Board of Education - Aug 25 2025

001and Miss Melbeck ready. Hello everyone and welcome to this evening. Uh good evening. Welcome to this meeting of the board of education of Glen Brook High School District 225. Um, Miss Smith, could we call the role, please? Mr. Downing here. Mr. Gwaki, present. Mrs. Hope, here. Miss Mullenbeck, here. Mr. O'Hara, here. Mr. Shine, present. Dr. Seyberg, six members present. Thank you. Here. Uh, before we start, I'm sorry. The next item on our agenda is approval of the agenda. Have there been any qu any changes or modifications to the agenda since it was circulated? No changes. In that case, could I get a motion to approve the agenda? I move second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Uh before we move on to the board and superintendent reports this evening, it is with a

002heavy heart that we pause to remember and honor the life of Mrs. Mary Flannry Day, a beloved member of the Glen Brook North family who passed away this past weekend. Mary graduated from Glen Brook North in 1980 and returned in 1998 as a member of the clerical staff in the science and driver's education departments. Over the years she served in a wide variety of roles including maintenance, scheduling and registar assistant, guidance and principal office, plant operations, career and life skills, national honor society sponsor, student activities, and most recently as the executive assistant to the building and grounds department. Through her 27 years of service, Mary touched nearly every corner of GBN. She was known for her attention to detail, her love of maps and data, and her willingness to step in to help any department

003that needed support. Colleagues recall not only her dedication, but her love and care for the entire Spartan community. Beyond her professional contributions, Mary was deeply proud of her two daughters and found great joy in caring for her two dogs, offering show often showering them with toys and treats. She was a trusted colleague, a loyal friend, and someone whose presence brightened our school. Her years of service and her joyful spirit leave a lasting impact, and she will be dearly missed by all who had the privilege to work alongside her. At this time, I ask that we may join together in a moment of silence to honor the memory and life of Mary Flannry Day. Thank you, Dr. Grall. Will you start please with the superintendence report? Absolutely. Good evening. Thank you so much for everyone attending

004and welcome to several students if we will from our civics classes. It's always wonderful to see you here and we hope that you will take good notes and most importantly reach out if you have any questions before you leave or right after. We're always happy to help you out as you're continuing through this important journey this evening. Um the first part of my report really focuses on a bit of an enrollment update depending on how you look at it. We're technically in the third week of school or the second uh full week of school. And when it comes to this time, we're always looking at how many students that we have in the school district. We always focus on Glenrech North and Glen South being the home school. Though we recognize that students that might

005attend North might also attend South or Glenchre off campus. And the same is true for students who might be receiving their educational services through our new Glenrook Transition Services School or at other placements uh based on their IEP. With that said, last year over at Glenchrook North, we had about 2,112 students enrolled, and this really dates back to our October 1st figure. And then in January 2025, it was projected that we would have slightly more students at 2118. And the reality as of today, um, we have 2,141 students. So, a difference of 23 additional students over projection than we originally thought in January. Over at Glenberrook South, last year we had 2900 students. In January, we projected a slight increase to 2925, but again, actual enrollment trends show that we're slightly down by 20 students

006with an enrollment of 2905. If we look district-wide, we always look to see if our numbers are within a statistical um acceptable range. And to be very candid, to be off only three students districtwide, I think shows that our our approach to estimating enrollment um is certainly working well. And this has been one of those trends that we see year overyear. There's always some fluctuation that we'll start seeing over the coming weeks here. There are some students who uh may not have attended class yet, but they still remain enrolled until we hit approximately 15 days. At that point, we would drop the student because it's likely they moved out of state or transferred to a different high school. Um, and then there's also students that are still transferring in today. So, the numbers will fluctuate

007and we'll revisit what enrollment looks like um based on our October 1st numbers probably towards the end of November. Uh with that said, just from an enrollment perspective, does any member of the board have any questions? Happy to answer anything about what the trends are looking like? R.J. are the uh transfers primarily to to new developments in the area or you can't tell really at this point? Yeah, that's a great question, Pete. Um transfers we don't trace down until we get to our student yield study, which is closer to the middle of of October. But what it seems in general is that it's our standard transfer in and out with a higher amount of transfers at Glenberrook South uh this year than we would have anticipated. Um we generally would see kind of a balance

008of transfer in and transfer outs and that's why I wanted to share those numbers here tonight. Um but in fact we're seeing more transfer in than transfer out. Um we'll have more subdivision specific information in the coming months here. Perfect. Thank you. Any other questions about enrollment? Matt, from a from a trending perspective, when you say the we're only off by three, uh how how are the year before and the year before? You know, you could be off by three because you got lucky or you could be off because you have been consistently right, you know. Certainly. Um I always like to give the exact numbers. In general, we're single digits if not very low double digits. So I I think our our highest variance might have been 20 or 30 students off. Um still

009very low from a percentage standpoint. Mhm. All right. The second topic I wanted to chat about and um Dr. Seinberg who's joining us remotely might have some comments on this as well is a bit of an update regarding the true north dissolution. So, as the board uh will recall, back in April, District 225 indicated our intent to withdraw from the True North Educational Cooperative 804. That's our special education joint agreement uh of which Glenbrook is one of 18 member districts. Shortly after our um announcement of our intent to withdraw and the board passing a resolution um almost all um districts immediately followed indicating their intent to withdraw from the cooperative. And one of the realities is if an overwhelming majority or about twothirds of the member districts decide to uh withdraw then what would naturally

010happen is is the overall cooperative would dissolve. It would cease to exist even with a few districts remaining. Our intent of withdrawal was primarily based on the fact that we had built capacity to keep our students here within our communities. A great example of that capacity building was the opening of our new transition services school at 1200 Shurmer Road in which we cut the ribbon at early August and we welcome students for the first time uh just about two weeks ago. Um whether or not a district has capacity or not is a unique uh condition to every district. But I do want to acknowledge that there are differences in structure and design and and service delivery between high school districts and elementary districts. So from a professional standpoint, what shocked me a little bit was

011the number of districts, especially elementary districts that were moving forward with withdrawal um and leading to dissolution where they hadn't yet fully gone through the work to determine do they have capacity? If the cooperative doesn't exist, what exactly does that mean for individual students who might be receiving services? And through conversations that we had offline or or with superintendents and business managers, it became evident that so many districts indicated their intent to withdraw because and I don't know any other way to say this, they didn't want to be the last district in that would have to absorb a wide range of financial liabilities. With that said, we started having conversation um with our colleague superintendent. We started with our colleagues in the New Trier region as well as the Northfield Township region, then expanded from

012there. And it started to become um clear that there were interests in maybe not fully withdrawing or all districts fully withdrawing, but actually reimagining what True North looks like. And there were some real key elements that we heard. first and foremost that districts that were not using services um struggled with paying very high invoices for membership fees. And so we we toss out there the question, well if there were no membership fees, would you stay? Obviously that elicited a few responses from districts. Then it came down uh to an acknowledgement that over the years the number of students being served at the high school level had greatly reduced because of high schools building capacity within their own districts but there was still a high demand at the elementary level. So, one of the questions we

013asked was, "What services do the high schools really need and what services could the high schools take on if there weren't as many high school services in the cooperative?" That obviously decreases overhead, decreases costs. Um, and we started to hear a a lot of interest, especially from our elementary districts, saying, "Yes, we still need your services. Yes, these are the services we need." And at the high school level, we were hearing yes, we can take that in. No, we don't need those services from the cooperative, but we do need some other services. And so through those conversations um we worked with probably 75% of the districts um at these different meetings and we identified that it is healthy and good to present two pathways to the leadership council which is the governing board of true

