001like to call the April 23rd, 2025 regular board meeting of the Fenton Community High School District 100 board to order. May I have a roll call? Rego here. Goodri yes. Gade here. Kovac. Lewis here. Rzinski here. Figureroa here. We have a quorum. Please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Sam, please read our Fenton mission, beliefs, and bison way statements. Fen mission statement. Cultivate successful, passionate, empowered learners through rigor, relevance, and relationships. Fen 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
002innovative 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 Fen 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. The next item is recognitions. Kate, bring my water. Thanks, All right, good evening everyone. Um, as you all know, Fenton is truly an amazing school where any of our students can accomplish amazing things. Tonight is going to be proof of that. We have so many success stories to cover, so try to keep up. Um, we're going to start with group interpretation.
003So, if the students and coaches could come on [Applause] up, okay, so not all the students could be with us, but I'm going to read all their names. So, we have John Aguilar, the student, um, Analia Artiaga, Aldo Bonitez, Sebastian Bautello, Emanuel Flores, Juliana Garcia, Arturo Herado Jr., Brieza Lopez, Gregory Gregory Plateek, Angelina Vargizi, uh, Javier Kones, Alonzo Romero, and Alita Thatch, and Jason Vargas. So, that's our group interpretation. So, let me tell you a little bit about them. Um, congratulations to this group for their third place finish at the state tournament. Their history-making performance of Ride the Cyclone earned them Fenton's best finish in this event since 1979. The state finish um comes on the heels of a sectional championship and a conference championship. Some of you might be asking what is group interpretation.
004It's a 30-minute play that focuses on storytelling without the use of character-defining costumes, makeup, props or lighting or any of the other trappings of traditional theater. So, students rely solely on their voices, bodies, and musical instruments to bring the story to life. Um, these students worked tirelessly tirelessly to compete strongly against the very best in Illinois and it was a wild ride on the cyclone, one that will not be forgotten. Um, finally, I'd like to mention that all state cast honors were awarded to the following Fenton GI members. So, Arturo, Analia, Alita, Aldo, Greg, Angelina, Manny, Javier, and Sebastian. Um, welcome a hand. I'm going to turn it over to our incredible coaches, Nicole Hendendrick and Melissa Fineberg. Hello. Hello. Really got in there. Thank you so much for uh being with us or inviting
005us in tonight um to celebrate their achievement. Um we have had just an absolutely wonderful time directing these kids. We in just a short 15 rehearsals. We were able to put this together after they built up their perseverance through the speech team and then uh the speech season rather and then um coming together to share this story with everyone on stage. It was an absolute joy to see the joy that they brought to the audiences um at each level of competition. Um we're going to introd Oh my gosh, we're like in the mic. We are going to introduce two of our uh students to just say a couple words about their experience. Um we'll have Aldo Bonitez who's a four-year member of group and TURP and Arturo Rado Jr. who's a three-year member of group
006interp just come up and share a little something. So we'll we'll take these off and thank you so much. Thank you so much to the board members who are um retiring from their post this evening. Um we've been really fortunate to stand in front of you and accept some of these congre accept congratulations from you over the years and thank you for everything you've brought um over the course of your time on the board and to the new board members. Um you know we hopefully look forward to standing in front of you for uh many seasons to come. Thank you. Uh hello. Okay. Um, I'm I'm Arturo Herado Jr. Um, I've been a part of GI for 3 years now. And first, I would like to thank my family. They've been putting up with my
007busy schedule for 3 years now. It's it's it's a it's not fun for them, but I would like to thank them and all the families that are part of GI. Um, next to my directors. They always put up with us and they always try our best to get us as far as they can. And I think that was proven here. Um, and I would just like to thank everyone who's a part of GI. We all put so much work into it and every moment of it is so much fun together. And I'm very excited for next year. [Applause] Hello, I'm Aldo Bonitez, a senior and four-year member of not only speech but also group interpretation. Oh my god, this year was something. Uh, first and foremost, thanking the amazing directors, Melissa Fineberg and Nicole Hendris.
008None of this would have been remotely possible without either of you two and Mr. Torres, who helped out assisting our two head directors with blocking and getting into character for many of us. Doing this for four years, I have seen so many people do it for one year, do it for two, three years. But I could not be more proud of this amazing cast behind me and the amount of effort and talents they all have. None of this would have been possible without any of them. And I'm proud to say that I'm not all only Aldo Bonitez four-year member, but I'm Aldo Chad Bonita's four-year member. [Applause] members come up here. [Music] All right. All right. One, two. One. [Music] [Applause] Okay, next we're going to move on to contest play. So, if we could
009have members of the contest play and uh directed by Dr. Mike Mitchell and assisted by Miss Amanda Baker, if they could come to the front. [Applause] [Music] Okay. The students who were involved were Lita Agular, Natalyia Alvarado, Leslie Anzetta, Alex Cabella Rivas, Emanuel Kano, Haley Cruz, Lucy Johnson, Max Kojichek, Lex Makowski, Julia Mikuel Ovoska, Javian Pitman, Barro Thatch, Nicole Torres, Faith Weriona, and Amir Yabakola. This year's show, The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulain, was a state qualifier for their acting, but later the whole crew won the state championship for drama technical performance. Uh, so what the crew does is they build and manage the set and props used in the performance as well as managing the audio, visual, and lighting. Their actions are timed and measured just as rigorously as the performances on stage. Um,
010Fenton previously won state championships for drama technical performance in 2023 for their production of Sylvia and in 2015 for their production of The Pearl by John Steinbeck. Um, the acting in this year's performance placed seventh overall. All state cast members honors were awarded to the following students, Lita, Lex, Faith, and Amir. Um, I'll pass the mic over now to Dr. Mitchell. I'm going to be super quick. I want to first off thank you for uh inviting us here tonight and that kind of thing. Um this activity is it's an amazing activity and uh they call it competition but quite honestly when all the schools get together they're incredibly supportive of everybody and um and to take home uh this plaque for the third time now in the last 10 years is pretty remarkable and I
011think a quite quite a testament to the work that these uh students do and that kind of thing. So um I couldn't be more proud of them. I told them a number of time they're probably sick of me telling them how proud I am of them. Uh but I'll say it one more time. I'm really really proud of you guys uh for doing this. Um I would like to uh because we have some seniors that would like to say a few things. Um uh I think we have three of them just to tell you a little bit about uh their experience with uh contest drama and that kind of thing. And again I want to thank you so much for your support uh for this activity. It's an incredible activity and one that's vital to
012education and the arts and that kind of thing. So thank you very much. [Applause] Uh, hi. My name is Emanuel Conno and I just want to say I had a blast doing this, man. It was like really fun. At times it could be chaotic and stressful since it was my first year even though I was a senior doing it. But, you know, it was really fun acting and sort of connecting with my cast on stage and also the crew who supported us throughout the whole way. I just want to say how proud I am of them and it was really fun watching what we could put on on stage and what other schools could too. And you know, Dr. Mitchell, I'm never tired of you saying we're you're proud of us. You know, I like
