001Oh, time we get our regular meeting started. 8:21 6 pm. Thank you so much for joining us everybody. If you would all please uh join me. No, I'm I'm sorry. I would like a roll call, please. Oh, yes. Okay. Uh Denise Jones, yes. David Shepard, present. Uh Dr. Michael Thomas is absent, excused. Uh O'Neal Gray, present. Michael, American, present. Lauren Dowin, present. Uh we have you'd all please stand and join me in the pledge of allegiance. To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right. If my board members could please peruse the agenda and if there are no additions or deletions, I would like to have a motion to approve the agenda as submitted. Motion
002to approve the agenda as submitted. And a second. I'll second. Very good. Roll call, please. Lauren Dowen. Yay. David Shepard. Yes. Denise Jones. Yes. O'Neal Gray. Yes. Rachel Maroquin. Yes. Uh, Michael. Yay. Very good. Let's go right into our staff reports. Dr. Woodland. Thank you. First, I would like to welcome Mr. O'Neal. Thank you. Many of you did not meet him, so he is one of our new board members. So, we'd like to say welcome to you wave. My first report for this evening is regarding our staff appreciation celebrations. So this school year we celebrated our staff the week of May 5th through May 9th which many of you know as teacher appreciation. There were many many highlights from this week. First and foremost it is important to note that this week alone cannot be
003the only week that we celebrate and honor our staff for their hard work and dedication. Our EP family is truly an inspiration to our community and I could not be more proud of our continued growth and progress. This does not happen without our teachers and support staff making the magic happen. So during this week, there was a variety of themes that were shared at our building level with fun giveaways, daily treats, I think it's called a woo woo car. What's it called? Woo woo wagon. Woo woo wagon. I was close. Um fun giveaways, daily treats, catered lunchons, extended plan time, which I know all of our teachers really like. Sunshine carts. I heard about many of those to brighten our teachers day. Um, baskets of goodies. Thank you, Sodia, for putting together so many baskets
004for me and much, much more. This school year, the district office team raffled off one personal day each day to five lucky winners. So, that was very fun and exciting. And I just want to give a huge shout out to our boosters club and administration for making these days super, super special. So, there's some pictures that show all the fun things that happen during this week. Good job. Um, so upcoming staff end of year celebrations. I just want to remind all board members that on June 6 that marks the end of our school year. Um, so we have a half-day student attendance on that day and we'll be re celebrating our retirees years of service and our B evergreen awards which are um peer-to-peer um awards. Um, so David, I think you've participated before, Michael,
005Denise. It's a great event. Really highlights all of our staff and if you can attend, I highly recommend. All right, next up on my report is registration updates. So, I have to give a big applause to our administrative team, our secretaries, our support staff. There were so many people that it was just all hands on deck. And so this year we revamped our registration and the goal behind that is to really allow us to plan appropriately for upcoming fall in order for everyone to be present for our students. So for registration we have returning student numbers currently 11 thou uh 1,123 students and we have 459 that are not currently submitted. our new students. We have 75 kindergarteners that we cannot wait to welcome. And then we have 12 first through eighth grade new students.
006So D1254, we held an open residency verification evening and we had approximately 180 families that came through to verify residency, which was a huge success for us to allow for um increased numbers and to make sure that we get kids in seats on the first day of school. So again, this is an all hands-on deck approach. I want to give a huge shout out to our support staff, again, administrators, and most importantly, Elizabeth Lopez, um, for making this event a huge success. So that is our update regarding registration. Yes. Next up, Dr. Carlson will be giving us an update on curriculum and instruction. It's only 6:05. I don't think I've ever been up here, but All right. So, I have a couple things. Welcome and congratulations, Michael. And it looks different. Um, so our consolidated
007district plan, you should have had one in your packet. This is an annual thing that we do. Um, it allows us to kind of align all of our federal grant funding together in one plan. Make sure that all of um all of our ideas and objectives are aligned um with one with with our goals in mind. So, this includes title one, title two, title three, title four, and then both of our IDEIDA grants um also are all consolidated into this. It allows us to streamline that process and not have to fill out all of the same stuff um for every grant. So, it's a lot of work in the beginning, but then it makes all of the grant applications much more um easy to do in the long run. So you all had copies of
008that and we'll be asking for approval. We get it approved annually. Um we had a handbook meeting on May 1st which we had parents present, teachers and um administrators and Dr. Michael Thomas was there and Rachel was there and then I also shared the information with Lauren. Um so here are some of the updates. We really did kind of a big overhaul I felt like last year um with a lot of policies being updated um that are in alignment with the IPA model handbook. So this year it felt a little bit less. Those things that we are updating. Our grading committee has been hard at work since November. So we have three things um that are being added to the handbook that align with our grading committee work both at CMS and the elementary school.
