001Mhm. >> [clears throat] >> Okay. Good evening to all of you. Uh the June 15th, 2026 board meeting will now come to order. Mr. Loba, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance? >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Mrs. Moke, roll call, please. >> Mr. Lobach? >> Here. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yeah, I'm here. >> Ms. Becker? >> Here. >> Mrs. Ledoux? >> Here. >> Mr. Astis? Dr. Martelli? Dr. Bruno? >> Here. Thank you. Uh we're going to begin this evening with a brief public hearing on the 2025-2026 fiscal year amended budget. The public hearing on the 2025-2026 amended budget will now come to order. The
0022025-2026 amended budget has been on file and conveniently available for public inspection beginning April 20th, 2026. To date, the district has not received any verbal or written comments. Members of the public who wish to address the board just on the amended budget should complete the sign-in sheet and indicate they wish to comment for the public hearing. Mrs. Moke will call your name when it is your turn to speak. Speakers are asked to maintain respectful decorum and limit comments to 3 minutes or less. Mrs. Moke, is there anyone here who wishes to comment on the amended budget? Very good. That was a very efficient public hearing. It is now 6:34 p.m. May I have a motion to close the public hearing on the 2025-2026 amended budget? >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any further discussion? Okay, all
003in favor say I. >> I. The hearing is now closed and now we will open up the regular board business meeting. And as we certainly like to do, we've got some celebrations and recognitions. And Dr. McHugh, take it away. >> All right, we are going to get these slides teed up and yeah, we're going to start with the students here. Tonight we recognize two superintendent advisory councils. The first being the student advisory council. Because it is summer, we weren't able to get all 17 students in the room, but we have some of them here. And boy, that's one good looking group. That was at the kindergarten center. We spent one of our meetings at the K center so that the group could tour it and give us some feedback. We also did a tour of
004Hadley because the students we had about half of the team was fifth graders. Eight of the eight of the 17 students were fifth graders. So the sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students took the fifth graders on a tour of Hadley. They got a little pre-initiation before actually um going to Hadley this spring. So you see their names right there and their pictures. This group was a sounding board for me that I could ask them anything and they gave me honest feedback. I think it was honest. It was It was pretty honest. And it always helped me see things differently. One of the things that stands out to me this year, uh we talked about technology a lot. We talked about technology, personal devices, how's that going? We talked about Chromebooks a lot in the fall.
005Then we talked about it again in the spring. This group actually helped design the surveys that went out to all of the students. They wrote the questions and even giving feedback on what ages we should give it to. But I'll never forget when one of the students said, "I get stressed up about stressed out about having to charge my Chromebook at home." And Ms. Kriebel and I looked at each other and did a double take and they were all nodding. I never knew that was a stressor for students until they told us. So, this council, we had so much fun. It was one of the highlights of my year and I just wanted to take a minute. Would the students, please stand up so that you can be recognized? The students that are here, let's
006give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> I'm going to preempt our board president >> [laughter] >> because he's going to put you on the spot and have you come up and talk. So, I'm going to offer the microphone to anyone who would like to come up and share anything about the council. One of the things you thought was fun, one of the things you learned, anything you'd like to share. It will make the man right here very happy if at least one of you comes up and shares a little about your experience. >> If you don't want to make Mr. Broaddus happy, I'm okay with that. >> I thought that it was I thought it was a really fun time and it was fun getting to give all the fifth graders a tour
007of Hadley and show them around the school. Um it was also fun to help design that survey to give to the students cuz whenever I was taking it, I'm like, "Oh yeah, these questions are what we were talking about. And I think that or at least I hope it was helpful for the board to help consider what to do for Chromebooks next year. >> I have a question for you. I just stand up here. As a student board member, how was your time on the student advisory council? How did that impact you, help you, hinder you as a student board member? >> I thought that it was really helpful because I was able to see what other students in different grades think. So, it was helpful so I can like better represent all grades including
008like fifth grade in elementary school, which was something that I was not very knowledgeable about. >> Okay, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Please. Just tell us who you are. >> I'm Harper. >> Thank you. >> I would like to thank you guys for this incredible experience and for me to be able to put my I would like to be able to put myself through everyone's experience through Hadley's head and just be able to think through ev- everyone and to represent everybody and I love to being able to I love to being able to share what people think. So, thank you for that. >> Well, thank you and you were stressing that empathy and being very empathetic is an important trait and you want to genuinely represent all the different voices in the school. Uh
009that's a a wonderful characteristic. So, must have some parents like on the dinner table, right? Pounding that in about empathy, right? But thank you for that. I'm sure you did it very well. >> Thank you. Anybody else? No. >> And for those who I I think I talked about this at the beginning of the year, but the composition of the council was the three student board members, one of whom was Chloe this past year as an eighth grader. We also had three seventh graders, one of whom was Harper this past year, and three sixth graders, one of whom was Lucas over there. And then we had two fifth graders from each of the elementary schools. Miss Hannah back there was one of our fifth graders. And the conversations were phenomenal. I see Miss Crabeal nodding.