014north in September. One that would move forward with dissolution and the other that would move forward with what's being referred to as reorganization. Um there are two working groups that are handling uh the development of the proposals. Um I am serving as the chief school business official um representative on the reorganization group um and working through all of the costing out of overhead of tuitionbased zerobased budgeting programs things that we've been embracing for a few years and have familiarity with. um whereas um another superintendent is is leading uh the financial side on the dissolution. Why this is so relevant to Glenbrook is when we indicated our intent to withdraw doing so under the current articles of agreement meant that we would need to do something called prepay our pension liabilities. And the exact amount of

015those pension liabilities is still um up in the air because it needs to be calculated uh by a um external auditor, but it could be as high as as $3 million. And that's just a condition of of withdrawing. At the same time, even though you would have that $3 million payment, you would cease paying as much as a million dollars a year in membership and O andM fees. And so long-term that's in that's in the best financial interest for the district. But if the organization um goes through a bit of a refresh or reinvisioning, it's possible that those conditions related to districts withdrawing would change. Maybe you would not have to prepay those pension liabilities because the reality is we have what we refer to as owner's equity. We own property. we own part of

016their fund balance and things of that nature. So it it might be viewed as as a wash. If you withdraw, you don't pay your pension liability, but you also relinquish rights to property and and and liquid cash. So a few different pathways that directly um are applicable to Glenbrook should we move forward with withdrawal as we're intending to do. Um but we're just having a lot of good conversations. The other takeaway outside of knowing that there's two paths and that one of those paths directly has impact on our district is knowing that the leadership council is going to have to make a decision here to reorganize or to dissolve no later than November. And so we'll be working through a lot of different updates um with the leadership council. Dr. Steinberg represents our school district

017as a member of the leadership council, as a voting member. Um and so he will be hearing these presentations. Um but it's just exciting to hear um folks come together to recognize that it's good to have all of the information at your fingertips. And so each one of these districts will now have not only a pathway to True North's um ceasing their existence, but also True North remaining in being reorganized. Um and uh before we open up for questions, I just wanted to offer Dr. Steinberg if you wanted to share anything else from our meeting that we had last week. Thank you R.J. I think you you represented the meeting very well. I just want to highlight one thing and add another one. I I hope you can hear me well. Um the first one

018is it's that despite all of this the whole group recognizes our leadership as a district and R.J. had did a great job in terms of presentation and and explaining at least his part of the group. So, so um I didn't get the chance to overlap with Dr. Charles when he was part of the team but I do have to recognize that we are being you know taken in consideration as as one as a large and significant district. The second thing is that two big changes have happened since the very beginning. The first one is that true north went through a leadership change. Right now has an interim has two interim superintendent that were hired mostly to address this transition. We when they were hired the only option was to address this solution but now there

019are two options. The second important thing is that in the past that leadership council consider itself to be an indep independent party. Although we all represent districts, they they used to be told to make decisions based on the group as a group. But in this case and and since since the last few meetings, there hasn't been large recognition that we represent districts. So decisions that are going to be made at that council most likely are going to be brought to each board before being made. So as RJ said there's a presentation for options that is going to come to the leadership council early in midepptember and after that we're going to bring that question into each board. In our case I'm going to bring this question here or RJ was going to bring the question

020here and we will vote on it based on our decision as a group. Now to clarify a vote doesn't mean that the district is going to change its mind or anything else but we have a vote like every other district in terms of the consortion to stay or to vote for reorganization or dissolution. The vote is not going to be my vote. The vote is going to be the vote that represents our board as a member of the consortium right now. Other questions? What happens? Uh you mentioned that they have certain assets and what happens to the facilities. Um it at at this point what what would happen? So if True North dissolved ultimately um all of the assets would be disposed of. they would be potentially auctioned off, sold. Um, and the same is

021true for all the liquid cash. It all all the assets would be combined and ultimately would be uh disseminated based on a proportional um student enrollment distribution. So, we represent approximately 15% of True North enrollment. So, we would be entitled to 15% of the assets once the final close out is done. And then that would be balanced against the liabilities of the p the 3 million pension. And then what happens in the other case where we reconstitute. So during the meeting it was quite interesting. Um district 34 who was in the process of withdrawing was um well represented um and wanted to know how this impacted them um in particular uh there was a discussion about the liquid cash versus the assets and not wanting to walk away without having ownership rights preserved in it.

022Um, I think everyone is in a reorganization would be supportive of a change to the articles of agreement. And the easiest article change that I think would gain the most traction based on the conversation last week would be you can withdraw and you will not have to prepay your pension liabilities. However, if you withdraw and you don't pay your pension liabilities, you forfeit your rights to the assets, which is not currently how the articles are written. Um, but that I think is the most streamlined path. I don't know right now if dissolution would even have the twothirds votes necessary to move forward. So, I think reorganization is a more likely path. RJ, can I add one more thing? Any other questions about the True North? Pardon? The uh November date, is that statutory or is

023that just something they're doing to themselves? So, under the dissolution um motion, I don't know if it was in the form of a resolution or just a motion on the leadership council. Um the administration of True North was directed to prepare to dissolve and wind down operations starting next year. And so if that was to pivot and they were not going to wind down, they would have to have a variety of things done and we viewed administratively at the districts that you need to know that no later than December. So setting the November deadline to make a decision to wind down or to reorganize because otherwise um districts especially as they're finalizing IEPs, determining placements for that year, they wouldn't have that information and that could be detrimental. And so so I'm I'm aware I

024think 34 is pretty pretty well set up to handle their students right now because they they were withdrawing. Are other the other feeder districts for us are they in in that category who aren't really prepared yet to handle their current students? Yeah. So, in an effort not to speak for another district, I will say that of the Northfield Township, I think it's a 5050 uh split. um 50% either are comfortable moving forward through other placements that they might need to work with whereas um 50% of the districts really have concerns for being able to um move forward without true north in existence. So I would say it's a blend within our region. Okay. Because that that would directly affect us because those students ultimately were responsible for you know down the road. And Matt, you're

025exactly correct. So, one of the questions that I needed to answer very directly uh to some districts that were curious was, well, Glenn Brook indicated their intent to leave. Why are you involved or supportive of a reorganization? And my my routine uh answer or consistent answer has been at the end of the day, any student that is going to flow through Glen Brook North or South or any of our sites, there are kids. And we have students in districts um 27 and 30 and 31 that are receiving levels of services from True North. And so we want to make sure that they're set up for success without any interruption. Okay. And and is that pension the $3 million I can't remember hearing that number before. Is that new that that this between between district 34

026um announcing their intent to to leave and that was the first resolution we were presented uh with um and our uh our intent to leave. True North performed a um actuarial calculation of that and we had shared that. But to be candid, the amount of materials that were flowing at that time, it would have been easy to miss. Um, but that that pension responsibility has always been there. I think um, not to speak for Dr. Johns, but I think we were both optimistic that we would be able to find a pathway not to have to bear that uh, that exposure. Are they not TRS? Uh, they're a blend of TRS and IMRF. IMRF. So, this would be the IMF part. we would own IMRF and then there's still there's actually still a bit especially on

027the teacher health insurance uh side um there's there's a that sort of district provided extra benefit right correct yep so we will continue to keep the board informed I wanted to make sure our community was aware of the process um all of True North's leadership council meetings are open to the public uh their agendas are out there and Um, as we develop presentations, I will also be sure to share them here. Um, but I would anticipate during the months of September, it'll be um, uh, focused on information sharing, presenting the options, answering a lot of questions. Um, and then the leadership council probably will lead or at least guide us down one path uh, by the beginning or the middle of October at the latest. So, with that said, that concludes my portion of the

028report, but I'm very excited to transition. We'll start over with Dr. Georgees at Glenrook South as we celebrate our first week of school. Hi, good evening and what an extraordinary first week of school it has been. Um, we've been having a blast over at Glen Brook South. It's so exciting to have our students and staff back in the building. Um, starting out the year, our Glen Brook days, uh, was a wonderful time for our staff to come in to prepare classrooms, to have some professional learning. Um, and this year, our theme is being a fan of our students, our community, each other, and yourself. Uh and therefore you can see in our opening picture uh in an effort to revive the school spirit uh at Glen Brook South all of our staff are modeling that

