001like to welcome everybody to the regular board meeting tonight, October 16th, 2025. We're also also streaming on the DPS 109 YouTube channel. Um, can I get a motion or can I call the meeting I'm sorry, may a motion to approve the meeting agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I All right. First on the agenda, stronger together 109. Kathy, >> um I'm going to have Kelly give us a followup >> to last month's stronger together presentation. >> Uh yes. So, uh if you guys remember last month, we had Sean, who's in the black hoodie in that picture, um he came to our board meeting and shared about the Caruso connect. Is it connects? >> Connection connection. inclusive connections um where he worked with some of the teachers in the building
002to begin interviewing um staff. He's interviewed bus drivers, he's interviewed maintenance crew um and it's been a profoundly invigorating thing for him and it's been helpful for the school because then he'll report back I think on Fridays like almost like an article so the other kids can read about the questions and answers. So as a followup um I went today to Shepherd. I also met his partner in crime, >> Cruso, not Shepherd. Uh, partner in crime, Jonah. You got to put first to follow up in blue. Then you're you threw me with the red. Um, I went to Caruso to meet Shawn and Jonah today, and they were delightful hosts. They are witty and engaging. And the best part was is they had three prepared questions, but then they ended up asking like 25. And
003I thought that was great because you can tell how super super engaged they were in the answers and wanting to then dig a little deeper and they had their own great ideas and it consistently and constantly reminds me that um they're our best wealth of information is just simply asking them and talking to them. So it was a delight. I was happy to be invited. We could have talked for hours. >> Yeah, they they're like, "What are your hobbies?" And I'm like, I don't have time for hobbies, but I will make one up. Um, >> um, so it was great. They actually one of their questions was, what do you think is the biggest challenge facing kids these days? And so it was a thought-provoking question and um, yeah, they're great kids. Thank you to
004their teachers and all that for supporting this cool endeavor. about sorry it really is about the connections that staff are making with each other and across the district. Um but we're going to give you one opportunity to get an X on your bingo board. It's try a new fruit or vegetable. So we've got um kiwi berries. >> I would but Chocolate. >> We have no chocolate vegetables. We have a red cactus pear. >> Those around >> you guys. We have golden berries. >> And so I started one. >> If you want to open up another [Music] looks like there's a lot of things. Um, so weird. Do you eat the skin? >> Yeah. You eat that hole. The only thing you don't eat whole is the raan. You peel it and you don't eat >>
005the toxic inside. >> This is adorable. >> Uhhuh. But it throws you off, right? Cuz it looks like an olive. So, we did this at um the district office today and >> like the conversations like you're having it's creating connections. >> So, feel free to take an X if you do submit um >> did you have one >> the golden? Yeah, I like those better. I'm gonna come back to it at the end. >> These are really good. >> Kathy, what are the >> Golden berries. >> Yeah. So, don't eat the skin and don't eat the seed. >> It is a little sweet. >> Those seeds are kind of interesting in the We hope you do. We can get an ambulance here any minute. Um, >> there's a little fun in opening it. >> There's
006some productive struggle in opening it, right? >> Again, don't eat the seed. [Laughter] Um, so this was a great opportunity where um there is also our swag store. So the winners at each building will do a random drawing and the winners at each building um will get to place an order at um d109wag.com. Um so you can check that out. Uh but it's a great way to create connection and um a little friendly competition. The building that has the highest participation rate um also gets an award of uh smoothie day. So free healthy smoothies. Dale would like the kale smoothie. He's Dale's kind of refusing to participate for the district office because he doesn't want to. You don't have to have the kale smoothie. It will be an option. Um, so we are stronger and
007healthier together. >> Yeah. >> Next on the agenda, superintendent's report in recognition of principal week. Before I turn this over to Mr. Simick, the upcoming week of October 20th is proclaimed as principal week in Illinois. The board would like to acknowledge our 109 principles for their dedication >> to our students. >> And we'd like to acknowledge our 109 principles for their dedication to our students and all contributions they make to our community. We're incredibly grateful to have such an exceptional team. Mike. >> All right. So, should I begin with the proclamation? >> Yes. Would you like to begin with your video? >> That it that is the video. It is a very short just those are our principles. >> So I have a proclamation from the state of Illinois. >> Whereas school principles play an
008integral role in nurturing a positive student- centered culture in elementary and middle school across the state of Illinois. And whereas school principles are responsible for attracting and retaining the best teachers and support staff to ensure that each child receives equitable educational opportunities and services to reach their potential. And whereas it is the primary responsibility of the state of Illinois to provide adequate and equitable resources for schools so that all students have access to a quality education and foundation for a successful future. And whereas school leaders face many obstacles in supporting and educating our young people. And it is through their perseverance, passion, and hopefilled leadership that Illinois continues to produce quality career ready students. And whereas we must continue to encourage, support, and recognize our school principles who have a positive impact on Illinois students
009and the educational system in the land of Lincoln. And therefore, I JB Pritsker, Governor of the State of Illinois, do hereby proclaim October 19th through the 25th, 2025 as Principles Week and October 24th, 2025 as Principles Day in Illinois to recognize principles and the Illinois Principles Association for all they do to help our children learn and succeed. Signed by the uh governor of the state of Illinois, JB Pritsker. >> Thanks, Mike. >> Oh, not done yet. >> Yeah, sorry. Sorry. >> All right. So, uh a another uh update on True North. Uh we've received the changes to the bylaws. The first reading was last night. The second reading will be in November. for the commitment. I understand for the second reading is that only typographical and very very minor changes will be made between the
010first and the second reading. Uh based on the changes that we read uh just recently with the and which were reviewed last night in the first reading, it now appears to be in the district's best interest to continue on our path uh to exit. Uh you may recall the conversation last time where that was not the case. It looked uh different. Uh we will continue to evaluate and for the moment we'll be going down a dual pathway. I just don't want to surprise anyone if we come in uh the month of November and say yes it is in fact in our best interest to exit. I would say it's probably a 6040 at this point that we would be looking to exit the co-op rather than to remain in it. Uh a couple reasons for
011that. Uh some of the nuances in the bylaws uh relative to the funding model give us pause and make us question whether or not the co-op is going to come uh with a membership fee down the road as was uh eliminated at least in the initial iteration uh in the conception or the reimagining of the co-op. uh that remains an open question for us. Uh the second really significant question is the really significant administrative lift that uh the reconceived co-op would entail. uh we will have uh either zero or one student in the co-op next year and it could very well be that uh we spend a significant amount of administrative time in meeting after meeting uh as the co-op finds its way into the future. And so it could uh very well be in
012our best interest to uh exit now and uh spare ourselves uh that uncertainty as well as that significant administrative uh tax. So that's where we are at the moment. I would say stay tuned because things can continue to evolve. Uh our job throughout this was to be positive and keep an open mind. And uh given what we have most recently seen, uh it has uh turned uh turn the tables a little bit on what we expected to report tonight. And next item now we can switch. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Next on the agenda is school board members day recognition November 15, 2025. Mike, >> I I'm going to read you some more. >> Okay. Whereas school board members are elected to sit in trust for their diverse communities and in that capacity are charged
013with meeting the community's expectations and aspirations for the public education of their children. And whereas schoolboard members are entrusted with a guardianship and prudent expenditure of tax dollars and responsible for maintaining and preserving the buildings, grounds, and other areas of the school district that the community has put in their trust. And whereas school board members provide leadership that en ensures a clear shared vision of public education for their schools that sets high standards for the education of all students and requires the effective and efficient operation of their districts. It employs district staff to carry out the day-to-day duties of educating students. And whereas school board members adopt polic policy to give voice to that leadership and employ a superintendent to administer board policy and regularly monitor the district's performance and compliance with state policy. And
014whereas schoolboard members selflessly volunteer countless hours to public service with no compensation other than a bag from time to time. Whereas school districts face constant challenges and the strong dedicated leadership provided by the Deerfield 109 Board of Education has allowed students uh student learning and success to flourish. And whereas employers are supportive of their employees who serve as school board members. Many of our board members on this board are in fact employees of other organizations and those organizations generously lend support and time. Employers give their employees the opportunity to serve the needs of the school districts and communities they represent though through sometimes tremendous sacrifice to the employer. And whereas schoolboard members decisions directly impact the quality of life and safety in their communities placing school the school board as the front line of local
015democracy and governance. Now, therefore, be it resolved, Deerfield Public Schools 109 along with the Illinois Association of School Boards recognizes November 15th, 2025 as school board members day as a way to honor those citizens who devote their time and energy for the successful education of our children and our future leaders. Thanks to all of you. >> Thanks, Mike. Thanks to everybody else too here on the board for your volunteer. I heard a great joke at a ISB meeting that I was at um last week of there was a rumor that we were all going to get 100% raise this upcoming year. So it'll be great. All right. Next on the uh agenda, community participation relative to matters on the meeting agenda. District 109 has two opportunities for public comment whereas many many organizations offer one.
016Our policy stems from the community's long-standing commitment to public discourse and representation, take all public comment very seriously. And while public comment is not a back and forth, but rather an opportunity for the board to listen, please know that we listen carefully. Our first period of community participation is solely for items related to the meeting 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 handed to Rebecca Rudd who sits to my left. Um we will sit we will call you up one at a time to the podium to speak. Please limit all length of comments to no more than three minutes. >> We don't have anybody. >> Okay.