010You joined me in all of these and it was it was so much fun, so. Can we give our students one more round of applause? >> [applause] >> All right. We're going to jump ahead to the community advisory council. So, this was a two-year commitment. So, these 32 folks, again, eight of whom were from each elementary feeder. So, we had representation across the district. We had a lot We looked for diversity in experiences, diversities in culture, diversity in um just knowing what people were looking to get out of the council based on their applications. These 32 folks were chosen from Miss Crabeal, we probably had 80 80 to 100 applications for this one we did this. We met about four times a year and uh this past year, boy did we do a lot. Technology,
011of course, was one of them. Student personal devices was last year. This year we talked about instructional technology. This year we did two school visits with the council. We brought the council in the fall into Forest Glen and then we brought the council into Hadley because they said, "Now we want to see Hadley." And it was a great opportunity for them to get in and out of classrooms and see what school looks like during the school day and then provide feedback to not only myself and our district team, but in the case of that Mr. DiVely and Mr. Gazzetti are back there, getting to share the feedback with them, all the great things that they saw, and ask them questions. So, that was a wonderful experience. The annual report that will be hitting your mailbox
012soon was a direct result of this council, who basically we said, "What should we put in the annual report?" And they told us. And again, Ms. Krebill and I looked at each other, they just gave us the answer key on that. Uh so, this council pushed my thinking. Um the feedback that they gave wasn't lip service because our very last meeting we we said, "Here's all the things you said over 2 years, and here are all the things we did differently because of your feedback." So, this was an invaluable group, both parents and and community members without kids in the school district. That was an extremely valuable perspective to hear as well. We did a lot of great work together, and we are going to be starting a new council with new people for next
013school year um in order to allow me to hear some different voices and get some different perspectives. Uh would those of you in attendance, please stand up? And let's please give them a round of applause. >> [applause] >> And I'm going to >> [applause] >> I'm going to make that same offer we offered to the students, anything that resonated with you about this year, a particular thing that we did, or something you learned, please come on up and and share. >> Hi, I'm Jessica. Um I really appreciated being able to go into the schools. I have a rising kindergartner, my oldest. And so, instead of the schools feeling like the scary unknown, it really calms my nerves and made me realize how happy the kids are both at Forest Glen and at Hadley. I got
014face time with the teachers, the administrators. I just had so much confidence in the district um after that. Also I confidence because getting face time with you during the advisory committee meetings, um but it was really an honor to be able to go into the schools, and I'm very excited for my kids to also go into them. >> Push this to make it work? >> to be green. >> has to be green. >> Okay. Hi, and I'm Heather Veil, and I have a rising third grader at Forest Glen. I loved being part of this committee, and it was such a great experience. I was sad to learn that you had to like leave after 2 years, and you couldn't be on it anymore. Um I just think it was such a great place to see
015people who had already had kids that went through the district, kids that were now in college, people that never had any kids in the district, and how invested everyone was. And the fact that there was a collaboration of parents and community members from representing all the different schools. I think I just learned so much about the district, and just learned how much support there is. Um and Jeff is just a phenomenal listener. Like as a leader, he just sincerely wanted to listen to what people had to say, and so you felt like you could be completely honest and transparent, which I think if you are trying to make D41 the best of the best, I think having a leader like him, it just gave me complete confidence that you guys made a great decision. So.
016So, thank you. I loved being on >> by the way, you can come back every board meeting. >> [laughter] >> Yeah, you may not be on the committee, but you're welcome to sit up there and say that. >> Thank you. >> [laughter] >> But, I mean, outside of this committee, I think it's fair to say there's also lots of opportunities through the PTA, um and different groups in the district to to stay involved, and I invite you to do so. So, thank you. Go ahead, Lenny. Sorry. >> Hi, so I'm Lenny Marsh. I just wanted to comment I really appreciated how Dr. McHugh handled the meetings. His uh extremely genuine interest in hearing feedback from all the community members, which I think was a diverse representation of viewpoints and how people see the community. This
017is my second experience on a superintendent's board dating back to Paul Gordon and the finance committee he had. So, I appreciate the continuing effort of D41 to hear the community not just through surveys, but through individual engagement as well and opportunities to serve. So, thank you and kudos to Dr. McHugh for how the meetings were held. >> Thank you. Thank you, Lenny. That was good. Yeah, that was great. >> [laughter] >> In all seriousness, it means a great deal that you take the opportunity actually to everybody whose name is on the list. You put in time. You have to show a certain element of trust that this is a worthwhile effort, that it's a legitimate effort. And then once you're in it, I think you fully embrace it. So, you were a good first class,
018right? First time. So, thank you for setting a a good example putting in that time. >> Can we come up for air just to give the folks who need to cut out a chance to go if you need to leave and you're always welcome TO STAY. >> NO, PART OF THE ADVISORY. YOU STILL GOT >> [laughter] >> YOU GOT to stay around. What are you going for? >> End of March. Two years over. >> I'm done. >> [laughter] >> Bye-bye, Lenny. Take care. Okay, then we'll move on to public participation. Members of the public who wish to address the board should complete a green form and submit it to Mrs. Mo, the board recording secretary. Speakers are asked to maintain respectful decorum and limit their comments to 3 minutes or less. When you get to
