001e e e I know stretch like call 26 20 I would like to call the March 26 2025 regular board meeting for the fent Community High School District 100 board to order may I have a roll call Rego here goodr here hay here kobc present Lewis here rinsky here Figaroa here we have a quorum please join me in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance a pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all Sam please read our fenon mission beliefs and vice and way statements fent mission statement cultivates successful passionate empowered Learners to rigor relevance in relationships fent belief statement successful passionate empowered Learners Thrive when we provide a safe caring and welcoming environment diversity
002equity and inclusion unify our community school and home collaborate is 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 vice and 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 our next item as recognitions Kate all right as always we start with the best part of the night and tonight is a real treat and a real celebration um so Benton had another strong showing which is an understatement incredibly strong showing at the ihsa speech state finals
003including another state champion so we'll start please join me in congratulating senior Teresa ble winning first place and the individual speech CH state championship for informative speaking at the ihsa state finals in February uh Teresa was also a state the sectional champion in her event and did an incredible job um we were able to have a school assembly where she was able to share her speech with the entire school and that was a really wonderful celebration um and just to note this is an incredible tribute to the speech team Teresa is our seventh individual state champion in the last eight years so that's really incredible Champion since 2019 Champion since oh sorry sorry yes um congratulations are also in store for junior Arturo herado Jr who took fourth place in state for special occasions speaking
004and brought home a medal as well he took second place at the sexual needs so all right and then um finally you can all come up here and join me the performance in the round cast for if anything happens I love you took third place at sectionals and advanced the following students to State Alonso Romero John agular Julia wendam Eric bonitz uh analia artiaga Caitlyn siesto Jaden maharo dearis Lopez Kia Shaw Javier kones Jr Gabriella Sanchez Sarah Charles Jason Vargas Haley Cruz uliana Garcia we are very proud of our speech program and the hundreds of hours of hard work our students dedicate to their craft under the guidance of our speech coaches um at this point I'm going to turn it over to one of our head coaches Nicole Hendrick uh to let her speak
005a little bit [Applause] more come at the end here thank you hi everyone thank you so much for having uh this recognition for us today we're so so very proud of our speech team um we ac quied an achievement this year our team this was 65 strong and unlike Athletics I like to bring this up and and just remind everybody we don't have divisions and so the smaller schools compete with the larger schools and we all submit our best speakers in each category that we have half of our events are acting the other half are public speaking and this year we took 17 students uh to state after a very rigorous sectional competition one of the hardest of the six comp uh six sectionals that happen in the state um do you have some data
006for me all right she is my numbers lady but also just an absolute wonderful speech coach this is alum and speech coach Melissa feberg hi everyone I'm so sorry I'm not trying to be rude by checking my phone I'm seeing if Teresa is getting has gotten back to me and she has not um so just a little bit about what Teresa and uro um specifically went through in order to be um State finalists and then Teresa state champion um they both compete against approximately 200 other students entered in the state series for their event um as Nicole stated we don't have divisions you know you're competing against the best of every school no matter how large their team is ours a 65 there are schools with 120 strong so that's a lot more individuals to
007choose from to compile your Regional team um so they compete against nearly 200 other people in their event across the six different sectionals um in order to attain a state championship as Teresa attained you have to first compete at regionals sectionals then State um you'll see nine rounds of competition and 23 different judges all of whom judge you subjectively uh they could rank you down for simply not liking your topic it's that you know that easy to give someone a six as opposed to a one so you have to receive top marks from 23 different judges um across the entirety of the competition it is so so difficult to get to get into that State final round like uro and Teresa did this year and then obviously you know an an even more impressive feat
008to win uh we're so proud of them we're so proud out of their work uh Teresa's speech was on breast an informative speech on breasts um very compelling information and uro speech was on the manosphere the digital world of masculine energy and some of the problems that can cause um again so proud of them so proud of our team and our P so congratulations everyone I don't know where coach Torres is but I just wanted to give him a shout out for taking our group our performance in the round to State as well this special event only competes at Regional sections and state and um this is his second year coaching speech he's learned and grown so much and was able to advance that very large group of kids who he largely uh coached through
009the entire process he's absolutely an essential part of our team and I am just so disappointed that we'll be losing him because the district is not rehiring him as a coach next year and would ask you to reconsider but he has been just an absolute wonderful Mentor for our kids and our team and is essential to our success as well thank you Jordan Torres [Applause] too we could come take a picture of let's go there I don't think I don't think we can cuz of the camera [Music] you we'll give him plenty of room in the front yeah at come here right in the middle in the middle yeah doity are we where are we looking for there you go all right one more from okay all right thanks Miss h thank you so much
010toor I knew it was going to be a lot [Music] St yeah okay uh next I was I'll be reciting a statement on behalf of the district Dr Benson has been our inim superintendent for a year now and our principle for three years before that he has distinguished himself through transparent fair and accountable leadership thanks in large part to his leadership we are in the midst of an exceptional school year marked by renewed trust steady progress and strong productive relationships across the district the proposed one-year contract for the 2025 2026 school year coincides with Dr Benson's long established retirement date and provides the continuity of leadership and consistency for finished students and staff Dr Benson will assist the board of education at our discretion with an outside superintendent search during the 2025 26 school year
011with the selected candidate starting July the 1st 2026 Dr Benson will then support the incoming superintendent with a smooth transition ahead of his June June 30 retirement um Cameron do we have any com public comments yes we do as a reminder public comments are limited to 3 minutes per speaker with a limit this evening of 30 minutes total as a reminder please address staff members and students by title and not by name to protect their privacy Chris mullo I wish I could stand before you and say good evening unfortunately I cannot sad evening according to your meeting agenda you're about to make Samuel bston the permanent superintendent of Venton I suspect that that will come with an increase in compensation I have more questions than I can share in three minutes but according to board
012policy we do get five minutes I'll start now but I ask that you include my comments and the questions that I have here in the formal record of tonight's meeting according to 105 ilcs 53481 the principal Samuel bston was responsible for administrative responsibilities and instructional leadership also the principal must collaboratively identify a shared vision and provide leadership in realizing that Vision I wonder if you realize that during Bon's ten years the principal five the five essential survey revealed abysmal ratings for effectively leadership which reports the degree to which principles and teachers Implement a shared vision for Success under Bon's leadership or leadership as principle the survey revealed a rating of Less in 2021 least in 2022 weak in 2023 and week in 2024 simultaneously between 2023 and 2024 the truancy rate students who Miss more