009the grading scale will be up updated um to align with the high school which is a huge celebration and something that our teachers have been asking for for a long time. Um we really are focusing in on our formative and summitative assessments and making sure that all of our grades are um tabulated equally. Right now we have people that are waiting grades differently throughout the district in different classes. So making sure that all of our formative and summitative assessments are weighted consistently throughout the district. Um we are looking to more heavily weight our summitive assessments. Really that is the assessment of learning um once that learning takes place uh making sure that we are waiting that accordingly. And then our formative assessments are the assessments that are um given throughout the learning process to provide
010um opportunities for growth and things like that. Um and then we are allowing assessment retakes for those summitive assessments because we want students to be mastering um what we are teaching them and the the um standards that we have identified as priority standards. We want to give them opportunities to make sure that that learning has taken place. Um benchmark assessment updates those were some minor updates that um took place. We have changed our star assessment at grades K1 and two to MClass which aligns to CKLA amplify our reading curriculum. Um so that update took place and then also we added the SSIS which is our social emotional learning screener. We added that to the benchmark assessments as well. Um the CMS progressive discipline procedures that they have been piloting this year. We're very excited. Those
011will all be added as appendix A to the handbook so that those are in there for everyone to be able to see. And then we had some minor edits per um school nurse, things like dates or forms that had um different names, things like that. Um and then adding language, failure to serve an assigned consequence will result in a next level consequence. So making sure that students are when they are given a consequence such as um a detention or something like that that they're making sure to serve those. And then also um at Central Middle School, no contact contract violations are also being added as level two offenses. So those were the updates that we discussed at our handbook. Any questions? I wanted to really quickly go back to what you mentioned first, the grading
012scale change, and just give a shout out to our student advisory board members that brought that issue to our attention. Absolutely. Yep. And they also mentioned the formative and summitative assessments as well. That was something else that they had also brought up that we felt also needed to be changed. So, yep. Excellent. Great. Thanks. Okay. Student support services, Becky Tyrell. You're up. Hello. Hello. Okay. So, I am going to update you guys on um the year in review for our district community leadership team. As you know, this is our community partnerships that we have um with various um different um members of the community. So, at our last meeting, it was admin and the news members. So, I'm going to give you a little bit of an update and then talk about our final project,
013which was our community resource guide that we've basically been working on all year. So, just a little bit about um community updates. Um Evergreen Park Library, um Frank Murray, um 72 programs this year, over a thousand attendees, library is very successful. Um partnered with D124, as we know, 1,600 new library cards for students. Um they purchased hundreds of new books for SEAL for students. So that's something that um Frank has really been gearing towards um getting in there. Also purchased help now database which is a online homework help. And then they have Mango languages um which is has a number of different languages for people to access and he has about 300 to 40 400 people accessing that database. Um, and then one thing he wanted to note is that his the afterchool behavioral issues
014have really really reduced there. And he said actually this year he's only written like two um behavioral letters. So we're excited to see that. Um the village pantry and update they serve over 60 families per week. Um wanted to give a shout out to the D124 schools. as we know um they do a lot of collections for the D1 or for the village pantry. They also offer pantry financial assistance um um for one-time emergencies. And then we just kind of uh chitchat a little bit about their most needed items um and they kind of articulated that it was peanut butter and jelly seem to last longer. So those are their most needed items FYI. um center for self-actualization. As you know, we have clinician in each building. Um though that's going really smoothly and they're
015wrapping up the year. Um the center serves families, couples, and individuals. Um most individuals are most popular resource. And then they typically um have interns through the year, which um allows them to service more. Um, so they are we're getting ready to say goodbye to their seven interns and kind of onboard new interns this summer. Um, and then of course our SXU birth to three program. So they are fully enrolled 60 families. Um, thanks to our DCT team and our partnership, they've also been making a lot of referrals to the center for self-actualization and working together to do some um, different workshops. So they're doing like yoga and parent wellness workshops. um which have been very successful parent child workshops and then mom's night out. Um they're also doing some staff wellness and teen building
016within their um SXU birth three employees. Um and then they kind of they're back attending our prek screenings. um Lori Winkler who is um head of the SXU birth. She's coming to our pre-K screenings um meeting fam her families here and then also seeing some of her families that they have previously serviced. So that's been a really good resource as well. And then our community resource guide. So we have our rough draft of our community resource guide. So it's 80 pages. Um so anything from adult ed education, bereiement, family crisis, hotline numbers, food resources, domestic violence, mental health, um housing assistance. Um so we're in the process of verifying making sure that some of those re some of the resources um that we're not as familiar with are still there. Um and then we have
017to do some visual tweaking. Um, currently the layout is alphabetical. We're kind of talking about how we can or what we think would be easiest for parents to access. Um, and then obviously when we um launch our new the goal is when we launch our new website, this will all be completed and then we can roll it out to our school staff in the fall. um so they know when they if they have families that come to them um where this can where they can access it as well and direct them. So pretty excited about that. Yeah. And that's it for Okay. So this is the special education family advisory council. Just another acronym to add. So this kind of kicked off um in January. Um the goal and the mission uh I won't read
018it to you. We obviously wanted to form a group to empower parents of students with disabilities. So obvious the goals are share information, offer support and networking and advocate together. So, we've had three meetings this um winter slashspr um with a smaller group of parents to kind of help form this group. Um so, some of the things that we've done is just really educate parents on what the student support services department is and everything that it entails. Um some of our strategic plan goals. um shared some of our current resources and then we really wanted to get input from our families on what they're looking for, what they need, what are they hearing um from other families and um we came up with the group name, we talked about next year the frequency um and
