001and Miss Mullen Becker ready. Hello everyone. Oops. Hello everyone and welcome to this meeting of the board of education of Glen Brook High School District 225. Um could we please have the role Miss Smith? Mr. Downing, Mr. Glowaki present. Mrs. Hope here, Miss Mullenbeck here, Mr. O'Hara, Mr. Shine, present, Dr. Seinberg here. Five members present. Okay. Um, we will move on to approval of the agenda. Um, Dr. Grall, have there been any changes to the agenda since it was circulated? There have been no changes. Okay. In that case, can I have a motion, please, to approve the agenda? Some Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Moving on then to the superintendent report. Dr. Grall, take it away. Thank you so much. Good evening to everyone. Thank you so much for being here.
002We have some exciting recognitions of both our staff members and our student athletes. And to get us started, if I may invite uh Mrs. Molly Tomlinson, the athletic director at Glenrech North, as well as this very small team of extremely talented student athletes, our state runnerup champions for girls field hockey, and Ms. Tomlinson and Mrs. Hughes. Yes, it is with immense pride that we both are here today to commend our field hockey team from Glenreick North for their extraordinary accomplishments during the 2025 season which culminated in them achieving second place in the state. So, we can give them a round of applause. I wanted to just quickly say the names of our uh players who are here. So, just wave when your name's called. We have Sarah, Ellie, Bridget, Ella, Annabelle, Emily, Maggie, Mavis, Loy,
003Taylor, Oh, sorry, Orla, Taylor. Sorry, misread. Isa, um Gabby, Charlie, Roslin, Sophie, and Avana. We have a couple members missing today. Um but we're going to make sure that they get their medals um when when they arrive. And I'd also like to introduce Miss Molly Tomlinson, our assistant principal of athletics, to introduce our coaches and say a little bit about the team. It is with immense pride that I stand here to formally commend our field hockey team for their extraordinary accomplishments during the 2025 season. The team's final season record of 20 wins, two losses, and one tie stands as a testament to their dedication, skill, and consistency. This remarkable record reflects not only individual talent, but the power and selfless teamwork and commitment. We specifically acknowledge and celebrate their achievement of entering the state tournament
004as the undisputed number one ranked team and for completing the regular season undefeated against all instate competition. This level of sustained dominance is rare and speaks volumes about the program's rigor. Behind this powerhouse team is an exceptional coaching staff. We extend our sincere gratitude to head coach Rosenbomb and assistant coach Delipoplane. Their leadership, strategic guidance, and commitment to developing not only skilled athletes, but strong young women were integral to the team's success. We also recognize the essential leadership provided by by our four outstanding captains, Sarah Annitzburgger, Ella Beachch, Charlie Stewart, and Sophie Wank. Th this team's strength lay in its depth across the field. We recognized the steadfastness of the defense anchored by players like Emily Emily Gasser and Olivia Gasman who provided a crucial foundation for the team's success. The offensive unit was relentless
005driven by the attacking prowess of Lily Moore, Taylor Panic, and Bridget Beachch. To the entire 2025 field hockey team, your dedication, work ethic, and sportsmanship have brought great distinction to our school and community. Achieving the state runner-up title is an incredible feat that will forever be part of our school's athletic history. On behalf of the board of education and the entire district, we congratulate you on truly an outstanding and historical season. Thank you for representing Glen Brook North with such pride and excellence. Congratulations. Thank you so much to our parents, our student athletes for being here today and certainly our coaches and our captains who made all of this possible today. At this point, I encourage you if you would like to stay for the remainder of the meeting. If not, you are welcome to
006head out through the door to your right. There's a few hand waves, so I'm assuming I'll see some of you in a little bit. Thank you. Thank you guys. Nice job. Thank you parents. All right. As we move on, we want to take a moment to reflect a little back in time. Uh right after the day of our last board meeting, we had a really exciting groundbreaking opportunity. Uh it was exciting for many reasons, including it was one of our first very chilly days. Um we also got cool looking shovels. Um and we came together uh right by the tennis courts over at Glenrech North to celebrate the ground breaking of what's really called our first guaranteed energy savings project. We've talked a lot about this project over the last about two years. Sometimes it's
007referred to as the battery project, other time the solar project. And what we're basically doing here is um creating a place both at Glenchrook North and at Glumbre South um where we'll have large batteries installed. Those batteries will be connected to the grid and it will draw power from the grid when power is very inexpensive. And then when the grid needs that power such as during the day, we'll give the power back to the grid and the district in turn gets paid a premium for that. So in many ways we're serving as many power hubs. What's kind of exciting is um in this past um general assembly session through the veto session a large energy bill was passed that actually focused on these types of projects. And um I haven't written about this yet for
008the board, but there is a possibility that our project might be eligible for even more rebates and credits um through that omnibus bill. So more information will be forthcoming on that. But what our community can expect is over the next few months uh by the tennis courts over at uh Glenrook North and then over at Glen Brook South uh kind of right near the fieldhouse area um we'll be installing some concrete pads where these larger batteries will go into safe in enclosures. Um we expect the batteries to arrive and be installed closer to the summertime and everything to be online before the start of the school year. um in the first few years um we're estimated about two and a half years the district will get fully repaid for its capital investment and then moving
009forward we anticipate generating approximately $750,000 a year um as a result of this energy um kind of cycle that we'll go through and those funds will directly go back to support the modernization and enhancement of our learning learning spaces um and our student areas. So very excited for this novel approach. Since we um posted this on social media, there have been multiple other districts including that small district uh Nutrier um that has expressed a lot of interest in understanding what do you mean that you can kind of create this type of environment and really create um a new revenue stream to support student experiences in a very finite revenue environment. So excited for that. uh grateful to have several of our board members as well as our administrators present and we will have more on
010this project to come in the future. Our next uh topic is really exciting and before I get into it, I'd like to ask uh Mrs. Lauren Bonner if you wouldn't mind just standing up and coming over by our podium here. So before I get into my script, I just want to say this is um it's an exciting um exciting time not only for our district but also for me because I think back about 10 years ago. I was in the same spot uh Mrs. Bonner was as I was first having the opportunity to become an assistant superintendent here. And um that is why Mrs. Bonner is here. And I have a little uh statement prepared that I want to make sure I get right. So, I'm going to get right to the script. I am
