Regular Board of Education Meeting July 24, 2025

001referendum for five to eight years. And there's another point in there too. >> Okay. >> Oh, and that we would uh uh create a plan to address our facility needs. um have an extended maintenance plan and the district really did follow through uh in spades on that. Both and not coming back uh for a referendum, but also the facilities uh the the board took care to invest really substantially in the aging facilities and brought them up uh to their current standard. and some of that was uh district resources, but there's also in recent years a really significant updating of the auditorium with the partnership of the park district. So, subsequent boards, administrations kept those promises, but we're now looking at coming back for a potential new ask to the community. And with that, I hand

002off to George. >> Microphone >> and Jeff. >> No. >> Oh, where is the microphone? >> It's right there. >> Stand is good. >> It's on the floor. Is this better? >> Wow. >> Oh, that's the screen. >> Okay. Can everyone else hear me? Okay. >> Um, what was really taking on the challenge and looking at the the buildings from two different lenses. one uh from an infrastructure and maintenance perspective, but also looking at the challenges that that the buildings pose from an educational perspective. Uh so what you see kind of before you is a snapshot of the four elementary buildings in in the two middle schools. And the key things to kind of take note on on this slide is the fact that uh the four elementaryaries were all uh pretty much 75 years

003old and counting. Uh we're hitting uh buildings built in the 1950s and the middle schools and kind of cross that threshold into the '60s. Uh but square footage is is another key component. If you look at all four sites at the elementary level where you can see kind of a range uh between all four sites ranging from about 80,000 ft all the way down to the smallest building at Walden which is 54,000 ft². Now what does that mean? Uh yes, it means clearly that the the buildings are different sizes. But when we get to the next few slides, you'll see how it relates to kind of the population in every one of those buildings and the similarities and population that are happening in them. uh which begs the question of how much space is for

004each student at each facility. Specifically, we'll go into Walden. Uh looking at Welen, uh there's 440 students and 27 classrooms in that building and all of those classrooms are being utilized and filled, right? Uh there's been multiple additions over time, but the last addition was about 25 years ago. But looking at the challenges specifically at Walden, uh having that many amount of students in those many spaces, you're going to wonder 54,000 ft. What does that mean? It means a lot of those educational spaces that they're living in are a lot smaller uh than the average classroom space you'll see at the other buildings. from a zoning perspective, uh the change in how it's laid out with uh interior circulation, exterior circulation, from uh ADA accessibility to traffic kind of going into the center of the

005building, distances to toilet rooms and uh and access to plumbing fixtures. All those become remote for where the students are going to be with long travel times to get to those locations. um other spaces that are support spaces, spaces that didn't exist at the infancy of these these buildings uh that have developed over time, be it uh OTP, one-on-one learning, social workers, psychologists, counselors, all these types of of ancillary functions that have grown to need uh to accommodate students uh working in marginalized spaces, small closets, areas where they can fit just to get those services to be provided to students. And the other key thing uh as we looked at safety and security uh at these facilities is looking at all the the infrastructure, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, roofs, building envelope. All these pieces are buildings

006that that were were installed from the the the start of the the 1950s when this building was built and equipment that is kind of beyond the expected life cycle. Mechanical equipment that is has been utilized and repaired uh and aged to needing uh replacement. Uh you'll notice in some of these pictures plumbing uh and and and piping that is exposed in all the corridors of really just getting things to up to code and move throughout the buildings over time. They've just tried to find space where it can go and that's kind of how it's developed over time. So what you're going to see in most of the schools is a very similar story. Uh Wilmont is a has a lot of the similar issues that uh Walden had as well. Uh it's got a little

007bit more students, 477 and a few more classrooms. We're up to 34 versus 27 at Walden. Um and its last addition was in 2011. It's had a number of additions as well. Four. Um part of those additions completed a circulation loop so that now you can go two different directions and end up in the same point. essentially a donut in circulation where if you recall in Walden it was essentially a tea. You had to go one way or the other and then meet in the middle. Uh a lot of the same same challenges at Wilmont as we had at Walden. Uh the similar safety and security issues. Uh you've got a number of your support folks, your speech uh folks, OTPT nurse, they're all in spaces that are were never designed for those purposes. Some

008of them are in uh former uh uh storage rooms and and small spaces like that. Um you've got uh folks in uh a branch of the IT closet essentially working with students. So some challenges there. Uh the kindergarten spaces are pretty small. Uh they don't really provide you opportunities for a lot of the the different types of uh events that you want to do with your kids in in kindergarten. Uh they don't have a lot of the support that you would typically want. And then all the spaces that the kids go to that are shared, music, art, steam, the multi-purpose spaces, uh with the exception of the large gym, those are all quite small as well. Um washrooms throughout are lacking, uh particularly single-use washrooms. And then we've got the same mechanical plumbing uh electrical

009issues that we have at uh at Walden where uh the mechanical systems are quite noisy uh having challenges uh with temperatures consistency pipes. A lot of the plumbing systems are close to failure. They're about the same age, right? So they've got similar issues. Uh and then the finishes throughout are are rather dated. Um, there are still circulation issues despite being able to go in a complete loop around the building, particularly in the two-story wing where you've got some uh accessibility issues going uh from floor to floor for students with mobility challenges. Um, and certainly some of the things like having washrooms on the lower level basement and the ability to go to the playground where students have to go down a set of stairs and then upstairs on the outside. So a lot of challenges

010very similar. >> Mhm. >> When it comes to Kipling, you'll see a common thread of 30 or 30 classrooms in use. So so far in our buildings, every classroom is being utilized and f filled. Uh they have about 460 students in there. Uh and again there's about three additions, the last edition being in 1996 at Kipling. Where uh they saw the circulation donut that Jeff had mentioned to get students around. Kipling doesn't have that. uh there is a dead end as you go around and getting to remote activities like band uh gym and classrooms you have to kind of complete a long truck to get from one end to the other to get to use those spaces. Um the other pieces that are remote support spaces that we were talking about uh that are in

011kind of marginalized areas in the other two sites are kind of found in a really corner pocket of the building remote from where everyone needs to utilize them. So trying to find the proper home where we want to be to be centrally located to be utilized by by all the students. Uh and again uh similar to the mechanical electrical plumbing uh we're looking at facilities that have piping that it's hard to get to cuz everything is underground and behind walls and buried. So as you as you look at aged uh components of the building trying to get them to be maintained or repaired becomes a very big challenge. Uh if you look at Kipling's plumbing line, uh that main plumbing line that runs through the building that feeds all the toilets is about 18 feet

012below uh the corridor slab. So getting access if something were to break in there uh to repair becomes a huge challenge and we do schools for a living and that that's something that we find really challenging. Right. Okay. South Park. Um South Park's a little different. It's got a a smaller number of students, but it also houses your early childhood or or preK program. Um, so while you've got a few number of students, those students need more space. So, uh, you've got 30 classrooms at this building, uh, again, all of those classrooms are in use. Uh, and there are some spaces that are that are, uh, in need that that are lacking. Um, it's had three additions. The last one was in uh, 1999. Uh it has a two-story uh classroom wing with a gymnasium

013piece. That was a the most recent addition and that's in pretty good shape. Uh there's some challenges with the rest of the building. Um again, some of the same issues around uh safety and security uh we've talked about at the other buildings. Uh same issues around the plumbing and and mechanical systems failing and and in certain cases uh some spaces where things have already failed and had to be repaired. uh they're reaching their uh their life. Um the prek wing uh is is a challenge. Uh the spaces weren't really designed for prek. They're small. They don't have the appropriate uh washrooms and appropriate changing spaces and and uh zones within the prek. Um because it's the oldest part of the building as well. Uh the reception area is uh is administration is undersized. Um you've

014got conf you've got a conference room for your administration, but it's down the hallway. So, anytime folks come in, whether it's for an IEP meeting or to meet with the principal where you need a conference room, you have to take them through the building down the hallways to get to it. And again, you've got a lot of the other spaces that you would typically have within your administration scattered around the building. Uh, notably, the nurses spaces are across the hallway. Uh, and they you you can't uh help support that with administration when that nurse needs to work with a student. Uh, you are lacking a number of small group spaces and specialist spaces throughout. uh because of the age of the building. And then uh appropriate washrooms throughout, particularly in that uh that oldest part

015of the wing uh oldest part of the building, that first grade kindergarten wing um where uh there are washrooms there, but there aren't enough washrooms or appropriate washrooms throughout uh the classrooms uh in the the lower grades there. >> I fast forward too much. It's like a go forward only. Is that right? Okay. Um then as we get into the uh the middle schools, so as we exit the elementarymentaries, we looked at the at the middle schools to the same extent from a an infrastructure and a challenges perspective from a curricular level. And you'll notice that uh again in both of these buildings, we are utilizing all the classroom spaces. Uh you'll see Caruso, we we just completed that auditorium work. So the last addition that happened there is in 2022. Uh but at Shepard

016you'll see there's been five additions and the last one happening in 2019. Common uh challenges that we we found at the middle school level uh safety and security making sure that uh we are looking at site circulation as well as entry circulation. Uh student safety in classrooms uh making sure that we have visibility to anyone who's coming into the vestibules and have direct access into the building and make sure that is controlled uh and monitored accordingly. uh looking at the HVAC side of things uh u making sure that there's equipment in here at at at both facilities uh that needs repair because it's been aged and is is causing a lot of troubles uh keeping temperatures whether that we want them in the classrooms but at the same time uh making sure you're finding they're