013compliments. Thank you. Um, as you know, I like acting and contest drama. Um, and I think I've made like 20 or so or more speeches about Dr. Mitchell and his greatness and his boldness. Um, but God, I love it so much. He has made acting at Fenton and theater in general such a space, such a safe and amazing place. And consistently for the past 3 years, contest drama has been the light at the end of every single day that I get to look forward to. just every day when I have a stressful or hard time and I can't get all the bad thoughts out of my head, I go to Kest Drama and it's just all gone because I have an amazing director, an amazing family and these are my family cuz they are just
014such great people and I couldn't think of a better group to spend my time with and that's what contest drama is about. It's a competition, yes, but the more important part, the friends you make along the way. So um I'm really thankful for pandis drama for Dr. Mitchell and for my friends. [Applause] Um oh wait did do we announce her name? Is that like important? Okay, whatever. Um yeah. Hi. I'm Lita. I am a senior. I've been doing this for 4 years. And honestly, at first I wasn't thinking of joining this um cuz like I had done a play, one play. I was going to do a musical 8ighth grade and then co happened and it was not going to happen ever in my life. So I just I just decided that I was going
015to do one play that was it. And then this amazing group of senior girls had asked me if I had wanted to join this contest drama, join the show. and I decided to take a leap. Um, I decided to continue doing this for 4 years because every group it's it's a new family. It's people come in and out and people do different things. Um, you get different levels of wisdom. Like every senior there is there's a new bit of wisdom that they give you um or or a new bit of support. I've had so much support from my seniors and I hope I was able to give that to some of my underassman friends. I want to thank them for all their hard work and our directors for being so amazing. Um, it's been a
016difficult year for me personally. So, the fact that I've gotten to have this family to come back to and this familiar famil familiarity has meant a lot to me. Um, we do a lot here. We work really hard. We memorize our lines. Sure, but it's about the connection. Um, so every every time we perform on a stage, it's not only about, you know, competing and trying to get an award and trying to do something. It's about what we learn. Um, I learned confidence. I learned that you can do anything as long as there's someone with you could do it alone. Yeah. But it helps to have someone with you. Um, I learned that there are always going to be people supporting me and pushing me to do better things and that meant a lot. Um,
017yeah, thank you. [Applause] I I I would be it would be a mistake not to mention that Miss Baker's big part of this. She's directing uh Charlie Brown the musical. And you can see a couple of our uh uh students up here with the t-shirts and that kind of thing. And that's where some of our other students are right now. They're wrapping things up with their uh final rehearsal. So again, thank you very much. Uh that's it for us. Uh sure. [Music] All right. One, two, [Music] Okay. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] All right. Now, we're on to girls wrestling. So, I'd like to call up Yanell Perez, Ariana Sovado, and uh coach Brian Hastings. [Applause] We're also gonna I was gonna he he's more than welcome to come up. He's next. But yes, come on
018up, Thomas. All right. Um, girls wrestling has only been an official IHSA sport for a few years, but in that time, our Fenton program continues to grow and solidify itself as one of the best around. Uh Yanel is a senior and was 27 and4 this year on her way to qualifying for the IHSA state finals for the second time. Ariana is a sophomore and was 31-7 this year. She went to state last year as an alternate, but this year she worked hard and earned her own spot in the state finals. Both of these student athletes are two-time Upstate 8 conference champions in their weight classes and they're trailblazer for many future girl wrestlers. Um with that, I'll turn it over to Coach Hastings. Thanks so much for all of your support from the board, from
019the administration. Um, I'd like to especially thank the athletes. You know, uh, we feel like wrestling is the hardest thing that they can do in high school mentally and physically. They push themselves on a physical mental basis or every single day. Uh, they challenge themselves, you know, it's pretty it's it's amazing. It's impressive. Uh Yanel's been an incredible leader, great leader by example, great positive leader. Yanell's um really grown into her own as a sophomore. She's a great leader, you know, uh she's the future. Um and should I talk about Thomas now or wait for him? Okay. All right. And then I'll wait for Thomas. But uh we're so proud of of both of them. Both of them won a match down state, uh finishing in the final 12 of their weight classes. And both,
020you know, resumes are are very impressive. So, we're super proud of of their accomplishments. So, thank you for all of your hard work, guys. Okay. And now on to Thomas. Um, so Thomas Clauss, Fenton's boys wrestling program has a long and storied history. It's well known that it's a competition just to get into our highly competitive Weiss wrestling tournament every year. Thomas is a senior and he had a second consecutive standout season to close the Fenton leg to continue the Fenton legacy. Thomas was 32-4 this season with 26 pins. He won the Upstate 8 Conference Championship for his weight class and later the regional championship on his way to the IHSA state finals for the second time. Again, Coach Hastings and just like you know and Ariana Thomas's uh resume is incredible. So, two-time state
021qualifier uh sectional champion, two-time regional champion, conference champion. Um, both him and Ariana both started as freshman. Sorry, Ariana, Yanell, and Thomas all started as freshman. So, Yanel and Thomas as seniors, uh, to accomplish that without the experience that they're, you know, most people that they're wrestling against have is very impressive. Um, Thomas's work ethic is incredible. Uh, he's doesn't speak too much, um, minus, uh, with his right fist sometimes. to know he's uh he's very competitive. He's uh we have some nicknames for him. Sectional champ, uh freight train, twinkle toes, but uh but uh he's he's amazing. His he's as tough as they come, especially for big guys. He works his butt off. He's super competitive. Um so it's pretty awesome to watch him and uh he just always, you know, fights and his
022hard work is is exemplary. So super proud of Thomas and all of his accomplishments. [Applause] Let's go. Stop moving. [Music] All right, here we go. One, two. Congratulations. [Applause] Thank you. [Music] Okay. And finally, a very special recognition at the end here. Uh, I'd like to introduce Dr. Kelly Torres and Mr. Dr. Luis Garcia. Dr. Torres and Mr. Garcia were named as finalists for the 2025 Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching. The Golden Apple Foundation recognizes exemplary educators, supports young teachers through mentorship programs, and works to recruit future teachers through a scholars program that's open to high school and college students. This year only 30 finalists were se selected from 470 nominations throughout Illinois. Of the 30 finalists just 10 were from the suburbs. These are two outstanding educators and we're very excited for
023them to be recognized in such a way. Um I'll start with Dr. Torres. Dr. Torres is a social studies teacher who joined Fenton in 2013 and she earned her doctorate just this year. So we're super proud of that. Uh yep. Let's give her a hand for that. Uh Kelly was involved in revising the criminal justice course to be fully projectbased which was included uh which included visits from the FBI, congressional office off officials and uh a man named Larry Lton who is a notorious jewelry thief that is now the only convict to be an honorary police officer and to testify before Congress. So we got to meet him which was awesome. Additionally, uh Kelly has helped revise our Bison Orange program, a course that supports struggling students. So, Kelly has done so much in so
