Board of Education - Apr 27 2026

001and Miss Mullen Beck, we're ready. Okay. Good evening everyone and welcome to this meeting of the board of education of Glen Brook High School District 225. Uh, Miss Smith, could we please call the role? Mr. Downing present. Mr. Gaki, Mrs. Hope here, Miss Mullenbeck here, Mr. O'Hara here, Mr. Shine present, Dr. Seinberg here. Six members present. Uh, the first item on the agenda is the approval of the agenda. Uh, Dr. Gral, have there been any changes to the agenda since it was posted? There have been no changes. In that case, could I have a motion, please, to approve the agenda? I move. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. That brings us to our superintendent report, Dr. Grall. Right. Good evening everyone and thank you so much for coming. We are very fortunate

002to be surrounded by some of our student debaters, our coaches, and also their amazing, supportive families. So, without further ado, I'd like to welcome up Dr. Georgees and Mrs. Hughes to introduce some of our friends who are here today. Good evening. We are so pleased tonight to recognize the achievements of our Glen Brook North and Glen Brook South debate teams for their recognition in the IDCA varsity state competition in March. First, we would like to congratulate the students from GBN and GBS who were selected to the allstate debate team. All state recognition is for debaters who are acknowledged by coaches and judges for their excellent command of debate and speaking skills such as arguments, rebuttals, and reput Reputa reputations. I did have it. Oh, feel great. Okay. Reputations. Um, this year students from the Glen

003Brooks were identified for six of 10 all state speaker recognitions and we are happy to recognize them this evening along with their coaches. So, I'm going to start by speaking about our two students from GBS. Tonight, we have with us Anukure and unfortunately Neil Patel cannot be here tonight. So, I'm going to take a moment to talk about them and we're going to pass over to Miss Hughes here. Uh, both Anu and Neil have been recognized by the National Speech and Debate Association as those uh, academic all-Americans. They were both in the top 20 individual speakers at the recent tournament of champions, which included 196 policy debaters from across the nation that qualified for national championships. It's important to acknowledge that both Anu and Neil placed at the Illinois Varsity State Championships for their junior

004and senior years. In addition to both of them qualifying for the tournament of champions two years in a row, the Glenberg South debate team is facilitated by head coach Miss Tara Tate and these opportunities for our students would not be possible without her tremendous leadership. uh she is a GBS social studies teacher and sponsor of the team and I personally would like to express my tremendous gratitude for her leadership of this program and more importantly the time, love and passion she gives to our students at GBS. And with that, I'm going to pass over Miss Huge for GBN. Look at that. Wow. All right. Could I have all of our GBN students and Dr. Greenstein come up front to be recognized? Um we are thrilled to Yes. You have lots of things. Um, we're thrilled

005to recognize our all state speakers. Um, so we're going to start with our eighth place speaker, Mika Pendit. We have our seventh place speaker, Emil Lee. Our third place speaker, Joe Rosenlat, and our first place speaker and all state captain, Ethan Camp. So, all of these four seniors have been having a wonderful time in debate for all of their years, and we're very, very proud of all of their accomplishments. And in addition to the all-state recognition, our GBN team of Joe and Ethan won the Illinois Varsity State Debate Championship again. This is only the second time in tournaments history that the same duo won it twice with the last time being in 1965 and 1966. And also, we are thrilled to continue celebrating Ethan and Joe for their second place finish at the Tournament of

006Champions, the premier national and international championship hosted by the University of Kentucky. To even qualify for the tournament, each team had to earn at least two bits through strong performances at other major national competitions. Advancing to the final round required defeating many of the most accomplished teams in the country and world, demonstrating elite research, argumentation, and advocacy skills at the highest level of high school debate competition. And also, out of the 192 students competing, Ethan was named top speaker out of the entire tournament of champions. So, I wanted to celebrate all of the students from GBN and GBS. I also would like to acknowledge Dr. Michael Greenstein. Come on up. He uh who facilitates our Glenrook North Debate team um who was recognized this year as the Illinois Debate Coaches Association 2026 Coach of the

007Year. IDCA President Dave Weston highlighted two main themes about Dr. Greenstein's service as a coach. His leadership of debate is both a pursuit of excellence and a responsibility to others, specifically with the development of novice debaters to explore and grow their skills in debate, which these students all benefited from when they first arrived at Glenchrook North. And as a result, Dr. Greenstein is building confidence and capacity of our debate team that will maintain the strong reputation of the Glenick's debate program for years to come. So, congratulations to our students and our coaches. On behalf of all of us, congratulations to our students from Glenrook South, from Glenrook North, and also uh Miss Tate and Dr. Greenstein for your leadership in supporting our students through all of these amazing accomplishments and the journey of debate being

008what seems to almost be a true profession based on all the metal and hardware uh that you guys have brought forth. So, congratulations again. And it was such an honor to have you come and join us at the board meeting. Um at this time I welcome all of you to experience a different type of debate if you will through board governance uh and staying the whole meeting. Otherwise you are welcome at this point to start heading out and thank you so much for joining us today. Can we give all of our students from South and North? I'm so sorry. This is a great opportunity to recognize someone who might have just made it here and also give us an opportunity for a picture. Dr. Georgees. Yes. Let's go ahead and take a picture. And this

009is who I was referencing uh earlier. Um Neil Patel who won fifth place. So at this point, if I could ask Dr. George's, Miss Tate, and our GBS students, let's transition over to the PD room. Let's grab you a picture so we can have that. Um and then we'll continue on with the remainder of the report. Thank you again to all of our students, our parents. Again, you're welcome to stay, but if you want to head out, we certainly understand that. As we continue through Superintendent Report, just two other topics. Um the first one being very excited to celebrate yet another amazing Glen Brook musical. This time, um enjoying the artistic renderings of Rogers and Hammerstein Cinderella. Um just amazing performances starting with our middle school preview and going through our our evening performances and

010then also our matinea on Saturday. Um an amazing uh amount of talented staff and students who come together to make this truly a community event. Um along with those community events um just recognizing the Glen Brook Foundation for hosting yet another amazing night of Glen Brook Theater. And perhaps just one last um acknowledgement, if you will, of the many sponsors who came together uh to support the foundation's event. The foundation raised over $20,000 uh through this event. Um uh truly amazing uh showing of support from our community um both our families, our community members, and local businesses. So very grateful for that. and also um the leader of the foundation, Matt Safar, uh a former student here as well uh for all of his leadership in that. And with that, I'll transition to the board.

011Thank you, Dr. Grall. Uh that brings us to board reports and we will start with a report from the finance committee. Uh I'm not sure who's reporting out from the committee meeting. It'll be Mr. Shine this evening. Mr. Shine, thank you. So um we uh had a number of items on the agenda uh at the uh finance committee and I will run through them uh briefly. There is a memo available uh from Dr. Patac and Dr. Grall um with additional detailed information and I would recommend it perusing that but I'll go through it quickly. Um the first item was replacement of spin bikes. It's part of our fizzed and program at both schools. 50 at South 40 at North. These uh are original bikes. So when we redid the fitness center um these were not

012replaced. So other equipment was these were not. And um the estimated cost of this is $210,000. The current ones are 15 years old. There are three products being evaluated and they're in uh testing basically. So they they put a couple I guess at each school and we're going to get feedback from students and staff and then make a decision. So that's item one. Uh the new product comes with a three-year warranty and I believe we said the cost includes service agreement for five years. That that's warranty for the first three, right? But I believe we also said service for the first three and then we can purchase additional. Okay, we can clarify. Great. Great. Okay. Um the next item was uh transportation for special education and the request was for four vans. Uh this is