013than 1% but less than 5% of school days without a valid excuse increased from 24.9% to 30.3% Chronic treny students who missed 5% or more school days without a valid excuse exceeded the state average by 14.4% in 2021 88.6% in 2022 14.3% in 2023 and 11.9% in 2024 are our truancy issues related to fear for student safety increasingly poor results on the SAT are also evident as indicated in data from the Illinois school report card with regard to English language arts the numbers of students who are only partially meeting expectations increased from 23.1% of students in 2018 to 43.3% of students in 2024 this means that less students are meeting expectations or approaching expectations or exceeding them increasing is a negative result because it means that less students are achieving what we want them to
014in all of these years more Finton students partially met expectations than the state average except in 2018 when our students succeeded the state average by only 1.2% in mathematics the number of students who are only partially meeting expectations increased from 31.3% in 2018 to 51.9% of students in 2024 again an increase is a negative result as less students are meeting exceeding or approaching in all of these years more fitton students partially met than the state average while all of this has happened spending per pupil has increased by $ 5560 is indicated in data from the Illinois State Illinois school report card since fiscal year 2019 using 20123 enrollment data this represents an approximate increase of over $7.5 million since fiscal year 2019 I'd call that a pretty bad return on investment while data suggest that
015Bon's leadership has failed to prepare our children for college and work life it appears he has also failed to address issues of Al alleged sexual misconduct in the notice of charges bill of particulars hearing and dismissal sent to the alleged teacher the Finton 100 Board of Education acknowledges among other things illegal and inappropriate sexual relation relationships with two underage Fenton High female students based on the leak police incident supplement report benston must have known of the issues with the teacher in question why then why did benston knowingly allow and or appoint the alleged teacher to evaluate other teachers did bston engaged the Fenton Education Association in this decision this single action essentially made all of the teachers in the building subordinate to the alleged teacher bston was the title 9 coordinator and complaint manager during
016this time roles that include the responsibilities of coordinating and investigating complaints what about Bon's role as title N9 coordinator and complaint manager did Samuel bston receive any complaints as title N9 coordinator and complaint manager what was the outcome of any complaints received are there any records why no search a year ago why has there been no formal search for a new superintendent which would have empowered the members of this board of education to assess a pool of candidates before deciding who to hire for a year for two years for three years is a material if bston was the right choice it would have shown through interviews back to the alleged teacher a public search of the professional educator licenses reveals that the alleged teacher holds a current and active license did bston the interim superintendent
017report the alleged teacher to the state superintendent of schools given that he was fired with cause so that a hearing concerning the status of his license could be held in accordance with Public Act 102-72 the superintendent must report a teacher to the state superintendent and Regional superintendent when there is a reasonable cause to believe an act of sexual misconduct was committed if this wasn't reported why why not could the teacher be working today in another District or school I believe your action tonight not only damages the process of healing after this incredibly traumatic series of events it may also open the district up to additional liabilities and possibly even criminal charges I beg you not to vote bston in as permanent superintendent until a formal search can be conducted and I'd like to share if
018I may my comments and a series of questions with the board for the formal record okay I guess I can these are questions and this is ranan good evening thank you so much for your time uh I just want to start my timer also um James Baldwin once said I love America more than any other country in this world and exactly for this reason I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually I feel the same way about Fenton High School I love this school and precisely because of that love I must speak up when we're falling short my name is renrin and I've had the privilege of mentoring both formally and informally many teachers during my 20 years here at Venton high school tonight I want to express my deep disappointment in how the
019dismissal of my mentee was handled this year I don't know the detail of the decisions but I do know that my colleague is a dedicated educator we share a classroom and the same students and they speak highly of his teaching I see firsthand how engaged his kids are every single day he provides meaningful feedback and challenges them to grow I also know that when I offered him feedback on areas of improvement he listened with humility asked thoughtful questions and made necessary adjustments that willingness to reflect and grow is what makes a great educator if the administration had concerns about his performance why wasn't I his mentor informed and this raises a bigger question what is the purpose of our mentoring program here at Fenton if mentors are truly expected to support new teachers we must
020be included when there are areas to grow otherwise mentorship becomes an empty gesture rather than a tool for improvement when that doesn't happen it is not an individual's failure it's a failure of leadership and the systems that are meant to support our staff I'm bringing this to the board because this situation highlights a troubling issue in our school's culture something that's been growing for the last while meaningful growth whether for teachers administrators or staff can only happen in an environment where honest critical feedback is welcomed yet too often difficult conversations are avoided leaving people unsure of where they St truly stand and dismissal seem like they're coming from nowhere speaking from myself I actually stepped down from my role as theal coordinator here at Fenton because while I knew that I needed to be doing
021more all the feedback that I receive was from people was telling me that I was doing a good job staff are told that they are doing well but without transparent discussions about areas of improvement how can we actually improve how can we recruit and retain staff when they don't know if they are receiving genuine feedback or just empty reassurance a few years ago our high school put on this musical working I brought my own children to see the show as I many times over the years and on the drive home they asked me why I was so emotional I told them it was because the that musical celebrates the dignity and pride of working people and that I was so proud to show my kids where I work a lot has changed in the years
022since that night but one thing hasn't I am still incredibly proud to be a member of this faculty and that is exactly why I'm speaking tonight because I care deeply about this school its teachers and mostly the students if we want ENT to be a place where students Thrive so we must first create a culture where all adults in this building feel safe to reflect receive genuine feedback and grow that can only happen when honesty is valued over Comfort I urge us all teachers administrators and board members alike to ask how can we build a culture where honest critique is met with reflection rather than defensiveness all o us all teachers staff administrators to grow together like the Bison way says so that we do not lose any more incredible adults who really care about
023our students thank you so much for your time good [Applause] evening Christian Reyes [Music] good evening uh you will be asked to approve an applicant for the position of director building grounds and transportation tonight according to board policy section 5:30 the district hires the most qualified personnel and I believe that is not the case here I am Christian Rey and I've been working here at Fon for almost 13 years I applied for this position and was passed up and left feeling unsettled because I knew I met the qualifications when I talked to Administration to inquire about my passing up they solely expressed that the other candidate was more experienced and possessed the position already which I later found out was false when I asked more about comparing my qualifications they got upset specifically when I
