Board of Education - May 26 2026

001children. Why are you so parents? Yeah. And Miss Mullenbeck, we are ready. Uh, welcome everyone. Uh, welcome to this meeting of the board of education of Glen Brook High School District 225. Miss Smith, could we please have the role? Mr. Downing, present. Mr. Glowaki, present. Mrs. Hope here. Miss Mullenbeck here. Mr. O'Hara here. Mr. Shine, present. Dr. Simber here. Seven members present. Uh, first item on the agenda is to approve the agenda. Dr. Grall, have there been any changes since the agenda was circulated? There have been no changes. Um, in that case, could I please have a motion? I motion we approve. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next up, we have our superintendent report. Take it away, Dr. Grall. Mike. Well, this evening, I don't know if anyone has realized, but

002we have some guests here that have definitely um filled the room. Um we are so grateful to recognize many of our student accomplishments. And to kick us off this evening, uh Mrs. Hughes, if we could introduce our math team. All right. Good evening. Uh tonight I'm pleased to celebrate the success of this year's math team from GBN at the ICTM state championship in April. Now for the record, math team is not a stranger to being state champions, uh which they are also this year, but GBN won in 2001, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2024. And this year, we are thrilled to be celebrating our state championship again. Hey, Mrs. Before you continue, can I ask our math team just to come around here and circle around that screen just so everyone can see all of your

003amazing news. Thank you. [laughter] It's a little tight quarters right now, but it's all good. All right. Yeah, just pull that. You won't bite. [laughter] You won't bite. Come on. Keep on going all. Nice. Okay. Perfect. All right. Um, so the team won the overall state championship and also had some special recognition of our freshman Alvin Fang and sophomore Ming Sun who won individual state championship for their events. Are you are you both here today? Okay, perfect. And uh and also seniors Aiden Dy and Dylan Fu timmed up to win state championships in their twoerson game show style event. Are you guys are you here today? All right, perfect. So, we have our our team here uh with us uh as well as their coaches. We have Steve Goodman who's here and John Cickle who's

004here. Also coaching the math team is Brad Benson, Mike Cample, and Dina Havales. um and they are just a wonderful group of math maths in GBN that um are a powerhouse in the state um consistently and that is uh in great part to their coaches but also to the dedication and support of all the students here and their families. Uh so we're just really thrilled to celebrate. Congratulations on your state championship math team. Now, to kind of navigate some logistics, math team, we're going to keep you right there. Yes. Can we welcome Dr. Georgees to join us with Mr. Wasaki and some of our journalism students. Come on up from GBS. Come out here, friends. [laughter] All right, we'll have you stand right here. Well, good evening. It is my honor and privilege to introduce

005students from the Oracle and Atruscan who have placed at the IHSA state journalism finals that were held back in April. Each year, the Oracle newspaper publishes seven issues representing the news and celebrations and editorials from Glenrook South. This year alone, the Oracle was ranked the top newspaper from Kempa and Nitsba, two of Illinois's associations for high school journalism, and additionally was ranked the number one high school newspaper in the country by the National Scholastic Press Association in April. I get the honor and privilege to meet with the editors and chief for the yearbook and newspaper each month for a monthly principal press conference. And I'm constantly impressed by their professionalism and passion for journalism. In fact, several of the Oracle's editors will be studying journalism in college, including Molly Tomchuk and Ellery Moran. Based on

006these interactions and the quality of each issue, it's easy to see why we are here today to honor and celebrate our Oracle students for their success at this year's IHSA State Journalism Finals. So, um, first place and state champion who cannot be here with us this evening was, uh, Meredith Bill, but second place and Oracle co-editor-inchief, Anna Ivangh. Um, Anna, she was second in state in yearbook caption writing for the second year in a row. am placed in this category three years in a row. Amazing. Um over at our Glenberg South yearbook, the Atruskin, it has just completed production this year of the book theme in an instant. It's a beautiful memoir to the year and represents everything it means to be a Titan. Um the team is now submitted to submit in an instant

007to award competitions now that the book is out. And this past year, the Atruskin was also awarded top awards from Kempa and NIPA. Um but for IHSA I would like to celebrate second place in the state for Atruscan editors. Evan Bosch is with us tonight and unfortunately uh Emita Kasbayer cannot be with us. Um but these two worked as a team and were second in the state in yearbook theme development. Um these programs would not be possible without the tremendous leadership and dedication of Mr. Bob Wisaki and Miss Kristen Porter from the English department at GBS. Uh they have my sincere gratitude for guiding these young budding journalists. Um and I can't imagine either of these programs without them. Thank you so much. GBS students, we're going to keep you right there. And our Science

008Olympiad colleagues, let's come around the other side. We'll be surrounded by students over here, too. Come on over. And I know we have some folks that are also on Science Olympiad. Feel free to traverse the other side. [laughter] All right. So, we are very thrilled um to celebrate the success of this year's GBN Science Olympiad team um who went to the state contest on April 17th and 18th. Uh the team delivered a phenomenal performance and they finished fourth place overall in the state. Um our students truly excelled across the board with several taking home top honors in their specific events. So, we had first place champions in our astronomy team with Hanning and Maxim. Are you both here? Yeah. And we had our first place in the bungee drop with Evan and Sohan. And first

009place in dynamic planet with Maxim and Hanning and Entomology also with Gabby and Simon. We had second place with remote sensing, Evan and Nathan. We had second place in Code Craze, Andy and Andrew. And in third place, Designer Jeans, Hanning and Ash. And in fifth place, engineering CAD, Evan Patel, and Patrick. Uh we had a fantastic weekend at the Science Olympiad uh contest, and we're very proud of how these students represented um the whole school. And special thanks to our science olympiad sponsors. We have Randy Zal who's here tonight from our science department, and also um John Nichols who's in science who wasn't able to be here. So, congratulations on a great job. So, on behalf of the board, thank you so much to all of our students and their parents for coming out. I

010know several of you might have one last or two last final exams tomorrow. We really appreciate you coming to be recognized. Um, at this point, you are more than welcome to stay. I said earlier, we do have a very exciting board agenda before us. If for some reason um it's time to return back to studying or you have other activities, this is the time that you are welcome to depart. But can we give all of our students one more round of applause? Thank you. Thank you so much students. You're welcome to start heading out. That's theory. Right. a little. No, no. I'm going to be I'm going to be very mending for all. But I believe that [laughter] I'm not sharing with anybody but you. Look at that. All righty. We're going to continue on

011the superintendent's report. There is no more exciting time of year than when we recognize the next step in the academic journey and life journey of our students through graduation. Um over the past week we've celebrated three graduations. Glenrech Offcampus, our therapeutic day school, uh had their graduation at Glenberrook South High School in the auditorium uh the week before last. Uh, and then we also celebrated the Glenchrook North and Glenber South graduations this past weekend. Um, a few highlights and and I know we'll talk more about it during board reports, but this was our first year at a new venue. Um, as a reminder for our community and the board, we for many years were at Rosemont Theater. Um, and the ownership of the Rosemont Theater transitioned from the village to a private firm. And at

012the time when we needed to schedule graduation dates, they were not issuing contracts. Um so we looked at different venues and we were able to find um uh access at Northwestern University's Welsh Ryan Arena. Um it there was just so much positive feedback. It was a very brightly lit venue. There were seats for everyone. The the comment was not only are the seats comfortable, which is always a good part, um but there was no bad seat in the arena, uh no matter where you were located, plenty of washroom facilities, all all those types of positive things. As with anytime you switch a graduation venue or or setup that you've been doing for many years, you learn a lot of things. So, just another quick shout out to our um senior class sponsors and graduation coordinators,

013Julie Smith at Glen Brook South and Danielle Flugi at Glen Brook North. They as well as a team of folks within the student activities offices as well as our administrative team uh just did a phenomenal job. So, we'll be um gathering some more feedback from families as well as our staff and look forward to uh another wonderful graduation next year. Um there is a natural question where are we going to be and when is it going to be? Um we have been engaging in preliminary conversations with Northwestern. Um however they have not been able to confirm dates just yet. I think it might have something to do with the fact that there is a very large um thing being built next door to the arena and they're waiting to plan their uh calendar for all

014of their athletic events. So, uh, we don't anticipate, uh, that we would be switching venues for next year, but we will keep the board and the community informed. Um, and based on availability is what really drives the graduation date. So, uh, more information to come. Another uh, sad and exciting topic at the same time. Uh at the beginning of this year, we launched this theme recognizing that we have so many staff members uh our teachers, our support staff, our administrators that really uh make a difference in our students lives and not just uh one group of students but generations of students. So we refer to them as Glenn Brook legends. The class of 2026 is nearing the end of their time here. Many of our folks will come for their final day at Glenrook on

015Thursday this week. Uh some of our other staff might be working a few more months into the summer. Uh but just want to acknowledge all of our team members at Glenrook North South and the district office. Um it's been a pleasure to work with so many of these people that I've been here over the last 11 years and many that have served Glen Brooks 20 or 30 years. So um just want one more opportunity to celebrate them and recognize uh their amazing impact on our families and our students. Next very exciting also maybe not as exciting as graduation is the new policy manual is available online for your review. It is searchable. It is fully accessible. Documents can be printed in proper formatting. There are hyperlinks to statutory citations and Illinois administrative code. There are

016cross references and just wait is going to get better when we also embed in the parent and student handbook. But for now, you can navigate to glumber225.org, locate the board section. There's a policy link and have a link directly into the policy uh handbook. Um, and just this afternoon, I learned how to make edits and more red lines. Very cool concept. Um, press uses three different colors. So, instead of just an underline, if they are removing something, it is highlighted in red. If they are adding something, it is highlighted in green. And if we do something that is different from them because remember we're basing off of their work, it's highlighted in blue. So there is full color coding now for every change that's there. It's very exciting. I know you're looking forward at the

017first batch of policies. We might have found some things that we'll need to bring forward uh in the next two meetings. Uh nothing too too big, but um very excited on that. And again, thank you again to Dr. John's and the policy committee for all of their work on that. And when you um are looking for something exciting to do right there, that is that's it. All right. Uh Miss Mullenbeck, that is all I have for the superintendent. Oh, I'm sorry. One more thing today. Um I just want to acknowledge um uh some board members, Mr. Shine and Mr. Glowaki. Uh myself and um some members of the administrative team were invited to meet with the introduction to machining class at Glen Brook North. Now this was a special time because it was their final.