011pleased to announce to all of you, members of our community, members of the public, and the board of education that I am recommending the appointment of Mrs. Lauren Bonner as the next assistant superintendent of operations and student experiences to the board of education this evening. This position will replace my former role as assistant superintendent, which was not filled this past year. The selection process that led to Mrs. Bonner's recommendation included interviews with eight highly qualified candidates conducted by representatives of our employee associations, instructional supervisors, building administrators, and district administrators. And throughout the process, Mrs. Bonner's depth of experience, leadership skills, and passion for the Glen Brooks consistently set her apart as the top choice. Mrs. Bonner joined the district during a very unique time in July 2020 as the associate principal for operations and student
012experiences at Glenrook North. In that role, she has demonstrated exceptional organization and leadership abilities, overseeing a wide range of departments and initiatives that directly support student success and operational excellence. Before joining the Glen Brooks, Mrs. Bonner served as the assistant principal for student services at Lyola Academy with prior experience as an assistant dean of students and very exciting from my own background director of choirs um reflecting her diverse experience in both student support and educational leadership. Mrs. Bonner holds a bachelor's degree in music education in coral music from the U of I, a master's degree in education and teaching leadership from the University of Illinois at Springfield, and an educational specialist degree in administration supervision from National Lewis. And of course, in the coolest institution, she has also completed the chief school business official certification
013program from Northern Illinois University. No bias at all. I am truly thrilled that Mrs. Bonner will be joining the district office in her new role on July 1st and want to also acknowledge that she has an amazing support system that has allowed her to thrive in her current role and in her future role. And some of those individuals I as I call your name, I'm going to ask you to stand up and say hello and wave. First, we have Mr. Keelin Bonner. Hello, Keelin. And then we have two very special people in addition to Keelin, which is um Mr. and Mrs. Levy, Eileene, and Terry, Lauren's parents. Thank you so much for being here today. At this point, I am thrilled that Mrs. Bonner will be joining us in her new role and I would
014invite all of you to join me in congratulating her and welcoming her as our new assistant superintendent of operations and student experiences. And Lauren, why don't you come around and shake everyone's hands? to your comfort. and R.J. will be announcing there's a vacancy now. Yes. So, I just want to take an opportunity and acknowledge a few things that might be assumed um but just want to put them out in the open. When the board of education approved its strategic plan two years ago, goal four or focus area four that we talk about is recognizing the importance of creating leadership pathways for positions for our staff within the organization uh and for individuals who are coming new into the organization. I am very excited to say that one of the reasons why I believe that Lauren
015rose to the top of one as our our top candidate is because she was provided opportunities in her current role to explore areas that she wasn't maybe familiar with, but she was able to hone her skills. She was able to practice that art and ultimately make a better experience through so many places at Glenrech North and beyond. When you're working in operations, you really don't just work in your one building. You are constantly working with what we refer to as your cross town partner at Glertton South as well as making sure that decisions we make at the district office are grounded in the needs of our students. So very excited to recognize another internal pathway and with that acknowledge that in the coming week we will be posting a vacancy for Lauren's current position um
016as associate principal of student experiences and operations over at Glenrook North. Um and um Mandy did attempt to overrule this decision um but she has come to accept that Lauren will be transitioning. So uh we encourage um our staff inhouse as well as others uh in the organization to pursue that opportunity and our goal is to make a recommendation for an appointment at the end of January for that position. So I will say the same thing to the leies and Kin if you would like to stay for the tax levby presentation or the report card presentation. All right. Can we give them a round of applause one more time? Okay. There is one more recognition that we have today that was not in the agenda and I hope the board will give me a moment
017to do this. In the state of Illinois on Saturday, November 15th, we will celebrate school board members day. This evening, we're going to take a moment to pause and recognize and express our heartfelt gratitude to the dedicated members of the Glenberg High School District 225 Board of Education. Schoolboard members, if you're not aware, do serve as volunteer advocates, devoting their time, their patience, and their wisdom to amplify the community's voice, craft a vision for our district, and forge a pathway for success for each and every one of our students. With your unwavering commitment and care, you safeguard two of our most treasured assets, our students and our tax dollars. The District 225 administration profoundly appreciates the work each of you do each and every day. The time, the passion, the commitment, and everything that you
018do to uphold the core values that we have outlined in that strategic plan we keep talking about every so often. So, on behalf of all of the administration, the community, our students, our staff, and all of our stakeholders, I'd like to pause and ask for everyone to give the board of education a round of applause in recognition of school board members day. And we got t-shirts. And you got t-shirts as a bonus. All right. Before we go right to uh board reports, Miss Malamec, I wanted to just confirm one other thing. Um not this weekend, but next weekend, as part of the board's ongoing commitment to professional growth and development, there will be what's known as the joint annual conference or the triple eye conference downtown Chicago. And that will be an opportunity where if
019I recall correctly, six of our seven board members who don't have conflicts will be coming together to learn and explore and see what uh great things are happening in the state and what we might be able to bring back to our own district through attending that conference. Uh we have previously shared on your table an envelope. This has information specifically for you and the conference. Most importantly, your name badge. So, please remember to bring it with you. Um, and then I'll be following up with the board with just some reminders. Uh, we hope to all come together uh for a meal the afternoon on Saturday. Um, and then also hope to gather at the general sessions all together representing our district strong. Um, I I spoke to some of the administrators that will be joining
020and we're going to make sure we have really nice seats. Uh, we're going to get there early and we're going to reserve them. Um, so, uh, toss that out there. Any board members are welcome to make any comments out here, uh, on that topic or anything else. Did any member, uh, well, first of all, thank you very much for recognizing the board. U, I'm sure we all appreciate that. Um, did any board member have anything that they'd like to share tonight? Well, the one thing that I would like to do is put in a plug for our policy committee meeting on Thursday. It's going to be great. Three hours of policy at least, perhaps more. So, we'll be here starting at four o'clock. Is that right? Yes. Okay. If you come early, you can get