024question the education portion and avoided me after that I have no issue sharing any any of my U qualifications starting with the first qualification that is in the job posting for this position which is having a high school diploma in post-secondary education in heating cooling and ventilation I have a facility maintenance Associates in applied science along with the stationary operator certificate and I am currently in the process of completing the hbac service technician Associates of building automation some certificate and finishing my bachelor's degree in facility management I meet the second and third qualifications of technical knowledge of Plumbing electrical heating outdoor maintenance and experience with building automation systems with my work experience in formal education the last qualification is having five years of related experience preferred I have the experience in being the acting director
025of building grounds and transportation here at Fenton for the last 3 years when the current director was off or not available I later came to to find out through public knowledge that the applicant does not have a director position with Transportation experience and instead a position of director of Maintenance with less than 3 years my experience is comparable with it with in addition to having transportation experience being director of transportation is not something that should be taken lightly our transportation needs are only growing with all of our daily routes to school all placement students field trips Sports trips and internships there are many rules laws and safety protocols that must be followed followed and enforced set by the regional Office of Education Department of Transportation and the Secretary of State this role is not something
026someone should be thrown into with no experience with my three years experience in transportation I had to address and manage problems with drivers and when there was a shortage of drivers I had to figure out a way for students to get home safely and efficiently I was able to do this by having the experience and knowing the routes pickup drop off stops in the streets of these routes I also had to address unexpected mechanical issues of vehicles and assist with the actual repair and maintenance of our buses being director of transportation is one of the most important duties of this position by managing and providing Safe Transportation for our students if an applicant is missing their first qualification and experience does that really make them the most qualified along with my qualifications I have the
027best intentions and interests for this position being a former student Community resident and longtime Fenton employee Just Like You all take the time here to do the best for our community I had to come here and standle for our school and Community as well with that being said I hope you make the right decision here tonight thank [Applause] you is that allo comments thank you for your comments our next item is informational items Sam okay so we're going to start out with the Strategic plan plan uh we could have we have a few administrators here tonight to talk about each part of the Strategic plan we're currently in year three of the Strategic plan 2.0 um and so we're going to go through the percentages here in the in an explanation uh if if the
028public would like to take a look at our strategic plan you can find it on our website and uh look at it in even more detail um as we review it here tonight so we're going to start out with Steph Jackson talk about curriculum teaching and learning all right hello okay so for the teaching and learning portion of the Strategic learn of the Strategic plan um the first goal is probably the bulkiest for teaching and learning and it is to address content area needs for achievement so there's a lot to highlight in this section um we have personalized learning cohorts um you'll see for some of these that they're 80 to 85% complete and that's because we have a few things left to finish this school year so uh a couple more meetings and we'll
029be at 100% for the year so we have cohorts meeting that completed an analysis of grade data by Department which led to departments being engaged in many action research type projects and they are implementing research-based practices in their subject areas to improve student achievement based on needs in their departments teachers are continuing to embed El strategies in mainstream classrooms which is a carryover from last year we have schoolwide bison time lessons targeting seal and PBIS needs once a month um We are continuing with problem solving team but this year we have seen those systems with increased capacity quite a it and we're incorporating student data in its work as part of our mtss we had Future Ready Fenton day where we put every single freshman on a college campus and every single sophomore at a
030job site there was a lot of positive feedback from parents that I received and also from teachers the second goal was to continue to increase access to post-secondary learning including AP dual credit and certification programs we've continued our partnership with cood through the development of dual credit courses in automotives and business our third goal in teaching and learning was to continue to implement best practices in teaching learning and Grading in this area all teachers have continued to work all year with instructional coaches in the building we have improved the grading policy practices recommended by last year's grading committee and this was aimed at improving student accountability and attendance these policies will be reviewed again at the end of the year by committee and then finally the fourth goal was to ensure student Voice permeates through
031our curriculum decisions and to enhance relevance and authenticity for students our teachers have worked with uh student case studies at various points through the year we've had student voice committee meetings that have occurred throughout the school year and we've had numerous learning projects and activities in various content areas that have been showcased in the building throughout the school year okay no questions we'll move on to the next good evening uh for the social emotional growth portion um our two goals uh to continue implementing and improving our high school program um for this U again much as Steph Jackson said we have some 885 per here we're still continuing on through the end of the school year uh but uh that we will have a uh we program review we have committees and we do monthly
032lessons with our students in our classrooms um our committee meeting was this morning in fact where we talk about continuous Improvement we use data for decision making we uh we uh participate through Castle which is the collaborative foral and uh we have trainings at the regional office education for our County um meetings as well as our committee meetings which consist of uh uh staff members teachers administrators and so on it's a very large and robust group uh we meet uh before school and as well during once during the school day so we can get as many people as possible involved uh Castle has five competencies that we work with as well as restorative uh practices and then um trauma-informed criteria as well our data and our decision making um comes through in our monthly lessons
033uh for our monthly lessons once a month during our bison time period we have two um staff members in each classroom to work with students that includes all teachers and administrators we go into classrooms um when we come back from spring break on that Wednesday our next one um for April um our focus is on Stress Management and it's called Uh the theme is thriving not just surviving managing School in life and those meet the five Castle competencies and we develop uh lessons around that and so uh it's interactive with the students we've gotten a lot of good feedback on that and we try to use um our data and our feed feedback from students and staff about where we go next and you know what what what do we think will be helpful for
034that um during our monthly meetings and our student services team is uh deeply embedded here uh a lot of what we do revolves around this um within our department we have our mtss PBIS and coordinators they all work together um to you know U run our meetings develop our curriculums and then look forward which is part of our goal too where we continue to measure the effectiveness of what we're doing with oural program and then report that progress us back um our committee meeting this morning involved also not just what we will do in April and May and finish the year but then what are we doing next year what summer work do we need to look at what new initiatives what ideas have come up from student staff administrators and so on so we're