017they're they're easily maintained what what type of components you need to get replaced to make sure they work properly. Uh and then again the infrastructure side of things is looking at roof replacement, making sure that the buildings are watertight uh and keeping everyone dry in them. So understanding the age of those components to make sure they need replaced. Uh the last piece, if we're looking at Shepherd's uh 100 200 wing, uh that is the original part of the building where all the classrooms are housed. Uh making sure those are renovated or are looked at to are are they meeting the needs of the building and the facility from the curriculum that's going on today. So, this kind of gives you a quick snapshot of everything that Jeff and I just really ran through quickly. Uh,

018but you'll see that as as we kind of walk through these, there's a lot of common themes that happen at at the elementary level and at the middle school level, be it the mechanical mechanical electrical plumbing systems uh that that need work. uh looking at the appropriate quantities of spaces be it classrooms support spaces uh lunch PE uh OTP all those ancillary spaces on top of just what's happening in the four walls of the classrooms uh looking at washrooms making sure they're accessible and appropriate from a plumbing and kind of accessibility standpoint and then looking at all the other types of spaces and circulation throughout not only inside the building but uh site circulation from bus and parent traffic around the buildings uh at the middle school level. Uh hitting the same type of key

019components from the infrastructure level, building envelope, mechanical, electrical, plumbing, uh safety and security upgrades at at both of those entries, uh main entrances, and then looking at uh support spaces for new students and staff that need modernization in those buildings. Uh we have one little parenthesy one on there about natural light at Caruso and trying to see if we there's ways of getting more light into that building uh in creative ways. So that is our quick summary. You take that. Thank you. >> So George and Jeff went through uh very quickly uh what was about uh 6 to 8 months of work uh in 2022 uh to really understand the challenges that the district was facing in our facilities. And in early 2023, we formed an 18 member uh committee that met to really digest

020the findings from the Archon team and to understand uh different ways that we might solve some of these challenges. So we had a group of of staff that came together, administrators and parents and we really formed got to figure which direction to point this. uh we really talked uh through um uh different strategies that could identify those needs that were identified for the archon team. So we formed kind of a a a working group to think through what ways that we could potentially solve some of these challenges. And the goal that we had was find ways to solve these uh challenges and to be creative and think about every possible scenario that could could you know uh rise to the top that might solve our challenges. And we started by trying to understand what a

021baseline would be. Um so you know in this process we had to understand that you know uh you know a a doing nothing option really meant doing something right. Um and so we started with what what would it uh take to invest in the facilities to keep them going in their current iteration over the next 20 years. Um we talked about the possibility of doing maintenance with additions and renovations at our elementary schools and our middle schools. Uh we talked about the potential replacement of schools. We talked about transitioning to grade level centers which is you know housing prek through one in one facility, two through five in another facility. Um we talked about um uh large uh PK uh through 8 centers. Um we talked about redistricting, closing schools, uh moving kids around. We

022thought of every possible scenario that we could think of. Um and we considered them and we gave them all fair consideration. And the way that we did that was by scoring these various options against those uh needs that we identified as our guiding principles. And some of those scenarios did not check many boxes at all. So you can see that some of them were, you know, showing a lot of red lights and yellow lights. Um and there were some solutions that showed promise that they could tackle many if not all of the challenges that we were facing in each one of these facilities. But at the end of the day, uh the steering committee arrived at um three possible ways that the district could move forward that they that they recommended to the administration. And

023those were, you know, offering a baseline uh and attaching a cost to that baseline of really if you were to make no improvements to the facilities and you were to keep them going in their current iteration for the next two decades. at the time in 2023, and we'll talk about today's dollars later in the presentation, that represented $155 million investment from the school district just to keep the facilities going based on those needs that we had identified. And those are things like replacing HVAC, replacing warm building components. Um, it did not include wholesale replacement of failing sewer infrastructure or failing piping uh with supply piping in the walls. and included allowances for patches and those allowances were under ideal circumstances which we know we might not face u but that's the best way that we

024could estimate what that option would cost. We came up with a renovation and addition option that checked a lot of boxes uh but not all of them um and in fact it left uh more behind in certain campuses than in others. So, a renovation addition option. Uh, for instance, um, at Walden, we know Walden was our most undersized campus, and that campus stays undersized in a renovation and addition scenario. Uh, in 2023 estimates, this was about a $29 million um, uh, cost uh, over a period of 20 years with the majority of that coming up in the in the front end of that 20 years. And then we looked at a new construction option and that was um you know 3.5 or 3.8 depending on how you want to look at the South Park campus

025but essentially new construction at the four elementary campuses with some um addition and renovation work being done at both of the middle schools. And the net cost of that when we estimated in 2023 was about $255 million. Um, in each one of these scenarios when we presented them in 2023, we talked about how we could fund these and we'll talk about how we fund uh what uh we're presenting as uh the recommendation from the task force. Uh but the first was, you know, the district could continue to use the resources that the district has and invest them in the facilities, but at the end of that 20-year period, the district would have exhausted all of its resources, would have been left with buildings that were uh nine decades or approaching or exceeding their 100th birthday

026and would have used up all of those resources and would have the same issues that we're facing today, if not worse. Um and then both the uh second and third options involved uh the need to borrow. uh and we'll talk about how we could approach that but both of them involved an ask of the community in the form of a referendum. So to pivot and just talk about uh the district's finances this is very important as we start this conversation. Um we could not be approaching this generational project in a better financial position than we are today. Um and that is uh really uh you know uh because of the excellent stewardship of uh prior boards of education for now two decades uh and the administrations that work with those boards. So following the referendum

027to 2005, at that time the promise, as I understand it from from Nick was that, you know, if we pass that operating rate referendum, we're not going to ask for money for another 5 to 8 years. And here we are two decades later. And the district has fulfilled that promises and continue to invest in the facilities and keep them going over the last 20 years. We approached this uh and Ben will be presenting the uh budget later this evening which will be the 21st consecutive operating budget after 14 years of budget deficits. The district was upgraded to a AAA uh Moody's rating in 2019. They have the highest designation from ISVY for our finances. Were one of only 138 districts in the country that has received the meritorious budget award for the last 14 years.

028One of a much smaller number in the state of Illinois. And the district has continued to receive recommend uh uh recognition for financial statements through independent peer groups. So we submit our financial statements for independent blind peerre um and uh tells a strong story about the stewardship of the board and administration of the district's finances. Uh just to give a picture of what the district's resources look like. Um in the past fiscal year um the district received approximately $71 million worth of revenue. the vast majority of which comes from local property uh taxes and other local resources. That's not a unique phenomena to Deerfield, but you know, if you looked at any district or any one of our neighboring or peer districts, we're going to see very similar funding uh sources in this region. We

029receive about $2.1 million worth of state resources and another million dollars from federal resources. and the state resources really tell a strong story in that um uh prior boards and administrations have uh you know structured the district's finances such that um you know if the state were to ever have pulled back resources from the district it wouldn't have impacted our operations but that's allowed the district to then invest you know two plus million dollars annually into some of the facility improvements that we've seen in recent years be it the Caruso auditorium in partnership with the park district renovations of our libraries or uh renovations of the cafeterias at the middle school or part of the ren uh renovation that's happening right now at Shepard in the band room in the fitness center. On the expenditure

030side, uh the district uh not dissimilar from uh most school districts. We're people oriented business. We have over 400 employees, so the vast majority of our expenditures are related to salary and benefits. But we also have some purchase services uh for our outsourced transportation, crossing guards and custodial services. And we have uh significant resources that we allocate to capital outlay includes purchasing materials, our Chromebooks, uh but also represents a significant investment that the district has been making um annually in its facilities to keep them going in their current iteration. And I will All good. Excellent. Uh, thanks for letting us do this virtually. Uh, so this is Paul Hanley, managing director of Beyond Your Base. Uh, with me today is Skyler White. He's a senior associate on my team. Um and we are involved in

031your public engagement program including doing public opinion research. Um if you could go to the next slide. Um so as you know the uh we've discussed with the board before the public engagement program is broken into five phases and one of the most important phases is obviously plan development. And as part of that, um, we recommended that you put together a citizen task force, uh, that would vet any proposals that you're thinking about placing on the ballot. So, if you go to the go to the next slide, um, so this task force uh was approximately 30 32 people, business leaders, civic leaders, education leaders, parents, non-parents, seniors, uh, and others. And it was a fantastic group. Um, and their goal was to answer one important question, which is what should the district share and test

032districtwide? And then we say test, we mean do public opinion research. And so they uh they did just that. And so tonight um I think Kathy and others were going to talk a little bit about um what what they what they did during that process. >> Yeah. Stay tuned, Paul. We'll need you back. Um >> Okay. So, we did bring this task force together um for three meetings. Um on April 22nd, they took a tour of Walden and um similar to what we did tonight. We gave the task force an overview of our facilities and finances and um Paul and Skyler gave them an update of, you know, what's going to happen through the public engagement process. so they knew um where they fit into this entire process. Um and then on May 7th, we

033came back on that first meeting also after the tour of Walden and after hearing about our facilities. Um we did a survey, a thought exchange survey, and I'll share some of that with you um on their thoughts, you know, what struck them when walking around Walden and hearing about the facilities. Um and then on May 7th they had the opportunity to take a bus tour of the entire district but all the task force members took a tour of Walden and we reviewed the possible facility solutions and the funding options. um after each meeting uh that we encouraged the task force to um discuss what they heard with friends and neighbors um but also ask questions and actually some of the really good questions and things that they pointed out to us um became important points