021a good seat. So, just point that out. Just repeat the three hours worth. Okay. Um, with no other board reports, uh, the next item on our agenda is recognition of community visitors. And I don't believe we had any signups today, but that's okay. Um, you're always welcome to come and speak with us at a meeting or to give us a call or send us an email. So, um, anyone who's out there has something that comes to mind that they'd like to share with the board, please remember those avenues of communication are open to you. That then brings us to the consent agenda. And Dr. Grall, are there any changes to the consent agenda? There are no changes. In that case, could I please have a motion regarding the consent agenda? So moved. Second. Mr. Glowaki,
022yes. Mrs. Hope, yes. Mr. Shine, yes. Dr. Steinberg, yes. Miss Mullenbeck, yes. Motion carries. Item seven is our discussion action agenda and we will begin with a report on the 2025 Illinois school report card. At this time, I'd like to welcome Mr. Brie Tag to the podium. Um, each year, as part of state and federal compliance requirements, um, the Illinois State Board of Education officially publishes what's known as the Illinois School Report Card, sometimes abbreviated as the Illinois Report Card. Um, it's important to note that even though the report card is titled the 2025 report card, it's actually using data from the school year. So, it's data that's a little bit dated. Uh, and Mr. Retag will go into some details there. Um, the report card used to be a um it's about a four
023to six page document that you would print out and we would distribute. Um but over the last really about eight years it has turned into an interactive report card. So we've provided links within the memo um to not only the PDF per se but really the interactive dashboard. And today Mr. Breg is going to highlight um some of the celebrations we have uh some of the areas for growth and some of our areas of focus moving forward. So with that said, Mr. Bre, it's all yours. Thank you. Um, as we begin, I think normally when we go over this data dashboard, we give you a lot of data. Um, this year we really want to dial in a few focal points that are important moving forward. So, first, as Dr. Grall noted, this data that
024comes from the report card is looking a year in the rear. And so, keep that in mind as we go forward. The second piece with the report card is we have this data. we provide it to the state. What the state does, they then tabulate it into different structures and ways to report back to us how our data looks in different categories. So you can see there are these various performance aspects that they look at. The most important tonight that we're going to put emphasis summitive designation, the academic performance, and school environment as it pertains to our chronic absenteeism. These are three topics we've talked about in the past, and we really wanted to bring them back to show you where are we, where's our progress, and where are some remaining opportunities for growth. So,
025let's start with the summit of designation. This is um a reminder that Isby takes our data and what they do is they look at eight performance criterias. Five of or excuse me, five of them are academic indicators and then the remaining three are about your school's overall climate. From that they give you a designation. Most important for us are the top two exemplary and commendable. They also give you an overall indicator score. That indicator score is the only difference between commendable and exemplary. So in order to be commendable, you must show no underperforming student groups. So they look at subgroups, subops, your entire overall student population, and then they look at your graduation rate. If those two things are healthy, they say you're commendable. From there they take this overall index score which is taking
026all those eight indicators in a score and they rank you. Now the interesting thing is is that the indicator score changes annually. It is not a fixed score. So this year's indicator score to go from commendable to exemplary a school must have 93.02 or higher. Just to contextualize that, last year it was 91.26. So every year it's a changing target. It's based upon the top 10% in the state. What does that mean for us at Glen Brook North? Here's where they scored. What you'll see is all eight indicators, what the max score was and then what score they received. In the right column, you'll see whether they went up or down. And some of those you'll see zero. They were neutral because we maxed out our total score. In the end, the overall Glenbrook North
027indicator, they met everything to be commendable. Plus, they met the overall index score to go to exemplary with a 94.92. So, what's important is their growth though. They had a plus 5.3 growth from last year. Where did that come from? We talked extensively for both schools about the climate survey participation rate. How could we increase that? How could we put more energy to really understand our student voice? And you can see that growth was significant in that area. At Glen Brook South, they actually had a slightly higher growth of 5.45, four five but they were slightly under the indicator score that moved them from commendable to exemplary. What's really challenging organizationally when we look at that is you see the tremendous growth that both schools had. You see the targeted areas with the climate survey
028and the participation rate yet we are left chasing a number that is not fixed. I'm extremely proud. We are all extremely proud of both schools and quite honestly um I'm a little disappointed that the state recognizes Glenberg South as commendable given the growth rate and given how how far they've come with these numbers. To that end, if we look last year, we did target the climate survey participation. We knew that was an area for growth. We have seen an over 30% increase in our student participation. That's how much the building administrative teams, the school improvement teams targeted that work and really showed the the increase. For that reason, we also we want to continue those efforts. We want to continue focusing on it. We don't want to regress back into the 70%, we want to
029stay at that high number. The other area of focus that we really think is important is this advocacy about the summitive designations. The state has also come forward and since we published or we wrote this memo and put this forward um the state has actually come forward with a proposal that's acknowledging the frustrations that districts like ours have. They've said that there are problems with the current model. They've stated that a new one would take away the targets that are constantly moving, not giving our schools the ability to specifically look at what they need to do and go to work on those. So with that, the state has proposed a removal of that top 10% or that uh fluid number and they're moving towards a fixed number. They've also looked at in that summit of
030designation, what are some of the areas that can really put forward the work that districts put forth towards student performance. So, you can see um they're going to replace nth graders on track with growth data. They're going to move away from math, science, and English in raw numbers to a proficiency score, which we're actually going to talk about next. And last but not least, they are replacing chronic absenteeism with consistent attendance. So instead of saying if you miss so many or you have so many students that are chronically absent, we are going to penalize you for that. They're actually going to reward you for those students that are attending. So it's a slight change but it's an important change for us based upon this proposed structure in recalibrating our numbers both schools would have reached