018So um it was kind of a capstone at the end of the year and Mrs. Christy Rose uh one of our CTE teachers had walked us through nearly every area that existed in the machining side. We got to see sections of the wood shop, uh sections of um really more of our our CAD area and laser engravers and they they demonstrated the work they've done. They demonstrated their understanding of how they actually created products and I brought one of these products here. So, I'm going to pass this around. This originally started as a tumbler that all looked green and by the time of the end of our tour was done, they laser engraved the Spartan Head logo and all of our names on it just like you would get from a commercial company. So, I'm

019going to pass that around. Very cool thing. The real takeaway, not only uh the amazing work that our students are doing in CTE and and what Mrs. Rose one of our faculty members is doing is the real impact we we see so much that come before the board table in the form of policy or adoption of of purchases or or largecale you know projects like we we'll learn about today the real magic happens each and every day in our classrooms and so I hope as we move into next year not only will you get to learn more about things through board presentations such as a wonderful technology ology presentation as well today. Um, but I hope we'll get some opportunities for you to come in, see our teachers do the amazing things that they do

020each and every day, interact with our students, um, and just see what really makes Glenbrook a special place to live and an amazing place to learn. And so, um, if you too are interested in knowing exactly how they did that like I was, um, there are opportunities for you that as well. And maybe I started the conversation figuring out if as we look in our new stadium rebuild and our opportunities to create bricks um where you might be able to donate. I did learn today that we do have the equipment to do that in our CTE labs. Just throwing it out there as new opportunities. So, uh just a shout out to Mrs. Rose um and the team and we are grateful that we were able to to basically take the entire final exam uh

021to learn more about the projects. So with that, Miss Malbec, I am done. I will be quiet. [laughter] Uh terrific. Um you need to get one uh from the Titan lab now. Um all right. Um we have board reports and as uh Dr. Grall mentioned, it was graduation weekend and graduations last week. So, I know that some board members wanted to to who attended the graduations were going to give reports on those as well as I believe a booster club meeting. Um, was the one that you had mentioned? Why don't we just go around and have board reports? We can start with Mr. Glowaki. Well, I'll kind of start in order, but the boost uh GBS boosters met recently and I see some representatives here and everything. It was year-end activities, new board uh executive

022committee members elected and everything. And jumping in on year at that point, this was about a week and a half ago, so it was year end as we've heard from leadership here that you know the schools have represented quite well at the state athletics and academics. So they were getting ready to support that and folks forget the boosters are the ones that are out there making sure the food's out there uh things are there for the kids and everything else and the equipment that helps them and everything. So that was pretty exciting. And um so we I see a couple here today that are very excited about the the next chapter of our fields and everything. And then uh turning to I guess just quickly GBN graduation you know I had a chance to attend

023that and it was wonderful at the arena and everything R.J. said uh about it. I've heard from parents uh because quickly thereafter that night for those that aren't aware throughout the district GB both schools have a senior night lock in but GBN does something a little differently where they lock them in the school and the parents are building some phenomenal sets. This year's theme I can't say because I'm sworn to secrecy uh even at postevent but uh it's you know we've had people on the board that have been involved with this as well too. It was phenomenal what they do for the kids and how the local community comes out to support all this because all of it was secured through donations from the local businesses, parents doing the parents were the ones there supervising

024the kids all night long till 6:00 a.m. and then uh when they go off to their watch the sunrise and everything. So that was fabulous. And then uh last is just echoing on to what R.J. said about the class today. Uh it was phenomenal to see how engaged the kids all were, boys, girls, everyone in terms of uh the different facets of what they could build in that CTE shop and everything and the work that also one thing that learned today how they work with other departments too. It's not just limited to machining something there, but they're working with the other sciences and others as well too to help leverage math for example now practically uh in terms of the lessons and everything too. So, it was great to see that and very eager to

025see if when the bricks come in signs, you forgot about the signs. You were also uh working with them a few [laughter] time. So, great. Mr. Donnie, [clears throat] uh I attended the Glen South graduation at Northwestern. Uh Dr. Grall already kind of stole all my thunder, but it was But your daughter, my daughter did graduate, which is awesome. And so that Yeah. Uh to that point, I I think one of the, you know, great things about attending that as a board member is to see is the opportunity to see the kids smile and they smile and they are so proud of everything they've done and you can't it's infectious. You're sitting up there and you just it's one of the great one of the great days of of the year, you know, I look

026forward to doing it again and again. That reminded me of something that I don't think we ever reported about, but I'll just gonna hijack this time just to quickly report about the incubator program because that reminded me of that. And also the smiles I saw [laughter] reminded me of that. If those you have not do not know about the incubator program, we were at [clears throat] right before graduation, they had their capstone and they all got to come up to the board of business owners and present their business idea. So think of Shark Tank, right? They come up and they make a pitch for what they want to do. And um I was lucky enough to sit on that and listen to them all. And the team that won that we awarded $5,000 to actually

027have a real good business. It's the best I've been involved with for 10 years. Was the best presentation I've seen in 10 years. And these things get better and better and better. And these these kids were great. OS is the name of the company. and they're doing fragrances and their fragrance is faith-based and they say wear your faith and they already have it in some stores. So if you guys have not come to incubator, I highly recommend you come because you see now we've doubled the class. announced two two classes and they come and they present these outstanding business ideas to a bunch of business owners and they've never run a business before and they get up there and they talk like they want your money [laughter] and they got it and they uh but

028every [clears throat] year they the kids you just get up there you feel good about what we've done for them because not everybody's going to go to college right and you feel good about our future and our kids. So, um, amazing job to, uh, Mr. McFaden and the whole, um, uh, business, uh, department. And then, uh, I highly encourage you guys to come check it out next year. And I also want to echo the thanks to Julie Smith because that was run like had been run before. It was a great graduation. So, Dr. Steinberg not much to add but echoing my colleagues comments on on both graduations I do want to go back to the last point that that Jack made having been in many graduations in large arena the coordination and the details and

029these two when I was surprised I look at the watch I said wow you know I know for some people two hours and 15 minutes it's a lot of time but thinking about number of students parents and And you know on the way out this this was great. I don't know if we're going to repeat [snorts] there or somewhere else and I don't know what's the rest of the feedback but in terms of how the whole ceremony went. Pleasure to be in and and hope for many more. Y Mr. Shank I think it's pretty much all been said. Um, one thing that I was thinking sitting there was how much better and better is not the right word, but more like festive and and sort of just like happier the whole environment was than the

030than Rosemont. Rosemont's an older facility. It has a totally different feel, more like a playhouse type of feel. and the light and brightness in the arena. Natural light coming coming in from panels up above and it seemed like more or less people could get as many tickets as they wanted. And I only say that because there were couple thousand seats still open at the top and I know there's always like a battle at least on Facebook about getting you know parents Facebook getting tickets but you know it was great. Um, I hope we can work on the whole logistics of parking next year. Um, that was just a little bit of a challenge, but once you were inside, I mean, it was just flawless, flawless execution. It if you walked around and were in groups

031of of parents or kids, everybody was just like so upbeat and like kind of grateful and thankful for for for what, you know, for the, [clears throat] you know, the event. you know, the the staff just did an amazing job. Plus, first shot through the venue, so it's not like they had were fully familiar at um Rosemont, you know, we knew every nook and cranny, every you know, we knew where to get help for everything if something wasn't working or whatever. Um and the other thing that was I thought really a nice enhancement was all the AV. So they they had the um just like at a game. So they had, you know, our logo and there were there were um projections of the students receiving up on the on the what do you call

032it the jumbotron or whatever that thing is up there. And that gave it this really modern kind of feel. And the one thing I noticed, which I know is just kind of like small and weird, but a lot of the students had decorated their um mortar boards, which you would then see on the board because it it had a an overhead shot. A lot of students put a whole lot of effort into, you know, kind of personalizing their regalia. So, it was great. Yeah. Okay. Miss Hope. Yeah. I had the opportunity to go to the Glen Brook off-campus graduation ceremony and I had not been to that one before and it was truly just so inspiring and so meaningful. each of the case managers and teachers and psychologists and social workers got up and shared

033about the individual students and each of the graduates on their case load and not just their academic journey and successes but some of the challenges and what had brought them to off-campus and um it was just so clear how much they cared about these students um not just their academic success but them as people as individuals and that it was such a close community and then a handful of the students each got up and spoke about their own journey um but about their experience of the school and it it was just so clear what a special place it is. I think one of the students was talking about how they um had struggled to go to school pretty frequently before off-campus and even when beginning off-campus and now they described school they said that school

034was had become their safe place which is really all you can ask for um for a school and a student and it it just I'm so in awe of of the staff there and the students and the families. It was really just so inspiring and meaningful. Mr. Hara, do you have anything to share? Uh, not much to add. No, you guys have pretty much hit it. Okay. Um, well, thank you everyone. Um, I also attended Glenberg Goth campus and it really is a very special um event. Um, I mean, all graduations are are special and all of our students accomplish great things, but um, some of our students at GBOC really have some very unique um, challenges um, that they they speak very um, wisely and movingly about, you know, their perseverance and resilience and

035what they've had to overcome to reach the point where they graduate and for them to to go forward um, you know, out in the world having had this um wonderful network um that they know will always be there from them. It's it's really just a a a wonderful thing to um be a witness to to see their joy on that day. Um okay. Um that brings us then to uh the next item on our agenda, recognition of community visitors. And we do have a couple of folks. We have two lists. Oh, we have we have two lists. Okay. We have so many folks tonight. We needed two lists. Um, we're going to start with James Williams, please. Oh, I'm sorry. I should read my little um public comment preamble first. Can you hang on just

036one second, James? Um, this is an up to 30 minute period for public participation. Each individual may speak to the board for up to two minutes. We ask but do not require that each speaker state their name, address, and relationship to the district to facilitate followup if needed. All speakers are expected to conduct themselves with respect and civility towards others. Please remember that this is a business meeting of the board. All comments should be addressed to the board and should concern board business. The board receives public comments as a source of information and considers them in making decisions and in the establishment of policies. It is our practice to take no action on any items nor to discuss any items members of the public have raised until the board has had time to gather information

