001for board to order may I have a road figuroa here goodr here hay kovak Lewis here rinsky here Rego here we have a COR please join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the it stand One Nation God indivisible withy and justice for all James please read our Finton Mission beliefs and Bice way statements Fint mission statements to cultivate successful passionate empowered Learners through rigor relevance in relationships F belief statements successful passionate Empower Learners Thrive when we provide a safe caring and welcoming environment diversity equity and inclusion UniFi y our community school and home collaborate as one we Champion Innovative teaching and engaged learning with state-ofthe-art facilities we Infuse social emotion learning into academics and culture we prepare students to fulfill their civic responsibility
002we immers students in authentic life experiences the Bison way students and adults at Fenton High School create a safe caring empathetic environment where we believe in each other respect diversity communicate openly grow together and hold each other to high expectations to become the leaders and the innovators of the future K do we have any public comments yes we do we have one as a reminder public comments are limited to three minutes per speaker with a limit this evening of 30 minutes total as a reminder it is recommended to address staff members and students by title and not by name to protect their privacy Larry anzalone good evening my name is Larry anzelone I am an employee of Fenton High School but more importantly a taxpaying resident of bensville I attended last month's board meeting because
003I have many concerns about the leadership of Fenton High School in the direction we are heading I gave the board my personal information and asked the board members to contact me because 3 minutes is not enough time to express my concerns so far no board member has reached out to me there are several employees at Fenton who are who also are residents of benville and or Wooddale that would be willing to talk to the board and express some of their trouble and concerns if the board was willing to ask I believe that I believe that talking to your constituents is an invaluable source of information I also believe that that information will be unfiltered more honest and accurate than which might come from this Administration so again I am asking my elected officials to reach
004out to me and hear my concerns thank you and I appreciate this board's sacrifice of their valuable time good night thank you you thank you for your public comments border I would like to revise the agenda and make a recommendation to move close session immediately after the District 100 informational item may I have a motion in a second so move second roll call Figaroa yes Rego yes close rinsky yes good the close agenda the close close session we're going to go to close session you repeat I repeat it we are I made a motion to move close session to directly after information RS okay good Rich Lewis yes motion passed next item information item James sure welcome everyone our first agenda item is our Fenton class of 20 23 graduation profile this annual report gives
005us a glimpse into the exciting future plans of our talented graduates from last year the class of 2023 and who better to walk us through it this inspiring profile than our very own assistant principal Dr Eric candel let's hear all about the remarkable achievements and Bright Futures of our graduates from the class of 2023 take it away Dr coranda thank you and good evening I appreciate the opportunity to talk with you on this normally we um have this data in the fall there was a delay through the national clearing house so we were able to get it in the winter and uh Rachel georas our college and career counselor works a lot on this report uh the report is a couple of different parts to it um it is we talk to the seniors in
006May and it's a voluntary uh survey of what their future plans are we ask them a number of questions so they self-report a lot of that information to us we then take that information assess it and then in the fall through the national um student Clearing House which is an organization that kind of runs student data about 3,500 universities colleges participate in it they then are able to give data back to us and we are able to see where did our students actually go um and there's some limitations to the data but there's also a lot of insights in it U so as we talk through the data that is in the packet um that's what we're looking at so again the student self-report and then we verify a number of things through the um
007through the Clearing House the so we had 323 um seniors last year the class of 2023 fill the survey out and the percentages you see under the 323 heading um are what they told us they were planning on doing at the time of the survey which was last May so 37% wanted to attend a said they were going to attend a four-year College 41% Community College and then the that reports back to us from the Clearing House all the rest of the items items we do not get that information back so once they tell us that we have no way of following up necessarily unless the student tells us that directly so those who attend a trade school go into an apprenticeship the military and or you know going to go on undecided or or
008something else so according to the the Clearing House report we got now 37% of our students said they were going to attend a four-year college or university we we know of 32% that did um and then for the Community College 2-year we know of 26% that did there are some schools again that don't report this information to the Clearing House it's limited but there are some um this also does not account for a student perhaps who uh said they were going to do something they they're off for a year they might be working they might be doing other things and they're going to go next year so we'll get more data later but for right now this was just purely the fall information for enrollment if a student started for example this spring we don't
009have that information either so we do see a drop in that 2-year um that seems awfully significant what we also don't know is maybe they said two-year institution and went to a trade school so we won't know that so there are some pieces there to that within the data uh but we know a lot of our students 323 of them that were you know that did the survey and were graduating said they were going on to do something postsecondary 6% undecided and 1% other um and then 7% working so the vast majority said they were going on to something immediately after high school those who said they're undecided or beginning work and not attend school may change their mind or get into something along the way in a trade and so on but we don't
010have a way to track that data but what we do have is the 4 and 2E the next piece of this is what what did they say they were going to do and so the the diagram U the vast majority uh said you know engineering nursing business many said undecided they weren't quite sure a lot of them said they wanted to be teachers they wanted to go into computer science you know uh looking at different types of degrees to go into those professions so they they outlined 128 um different programs that they're currently participating in which is the data we got back from the clearing house so we know of the students we know of they're in 128 different programs and they're at 44 different colleges and universities the the the the largest percentage are
011at COD Elmhurst um University of Illinois Chicago and then also down at Urbana champagne the university in the packet that you the the report that you have the eight pager it is um set up where we also then break that down by the school that they came from to us Blackhawk and Wooddale so we are also able to see those students and we can report that information back to them as well where did your students go um you know when they are coming through so so we are able to gain a lot of that information from the report the applicants themselves so the 323 who gave us this information um and that that said they were going on to college 71% said that they are a first generation college student of that 300 123 and