017Next on the agendaformational items 7.1 redefine 109. >> Mike and Kathy. Um, I think the key point, one change from >> microphone, >> um, one change since we last met and talked about, um, our community outreach, we heard from, um, Walden neighbors some concerns about, um, the first rendering that they saw, which you see the smaller rendering there. Um, and we met with our architects um to hear those concerns and the architects did a beautiful job of incorporating um the feedback and came back with another rendering. And last week we met with the neighbors again um to present where this came from from their feedback um and hear a little more from them. Um and the architects are working again to incorporate the further feedback and the next version um that they will come up
018with will be what will be shared in the next mailer that goes out to the community. We'll also share that on our website um and update our presentations to include the latest and greatest versions of those. Mike, do you want to talk about that meeting with the neighbors or any feedback? Yeah, I really thought the architects demonstrated that they had listened very carefully to the neighbors and it was everything from concerns about what appeared to be a ring road around the property that really wasn't sitting well. Uh it also was the proximity far north that was a significant concern. Uh the location of the parking lot uh didn't resonate and a number of other things. So they first demonstrated that they had listened and understood the concerns of the Walden neighbors and then uh after
019that they pulled out the the new version and said, "Okay, this is how this version is responsive to the concerns that we heard you articulate and we would like to hear more about how you feel about these concerns as well as anything else that might come up. And so there was a thoughtful uh and and productive uh progression through, okay, this is what the new building looks like now. And then sort of piece by piece uh fielding questions, but then also have you thought about, have you thought about could you, could you, could you? And then uh summary of the group was some folks uh that were there were more vocal than others and some had hadn't spoken and one person in the back uh hadn't spoken throughout or asked a question and said all
020right you know do you have any uh any key concerns or takeaways? He said, "Well, you know, my real chief concern is there are a number of folks that are going to have uh small children, particular in that area, and can you devote some more time to what you can do as far as a location for an area to play, a playground or something like that?" And so, all of that feedback was really, really helpful. And uh we'll continue to iterate on on that plan. Another part that came up was uh to what extent are you looking into potential alternative uh sites, swing sites and turns out there are a number of people a lot of resources in Deerfield 109. Some of those folks being real estate brokers or with close connections to real estate
021brokers. So we spent some of this week following up on connections. uh one of the uh folks in the Walden meeting is in that industry and accompanied us to uh one of the one of the the sites and so uh we're continue to explore every possibility as we move forward. >> What's the beige in this picture around? >> Yeah, that's a it's a Yeah, it's a um an asphalt surface. Um so it's designed to be a walking path. Uh but one of the issues that um we resolved the concern about the ring road, the the purpose of the ring road was um fire trucks need to be a able to access the back area of the property. Um but the concern was that you know some folks would use that as through traffic and that
022would be dangerous, you know, in close proximity to those neighbors. So what they did is they shifted those areas to be large enough that a firetruck could pull through there and turn around uh to gain access to the back of the building, but in on a normal day that's not accessible to traffic. It's just a walking in a play area hard surface. >> Couple other things looking at the drawing uh or the the rendering that's really interesting. So one of the things is by not having a a flat edifice here but stairstepping it and lessens the visual impact of it moving it farther south moving it one of the suggestions was can you move it farther uh to the east here. One of the things that nobody anticipated in the course of this was that
023and this came out of our conversation with the park district with whom we we continue to have really productive meetings is uh that this large play area if we put in a certain type of surfaces it can check a number of ADA boxes for them. So somebody that has ambulatory issues can now have access to fields that they otherwise previously would not have had. And so you you you learn things as the more you process this and sometimes it just sort of comes out of the blue. Another one of the issues uh for some of the neighbors is uh during a heavy rain event there will be water that pools and that's something that we can actually provide a benefit to the neighbors through our uh excavation work. Uh one of the one of the
024uh final things that is quite interesting in the process is that you know we see oh there's you know green space in a variety of places and you know hey the the park district can be happy because we have so much green space. Well green space to us means one thing to the park district. If it is not flat and if it is not well drained it does not count his what the kind of space that they want for green space. And so it's a uh just because there's a lot of green doesn't mean it's the kind of space that they want. And so we can do a service to the park district by ensuring they're going to be moving a lot of dirt here and so we can check some boxes for them in
025the process. >> Couple questions. Assuming the existing Walden is not, you know, is there while construction is happening. Is there any new additional impacts with the building so sistered up close to the existing building? And then a second question, what was like was there also followup from the Wilmont families that you spoke about? I don't know if that maybe it's on the next slide, but >> yeah, we'll talk about >> Yeah, I think it would be nice to see distance from street as well. Some more detail on those renderings much to similar to the details of the Walden. Do you want to address the first question, John, and then I'll >> Yeah, I mean, I I I think that there um this concept hugs the existing building. Um so, it's very purposeful about um you
026know, being uh feasible to keep the existing facility open to serve the Kipling students as that campus would undergo complete renovation with an addition. Um, but I think it's important and and as we've talked through these, you know, throughout our community engagement, these are very early concepts of uh what these campuses would look like. Um, and every site uh um is going to undergo change before anything is finalized. And and one of the things that's really important is that, you know, if the community signals support to move forward with this plan, that's when we would begin um you know, working on architectural designs and construction documents in earnest because the they incur significant cost. Um and as part of that process, we have a requirement to go through the village planning process. We send a
027dear neighbor letter to everybody that's within 250 ft of the the building. We're committed to engaging in that process much sooner. So, if we receive polling from the community and the community says, "Yes, we we signal our support for this plan and we want to move forward." We're going to begin those conversations now with our contiguous neighbors, not just here at Walden, but at Wilmont, at South Park, and Kipling as well, so that we gather that feedback and that it's inclusive of the uh issues and concerns that are raised from our neighbors. And Jeff and George from Archon talked about how um you know the work that they're doing now for these early plans um will just help um you know if we find another swing site or if we don't it's all good conversations,
028good information. Um we are we did hear from some Wilmont neighbors um the Marcy Court neighbors and so we are having um a small Zoom meeting with them tomorrow to answer some of their specific questions and um George and Jeff will be on that call too if we need some feedback to change um what we put out to the community before polling. I'm not sure there will be I don't know if their questions are um we'll end up changing the renderings yet but yeah we are listening and um we'll be at Wilmont on Saturday for an information session um on October 24th we're going to have realtors the Chamber of Commerce is hosting a lunch um for realtors um and we've added a virtual session on October 28th which we will record and put on
029the website and then our last in-person session right now we may you know with those changes at Walden on Walden's renderings and if there are any changes to Wilmont we may choose to add another session or two in person um either before or concurrent with when polling goes out in early mid November >> and this is a time that we put the board members on the spot And if you have attended as a board member any of the sessions between our last board meeting and this or if you were in attendance at the farmers market, we've had a number of public events. If you could give us two or three of your key takeaways or observations from uh your time engaging with the public on this on our question. Um, I went to both Patty
030Turner and the farmers market. And from Patty Turner, um, some of the questions that were raised is, have we looked at other districts both regionally and potentially nationally as to how they've renovated or done new construction? Questions about, um, would we ever consider selling alt bonds directly to the community? And, uh, what contingencies do we have in place for rising costs? So, those were some questions raised at Patty Turner. And at the farmers market, my takeaway, um, a lot of people would like to know, um, the years of the proposed construction and what the plans are for the kids currently going to school during those construction years. There are a lot of parents with, you know, first graders and second graders and third graders that understand that this is going to impact several years of
031their kids' education and just what does that look like for their children? Um, there's been questions raised about why wouldn't we just renovate all of our campuses? Why are we proposing new construction? So, those are productive conversations. Um, and uh, Mike, you sort of alluded to it when you're pointing at the new Walden iteration, but just sort of what will the twotory buildings look like from the neighbors perspective, right? If you're in your second story of your house, what would that two-story school look like for you? So, those were the but the farmers market and Patty Turner, I just there was a lot of turnout and good engagement and they were great events. >> You go. Um, you're good. Um I was at South Park with Rosie. Um the majority of the feedback that we
032got or at least that I got was that the presentation was excellent. I mean people really appreciated the work that the administration put in. Um I thought it was just really wonderful. I the feedback was so interesting too because it ran the gamut from this is very expensive and how are we going to manage this to I think it was because of South Park. Why aren't we redoing all four? >> Right? So, it was interesting to get different dynamics. One question that came up a few times was are we looking toward can we look towards other ways of funding? I think you talked about like alternative bonds, but some people were talking about sponsorships and could >> I mean honestly, yeah, like can we can we be talking to local companies about money there? Other
033questions that were interesting were along the lines of with the new um I guess houses being built, how would that affect um the referendum and how much people will owe? Is that going to be something that would change when new houses come in? Um I didn't know how to answer that. I referred them to John. I'm curious. >> I'm curious, too. So, I'd love to talk with you about that later. >> Usually the response, >> but yeah, everyone was overly impressed. I personally was extremely impressed by Rosie. Um I thought she she honestly framed she framed the discussion really well. Um being able to focus on kind of now the past and the future to help everyone in the room really think about what we're really visualizing here and how big this change is going
034to be. So I just commend you. You did an awesome job. >> Yeah. >> Rosie, your catchphrase. Do you remember it? Because I'm going to be using it. >> I didn't know what to say. Um I you know I was at South Park with Mitch. Um the one thing I will say is that I was at Walden with Ry. Um huge you know just the temperature was very different. Um and it shows that you know all the you know residents that are coming to these meetings you know they feel like they're being heard and that was really really good. Um I think I got a bunch of questions about why rush why now. Um, and I just try to remind people that it's it's a 5-year window. Like this is something that has been, you
035know, we've been talking about it. Um, and then someone's like, well, if we waited a little bit longer, it would cost me a little bit more. And what I did, you know, what I actually said is that there might be some people who could wait and we could charge more. you know, it could cost more down the road, but we have to really consider the entire community, whereas some people c, you know, like the 500 to a,000 a year seems more affordable to others now. So, it was just a matter of like trying to figure out like answering some of the John questions really because John left early that night. Um, but he had to I I get it. So, no, it was I thought it was really good. The South Park one was was
036just excellent talking to people. I am constantly, you know, reminded of how different each building is when I'm in them, right? Um because I was at the Kipling Pumpkin Fest and you you almost get lost in Kipling even though I know it's sort of a rectangle. Um and then you're in Walden and you walk like 10 like 10 steps and you've hit the end, right? So, um it's just really it's beneficial to be in the buildings. Um, I was even talking to my 14-year-old and he's like, "I'd like to go into these buildings because he, you know, he like the kids only see their school and so for them to get into the other schools to see the difference um it was it's it was really beneficial." So, I really enjoyed the followup uh to
037the conversations that the Walden families were having and then you start to recognize faces. So, um and then you recognize them in different places and so it was really good, just great conversation. So, I enjoyed it and that was my last one, I think. So, >> well, I'm I'm going to say cuz we're going to use this Rosie in her recap saying, you know, we always talk about educating the whole child, but a whole building is around that child. >> Yeah. you're hearing from families that have gone to multiple events and then they see the change that we've made, you know, specific to Walden, but not necessarily only to Walden, right? Like that change is going to ripple. But I think the reception on that change has has been really impactful and like it's definitely