031exemplary this year. It's also important to know that if the indicator score was what we had last year the 91.26 both schools would have reached exemplary as well. Okay. So that's the summitive designation. We talked about two other areas we wanted to talk about tonight. First and foremost, the academic progress data. What you see up here, it's hard to see the numbers, but the colors are what's probably most important. The top line in each of the bands is our scores. The green represents proficient. The gold band represents not proficient. The one directly under that is the state averages. This year we made the shift to the ACT. This is our first year. This data comes from our class of 2026, our seniors. And you can see the significant uh difference not only between the state
032proficiency in hours, but I will also point out that we are roughly 7 to 8 percentage points higher than we normally are with our proficiency rate. Now, it's hard to give you trend data because we've been on SAT. So, we'll need to watch that over the years, but it's important to show that a number of you had asked about the transition to ACT. Were we prepared? How were our students going to receive that? This is a great indicator right now that our students have excelled. And again, I know the numbers are difficult to see, but if you see how hard uh high the band is across that green shows you the degree of proficiency. Also, historically, the last time we gave the ACT was between 2012 and 2017. Our composite score is roughly within one
033point of that uh compared to that time period. Um so we're doing fairly well. that transition has has gone over as best as you can expect but we still have some work to do in terms of monitoring this and looking at different subgroups to make sure that we are continuing to improve. So with that what will we be doing? Um one important piece is that the need for a data dashboard that we can look at and really dive into this data. As we said, we don't have trend data right now, but we have different pieces of data living from 2012, uh, the SAT data. To be able to put that into a system and easily tabulate and pull out information, look at grades and other performance criteria would be really important. I will not go
034back into curriculum maps. You heard a lot about that last time from the IS's, but really important. Um, ACT provides us a way to take our curriculum maps and look at our skills and to really look at our score bands based upon students and say what's working in our curriculum maps, what might be gaps that we can fill. So, we're looking at that. And finally, that we have begun professional development on ACT. We feel that's a really important step for our instructional leaders. Um, ACT again is new this year or last year and to really ground us in what is that language, what is that vocab and how does that work in our classrooms will be really important. And finally, chronic absenteeism data. The state average for chronic absenteeism is 25%. Now, chronic absenteeism means
035that a student has missed 10% or more of attendance days. that includes excused or unexcused. So, we're not talking about the kid that skips school. We're talking about any absences counts towards chronic absenteeism. You may recall that in 2022 we hit a peak of chronic absenteeism. It was nationally talked about. Well over 20% here, well over 30% on the national level. We have seen that number drop, but it has not returned to pre2020 days. And the last two years that number has uh sat around 16%. It's still really important. We know the value of when our students are here and they're in class, the impact we as adults can have and that they can have on their peers. So we still believe this is a number well worth working towards and making uh taking as
036many steps as possible to get that number uh back closer towards that 2020 pre uh time period. It's important to note that again you can see the state average nationally the same trends have happened. People have not seen a return to the levels that were pre2020 but it still remains at the forefront of all conversations. The one item I want to point out before Mr. Bree goes on to his his next important component is when you think of absenteeism, Mr. Bree emphasize this is not necessarily students that are uh willfully choosing not to attend and access their um educational experience for um social emotional reasons um disciplinaries and things of that nature. This also includes um a cross-section of our community uh where our students participate in a lot of travel sports where we have
037um some of our students that are attending a a much higher percentage of college visits and things of that nature. So um it's always important to realize that absenteeism comes down to you're not present and accounted for on your normal schedule, but to Mr. retext point for excused and unexcused purposes. Thank you. What what year did we introduce the Block schedule at Glenberrook North was introduced in 19 99. Yeah, I I think it was it was pre me and then at Glenberg South in 2008. I think it was a little bit later. 11. Yeah, I thought it was 2012. 11. So, with that, what are we going to do? I think we're we're excited by the efforts that we've seen. We've we've done to drop it from well over 21% into the 16%, we've done
038due diligence in terms of teams have made it a priority. And when you make something a priority, it becomes really important to everyone. Um, number two, we've improved communications. We've improved our structures for how we talk about this. However, there's a few things we think we can really uh hone in. And I'm actually going to start from the bottom and work my way up. Uh, first, there's still a need to look at our technology systems when we put different things in place. How are we tracking that data? So, that goes back to the data system, but always really looking at, have we over complicated our power school system? Have we made it um better for our parents and when they're calling in and and reporting absences? Are we collecting the right kind of data? Are
039we reporting the right kind of data? So, right now, our technology team is really diving into how do we report attendance from local through to the state. Second, we we are going to partner with the bilingual parent advisory committee or BPAC in the um late winter, early spring to really work on what is the impact for students that are um multilingual. That is a population that has a higher absenteeism rate. Why is that? How can we approach that? How can we get the message out? some of it we feel is just not um a partnership that we've developed with families to understand the impact of absenteeism. So, we're really excited about that work and beginning to target some of these subops that or subgroups that we know uh can benefit from increased communication structures. And
040last but not least, a number of districts have piloted different positive behavior approaches that in essence reward students for being here and being present in school. And so we're interested in running a pilot uh coming forward known as um open lunch SRT locally. Um, globally it's a a positive behavior kind of approach, but we're really excited about targeting a group of students that are right at that 10% threshold and how can we encourage them to be here being engaged in the school and stay here when they may have some other obligations they're considering they're weighing different options. So by giving them opportunities to explore things like uh take their SRT time and and have an open lunch kind of experience during that you start to reward their ability to have positive behavior, positive academics and