012then for those that are attending college 66% said they would stay at home 26% on campus and then 7% would live off campus but not with a family member and again this is all self-reported from the students the financial aid we are able to get a lot more detailed information on that because via the Clearing House all the universities and colleges report specific financial aid information to the Clearing House so 38% of the students who said they were going to continue on earned a scholarship and they self-reported The $1.3 Million number to us there may have been more after that that came you know with other things they were doing but it's a significant number for for our students who are going on you know into into other things in higher education um 77% of
013our graduates filed the faer the alternative education so that they can get into financial aid and start looking at that and because they did that we are able through the Clearing House to get a lot more detailed financial aid information about what the colleges and universities are doing with them while they're there 55 5% of the students qualify for a pel grant that's based on Extreme Financial need um and so there uh you have to do a lot of work through the financial aid application when you're applying to be able to know whether or not you qualify for these things and so the federal government through the FAFSA and then Illinois through the assistance commission ISAC is the name of that group also works directly uh with the students and their families 47% qualify for
014an Illinois map Grant um which uh also because of ISC so our students are qualifying for a lot of assistance and then we're able down the road to find out exactly who qualified for what I think the pel grants around $7,400 you know for the year as a maximum and they use that with a formula to see how much a student in their family would qualify for so the nice thing about the senior profile report is it takes some time like it did this year we're pretty far off from where we started in May and even the fall but we do get a lot of detailed information so that we can then tailor our service delivery and our department towards what you know students and families may need um and then 55% of students who
015filed the applications also report being selected for verification and the verification process is sometimes the federal government wants to verify they might find an error in some numbers that doesn't match to the IRS information that is sent and so on so they go back and they verify this happens quite commonly or if another type of mistake was made or something so we are able to know how many um students also have to verify what they did which also helps us to understand what we need due to assist and this year the FAFSA form was changed pretty significantly to make it easier but it's also tying information items in together and then finally our Trends and plans for future data in in the analysis so from the Clearing House data you know we're able to go
016back about seven years or so um the the 2020 is a bit of anomaly uh because we didn't get as much data there uh with the pandemic but our fall enrollment immediately after high school in each of those years there's a a 10 to four year and a 10 to twoe so those are the actual enrollments that we know of for our students these don't have a decimal in them but in talking with uh Mr jakus in and looking at our Trends this follows basically the national we were able to look at that and see where that goes but also there is a very slight increase this year in attending the the institutions of about 8% that's not reflected here without the point8 but it there is a very very slight increase um but again
017it it it's it kind of ab and flows but it's slowly going back up just a tiny bit the future data collection we're looking at we're able to take from the Clearing House and break everything down by demographics and all sorts of other information so we're talking about what else we can do with this report to help better serve the needs of our students and their families and see where we need to kind of Target some of our delivery with the things that we do future events coming up that will also help with this we have a faston night next Tuesday where we invite families in to get assistance ISAC comes here with us from the um from the state and they help our families we had one of these about a month ago we
018had a lot of families come through which was helpful we have uh 28 colleges coming I think it's March 14th at lunch time um to be in the cafeteria with our students we have a college night in April um that we invite um families to and some colleges and former students come out and they talk through what the how to apply what the experience is like and so on so we have a number of events also coming up and we do a lot of these items um in the evenings and then directly connected to parents and so on through Mrs jjas and her office um the amount of tremendous amount of work she does as well as the counselors with the students in two weeks will be in all the classrooms doing College um uh
019application experience with Juniors we're going in with the sophomores and so on so we do a lot with this throughout the spring as well because we want to make sure students have a seamless transition to that and it's a process that can be very cumbersome but we want to kind of take the edge off of that when we're working with our students um so I know it's a very quick summary of of some data but uh you know we use it a lot and we want to start digging down deeper into it to see what our other needs are so that we can you know again better deliver our service to them and see what our families need and kind of talk with them a lot with with what their needs are as well and
020that's all I have for you thank you Mr Kanda Dr kand any questions from the board this we get this every year I know District 2 and district 7 are very always excited when they receive this report so therefore they know what Blackhawk where Blackhawk students are attending as well as the Wooddale Middle School thank you sir all right thank you thank you than you thank you next topic Dei embracing diversity Equity inclusion Dei is a Cornerstone of our strategic plan here at Fenton It Is our commitment to fostering an inclusive and supportive environment for our students and families this evening Mr Lorenzo Rubio will present the Dei report highlighting our progress and initiatives into strategic plan theme take it away Mr Rubio uh thank you thank you for having me again tonight um it's
021a pleasure to see everybody again and report on some of the exciting things that we've been doing relating to diversity equity and inclusion um as you know I'm I'm relatively new to this role but i' I've been so excited um and energized to take it on Dei I think is just an extension of my role at the school anyway multilingual division leader right um a background in E to me uh I came into education to teach kids learning language because I think that's about accessibility I think school should be for every kid regardless of where you come from regardless of the language you speak what you look like and this work that I that we've been undertaking now as a team is is just that right um not language specifically but everything else and it's
022been a lot of fun to get in and do it and so I'd like to start with uh this to highlight this night you see a picture of two board members up there um Mr Lewis and Miss hay who's not here with their with their senior kids right um and that's really what it's all about we we put on um a very successful first ever evening of black Excellence first time we've ever done it at Fenton High School um a collaboration between board members Administration teachers and students really a lot of it coming from students themselves um so why did we do something like this um you know we we say that Fenton is a diverse place and it is often um but within that diversity we know the data right it's a we're a
023heavily Latino school um who gets lost within within that diversity what does it feel like to be a black student at Fenton High School in 2024 we have about the data shows in power school we have about 40ish uh African-American students at our school do they feel like they get lost in the shuffle they need a day they need a events they need a night that is of the that is they have ownership of right that's their night that they design um that they get to dictate and it was really important for our team to have Role Models within our own Community there and we're so grateful to Mr Lewis and Miss hay uh for stepping up and being those Role Models within the community uh for our students um on that night along with