037and then objectively discuss available options. However, during the meeting, the board at its discretion may choose to address an issue or correct any misinformation raised during public comment. While the board does not control the topics brought to its attention or the substance of the public comment, speakers are reminded that their comments are not automatically protected by any immunity or other legal protection. Uh, Mr. Williams. Thank you. James Williams, 1827 Sunnyside Circle, North Brook, Illinois 60062. I will only be at a portion of this meeting because I will be walking next door to support our amazing boys lacrosse team during their playoff game today. But I wanted to come here to basically say that [snorts] I would like to admire as we honor the students who are graduating at the end of the year and the

038staff that are retiring. The recognition of the diverse paths that students will be taking after graduation and the realization that there is nothing wrong with the fact that these that our students in our district will be taking those diverse paths. I was a student that took a diverse path. When I graduated from Glenberg North, my diploma had to be modified. I was in special education. I met the academic requirements to graduate. I did not meet the academic requirements to attend college. Indeed, I was even exempted from the Prairie State and ACT test that is administered to virtually every junior during the school year. I went as a student like everyone else and was told to go home and rest because I did not meet the requirements. That being said, I have to thank the teachers

039and my counselors and others who knew that was my path, who had the resources I needed to make that path work. Indeed, my parents even had to apologize to me when one of my teachers asked me to do something for my future that they did not agree with. But it turns out that thing that teacher asked me to do, I eventually had to do after I graduated. The school gave me the support I needed for that unique path of not pursuing college after high school. The only obstacle, though, was the lack of awareness the students had that not every one of their fellow Spartans went to college. Let's hope that we educate our students about the diverse paths and acknowledge them. Thank you, Mr. Williams. Next on the list, I have Lisa Raju. Hi. Hi.

040My name is Lisa Raju. I live at 1300 Wendy and I'm a GBN parent. Um, I'm also the co-president of GBN's booster club along with Emily Taylor. And um, in that position, I often find myself advocating um, for our student athletes. But today, I'm actually advocating for everyone else in our community. In September of 20 of 2022, I posted in the GBN parents group a picture of a pack stadium bleacher of a picture of a pack stadium bleachers. And um, the and I the capture to that said, "Look closely. That's more than a football game. That's the GB band community. Parents, fans, youth athletes, marching band members, palms, cheerleaders, broadcast club, essay board, flag squad. It's their season two. This is what they love to do. Home opener is tonight at 7:00. See you there,

041Northbrook. And the truth is the athletic events at GBN in in GBN and GBS's stadium are much more than the athletes. They are spaces to come together as a community and they should be maintained and kept up so that all members of the community can come out and be part of the team. Thank you. Um, next we have Emily Taylor. Emily Taylor, 3629 Dolphin Avenue in Northbrook. I am also a booster uh co-president. I did not write anything down, so I'm going off the cuff, but I do want to applaud the district for um I also am a lum of Glenberg North and sitting in the bleachers that I sat in in the '9s and sitting them in them today currently. I am so looking forward to the day where I don't have to worry

042about my drink falling behind underneath the stands and losing a cell phone that we're going to have new bleachers and new facilities that are going to be so great from the plans that we've seen and also applaud the district for asking for input from all of the shareholders. It has been so wonderful and such a partnership and I really really appreciate it as a parent, as an alum um and also someone who you know did some sports. Uh and then also you know strictly for the Glenberg North community having an entrance to the fields and having the concessions area that can service all the fields and bathrooms for the fields. It is such a joy and I just want to say thank you. So that's all. Thank you. Um Edward Heravon, sorry. Thank you. Uh

043Ed Heravan, 341 Washington Street in Glen View. Uh I'm here representing the Glenmer South Titan Booster Club along with my colleagues Steve Bombgardner and longtime former colleague Bob Safransky. Um and here just to speak about the strong support and excitement that we uh view the upcoming stadium of facilities project for athletic facilities at South and in the district at 225. Um Dr. Grall was kind enough to make us part of the process back in October where we received some preliminary plans. Obviously being a part of the booster club and a part of the athletic community at South that engenders a lot of excitement with our constituents. Um and it immediately set us to work about all the different opportunities that we could align our efforts for. Uh and kicked off a process that has been

044uh very productive for us in the last several months. Um, in hearing that it's time to bring the athletic facilities up to commenurate standards of the worldclass academic facilities that have been improved at both the schools. Um, really uh seems like a a wonderful uh second act to uh building the experience for students and student athletes at at the very at the schools. Um, you know, we see all the reports both at a state level, at a national level, uh, world-class opportunity here at our schools and these truly will be world class econ worldass athletic facilities. uh that in conversations beyond just the high school community as you reach into people uh who are grammar school, elementary school, when your kids are going to be uh at South [snorts] or at North, they're going to

045be able to have full it will really these um these facilities will be a uh you know a cornerstone of the community. Uh, and I think not only will inspire success on the field, uh, but also in the stands and in the community as was, uh, as Emily kindly said, and then really captured that spirit as well. [laughter] Do I have time for two more points? Yes, of course. Thank you. We've never had that happen before. We have the audio connected, but we [laughter] Yeah, that's good. Uh uh and I I I'll add two more points here. One, you know, uh probably from a parent perspective, but I think is sums up the community. Um and also a challenge. Uh so, uh it's easy to go to other facilities around the community as they get

046in line first. Uh and it's easy to have wander lust. We're all human. Um uh but you know the mark of a strong community and a strong uh system and a strong board is the ability to plan and to prudently set aside over the years and to schedule and sometimes defer and sometimes say no and to prioritize and the fact that you know I've seen the price tag on the dollars that are going to be put toward these facilities and the fact that they're being uh put forth with no increase in tax revenues and no increase in bond revenues and floating Um I'm suffice to say I'm sure that is not the case in all of the communities that we often walk away from. So that's a tremendous source of pride as a community member

047too and I think will be reflected throughout the entire um both GBS and GBN community over time as these kind of great facilities take place. The last thing I'll say is an opportunity uh extends beyond sports and beyond athletics and even beyond the community. Uh really is a full curriculum opportunity. Uh often at the booster club we talk about things like scoreboards and AV uh and we are always drawn to the and who's going to work them uh and and we should get some kids to do this. I'll find some kids to do this. Um realize that is easier said than done. But when you talk about uh you know massive uh video boards uh and new press boxes and Wi-Fi that extends to the press box uh and the ability for broadcasting and AV

048and visual arts um really if you look around the community or the world today uh sports sports media video production is a huge industry and that creates incredible academic opportunities. Both the schools already excel in their TV and film program. this will be an opportunity to really uh jumpstart anything related to broadcasting or AV and I would challenge the academic side of the district to think about ways to in in um to endow that and I know that's been a passionate uh topic here at the booster club around what we can do to help to because it takes faculty involvement, it takes time, it takes teachers just like everything way above our pay grade. Um but any chance we have to partner either financially or through experience or in other ways to help seed that

049in um that opportunity to build those programs that kind of can attach on to these wonderful facilities. Uh certainly we're willing to have the um conversation and see how we could help. So thank you for the extra time. I apologize. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who came to uh speak tonight. Um, that brings us to our consent agenda. Um, Dr. Grall, are there any changes to the consent agenda? There have been no changes. Um, in that case, could I have a motion um on the consent agenda, please? So moved. Second. And you're sitting this one out. Okay. Um, all in favor? No. I need to call the Oh, you need a vote. Okay. Um, Mr. Mr. Downing abstain. Oh um Mr. Gowaki yes Mrs. Hope yes Mr. O'Hara yes Mr. Shine yes Dr. Steinberg

050yes Miss Mullenbeck yes six members voting yes one abstension moving on to our discussion and action agenda first up capital projects for the summer 2027 the main event here we go we are very excited to welcome Dr. Kim Patac, our long-term director of operations, as well as Mrs. Lauren Bonner, our incoming assistant superintendent for operations and student experiences. They are going to provide the exciting part of the project. Uh giving a little bit of an update on where we've come over the last few months. As a quick note, the facilities committee uh received an early preview of this two weeks ago. Um, and as a reminder, there will be a finance committee meeting um before our next meeting on June 8th to kind of go over the financial elements. Uh, but once uh Kim and

051Lauren talk about the exciting stuff, I'll um share some updates on the financial as well. Dr. Pat, it's all you. Okay. Thank you. Um, tonight we're very excited to walk you through the first year of our master facility plan, which is the summer of 2027. Um, our projects for the summer of 2027 fall into three main categories. We have building infrastructure, interior enhancements, and exterior enhancements. And as you can see just from the chart, the primary focus of year one is on exterior enhancements, which are our stadiums and where we'll be spending most of our time tonight. Um, as R.J. said, we walked through each of these projects in much greater detail at our facility committee meeting two weeks ago. So tonight I am going to summarize the projects that fall under the first two

052categories and then I'm going to turn it over to Lauren Bonner and Erin Miller who are going to walk you through the last category. So our building infrastructure projects, these projects tend to be a little less visible but are equally important as they keep our buildings running efficiently and reliably. So for the summer of 2027, we have four infrastructure projects we'll be focusing on. Um the first is some preventative maintenance work on one of our largest chillers at Glen Brook North, which helps us to air condition um the building. Um the second project is to expand the coverage of our fire suppression system, which is also more commonly known as our sprinkler system. So it's important to note that by the end of our facility master plan, all the areas in our buildings will be

053fully sprinkled. So we'll be starting the work in 2027 at Glen Brook North. Um, we also have an important accessibility project and that is adding an elevator to the Titan Dome at Glen Brook South. Um, this is a very heavily utilized space and it's currently accessed by a small lift system. So, an elevator will not only give us the redundancy we need, but it also be a more permanent and reliable solution. And then lastly, we have some building envelope work at our off-campus facility. And then we have three projects I'm going to go through that are interior enhancement projects or interior renovation work. So the first are our student and staff bathroom renovation. So over the last few years, as you're aware, we've been renovating bathrooms to our new district standard, and we'll be able

054to complete all of our bathrooms at some point during our master facility plan. So the summer of 2027, we're finishing the bathrooms in the A-wing at Glen Brook North. um at Glen Brook South since the bathrooms are more consolidated we've been able to move through those much more quickly and actually at the end of this summer so before the master facility plan even starts we'll have finished the majority of bathrooms at Glen Brook South so the summer of 2027 we have about eight singleuse on staff bathrooms that we'll be renovating another interior project for the summer of 27 is to add an additional science lab at Glen Brook South Um, our science classrooms at South are currently scheduled very close or at capacity and that puts a lot of pressure on our master scheduling system.