041positive attendance. So uh more will definitely be coming on that. But that's the type of creative innovative strategies we're looking at that we can bring forward. So with that I will um pause there and take any questions. Thank you. Um Mr. Gowaki, did you have any questions? Uh no. I think you were addressing the two that the state is already cha changing it because of the the replacing some of the standards around the ninth grader on track and the chronic absenteeism. Um and I was just wondering on the English as a second language though that is one that does there's no movement going taking place on that one in terms of by the states this point. Correct. They are going to maintain that one for sure. So that looks like that's one of the areas
042with greatest amount of growth for both schools and everything looking at kind of where the max is and where our current scores were. You know, kudos to South for the amount of growth it but they started cumulatively I guess from all slightly lower and everything if you look at everything overall. So um so any thought further thoughts on I guess what we could be doing in that area? Yeah, I think you heard a number of things from Dr. Anderson and then from the the various departments the focus groups with our students is going to be a big help. We're pulling on those students that uh reached proficiency and access and taking that that data from our students and now sharing that with um teachers and other students who are trying to reach that level. That's
043one of the a big step. The other thing just in terms of that calculation right now it's a number again that varies the way the state is looking at recalibrating that we don't have the full understanding of it quite yet but it seems like it will be honoring growth over a set number which will benefit us because we've seen tremendous growth in those areas and it seems like the ACT also benefited us as well too since we're so strong in the sciences and math correct to begin with and the ACT versus the SAT are a little bit more focused there as well too. Sounds like we're going to have a lot of our hands on both ends with more language focus. Correct. Okay. Thank you. Miss Hope, did you have any questions? Yeah. Do we
044have the breakdown of the reasons for absenteeism like unexcused versus excused and those that are maybe going on college visits or doing travel sports versus those who maybe there is you you mentioned um certain demographics who are missing or something that is more social emotional because presumably we would intervene differently. Yeah, absolutely. So in our system, we have a variety of ways to track what what they call what a parent may call in on, but we need to refine that. That's part of the technology systems because when a parent calls in, sometimes it's just my my son or daughter or my child's my student's going to be out. Um we do have different mechanisms. We have the state mandated mental health days that they could identify then that tracks that. Um but mostly it's they're
045out sick, they won't be in school. So um how do we help our parents help us without bogging down the process of reporting it is part of that process. Mr. Shine when I hear the word chronic absenteeism I don't think of students who are out periodically a day here a day there a college visit. So what is leaving the state out of this for now? In order to have a healthy environment and students to succeed, at some point the number of absent absentes uh a student would have would impact their you know their educational performance etc. Do do you or the administration have a thought on you know it's a number between you know zero and 100 right? So, so what what what number of absences really is really chronic absenteeism? Again, leaving the state
046out because if they're going to count everything, it it doesn't really tell you very much. Sure. Um I think the state's actually pretty solid on this. The the research out there has put that number at 10%. While the state has identified that as chronic absenteeism, 10% is roughly 18. That's a lot. So, and if you think we're on, you take that we're on block. So, one of the things we do is part of our work is and this isn't particularly true with our uh MTSS team or our multi- uh system tier system of support or our associate principles of student supports looking at their attendance and students that are trending in what we call yellow or red. Red being they're chronically absent, yellow meaning they're they're getting near that number. We also compare it next
047to their academics. So we can start to see who's showing signs of attendance issues and what's happening academically. So yes, what the research shows is that 18 absences getting near that 10% really has an impact academically, but we validate that with our own local data. So then when the state the number you had up there for us was it 16% 16%. Yep. 16.7. Does that mean 16% have been out 18 or more days? Correct. That's a lot. Thank you. I didn't exactly Yeah. Once you take that 10% and you put that number together, you start to see I'm going to add just a a bit of commentary from how other districts have looked at this. Um Mr. Breag said item number one, which is when you're seeing chronic absenteeism, you need to first make sure
048that you're properly recording absenteeism. Um, so when someone calls in, are you holding it in in making sure that we actually know were you sick versus going to a doctor's appointment? That alone is really important because being sick is being sick. Going to doctor's appointment might be more of a choice of of time management and when you're choosing to go uh versus when maybe you could go otherwise. Um, now that gets more complicated when you talk about complex student schedules and things of that nature and making everything work. Um, but what we start to see schools do is that combination of uh providing a bit of a encouragement, a bit of that carrot of having access to a um an an open SRT where you would have more flexibility during the day and things of
049that nature if you keep your your rates down. At the same time, we see schools address that by saying, "Okay, in order to address this, um, instead of having excused and unexcused absences alone, once you hit five absences a semester, every absent requires evidence of why uh you have an authorized reason, meaning you have to bring back a doctor's note, you have to bring back uh evidence that you went to a college visit and things of that nature. So, it's there's kind of a combination of some things that you can go through in order to navigate that. Um, but that that is what what kind of you go through. You go through positive reinforcement and then you also go through making sure you're refining your approach of how you navigate it. Is there a threshold
050for an abs, you know, is it a full day only if it counts as an absence or a partial? I was going to say if you could explain what counts as an Sure. Sure. So by the state there's there's a number of combinations but if you miss one block it start it adds itself up. So we count if you miss three three blocks or more that's a full day. So if you end up missing a half block and then another half that becomes one total in the state calculation. So you it's the state calculates it by minutes. We tabulate it by blocks. It's just easier to cross reference that. So just think if you miss four blocks, they might be the same class. Eventually that adds up to one day. So that's regardless if it's
051an SRT or Correct. Because I know the kids get pulled out of SRTs to go either doctor visits or debate, something else, you know, clinics that they're doing and things. So by the state law, SRT is instructional minutes and they are part of our organizational structure. So a student missing that 90 minutes is a resource time and therefore that's a quarter day that they've missed. Add up three more of that that becomes a full day. And if they go and talk to their tutors and teachers because they'll schedule that during SRTs as well. As long as they're in the building and in proximity that's that's counted. Yeah. It's it's that's what I was. uh if you are um we have admin excuses like if you are there's athletics there's different events you go to we
052have different ways of coding that but if you are called out for a portion of the day or a full day those start to tally towards this total calculation I just remember a lot of the parents earlier in the year we had some quite a bit of concerns about how to call in and get that proper permission and stuff correct Dr. Steinberg, thank you. I go back to Beth's previous question in terms of understanding if there's any reason. You know, we have such a diverse community in in terms of many things, performance, interest, it you know, somebody may decide to stay home because I'm doing well. uh we are doing review today and we have final so there's no need for me to be here so I think there are stories behind these numbers and
053you know I am a numbers person but still I think qualitative information sometimes weights way more I would also like to see if if there's a correlation you know we have data from a feeder districts so if if how how that changes when they move from middle school to high school are we doing better are we doing worse are they being more independent and that's so I I don't like to take things isolated as all of a sudden they decided to become more chronically absent or not. So I'm sure there are stories and way to track them and getting a better and hard to solve a problem if you don't understand what's the reason behind the problem. So I know you may be doing some things I I think we all will benefit from hearing
054kind of this one of our uh technology systems that we have is our early warning system which is known as panorama. You've heard us talk about that. What's really important is we can click one box and say, "Show us all the students that are technically chronically absent." Drops a whole list. Let's make a number up. Let's say 200 kids. Then we have colorcoded where are they academically? How are they performing? So to your point, attendance is a mechanism. It's an early warning for us to see is everything else okay. Again, to your point, it's one indicator. Research says it's important, but there's stories behind that. That's why we have the data so we can look and I know our building based interventionists, our teams, that's how they approach it. So, we can go in right
055now and we can open that up, run those checks. Um, Laura's probably doing it right now. Um, it takes about 10 seconds for that data to tabulate and be right in front of us. When we do that, we also can see have there been any interventions put in place for those students. What have we worked with these students? Have we spoken to their parents? We are really trying to get to exactly what you're saying. Understand the stories underneath each student and then understand what patterns are forming. Um that's the kind of conversations we've been having. What are the patterns we're finding? Not just take chronic absenteeism as an isolated topic, but what are the patterns we're finding? And those are the things that we want to try to solve rather than just go after a
056general number. Thank you. And on that line and I know you work on sense of belonging. So yeah, that's the other part that sometimes students miss. It's like if I don't go to school, it's not a big deal for me. It may be a big deal for other people that rely on my knowledge or my companionship or my support or whatever. And we don't stress that. Maybe you do, but in general, we don't stress that enough. It's not just what's in need for you. is what you need for your community. So I don't know as as you work through these things it will give a different this is the thing if you tell me if I'm a good student and you tell me if you are absent 15% of the time your performance is going
057to decrease and I'm telling you I've been doing this for seven years and I've been a straight A student. That's not the argument for bringing me to school. Now if I'm not there some of my friends may not be doing as well as they do because we all work together. I may think twice about it. So I don't know. And I had another comment slashquest. This difference between exemplary and and it's like you look at the difference on points and you look at the moving target between numbers of school. One thing that I'm not sure if the state is looking at I hope they do is even whatever the number and the definition that we have right now is like taking a snapshot of what's happening. The question is where are students five months after
058they graduate? Where are students five years after they graduate? And is the state looking at those things? Because th those that I'm sure for parents and members of the community, those are way more important than if we ended up being 11th on the state or being seventh on the state. So I don't know if there's data about that, but at the end of the day, that's what I believe people pick up schools and and look at what they are doing. So it it is a tremendous point that is not represented in the indicators that determine our summit of designation. They are trying to make that shift um by moving away from ninth grader on track to growth to show how to really honor the growth that folks are having. But that's some of the other
059data that we collect. What what are our students doing that first year they leave us? how successful are they? What is our retention rate? And those remain extremely high for us. Those are some of the other reports that come out that rank us very high. Um they do take those things into account. This unfortunately um in its current iteration does not take those into account. Thank you. Mhm. Um, sorry to keep harping on the absenteeism thing, but um, I think it's just that maybe we're all kind of taken back by the numbers um, a little bit. One thing I'm wondering is just so for a student to be absent, they need to be called out by a parent or a guardian. Correct. Correct. Um, but our, for example, when I worked at district 34, they
060at that level, they sent letters out to parents and to let them know whether or not there was an attendance issue just so that every parent was aware of where their student was in terms of attending school because sometimes you might you've got a lot of stuff going on. You've got goes to a tournament, you go to this, you go to that, all of a sudden you're at 18 days. And I understand Marcelo's point that there are some kids who probably can miss 18 days of school and they find some way to make up for that. But are we letting families know when people approach not just necessarily this threshold, but a threshold that we consider concerning? Um, and if we are, then I guess that's not a new new track, but I'm curious to
061know, are parents aware of the students that are getting to this level? Yes. Yeah. Great question. Um so right now parents are receiving an automated email through parent square if they have any um unexcused absence any late um excessive lates they receive that daily. Um new this year we are sending out progress reports every time every nine weeks 8 weeks nine weeks right around there. Um where parents are receiving a detailed summary of all the absences. So they'll see a cumulative number and percentage for their absences, excused and unexcused and late and all parents are receiving that summary. Okay. Um as part of that communication are we emphasizing because I think possibly even in my mind I hear it's an excused absence. Correct. And that sounds like that's not a big deal. It's an excused
062absence but cumulatively and this is why I imagine the state cares. They don't care why you're not there. they the fact that they want your seat at school a certain amount of time. Um are parents be hearing that you know even if every one of these absences is excused and there was a very good reason for you not to be there you're still missing a lot of school and that's in and of itself is a problem. Yeah, absolutely. I mean that is definitely in the language that we are sending home to parents um with some research behind it and how valuable it is to have the student in class. So it is cumulative whether it's excused or unexcused that they have been absent from that class and it breaks it down individually by class so
063that they can see you know missing you know um math class 10 times on a block schedule that is a lot of material that had been missed. Yep. And our principles have reinforced that same message in their newsletters very specifically about chronic absenteeism, what it means to be absent, whether excused or unexcused. And that's been it. It has paid off. We really do believe educating our community, but we we remember that 25% of our population is new each year minimum, and we just continue to reinforce that exact message. Okay. Uh shifting gears a little bit um to proficiency and I understand now that they're going to be changing how they look at they the state looks at proficiency but I it will it continue to be based on the ACT. Okay. Um, just one thing
064that I picked up on, you know, I hear from people sometimes and it sounds like, you know, it's high stakes for the district and it's high stakes also for our students are tests like the ACT. And, you know, I know we have classes that we make available for students, but I think there or you tell me, I feel as if there is a greater appetite for those than perhaps we can fulfill. But can we be putting more resources toward that? Because it sounds like, you know, obviously for the kids who are taking the test, the more they can do to prepare for the test and do well on the test, you know, that pays off for them individually with whatever their goals are for that information, for their performance, but it also pays off for
065us. So perhaps we can be, you know, prioritizing moving more resources towards preparing kids for these tests if they are going to be, you know, so important as such. I mean, it's the thing that they use to decide whether or not a student is proficient in English, you know, math. So, the one thing that we do obviously is in the springtime, our 9th grade takes the preac and then our sophomores take the preac and then juniors take the ACT. On top, our eighth graders take the preac. So by the time they reach the their junior year, they've had those four experiences with the ex the test itself and now we have data to show them their growth in their process. That should inform them deeply. And then back to the curriculum work, how we start
066to embed it. That's what's really important. There's nothing wrong with the ACT prep work and those items. Those have value in place. But I think the more we're looking at our curriculum maps and understanding how our daily practices inform that success, the stronger we're going to be. And then to have those strategic benchmarks. Right now we have them in the spring. Some districts have gone where they do it in the fall and the spring. So it gives them greater exposure and then greater data points. Those are some of those opportunities that as a team we need to continue to explore and have been discussing because that really embeds it into the daily lived experience versus it being um outsourced so to speak into test prep rather than embedded in the content. That's fair. Um okay,
067that's what I had. I want to thank Mr. breedtech for taking the time to go through and present complex data, but I also really want to thank both of our schools under the leadership of Dr. Georgees and Mrs. Hughes for really taking some time to dig into how this data is calculating and addressing some interventions in order to ultimately see both of our schools become exemplary in the future. Um, I'm excited to learn more about the pilot that will begin at Glen Brook South this spring. digging into open campus SRT and we do have already on our board agenda to bring back um more attendance data. That's been one of our big goals for this year to make sure students are here and available for learning. So, we'll kind of take an opportunity uh around
068that time to give a little background. Um Miss Hope had asked some questions about in terms of that chronic absentism number, how many are primarily attributed to college visits? how many are attributed to general callouts for sick and things of that nature. Um, so we'll take an opportunity to dig into that and then also show how some positive interventions can lead to good success. Just going to ask based on Mr. Bang's rotation with that red flag, the yellow flag and everything we have historic information on that those numbers have been how far back is that years? I believe we have five years worth of data that we can look at and we could overlay that just that would be I think be helpful to see how many of these have we been consistent with our
069red flags. Sure. Where we've been seeing progress and stuff as well too. Yeah, absolutely. We also look at the same student across different dashboards. So when you were talking about, you know, a student who's not showing up because they feel like they don't need to, they're doing really well, but they're not contributing to the community sense of belonging. I thought the opposite. Maybe those students who aren't showing up, a subset of them are marking very low that they don't feel a sense of belonging. You know, looking at their academic performance, looking at their sense of belonging, the number of clubs and activities they're a part of, and their attendance to see if there's any correlations. Absolutely. We can look, again, we have four pillars built in there. It's academics, behavior, attendance, and SEAL. So we
070can we can put together something that helps show how we look at that and a little bit more about the data across those stories. Thank you so much. Thank you. Uh let's see. The next item on our agenda then is the tax levy. So exciting. Vicki, if you'd like to approach the podium for a moment. You're up. Um, just as a reminder, this is our annual presentation of the estimated tax levy. Um, reminder that the board will not be asked to take any formal action tonight with the exception of making the tax levy available for public inspection uh for a few weeks and then we'll come back and re-re uh the presentation in December. Miss Tarver, I know this is your very exciting time of year right next to the budget. Absolutely. I can feel
071the excitement in the room, but I cannot. There we go. Um, just to recap for the 2024 levy, um, we did see 53.1 million in new property for the 2024 levy. Um, the Cook County fall property tax bills we've been notified are going to be mailed out this Friday. I I'm I'm hesitant to believe it till I see it. Um, if that is true, um, the payments are due, uh, December 15th, but then I would anticipate that those that are in escrow will start seeing receipts, um, as early as next week. So, still a little bit later than normal. The normal time frame would be that the bills would be sent out in July, and we'd start receiving payments in August. We are now looking at November and December to receive those payments. However, because
072we have our scheduled maturities to meet our cash flow needs, we were prepared to meet our cash flow needs through March of 2026. So, even with this delay in the tax payments, we are still in good shape. Wrong button. Sorry. Nope. Nope. Okay. Okay. So, for 2025, we're looking at a 2.9% CPI, plus we added 1% for estimated new growth. On average, when we take out the year that the um Glenn came on the books, we roughly see a 0.8% increase in new growth, we usually balloon that slightly just to make sure that we are incorporating some of the new um property developments in the area. Specifically, we have the old all-state property that we're going to be seeing coming on the books in the next couple years. So, I want to make sure that
073we're capturing that. So, overall, we're looking at a 3.9% estimated increase over the 2024 levy. We are still underneath that 5% threshold, but as we typically do, we will hold the public hearing and treat it as if we're over that 5%. Um, another look at the rate that we're estimating, you can see that it's remaining pretty consistent with um the current 2024 taxes. So, no um significant increase there. And then here is the timeline. So, today all we're asking for is that the board approved the resolution to um public um publish the tax levy in the newspaper. Um we are estimating that we're going to publish that uh the week of the 24th because we have that time frame where we have to publish it no more than 14 days before the public hearing, but
074no less than seven. So, we're looking at that week of the 24th to have it published. Um, on December 8th, we will hold that public hearing and then the board will we will ask the board to certify the tax levy. Um, and the normal time frame is that January 31st, the bills will be mailed um and uh taxpayers will start making their first installment payments. And then on June 15th, uh the county clerk will finalize the tax rates and the levy amounts. And then July 1st would be that second installment. Um because we're so late now, it's hard to say if they're going to stay on track next year, but we're hopeful. Any questions? Thank you, Miss Tarver. Um Miss Hope, did you have any questions? No. Mr. Shine. Mr. Glowaki. Mr. Steinberg. No, only
075one of your slides said 50 something million and then I see later 75 million. The second slide 53.1 your estimated pal. Yeah, 75 is the estimated that's 1%. Okay. So what we saw in 2024 was a 53.1 million increase in new growth. We're um estimating the 75 just to make sure that we're capturing everything. Okay. Fine. And because we have students here that they know nothing of this lingo that we are going over just in a one minute thing. We are asking based so we're estimating these values because we're capturing based on our need a percentage of what we think is going to be available on the tax. So it's not that we are just simply throwing numbers around and saying yeah we're going to go from 2.9 or something like that. We have our
076own internal budget. We estimate how much money is going to be available in the pod and what percentage of what we need. Am I correct good on that? Yep. That was a good quick summary. We um we receive approximately 83% of our revenue through property taxes. So this is a very significant event in the year. Um and we want to make sure that we're capturing all that new property. So we do um overestimate in that one area slightly. The only other reminder I always give to all of our community members, our taxpayers, um, and certainly our students is that when we present the estimated levy, um, even when the board formally approves the tax levy in December, the number that we present is not the actual amount of resources that the school district will receive.
077Uh, Miss Tarver used the term a balloon levy, meaning we're asking for more than we are necessarily authorized for because we don't know how much new property there will be. Um, the actual amount the district will receive will be capped or limited by what's known as the property tax extension limitation law or PEL. Um, and that will be calculated um, typically around June under a normal time frame. Um so the number that we see today will actually be much less um to the average taxpayer. Um case in point in 2024 we levied for 5% but we received 4.1. Actually that was my question that I had was looking at the memo um on page three. We're asking for 3.9% but it says the actual amount will be limited by the maximum amount permissible under PEL.
078And I read that and I thought, well, I thought the maximum was 5%, so how's that going to be a problem? But what you're saying, I think, if I understand, is that the 3.9% that we're asking for is 3.9% of a number that we are estimating and then the 5% um ceiling is going to be based on the actual. So it is the 5% ceiling actually 2.9%. Um for us 5% would be if inflation was 7% you could only cap at five but in this situation inflation cap is at 2.9%. So you can't even reach the 5%. Okay so the 5% doesn't matter in this. It's what the it's the act what we have to do is we're telling them what we based on what we estimate the pot to be as you put it.
079We think we need 3.9% of that pot but we then we'll find out what the actual pot is and there will be a maximum based on the actual number which will be less than what we're asking for. That is correct. Okay. We'll we'll see somewhere between a 2.9 and a 3.9. Okay. In the end. Okay. Okay. Great. Thank you so much. Um this evening we do require a roll call vote uh authorizing the publication of the estimated tax. Do we need a motion then to authorize Can I have a motion to authorize the resolution to what is it? Publish the tax levy. Uh the resolution regarding estimated amounts necessary to be levied for the year 2025. I move second Mr. Mr. Gwaki, yes. Mrs. Hope, yes. Mr. Shine, yes. Dr. Steinberg, yes. Miss Mullenbeck, yes.
080Motion carries. Okay, that takes us to number eight on our agenda, possible topics for future board meetings. Um I know we have a couple of items that are going to be coming up including um in a I think in two meetings we will be uh reviewing performance against the strategic plan which is something that um we had uh talked about making sure that you know for reasons of transparency and accountability that and also just because it's nice to give yourself a pat on the back if you're actually making progress on things um to that is something that the the administration will be presenting to the board and we're looking forward to seeing that. The only other item that I thought would be helpful just to remind everyone is um after all the board members attend
081the joint annual conference, we typically do a little bit of a debrief about what we learned in different sessions. So, um if you have some uh bullet points that you take, I'll send actually out a little document to collect those and then I'll put them into a memo and we can maybe use that as to help kind of guide our conversation. I don't know if if it's too much to ask but because Sandy asked me earlier maybe we can have a share file spreadsheet where we can put access to places decisions we plan to attend. Yes. So I had shared with everyone this the um a worksheet for you to kind of plan out your time even using the mobile app that they have. Um, but in this week's bullet point, there will be a
082Google sheet and you can just type in the session that you know that you plan to attend. And if it's impromptu, it's impromptu, but be great to see everyone in some different sessions. We might run into each other. Great. All right. Um, did anyone have any possible topics that they'd like to raise now? Well, just let us know. Um, okay. I think we will have close session tonight. Is that correct? Yes. It there won't be any action coming out of close session. Um and I would encourage the board if we can just take about five minutes together. Um uh we'll then be able to come out and adjourn. Okay. So, um we'll go ahead and have a motion to adjourn. Uh you got to read the Oh, I'm so sorry. I have to read the
083close session. Um where is that? get my in the script. Oh, here it is. Oh, that's not the script. It's not on the Here we are. That so we will be having close session. Yeah, for that one for reason for the the reason is to discuss the placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students and that is section 2C10 of the open meeting act. So move second. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. for five minutes. into her income. Okay, we are back in open session and we are ready for a motion to adjurnn. So move second. Sorry. All in favor? Any opposed? Motion carries. Good night. Okay. Adjourned at 8:30 8:00 p.m. Thank you. Um, I don't have Lauren's contract in here. Should I just do
084the docu sign for this? Not yet.