034in the next presentation. Um so they were engaged, they were thoughtful, um and they really did guide this work. Um on that third meeting, um we reviewed the key information. We answered some of the questions, the key questions that they had and we broke them up into small groups um to discuss um you know what what should we be doing, what should um the proposal be, what should we take to the community. Um and then we came together as a big group and discussed them all and um they came to consensus on a recommendation. Um and we'll talk about that recommendation in a little bit. We're going to have um Marcy and Nick share their perspectives of this process and and they'll um outline the recommendation. But I want to talk about those aha moments

035um as they were having these discussions and asking the questions. Um the one of the key points was the buildings, particularly Walden, aren't up to our community standards. We have high expectations. There is great teaching and learning happening in our buildings, but um our facilities aren't supporting it in the way that they should. Um we heard the themes um when we did that thought exchange that space and classroom size are inadequate. They saw the concerns about infrastructure and um the need for updates. um equitable and accessible environments for our students who have um special needs um were really striking that the facilities weren't supporting student and staff well-being and our emergency preparedness. And um this one quote from a task force member as we were walking through Walden was, "I had no idea our facilities

036were this bad. I'm ashamed." Um and that was really striking um to hear that from a a concerned community member. Um one of the big questions was but our enrollment stable? What's the need for space and John you can talk to this? >> Yeah. So you know the question arose is you know what is the district's enrollment look like and have we considered um what the future holds and the the story of the district is that enrollment is down. That is not not a trend that's unique to 109. It's a a trend that's uh seen across districts in the region and across the state. Um but even though our enrollment is low, our need for space is growing. Um and that is driven by uh the fact that education looks very different uh than it

037did uh 10 years ago or 20 years ago. Um there is increased need for students to have space to move in classrooms. um you know um and we're are a district where um at one point in time students that had special needs and that needed specialized uh supports weren't being served in our in our home schools and those students are being served here. Um and that means that we need increased space to serve our students and the staff that work with our students. One of the other pieces that was an aha moment for the task force was that doing nothing is expensive and risky. Um we know that uh the price tag for construction has one direction and that is up. Um and we'll talk about um some of the surprises that occurred even from

038originally estimating these projects in 2023. Um but we are at a point in the age of these facilities as George and Jeff indicated where we expect that it is not a matter of if it is a matter of when we will have some sort of catastrophic failure of our core infrastructure supporting our students and our staff. We've camered our sewer lines in the district and we know that um for instance in Kipling we have a break in uh the main sewer line 18 ft underground um and for us to get to that um would not uh be something we could do while students and staff are present in the building. Um and it would uh force us into an extended closure. um and doing some sort of repair under those circumstances is going to cost

039a whole lot more than it would if we were able to address these in a meaningful fashion and in a planful fashion. Um we know that um in a doing nothing option. Uh we're going to spend a whole lot of money uh to address the outdated electrical, the plumbing that we can get to in the HVAC. Uh but you're going to be unhappy with the result uh because we're going to continue to retrofit onto spaces that are just not uh working in their current iteration. and it just doesn't solve any of those issues that were identified in terms of how we support our students and our staff educationally. Um, I shared earlier that the net cost of doing uh nothing uh a maintenance-sonly approach when we when we looked at this in 2023 was approximately

040$155 million. And it did involve the district having to do a bit of borrowing, although that was uh borrowing that was not directly funded uh by referendum dollars. But one of the issues that arose uh with the task force is that costs have skyrocketed in recent years. So when we have continued to work with our partnership with Archon and with CCS our owners rep to estimate costs for these projects in any of these scenarios um something happened in terms of uh not advancing a slide uh that as as we forecast these projects um with the help of Archon and CCS um uh there's kind of an industry norm that we would apply a 4% euro overyear escalator to uh what we would anticipate the project would cost. So they would estimate any number of these

041scenarios in in today's dollars. Um and uh then they would apply a 4% escalator until this uh the point of construction. Um and so when we uh estimated those in uh 2023, we had data that came in just between 2020 and 2021 on what construction costs were. And we we move forward with that uh norm of about 4%. Uh but what happened is that the year after we made that estimate uh escalation wasn't 4%, it was 8%, so there's an additional 4% that was unaccounted for. And then the following year was 12%. So we had another 8%. So, we ended up with a net increase of of 12% that was unaccounted for. So, if we consider what some of these options cost, uh they cost a bit more than they did when we first looked

042at them in 2023. The uh task force dismissed uh a few options and that was the cost of just doing uh maintenance to these facilities. Um with that extra 12%, we estimate that this would now be about $177 million option. again net cost over the next 20 years and the district would exhaust all its resources and be left with a problem to be addressed uh in the next two decades. >> And can I just confirm that that 177 is not inclusive of any type of emergency? >> Correct. These are estimates for the best case scenario. So if we have a plumbing break, um you know, the hope would be that we could limit limp it along and that we could address it through our normal bidding process, normal summer construction. If we are in a

043situation where we do have a failure that cannot be, you know, worked through until the summer months, this is not including the cost of uh relocating students for a for, you know, any sort of period of time, two, three months uh while this would occur and then we would expect to pay a premium for any sort of emergency repairs. Um, we also looked at um a renovation only option um and uh that was dismissed as well uh because it simply did not solve enough of the issues um that we um estimated would cost us roughly $28 million. Um, but the reason that that option is is is less expensive than the options that were ultimately uh uh considered by the task force is because it simply doesn't address the issues at Walden. Um, and much

044of the the estimating for the cost of these projects is based on square footage. So, you know, if the building remains 20,000 square ft um smaller than it should be to serve our students, you know, the option is inherently less expensive. Um uh and the other issue is that we would expect in a renovationon option. We're not looking at a uh the opportunity to be able to do these projects in summer months like we're accustomed to for construction. These are large projects. We would have to be moving our students and our staff out of these facilities for periods of time. So, we would need to locate and site mobile classrooms on the properties, disrupting the operations of the school, but disrupting the operations of the park district and the access to the parks. Um, and

045that's this would go on for a number of years. And we would have our students and our staff transiting between uh mobile classrooms and an active construction site for at least 3 to four years. and that we would expect that the final product is going to be much lesser than the ability to do any sort of new construction or any sort of wholesale renovation where we're able to access that facility without students and staff present for 12 to 18 months. So, the options that the task force did consider um and before we talk about those um and share some of the the the financials that are associated with them, it's important to understand that these projects can be funded using three sources of funds. Um and the first two um represent no additional tax increase

046beyond the district's normal increase year-over-year. So the district levies property taxes on an annual basis. The increase that the district can can uh levy on property taxes is the lesser of the consumer price index or 5%. Um this is uh associated with a law that's been on the books since the early 90s and only in the past two years uh three years have uh have we ever reached that tax cap. So there was a a few years where we had CPI of 7%, the district was able to levy increase its revenue from local property taxes at 5%. There was a year that it was over 6% and again the district was capped at 5%. Um the district again has uh put itself in the best financial position that it can be in uh in this

047u uh project and the district has dollars on hand uh to contribute to these projects and can continue to allocate dollars through its normal operating budget to these capital projects uh throughout the course of construction. So that's one source of funding. The other is to borrow uh using what are called alternative bonds uh which is the district borrowing uh and selling bonds but pledging to pay those bonds using operating capital. So we have an opportunity where if we invest in these facilities over the next 5 years, at the conclusion of that construction, those dollars that we are accustomed to allocating towards capital projects can then be redirected to pay for bond principle and interest so that we can borrow to uh to to pay for a portion of these projects. And the last is a

048referendum bond or going to referendum and that represents a new tax impact. And we'll detail what the tax impact is uh as we talk about how to fund these options. So, the two plans that the the task force spent spent time uh vetting was the 3+ one plan. That was the construction of three new elementary schools to replace Kipling, Walden, and Wilmont. Um, and it was uh tearing down and rebuilding all but the twostory wing and gym at South Park. That portion of the building was constructed in uh right around 2000 uh late 90s, early 2000s. Um and it needs a bit of work and updating, replacing, you know, some roofing and some mechanicals, but otherwise the classrooms are in good uh good spaces and with cosmetic refresh would feel uh you know, brand new.

049And then in both of these options, there would be renovations at both middle schools. um you know, some targeted renovations at Caruso to address um um some need for additional special education spaces, but also um bringing in some natural light by, you know, doing some work with uh the corridors to bring light in and then addressing some of those safety and security concerns that Jeff and George detailed earlier. Shepard needs more uh it needs a wholesale renovation of that 100200 wing along with the safety and security um uh items. And then we looked at the 2 plus two plan which was the construction of two new elementary schools at Walden and Wilmont and doing full renovations uh of Kipling and South Park. Uh and again these would be renovations where we would have access to

050the facilities for 12 to 18 months without students and staff presence so that we could give the facility a complete onceover. Um and then again doing those targeted renovations at both middle schools. the 3+1 uh plan total cost was approximately $277.2 million and then uh how we would fund that plan uh that the task force reviewed is that uh the district contribute about 19% through fund balance, another 26% through those alternate bonds, so borrowing without raising taxes beyond the normal CPI increase year-over-year. And that 55% would be uh paid for with referendum bonds. what that looked like. Um, and again, we we modeled a 25-year option on these bonds. So, on the referendum bonds, uh, the district would need approximately $153.5 million of bond proceeds. Um and uh if you look uh and you go

051down to the bottom uh of that column, um the uh projected tax increase is that it would increase uh taxes uh $682 per $10,000 of someone's tax bill. And then the way the best way to understand how referendum bonds work is that that is an increase uh when those bonds are issued. And that that tax increase remains on a a taxpayers's bill until those bonds are retired. So for the next 25 years, that increase will remain on someone's tax bill. The other piece of it is issuing those alternative bonds that we talked about. Um, and the district would issue uh just over $72 million uh in alternative bonds and then would be uh obligated to pay an annual bond principle and interest payment of just over $5.5 million for the life of those bonds against