024many areas. Uh, she also was a head girls volleyball coach for 10 years and participated as a head coach in boys volleyball. So, you know, she's done it all. Uh, a little bit about Luis. Mr. Garcia is a business education teacher who joined Fenton in 2021. He's a vital member of our incubator team, which we've heard a lot about this year. For those of you who don't know, incubator is a hands-on real world entrepreneurship experience that allows our students to conceptualize and fully develop their own products and services all while being guided by real world entrepreneurs and b business professionals. Uh this is our first year with incubator and Louise has gone above and beyond to develop the program, recruit mentors from the community, collect dress clothes for students to wear and secure donations for
025students to win during the various Shark Tank events throughout the year. Throughout all of his classes, Mr. Garcia inspires his students with real life experience and adapts his lessons when needed. Um, earlier this year, Mr. Garcia was recognized by DEOS and the College of DuPage as career and technical education teacher of the year. So, both of these teachers are so accomplished. Um, we're so fortunate to have both of them. We don't know the results yet. Golden Apple will select their uh the the winning teacher sometime this spring. So, we're all keeping our fingers crossed and ears opened hoping that we're going to hear one of these two names. But regardless, we are so or both, right? That's why, right? Um regardless, we are so proud of both of them. So, if either of you would
026like to say anything, I'll turn the mic to you. Good evening. Um as mentioned, Mr. Garcia, and just a few quick um words of appreciation. Um I know all of us have heard the phrase it takes a village to raise a child. Um but I believe strongly believe it takes also a village to raise a wonderful teachers. Um so first of all I would like to thank all of our community um for the tremendous support since I've joined Fenton in 2021. you guys have really just kept me warm and supported all my crazy projects and um also my students. Uh without them I I wouldn't be the teacher that I am today. So I want to thank community members and my students. Uh can we give them a round of applause [Applause] please? Last but
027not least, I'd like to thank all of our board members. And uh again, I like there's a special person in in the crowd today, which is my wife. And uh and you know, having to deal with Mr. Garcia's crazy schedule is not easy, but uh uh she's like, "Uh, when is your incubator?" "Oh, it's May 8th. May 8th incubator." And she's like, "I'll be there." So um thank you for your support and my family watching at home. Thank you um for everything. So thank you all. All right. So, I wrote a speech because I'm not as good on the fly as everybody else seems to be up here. Um, so I'm just going to read this. Um, good evening. I'm Dr. Kelly Torres, and for the past 13 years, Fenton has been more than just
028my workplace. It's been my mission, my purpose, and my privilege. Um, currently I teach AP US history. I serve as the attendance interventionist, and today I stand before you as a finalist for the Golden Apple. Um to the new board members, some of which are former students, welcome. Um you uh you have an opportunity here. Your leadership marks a new chapter for our district and with that comes an exciting opportunity to shape the future of our students and our school community. I'm optimistic about the direction we can move in together. And I'm eager to work alongside you to create meaningful progress. I want to thank you guys so much for the opportunity here tonight and for recognizing me as a Golden Apple finalist. This recognition means a great deal not just to me but to
029everyone who helped to make it possible. I want to especially thank the students, families, and colleagues who shared their voices during the interview process, as well as board member John Rosinski um and former board president Kit Ting Palong for speaking on my behalf. The support of everyone involved in the interview process is truly appreciated. This award reflects not only my work in the classroom, but also the collective efforts of many across our school community. I have been fortunate to work alongside dedicated professionals bringing guest speakers to enhance learning and build meaningful relationships with both students and their families. I'm also grateful to the board and the administration for allowing the kind of flexibility that lets me do what I do best, which is teach with creativity, care, and relevance. That flexibility has been essential to
030the work I'm most proud of. We do continue, however, to face significant challenges as a school district, and I would be remiss if I didn't take a moment to acknowledge that. If we would like to see more Golden Apple teachers recognized for awards like this in the future, we have to ensure that we have the conditions in place to make sure great teaching can thrive. There are barriers that make it difficult for many to do their best work. We need a culture that actively strives for excellence, where collaboration is supported, communication is open, transparency is valued, and trust is built across all levels. When we commit to that kind of environment, we open the door for more teachers and more students to grow and succeed in meaningful ways. This work isn't easy, but if you're
031ever wondering what's happening in our classrooms, what's driving success, and what obstacles we're facing, I invite you to come to our rooms and find out. Knock on my door. I'm happy to talk. We have the power to create a culture where excellence is expected, where every teacher has the opportunity to do their best work, and every student receives the support they need to succeed. I'm deeply honored to be recognized this way and I look forward to continuing our efforts to help Fenton reach its fullest potential. Thank you again for this incredible honor. Come up. Would you like to come up to your house? No, thank you for being here. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Congratulations. [Music] I'm impressed. I'm just got to make room. Got to go down here. This all works. We're good.
032Fantast. [Applause] We got to be in close. So now public comments Cameron, do we have any public comments tonight? There no, there are no public comments. [Music] Our next item is consent agenda. May I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Second. Roll call. Rego. Yes. Aid. Yes. Figaro, yes. Rosinski, yes. Good. Lewis, yes. Motion passed. May I have a motion and a second to adjourn, sign, die. In other words, we are closing out this portion of the meeting. So moved. Second. Roll call. Rego. Yes. Hade. Yes, Figaro. Yes, Rosinski. Yes, Goodri. Yes, Lewis. Yes. Motion passed. Our next item is recognition of our outgoing board members. Sam. Yeah. Thank you, Carrie. So, uh we want to recognize three board members tonight. Uh that this is their
033last night with us here tonight. Um, I'd like to start with Juliet Reagan who is in her eighth year. How about a round of applause for Juliet? It's hard to say goodbye, Juliet. You were a board our board vice president. Uh, you had kids that went through Fenton uh that have since graduated. You continued on. Um, I value you as far as the advice that you would give. uh you always had sound reasoning behind what you thought and were very uh accessible and I think we're a tremendous asset to this board for for many years. So you're you're definitely going to be missed. So thank you Juliet for all that you've done here. Another round of applause. [Applause] Thank you. Okay, Sylvia. Sylvia's been with us for four years. Also had students come through Fenton.
034Um, I'd like to say thank you to you. One thing a particular note is that you have such a big heart and you care so much and I think you brought that to the board um with your questioning and your decision making and I could always count on you that you were going to have the students interest at heart and you would vocalize that and so you you are also going to be greatly missed. Uh, but we appreciate your years on the board also, Sylvia. Thank you. Thank you. [Applause] And of course, Kent Kovac, uh, unfortunately could not be here tonight, but he was a true Renaissance man. It's not like he's dead. He's just not here. He he couldn't get a flight here. So, let me clarify. But Ken was a true Renaissance man.