013in addition to the little buses we have. Um 60% of this cost uh will be paid by uh federal idea grants. um they're purchased through the state agreement. So the pricing is they've already done the bidding for these and um the estimate on that is 177,000 and they estimate perhaps 10 years of life out of these because the uh miles per year utilization is pretty low. So cost savings cost savings. Ah thank you. Yeah. And there's a cost savings um because we will not be paying for this service purchase services. And let's see, do we have an estimate on the cost savings? I did not write that down. Yeah, it was about 50% of the estimated cost. Uh current annual spend is $275,000 and we would look to save approximately 50% of that. So there

014is a a savings quick pretty quick ROI on this guy. Um, next one was uh replacement of stage lights um first at GBN and from that we'll learn and move on to GBS. Currently we spend about $40,000 on lights to rent. These lights supplement the fixed lights that are uh in each auditorium, but if you've been to a show, if you happen to be at Cinderella, you'll see a lot of automated lights. This is sort of standard operating procedure now in theaters is using automated LEDs and we rent them. But it's to the point now where it's felt we should just own our own and uh we would then save money after a couple years, two and a half years. Again, this thing would pay for itself and it would just make the shows go

015a lot smoother, the load in and the take down because we wouldn't have to wait for the lights and uncrate them and because when you rent you only get them for a fixed amount of time and um my concern was that we we always rented because technology changes so much, but really the feedback was we're kind of past that everything is LED now and we're we're in a different place and these lights will be compatible with our current lightboard, but that will also have to get replaced just because of age. It's it's on the it's on our facilities plan to replace the light board. So, we've done soundboards, lightboards, and then things like seating and carpeting. And, you know, we're getting there in terms of the renovation step by step. Uh item four was copy

016machines. Our copy machine at South is at its fiveyear life and the recommendation is to purchase uh for $105,000 a new copy machine. We discussed leasing and we have been down this path um over the years. We've and and purchase is really the way to go mostly because the structure of the lease for a copy machine for a school is not favorable. There are and I I actually didn't know this until tonight, but there are some sort of special provisions in the law related to of all things copy machine leasing for schools. Who knew that that makes makes it less favorable, very unfavorable when you come to the turnin, which you would not expect. Argo purchasing is the way to do this. It's it's hard to believe that they were able to lobby for a

017provision like that, but okay. That's the reality we have. Um, let's see. The next item is upgrades to equipment um for food service. So, we own all of the equipment in our kitchens. Quest provides the labor and the service, but we do own the equipment. And we receive funding from them through sales, some of which we put into a an account to buy stuff. And there's a list of stuff they need. If you're interested, it's in the menu. My favorite is the barbecue. But um the equipment has a has a life just like your equipment at home. And um how old is our equipment now? about 12 years old since the last, right? Give or take. Yeah. And some is exceeding that. Yeah. This stuff really, really takes a beating. I mean, it's used heavily.

018Um, we don't bring in food from the outside pre-cooked. We cook everything ourselves. So, this equipment is heavily used. $97,000. We receive um about $375,000 a year in remittances back from the food service. And some of that then is put into an account to help pay for food service. And we've been doing this for a long time like this. Uh in a related item, um the recommend there's a recommendation to extend the contract of our current vendor Quest. They're on a 5-year contract. It's expiring. And the recommendation from the administration is to extend for two years. And this is not a reflection on Quest. it is that it will align the food service contract with the uh facility upgrade cycle for that space. So two years hence we're going to be looking at the remodeling

019of those spaces which happened probably 15 maybe years ago that dates back to the original referendum. Um no no we did it because I thought we did it once after that. Not since I've been here. No. Okay. So that's 20 years, right? Yeah. Oh, the kitchen. Correct. Not not the not the front cuz we redid the front part. The the uh from a flooring standoint facing side get was redone the lines and the coolers and all that. You're talking strictly back of house. Correct. So the thought was to bring their contract in alignment with the remodel. So then we would go to other schools, see what see what's current and then how does that work with the human resource part of the food service. So that's why the instead of upping another five going with

020two-year and unlike most contracts, this one is unique. We don't pay them a an annual service fee or or cost. They're paid strictly on the sales of the food and then we receive back a certain percentage. Our side of the agreement is we have to provide the facility. They also which is amazing because they volunteered this up in the beginning was paying for the free and reduced and the free breakfast. And I suppose others are doing this now, but when they started this, they volunteered to provide just to provide those meals. So I think that's, you know, just one guy's opinion. I think it's amazing. Um, next item was print shop services. Administration is asking uh for me, step back. They went out and got three bids. We currently have Xerox. Um they received three

021prices. The lowest one was a company called Educare and uh the recommendation is to change from Xerox to Educare which saves us $40,000 and we have experience help me here with with Educare. They are currently our bookstore services vendor. So the feeling is there'd be some coordination there between the bookstore and the copy service using the same uh vendor. Um, couple more audit services. Um, the request is for $129,000 over three years using the same firm. It's a very modest increase. Name of the firm is uh Lauderbach and Aean. And um to my to my knowledge and to anything the administration said, we're very happy with their service and um our audits are very clean, understandable, and they they know our finance system and our people. So the recommendation is to move forward with them.

022The next item is a rather large dollar. It's uh administration is requesting an upgrade of our door access system. So every place we go with one of these, how many lacks? Ballpark. We are we are well over 2,000. Okay. Yeah, I was going to say a thousand per building. So um we have a very large system. It's well past the end of its service life. It's software version is what did we say 2019? No. Uh it is I know it's version six. That's correct. It feels like it was when I first started using it in 2009. It's DOSs plus you know runs on Windows. It's Windows 9. It it's was originally running on Windows XP. That's just to give context. So, and as an example of so, so it is impossible to really secure it.

023You c you cannot secure something this old. Um, regardless of what they say, this is not securable. But mo most importantly from an example we were given was at times um there's a need to do a lockdown and the current system because it's very old architecture requires um 3 minutes from say push the button to locking down all the doors. 3 minutes that is a really long time in an emergency. Um the new system would do it in 30 seconds. Um, and so that's just just an example, but we're also out of space for cards and door locks. I mean, we we've just maxed this thing out. It it probably wasn't envisioned to be applied at the scope we're using it. For example, we we put locks on on closet doors, on mechanical rooms, on

024you name it. We we we lock everything, which is great because then you know who's going in when and where, but also it allows you to remotely unlock a door, say for a contractor that might have to go in someplace or to issue a temporary card. You don't have to fuddle around with keys which then don't get turned in and yada yada. The cost to do that is $470,000. It is budgeted. It is budgeted. Um not an insignificant amount of money. Um and they've committed to doing this in 45 days. Sorry. Yeah. It's a it's quite a significant cost and it would be ready uh when the instructional supervisors come return to school in August and I had a question about what do you do in the interim during the 45 days and there the

025vendor of course administration already asked this question is they would run both systems in parallel and things would slowly migrate zero over here 2,000 over here and you know every day you'd have you'd be moving on to the next one and at some point old would be decommissioned and you'd be on to the new system. Um, cards don't have to be reissued, right? So, door locks stay the same. So, that's one piece. It's all up in the ceiling, new electronics, new computers, but door hardware stays the same. Cards stay the same, which in our case would be a a fairly huge undertaking if we had to reissue all of these in a short period of time. So that's that's great. Very dis. Yeah. And then finally the last item. Do we want to talk about

026that or we not ready really for that? Um we had one other item uh regarding a way of saving um money on the master facility plan which we're going to bring back to the facilities committee um in two weeks. Okay. Perfect timing. So with that questions? Okay, too much information, huh? So I I just wanted to offer this is a great opportunity to use this as an ill uh illustrative moment. Um the reason why Mr. Shine went through so many items is we're preparing for the next fiscal year and this is how many different large projects go on that aren't major construction projects but are uh significant nonetheless spanning um direct impacts of student experiences in their classrooms from spin bikes all the way to maybe what happens in ceilings uh that make the the