019then we talked about what that will look like and how we can publicize um moving forward. So right now um we're talking about quarterly events. Um, so we have a couple quarterly events on the calendar with things that, um, our families felt like were most pressing. Um, but so first quarter, um, they're interested in like legal. So, um, we do have an attorney like on the docket. I think that what we're kind of determining now is just like what kind of questions or what could that start? what are they most looking for information and then how we can make that like a Q&A and then network um second quarter we're actually doing two this was a big um concern for parents or topic uh anything that has to do with transition so you know we've
020already reached out to the high school we're going to have Mary Carrian who's the um student support director at the high school kind of come in and talk about like you know middle school high school and then our EI or early intervention EC so Lori Winkler And then um Easter Seals will come in and we can kind of talk about what that looks like and just have a more Q&A and ease our parents' minds on um that transition piece. And then um third quarter, I think this is a little ambitious um but it's something that I really feel like was what we heard from parents as well, like what are where are the resources for students with disabilities in our area. So, um, Ally Wilson, one of our case managers, actually got wind of Merist
021High School, they have the Marshall program, doing a resource fair, um, a couple weeks ago, so she went on a Sunday to kind of see what it was. Um, and then and got some resources. So, it's we're kind of going to mimic that. Um, this was their second year, so they didn't have like a huge turnout. Um but she said that there they obviously said since the year before. So just even like um the partnerships I think important like the library um the center for self-actualization even like Lori Easter Seals but then also we're looking for like Oaklan special wreck like one of the things that Ally was telling us that we didn't know I didn't know either is um since Evergreen doesn't have a special wreck program um any student with a disability that
022lives in Evergreen and signs up for Oaklan gets the Oaklan ring which is huge. So think um those are the things that we're looking to bring in even um I know that just internally sometimes um you know the social workers or whatnot principles will reach out like do you know of a family who has a dentist or an eye doctor that works with students with disabilities. Um so things like that people we want to bring in um just to kind of allow families to walk around and um pull some resources. So, and then fourth quarter we just it's crazy. Um wanted to do before the May rush, but um just kind of a parents night out um kind of to be to be determined like what we're looking for. I think that one of the
023other things that we kind of toyed with and talked about is um our parents themselves are looking for more opportunities for their kids to mix and mingle with other students with disabilities. So, that's something we're thinking about, too. And kind of holding that date, even if it's like a organized playd date, just an opportunity to kind of get together. Um, I know the library hosts for the older students, they have, um, a group, but it's really the little ones are kind of that elementary grade level that they're looking for. So, um, we talked about communication obviously being such a new group. Um, flyers and postcards are super popular here. So, um I am going to utilize our communications to kind of create a flyer with at least these dates, um email communication this summer. And
024then we're talking about tables. Um I know the booster clubs have tables at packet pickup. Um some of our parents are willing to um sit along with those booster club parents and and give out our the information. And then even utilizing our um back to school bash, getting a table potentially and even doing something fun at our table like a sensory path kind of get to get the information out there. And then we really want to share out at our TI days um for our staff so they know when they're talking to families and then even at the IEP meetings um they can be giving that information as well. Um we have tons of good ideas. Um well I say we I mean parents have tons of good ideas um that I'm hoping will just
025keep going and the momentum will keep building. Um but we wanted to make it um ambitious but realistic um because what we've seen is that getting people in sometimes at the at evening craziness is is hard. So um we want to make it worth it and um you know put the information out there. So that was a lot. Any questions? I love this uh CFAC idea and I was just curious if we provide any time for like just parents to be in the room together as almost like a district staff will join you at you know 5:45 but 5:30 to 5:45 it's either networking or support group or just the opportunity to talk without feeling like the district is like looming over you though. Well, and that is really what and historically there was a
026group um that was pretty much run by parents and that is kind of what I've articulated at the first meeting like this is kind of what we're going to start like I want this to be for you. I want to bring parents together. Um but I kind of want to fade back and just be a supportive partner. Um, so I think that like addressing some of the stuff that they're really looking for right now, but then pulling back and seeing how it evolves or like helping shape it shape it would be great. Um, and what one of I think it's been great because it's been a small group so everybody's had a voice um to kind of brainstorm even what's been on their mind. like first meeting one of our moms who talked about like
027her um daughter has a physical disability. Her kids are all young and just she really wants them to have more exposure to kids um with physical disabilities that look like their sister even if it's in books and things like that. So um in our last DLT meeting I was like mentioning and Frank's like writing it down and stuff. So just things like that I think are important and and the other moms that have students with physical disabilities meeting and talking and um that is definitely our goal or can the high school be involved because there are things that like as kids get older are different concerns for parents. So um you know we're we work closely with the high school and Mary Carrian. So, I'm like, we are willing to host anything. Like, we want
028our we're EP family, so that includes all of us. So, um that would be the hope. Um and I think that that's kind of why we wanted to do the parents night out at the end, just to let them feel like kind of structure it, but like back off. Um, I know that some of our staff really want to be involved and I think it's great to be a resource like you know Grace our BCBA has been there so she's been able to talk about that position and what does that even look like and answer questions in a smaller group. So, I know there's other providers like sometimes parents. What's the difference between the occupational therapist and the physical therapist? Like, so I just want to make want to kind of reiterate that we're here