035He knew a lot about a lot of things. Very intelligent, very techsavvy, loved policies. So, I think we're going to miss him in the policy committee, right, Jose? Yeah, because he extremely thorough. Um, but you know, Kent had a had a good heart also. He uh he had a daughter uh uh recently, uh probably like one or two now, but you know, he was obviously thinking down the line, thinking about the future, but but you know, he didn't run and uh but we really appreciate his efforts. So, if we could give him a round of applause [Applause] also. And soon here, we're going to welcome the new board and we're going to have a short intermission. And yep, there it is. So, brief intermission. So, if you're watching at home, hang in there. There's no
036technical difficulties, but we basically need to transition from the old board to the new board. So, old board me old old board members uh please bring your stuff with you at some point uh before we move on to the new board. But we have some cake there in the back and we'd like to celebrate your accomplishments here for a little while. So, thank you. Thank you. I'll presenting called old. Okay. Thank you for always. Uh it is absolutely um not a once a month meeting like someone told me it was going to be but uh it was an honor even the good, bad, and the ugly. Uh and I have enjoyed it so much. Uh and I want to say to the new board members that are coming on and the ones that are remaining
037to keep the children focused. Let that make that your priority. Uh not your personal agendas, not your thoughts and what but what's best for the students, the school, the community, and you have to keep all of that um focus your focus. Keep that your focus. And lastly, I pray that we do keep the DEI uh committee, though we have not had to use it for our board, the DEI board committee. Thank God we've not had to use it, but let's keep it on and and going. I know Leo is uh one of the board members. So, for that, but that's it. And I thank you and I thank the community for allowing me to be uh board member for four years. It's been great. The pay hasn't been great. But yeah, thank you. I also
038wanted to um just say it's been such a great honor for me to be on the board for the past uh eight years. Um honestly, I can't think of a a greater thing to do to volunteer your time than for the youth of the community. So, thank you all. [Applause] All right. Okay. You may be elected in Where's the one? Christopher. All right. [Music] May I have a motion and a second to nominate Leo Figureroa as president promp? I'll make the motion. Second. Roll call. Miller here. Yes. Yes. Matu. Yes. Figuro. Yes. McCulla, yes. Rzinski, yes. Good. Yes. Lewis. Motion passed. Good evening. I would like to call the April 23, 2025 regular board meeting of the Fenton Community High School District 100 back to order. May I have a roll call in a quorum,
039please? Miller, yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Good. Yes. Yes. We had a [Music] quum. Acknowledge received the certified election results. The official canvas and abstract of votes cast of the 2025 consolidated school board elections held in April 1st, 2025 and certified by Dupage County Clerk has been received and accepted by Phantom Community High School District 100. The final winning results is in list in order to the highest to the lowest board receives to fill our board positions are I'm sorry I might mispronounce your last name. Rachel Meturk elected for a 4-year term ending in 2029 1728 votes received. Michael Miller elected to a 4-year term ending in 2029 1638 votes received. Dr. Christopher Macallo elected for a 4-year term ending in 2029 15 84 votes received. Due to the lack of candidates for the elections,
040John Rasinski is going to continue serving on the board under what's known as hold over provision under Illinois law. A current city school board member term or office does not end until a qualified success successors has been appointed or elected. This election only had three candidates run for the four possible seats and the board therefore Mr. Rossinski term will continue. Next item to all new elected officers both members and Mr. Rosinski please stand up. Let us all read the all officer together. A copy has been provided in your desk. [Music] Okay. When do we restart? All right. Go ahead. Okay. Ready? Yeah. Yes, sir. All right. I do solely swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the the office of member of the board of education community high school district 100 in accordance
041with the constitution of the United States the constitution of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Illinois to the best of my ability I shall respect your interest by serving as a faithful protector of the school district's assets I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow board members and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a board member has no legal authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote at a public board meeting. I shall abide by the majority decisions of the board while retaining the right to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. As part of the board of education, I shall
042accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set course for high school district 100. I shall assist in establishing a structure and environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maintain potential through a strong organization. I shall strive to ensure a continuous assessment of student achievement affecting the education of our children. I shall serve as education key advocate on behalf of the students in our community schools to advance the vision of Fenton Community High School District 100. And I shall strive to work together with the district superintendent to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision of the board has created fostering excellence for
043student areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship and personal development. Thank you very much and [Applause] welcome. Our next [Music] item is the board nominations. Election of board president. Would anybody anyone like to nominate a board president? I'd like to nominate Carrie Lewis as the board president. Are any other nominations for the board president? Yeah, I'll nominate myself. Okay. All in favor of Kerry Louise for the office board for president, raise your [Music] hand. Four. So it takes five. Five. One, two, five, four, five. Five. Five. Yeah. Five. All in favor of Doesn't matter. You got five on the other one. Okay. Karen, please record five votes. So for uh Kerry Lewis. Actually, no. Okay. Uh, we continue with our board of elections. Now that we have a now that there's a president, really Carrie should
044take over. Okay. election. Our next item is election of board vice president. Would anyone like to nominate a board vice president? I'll nominate you. Are there any other nominations for board vice president? I'd like to nominate Good Reed Goodrich. All in favor of Leo Figuro for the office of board vice president raise their hands. One, two, three, four. Four votes. All in favor of Reed Goodrich for the office of board vice president, please raise your hand. I see three. Leo Figuro received the majority of the votes and is now the board vice president. Our next office is board secretary. Would anyone like to nominate a board secretary Jan Dinski? Are there any other nominations for board secretary? All in favor of John Rosinski for the office of board secretary raise their hand. I see five
045votes. John Risinski received the majority of the votes and is now the board secretary. Before proceeding on, we want to they can they can stay. They can stay. Okay, that's fine. Our next item is board committee appointments. Current committee members have the right to retain their positions at this time. The following committee seats are available. Bensonville Community Foundation, two positions. One, I sorry, one position. Board finance and facilities. No positions available. Illinois Association of School Board delegate. That would be the president. So I would fill that seat. Uh board com policy committee, two positions available. LEND or Legislative Education Network of DuPage County, one position. Uh, NetSack, North Dupage Special Education Cooperative. One position and one alternate position available. Um, I guess revisiting John, you you're on the Vinc Foundation, Community Foundation, and also co-chair
046for the board finance facility meeting with myself. So one another position is available for the Bville Community Foundation. Is anyone interested? Yeah. Any for the for the for the new board members. Could someone John could you description foundation? Uh basically uh receives uh donations and there's people from all the boards that are present and then we help route those funds to organizations upon request. Uh majority of our money comes from the Subaru Foundation. I don't know if you were aware of that. So, um, yes. So, we receive, uh, a check from the Subaru Foundation. We receive other donations. They do some fundraising. Uh, we meet every other month. It's almost always the meeting after our board meeting. So, you'll have a Wednesday, Thursday meeting every other month. Uh, this month, they did move it because
047of Fenton's graduation, knowing that the two Fenton board members could not attend. Uh, whoever sits on the board, I can get you that date. We'll forward that information to the foundation. Um, you'll occasionally get a periodic email for small miniig grants that can be approved by vote by email. Um, and other times it's got to be an inperson vote with the quorum. Um, so every other month it's a meeting. They normally go around 45 minutes. The longest has been 2 and 1/2 hours, which was our first one after I was told it would only be a 30-minute meeting. So my schedule, but we got through it. It worked out. It was a big meeting. We had a lot to cover. So that's that's the foundation in in a nutshell. Uh it's not difficult. Um it's
048it's good. We're giving back to the community. We've received several foundation grants from them here into Fenton and we've distributed other funds throughout the community. Kent Kovac used to sit with me uh on the committee. So that's a quick summary of the Benville Community Foundation. So any anybody interested? I saw Mike raising his hand. [Music] That's good. I mean, I'm not sure I forgot how this part goes. Well, yeah, we're we're just seeing who's interested and then talk through it and see if that works. So, Mike's interest. Anyone else? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, Mike, take a motion. You want to do that now or do it after do it as do it as we go along? Okay. May I have a motion and a second to appoint Mike Miller to the vacant seat on the
049Benville Community Foundation Board? Motion. He make the motion. I I'll second. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Matuk, yes. Figureroa, yes. Mola, yes. Rosinski, yes. Good. Lewis. Yes. Motion passed. May I have a motion and a second to appoint myself, Carrie Lewis, and John Rosinski to the vacant seat on the finance facility committee board. Vacant seat. Well, right. His right to retain. So, yeah. I make a motion. I'll second. Roll call. Miller, yes. Matuk, yes. Figuro, yes. Makullo, no. Ridzinski, yes. Goodri. Same. Lewis, yes. Motion pass. May I have a motion and a second to appoint myself, Carrie Lewis, to the vacant seat on the Illinois Association of School Boards Delegate Board. I make the motion. I'll second. Roll call. Miller, yes. Matuk, yes. Figuroa, yes. Makulla, no. Rzzinski, yes. Goodri, abstain. Lewis, yes. Motion pass. You
050want to describe lend a little bit? Yes. Yeah. So, lend the legislative education network of DuPage County is basically a group that's very in touch with what's going on is start of state of the Illinois legislation. Um, so there's periodic meetings that I attend and one board member uh occasionally when they have them. Um, and they basically give updates on legislation, potential uh positions to be aware of. And so that's uh that's the type of group that that is just trying to keep track of what's going on uh with the state. Uh so that uh Juliet was on that before. So that that there's no one on that. So, looking for someone who might be interested. I'll take that one. Rachel's interested. Okay, that sound good. Okay, Rachel. May I have a motion and a
051second to appoint Rachel Matug to the vacancy seat on the legislative education network of DuPage County Board? I'll make the motion. Second. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Matuk, yes. Figureroa, yes. Makulla, no. I'm sorry. Yes. Rzinski, yes. Good. Abstain Lewis. Yes. The motion pass. [Music] All right. Policy committee. Um so basically periodically we get updates from press on updating policies that we review. Um and uh basically looking for two members to be on that committee and that's pretty much it. You know, we may occasionally introduce new potential policies that maybe doesn't come uh through that process. In fact, we'll probably have a policy m meeting next month just updating some policies that uh with every five years you should update a policy that we have a few that that we should update uh for that reason.