027building ultimately come together and operate. Um, but I also wanted to emphasize as we get towards our discussion of board meeting schedules that we as as as a as a board and administrative team have really worked to leverage our time in committees. Um, and again, committee meetings are are meetings open to the public. They're typically before the board meetings and it allows us to get really into some very exciting minutia um of each of these projects. But the goal is to have that level of discussion at the committee level and then when we come to the board level we give a much higher level overview. Certainly there could be questions, follow-ups and things of that nature and then not um kind of um reexperience that at the board table. So again maximizing our use of

028time. And so when we get to that conversation of board meeting schedules, this is just an example. we will be hearing a little more substantive uh committee reports um uh and so you'll see a larger point there with less on the discussion side um for that part of the agenda. Thank you Mr. Shai. U next on our board report agenda is a report from the Glen Brook Foundation meeting and I think that would be you Dr. I already offered a little bit of a summary. the foundation was full steam ahead with respect to Cinderella. Um, our meeting was last week, which was right before the day we started setting up. Um, so I won't um uh kind of uh rehash that, but I just really want to emphasize the Glenchrook Foundation is an organization of

029volunteers. Many of the individuals who serve as trustees are former students of Glen North and Glenber South. They are proud of what they received from our schools and they are excited. Many of them have students in our buildings or recently have gone through um and they are just always interested in looking to find opportunities to support our students and our staff through innovative activities um through continued support of of the arts and all of our students based on their unique interests. So, if you have ever had an interest in being part of a notfor-profit organization that is truly dedicated to supporting students um and brings together folks who have a rich connection to our communities, um the Glenber Foundation is always looking for new individuals to step forward. So, kind of an open call that

030if you're interested, feel free to reach out to me. We'll put you in contact with the foundation. And just thank you um to Matt and the entire team for making the night of Glen Theater event be so successful. Thank you, Dr. Grall. Uh our last board report will be on the Glenick North Parent Association meeting. Um Mr. Glowaki is not here. Mr. Shiny, you didn't do Okay. In that case, we'll we'll defer to the next meeting when Mr. Gwagi can report out of that. All right. Um, that brings us to recognition of community visitors. Um, this is our public comment period. It's up to a 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,

031address, 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 item nor to discuss any item members of the public have raised until the board has had time to gather information and 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

032its attention or the substance of public comment, speakers are reminded that their comments are not automatically protected by any immunity or other legal protection. We have a number of speakers who have signed up for this evening and we will start with Claire Mun. Miss Mun, Miss Bonner, would you mind turning on the microphone at the podium? Thank you so much. All right. Um, good evening everyone. My name is Claire Mun and I'm currently a freshman at Glenrech South High School. I'm also a member of Suburban Youth Council um at Hana Center, an immigrant justice and service provider located in the suburbs as well as Chicago. I'm here to talk about something that has deeply affected my education and sense of belonging at Glenrich South. I just recently moved to Glen View from Chicago in hope

033of having more Asian-American representation since I knew there would be more people who look like me or grew up like me. But yet, when I entered my classroom, it was way different. I knew the Teach Act before entering GPS and was thrilled to be able to finally learn about my own heritage as an Asian-American. I've never really belonged to a group of people since it has always been divided by being Asian or American. And Asian-American representation has always been a smaller concern of many schools, including schools like my elementary and middle school back in Chicago or maybe even GBS. All of these students should feel like they're welcome and spoken for. And it's time to take a stand for Asian-American students and actually do something about representation. Not having any Asian-American history classes erases any

034of the contributions Asian-Americans have put into building America. The Teach Act requires schools to include an Asian-American history class in their curriculum. District 225 is currently not fitting that bill that has been passed in 2021. It has been 5 years and it's really time to just take action. Asian-American stories are often reduced to the Chinese Exclusion Act or Japanese Internment Camps during World War II. And there's just so much more than just these two stories. These stories diminish us as a group of people and also neglect the fact that Asian-Americans have continuously been shaping America. There are other historical events out there that we can teach. And these just show that Asian-Americans exist and that they're not perpetual foreigners or model minorities, but contributors to civil rights and hardworking American citizens that have built their

035way up. I want future Asian-Americans, whether that be my baby cousins or my own children, to learn about their people, something that I never got to experience when I was growing up. I came here today to ask board members to take account action and accountability. Thank you. Thank you, Miss B. Uh, next on the list is Evan Fang. Good evening. I hope everyone's having a good day. My name is Evan Fang and I'm a junior at Glen Brook South High School and a member of the Suburban Youth Council at Hana Center, an immigrant justice and service provider. Today, I'll be speaking on the demands that my team and I have created. From my experience as a high school student and an Asian-American, there's been an increased amount of discrimination targeting the Asian-American community throughout the

036years. Co 19 can be a great example of the discrimination that the Asian-American community is facing, blaming the people with different eyes or being yellowfaced and the ones that caused the lockdown in the globe. This and many other events led me to question my identity as an Asian-American. It made me contemplate, contemplate why I can't make friends, why I can't do regular activities with other people. And this brings me to the Teach Act, which it takes a pivotal role in addressing these racial discriminations. It's a law that emphasizes on adding more Asian-American literature and history. There's many holes in Asian-American history that we don't know about. We already know about the Chinese Exclusion Act and Japanese internment camps, but why don't we learn about events that we don't know instead reveing the commonly known events?

037During my time at the Hana Center, I learned about a lot of Asian-American events, history, and the injustices that were being served, which I did not learn in GBS. There were so many events that illuminated my eyes in the Hana Center that I didn't see in GBS. Even though there's a lot of diversity being held in both schools, there are wide variety of Asian clubs that emphasize cultural diversity, not looking into the social justices and inequality. So now I'm asking the board, in what ways can we ensure that the teach act is being utilized correctly? Can we add a cultural studies class for graduation requirement? Or instead of one unit focusing on Asian-American history for Pacific Rim, why not make it have two units or a longer unit specifically focusing on accomplishments Asian-Americans have made

038and the problems they faced. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Fang. And um I'm sorry, the last I'm sorry, the next person on the list I'm having a hard time reading this. I think it's Andrew Dea. It's Andrew Deosales. Deal. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Andrew de Lasales and I serve as a suburban youth program coordinator at the Hana Center. We're an immigrant justice and service provider that serves 16,000 individuals annually in English, Korean, and Spanish, and we're based in Prospect Heights. One of our community empowerment programs is the Suburban Youth Council, where twice a week students will join with students that look like and sound like them from across the Northwest suburbs. Last fall, some of our students conducted a survey and found that the root cause of racist stigmatizing incidents,

039especially when it comes to food stigma, was a lack of education. That's the reason why they're turning towards the Teach Act today. And they've learned how to advocate through the Suburban Youth Council, whether that's showing up at no uh no kings rallies or even lobbying for healthcare expansion in Springfield. Importantly, the students have started to realize that the same narratives that are reinforcing ISIS's operations today are the ones that they didn't learn about in their classes beforehand. So, to this end, District 225 students have identified a set of demands for the board of education and the superintendent. Above all, they stressed that Asian-American contributions be made more accessible, whether through curricular updates like expanding the Pacific Rim class to include more units of Asian-American history or even an Asian-American history class. And they've also identified