038resonated and people see it. So I think I think to be able to be nimble and you know active listening and be able to change quickly I think that's been really helpful. I do think the questions continue to get more detailed whether it is that you know purchasing of bonds directly to invest within your own district but also the idea of why aren't we saving any of the renovations we've done in the last 10 years. There's a lot of conversation around that. And then I think that is more of an education piece, right? Because like look, you had to keep the building. You needed space then too. And so like what would you have done for those five years of education 5 years ago? But also, you know, logistically the location of the new building
039doesn't allow us, right? So there is and how we could continue to inform that. But there's definitely greater specificity on the questions, the why now piece, um the different types of investment choices we've made prior and you know how that impacts today and then are we just going to quickly make some changes next. But um you know again just an overall positivity throughout which I think is really uh refreshing to see again the larger broader impact across the whole community. I mean the only thing that I mean I wasn't at any of the meetings but I will say this is that I've seen some of the feedback and had some conversations and I think there's a natural inclination by by anybody like I would have this inclination when you hear something that you might not
040necessarily completely agree with up front that all the work hasn't been done yet. Does that make sense? Right. So you see a lot of comments of have they thought about this? Have they done this? We've been looking at this and talking about this for several years now. So we understand where we are. The public doesn't necessarily know and that's why these meetings are so important. So if you're watching this, if you're watching this on YouTube, um you have questions or you see those things, have people come to these information center um sessions, have them come to the website so they can see that um and get those questions answered because all the work has been done. Um obviously there's more work that can be done and needs to be done until we're done. But we're
041still I think in that process I know at the bottom here we still have the public opinion polling. I'm not hopefully I'm not stealing your thunder but there's still feedback that we need to get from the community. This was that process to do that um before we can make a decision in December as a board. Um so this is some of these that you guys' participation and you're bringing the feedback back to all of us I think is super critical for us to be able to make that decision for December. So >> is it possible we have a few more events lined up. Is it possible to get, you know, a a more kind of collected, you know, feedback that's come? I mean, I might be, they might be already out there and I just
042haven't been able to go to it to find, but questions that we find coming up in previous sessions, kind of put them all together so we are better, you know, resource when we walk into an event as well. Yeah, we try to add um on our website the asked and answered and I think we've got most of them on there, but if we're missing something, let me know and we'll add that. But if yeah, we can get talking points to some of those to you as well. I did like how broke out like the, you know, the discussion session and it just it felt like we were able to hear people and just like focus in a little bit more um on on community questions and but that said it wasn't, you know, like a
043broader conversation, but it was really nice to have that one-on-one and you didn't feel like you were kind of like, you know, under the microscope up there. So that felt better. Anything else? All right. Thank you. Uh, next on the agenda, freedom of information requests. John, >> yeah, there's three in your packet. I'm happy to answer any questions. >> Any questions? >> All right. Seeing none, uh, 7.3 fin fall assessment data update. Danielle. >> All right. I am flying solo this evening, so I'm going to just stay put. Um, I'm also thinking that this might be brief because I alluded to earlier that there have been updates and changes to all of the assessments um, this fall. So, I want to give you a little bit of a preview of what all of those changes
044have been. But, we are act we are actually looking at new data in both assessments, both Panorama and NWA this year. So, um, the first thing I want to share is that Panorama, the survey data that I'm presenting tonight, we actually closed the survey on Tuesday. We just released results on Wednesday. So, this is really, really fresh. Um, we're just starting some of the analysis at the building and district level. So, brand new data, but definitely some changes. Um, and then before I move into the panorama data, I just want to share with you again that the both the content of the assessment and the benchmarks have been updated for the Panorama survey. they reported doing some changes to language specifically to make it more readable and accessible to students. So there was some word
045shifting that happened and actually some simplified vocabulary in the questions to to improve the accessibility and then shorter topics. So the topics actually look a bit different as well. And I shared that survey out when I sent the email when we sent the email um about administering the survey so that people could see those questions. But because the larger probably the biggest change is that the reference group is so large now. So many people are using the Panorama survey that we're now allowed to um sort the reporting by gradeband with the exception of just a couple of uh the data points. So you can actually compare middle school responses to middle schoolers across the nation and elementary responses to elementary instead of an all band. Um which you're going to see some pretty significant swings
046actually in the national comparisons as a result. So let's just take a look at those. Um again this is the student competency measures. So this is the measures and this is a perception of self survey that we give our students around these topics. And this is the data that we're seeing coming in. Um, so a couple of things. Grit in this new survey has changed to perseverance. Some of the questions in perseverance are actually now pretty um heavily linked with that growth mindset. Um, so we're seeing growth of course in the perseverance uh portion which we've been focusing on obviously as a district. We're actually seeing that um our lowest scores or the scores that are following falling below the national percentile now are in that topic of growth mindset. And when you're seeing like
04720th percentile there that you're pointing to like that's elementary students growth mindset as compared to elementary students growth mindset across the nation. And then down below middle school now compared to middle school. Whereas before we were comparing whomever took the assessment to all kids taking the assessment. So that's why you're seeing that wide shift. >> Just defining growth mindset again. >> Yeah. The questions that are actually asked. I figured that was going to come up. So the questions the questions that are asked are like when you make a mistake, how often do you ask for ways you can do better? That's the one where we're seeing the most challenge the lowest response rates in our students. In elementary schools, we're seeing a an average of 22% responding favorably to that. >> So only about a
048quarter of our kids are asked they they want to figure out a way to do something better. >> Is that Oh, sorry. Go ahead. >> No, I was going to say so you want a higher response on that. Like I asked three, four times to continue to get better. >> I just want to say that they so the questions are broken down as like I you know I consist I I do that often. I do that sometimes all the way down to I never do that. and to be in a favorable response they would be saying it's a regular habit that they're looking towards improvement. The other um questions in growth mindset are relative to like how much they can increase or improve certain aspects of themselves. So they're asked about like how much can
049they improve their effort in school, how much can they improve their own behavior in school, how much can they improve how smart they are. Um, so I think this sometimes parallels a little bit with the conversations we've been having about grit previously is that they're they're they're not seeing it as something that they control themselves, that their ability to improve is something that they feel strong self-efficacy around. Um, and so that's something we're definitely going to dive into more. Um even though you see the differences in like 20th percentile elementary and the comparison to the middle schools being 50th percentile you you see that their response of favorable is pretty comparable. It's just that their norming group is different. Has growth mindset always been part of Panorama? >> Um it has been but again this
050is now the shift in the language and the questions and the topics that are surrounding it. >> So the perseverance questions are they different than the grit questions that they used to have? So the different they're all the same with the exception of one thing being eliminated um which is that they eliminated the language of long-term goal setting which was one of the things that was a struggle for our students. They didn't see themselves as setting long-term goals. We had a lot of conversations with them about it like you actually are if you play a sport, you play an instrument, you you write a paper, you you are setting long-term goals and achieving it, but they have eliminated that because it was confusing, I think, for students. Um the thing in perseverance or grit um
051that remains there that is where our kids respond like the lowest around is when they are working on something that matters but there are distractions. how focused can they stay and that's where we're seeing um them self-reporting that they don't feel strongly about that their ability to stay focused when they're just >> so the change in scoring there I mean because that was always I mean growth mindset was always an issue as well but but there was a huge I mean that was an area of focus for us so the question becomes is it is it a change in how it's being measured that's now created this uplift or is it actually the efforts that we've been is right, >> which is why you always hate reorming when it happens or new content happening because
052then you lose some insight like we're going to have to dig a little bit deeper into each individual question to really know like what the impact has been. >> Got it. >> And they there's always cautions when these places um do reorm or recontent about doing a lot of year-over-year comparison. They're almost saying like see it as a re as an opportunity for reset and refocus in your organization. >> Okay. Do do sorry Mike does uh does Pamorama also then give because of the data they have do they then give like success drivers for growth mindset or possible derailers that are happening >> for growth mindset so to allow you guys to kind of dive and focus in on >> yeah so there are there are that's actually why we use it for like we
053can use it for planning purposes so on the teacher platform there are things that they can go into to actually like lesson plan around developing those skills and mindsets in students. And then you'll also see on the parent report which we're hoping to have ready by parent teacher conferences. It gives parents that same thing like if you're seeing low indicator in this like try this ask these questions and so that's the purpose of it. Again, this is self-perception. They may be really good at some of those things but the way they see themselves is that it's not a strength that it's an opportunity for growth. >> When do we see this again? The next time is this time >> we do it in winter again. So this is an assessment we always give in October
054and now in February. >> Okay. >> Um so because we want it to be data that we can then act upon. >> I'm just thinking about what you just said a moment ago about needing to dig into the specific questions. I'm personally super interested in that before February. I don't know if other people would be. I don't want to speak for the board. >> I think >> is that something that we'd be presented? >> I think that's the intent, right? >> Yeah. Well, we'll definitely be doing it behind the scenes and I can certainly provide, you know, some some additional insight. >> You're just selfishly trying to react to that date as quick as possible because you're going to retest in February. You want to see you want to act now. So, >> yeah. And
055our teams like as soon as we release results, everybody is like if they can't get in, we we hear it. They're interested in wanting to see it. Daniel, relative to the reorming, can you go through just a couple of the key changes, not exact numbers, but if somebody sees this for the first time, uh they might not be clear what we're talking about here. So, hey, this reorming did this and this and this relative to what we're looking at now. Well, I think I mean we've always seen so we're seeing some significant increases in the national comparison for our middle schools because they're now being compared to other middle schoolers instead of all like when the elementaryaries were being compared to our middle schoolers, we were seeing lower percentiles. We we have traditionally though always
056reported on this that grit grit since 2019, which is when we began administering this, grit was always like our lowest comparison to peers across the nation. our students had always done that. Um contrary to that, they'd all always also said that supportive relationships were the strongest um pieces. And now we're seeing some things I mean it's still hugely strong, but we're seeing some things that are even surpassing that just because of the changes. Um so I would say that's like that's the shift if that answers it. >> I'm not super concerned about the norms just yet because they've changed, but I like the the percentages that they're saying now versus the percentage that we were having before. I think that's what's more important to me about comparing us to us I think is >> are
057you also able to see um like actual percentages based on grades? >> Yes. >> As well. Okay. So the way our platform works like we can like dial down into I mean obviously we'll see um student results in our platform. And that's where teachers can have conversations with students about their own responses. But we really look at it at a building level by grade, by cohort, by school to see if there's changes. Like one of the one of the interesting things that I noticed right away in the data is I was seeing if there was any differences in our middle school responses and literally they are one to two percentage points away from each other in every single area. Like despite being two schools across town, like our kids are responding almost identically. >> Wild.