024other important um invited guests so this is all an extension of the plan you can look at it from the outside and say like that was a nice dinner and a nice event everybody seemed happy but it it goes deeper than that um events like this is what makes kids um feel like they belong at Fenton High School in a real way right if there's ever anything that happens that makes them feel unwelcome they can always reference point to this and say like but but they put on that night for us right and that was that was a big deal so I look forward to more events like this in the future and I'm energized that we can do that but you can see the pictures from the night um many of you were there
025so it was it was really really cool we had uh a little bit of everything food um music a great performance from the choir who's just right now over there in uh the the auditorium right our kids read some poetry we had uh interpretive dance we had delicious food it was a little bit of everything so a great great first event um there you see some more pictures right there and um I'd be remiss if I didn't say uh thank our even though they're not here our two guest speakers Miss Michelle McLendon um and um judge Shantel Porter of course who who we had two outstanding guest speakers on the night so that was a great start we look forward to to making it happen again next year with this year one as a template
026um to to get into the Dei report continued so that's a an event that that is very student and Community facing but turning inward now the the delt plan as as uh James mentioned is a a foundation of what we're trying to do here um and so I've had um the task of getting to know the delt team uh kind of running it now uh meeting with all five of the strands and seeing seeing what where each of the strands are and so I'm excited to say that we're going to we're going to ramp up the the movement here with with the delt team um I've been calling it a reset uh that doesn't mean that we're starting over it means that in April we're inviting back um dret dubiel who we've been working with
027very closely for many many years um back to Fenton and we're going to invite the Strand leaders uh to have a short meeting where we're going to talk about where we've been where we are now and where we need to go um and I think that that's very important now that I'm now that we've kind of changed leadership in terms of the delt team so that I'm looking forward to that in in April again I'm saying reset but it doesn't mean we're starting over we're just kind of uh reaffirming our our commitment to it and then in May we're going to have a full dealt uh team meeting before school is let out just so we have all members involved and uh sure make sure we're on the same page um we got some other
028trainings lined up uh we continue to to emphasize that Dei is is at the heart of everything we do and so it's very important uh to us that you know any any employee at Fenton High School goes through our Dei training support staff will have that day on April 19th and um we've we've got a plan figured out for for external for our Athletics coaches as well um as well as um some more some different and targeted admin PD on Dei um to end the year as well in May so that's what we're doing basically um we've got another meeting set up uh with the diversity committee to do to plan further events like the the evening of black Excellence to end the year so you're going to have a lot more fun events like
029that happening and that you'll hear about um but internally we've also got this on the horizon and we're we're excited to to get it going again so that's that's all I have for you I don't know if there's any questions I have one small question actually so you know you're talk about the reset that we're delving more into this um how are you kind of putting together I don't want to say a report card but like an assessment like where we are right are we 10% where we want to be 20% 50% how are you assessing the effectiveness of these changes but also where are we kind of in that process have do you put that yeah that's a good question so actually within the delt uh structure accountability is built is built within it
030and this was all developed years ago before I arrived with the help of Dr duel and what it seems like is it's a good structure so basically each strand all five of the strands if you look at our document has uh very focused specific goals um that are kind of easily tracked and throughout the year at different times we actually just did it a few weeks ago um The Strand leaders come together and and make sure all right where we at with this goal and there's actually a percentage that we give to each goal so as of now I could share a document with you right after this meeting that says where we are percentage wise across each of the very specific goals that each strand has so because it was built so um like
031intelligently in that way to be able with accountability at the Forefront um that's always going to be a part of the the plan and so when we hit the reset we're basically going to relook at our goals again we're going to see the percentages where we are and then we're going to talk have a conversation about all right it's been a few years with these goals are we good with these goals should we continue forward do we need to add one do we need to remove one um where are we at and then and then begin to move forward that's kind of what what we're looking at and to say like a percentage you have to kind of look at each strand cuz they're kind of all over the place there are some goals that
032are just ongoing forever you know like hiring practices with in the system strand that's something that is is uh ongoing I don't know if you ever hit 100% sounds great really really pleased to hear that we've got that so thank you sir yeah thank you Mr Rubio thank you so I just wanted to stress out to the board that how how wonderful it is to see our building administrators here to share you with you their work um Mr Rubio Dr coranda um helping our students Thrive here at Fenton um in a minute not so not not uh a school board administrators will be Bruce uh in regards to the next topic which is Food Service as per Illinois regulations school districts are mandated to bid every five years for the management of Food Services programs
033in line with this requirement Fenton will be initiating the bidding process in March for these Services Bruce will provide an overview overview of this process Bruce thank you Mr anango uh and really what mandates that is the is the uh requirement of a federal program that we participate in so this program falls into the national school lunch program um and so we serve lunches we serve uh breakfast we serve Summer School meals uh when BCC was in place we SC shared snacks if that comes back again we're prepared to that it's included in our bid uh will be included in our bid so if that uh reignites uh and we hope it will uh as as Mr T said every 5 years um so it's the initial year then four renewals so each year is
034a renewal um with the food service management company um we do contract that out we've got uh the last contractor we've had uh we bid this out 5 years ago um they are very interested in continuing to stay here we will send the bid out to no less than five companies um and that is required but we would do that otherwise U anyhow just to get some competition and and uh uh hopefully the most favorable pricing um we will it'll be published in the newspaper um we hope to bring a recommendation to you um no later than may possibly April but the process Lally will pick up next month uh when it goes out to bid they come in for a pre-bid uh meeting uh the bid actually is due I think April 15 so
035it' be a pretty quick turnaround for the April board meeting so we're probably looking more at may but we'll see how things go the other thing we're seriously considering is uh enrolling in the C program and this is separate from the bid but just to kind of give you some uh Insight on what we're thinking about for next year and that's the uh what that is this community eligibility program and another Federal program um and it's really an alternative to collecting applications verifying applications um having households fill those out uh every year uh where they would take a there's a formula and of course the drive is if you have a very high free and reduced count which is what we we're over 50 55% or more and growing um so it's it's really intended
