Fenton High School Board of Education Meeting, March 25, 2026

001English, like I said, Right on time. Right on time. Absolutely. Benton mission statement. Cultivate successful, passionate, empowered learners through rigor, relevance, and relationships. Benton belief statement. Successful, passionate, empowered learners thrive when we provide a safe, caring, and welcoming environment. Diversity, equity, and inclusion unify our community. School and home collaborate as one. We champion innovative teaching and engage learning with state-of-the-art facilities. We infuse social emotional learning into academics and culture. We prepare students to fulfill their civic responsibility. We immerse students in authentic life experiences. The Bison way. Students and adults at Fenton High School create a safe, caring, empathetic environment where we believe in each other, respect diversity, communicate openly, grow together, and hold each other to high expectations to become the leaders and innovators of the future. Next is recognitions. Kate All right, as Kate

002is moving forward here, we have a tremendous night. Look at all the people here tonight. We are recognizing four different groups tonight. So, we're thrilled to have everyone here and Kate will kick it off. >> All right, I hope you're ready for some non-stop applause because we have had an impressive start to 2026 with a lot of student accomplishments. So, for our first move, let's invite the chess team to please come forward. You guys can fill a note here. All right. The chess team returned to the IHSA state finals after a brief hiatus and finished 14th overall in a challenging 3A division. Their path to state was equally tough, but they advanced after defeating Lakes and Kerry Grove in a very competitive sectional. These are some of the brightest minds and best strategic thinkers in

003all of Illinois. Additionally, coach Stephanie Downin was nominated for coach of the year honors by the Illinois Chess Coaches Association. We also want to thank Miss Downin for her many years of outstanding mentorship and coinciding success. With that, I'll turn it over to Coach Down and Coach G to introduce and share more. Thank you very much everyone. I'm Coach Gansek. I am the assistant coach for chess. Um, just very honored to be here with this team and this great group of students. I'm also grateful to be here with Coach Down who's just an amazing start of the chess program. Uh, she's just been an amazing help and I just see the hard work she puts in day in and day out. So, I just want to honor her as well. Um, I'm going to honor

004some of the students. Um, I'm going to call them by name. Uh, Augustine Severaniano, Emily Cortez, Casper Gre, Ralpho Sanchez, Marius Gonor, Yan Shek, Price, Samuel Stevenson, Nico Roal, Axel Garcia Kazo, and last but not least, Xavier Diaz. And with that, I give you guys Coach Down. >> Um, thank you. For the record, Coach G and I are co- coaches. He's not the assistant. Um, just wanted to give him credit for that. So, uh, thank you to the board for recognizing our team tonight. I'd like to also thank Julia Bray for her tremendous support and to Clarissa Sanchez who worked tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure our whole team made it to practices, matches, and tournaments. And of course, thank you to the parents and families. You make everything possible for these players. In my

00520 years of coaching, this group stands out as one of my favorites. These players honor the game, their teammates, their opponents, and themselves. Their hard work led us to a highly successful season. In IHSHs, there are no individual awards, and you can only qualify for state as part of a team. I'm especially proud to recognize two of our seniors, Casper and Peter. You guys want TO STEP FORWARD? BOTH ARE FOUR-YEAR PLAYERS WHO have been on two state qualifying teams. Watching them grow into the leaders and competitors they are today has been a highlight of my coaching career. Thank you again for celebrating our achievement tonight. Now, Casper would like to address the board as well. Good evening. My name is Casper Gr. I am a senior and I've been on the chess team for all

006four years of my high school career. I truly love the game and the community. So, thank you for recognizing our team team's efforts at the state tournament. It means a lot. I'd like to thank the school for supporting us and funding our tournaments. It gives us the opportunity to compete and grow. And I also want to thank our coaches for dedicating their time twice a week to help us improve and push us to be our best. And of course, thank you to my teammates as well. Uh, while we practice together, chess is really something you have to work on individually. Everybody here puts in their own time, effort, and focus outside of practice. And that's what makes this possible. Competing at state for the second time was an amazing experience. It's not just about the

007competition. It's about the bond we build as a team and the moments we share along the way. Because in the end, chess isn't about what happens on the board. It's about the discipline, the growth, and the people who stand beside you. And that's something that lasts far beyond any tournament. Thank you. >> We want to have the board come up here. >> Absolutely. That'll be easier. over here. >> Yeah, I got everybody. All right. >> Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Next, we'd like to welcome our Special Olympic basketball players to join me. Come on up. Our Fenton bison won fourth place at the Special Olympics Illinois Regency basketball state finals on March 13th and 14th. They qualified to state after beating Glenbard West and then York in the qualifying tournament. We are equally proud to celebrate this

008team for raising $2,700 for Special Olympics Illinois with their cool plunge fundraiser. The event involved players and staff earning the right to jump into a freezing pool, but only after reaching their individual fundraising goal. Congratulations to this great team. I'll turn it over to coaches Simon Sanchez and Emma Keel to introduce the team and share more. Okay. Um, my name's Emma Keel. Well, Emma Littton. I got married, but I still go by Keel sometimes. So, um, we just wanted to say that we are beyond proud of our team this year. We started off kind of rocky, but the hard work and dedication that our players had, um, truly was amazing and we made it to state. So, that was very exciting. Um, we're very proud to announce our players that are here with some certificates.

009So, Michelle Cortez, Michelle Kimberly Aguar, Sarah Gouna, >> and America Sanchez Solano. >> Good evening everyone. Um, my name is Simon Sanchez and on behalf of the Special Olympics basketball team, we want to thank the uh board of education for your continued support and recognition to these amazing athletes. Um, we got a lot of people to thank, by the way. So, we would also like to thank our parents um for their dedication and support driving too for countless practices and games. Um, we would like to thank our ads uh Pedro Rodriguez and Mark Cos for their support. Um, we would like to thank Kate Ward for her support this season, especially for being uh brave enough to uh brave the code and partaking in the cool school plunge last month. Um, we would like to

010thank Julia Bray. She's always reaching out uh to see if we need anything um and how she can help. She was also a huge help in our cool school plunge. Um, we would actually also like to thank Coach Taft uh for his amazing support. He's always willing to help us out in anything. Um, we would like to thank Rebecca Norris and the Interact Club for their amazing support and and contribution to our pack to place. Um, we would like to thank Alexa Flores and Katie Hines and all the students involved in Bison Buddies for their support throughout this season. And not last but not least, our amazing peer coaches. U, we would like to thank um, Jasine, Karen, and Alex. Thank you. You want to take pictures? as we have this open. Congratulations. >> Thank

011you. >> Okay. Now, we'd like to call up the dance force. This year, Dance Force earned fourth place at sectionals, qualifying them to IHSA state finals for the second consecutive year, where they took seventh place out of over 80 teams. Simultaneously, Dance Force competed in the AAA Division of the Illinois Drill Team Association State Series, taking first place in hiphop and at both regionals and at the state finals. Dance Force is always a must-sea performance during our football and basketball halftime breaks, but they also perform at assemblies, in the talent show, and at future freshman night. We'll turn it over to head coaches Nicole Raz and Katherine Radzawanssky to introduce the team and share more. Good evening and thank you so much for recognizing dance force tonight. My name is Katherine Rojivinsky and along with

012Nicole Reyes, we are the head coaches of the dance program. This season has been incredibly special. Not just because of what these athletes accomplished, but because of who they have become. They show up every single day with discipline, resilience, and a commitment to be better than they were the day before. For the majority of this team, this was their first season in our program. And for many of them, it was their first time competing in the sport of dance. To have placed seventh at IHSA State is absolutely incredible. Yet, it speaks more to who they are as people. It isn't just the performance or the results. It's the way that they support one another, push each other to grow, and represent our school with such integrity and heart. I am so unbelievably proud to work

013with a team that is so committed to achieving excellence. To our dancers, thank you for trusting us as your coaches. You've built something truly meaningful together, and that's something no score can fully capture. As coaches, our motto every year is hard work beats talent when talent doesn't want to work. I'm so proud to say that you all embody that sentiment. For context, these dancers have practiced over 500 hours in just their competitive season, not to mention the fall and summer preseasons. Thank you for never giving up on the hard days because you know we'll never give up on you. To our dance parents and families, between being the team's enormous fan section at competitions to picking up the dancers after late night practices, we know how much time and effort you put into supporting this