055So, we're recommending converting two general use classrooms into a science lab and we have an ideal location for that on our second floor right next to a physics classroom. So, the two science labs will be able to share a prep room. And then the last project I want to talk about is our new pit and adjacent corridor renovation. And this work at Glenrook South, it's similar to work we've done in the past at Glen Brook North, specifically in the Glen Brook North Student Activity Hallway. Um, the area we're renovating is affectionately referred to as the new pit, and that's an area that sits in the heart of our West Academic Wing. We also have an old pit, which is in the east academic wing, which will be renovated later on in the plan. But these

056are spaces that get a lot of traffic. Um they're architecturally significant as they have the high vated ceilings with the skylights. Um they also have an architectural staircase that connects the two floors. And so just as you can see from the pictures, um they've you know they're very dated, a little bit on the darker side. And the goal of the project is really twofold. Um the first is there's several infrastructure pieces in this area that are just simply due for replacement. So the skylight that you see in the photo is original. The carpeting is about 20 years old. Um, not only in this area, but also the adjacent hallway areas. We have older ceiling tiles, older lights. Um, there's older windows that look down from the second floor to the pit area that are still

057that wire mesh glass. And so, all of that is due for replacement. So, that's a big piece of the project. But then secondly, as we're doing this renovation work, we really want to be mindful and brighten up the space. So you can see from the renderings just using different glass for the skylights and the windows on the second floor just to really let more natural light in and brighten up the space. And then also choosing our finishes so that we're going much lighter and brightening up the space. We also want to take the opportunity to be able to draw more students into the area. So you'll see on the stairs that go into that pit area trying to turn them more into seating so that classes can pull out of their classrooms and have breakout

058sessions and use the spaces a little bit more. The same for after school clubs so they can use it as a gathering space. And then we have adjacent hallways that serve our science, special ed, and math area. So all of our classrooms are in those adjacent hallways. And so there's renovation work scheduled here as well, which would include the carpet replacement, ceiling replacement, lighting replacement, and then also adding, as you'll see in the photos, removing lockers to add more seating areas for students and teachers to work together. Um, and also visual display areas to bring some of the work outside into the hallways. So with that, I'm going to turn it over for the exciting part now. I'm going to first turn it over to Lauren Bonner who's going to walk through the scope of

059all the stadium work and then Erin Miller is with Archon and she and and Kyle will walk us through um kind of from an architectural standpoint some of the thought that went into the overall design and also show us a really cool video of what it's like to walk through the stadiums. Thank you. So, as you know, our stadiums really anchor our outdoor campus and they're a primary focus for the first year of our master facility plan utilization of our stadiums as our booster uh uh folks represented earlier. It's not just limited to our athletic programs. Though undoubtedly our teams and booster clubs maximize every component of the stadium during competitions. Our stadiums are also important curricular spaces for our physical education programs, making this a project, making this project a project that will positively

060affect every future Titan and Spartan. As for the scope, the stadium project is both an infrastructure replacement project and a broader campus enhancement project. From an infrastructure standpoint, many of the major components are simply just nearing the end of their useful life. So that includes the turf, the track, lighting, press box, and the beloved bleachers. Beyond replacing those items, the project also focuses on improving functionality, accessibility, circulation, safety, and the overall experience for staff, students, volunteers, and spectators. One important thing to note is that the stadium really functions as the hub for many of our exterior athletic spaces. The restrooms, concessions, storage, trainer spaces, and circulation areas support not just the stadium itself, but also many adjacent athletic fields and activities throughout campus. Because the components of our new stadiums have such a far-reaching impact,

061Dr. Bac, Mr. right at GBS, both of our athletic directors, the entire Archon team and I have proactively uh reached out to trainers, coaches, marching band directors, teachers, broadcasting staff, booster club members, PE leaders, class board members, team captains, and more to gather feedback that brought us to today. One student from Glenrook South shared, "I love how the bathrooms and concessions will be more accessible for all sports and teams. I also think it's great how there'll be more space and seating outside of just the bleachers. And then a student from Glenberg North shared this. I love the expansion of the track and the pavilion area. It's so nice to have such a nice concessions outdoor area that will transform football games. It's so nice because classes can go outside to the area as well. Our

062students give great feedback throughout this process and they were not afraid to tell us where we needed to improve. One student said, "As someone who plays on the back field during the fall, the portaotti is not amazing." [laughter] And a few of our students provided very specific feedback such as where will we store the field hockey goals during the offseason or the main gate coming into the field has to be wide enough for the drum line to march with two quads wide and four bass drums wide. Our students also use these opportunities to tell us what we didn't think of. One student shared, "It's missing colored lights and speakers." Students, staff, and our greater community connect really deeply to this project and cannot wait to see it come to fruition. So, Erin Miller, project principal

063architect with Archon Associates, will share in even greater detail the design process her team has utilized for our students. Hello, Erin. Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me here tonight. I was asked to Great. I was asked to provide a few words to explain the architectural approach for the stadium designs. Um, as you are all very aware, we've been working through schematic design and design development to establish the scope of work, uh, programmatic requirements, spatial relationships, and exterior conceptual renderings of the stadium building character. Uh, based on the stakeholder feedback that we've received, the intent of the overall stadium design is to create an athletic campus that feels like a cohesive facility. Have you as you've heard many times tonight, the stadium entrances and support structures were located to best serve both the stadium and

064surrounding fields to serve all student athletes as well as PE students, marching band, palms, broadcasting students, spectators, and visiting teams. An example of that is the relocation of the GBN entry to make it more centralized to best serve those spaces. We started by assessing the site from a long-term master planning perspective to make sure that the current stadium improvements will not preclude you as a district um to implement other future improvements such as uh additional turf fields. The conceptual building designs are intended to complement the existing building architecture at both GBN and GBS campuses. um the existing stadium architecture at both buildings to serve functional purpose and to achieve par and maintain district standards and identity between the schools. As you know, GBN incorp the existing GBN building incorporates uh simple geometries, low horizontal massing,

065uh traditional building elements like brick, concrete, and steel and white structural accents. It's a very functional design. The new stadium includes these same elements while introducing school colors, lighting, uh covered entryways with school signage and logos, and a grand entry procession that we were able to establish to guide visitors into the stadium. Uh we intend to articulate this with pavement patterns, potential donor brick opportunity by those CTE students, uh lighting and landscaping, and we've uh paid attention to scale so that while the entry feels very grand, it's also very pedestrian friendly. At GBS, the existing building similar to GBN uh has clean modernist lines, brick and concrete construction, and is a very functional aesthetic that incorporates very simple ornamentation. We intend to incorporate the same ornamentation into the GBS stadium design as you'll see with

066the engaged brick peers with steel ladder structure. Um these elements uh will complement the existing building and we're also introducing at GBS similar ornamentation and materiality the introduction of signage color and lighting for dramatic effect. So we have we've put together a little bit of a video um to share where we are to date with the progress of these designs. We'd love to share it with you now. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Yeah. Heat. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Heat. [music] Heat. Heat. Thank you. The next timeline is this my transition or are you guys still taking care of the timeline? One more word. Are we all pushing the button at the same time? [laughter] The one before. Okay. This last slide just shows

067the timeline from where we're at today until the work would actually begin. So in the month of May, we had our facility committee meeting. We're having our board meeting now to go through all the proposed projects for the summer of 27. Um in June, so next week, ARCON would start the very detailed bid specification. So during that time, they'd be getting a lot of feedback. We'll be having meetings about just the press box. We'll be having meetings about the geometry and construction classroom. So just a lot of back and forth on all of the fine details as they work on the bid specifications. During that time, our costs will also become a little bit tighter. October, we would put the projects out to bid and then we would be able to bring the actual prices

068to the board for the projects in December before we head off on winter break. Um, the work then could begin as soon as February, March time frame in areas that don't impact the school day. Okay. From a financial standpoint, um we have a separate financial timeline. Um the first reviews or or begins today by just providing a bit of an overview of how the project would be funded. I know we've talked about this all the way dating back to the fall, but just kind of a a reminder of the structure of how we're moving forward. Um living within our means as we've been saying. Um, on June 8th, the finance committee will have an opportunity to meet with Elizabeth Hennessy uh from Raymond James, who's the district's long-term financial consultant. Um, and then we will

069also um hold a public hearing uh on life safety exterior projects. That's just an additional requirement because there are some projects that um qualify under life safety. Um, but there's an element of Illinois school code that requires any life safety projects on the exterior of the voting need to be discussed in a public hearing. So, we'll go through that process on June 8th. Um ultimately on uh during the July 13th meeting um we will seek approval from the board to issue working cash fund bonds uh and also schedule a second uh public opin public hearing that'll take place on um August 10th. And then the last step in the process, again, a lot of just different moving parts uh comes on September 14th when the board would formally approve parameter bond resolutions. And I'll explain

070what all that means in just a moment. As a reminder for the board, the district since the um really the 2000 and I always get my my years wrong. Uh Dr. Bac 2006 referendum. Um the district has operated on a pay as you go approach and what that means is we have not issued new debt. We have restructured uh debt and and leveraged the the savings of interest and things of that nature, but we need to find funds for our capital projects within our operating budget um and or use um access to uh bonds that um typically are expiring. Um, we have not gone out to referendum since 2000 since 2006 and have no reason to do so. Um, and this was kind of referenced by our booster clubs because from a financial management standpoint.