035continuously improving looking forward um to look and see where we go next and so that continuous improvement process that review continues year over year over year and will continue into next year as well so that we can best support the outcomes first students through our social emotional learning okay thanks Eric hi everyone I'm Lorenzo Rubio uh multilingual division leader um to give an equity uh to give an update on the diversity equity and inclusion portion of our plan I won't uh belabor it too much since I give my own updates to the board on the specifics of the delt team this this part of the Strategic plan is is unique in that it has a whole District Equity leadership team that's already that that you can see the and read the goals of much more
036in depth online um if you if you find our Equity plan on there um and so it's divided into there's only two goals up there but they're really just ensuring that the delt team is doing what it's supposed to and you can see our progress uh throughout this year across the five strands that it covers systems teaching and learning professional learning student voice climate and culture and family and Community as Agency on our website so we're at about 80% because we've met I've I've ensured that the the strands are meeting and um doing the work and making progress and um you know it's a varying degrees but it's about 80% and um goal to um is basically at the end of the semester at the end of the school year measuring um using tools to
037measure our progress towards the the the state of goals of delt so I encourage everybody to look up uh the delt goals and different strands online good evening I'm Julia Bray I'm the assistant principal of student life and we're talking about student life and we've met all our goals and that's it no we've done we've done a really great job um so we've done a really great job in student life um we have grown so much over the past couple of years uh Pedro Rodriguez as the athletic director has brought a lot uh to our team so our student life it's no surprise that here we are at 100% our kids are loving it here our kids are involved and they are really thriving with our activities and our Sports and our clubs and they're
038taking on so many leadership opportunities so I'll talk a little bit about each of these goals uh goal number one re-energize the current extracurricular programs to enhance the quality of our programs and participation levels so we track participation with all of our clubs and activities we've seen an increase in that participation Pedro and I were up here in December and we've talked about how our clubs have really grown and our Athletics have grown as well our students are participating in a lot of different things and over the past couple of years we've seen that growth and we continue to see that growth our spring Sports and our spring clubs and activities are just really starting to kick into gear so we are still seeing growth even though we're in almost April uh we have increased
039programs in student participation with our giveaways and our themes for our football team for our games for our basketball games as well our groups are organizing spirit days Dr bunson has his hat over there it was Western Wednesday so there was a lot of flannel going on a lot of hats today um but we also have our groups that are cont contributing to various causes in a variety of ways and we also have worked really hard these past couple of years to upgrade our facilities so our athletic facilities a lot of different areas in the building just to build up that Vice and spirit that bison Pride goal number two to uh increase student voice and student engagement our student voice committee uh while we meet we get student feedback and input from our students
040we also continue to work with our clubs activities our coaches our students to collect their feedback at the end of the season um we also do some check-in points throughout the season with some of our student athletes with some of our student leaders on each of those clubs goal number three developing ways to maximize student involvement so about 3 or 4 years ago we started a student voice committee to include our students in those important conversations our student voice committee meets on a monthly basis and there are topics sometimes it's about grading or sometimes it's about um what's going on in the cafeteria or what our schedule looks like this last meeting was kind of an open Forum we gave our students the opportunity to just voice any concerns that they had we talked about
041some of the stem Wing updates we got a chance to look at what that's going to be um what it's going to look like for our students and we're having those important conversations with them we also provide our students opportunities to share their experience in clubs and activities like future freshman night we had a lot of our student leaders there sharing with our future freshmen what is something that they love why do they like to be involved and then many of our clubs and teams take part in service opportunities our link crew hosts a day of service every year and many students sign up for that we also are encouraging our clubs and teams to do things like this together goal number four establish effective communication strategies our coaches and sponsors this year started to
042use parents Square it was brand new for them but it was something that they really just took on they knew that this was the way we were going to communicate with our families and with our students and so they went with it it was brand new they had to kind of learn learn along the way but they did a great job and also a lot of our coaches and sponsors continue to use Google Classroom so that they can stay connected with the students and also provide important documents that they might need such as calendars and then goal number five increase student leadership opportunities we have a lot of students involved here at Fenton and now we're looking for opportunities to help them grow their leadership skills so we've grown in this in the past couple
043of years we we have been able to send our students to the upstate 8 Leadership Summit with other schools in the conference we've sent a number of students to the Illinois director of Student Activities student conference and also the national student council conference we have student recognitions through State send offs board recognitions like we did tonight also breakfast for some of our fent and faces our students are amazing leaders and they're excited to be a and we are excited to be able to send them places to share what they do here and to get new ideas on what we can improve on thank you next is Rick hello I'm Rick director of communications and Community engagement uh some of these things have been at the board level several times so they'll sound very familiar uh
044as mentioned before my one item that is not at 100% is because the school year is not yet complete so uh as part of our our goal to continue to improve and enhance communication process between parents and teachers uh we're continuing one of our action items is to be very uh on top of construction communication feel like we've done uh outstanding at that by providing progress updates and uh timely information about any kind of construction related topics that could change the normal routine of the school uh but the school year is not over and we're going to be communicating some more information about what's about to happen over the summer and how to prepare for when school starts next year so that goal will be at 100% pretty soon um implementing parent Square you just
045heard from Julio um parent square has enhanced communication through the ability to instant message with the teachers and the teachers can uh create posts which are kind of like emails and the parents can comment on them and it gets a direct message right back to the teachers so there's several avenues for direct uh interaction that is new and enhancing the ability to get feedback or for parents to connect at home uh goal number two is to continue to strengthen our partnership with our cender districts uh our administ minors are working uh routinely with uh Wooddale district 7 Bensonville District 2 on a variety of different topics uh what they focused on most recently is aligning our English curriculum as well as uh collaborating to do a survey on current freshmen to see how their transition