019about 30 seconds left in the time, I will gently encourage you to uh wrap up your comments. Please note that all meetings, including public comments, are live streamed and recorded and become part of the public record. Mrs. Melkus, are anyone who would like to make public comment this evening? >> Lauren Price. >> Lauren, thank you. >> Don't worry, I had time to prepare myself beforehand. >> [laughter] >> Uh good evening, everyone. For those of you that don't know me, my name is Lauren Price and I am the parent of an incoming third grader at Franklin Elementary. He has been receiving special education services through the district since he was in preschool in addition to his many necessary out-of-school services. I am here tonight as a concerned mother and community member to advocate for district prioritization
020of sped programming needs. The third-party sped review completed by Dr. Frost in December was a meaningful step and it clearly identified several of the district-wide gaps our kids have faced for many years. There are plans and training quickly coming together to expand the continuum of services for next year. That's the right call based on what the review found and I am very grateful for it. I'm worried, however, that the most important part of this service expansion is about to fall short. More service models, more flexibility, more individualized support, and more collaboration, everything Dr. Frost indicated we need, all depend on having enough well-trained adults in the building to deliver it. I connect with many families and I can assure you that one of the top concerns I regularly hear, and when I share fully, is
021that we do not currently have adequate paraeducator support, also known as aides, in our buildings. As far as I understand, there's currently no plan to increase the level of staffing. Expanding the continuum of services without expanding staffing would, frankly, set this initiative up to fail. I want to be direct about what failure means. On page 12 of her report, Dr. Frost noted that the achievement gap data from the last 4 years has been steadily increasing year after year between students with and without IEPs. And also that the widening achievement gap indicates that many students are not making adequate progress and are falling further behind their peers. Failure now would mean that the achievement gap doesn't start to meaningfully close, or even worse, continue to widen. At the conclusion of the school year, I am feeling
022like my son exemplifies this situation. The level of adult support he receives in the next few years will deeply impact his future prospects and possibilities. Now is the time to prioritize sped resources, not just in language, but in budget and staffing decisions. Going into the year understaffed would be a huge mistake, and our kids are the ones who will pay the price. It's time to prioritize the success of our kids, which will ultimately benefit our entire community. I know this district has the resources, the community, and the passion to do it, because together we are all D41. Thank you for your time. >> One. Thank you, Laura. Thank you so much. >> Time for myself. Thank you. >> You did very good. You got me. Thank you. Mrs. Smoke. >> Steve Vondrak. >> Steve. >>
023Yeah, I'm just here. I spoke to the Dr. Q previously, and I sent a email to Dave Skarmardo. So, my issue is >> Make sure you speak you you speak you can be heard in the mic. This lady. >> If you've not noticed, this is a 4 6 8,000 lumen floodlight. They're standard things you can just go buy at Home Depot. If your neighbor put this above his garage to light up his driveway, I don't think you'd like it if you lived across the street. But, all the old portions of our schools have these now. When you drive home tonight, drive around Forest Glen, drive around Lincoln, drive around Ben Franklin. And in fact, this is a picture of the front entrance of Ben Franklin on the south side. These are These would hurt a
0246-year-old staring at it from 10 ft away. Now, I'm not here to on a witch hunt for how they got there or anything. I just want you guys to know you got to do better. People don't think about it. I may be I'm the only one. I walk my dog cuz he's late at night because he's a um you know, he's a reactive to other dogs. I walk him on the Prairie Path, look over at Glenbard West in the winter, and for all the hubbub about lighting that field up it looks like a oil refinery. They have the same lights all along Circle Drive. They've got floodlights three stories up coming down pointing at the street and other things. And a lot of other public buildings do this. Architects design the new parts of your
025building. If you look at Forest Glen on the new part of it looking east toward Lombard, there's all recessed lighting. It's very nice. But, I think what happened is you know, the uh facilities crew just basically replaced the old lighting with the fixtures and said, "Hey, these are the new standard lights." But, there's better ways to do this. No realtor would take a picture of your schools you know, at night that looks like a prison basically lighting up everything. Now, if there are security concerns that this is solving it would be nice if we could have a written explanation of how this actually solves the problem. Because I think you'll find if you go to Go Green Glen Ellyn Dark Skies they'll give you plenty of information. And another nice thing to look at is
026the park district has adopted the park district. >> Steve. >> Drive past the Frank Johnson Center down there. It's all lit. No lights like this or anything. So, I would say the board maybe adopt something that says any new exterior lighting we work with our architects on. It's not just something that's maintenance because these lights affect everything. Now that I brought this up, as you drive around, drive down Route 53, drive down Roosevelt, look around. You'll see these lights everywhere. They're invading us. So, >> Thank you, Steve. >> Please >> Much appreciate. >> and under consideration. >> Thank you. Thank you for your time. Okay. Mrs. Moke, anyone? Anyone else? Okay. >> [clears throat] >> Then, we will turn to reports. And as we do, we lead off with the superintendent's report. >> Okay. Six
027[clears throat] items. We're going to buzz through them fairly quickly. Hadley promotion, the Title 1 plan, strategic plan, instructional tech, special education, and the 4th of July parade. Let's start with Hadley promotion. Um we were there. It was wonderful. Um I want to give kudos to Steve, to Bob, to Angelica, to the Hadley team that that pulled off really a wonderful promotion ceremony. As I talked [clears throat] to a lot of the parents afterward and graduates, they were very complimentary about how everything ran, the location. Um so, well done. This is really something that your team takes care of and you tell me when to show up. So, wonderful job. It was uh it was great seeing all the the the eighth graders being promoted, their families, their siblings, and and our staff, too. Title