036for high poverty school districts uh students that are uh fall into that uh bucket I guess if you will um so we're looking at that and that would be basically a free meal breakfast and lunch for students universally so we'll uh confirm the calculations and and see if it's uh something that we can uh do an offer and uh not have to subsidize the program um with local dollars so uh that's our objective um the board will certainly be kept aware of what we're doing there or what we're going to recommend and we'll bring that to you but just wanted to give you a preview of that so no action tonight just information um the bid process and then what we may look at um for next year going forward uh in this C program
037which I believe is a a 5year commitment I believe it is once you enroll in that so that's kind of where we're at uh tonight so any questions I'll be happy to answer yes sir uh I know we talk about Food Services back in May or something then we did like two or three months later and this is process take year or is something have to Res set someplace yeah no great question um you know part of what we why we kept bringing it to board last time was it all had to do with covid and the um Rising prices in food services so our contract was limited by how much they could increase it uh and I believe it was a 3% increase their food costs were skyrocketing over 10% so they asked for
038the the management company and the State Board authorize this to happen um an increase beyond what the contract allowed for so that's we had to ask the board for that authorization to do that um so we did bring it to the board the board approved it to do with no that was just to do with a yeah a bandaid for the current Food Service yes Financial band uh you could say that yes yeah sure thank you Mr Martin thank you Mr Martin our next topic is to building automation system or Bas this important automation system serves to connect and streamline various functions within the building including lighting HVAC which stands for heating ventilation and air conditioning we are thrilled to propose this installation of a new BAS system this summer a mov aimed at enhancing
039the learning environment for our students with improved air flow heating and air conditioning and light quality in their learn learning spaces we are ensuring our students thrive in a more conducive an inspiring learning environment Mr Martin will present more information yeah it's hard to top that um but the uh yeah we are looking at that uh Mr kobal is is thrilled we have three different independent systems that are not all that reliable um it's uh Antiquated system parts are difficult to come by expensive to repair that type of thing so we're kind of on borrowed time so um we did go out to bid uh we worked with our contractor our our uh Consultants with st um and um the engineer and went out to bid uh we did receed three bids um they fell
040within the budget what they thought it would be actually a little bit less than budget uh anticipated so we're we're happy about that it'll be at least a year project so they would start this summer but it'll take some time there's there's uh a couple of different phases to it um the one good thing is that we did build uh build in alternate into the program to into the bid which covers the stem wi so when that comes online this will be a part of that uh uh job as well this project so um it it uh we did have St vet the contractor they are a uh they worked with them in the past they're recommending that we award it um to the uh in interactive Building Systems which is a local company um
041but that's uh kind of where we're at tonight with the bis building upgrade this is kind of just an informational item at this point and then later on tonight we'll ask the board to act on an action item to approve and award the bid uh for the controls of this system uh i' like call another conversation do we we had about this is this the system that's being replaced is the one that's using like 10-year-old s software or something like that uh it might be even a little bit older than that but yes it's it's uh and it's not all you can't connect it all you have to run around and do manually yeah none of them talk we have three different systems and none of them are you know coordinated or compatible and this
042this would address that issue it would be one comprehensive system that would handle our hbac all right uh do we get new HVAC equipment out of this or is it just a bunch of wiring and Technology uh it's more of the control aspect of it we have replaced HVAC equipment over the past couple of years with uh eser dollars some things as we move along um but this would just be for the controlling of those just this is for just for computer stuff mostly uh heating ventilation um we don't do lighting now we could add lighting onto the onto that as well but there are other things that this has the capacity to do okay last question uh this alternate alternate bid number one I think it was for 226 yeah uh is that an
043option or are we committed to that if we approve this thing well it was yeah it was bid as a base bid in the alternate so the alternate was uh designed just to be for the the stem wi but here's but their pricing would be held held for uh until that uh job is over with so no no okay they all right let me re ask a question so the base bid is for this yes okay that's fine then the alternate bid is for the new construction but if we approve this as is then we're committed to the whole 896 th000 in the alternate bit is not an option but now it's built in if the board approves it that that would be true yes okay is there an estimated lifespan for this new system
044and how adaptable is it is it with what may come with the ref referendum passes well the nice thing about this is system and this is by Design we we didn't want a proprietary system so there the parts are you know we can buy them and put them in we don't have to have a a specific contractor uh we don't have to have a specific part obviously the part has to fit the application but it's not uh tied to a a specific manufacturer this thing's not proprietary we could go buy something off the shelf is that what you're saying yeah basically yes yeah okay which is that's that I'm glad you asked that question but yes that so that's uh that was a critical point um because there's a lot of things in systems fire
045alarm systems that are proprietary that you're kind of stuck yeah and uh for Life basically but as far as the lifespan uh you know we would expect to get a minimum of 15 years out of out of this system uh and obviously you know that M maintenance has it plays into that as well um but yeah that that's what we would hope to get along with improved deficiency did you have a question should uh what sort of security Audits and Technology audits have been performed on the system that we're looking to to purchase are there any certifications especially in light of the uh current you know it climate with uh ransomware attacks and things of that nature we're talking about systems that need operating systems that haven't been updated by their manufacturer in over a
046decade are we back into a system where we require windows or non-op Source software in order to be able to run and operate it yeah right now we're kind of vulnerable quite honestly um and Dr baton could he's chomping at the bit here to chime into this but um this would be a far more uh stable uh system Ju Just a real quick comment on that a lot of it is it's um the network is a completely independent Network it's not connected to the internet it's not vulnerable to outside attacks or anything there's a very specific strict access way that they can get into it from offsite so it really shelters our other systems from this system and uses a lot of even though it might use some Standard Operating Systems under the covers it
047it uses some proprietary interfaces and stuff so really it it should be as you know safe and secure as as it can be because it's really none of this stuff I mean we have some Bas equipment now but it's just completely independent cabling completely independent infrastructure thank you thank you Mr Martin thank you Mr Martin next up is eate funded technology Dr Batson will provide an overview of the eate program which is a federal funding resource specifically designed to assist schools in covering the cost associated with internet access this program operates as a reimbursement Grant which with the amount reimbursed to the district based on percentage of students eligible for free and reduced lunch currently our district benefits from an 80% reimbursement for a range of Internet andw Network hardware and service Dr patson will