040and will share free resources uh for professional development, book lists, and lesson plans because they are deeply invested in this district complying with state law. This community looks forward to the seeing the district take action because too often our young people graduate only knowing Asian-American contributions as a story of victimhood, which is a narrative that's only become more re-entrenched in the wake of anti-Asian hate following CO 19 and Operation Midway Blitz. We look forward to seeing your action and the community will be watching. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh we have one more speaker tonight. Uh, Doug Tilsh. I thought that was a sign in master. Oh, okay. Would you like to share anything? You know, I would. Okay. Just a uh best practice. Um, best practices. Uh, I think about these a lot

041and uh I just if there's anybody in the room who has written a lot of lesson plans, do you have an opinion about rubrics specifically group work rubrics? Anybody? We don't really you usually have discussion during public comment, but if there's something you'd like to share with us, we'll listen. Yeah, I think I just shared it. Okay. Uh, group work rubrics are very effective. That's all. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Tilsh. Miss Malc, do you mind if I just make a quick comment? Yes, please. I just wanted to take an opportunity and thank Claire and Evan for coming and speaking to the board this evening and also Andrew for your um support of our students. One of the really important elements of the Teach Act is that we um it's officially in Illinois school code referred

042to as a mandated unit of study. Um and there's multiple different pathways um to go about providing access um to that knowledge, the understanding of the contributions of so many of our of our students, of their parents, of of many individuals throughout um our nation and the world um and how they contribute to the benefits of bringing society together um and making it better. Um, with that said, I want to make sure that we connect um you with Mr. Ryan Breitt, our assistant superintendent of teaching and learning. So, in just a moment, I'm going to ask him to connect with you so that we can schedule a time to sit down, kind of review um what we're doing, gather some feedback. At the end of the day, we are always looking to um to improve

043upon whether it's the sense of belonging of all of our students, whether it is ensuring that we're complying with state requirements within our curriculum um and so many other um areas. Uh and it's just important that we have that dialogue and that conversation. So, thank you again for coming. Thank you for advocating. And Mr. Bre, I'll ask if you could step over and and have a conversation. Thank you so much again. That brings us now to our consent agenda. Um, do we have any changes to the consent agenda since it was posted? Dr. Gral, there are no changes to the consent agenda. Uh, could I please have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. And a second. I second. Mr. Downing. Yes. Mrs. Hope. Yes. Mr. O'Hara, yes. Mr. Shine, yes. Dr. Steinberg,

044yes. Miss Mullenbeck, yes. Six members voting yes. And now, excuse me. Y Oh, we have a new policy manual. Y I felt like we shouldn't move past. We have a whole bunch of things, but one of those things is a new policy manual. Fantastic. forgot the sweets. Oh, okay. Um, we are now at a very very uh exciting portion of the agenda where we adjourn and go into organizational to our organizational meeting. Um, so I have a script. Um, since there is no further business to come before this board, a motion for adjournment Cena DA is needed. So moved. Second. All in favor of the motion to adjourn Cena DA signify same by saying I. I. Um, can I do this? I move to appoint R.J. Grall to serve as chairman prom. Second. All in

045favor? I. I move that we appoint Carol Smith to serve as secretary prom. Second. All in favor? Hi. Hi. The board of education. Oh, you're now the the chairman. Here we go. What would we do without a script? Oh, you've got your own script. Okay. It was a little fun. Um, the board of education for Glenberg High School District 225 will now come to order. We now turn to what we commonly call the organizational meeting for the board. May I have a motion to approve the agenda? I move. Oh, sorry. We have a motion by Mr. Downing, a second by Miss Hope. All in favor? I opposed. No opposed. Okay. At this point, we will take an opportunity to solicit nominations for the office of president. Nominations do not need to be seconded. Well, it

046is my privilege to nominate Miss Mullenbeck for another term as our board president. Are there any other nominations? Seeing no other, can I second it? No second required, but Mr. Downing for, you know, effect will add a second. Seeing as there are no other nominations for the board of president or for the office of president, Miss Smith, if you would please record Miss Mullenbeck as the dulyeleed president for the board of education for the next year. And at this point, I relinquish the gavl and ask that you recognize Miss Mullenbeck for her next year of service. Uh the chair will entertain nominations for board vice president to serve for a term of one year. Nominations need not be seconded unless I want to be. Um and I nominate um Dr. Marcela Seyberg to serve again

047as vice president. Second. Thank you. The uh ceremonial second. Um Dr. Steinberg is nominated. Are there any other nominations for the office of vice president? Since there is only one nominee, uh the secretary prom is hereby instructed to record a unanimous vote for Dr. Steinberg. Uh the chair will appoint Miss Vicky Tarver to serve as board treasurer for a term of one year. This appointment need not be seconded. The chair will appoint Mrs. Carol Smith to serve as board secretary for a term of one year. An appointment need not be seconded. And the chair will appoint Miss Robin Pelky to serve as board recording secretary for a term of one year. This appointment need not be seconded. And that concludes the organizational meeting for the newly formed board of education for Glen Brook High School

048District 225. Can we recognize Miss Smith, Miss Pelky, and Miss Tarver for their newly appointed roles? I think they have a chance. Mr. Star versus his cheer. He's not here, so she can't say no. Exactly. Okay. Um, back to normal business. We will move on to our discussion and action agenda. Uh, first item is uh the board of education meeting schedule for May 2026 through April 2027. Dr. Gbell. Okay. The last time the board came together um we had a discussion of the upcoming year of meetings. So not necessarily connected to a fiscal year but kind of around April time we adopt our schedule for the next 12 months. That'll go to the reorganization meeting that will take place either at the end of April 2027 or the beginning of May uh depending on how

049the canvas of the election comes uh into play. During that discussion, um, several board members presented, um, a question which involved considering transitioning from board meetings that took place, uh, twice a month to transitioning to once a month. Um, at the time, um, I had asked for general consensus that was of an interest of the board, uh, of which it was confirmed. So, we gathered some data and I'll be candid, the data was um a little bit surprising to me um just from what I had thought. Um so, after looking at our elementary feeder districts, so that's 27, 28, 30, 31, and 34, and also bless you. um and also uh neighboring high school districts. Um we found that Glenbrook is one of the very few actually to have board meetings uh twice a month.

050Um what most boards have transitioned to, which is what our board has been doing, um is having um uh very uh regular uh working committee meetings. Um for Glen Brook we have the communications committee meeting the finance committee the facilities committee and then also our policy committee um and then a lot of work is done there and then it's brought forward to the board um in a little bit of a snapshot view but also with extensive discussion on large topics for instance today um we'll be hearing from Dr. Cummings and Dr. whom um regarding our special education opportunity review um that had uh taken place over the last 18 months. Um so really kind of digging into some topics recently this year. We also um just spoke about college counseling. We spoke about personalized learning

051plans for our students. um we dug into some exciting um projects such as the master facility plan and our guaranteed energy uh contract and just all sorts of different topics that have come up from our community that have come up from the board of education and and so on and so forth. Um, so with that said, um, after looking at what other boards do and also our sequence of events, um, the administration put together an outline of what a calendar would look like if we didn't have a meeting every or twice a month. And we found that we could get there with three exceptions. In March, um, we believe that we do need two meetings um, to navigate our staffing plan. Now, as a reminder, March is a little unique time. It's a meeting right

052after a meeting. So, two in a row. Um, in April, we believe that it's appropriate to have two meetings should there be any uh reduction in forest that needs uh to follow certain statutory deadlines and also the annual organizational meeting that we just went through. Um, and then lastly, in May, uh we need two meetings to approve capital projects. uh now that we'll be on a slightly modified timeline with the master facility plan um and also to approve the annual amended budget uh which uh Miss Tarver will actually present at the next meeting. So with those three exceptions um the administration believes that we could move forward in this direction should the board want to and at this point I would defer to any questions I certainly can answer or for board discussion. Dr. I

053just have a quick observation. Next year is an election year, so we may not be able to have the organizational meeting on the 26th. Correct. Yeah. And so that's always the one. Um it's not listed there now, but there'll be an asterisk on it. It all comes down to when the canvasing of the election takes place. Uh which is slightly out of our control. Well, not slightly is out of our control. And so it that's one of the times when we might do a meeting even off cycle. So not on the second or fourth Monday but on the first Monday. Well this year we don't have it next year. Um Mr. Downing do you have any questions or comments questions comments on the the No. Thanks. Um, yeah. Yeah. No, I Yeah, I'm supportive. Okay.