052for the next 25 years. So, um requiring fiscal discipline from the district to make those payments um uh on an annual basis from operating funds. I think the mic is Yeah. >> So anyway, thank you all for uh giving me the opportunity here. Um I'm going to be brief as my fellow former board members and all. I was always brief. what what the way I view the task force and how we approached it was kind of like a showand tell. We went out, we saw the buildings, we got a a good, you know, a good visual pictures worth a thousand words. Well, we we probably got uh 10 12 14,000 worth of words in the pictures we saw. Um the the buildings are serviceable, right? But they need a lot of work. And if you

053look at it from the perspective, why wasn't this done in the past? You know, prior boards, we, as you've heard from some of the other comments, we wanted to make sure we stayed within a balanced budget. And our approach was always allocate the resources to the classroom, not the physical classroom, but what goes on in the classroom, the teaching and the learning. And that's always been an important driver and should always be an important driver of a school board. Now we're in a situation where no matter what we allocate to the teaching and learning in the classroom, it's impacted in a negative way by the condition of the facilities. And as I Marcy got a giggle out of it. I said, you can only put so much lipstick on a pig, but you're going to

054recognize it's a pig. And that's that's kind of the situation we're in now. And when you looked at the options of what we had, the do nothing option to spend $175 million even over an extended period of time is a significant waste of money because over that period of time, we're we still got the pig and now it's in much worse condition. And now and and looking at the escalations in costs, we're going to be in a position as a community and as a district, it's just going to be unaffordable. we won't be able to move forward with that. And so ultimately as we went through the the process, the recommendation that we came up with as a task force was the 2 plus two option. It made the most sense. It addressed the two

055biggest problems being Walton and Wilmont. Um and the renovation plans and and the other speakers will go into more of what that's going to look like from an equity perspective. uh makes sense for the Kipling and South Park buildings and and obviously the middle schools have always been targeted renovation. From our perspective, this made the most sense. And look, it's a lot of dollars that the taxpayers are going to be asked for, but it's probably the most affordable and most effective option that we we could see and recognize as a task force. So that's how we ended up going in this 2 plus two direction. Um it's a big ask and sometimes you just got to recognize we got to bite the bullet and as Mike and and several people alluded to back when we

056did an operating referendum we were in a different position. We weren't able to open the doors in a financially stable manner to even do the key functions of school district which is teaching our children. And clearly prior boards, prior administrations, current board, current administration, that discipline remains in this district that they're going to spend our tax dollars effectively and efficiently. But at some point, reality will will step into the the situation and it's going to say, "Hey, we we can't allocate as much to the teaching and learning in the classroom because the classroom is falling down and and we're going to be putting resources in the wrong place." That's not where we want to be as a district and as a community. So ultimately, as I said, we we came and landed on the 2

057plus two plan. Um, I personally having been through multiple iterations of things in this district feel that's the the best way to go. And I just I'm going to give a a visual of some of the um the the things you face as our infrastructure ages. Um John, you might be able to help me. Air conditioning was 12 years ago 15 years ago. So, as we looked at bids to do that, we all collectively as a community, as a board, as an administration said, "This needs to happen in our buildings before we could even think about putting air conditioning in." And you can also correct me if I if my memory is foggy. About $2 million had to be spent just to bring proper power to our buildings in order to even consider putting air

058conditioning in our buildings. These are the kinds of infrastructure issues we'll face if we just try to put bandages on it and do maintenance. And so again, this is in my humble opinion, this is a direction we have to go as a district if we want to keep being a premier district on the Northshore, quite frankly in the state and and really wherever else you want to benchmark us to. And I'm going to turn over to Marcy. >> Not not much else to be said. Thank you. um just that uh there was tremendous consensus in the room and I think that's important for you to hear that the citizens task force really did all pretty much quickly land on the same page. Uh once you see the facilities, you can't unsee um all of the

059issues and those of us who are in the practitioner and educator role who are every day serving students in these buildings and seeing how that's you know a barrier to some of the services we need to provide to kids. Um, it just feels like this is absolutely the right decision and um, I just think it's important to note that everybody was really on board with that and we look forward to next steps. Next, >> can I ask one question of Marcy while we have you? >> Sure. >> Uh, as the building principal in a building with preschoolers, uh, can you talk about because South Park would be getting a substantial renovation, a complete full renovation. Uh can you talk about just the implications of lower elementary, kindergarten and preschool not having toilets? Very basic thing,

060but what does that look like in practice? >> Yeah. So our we have four um operating um early childhood classrooms. Only three of them do have bathrooms. So of course anybody who's raised small children can imagine that that's going to be difficult for little kids who can't hold their bladder or whatnot. And then our kindergarten classrooms are actually at the opposite end of the hallway. And so it creates a lot of anxiety when the school year begins. Um I believe we're the only elementary school that does not have bathrooms in our kindergarten rooms. And that's because we house early childhood. So we've displaced the kindergarteners for that purpose. It just it just causes extra tension at the beginning of the year. I would say our kids end up being very resilient. They end up learning

061how to kind of navigate that. Um but it's a hard start. And then the other part of it is the travel time that it takes a child to go all the way down to the bathroom and come back. That's just lost instructional time. Um, and so we want to consider how we can keep our kids in their learning spaces um, for as much of their school day as possible and just those walks. I have a little boy who actually was probably going to the bathroom 20 times a day um, for other reasons, but you know, when you add up the amount of time he's out of the classroom, it's concerning. So, >> Yep. So financially, um the 2 plus two strategy um is uh a total cost of just over $245 million and the district

062can contribute uh a little over half uh of the funds that are necessary u without referendum bonds. So again, utilizing fund balance uh would pay for about 21% of the project. um alternate bonds um again borrowing uh but backing that borrowing uh with operating funds would represent 30% and then referendum bonds would represent 49%. Um, and what that looks like, um, similar, uh, to what was shared for the 3+ 1 plan, um, is on the referendum bonds, uh, a 25-year term, um, and the bond proceeds would be just over $121 million. And the tax impact per $10,000 of taxes paid is $539. And those alternate bonds uh uh look uh the same as in the prior plan. Um and again, you know, as I've shared that, you know, this is going to require that the

063the district continue that same commitment that it's had for the past two decades um to being disciplined financially because the district will be committing those operating resources to pay bond principle and interest, and those are payments that have to be made on time uh for the period of the the the bonds. So, I'm going to turn it over to George and Jeff to talk through this plan looks like >> is on now. There we go. Uh okay. So as we look at the the plans for the facilities, uh one of the key things that we had to start with >> should be Kipling should be number one or is it switch? >> Oh, we we switched we flip up to new buildings first. >> Um surprise. Um, this is why they bring us to keep

064you on your toes a little bit. But, um, our our key thing was looking at at this level was looking at the 30,000 ft up in the air, looking down and kind of starting big picture of how we could address and create new buildings on sites. Uh so our first thing we needed to do was look and help establish a program and and using our uh 30 to plus years of experience 20 on my end 30 plus on and Jeff's end in the and and working educational facilities we help bring to the table uh kind of the the programmatic needs that we would need in a new building. uh quantities of classrooms, the types of support spaces, the sizes of cafeterias and gyms, and we helped kind of catalog those to get uh a starting

065point and what a new building would need and how much footprint it would require. Uh and we use those tools to help kind of start uh looking at the existing sites at both Walden and Wilmont to see where it could potentially be housed. Uh our goal isn't here to tell you this is the exact final answer of what this layout will be. Our goal is to make sure that we kind of we we see these property lines and these sites to say yes, it is achievable. And one of the reasons that we looked at this is to make sure that we can design a building and place a building somewhere on site where it wouldn't impact the existing facility because not only are we looking to build something new, but we're looking to minimize the

066impact on students uh throughout the dur duration of what that construction could look like. Uh here at Walden, you can kind of see dashed outline would be the uh the existing building that is kind of centrally located in that really small full-sight image on the right. Uh and in the highlighted orange would be the new structure that would uh not be touching the existing building. It'd be allow us to build something uh while Walden would be remain operational. The other key things that you're looking on the site would be to understand how uh parking circulation, parent and bus traffic would work on the existing area. How can we address those circulation needs and make it work better? Uh and this is a an early stage showing kind of how the parking lot could lay out,

067how it could complement both not only the new building but also the play fields in front of it uh to get direct access for anyone who'd like to use those fields as we go forward. Anything green that you see would be uh green space. Uh it could be outlined with multiple different uh u sports and courts. Uh and those are things that we would figure out down the road. But what you're seeing here is kind of replicating the existing pieces that are already on site. But again, the uh Walden uh would be building a building and not impacting the existing building on the existing site. And and one of the things that's nice about this layout on the from a site standpoint is it brings all of the green space together. It's no longer having

068a the building bisect the the site with green space in the front, green space in the back. Now it's all together. So let's look at Wilmont for a second here. Um, again, the same kind of approach to build a two-story new building adjacent to the existing building, allowing the existing building to stay functioning while this building is being built. Essentially, we would be looking at putting a building just immediately to the west of where the current building is on the on the existing parking lot. Uh, where uh some years ago, the original building stood uh and then was replaced at some point. So, uh, putting a school back where a school once was a long time ago. Um, where the existing building is today, that would become the new parking lot. Uh, so essentially we're

