies. And so I would would have expected that actually to be a lower number. So then we look at um do you have a school-aged child? And those who do 42% yes. Those who don't 44% yes. So that so normally when you look at this you're wanting that those who have a school-aged child their support level to be in the high 60s to

089low 70s and you're at 42%. And then I and then the other thing was just I immediately I hit I work with a data scientist who's on my team who's been to some of these task force meetings um and I said what what's happening here? why how could there be more support from those who don't have kids? And he went back and he said, "It's the high school parent and it's the middle school parent." So that the high school parent who no longer has kids in elementary, no longer has kids in middle school, um is shifting to a no vote. And some of those middle even some of those middle school parents are shifting to a no vote. Um and then as far as support from if you have a grandchild in the district 46%

090support and we look at support across age when I look at this I think I it usually looks like a so these gray bars are this is p you know the the grays bars are yes votes the orangey bars are no typically those gray bars would kind of start up in the high 60s7s and they'd come down and then they'd kind of dip up and so but right in beginning, even with the younger voters, you're not you're getting to 50% a little bit above 50%. And then at the 45 to 54, you're usually you're usually at 50% support. And then 56 55 to 64 year olds never never met a tax they liked. So they're always kind of below 50%. And then and then what happens is you get a grandparent effect where you get

091a little bit of a bump which happened but it's um not as big of a bump as you would normally see. And then we look at support um you know based on students in in various schools. And here as I mentioned before look at look at Shephard support level parents who have a kid at Shephard it's relative you know pretty low and then same with Deerfield High School District. Um but there aren't again we we want those other you know those other schools even the middle schools to be you know higher than what you're seeing. Um, and then again, we ask folks like, "What's your neighborhood school?" And we can see that uh across the board, we're not we're not getting to 50%. Um, are likely voters more supportive than unlikely voters? Uh, yes. And

092when we say, well, who how did you determine who a likely voter is? So on the ma those who completed the snail mail survey um there was an envelope inside and on that envelope was a little dot if um if there were a likely vote if they based on historical voting records if if there was a likely voter in that home. So that's how I knew with with them. And then on the those who completed it online I had to rely on those indicating that they were very likely to participate in the March election. Um you know do some people lie? Sure. Um but the reality is that um this usually shakes out accurately in terms of likely versus unlikely voter. So here you're seeing those likely to vote in March a little more supportive

093than those not likely to uh vote in March. To me that was actually kind of surprising and that unlikely voters are usually more supportive because they skew younger. Uh this is like the most this is to me is um being a data geek was like kind of amazing. Um, if you are somewhat or very concerned about the tax, you're at 31% support. If you are not very or not at all concerned about the tax, you're at 92% support. It's like, whoa, I've never seen that disparity between the two like that. Um, so then we tested 153.6 million. Um the task force said I said you know normally we'd want to test a smaller amount than the than your main plan and the task force recommend let's test the four school new schools because we know

094that um it would be a pretty amazing project if all four schools were completely um uh replaced. And so we tested the 153.6 million and we get to 26% support versus 65% against. And you know that was you know obviously not not supported even lower than the previous one. Um so I'm going to skip to the main page here. So in summary um I'll just read it. So district 109 should consider options for reducing the size of the referendum and applicable tax impact given the core findings of the survey. So first the level of support for the 121 million did not reach the 56 to 58% range that we typically want. Tax sensitivity is very high. Uh support from the district's base parents and grandparents was weak. Um large percentage of the respondents are concerned

095about the scope of the proposed improvements. And then if you looked at those liyker scales it appears that there's a split between the priority that folks place on the various projects. Um, so with that, be happy to answer any questions that you might have. >> Yeah, as I mentioned before, we we've had multiple conversations with Paul and last week we spent several hours with him asking questions. So, if we're not asking questions, it's not because we haven't. It's just we already have. [laughter] Excellent. Thank you. >> Thanks, Paul. So the uh task uh based off of uh polling feedback was um how could we reduce uh the tax impact uh of any potential referendum. Um and what you see on the left uh is the original uh 2 plus two plan and the associated tax

096impact. Um and it had a $536 uh impact per $10,000 of taxes paid. Um, and so to to provide some context for understanding how we could uh reduce the tax impact, it's important to revisit how we would fund uh these projects. And there's uh three buckets of funds available uh for the board to fund these projects. The first being cash on hand or fund balance. Those are the resources the district has proactively set aside and will continue to set aside throughout the duration of this construction plan. Um and those were unchanged in this plan. Uh the second is issuing what are called alternate bonds. So it's a form of borrowing available to the board that's backed with uh the operating capital of the district. So using the district's existing budget authority to pay back bond

097principle and interest to raise funds that are necessary for this project. And then the last piece is a referendum bond issue. So you can see we looked at two different proposals how we could uh pull down the referendum ask of the community. Um the the middle column represents uh the project scope being unchanged but the district reaching a bit further in issuing a greater uh sum of alternate bonds. Um and uh some of the questions that the task force had and the board had uh relative to that is you know what are the risks uh that the district faces when the district issues alternate bonds and you know chiefly it's that the district needs to continue to maintain exceptional financial discipline. Um there are any number of risks uh that are available to the district.