046went from 8th grade to freshman year so that we can improve upon that process for the next set of Bon who migrate here to Fenton High School and make it easier for them to to join the family so goal number three we change slides is to continue the comprehensive approach to meeting basic student and family needs that enhance the students ability to best learn so we don't want students focusing on their hunger they're not going to learn if they're hungry and they're wondering what what they're going to be eating so we were able to implement uh free lunch and breakfast for all students that is tied to the national school lunch program so we get reimbursed for that that has been a huge achievement and a big opportunity for all of our students to to
047stay engaged and stay focused on their their classes uh our action number two is to support the growth of the Bensonville Woodale food pantry while continuing to provide food for families which is an opportunity for our families to come here to Fenton High School and get uh food that could supplement any kind of family situation they may have we had it yesterday we gave away 200 packs of food um to residents of Bensonville Wooddale and Addison our students were out there um learning a life experience of it's hard to ask for help and they saw people firsthand coming to our school seeing us as a resource that could keep their family going and it humbled them to see people that they knew uh people that um dressed like uh like them who said I I
048can't quite make it I need a little I need a little help and um that was a big Growing Experience for our students and then as far as the events in Woodale food pantry goes I serve on the board of directors I'm currently the president uh we've been working on different operational methods we just acquired 100 $9,000 new Refrigeration truck that will help the food pantry recover food bring it to the pantry and then distribute it to our families and our neighbors so we're helping the entire Community there um and then action three provide additional parent programming to inform and Empower students and families you've seen several of these presentations um we have provided additional programming including crime prevention and family related uh topics through Partnerships with the glenbard parent series which is a Consortium
049of multiple high schools that come together to decide what topics are important and to address them be sure consulting which is several retired and current law enforcement professionals and the YWCA and then action number four promote the Fenton Care's mental health program and make it as accessible as possible to students this is one of those incredible stories that we don't talk about as much but uh Fenton cares was funded by a $249,000 grant from the Illinois Department of Public Health we blasted that when we first got it and then we've been strategically sending it out at certain times when families might need a little bit of assistance and then our great student support uh staff is always offering that if they're uh engaging with students or family members um families can get free counseling no
050questions asked we just need their name know that there are students here um and they don't have to worry about insurance so that's been a great asset for us and then goal number four implement the Community Partnerships that uh immense students and authentic life experiences we've had that incubator here a lot and that's an incredible program so the incubator program was rolled out for the first time this year a huge undertaking by Michelle Papa nikolo Claudia L cler Lewis Garcia and Anthony luigio they're teaching students how to create and sustain their own businesses so uh we've all been working together to bring in business professionals from the community into the school multiple times a month to work with the students uh who are doing this type of work for their livelihoods and showing the kids
051how they can do it um and then they're progressing and on May 9th we're going to have a pitch night where just like Shark Tank the students are going to go up on the auditorium and they're going to say this is what I'm inventing I'm worthy of an investment and some of the people who have donated to us are going to be judging them and giving them real life feedback and then somebody gets money three different groups I believe get money to start their business or to continue their education in those uh in those areas all right action number three establish Pace framework for College and Career Readiness programming uh the pace framework outlines everything we do at Fenton to support students in preparing for their careers postsecondary education and financial planning a dedicated group
052of counselors teachers staff and administrators finalized the framework this week after multiple planning sessions over the years while it builds on many existing initiatives the process also allowed us to refine and enhance our efforts to provide more comprehensive support systems for our students as they're looking ahead into their time after Fenton um action three our diverse job fair attendees some of these are going real hand inand because we're trying to get people from the business Community to tell us what's realistic to be teaching our students we're bringing people from the business community in to work with our students on creating their own businesses so we might as well bring them into our career fair um we've had the largest turnout that we've ever had these last couple of years again huge shout out to Michelle
053Papa nikolow and Claudia L clerk um we've been getting at least one but usually two three or four businesses or organizations for each of our seven career Pathways so the opportunities that students could be pursuing in their education they're seeing real examples right here at their career fair where they can ask questions thank you now securing sorry now now securing the future with Britney and Bruce yes we're going to tag team this um I'll start with Goal one uh which was to create a construction Dash dashboard to track status of various construction and renovation projects uh this school year we launched Master Library software suite for work orders and scheduling uh we rolled this out at the start of the school year the system offers Advanced reporting as well as automated workflows for notifications and
054approval um Expediting Expediting workflows for both b& and the staff in the building uh the fentin community is notified of construction updates through our district website as well as parents Square which Rick and Julia talked about previously that was rolled out during this school year as well uh goal number goal number two uh continually monitor progress on the long range facilities plan and regularly report updates to the community uh our action number one was working with Architects construction management and various fent stakeholders to finalized construction work related to the stem Wing uring timely on budget uh completion project completion uh regular construction reports uh progress reports are shared at board meetings and on the district's website and in addition we also meet on a bi-weekly basis uh internally with our team we call it our
055oacm owners architect construction managers and share it with uh other division leaders uh administrators and the construction folks and Architects uh and that information is shared uh than with those folks there throughout the building uh on a more informal basis but uh regular construction uh progress reports are shared at board meetings uh as I said classroom renovation work uh for vacated science rooms will be completed this summer um we'll continue to address the life safety projects through the building throughout the building as well um and uh that that'll be a continuing uh progress for long range facility planning goal number three aligning the budget to support the goals of the 22 through 2025 strategic plan uh we aligned the budget with sustainability goals such as LED lighting Energy savings programs via consumption reductions uh the
056new steming will be more en efficient energy efficient with a new HVAC system and a building automation system in place and that building automation system will be implemented throughout the entire uh complex not just the new Wing but everywhere uh which will greatly improve our efficiencies in our automation systems the district continues to participate in the pjm emergency load response program whereby energy usage is reduced at peak times and the district receives repaid payments for that um and goal number four uh continue to Monitor and manage District resources to secure Financial strength and maintain reasonable reserves uh we are fortunate enough to receive the uh maintenance Grant which is a maning Grant from the Illinois uh state of Illinois Board of Education uh it's a $50,000 Grant we match that uh we do have a