0281 plan, uh we have one Title 1 school in the district, it's Churchill, and every year we need to do a presentation of the plan to the board um at the board meeting. And by presentation, we're going to say that we have gone through the process. We have uh and by we, I mean Churchill, the Churchill building leadership team. D, I believe you're you support with the process to go through and make sure that we have a good plan in place to support our our students at Churchill. They did so in, I believe, May. They had the the meeting, revised the plan, submitted it to the state, and it has been approved. Um it is not something the board needs to take action on. This is each year we go through the process, but this
029is more of an update that I'll There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes. So, thank you to the Churchill team, to D. D, am I missing anything? Okay. If there are questions at the end, we can certainly come back to this, too. Strategic plan. We met with HYA, who the consultants who we selected to work work through the strategic plan development with us, and this is hot off the press as of this morning. The planning has already begun. I should have put June on there because the planning started this morning, and we will be doing engagement with those who are around in the summer. Board members, that means you. So, check your board email. Um HYA [clears throat] will be interviewing all of you, with our administrative team, and then August through
030October, I should have put engagement in flashing lights. There is There are going to be focus groups throughout the district, students, staff, parents, community members who do not have students in the district. HYA will be reviewing lots of different data sources, and then in November and December, we will begin taking all of that data and developing a plan through a strategic plan team. January and February, we will have the bones of a plan >> [clears throat] >> and we will be bringing this to the board for adoption and then we can figure out implementation and next steps from there. I tried to keep this very high level, but as questions arise, I can certainly answer those, but I left the meeting feeling very optimistic. Cain and Karen at HYA um really are customizing this to
031us and all of those pieces that we wanted to come out of this engagement, I feel confident that we're going to have. Instructional tech, for summer break, we tried something different this year. We said anybody who will be in kindergarten through fifth grade next year, we're going to keep the Chromebooks at at school over the summer. Everybody who will be in sixth through eighth grade next year will bring their Chromebooks home. And [clears throat] if you would like an academic exception, you can fill a form out. We did have about 60 about 60 students fill out the form to send those home, but that's 60 out of about 1,700 passable students. But it was there for those families that wanted to do that. And next year instructional technology is going to be again one of
032our big initiatives in addition to working with teachers on what instructional tech is happening in the classroom. That's Chromebooks, it's Promethean boards, it's everything happening during the day using technology. The board is going to be joining us in in a book study on this topic and then we will be engaging outside of teachers. We know that parents, the community, um students are still going to want to be able to chime in with what their perspectives are, so there will be continued opportunities for engage engagement from parents as well. Special education, um I believe it was May 20th, we held the first SESFA outreach event. And it was extremely well attended. Um I know some of you were there. We had a lot of people that came. It shows there is a there is a huge
033appetite to talk about special education in District 41. After the event, we connected with the SESPA team to debrief. What went well? What are some opportunities for improvement in the future? And where do we go from here? This was the first of many engagements events that we'll be doing. And a lot of the positives stemmed around we had a lot of people who came out. They submitted questions in advance. They have questions. Um getting common vocabulary was one of the the desires going into this meeting. And then we talked about what what could we do differently? I think some of the biggest points that came out of that conversation were we called the event the state of education in District 41. A lot of people weren't sure what that meant. So some of the feedback
034we got is that wasn't what we exactly what we thought it was going to be. So for future events we're going to make it more clear what the topic is. We'll focus on smaller topics. There are in Dr. Frost's review, I think there's 11 different recommendations. So we're going to we're going to chunk those out. And we're really going to listen to one of them is staffing allocations that we heard how do we do staffing allocations? And as you'll see in in the board meeting, we are increasing some of the special ed allocations now that the dust has settled around the continuum of services. Who was choosing some of our structured programs? We did see that there is a need for increased staffing. And I think just to let families know what goes on behind
035the curtains in terms of how we do staffing, um which isn't just for special ed but for I mean, David, I'm looking at you and Eric, it is for we do staffing across the district every year and seeing where do we need more and less. But I I I don't know that families know that as much as they need to know that. So that will be something we are going to want to do some engagement on as well. Um so, lots of opportunities moving forward. We will have events next year to come, but I think for me the biggest positive of this was the fact that people showed up. They're they're involved, and they want to be a part of making this an even more beneficial experience. Um kudos to Molly Victor, to the assistant
036principals who were fielding questions, um to all the parents who showed up, and to Sefa who really helped us basically giving us some ideas of what do people want to talk about. We really need to keep hearing that voice. Um so, to be continued. The first of many events. And finally, speaking of events, we are once again going to walk in the 4th of July parade. We have uh board members walking. We have district administrators, building administrators, families, students, staff. Um it's going to be a fantastic time. If you have not reached out, there was a form to fill out. If you missed that form, please reach out to Erica Crabiol uh and connect with her. T-shirts will be avail- available, I think, July 1st, and we'll be walking in the parade on the 4th.