098Um some of them are outside the span of control of the district, some are within the span of control of the district. So when we think about issues that might be outside the span of control for the district, we typically think about unfunded mandates. So a good example that was discussed this evening was a requirement to install, you know, additional safety measures on school buses. The state says you must do that, but we will not fund any of that. So you're going to need to find local capital to do that. Um but there are other issues you know in terms of uh you know growing scope of uh district programming things that you know folks might want you know adding TAS here uh you know to classrooms uh and so on down the line. Um

099so again you know just to reiterate you know the discussion was that you know we have to maintain exceptional fiscal discipline to be able to increase the scope of those alternate bond issue. Um, so that center uh column would bring the tax impact down to $450 per 10,000. Um, but that was not uh significant enough uh in the estimation of uh the task force and the board to uh bring down the tax impact uh substantially based off of the feedback of the community. So the task then became uh increasing alternate bonds but also uh reducing the scope of the project by uh just over $22 million. And what that did was bring the referendum ask down to $87.7 million and that tax impact comes down 33% to $359 per $10,000 of taxes paid. We looked

100at additional cuts um uh but when we uh contemplated what that would look like um you know we were we were cutting down pretty far. So this gives you a sense on this slide of the uh um portion of what the district would be contributing. So the original plan had the district contributing just over 50% of the funds. Here it's over 60% in the revised proposal. So uh as we looked at what we could cut, um it's important to revisit how this project started. Um and it started all the way back in 2021. There were really two pieces to it. Uh one was a facility assessment by the district's architects and engineers to understand uh from a from the standpoint of mechanical, plumbing, electrical, what was the condition of these facilities. And we started by

101saying, you know, as we looked at these cuts, we cannot cut any piece of what was recommended because we know we have issues uh with our plumbing that uh a failure is going to put kids out of school for months at a time and back to remote learning. um and we know we have insufficient electrical. So we started we said we really can't cut any scope of uh of the infrastructure needs of these buildings. Um the other piece of the assessment in 2021 was to ask and answer how well our facilities were supporting the education of our students. Um and where we understood we could not cut was we had insufficient spaces to serve our students for their core educational classes. Our classrooms were too small. We had too few classrooms and we had insufficient

102facilities to support special education needs of our students. So, we were not going to cut there. Where we did find uh an area that we could reduce the scope was in uh the number of multi-purpose rooms at the uh renovated or reconstructed elementary schools. So, currently each of the schools has a gym and they have a multi-purpose room uh that doubles as uh their cafeteria during the day. That was something that came out from the teachers and from our uh building administrators as a real challenge. Uh but we looked at this and said that was a big piece of the uh uh project that we could pull back on um that we could look at uh doing as a bid alternate. So if uh contingency funds were available or we were trending better on budget

103for these projects, we could do them now. Otherwise, we could design these facilities and know exactly where those spaces would go in the future when resources allowed. We also looked at scaling back um adding some additional futurep proofing to our elementary schools. So we had allowances in our plumbing budget to bring water, air, gas into a number of our classroom spaces that would have allowed to grow our STEM program in the our elementary schools. That's not something that's on the table right now, but it was something that we were considering if we're doing all of this work. Should we futureproof these buildings to do that? um we can cut back on that scope and it could be something that the district could add in the future if needed. Um we looked at saving some of

104the newer boiler plants at uh the uh South Park and Kipling schools. Um it's more difficult for our contractors to tie into some of that old equipment, but even that equipment, the units themselves are not old, so we can save some money there. and we looked at simplifying our playgrounds where possible and then pulling back on some of our temporary construction needs um as we got closer to our construction date. Um we also talked about what would you know uh the impact be of of of waiting and delaying and pushing this project down. And the biggest piece uh you know there's two big pieces. Um you know first you know the district is subject to a tax cap. So the district's revenue is going to grow by the lesser of the consumer price index or

1055% whichever is less. We know construction cost escalation trends at 4% each year. So the cost of these projects is going to continue to outpace the district's ability to uh marshall resources to fund them. And on the scope of what we are looking for, it's about $9 million for every year that the district waits to address these issues. We know our risk of a catastrophic event is high. Uh we have already blown the main uh uh plumbing line to um uh we've mo we've blown the main supply line to South Park twice. Um we contemplated closing school one day. We were able to limp it along and make uh sure that we kept school open, but those were breaks outside of the structure. If those breaks occur in the structure or we have a sewer

106backup where we know we already have breaks in the plumbing within our elementary schools, we are talking about being out of school for months. Um and we don't have anywhere to put our kids. Um we cannot stand up remote classrooms overnight. So we're looking at an online learning uh if that were to occur. U we know we have significant HVAC challenges. On Monday we had uh a high number of classrooms that were uh in the low 60s uh when we had that cold snap earlier uh this week. And we know we have overcrowding at Walden which is an issue unless we address it uh substantially. Um so um when the task force came together, Paul brought them into groups and asked them to answer two questions. Um the first was the timing question. When do