029to help you to answer your questions. As silly as you may think they are, like that's what we're here for. And those IEP meetings sometimes are not the place. So, there's just so much. So, this is kind of the goal and the outlet. So, I'm hoping um that that's eventually what it will evolve into. So, yeah. Um add a suggestion and maybe a request at the same time. Um suggestion. Um most of of us, you know, parents who have children with disabilities, we communicate through Facebook groups. So, we have a there's a lot of Facebook groups out there. Evergreen uh Park Mom is out there. Um and in some of those groups, we reach out to people. We've spoken to people like in New York, Wisconsin, uh, and they all come with ideas. If we
030have an issue, we'll put on there like, uh, hey, um, son's running a fever. He won't take anything by mouth. What else can we do? And, you know, so they, you know, introduce us to Feverall, the junior strength that we have to get through, you know, Amazon because who can get at local drugstores. So, if your organization could reach out to the Facebook or put some of those resources on there, you'll get a lot of communication going that way. That is one I'm personally not on Facebook. One of and a couple of our moms are on the different groups and that is definitely something that they had talked about whether or not they have a page or they join one of those groups. Um and that's something that we decided like once this is we
031we didn't even have a name first. we kind of like voted on a name like I'm going to let um one of the parents kind of communicate through Facebook groups about where what we are where we're at and we definitely use some of that information even for a resource guide um because we have a lot of staff members that you know are on some of those groups and they'll say like oh I was reading over the weekend like someone was out there looking and we're like taking that information down too. So, um, yeah, it's a great idea. I didn't request, um, recently the Children Museum has changed their schedule. So, the Children Museum used to shut down once a month. Yes. And allow, you know, children with special needs to come in, you know, from
0326:00 to 8. And it was their world, their time to explore the museum, to play, to everything. And you you had other parents come there. And you know some of the barriers we we suffer from is you know my son he's non-verbal so he doesn't communicate when he's with other children who can communicate and then you know children are you know kind of mean because he won't speak to them but you know they don't know he can't. So when they shut it down on I think it was Mondays I can't remember what it was like six o'clock it was perfect. They recently changed their schedule. Okay. And they moved it to like 10 o'clock in the day or some crazy schedule like that. Are they still doing it? they are still doing it. uh they
033increased the cost of it uh drastically and it's it's more like an inconvenience now because you know um our kids home structures at 10 o'clock you know my kid maybe is doing XYZ on Sunday maybe he's eating his breakfast bake we can't take him to the museum um maybe if your group wants this up and going maybe reach out to them I don't know maybe partner with Oaklan or somebody to kind of express to them hey this was a change that the community really needs and if there was something you know we can Well, and that's a good point even for a resource fair because there are other places too. Like I know some of those like jumpy places, I don't what are they called? Bounce house places um have specific hours. I know when
034the carnivals roll through Evergreen Park, there's a carnival at every church. They have specific hours dedicated to students with disabilities. But I think that that's another great resource for the resource fair just to even know that those are out there. One other source I won't take you any time. The the kids plate um on 111th right off of that is a beautiful place. Uh the owners there they are excellent. Yeah. Uh we shut it down on um like right before Christmas December the 22nd. We invited uh David Junior's the whole class. They came for free. We took care of everything. And those kids had so much fun. The one lady, she literally cried because she was saying this was the first time her son had ever been invited to anything. Oh my gosh. Anything that
035was outside of just regular school. So these things are kind of important as our children get older. Yeah. You know, so they can explore. So maybe if you all can, you know, just band together, reach out to some of those, you know, places. For sure. And those that that's the information and that's what we need like our parents talking about their experiences or places that they've gone, but like that's why we want to have the resource fair and bring those in. So a you're walking around and it's another way to network, but like there is there is stuff out here um that even in Orland and like not that far Oakland, but there's stuff out there or if there's stuff like that we need to um Exactly. like reaching out as a parent group and
036and getting those things. So, excuse me lady that you said that was very emotional contact information. Oh, no. We have we we communicate. I'll uh ask my wife what's what's her name also. Yeah. Yeah. And that's and that's definitely something that we want to um that our parents were talking about even in regards to like more um like after school fun structured opportunities for students with disabilities to to come together and play and then parents not. So yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next up, human resources with Mrs. Roberts. You guys tricked me today. Hi, everybody. Hello. Okay, All right. Well, this is always exciting. We started early this school year, really in October with recruitment. I'm not sure how effective it was starting so early, but we just wanted to get
037a real head start. I think we started with like the St. Xavier job fair in October and then we didn't stop. We just kept going. So, we did about nine to 10 job fairs, some virtuals and enough of them were in-person job fairs. But let's talk a little bit about some of the efforts and where where we are today. So, overall, and this is changing daily. So as of today, you know, we have we had open 25 certified positions and when we say certified, we mean our teachers and we had an overall of non-certified positions like our pair professional supports and other positions like that. We had a total of nine openings and then we had a total of three administrative positions, you know, our um assistant principal and dean position. And so to date,
038we filled 20 of the overall certified positions that were open, which is 80%, which is a good number. We're not at that 100% that we were hoping for by now, but we're definitely getting there. And we have filled a total of five of our non-certified, and we filled all of our non our administrative positions um this year as well. So, we're doing good. We're projecting well and of course this is because it's an all handson deck experience. Um some of the sources we use to fill these positions one being the grow your own program which is through the curriculum department under Ashley Carlson which is going super well. Um we filled a couple of positions through the grow your own program. You can slide it to the next slide if you don't mind. We filled