014team and we cannot thank you enough. And to the board in our community, thank you for supporting the arts and athletics. It truly makes a difference. Finally, to our principal, Kate Ward, and our athletic director, Pedro Rodriguez, we cannot thank you enough for the support you show our team. Your presence at our events does not go unnoticed. Thank you everyone for an incredible season. I will now pass it off to Coach Reyes to recognize our dancers. Awesome. I would love to congratulate Ava Nelson, Christina Sakalowski, Maria Asoi, Miss Frankie Longar, Giana L. Clerk Evelyn Alvarez and to our special seniors and captains Crystal Woods and lastly Skyhold. Thank you so much. Hi, I'm Sky Holt, a senior and I'm also a captain. And I just want to thank my team, my coach, you know, the

015people here supporting us and obviously our families for such an amazing season. Last year, you know, we left at a okay spot. It was a lot better than the past seasons or past, yes, past seasons that we had before. But it wasn't until this year where this team really like stood up and helped us achieve so many things that we haven't thought to achieve in a really, really long time. So, I just want to say thank you all again for being here and supporting us and acknowledging that we really, really, really enjoy this sport. Thank you. Yeah, we got a Are we All right. There we go. Anybody else? >> Congratulations. Thank you. >> All right, last but certainly not least, let's um invite our state speech qualifiers to join us for their recognition. Clinton

016had another strong showing at the IHSA Speech State finals, taking ninth place overall and bringing home three medals. Angelina Viz won second place at state for informative speaking and also taking second place at sectionals the week before. Just >> Angelina, >> there she is. All right. Arturo Herado Jr. won third place at state for special occasions speaking and fourth place in original oratory. He was the sectional champion in both events one week earlier. >> Yeah. Um and finally, Sebastian Botello and Lucia Sosa were state finalists for humorous duet acting. They qualified to state after taking second place at sectionals. >> Here they are. >> All right, great. A performance in the round cast of Bless Me Ultima also won also was a state finalist. They qualified first state with a third place finish at sectionals.

017I'll turn it over to coaches Nicole Hendricks and Melissa Fineberg to introduce the cast and to share more about the entire team. Congratulations to all the students and coaches. Thank you so much. What a great night tonight. You've had we've had so many celebrations. I feel so thrilled to be a part of this with everybody here. um absolutely love what our speech students are able to do um in this time of 2026. Being able to connect with audiences and do something that most people fear for fun has really been quite a joy. Um we always like to share a few statistics as well. So I always turn it over to my co-head coach Melissa Fineberg for statistitians because we do not necessarily run like an athletic division. Here we go. Give the rundown. I can't

018hand it all. Uh so since 2010, Fenton speech has qualified 54 entries to the state tournament. We have had 25 state finalists and eight state champions. Oh, what makes Nicole and I truly proud is that this year we have two Fenton alumni who competed on the speech team and as a part of our group interpretation cast. Adrienne Navarez and Spencer Frank joining us. Uh Adrien Navarez for the second year and Spencer Frank for the first. It's so special to have students that you coached help take up the helm of something that you have built. So that makes Nicole and I endlessly proud. Uh we have so many alumni who support us on a consistent basis. Uh this program is something that we are endlessly proud of. Um, we really pride ourselves on it being a

019home for all of our kids, someplace they can always come back to, no matter where they are in life, how old they get. No, we always wanted to be home. So, um, a few more um more numbers about what Angelina and Arturo specifically as state finalists have to go through. um they compete against nearly 200 other speeches across the state across six different sectionals. Um it is it is massive and the judging is subjective. So it is a judge can just you you can do the perfect perfect job. You could be the it can be the best performance you've ever given in your life and a judge can just go I don't like it. Six meaning last place. So they gave perfect >> and they gave perfect performances at state. >> Uh so it is

020uh you know it's got to be a labor of love. You've got to love it. Uh it's difficult to have your art judged in that way. But uh their grit and their resilience is deeply commendable. They see 23 different judges across the entire competition, regional, sectionals, and state. and they must receive top marks from all of those judges in order to get into the final round at state. It is an elite level of competition uh that we just are aed that they do what they do every single year. So that's a few numbers. We're endlessly proud of our students and and we will continue to be endlessly proud. >> You want to invite those um seniors up? >> Seniors. Yes. Uh we would like to invite Sebastian Bautello uh two-year member of speech and Arturo

021Herado Jr. a four-year member of speech. I'd like to invite them to say a few words. Uh, my name is Sebastian Bautello and I would like to start off by thanking our coaches. Miss Hendris, Miss Fineberg, Coach Nevs, Coach Kvasos, who unfortunately could not be here with us today, and our wonderful coach Frank. For those who do not know, it is his first year and he sent two kids to state, which I would say he sent two kids to state, which is amazing. I would also like to thank all of my teammates for making my experience extremely enjoyable um throughout all the early mornings as well as my parents for driving me to said early mornings. Lastly, I would like to thank my HDA partner Lucia Sosa. >> YAY. throughout this year and last. She

022constantly pushed me to be a better person and some would say she carried our performance. Thank you. Uh I'm Arturo Hertado Jr. Um first I would like to thank my parents over there. Uh the guy in the green and the nice lady standing next to him. Um, I would like to thank them for all the support they give me. They show up to state. They They wake up early and say goodbye to me every weekend at like 5 in the morning. And I would really like to thank my dad who I'm sorry about this, but I thank you for it. Stayed up late every Friday ironing my clothes for me so I could look nice the next morning. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Um, I would also like to thank my coaches,

023uh, Coach Frank, Coach Fineberg, Coach Hendris, Coach Kavasos, who couldn't make it, and Coach Nevs. Um, I think, as Miss Fineberg was saying, this place really is a home for a lot of the kids here. Um, I can say it's a home. It's a home away from home for me, and I think they're the ones who make it that. And I would like to thank all my fellow competitors and teammates. Um, I really have the best time every weekend and I think a lot of that is thanks to them and thanks to talking after rounds and debriefing and just having the best time we can. Thank you. >> One thing I do want to mention about Arturo that I forgot, he is a threetime state finalist. It's it it is that is an elite group

024of kids here at Fenton High School. So not many not many Fenton speeches or really people in general I think can say that. So threetime state finalist. Wow. >> All right. Now I think it's time for names. >> Names. >> All right. And now names. All right. First um we'd like to start with the performance in the round competitors. And in no particular order, but we'll have me and Maya running around with certificates. >> I'll do it. That's fine. >> You'll run around. Okay, >> it's fine. >> Do you want me to go by those names? >> Yes. >> All right. Okay. So, not P. We're going to be starting with individual events. Uh, first up, Angelina Varis. >> Perfect. Should they line up? >> They should start to form a picture. Remember pictures. All

025right. Next up, Sebastian Boutello. Next up, we have Lucia Sosa and Arturo Herado Jr. And now on to performance in the round with Motero Roman and Maya Otto Roman sharing certificate. Haley Dowski I'm stuck. >> Okay. Thank you. Amelia Braco, Davidid Agular Zamora, Violet Villaana, Jason Vargas, Alita Thatch. Oh, she's gone. Alamo Romero start forming a second line. >> Javier Kenonz Jr. Eduardo Perez, Shaden Moharo, Maria Mendoza Garcia, Noah Wen, and Emanuel Flores. Last but not least, >> we missed one. I miss Jacob >> and Jacob Jordan Argaliz. >> What happened? >> We are missing one. I'm sorry. >> Jacob pull deares. >> Pull deares for now >> and we'll get you your >> and tomorrow but she's not here right now. >> Picture time. We would love to take a picture with you. >>

026Sorry. >> Yeah. >> Do we need three rows? Do we need three? >> Do you want three rows? >> Three rows. Okay. >> A little hand. >> Me and my are one person. >> Where do we look over here? Okay. Okay. >> I tricked you guys. Cameron, do we have any public comments? >> No, we do not. >> Thank you. Our next item isformational sign. Okay, thank you very much. So, we're going to go through a fewformational items this evening. One is a certified staffing plan and then we're also going to take a look at uh some cost reduction strategies that we've been taking a look at and then we'll have a a presentation by Bob Lewis after that and then a FOYA. So, let's go ahead and get started with the certified staffing plan.