037Questions? >> Questions? Comments? [clears throat] Thoughts? >> One comment I have, you know, we talk about special ed and special ed staffing. I think one of the most important things because I will tell you, you know, I can I can echo some words that are said tonight. I think I'm also worried about special ed staffing for next year. I'm worried about it in two points because I think whenever you implement something new, it's easy to say, "We need to throw people at it." And there's a part of me that says, "Yeah, I think that's also true." Um but there's another part of me that like I think it's also really important is flexibility. And this isn't actually a comment or a question to the superintendent, it's also a comment or question more to the board
038as to these continuing these conversations throughout the year, and thinking as a board as to what we do to make sure that we're in a place to give flexibility to administration so when needs arise as they arise and we start implementing you know of a continuous that are different from what we have in the past as you things may come up that may not have been anticipated that you may say hey when implementing this we see a need for this as a board I want I would I would ask all of us to be mindful of that and to be flexible and willingness to be flexible as needs arise because the way to do this is to invest not just with our money and our time but also with our actions and our thinking and
039and just be mindful of letting this progress the way that it should and it's easy to say yes to our staff and that it's also more important I think to be mindful when you do it and that you can do it effectively and that you allow administration the ability to say we see a need here we see a need there and be open to listen to that as it arises and give the administration ability to do so. >> Anyone else? You know yeah Katie please. >> Yeah I think I would just say thank you for giving us the opportunity to come and listen at the special ed meeting. It was the first one that I had personally attended and seeing I think some of the emotion in the room because we all want what is
040best for kids our kids the other kids in the district and it really gave me perspective into the review and what we're looking at and working on and I had a few questions you touched on all of them just now Jeff so I don't have any further questions but you spent about 45 minutes with me talking through it earlier today and I'm very very appreciative of that and we we we really appreciate you looking out for kids and um and Molly, too. I know she's not here, but it's been a lot of work that you're undertaking and after talking to you, I got the feeling it's going in the right direction. >> And I I was just going to note that of the six items that you have up there, uh the strategic plan, instructional
041tech, and special ed uh are all uh very weighty uh and impactful items uh that need to be addressed, that do take resources, that take time, that take thought, uh and the the district and the board have committed to addressing them all in the next year. And these are ongoing items, so they're all being prioritized, and uh I think that in and of itself hopefully communicates to the community uh the degree of partnership between the district and the board uh to to do these impactful uh to take these impactful steps and make the kind of change uh that seem appropriate, that the time is is now to to address them. So W- We want to do a lot. We're going to uh set the bar high. And uh I think that's what uh we're all
042committed to doing, so uh just underscore the weight of the of the items. Uh but I'm pretty confident where we're going to go. Okay? So, thank you. All right, then board members, before we let you go for the summer, what have Any What have you been up to? Any reports at this point? School, of course, is out of session, but >> I have one, and I don't I just like to piggyback on what Jeff was saying about um eighth grade promotion. And you talked about Steve diving your team and what they did put together. I think we have to give a huge shout out to the eighth grade students and and what they put together um, in that promotion ceremony. They did a heck of a job. I mean, we had our three student board
043members lead the the ceremony and we had a number, I mean, four, five, I don't know. Um, eighth graders come up and speak and they did an excellent job. I think probably what was most what hit me most was the support that the eighth grade class had for their their classmates. Classmates that may have been in different positions than them and then the support that they showed was impactful to me. And it's it's something I'd seen from this table um, throughout the year of of with, you know, the the Special Olympics track team you had X number of participants and 18, 19, however many um, student coaches it was. I mean, um, I just like to say, you know, that shout out to what they did put that together. The ones that presented and the
044ones that showed the support of their classmates was impressive. >> And particularly that that twirl around thing that you did there with >> was impressive. That was more of an athletic feat. I mean, >> [laughter] >> It certainly was a highlight. But yes, it's wonderful. It was a wonderful evening. Anybody? Julie? >> Looking for the button. I just I tuned into the uh, spring chorus concert at Hadley. I don't know when it was, a couple weeks ago. Delightful. I love watching kids do their thing. So, really nice um, shout out to Mr. Marchesi and everybody else involved. It was lovely. >> Very good. Amy? >> I was going to add on to Jay's thoughts on the uh, eighth grade promotion. I also wanted to say both last year and this year the seventh grade band
045played and it was absolutely phenomenal listening to them and having them there. >> Yeah. That was very nice. Yeah, Katie. >> Yeah, second all of that. It's been my favorite board event yet. So, great job organizing. I also attended the final PET Committee meeting of the school year and they're just lovely group to work with, Erica Nelson. And we just talked a lot about what's upcoming next year and future plans and trying to brainstorm ideas of getting PET more involved with D41. We they have been rotating where we host the meeting sometimes at library, sometimes at other districts. So, just a heads up, I have a request coming to host one in at the CSO office next year. And when I reach out, you can suggest Jeff dates and times and times of year that
046might work best. Um but other than that, that was it. We'll close up. >> What? Great. Well, I I don't have a a board report. I got something uh a little unusual, which I guess is not unusual for me. Uh but I was made aware Katie Loris is a instructor at Hadley 8th grade and she has a class of immigrant students who were learning English last couple of years and she had them do a short writing um exercise about perseverance and the way in which being here mattered and and strengthened them. And Katie got permission from the kids and their families for me just to read little excerpts, nothing that would expose an individual student. So, there's nothing that's going to identify but I did promise them that I'd read a little bit, so maybe
047they're listening. Uh so, if if you don't mind, um I'm there's only six of them, and it's really just some short excerpts. They're all titled Uh but, this is a product of what comes from our school and how school matters. This community matters. This was called The Day My Life Changed. And again, just a snippet. My first day of school was good. I met a friend that helped me. She translated for me because I didn't understand the language. The next year in 7th grade, I met new friends. One of them speaks Spanish, and the other speaks English. So, I practiced listening in English with them. But, at first, my friend helped me to translate when they talked to me. It was really hard for me to learn English because even in my country, I was