048walk us through the details and benefits of this program thank you I'm back um real quickly eate is a program that's been around quite a while it's a Fed federally funded program and it supports uh libraries and public schools and actually some private schools as well uh it's run by the uh Universal service administrative cor Corporation which is a federal organization that really um handles the operations of a lot of um uh funding sources for a lot of programs uh uh Nationwide um it provides discounts it's actually um u a matching if you will uh method of paying for uh Network Services internet services uh they say it's a discount a reimbursement we have a choice of whether they discount the bill uh and the company that's serving us gets reimbursed on a monthly basis
049or whether we just wait and get a reimbursement check at the end of the year and we deposit that so we have that option um it's and it's based on the national school lunch program the free and reduced lunch percentages uh and actually in the last uh year are because our percentag is inched up we're now at an 80% uh discount rate so for every $100 we spend on these things we get $80 reimbursed to us which is a huge benefit for our district um two categories uh the original category category one was simply to get internet into schools again this is this program's been around for uh decades and at one point in time it was very difficult to get internet into all the schools there's still some schools that strugg struggle with this
050but for the most part this assists us getting uh really good quality internet into our buildings uh and then the category two is a newer program that's been around about 10 years it provides for internet connections and what that means is it's the infrastructure to bring that internet and distribute that internet within the building um so what does this mean for US based on our free and reduced uh percent as I said we get an 80% discount on these reimbursements what that means is category one our internet service is uh is uh supplemented by an 80% um uh reimbursement there's no real spending cap on that but we have to bid through their process we currently save about $20,000 a year because of this uh so um I think when we when I first got
051here we were in the 13 to $15,000 range so it's we substantial amounts of money over the the last so many years category two two is administered a little different and and you'll see the reason why we're discussing this uh a little later tonight it provides uh funding for uh equipment and infrastructure on a 5e rolling basis so every five years we get another allotment of funds this is a cap based on the number of students in our building and uh we have 5 years to spend that allotment uh and again it's 80% p on everything that we purchased when I first arrived at Fenton uh we had a pretty aging infrastructure it was it was to be honest with you it was pretty bad um we in the first 18 to 24 months that
052I was here we basically replaced all the infrastructure that saved us this program alone saved us about $250,000 at that point in time uh and we're looking towards this year and next year to basically redo that process process CU those things are now 7 8 years old due for replacement so we'll be spending we'll be saving another approximately qu million dollar so all in all we've probably reached the 700,000 plus uh dollar Mark in savings because of this program over the last six or seven years um what is it again what does it mean so directly it pays the category one pace for internet uh you may remember we uh uh signed a contract you voted on uh uh new contract with Comcast we switched to Comcast over the summer that's a three-year contract again
053at 80% uh category two which is really why I'm discussing this and reminding you of what e--'s all about tonight we're recommending the the purchase of uh replacement access points basically the the wre wireless network in our building uh it's now approaching 7 years old and the technology has improved and you know bypassed many of the things that were around at that point in time uh so our first of the category 2 purchases that we're recommending uh buying uh is our wireless um we normally would have put this off another let you know about it and then ask you next month but our goal is to try to get those uh that wireless network upgraded over spring break and so in order to get that uh in time uh we're asking for your uh approval
054on that tonight it was budgeted so theoretically you've already seen these dollars in in the budget that was outlined for this year for the FY 24 budget next month uh there's another bid now out on the street um for our district firewalls and this will help us take advantage of the higher speed internet services that come into our building uh again the 20% of that's been budgeted in our budget we'll get 80% discount on this we're looking forward to the responses to those bids coming up in the next few weeks and we'll prepare that for your approval uh recommendation for your approval uh next month and then uh the rest the remainder of that approximately $250,000 that we'll have to to use from this program uh will happen next year uh next year around this
055time uh Britney will probably be up here talking to you about this and recommending uh replacing the switching infrastructure which is the actual Network infrastructure within the building that distributes the the network around the building um uh that will both cover this building and at that point in time we'll have enough information that we'll probably add on to that whatever is needed for the steming because we have nothing there uh obviously and uh be able to to use this this funding this 80% funding mechanism to help uh offset some of the cost of the network for even the new B the new building that those monies will be included in the the uh technology budget for next year so that will be all all uh taken care of then so that's e- rate that's what
056our plans are I'm happy to answer any questions yes if I heard you correctly uh was already in the budget yes the the first two items there are in the FY 24 budget and then we're planning to put the items for next year in the FY budget yes well that's already been approved and then we're asked as to approve it again well there there's a couple reasons for that one is because it's such a large number because the actual purchase price is about $125,000 as you'll see later in the evening for approval um of which we'll get 80% of that back but the other reason is because it was a bided Pro bid process just like we go through a bid process for the for the construction and even though you approve the constru ruction
057of a of the thing we have to approve the bids as they come in so it's a requirement for you to approve that bid all right I got another question M this thing says it's all in that's 125,50 M uh and that's just for the tonight one for the tonight one yes we're going to get 80% of that pay yes that's about 100,000 mhm ter you have't and you said we're going to get 80% for the next two steps for all those all that yes yeah the one next month I we don't have the bids in yet but it's it's somewhat less than that it won't be 120,000 it'll be more like 50,000 or something like that me to have a have a total project C this is like getting some pieces so well the
058these are these are individual projects they're not one thing so we we replace this equipment as needed it just so happens to have the same funding mechanism and so each time we do this we have to go through a very stringent bid process through the eate process it goes you know it's bid publicly nationally and we have to accept the bids open the bids go through a a um you know review them and and rank them uh so they you know technically they're all independent projects well yeah cuz that's part of it I didn't know if they were interl no no not really and and typically you wouldn't want the the issue and this is about the same sequence that we replaced these in the past you you can't afford to do everything all at