057life Safety project lined up this summer to complete that and we'll use those funds for that uh other Grant resources uh will continue to be sought after that we can be uh used for facility improvements um and uh we will continue to uh carefully evaluate as we move forward uh with the funds we have available to continue to prioritize and carefully uh select projects um that are in most need that will include life safety projects uh going forward and finally goal five is to continue technology infrastructure upgrades to improve reliability and security I talked about eate quite a bit uh it's vital for not only our school district but many school districts across the country in supporting and maintaining our Network infrastructure to give a rep recap of the projects we've completed so far in
058summer 2024 we replaced our Nimble dat storage infrastructure our e-rate funded projects from last year which were our firewall and access points were installed and completed in Fall of 20124 uh the these were all completed as part of a routine um equipment refresh cycle to make sure our infrastructure aligns with advancing security and performance needs lastly Milestone our new video um our new security camera system was installed and fully implemented in Winter of 2025 this new system will give us the scalability that we need as we're expanding the new steming um and also improve surveillance capabilities around the building thank you thank you Britney and I'd like to thank our ad how about a round of applause for our administrators and I to uh to go through the Strategic plan but more importantly our entire
059school school Community who participated in making this strategic plan come to life uh in all these different areas and it's been a a great success and thank you for the board in the process that was developed to develop the Strategic plan and your oversight over the years but I just want to thank everyone for that okay Lorenzo come on back up I know you gave us a little bit already in the Strategic plan but yeah part two no this is my favorite kind of uh update to give because I get to share basically uh some of the activities that have been going around the school cult to celebrate um our multiculturalism multilingualism around the building there's always something fun going on at the building all of it comes from um a committee work that's made
060up of of kids and teachers that are very active and have great ideas so just before I get going like it's my favorite thing to give an update about because I think it's like you know it gets lost sometimes but the school really is a home for our kids and all this work uh is is done to ensure that every single one of our kids feels um at home at Fenton not just that they go to Fenton but they are a Fenton bison that they are of here that they belong here and so that's what this is all about so it's a lot of fun um and I just get to go with the ideas that they have but just to share a few things so obviously February was Black History Month we had a
061number of events going on around the school um some highlights include a musical performance from uh Chicago recording artists actually they've they've kind of performed at musical Fest but tuim man and Victoria JBE they do afro beats and some a some some drumming you can see there from the photo it was very interactive they had some of our kids get on stage and they kind of just on the spot um got in Rhythm which was really really cool to see um it was it was a good Rhythm you laugh but it's good uh we had Taste of Soul Food during lunch periods where we had um some really delicious food from a place in Melrose delivered um in that way we could support black owned businesses as well as part of black history month and
062then we had our second ever evening of black Excellence which is is always good to see because the second one is means like wow maybe we we established a new tradition here which is really cool to see um and so here's some more photos from that we put together that flyer students were able to sign up classes were able to go to that performance um and you can see some more photos of the performance in our Auditorium the kids were really into it oh no I'm I'm doing it oh you're I'm in control here Lorenzo my apologies Britney yeah gave you go your P got the special clicker here okay um and then uh here's some more photos uh we had some VIPs at the evening of black Excellence we had uh tuim man was
063such a joy uh for our our performance at the school that we had him back to perform at evening of black Excellence got the parents involved um the honorable Judge Shantel Porter first black judge in the county of DuPage uh joined us again again and gave a keynote uh um a dress that was really moving and inspiring and then uh our our choir performed as well that was another big highlight of the night um you can see here uh great turnout bigger turnout than last year even so it does feel like we've established something and you know it is it does feel nice to establish new tradition um good food um family community and a shout out to our student MC's for the night who are really outstanding and charismatic Kiki and lenise um but
064again um this was rescheduled by the way we had that one night where we had to reschedule it was in February and it was a really cold night and we had to reschedule and we were worried about it so I even went to the kids and I said do you still want to do it and the leadership of the black student union said of course yeah we we have to do it like it's already become a thing that they really look forward to and and want to do and they let it they mced it they did a great job and uh it's their night and we get to be a part of it now so that's that's really cool um here's some another photo some VIPs in there many of the board was there right
065uh but but there's our uh the the students that stayed late for the towards the end of the night for from the black student union and big shout out to Flo Brock who is the leader of the black student union as well she does a fantastic job uh with our students um another another event that happened March 11th so Ramadan for our Muslim Students uh who observe started in late February this year which is a little bit earlier um and so they do this thing called a faston we've been doing it for a few years now but the idea of faston is uh to to get non-muslim students to like feel solidarity right so it's like it's kind of like try fasting for a day and see if you can handle it and then at
066the end of the night if you make it you fast the whole day we get to break our fast together in community with our families parents show up uh and we have a big Feast uh and so that's what it is again bringing the community together with food um good turnout again always I I remember to take the picture at the end of the night when folks have left but um uh really good turnout for that as well um and our students were able to share their experience right like what it meant to fast and it was really cool to hear from some of our parents uh share out why uh the the tradition is important to them some of the things that it brings out in them um and so a night of Education
067a night where our Muslim Students really get to feel seen um and again making Fenton once again a place where it's like that's home too right I get to share about this tradition that is really important to me with folks that maybe have not heard about it and and we get to share a meal and we get to bring the whole family there so that was really um awesome and then even today so this photo is from earlier today so uh March is with its history month we've been doing um we've been doing some things here and there but um this this idea was brought up from uh uh Miss rendin and a few students as well but um wouldn't it be cool if we we gave a self-defense class for our our young ladies
068it was open to anybody we prioritized and marketed it kind of uh towards our girls and so we had mostly girls there uh we filled up capacity the the agency Thousand Waves in Chicago um came in and they said max 30 and we filled it up with 30 and so there was great interest and they were engaged and they learned some Basics about uh self defense right um how to protect yourself how to feel empowered um especially a lot of seniors and juniors as they get ready to to leave fencing and so that was really meaningful so yeah that was just you can see it's proof cuz I'm wearing the same Western outfit today that happened today um and so yeah that's just a few things that have been going on um again there's there's