069flipping building for parking lot, parking lot for building in this scenario once it's completed. Uh, and we'll have to look at how do you access uh uh the parking lot, get the queueing off of Deerfield Road, uh get the um uh access from Wilmont as well. Uh so that we can have a separation of between buses and parent drop offs for safety and then have a nice easy access to the fields from uh gymnasiums, cafeteria, that kind of thing within the building and how it's uh uh arranged. So everything would stay to the north uh of the properties there. Uh and then the fields would really stay as they are down to the south. Key thing to make note of back on Wilmont is the fact that all those playfields to the south remain operational

070and in play. So uh we wouldn't be impacting any of those areas south of the the new facility and parking lot. But why did we show those two first? Uh the reason that we kind of flipped them to the front was to give you an understanding that uh we'd be building new buildings on existing sites without impacting the operation of the existing ones. And it's important because as you look at the puzzle pieces and how to uh create what you want to do at all four sites, you want to make sure that we find permanent and or good homes for students throughout the entire uh duration of that construction. Uh if you build these buildings in the in the backyards or on sites adjacent to the existing facilities, one the students get to stay in

071those spaces until those buildings are complete. And once those are complete, we would allows us the opportunity to transfer students into the new building and then take students from both South Park and Kipling and relocate them temporarily to allow the long 12 to 18month construction to happen at those existing buildings. So at Kipling, uh the idea here would be to everything that's highlighted orange, which is the existing footprint of the building, renovate them completely with no students in them. You'd allow us the opportunity to get access to all the plumbing underground. Uh open up all the corridors, ceilings, wall, uh floors, and and really do a a heavy renovation to all the existing spaces that were living in that in the existing footprint. Uh adjacent to the west, you'll see that there's a blue highlight.

072That would be an addition that would be able to get built onto it. And what that addition would do, it would be able to provide additional classroom spaces, uh, large, uh, gymnasium spaces, cafeteria spaces, and really close off that that circulation route that we were talking about. That's a challenge at Kipling where it it kind of, uh, distances students from one end to the other. That simple addition would allow to solve a lot of those circulation problems in the existing building. And at the end of the day, it would look like one cohesive structure with all the interior spaces uh being brought up to the same level as what's going on in the in the new construction spaces or buildings. Oops, it's not advancing. >> Okay. For South Park, um again, just like at Kipling,

073the orange represents the existing building. Uh and again it would receive a complete heavy renovation throughout. So all the spaces would be upgraded to uh to current uh educational environment standards uh or stand u what's what's the norm. Um the blue additions uh pieces. There's one on the southwest corner there at the bottom and then there's one right up by your current administration entry. Um the one at the bottom adds a multi-purpose space. It adds some classrooms. Uh, it also does what George just talked about. It completes a circulation link between the twotory uh academic wing and that existing gym over to the what's currently the fourth and fifth grade wing that surrounds the library. So, we wouldn't have any dead-end circulation routes. We would have the ability to go around through the building and

074get to all of the shared spaces uh from multiple directions and and really help you out from a travel distance and travel time. uh the addition up there at at uh the admin piece that starts to address some of those things I mentioned earlier about having a c a conference room that's down the hallway, having the nurse across the hall, having specialists in closets. By adding this space, we're able to address all of those issues. Um and you can see on the smaller diagram to the right, that's the overall site plan. It really keeps the additions tucked tight to the uh the existing building and off of those playfields that are to the left. So, we maintain the playfields in the the park district space. So, I'll just touch briefly on how uh we would

075envision the timeline. And again, um you know, none of this will be easy and there are no easy solutions here. Uh but we believe this is the plan that has um uh the most uh the the least impact. Um although it is a big project. Um and you know it it is not you know this schedule. Uh but there is you know the alternative is citing mobiles on all of these sites impacting uh playfields extending construction for a long period of time. Uh so by uh utilizing uh the existing uh Walden and Wilmont uh spaces as swing sites for this construction, we believe that we can condense construction into the tightest timeline uh possible. Uh and that means that uh if the board were to put a question on the ballot in March of 2026,

076we would be prepared to begin immediately in June of 2026 with the work that needs to occur at the middle schools. Um we believe that we can complete the work at the two middle schools uh in our traditional fashion which is summer work only. It would take us two summers, but we could get that work done in two summers. Um, and then begin construction on the new schools in June of 2027, perhaps earlier than that. uh depending on how uh things shake out, but uh the goal of beginning in June of 2027 with an anticipated opening date uh for the 28-29 school year and that as the 2728 school year closes uh then those super renovations at Kipling and South Park would begin with the goal of opening those buildings for uh school in 202930.

077Um and that demolition could potentially begin the summer of 2029 depending on uh you know how those uh super renovations are going. Uh but that as we approach the end of the decade these projects would be completed. Um we know that it is going to be a challenge. Um we think again that this is the least impactful uh way to move forward. Uh but it's going to take some patience and it's going to take some understanding from our families and our staff and our neighbors. Um, we're going to have to stagger some arrival and dismissal times and it's going to have some challenging uh traffic and parking. But this re again represents the least impact uh for our for our students and our staff and our families, our partners at the park district. um as

078we look at how to solve these uh facility challenges, >> overall engagement program and the opinion research that he and Skyler are going to conduct in our community. Um I wanted to talk in broad terms about um the importance of this community outreach. Our objective really is to make sure that every community member within district 109 boundaries has an opportunity to learn about now that we have this um recommendation to Mike from the task force um that they have an opportunity to learn about what the proposal is um and to provide feedback um and genuine feedback because the plan that Paul will talk about this the plan that um we put on on the ballot has to be a plan built from community input. So, there will be lots of opportunities. Um, and we really

079want to define the moment because we're going to be redefining our facilities and this all aligns with our strategic plan and providing the best opportunities um for our staff to do their best and and for our students. Um so from our strategic plan um our engagement initiative our strategic plan was define 109 and the engagement initiative is redefine 109 facilities for our future. Um so you will see um in all of the materials that go into homes on our website um that there will be a touch point of redefine 109. And I'm going to pull Paul in again. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Okay, great. Um, so the public engagement program, the key elements will be a landing page on the district's website. Uh there'll beformational videos that are developed, uh direct mailers,

080social media, uh digital communications, which is Skyler's area of expertise. And then your superintendent and others, um like it or not, have to be out there making presentations to to any and all persons who are willing to listen, big group, small groups, etc. Um next slide. Oh, >> because we can show this off a little bit. We have started our website that's going to be the hub of the information. It will have all key information including presentations from the task force and the presentations moving forward. We'll have those videos there. Um we're working on a tax impact calculator. You saw what the tax impact will be for this proposal per $10,000 of um um their real estate taxes. So, we'll walk them through step by step so they can see what that will mean to

081each and every um resident. Um we'll have that link to a thought exchange to provide input even before the polling um and a form to submit questions. So, let me pull this up. No, it's a big reveal. Um, so Melanie and I have been working on this just to get the structure and we'll flush this out. Um, it's not it's live, but it's not accessible to the public yet. Um, and maybe it's not even live to our internet. Anyway, um, so that's that's where we will have the hub of information and we will have um the list of community engagement opportunities and these are set. Um, so we know that there will be um a board member or two at every meeting. We'll get um that schedule out to board members, but there will be

082plenty of opportunities um to hear this information in person, take those tours um and ask questions and provide feedback. >> Go ahead, Paul. >> I'll let I'll let Skyler tackle this next slide. >> Okay, I see where we are now. Videos are a really compelling way to deliver a compelling message in a concise fashion and have the reach and the impact of television commercials. So, we have to reach people where they spend most of their awake time and that's on their phones, on their televisions, and on their computers. That includes social media, YouTube, website, and connected television placements to reach the 70% of district residents who do not have a school-aged child in the district in a quickly consumable way. >> Paul, thank you. Um, so next slide. All right. So, um, people still read

083kind of and so these ma this is actually from Northshore 112 as an example. U, these mailers have to be loaded up with infographics, um, site plans, floor plans, elevations, um, to get the attention of the reader. Uh, and then have, you know, coupled with that plenty of information that for those who actually want to spend time reading the materials. Um, so next slide. Um, so you do your homework, plan development, you share it with the community, community outreach, and then you ask the taxpayer, what do you think? And most importantly, would you pay for it? And this comes in the form of public opinion research. And so, next slide. And so in the case of your district, given the number of voters that you have, um it would be impossible, Next slide, it would

084be impossible to do a scientific phone poll. You just wouldn't have enough voter. You need about 35,000 likely voters um with a with a phone number identified to be able to do that. So next best thing uh would be a mail survey coupled with an online version of that. So, what we want to do is mail a uh snail mail survey to 8,212 registered voter households. That would be targeting your 17,187 registered voters. That'll probably increase before we finally mail this out, but we'll keep track of that. Um, as part of that survey will be a QR code if they want to take it online. Um, and then approximately 10 days after this hits, then we will send a text message out with a link to the survey to 10,430 registered voters who we've identified

085with a cell phone number. And it's about 60% of your registered voters. And we found that that really helps to boost participation. Um, and then with that mailer will be a fact sheet in case they didn't receive the previous two mailers or look at the previous two mailers. uh we usually get about an 8 to 17% response rate. Next slide. And so why do we pull? Well, we can test parts of the package. We can test trusted institution. One of the questions we'll ask is grade the district, grade the district's facilities. And from that, we can gleam a lot uh based on previous polling that we've done. Uh we'll ask tax sensitivity questions. We will um test arguments for and against the proposal similar to what you might hear in a coffee shop during the