052So, anyone interested in that? I volunteer to serve on the policy committee. Okay. Thank you. Anyone else? We need to Yeah, I know we have. Yeah, that's that's one. So, we have Dr. McCulla. Anyone else? I will. Leo. Okay. May I have a motion and a second to appoint Christopher McCullum and Leo Figueroa to the vacancies on the policy committee board. I'll make the motion. Second. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Mat. Yes. Figuro. Yes. Mullo. Yes, Rosinski. Yes, Goodri. Yes, Lewis. Yes. Next, we have one position and oh, and one alternate for North Depage special education cooperative. I'll volunteer. Okay. Okay. May I may I have a motion and a second to appoint Rachel Matubu the vacancy on the North Dupage Special Education Cooperative Net Board. I'll make the motion. Second. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Mug.
053Yes. Figuroth. Yes. Makulla. Yes. Rzinski. Yes. Good. Good. Lewis. Yes. Motion passed. The last committee we have or is the DEI positions. Um. Oh, yeah. I mean th this committee was formed a few years back and actually outgoing board member Sylvia Hay kind of explained it was created um as a board committee sort of as needed. Um it really has not convened and had meetings in the past in the past at least the recent past uh but it was created uh I suppose in case uh there there was felt like there was a need to to meet so it is an existing board committee and uh right now it there's two positions available and I It doesn't meet. It's on the as need. That' be I I'll throw myself out there. Okay. All right. Okay.
054I'll stay. Okay. May I have a motion and a second to appoint myself, Carrie Lewis, and Leo Figurero to the vacant seats on the DEI committee board? I'll make the motion. Second. Roll call. Miller, yes. Matug, yes. Figuroa, yes. Mullo, no. Rzinski, yes. Good. Lewis, yes. Motion passed. Um, our next items isformational information items. Sam. Okay. So, now we're going to move on to the part of the meeting that we call informationational items. So, basically, this is just for you to be aware of. Uh, not necessarily action taken on this, although it could be action taken at at future board meetings. So, we're going to start out with textbook purchases. So, I think Steph's going to walk us through this. Hello. For those of you who don't know me, I'm Stephanie Jackson. I'm the director
055of learning. And for the rest of you, good evening. Um, so to begin with, we have a few renewals. So, these are textbooks that we're currently using. Um, and I'm going to go through those more quickly. If you have questions, please feel free to stop and ask. Um, the first is our world language department uses this textbook for both French 1, two, and three and Spanish 1, 2, and 3. These are digital licenses only for the Chromebooks for the students. Um, they have been using this for six years. They're requesting a renewal on these licenses and it'll be paid over the course of three years. So, beginning this year and then two more installments over the next two years. So, that is this particular [Music] textbook. Um, this next one is for our introduction to
056social studies class, which is a class that every freshman takes at Fenton. uh they use desk atlases in that course. Uh they have class sets that remain in the classroom. The last set that they purchased is a 2009 edition and they need to be refreshed. Um they have found an addition that they like and basically it's a class set for every classroom and this particular edition also comes with digital licenses for students to have access via their Chromebook. So that is this particular textbook. Okay. This is a new textbook for our AP um government and politics class in the social studies department. This is a change from the current textbook which is a workbook that students uh get and they keep it and they carry it to class and home for homework every day. Uh
057this would be a change in format. So there would be a class set of textbooks that would remain in the classroom and then there would be a set of digital licenses for use um through the Chromebook. This is a college board approved text for this particular AP course. And there I have a list of uh other schools in Dwage County that are also using this book. So that would be the recommendation for this particular course and textbook. Oops, wrong way. Okay. And then the final one is the largest uh it affects the largest number of students at Fenton. It is for our English curriculum. This particular text is all digital. It will affect our English one, two, three, and four class. Our EL 3 and four classes, and our English 9, 10, 11, and 12
058classes, which are our special education courses. So, basically, our newcomer ELEL classes would not be using this. And then our AP juniors and seniors would not be using this, but every other student at Fenton High School would be using this curriculum. Um some of the highlights we spent first semester looking at different um English curriculums and this was the one that we settled upon. Um something notable about this district 2 did decide last month their board approved this for K through 8 in their district. So that would provide some continuity which we're pretty interested in. Um the last time English uh purchased curriculum was in 2007 and um the English teachers feel like this is going to provide a pretty good opportunity to strengthen reading for students in the district. Um our current curriculum is
059largely teacher created units and lessons. So this is going to provide alignment of skills and text complexity and um there will be a lot more reading support with this particular program. uh teachers will be able to make more uh data informed decisions for instruction, set more reading goals, track and monitor progress that students are making. This particular um purchase is also going to include other programs that we purchase separately including turnitin.com, writable, read 180. It is also aligned with EL standards. It includes a grammar program. It is aligned with MAP reading testing and it includes ACT prep materials. It syncs with Google classroom. There's differentiation. Students can have um audio text read to them through this program. So, this is um also kind of like the uh world language where the purchase would be over
060the course of two years and it's a three-year license for this one. So the pricing for English and for the social studies text. So these were the adoptions is included here. And the asterisk next to the English is because that's over a two-year period. So that's for this fiscal year and then it'll be the same price next year. And then these are for world language, social studies and math. So before we move on to that, is there any questions from the board? We would anticipate then uh having this as an action item at the next board meeting. I'd like to ask a couple of questions. Sure. Uh I appreciate that you shared the information about alignment because looking at images of books doesn't tell me anything. Sure. Um who was it that made the recommendations
061to bring this forward? Uh English teacher work piloting the programs after doing research. Um we looked at McGra Hill. We looked at um a bunch of other programs. The teachers spent a lot of time working through them. Okay. So the the teachers of the individual departments made a recommendation, submitted it to you, and then that's how we got to this. Yeah, I've been pretty highly involved in the process as well. Okay. But it was teacher driven. Mhm. Okay. Then my next question, turn it in. Um, you know, my knowledge of that is that it reports a lot of false positives with regard to AI. Uh, is that something you all are seeing and are you finding that it's worth the investment? Are there other tools that might be better? We don't currently invest in turnitin.com
062right now. Teachers are much more likely to be having conversations with students. Um, so I agree with you. I think that most of the time those AI detectors are pretty faulty. Is there a I'm assuming that Fenton would have to pay a subscription service to access it, a subscription fee? No, this Well, on its own, yes. If you want to turnin.com, it costs money on the side, but this is just bundled into it. So, it's a tool that's accessible through this HMH curriculum. Okay. I I think it is important though to consider the data related to false positives of usage of AI so that students aren't penalized for something that maybe they didn't do. Sure. Yeah. And we do we have a lot of conversations with them. And I think understanding what your kids are,