054Um, I don't know if you said questions. I like No, I have no questions. No questions. Okay, Mr. O'Hara. I I like the second one. Table two where we do one meeting. One meeting and table one is two meetings. Huh. Oh. Uh, Miss Hope, Dr. Mr. Shine, it's great. Try it. Okay. Dr. Steinberg, anything? Um, I do think that um the the with the work that we've done with the committees this year that that has really helped us um consolidate and be more efficient during these um the board meetings and um I would expect that we would be able to continue that and be productive and um still be able to get through the work that we need to do um on this new schedule. So, should the board be interested in moving forward and

055adopting the uh meeting schedule as presented in table two, um the administration would ask um for a motion and we will implement as listed. I move to adapt table two. I second. Do we have a second? I second. You second. All right. Skip suggested phrasing the motion to align with the agenda. Oh, I see. Okay. I can't give a motion. I can just suggest it. I see. It's a friendly amendment from so we will we will say that the motion was to approve the table and agenda item number indicated by agenda item 9.1 condensing of the uh board meetings board meeting calendar as presented in table two I move and oh it's an amendment it's an amendment states it's a friendly amendment It's a friendly amendment. There we go. Yes. So, we all vote amendment.

056Everybody's vote on your roll call vote on this. The motion stays the same way. There's a friendly amendment on the floor and we vote on the a on everything. All in favor? I I Any oppos? Call. It's not a money vote. It's not. Okay. Okay. Good. No. No opposed. Okay. The motion passes. Yay. Yay. Okay. All right. Just for the record, I will see you at two meetings in May. It's coming up. In case there was any confusion at that point. All right. Um, continuing discuss continuing with our discussion of board uh business. Um, item 9.2 committee appointments and member representatives. All right, my friends. Before you this evening is a worksheet. The worksheet only requires you to write your name at the top and then utilizing your preferred uh writing instrument to check the

057boxes for which you are interested in serving. This would include your standing committees as well as um the parent group liaison that we've established. I do want to clarify three items just so you're aware because you may not be familiar with them. The first is Ed. Ed Reddd is our advocacy organization that um lobbies on behalf of the Suburban Voice of Schools down in Springfield. Dr. John's actually serves as an executive board member for the organization currently. Um and there is a monthly meeting um which really can be attended on uh Zoom uh or in person. Most of the meetings are either at Wheeling or Maine Township. Um the Glenberg Foundation um is well I've talked about the Glenberg Foundation. They meet on Zoom once a month. Uh very uh very fun cool group to

058be part of and many exciting things coming forward. The last is the True North governing board. Um as a reminder to governing board basically ratifies the decisions of the executive committee. So it used to be a much more frequent meeting. Um it might be as few as three times a year. Moving forward, the meetings are held at True North in Highland Park. Um uh and they typically start around 6:30 at night. Um they'll last uh 60 to 90 minutes. Um and we do need to have a governing board member and an alternate. And currently Dr. Steinberg serves as the governing board member. So when you are and and Mr. Downing has seconded it himself as He really is the alternate alterate. Who's the Glenber Foundation person? Aren't you both RJ and our and and also

059Dr. John's occasionally? Yes on the meetings too. But um one thing I was going to ask is do we know for example for Ed Red you you know this I'm sure Dr. done the monthly meeting. Is there a particular day that they meet on? Typically, almost exclusively on Fridays. On Fridays at at Z the uh maybe except for one meeting a year at the district 21 office which is on Dundee. Uh it's the Wheeling District 21 office on Dundee. I think it's maybe a block or two west of Elmhurst Road. The Glen. Morning. Afternoon. afternoons. Glen Brook um Foundation typically meets on Tuesday nights. Um I don't know I don't think the True North group necessarily has a day that they typically Wednesday. Oh, Wednesday. This is just for your scheduling purposes because um you

060may have other standing engagements that conflict with particular meeting dates. Um but the calendar it's public so actually could be good. Okay. Um okay. And we should get these forums back to you R.J. Yes. If you have them tonight, I will take them. If you can make a suggestion, question slash suggestion. Sure. In the past, we used to rotate between finance and facilities. So all board members will get a good understanding of both committees. So I'm not suggesting the entire communities to rotate, but maybe trying to get some sort of rotation through them so everybody gets exposed to unless somebody doesn't want to be or really likes one of the two. Okay. Um what about policy? It's all done. I I thought Dr. John's nominated. I'm I'm He's sticking around. He loves it so much.

061Um, no. I mean, is there suggest? I mean, I guess everyone should just give some thought as to what works best, with their schedule, what their interests are, but I I hear you that it's good for us all to have exposure to um all the different um available um and then one other note, uh the question did come up. No, that's we're maximizing time. It's okay. Um, one question that's come up is, um, for our committee meetings, is it possible for a member to attend them, uh, remotely if they're not able to come? And one of the things that we'll just clarify when the board approves the committee assignments um, uh, possibly at the next meeting is that members of the administration are also actually members of the committee. And so as long as there's

062a quorum of the committee that's present um it is permissible for individuals with with appropriate purposes uh to connect remotely. So if you have a work obligation or what have you uh there's flexibility on that. So we'll become a little more um clear in our taking of attendance at the board meeting and taking role for excuse me at the committee meetings uh just to provide that flexibility. But since it came up, I just wanted to make sure everyone knew that that will be possible. And I um I have your worksheets. So, thank you. And I will look forward to providing you a memo. Excellent. Uh item 9.3 on our agenda, strengthening student support within special education. All right. At this point, it is my distinct privilege to welcome to the podium Dr. Laura Cummings and

063Dr. Skipkum. Um Dr. Cummings and Dr. Kung um with also the support of Dr. John's have been working for nearly 18 months skip slightly uh shorter um on um performing an external um review of our special education program ensuring that our program structures are designed to support all of our students. I want to thank some board members who have submitted questions um prior to the meeting. uh we'll be incorporating those uh into our presentation today as best as we can. Um and then we'll also uh certainly follow up with any other remaining questions. With that said, uh Dr. Cummings, you have your remote. I do and it works. Fancy. It's the little things. All right. Well, thank you for this opportunity for us to come share with you about the opportunity review. Um, as you

064know, the DM group conducted this review starting in 2025 and then um, concluding in right about January of 2026. They looked at an abundance of data. And so up there on the screen, you can see some of the quantitative data that they reviewed. So we provided the DM group with um student achievement, disability types, attendance, discipline, staffing, financial for the last five years. They took all of that data in addition to qualitative data to analyze for our review. In terms of the feedback that we gathered from staff, we felt like this part was incredibly important to engage our staff in the process. So, we had over 25 administrators participated in individual one-on-one interviews with the DM group. In addition, we had over 60 staff members participate in smaller focus groups. We invited 27 staff members

065to join us in a fun week October 6th through 10th of schedule sharing. You may ask, what is that? And that is a very time-consuming, very detailoriented um process where they are sharing every 15 minutes of what they did during their work week for an entire week. And we did have one of the highest percentage of participation rates that DM Groups ever worked with. So we were at an 88%. Um, so they felt like they got a really good sample of what a typical psychologist, social worker, case manager, speech pathologist does on a typical um random week in school. So basically the goals of this um review were to figure out what was what we were doing well, what was really working and then really provide us with some clarity, consistency, and alignment to improve