071Um, the district has been very diligent and very conservative in our approach. We haven't gone out uh for bonds every time we had the opportunity to. We've focused on paying off uh now 20 years later our referendum bonds and what that does is it provides us the capacity to yes issue new debt but to do so within the tax rate that our taxpayers are already familiar with. Um there are different components when it comes to bonds. I mentioned life safety bonds versus working cash bonds. It all depends on what exact category a a a project falls under. Um but between those the reissuance of debt as well as over $50 million that will continue to contribute from our operating fund, we are able to move forward with $150 million um capital projects plan that really

072we've talked a lot about the outside but will also benefit our students on the inside. Um examples of pay as you go approach um on a very high level is the fact that we have remodeled every uh learning space within our core academics. So we have renovated our science labs, our English social studies classrooms, um our world language classroom, special education, all of those areas have been modernized in addition to a large number of areas. In fact, uh I mentioned earlier that we were at GBNCTTE. Uh we were in uh one of our uh recently upgraded design labs and we walked right past for those who are with me um these soon to be renovated culinary labs. So we have focused a tremendous amount on the inside but not just in the academic areas in

073areas that while it it may sound minor are very impactful for our students. We have uh significantly renovated our nurses nurses offices um as well as this summer we'll install our second Glen Brook school health center at Glen Brook North. We have created a brand new therapeutic day school for our students um after their traditional four years of school where they are in uh sometimes for four more years uh the Glenburg transition services facility. Um we have also um done a considerable amount of work in our hallway areas as well as our washrooms uh which in some of our facilities were original to the building. Um on top of some amazing work that we've done within our performing arts venues uh with much more work to be done. We've also not as a district gotten

074into a spot that some folks do. We have not let deferred maintenance accumulate. Um, we are addressing rooftop units. We are consistently making sure our sidewalks are strong, our parking lots are safe. Um, and also addressing all of the other security concerns that are are natural topics of of schools today. And so, because we have we've kept up with it, um, we've really built a nice system that allows us to move forward with this plan. From a project budget standpoint, we have the revenues and we have the expenditures. Significant amount of work is taking place in the summer of 27. It's because really the core of the outside as Mrs. Bonner was talking about. That's the hub for everything. We have more work um scheduled outside than we've talked about. We've recognized the needs um

075actually Mr. Downing, I think. Or who who made the joke about the practice field? Is it Mr. Downing? Mr. Downing. [laughter] Um, we have a need to address our practice fields. We are exploring other opportunities to add more turf. We are looking at our baseball and softball fields. We're making sure that we have an equitable amount of baseball and softball fields. We're making sure that they're positioned logically. We're exploring possible addition of more lights so that we can maximize the use of our fields uh not only during the daytime but um into the evenings. Um so there's a lot of work to be done but all the core infrastructure happens in that stadium. Um and so that's why you see uh that much higher revenue budget because we need a lot more funds in order

076to get a lot of work done in addition to other projects that Dr. Pac mentioned such as our washrooms at Glen Brook North, our our revitalized new pit over at Glenberrook South and so on and so forth. Um funding comes from uh really four primary forms. First is that contribution that we make each year in our budget. So for the past uh about 10 years, we have been increasing our allocation from the budget for capital projects. Those capital projects include the break fixes of the parking lots, things on the roof, things in in mechanical rooms that you don't necessarily see as well as enhancements. So approximately $60 million from that source. Then we will also have additional bonds that are specific to life safety projects. Um so life safety projects typically are those items that

077exist today that have exceeded their useful life that have created a hazard for individuals. Um interesting concept just putting it out there. Um even though there are some uh there's some humor as it relates to our stadiums that have exceeded their useful life, um they do not qualify under life safety themselves. Uh the bleachers do receive inspections each year and have come back while requiring some repairs um in acceptable shape. Um but there are other areas such as our tracks, such as sidewalks, such as areas within our gymnasiums um as well as some ventilation challenges that are included in those projects. We have another um set of bonds referred to as Dub or debt service extension base. Those are really focused on enhancement projects that don't qualify for life safety and are very similar to

078operating fund contributions except they are being funded through separate bonds. And then um I mentioned that the district will contribute in the operating budget that 5.5 if not a little more million dollars a year, but because there's so much work that we need to do in the first year, we're going to issue debt certificates in the amount of $15 million. And you'll see that we're going to repay those debt certificates through the annual contribution. The difference is instead of going into fund balance, we're going to issue debt uh and then pay it back as quickly as we can through the annual contribution. One of the natural questions is, well, why not just use fund balance? And to be very candid, um, property taxes in Cook County have not been predictable. And, um, after working with

079Vicky Tarver, our treasurer, um, we feel that this is the most prudent approach until things become a little more stable, uh, with property tax collections and receipts, uh, which is has nothing to do with property tax payers, just the the system in which they are collected and remitted to school districts. Um so you'll see kind of how the revenue budget works as we go um or before we get to the expenditure budget. Just highlighting um when the school district goes out to debt um we are very fortunate that we have the highest credit rating available. Um we are rated by two separate rating agencies. We have S&P Global and Moody's Investor Services. We have maintained the AAA rating from both uh uh rating agencies for over 20 years and anticipate that that will not change

080primarily because what rating agencies look for is stability. They make sure that we are not exceeding our um revenues and having expenditures dipping into fund balance. And we feel that this this plan is um exciting but but also still responsible. Um and we don't uh we don't anticipate any challenges on any of our revenue forms. So um final part is just talking about the current debt. Um this is a reminder all of the district's current debt will retire on December 1st, 2027. I've been talking about that date for about 10 years. Um that includes referendum debt which was 20 years in duration as well as non-referendum debt that was issued um uh starting around 2016 with the retirement we can bond out approximately $95 million. Key concept here without increasing the district's current debt service

081tax rate. So we are issuing new debt but we're living within our means living within our tax rate. Um the bonds will be issued to pay for the combination of health and life safety projects as well as enhancement projects. Um there are a variety of steps that we have to go in. That's those public hearings I was talking about. Um but we will make sure we meet all of those deadlines and steps in order to ultimately uh issue debt as early as October of this year. Uh but likely into the spring uh well in enough time in order to fund the projects that we have going on. And as I'm looking at my slides here, that concludes the financial presentation. Dr. Patac, Mrs. Bonner, and I are happy to answer any questions the board might

082have if you just want to clarify if you have a financial question or a project question. I know we've talked about this already a lot. Um, so it may be that this is more of a wrap-up, but did anyone have any additional questions or comments? No, I was just say we've talked about it so much. Yes, [laughter] I have a few financial not everything else. I we talk a lot. I do have a few clarifications on the financial side in and I don't I apologize. I don't recall seeing this table at the finance committee and it may be my fault but and that certificate repayment. So we we're paying about 700 something thousands a year and then in 2020 2032 to 2036 pay going into like 3 million a year where are we getting the

083money from on those years to substantially increase the payments. So, we've whenever we do well, let's step back. You asked the first question about the chart. This chart with the exception of the debt certificate lines um has been part of the master facility plan that we've been presenting. We had to address the debt certificates or or look at the debt certificates because of now we're finalizing or getting a better understanding of the costs based on the scope of the projects that have been uh heavily supported with community feedback. Um so our intent is to um repay back the debt certificates in advance of 2036. So where we are going to have access to additional revenue there are these um these batteries that you have heard a little bit about. uh they are located at Glenrook

084North and Glenberrook South and those batteries generate $750,000 uh per year uh after their payback is done. All of that money will accumulate in the project fund which will allow us to accelerate the payment uh to cover that amount. We also again even though we're conservative here in our $5.5 million on contribution, we have a long-term goal to get the capital project contribution up closer to $7 million. So that'll provide additional funding. Thank you. The last one, and we don't have to talk about this today, but I just want to drop it into your train of thought and maybe Vicki as well. I know we don't want to compromise our fund because of what happens with the taxes, but there hasn't to be an all or nothing because we invest some of our fund at

085least to get some revenue during the year with the money as it's sitting there. So I wonder if like many companies do we could be creative in terms of issue an bond internal bond where we repay ourselves with interest the same way we pay external bonds with interest and we may even get better interest at the interest that we are getting on the investment. I know liquidity is different but as I said you don't have to give me a full answer today but no that is something that we are exploring as an option. Yes thank you Mr. Shine. Uh, two questions. So, we're um going into what appears to be a rising rate environment. So, good for our investments and return um but potentially more expensive. So, have we done an analysis of sort of

086like the risk profile? Yes. So um the finance committee will hear directly from our financial advisor about this on June 8th but the summary is um initially we were planning on doing a lot of these presentations towards the end of the fall to beginning of spring. The concern is the rate environment continues to be very fluid and as a result we want to empower our financial advisor to go out whenever it is most appropriate. Um it is estimated based on traditional market analyses that it might be a very favorable market uh in October or it might be a very favorable market in December. uh all depends on the variety of things and there's always the reality that um things happening in the world could could impact us. Um but Elizabeth is pretty pretty astute on

087that and that's why we're trying to give the greatest amount of lead time to maximize um rate as much as possible. My other question has to do with some kind of like a tradeoff in taxes. So as our um villages um consider uh various tiff opportunities within their jurisdictions, how would that impact us? Is it enough that we need to be concerned about it or is it just a small amount on the margin? Is this is something not within our control? Thank you. That is very fair. So, um I actually will be sharing an update with the board uh later this week, but this evening, the village of Northbrook is actually in the process of considering a tiff for their downtown area. Um so, it's a very timely question. Um once a area is put

088into a tiff, now based on what might happen, the earliest that probably would happen is the fall. Uh the rates gets frozen. The district continues to receive revenue, but we don't receive the increment. Um however, um debt service payments are still payable. Um there's a lot of property coming on to the the books of our district because we span two different villages. Um so I actually think our tax rate will decrease um over time. The real easy properties to point to. Um there's this very small logistics uh area formerly known as Allstate um that's coming online um a lot this summer into the fall. um and debt will be extended there which will naturally bring it down. Um your your challenge on on tiff is more on the operating funds than it is on debt.