063what their writing is like, having conferences, being able to say like, "Hey, we went through this whole writing process." Like we had we talked during the outlining phase, we talked during the brainstorming phase. Now all of a sudden, you know, so our teachers are constantly monitoring the writing process. So, um, we haven't really used any AI detection software over the last couple of years. The reason I bring that up is because I am aware of institutions that have chosen and purposely encouraged teachers not to use Turn It In because of the false positives. So that's my concern. Sure. Regarding the APG gov book, are they currently using a physical textbook in APV? They have a it's a like a consumable. So they it's a workbook. The kids get it, they can write inside of it,
064and then they keep it. Is there a digital version version of this? Okay. Okay. That's part of the reason for the new one. Yeah. Okay. Let's keep going with the summer curriculum. Okay. So then this also would be um an item for uh next month, but this isformational at this point. So um a little bit of background on this. Um teachers apply for summer hours and then we go through them. We approve them based on building and district priorities. So um for curriculum hours, teachers would be granted curriculum hours based on um if they are a new teacher of a new course. So they're teaching something for the first time. If they are teaching a course that has never been done before, so if there was a new course that was approved to be taught
065next year, they would be working on developing it. um if there is a new textbook involved in a course or if there's a major course revision being done. So those are the reasons you would be granted curriculum hours. Um last summer there were 1,800 curriculum hours requested and we are sticking with that same number for this summer. So that's um and I'll know we'll have the exact number of hours at next month's board meeting. And then for workshop hours, that is compensation for any summer meetings or training that teachers do during summertime. Um, last summer there were 124 or 125 hours requested. This summer I'm projecting more and the reason for that is that we know we are having math teachers coming in to do training on CPM curriculum and then we're also going to
066have some English teachers doing training on the HMH curriculum if that's approved. Um, and I'm sorry. Could you help me out with the acronym? Sorry. CPM is our math curriculum. So, they'll be coming in to do the math curriculum training. And then the HMH is what I just went over about the English. So, that's Hton Mifflin Hardcourt, which is the name of the publisher. I apologize. Um, so the English teachers would be doing the English training for curriculum. So, that's the reason why we we have whole departments coming in to do curriculum training. Okay. Yeah. I need to get up to speed on the CBA. I'm assuming these rates of pay are defined in the CBA. Yes. Okay. Thank you for that. Okay. Now, we have anformational item. So wanted to bring forward here to
067the new board that uh we will be having the superintendent search for the year 2627. Um so this is sort of an opening discussion to gather feedback, thoughts again, no action there. There there's uh at this time uh but simply to bring it out there and and have uh the board members kind of look forward. Uh so basically that position for whoever the new superintendent would be would be July 1st 2026. President Lewis um had asked me just to send out and ask for proposals from three search firms that are out there that are pretty well known uh here in the state of Illinois. So we did get a proposal from IASB which is the Illinois Association of School Boards. We also have a proposal from HYA or Hazard Young at Associates and uh BWP
068which is bigger web PNR and and associates. They're working on a proposal but there's is a little more personalized and they asked for a little more time. So we should probably get that maybe sometime next week. So at this point that that is all that has been done. Um, like I said, I want to open up to the board to start thinking about this and uh start thinking about process-wise what would we be looking to do? I did speak with Brian Harris from the IASA who's sort of a superintendent mentor and actually uh works for uh Hazard Young and AIA and he feels that we're you know ahead of ahead of the game so to speak as far as uh this process starting you know certainly this summer there would there would be some commitments
069as far as depending on if we go with a search firm which search firm we would go to how do go about that. And then uh obviously there's a whole process that you go through that would also include the fall uh as far as interviews and things like that with the eventual uh looking to name the super the new superintendent probably sometime in Dean this sorry December or January. Um, and then there's that interm time where they try to get to know the district even though most likely they're employed somewhere else. Uh, but I uh uh President Lewis asked me to put this out just to see what what thoughts were out there um and see see where people would like to go. This is a significant decision in the life of this school and
070district. I think that um while some of the major search firms are listed there that all board members should have an opportunity to bring search firm names forward. Absolutely. And and if if you have any tonight or want to email me, we could certainly get proposals from there. There are more s firms out there as you've alluded to. Uh there's even some national search firms that their headquarters isn't in Illinois but like in Iowa for example. So yes, for most of the firms, each of the ones there, some of them are nationals, but even those that are local like ISAB or some of the others, they do have an arm or a means where there search goes national even for for the superintendent. Right. So there's a local side that they're obviously specializing, but they
071do work with partners that takes it to a national level. All three of those provides that. I just want to be sure. I just want to be sure that all board members have an opportunity to have a voice in Oh, absolutely. identifying um these proposals, at least the ones we have, they're available and the super with the superintendent. You guys can stop in or whatever to take a look through those. In addition to the search firms, would we be able to create hiring committees or No. So, you usually let let's say we go with one of these search firms. Usually what they'll do is they'll they'll meet with the board to try to get a feel for who who do you want to hear from? So like community outreach surveys, um focus groups like within
072the school and then there's more of a dialogue on what do you what what does fent what does the Fenton board want the process to look like. Um, so there'll certainly be a time to kind of go through that, okay, and see to make sure that it's a a thorough search where we're gathering input from all stakeholders, um, and develop what the process is going to look like. Um, for the past two months, I've been trying to update myself on this process, um, long before I spoke to Sam about it. Um each of them have different schedules and steps or processes and getting to know but once we can narrow down which we're going with is they we can definitely have them come in and make a proposal or go through their outline but in
073their proposals is an outline of steps and that they would take us through uh like one one of the things I thought was important was having workshops with teachers um community leaders and parents and have their input. No, they're not part of the de decision-m process, but you want their input. And we want to I thought it was important to make time to prior to to incorporate that into their sk to their schedule and to into the process to get that input. And so as you if you can once you get a chance to take a look through through the two that we already have, you can see the similarities between the two, but it's it is a task to get up to date on more to follow. More to follow. I mean, so again,
074uh to reiterate Dr. McCulla here, if you have any other search firms you'd like to see a proposal from, um reach out to me. I I I will facilitate that and collect them and then eventually as time goes on, we'll probably get to the point. Uh you know, do we want representatives from the board to review these proposals? Do we want to hear from certain search firms? That's one thing we've done in the past is maybe have a few representatives listen and then bring a recommendation to the board. Um but we obviously we want to collect more information from people and what they think just start thinking in in those terms. This add in addition to that going back to the process we went through with selecting the uh independent review. We selected two board