107you think um the district should consider placing a referendum on the ballot? And um if so what approach do you prefer and they came to consensus which doesn't mean um complete yeah not unanimous but um consensus that March 2026 was the time um and the proposal that they recommended was the downsizing um the scope as well as increasing the district's contribution to the referendum. So, the ballot question based on the recommendation, um it's legally required wording. Um people saw it in the um survey in the polling question. Um, but we want to make sure that if the board does move forward, we continue to share this question because it's what voters will see on the ballot. Um, but it is legally required wording. Um, so what's next? Um if the board does choose to place

108this referendum on the ballot tonight, um the website will continue to be the hub of information and we'll direct people there um to include all the information um presentations um including this presentation tonight. We'll continue sending mailers, emailers, social media um and we'll have those information sessions. Our goal would be um to have informed voters, to make sure every voting community member um knows when and where they can vote, get out the vote, and that they have all the information they need to make the decision that's best for their situation. Um so we already have information sessions penciled in. Um if we move forward, we will start promoting those and inviting the community to listen, learn, ask questions. Um board members, looking forward to spending more time with you throughout the winter if this happens.

109Um but and we expect those to grow. Um, John and Mike and I have committed to going anywhere, anytime to answer questions, share information, um, sit down on a couch and have a conversation or do a full presentation. >> John, I got a question. Um, since the HVAC uh, came up tonight, um, what's the end of life date on those? >> Uh, in the next several years. They have a 15-year ashy lifespan and they are in poor condition. >> So, I just want to point out because I unfortunately know more about our HVAC system than I probably should because of the COVID years. Um, but um the retrofit that we did on those um obviously those buildings weren't designed for those HVAC systems. So, it was a bit of a retrofit of that which puts

110additional strain on those systems. Um and the opening that we did during the COVID years to bring additional fresh air into those buildings also probably added to um to some of that they're continually breaking down. I know it's an issue that we've had um consistently that even the board has been aware of for for the last several years. So um and that's a significant dollar amount um that is going to be coming up here in what a few years, right? some >> um I just want to share one observation I wrote down when Paul was reviewing the data again with us was just that um highlight of the grading on the district with the A and the B grading and I just want to reference the fact that that is a massive testament to our

111staff and our principles in touring these spaces and meeting with the principles and talking with teachers or parents that volunteer in the building. you know, they are making do tremendously with some very potentially tight spaces, spaces that weren't intended for learning, um, spaces where the copier sitting outside of their classroom. Um, so I just think it's a massive testament to our staff that despite some of the challenges that they face, cold classrooms, etc., that these kids are thriving and learning. So, thank you to them. Um, and then kind of referencing Ryan, I remember my oldest, who's now in college, attending 109 schools before the air conditioning went in and Jan Sabin in her final year of teaching. Um, I I we had to get her sat down with ice packs. It was so hot in

112the classroom. So, I know we needed to have air conditioning to support our staff and our kiddos. Um, but those units have an end of life. And I appreciate you bringing that up. >> John, quick question for you, actually, too. Um, you mentioned failures a few times. I feel like since August, every month when we come to the meeting, there's some sort of failure with piping or in the schools. Off the top of your head, do you have an estimate of how many failures we've had year to date with school? >> Depends on the type. I mean, we know um we know we have several breaks in the main sewer piping. We've came all of those lines. Um, so it's only a matter of time before it gets worse. Um, South Park has blown the

113main supply line twice uh in the past 12 months and we are chasing HVAC issues on a near constant basis. Um, and no matter what our guys do and they do a great job, um, our systems are at end of life uh, and need to be replaced. >> And John, what's the cost of that replacement? >> Uh, in excess of $30 million. uh and you won't be happy with the product that you get. We'll do the best that we can, but the buildings were not designed for air conditioning. Um and you know, they don't need a summer retrofit. They need, you know, open heart surgery. They need to go stem to stern and do it the right way. >> And can you clarify again, if we know we have these breaks in these uh sewer

114lines, for example, we can scope them and we can see them. Can you talk about why that can't be a summer project? Yeah. Um, so it's our our elementary schools, all of our schools, but particularly the elementary schools, uh, each tells its own story. Um, but they were all constructed in, uh, the case of Kipling in the late 40s, uh, the other buildings in the early 50s and they started out much smaller than they are now. Um, so where, uh, the main sewer piping may have been accessible on the exterior of the building. Um, so you know, think about your home. You can dig up dig up the front yard, replace that piping. Um, think about digging up the parking lot, replacing that piping. The buildings have grown in their scope over >> just be

115quiet while we're trying to have our meeting. Thank you. There will be time for comment later. >> The uh buildings have grown in their scope over time. Uh, so the buildings have been built on over all of those sections of pipe. Um, and those are not things that we can get to. Um we need heavy equipment in the buildings and it's not something that we can do when we do a summer project. We have 38 days to do construction. Um we cannot in in any way, shape or form come into the buildings and replace all of that piping rit large in a summer project. Um again, you know, alternatives get everybody out for a year. Um looked at other options of trying to segment the buildings and move kids out and into quarters or thirds