058>> That's good. >> With our new stronger, sorry, with our new stronger together campaign, um do we share student level results with the parents? We know that kids spend 13% of their time in our schools and that's a whole lot of time outside of school. This information as a parent at least to me would be very important on how my student is doing >> and have we shared that information with >> parents when the maps go pan around. >> Yeah. >> Okay. It and this year because we've already done the map I can show a parent report. We've done we've already mailed the map reports and this timing is a little bit separate. So what we're hoping to do is run the parent report so that we can hand them out potentially at conferences and
059people who aren't at conferences then you know we would send the mailer thereafter. >> So it's grades three through five and then this fall we didn't send out panorama in the map that came. >> No because we administered later so we separated the windows intentionally. Yeah, they come with the map. >> Okay. Yeah, very good. Yeah, sometimes given the the assessments, this assessment and the survey concurrently, but this year we intentionally separated them. So, we did MAP like in the first couple of weeks of school and then we just administered the SEAL survey in early October and and some of that was intentional as well. We knew there was some reorming, but also we wanted we want to have students be able to be reflective of the experience they're now in and not the one
060they were coming from. So giving them five or six weeks to settle into a new school year gets more um relative feedback. >> And then just a quick followup on that, >> do you feel that we do a nice job of once so we take this baseline data and give it to the families? Is there a collaboration between the families that get this report and within the schools on the actual child? Is it done at the conferences? Is it is there some sort of formal process where >> sometimes like when there is something so some of the things that students self-report there's already collaboration happening around that and there's an awareness of okay that sentiment typically the collaboration that grows out of the survey between a family and a school or a family and a
061teacher is when something comes up that we didn't suspect right that a student is showing a result that we've not had conversation about like why Are they feeling that way? Let's talk about that. So, actually the conference timing could be beneficial. >> Okay. Thank you. >> And I think to that point, there's a I mean, based off our conversation that we just had in the committee, the whole, right, is that productive struggle and the process being more important than the end or the outcome. This is a perfect example of that, right? Growth mindset is all about process. It's all about that process of >> you know of you know not necessarily failing or having a challenge and then wanting to improve and finding that process and that system for themselves right in order to do
062that. So I think this is just yet another indicator of that whole conversation and then you know you know the the work of the administration in order to figure out you know what does that next evolution of education look like in order to get there. So, >> so if you want to see um a shocking difference now through the panorama survey because of the national comparison and the ability to separate middle school with middle school and elementary um with elementary now look at the um environment survey which includes sense of belonging engagement which we've talked a lot about rigor um valuing a school and school climate and uh I'm going to just it's it's fascinating but now that middle schools are being comped compared to middle schools. Now look at our engagement. Um it's striking.
063It still aligns with the >> it's I was going to say it still aligns what I with what I've been reporting all along which is that Gallup poll trend that we've seen over time is that engagement for students as they go through the tra trajectory of their education begins to decline. So like even though engagement is being reported at lower levels in our middle schools than it is in our engagement level it than it is in our elementary schools it is now the 90th percentile in the nation as compared to other middle schools because that's how middle schools are reporting low engagement everywhere. Um, so I, you know, I see the national comparison, but it's still we, we have committed to and said like we want more than 43% or 46% of our kids reporting
064high engagement. Um, so we're, you know, going to be continuing to work around that. And then to a little bit of the earlier conversation, the only other thing that you see there that is new in this that is showing up as a lower percentile is that valuing of school for grades um, three through five. But that really boils down to one response within that um that I was able to delineate um quickly today. And there's a question in that about their re the relevance >> to use the word relevance >> the it no the question for kids the question for kids is how often do you use the ideas that you learn in school in your life? Relevance is my word right. Um, and that one they're reporting um, low. >> Okay. >> S question.
065>> I mean, they're elementary school kids. >> Yes. Yeah. >> So, new questions. We'll be we'll be doing some new unpacking. Um, and I've already kind of summarized a lot of what we're talking about here, but when you see on this slide, um, the ranges, like I broke down growth mindset and I broke down engagement specifically because I think those are two things we're going to dive into quickly. And when you see the ranges, like that's the elementary to middle school range. So like that first question, when you make a mistake, how often do you ask for ways to do better? 22% of our elementary students were saying responding favorably as compared to 45% of our middle schools. So the first number is always elementary. The second number Okay. >> So for how excited you
066are to go to school only 28% of middle schoolers. >> Yes. >> Yeah. >> Shocker. That's 28%. That's amazing. >> And we're 90th percentile in the nation. My kids are like, I don't want to go. I know. >> Probably just that though is where as they're getting older, there's more of that independent that's coming with them, you know, >> your best thing. I can't wait to go. >> I mean, that is the that and and um >> yeah, I mean, now they've been through a school routine that has looked very familiar. There is this I think there is this um passion particularly from kids about wanting something new and different. You know they would like to see something new and different. >> I think engagement is hard because it's so holistic. It's not just curriculum.
067It's social interactions as well and it >> and that collaborative work. >> Yeah. And it changes drastically from elementary to middle school, right? Like what those >> look like and how those are demonstrated. Um but yeah, I think again a tough nut to crack, but >> yeah. Yeah. And definitely social factors like they see themselves as focused, but how excited are they? Like I don't know how how many um how excited or how interested like a lot of middle schoolers might just think like it might not be cool to say I'm excited to do things. I don't know. Like but those are the that's what elicits that's why the survey is great because it elicits the opportunity to have great conversations with kids. >> All right. So that is quick panorama and now I want
068to talk a little bit about the changes to map and there are lots of slides here but I'm going to go through them quickly because I just want to give you like the broad strokes here um similar to what we've done with our staff but I also included some information in the letter that came with the MAP parent reports. So essentially NWA didn't just update their norms but they also updated their algorithm for how the test is administered. So they did both concurrently which changes the ballgame all over the place. Um but that algorithm what they did was they aligned questions to grade level standards as the priority. And they did that purposely because they were wanting to strengthen the connection with the assessment to actually what's happening in classrooms. What that means from uh
069um a testing uh perspective is that like this is an example of 200 writ. Like if a child had 200 RIT, there are questions that are in the 200 RIT level that span all grade levels. What the test was doing previously was just reaching into that bag and grabbing a random question from any grade level that was at 200 RIT and asking that question. So a kid might be getting a seventh grade 200 RIT question, but then a third grade 200 RIT question. What they've done to update the test is they're focusing on 200 RIT level questions at their grade level first. So they get those questions first and then when those questions are they run out of those questions then they start to expand, right? Then they start to um move to like maybe
070another RIP band at the same grade level and start asking questions from there and then when necessary they draw items from other grades but the grade level remains the focus which means kids aren't experiencing questions that feel like incredibly easy or incredibly hard. They're feeling qu they're they're fielding questions that feel familiar first, which is actually a good update. Um, in addition to changing the test though, they also did update update the norms, which they do every 3 to 5 years. This is a huge reference group, huge reference group that you see there. Um, but it does give us new context around the kids current peers. Um, and what I'm trying to make sure everyone knows is that the RIT scale hasn't changed, the tests change, and definitely you are seeing changes in your percentiles.