048bad at it. But, as time passed, I understood more, and I didn't need help to understand them. In summer, I studied English so I could improve. In 8th grade, I understood more, but I was still embarrassed to talk because I scared to make a mistake. But, in the middle of 8th grade, I started talking in English with other people. From these experiences, I learned that we have to go slow, at least try, because if we don't even try, we're not going to improve overnight. We have to be constant till we get results. I'm not exactly sure how that fits on a test score report, but I think it says something really positive. This one was called Reunited at Last. This is a person who has flown in to Chicago during the winter. The cold hit
049me instantly, and I was ready to get home and take a hot shower. After getting home, I shared the whole journey, all the food I ate in the airport, and how my flight got delayed for 45 minutes. But, it wasn't that bad. Thinking all that made me think I did it. I learned to accept a big change. From this experience, I learned that you have to accept changes. Not all changes are that bad once you learn to accept it. Now, this one's titled The Bad News. So, the child is relaying some challenges, but then concludes, "However, as time went by, I learned that if something bad happens, it is not one's fault. It simply happens for a reason. I also learned that you have to appreciate the time that you have with your family because
050you don't know what is going to happen the next day." This one was titled Learn. I started 6th grade at Halley Junior High School. We felt very excited for this new life and new opportunity. We had a new house, new friends, new jobs, and new opportunities. I learned it's hard to live in a new country because of all the different challenges. One of the challenges I faced was learning a new language. But, my friends and teachers helped me by speaking, reading, writing on a daily basis. Another thing was that my school was extremely big. Many students were helpful in getting around the school. I have definitely learned to keep trying and keep facing those future challenges. This one is titled Never Wanted to Leave. I'm just going to read the last line. These years have
051taught me that I must cherish everything because you never know when you will lose it. This one's titled Difficult, But Not Impossible. I was very ex- I was very excited. I made many friends and had some incredible teachers. The best part was when I started to talk to people from the same country as me. Even though speaking in English is difficult, I never gave up and I don't intend to. It's very hard, but I know that someday I will speak English fluently just as so many others have done. From this experience, I have learned that being in this country now has brought me so many opportunities. Not everything that has happened to me has been good, but I know that just as there are good things, there are also bad things, and that's okay. You
052have to be patient and not give up. No matter what challenges you have to face, never surrender. Kind of like teachers are teaching. And then the final one. I learned people love you even if you don't think so. Now, again, I don't know where that gets on a state report card. But I think that's greatness. Yeah? So, thank you to Katie, to her kids, and to her parents for letting me just share, and to the board for tolerating uh my reading of those. Okay? >> I think it does get to you. I think it does get to you a state report card. I think it really does. Cuz look at that first one you said. You talked about slowing down and and and and being afraid to speak and that kind of thing. You know,
053I've talked about inclusion and a lot of times I talk over special ed perspective, but it does it's not just limited to special ed. It's I've I've talked about differentiation of instruction, but I also talked about differentiating of expectations, differentiations of exams. How do we let students show what they've learned? And are we giving students the right opportunity to best show what they've learned? And I think it's important to remember that cuz if you have a student that is trying to show what they've learned, and maybe they're having they're embarrassed about English or Spanish or what have you, what's the best way to allow a student to express, "This is my understanding of this subject." And are we are we giving, you know, examinations, whatever they may be, um in a way that allows students
054to best express their knowledge? >> Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. >> But I think it's a it's a more of a thought as to >> Yeah. Okay. Well, thank you. All right, we're going to move into discussion. And but before we do so, and I see that Eric's going to facilitate this report. There is one other celebration that we have to at least acknowledge. And that is Mr. DePorter has once again decided to spend his birthday at a school board meeting. So, happy birthday, Eric DePorter. >> [applause] >> Well, we were counting. You said it was like six of the last nine or something like that. >> We should have got a band to come. >> Happy birthday. >> We should have gotten a band. Yeah. Poor kid. Next year >> [laughter] >> Make Bob
055sing. >> Happy to. All right. What we're going to talk about renewal of the auditor contract. So, take it away. >> Yeah. So, tonight in the board packet you'll see there's a request to take action later tonight to renew our three-year agreement with Lauterbach and Amen. Um they're the firm we've used for annual um independent audit, which is a requirement of the school code. Uh we've got a great track record with them. Um I did ask around in the market and they're still very competitively priced if not below market uh as far as what they've quoted us for a fee. So, um as you'll see in the board report, they've quoted us a fee for this year of 30,400 and then a $900 increase for the two trailing years. Again, when I asked some colleagues
056in comparably sized DuPage districts, uh they were all much higher than that number. So, I do think it's a fair proposal. Uh we've been very pleased with their their work product the last few years. So, I would certainly encourage uh the board to consider them for renewal tonight. >> Thank you. And thanks for doing that due diligence. By looking at the market, talking to your colleagues. >> Yeah. Okay. Very good. That was the one and only discussion item. >> I got one, too. >> Oh, you got one? >> Mhm. >> Oh. Okay. Oh, yes, you do. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Jeff. Please, I didn't mean it. Go ahead. >> Uh so, last month you approved a facility use agreement with the YMCA, and this month we are bringing to you a facility use agreement between
057District 41 and the Glen Ellyn Park District for the park district's before-and-after school care program. Um like with the YMCA, there's a very nominal charge that we are that we had worked in basically to cover our cleaning costs. The um park district is at both Churchill and the kindergarten center, whereas the YMCA is at the other buildings. So, there are fewer buildings that it's in. Um but we have worked this out thanks to Eric, the birthday boy, and David. Um we have worked through that with them, and we have that prepared for you to take action on tonight. >> Yes, both the action on that agreement and the auditor's renewal will come up in just a minute. In action items. Okay, now, as I read more carefully, there are no other discussion items. Then we'll
058move into action items. Are there any other items board members would like to be removed from the consent agenda to be considered separately? >> That's an action item. >> All right. Hearing none, may have a motion to approve the consent agenda which includes employment recommendations, leave requests, resignations, resignations, and retirements as noted on the personnel report, monthly financial reports, disposal of surplus property, donation and gifts, Freedom of Information Act report, investment schedule, monthly revenue expenditure summary report, school district payment order, summary of bills and payroll, treasury's report, treasurer's report, summer bills resolution, and the May 18th, 2026 regular meeting and closed session minutes. >> Motion. >> We have a second. >> Second. >> No discussion. Mrs. Moke? >> Mr. Lubac? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Ms. Becker? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lindahl?