116and put, you know, a quarter or a third of the building in remote classrooms and try to renovate. But you run into issues where you're stretching out uh the the the length of construction such that an elementary student is going to be living through construction the majority of their elementary career and you're also going to be doing heavy construction immediately adjacent to the classrooms where our students are uh learning. >> Thanks John for the detail. One other question um you mentioned the bid alternate and I think to decrease the scope by 22.2 2 million. We had to eliminate the extra multi-purpose room. >> I think we talked about the committee at the whole meeting where we would have an option within a potential new construction where we would have a space for it. So, it's

117not like we're eliminating the idea completely. It's just for this project and for the next, you know, what's included in the referendum and what's on our docket for the next 10 to 15 years. That would not be a part of it. But we do have space for it. >> Absolutely. So that the architects would be tasked with designing exactly where that space would go at all four elementary campuses. So if funds allowed uh and uh bid numbers were favorable, we could do that work now. Um if not, then that could be something the district could revisit later. >> Thank you. >> Um construction question. You've referenced a few times um if things were to go south about the heavy construction that would be likely being done while kids are learning. The proposal references two campuses

118on one property um for at least a year or I think exactly a year. >> What makes that potentially different in terms of this heavy construction concerns with students on campus? Is there a difference because of the timing? What what why is it different? >> Yeah, the major difference is that we are not moving our students in and out of an active construction zone. Though in a scenario where you would renovate the school over a period of years, you would have to erect uh on the same campus a location where you could house a number of mobile classrooms sufficient to house a quarter or a third of students. Uh but those kids still need to be accessing some of the other larger spaces for their education, right? They're going to need to come into the

119building to access the cafeteria for lunch. They need to access the gymnasium for um you know, physical education classes. they need the art room. If students have special needs and they need need to meet with a specialist, they're going to be moving in and out of those uh uh tempor temporary classrooms um throughout construction. Whereas, if you go with uh constructing a facility that's immediately adjacent, we can fence off that zone. We'll be close and proximate to the building, but that building will go up. Students will have all of the normal amenities that they have today. They'll still have access to before and after care through the park district. they'll still be able to access playgrounds on site. And even when we're living with two uh entities on one campus, we do have to stagger

120arrival and dismissal. And our staff will have to live with some parking pain where we may have to park them off site and bring them to the campus so that we have sufficient parking on campus. But none of those core amenities that our students need to learn uh are going to be impacted because they will be within the walls of our facilities. >> And then sorry, Ray, one more thing. And then um with the Walden and Wilmont proposals of keeping the current campus while putting up the new building, when those kids come to school in August or September, what will have been done construction-wise to make it less disruptive to their learning during the school year? What what does that look like? >> Yeah. So, on the timeline that we're on, um in uh spring

121and early summer, um the uh contractor can begin the the heavy uh loud work, which is all of your site work, right? Um so, think, you know, uh digging, uh putting in um our footings, um starting to do all of the things that need to happen so that we can go up. Um so, that's the that's the noisy stuff. Uh that's the dusty stuff. Um, we can do that when school's not in s in session. Uh, and then then the walls start to go up and we get that building weathered in before the wintertime. Uh, so that then they're working on the interior of the building throughout the majority of the school year. Um, so that we're going to hit our target to open for the following year. >> Um, I just wanted to, I

122guess, make one a couple observations here. There's been talk about the HVAC systems that were installed in the past and how we're not going to be able to save them during our uh and this has come up in multiple discussions too like the GMA at Wilmont which is also a relatively new construction. I did want to make an observation I think that was really nice of that redesign of Wilmont how we are now trying to save the GMA right which I think is a testament to the fact that we are trying to save investments that we have put into our district over the last 15 or 20 years. So I think that's really commendable there. And again just another observation last year when I realized Wilmont was going to be closed during a a cold

123day and I was looking outside and there wasn't any snow on the ground and it was sunny. Granted it was zero degrees. I didn't realize that school was almost going to get cancelled because my kids classroom wasn't coming up to temp. Right. So, I think none of us living here in Deerfield or when we moved to Deerfield expected our kids to stay home because our classrooms couldn't come to the right temperature, right? So, I think, you know, again, it's just a testament to the fact that our facilities definitely need some work. So, I have um two questions. um almost sort of piggybacking off what Ry just said, if um and this might be this is a hypothetical. So if we were to have um disruption to a particular school um whereas the school would have

124to close for whatever time period, a week or two weeks or uh whatever, however long the repair would take, how would the school year look for that particular school? Would you have to extend the school year for just one school? Um, how would that look for our students and our staff? >> Yeah, this has come up. Uh, Ray mentioned the the the cold. We are the only district on the call that uh multiple any number of districts um on that call. We're the only ones that we're talking about needing to cancel because of cold. in terms of our infrastructure. If we have a failure, so if we have a sewer failure or if the pipe at Walden breaks on the interior rather than on the exterior, we would go remote. We would be it would