071Um, and there are larger shifts that are occurring at the lower achievement percentiles than are occurring at that higher achievement and those are even variable across test, reading, and math. Um, so these are actual data points. These are our own kids here in district. Um, just to give you some comparison, like a 2011 last year, a 2011 RIT score last year in fourth grade reading would have been 60th percentile. Now it's 62nd percentile. Um, go across the way to math, a 204 in math, last year was 60th percentile. Now it's 68th percentile because the norming group has shifted. Um, and you see that like you see it definitely shifting more at that 60th percentile and below than it is at the 80th and 95th percentile there. Um, this is just to show you what that
072looks like in the spring. So, right now we're in the fall. In the spring, it's going to shift again because growth also changes because of all of these updates. So, there's variability like that. That's what they're anticipating in terms of changes in RIT and percentile. You just see there in reading the scores have gone down overall everywhere like there's a change in the norming group in all places in reading. In math there's the variability. So for those kids who are in fourth grade 75th percentile and up somehow in the last 5 years their scores have actually increased while everyone else's has gone down. Um so that is what we can anticipate potentially seeing um as shifts in percentiles in our district as well. But we have to let the year play out. >> Isn't that
073when CO started? >> Yeah. These we reormed right before CO. So that's why NWA is saying like be really careful about interpreting which is why I'm not doing a lot of comparative data this evening is because they're saying lots of factors are playing into your assessments. The pandemic played into the that we have a new algorithm in the test and we have a new comparison group. So like let the year play out like lots has changed here. So quickly quickly quickly you're not seeing all the years of previous data before um because I they're saying don't compare it. So I'm not going to um the RIT score in our students as compared to the national norm. We're still seeing similar trends. Our kids are about 10 to 25 points above the national RIT level um
074above the national mean and the gap widens as kids go through our system. It gets bigger in math. Um in third grade this the point of this comparison is still the same as what we've previously done. So like a 196.7 is our mean in district 109. That's third grade fall for us. Everywhere else in the nation, that's spring of third grade or the beginning of fourth grade. As an example, then for sixth grade, our mean is a 222. Everywhere else, that would be end of seventh grade or early eighth grade. So, that's where you see the gap widening. Um, I did put the cohort data on here, but again, this this is really really cautionary tale for us. Um, we have to we have to just look across really instead of comparing them to their
075peers. Now, um, not that we should have necessarily ever compared them to their peers, but what we're looking for most importantly is that they that cohorts are seeing growth over time from year to year that we're seeing typical growth and we are. So, that's also good. Um, and then ECRA of course does our report here. And so what you're seeing right now, again, fall can be kind of wonky because fall is um some loss of learning that occurs over the summer, so summer regression. But right now, we're seeing that all of our kids in the fall, even since they were benchmarked right before the end of school, they still are retaining most of their information. They're um set to meet their benchmarks with that exception of third grade as a cohort, which we'll just be
076paying attention to. We'll have to do a little bit. We'll have to see some more growth for them between fall and winter to get them back on track again. >> Just answer for one question. I'm my brain's not working. Growth effect size. What they're green most of them except for the yellow. What? Tell me what that means again. I'm sorry. Why they're all negative? >> What does that mean? >> So the the range for green growth is actually positive 30.3 to negative.3. That that's the standard deviation of error essentially. So everything within within that range would be considered that they're tracking as expected. Um when you start to see and it it takes a certain cohort size to actually like bump to that level and our cohorts are all big big enough to do that.
077When you get to like a negative or a positive.3 then you start to see blue growth or yellow growth. So a positive.3 would be blue that they're actually exceeding their growth their growth expectations. A negative -3.0 or greater would be red um red growth or sorry yellow growth as you see there. A negative6.6 is actually red growth. So we're on the crux like if you look at one two and three we're we're like we're going to need to do some things obviously in one two and three but I actually think that's like really timely and why we actually made the change in curriculum that we did. Um, you know, I put that on here like we're obviously implementing a new math curriculum. Our primary grades were some of the loudest voices in that curriculum review
078saying like it's time for a change. We we need things that are more hands-on, more engaging uh for kids. It also um the curriculum shift we made as we've shared is a lot about procedural but also conceptual fluency. So developing strong number sense in kids um is certainly something that we're paying attention to at those lower levels. So >> thanks. Yeah, I just I'm noticing in the reading too. I mean none of them are positive. >> Yes, >> zero of I mean there's one that's a zero, but everything is >> do you want do you want a higher number at the percent benchmark, right? Met met benchmark >> ideally. So the percent of met benchmark would be if you tested kids now on endofear grade level they would be proficient. So if we tested our
079first graders >> if we tested our first graders right now on end of year first grade 90% would probably be would be proficient. >> So that's where they are in the fall. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. But like sixth grade in sixth grade always sees a a dip because there's another change in NWA assessment that happens in sixth grade. So then expected growth percentage that's like on target for now, >> right? Because this is fall and if we have a high percentage of expected growth that means we expect them to meet benchmark by the end of their grade level the end of spring. >> So growth is a comparison to self. Yeah. So each of them have the individual growth measures that are set for students based on their previous experience with growth. And then
080this is as a cohort. >> Yeah. So, we ideally want to see individual students all in green growth and cohorts. >> Sure. >> In green growth. But you ask a critical question, which is also what we um advise our staff to do when we're doing an analysis of data. We need kids to grow. We also have to look at that proficiency benchmark that they're they're tracking to meet end of grade level standards. It's a both, not a one or the other. >> Yeah. Mitch, is your concern related to the negative? >> Yes, sir. >> Yeah. So I mean it's timing fall, right? It is. So it's that it's that learning loss that you have over the summer. >> That's right. >> Yeah. We literally So we literally tested them in middle part of May. They
081went away for the summer and then we tested them the second week of school that they came back. So it it is about retention regression. >> Yeah, that's hopefully something. That's why the the green in the next one will still be negative three to positive three or will >> in the winter. No, hopefully we'll start seeing changes or shifts. >> Will green still be like >> Oh yes, the the deviation is the same. >> But you should see you should see the cohorts be closer into that that zero positive area hopefully, right? Because now they've had a full semester plus right >> at that point in >> the growth effect size does not change. I guess for the reason I was thinking green makes sense now to be negative3 because there'd be learning loss. I
082wouldn't assume there'd be so much learning loss between now and the next one. So why green would still be learning loss? >> They'll be in that range negative3 to positive.3. So they should be hopefully closer to the positive side of the house versus the negative side of the house. >> I mean what they would say is like because of standard deviation as long as they're in green they're growing as expected >> growth that's expected is zero. Like it's essentially zero plus or minus >> right plus or minus three. Yep. Danielle, do we have to take the map two weeks after school starts? >> You know what? Um, no. But what we do is we set windows that are equidistant from each other. So, we administer three times a year. Again, it's about it's a it's
083about trying to get actionable data for kids. We no longer assess kindergarten, by the way. Kindergarten doesn't take it until winter, but we try to do it as early as off as we can. get it out of the way and then engage kids in real instruction. >> Okay. >> Whether or not that's uh right, like we continue to have conversation with like we just had conversation with our pair joint committee um which is representatives of our union and teachers last year around that same topic. Okay. >> And the timing was mutually agreed. So the change in the algorithm did you see I mean maybe you haven't had time yet to dig into the data because what I noticed and this is anecdotal with my own kids because I got you know three of them but
084two of them came back with these is that >> what I saw was that there was the areas where they were they grew it was wider meaning that they they had a higher risk score you know it was a much bigger change in the risk to the upside but when they were to the downside it was a bigger downside as well is that are you seeing that in the >> I don't I don't know if we're seeing that trend. It might just be anecdotal. >> I don't Yeah, I don't know if we're seeing that trend overall. They're saying like RIT score is still comparable, but it could be shifting on um student individual student results because they're seeing different questions. >> Okay. >> Um and then ELA, same thing. Uh so our ELA scores were
0857 to 13 points above the national mean. Um what we see in reading is different from math. So the gap grows in math. it stays pretty consistent in reading. Um we're not growing the gap there as much, but we're maintaining the gap. Same thing though occurs. So third grade mean here equivalent to end of third grade early fourth, sixth grade mean, end of seventh grade early 8th as a comparison. So that looks pretty um similar to what we saw in math. And then the same thing with the cohort data, just cautionary, we would just be looking at growth, which we're continuing to see. One of the really great things and the great things about reading um that I would have to report is that like obviously we're seeing all green growth across grades. We just
086were finishing year one of an ELA adoption. Sometimes you see implementation dips. We actually didn't see that and um our teachers last year were really really thrilled in the spring. I don't know if I shared a spring update with you, but we actually saw green and blue growth in the spring, particularly in our elementary grades, which was very exciting because you're seeing outcomes relative to implementation shifts um specific to the science of reading actually. So, that's a good thing. Um that was my question because for both ELA and math, we're in either year one or year two of a new curriculum cycle. So with them reorming and doing all these massive changes, is this map data still is like the raw writ still the valuable part for Yes. >> Yeah. So when if we're looking
087at updating anything, we're going to probably just look at RIT because RIT is the one thing that stays consistent while percentiles change for norming. And I do like we're in year one of math this year. So I don't know what to expect. Like we could have an implementation dip. It's definitely a change in instructional practice. Um, but we'll see what it looks like when we come in winter. >> Yeah. See, look at that. >> Agree. Because it it definitely is inspiring productive struggle. >> So, fun fun thing. Uh, first grade reading, 99% of them are already meeting. So, right, >> what are we doing with those kids, right? I mean, what what So, we're hoping that how do we what's the next step? So, one of the one of the send them home. >> I'm