059>> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes. All right, thank you very much. And now we'll move into uh our recommendations, and we lead with supplemental pay recommendations for 2026-2027 school year. May I have a motion to approve the administration's recommendation for supplemental pay positions for the 2026-2027 school year as outlined in the board report. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any discussion? Very good. Mrs. Moke, roll call. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Mr. Lubac? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lindahl? >> Yes. >> Ms. Becker? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes. And that motion passes. Thank you. Second item is building nurse market adjustment pay increase. Administration regularly reviews labor market trends, compensation data, and recruitment and retention challenges to ensure District 41 salary structures remain competitive and aligned with the current market conditions. The recent
060review of compensation data for the district's registered nurses is now below many neighboring and comparable districts. The administration is recommending a pay rate increase in order to remain competitive and continue attracting and retaining high-quality nursing staff. May I have a motion to approve an increase of $3 per hour for current building registered nurse staff and adjust the starting rate for registered nurses to $35 an hour as outlined in the board report. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any other discussion? >> Yes, I have a question. >> Please. >> Um in the board report, this is probably for Eric, right? Um the range of pay was provided in the board report, and the whatever Bob just said is the is the um recommended new starting >> Mhm. >> pay? It's Sorry, right, is taking me too long
061to spit it It's very close to the bottom of the range that was indicated. I know that we don't want to spend more than we have to, but is that spending enough to remain competitive and to keep to um attracting and retaining people? >> Y- Yes, the short answer is yes. The reason is is because I think when we look at our surrounding districts, the feeders and everybody else's, everybody, not everybody, a large amount of people were in the same boat. So, we all moved our pay up for the nurses, and that's why we went up up I think it's a dollar more. Like, the low end was 34, the high end was 41. So, we went to the 35 range. We feel for the next couple years, three to five years probably, that pay
062will stay standard for all the districts because we talked to multiple business officials and HR, and everybody moved to there. So, we won't see like a double movement. So, we feel confident that that 35 is good for for a couple years to come, three to five years is what we're thinking. >> Great, thank you. >> You're welcome. >> Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh Mrs. Molk. >> Mrs. Ladell? >> Yes. >> Ms. Becker? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Mr. Loba? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes. >> Motion passes. And the third item is special education resources, 2627. May I have a motion to approve the special education specialized programs professional development and curriculum resources, Unique Learning Systems Ever Way, TeachTown, let me make sure I'm getting that right. OnCore, and
063Read 180, Math 180 by HMH for a total of $96,633.11 to be funded with the 2627 IDEA grant budget and outlined in the board report. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any other discussion on that? Thank you very much. Mrs. Molk, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ledo? >> Yes. >> Miss Becker? >> Yes. >> Mr. Loback? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes, motion passes. Thank you. Um now here's the auditor contract renewal. May I have a motion to authorize Eric DePorter, assistant superintendent of finance, facilities, and operations to enter into an agreement with Lauterbach and Amen. Is it Amen? Amen. Amen. Amen. LLP for auditing services for fiscal years '26, '27, and '28 as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any other discussion? Okay, very good. Roll call, Mrs. Moke?
064>> Mr. Loback? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Ledo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. Miss Becker? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes, motion passes. Now [clears throat] the facility use agreement between Glen Ellyn District 41 and the Glen Ellyn Park District for the park district's before-and-after school child care program. May I have a motion to approve the facility use agreement between the Glen Ellyn District 41 the Glen Ellyn District 41 and the Glen Ellyn Park District as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Any other discussion? Mrs. Moke, roll call, please. >> Mrs. Ledo? >> Yes. >> Mr. Loback? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Miss Becker? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes, and that motion passes. One more and this is the amended budget. Approve the fiscal '25, '26 amended budget.