125be back to a COVID like learning experience for those students. And I uh we had a callu uh this week with a number of parents um number of parent leaders and it made the point really clear. We won't be remote for a day or two. We will be remote for months and uh one of the parents had not lived through um uh COVID with her children. She now has school age children. He said, "Man, we had one day where the kids were remote uh with her child." and they said, "Man, this she has a her own home business. It is spectacularly disruptive. Gives people an appreciation for how hard teachers work and how hard our staff work, but it is extraordinarily taxing on families. And so, I mean, it's a very real possibility and something

126that that's one of the one of the worries of a delay is that we know that we have infrastructure needs that we need to address right away. We also know that Walden is both a place where we have failing infrastructure and it's incredibly small right now and we're it's the only building that I go into to talk to the principal and we are asked to leave the principal's office so they can conduct a specific instruction with an individual child and we would continue that and at you know a delay from March to November mber would cost an additional $9 million. It would also extend the project out an entire year. >> Thank you. And then one last question. Um with the um reduction and uh the alternate bit of the MPRs, what would lunch look

127like in those schools for um >> Yeah, it would not be a change from what life is like today in the elementary schools. It just wouldn't be an improvement. Okay. So there's still two. The idea was we were going to do three. >> Correct. Gotcha. Um, so I'm I'm definitely sensitive about the taxes. So I have a question. We we brought it down to a a number that felt like it could be okay. What happened? What if we wanted to go lower, right, to be even more sensitive? What what would happen? What would we be losing potentially? Or is there any way I think I I want is there anything we could be doing to get it even lower? What would that cost us? Yeah, this question came up uh at the task force and

128was answered by the architect. The only thing that's left to cut is classroom space. So, you're cutting the numbers of classrooms or you're cutting the numbers of spaces that would be supporting, you know, special education students. So, we're cutting into the core of what we said were the real significant challenges that needed to be solved. I think related to that question, I know it came up and I think John be probably best for you to answer this is why didn't we um contemplate all bonding out for the additional 112 million in the first place? Um and what's the impact to the operational budget um over the next 20 years if we do that? >> Yeah. Um I mean we we spoke of risk um and the the you know when I think of risk to

129the district's revenue I think um you know, probably four areas chiefly. Um, uh, you know, first is is, you know, exactly what we talked about earlier, which is, um, you know, scope increasing of the services that the district is asked or required to provide, right? Um, some of that can be our own doing, uh, in terms of programming that we may want to offer in the future that we're not offering today. Some of that can be outside the span of control in the form of unfunded mandates. Um the district is fortunate to be in Lake County. Um and uh you know the Lake County Treasurer's Office uh you know distributes taxes in a timely manner unlike Cook County. Um and the district is able to and has historically earned interest on funds until they are

130needed. Uh and you know if we went down to a near zero rate environment that could be a challenge to the district's revenue. Uh but also you know one of the reasons that the district has been able to set aside resources and funds is that we have been directing uh you know sizable sums of money uh to capital projects over the years to keep the buildings going um because we have been receiving state and federal funding uh on a regular basis. We receive about $2 million in state funding and about $900,000 in federal funding. So if either one of those buckets were to go away in the future, those would be challenges as well. So, it's about reaching as far as the district can reach on those alternate bonds um while feeling confident that we're

131not uh you know uh mortgaging the district's future uh and being mindful of if things are going south and they're not going in a direction that uh is is good for the district, we have the appropriate, you know, relief valves in the future. Um and so that's why, you know, we're we're just increasing our risk, you know. um >> that that risk level though I mean I think in our discussions your opinion was that it is still a manageable risk. It's just not the ideal level where we would have loved to have been at this point. >> Yeah, we I mean we've tested it out of course um you know and and we're able to sustain it but if any one of those pieces comes in it becomes more challenging um and we just we

132really need to be mindful of that. because there are offsets. So like just like you're talking about then risks of a zero interest rate environment, there's actually the opposite side of it of when we all bond out where the interest rates are going to be. Right. Right. You've talked about the contingency funds of whether or not we can come in better, right, than we've estimated in terms of bidding, right? Um and those types of things. And then there's also unknown external impacts or additional sources of revenue that may come in the future that we may not be um privy to today. Correct. Right. Any other questions or discussion? So, one uh Mike and I did connect uh we will be discussing um scheduling an additional committee of the whole should we decide today to put

133this on um on the ballot to discuss the role of the board going forward in terms of the oversight of those funings should it pass um should the referendum pass. um as well as an opportunity I think for us to take a look at the detailed u designs the internals right to ensure that there's alignment there so I just wanted to make sure that everybody knew because I know that was a previous conversation topic all right thanks everybody right next on our agenda are the action items um first on the action items 8.1 consent agenda 8.1.1 1 approval of meeting minutes regular and close session minutes from from November 20th 2025 8.1.2 personnel 8.1.2.1 Resignations and retirements 8.1.2.2 Leaves of absence 8.1.2.3 employment of certified staff 8.1.2.4 employment of educational support staff 8.1.2.5 2.5 employment