088like, what's the curriculum now? I mean, obviously, we're not doing you can't do first grade curriculum anymore. >> One of the cautionary things about K1 assessment on NWA is that the assessment in K1 is actually read to them. So, it's a test of listening comprehension versus reading comprehension. Of course, we have kids who are >> doing amazing. And then, thank you, parents. >> When that's your norm, though, you adjust, right? You adjust. >> Thank you, parents. Isn't that why we get a drop in second grade? Because now they're actually reading it, right? >> That's correct. Yeah, they have to read yourself. Yep. >> All right, that's all I've got. >> Thank you. >> Don't Don't ask anything. >> Thank you, Daniel. Nice job. >> Let him say his thing. >> Thank you, Bennett. >> All
089right. Thank you, Danielle. All right. 7.4 resolution of board of board of education of Deerfield public schools district 109 authorizing a notice of remedy and ratification of unpaid suspension. Dale, >> so um just want to lay out uh at the jump that this is not going to be a discussion or an explanation of the incident that you're aware of. It would be wholly and appropriate to talk about that in open session because we do so few of these. Um, our legal counsel advised Mike and I that we share a synopsis of how we come to the point where you would actually vote on a resolution authorizing a notice of remedy and an uh unpaid suspension. So, I have done um sessions where I train administrators across the state on how to run an effective investigation
090eight hours. So, I'm going to give you the three minute synopsis here. That being said, there's three big terms that I want you to know in regards to how we came to this point. One is an umbrella term and two fall underneath that umbrella. Due process, I'm sure sometime in the last 6 months, you've probably heard the phrase due process. 6 months ago, most of us uh couldn't pinpoint where you would find that um in the constitution. It's actually under uh the fifth amendment. And it states that no one shall be deprived life, liberty, or not the pursuit of happiness. I just trapped you there. Sorry. >> It is actually it's it's property. Property. And when we say property, we're not talking about your home per se or your car per se. We're talking about
091property rights such as your job if you pass a probationary period, pay, benefits, um your tenure status. Those are all property rights that you earn. The two terms that fall underneath due process and making sure we um uh don't violate the due process uh provision of the fifth amendment is have you gone through progressive discipline? Um progressive is what it sounds like. You know, you inch up because remember discipline is supposed to remediate behavior. So we all want to jump to something right away like somebody did this well then we should fire them. That's not how it works and it's never worked that way. um it has to be in line with consequences for the actions with hopes of remediating the behavior until you get to a point where that's not happening and you end
092up with a discussion we're having tonight. So due process the umbrella progressive discipline is one aspect of it and the other more important aspect for what we're doing here are just cause. I say just cause and it's not to be phrased as well, we're doing this just because. A just cause is have you satisfied the right reasons for wanting to pursue something like a notice to remedy or a suspension without pay. To that extent there's seven tests to determine if you have just cause to get to this point. So the first test of just cause is is there adequate notice to employees of what is appropriate behavior? And that doesn't mean that we have to walk around with a list and say these are all the things you're expected to do. Those are outlined in
093policy and procedure for the most part. Handbooks, job descriptions, school code, law, educator ethics, all that falls underneath um the first test of just cause. So are all those things in place? The second were the employer's rules or orders related to the efficient andor safe operations of the district. So if we feel that the behavior flies in the face of safe and efficient operations, that satisfies the second test of just cause to pursue that. The third and third and fourth are kind of similar. One is a little bit more baseline than the other. Did you conduct an investigation? You can't just rush to like here's the consequence and not do an investigation. But then the fourth test is was that investigation thorough? Um was it something that is fair? Did you make sure that you
094weren't passing any judgment throughout the investigation? You heard all parties. The fifth is, do you have evidence of misconduct or proof that something actually occurred? It seems strange that that is one of the tests, but it actually you can't just decide, well, I didn't like the way things shook out, but I don't have enough evidence. If you don't have the evidence, you can't go any further. Sixth one is there were the rules, orders, and consequences even-handedly applied and without discrimination. Again, you can't just cherrypick who you want to administer discipline to without um satisfying the sixth test of just cause. And then finally, were the consequences related to the serious seriousness of the offense in past record? Seventh test of just cause goes right in line with progressive discipline, which is the the consequences that
095you're rendering. Do those match up to what we're actually finding in the investigation? It doesn't mean that you can't find something so egregious that you would jump the uh progressive discipline and say this is really far out there. Like there are some things that are so out of line. You could terminate someone right after the incident were to occur, but generally it has to match the seriousness of the offense. So again, due process is something that we're all entitled to um under the Constitution. Fifth Amendment can't deprive someone of life, liberty, and property is that third piece. And what would happen here? A suspension without pay is taking away property from somebody. You should be asking in your mind, does that satisfy the seven tests of just cause? That's the investigation that I oversee for
096the system. Um, and does it match progressive discipline? Meaning, were some things easier upfront? Did you provide notice? Did you provide verbal warnings? Did you provide written warnings? Did you provide written reprimands? Did you get to suspension without pay? Did you get to a notice to remedy? And remember, a notice to remedy means that this is really your last warning to say anything that happens beyond this that's egregious, it's probably going to lead to further discipline up to and including termination. Questions on the process. That's the threeminut synopsis of an 8 hour training session. >> I expect my credit on my ISB records and you're already >> I was very sorry. There's >> one more left. >> Thank you, Dale. >> Sure. >> Any questions? All right. Next on the agenda is 7.5 2025 tax
097levy. >> John, you also have three minutes. >> Well, we will be swift. Uh we will start with tax levy terms. Uh look at a levy and extension timeline and then detail the 2025 tax levy recommendation. So always begin with a distinction between the levy and the extension. The levy is the request that the board of education is making. Um and the extension is the total actual amount that will be extended to the school district um as build to taxpayers. Um and the reason that there is a difference between a levy and the extension is that we are forced uh by the timelines and statutes to make a request when we know half of the equation uh that uh drives the tax levby calculation. At this point in time, we know that the consumer price
098index at December 31, 2024 was 2.9%. That is one half of the equation. The other piece is the equalized assessed value of all property within the taxing district and that is an estimate at this point. So, we receive an estimate from the county um and we build the tax levy based on that estimate. We are a district that is subject to the tax cap. Um the tax cap has been enacted and in place uh for district 109 since the early9s and it means that our extension is limited to the lesser of the prior year's consumer price index or 5% whichever is less. Um, so if many of you on the board will recall that for the first time since the tax cap law was uh put into place, we actually did hit that 5% cap
099when we had CPI in excess uh well it was 7% and I think 6.5% the year thereafter. What is not subject to the cap is any new property that comes onto the tax roles. That can be in the form of newly constructed property that is initially taxed or it could be in the uh form of an expiring tiff district. The tax levy timeline is one that touches four years. Like most business office processes, we start by looking back to CPI at December 31 in 2024. And that, as I indicated, is a driver in this calculation. And then we advanced to the end of 2025 where we are now. The finance committee met uh in early October to review financial projections as well as a draft of the proposed tax levy. And then in November, the
100board will meet uh and hold a public hearing uh on that tax levy and approve the tax levy so that we can file it in December. And then we wait until the county will establish the actual extension sometime in April. And we use that to build uh the budget for 2627. And those taxes are generally collected uh in June through September, October of 2026. Again, on October 6th, the finance committee met. We looked at our f your financial projections and discussed in detail the 2025 tax levy and the recommendation is to increase the tax levy at 2.9%. Um also to pass the supplemental resolution to capture the debt service extension base increase. So when they initiated the tax cap uh created a situation where taxing bodies uh had a debt service extension base that was
101frozen based off of the debt that the district carried at that time. In recent years, the legislature uh uh enacted the ability for a uh taxing body to increase that debt service extension base um by uh increases in CPI and EAV. Um and what that means is that our debt service extension base if we pass this uh supplemental levy just notches up a bit over time uh with CPI and changes to EAV and again in the board packet there is a detailed document and the detailed calculations are found on page 13 and 14. So the next steps uh even though we are not required to do so, the district has traditionally held a truth and taxation hearing which means we will publish publish notice in the newspaper in a format that is required uh by
102the legislature. Um and then Ryan will lead us in a hearing where he asks three times for public comment. Um and we will request board action following the hearing in November. And once the board acts, we will file the appropriate resolutions with the county clerk uh before the last Tuesday in December. And with that, I will answer any questions. >> Um kind of adjacent to the tax levy, there was a period of time where you were referencing some recapturing of dollars. I think it was related potentially to the debt. >> I could be off. Walk me through what that was and is that re reoccur was that a one-time moment? >> It is. uh what you're referencing is the recapture levy. Um I think this is the third uh or fourth year that it has
103been in play. Um what that is is separate from the tax cap and it's separate from the debt service extension base. What it is is if um uh taxes are not collected, right? Um then uh those taxes that are not collected in a prior year um and it can be for a reason such as uh a property owner receives a t property tax appeal and their tax bill is lowered and they pay a lesser tax that is aggregated and then spread across all of taxing uh parcels within the district and those dollars are collected in the next year. Um so uh for instance in the um 2024 levy that we're collecting to fund the current year that recapture levy was just over a half million dollars. Um so we can't forecast what that would be.