086campaign. Um and then we will ask demographic questions and and we may potentially ask a plan B and I'm not going to go into the plan B because it would bias the survey. Um and so that's the approach and and by the time we get through this um we're going to have a really good understanding of whether you have a chance or not. And if not, how do we modify the package? I'll have you go to the ne your next slide then. There are a couple roles that the board has here which is really really critical. One of those is to attend uh two at a time in order to remain within the open meetings act. Uh to present and listen and participate in gallery walks. Obviously encourage community the community to attend the sessions

087and visit the website and and learn as they uh do all of these things and then report out what they hear at board meetings. The one of the primary challenges for every school board when they look at all the various roles uh policy and finance and hiring and so on and so on. Probably the hardest single task that a board has is to meaningfully engage with the community in a listening opportunity. And that really is the primary role here of the board is to first listen really carefully to the board report out and discuss that and then the second thing I believe this is on the next slide. Uh the second thing then is to consider uh the results from the the survey and all of the other feedback and the recommendation and then as

088only the board can do to decide and vote whether to place uh a question on a ballot. Only the board can do that. And the date that we are looking at for this potentially would be March 17, 2026. And then can you still hear me? Okay. Um after that the conversation does not stop. So, uh, you would want to continue to, uh, reach out to your electorate, uh, to your entire community. Ongoing presentations, ongoing tours, um,formational mailers, uh, website updates, leveraging existing communication channels, emails, etc. And then finally, we're hope we're hoping that a group of concerned citizens would come together to advocate for the measure. Um, usually it's six super moms and three super dads and throw in some seniors and they do an incredible job and it usually looks like this. I won't

089go through this, but um the key here is that the district has to step back a little bit and uh with regard to you can't spend taxpayer dollars to advocate. So, they just have to be super careful. Everything that goes out the door is approved by the attorney. um as far on the on the uh district side. Um and then lastly, it's just you know it's important to remember that first three phases can be paid for by the district whether it's mailers or the survey etc. And then that last phase that that citizenled campaign again has to be any monies any any things like yard signs etc would be paid for by that group raising their own funds. And with that, thank you for letting me again participate virtually. First off, thanks for everybody coming

090and giving us that presentation and thanks for everybody's patience to listen to. It's a lot of information. I think we went through 90 slides on our committee of a whole and this was pretty close to 90 slides it look like. But um really good information. So does anybody have any questions from the board? I have a couple if that's okay. So um first off uh the do nothing scenario John um so in our role as a board I had some conversations out in the community and I'm bringing the feedback to the board. Um one of the discussions we're have is that that do nothing isn't the ideal scenario. Have we done um any kind of estimates? Do we have an estimate? I know it's hard to do because you don't know what that emergency is

091going to be because we all know that it's an if not a when or sorry it's a when when not an if um scenario that something catastrophic potentially is going to happen to these buildings in the next 20 years. So any number any round number associated with that? I mean, it's hard to say. Um, you know, and George and, you know, Jeff, if you guys have had experience or Graham, um, working with another district or another public entity, but it really depends on what the nature of the failure is, where it is, um, what time of year it is. Um, but, you know, none of these solutions for uh, failure of plumbing um, are going to be fast, simple, or easy. Um, you know, we can't, there's no hotline I can call and have mobile

092classrooms delivered on Monday. We have to run power. We have to run sewer to all of those. Um those are significant investments. Um and you know, anytime we accelerate a project and we deviate from the normal bid window, contractors know that we're in a pinch uh and we're going to pay premium pricing for for that work. So, the reason why I asked is some of the conversations and some of the feedback I was hearing was related to, you know, okay, it's $177 million to do nothing in an ideal scenario, right? It's $255 million of what you're potentially recommending here on a 2 plus2 um plan. You know, that differential two schools, right? What's the average um of a previous It it might be good to see if there's a couple scenarios that happened in the

093past year. add some escalators um based off of that timeline, you know, and average that number and say, "Hey, listen. You won't have to add it to the 177. We don't have to say that 177 is now 200 or 200 something million." It's more of it's 177 and oh, by the way, if something like this happens, these are some examples of what happened, how much it cost, add the escalator, that's another $40 million, right? Um because the reality is at the 177 we're completely out of capacity to to pay for anything additional. So that bill comes to the community no matter what. The question is is whether or not we want to be ahead of it and planned and be thoughtful about what we're spending our money on or do we want to be reactive

094and wasting money on on on emergencies because they're still going to be paying for it. Right. Um, second plan or second piece of feedback or at least and I'm you guys know that the early learners program is one of my favorite things in the district. So I know we haven't really had the discussion I think as a board and within the facilities plan. It's not the current plan doesn't contemplate any change to the current program. Right. I'm curious of whether or not there's any appetite to have that conversation prior to us going to and what the impact potentially would be not only from a facility cost standpoint, right, but also from a programmatic standpoint because I know it's not not a break even proposition for us. >> Yeah, it is not a break even proposition.

095One of the things we would certainly want to do if we were going to go that route would be to study the demand and also the potential impact on other entities. Sometimes these things are very unpredictable and engaging that conversation. I think uh if if that is the will of the the board to do so, uh we would need to uh sharpen our pencil and then have uh some form of uh conversation, roll up your sleeves conversation around that because uh that would impinge on other plans that we would have. >> I by no means do I want to add any more complication to what's already a massive and complicated project as it stands today. Um and obviously this would be a board a board um discussion about whether or not we wanted to give

096you guys guidance to do any work there. It might be interesting and I guess I don't know if anybody else has an opinion about you know is there a reasonable base level evaluation of of work? Is there a reasonable level of work that be that can be done to have that conversation about that program? >> Um, this is likely the work that would need to get done to have that. But my one concern would be is whether or not any increase of our prek programming would have any negative impact on the local community's current prek offerings. >> You know, I certainly respect deeply the program we run, but I also respect what other people run. Um, so that would just be my one potential concern if you were to contemplate expanding, but that could be

097addressed by an assessment. >> I think one easy piece of information that we can bring to Mike and he can share with the board is I can work with Marcy and Steph Monaco, just so you guys know, um, we can do some tracking for the past couple years, how many families remained on the waiting list because they've done a great job of um, keeping that accurate waiting list. Seth Monaco is terrific, is the leader of that program right now. So, I think that'd be just a good easy piece of information for us to get to, guys. >> I think that would be good enough for me to understand what the demand potentially could be before we move in. >> Great. >> Um, okay. >> Y, I have a few questions, too. >> Um, this one's

098for Archon. So, two plus two, two new buildings, two rens. The two rens don't have any impacts to green space. For the two new, do we know? I mean, is it too soon to know what those impacts could look like from our current baseline of where the buildings stand? >> Yes. The end. Um uh so if if you notice when I was showing the two site plans the in the two new buildings for Wilmont, the good news on that one would be it would ideally be be able to get built on top of the existing parking lot which would pretty much swap built structure for imperous area. So the impact on the fields below would stay as they were. So when it comes to the walnut side, that one would be able to work uh

099on leaving the playfields alone. Uh what could get impacted though are the two playgrounds. Uh, so one playground that that is kind of the southeast corner would probably stay fine, but the one that is on the west by the parking lot might be used for staging. That's something we'd have to figure out. So I wouldn't promise that both playgrounds would be operational, but at least the playfields themselves would. And walled inside, uh, a lot of where the new building's going to be would be happening uh, potentially where the fields are now. Uh, so that would limit a bit on the exterior playfield for the time being uh, for the duration of that construction. Uh, but we would have to look to get creative on ways to create other pockets out on the south end by

100the parking lot to see if there's ways that we can tackle and provide outdoor space for students. Be it a temporary playground that might get impacted by where the construction is happening or green space that we could try to squeeze down there. >> So, yeah, with the Walden one, because it looks like the site right now, the building is just like smack dab X in the center of it is >> right. So, if we build it to the northeast with the parking lot on the northwest, does that mean we have more green space in the new um layout or >> Well, ultimately, and we've done various analysis of what that could look like. It all depends at the end of the day of of how much parking, how our site circulation is going to play.

101The building footprint actually gets smaller uh because it becomes a two-story building. So if you were to look at the a math exercise of comparing those two pieces, yes, we would we would we would we would get more green space out of it. But I think we need a lot more further development on on the parking lot side to see exactly how many counts we need uh access around the site uh of how much. But it's close. I mean, I'll tell you, if you were to look at that and compare what's green now versus what's green, what what what's green in the proposed versus what's existing, they're pretty similar in square footage. What you do get is a lot more usable green because you're bringing all that green space into one spot. So just because

102there's green doesn't mean that it's it's great green space to have. Where our plan would pull it forward and allow you more opportunity and flexibility of what that green space can become. >> Yeah. To add something to that, one of the things we've learned in the course of our many conversations with the park district is all green space is not the right kind of green space. So if it is not level and flat, it really doesn't work uh for the park district for uh playing fields and whatnot. And one of the things that is the case at Walden is that that driveway really bisects the the entire space there. And there's a significant amount of space now south of that uh that driveway that then becomes uh with the new building a very different proposition

103as far as the sizable green space there. >> Correct. Correct. >> Excellent. And one more question for you, George. Um we the the recommendation to um remodel Kipling, we've heard about this pipe >> often for about a year now. Would the renovations include fixing the pipe? >> That one I could keep simple as a yes. >> Yes. Wonderful. Thank you. >> I got one. I think this probably I don't know. It's could be either. Um so best case scenario with the not doing any. So with just renovations, we spend $177 million in 20 years. Where does that leave us with what we're going to need to spend then? And how does that affect anything we might need to do to the middle schools in 20 25 years now that we spent that money and >>