069still a few months left and um we're looking forward to a lot to do uh still for so for some of the cultural celebrations um diversity committee is free to anybody to to join and so I encourage you to send us your ideas thank you thanks Lorenzo [Applause] okay I have this one this is an informational item which will ask ask you to take action later so there has been a proposed amendment to the DuPage West cook intergovernmental agreement this is a fairly large organization as you could see that serves Dage and West cook and there's quite a few specialed co-ops who are underneath this umbrella of the dwc like for example nedc sass laty just to name a few but basically what they do is they specialize in students uh that have are hearing
070impaired or vision impaired and um rather than each of these individual co-ops try to serice kids they all pull together and there's certain locations uh I believe the vision impaired is in Addison and hearing is in in uh Hinsdale and so what happened is this board took action in February they wanted transition from a traditional board that meets once or twice a year to Simply an oversight committee so they already approved that uh netc Todd putam the executive director of netc uh voted in favor of it pretty much that's what they want to do so why am I bringing this up well each individual District also has to approve it for it uh to take effect now what is the impact on Fenton really there is no impact because because uh right now we don't
071have any students in the in the program and this program really doesn't cost anything however I will ask for approval uh to allow the dwc to transition to an oversight committee uh later as an action item any questions okay Jose yes uh so these are the that we received in the last month and they have all been um resolved thank you Jose okay under other we have uh added in the certified Staffing plan for next school year I would I'd like to thank uh particularly uh Kate and Dr Canda who have been working on this along with the other uh division leaders and basically we're going to review it here in as an informational item for discussion and then we'll ask to take action on it because once you take action on this that's when
072we would post positions um you know for areas that we need postings for so with that said Kate um yeah so as you can see I think overall the trend that you'll notice along the bottom is that our enrollment is decreasing as has been projected for a while um and going along with that is you can also see a decrease in our staff Staffing plan so if you look at uh the projection for next year uh I think you know there's a couple of different Trends but overall our electives have varied over the years and that really has to do with student interest right so sometimes kids come in and they really all want to take a culinary class or a Woods class so so that's pretty usual but what we're seeing um with this
073decrease in enrollment is that it's our core areas right now that have been affected so you can take a look at English right you can take a look at science social studies you can see decreases there um and that's particularly because our current freshman class and our incoming freshman class next year are smaller so those are the areas that are impacted right away um mathematics stands out as not decreasing and there's two reasons for that one we're putting a little bit more support over the past couple years in math um and also we've rolled computer science classes in there so as our computer science classes have grown that gets accounted in there so that that's where you see that Trend um think those are the major Trends are there any questions I see our technolog
074is going up we got more more going on there um yeah so we this year we have a what we're hearing from kids is that they really want things that are handson and so um for example this year we have uh a big increase in the number of students who want to take our Woods classes fantastic um student services is does that Encompass what student service in count um incorporate incorporates um our counselors uh special services like that I got it okay thank you so one of the reasons it's it's kind of a redistribution there so you can see we're going up there um you all know that we have a fact a program that's called fact where we uh really support students who um you know need a little maybe like an alternative setting
075we've kind of distributed those out in previous years and had different teachers cover it the reason that we're putting it all into student services is we want to really strengthen that program um and just have you know one solid person in there we think that'll be better for kids so it's really just a redistribution and that's why you see that increase of like the point8 for student services which again kind of sticks out a little bit okay thank you Kate um before we go through the consent agenda just to note that Jose did provide an updated Personnel report prior of the meeting all next item is consent consent agenda may have a motion did we accept the consent agenda as presented so moved second roll call Rego yes hay yes figeroa yes kovak yes rinsky
076yes Goodridge same Lewis yes motion passed may I have a motion to the Board of Education approved the fiscal year 2025 purchase of an etin UPS backup battery system two Cisco Catalyst 9300 X switches and support subscriptions for a total cost of $85,200 EXC yeah that's correct and I think Britney might have actually have a a brief update on on the numbers yes uh this will be quick I know I discussed it at length at the last board meeting uh just to recap our remaining funds for category 2 for E rate this cycle is 9,173 193 oh I'm sorry no I'm sorry I'm just he's listening okay um in fiscal year 2024 we purchased firewall Hardware in support subscriptions we paid for those support subscriptions in full um however eate reimburses year-to-year so of that
077990,000 category 2 remaining funds $819 3.77 will be used as year two reimbursement of those subscriptions uh we received two proposals uh for our e- rate bid this year uh we are awarding our bid to cdwg for the total amount of $85,200 which will be distributed to us typically next spring so fiscal year 26 is 85% that is the highest uh reimbursement you can receive for category 2 e rate fun funding like Rick talked about uh largely due to our participation in the C program um so the two systems will be purchasing are the battery backup systems Eden branded and starting our network switch refresh uh with two primary switches in our main server room okay drk thank you thanks Britney roll call go yes hay yes figuroa yes kovak yes razinski yes Goodridge yes
078LS yes motion passed may I have a motion that the Board of Education approves the resolution approving proposed furniture from educational environment for the stem Wing So moved second any discussion I like the colors I last I express my concern but I like where where we ended up here pop F A you right that's right you didn't like the ones last month I didn't say I didn't like it I just said that uh I shouldn't be in there with the you know making any recommendations on color combinations so but this looks great it'll be vinyl I I also like that the students had the opportunity to make recommendations that's important roll call Hay yes Rego yes kovc yes Figaroa yes rinsky yes goodr yes Lewis yes um motion passed may I have a motion that
079the Board of Education based on the bids received for bid release two recommend awarding a contract to the firms for Fenton High School additional classroom renovation work furthermore we recommend the gilbank change order number one dated 324 2025 for a combined construction value of 1,1 149,50 so move second any discussion roll call goodr yes brazinski yes kov yes Figaroa yes ha Yes grego Yes Lewis yes motion passed may have a motion that the Board of Education approve the proposal from C environmental Inc to complete the abas abatement projects as noted in the amount of$ 49550 so moved second any discussion how much more asbest do we have in this building I feel like we're always talking about at every other meeting here I'm kidding I'm kidding but yeah yeah well yeah typically whenever we move
080up tile it's in the mastic of the tile so that's usually where we if we don't disturb the tile then it's okay but obviously with this project they'll be disturbed how much more uh tile do we have that's susceptible to this issue well we we throughout the years we've taken different hallways like the one down here by the auditorium and replace the tile so we want we want to continue doing that over time eventually get all at least the hallway tiles replaced so sounds good going thank you I guess the rest would be in our AAC I mean I the one the ones that we need toate is when you start actually going into stuff so I mean as far as what's up there we're not going up up there so roll call Rego yes