134of at will staff and 8.13 bills for payment. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Bonner, >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mir. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> And president. >> I. Motion carries. >> 8.2 treasures report. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. Dr. Dornfeld. Hi, >> Miss Jakamu. Hi, >> Miss Joyce. Hi, >> Mr. Mirab. Hi, >> Mr. Abraham. Hi, >> Miss Bonner. Hi, and President Cole. >> I motion carries. >> 8.3 Approval of dismissal of probationary educational support personnel for reasons other than a riff. >> May I have a motion to approve? >>

135So, move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Jakamu. I >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Murk. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi, >> Miss Bonner. >> I >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> And President Cole, >> hi. >> Motion carries. >> 8.4 interim administrator agreement. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Murk. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> Miss Bonner. >> Hi. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jacamu. >> Hi. >> And President W. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> 8.5 FY26 school maintenance grant. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Murev. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> Miss

136Bonner. >> Hi. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> And President Qu. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> 8.6. Approval of the Cisco secure access. May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abraham. >> I. >> Miss Bonner. >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> M. [laughter] >> She's got me confused. >> Sorry, I'm just showing him something. I [clears throat] >> Miss Drace. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mir. >> Hi. >> And President G. I. >> Motion carries. >> 8.7 FY27 budget calendar. May I have a motion to approve? >> I think I I screwed you up and that's my fault. We missed Cisco. >> So you have to make

137the motion. Oh, >> no. We just did Cisco. >> We have Yeah, we just >> I'm jumping ahead to 10. >> This is my 88. My >> It's not your fault. It's fine. [laughter] >> I'm jumping ahead to 10. >> All right. >> Sorry about that, Becky. We're 8.7. >> 8.7 FY27 budget calendar. May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Bonner, >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. [clears throat] >> I. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Murv. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> And President Co. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> 8.8 ate public act 103-0394, the reserve reduction plan. May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >>

138Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jacamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mirab. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> Miss Bonner. >> Hi. >> And President Qu. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> 8.9 Memorandum of Understanding Deerfield Education Association. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Jakamu. >> I. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Merev. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> Miss Bonner. I, Dr. Dornfeld, and President Quo. >> I motion carries. >> 8.10 resolution approving the withdrawal of Deerfield Public School District 109 from the True North Educational Cooperative 804 effective July 1st, 2027. And before I ask for a motion, I know Kelly would like to say something. >> Thank you. I'm sorry that I

139screwed everything up. Um, the DPS 109 school board president has assigned me to represent our district on the True North Leadership Council. In that representation, I have been voted to serve as the True North Leadership Council board president. Given that specific role and my desire to balance the best interests of district 109 with the delicacy of leading 18 member districts in board work, um I plan on abstaining from this evening's vote. Thank you. >> May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Joyce. >> I. >> Mr. Mira. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> I. >> Miss Bonner. >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Abstain. >> President Quell. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> 8.11. B-annual review of closed session meeting

140uh minutes in accordance with the open meetings act. The board president and and secretary reviews minutes of closed session meetings semiannually. If the substance of the minutes no longer needs to remain confidential, the board may choose to open the minutes to the public. In certain instances, information protected by law may be reducted from the disclosed minutes. Close session meetings recorded on May 15, 2025, May 19th, 2025, June 17th, 2025, and October 16th, 2025 were reviewed. The recommendation is for the minutes to remain closed. May I have a motion to approve? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Mirev. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> I. >> Miss Bonner. >> Hi. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. Hi. >> And President Qu. Hi. >> Motion

141carries. The board of education will next consider the adoption of a resolution providing for and requiring the submission of the proposition of issuing school school building bonds to the voters of the district at a general primary election to be held on March 17th, 2026. The board secretary will now read by title a resolution as follows. Resolution providing for and requiring the submission of the proposition of issuing $87,780,000 school building bonds to the voters of school district number 109, Lake County, Illinois at the general primary election to be held on the 17th day of March, 2026. >> May I have a motion to approve this resolution? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abraham, >> I. Miss Bonner >> I >> Dr. Dornfeld >> hi >> Miss Jakamu >> I >> Miss

142Joyce >> I >> Mr. Mirab >> I >> and President Qu >> I declare the motion carried the resolution is adopted and we'll now proceed with the executing of the document for signature. There is a section. Lots of people here. here. He doesn't >> on the next one. >> You said it was page seven. >> Secretary I have to sign. >> Yeah, they're both secretary pages. >> I don't think there's a requirement for >> Good, right? >> Yep. >> Secretary, county clerk Secretary County. >> Okay. >> Next on the agenda, committee reports. >> Um, yeah, I'll be brief. We had a True North board meeting last night. It was our final leadership council meeting. Uh starting in January, the executive committee will uh take over the day-to-day responsibilities of uh True North and the governing