104what? Yeah, >> I mean we we would would have exhausted all of the resources. So, you know, we're having this conversation saying that we are coming to this moment in the best financial condition that we can come to this moment in. Um I doubt uh that the the same would be true decades from now um because of the dollars that would need to be invested and you would have uh six schools uh that are all you know um you know between you know 85 and over 100 years old. John, what if if we move forward with the recommended plan and the the district performs has better operating performance or surplus is better term than expected, is there a scenario where you could refinance some of the referendum bonds 15 years from now with more alternative

105bonds and lower? >> Yeah, there are a number of scenarios that that could be approached. Then the task force asks a similar question which is you know if if you know we've gamed out a scenario here and then then the challenge is is you know nobody has a crystal ball. So you know there are a number of estimates that need to be made here. We want to be conservative um we want to include some cushion um so that if you know we have another year where it's not 4% escalation it's 6% escalation that the the the scope of the project is still within reach. We also don't want to put so much cushion in that we ask the community for more dollars than we actually need. Um so as this process plays out, we'll be

106evaluating that. Um you know the the there is always the option in future years for the board to abate uh the debt service levy. something that this board did in past years where what that means is that you know the board may be entitled to collect taxes to pay bond principle but they could say you know we'll we'll not collect those taxes and we'll pay bond principle and interest using operating resources. Um you know similarly you know there are you know contingencies in the future that if you know things didn't play out in a favorable scenario that there are you know pressure valves that are available to the board in future years be it the ability to access additional dollars through the debt service extension base or um you know um when bonds are callable

107refinancing them. >> Thanks. I I would add to that a little bit too that um you know, one of the things that previous boards getting us to this point allowed us allowed us to do um has been they used those surpluses and put them into into funds to build to allow us to not only do like say the auditorium but also be in a position now in order to to put up the amount of operating funds that we're going to put up associated with with this plan here. So I I think having an expectation that potentially there's going to be some sort of rebate of tax dollars to the taxpayers is probably going to be um and I I get you were talking this is the base. Is there a scenario where that could >>

108Yeah. I I mean I I think even in that scenario say we were operating for some reason had better surpluses. I think likely, you know, if if we're still operating in very similar philosophy that we are today, future boards, they would likely be putting that away for because your those buildings will be at that point 20 25 years old, right? So, what additional changes may to education may need, you know, have requirements of additional modifications to the buildings that we just may, you know, did 20 25 years ago. So, there's always something that's that's related to that that potentially could occur. So, um Yeah. >> Yeah. Fair. Any other questions? All right. Well, thank you guys. Thanks again for coming. And Nick and Marcy, thank you guys. Really appreciate it. It's good seeing you. It

109was weird seeing you on that side. >> All right. Thanks, guys. >> Appreciate your time. >> All right. So, next on the agenda, u freedom of information requests. John. >> Yeah, there's five in your packet. Happy to answer any questions. Any questions? All right, moving on. Resolution providing for the transfer of funds for the district to pay a portion of the debt service on the outstanding general obligation limited school bond series 2013 and general obligation limited school bond series 2015 and general obligation limited school bond series 2019. John, um you'll see this in the in the budget, but um the way that the uh the district has three issues of bonds between 2013 and 2019, um and they were structured such that um the debt service extension base is not sufficient to pay the full

110bond principle and interest. That was done intentionally. So, we need to transfer operating dollars to pay the balance. >> Actions next. >> Correct. All right. Next on the agenda. Oh, sorry. Any questions? Uh, next agenda 2025 2026 budget. Ben or John, I don't know if you're going to intro, but Ben, >> this is um this was Ben's uh uh this was Ben's budget. So, uh Ben uh has been uh you know, >> I love that Ben's big beautiful budget. >> Ben's budget. So, um this has this has been uh one that he's run from start to finish. So turn it over to him. >> Check. One, two. All right. So, I know this is probably the more exciting thing of the evening. Uh, but you know, for the fiscal uh I got to use this

111thing. All right. For the fiscal year 2026 budget, we're going to cover a few ma. We're going to go back Okay. Um, so we're going to go over a few uh a high level overview of the budget timeline and the various milestones that uh make up that process. We'll go over the key terms and processes related to the budget development. And we'll uh take a look at a detail of our uh expected revenues and expenditures after which we'll have any time uh have time for any questions that you may have. Um, so this is something that you're probably all familiar with. Uh, but, uh, the budget process is one that really touches upon three different calendar years to fund any given fiscal year, which as a reminder is July 1st to June 30th. Uh, it

112began for this uh, fiscal year 25. It began back in November of 2024 when the board reviewed and adopted the tax levy. Uh we then filed that levy with the county clerk and in April uh is when they actually let us know what our extension is going to be. So the levy is the ask for dollars and the extension is the actual amount of property tax revenue that we will receive. Um we then take the extension data along with several assumptions and we use that to develop the budget the the tenative budget which we reviewed on June 17th with the finance committee. Today, uh, we're presenting the tenative budget to the full board of education. And then on August 21st, we will hold a public hearing for the final budget and ask the board to

113vote to approve the final budget at that time. And then by September 30th, we must file the budget uh with the with ISBY, the Illinois State Board of Education by September 30. Um, so in Illinois, we operate on a fund accounting system. Um and so we have our operating funds which include the education, operations and maintenance, transportation and municipal funds and we segregate the revenues and expenditures based on their various uses within the district. So education that is our largest fund that activities are occurring in that covers the salaries, benefits, materials and purchase services all that directly relate to the education of students for the operations and maintenance fund. uh that is that funds all the things that makes our facilities function. So think about the costs that might come with that but also the

114you know utilities or the staff that work for primarily that purpose. um transportation fund covers the expenditures uh that we you have to spend in order for our outsource transportation and the municipal retirement fund is uh kind of a ancillary fund that catches a lot of our a lot of our ancillary expenditures. So, think about Medicare and Social Security uh for some of our employee classes as well as um the IMRF municipal retirement fund for the support administrative staff that might fall under that pension. We also have our uh non-operating funds, the debt service fund, which pays for our debt, capital projects fund, which supports our major capital improvements, and we have the fire prevention and life safety fund, and that's something we've not used for several years. Um, it it is primarily there to

115use to address mandatory 10-year life safety needs, but the district does not foresee us utilizing that fund at any time in the future. And quite frankly, we'll probably pull this from our presentation going forward. Um, in terms of budget assumptions for revenues, as uh previously discussed, we are highly reliant on local property tax revenue, as are all of our uh peer county peer districts in the Lake County area. Uh, we assume about a 99% collection rate and historically that's where we've been around. COVID, we dipped down to about 98%, but since then, we have um ex we're back to our normal historical expectations. uh EBF, which stands for evidence-based funding, which is um the primary vehicle for state revenue that we receive, was previously known as general state aid, but the formulas changed in 2017.

116Uh so we receive about $1.9 to$2 million in state revenue each year. And as John alluded to earlier in the referendum presentation, we have typically booked that revenue to our capital projects fund to insulate the district from any changes at the state level. Um those funds have been very impactful for a lot of the work that we've done in the last several years and um we're proposing that we would continue to do so uh booking that revenue to the capital projects fund. Otherwise all the assumptions uh are typical and remain consistent with prior budget years. Moving on to expenditures. Um as a uh a school district the the salaries and benefits of our staff are our biggest cost driver. Um and so we're actually to go project actual salaries and benefits with some assumptions for

117um late hires and the benefit packages that may elect when they get started with us later in August. But then we also work with all of our site departmental leaders uh to work on a site budgets and to look for any uh expenditures that we anticipate coming our way. And then um just going to take a sip of water. But at the time of the development of this budget, we were projecting a total FTE decrease of 7.54 FTE. Um that is primar that would come from several employee classes and that is primarily due to declining enrollment. All right, this is a very high level overview of where our revenue comes from. But as previously mentioned, we get the vast majority of our revenue from local revenue, which would be our local tax property revenue. And

118a small percentage of within that would be the student fees that we assess for students that are attendance centers. Otherwise, we receive about 3% uh funding from the state and otherwise a very small sliver of federal grant money. On the expenditure side of things, um as mentioned, salaries and benefits are two of our largest areas of expenditures. Um but we also purchase services would be another large area of expenditure and that can include our outsource transportation, our outsourced custodial or um anything that you could think of, i.e. an emergency plumbing repair. Uh supplies are rather self-explanatory, but they are the supplies and materials the district needs to function. um capital outlay um which is another large share of our uh expenditures and it does represent a larger slice of the pie than in previous years.