104We have the uh clerk uh county clerk will calculate that independent of anything that we submit. >> Right. But we there's nothing on our end we have to do vote for etc. That's an automatic by Okay, cool. Thanks. >> I got one just I'm sorry I forgot to ask this earlier. What would lead one a district to pass the debt service extension one year, maybe not another year? How would one make the decision to do that? >> You know, I I think it's, you know, I think it goes along the lines of where the district was at one point in time. Uh, District 109 was abating the debt service levy. Um, you know, in anticipation of capital needs, reinstated the debt service levy. So, if there wasn't need there, you know, you you wouldn't necessarily
105need to pass. It's all about a philosophy on the board in terms of obviously the best um you know collection and allocation of taxpayer dollars. So if you're in a period of time which at the time 5 years ago, five six years ago, six seven years ago um we were um in a position where we had our our percentage reserve was creeping up was beyond where we as a board wanted to aim it at. And so we abate one of the the triggers without hurting the district on a long-term basis was to abate the the debt levy. Um and so that's what we did for a number of years. But as we I think a few years ago and we knew we were going into this master facility planning process and we needed to capture
106um as much as we could in order to offset the impact of a potential referendum. Um that's when we reinstated it. So should we get into that position again post referendum or should we have that referendum say a number of years down the road we're like hey you know we are aiming for that percentage in our reserve and it's creeping up again um we that's the lever that we can use without necessarily having a long-term impact to our financial status. Does that make sense? >> Yeah, I'm looking at the exhibits that you sent out. Looks like we will be likely doing this in the future as well based on the >> capital. Yeah, the big numbers that are in row A. >> Correct. >> Although our debt service will increase also based off of what
107we're going to So, >> thank you guys. >> Any other questions? >> All right. 7.6. Um Mitch, hold on to your seats. Illinois State ISB 2025 resolutions committee report and constitutional amendments for consideration. >> I have already volunt I've already volunteered. I've already already volunteered to take the uh the vote for you. >> I am >> and here's the reason why there is only one thing to vote on. Um >> not the constitutional >> those are the easy ones I think. So just to quickly go through it and thank you for writing this Becky but I I took some notes this time actually. Um so you have the school bus uh safety funding. So that's the first one. um that is right now is currently an unfunded mandate um by the state in terms of
108putting in three-point harnesses in 2031. And so this is a resolution to advocate for funding associated with that um with that mandate >> and and I I Ray and and David if I'm presuming that you like I don't want to presume but do you understand what the intentionality behind this whole committee is? >> I do not. Okay. >> Ah okay. I didn't want to presume there. So, Ryan, do you want to lend some insight as to what this group is? >> It's killed two birds with one stone actually cuz I was actually I was actually at a the ISB Lake County legislative um meeting last week. Um which was my privilege to go to. >> He wants to get the little thingy on his badge >> alone. But, uh >> were you just you? Yeah,
109it was just me. I was all alone. Um, yeah. >> And so basically what happens and there was a representative there. I was talking to Mike actually. Super impressive. Representative Sad. Um well I told you I was telling you but but um yeah so she made a really good point of hey you know as a legislator there's a lot of things a lot of topics on their plate and you know if you don't have somebody that's in your face telling you hey this is an issue you should pay attention to this then it's something that they don't pay attention to and they don't get voted they don't vote on it right and so what this is is the ISB is by by its formation is primarily a advocacy body right so it takes the issues
110of to school boards within the state and it advocates on our behalf um to the state legislature to get legislation changed. Okay. Um mostly to secure funding is kind of the primary um purpose, but from time to time they'll advocate. In the past we've done anywhere between six and 12. I've seen 15 um topics where they will where we would get into a delegates all the school boards. We'll have a representative there and say yes we support this. Yes, IB, you should advocate on as a group from on our behalf for this specific topic, right, to get this legislation changed. So, that's what I have now volunteered to do is to vote um on your behalf to represent you guys, right, and our decision as a board of what we're going to support. Then, if
111everybody supports that, then they will go and advocate for that. This year, it's one thing and it is the school bus safety funding. So, there's a ton of un um unfunded mandates, which is Mike's favorite topic, um where the state and the federal government sometimes will put a requirement on school boards and then say you must do this and it costs us money and they don't fund it and so it just comes out of our budget. This is one of those where you may agree with the the outcome of putting safety harnesses in all school buses. They have not put any money behind it. So, it means all the schools have to now pay for that, right? So, this is advoc advocacy in order to get that funding. Um, it does have an exception for
112smaller school districts to give them a little bit more time as well um to do it. But is everybody is there any questions on that? Anybody >> have everybody? Is it 51? Is it majority or >> it's majority? Yeah, majority vote. >> This is at the eye conference on Saturday morning. There's a whole big meeting of delegates. Well, each district has >> like hundreds of >> and uh I hope you vote one by one. roll call, please. >> They used to. Yeah, >> it's a it's a clicker. >> Yeah. >> Um >> but yeah, so the the whole intentionality tonight for what's on our agenda is to direct Ryan how to vote and Ryan's vote and the collective vote of the group is to simply direct I this group to put dollars and time behind
113their advocacy. So we're not voting on any legislation or it's just what we'd like them to advocate for on our behalf. So, I'm a little bit inaccurate. There's actually two things that we're going to end up voting on at this, but the first one that act only one that really matters is the school bus safety funding. Um, and so, so the when we get to the voting part of our meeting tonight, right, we'll ask you guys to vote basically to authorize me to be the the um the voting party, right? And then to follow the direction of the board and what we're saying. So, right now is the discussion and what we're trying to get to is is everybody in agreement that I should vote in favor of or to adopt that resolution in order
114to advocate for funding for school bus safety. >> Is everybody good? >> So, this is a question time or I mean >> Yeah, this is a question, but >> I don't know the questions, but we vote later for this. >> Yeah, we vote later, but I what I want right now is if everybody's in agreement on that. >> Y Okay. All right. So then the the second thing is um these there's about 10 there's 10 changes to the constitution of the IASB. I'll be honest with you most of them are the first first portion of it. It's all just language cleanup, right? And I am not Siri cuz Sarah will go through this and she was a lawyer. She knew exactly like it's language cleanup. It's a lot of uh legal goblygook. All right. Um
115but then there's certain things in here that I'll point out. All right. one is that it is creating some level of flexibility for um the board of directors at ISB and the resolutions committee to make some subjective decisions. Let's put it that way, right? Um so I don't I would let's put my recommendation is that we it's a they're going to do it in a consent agenda. All 10 are going to be voted all on one vote. Unless somebody objects to one of those, then they'll pull it out. >> Let's hope they do >> now. Yeah, to if I really wanted to make it painful, I will be that guy of that. But I don't think it's worth it. Let's put it that way. That's my recommendation is that there is a consent. Now, I
116will say that there may be a district that may that will pull something out. So, basically, what it's basically saying is that, hey, we're going to do some cleanup in terms of what we're going to call active members versus non-active or honorary or legacy members. So, that's that's a big piece of it. The other one is that they voted for uh they would elect officers for two consecutive one-year terms, but in the thing it had is one-year terms with a limitation of two terms consecutively. So, they're like, "We'd never do that. We only do two, so we're going to do a two-year term." That's fine, right? Um the other the other major one in here was just clean up that we're no longer part of the National Association of School Boards. We're now part of
117Cosby or Cosba >> Cosba. >> Cosb Cosby, not Cosby. Cosba, right? Um and so that's they're just cleaning up that language. Um but the one the two that I saw in here that could create an issue is um one how you bring a resolution to um to the delegate assembly. Um there's a timeline associated with it. There used to be exceptions to that timeline where they could accept something in late. They're killing that exception. So you have to get in 150 days in advance now. I don't think that's a problem, but it basically just creates a limitation. Um, I think there are a couple school districts that might have knowing the school districts that have brought up some of these that may not like that. Um, and then the second one that I see as
118a problem or a potential issue um is that there there used to be a way to nominate officers from the floor, although I don't think in my time it's never happened that I've heard of. Um but now they're saying, "Hey, you have to have your paperwork in um to be nominated even from the floor by the August quarterly meeting when they select their nomine who they're going to nominate directly." Um so it creates some limitations, but again in scenarios that I don't think are very that don't happen a lot, right? So, my recommendation is that with all those changes that we just vote yes on the constitutional changes. Um, that said, I might be in there for a while if somebody decides to pull one of those out. And if they do, I'll be sitting
119right next to them staring them down with the evil eye or going to the hotel bar to get a Bloody Mary to bring it back in. So, >> sounds good. >> Everybody, any any questions on those? I don't think the I don't think the one even changes the language so much about the 150 days. They're just adding extra. I mean, it says already it must be done. >> There was there was some exceptions to be able to to take in late resolution. That's what they're eliminating. So, >> any questions? Good. >> No. >> All right. Moving on. All right. Uh, next on the agenda, 8.1 consent agenda. Um, 8.1.1 approval of meeting minutes. 8.1.2 two personnel or sorry yeah 8.1.2.1 resignations retirements 8.1.2.2 leaves of absence 8.1.2.3 employment of certified staff 8.1.2.4 employment of educational
120support staff 8.1.2.5 employment of at will staff 8.1.3 bills for payment. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Bonner. >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. I >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi, >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi, >> Mr. Mirv. >> Hi, >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> And President Qu. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> 8.2 treasures report. May I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Merev. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> Miss Bonner. >> I. >> And President. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> 8.3. Approval of a resolution of the board of education Deerfield Public
121Schools District 109 authorizing notice of remedy and ratification of unpaid suspension. And may I have a motion to approve? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Jakamu. >> I. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mir. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> I. >> Miss Bonner. >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> And President Co. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> Our 8.4 recommendation to direct the appointed delegate myself to vote on the IASB proposed resolutions and constitutional amendments at the delegate assembly at the joint annual conference. May I have a motion to be granted the authority as the board president to discuss and vote the upon the proposed ISB resolution and constitutional amendments at the 2025 ISB delegate assembly with independent discretion based off tonight's board consensus. >> Absolutely.