059once you know it's hundreds of thousands of dollars you'd rather spread it out over a period of time so we're spreading this these out over a couple years uh to to soften the blow a little bit even though we're getting 80% now okay anything else are we expecting the total cost of all three to be greater than 300,000 before the 80% yes yeah the Third one will be a much larger because it's all our our switches and as you know those are you know there's a lot of them in a building this size so that will be the largest of the of the group but it should be you know we we'll get about a a quar million in matching and we'll you know add to that another you know less than 100,000 and we'll
060have you know $350,000 worth of infrastructure when it's all said and done are we are there any concerns or questions around the the back bone between the different pieces the cabling going be replacing any of that or uh no it was a lot of it was replaced when this renovation was done in this core area because we moved our server room into this part of the building uh part of the the stem wi actually uh will be to update one of the the closets that feed that side of the building and then we'll take a look as we need we've we've replaced all the switches in those and we'll be replacing them again but the the cabling you know is is reasonably new relatively new uh and those areas that aren't will we'll address those
061as we replace the switches in the closets sounds good thank you anything else okay thank you thank you Dr Batson next up is our scoreboard update just a hug shout out to Jose Rick and Karen uh for their fantastic job in regards to this initiative this initiative is basically purchasing the our scoreboard advertisement and brand with local businesses uh they have reached out to some local businesses and there are some promising uh businesses who are interested some of them Tero Groceries on Irving Park Wing Stop low and other several uh other local business so we're going to continue with this Venture and um we just want to keep the momentum going so that's a quick update there next item would be the referendum okay um before Rick steps up to give you an update regarding
062defendant building referendum let us just revisit the referendum goals because there's oppositions to the school building referendum and it is crucial to prevent any misrepresentation of our intentions the Crux of the our building referendum isn't about boosting staff salaries is has nothing to do with salaries it's about enhancing and renovating our school building so our students can Thrive and compete with other high school students in dup Page County despite two unsuccessful attempts in the past year and a half it is imperative that we persist because our school build building urgently requires renovation and upkeep during our initial attempt the district proposed $129 million of renovation and expansion which the voters didn't approve responding to the voters we adjust adjusted our proposal to $99 million with a reduced building renovation Improvement scope so we reduced the
063size of our work that we were planning to do however this too was unsuccessful this time around in response to the voters the district is proposing a $65 million referendum further reducing the renovation scope if approved homeowners whose house is valued at $229,000 can expect an additional cost of approximately $222 annually or $18.52 per month or 62 per day so if approved where will this funds be allocated at our school primarily towards building upgrades better bathrooms and plumbing improve air flow Plumbing emergency power and mechanical system enhanced security measures like sprinklers in case of a fire improve Door and Window monitoring and career pathway classroom updates so the vote will go out March 19th there's no question I'm going to hand it over to Mr CI for the latest update on the referendum just wanted
064to have one clarifying point I see bullet number two says uh or bullet number two is the it is not to raise the salaries of our staff just to be clear even though we have you know we went through the uh process of salary negotiations and that ended up being a little bit more expensive than we anticipated this referendum isn't to keep the building or the lights on this is purely for preparing doing additional things that we normally wouldn't have to do this isn't a referendum just to say hey we don't have enough money over here so we got to go get money over there those are two separate pots correct that's correct said Thank you thank you and this referendum has an end to life this is not a permanent referendum that will be
065here forever there's a end date for this referendum because it's just to cover the building and it has to be paid for it has to be upgraded it's a 1950s building when we get to the core of it the facelift that was done back in 2020 2017 is when my son was here in Prior was a facelift the core of the building has not been touched I know we're fighting against the appearance from the outside so just like I got to throw that in again cuz there's a lot of misperception and perception becomes reality and this isn't going to go away and it isn't going to get cheaper and it isn't going to get better by wishing it wasn't here that's right that is accurate that is accurate thank you yeah my three main objectives
066with this is first make sure people are aware that it's on the ballot uh we have the right to vote and that's an incredible right that we own but not everybody is utilizing that right so making sure they're aware that it's there second giving them the nuts and bolts of what our proposal is with the hopes of getting them the more detailed information and third is uh um getting them here to ask their own questions so uh making them aware getting them some information and letting them ask the follow-up questions because not everybody digests information the same way so uh as we see here these are numerous opportunities for all all of the above so these are a lot of our internal events that were already happening people are already here so we're making sure
067that they are aware it's on the ballot here's a BRI we've given a presentation or Flyers at each of these events and then hey these are the administrators who are available to offer up follow-up qu to answer your follow-up questions those are the most important components of this because that's how we resolve the misconceptions that's how people who see it and they're on the fence but then they never get around to asking the question and they're like H you know I'm not sure so as long as they're here and they can see what we're talking about and they can ask us the follow-up questions and that thing that's got them on the fence could help them decide one way or the other that's the best thing everyone should be informed in what what they want
068in this community so uh these are a lot of the things that we've done internally with current uh existing events uh we have three mailers that have completed I'll show you those in a moment to in progress to invite people here as well as give them the nuts and bolts with references of go to our website or or stop in if you'd like to get more details i' like drill in on those mailers by chance um we were just talking about diversity and inclusion earlier this evening I'm hoping that those mailers are being done in multil languages correct yep I'll show you in just a moment fantastic thank you yep uh so all three of these are from the incoming freshman parent night and huge shout out to uh Mr Lewis and Juliet who are
069in attendance for most of these events including these making themselves available um families that are going to be here that would benefit from what's about to happen got ahead start to see what our building is is currently like and um have the opportunity to ask us follow-up questions um and here are our ma this is our first mailer going back up for just a minute we have uh one more event coming up on Saturday um that is our referendum Town Hall that uh is included on the mailer I'm going to show you it's on our website uh text messages uh social media and emails have gone out inviting people to attend so in addition to our current uh ongoing events we have special events for individuals to come in so this is a mailer that