065Earlier in the evening we held a public hearing related to the '25, '26 amended budget. Um any other final questions, considerations for the administration district? No? Okay, good. If not, may I have a motion to approve the '25, '26 fiscal year amended budget as presented. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Wonderful. Got you right when you took that seat. >> [laughter] >> All right. Uh I don't think there's further discussion, so Mrs. Moke, roll call, please. >> Miss Becker? >> Yes. >> Mrs. LaDaw? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill? >> Yes. >> Mr. Loback? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes, and that motion passes. And with that, we complete our recommendations, and we move on to our board governance learning together, and it looks like Dr. McHugh has some recognition to facilitate. >> Now, you might
066be wondering, weren't we recognized already this year as a board? Weren't you recognized? You were for the school board governance recognition program, which is for the whole board. I believe you've gotten it since 2020 and received it again this past year. This is the board leader recognition achievement from the IASB's board leader recognition program. This is for individual board members who have dedicated their time and efforts to in going, attending professional learning and events. There are different levels, um and we have some pins for three of you who have advanced levels due to the time and effort that you have put in on an individual basis to furthering your knowledge as a board member. So, the first one is our very own Jay Loback. You have moved up to the established level. Here's your pin.
067>> You're now established. >> You're established? >> make me the man? >> Well, established man. I'm telling you. >> Julie Hill, established. >> Way to go, Ms. Hill. >> Dr. Bruno, established, and you've got another pin for distinguished. You jumped two steps over this over the course of this past year. So, you've been putting a lot of time and effort into that. So, please join me in giving them a round of applause. Well done. >> [applause] >> Well, thank you, Superintendent. Nice of you to acknowledge us. And by the way, it really it does it is very gratifying to have colleagues that want to do professional development, that participate with IASB in lots of different ways. It's optional, you know, it's outside of your regular board duty, but this board has always engaged in in
068trying to get better at governance, which is why as a collective group we have achieved excellence in our our recognition. So, thanks to all of you for doing that. Of course, the bar keeps, you know, going up, so we'll keep pushing, but thank you. All right. I have one govern other other Did you say other, Rob? >> No, other governance. I didn't get any other. >> No, didn't say you didn't let me finish. One other governance issue. You might recall Was it 2 years ago? Was it last year, Julie? >> I don't know what you're talking about. >> The Cost Per Conference. >> It was last year. >> Yeah. Um The Illinois Association of School Boards is part of a national association of school boards that advocate for public schools, and they do it at
069the federal level. So, we're not talking about state advocacy, but at the federal level. And last year, they held a conference, and at that conference, there was also an opportunity to go to Capitol Hill and lobby representatives. So, in our case, Julie and I went to representatives that were within the the district and other members from around the state. I forgot exactly, it may have been around 17 or so that were from Illinois. They went off to their congressional districts, and then we sort of split up who was talking to the state to the senators. >> [snorts] >> And we talked about really important federal Essentially, we were talking about the title grants and funding for those programs. And that conference is coming up again in September, September 21 to 23. The IASB uh, who
070is the state's rep to CASBO and who does the federal advocacy lobbying, uh, for the state association, uh, has reached back out to me to see if this board would be interested in sending people. They're hoping to have a even a bigger group than last time. Nobody needs to make a commitment to this right now. Uh, Julie uh, has been designated, uh, our point person on policy issues. I also attended as a school board member. Uh, but what I'd like to do is to see if there's agreement on the board, uh, that up to two people, uh, could be funded to go to that trip, uh, and to bring policy issues, to participate in training, and to actually walk in the Capitol Hill and sit down with representatives and make a case for public schools.
071So, uh, uh, this seemed like the the board meeting to to get an agreement that you'd be supportive. And I And it could be It could be two people other than Julie and I. I'm not saying it could just be one, but Yeah. Yes. Okay. And by the way, for what it's worth, and it is worth a lot, and this is why we do need I would advocate we participate, uh, uh, on June 9th, the House Appropriations Committee adopted, um, a education appropriations bill, and they made severe cuts to K through 12 education, and that Title One school is going to be cut by $2 billion. Um, 10% of of that. At least that's if this became the the approved budget, uh, and there were also, uh, there were also cuts made to uh, to
072IDEA, which funds special education, uh, and then a whole host of other areas that we're going to see cuts upwards of Well, actually we don't I don't have a final number. Including good best practice research on what schools could do. So, anyway, the folks here at ISB are putting together quite a full robust agenda to lobby on. And this is just the committee's vote. It's still got to go through the whole house, got to go through a Senate committee, then both bodies would have to vote on it. But um it's it's pretty severe cut uh, to support public schools. Uh, so there's a reason to go. Anyway, okay? All right, very good. Then we have upcoming meetings. What? Aren't we done? Dr. McKillop, are we done? Okay. We don't have any meetings in July. But
073we do August 17th, 2026 regular board meeting. Saturday, August 29th, 2026 is a special board retreat meeting. Remember this one, make sure you have that on your calendar. That's at 9:00 a.m. and that'll be at CSO. So, make sure you have that on your calendar. And then the September regular board meeting is September 21, 2026. Okay? With that, then may I have a motion to adjourn to close session to confidentially discuss section 2C 14 discussion of minutes of meetings lawfully closed under the Open Meetings Act whether for purposes of school board approval of the minutes or semi-annual of the minutes as required by the act. >> Motion. >> Second. >> There we go. Way to go, Amy. Any discussion on that? Very good. Mrs. Mulcahy, roll call. >> Mrs. Mulcahy? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hill?
074>> Yes. >> Mrs. Betancourt? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Goodall? >> Yes. >> Dr. Bruno? >> Yes. And that will end the open session and the last regular school board business meeting of the year. >> 2025 2026 school year. >> 2020 2020 2025 2026 school year. Have a wonderful summer and the board will not be taking any action after closed session. So, good evening.