081razinski yes goodr yes hay yes Figaroa Yes kovc Yes Lewis yes motion passed may have a motion that the Board of Education approves the contract renewal extension commencing July the 1st 2025 through June 30th 2026 with Arbor management Incorporation for the provision of food service management so moved second any discussion roll call Red zinski yes goodr yes kovak yes Figaroa yes hay yes Rego Yes Lewis yes motion passed may I have a motion that the Board of Education approves the following items a one set of two shot clock with game clock system and the front Gem and new wireless controllers including installation for the cost of $923 B new nevco scoreboards with stack panels and the Fieldhouse including installation includes a 5-year warranty for a cost of $ 47,48 so moved second who's taking the
082second doesn't matter K I'll take it any discussion yeah I I think it's important to let everyone know why we're replacing the or putting a shot a shot clock in somebody would like to yeah so um ihsa's new requirement is that there has to be a shot clock um so we need to replace both the front and the field house the front gym in the Fieldhouse um most of our conferen has already made the move um we need to do this by 262 7 but like I said most most of the conference has already changed over so we want to you know make sure that we're in line with the rest of the conference and get ready for the ihsa requirement right thank you I guess more background would be Issa is well basketball is
083Mo currently has no shot clock in high school in the 2026 school year they'll be functioning with the shot clock just like all the other higher levels are yeah right I thought I read something that that part of the deal is replacing some 20-year-old Fair plays or something like that did I read that correctly yeah that's true so uh some of them are so outdated we can't just add the shot clock it has to be a whole new system otherwise the fair plays would be fine right but it's the shot that's that's what it is it's the shot clock Edition and that's that's a need for the change yes sir so high school has a shot clock now it's coming it's coming coming y roll call Rego yes hay yes Figaroa yes kovak yes rinsky
084yes goodr yes Lewis yes motion passed no actions necessary for non-renewals and dismissals may I have a motion that the Board of Education adopt the Staffing plan for the 20 2025 2026 school year as presented so moved second any discussion I I did have a question regarding the special education portion I meant to ask what what is the reason for the decline in that number do you yeah so special education is really based on the number of students per class that have an IEP so that can fluctuate from year to year um and that's something like there's no control over some years you have you know 30 students come in with an IP the next year you might have 20 students come in so that's really what determines that okay thank you m and I'm
085assuming you're looking at the year coming up too and all of that absolutely we look at those Trends we're able to draw the data from our beer school so that we have a good idea of that think you someone guess mentioned to us early that we expecting that number to increase over the next few years with special education yes uh yeah I think proportionally not not by huge even though our enrollment is going down I think the proportion is pretty much going to stay the same which means that there will be a couple more St okay roll call Rego yes hay yes Figaroa yes kovak yes rinsky yes good Rich Yes Lewis yes motion passed we have a motion that the Board of Education authorized the super the superintendent to to make adjustments to the
086administrative salaries to become effective for the 2025 2026 fiscal year adjustments are as follow administrative salaries for an overall average increase between 3.4 to 4.4% this will not include administrators who are on their retirement track so moved St any discussion roll call Rego yes hay yes Figaroa yes kovak yes rinsky yes goodr yes Lis yes motion passed may I have a motion that the Board of Education approved the sep Tran Transportation contract for students served by netac so moveed second any discussion roll call Rego yes hay yes Figaroa yes kovak yes rinsky yes Goodridge Yes Lewis yes motion passed may I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the resolution approving a proposed amendments to the to page West cook intergovernmental agreement so moved second any discussion roll call Figaroa yes Rego yes
087hay yes rinsky yes goodr abstain kovak Yes Lewis yes motion pass does anyone have any committee reports I can report that the Bensonville Community Foundation is scheduled to meet tomorrow uh I should be attending uh barring any unforeseen uh nothing major on the action items that I've been made aware of I'll have a full report next meeting as far as the board Finance facilities committee meeting we have a had a full meeting where the stem wi Furniture was discussed well discussed as we just voted on classroom renovation bid proposals um the best is baitman proposals Arbor contract renewal this new scoreboard as was just mentioned and the sept train contract so was kind of a full agenda I'd also like to just give an update that Leo and myself went to the coso conference this
088past weekend and in Atlanta and I know for me a lot of the classes we attended or sessiones we attended had to do with updating ourselves on the process of selecting a new superintendent and the challenges to come with that and uh Leo and I both went to the netsec meeting it was it was held at at the new transition Center so we're able to take a look at that and they talked about the various programs that they had there that one of the topics we just voted on was the setran transportation as well as the dwc which we voted on also our next board meeting is Wednesday April 23rd 2025 at 7 p.m. with ATT tenative Finance facility uh committee meeting at 6 p.m. prior to the regular board meeting May I have a
089motion and a second to go into close session for the following 5 Illinois cs120 2c1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of Fenton School District 100 two five Illinois CS 12/2 C3 the selection of a person to fill a public office as defined in this act including a vacancy in a public office when the public body is given power to appoint under law or ordinance or the discipline the performance or removal of the occupant of a public office when the public body is given power to remove the occupant under law or Ord this as a note there will be actions after the closed session regarding employee contract for three inum administrators so moved second roll call Rego yes paade yes Figaroa yes kovc yes red zeni yes Goodridge Yes Lewis
090yes motion passed we in close actually e e e I think are here even go [Music] oh there okay may I have a motion in a second to go back into Open Session second so moved second roll call Rego yes paade yes Figaroa yes kovak yes Kinski Yes goodr Yes Lewis yes motion pass we're back in open session we will now consider three administrative appointment uh the appointment of Dr Sam vent to superintendent appointment of Kate Ward to associate superintendent SL principal and the appointment of Stephanie Jackson to director of learning and division leader for English and social studies may I have a motion that the board of educ ation of Fenton Community High School District 100 approve the appointment of Samuel Benson to superintendent commencing July the 1st 2025 so moved second any discuss
091oh well roll call Rego yes hay yes figuroa yes kovc yes rinsky yes Goodridge abstained yes may I have a motion that the Board of Education of Fenton Community High School District 100 approve the appointment of Kate Ward to associate superintendent and principal commission July the 1st 2025 so moved second roll call kovak yes rinsky yes Goodridge Lewis yes Figaro yes hay yes Rego yes motion passed may I have a motion that the Board of Education of fening Community High School District 100 approve the appointment of Stephanie Jackson to director of learning and division leader for English and social studies commencing July the 1st 2025 so moved second roll call Rego yes hay yes figuroa yes kovc yes rinsky yes good Rich Lewis yes motion passed all three of these positions are critical to the
092ongoing success stability and continuity of leadership across our District over the past year each of these individual has stepped up in a time of uncertainty and led with Integrity professionalism an unwavering commitment to our students staff and school Community thanks in large part to their leadership we're in the midst of an exceptional school year marked by renewed trust steady progress and strong productive relationships across the district Dr Benson in particular has distinguished himself through transparent fair and accountable leadership may I have a motion and a second to adjourn motion all in favor say a a