070came out last week going be the first person to use this this function here we go find out more so this is where we invite them to come in town hall is March 2nd you can scan this QR code to go to our website where we have multiple Pages uh with the project overview examples um and a referendum tax calculator and then the next one the flip side is in Spanish same thing with uh reference to come down here and read all of this on our website in Spanish this is the Bensonville Municipal newsletter that will be coming out tomorrow or Friday so we've given uh we've given folks about a week going have to two weeks heads up and then this will be their 2 or 3 days heads up uh for the village
071of Bensonville they rotate who is in what position in their Municipal newsletter this is our turn to be uh at the top so the very first thing that you see in the mailbox and when this sits out at Village Hall at the park district and our main office uh the township so forth is going to be Mr O inviting people to come to our town hall inviting them to come to our website and that will be sitting out in all of those locations all the way up and through the election which is which is great so it serves the purpose of getting into their home they have to throw it away it's not an email that goes into a junk folder they literally have to throw it away plus it's sitting out in the community
072was anything done likewise for the Woodale mailer yep those would be my next question so this this is the inside of the Bensonville one it's the same information that we had on the first mailer so consistency we don't want any mixed messages uh and then there's your wood de one right here so that will be likewise it's always the first of the month sometimes they get it out a couple of days ahead of time got it today got it today all right so we're early a chance to open it though uh so that one we're we're about page 16 I think so we're we're a little bit in but they uh they have the index right on the front page so if you wanted to go to the high school so again big big image
073of the map so people can see where everything is going the same explanation that the priority is infrastructure and the guts of our school and then everything else kind of builds off of that so the yellow outlines are all the hallways where plumbing and and uh sprinklers I'm hoping uh we can get installed circuit breakers and so forth and then the classrooms would be right next to some of the biggest infrastructure because it's efficient over in The Culinary hallway we've got all the circuit breakers right there if we're going to replace those archaic circuit breakers that's one of four walls in that culinary room that's being taken down let's put it back up in a modern way so same message it's consistent uh and it's hitting folks multiple times and then inviting them to come
074in and see it for themselves as Mr O had mentioned the impact to uh homeowners the United States Census Bureau says the average home value in District 100 so that's the small portion of Addison Bensonville Wooddale and the unincorporated areas is 229,000 that seems to be topic of conversation but there are a lot of condos and condos kind of counterbalance that so per year it would require 400 4, 588,000 so broken down between all the the uh property taxpayers uh $222 per year now again not everybody is created equal so if you wanted um I must have forgotten that slide as well you can go to our website and it has the referendum tax calculator so you plug in your home value and it just pops up what you would pay and it has a
075very prominent disclaimer that says go to your actual tax bill and look at what the assessor has decided that your property is worth what you sell on the market especially right now is not necessarily the actual value so what the assessor says your home is worth is what the assessor taxes you on so that number is most likely and especially right now smaller than what it would be on Zillow I know the first time we had a referendum most people just looked up their own address on Zillow that's very different plug that number in and it'll give you what you would you would pay if it if it was approved and we also have uh functions options that you can toggle if you're a senior citizen because senior citizens if they can prove their income
076level that's frozen or it's if they're only living on Social Security their assessment is frozen indefinitely so they don't even they don't even pay the difference you can also apply for um a veteran's uh a veteran's discount as well as a disabled person I believe that's a fiveyear so that you have an opportunity to get back to your your previous lifestyle so we trying to give all the information available can't put it every single thing in their mailbox but we give them the nuts and bolts QR code so they can scan and get to everything or they can come in and talk to us and if they are really busy we're here when their kids are here we are here when we've invited you to come in because your kids are going to be here
077and uh we are out and about in the community at other places that you might be to offer this information and make ourselves available to answer any questions I believe that's it for me thank thank you Mr CI uh next up is foer this month we received one Freedom of Information Act a request from the Illinois retired Teachers Association they requested the names and school email addresses of any certified staff members retiring this year this foyer request has been resolved that is the end of our report Mr President next item is closed session may I have a motion and a second to go into close section for the following a 5 Illinois cs1 120/2 C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance for dismissal of specific employees of Fenton School District 100 B 5 Illinois cs1
078120/2 C2 Collective negotiating matters between the public body and it employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one of more one or more classes of employees C 5 Illinois cs1 120/2 C8 security procedur School Building Safety and Security and the use of personnel and equipment to respond to an actual a threatened or a reasonably potential Danger to the safety of employees students staff the public or public property D 5 Illinois cs102 c21 discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the open meetings act whether for purposes of approval by the body of the minutes as mandated by section 2.06 so moved second we have a roll call Figaroa yes Rego yes kovak yes rinsky yes Goodridge Yes Lewis yes motion passed five minutes we take five minutes thank you Mr President there
079was a typo on the closed session e motion passed okay let's wait for Mr Dr Batson I know we move close session up do we want to take a two-minute break for bathroom or anything people need to do or are we good to just keep going just go straight I think you got to open the session could we do the Open Session a motion first goe I have a motion and a second to go back into open session so moved second roll call Figaroa yes Rego yes kovc yes rinsky yes good Yes Lewis yes okay now what opensession so here comes Mr CI as well as will you we waiting onate yeah we take two minute break take many e it is important to state that the board follows school code guidelines regarding Personnel our
080next item is our consent agenda may I have a motion to approve the consent agenda as presented I move to appr to approve the consent agenda as presented second any discussion roll call Figaroa yes Rego wait a minute I'm so sorry uh what was consent agenda we are approving the consent agenda yes K yes rinsky obain Goodridge obain Lewis yes motion pass yes our next item is discussion or action items uh approval of the October 2023 I ASB press policy recommendations as presented and discussed at the policy committee meeting held on January 24th 2024 may have a motion that the Board of Education approves the October iasb press policy recommendations as presented and discussed at the policy committee meeting held on January 24th 2024 so moved second any discussion there's a lot there it's good
081stuff it happen polic man it's the best all right roll call figuroa yes yes kovc yes rinsky yes Goodridge Yes Lewis yes motion passed may I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the 2024 2025 school calendar so moved second any discussion roll call figuro yes Rego yes paid sorry kovc yes rinsky yes good yes Lewis yes coming okay next item is the approval of the purchase of a 130 moroi wireless access points and 5year Hardware license fees the purchase price for the access points is 83,7 185 and the 5-year lease renewal is $ 41,47 for a total purchase of $15,251.86 from Heartland business system may I have a motion that the Board of Education approves the 130 maroi wireless access points and 5year Hardware license fees the purchase price for the access