027Now, as you can see, there's a chart on the screen. This is pretty much the same chart that we use every year in March right around this time. So when we say certified staffing plan, we're basically the generic term of the teachers. Okay. So this is what our our staffing will look like for the 26 27th school year. We're going to have Kate kind of go through it in detail, but to start with, you'll see the second row from the bottom. it it says total and if you look at last year's compared to this year's we're down about 4.8 certified staff overall. So just under five people and if you look at that row going across going back 5 years ago you could see from uh the staffing we're down about 10 people for where

028we were u 5 years ago. So obviously, you know, there's reasons for that. One of the reasons that we're going to highlight is uh declining enrollment. So you could see that's actually in the bottom column where it shows the enrollment projections. Now again, these are projections at the time when we are looking to do the staffing plan. They're just projections. they're not um necessarily going to hold 100%. So, just uh keep that in mind. You can see over time uh there has been some decline enrollment even going into this school year. Uh later on, we'll take a closer look at that when we look at some of the the cost savings that we're looking uh to have. But just to give you an idea, currently our student count is at 1338. Um, and you can

029see it was projected to be 1393 at this point last year in that column. So again, these are projections, but the trend is kind of unmistakable as we're looking at this year at about 1312 as far as the number of students that we've uh registered for this upcoming year. So again, we do this every year. Um the client enrollment is not unique to our community. I mean, it's pretty much in most communities around us and even different parts of the country. So, um, it gives us an opportunity to try to recoup some staffing. Um, and that's sort of what part of the story as far as what goes into this. So, with that intro, I'd like to turn over to Kate as she's going to go over some more specifics. >> Yeah. Thanks, Sam. Um,

030I'm just going to go over some trends and explain some because some areas we can see some reduction, other areas it seems a little flat. So, we've been looking at these numbers a lot and um one of the biggest things that we noticed is this year's current freshmen and then the incoming eighth graders. So, next year's 9th and 10th graders are the smallest classes we've had. So, what we can see is that in classes in departments that are primarily taken by our freshman and sophomore, that's where we're seeing the reductions this year. Um so, world language, right? A lot of kids come in and take Spanish one, French one, English, all kids take PE, right? Particularly PE. Kids take health and then they take drivers ed their sophomore year. Um, and so that's really where

031we're seeing the decrease, these decreases will roll up. Um, so some of the elective areas, which is where kids take them mostly junior and senior year, as these classes move up, you know, so that's why we see some of the uneven numbers. Um, one of the things that jumps out a little bit as perhaps strange is our decrease in English language learner teachers. And there's a couple of reasons for that. Um, we know that our number of English language learners at Fenton is still increasing. What's changed is the type of English language learners we have. So, um, if you remember five or six years ago, we had a lot of newcomers that were coming in and so those students required bilingual education or classes taught to them in Spanish. What we've seen since CO and

032more recently this year, a lot of those students are no longer at Fenton. So the the students that we're servicing are lifelong eels. They're students who maybe were born here and speak Spanish at home. Maybe students who came here first, second, third grade, and they speak pretty good English like you probably you might not actually know, but they need different levels of support. So me most of those students receive EL services through their mainstream classes. The other thing that's happened is we have a lot of teachers at Fenton who have gotten their eerts. So, it's not just EL teachers, but there are English teachers and science teachers who are also servicing these students. So, that might be something that you might look at and be like, "Wait a second, I thought we said that population

033is going up." It is. Um, but that's that's where that trend comes in. Um, another one is special education. Even though our enrollment is going down next year, based on our students that are enrolled right now, we will have four more total students that require special education services at Fenton next year. So that percentage of special education students is going up. Um mathematics kind of stands out again if we're seeing like English go down in science. You know we've seen a decrease in science but math has stayed fairly stable. The reason for that is after um the pandemic we know that our students were really struggling with math. So we put a lot of support classes in place. So things you've heard me talk about like academic math lit um bison blue. uh we also

034have put in computer science classes which fall into mathematics. So that's why math looks relatively stable without those additional support classes in computer science it would look the same as English. Um so those are just a couple things that stand out. Um but really when we look at last year it school year 26 we lost teachers in English and science and then this year we're decreasing staffing in English elelll PE student services and world languages. So that those are the trends we see and like I said other departments will likely see this decline as the students get older. So, any questions about the certified staffing plan? This is justformational right now, but we will ask for action to approve that staffing plan uh later in the meeting. >> I'll save my comments for the vote.

035>> Okay. All right. Let's keep moving. So, cost reduction strategy. What I wanted to present here tonight is basically so the board understands that you know we're cognizant of our financial projections and we're looking at areas on where we can uh reduce more of a holistic approach. We know it's not just going to be staff members. We know that we have to look at kind of every aspect of the organization. So to to start off tonight it's going to be sort of a highle view. There's not going to be a ton of detail um but you know a few examples just to kind of give you an idea of the kind of uh discussions that we're having administratively and um secondly it's also a phased in approach. So this is really uh as you can

036see the the first every year we've tried to be fiscally responsible but this year we're really trying to reduce uh costs uh leading into next year's budget but it's not a one-time deal here. It's going to be phased in over time. Uh the team understands that and then that's that's the the best approach. And then finally, what we're going to try to do over time, not just for next year or moving forward, is how do we rightsize the organization, if you think about it, when we when we had co uh we had extra funds coming in um and the funds and then we were applying those funds to a a variety of interventions, right? Cuz that's what was needed. Now that that's that funding stream is is done and we're trying to get back to

037normaly when it comes to that but what now we have declined enrollment. So what are we really going to focus on? What where is that sweet spot for where we should be at uh as an organization. So that's what we're we're working through right now sort of a transition right now um when it when it comes to that. So like I said earlier, so this is the declining enrollment. These are all projections. So they are projections based on uh at the time when um when we were doing the the staffing. So you can see last year like I said 1393 that was sort of our baseline. We're currently at 1338. So we're lower than that. Of course, if you think about it, some of that is uh gra early graduates and then sometimes some kids

038don't uh they register, they don't necessarily enroll, they move or whatever. Other years sometimes we actually get more kids coming in than we expected just depending on what's going on and Kate was talking about that. But but the trend is unmistakable. You can see um we're looking at about 13 12 next year. uh if it is below that and then you're starting to get into the 1200s and then um 2930 3031 it it's kind of a slight increase but not statistically significant but that's sort of what we're looking at um in upcoming years here. Next slide. Okay. Okay. So when we talk about staffing reductions, what I want to emphasize with the certified staffing plan, we took advantage base strategies to take advantage of two situations. One is attrition. So we had two people that

039were retiring that we didn't necessarily have to fill their positions. Um and also we have non-tenured non-renewals uh that we took a look at. This type of strategy is not uncommon. In fact, a lot of school districts across DuPage County have been doing the same thing as far as looking at, you know, uh where you can be the least disrupted, but then still uh an incur savings along the line. So, that's that's been our approach here this year with this staffing plan. We are also looking at all employee groups. So, we're looking at the administrative team, we're looking at our support staff, um we're looking at our at will staff. So we're seeing, you know, what are we doing? Obviously, there's some declined enrollment. There's still responsibilities that need to be covered, but we are

040taking a look at all those employee groups. The reason we do the certified plan is there's certain guidelines. You need to get these things done by a certain time. Some of those other employee groups, uh, you know, we're going to be taking a look at in the next month or so, and there's a different timeline when it comes to that. So, that's that's what we're looking at with staffing. We're revisiting our funding sources. You'll hear from Bob Lewis here in a little bit that we're looking to amend the the life safety audit. That's a way to bring in money uh to work on areas of the building that are certain dilapidated and need some attention. The other thing that we've been talking about that we think will provide savings when the budget is created is

041we can do capital improvements out of fund 60. If you remember fund 60 is where we have the uh approximately $5 million that is there. it's gaining interest. But we can also use it like let's say we need a Bobcat or let's say we need some sort of capital here for the school. Rather than budget for 300 let's say $300,000 worth of capital improvement, we can take that money out of that fund um and then when we need it or maybe it's something unexpected that we need to take care of that could certainly happen and usually does happen. So, that's one strategy we're looking at. The other area that's it's actually kind of new I wanted to share with the board, but it came out of our meetings with uh we met with Rob Grossy.