066student outcomes. So we are going to I'm going to turn it over to Skip. He gets to talk good stuff and tell you about all the good strengths that they saw. I did choose the fun parts. That is correct. So, as Dr. Cummings noted, the DM group uh collected a large amount of data in multiple formats to not only find opportunities of growth for us, uh, but to also identify some of our strengths. And that's where we're going to start today, just like we start every single IEP meeting, because we should have a strengthbased approach. We want to make sure that we continue to utilize and grow the areas that we're good and we're not just constantly looking for different areas of growth. And with that, they found three big areas that we want to

067make sure we highlight today. Our first one is a strong continuum of services and supports. So that means that whatever our students needs are, we are able to meet their needs and we're able to do it in their least restrictive environment. Starting off with our general education setting, if our students are able to learn with their general education peers and their um grade appropriate curriculum, they are in there with their peers learning that and preparing to be successful young adults. For our students who need some more targeted interventions and evidence-based practices, we have a diverse range of instructional classrooms and self-contained special education classrooms so our students can get the services that they deserve and they require. And then lastly, we also have some of our public therapeutic day school options, which is our Glenbook

068off-campus, our Glenbook transition services, and as you all know, we partner with True North as well. And those are really for our students with some more intensive needs. And then students needs aren't meant there. We even have private therapeutic day schools that we partner with as well. So man that means we can meet every kid's needs individualized no matter what it is. Second is a collaborative teaming structure. So as a new person here I can tell you that it is absolutely tremendous in the Glen Brooks. Our staff work together. They collaborate. They problem solve. They review data and they talk about our students all the time. And I can definitely guarantee you that if there is a student in the Glen Brooks who is struggling, there is a group of adults working to help that

069student. Third is dedicated and highquality staff. Our staff are well trained. They know what they're doing. They know how to deliver evidence-based interventions and they know how to make databased decisions and they stick around here and they um stay for a long term. Our special education teachers had 100% retention last year and we want to keep that going because it's not only is it good for our students to know our school and know our students but they also really get to know the community and what our students needs. So with that we are awesome and we are doing a lot of amazing things but we always want to get better. We always want to continue to improve and we want to find areas of growth and DM group found three areas that we want to

070focus on not just this year but as we'll talk about over the next three years. So the first one is role responsibility. As we add new people and new staff just like myself, we want to make sure that we have some clarity about who's taking ownership and who's taking leadership on our different initiatives and our areas of growth. And we want to do that so that we're reducing redundancy and we're really maximizing all of our strengths so that we can continue to grow as a as a team. And we want to do that so we can really maximize our instructional staff and our direct services so that our related services and our teachers are in front of our students and with our students and meeting all of their individualized needs. Second is really defining and

071modernizing our systems that lead to increased student outcomes. So, as you all know, the last time I was here, we talked about embrace IEP, which will help us get some more data so we can do that. But it's not just that. It's making sure that we have the right data so we can write a high quality IEP so we can get our students in the right settings so they can receive evidence-based interventions and they can have the teachers in front of them that they need to work on all of their skills. And we also really want to focus this year we're going to focus on our um life skills classrooms but also a personal goal of mine is going to be working on our Glenbook transition services. So, as you know, we're in our first

072year this year of having expanded services, and now we have a much more um broad range of students and student needs in our transition services program. So, we want to make sure that we're able to meet all of their needs out in the community where they're going to be young adults and they're going to grow and learn. And then lastly is developing a comprehensive plan for instructional assistance. So, this could also go over to database decision-making for all of our staffing, but we're also really focusing on our instructional assistance. And we're going to do that in a couple ways. First one is improving retention. I can personally tell you how incredibly important it is when our IAS have been in the classrooms before. They've worked on the curriculum, they've worked with the teachers, they've worked

073with the students, and they know the routines of the classroom and what happens in our spaces. And the second one that we want to focus on is making sure we're really using a datadriven model for determining our needs. So, we want to make sure that we have the right level of staffing, no more or no less, so that we can really meet our students needs because this last point is one that really, really is incredibly important for me is increasing our student independence. So, I always talk to parents all the time about how we're not just helping our students be successful here in the Glen Brooks. It's really when they're 18 or they're 22 years old or anywhere in between that so they can be successful young adults. And we don't do that by overproviding

074supports and having IAS do things for students when students can be focusing on their independence and learning to do it on their own. So with that, we're going to kind of talk about how we now the next steps to make that happen with Dr. Cummings. Thank you. All right, here comes all the fun stuff. Um, we are really excited and energized by talking about what our next steps are because the stakeholders that are involved are really energized and committed to doing this work with us. So, one of the first things we are doing is starting a three-year plan committee with year 1 being next school year and then the 2728 and 2829. We had put out information to the entire special education department asking for folks who wanted to be a part of it and

075really help shape what this is going to look like over the next three years. And we received so many people wanting to be a part of it. 22 of those folks um are committing to come back the first week we get out of school, coming back that following week to meet and start that planning. Um and then many more who unfortunately couldn't make it on June 1st are eager to be involved in the fall and some other committees as well. Very fortunate that we have representatives from four different buildings and all of the different positions within special education and student services. We feel very strongly that their engagement is what's going to make this most successful for us coming up with that plan. The goal of that three-year plan committee is really helping us prioritize

076the things we need to work on and the order in which we need to work on them. If it were up to Skip and I, we would change it next week. But, um, we know that getting their involvement and getting their input and getting their feedback is what's going to make this most successful. I think the other part that we're very excited about and have a very large participation rate um for this as well is creating a special education guide book. And this will help with as Skip was just talking about um writing the IEPs consistently. How are we documenting our related services? How are we documenting placement? It's going to help us get some clarity with our data and then also with our programming. And that guide book is going to be distributed to

077all teachers and staff on the first day of school. And we are going to do professional development throughout the school year so that everyone's utilizing that guide book similarly. So we look forward to coming back next year and sharing with you what our three-year plan is going to look like once we meet with our stakeholders in June to start carving that out. Anything else? Thank you. All right. Um, did any board member have questions, comments? I guess more just a comment. I I love the fact you guys are, you know, you're going to get people with you because if you don't, it'll revert on you. Um, and and then the whole idea about getting everybody in the this the guide book is getting the same language. It's sort of the opposite of the Tower of

078Babel. You know, if you get everybody talking the right way to each other and they understand what they're saying, you don't you get less miscommunications. Let's be honest, when you get three people, you'll get some miscommunications. But so thank you guys. It's it's a lot of work to go through this and I really appreciate it. Thank you, Mr. Shine. Yes. Um I have a question for the other Skip. Um we already decided today you're the cool Skip, so I'll be the other Skip. That's fine. Since you uh came to us from a different district, was it surprising or or not that there was the level of incon I hate to use the word inconsistency, but in in like all the IEPs and 401s and things like that, but there a lack of maybe standardization would

079be like a better way to to put it. Um because it seems like this is a big thing. You're trying to create, you know, alignment and we sit here. I think we would expect alignment. So you I'm glad we're doing this. I'm just a little surprised after so many time and resources that you know we need to you know to do this just like we did with the curriculum guide. you would have expected that math 205, you know, college trig or whatever was the same and it wasn't. So, yeah. So, I think there actually is quite a bit of consistency especially within schools and we're really working across schools as well. So, I think there actually has been a lot of growth. I know we added the LEA and compliance supervisor position last year, correct?