082points is [Music] $83,500 70 for a total purchase of $5,250 $5 from Heartland B assistant I'll make the motion second any discussion roll call Figaroa yes Rego yes kovak yes razinski yes Goodridge Yes Lewis yes motion pass may I have a motion that the Board of Education approve the in the next SE lease agreement for the 2024 25 school year as presented so moved second any discussion roll call Figaroa yes Rego yes kovc yes brinsky yes Goodridge Yes Lewis yes motion passed we have a motion that the Board of Ed ation award the low low base bid of $670,000 and an alternative bid alternate bid number one for $226,200 to a combined total of $8 96,2 to the inter interactive building automation system so moved second any discussion quick question does this come will this
083come out of the the the the building fund and the bonds because it's construction stuff um possibly right now we're planning on local funds but if we can we'll part of it would be paid out of the debt certificates okay roll call figuro yes Rego yes kovak yes rinsky yes goodr yes Lewis yes committee reports Bensonville Community Foundation the Bensonville Community Foundation will be meeting I believe next month yes and uh I want to say I believe um don't quote me on this can ask James yeah James we uh we saw that the uh we had an application out for $5,000 to the Bensonville Community Foundation now unfortunately I can't find my email was that approved that was not approved that was not approved this is for the black Excellence dinner that was the one
084for the Excellence dinner yes that was that was not approved was 500 of it approved $500 approved and the 5,000 was not approved however after board member hay spoke to the president of the bensen bille foundation there was an agreement to donate to the black Excellence 500 but our request for 5,000 was not approved okay unfortunately we both missed the meeting due to conflict and illness and this came in the Midway but yeah well that's something we'll need to discuss with them in the future how this vote went out because right because it was uh we were asked to vote but then we were never told the alch to vote I'm embarrassed to say I'm finding out now that it didn't go I think it's just a matter of my opinion time I'm pretty sure
085that's all it was given a heads little more advanced notice in first time around and uh hopefully we can get that together better next year yeah we we did go to the you know go to the well on with the bensville Community Foundation a couple of times in the last year so you know next year hopefully we will prioritize this over uh some of the other asks sure we appreciate that thank you but we'll have more for you next month thank you board Dei committee uh nothing to report we have't meet but uh I believe next month we're going to meet with Mr ruo board Finance facilities committee nothing to report not at this time board policy committee nothing to report we had a fantastic discussion last month and we just approved a ton of
086great new polic policy and we have some new policy coming up hopefully next month so you know policy is good uh guys get excited about policy like me there we go that's my report for IAB IB delegate U we had our c conference um this past what Wednesday Saturday um went to a number of different sessions uh for me one that stood out was the uh was leadership not allow the other attendees provide what stood out for them it was a a session of leadership the superintendent speaking about the importance and role of leadership the uh superintendent the uh board ministrate but it gave me a New View on closer view of what our superintended and administrators go through and deal with on a daily basis so some of the stuff they report back to
087us so I have more pointed questions going forward just into mainly the decision making process that I that as far as what stood out for me and do have a new new find appreciation for you guys after this session well one of the last one he called my attention it was the unfinished leader so that one is an endless when for instance let's say that uh today uh this coming year is going to be my last year as a board member probably I'm Ling because I'm not going to finish my job I'm going to do in a little bit here a little bit there and that is the purpose that unfinished leaders and I see over here lot of Unfinished leaders and I'm very grateful to share the field with you gentlemen and ladies thank
088you uh Sylvia and I went to um one of these breakout sessions with um a gentleman speaker by the name of uh Dr uh Simpson and he uh was a principal of one of the lowest performing schools in Atlanta and he uh was the eighth principal at that school because every year they would get a new principal and he was the eighth one there and he uh said that's where principles went to die and and so he decided that he was going to make it work and uh they utilized a lot of um uh social emotional learning uh he wanted um and restorative justice practices he wanted to get a buyin from everybody he wanted the Buy in from the students he wanted a Buy in from the teachers he wanted a Buy in from
089the custodians he wanted just a Buy in from everybody in the school and he was just such a dynamic speaker you can see why everyone bought in um but we really were just so just really uh inog with everything that he had to say and we would love to get him to maybe come and speak to uh everybody maybe uh not only District 100 but maybe District 2 and district 7 uh in the future because he really just was so such a dynamic speaker and uh we think it would you know probably help everybody in our district so we've talked to J about it um and we kind of you know in the works just because he was just so Dynamic so he you know we really were pumped when we left there but there
090was also uh breakout sessions and General Sessions about Ai and uh it was it was a great conference yeah want of the AI is here it is what it is kind of like social media and it's one of the things I recall about it is it ain't going away so it it might as well be incorporated as a tool as opposed to how do I stamp it out it's it's no stamping out and I'm sure you guys are hopefully thinking along the same lines how was the attendance this year I know Kasa is a is a bit of a growing collection um I know last year was it was it was healthy but I'm hoping this year we've got we've attracted more school boards to that uh to there yeah you finding a lot more
091I would say uh Urban School boards with kaspa and that makes the experiences of the various board similar apples or apples as far as ours so that in that dynamic it proved very useful just with uh different ideas and shared experiences um it was a lot author so it gives you an idea you know we have issues thank God we don't have some of the issues some of some of the other boards that I've heard in their experiences and it's man you know gas what is it what's the saying uh gaset the gas I mean the grass isn't always greener on the other side so things to work on but gosh it could be worse from from the stories that were shared in experiences but the attendance is good in that in that regard so
092it does give us real real thing to consider before I going forward and thank you sir ly sure just real before um we have upcoming DuPage Regional meeting on March 5th and 6 p.m um also in your binder is a copy of the iasb 2024 Constitution and position statements also enclosed is a newly published Ed of glance that explains the IB process of how a resolution becomes a position statement throughout the course of a year L we had a meeting last Friday 8 in the morning um really talking about new possible legislation nothing was was um voted on so still non-binding more to come on that next uh we had a meeting of February 13 it was a regular meeting the operational meeting and definitely we see just the financial statements the listing of the
093classrooms and basically it was just information nothing majure thank you uh next board meeting Wednesday March 20th 2024 at 700 p.m. with attentative Finance facility committee meeting scheduled prior to the regular meeting at 6: p.m. may I have a motion and a second to adjourn yes first motion second motion pass thank you and good night I I didn't think we were going to out e