042We actually talked to the uh the bond manager and actually one of one of the areas that we're going to explore is uh when you make the debt certificate payment uh you know pretty much every year you can take some of the funds out of that fund 60 or out of the five 5 million and uh make a partial payment or make some sort of a payment to sort of pay that down also for the So that's another option as we try to do our due diligence as far as how can we recoup savings that that we can do. Now obviously we're also looking at some potential projects down the line to take a look at. So we haven't necessarily settled on that but I wanted the board to know you know what our options

043are and what we're considering. So we're looking at the different funding sources. We're also looking at operational efficiencies. An example of that is technology, right? We have a lot of different programs, software programs that we use here at the school. Britney does an outstanding job of keeping track of these programs, when they're due. Um, and we have ways to track like how often are we really using these programs? Sometimes there's some redundancy. Sometimes we just realize, hey, maybe we don't need this anymore. What an an example of that is we have a strategic plan dashboard that we invested in a few years ago. Now, I'm not saying we don't need the strategic plan. We need that, but what we maybe don't need is a few thousand dollars to have it in a certain format. So,

044that's probably an area that we're going to uh do away with. But again, we're just trying to see where we can recoup savings and that's direct rub. So, that's one example. We're also looking at non-essential services. A non-essential service is something where, you know, it doesn't necessarily go to teaching or educational purposes in the classroom. So, for example, that's like extracurriculars and clubs and activities. It's not like we need to cut anything, but there could be some ways that we can become more efficient. Um, you see here that we have a lot of programs. We want to continue that. But that's just an example of a non non-essential services that we we've got to take a look at. We're also looking at potential shared services uh between districts. We do that already some with transportation

045like we share bus drivers with district 2. Um like they're short or we're short and that's worked well over the years. But actually the CSBO's met for the three districts a month or so ago and we're talking about some ways where maybe we could work together that would benefit everyone. And then tomorrow I have a meeting with the other two superintendent as sort of a followup to that meeting. So not sure exactly where that's going to lead. I mean we're not necessarily just going to like change all of our start times to save in transportation, right? But there could be some ways that we can work together. You know, we the schools take field trips and different things like that. So, we we can look at how we can work together. Also, we're just looking

046at Sorry. Sorry for my pause over there. Um, take a breath. Uh, we're going to review expenses such as field trips, travel, food. We all know field trips are important in the educational system but a little more scrutiny uh is probably in order just to see you know where are we going. It is it is an expense because it involves transportation and we know that that those costs are escalating. So it's it's just another area where we can we can take a look at. Okay. Other efficiencies. So we're looking at our grants. Uh, as we've kind of explained before there, you know, it's kind of unpredictable, but we do know that some grants are going away. Uh, a state grant here, the stronger uh, connections grant actually is going away. So, what does that mean?

047Well, it means like the mental health services that we were partnering in with outside agencies. Unfortunately, that's probably going to go by the wayside. Uh we also funded a flock which we've had some conversations on. Um basically the license plate reader that's on different parts of the building. We we think that we pro that's probably run its course. We haven't actually got much information out of it fortunately uh that that we've had to really share. But that's something that was grantf funded that we're looking to move away from. We're also looking to move away from beh consulting which was what Rich was stocking and he helped us through different investigations um if we needed to pop up if we needed to do some internet probing or something like that. a great service, but again, we're

048trying to be uh smarter about how we we use our funds and we actually building new connections. Like I know John introduced us to someone who works for the FBI that actually is in crisis planning we met with the other day. So, as we find different people out there that we can collaborate with if needed, uh these annual fees uh that we're that we're using um we think we can be more targeted when it comes to that. So, that's just a couple of examples. We're looking at other programming, but it it just to give you an idea. Also, Rich Watts is looking to try to get a grant through the the village of Addison. Maybe not as much as we had to the stronger connections, but it it could supplement some of those mental health

049services that we we thought were were valuable. Specialized learning services. We've looked at that when Doug was doing his presentations. Obviously, um it's getting uh more and more expensive to educate some of our more vulnerable populations. And so, uh we we need to take a look at that. What we're trying to do is bring as many students back into the building as we can. And we've already done that this year. Whether it be students with IEPs or a regular ed student that's have some behavioral issues, we're finding ways to service them back in the building without, you know, without sacrificing either their education or or safety within the building. So, we're we're looking to do that where we can. Um, we're also looking at programs like TCD. Great program. We have a lot of kids

050that go there, but we have to look at where we what are we doing in the future there. How many kids are going to go there? And then, of course, work-based learning, which which we've learned about um our internship programs where we have kids going to internships, which is a great program, but not all of our students can drive themselves. So that means a bus driver. That means we have to transport someone with uh someone that has a CDL license and they're not exactly walking around looking for employment. So these are all things that we have to consider and uh without sacrificing some of these programs, see where what we can come up with. We're also looking at uh the you know department budgets. How much can we save if we cut 3%, if we

051cut 5% of the department budgets? There's probably ways we can do that collectively, not just one area, but across the board. And that's a good way to recoup some savings. Um, and I think there's ways we can rethink how we do things and probably absorb that. So, those are some other areas we're looking at. So, in a nutshell, what what are we doing? We're going to continue to identify areas as a district that we can um work on our our make sure that these financial projections are basically flattened out so we have more time um to make adjustments and then obviously Doug's always gearing toward developing the budget which will probably be sometime in July maybe June let's see how that all shakes out but That's typically the time of year where that uh 26

05227 budget is being created. So we're building towards that. So we you know we ident identify plan and align our system. That's what we're doing. Any questions? Yeah. Go ahead read. Uh, I'm glad to see these things are getting a deep look. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Robert Lewis, you still there? >> Did you go to state for anything or >> No. Okay. You're not you're not a recognition. Anyway, Bob's going to come forward and uh go through the life safety bond presentation. Thanks, Bob. >> Well, thank you for having me here tonight and congratulations and all the success your students. That was quite remarkable. It's one of my favorite parts of having to come to these meetings. And uh the some of the really good ones is where they had the band play and

053you have music kind of setting the mood for the meeting. So, so tonight's goal is to just give you an overview of how school funding works when it comes to raising capital funds and then to look at how the law changed in June of 2024, which creates a new funding mechanism for certain school districts that didn't have it before. And then lastly, look at some specific scenarios which may apply to you if the board decides to move in that direction. Okay. So just to start with an overview and this all comes from authorization in the school code. School bond or school districts can issue what are called general obligation bonds. All types of units of government issue general obligation bonds. General obligation just means it's paid from a separate property tax levy. And you have

054bonds that are authorized via referendum for much larger scale projects. You currently do not have any bonds authorized via referendum. And then you have non-referendum bonds, geo bonds that are you are able to issue under various types of authority in the school code. You have some of those outstanding and we'll talk about those in a a moment here. And then you have other borrowing mechanisms that are not paid from a separate property tax levy which include capital leases which are for like buses or technology debt certificates which you have uh those outstanding which were were just talked about by Dr. Benson and those are not paid from a separate levy. They're paid from within your operating funds. So, how does the tax cap impact your ability to do non-referendum bonds? So, when tax capsu came

055about in the early 1990s, in 1994, the original law was amended to create something called the debt service extension base. And that was a concept that would limit the annual payment that could be extended in taxes to pay back your non-referendum bonds. And it was equal to whatever you were levying for in 1994. Logically, it' be tied to like the size of the district's tax base budget or something like but it's not. It's just arbitrary calculation. And that was tied to CPI a decade and a half ago or so. So that now has increased about a million dollars. So that limits your annual levy on your non-referend certain types of non-referendum bonds to be no more than a million dollars, but that will keep going up every year by CPI. The types of non-referendum bonds

056that you can issue under the school code that would apply to this debt service extension base are called working cash bonds. And debt service extension base is not universal to school districts. It applies to park districts, community colleges, nonhomo cities, and villages if you're in a tax cap county. Um, so every type of entity has to look to your your authorizing statute to see what can you do now that you have a D7 in the case of school district is a working cash bond and your 2015 and 2016 bonds were working cash bond or are working cash bonds. In order to issue those, you had to conduct a bond hearing and you had to go through a 30-day petition period where the board of education passed a resolution that was published in the paper that

057said you're going to issue bonds not to exceed X and in 30 days if 10% or more of the registered voters signed a petition then that working cash bond would have had to go to referendum. So what changed? So there another type of non-referendum bond that school districts can do are called life safety bonds. And most of the time schools would do working cash bonds because you could spend the proceeds of a working cash bond on any type of capital project whether it was life safety or not. So why bother doing a life safety bond which is more restricted how how on how it's used. So you seldom saw them issued or seldom seen them issued in tax cap counties. I had clients in non-T tax cap counties where we did life safety bonds all

058the time because the DUB isn't a concept they deal with there. So, um the argument was made to general assembly by some that the life safety survey is a step that every school district's required to do in the state regardless of what type of county you're in. And then you analyze your buildings and it determines needs that you need to do. And once the state reviews those needs and issues a report back to you, you have to do those improvements. So, in some sense, they're like an unfunded mandate. They've told you to do this work. But for some school districts, they wouldn't be able to fund them. If you're in a tax cap county, if you didn't have a DUB, uh or maybe you had a Dub, but you'd utilize it for another financing. Your