080And so, they really we meet regularly. They have all become best friends. They talk to each other all the time. You always need to know and have a friend, a phone, a friend, right? And they've really become that for each other and are starting to build consistency across the IEPs. And now this is just going to give us the opportunity to have it all in one place so that we're actually doing the exact same thing across all of our buildings. But I think we really are moving very strongly in that direction thanks to our LEA compliance supervisors. And do we have um the appropriate like software platforms that support you so you can you know so you can do these things? Yeah, we're switching from uh powers school special programs to embrace which I think

081is going to be very helpful. It is very userfriendly. It is a program that was written by a former special education teacher. Um it is a very easy to use system with a lot of guidance in there built in as well. So, but does it connect to powers school to pull in? Yes. And then will classroom teachers have the ability to see that information? You can still get an IEP summary. Uh, Embrace is used by roughly 95% of the high schools in Illinois and a lot of high schools also use P school. So, it really is a lot of connections already. And it also increases our ability because now we're going to have access all of our feeder districts use sees it as well. So now we're going to have access to every single student's

082IEP going back to the very first time they got one. And our students who move in from other neighboring districts are most likely going to have had um IEPs on there as well. So it's really going to increase the longitudinal data that we have for all our students that we can continue to provide good services. Thank you. Thank you, Miss. Yeah. Um so when and and maybe you said this and I missed it. when will you come back to us with sort of what the committee comes up with and then what are sort of the the goals and objectives we're looking at and how we'll measure success each year. Yeah, great question. So given the new board schedule for meetings, um we will have to add one now anxiously await our invitation to come back.

083Um the goal would be by the fall that we will have carved out that plan where we will have different committees working on the various um topics and obviously over three years. None of it's going to be done uh just within that first year and with measurable outcomes is really important to us. So we we're we'd be happy to come back next year. I can offer a few examples. Um the board will be presented to staffing plan in um February in late February. So that would be transitions in the number of human resources that might be needed. But there's also some programmatic opportunities. So I think um uh first and foremost of perhaps a presentation in September, October to celebrate and commemorate the first year of our transition services facility being opened. Um whenever you

084open a new school, there are things that go great and there are opportunities that you uh that you navigate through. Uh the finance committee actually uh talked about one of them which is improving the ability to help students navigate around the community through the use of minivans. Uh that directly came from conversations we've been having here. So we'll do a update on GBT in Septemberish. Um, and then why don't we also provide um a general update for the board on some of our initiatives uh at the end of the summer, especially with the creation of our new guide book. Not something the board will have to approve, but it'll be good to understand what what's come from it. It'd be great to see some of the things you talked about on the opportunity where we're

085at and I don't know the appropriate time frame that we want to measure for check-in for achievement for um instructors in indirect service the financial piece. It would be great to get up on those things. Don't come to me with an opportunity to talk special education. I'll do it all day every day. So you just let me know. Dr. Steinberg. Thank you. I have three questions and the three go around the same group which is parents and families that I haven't heard yet and the first one is that in I wonder if we have information in terms of alignment between our placements and parents expectations of placements. I know we have issues with regular coursework when people are not happy about placement of the students on the right alignment. So I'm assuming we are same

086as every other place, every other school. But I wonder if if if if we look at that as another way of feedback. I I understand that there's a different point of view from the family and from the professional assessment of their each one of our students. But I wonder how we work through that and and how we managed to kind of get the best of both worlds. So students are placed at the right you were talking earlier about you know the spectrum from going to true north all the way to going to our center or being in some classes. So I'm assuming our goal is to have parents happy plus really being happy because children are learning right not just simply being happy because they think they should be placed somewhere. So so I wonder

087if you have to comment on that. I go to the three questions and let you comment it any way you want. The second one is you're talking about next steps. So I see you are bringing a lot of groups there. So I wonder if if there's going to be parents representation in in these conversations as well tied to the previous question. The last one is it's just so tomorrow there's a bilingual parents association meeting and the last one when we broke into subgroups there were some comments about some parents that didn't grow up here and don't have a full understanding of how the system work. So the few parents that have better understanding in telling other parents, you should be, you know, reaching out and having more conversations. So it again, how do we do

088to increase outreach to parents that may not be aware of things that could be done for the kids in this area? Perfect. I can start off on that and thank you very much. I think it's obviously a very important part of this puzzle. So the good thing about special education is that number one we have a lot of data. So you mentioned are we similar to other places? Yes. You can look at the Illinois school report card. Not not only do we compare ourselves but we kind of have to is beholds us very um responsible for where we are placing our students and they look at what we call an EE code. It's our educational environment. So they really look at our where our students are placed and that we're not being too restrictive in

089our placements. But really the most beautiful thing about I think having an IEP is that we come together once a year and we thoroughly discuss the kids' classes. And we don't just do that by what's nice, how are we inclusive, what electives they want to take. We have to look back at that last year's data. So we write annual goals. We look at data. Parents get quarterly updates where they can see all the students data. And then we have to sit and talk about every single class they're going to take in their placement. And in that it's making sure that we're talking about what would be less restrictive, what would be more restrictive and then identifying the right class and doing that for all of them. So there is a lot of parent buyin. We

090do also have data on that. Every uh couple years parents have to fill out a survey about their participation in IEP meeting which then gets compared to the state. When I started here, it was one of the first pieces of data that I got and our numbers were very high. So the parents um did have a lot of input. And then as far as continuing to have parent input and growth, one of the things that I can report on is for the first time we're having a um transition services meeting this Thursday evening at our new space. Uh and that is we invited everyone from our eighth grade parents to our senior parents to start talking about like what are transition services? What does that mean? Because all of us have been to high school,

091but we have not all been part of transition services. So it's really starting to connect those dots with our eighth grade parents. and why do we start talking about life after high school when they first come into high school and then how does special education play into that over these next four years and we have a very high actually our RSP rate was so high that thank you GBN I had a compact GBN to bring over more chairs because we don't even have enough seating for all of our parents so we're starting to really work with our parents starting in 8th grade and we do that conversation in their IEP meetings and then through regular meetings parent nights uh in the evening as well so we're trying to incorporate parents as much as we can

092to get their feedback. Mr. Downing, um, did are you done? You said three questions. Okay, I kind of answered three maybe. Um I don't know if this is this is for I mean it's there but I know Ryan sorry to throw you in but this is something where we need to bring back the group of bilingual parents into it just to make sure that it we have some we have cultural issues and we have language issues. So I know that some of these meetings you probably have interpreters with it but it's not just simply breaking the cultural barrier but as are in some schools are groups of of students with foreignb born parents are increasing it would be it would be interesting it would be interesting to find a way to connect more with them

093I'm not saying it's happening or not happening I'm just saying capture of some parents comment and it wasn't criticism was the typical thing, the unknown, not understanding what's out there for them or how to access to that. Plus the stigma sometimes of if my kid has something that is a little bit different, should I reach out or should I push because everybody should be the same or something like that. Yeah, I think one piece of information there is I think that's an important topic we can bring back to the BPAC we're establishing next year um through that feedback some structural elements. for example, uh working with Dr. Cummings on the health center that's this week. These are the items that we continue to move forward. This would be another one we could add to that

094list to ensure that there's true clarity amongst those families. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Uh awesome work by the way. I can I can just feel the energy coming. It's palpable. It's great. And I would say for both of you, not just you, but he emanates emanates a little bit more tonight. from I like talking about special education. Sorry. Um, one thing that kind of struck me a little bit was clarity when you guys talked about one of the things you identified, right? So, as as I think about work streams and and job descriptions, right? And um, you know, the talk about redundancies, I was I don't know. I just I thought it seemed like you were if you're hiring somebody for a role, they would be defined. And I'm not passing judgment at all.