089Uh on the operating funds um ultimately any increment in property doesn't come to the district for 23 years. It goes directly into the tiff fund. Um so that could be a challenge. So when it when that happened with the the Naval Air Station, we still received essentially payments in kind which kept for student enrollment. Mhm. Okay. It's just for student enrollment. Correct. So before there are students then you have a reduction in revenue. Uh you would not you don't receive a reduction under a tiff because it becomes frozen. you do not see any increase because you don't get to benefit from the increment that goes to the tiff fund. So who who who pays then? Because the property owners have now are now. So the property owners pay, but any new charges um instead of

090being on district 225's line or district um in that situation, district 30 line in Northbrook. Um that money goes to a tiff line and it gets paid directly to the village. Thank you. Any other questions, comments? So, you'll have more detail on the finance bit at the finance committee meeting prior to the next regular board meeting. Correct. But I don't want to take away Mrs. Bonner and Dr. Patac are happy to answer any any and [laughter] the video was just so good that it answered all our questions. Yes, it really was. Um, Dr. Bonner or Mrs. Bonner one day um is very excited to go through her first um bond rating agency call. So that will be forthcoming. So much excitement. Um excellent. Um well that was a great presentation. Um very enjoyable and um

091I'm sure the finance committee meeting will be similarly fascinating. Um okay. Uh next on the agenda is the 2627 parent handbook. parent and student handbook. Excuse me. Thank you, Erin, and everyone. Thank you. Buy my booster products. [laughter] You don't want to hear about the handbook. Come on. Yeah, that's right. Um, at this point, I'd like to welcome Dr. Laura Cummings to our podium as well as Mr. Ryan Manley, our senior manager of technology services. Um, real quick overview. Each year, the board is presented with the parent and student handbook. Um to be candid, there has been so much work with the policy manual that changes to the parent to student handbook are substantial, but many are related to the uh policy manual. So for board members, you were provided with a uh multicolored uh

092lined version which was very difficult to read. Uh and Dr. uh Cummings will go through the summary of the changes and then Mr. Manley uh and Dr. Cummings will talk about a lot of work done with our device committee. No one will want to stay for that. Um [laughter] I mean this is exciting. Um you many of us carry our handbook around everywhere we go. Pretty much the day it gets printed we start putting these little tabs all over um where we talk about hm maybe that needs to change a little or we found a typo something like that. So, every May we come together and it's teaching and learning, student services, we have the deans there, the principles are there. R.J. wouldn't miss this show because it is so much fun. It is absolutely

093his favorite meeting. We met twice um in May and really this is what governs like every day in the schools, right? It's the rules, it's the processes, the procedures. Um, and our students sign off on it every year and our parents sign off on it every year during registration. So, you got a sneak peek at Whoa. Yep. Right there. Sneak peek at the new cover. Looks very similar to last year's cover. Um, and so, as as R.J. just mentioned, the biggest thing that changed are the policies. No surprise, right? We updated a lot of policies. And so most of the changes this year in the handbook were related to those policies. There were a couple key areas that we talked as a group. We kind of had tabs where we said like maybe we need

094a little more clarity because we do spend we refer a lot of people whether it's staff, students, family to the handbook to look up something in more depth. And so a couple of the things that we um provided clarity was what is an unexcused and an excused absence? We talked a little bit about that here when we did our attendance presentation, but we felt like it would be really helpful to spell that out for our families and our students of what constitutes unexcused versus excused. We also expanded upon our parking violations and talked through kind of the three strikes you're out that's in our policy, but now we've added that language to our handbook as well. And we changed the timelines for a teacher submitting an incomplete if there was work not completed the semester

095so that we could be really clear about what those timelines were. Again, we get feedback on the handbook throughout the year from staff and students and community members especially if something is not clear and then we take that opportunity in May to uh meet together and make some changes. The other big change is we gave Mr. Brie Tag a little work and we took some of our chapters from the handbook that really had more to do with courses and we moved those to the course guide. So, as you can see, we took out anything about student schedules, course request, accelerated placement, and the Glen Brook scholar so that it wasn't in two different places that we could direct all those things related to curriculum and instruction and courses to the course guide. I mean, that

096is all the excitement I have on the handbook. [laughter] That is that is about it. I'm happy to try and answer any questions you have. promise you I have no questions. You have some? No. [laughter] I'm like, bring it up. We have any. Um, one thing that I'm I'm glad you brought up um the excused and unexcused absences and I do think that the changes are helpful, but unless I missed it, and maybe um I should have done a closer read before I brought this up. Um, one thing that I found really counterintuitive when we talked about um, um, absenteeism, and I think that it may maybe because it does feel counterintuitive, you kind of need to hit people over the head with this many times, is that an unex that an excused absence is

097still an absence for purposes of determining whether or not you are chronically absent. because it feels like if the school's okay with it, doesn't really count, but it does. And I think people really maybe don't understand that. So, if there's some way to communicate that clearly, and I know we're doing a lot to address chronic absenteeism, and I saw the like the the what was it? Blended being able to go out and Oh, I like that. Was kind of cute. Um, but I just think that that that's going to be a hard thing for people to really internalize and understand that even if there are very good reasons for you not to be in school because you're visiting a college or you're sick or you went to a tournament or all of those things, it's

098still an absence and if you have too many of them, you are chronically absent. So just just a kernel to throw out there that we need to really help people understand that because it feels there is language in the handbook about that. Also, just so you know, when we send home during progress report time when we tell families to look at power school and look at the grades, we're also sending out cumulative absences and we do share with the parents during those. Some of you should have gotten those um excused and unexcused. Okay. Yeah. But I agree. We have to continue driving that point. Agreed. Any other thoughts on the handbook? I'm sure as we go through it, we will have comments, but it's one of those things where it's not until you really focus

099on it. Um, but I do want to also point out that we understand that a large part of what um you all had to deal with in doing the revision this year was dealing with all the policy changes. So, thank you. Um, we know that was a lot of extra work on this. So, and this will come back to the board on consent next week. Okay. About two weeks. Two weeks. Excellent. I guess just one thing on the the handbook. Um, you know, it's 134 pages and there's no way the students are reading it or the parents are reading it. Um, unless you say, "Hey, go check out this there." You know, do we do a TLDDR or something for it? I mean, hey, this is the couple of things you should really look at.

100So for the students on the first two days of school during their PE class, they go to what we refer to as rights and responsibilities, but there are presentations for the students. All the students have to attend. They have to mark off within powers school that they were there and participated it. And it basically is a lovely overview um of the handbook and calling attention to many of the different policies and procedures especially around attendance and discipline. So, yes. Okay. So, back on consent. Yep. Great. Thank you so much. All right. You got me again. Yes. Stand right here. Do you have an intro or you want me to start? It's all you, Mark. Okay. Here we go. Okay. So, the annual kind of update on this device committee. So, I've been here I think

101twice now telling you about a committee that we pulled together from um all the buildings where we look at our device violations. This was when we had instituted for those new to the board when we had instituted the cell phone caddies and we had put together a committee of students and staff and administrators to um look at the feedback and determine if we needed to tweak anything. And so we've been doing that every year. You may recall last year when we met, we came back with two recommendations to focus this year on. The first one was reestablishing that the Chromebook is the device for our students. Um, we had kind of gotten a little far away from that in that many students were bringing their own personal devices. Um, and it was really getting difficult

102on the teachers to be able to instruct or have a lesson. Um, also with the cell phone caddies, as you may recall, um, if they put their iPhone in the caddy and they had their Mac, they still had access to their texting, instant messaging, all of that. And so we really kind of hit home hard with our parents and our staff and our students, letting them know the Chromebook is our choice of um, electronic device, and that is the one you need to have in the classrooms. You could bring your personal device if you want. you can use that during lunch, during SRT, but in the classroom, it's the Chromebook. And then our second one was about getting feedback on students being on their Chromebooks or perhaps their other device and being able to access

103other social media. So, they weren't missing kind of having their iPhone because they were still instant messaging through Instagram and Tik Tok and Tik Tok and Snapchat. Um, I don't think Facebook, not so much. for our kids. Um, but so we we talked about blocking those sites as as a way to help maintain engagement in the classes and you know reducing the amount of social media that they were accessing within the classroom. So when we met again this year um and you could see in the memo in terms of the data in terms of how many violations there were by students or staff reporting violations numbers were very similar. um they went down a a little bit. Um but I think the nice thing to see about the progression of the device violations is typically

104after um a student has a violation or a couple D1 violations, which is the first violation, um they typically don't get a second and a third. It's very few kids. We only had four districtwide that um had their third violation in one class. So obviously good news for us in terms of that working. But as a result of coming back with that committee, there was feedback around two topics again um that they wanted us to look at. Teachers were struggling to identify whether or not the device the student had in front of them was actually the issued Chromebook. Was it a different Chromebook? Was it a MacBook? Was it they had covers on it? They weren't sure if it was actually the schoolisssued Chromebook. That was the first one. And then the second one was

105the desire to restrict more sites. And if we kept this committee going for the next 20 years, every every day we'd have a new site that they would like us to restrict. Um, in March, there was a lot about gambling and March Madness that that people had asked us to look into. And so, you see during, you know, various times of the school year, different sites that they were requesting to be blocked. So, connected with my good friend here, Mr. Ryan Manley and asked him to join our device committee so that he could hear that feedback. Um, and he had something else in the work. So, I'll have you come on up. Absolutely. You don't want my handbook? No. No. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening everybody. Um, so sort of two threads have really

106brought me in front of you here tonight. One, um, Dr. Cummings has obviously just talked about it. actually started all the way back when um for her previous report to you about uh social media use increasing in the Chromebooks. I helped her gather those hard numbers and our conversation started um leading me here to this point today. The second thread is actually at the tail end of Mr. Bag's um AI committee where a group of teachers, administrators, faculty and staff worked through um an a AI and education framework. um conversations that came out of there and teachers needs and desires for how to handle AI in the classroom sort of also culminated in in me being here in front of you today. So there is a solution a technology solution that can help to solve

107a number of the problems that have been brought up. Um, the suite of tools that I'm going to talk about today that we're going to be implementing hopefully this summer for uh, teachers to use and then going forward into the next school year is called a classroom management tool. Um, broadly speaking, it allows a teacher in a classroom to effectively control their entire classroom, all the students Chromebooks for the for the students that are sitting in front of them in their class. And it does this in a variety of ways. Some features that are common to uh all classroom management tools that address specific um requests of the teachers or specific teacher feedback are uh giving the teachers visibility into what the students are doing. So if I am standing in front of you all,

108I have no idea what's going on in front of your screen. It's facing away from me. Um but I could open up my laptop and I could see I could see uh 30 little uh thumbnails of what's going on on my screen. And there's a variety of views, but uh ostensibly they can see what's going on. Uh it also allows teachers to create custom sort of block lists and uh block certain categories of things, certain specific sites. If for some reason a lot of you uh in a particular class want to play on roadblocks, uh I could I could block Roblox for this for this particular class. Uh different things like that. [laughter] Uh but it also allows teachers to block specific things like uh Google chat but not docs or sheets or something like

109that. Uh so it can be very fine grained there. Uh it also allows um a sort of a guided experience. So I can push uh a a variety of tabs to you either on a schedule or a curated list. Set up a little prepackaged lesson and boom at the start of my class period you're going to get everybody is going to get four links on their device. or I can do it ad hoc as I stand in front of you. So those are kind of features that are common to all the tools but there are a wide variety of these tools available. So we went through a pilot process to select which one would be best for our teachers. We tested we tested uh three different products uh three of the largest manufacturers of these