059only choice then to utilize safety improvements for operating funds or referendum. So, they they were sensitive to that argument, if you will. Uh but they also didn't want to give school districts a blank check. And in essence, they didn't because ultimately you can't decide on your own to go out and sell $50 million of life safety bonds because you want to uh get $50 million worth and just start spending on the high school. The state authorizes the life safety approval. So if you get a $10 million life safety approval from the state, that's the maximum amount you can issue. So the state has some say through ISBY's review of how much you can actually do. So they weren't giving school districts a blank check when they made this change. So life safety bonds, the other

060thing is life safety bonds do count against your statutory debt limit. Think of your debt limit as your credit card limit. So it limits the amount of principle you can have outstanding. It's not a limit on the annual payment like the DUB is. Well, the way that that's calculated question. >> Who came up with the 92 million? Where does that come from? >> That's what I was getting ready to say. So good question. So for your district um as a high school district, it's 6.9% of your equalized assessed value less whatever debt you have already outstanding. So when you do that calculation, it comes out to about $92 million. And life safety bonds do not require the 30-day petition process like the working cash bonds do. Uh they do require a hearing. The hearing is

061like the budget hearing that you do each year. It just gives an opportunity for the public to come out and testify about that one specific item. And as I've already mentioned, you do have to have life safety approvals in order to issue these bonds. >> Is this one of these things you post in the favor and then see who shows up? >> Yeah. Just like your budget hearing or if you do a tax levy hearing, if you do truth and taxation, it's the same type of thing. >> Really talking to your mic. >> Oh, >> all right. Well, you heard my question though. >> Yes, I heard your question. That's good. But you most of the the hearings that I attend uh you know they last a few minutes and that's it. Um seldom anybody

062wants to come up and speak. That said I was at one two weeks ago. It lasts 45 minutes. So um that doesn't I've only I can count one hand the number of times that's happened to me. So what are some typical life safety improvements? Uh parking lots, paving, concrete repair. Uh for some of those things you have to do a separate hearing. Like if you want to do sidewalks, you have to do a hearing if you're going to do life safety for sidewalks. It's just written into the life safety code. Uh secure entrances, HVAC, mechanical equipment, the the removal of of asbestos. Uh that one, keep in mind, I'm not an expert on these items. Um so one of the questions I got one time was, well, if our tiles are fine and they're asbestos

063tiles and nothing's happening now, can we use life safety to remove them? And I don't know the answer to that question. It may be that they have to be in a certain condition in order to issue life safety to remove them. That'd be more of a question for your your construction team. Building envelope like roofs, windows, intercom, safety. So, this isn't meant to be an exhaustive list, but it captures a lot of things that would qualify for life safety um improvements. So, we did some sample analysis for you looking at various amounts and we use current market interest rates plus a half a percent. Now, it's always going to fluctuate. Interest rates have been particularly volatile this last month. You probably know why. Um, scenario amounts that we ran were for 5, 10, 15, and

06420 million. And, uh, one strategy that has been utilized in of for some of the plans of finance we've worked on is to stairstep the increase in the bond levy over a period of years. I'll show you what I mean by that graphically here in a moment. And then for each of the scenarios, we assume a 10-year payback. And I think that's the ideal if a school district decides to use life safety bonds because you're required to do a life safety survey every 10 years. So ideally, the bonds would be maturing. The next time you need to do your life safety survey. So at that time, you'd be more hopefully not an increase. You're keeping the payment the same versus issuing bonds for the first time. There's going to be an increase if you choose

065to use them. So one graph as a sample. So you can see the stair step there. So your this is just showing your geo bonds. This is not the debt certificates because there's not a separate levy for them. So the blue columns represent the annual levy for your non-referendum geo bonds issued in 2015 and 16. The red line represents the debt service extension base. That only applies to the blue. We're showing everything together here in the scenario, but the red line doesn't apply to the green. The green would be the hypothetical life safety borrowing. But we've captured all the elements here in one graph. So you can see at the beginning how we stairstepped the payments up so that the impact of the taxpayer is phased in over time instead of having one increase. That's

066one of the nice things about bonds. Like when I whenever I present about bonds, I like to make analogies to what we know as households, car payments, mortgages. Well, when you enter into a mortgage, your payment is what it is in the first month, which is the same as it is in the 30 360th month if you did a 30-year mortgage. With bonds, municipal bonds, we have the ability to determine the increase in the payment and the path that we want to take. So the ideal here again would be you're taking small steps to get to the the amount of annual payment that you need then to pay back that bond over the period of 10 years. And this is for the $10 million scenario. So let me back up to the summary then. Oops,

067wrong. How do I go backwards? Hold this button. So here you can see we did amounts of 5, 10, 15 and 20 years for a period of 10 years. And then the second line is the amount of debt service. Debt services is the principal and interest that you pay back which is another advantage of doing a 10-year period. Not only would the bonds be maturing the next time your life safety survey would come up, you minimize the amount of interest you pay back. You know, anytime you can be a ratio less than one and a half% of payback, you're you're doing really well. Um, and then the average annual payment. So like once you get to the peak, that's what the payment would be for years. So that' be additive to your current bond levy.

068That in the first year for the $5 million scenario, the bond and interest tax rate would go up by a couple cents. And you can see for 10 it's four, then it's six, and then logically 20 would be eight. 8 cents. So then what's the impact to the median home? And your median home according to the American Community Survey is right around $300,000. The American Community Survey is a data set that was produced by the US Census Bureau. Um, oftentimes use $300,000 as our sample. So, it worked out rather conveniently. It's about the same thing. So, a little bit of explanation on the data you're seeing there. So, if I focus on the $5 million column, the first year impact, so for that first stair step, it' be $18. And the next one is 28.

069That's another $28 increase. That's a $10 increase over the prior year. So, cumulatively now it's 28. And then next year goes up another $10 to get to 38 cumitively. And then so the cumulative three-year impact is 84. If I if I had to do this chart over right now, I probably word that a little bit differently. Um but you can see then so it's 18 the first year, 10 the ne more the next year, and 10 more again the next year and so on so forth. If you do the uh the $15 million scenario, 54 the first year, 30 more the second year and then another um 30 the next year. So when you get to the third year, it's $114 more than it was if you had not done the life safety bonds on

070that median hole. Is everybody clear on that impact? Okay, >> question. >> Sure. So over a 10ear span over a 10ear span a $5 million life safety safety bond the net debt service exceeds the amount of the bond. >> Yep. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. Yes. Just like with your home mortgage, you know, obviously if you do a 30-year loan in today's market, you probably pay back what you borrowed or twice as much of what you borrowed. And then you know often times well here you're creating a funding source you couldn't otherwise have but this you know there's a discussion comes up should we just save and do pay as you go and avoid interest but you also have to keep in mind the project that you're waiting to build that you're paying back

071over or that you're doing over time is cost you more each year that you wait you know so you one of the things about doing the bonding is it helps to offset the potential for future construction cost inflation versus a pay as you go scenario. Yes. >> 2930 31 that how does that dollar amount? >> Yeah. So also and by the way levy year would be taxes collected in the following year. So Illinois is confusing on that. So levy year 26 would mean this would impact 27 tax bills. So when so if you use the $5 million scenario when you get to year four it's going to be $38 higher than it would would have otherwise been. And it will stay at $38. there's be no more stair steps once you get to there. So

072the ideal is is this sort of feathers into what your overall increase would be from the CPI on the operating side. So here's a sample timeline uh should the district decide to proceed down this path. Um it's not a recommendation. It's just meant to be a sample so you can see how it could uh proceed. So the, you know, the board tonight is being asked to amend the current health life safety survey. Um, and then the firm that would do that would probably need a couple months to review the high school building and then submit that uh data that ultimately to your uh ROE and then ISBY. Um, they would likely need a couple months to do that review, maybe three. It just depends on the the extent of what you're asking, how busy they

073are. They literally have one main person down there reviewing all these. And so we're anticipating that that would complete around August. Now, you don't have to wait for the the results to come back for approval in order to conduct the hearing. So, for example, let's say you submit $15 million. There's a distinct possibility that ISBY may approve $12 million. You know, there's some things that they may disallow. Well, you can do the hearing at 15 million based off what you submit because they're not going to give you more than you ask for. And that's sets a not to exceed amount on the hearing. You can always do less. You can't do more. Uh and then the board the next possible uh so the board does the hearing and the board passes a resolution to sell