143board will meet at minimum two times a year per school code. And um it was a big milestone in the cooperative given everything um that has happened over the past year and a half. Everything from 18 districts withdrawing at the same time to conversations regarding disillusion. So to be at the stage that the cooperative is at today is a really really good thing for kids um and a testament to the work that people put into it. So uh and one other thing we did last night was uh renew the interim executive director contracts for Dr. Ganell and Mr. Nelson who are currently serving a full year to provide that continuity while the organization um starts a new um and everyone's very excited about that. They've been very good leaders. um policy met last week. Um

144thank you Dale for making it so organized for us to go over. Reviewed uh some policies that we hadn't seen in a while. We make sure to do it on an annual schedule. Um we revised some things that will be kind of our structure moving forward and uh things are looking positive. Thanks to Thank you, Kate and Ray. All right. We have a EDC meeting set up I think for late Jul January. So coming upcoming. Yep. Any others? All right. Uh next is our second opportunity for open community participation. We take all public comment ser very seriously. And while public comment isn't a back and forth, but rather an opportunity for the board to listen, please know we listen carefully. The second period of community participation near the end of this meeting is open for

145all matters. If you wish to comment, please fill out a community participation form or after you comment, you can turn it in located on the podium and hand it to Rebecca Rudd. We will call you up one at a time to the podium and speak. Please limit to the length of all comments to no more than 3 minutes. Would somebody like to comment? My name's Alen Weiss, 1344 Laurel. I've been in the community for about 48 years. raised my kids. They raised they went to South Park and all the way through. I have my grandchildren also. I'm in that 6%. Um uh it remind it it kind of reminded me of uh when I was in high school, I went to the uh the Nile School District and um where I said west was best,

146east was least, and north was air conditioned. [laughter] and and Barry and I think would agree that I don't think that he got better education than me because uh Niles West was not air conditioned. So we you know [clears throat] look I don't want to be a Monday morning quarterback and but I want to give my uh give up my cognitive dissonance coming in here. I respect all of you but the kind of work you've put into this. Um but um why it seems like these excuse me the tax you have this tax sensitivity I really respected what you you know your your survey was very thorough and uh but 18% how much does that relate to the whole community and if you have this tax sensitivity that's going on why you know what and

147why you made this decision as sign of the consensus. Um, why are you doing it on March 26? Why not in November? You know, it's it from my point of view, it's coming in late. It's like the fix is kind of in feel you could get this past best in in March rather than November. I don't I'd like to know you like what what is the rush? Why can't it wait till you're going to have a a larger turnout? That would be one of my questions. And that this decision wasn't made in a vacuum. Um, you have so many other things. I wonder if we had a choice. Look, 80% 80% of the people that answered the survey said that the important there was the it was important in schools, but was there a question

148how important was it to build a new school versus repairing what we have? And I I also I have another question. If you had a choice between doing Walden or if you had to make the choice between Walden and Wilmont, which one would you make? It seems like Walden is more urgent than Wilmont, but I might be wrong. Um, and the referendum, it wasn't it's not these tax situations are not are not done in a in a vacuum. What if um there was a choice between fixing our elementary schools or putting in the pool and a gym in the high school or um putting more money into the police department? I mean, all of this goes into the whole factors of why our taxes are so high and people are are resentful and they're resistant

149to putting this where this is, you know, really legitimate. So, those are my questions. Any [bell] other comments? >> Am I allowed to speak again? >> Yeah. >> Y I love you all so much. Well, at least you, John. [laughter] Um I I I too appreciated the survey. Um, I just want to take issue and I mentioned this before when you had this question about the district having skin in the game. I think that uh for your survey purposes, you might want to reward that because it's not really the district's money. It's our money. So when we talk about the district, oh the district's going to fund put so much money for this, you know, into this refer this project, it's it's our money because you have taxed us excessively year after year after year

150with the levy. And I am concerned then when we talk about the bonds and the risk and who knows what's going to happen in this crazy economy. I'm very concerned that not only are you going to tax us for this extra money for 25 years, but then you're going to start raising the levy so that you can meet whatever you need to meet for the reserves and to pay off the bonds. I know you can only do it up to 5%, but I don't hear anybody anybody on this board talking about we understand how significant the levy is and we commit to not raising it past whatever percent. Legally, you can go up to five, but this is a wild and crazy world we're living in. I also want to take issue with Mr. Simick,

151the superintendent. I believe you're supposed to be a neutral party here. This is supposed to be the board's vision for this district. We elected them. We did not elect you. I believe that when you sat there and you started asking questions, you were steering the board into a decision that you wanted. This project is made in haste and it is because it seems to me that 109 wants it. I don't really know what the board members want. They seem to want what you tell them to want. Remember board members, we elected you to represent us. All the stakeholders from the senior citizens down to the 18 year olds. We all have a voting piece in this. And we will all remember you when you come up for reelection. We elected you, not him. This should

152not be what he wants or what 109 wants. This should be what the people want, what the community wants. And you have heard we do not want this at all. But if you must do something, we want you to put it on a November ballot. And honestly, I think your conscience would be more clear if you knew that you had more voting members agreeing to it or disagreeing to it in a November ballot than sneaking it in when you know there is low voter turnout. Thank you. Thank you. >> Any other comments? >> Okay, >> I'll fill out a file, but I didn't I didn't prepare anything. So So this is a little little off the cuff. You can start the timer. Um Jason Con, >> I'm on Milstone Road. Uh Deerfield for some time.

153Um yeah, just a couple of observations. like I you know the survey speaks for itself but you know the vote was passed you know the I guess it goes on the March March ballot which is which is fine that's that's what's going to I I thought you brought up some very good points um I I guess my concern now like I think we we all want we all know that the schools are in disrepair um whether it passes in March or not like that'll be up to the community but you know I really even given the results of that survey really concerned like what happens like maybe coming down from 110 to 87 or whatever it was like that's fine. I don't know if it's enough. I'm not exactly personally I'm not like I mean

154that was like that's probably $150 a person or per 500, you know, per um per residence or whatever. But um which isn't a lot because Lake County is going to raise our taxes much more than that. We we've seen over the years. Um I just hope we haven't I just hope we haven't cut more than like we need to. I mean, we're we need the investment whether it's if 120 million gets it or 110 million gets it. Perhaps we should have considered that giving in a little bit. It just hopefully it doesn't make the voters think that, oh, well, there's a little bit more. You know, they're still they're still not set on how much it's going to cost. But that's really beside the point. I guess my main concern is, you know, if it

155doesn't pass, like what happens? Like maybe it happens if it's happening in March. Hopefully that's enough time for this team and the steering committee and the members of the community to really rally support around it. And you know, I hope our schools do see the improvements at this point. You know, perhaps I hope it passes. I'm not happy about the the taxes, but we do know that our schools need the support. And if it fails or like the overwhelming voters follow the survey results, then what? I mean, I I just hope that it doesn't say, "Well, the community voted and they don't want improvements and and I I hope that that's not the takeaway from this this team because the community does want better schools and they do want investment. I'm sure despite the grumblings

156around tax, like nobody wants their taxes raised, but we do know that the schools need infrastructure. We know that maintenance costs will cost more over time, you know, we know we can't sustain hundred-y old buildings. Um, so I I encourage, you know, this group to to really think about or not only to take the time the next three months before the vote to to tighten up the story, maybe not so much fear of everything's going to break and everyone's going to be out of school and it's going to be 150 million at the end of the day, but really, you know, push the benefits. Um, but certainly if it doesn't pass, like I I really think the board needs to come back with a quick response. Um, and figure out a plan that works. Um,

157because if not, then then that's unfortunately I think that's a I mean, I don't want to end on a bad note, but like that's that's a failure. You know, we're looking for you guys to come with the right proposal. Um, the voters will let you know whether it's the right proposal or not. Um, but we need something and I hope that we can find it hopefully with the March election. And if not then or March vote if not then hopefully shortly thereafter with another brainstorming of the right right investment amount and the right plan. >> Thanks. Sorry for that. >> Thank you. Any other comments? >> All right. Thank you guys for participating. We really do appreciate all the comments and we do take it to heart. Um we are going to move into board

158superintendent other. I'm going to take the liberty for a second to continue that conversation of not just thanking you guys and appreciate appreciating your feedback and your um and your participation. But um this was as you could tell in my earlier rambling is a difficult decision. It was a monumental decision for our district both in to the positive and with some obviously negative related to the tax impacts. So, um, I appreciate you guys here being here and and all of us took those comments to heart. Any other comments? >> Yeah, I'd like to say again, thank you to Kathy and John and to the board members. We will have several months of continued work uh and continued listening. It is a genuine attempt to engage with the community and we are going to be very

159very busy. So, thanks for your work in advance. All right. Um, thank you guys for for all the work. Paul, thank you guys. Thanks to all the folks from the construction firms for being here. Um, this was a significant amount of information and a culmination of years worth of work, right, to come to this this decision. And as Jason mentioned at the end, now it's up to the community to determine um you know what the path forward is. We would not I don't speaking for myself and I'm assuming other board members feel the same. We would not have voted in um in support if we didn't know as much information as we possibly could before making that decision. Um, at the end of the day, um, I know the that the team here is going

160to do their best to get the information out that the voters need in order to make the the right decision for the community. And I do also would like to actually back up what what they were what one of the folks were saying related to ensuring that we're looking at the district beyond just the vote, right? And we continue to stay focused on the education because I know this could be all-consuming, right? Right. So, there are other things that we need to do, right, as an administration and as a board um to continue the the district going moving forward while we um continue work on this massive project. So, thank you guys for all the work. It's it was an enormous amount and I know it was a lot of quick turnaround stuff as well.

161Um so, thank you guys. O any other questions? Any other comments? I don't have a question of the day. I think there were a lot of qu good questions today. So, all right. All right. Um, can I get a motion to adjurnn? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I we are adjourned at 9:16 Yeah, thank