095I'm just trying to understand better. Sure. I'd be happy to take that one. So valid. You know, yes, you hire someone with a job description, but then how does that job description really come to life once you start working? And I think there have been some additional positions that we've hired. So Skip had mentioned the LEA position that was hired last year. Um my role is new this year in terms of overseeing special education. And we've had some new roles within each of the buildings as well. And so really making sure that staff know exactly who they can go to for what they need, what question they have, whether it's how to write an IEP or how do I buy this curriculum, like who is the person that you can go to? So you don't

096get that kind of runaround to go to multiple people. And it was something that came up numerous times during the qualitative feedback that there were some new positions um that were created but not very specific in terms of the job detail and the the daily tasks. And so they asked for clarification. And so that is one thing that we know is going to come up very quickly on the three-year plan. So that would include like onboarding, right? You're coming on this this is your role. This is what you do. Um and if people are falling all over themsel I mean if you do you have people doing the same job same place not necessarily that but perhaps getting maybe different messages depending on who you talk to about how maybe a part of the IEP

097I know that that Skip had mentioned earlier like surprisingly you know why do we have inconsistencies even within our district. we did have a guide book in special education. It was different at North and South. Um and then off-campus and transition could kind of choose to follow it. And so it's really creating one answer, one go-to, one answer, one person who can help make that decision and make sure and ensure that we have consistency. And sometimes when you grow, right, it's it the right hand doesn't know what the left hand's doing. That's very common, right? And then sometimes you grow and you got more hands than you need. So I was just down hall. That was it. Yeah. And I think as we work through I know we had mentioned in the the presentation is

098using some data driven models in terms of identifying what it is people do and making sure that we're not being redundant um and efficient with our services. Yep. Was it was that I was just trying to understand. Yep. Yep. Um I just had one question about the guide book and I just want I think you said this. I just want to make sure I heard this right. The guide book is being created not just for staff but also for families. You want to talk about your guide book? Yeah, the guide book is going to be definitely much more for staff. So, this is going to be the how we write the IEPS, what information we put in there, what we actually enter in each box, some of our systems, some of our ways of functioning.

099So, it's going to be a guide book for staff. It will ultimately end up helping families because it's going to helps them clearly identify what we do and how we serve our students, how we identify IIA support, how we have them in the right classes, but it's going to be much more staff focused on how we operate for IEPs. Okay. Um, not to put anything more on your plate. Um, but I do think that, you know, if there is a concern about families understanding where they fit in the process, um, that it might be helpful to have some I know that we've all of a sudden we have so many guide books, which is great. um having them every or you know manuals, right? A guide book for the guide books. Exactly. No, but I

100mean having it all for the record, we've gone from no guide books and no procedures to having all you know and policy manuals. I mean they're everywhere. Um no, it's just very helpful to have a reference and to have everyone have the same vocabulary and know that we're all you know and um perhaps you know and and understanding you have a process here. you've got multiple different things that you're um working towards. Um just maybe something something little something that and not to say I know you know many families with children with special needs are very plugged in and know a lot. They may not, but there are going to be some that really do need some help and you know just to bring them along a suggestion but I you know agree this is

101fantastic work and um I feel like all over the district we're doing this kind of work now where we're trying to you know take stock um see where we are see where we should be and um it's I'm I'm glad this is a very important um cohort within our district and I'm glad to see that we're putting that kind of focus and attention on this group of students as well. Um, so thank you for that. Any other comments, questions? I just want to add one other unscripted comment. Um, Dr. Cummings last year agreed to step into a role that would provide leadership and support for um not only our student support and the student services areas, things of that nature, but also special education. And that was a new transition that we haven't had before.

102We've really been focused on making sure that whatever the diverse needs of our learners are, that they have all the support that they need, that they are wellconed uh throughout the organization and bringing special education under the kind of structure of student support has been great at creating an awareness of the continuing of supports that Dr. Kung referred to. um but making sure that more individuals are involved in supporting some of our learners that have the greatest amount of needs and also connecting and bridging that across um I was going to say across the aisle across the office with teaching and learning and recognizing that our students receiving special education services are learners that are taking the same core and elective courses that any students are. And it's important that we have that holistic view

103recognizing that the needs of each learner uh require more than just academics, more than just specialized supports and interventions, but a total uh a total engagement of of the student and their families and recognizing um that everyone can be successful. And so I want to thank Dr. Cummings for that and Dr. Kum also who stepped in after um our our prior director Dr. Pearson retired after a lengthy um career of service with the Lumbbergs. It's hard to come into a department um and open a brand new school and implement a new program transition services um and identify um through an external analysis where we have strengths and where we have areas for growth. And the two of them together in partnership with um our associate principles as well as our instructional supervisors and assistant directors

104on special ed um have really done some amazing work. Um Miss Hope, I really appreciate you you asking when are we going to get the next update? um because there's so much to be done um and I know that we'll get these on the books um not only for all of us but also for our community members, for our parents um and for our staff to see the progress that we're making uh moving forward. So Skip, you do bring the enthusiasm even as the other Skip um thankf course and and you and Laura have done a great job working together. Thank you for everything that you do. Um and just acknowledging that um grateful for Dr. John's uh connecting us with the district management group. Uh the DM group has been an amazing resource that

105helped get us to this point. Sometimes you just need a a separate set of eyes, multiple sets of eyes to look at what you're doing and and kind of paint that picture for you about what what the next steps are. Um so grateful for that. And I'll end on saying um uh Charles and I were at a DM group meeting um just last week, Thursday, and it was focused on special education opportunities review. And I just want to offer that there are some similarities between us and very large district and medium-sized districts. And then there were those moments where we were like, we've already done that. We're already ahead of you on that. And so to see the similarities but see how we've already made progress is a little exciting. So thank you to both

106of you. Can't wait to see what the future brings. Great. Thank you. No pressure. All right. Um as far as topics for future board meetings go, we have a facilities committee meeting on May 11th. Um assuming there will be some discussion of the master facilities plan. There will be. I am going to move that time to 5:00 p.m. Okay, we're going to go a half hour. We tried 5:30 for fi finance tonight and we got a little little tight on time. So, we're going to go to 5:00 uh with uh with the discussion. Um so, all are welcome. And yes, the master facility plan will be a thing and there will be some renderings. So, that's the best part. Some pictures. Now you're a full househ. All are welcome. I' seen a movie like is

107that Monday night coming up again? Um pretty pictures. Um and also increasing access to biiteracy opportunities is on the agenda for the 11. Yes, we are welcoming our instructional supervisors for world languages um as well as Mr. BRE tag um to talk about what's um sometimes referred to as the seal of biiteracy as well as stamp testing. But more not to say more exciting uh but really how that all comes together and provides multiple pathways for our students in world language courses. um that leads them to earning college credit um and allows them to um kind of uh be a step ahead of other students graduating high school as they transition to colleges and careers and what have you. Excellent. And as always, if board members have um suggestions for um items to be added

108to the agenda, please let me or Dr. Grall know and we'll get those on the calendar on our new board meeting calendar. Um, we will have close session this evening. Um, which means I need to find my this evening. The board of education will enter into a closed session to discuss sensitive matters as allowed under the Illinois Open Meetings Act. Please note that action will be taken following the closed session this evening. At this time, I will consider a motion to consider the appointment, employment, compensation, discipline, performance, or dismissal of specific 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. To consider collective negotiating matters between

109the public body and its employees or the representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. and to consider litigation when an action against, affecting, or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting in accordance with sections 2 C1, 2, and 11 of the open meeting act. Can I have a motion, please? So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh, we'll do a fivem minute recess. I would recommend a fiveminute recess. Five minute recess. All right. Five minutes, people.