074bonds. The earliest that could probably be would be August 26 or if if not done by then it'd be September 23rd. And the bonds could be sold then within a few days, a few weeks after that depending on market conditions in either September or October. And then you'd have the proceeds in October or November at the earliest. This may not be the pace that you want to do depending on the the pace of construction and and other goals that you might have in mind, but we're just trying to again give you an idea how the process could work. Uh so that's the the sum of the presentation. We do have detailed schedules in the appendex. Here's your debt certificates. And then I have detail the detailed grasps for the 5, 10, 15, and $20 million

075scenarios. So I will stop now and entertain any additional questions that you might have. >> I have a few. >> Who do you represent? >> I represent PMA Securities. >> Uh PMA Securities. Is that a broker dealer for bonds? Uh >> we're a municipal adviser. We don't underwrite or buy the bonds. We simply advise. We have fiduciary duty in how we represent our clients to look out for their best interests. >> I see. And who invited you to attend the meeting tonight? >> Uh the administration. >> Any questions? >> Well, just a comment mostly. Um, I'm interested in this kind of funding. Um, and I inclined to support it for what that's worth, but for a couple of reasons. Um, is first of all, I understand we've got some place between four and $5 million

076of roof work. uh the numbers that I've heard and I'm not a roof guy so I can't attest to it but uh having a roof that doesn't leak seems pretty important to me and the other thing is uh with some of the resources that uh Dr. will has to do this. Every dollar can be put to work. Uh I understand in our past projects that um the architect has taken 10% off the top and in this case I get the I'm under the impression that every dollar can be put to work and u I think that's important. I'll follow up with one last question for you. So you mentioned that your firm is not a broker dealer. >> No, I didn't say we don't underwrite. We are a the firm is a broker dealer for

077investment purposes. My colleagues that do investments, >> we choose not to underwrite any bonds. We solely act as a municipal adviser in that space. >> But your firm will profit if we were to take on these bonds. >> We get a fee as the municipal adviser. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Okay, very good. Thank you so much. You appreciate your time, >> Jose. >> Yes. Sorry. >> Uh, so we only have one uh for you for this this month. Uh, it was from Smart Procure. uh they requested any and all purchasing records from December 4th, 2025 until March 6th, 2026 and that has been uh resolved. Thank you. >> Is that it? >> Yeah, that's it. Yeah. >> All right. The next item is consent agenda. Can I have a motion to approve the consent

078agenda as presented in a second? >> So move. >> I'll second. >> Roll call. >> We're seconding. >> Presinski. >> Yes. >> Figureroa. >> Yes. >> Miller. >> Yes. >> Malo. >> Yes. >> Goodriain. >> Lewis. >> Yes. Motion passed. Next item is notice of nonrenewals and dismissals. May I have a motion that the board of education adopt the resolutions and notices of non-renewal and dismissal/honorable dismissal as presented? >> Yes. One second. You need a motion, right? That's good. Second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. The the board material doesn't disclose anything about the rationale as to why these individuals are being dismissed. >> Do we know what the why these dismissals are occurring? >> Uh that's correct. There are uh they are non-renewals. >> Non-renewals. Okay. Roll call. >> Figuroa. >> Yes. >> Fredinski. >>

079Yes. >> Miller. >> Yes. >> Goodri. >> Yes. >> Makullo. >> Yes. >> Lewis. >> Yes. Motion passed. Next item is certified staffing plan for 2026 27 school year. May I have a motion that the board of education adopt the staffing plan for the 2026 school year. as presented. >> Motion >> second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. >> Go ahead. >> We have a serious financial uh future ahead of us. I haven't heard anything this evening or seen anything in the board packet other than additional expenditures that I think are probably luxury items at this point. Unfortunately, I don't think that I'm fearful and concerned that there will be an appetite from the board for a referendum in order to try to overcome the challenges that we face in the future. I don't know that.

080I'm just hypothesizing. I don't see that as an option. Um, we as taxpayers are exhausted. I heard tonight a presentation for a life safety bond from one firm who I affirmed will in fact profit. So they're incentivized to be here in an attempt to um broker bonds on our behalf or to at least advise us to do so. Those bonds carry with them significant debt service. We need to be more aggressive in finding opportunities to save our dollars, not spend them, and not ask the taxpayer for more contributions. This plan needs to be much deeper, much have much more opportunities for savings. I I pleaded with this board of education during the superintendency search to explore the possibility of a shared superintendency in an effort to save money and to be strategic and to be

081a partner with other districts in our area. that didn't gain much traction. I don't think that HYA helped us much in that endeavor and I also don't think that the board really investigated what that meant. My opinions I don't think this can this can't be supported because we have to be thinking more forward. um and we're failing to do that. So, we've got to come up with ways to avoid a referendum. We've got to come up with ways to start saving now so that we'll have some opportunity to continue to come out of this in the future. But right now, we have a deficit ahead of us that forecast it. That's not a positive thing. Okay. All right. All right. Uh if you're okay. Uh I was looking for my staffing sheet here, but I'll

082just work from memory. Uh well, there's a uh the net reduction of for the sake of conversation, I think it's five people. >> Yeah, just under five. Yes. >> Okay. Uh, nevertheless, I did a I just did a rough calculation. I said, well, what is our what is our our student toteer ratio just for just for fun. And it turns out over the years, prior years, it's always remained right around uh one teacher to 13 students. Okay. Now, that mushes everything together, the social studies and the math and whatever, but I had hoped um that our the staffing plan would well uh would actually, how can I say, have a net gain. You know, that perhaps this year we could have wound up with one teacher for 15 students. my limited uh educational uh uh

083knowledge at this point seems leaves me thinking that one teacher to 13 students is kind of rich. Now, I understand I've already had the conversation, some things can't happen right away, and I understand, you know, some, you know, some of that anyway. Um but you know ultimately the question becomes at least to me you know whether whether the the staffing reductions or some of these other things that you're you're going to um uh take a look at and I don't know how soon they can be implemented is really enough to uh uh mitigate and cover what right now is forecast as an upcoming you know deficit or you know whether this you know and whether we're you We're we're because otherwise I'm afraid we're not really gaining ground on the deficit issue. Now I don't

084have all the numbers. I guess this to some degree is going to be closer to uh something that uh Dr. Wils could could, you know, could take a look at. But uh that's my concern with the staffing. I'm I'm I'm glad we've gotten this far. I don't want to uh seem unhappy with that, but I have to ask the question of is uh is there perhaps um something else we can put on the table? Reed, I'd like to comment to that too. I think your points are very valid. I also think that things are significant enough that we need to be considering additional steps. I am certainly a friend of teachers and the work that I do and in the passions that I have and my appreciation of the work that teachers do. We are

085in a difficult situation and it will impact teaching. It will impact administration. I maintain that we're I also think that things may be significant enough in the future that we need to look at the possibility of partnering with the FBA to reopen the CBA to explore opportunities to get out of the the future challenges that we'll face according to our financial forecasts. Additional steps need to be on the docket for it to be explored in order to find a way out of this that doesn't burden the taxpayer. The taxpayer is contributing significantly to our school systems as is. We're very grateful for that. But to continue to go to the taxpayer at a time in which we're all exhausted is not a posit will not yield a positive outcome. Thank you. Thanks. Roll call. >>

086Miller, >> yes. >> Figuro, >> yes. >> Malo, >> no. >> Good. >> No. >> Rzinski, >> yes. >> Lewis, >> yes. Motion pass. Next item is to pursue an amendment to the current health life safety survey on file with ISP. May I have a motion that the board of education approves the district to hire a design professional licensed in the state of Illinois to amend the health life safety survey conducted in 2021. >> I'll make that motion. >> Yes. Is there a motion? Second. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Yes, we're about to enter a time of significant financial challenges and through this we're taking on more debt and you heard me ask the question tonight for clarification so everyone could hear it. The amount of debt service that will be paid on this will

087be more than the grant or more than the bond I should say. We're not thinking about ways to recapture funds. We're thinking about ways to extend the debt service that we pay. That is a horrible mistake. >> Roll call. >> Good. >> Malo. >> No. >> Miller. >> Abstain. Figureroa. >> Yes. >> Rosinski. >> Yes. >> Lewis. >> Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Motion pass. Next item is network infrastructure purchase for the fiscal year 2026. May I have a motion that the board of education approves the fiscal year 2026 purchase of Cisco Catalyst switches and support subscriptions for a total of $189,382 with 85% of the cost expected to be reimbursed through the -ate program in fiscal year 2027. I'll make the motion. Second. >> Any discussion? >> Yes. Yes. Just a com. Is this

088the new computers, laptops, and stuff? >> Yes. >> This is network. >> This is the network. She's commenting as well. >> Okay. >> Yeah. So, these are uh network switches for the CL network closets throughout the building. So, we last refreshed them in uh spring 2020 or 2017. So, it's time to refresh them. Um, so those will be installed throughout the summer. And so once we complete those, you get the reimbursement rate in the spring. >> Well, the reimbursement's totally okay. >> Yeah, I figured. >> All right. Uh, but is this, you know, faster, better, more secure? >> Absolutely. And that's why it's important we stick to the refresh cycle to make sure that our network is secure, that we have the support for the current models so that you know our infrastructures. Just >>

089just quickly. >> Yes. >> The because these are routers and stuff like that too, right? >> I'm sorry. >> These are routers and stuff like that. >> Uh in a sense. Yeah. Uh at a larger scale >> network e rates. All right. Well, I tell you what. >> Yes. >> I'll talk to you later. >> Sounds good. >> Um what is the risk if we fall behind with keeping these types of system up? >> Well, >> is it a security issue? >> Oh, 100%. Yeah. And techn is constantly evolving and especially when we talk about cyber security making sure our switches our firewall are all up to date is critical. Yeah. >> So it's due uh you know lifespan anywhere 7 to 10 years. So we're well within the range to get them updated and

090-ate has facilitated that the last refresh and we'll do so again if it's gets approved. >> Well I just from a pedestrian point of view I seem to hear a lot about people being hacked. So, I mean, I'm clearly not up to speed on all that other than the fact that anything we can do to prevent it is good. >> 100%. Yeah. And keeping our equipment up to date and refreshed when it needs to be is is important to do that. >> Okay. Roll call. >> Isn't there an opportunity for discussion? >> What? >> A motion? >> That's what we we already made the motion. >> We was a discussion. >> So, there's an opportunity for discussion then. >> That's what Yeah. So, this is something we need, but we don't have the funds looking

091forward. And I realize this is 85% reimbursement rate, but it's still an expenditure. I can't support spending funds until we have a detailed strategic plan to balance our spending. And I just say to frankly everyone who continues to vote in favor of spending more and more money without that kind of foresight and information, shame on all of us. Um I've heard that statement. You guys expressing that over and over about being responsible with the resources we have we being trusted with. But correct me if I'm wrong. We've had over 10 years where our budgets have been in the black 10 plus years. So we've been respons this board, this administrative staff, the previous administrative staff has been very responsible. And I think it's we could be more mindful of our expressed concern because it's not

092acknowledging the years upon years of great work that's been done here to keep us in the black for that long. It's not acknowledging that. And a projection was given some months back about decreased funds coming in. That's what the concern is about funding our lack of funds going forward. not about us being in the red constantly over budget year after year. The sky is falling. That's that hasn't been the case. And measures they've explained earlier today about how measures what measures they're going to take or just the overall structure of how to stay ahead of that. That's what that was what was presented today. It's been discussed multiple times previously. So not only this board but previous board have been responsible that needs to be acknowledged and not just kick dirt on. >> Can we

093see the financial forecast? >> We've done that. We've done that multiple times. I'm asking >> but not here cuz that's >> that would be another time. Okay, >> but we can do that again, but not at this not today. But we can do that other time. >> While I agree, we are at a financial difficulty right now. We still have to do the business of the district. We still have to maintain repairs. We still have to upgrade our equipment because the cost if we don't and we get hacked and this stuff crashes and we got to buy it without the 85% when we have parents and teachers and students saying, "You expose my personal data." I'm sorry. This is the cost of doing business. We have to run the school district while we look at

094the big picture. I believe we're starting to look at the big picture, but we still have to have day-to-day business. This is day-to-day business. This needs to be replaced. I understand we're looking at everything, but there are certain things we have to do to run this district. This is a budgeted item. The budget was approved. Let's This is what we got to do. That's what some of these expenses are going to be. We brought the staffing plan down. We're looking at different options. We still have to run this district and we have to pay our bills. We have to maintain what we have and we have to move forward. And this is what we're doing. We're not buying new stuff. We're not upgrading. Well, we're replacing. We're upgrading, yes, but it's not like we're adding

09520 new switches and 16 more of these. We're just maintaining status quo with the latest equipment available today. We're within that replacement window. This is the cost of doing business. We have to operate. So, that's my two cents on this. We're going to look at the big picture. There's going to be a lot of discussions in the next couple of months. We'll address this as best we can and we got to do business. We got to do day-to-day business and this is day-to-day business and it's my feelings on that and I'm willing to call the vote at this point. >> You don't call a vote. >> Well, you're right. Whatever. I call >> beat this up. Let's move on. >> Call the question. >> Brzinski? >> Yes. >> Figuroa? >> Yes. >> Miller? >> Yes.

096>> Good. Yes. >> Okalo. >> No. >> Lewis. >> Yes. Motion pass. Next item is Chromebook purchase for the fiscal year 2026 school year. May I have a motion that the board of education approve the fiscal year 2026 purchase of 310 Lenivo 500 EG 4S Chromebook computers for the class of 2030 from Vivacity Tech for the amount of $149,35 of which $60,936 of Title One funds will be I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Just >> are there are there computers available for students without this purchase? >> Uh, not enough. We have a small fleet that we end up getting returned from us from graduating students, but it's about 50% of the class. And at that point, those Chromebooks are over four years old and you're starting to approach end of life.

097um you really can get maybe one more useful year out of those. And I I don't know if I would give that to a student for long-term daily use. They're great for loaners when the kids don't have them. Um and they're good for use cases like state testing, but um for their day-to-day, you want something that's current that's going to continue to get software, uh OS upgrades. Um so we really don't have a robust fleet after the fact. >> Thank you. So, so you continue to use them as substitutes. They don't go in the recycle. >> Oh, yeah. Like I said at the last meeting, we use them till they don't turn on anymore. So, we we've got about 50 of them that we keep aside for testing. It's really great because we want all

098those kids to have Chromebooks when come ACT. Um, but like I said, they're not great for, you know, giving a student new to the district to use for day-to-day class. >> I got one last question. So, the net at the moment for us is 100,000. >> I'm sorry. the network uh >> I in accounting accounting net that the net to us is 100,000 >> you talking about >> oh with the title one >> title one >> okay >> yeah it's just >> under about 90 >> 90 something so >> can you find any more money >> well I I can give you a comparison last year's uh our total we did buy 25 more devices for to account for the class size, but it was $167,000. Um, so we were able to cut that quite

099a bit. Uh, yes, less devices. The other thing we did was we opted for a third party vendor warranty versus an OEM Lenovo, which saved us. Um, so, uh, last year we're looking at 495 a Chromebook that included the warranty that included the you have to have the Chrome licensing in order for it to be used. Uh, this year for this batch is 475 a Chromebook. So, we're able to save 20 bucks a Chromebook uh by going with a third party warranty and then sourcing to, you know, like I said, I leveraged that quote program multiple times through ILT. I solicited a variety of vendors. Um, and this market was pretty tumultuous. Uh, manufacturers were updating prices almost on like a bi-weekly basis. So, to find a vendor that was willing to work with us

100and uh we didn't have to waver on the specifications. >> Um, so we were lucky to find this to be frank. Yeah. So, I'm assuming these are the same exact models. >> Uh, it's a 4S. We've been using a 4 for the last two classes. This is a 4S. What we really liked about this, we were able to source Chromebooks with Intel processors, which was really hard to come by without paying a premium. Uh, so like I said, we worked with Vivacity for minor Chromebook accessory purchases. Uh, but they were they blew every other vendor far and away uh as for pricing. And um companies that did quote us were quoting specifications that were not what we wanted for more money. So we were able to find something that met our needs as best as

101it possibly could. >> So this is they're currently on Gen 5. This is the 4S. So it's we were using Gen 4 for >> close to five. >> Yes. Close to five. Gen 5 was just released I think in February. So, wouldn't this be a wonderful opportunity for the Fenton School Board to partner with the Bensonville Community Foundation because many of our students have financial needs. Um, this would be a great way to find an additional funding source to offset some of this cost. Seems like it could be a real good partnership. Could we rather than approving this tonight, could we make a request to the Bensonville Community Foundation to support some funding to make this purchase for our students? Well, the foundation lost most of its funding. We're only doing mini grants of between

1025 and $10,000. Yes, that would help. It would have to already have been on the agenda. So, we would delay this vote by two and a half months. And what would that do to us getting these computers in time for school and save of $5,000? Yeah, the quote would not be valid again. There'll be another pricing. >> We should have thought of that prior to this and I got it that we'll keep this on the radar for next year and see if foundation gets more funding and we can bring it to them. But this is what they would consider a day-to-day expense for us whereas the backboard, the musical instrument, and some of the other things were above and beyond the day-to-day expense. So, uh, we can look at this for next year. I'll be

103happy to bring it up next year, but I think a 2 and a half month delay would kill this and we would not have Chromebooks for school when it started. So, uh, I'll be happy to bring this to the foundation next year if we should so choose, but that should get to me in January. So, you and I can talk in January, uh, and I could bring it to the foundation and see if they would be willing to contribute, but it would be a mini grant. 5 to $10,000, >> that would be the max. Just for my clarification, the Bensonville Community Foundation is is not well funded. >> No, we lost the Subaru funds. It went to a different organization within Bensonville at the choice of Grand Subaru. So, the big uh check we normally

104get went away. So, we're working off of what we have in the bank and they've opted to go forward with mini grants only5 to $10,000 and they're really prioritizing books, musical instruments, uh sports equipment, um things like that moving forward. So, ju >> just out of curiosity, where did Grand Subaru send their check? >> Um, it's to another organization in Bensonville. I forgot the name of it. Um, I can find out. >> Yeah, I'd like I'd be grateful. >> I I will find out. I will get that for you. I'll shoot an email. We have a meeting on the 2nd, so I can ask that question. I just don't remember. I'll go through my notes when I have time. >> Remember Subaru thing? >> Yeah, Subaru went to a different organization in Bensonville. >> And

105there's no way of predicting if it if we can get >> if it even continues. But I, you know, we could look for a mini grant. I $5,000 is $5,000, but that we'd have to bring this up in January. So, it's something we can consider next year. >> Be happy to bring it up. >> I just don't think right now we have the time. >> Some good news is you got them less than last year and you got a grant to go with it. >> Yeah. >> All right. >> It's a plus. >> We have 50 of 50 Chromebooks that do operate. >> Uh, yes. But again, they're at this point over four years old. Uh, so we use them for limited amounts of time, like state testing or you hear that barcode going off,

106that's because it's a Minga kiosk for kids to scan in. Limited use. I I wouldn't put them in the hands of students because they're end of life, end of support. So, >> we're still buying 260 even if we use those. >> Uh, well, you'd be buying the four uh 310 to uh support the class of 2030. Like I said, I I don't know if we would be willing to give out those five-year Chromebooks to the incoming freshmen. I don't think that they're not supported with OS updates. I I don't know if that would be a viable solution for them. They're not going to have the tech equal to their classmates. >> Thank you. >> Roll call. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Figuroa, >> yes. >> Good. >> Yes. >> Mullo, >> yes. Lewis. >> Yes.

107Motion pass. Next item is net classroom lease agreement. May I have a motion that the board of education approved the net lease agreement as presented? >> Uh I'll make that motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call. Figureroa, >> yes. >> Rosinski, >> yes. >> Good. >> Abstain. >> McCulla, >> no. >> Miller, >> yes. >> Lewis, >> yes. Motion pass. Next item is Arbor contract renewal for the 2026 27 school year. Um, >> lunch, right? >> It'll be Witson's. May I have a motion that the board of education approve the contract renewal extension commission July the 1st, 2026 through June 30th, 2027 with Arbor Management Incorporated for the provision of food service management. >> Motion second. >> Any discussion? >> Were there other bids? Yeah, that's what I was going to ask. >> This

108this was approved in uh two years ago. So, this is the renewal of that that bid. But yes, there was an RFP process uh 3 years ago and Arbor Management who was was then recently bought out in in uh August of of 24 by Witson's. They are now the managing partner, but Arbor had won that that bid back then. So, this is the second this is the second time of the renewal of that. >> So, it was a five-year contract with an annual renewal. >> Correct. >> That's right. That's right. That's what it was. Five with annuals. >> This is year three. >> Well, did they give us a good price? >> Part of the part of the responsibility they have to um uh adhere to CPI. Um, so the the rate of increase every

109year is based upon CPI for for food. That particular portion of CPI that's related to food. So it'll go up just over 4%. >> All right. >> For for next year with with food costs. >> All right. CPI. >> Roll call. >> Miller. >> Yes. >> Mullo. >> Yes. >> Good. >> Yes. >> Rzinski. >> Yes. >> Figureroa. >> Yes. >> Lewis. >> Yes. Motion pass. Oh lord. Next item is IASB polish press policy October 2025 recommendations. May I have a motion that the board of education approve the October 2025 press policy updates as presented for the following policies. 2-120-270 3-10 3-50 3-60 4-10 4-30 4-8 4- 110 4-1 140 4-1 150 4-160 4-1 170 4-190 5- -10 5-20 5-90 5- 100 5-185 5-190 5-200 5-220 5-280 5-300 6-40 6-60-130 6-135 6-160 6- -220 6-235

1106-240 6-260 6-270 6-280 6-300 6-310 6-315 6-320 7-10 7-130 7-140 7-250 7-350 15, 8- 30, and 8-10. I'll make the motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Roll call. >> McCulla, >> yes. >> Rosinski, >> yes. >> Figuroa, >> yes. Miller, >> yes. >> Good. >> Yes. >> Lewis, >> yes. Motion pass. Do we have any committee reports? >> Um, the Bensonville Foundation meeting that was scheduled for tomorrow has been moved to a week from tomorrow. Um, April 2nd. Uh, I'll able to attend at this time. Uh, I will look into who got the Subaru grant. I lent through my notes. Unfortunately, I didn't write down the name of the organization. I think it was the uh Bensonville Youth Coalition. >> It was the Youth Co. >> That's it. Bensonville Youth Coalition uh received the Subaru

111funds. I sorry, I had to think for a minute. Um so Mike and I will be at the meeting and um I'll or Mike or I will report back at the next meeting on the foundation, but we are only doing mini grants moving forward uh due to our limited funds and I believe we only have one or two on the agenda. Uh we just got an update. I believe were too many grants to review uh for the next meeting. So that's all I got. >> It seems like the Bensonville Community Foundation, if all the funds from Grand Subaru are going to move to this other organization, the Bensonville Community Foundation's pretty much dead. >> Um there's money in the bank. They had money prior to the Subaru funds. The Subaru funds just gave them the

112ability to do more. So they do have a funding source. They do have some investments, but prior to the Subaru, it was all mini grants. It was all5 to $10,000 grants, nothing big, uh, like they were doing when we had the Subaru money. So, it's not going away, but it's very limited on what we can and can't do. And they're being much more selective in trying to stick more to the true intent of the bylaw. You know, musical instruments, sporting equipment, books, things like that. Um, so I mean, that's what I we were talking about at the last meeting. We'll know more on this at the next meeting. I want to say we had like $34,000 available to use for the remainder of this fiscal year and we're trying to be very cognitive of how

113we get that money and make sure to get to the right sources. So, I'll I'll have a better number after the next meeting. >> I'd be curious to know too who the officers are and so forth, the organization of the Bensonville U >> Youth Foundation. I I think they're online. You can look them up. I I have no idea. No, no problem. I'm glad I could remember. My apologies for digging through my notes. >> Any other committee reports? >> Uh yes, Sam and I went to the NASCA uh meeting and like any other other organization, they got a pros and cons. Uh money is a scarcity everywhere. Uh they got to renew the building and they got to find the funding. Uh also we got a notice that uh CSBO is leaving and so is

114the director. So right now they are looking for both. So it's going to be a tough decision in this coming months. A tenative finance facility meeting is scheduled at 6 p.m. prior to the regular scheduled meeting. The next scheduled board of education meeting is Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026 at 700 p.m. May I have a motion and a second to go into close session for the following. A 5 Illinois CS 120/2C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of Fenton School District 100 B 5 Illinois CS 120/2C2 collective negotiating matters between the public body and its employees or their representatives for deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. >> Motion second. >> Roll call. >> Figuroa. >> Yes. >> Miller. >> Yes. >> Goodrio. >> Yes. >> Fzinski.

115>> Yes. >> Lewis. >> Yes. Motion passed. We're in close session. There would not be any decisions made Oh, we got enough. Can I have a motion to open open session? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Who did the motion? I'm sorry. Was it Dr. McCall? >> Yeah. >> Sorry. >> Who was second? Can I have a roll call? >> Goodri? >> Yes. >> Rosinski? >> Yes. >> Miller? >> Yes. >> Uh, Figuroa? >> Yes. >> Mullo? >> Yes. >> Lewis? >> Yes. May I have a motion and a second to adjurnn? All in favor say I. I. A. >> Thank you.