029and they came in wearing their Titan blue and gold and we took that very exciting picture to show our students we were ready for their arrival. Um the work we did over those two days was specifically aligned um to focus area one and two of the strategic plan. Uh it's also directly aligned with our Titan values and goal number one uh which is related to students reporting a sense of belonging at Glen Brook South. So that was our focus for opening day uh and it was extraordinary time together. Um then this week we also had a redesign that was incredibly successful. Um we had seen a declining enrollment in the activities fair in the wintertime. Therefore, Dr. Moranto had proposed moving it to the start of the year when students have a specific interest in

030joining a club or activity. Um so this past week we had our first activity fair at the beginning of the year. Um over 50 uh clubs were represented in their spaces where they host their club meetings and over 600 students attended. Um so it was a really nice reboot and we had much better attendance. And then finally fall sports are back in action. as I was coming over tonight. You can hear uh the speakers in the stadium and we're grateful for that cooler weather and I hope you all come out for our first home football game Friday night against York High School. Thank you. And at Glen Brook North, we had a similar wonderful start with our staff at our Glen Brook day. Uh we focused on being united in spirit, which is one of

031my favorite lines from the school's uh fight songs. So, we've been trying to make sure everyone is learning all the words so that we can sing it loud and proud at our future games and assemblies. Um at the beginning of the week we started with some Spartan seminar lessons which is uh practice that we're doing with our freshmen in what was previously known as SRT but they are now meeting all together and receiving uh different lessons throughout the year um at at different intervals from different administrators from supports from what you see up on this picture is peer groups. So this really um the work of Spartan Seminar is supporting similar to what Dr. George just was saying um in terms of the work at South goals one and two around building meaningful relationships within

032culture and climate and also providing students with access to the supports and the staff and the resources that they need. Um similar we have athletics in full swing but I wanted to highlight that um our GBN athletics department has started a new Instagram account. So if you would like to follow so you can see all of the fantastic updates and posts um they have lots that they're willing to share. And then uh we've been uh really engaging in this tradition on Fridays called high- five Friday. Um our student activities director Dr. Tarjan has provided staff uh that our activity sponsors with these foam hands. Um and they say high-five Friday and we just are all over the hallways trying to have kids uh give us high fives and uh trying to inject a little cheer

033on the Friday day. But um that in conjunction with lots of green and gold in the building has been a wonderful thing. We're looking forward to an activities fair at the end of this week, so similar at the beginning of the year. Um as well as seeing families in the buildings on uh tomorrow night for our back to school night and family night in the classroom. Thank you, Dr. Georgees and Mrs. Hughes. Okay. Do um thank you both. This sounds like a great start to the year. Do any uh board members have reports that they'd like to give? Okay. In that case, we will move on to item four on our agenda, recognition of community visitors. I am told that we do not have anyone signed up to speak, but that does not mean we

034don't have visitors. So, welcome to all of our visitors tonight. Um, if you want to ask any questions about the budget, you know, just come on up. Um, of course, we're always happy to hear from the community members. You're welcome to come to the meetings and speak with us here or to send us an email or give us a phone call. Um, let us know what you're thinking. Um, we're always excited to get your input. That then takes us to item five on our agenda, which is the consent agenda. Dr. Grall, are there any changes to the consent agenda? There have been no changes. In that case, could I have a motion? I move Second Mr. Downing. Yes. Mr. Glowaki. Yes. Mrs. Hope. Yes. Mr. O'Hara. Yes. Mr. Shine. Yes. Miss Mullenbeck. Yes. Motion carries.

035Okay. Um that will then take us to our uh item six which is our public hearing action agenda and the first item on our agenda is the public hearing on the fiscal year tentative budget. At this time I am opening the hearing on the tentative budget for fiscal year 25 to 26. The tentative budget was previously discussed by the board of education on Monday, July 14, 2025, and made available for public inspection on Tuesday, July 15, 2025. Are there any comments or questions from members of the board? Mr. Downing. No way. Okay. Are there any any questions or comments from members of the public? In that case, I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing on the tentative budget. I move. Second. Miss Smith, could we have a roll call vote? Mr. Glowaki?

036Yes. Mrs. Hope? Yes. Mr. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Shine? Yes. Mr. Downing? Yes. Miss Mullenbeck? Yes. Motion carries. With a vote of 6 to zero, I declare the hearing on the tentative budget for fiscal year 25 to 26 closed. At this time, the board will formally consider approval of the budget for the 25 to 26 fiscal year. Dr. Grall, do you have any additional information to share regarding the budget? Thank you so much. I'm going to take the opportunity and just give a little bit of a background. When we talk about a budget, we're referring to what we call the best estimate of revenues and expenditures for the fiscal year. Miss Tarver, our distinguished long-term treasurer, um, works very hard to make sure that we are reviewing different trends and estimates, but the reality is sometimes

037what even the state or the federal government might might share with us in terms of how much revenue we'll receive. Um, that can fluctuate. So too can our expenditures. For example, each year the largest portion of a school district's budget has to do its its salary and benefits or per personnel which is approximately 75% of the budget. Um as we are budgeting not all positions are filled and throughout the year um individuals might find other opportunities, leave and they'll be replaced and sometimes the salaries of those individuals don't always match and so there's fluctuations there. Um and so just want to emphasize that that things are not always exactly as um they are presented today and in the end and that's why we will always present an amended budget in the spring of each year

038to kind of true up that budget to reflect the finalized uh state and federal revenue sources and make sure that we're in alignment uh as we're ending the fiscal year. The second item that is very important to talk about and this is related to a public act that was passed a few years ago was just talking about how the school district navigates through times of uncertainty. For example, um property taxpayers within Cook County and in our villages of Glen View and Northbrook are familiar that property tax bills have not yet gone out for the second installment. And many school districts um have been anticipating revenue starting to come in from property taxes, which is the largest source uh for most school districts. We were expecting that towards the beginning of July. As we're now nearing

039the beginning of September, some school districts are really struggling with that because they needed those revenues in order to pay for transportation expenses, pay for salaries, and also make sure that we're able to provide the supplies that our students need um throughout the school year. In Glen Brook though, a true testament to the focus of this board of education has been that we are fiscally stable through years of fiscal responsibility. What I mean by that is we maintain what we call a fund balance. Sometimes it's called a reserve. And that money is money that's accessible within uh and it's it's always actively invested but also available to us so that when our revenue doesn't come in as expected, we're able to do what I like to refer to as as making payday to payday. um

040and making sure that at no point in time during a fiscal year for short periods of uncertainty or longer periods of uncertainty are we having to change the experiences of our students across the 4As of academics, activities, the arts and athletics. Um over the years the amount of fund balance that we have maintained has fluctuated but hovers right around um about $und00 million. And while that amount might seem high, if you look at the bottom line of the budget, we also have approximately a $200 million budget. And so what is best practice um is to always maintain about um 40 to 50% of um of your operating revenues available to you should things change. But the finance committee has been having a lot of talk and we've we've also looked at what that exact right

041amount should be. And I want to emphasize that that amount is different for every school district. And I'll just give just a little context. Earlier today, we had the opportunity to tour um our facilities. Our board members had an opportunity to visit Glenrook North, view a lot of construction that took place at North because uh summer school was taking place at South. So it was kind of north year and I think there was a a sense of amazement at number one how large our facilities are how awesome our facilities are and how those facilities provide amazing opportunities and access to our students again across those four A's. And so, not only does the reserve I mentioned help us um ensure that we're maintaining the stability um in an uncertain revenue time, but that fund balance

042has been strategically used over time to fund massive projects. And one of those projects that we were so proud of just a few years ago, it's only been about four years was the complete modernization of nearly every academic classroom in our two schools, the total classroom initiative. That change, that utilization of resources available allowed us to completely change the experience that a student has in the classroom from the floor to the ceiling, from the doors to the walls. And all incorporated there, even though it's not always obvious, are a wide range of security enhancements that we made to make sure that our classrooms are safe at all times during the day. As we look forward as Dr. Patac will begin announcing the master facility plan, we'll be having a lot of conversations about what are

043the next projects, especially as our tagline refers to that are going to build upon our legacy of excellence, but really look forward to that future of innovation. What does the next five years look like? What are the next major projects that we need to address today to ensure that we're maintaining this high standard we have become accustomed to within our schools, providing those experiences for our students? How do we compare to our partnering colleagues next door? Um, and so on and so forth. And so the reserve that that is present, I want to just emphasize it is available in the budget if you ever are interested in looking at a very cool chart. um it's towards the end right before the ledgers and you'll see that amount there but the amount on the paper doesn't

044give uh enough context I feel for how we utilize that and so I'm I'm excited to see what the future will hold. I wanted to call that out so our community members could see that and also use this as that opportunity to say that our master facility plan is on our road map for great discussion this fall and we're looking forward to hearing from our community members about what they think might be some of those next initiatives and I would anticipate that some of those initiatives might also be funded by this this reserve that's been built up over time. So happy to answer any questions about the fund balance reserve, anything of that nature, um or any other questions about the budget. And seeing none, before I give up the mic, I just really want

045to take an opportunity one last time. Um Vicky Tarver again, our very wise guiding mind of a treasurer, um works very diligently not only on the numbers that go into the ledger, but to be very candid, the materials that are presented before you today, putting together a nearly 300page document as well as what we'll be releasing in the coming weeks, which is our budget and brief. a much more accessible uh form of budget is not something that is done quickly or easily. And so Vicki, just again, as I'm not in the the role officially, um I just want to thank you for taking and demonstrating some amazing leadership in making this budget come together and for for coming up with all of those estimates. Great work. here. As there are uh no questions, I think

046we are ready for a motion to approve the 2526 fiscal year budget as presented. So moved. Second. Mrs. Hope. Yes. Mr. O'Hara. Yes. Mr. Shine. Yes. Mr. Downing. Yes, Mr. Glowaki. Yes, Miss Mullenbeck. Yes. Motion carries six to nothing. Okay, that takes us to item 6.3 on the agenda, which is the uh resolution authorizing permanent interfund transfer for capital project purposes. Dr. prevail. Each year as part of the school district's operating budget, um we allocate uh an amount of funds. It's approximately $5 million in order to fund this year and next year's capital projects. Um, the way the Illinois State Board of Education's fund-based accounting um, process works is that we need to transfer funds from our operations and maintenance fund to the capital projects fund, which is fund 20 to fund 60. It is

047very much an accounting maneuver, but it is an accounting action that requires board of education consent. So, these amounts have already been built into the budget. Um and at this time we would ask for the board's approval uh which would allow the treasurer to officially uh move those funds. Happy to answer any questions. RJ, are there any statutory limits to either the amount you can transfer or which funds can and cannot be transferred? Uh yes. Um there are limits in terms of fundto fund transfer. However, many of those restrictions have been um for lack of better terms put on hold for a few years. The general assembly typically has been doing this every so many years. Um sometimes you can't go directly from O andM to capital projects. You might have to go from ED

048fund to O andM to capital projects. In terms of the amount, um it's not as much the amount as the reason for the transfer. It has always been permissible to transfer funds for onetime capital projects, which are what these are. Um, the reason for that statutory limitation is making sure that you're not taking funds from one fund that's intended for education or intended for uh transportation and transferring it somewhere else to pay for your operating expenses. That wouldn't be good uh best practice. Um but outside of of that that rationale uh there's no limit on the exact amount. Any other questions? Okay. In that case, can I please have a motion authorizing the resolution authorizing permanent interfund transfer for capital projects purposes? So moved. Second. [Laughter] Chain of fools. Mr. O'Hara, yes. Mr. Shine, yes.

049Mr. Downing, yes. Mr. Glowaki, yes. Mrs. Hope, yes. Miss Mullenbeck, yes. Motion carries 6. That brings us then to uh section seven of our agenda, which is our discussion action agenda. And the first item there is a an update on our IASB board governance training uh that happened was it only a week ago? Saturday. Okay. So, first of all, um for our community who um may not be fully aware, the board of education held a special meeting last Saturday. Uh the meeting convened at 8:00 a.m. and went all the way through just a little after 12 if I remember. Um and it was a wonderful opportunity for the board of education, the governance team, uh Dr. Johns and myself to go through a training opportunity, a professional development that was focused on what we refer

050to as board governance. how we work together as a team, how we communicate with one another, how we address uh challenging topics, and kind of um the principles, if you will, of how highly effective uh governing bodies operate. Um there are some items that I'll talk about in the next agenda item, which were some outcomes that we recommend the board consider. But before that, um I just want to give an opportunity of for any of the board members to share your thoughts, um how you felt it went, maybe share some of your experiences, some of the conversation, um so that the community has a bit of a perspective into how those four hours were spent. I'll just make a a quick comment that I being a newer board member. I thought it was very helpful

051to kind of um get a feel for the dynamics and the different you know how the different board works. But I was really excited about the the other thing you're going to bring up later in this meeting about the way we're going to communicate with back back and forth and the no surprises. I thought, you know, that's how high performing boards work. So thought that was great. I I I too like the no surprises rule, you know, as much as you can, right? Um I thought it was also very useful at times you have to pull back and take a look at everything from farther away as it were. You know, when we're here at the board meetings on a regular basis, we're talking about the budget, we're talking about True North, we're talking about

052the daily things that are going on. you don't get a chance at times to really pull back and think about the overarching you know how are we communicating with each other how are we working as a board how are we you know operating and so I thought that was very useful uh one thing that well two things I think would I I think it was a a great experience and one that you know I was surprised to learn that the board had not done in a long time so I think it was a very useful exercise to go through Um and it helped us as Matt says, you know, we come together to for the meetings because we have subjects that we need to address um as a board for the district. But this was

053an opportunity for us to come together and understand how each of us works a little bit better so that we can work together more effectively, which I think was terrific. And I also think that it was a good I think it is good for us as a board to model the fact that we know that we can learn and grow and be better um and be humble about that. And I think doing this every so often is a way for us to show the broader community that we're, you know, engaged in that process. we're committed to doing um what we need to do to make our our roles more effective so that we can serve the district better. Um and I think that's a going through this process um highlighted that and I appreciate that.

054And then lastly, I'm not sure if this is going to be part of what you talk about, Dr. Grall, but I did want to point out that, you know, we we had a very long list of things to do. We didn't accomplish all of them, so we've got more things coming. Um and uh you can expect to you the the the district 225 community can expect to be updated on what the board is doing and its work with regard to things like communication standards, things like board operating agreements um because we want to be very um open and um uh transparent about what's happening on what's essentially your board. Um so those are my thoughts. There were two items I wanted to highlight. I wanted to come down to just one, but I got to.

055The first one builds upon what Miss Mullenbeck said. When we kicked off the school year with our staff, we celebrated and also reminded everyone that we are a learning organization. And so throughout this year, and you'll be hearing about it very shortly from Mr. Brite and some others um that we are centered on professional learning. Professional learning for our teachers, professional learning for our administrators, our support staff, our security staff members, our clerical specialist folks, everyone. And I was I was sitting back writing my notes and I'm like, my gosh, you know, sometimes they refer to what you model um up top, if you will, is what filters down into an organization. And here the governing body of our school district, the board of education in the first right after the first full week of

056school engage in an entire half day professional learning opportunity. What a great example of living through what we've been saying is our focus, what our goals are. So that I just wanted to start with. The second thing was I'm a visual person. You all know that the strategic plan throughout our conversations um last Saturday I found us continuing to go back to the strategic plan. There were really good questions. How does that relate to the plan? When is that when is the board updated about the progress that we have going in our strategic plan? when do we incrementally modify a strategic plan because things change even two years ago things are different today than they were then. Um and it seemed like we were all going in the exact same direction of recognizing we need

057to continually um be immeable to change. We need to continually be be challenging one another to share our thoughts, to monitor progress, and to identify um areas for growth. And at the center of all of our work needs to be our students. What do our students need to be successful in whatever pathway they choose? and how are we ensuring that the resources and the support are provided to all of those who are charged with supporting our kids. And so two things learning organization and we modeled that and second of all it keeps coming back to the strategic plan and I'm I'm excited especially for today to share a little more about that. All right. Um, so you've you we've foreshadowed maybe a little bit. Um, but the next thing that we're going to talk about

058are board and superintendent communication expectations. All right. So, included in the board packet are two documents. The first is kind of a typical memo about board and superintendent communication expectations. And while it's not listed in here, I do want to highlight you will notice a a bit of a change or a trend that we have in our memos and it goes back to our conversation about continually reminding us of how what we do connects to the strategic plan. So just kind of highlighting right at the beginning is alignment of the strategic plan and this board work directly goes to focus focus area four focused on building that culture of trust that values all inputs and perspectives while also ensuring standards for timely communication. I want to emphasize that the document we're looking at is not

059only unique to Glenbrook. It's a document that the Illinois Association of School Boards has developed over time that they share with all districts and all boards that go through the training that we went through. And then the challenge is to make those expectations that the board has uh of themselves and of staff as well as expectations that perhaps the superintendent has. um to put them on paper to make sure that we all know kind of we refer to the tool or the concept of the rules of the road uh for moving forward and to making sure that there's clarity in in what the expectations are. And so as you go through you'll notice those board of education expectations, they are really grounded in just logical best practices. When something happens, we want to make sure

060the board knows. We gave some examples of those. We want to make sure the board has the information they need in order to effectively do their role as a governing member. And to do that, you need to receive your meeting materials on time. You need to have time to review them. You should be encouraged to ask questions and also make sure that if you have specific questions that might come up at a meeting that you need other information for, give me a heads up so I can work with our staff to make sure you have those answers. We also talked about this concept of treating each other with respect and making sure that the flow of information is consistent. And as Jack mentioned earlier, no surprises. It's the concept that when we're in a meeting,

061we are all working to do our students work. We need to stay focused. And so if something is an issue, let's maybe give each other a heads up so that we can work through that. And the same on behalf of the staff if something is happening in our schools, in our community, want to make sure that the board is aware of that before uh before we get here. The other set of expectations are the superintendent expectations. that it's so weird that I even say that kind of concept. Um, but it is important that uh the IASB refers to the board as a board of seven and then they referred to a lot it's a board of seven and there's a team of eight with the board and the superintendent being a team where we're working

062together. So part of being a team is making sure that when the board speaks, it's not necessarily individual board members, but it's the board as a whole. And so part of that comes to giving me uh directives um based on where you would like me to have staff devote their time, how you'd like me to devote my time. There's also some repeat things. the expectation that that I will make sure you get the materials and the information you have. One of the things I thought was a really healthy part of the conversation we had is making sure that all board members know at that portion of the agenda, I'm going to look at the agenda so I don't say it wrong. the portion of the agenda right before adjournment that says possible topics for future

063board meetings that that is an opportunity for any board member to express interest in a topic. For example, this evening after we get through um this agenda item, we're going to hear from Dr. Romano and Mr. Breag about professional learning. That request to learn more of how we're using our late arrivals, how we're using our institute days comes from a request from several board members back in May when we were approving or forgive me June when we were approving the school calendar. Next week we're going to have a a specific conversation, forgive me, not next week, two weeks, uh we're going to have a conversation about the physical safety and security of our schools. How are we keeping our students and staff safe? Again, a conversation um that we had about a month ago that

064we're bringing forward. We want to make sure we address all of those topics that are of interest to our board members because candidly, they're also of interest to our community. But there's also an acknowledgment that our time together sometimes, well, it's limited. It has a start and an end time. Um, and it's important that topics that are presented that there's a consensus of the board to move forward and devote staff time to developing those presentations. And so we we tried to craft some some concepts that yeah, items are going to be scheduled on the agenda um as long as there's consensus of the board. Um, doesn't need to be the majority of the board, just general consensus. Um, and that helps us make sure that we're just maximizing our time. We also had a really

065great conversation um and some members um who have been on the board for several years are aware of this that sometimes certain topics might be better suited by being reviewed by a a subcommittee, our communications committee, our finance committee, our facilities committee, and now our policy committee. Um, and so sometimes when items are presented, um, if you give me a heads up, I can talk to staff, I can talk with individual board members who might have them, and then I might be able to help make a recommendation that that would be great at least to start in a subcommittee as opposed to the full board. And so with that said, I did my very best to compile um what was discussed. Um, I also used what the IESB representative, Dr. Baddard put together for us,

066but I did change the language just to match how we typically write. Um, more than happy to to answer any questions, make modifications. Um, this is this is your document. They were my props for the next Hold on a second. I had a whole [Laughter] Okay, we have to respect the time. That's too Did everyone get their picture? Um I do think if does anyone else have any comments they wanted to make about um the expectations document? Just thank you for putting this together so nicely. I mean, I think we're all really excited about it and very much what we talked about. I think it's a very good um reflection of the conversation that we had and where we were. I do think it's important um to highlight um something that Dr. Grall just said

067that you know when we're talking about a consensus of the board to put something on the agenda. That's a very we're not going to have a majority vote and sorry we voted someone down your topic's not making it on the agenda. That's not what this is intended to do at all. Um, if there is interest in the board that a topic be addressed at a board meeting, likely that's because some community member has raised to that board member that they want this issue addressed and it is our responsibility to be responsive to the community. Um, so that is not the intention. We just, as R.J. says, we need to be respectful of each other's time. The staff time to put together these 300page reports and such is not insignificant. Um so we do want to

068make sure that um we are using our time well. Um and as far as um that point goes, I do think that um again as Dr. Grall highlighted, we do have committees that um do great work and u the the the board members and staff who serve on those committees really drill down into some subject matters in a way um that makes it possible for us to not have to to go through everything again at the full board level. So, I really encourage, you know, as much as possible, I think for all of us to be thinking about how if if we're bringing things to the board, um, is this something that might be well suited for a committee to take a look at in the first instance so that, um, we can get it

069fleshed out and not have to spend an, you know, an inordinate amount of time at a board meeting, full meeting in order to go through that. Um, but, um, I think this is a great document. Thank you so much, Dr. Pel. With no other comments here, my recommendation would be for um a new board policy 2130, which is the board superintendent relationship. Um this is kind of the policy that associates the uh communication expectations. Um we would put both that and the communication expectations on the consent agenda. We would then add these two documents to the policy manual on the website which will then soon be updated in a new format that's more searchable. Um but if anyone has any other comments, please feel free to uh reach out at any time. Thank you all.

070Okay. So that will be on consent. So that'll be for our next meeting. And then that brings us to I can see Mr. Bright's already on the move. So excited. 7.3 uh 25 to 26 professional learning update. I'm sorry. I had a question about policy 2130 that R.J. just raised and everything. How does that go in conjunction now with what um I forget the program that we're signing up with and their model? Is this based on that model? It is literally based on that model. So that policy will move right on over. All right. Thank you. And we can we can make it less wordy at the first sentence. It doesn't even make sense pencil to it, but it'll pretty much say the same thing. Fair enough. Um, this evening our big focus, we've talked

071about being a learning organization. Um, is to talk about how we are supporting all of our staff members. And I I always find it so important to emphasize um repeatedly that we have nearly 1100 staff members in our school district that span roles such as teacher, school counselor, psychologist, social worker, speech language pathologist, instructional assistant, security assistant specialists such as folks that focus on scheduling being our registars working in our human resources department, our business office, office um a wonderful clerical staff that are there on the front lines of our departments. All of us benefit from ongoing learning and I am so grateful to have Dr. Romano and Mr. Breag working very hard on this. Um if I could just ask for you to let them go through their presentation and then present any questions

072you have. I know they're ready for it all. Absolutely. Well, thank you for this opportunity to share. Uh, last Wednesday, August 20th, um, I know Dr. Grall is a very visual person and we often have photos and images and videos, but on this day, every single adult in this district was engaged in professional learning. That is highly unusual for our district to say when we have a late arrival time that every single staff member is engaged and growing their craft and working on improving this organization. So there are no visuals tonight that I can give you unfortunately because none of us could get out and take photos. We were all deeply engaged in the learning. Um but what is that? We came to the board in May talking specifically about increasing late arrivals. This idea

073that we had committed to in our strategic plan two focus areas that relied heavily upon growing our staff, providing them with the time and the commitment to their craft as professionals. And we have begun that process of implementing those increased late arrivals by developing a full plan of action that puts forward two main topics. Number one, give them the quantity of time, but two equally give them the quality of time. Really dedicated structured time that says you are a professional. What are your needs and how do we help grow those areas? and fill in those gaps that you've identified. So together we are going to share a little bit tonight about how we've done that. Um yes, so in order to be able to advance those priorities um basically what we were able to put

074together um are different opportunities that the staff members are going to be engaging in professional development. Starting with building time and building time is basically focusing on the priorities for the building. So this is uh building a specific working on the priorities for that building working on the goals uh for the specific building. We also have department time and department time is led by the instructional supervisors and what they would be working on is very um discipline specific initiatives and goals that they also have committed to. We also have the institute days and the institute days basically bring the whole Glenberg community together so that we can continue to not only network but grow together um and continue to get to know each other. We are a big district and sometimes we hear that perhaps

075UVA and GBS might not know everyone so we want to make sure that we also provide those opportunities for uh collaboration districtwide. And then you also have a staff directed. And staff directed is basically given the opportunity for the staff members to have that autonomy of choosing what they're going to be working on. And what this can look like could be uh working on lesson plans and also what we all love doing, which is doing our compliance training um GCN, which by the way is this Wednesday. So that is on our calendar. Pick a date, we'll tell you. Um, one additional experience that we have is what we have affectionately called professional learning communities or PLC's. Yes, our staff is loving the fact that we have another acronym to to wade through, but ultimately professional

076learning communities are structured around how do we get teams of professionals together to focus on what their needs are. And we've been able to take the additional nine late arrivals and organize that time, put it into the hands of the professionals in a structured way, but that gives them the greatest degree of autonomy. We're going to share a little bit of how we do that. So, first for the licensed staff, PLC's are organized for our licensed staff by their course teams. So, they're common courses or curricular areas. That's how our licensed staff are organized. And for the non-licensed staff, we have the PLC's which have been structured around their role. Uh but not only that, we also want to make sure that we give them the opportunity to grow. That's one of the focuses that

077we have making sure that they are able to advance to other roles or within their current roles. So we also have um gather their interest as to how they want to grow, what kind of topics we want to bring to them. So for them it includes their role but also their professional growth interest. And for the licensed staff what these mornings look like for them. First they will start in fact the first two PLC times they will be developing their goals for the year as a team. for our our licensed staff, our teachers will be focused specifically on how their curriculum mapping will evolve and how their what we call high yield practices or their instructional strategies. Now the beauty of that that puts the autonomy in their hands. The structure from us is you

078need to be working on curriculum mapping and high yield practices. But the professionalism is when we turn and say, "What do you find as most needed in your course area as a team?" And then you have the year to work on those goals. Um during the time after they establish those goals, they work together on sharing knowledge, analyzing data or student evidence, and then collectively planning together how can we put these new practices in place. Outside of that, we also know that PLC's are not new for every one of our licensed staff. They've had course teams. It's just we haven't had a common district-wide structure that organizes it. So, we know from their feedback they still need time also to plan for the class, plan for emerging needs. So, that's built into these PLC times

079as well. And for the non-licensed staff, you can see um the many different topics that they have brought to our attention that they would like to grow on. And this include systems that they want to learn more about such as panorama, powers school, skyward, um school links and so forth. Um you also have digital tools proficiency. They really want to learn more about Google suite. uh more advanced uh features that Google Suite has communication and collaboration um such as parent square artificial intelligence uh so we we're also going to bring that to them special education student support uh process improvement and efficiencies and leadership and professional growth and these are only some of the topics that they have brought to us. So what you can see is we're really excited that no matter what role

080you serve in this organization, this time is dedicated to growing you in the areas that you've identified and that we have collectively identified moving forward. We have a wonderful strategic plan that lays out reimagining the classroom experience. This gives them dedicated time and the autonomy to go to work on those pieces. We couldn't be more excited at this um to give you some examples of what these look like. This was uh on 8:20. Our departments got together and across the district um there was a common lesson plan being implemented by our supervisors on our strategic plan on our roll out of our vision about high yield practices and curriculum mapping and in our other areas. So they start they were doing CPR training. they were working on first aid and stop the bleed in the

081classroom. So these are pieces that again we're uniting where it makes sense and we're focused on needs that are specific to our craft at other times. So the um example that Ryan just went through basically it's what were people what what what were the staff doing during a department um late arrival day. This one I will tell you what they are uh work what they're going to be working on during a PLC time and basically again they're going to be working uh for our teachers they're going to be working on teamwork uh course teamwork for our instructional assistants you can see that there is a break um breakdown between if they are category 1 category 2 category 3 depending on their role again we just want to make sure that they do find the time

082that they are spending valuable and that it is really targeting the needs that they have. Um, so for our instructional assistants, it's not only CPI uh that they're going to be uh learning, but they're also going to be meeting with their instructional supervisors. Our security assistants are going to be going through drug recognition presented by our SRO. And our clerical specialists, we are bringing AI, how to use it, and the responsible use for artificial intelligence. As much as we're excited about the progress we've made, I think we're most excited by the fact that we're laying out a five-year plan. And that is coming through in all of our conversations that this is a commitment to the work. We are we're not going to start an initiative and move. We are staying committed to this in

083that we know what we're presenting today will look different a year from now, two years from now, and five years from now. And that's only going to come through meaningful, thoughtful feedback collection that we're gaining from all of our staff members on what is working and what can be improved. We've already started that. Each one of our late arrivals has those opportunities baked in, so to speak. So, we're able to make what minor adjustments can we make now and what are major areas that we want to focus on and think about throughout the year as we lead into next year and the year after. My one comment before we open up to questions is Dr. Romano and Mr. Bree tag do not give enough credit for the amount of um opportunities and for the time

084that they have offered to all of our staff to share their feedback. One of our big goals this year is to address what might be um a perception at times of we'll just call it out top- down decision-m. We have been really focused on the structure of our leadership meetings to ensure that decisions and structures and models and agendas flow back and forth leveraging the folks that are closest to our students. That includes our instructional supervisors that oversee individual academic departments, but also a new team that we launched this year referred to as the TLT. And Ryan, not to take your thunder, could you just share a little bit about since you we just had our first DOT meetings, what that team's all about and how that helps inform as we're moving forward. Yes. I

085think there's when I look at something that we have not had in this district that the TLT fills is the idea that we have a weekly meeting schedule. It's it's essentially what our different administrative meetings are. For the first time in the history of this district, on our calendar is what's known as the TLT. That is a blend of practitioners and administrators coming together in a dedicated time weekly to understand what is working, how do we move forward, and what are the best next steps we can take. that is dedicated time to this committed work that we are all together moving forward on this not um waiting for a year or two years down the road until there's a problem but actively working together on a weekly basis that is what the TLT is. Thank

086you Mr. Brie Tag Dr. Romano Miss Malbeck we are ready for questions I'm just gonna say right off the bat what does TLT stand for? Uh, TL I kind of teed it up for you. You did. You did. I just didn't want to throw yet another acronym out there. Um, TLT was named by the building members um when they decided this is called the teaching and learning team and the idea is that it's not teaching and learning in the in the realm of curriculum and instruction but we are all teachers and we all are all learners and so how do all teachers and learners come together? Thank you. I love that it's evolving with feedback and we're collecting feedback from staff because I know a big piece of this was in support of what they

087were asking for. Are there any specific things we're looking at in terms of measuring success, things like retention, things related to student output, things related to grow, you know, internal growth for people who have participated in these? How are we measuring if we're achieving our goal other than which is very important staff satisfaction? Yeah, there's a number of metrics in terms of um climate's obviously going to be a big one. Our teachers and our staff often mention that they don't have enough time to do the work that we're putting forward and they want to do tremendous work. So understanding if we're meeting those needs are are vital to this. But specifically when we talk about bless you when we talk about the bless you when we talk about the licensed staff we we've given that

088structured autonomy that says there's two goals we have specific measurables that we're looking at in those that arena our curriculum mapping work um and our high yield practices. We are establishing baseline data on those instructional practices next month and then we will measure uh annually both in feedback survey instruments but also in observational data. Do you have any initial feedback from staff after just the first one and and knowing that this is baked into the schedule? What are you hearing from? Yes, I have um I have a spreadsheet that we were looking at that has over 750 comments so far. Um, and I'm still not through the other 300 post-it notes. Um, very excited. I think there's um, cautious optimism that they they understand it. They were excited about the fact that there was this

089common direction that we're looking forward to. Um, they what is the common needs that came through? Time, time, time, time, time to do this work the way we know we need to do it for our students. The thing that also stood out to me in that feedback was how much they spoke to this matters and can be impactful for our students. And so there there's an energy from them about the impact that having consistent dedicated time towards these goals that the majority of them see as researchbacked and researchbased. and if given the time and the and the freedom to go to work on them, there's going to be real impact on our students. So that our staff's amazing. So when you read that, you can't help but get excited. I I have two questions. One

090um is more of a strategic question regarding um hiring and retention. So this is a um an opportunity we provide staff Does that help us when we want to bring in new people? Does it give us an advantage because there is a teacher shortage, educator shortage? So that's my first question. I'll ask the other one and let you guys go on. And do we have um is there like a pathway here? So you've talked about all the feedback from the individual 700. What about um any kind of linkage or feedback from their associations, the GA, the um help me out here. Thank you. So, because they're they're an important feedback mechanism as well. Thank you. So, I I'll speak to um the GA side, the license staff. Um we were in conversations with them throughout

091last year as this started to unfold and what the direction we were trying to go with. Um they had a lot of conversations with us about these this plan this vision for teaching and learning needs time. How will we find that time? So they're in not only were they part of the process, but they continue to inform what's working and what's not. In terms of your question about retention, I'll definitely let you speak to it, but this this work where there are professional learning communities and course team time that's structured is is common in other districts. So, I actually think we did not have some pieces in place that other districts had that appeared on the surface to be meaningful. And so I I think it's to our advantage to show that our commitment to

092a learning organization and their growth is now front and centered. Yes. Responding to the union question, um Ryan has been working with the GA. I have been working very closely with the GESA leadership to make sure that they have a seat at the table um in regards to what kind of trainings are we looking for for our staff and also for them to have communication with the staff members with the GESA staff as to what what are what exactly they're looking for. We have what it's called a joint committee meeting um and we have met I think four times every single year and these are conversations that we have been having since I've been here for this is my fourth year. So we have been getting a lot of feedback that way. Uh we sat

093down with the GESA union last week to start developing what the sessions are going to look like for the PLC's. So they do have a lot of input and feedback and um we we engage in a lot of in constant conversation as to what are we bringing to to the GESA uh to the GESA staff in regards to retention. Yes. Uh we have been looking at what our retention is which our our retention is already high but we do have turnover with our instructional assistants and so uh we are hoping that this is going to help a lot and we are going to be working with communications to really brand out everything that we do all of the training that we are providing and I know some of our new administrators actually made the comment

094that our um our AS are going to be the um the best trained um anywhere because of all the training that we are um bringing. into the district. So we are counting on uh on this uh new on this um opportunity for professional development to really help us uh with that. I think at the end of the day it is hard to pinpoint exactly where retention is coming from but it is definitely a variable that is going to count towards retention. Well right it it is difficult and you can survey there are things we can do but we can also just count. Yes. And we have put in um our database line together. So we do have that information uh from last year. We are also doing exit surveys for anyone that leaves. So we

095have that data. So we are going to be looking at our data from prior years to um to this coming year and future years to see h how that how that changes. Thank you. Uh I have a couple comments more than questions I guess. Um I I think it's it's excellent making a focus on learning since we are a learning institution. Um I I think it's you know followthrough is going to be critical as you guys are aware. I mean you've had the first meeting there there there's obviously a bit more excitement when you start something and so there's always a fall off that occurs and so making sure that we're ready for that when that happens. You know anything that's new is much more exciting than keep doing the same thing, right? Um and

096I think measurement's really important. Um, one of the things for me is is communication. And I think one of the things that we always have to realize is is you can you can change how you communicate. You can't change how they understand what you said. So if they don't understand, you just have to keep changing the way you talk until so but but I love it. Thank you. Yeah, I too I think it's I think it's great, you know, in um in my business, in my profession, we have a thing called Project Nextep, and they bring people together and they share best practices. They, you know, whatever, you know, how do you become a better professional in my business? So, um, and I love the fact that you have structure in place because just coming

097together and just sharing best practices will wear out. I like the idea that you're looking out 3 to 5 years ahead. Um, so asking my thing is more of a comment than than a, you know, a question. And I wrote down things as you guys were talking. You know, we in your presentation, you clicked them all off. Best practices. Yes. The, uh, PLC teams, which are kind of super teams, right? uh um you you bring it across schools across the district cuz you know there's some really amazing teachers in this organization and why shouldn't others be learning from them and and I guarantee you that they will learn from others because they come in with a different view. You see when new people come in they see something from different so if people you need

098to get that and the old and the new and they all become better. So, I think it's great. I had one question about the um well, first of all, I I think this is fantastic and I do think that this really um uh ties back very closely to what we had talked about as sort of one of the o overarching things was um respect and you like having the respect and knowing that our giving our staff the respect to to use this time the way they think it's best used because they are professional. professionals and they know. So to give them the freedom to um take this time and you know use it against the things that they feel are most important I think is fantastic. Um my question about the calendar that's set up

099now for this year was that done? How was that set up? Is it there's is there room for flex in this as we go through and say well maybe we need more of this type of you know we we listed out at the beginning of the presentation you had several different types of um days I guess I'd call them for lack of better like some that are teacher driven some that are whole school some that are whole district how much availability is there of moving stuff around I guess if you have to in order to um uh respond to feedback and give more where you need more and maybe less where you need less. Yeah. So, at this time you're gonna hear something you rarely hear from me. There's rigidity in the calendar and that's