039it through, of course, the job fairs that I just mentioned. We did, you know, a couple in person. There's Denise who showed up to our Evergreen Park job fair, uh, the library job fair. Um, we did with Amanda. She was my partner in crime this whole time doing the job fairs and she supported a lot of them. Daniela, who used to be our HR clerk, supported uh, one of our job fairs, too. Um, but some of the biggest areas where we've also filled these positions, believe it or not, is through our substitute pool. We've hired several through our substitute pool. We've hired several through the student teachers we're supporting. I have to give a shout out to our principles. They are doing an amazing job. as busy as everything is with really connecting with our
040teachers and making sure they get our teachers to mentor the student teachers and in turn we're hiring them in our permanent teacher positions which is really awesome. And then of course we got to give shout out to Cal who's our communications person. He does our special recruitment plans each year that helps us get everything out on social media and every year he comes up with amazing things that helps us do that. Um, I have to give shout out to my team, the HR team, Lisa, who behind the scenes all of our job fairs are all set up through Lisa. I mean, you think when you see that that it takes nothing, but she's putting the paperwork together, updating it, putting, you know, the the supplies together for every job fair we do. So, um, Tracy
041and Lisa are also like this is crunch time for them for on boarding and they work hand in hand with making sure in this crunch period of time we have to get all of our hires done, making sure all the credentials are right, pay, all of it. It's a a real, you know, work effort behind the scenes. And Lisa and Tracy are just amazing. Um Daniela who was our HR clerk who supported a lot of this too, Ashley with the Grow Your Own program, Cal, and of course all our principles who recruit every day to fill these positions. They really make it priority. So, it's just a real all hands- on deck thing. And I just think we've been doing it so wonderfully, especially in the last couple of years that I've been here. Um,
042but you know, one of my main goals, and we'll talk, I think I skipped that a little bit, talk a little bit about some of the diverse candidates we filled. We did fill um, as far as minority positions are concerned, we filled one position in our administrative area. Um, and we filled four positions in our certified positions with minorities. Um, I'm happy to say we filled six male positions for our certified teachers. So, [Applause] and you see in that age each year we've we've increased that a little bit more each year with the male um hires. So, I'm just really excited about that. um a little disappointed about I used some use new sources this year to do um you know some more diverse hiring. They didn't they weren't so lucrative for me. You I
043did an uh virtual um historically black um university type um job fair and some other things and it it just wasn't as lucrative. But I can tell you this, there's a huge shift. Um we are finding at the in-person um job fairs these young they're they are not interested in doing the inerson job fairs. They're more interested in doing the virtuals and it's more it's been um you know a positive benefit for us uh using more of the virtual than the inerson. I mean we do fill positions but it's like one two um we're mostly getting them through the virtual. So those are our numbers. We're doing well and um we keep projecting to fill positions that you know are coming up unexpected that we're filling. I think we'll be in pretty good shape for
044the new school year. Any questions? Thank you. Just want to wait before you go. I just want to acknowledge uh what you have done because I remember what was it two two years ago? Year ago, what when we were discussing about changing those numbers. Yeah. Well, and there they all are. There they all are. Thank them. rose to the I really appreciate that as six males. That's not we coming up. So we keep moving along. Thank you. Thank you, Patricia. Next up, the business office with Mr. Eric Rosie. We had two foyas, public record requests last month. One was from the data branch and one was from Civic IQ Inc. and both have been completed. Statement of expenditures, nothing really unique happened during the month of April expenditure- wise, you know, salaries, benefits and then
045majority of the finalized purchases through the classes and the schools are getting completed at the end of April, beginning of May as well. Revenue-wise, we had a handful of grant revenues come in. Um, and then evidence-based funding revenues came in. U, the state has announced, I believe it was late last week, that they're expecting to be a little bit of a delay in the property tax payments coming up for the next installation. Um, but nothing crazy. As a result, our fund balance went up a little bit because our revenues, it was it was a pretty normal month, but the revenues just slightly outweighed the expenditures in April. Now, extended day fees. So, I'm presenting extended day fees to the board today um with hope to get approved today. So, historically, the extended day program is
046meant to be a break even program. We have no intention to profit from this. And when I was running an audit on this fiscal year's extended day fees, I identified that we're running at a little bit of a deficit. So in order for what I believe to get us back to that break even dollar amount would be um I have the recommendations up here where the it's rough, you know, it's roughly like a 20% increase across this board, but it's off a smaller dollar amount. So you could see for the FL fixed daily rates for example on the left uh for five days last year it was $5.50 I'm propos or for this year it's $5.50 I'm proposing for next year that would be $6.50 50. And then the biggest change dollar amount wise out
047of everything would be the afterchool flex daily rate for one day where it would be going from $19 to $22.75. Does anyone have any questions about the extended day? Just one thing, you will not vote on this until June. So, it is not an action item tonight. Any questions about anything? Thank you. Thank you. All right, that brings us to public comments. So, just a quick reminder, per education policy 2230. We have a public comment session in every meeting. To respect our stakeholders, the commenters, our board, and the public, we adhere very closely to a threeminut time limit for everyone. We will set a timer and we hope that everyone will respect the timer so that we can keep this meeting meeting moving right along. In addition, the board of education does not typically respond
048to any comments. This is mostly because we want to make certain that whatever we say is factual and correct, so we need to take a little bit of time to respond, but we do hear you and we will be responding in a very timely manner. And if the information is ready at hand, we will ask a relevant uh staff member to speak on it. But that's not generally the case. So with that, I have a public comment. Are there any others? Okay. Uh Miss Carly, I am going to be bad at this one. I apologize. Okay. Savier. Savier. Yes. Oh, okay. Hello. Hello. Hello. Um good evening. Thank you first for giving me the time and opportunity to be here. Um I am Karly Savvatiri. I am a mom of two first graders at Northeast.