110tools. Goian teacher securely classroom and hapara. uh the teachers uh it was a a wide group uh approximately 80 individuals uh teachers administrators everybody was involved could come to the training attend the open office hours that were held each week. We tested each tool for four weeks straight. Uh and then I developed a survey instrument and gathered feedback from participants at both the personal advice committee um and at our educational services mentor committees. uh direct feedback I got from them and um overwhelming consensus on two sort of leading metrics were um would you use this in your classroom? Uh 92% of the respondents to my survey said uh yes, they would use GoG Guardian in their classroom. And then would you encourage others to use this in their would you have your colleagues use this

111in your classroom? 92% uh said yes, they would have encourage their their colleagues to use GoG Guardian. Um comparing that to the lowest one in that particular category, which was 7%. 7%. So, so GoG Guardian Teacher was an overwhelming um winner uh amongst these three candidates. So, um we're going to uh deploy it starting this summer and make it optionally available for folks. Um and yeah, questions, comments, concerns. I'll add just a few more elements here and I shared more of an update about this in the um bullet points for the board uh this past week. tools like this tool. The names that you see here have been in the industry for several for 15 plus years. Um, one uh for at least 10 years. Um, this type of software has been being implemented in

112onetoone environments uh that entire time. In fact, when I came to the district, I remember talking to Mr. tag and and I was a bit shocked that we didn't have the software, but part of why we didn't have the software was because we had never taken a stance as a district to require students to use the district issued device. Um they all had to have it, but they didn't have to actually use it. Um this type of software um is has really evolved in that a teacher um it's all it's in many ways timebased and other ways uh group based where the teacher only has access to control that screen during the school day and assuming that the students are on the network. Um, so there's a bunch of um of prevention tools to make

113sure that, you know, an individual staff member can't see what some student is doing at 9:00 at night on their Chromebook or or what have you. Although, I'd like to always remember everyone that everything is always monitored at all point in time uh and and things of that nature. Um, Glenberg has for a long time um been on a cutting edge of addressing this challenge of students remaining on task. Um, Mr. Manley mentioned it, but I want to highlight it again. Our teachers are asking very uh valid questions. Um, you know, I'm I've I've issued a an essay for my students and I don't know if the students are using AI to generate the response there or if it is them who are generating it. Software like this allows us to leverage the technology environment

114that's important for us to be introducing and guiding our students to and teaching them the right ways to use technology versus not, but also allowing us to restrict things when they need to be restricted down. Um, it's not a solution for what is here with AI, but it is a tool that teachers have access to with the absence of these tools. And if you've uh been watching commencement speeches uh at the university level or or reading the newspaper, what you'll end up with is um I still refer to them as blue books. Uh but we'll just say paper and pencil. Um you end up going back there because you can't guarantee that the device is secure. This software provides that that um ability as well as collecting a tremendous amount more of data that will

115help uh Ryan and his team implement. So very grateful to get here. The only other thing I want to say is I have been doing survey research and education for over 15 years. I have never received a rate of 92% on anything. So to hear, you know, 80some teachers um across schools, across disciplines utilize these tools, had access to them for four weeks at a time, 12 weeks, and to get to a 92% consensus on a tool. I can't wait to see how that tool is going to be implemented in the feedback we get. It's my commentary. I'll stop now. Mr. Roer, you seem so excited. Go ahead. Yeah. Um, well, two things. R.J., you mentioned um that we didn't require students to use our device. Do we require it now? Just to be clear,

116as of this year, yes. Okay. Um, and then the the training for the GoG Guardian, it seems to me like 92% means the 8% is probably the people who don't want to use it anyway. Um, if you want to be honest, there's there's a couple people out there probably don't want to do who don't want to do anything new, which is which happens. Um, but but training for something like this, are we going to be doing a one-on-one training? Because it seems to me if you just get up in front and just do a PowerPoint, it's hard for people to really your your middle use technology people, people my age, let's say, who are might have some trouble with new stuff. How are you guys going to work that? It's definitely been a topic that

117we've discussed. um Dr. Cummings, Mr. Bag, and even um Dr. Georges and I have been talking about uh the training of this tool over the last few weeks in a uh a systems meeting um that we have. It it's going to have to be um thorough and and quite extensive. We hope to use like Glimmer days um training opportunities like that and then potentially ongoing training. um we do have insight into how the tools are being used, what features of the tools are being used. So one of the things we can do is as we see utilization, you know, in the first few weeks, we can we can work with the companies, we can work amongst ourselves and come up with a plan to be like, hey, we should get our numbers up, you know,

118get our utilization up and then maybe, oh, they don't know about this cool feature that would really help them. Maybe we could teach them about that and develop some PD about that and offer that. So, um, it has been a discussion. I don't have specifics yet, but but we've been talking about it. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Shine. Um, how was uh I didn't see in the memo how is this charged? License, annual per se. Yeah, so we we're getting uh per seat licenses based on the number of students. Um, and it is actually part of a bundle that was included in the over $35,000 memo today. Um, we are a number of products were purchased from the same company. Um, and one of those was a um, uh, was our web content filter. We're actually

119changing companies and we're going to save about $2 per uh, person. Um, and so significantly deferring the cost of this new tool. We only had to find roughly $2 to $3,000 to actually make this purchase. But yeah, it's a it's a per student cost. And how will we know like this is successful or not? It's a great question. One of uh I think a a big pride point of Dr. Cummings is when we gather together with the committee, which we don't just bring together for you know an hour at the end of the year. We meet once a semester to to go over it and dig into the data. they let us know. Um, and so we'll hear directly from our staff. I know that we also through our new teaching and learning coordinators, uh,

120we're working to provide, um, a lot more handson, uh, opportunities to dig in. So, we'll get some anecdotal feedback from that. Um, there's also quantitative data. We'll know who's using the tool, what elements they're using, and we can report out on that. Will we provide um like the global kind of PD at the kickoff or you know something in the beginning of the year? So little early preview. Uh I'm looking to do something a little different for Glen Brook Day which none of my people uh are fully aware of yet. Um, but there's nothing better than when you have an initiative that is wholly owned and supported by your teachers and hearing from them talking about why this is a good thing. And so perhaps we'll have an opportunity to hear from them why it's

121a good thing as opposed to me very excited explaining why it's a good thing. U something like that at the Glen Brook day. Yes. some of the some of the feedback just to offer and it was uh direct quotes from teachers. It was an absolute gamecher for my classroom for every single class period. I pres-scheduled a default scene for every single one of my classes. Um and then another teacher commented, "It was nice to see the change over in as little as two weeks in kids behavior and habits." So, I mean, they saw it, they talked about it. I think just having links that are ready to go without having to do anything to make that happen, that's five minutes right there. You know what I mean? Save them in each class. Um, Dr. Steinber

122or Miss H, is there anything we need to communicate to students and families about rolling this out and when and how are we doing that? So, we already um did a big communication about the pilot program and I think we just sort of resend that out again. Um, just updated the pilot had details about each particular um uh software and some some particularities or some specifics for each one. Um but yeah, we we'd send that out. Um communicating things like the privacy uh features that Dr. Graval mentioned about um the the tool being time bound, network bound, and uh accountbound. So three things have to be true for for a a teacher to observe a student's device. And those kind of things will help quell fears. I think this is just more of a curiosity,

123but I was looking at the number of violations last year versus this year. And it looks like while GBS went down from like 246 to 84, GBN went up from 119 to 211. Like do we know what's accounting for like such a drastic difference between the two in device violation? Great question, Beth. Um we actually talked about that at the committee. Um trying to get some insight into that. Um I do think there's some different interventions taking place um at um South right now. really more I know in terms of of attendance, but some reminders there from the deans and so there's always a possibility that um teachers aren't reporting it as much. Um they definitely said second semester that as a whole the union kind of owned that saying our teachers really haven't been

124submitting as much as they had been the year before. I also think um and I should look at this by grade level because they're saying that the incoming freshmen there's much less um violations with the freshmen because they don't know any better. It's kind of what they've always known. Our current seniors and juniors are kind of the old rules and now the new rules and so um maybe a little harder to adapt to that. Good question though, Dr. Steinberg. Yeah, thank you. Um, huge effort and you know, congratulations for trying and and I'm sure we're going to keep hearing the things because things are changing. I'm I'm I was I didn't read this book but was recommended both by my one of my sons and my wife this anxious generation. So, I'm thinking this is

125happening everywhere. So it's it's a good effort, but we're trying to ask our kids to disconnect while everybody else is connected and what they are connected the minute that they live. So it's it's we are trying to swim against the tide and I'm not advocating for letting people to be connected, but the world is changing around us. So let me think about analogy. I we don't have statistics probably but what was the rate of distraction before any of these things existed because you know I remember my parents going to parents teacher and and teachers telling them I don't know why but I couldn't keep stop talking during class so so I think things [clears throat] have changed but of course this had increased incrementally but the question is let's say let's assume we become 100%

126successful we get them out of the tools Are we going to get an increase on ratio of wanting to go to the restroom? Are we going to get increase on ratio of students being distracted? Because there's another element here. It's not just simply the impulse from the outside. When my kids play sport, I didn't see anybody running on the field with a cell phone or when they went to theater, I didn't see anybody on the play with a cell phone on. Or when I go to see music, I don't see anybody. And and I am a teacher at the different level. So I'm not blaming the teachers here. I think as I said I think we're streaming against the tide but there's a challenge for us to figure out what's the right ratio between having

127the full attention span over 90 minutes or 45 minutes or 50 minutes or giving them a little bit leeway so they can continue keeping attention because we know that it's hard even people I hate it I go to a movies and some people turn the phone on because they cannot be quiet for for whatever the movie lasts so I appreciate the technological efforts and I'm sure we are working on the pedagogical efforts to figure out a way how to get the attention back the I it heard me you know with my kids who say you have no issue paying attention for 90 minutes in the soccer field and then you have to go to the restroom five time because you cannot be seated for 50 minutes and I'm glad they are not listening to me