075members. They read the proposals and then um there was we had one day where every all of the firms came in and we listened to their in-person proposals, made a recommendation to the board from there to move forward on. But whoever those people are they, you know, there's some, you know, it's tedious going through the package, but it's necessary to the process to understand it and to separate the firms from each other. So, that's a that's a possible approach we could take, you know, depending on what the board members think. But if you have other thoughts on this subject, just feel free to reach out and we can incorporate that uh our next steps. Uh Jose. Yeah. Um both of these foyers have been resolved. Dr. Ben. Okay. Thank you. There's no other. Okay. So,
076we have we have discussion action. I just just a preview. We we did go over um some of these in finance facility. Uh obviously we have we have three new board members tonight that maybe aren't completely up to speed on everything. So hopefully um we can try to answer questions that you have um if you'd like during the discussion phase of this we can kind of give an overview of what what we went over to help you make an informed vote. So just whatever you need that's fine. We'll start out with a STEM wing computer science classroom computer purchase. May I have a motion and a second that the board of education approve the fiscal year 2025 purchase of 60 Lenovo Think Center M70Q Gen 5 small form factor desktop computers and BENQ 20in LED
077computer monitors from CDWG for the amount of 57,000 3720. I'll make the motion. Second. Uh discussion. Britney. Britney, you just mind going on there in case there's any questions? Do you want me to go ahead and just do a brief Yeah, maybe. Yeah. Yeah. Uh so currently our computer science and engineering courses uh their curriculum is supported by the use of Windows desktops. Um we are requesting board approval for the purchase of 60 total desktops and monitors for the new STEM wing. Uh the first floor has uh two classrooms that have a divisible wall. Those will be the ones that will house our computer science and engineering courses. uh they use a lot of industry standard software like Autodesk for engineering, variety of graphic uh design, 3D modeling and coding software um that requires a
078lot of resources. Chromebooks are fantastic for daily student academic use. Uh but these require a lot of hardware and software flexibility that Chromebooks can't support. Uh what we're requesting this uh setup is very similar to what we're currently using in our computer science and engineering class along with our graphic design class in the applied tech space. Uh so this will be very similar to what they're currently using and will continue to use for the next school year. So would that be 30 computers per classroom or 15? Uh 30 computers in each classroom. 30 computers, 30 monitors. Those classrooms split in two or that already split split in two. And there's an opportunity for them to bring down the wall for collaborative work. Okay. Thank you. Roll call. Yes. Matu, yes. Figuro, yes. Malo, abstain. Rosinski,
079yes. Good. Good. And then Lewis, yes. Motion passed. Okay. So, I will take this one briefly. So, so the board is aware. Annually, we appoint one of our administrators to the Dales board, uh, more commonly known as TCD. Um, and Michelle Papa Nicolau, uh, is our director of postsecary pathways and and career tech and education and does an excellent job with that with those programs, has expertise in that area. So, we're going to recommend that Michelle serves on the Dales board uh, for next year. She's currently serving on that board. I'll make motion. I gotta read it first. Oh, sorry. I was just waiting for any other questions. May I have a motion and a second that the board of education approves the resolution to appoint Michelle Papan Nicolo, director of postsecary pathways and career
080tech education as Fenton's representative Fort Deage Area Occupational Education Systems as presented. I'll make the motion now. Second. Since we just did the discussion. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Matu. Yes. Figuroa. Yes. Abstain. Rzinski. Yes. Good. Yes. Lewis. Yes. Motion pass. The next item is Gil Bane bid fencing and lighting proposal. May I have a motion and a second that the board of education based on the bids received for bid release to recommend awarding a contract to the firms for Fenton High School stadium entrance site lighting and fencing work. Furthermore, we recommend the Gilbane change order number two dated April 21st, 2025 for a combined construction value of $670,675. I'll make the motion. Second. Um, discussion and that'll be Bruce if anyone has any questions. So this image that we're looking at right here, this is
081closest to 83, correct with the greenery. So that that is so that's like if you're going around the auditorium. Okay. So right now that's kind of under under construct. So we're going to redo that walkway. So there's some lighting for aesthetics and safety reasons. So like let's say there's a football game then. So we're going to redo that that whole area. Um the decorative gate is also an entry point where now both sides will enter at the same location with a with a new ticket booth. So again for aesthetic reasons um and they'd all be entering from what is currently the visitor side. You got it. Yes. Yes. Very good. Did I hear that they were going to put it against the tracks as well? You did. So that's part of the the fencing uh
082component. So there's some additional fencing, but also actually for years we've been having ongoing dialogue on safety issues with kids crossing the tracks and there's no fencing there. So as a continuation of that, we did secure a uh a grant through the state with basically 90 to 95% of the fencing will be paid for uh through this grant. Um, and we just had the bid come in. It's about hundred $100,000. So, be very little cost to us and ideally we're going to fence off the area on our side of the tracks so that kids aren't crossing over the tracks. Um, so that you're right. Thanks. Thanks for bringing that up. Uh that's part of the fencing in this uh bid that we would like to approve and then that will um to the cost of
083baseballs and softball go up. Well, we we will have gates. Yeah, we don't want the kids going to get the ball or the tracks. There will be some gates, but you're right. That may be an issue in the short term. Yeah, Bruce has more of the financial advice if anyone has any um regarding this. A real a simpler way to this is like outdoors finishing the work between the stem wing and the stadium uh that still needs to be done and it's all covered under the initial uh yes bond we went out for. So this is all covered in those expenses. So there's no additional funds needed. Correct. And if you hadn't heard at the FNF meeting, finances facility, we're still under budget and on time. Yeah. So it's it's planned expenditures coming in in
084little trickles. Okay. Roll call. Miller, yes. Matuk, yes. Yes. Mako abstain. Rosinski. Yes. Good. Yes. Lewis, yes. Motion pass. Okay. So what we do when we form a new board is we sort of decide on regular board meeting date. So sort of generically put what we when we meet is the fourth Wednesday of every month except when holidays require an earlier meeting. If that's the case then we usually move up to the Wednesday before. For example, next year when we look at Thanksgiving and the uh Christmas time, that would be the fourth Wednesday. So then we would move up to the the week before Wednesday. That's basically how we do it. We we we want to vote first on it and then what we can do after that is create uh the create the dates
085in a chart for everyone. So you know, you can plan out your year basically on when the board meetings are, but we meet once a month and it's typically the fourth Wednesday. If for some reason there's some other circumstances that we would need to change a board meeting, we'd obviously come to the board in advance, explain why, perhaps a budgeting timeline or something. Um, but for the most part, this should keep us covered. May I have a motion and a second that the board of education approve holding regular meetings on the fourth Wednesday of each month unless the dates conflict with the holiday. In the case of that conflict, the regular meeting would be one week earlier. Come on, somebody else. I made the motion. I make the motion first. Second. Need a second. Second.
086Roll call. Miller. Yes. Matuk, yes. Figuro, yes. Yes. Rzinski, yes. Good. Yes. Lewis, yes. Motion pass. Okay, Bruce, you ready? You ready to go over there? No, you haven't done much. If you're ready for me, I'm ready. This is a This is a discussion only. So no action just forformational purposes. This is uh health insurance discussion. Yeah. Yeah. Just for the board's information. So just some background information uh aside from the slide up there but uh just to for everyone's benefit uh we belong to the ABC which is the educational benefit cooperative um which provides uh health insurance uh medical insurance, dental uh life insurance that uh we partake in. Um we have three medical plans, a PO and two different HMO plans and a dental plan. Uh and they're all offered through uh the
087EBC cooperative which consists of about 122 districts currently and and kind of growing. Um we've been a member since 2009. Um so a pretty good length of time. Um, but really the purpose of joining a cooperative, we're a smaller district, um, is really to provide economies of scale and risk pooling that will allow members greater long-term st financial stability than purchasing uh, insurance products on our own. Um, the PO and dental plans are self-funded. The HMO is funded on a cost plus funding arrangement. even though we're part of a cooperative, uh that doesn't uh we still are allowed to develop our own plan and and every district does including us. So, um if we want to have different deductibles or changes in co-pays, that is all up to the individual district. So, we have that
088flexibility um as a member of this cooperative. Um there's a couple of components that go into the uh determining your rates, what those will be. um it's referred to as the banding formula. Um it has to do with your paid claim ratio and then your rate increase uh which is based on projections for the following year. But in essence, I guess in in the short uh version of it, it's it's based on your uh claims experience um and driving uh medical insurance costs. Um I'm pleased to say so on this slide up here um th that's the the banding formula averages are listed there under PO it's at 6.9% trend is 8 uh% that's projected so we're under trend um the average loss ratio for the EBC was 104% so we'd like to see it
089no greater than 100% but it's slightly more than that uh the HMO is 5.2% 2% with a trend of 7% and the dental is 4% and trend is 4%. And uh life insurance that's offered through it as well. Uh that'll be no change with that and that's good for another three years locked into the current rates that we're paying to date. Um as far as the increases for next year, um we did fall below uh the next slide if we could go ahead for the PO. Um this is the banding formula. I know there's a lot of numbers on there, but the middle of the uh formula of the uh range is that 6.9%. 38 districts fell within that. Um I'm pleased to report that we are at 3.9%. We are one of four districts
090that uh had a paid cla claim loss ratio in the 80 uh.7 to 87.1%. So um that came to a 3.9% increase. Could you talk more explain more about that paid claim to loss ratio? Sure. Paid claims uh is determined by dividing the revenue submitted to EBC by the claims paid by the uh EBC during the experience period. Uh and then the resulting percentage is the paid claim loss ratio. Um the pay claims are also a total of all individual claims under $75,000 plus the per capita share of all the EBC catastrophic claims between 75,000 and a million dollar for the PO and then paid claims for the HMO are 75,000 uh and then up to $350,000 on the HMO side of it. uh and that combined with the rate increases developed by projecting the
091claims in an experience period to the end of the projection period and adding it uh administrative and reinsurance cost for total projected cost. So I know I said a lot there. Um the the the good news is the being a a member of the pool our rate would not change uh increase greater than 5%. It wouldn't fall below uh 5%. So we are uh insulated somewhat to to have see some kind of a an outrageous you know double digit claim. Uh we would be protected from that aspect. Um so the PPL increase for uh next year is 3.9%. The HMO would be 5.2. So we fell right in the middle of the banding formula there on the next slide. Um we're one of 26 districts that fell in in the into that. And then we're
092in the middle again with the dental claim. uh 60 school districts have they have 4% uh claim and as I mentioned the uh life insurance is there's no change there um so that would become effective July 1st uh we have an open enrollment every year for our staff um which would actually it's going to start next week um and that would run for through the end of or near the end of May uh the open enrolling period and then again that would start July 1st and our plan year uh runs concurrent with our fiscal year. So July 1st to June 30th is our how our insurance year runs. Um our current participation we have 95 uh individuals in our PO plan, 73 in our HMO plan and 170 in our dental plan. And then of
093course we offer single family coverage as well um in the various plans that we offer. Um so that's kind of it in an overview. Uh, and I just threw in some extra slide. This the renewal meeting uh actually Jose went to that um earlier this uh late last month and uh this was just kind of some slides that I thought were interesting uh to share with you uh to include in the board packet but the uh I won't go through all of them. I know it was probably a little bit too much information maybe hard to read there too. Uh but the top 20 conditions of uh you know the 72% of stop-loss claims came uh from the top 10 conditions. Cardiovascular uh is at number the number two uh report for the highest uh
094spot. Um the highest cost injectable drugs are listed there. That's a major driving force right now. And then the uh claims of uh $1.5 million plus claims rose 8% on claims per million covered uh under the basic uh over the past year um in the last four years. So that is kind of it. I know I went through that in a in a rush. Um we're committed to them for a year. I think uh if we were to make a change, you have to give a year's notice. Um, but we are committed to them starting July 1st. Um, and again, the new rates, all that information will be shared with staff next week. Um, but we just wanted to bring the board up to uh speed on what we're looking at for next year in
095terms of what we will budget and what staff would be uh encountering uh starting July 1st. Okay. Does anyone have any committee reports? Uh yes, Mr. President. Uh Benville Community Foundation met on March 27th. Uh we had a very light agenda. Um we closed out a couple of claims. We're looking for additional information. One mini grant came in that I voted on. I believe that passed. I'll know for sure at our next meeting. Our next meeting is scheduled for May 15, 2025 at 6 p.m. That's at the Bensonville Library. Okay. And I'm going to assume that the the administration will make notification to a foundation and the changes to membership and share uh Mike's address. Please. Great point. Aaron, make a note of that, please. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Appreciate it. Just want to make
096sure so he starts getting emails. Thank you very much. That's all I have to report. We had a finance and facilities meeting earlier at 6 as you guys just voted on. Some of the things we discussed was the STEM wing computer science classroom computer purchases. Um there was an update on the U Abestus contract proposals for the STEM wing that we'll be voting on next month. That correct? That's right. Um and then also the Gilbane fencing and lighting proposal. We also did a walk through of the new STEM wing, which by the way, if any of the new board members are interested, I know you're going to be making appointments to come in to get your laptops and various things, feel free if you have time, we could take a a stroll through the STEM
097wing with with uh well, I shouldn't say stroll with hopefully shoes and and we have hard hats available. So, let let's skip down to I would suggest if it's during the day and you're walking through, try not to wear open toe shoes at the very least. Right. Jose would appreciate that from a liabilities stand. Yeah. Let's move on down to Ned. The last Nedseack meeting I attended, I'm on the NedSc board. uh and Leo is actually on the uh the governing board. There's also an operating board that I'm on and there they went through their preschool program. So that was interesting although not exactly relevant to Fenton, but um that was sort of the educational theme at the last meeting. So we'll get you Rachel up to speed on that those that schedule and what
098your role is. There's no lend meeting or report. Just like to know Cameron will send the committees their schedules via email. Our next board meeting will be Wednesday, May 28th, 2025 at 7 p.m. with a tenative finance and facility and also policy committee meeting at 6 pm prior to the regular board meeting. Close session. May I have a motion and a second to go into close session for the following? A 5 Illinois CS120/2C11 litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent. in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. I'll make the motion.
099Second. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Matuk. Yes. Figuro. Yes. Malo. Yes. Rosinski. Yes. Good. Yes. Lewis. Yes. Motion passed. Uh I'd like to note there would be no action taken after close session. And also just for the new members, we typically we cut through that area right over there and meet in a room down that way for for close session. So we'll and then we'll return back to this room for open session. Yeah. So take take your things with you that you may Yeah. And a second to go back into open session. Motion. Second. No, they got it. That's not enough tonight. Roll call. Miller. Yes. Matou. Yes. Figuroa. Yes. Yes. Rzinski. Yes. Good. Yes. Lewis. Yes. Back in open session. May I have a motion and a second to adjurnn? All in favor say I.
100I. Thank you.