049Um I'm here on behalf of several families from Northeast, many of which came with tonight. Um and first we just want to start again, thank you for everything you guys do for our school and our district. Um but what we are here for is to request a prioritization of installing an air conditioning in our gym. Um it's not really just about comfort, as much as we would like to say that, it really does impact the health and safety of our students and the staff. The Illinois Department of Public Health actually recommends the indoor temperatures in the school remain between 73 and 79 during summer. Um, however, at our most recent event in the Northeast Gym, our thermostat did climb up to 88. Um, and that was just on the thermostat in the back of the
050gym. So, the students that were under the stage lights, it was a lot hotter. Um, they were visibly sweating, they were flushed, some of them reported feeling lightheaded, some were even nauseated. Um it was a very clear sign that the current situation was not working. Um this is isn't it just about that one event either. Last year alone there were over 20 school days with outdoor temperatures over 85 degrees. So on days like that without proper cooling temperatures inside of a gym are going to increase especially with the kids and their physical activity. Um additionally Northeast does serve as the district's summer school host. So our gym is and our school is being utilized a lot more. We also have our morning care, our afterare and a lot of booster club events. Um so that
051means a lot of the students and the staff and volunteers are put into situations we don't really feel like are the best for anybody. Um we do understand that we're asking for resources and planning and time, but we also have done a little research on our own. It shouldn't be too bad. I think all we need to do is like add a coil at piping and just run into our I don't know. I'm definitely not the expert on this. We'll see how accurate it is. But basically, they just need to take our already existing AC unit that was just put in recently and just kind of run it right into our gym, which I think is actually located right there. Um, so with your support, we hope we can make this happen. Thank you again.
052Um, I do have pictures of the thermostat if you want to see, but That's all. Thank you so much, guys. Yeah. [Applause] Thank you. Thanks to all the parents coming out and participating in the democratic process. This is what makes this country great. And we'll be following up with you. Do you have an email that you want us to follow up with? You just want us to call you? My first and last name at Gmail. I'm simple. Or call me, whatever works. Perfect. We will. Thank you. Thank you. All right. Okay, there are no other public comments at this time. So, we will be moving into board reports. And first up, Mr. David Shepard, could you please provide us with the Arrow Governing Board meeting? Yes, I will. So, I did attend the recent Arrowing
053board meeting and here's my report. Uh, it started off with a bang. Uh, there was a parent that had a great concern that uh staffing was changing at the school. She was concerned being that the principal was leaving that there was five other staff members that was leaving that um she was worried about the change that her son would, you know, experience with new staffing coming in. He's been there for a while. He's comfortable. He he has some some things going on. And she was really concerned and she was really worried whether there was something that was going on at Arrow that was prompting people to leave. So, um there was some little conversation back and forth. they, you know, reassured her that it wasn't that. It's just that, you know, staffing, they move on
054in life. They evolve. There's other opportunities for them to, you know, take on and and so we will replace them and have somebody that's going to work well with our son. Um, they didn't express how long they how far they've come since the opening of Arrow. You know, just a couple of years ago, there was like 65 open positions there and they didn't know what to do. They had a lot of uh contract contract staffing filling all the positions, but they praise now that there's like uh like only really four, you know, floating around. They they've done what they need to do and only like 14 is contractual. So, there's a lot of actual staffing there that um exist. Um they wanted me to express that the board of um at Arrow is looking for
055some classrooms. uh being that they have some new incoming students that's going to be coming in. They're kind of like out of space. Before they were scattered scattered sites, they brought everybody together. Unfortunately, now the building uh there's not enough room. So, they're looking for um boards that would host like a classroom for them that they can utilize throughout the school year. I believe uh they already had a volunteer from I think it was Burbank if I'm correct. And they wanted to say no, I'm sorry, the high school, our high school. high school uh gave actually gave a classroom for them to utilize throughout the school year which was excellent and they wanted me to express it here and asked if we have any space any room to volunteer it out. Um they also um
056went over that they replace three of the vans that they use which are the suburbans. It's kind of system they use every year they replace three they either offer them offer them to other districts or they trade them in. So they have three new vans which is beautiful. Eighth grade had their graduation yesterday. Early childhood will be graduating tomorrow if anybody's interested. It's there tomorrow from 10 to 12:30. Uh but the big thing that they did is and it's something I think we may want to look into if we can. They signed well we approved theou yesterday. It's a contractual agreement with Burbank Police Department so Burbank can utilize their in-house cameras. So at any time if there's an active shooter or if there's uh any of the students there who needs any kind of
057assistance because fire department stays there quite natural because of the support services there. Uh Burbank can instantly dial into their cameras and see what's going on and coming from a background in law enforcement that's really important. Most of your local officers never even step foot inside your schools. They have no idea. So at time of crisis when you know an officer does enter he has to know left or right what classroom is here and there. You don't have that with Burbank being able to quarterback and seeing in their cameras, they can direct officers to where they need to go right then and there. And the crazy part is this program, it was only like $1,800 for them to get, you know, that connection for a whole year. So, uh I don't know if we have
058it. We do not currently. I don't know. Yeah, we can definitely recharge. And last but not least, they did nominations and board elections, which was pretty much the same people. Just want to let y'all know and and that was it. But um it was my first meeting. It was they were very nice, extremely nice. I came in, I had a placard already. Somebody gave me an ID from somewhere. I felt really welcomed and and it was really really nice. That's great. And that is my report. Thank you, David. All right. All right. Finance committee meeting. That will be me. Uh so the finance committee meeting was about a month ago almost and we had two main topics of conversation. Uh the first was we went over insurance and benefits that the district pays for all
059staff and it was just kind of projections and such and uh how much those costs have been increasing steadily with our carriers. More informative than anything else. No action from the board at that time. Benefits are collectively bargained. It's not something that we would touch anyway. Uh but it's just something to bear in mind as we budget and as we look to levy that the health insurance costs continue to grow and there's not much slowing down in that area. Uh the other topic was touched on by Mr. Grossy and that was our extended day fees. Um he kind of just broke through the chart that he ran us through a few moments ago and the committee was adamant that extended day is a valuable program and it's a special program but it is a unique
060program that really only services a subset of the community that utilizes our schools. So because of that we feel strongly it has to be costneutral. We're not comfortable passing any of that on to the taxpayer, especially people that can't even utilize the program. So, that's where a lot of the impetus behind the fee increases coming from. It's just about being fair to the taxpayer. Uh, that's essentially it for the finance committee meeting. And then we're going to give you a brief update on the community task force which met on May 7th. May 7th. Um, it was a good meeting. It was a lot of different stakeholders in the community were there. Uh, and we had some good presentations from we had our architects there who gave us some more realistic renderings of what a new
061central middle school could look like. Uh, walked through some of the potential additions to a few of the elementary schools. The removal of mobile classrooms or the trailers as I like to call them and some additions of soft surface playgrounds at the elementary schools which we were all pretty enthusiastic about. Uh, additionally, we had our public opinion consultant there who kind of walked us through the process of understanding what's the right way to approach a referendum question, how to and if to for this community. Uh, and it was it was good background information to have. And then finally, our bonding agent Tammy from PMA was there and she broke down some of the costs for us, what that would be for the taxpayer and just highle stuff on median home values and what it would
062cost you if you had a home value of X. I thought it was a great slate of information. It ran a little long, but these things tend to do that. Um, and then Denise was also there with me, and if she has anything that she would like to to mention, I want to open up the floor to you. Um again it was a good meeting. Um second that was our second meeting out of three my first meeting. Um we had a diverse group of stakeholders. We had staff members community members of administration board members. We were able to tour Southwest. Um I've been to Southwest quite a few times. I absolutely love South Southeast. Sorry. Southeast. I'm picturing southeast in my mind. Um Southeast. Um been there quite a few times. Absolutely love Southeast. I
063love Southwest too. [Laughter] Um I love North East and Northwest and um so um it was my first time touring the mobile and uh we had we had a lot of feedback in regards to those mobiles. We had one of the um veteran uh one veteran staff member to uh kind of really say um speak on the safety and security of the mobiles um and also when uh the hazard of in and out during storms, tornadoes, rain, snow, and I was just able to imagine those children and staff members going back and forth to those mobiles and um it just, you know, really rang hang a bell in my head in in regards to how important it is to get those molds removed. Um so um we had a very good meeting. Um I really
064enjoyed the fact that we had a lot of people to support the project and a lot of people to not support the project which is what we're looking for. We're looking for that balance. We need to know we're looking for the information. We need to uh we're looking for direction. uh you know we we're not saying that this is a clean slate is done you know so we're looking at all the different opportunities and you know things that we need to do in order to you know get to uh down the path that we're trying to go. So overall it was a really good meeting. Um I will only s uh suggest that we have a student voice in these meetings. Love that idea. A student voice. We need student voice. We need a either
065um a student from the student advisory board or just you know any student. I will suggest like or dislike central. I mean we need both. We need both views for the building um and um their ideas, suggestions um and to help us with this direction. So overall it was a good week. Great. Thank you. And I just want to throw out there, we have one more community task force meeting coming up. That's on June 3rd. I would encourage anybody that wants to participate to reach out to Dr. Woodland. It's not too late to join in to get some information, to get some free food, get a tour of the building, whatever strikes your fancy. Mhm. And I and I do like Central. [Music] Let the record reflect we don't have any favorite schools. But I