100with intention. um we have been very what I would say loose with those calendars and what ends up happening is then folk different folks are put in situations to have to respond to what was planned what wasn't planned and then you start to hear that word well we have the quantity of time but it is is it quality time so in the categories there's flexibility so we have a set number of building times and the principles are building out their school improvement work. They have it organized. They know what's coming. They have in essence backwards designed their curriculum maps so they know what they're going to be doing. So to now put another date on top of that would lead them into having to make a lot of adjustments where to your direct question where

101is the flexibility? It's within the PLC times. that's our largest chunk of time uh uh quantity of time and so the teams have a lot of flexibility inside there to say okay we're we're achieving our goals we really need to be working over here so we're going to pivot um we call it there's no PLC police on you with this so we know what your goals are go to work on them when they're completed you have other tasks so that's where the flexibility will come we will commit to having our calendar that in the late spring before folks leave. So, we have a chance to take that feedback now and before we know it, it's going to be April when we're already building that next calendar. So, next year's calendar, you might move things around

102a little bit depending on how things go with this year's calendar. Yeah, absolutely. You know, do we need more or less of one? Do we need to decrease the rigidity in one area to accommodate for those needs? That's the kind of feedback we're taking right now as we go through the process. Great. Any other questions, comments? You know, I just realized Dr. Steinberg's probably out there somewhere. Marcelo, he's there. He is on when I'm not speaking. Turn my camera off. Okay. I just I like this entire time I forgot. Thank you. All right. Fantastic. Thank you so much. That takes us then to uh topic eight, which we also for foreshadowed a little bit. Our possible topics for future board meetings, which in the past has not really gotten a whole lot of traction, but

103this is the meeting where we really uh fleshed that out. So, here we go. Possible topics for future board meetings. The one topic I just wanted to share that we have up for next week um is again a focus on our physical security, safety and security of our facilities which ultimately um make sure that our students and staff are comfortable in their surroundings. Um that presentation will be led by Dr. Cummings as well as Mr. Reyes, our safety and security manager and they'll be also joined by some of our associate principles. Um, if there are particular topics that you would like to focus on during that conversation, please go ahead and and send them to me so we can incorporate them into the presentation. Um, I just want to emphasize that the first presentation is

104on physical security. And then later on, it's either at the end of September or beginning of October, we're going to focus more on what I typically refer to as as the whole child, the whole student. um which will do a lot of diving into our mental health supports and the social and emotional uh supports of our of our students. So just kind of two different pathways and I know that both of those questions had been raised by the board. Okay. Did anyone have any comments on the list or the the thought process that we're working through here? So I'd given you a couple topics. Are those coming here or are they going to communications committee? What what did we or was there a split? What did we decide? The majority of the ones that you

105had raised are going right here. Two. Um thought we had three. I could be wrong. I always think facilities too. Um but the discussion of repres high probability uh representation uh on on the board and getting more student voice. Um, that's the one going to communications. Um, there was another one. I just forget what it is. That's one had to do with our um interaction with the large uh parent groups. Yes. Band parents, athletic parents, um um not the PTA, you can you can Thank you. Thank you. And you can I'll remember my name by the end of this meeting. It's like, wow. Thank you so much for that one. Increasing outreach opportunities for board members is scheduled for September 29th at the regular board meeting. I will not be at that meeting. Could we

106move it please? Absolutely. Thank you. No worries. The items just to give everyone a recap uh bringing student representation to the board is communications committee uh increasing outreach opportunities for board members. We'll move that to our first meeting in October. Reviewing efforts to ensure our schools are safe and secure. That's September 9th. Um overview of our district's comprehensive approach to supporting students mental health and well-being is October 14th. Efforts to address belonging and providing an inclusive environment uh to all is October 27th. Advanced placement, dual credit, and career pathway experiences November 24th. um communication analytics and data to improve schooltoome connections uh communications committee in September. Glenberg school health center and nursing services for students and staff October 14th and intervention services for all students such as our academic resource centers grit lab and alop

107is November 24th. You know, you can almost see the threads of the strategic plan in those requests. It's just really not intentional at all. It would not be, would it? No, that's great. Um, I had one other I'm sorry, I just one last thing. I had actually just one comment to make, which is this is great. Um, I think that um it's it's to have a a roadmap already of how all of these things will be coming up. um all of these things that were brought up either by board me board members or by administration and staff as being important matters to um be discussed at a full board meeting or a committee meeting to then be brought back to the board. Um I recognizing that we we have a little bit of adjustment with

108some of these dates once we actually settle on a schedule. I think it would be great if in some communication that goes out because I know we always have our board agendas obviously are posted in advance of the meetings, but there are going to be certain, you know, community members or families that are more interested in some topics than others. If we're able to give them kind of a preview of this is what our upcoming calendar of, for lack of a better term, special events at the board, you know, the special presentations that we're going to have to at the board meetings are responsive to um issues that have been raised. Um, if we can give people a little preview so they might plan if that's something that they a conversation they want to participate

109in. Um, that would be terrific. Yes. I'm sorry, RJ. We do that in board notes. Absolutely. Um, my only comment the board and the community is well informed that we have been implementing parent square. All of the board members sitting around the table, you should have received a direct message from me. It was supposed to be at 6:45 and the tour went a little longer so it happened closer to 7. If you could just respond back to that saying received and then because I do have a little bit of nerdiness continually, did you get an attachment with that? And if not, if you the link, click the link, you might. So that's my only thing. Thank you so much. Click the link. Oh, there it is. Sandy got it and you got the attachment. Okay,

110it all worked. Thank you all. Beautiful. You do have an account. Um, you would just download the Parent Square app if you want to easily see it. Click sign in with Google and use your board of education email address. You'll go right in. Single sign on. So, if we're Do we have two accounts then? If you're a parent and a board member, parent square allows you to have multiple accounts. So, you can add a second account. You have to log in separately. You do have to log in separately, but you can be logged in continually to both at the same time. You just got to log in once to both. Okay. You sound like some other districts that recently were not happy with that change. To us, it's all just new. So, it's all new.

111Thank you all. All right. Um, unless someone has another possible topic for future board meetings that they would like to add to our list of possible topics. Sand, can you hear me? Dates. We can we can fit it in for sure. How do we Marcelo hand raised? Oh, Marcelo is raising his hand. Hi, Marcelo. Hi. I'm not sure what's happening because sometimes I talk and you don't hear me. That's why I raise my hand. But since this is my first time in a long time attending remote, I I just thought that many boards have a policy and a process in place when a board member is authorized to attend remotely. And I know the Illinois law sets the condition for being able to attend a meeting remotely as a board member. Normally boards vote at

112the beginning of meetings mostly for because in fact today was a regular meeting. But what if we have a meeting when votes are important and board members that are officially attending a board meeting remote should have the ability to vote and be counted as remote members. So this give me opportunity to think of we should have a similar process. I believe that 90 to 95% of the times that the board member is remote maybe the vote is not so relevant although we are representing the community but we shouldn't have to change the policy in the cases where every vote needs to count which should be all the cases. So maybe this goes directly to policy committee but at some point a few of us have been remote so I think it should be fair for

113everybody to to have the same level of participation if they are technically able to be part of the meeting by law. Dr. Steinberg, there is a wonderful press policy that would cover exactly what you brought up and we will make sure to talk about that at the policy committee which is on Wednesday 3:30. It's literally called the survey the survey meeting. We're going to be answering questions for about not the tots about the overall structure of the district for two to three hours. So, anyone is welcome to join that experience. It will be here. Yes. And just a reminder to anyone who's listening, um, all of these policy committee meetings that we'll be having with the IASB as we work on our new policy manual are open to the public. So, let us know what

114you think about our new policies. Did you have anything else, Dr. Steinberg? No, that's great. Thank you. Okay. Great. Great. Okay. I think that brings us to item nine on our agenda which is adjournment. Can I have a motion please? So moved. Will anyone second? I like it here on the day. Second. All in favor? I I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Excellent. We are adjourned.