122>> Move that. >> All right. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Joyce. >> I. >> Mr. Merv. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> Hi. >> Miss Bonner. >> Hi. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. Hi. >> And President Co. >> I. Motion carries. >> All right. There's a term called voluntel that will come into play next year. So just heads up. >> It'll be Oh, we're going to bring in a wheel. That's what I'm going to bring in. >> All right. 8.5 approval of FY26 intergovernmental agreement for GIS school safety mapping. We have a motion to approve. So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Murv. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. I >> Miss Bonner. I >> Dr. Dornfeld. Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. Hi. >> Miss Joyce. Hi. And
123President Cole. Hi. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Uh, nine committee reports. Uh we had finance committee meeting um October was it 8th? Okay. Um and so we reviewed the 20 27 to 31 financial pro the five-year projections with John. Um, which I want to commend the, you know, the finance department on all your past planning and all your pre-planning and just really trying to, you know, really give us a bandwidth for just, you know, growth all along. Um, and the tax levy, which John just reviewed. Um, and we also reviewed in, uh, sort of in summary the audit recommendation timeline. Um, which I, you know, I really want to commend again Ben and John on really delving into all of the compliance stuff to just make us feel warm and fuzzy that our tax
124dollars are being spent the way they should be spent. So, >> John is known warm and fuzzy. The whole finance department, >> hugs, >> free hugs. Yeah. [Laughter] >> Um, >> are you done? >> That's I That's it. >> Um, Mike alluded to we had a true north board meeting last night. I know he presented most of it in the superintendent report. I think as a board um I would like to hear kind of a finality from Laura Kitt about um her legal analysis on the um financial liabilities etc related to continuing the pathway withdrawal and just getting that kind of in front of the board. Um otherwise any other questions about true north >> question when when that was originally the final conversation of you know following the recommendation to exit there was a
125lot of conversation at that time to get some real data either on assets or certain finances that we were going to ask true north to divulge but then all the conversation went to the new model and now the conversation is going back. So, are those same requests going to bubble back up as far as certain data that we were looking at either before we make a decision? Uh to this point, uh there's been a lot of interest from a minority of districts in getting that information. there is a large majority of districts uh that are interested in retaining the co-op in its now evolved form and so to date I think there has not been uh sufficient uh force behind the request to provide it's a sign significant amount of work potentially >> and that
126that request has not um uh been put forth yet. >> So, just a really high level because they uh introduced new articles of agreement. At one point, they were going to try to redline the original ones and they got to the point where they were all red, so they just started all over again. Um, so it was a lot to absorb, you know, as a board member. And they did give a high level overview. You know, they're looking to change the governance structure. They're going to move away from the day-to-day board operations being run by elected board members and be shifted to superintendent that would be meeting as an executive committee. Um, as the financial model, Mike alluded to a few things. They're proposing no membership fee, but that's for 2627. You know, there's a
127long-term look at this, and the question, you know, is viabilitywise, year-over-year overear, can you maintain that no membership fee? Um, is a big question. Uh, there will be no uh it says upon a termination or withdraw. So if a district were to withdraw, member districts will relinquish any right to the assets of True North upon withdrawal. Um so that is new. It used to be in the old articles that you as a withdrawn district would retain rights to assets to the district ever dissolve. That's no longer going to be contemplated. Um the verbalization given at the meeting last night is that if districts want to withdraw that there wouldn't be any liability penalties that were originally contemplated in the old articles. It used to be anywhere from 1 plus million in liabilities. Um however a
128outstanding question that I would have is you know this entire process of 18 member districts withdrawing has incurred quite a few costs for True North specifically legal costs and how does True North anticipate ensuring that those costs are recaptured and would we be given some type of exiting liability uh fee or like we I I don't I don't perceive and I could be totally wrong that a district could just walk away. So when is when are these new articles going to be approved? >> Uh the great question. They were given a first read last night and the request is both a second read and a vote uh November 19th. >> Okay. So by the time we exit as a district the potentially these new articles are in place which would eliminate theoretically as it's written
129today those liabilities unless that changes between now and approval. Is that what you're >> I don't anticipate major language change these articles. I think we'd have to call a special meeting if they do anything other than semantics or grammar changes. >> So, no, I don't anticipate any changes. I think my question is more some of these uncontated it's not a word non-contemplated uncontemplated >> um finances that if you know >> how are they going to how >> how are they going to recapture and and we have to also recognize too we've been paying in how many decades to their fund balance. I mean we we walk away from that. So, just some things to to ponder and maul as we get closer to our district making a recommendation. >> Relative to that, uh, our next
130board meeting, I believe, is on the 20th and the True North board meeting is on the 19th. The board should expect a phone call from me because we won't have a board meeting prior to that, but we may wind up having a resolution of some sort on the 20th. So I will likely be calling each of you to discuss okay this is the direction that I think that we are headed and um we'll make some decisions based on feedback I get >> um is there any um information about what would happen to the capital funds and andor liability that's owed. How is that then distributed amounts to remaining districts? Is it distributed amounts to the remaining districts or is it just >> are you referencing if the cooperative were to ever dissolve? >> No. If
131what if a district leaves? So what happens like who has ownership on that either capital or debt >> because it's going to net to something >> the remaining members >> whoever's left in the pot. Okay. >> We would we would basically walk away clean if that makes sense, right? We would have no >> in theory. Yeah. We would have no liabilities. is we would have no assets but we would also have no fees associated with it but we would also not be able to utilize the services. Well, we we could as a non-member >> as a non-member, >> but we would be be quite a bit of a search charge, >> right? So, >> yeah, >> stay tuned. >> More to come. >> Yep. Any more on the committee side? >> All right. Next on
132the agenda, open community participation. This is the second opportunity on all topics. Please limit your comments to no more than three minutes. Sir, testing. All right. Thanks, Joe Copsic of Walkagan. Several months ago, one of your students asked critics of your locker room policy why we couldn't simply ask for a private meeting with staff members instead of airing our grievances in public. The reason, of course, is to subject staff members to the same kind of public humiliation to which you subjected the girls who you made change in front of a male student. Maybe now after hearing the critiques of you and your policy over the last eight months, you are closer to understanding how those girls felt and why they and their families objected so strongly. You're very lucky that nobody has come up here
133and ordered you to take your clothes off as one woman did in another district with a similar policy. In April or May, a gentleman wearing a suit spoke here and said something like, "Outs are coming into our community and destroying it. They don't pay taxes here, so they should not have a voice. They are attacking our greatest strength, our diversity." Let me tell you a little bit about the so-called community that we have here in Lake County, Illinois. As a reminder, I grew up in Lake Forest and Lake Bluff. When I was 12 or 13, a parent in the area, Diane M. Ross, was found to have been sending child sexual abuse images over the internet. Principal and later Mayor Kathleen O'Hara declined to convene a town meeting to discuss the incident, despite the fact
134that Ross had been released after her arrest and was seen at an event in the Lake Bluff Town Square by concerned parents milling about near children as if nothing had happened. On and off between 1976 and 2023, LFHS teacher David Miller sexually abused multiple teenage boys. He was only arrested once and was never sentenced to jail or prison during that 47-year period. And Ross and Miller are just the tip of the iceberg. Charles Ritz, Cynthia Martin, Jonathan Dick, I could go on. In the 2010s, three teenage boys threw themselves in front of trains in Lake Forest. Gee, I wonder why they wouldn't want to live in a town that protects child molesters. This is the so-called community that I and other critics of your policy am attacking when I caution you to not add to
135the anxiety of the people who live here and to refrain from forcing these children to undress in front of a male and adult female staff members. Lake County, Illinois had no community to destroy to begin with. The only community value that Lake County has is the conspiracy of silence, which asserts that this is such a perfect place that no child ever needs to worry about being sexually abused, which makes it the perfect place full of unsuspecting people of whom child abusers can easily take advantage. We've been lulled into a false sense of security. If this is what you call a community, then it deserves to be destroyed. That is why what you have done here with the locker room policy is so dangerous. You made it even easier to abuse and spy on kids here.
136What you did in February should haunt you for the rest of your lives, and no amount of education will make up for it. >> All right. Um, next on the agenda is close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as the independent contractors in a park. >> Oh, I apologize. Board superintendent other. Sorry, >> I marked it off and I shouldn't have. I have one. And who's got any >> my >> in the interest of uh time? You guys have been here for a long time. I'll say let's wait. >> All right. I hit it. It was the legislative. I'll just say this is that EBF ended up the evidence-based funding ended up being flat in the last leg legislative session. They did reduce
137the what's called mandatory categoricals which you guys can look it up and it's mind-numbing. Um there is a cliff in the budget if you're interested in Illinois taxation. Um that will that hit because of COVID funding and infrastructure funding that came in. So there's a 700 $800 million gap in the budget that will probably exist for the foreseeable future which is why the MCATs as they call it were reduced. Um, and yeah, that was basically that meeting. So, all right. All right. Next on the agenda. Got to go back to it. Close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees, specific individuals who serve as independent contractors in a park, recreational, or educational setting or specific volunteers of the public body or legal council for the public body, including
138hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee, a specific individual who serves as an independent contractor in a park, recreational, or educational setting, or a volunteer of a public of the public body, or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. However, meeting to consider an increase in compensation to a specific employee of a public body that is subject to the local government wage increase transparency act may not be closed and shall be open to the public and posted and held in accordance with this act 5CS120/2C1. The board will reconvene to open session for the sole purpose of adjournment after the close session is done. May I have a motion to adjourn to close session? >> So move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abraham >> I. >> Miss
139Bonner. >> I. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. Miss Jakamu. Hi, >> Miss Joyce. Hi, >> Mr. Mur. Hi, >> and President Qu. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. 8:57 p.m. >> All right, >> guys. Need a quick break?