066opportunity, right? I' I'd like to add, you know, in the community. I've been hearing the titter chatter now and they're talking about Central. I was with some families at an event the other day. They didn't know I'm a board member and I just I let that go. You know, they were talking, but one was talking very positive like, "Oh, this would be a great thing for, you know, for school." And there the family that was talking already had kids that are older that weren't going to make it into the school, you know, just talking about in the community. So, I was like, "Oh, that was nice to hear." Yeah. Because a lot of times you think of like the ones that, you know, the kids are going to be coming through and their kids were
067older and then there was another family talking where they did have a little toddler. They're like, "Oh, well, maybe my kid And so I I started to hear rumblings in that. That's great. To piggy bank off what you said, Denise, the the two students that gave us the tour of Central, they're student advisory board members. Yes. Yes. Send them in. Oh my god. Send them those. I was thinking it would be really fun to have a student panel. I'm going to tab Amanda on this because she's done this before, but like just topics around like what they could share. Yes. You know, the locker room statement. That's a hot topic. those locker rooms. Yes, great idea. Thank you. All right, so we are now getting into the meat and potatoes here. Let's do our action
068items. I have the consent agenda first. So that's a one, approve monthly transaction reports for April 2025. Two, approve fund balance reports for April 2025. Three, approve expenditure report and projected payroll report for May 2025. Four, approve board minutes and from the close Oh, I'm just going to start over. Approve board minutes from the special organizational meeting of April 30, 2025. Five, approved destruction of closed session tapes from January 2021. Six, we have personnel recommendations. There is a slew of additions. Some resignations with intent to retire. Congratulations to you. That's well earned. NC resignations. Could I have a motion to vote? I'll make the motion. Thank you. Could I have a second, please? Thank you. And a roll call, please. All right. Rachel Maroquin, yes. O'Neal Gray, yes. David Shepard, yes. Lauren Dowin, yay. Denise
069Jones, yes. And Michael Al. Yay. We actually have an employee here tonight, Michael, that I just want to introduce. He um we always invite people to come to the board meeting. So, Michael, nice to meet you. He will be our new HR clerk who will be working with Patricia. Oh, man. And we also Yes, I know. This is so exciting. We also have a couple we have a couple more. So, Haley, who do we have here? I have Poco Deello. She is my new um going to be new second grade teacher at Southeast. Welcome. We're so excited. And Coco, did your student teach with us? I'm sorry. You did your student teach with us? Yeah, this selfies was also my school when I was little. So, awesome. And then Dr. Vic, do you have someone
070here? Uh Melissa Marian, who's the new instructional group. Hi, Melissa. Welcome. Welcome. Welcome. We're excited to have you. Right. Thank you. Is that everyone? I want to make sure we don't miss any. Okay, great. We have swag, but Oh, yes. Okay. Uh, item B, approve dean at Central Middle School effective July 1, 2025. Could I have a first, please? I'll make the motion. Thank you. Could I have a second? I'll second. Thank you. And a roll call, please. Denise Jones, yes. David Shepard, yes. Uh, Lauren Don, O'Neal Gray, yay. Rachel Maroquin, yes. And Michael, yay. [Applause] So, I'm gonna introduce Miss Danielle Weston. So, Danielle West, if you'd like to stand up to the board, administration, staff. So, Danielle comes to us with many years of teaching experience as well as her most recent experience
071as second in command in her current role. She is the master of all trades, I like to call her. um exceptional multitasker leader, facilitating staff coaching, student discipline, and a member of her district MTSS committee, and much much more. Something that resonated with me during our interview with Danielle is her extreme passion for students and the Evergreen Park community. A community member herself, a graduate from Central Middle School and High School, it is truly the right fit. So, welcome Danielle. We are so excited to have you. And you went to Southeast Yes. Okay. So, we're so excited to have you. Um, and of course, we have swag for you. So, we'd like to welcome you with our EP family gear. Thank you so much. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you. Welcome to the advent team. Congratulations.
072Congratulations. Welcome. That's a long walk. Congratulations. So many EP residents. No, they all want to work for us. It's great. Imagine that. Okay. Item C, approve summer school staff. Could I have a first, please? I'll make the motion. Could I have a second, please? A second. And a roll call, please. Denise Jones, yes. Lauren Dowin, O'Neal Gray, Rachel Maroquin, yes. David Shepard, yes. Michael Al, yay. Motion pass. Thank you very much. Item D, approve consolidated district plan. Could I have a first? I'll make the first motion. Thank you, David. Could I have a second? Thank you, O'Neal. And roll call, please. David Shepard. Yes. O'Neal Gray. Yes. Denise Jones. Yes. Rachel Marquin. Yes. Lauren Dowen. Yay. And Michael. Yay. Motion passed. Item E, approve parent student handbook for the 2025 2026 school year. Could I
073have a first? I'll make the motion. Thank you. Could I have a second? Second. Oh, who's going to fight for it? I'll go with Lauren. There we go. All right. Rachel Marquin, yes. Lauren Dowen, yes. David Shepard, yes. Denise Jones, yes. O'Neal Gray, yes. And Michael Miller, yay. And item F, approve Mr. David Shepard as AROW governing board representative. I'm going to use my presidential prerogative and make the first motion on this. I'll second it. I wonder why. Michael Miller. Denise Jones. Yes. David Shepard. Uh, let me think about it. Yes. O'Neal Gray. No. Lauren Dowen. Rachel Marquin. Yes. Motion pass. All right. Very good. Next up, we are going to be recessing to close session to discuss the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific employees of the district or legal counsel,
074including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee or legal counsel to determine its valid validity. 5ils120C1. Can I have a motion, please? I'll make the motion. And a second, please. I'll second it. And voice vote. All in favor? Hi. All right, guys. We are not going to be live streaming when we come back, but we do have some action items. If you want to stay, you are invited to, but we're not really sure when we're coming back, and that does not sound very entertaining. But please feel free to do so. And grab a cupcake. Grab some cupcakes on your way up.