119Uh that is due to the fact that we may you know the board may consider um pursuing a referendum and the community and if should the community approve that these we are anticipating large uh architect and construction fees be for that referendum work. Otherwise, the other um is includes things that don't fit neatly into the other categories, but an example of that would be payments to other districts like the True North Educational Cooperative. All right. And then so we're going to take a look at our fund balances in detail by activity. Um, and we'll go left from right here, but um, these are our unodudited anticipated fund balances as of July 1, 2025. We expect these to change once our annual financial audit is complete in the late summer, early fall. But going from left

120to right, uh, you can see the anticipated revenues based off the assumptions we discussed, our expenditures. Here we are projecting a 5.4 $4 million operating surplus. Here we are um modeling a $4.7 million transfer from the education fund as well as a $4 million from the operations and maintenance fund, 200,000 of which would go to the debt service fund there and the remaining $ 8.5 million to the capital projects fund uh in anticipation of the capital needs we know are coming our way. Otherwise um when we look at the end here the op end ending operating fund balance this is something we use to gauge the health of our overall operating balance. Um the board has uh asked that we maintain a ratio of no less than 15 to 20% but the administration has generally

121targeted the isby recommended ratio of 25%. Otherwise, key takeaways. This will be as previously mentioned our 21st consecutive operating balance consecutive balance operating budget. And you know, deep appreciation to prior boards of ed education and administrations to get us to this point. Um it's a very strong legacy that John and I have inherited and it's something that we wish to build on. And this is a budget that continues to grow our fund uh capital fund fund project balance in anticipation of the capital needs we're coming know are coming our way. Otherwise uh all other budget assumptions are conservative in nature. Next steps um on August 21st we will hold the public hearing for the budget and ask that the vote uh board vote on the final board uh final budget at that time. Otherwise, do

122you have any questions? >> Um, I just have a quick question. Thank you for the presentation and for the work that your department has done on the budget this year. And I know the finance committee has done a deep dive. So, thank you to everybody with the capital projects um anticipated expenditures based on the possibility that there might be massive capital projects in the upcoming budget year. Should that not come to fruition, should the referendum not be something the board contemplates or whatever other scenarios with that projected expenditure, what would that look like with the budget? Would there just be a recalibration of the budget so that we don't end up with like an excess fund balance issue? >> Um, Ben, I I think that the reality is is that uh I'm just messing with

123him today. I couldn't help it. Um I I think the the reality is that um you know we'll have a decision to make at that point in time. So what we've modeled here um and what Ben has plugged through this model are the estimated expenditures that are associated with the 2 plus two plan. Um and as you get to the the outy years of the projections that are in the budget, it shows those u receipts from referendum and alternate bond issuances. um and then the expected expenditures and the new tax revenue that would be realized. So you know if if we don't choose to go forward with that um you know the worst case scenario is we would underspend the fund and we would have other big decisions to make. >> Okay. Thank you. Is

124there a um scenario in which I mean is there an order in which those funds are either gained because I noticed that you had you know right away it was a referendum dollars then it was alternative bonds and is then then the operating money or >> I think I think um so off the bat uh you would be using some um fund balance to fund your uh projects in 2026. We've modeled the bond issuance in fiscal year 27. Once you receive those bond dollars, there are very specific rules for time limits within which they must be expended. Um, and there are different rules as those dollars rest in a bank account. They're subject to arbitrage. Um, so you know, they can acrue interest, but that inc interest cannot exceed, you know, a certain point. uh

125otherwise the federal government is not very happy about giving you a taxexempt you know issuance. Um so we would likely want to spend down those resources first because that fund balance that we would allocate is able to earn a higher rate of return. Um so would help us on a revenue front. >> That goes to like David's question earlier because if those operating funds are used last right and we're building surpluses in those operating funds I mean we can invest those >> right? So that would have a return in in and of itself. has that been projected in there in terms of what our contribution is or meaning the returns like it's not just what the surpluses are that's modeled. >> I haven't modeled in a return on the uh the bond issuance. Okay. Um

126so we have maintained a what we hope is a conservative uh assumption for interest revenue but we are in a in a period of like record interest uh return right now. So what we're experiencing in terms of revenue from interest will not last, right? Uh those these are good times that will go away. >> When drum pow goes away next year. >> All right. >> Any other questions? >> I will just say good job, Ben. Um we I've heard this same speech now 10 times. I don't know, nine times. Um and it's you did a great job. It was like >> same on like I hit it. Yeah. It's almost like I There's this thing in the military of uh when you teach a class, you have to memorize the class like word for word,

127right? Kind of have to. It almost felt that you had that training. So when you get your minion at some point or another, then you can pass that along. >> Has a much better head of hair than I just looks much better as the finance guy. >> All right. >> Thank you, Ben. >> Thanks, Ben. >> What? [Laughter] All right. Uh, action items. Uh, consent agenda 7.1.1 Approval of meeting minutes. Um, regular and closed session meetings from June 17th, 2025. 7.1.2 Personnel. 7.1.2.1 Resignations Retirements. 7.12.2 Leaves of Absence. 7.1.2.3 employment of certified staff. 7.1.2 2.4 employment of educational support staff, 7.1.2.5 employment of at will staff and 7.1.3 bills for payment. May I have a motion to approve the consent agenda? >> So move. >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Abraham, >> hi. >> Miss

128Bonner is absent. >> Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mera. >> Hi. >> And President Paul. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. >> 7.2 treasures report. May I have a motion to approve the con? Oh, >> you want it? >> Yeah. Can I have a motion to approve? >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Miss Bonner is absent. Dr. Dornfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >> Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mura. >> Hi. >> Mr. Abraham. >> I. >> And President Qu. >> I. >> Motion carries. >> All right. 7.3 Park District one-year exp extension. May I have a motion to approve the IG? >> Move. >> Second. >> Roll call, please. >> Dr. Dunfeld. >> Hi. >> Miss Jakamu. >> Hi. >>

129Miss Joyce. >> Hi. >> Mr. Mirav. >> Hi. Mr. Abraham >> I >> and President Gall >> I. >> Motion carries. >> All right. Uh committee reports. >> So we we had policy just before this meeting. Thank you Dale for putting that all together comparing a ton of new press stuff and stuff that we needed to review in terms of schoolboard curriculum business HR student services communications. So lots of stuff and uh we went through it and looks good. Thanks. All right. Uh, next on our agenda is open community participation. The second period of community participation near the end of the meeting is open for all matters. Take all public comments very seriously. And while public comment isn't a back and forth, but instead an opportunity for the board to listen, please know we listen

130carefully. Our first period of community participation is solely for items related to the meeting's agenda. The second is for all matters. If you wish to comment, please fill out a community participation form loc located located on the podium and hand it to Rebecca Rudd. We will call you up one at a time to the podium to speak. Please limit all length of comments to more than no more than 3 minutes. >> And we'll call Joseph Capsick. >> I see you're having budgetary concerns. I could tell you how Deerfield could make tax revenue sourcing easier and more efficient by taxing the right things, but your policies have unfortunately made it so that I don't really care whether you go bankrupt. The reason these children are the anxious generation is because they're worried that all the authority

131figures they know seem to be working to protect their potential abusers from their accusers like their teachers and the president of the United States. Is really unconscionable what you have allowed to happen in the locker rooms. This should be the last straw and the last stand for any and all rational parents, not just here, but across the country. There's so many things here that have been done wrong. My proposal to add locker rooms for non-binary individuals is, I admit, not the cheapest solution, but I believe it is the safest, most equitable, and sustainable one. The way you enforce your locker room policy not only could put children at heightened risk of being trafficked to people they don't know, but also in effect already did transfer custody to strangers without parental knowledge, which is arguably kidnapping.

132When residents come up here and say, "Outs are coming into our town and attacking us." Or when Asher McMah says the transmale student was attacked, it reminds me of Nazi military leader Herman Garing saying, "All you have to do to get people to support a war is tell them they're being attacked. Look up DV O, deny, attack, and reverse victim and offender." And gag orders against parents are Nazis-esque as well. I could talk about how Asher McMahara could be sued by defaming the girls for defaming the girls by falsely claiming the boy was attacked when he was just criticized. Especially if you can suggest suing people or people who speak here or parents for defamation and take their money for the crime of failing to correctly guess and describe exactly which crimes the staff committed

133against children in private without their parents knowing. It's like a game where they have to guess what you did to their kid in private or else they pay you money. It's messed up. If you give the trans male's parents whatever they want here, then you may be ignoring the possibility that the boy's gender questioning feelings could be motivated by previous child sexual abuse by a family member or friend of the family. And a 2021 study showed that 19% of trans kids were sexually abused. That's why someone mentioned Walt Hire here last month. He was abused, then transitioned, then dransitioned, and was miraculously still able to impregnate his wife. At the very least, the boy's parents failed to teach him how to treat girls. The people who gave you this locker room policy are aligned with

134Governor JB Pritster's billionaire transgender sister, Jennifer, who's funding a lot of these efforts and profiting off of them. And so is Abby, the company that pollutes our county with volatile organic materials while producing Lupron to sterilize adult sex offenders and potentially sterilize confused children as well. And the Pritzkar's cousin, Tom New Epstein. Moreover, you failed to post security guards or even greeters at the entrances to your schools for in case a shooter shows up to an event outside normal school hours. It's also unconstitutional for you to even receive federal funds for education wherever you make trans kids change. It doesn't even matter. Um, but I want to look up a phrase forcible transfer of children from one group to another. I'll be there to talk about that next month. >> Thank you. All right. Next

135on the Is there anybody else? All right. Uh, next on the agenda is board superintendent other. >> Got a couple. First, uh, to the tech crew in the back, thank you for making last minute adjustments. Uh, Grace under pressure back there. So, very well done. Uh, also Joanna, you've wrapped up the summer school. Um, made it look easy and I we all know that it is not. And thanks to Kathy for stepping in and throwing strikes with the referendum. You stepped right into the deep end of the pool and also with the u stronger together theme and bringing the community together there. And then of course uh John this important culminating moment after several years of really long hard and smart work uh to make the formal presentation to the board and the recommendation for

136the board's consideration. And uh finally for if I didn't say that already uh to the board in advance we've been talking about listening to the community and our self-evaluation sort of year after year and we are finally nearing that important phase and that important job of the school board. Thank you for all your time that you will be spending doing that. >> Fantastic. >> All right. I have uh I think did I miss it last meeting? But question of the day. We got a question of the day today. All right. So, I'm going to give it to Nick Begley actually that was in the audience earlier asked he he asked me how I was going to run the meeting compared to him. So, I'm going to say that probably not nearly as well as he

137used to run it. Um, and having been there for years, it was big shoes to fill. So, I'll give that question the day to Nick Begley. All right. Anything else from anybody? Okay. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? So move.