128right now so there's something wrong in the system not in individual teachers or any in society where we have our priorities is not clear on when it's okay to you know I I see more now in society people going to places and you know putting the cell phone down like this as a good eticate sign. So maybe there is a way aside from you know paying and trying to get the tools to re-educate all of us to figure out a way where the focus of attention should be. We are not asking them to throw their phones away. We're asking them just to pay attention to a great movie or a great lecture or a great discussion. So um I I'd say one last thing which is the and I don't know how we do this

129but you mentioned AI and cheating and and I'm sure you all heard what happened at Purdue a couple of weeks ago. So, so it's not it's not so we really need to so you put face I don't know if you heard or not but basically I think threequarters of the class of of computer science engineering in Porto which is very talented people and people very motivated trying to get good jobs and and they all were caught on using AI to cheat on an exam and they had to invalidate the entire class. So if it happens in an environment where people are paying are motivated are trying to get good jobs and it's a very highly known school we need to figure out as educators how to beat the system or change the system because I

130was going to continue fighting fighting fighting until somebody else comes. I'm sorry there weren't a question I shouldn't be postulating but I I just want to say it's commendable the effort that we do but we cannot take the ball away from the other side because otherwise we're going to be spending time and effort time and effort fighting for the next new tool or shiny object and we're going to get anywhere agreed Mr. Downey any comments? No, I was just comment on uh the AI piece of it. It sounds like it's going to block that. So they can't get to chat DPT. So or they can't get to claude or perplexity or whatever. Right. Yeah. The idea would be so in the classroom, this is a classroom management. No, just classroom. Yeah. So as I'm as

131I'm wandering around the room, I'm helping uh Lara over here with her assignment. You can't be changing screens and switching over and, you know, using AI over there while I'm all the way over here and not seeing what you're doing. So it it blocks it or it just blocks it? Yeah, it's it would be up to the teacher at that point. Got it. It would be up to the teacher. Yeah. No, that's the only thing. No, Mr. Gwaki. Uh, just to correct the record since we brought up some allegations about another university that are not actually correct. Oh, they were in the news though. Correct. No, the the allegations were all dismissed. All the students grades were held intact. So before and since they're also a supporter of this district with many students, I want

132to make sure that the record is actually correct on that. No, I have no seing the students. I didn't check. So anyway, it was an AI fabricated. There was a professor that was upset but so AI hallucinated that AI hadines and stuff and so that's if we're going to set so meta if [laughter] we set the record if we set the record straight is you cannot make an accusation that you cannot substantially prove that's fair and that's what's happening every very so um so that's why you had the look when you were pointing out no when you're pointing out the look earlier that was why you no okay yeah that and everything so uh going just a quick question I have for the group regarding switching back to this. Uh I saw Google chat was

133one of the ones that teachers all reference yet I also understand many of teachers use Google chat especially in part of our e-learning curriculum when we have those emergency days. How does the tool work? uh I guess from class to class if different teachers want to utilize certain tools and everything and every is it flexible enough where if I've got a 9:00 am session by 10 a.m. it shuts all the privileges back and next teacher takes over and then you've got master Uber authority to open it up on those emergency days where we've got to have other tools cleared. So absolutely. So once uh so you will import your Google classroom class into the system if you're a teacher and it'll bring in all your students with you and you'll see them during your class

134period is when you can when you can take advantage of so when you can control their devices um and again it's going to be it's going to be time bound to uh you know 7 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. or 3:15 and then um on our school's network and then uh when the student is logged in with their Glimmerick account. But um as you transition as a student transitions from class to class, they will move from uh my class to Ryan's class to Lara's class. Um and then that control will also move with them as they go throughout their daily schedule. So is that based on their schedule or IP locations? It's based on the schedule data that's imported into the system from P school and Google Classroom together. And then if for example at the

135I mean there's a there's a couple ways to get around it. There's best practices. Obviously we all want to end our session before our time period is over like I'm a teacher and I end my session and cleanly unlock everything, right? Uh but say um a student closes their device before the session is done or while the screen is still locked when they go home. It and it gets off our Wi-Fi and it's outside of the time period. It takes about two minutes. Uh, and then the device will recognize that, hey, I'm not supposed to be locked anymore or I'm not supposed to be managed anymore. And then it'll pop out of that state. Wonderful. Yeah, I just know we use different tools. The part of the learning of the technology is learning to use

136the tool at the right time. I should be paying attention in the class, but wait, the teacher is now pointing out something on YouTube or something else I should be using after class to understand this math principle, right? And I'm in the hallway. So, that's wonderful that it has that flexibility. And it should be pointed out, this isn't new to many of our students. Many of our students have come up with these tools in our feeder in our feeder school. So there there were a lot of students that were as soon as like I I got feedback as soon as the teacher hit the lock button, they knew like half the class would just close their laptops because they they were familiar with it from middle school. [laughter] And one day we will bring elementary

137and high school all together and it'll be a seamless experience. um across five districts. someday. I just have two things. Um or one question. Um, and not to sound too big brothery, but is there a way or is there an opportunity, um, I know we collect so much information on Panorama and we use that in lots of different ways and, um, I know some of it's anonymized and some of it isn't and all of that, but is there some way to have these two systems work together to get is there anything useful that Panorama can get from information that that this platform might be able to give just something to think about. I don't know. Um I think we can explore that and come back with a good I just wonder because I know that

138we're looking to see, you know, if there are when we will they look for flags for some student behaviors, for example, and is this a student behavior that that we would want to to know about, you know, this is a kid who's consistently trying to get around this or, you know, having to be shut down or whatever. Maybe they all do it so much that it's not even a real um data point. But in any event, um and then just to I mean, and again, you're right or we don't we shouldn't have like a a big philosophical discussion about it, but at least my view of it is is um I think that there will be some some students who will be grateful for this because they they feel this inexurable pull to do this.

139They know it's not great, but it's just the way they're wired right now. And to have someone just shut it down just takes a lot of pressure off them. They don't have to think about it anymore. And I and whether that's something they should be able to self-control and train themselves for in the best of all possible worlds. Yes. But I also feel like there are sometimes that it's just better to do it for them so that they just they can and maybe they won't focus. Maybe they'll just look out the window the way I did when I was in high school when I was bored and twirl their thumbs because they can't get to chat GPT or, you know, March Madness or whatever, but maybe they'll actually pay attention because that's more interesting than

140doing that. So, we'll see. Just one comment [laughter] just to clarify. I always make the same example. Nobody's forced not to use the phones when they are swimming or they are wrestling or they are doing something else. So there is a point in life where a kid no matter what age makes a conscious decision to disconnect. Nobody's forcing them to. And my comment is we as educators haven't found a way to have the same pool. It's not about forcing or not forcing. I agree if there are no choice. I'd rather force to get something done. I'm saying philosophically. I would love for us to find the holy grail where somebody can sit and loves to listen to what I'm doing or play with what I'm playing or do something like that that they can say

141I can get away off my phone for five more minutes than me. No, I hear you. I I think that that's definitely aspirational, put it that way. Um, okay. Anyway, um, do we have anything else on this topic? This was fascinating. I think we we actually need to approve this, right? So, is that going to come back on consent? This will come back on consent. Yes. Okay. Thank you guys. Thank you. All right. Um I've lost my name. We are now up to topics for future board meetings. So we have a few items coming up. Um on June 8th, just a reminder, 5:00 p.m. Again, that time is 5:00 p.m. uh we will gather for a finance committee meeting. All are certainly welcome. Um that focus will be uh regarding um the master facility plan

142uh funding. Um we will also invite assistant director Julie Shellard um to talk to us about how we're expanding access to um medication uh throughout the building. This is those or these are those emergency medications such as uh we're talking about glucagon, we're talking about epi, we're talking about um why am I blanking on asthma and nar narcans, things of that nature. So, we'll talk a little bit about that. Um we also will have a public hearing for the exterior life safety work on June 8th. And then finally, um this is an important one. Um, I apologize. We had a little bit of a timing snafu, but I do require four board members present on June 22nd for a very short meeting, but an important meeting. Sandy is number one. She's she's going to be

143here. Uh, so just need three more minutes. I'll be in one. Oh, okay. That's a very good I can zoom in. Yes, but I need Okay, so I got that. I need a majority of a quorum for I'm overseas in person. Okay. West. I'm in LA. [laughter] I'm curious. I can zoom in. You can zoom in. Is it work related? We need four people. Yes. I need a majority. Um, okay. We'll be following up on that and we'll we'll make that work somehow. Um, I guess it's workish. Yes, I just need a physical quorum. Physically here. Physical. That's the challenge. Uh, no worries. We'll work through that. Um, one other thing, uh, my board member colleagues, uh, there is a piece of paper in front of you. I am going to collect that piece of

144paper at the conclusion of this evening. Uh, if you could please fill it out. This is really important. Um, and first time we're publicly saying this. Um, Mrs. Smith, Mr. Britag, Dr. Cummings and myself have been accepted to present at the joint annual conference that is on the Friday. This is the first time to our knowledge our district has ever presented. Um and so we'd love to have all of our friends there and present. Friday slots are very like people go this this is this is the time. Um so we'd love to see you there and then certainly we welcome you on uh Saturday as well or whatever you'd like. Um, registration opens on June 1st, so I need to have your information. Even if you might change your mind, that's okay. We got to

145get into registration on June 1st. All right. Uh, we do have Oh, yes. Please share. I would love to. Uh, we are totally wrapping up in my business how AI is really um [clears throat] it's streamlining so many tasks. So many tasks that took us hours to do is now taking us minutes. It's unbelievable how more efficient we are. Has not eliminated jobs. It's just made us more efficient and getting better at it. And I would love to see if you know that could help with how we could utilize that with any of the stuff any one of the different policy committee. [laughter] It could do so much for that. Actually, we might be um able to talk about some uh data initiatives um that we're working on. So that might be a good way

146to segue that. Okay. Anyone else have any topics they'd like to share? Okay, that's great. We can, you know, if if something comes to mind, you can always uh shoot an email to R.J. or me. Um, and if the board is amanable, I think our closed session would be very short if we just want to go right into it. Okay. Um, is the board amanable? Okay. In that case, [laughter] is this a potato potato? Yes. [laughter] All righty. Um, this evening, the board of education will enter close session to discuss sensitive matters as allowed under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Please note that no action will be taken following close session this evening. At this time, I will to entertain a motion to consider I move. Appointment, [laughter] employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of

147specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body, including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity in accordance with section 2C1 of the Open Meeting Act. I second Jack's motion. There you go. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries.