001and Miss Melbeck, we're ready. Okay. Uh, welcome everyone to this meeting of the Glen View High School District 225 board of education. Uh, Miss Smith, will you call the role? Mr. Downing here. Mr. Glowaki. Mrs. Hope. Miss Mullenbeck here. Mr. O'Hara here. Mr. Shine, present. Dr. Steinberg, find five members present. Thank you. Uh, we have a relatively moderate agenda this evening. So, let's go ahead and um get a motion to get that approved. Before we do, can I make an agenda change, please? Thank you for reminding me of that. No problem. I was supposed to remind you. Didn't work out, did it? Later on, you'll remind me on something else. Uh, so our agenda change for this evening, we have under consent 5.10 contracts over 35,000. We want to move that down into discussion action,
002the entire agenda item, uh, that discussion consent item, I mean, down to discussion action as a new 6.4. And we'll just leave the title the same, and the memos will all be the same as well. That's it. Thank you. Okay. Any other changes? No, that's it. Okay. In that case, can I have a motion to approve the agenda? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. That takes us to item three on the agenda, our board and superintendence reports. And we will start with Dr. John's. Take it away. Thank you. I'm really excited this Thank you. I'm really excited this evening to talk about the status update on our uh center where we'll be providing transition services. Uh in the back of the room, there's a conceptual poster of the layout and of one
003of the main classrooms. Whoever has the uh Dr. Grall has the flicker. I like to call it a flicker. Um this is uh two of the main instructional spaces that we'll have in the transition services area. Uh please note the incredible sunlight that will be coming in. We'll have uh windows on the south side of the building. We have roughly half of of that entire floor. Uh and this will be learning spaces for our students. Please note the very modern design all designed for it to be very comfortable, inviting, and again well lit. Uh this is as you would walk in through the main doors into the the services center. Uh this is the reception desk. Uh if I recall, we have glass doors that people come in through uh in order to to get
004to the reception area. Again, this is conceptual at this point. And this is uh one of the important things we do at the transition center is help our young students uh learn how to take care of themselves later in life. So part of the work that they'll be doing is uh learning how to function in a kitchen, uh functioning at a dinner table, that sort of thing. And this is one of our kitchen type spaces. Uh the appliances, the furniture has all been purchased. We're not quite ready yet for installation. That'll probably happen closer to July. But just give you a sense of how open and inviting the space is for our students. And here's some of the work that's going on right now. So we have a lot of drywall going up, making all
005the different office spaces. There's a lot of conference rooms in this um in this facility. Sometimes it's for small instructional spaces where a couple students based on their needs will meet together with one instructor. Other times it's for the many IEP meetings that we'll have to hold uh in the center for those students as they make plans to transition into uh independence. Uh one of the things we had to do is renovate the washrooms. The washrooms are a little small. We need to make washrooms that are comfortably accessible for wheelchairs and other equipment. So, we've expanded the the washrooms and as you can see, they're prepping to get the tile work in already. So, so far everything is on schedule uh to be able to open on time. Um we have instructional materials, staffing, all
006that's already underway and in good shape and we're very excited about we're having uh really a great working relationship with the landlords and really see u a great future for this project. Okay, next I'll turn it over to Mrs. Hughes who will tell us some updates about GBN. Yes. So we are excited to share some updates from GBN. Um this year you do I do it. Okay. Sorry. Sorry, Mrs. Hughes. That was my fault. Oh, we're we're negotiating that we have multiple clickers. I've never had the power of a I got it. I can do it. I got it. Okay. The kids are going, "How many adults does this meeting right now?" Okay. Um, so this year marked our fourth annual Yam Hashawa Holocaust Remembrance Assembly at GBN. So, a group of GBN staff and
007students have been working on this important event ever since or since August of this school year. And the focus was on the message that never again is as important now as it ever was. Uh the event included a live musical performance by GBN students, featured art from the Holocaust period on display. Um also presentations from our students, and uh new this year was a video from some GBN alumni explaining how they have um dealt with anti-semitism in their own lives, especially uh post-graduation, as well as a digitally based reflection activity. If you would like to see the contents of the assembly, you can go to gbnbroadcasting.com where it was all um filmed and is available for anyone to take a look at. It was really very poignant and moving. Uh we also celebrated our peer
008mentor breakfast last week which uh honored the work of our students enrolled in peer mentoring as well as their mentee partners from within our special education department. And we celebrated the relationships that have been developed between the students this year. um they've been very inspiring and have demonstrated a commitment to inclusivity for all students in our school. And also in academics, our fashion studio 161 class directed by our FCS teacher Stephanie Bassford made handsewn tooth fairy pillows for kindergarteners in district 27. Uh the pillows were custom designs and they also had thank you notes inside and students delivered them to the kindergarteners last week. in arts. Um we are celebrating uh our broadcasting student success at the MMEA video festival and the National Academy of Television Arts and Science awards which were um at the
009end of April. Among our 14 top five finishes was a first place Crystal Pillar winning team in the public affairs community service division. Uh the team of Katie Serland, Alexa Hughes, Shawn Miles were recognized and they are now advancing to the national award competition for their documentary entitled The Man in the Green and Gold Suit: The James Williams Story, which celebrates the contributions that one of our own GBN alumni, James Williams, continuously makes on our school community. So, it's a really neat um event that they um or a documentary that they created. Additionally, we have a full week of music events coming up. We have a jazz band concert on Tuesday, orchestra on Wednesday, and a choir concert on Thursday. And in athletics, uh we were happy to celebrate signing day last week and honored
01017 of our students who have signed their letters of intent for collegiate um athletics events. Our boys lacrosse game was held this past Saturday, which featured the annual mental health resource fair. and we saw a wide range of community agencies come and meet with our students and families um as they came to the game. Our boys gymnasts uh were sending five of them to state this weekend. Uh John Soral, Jacob Cooper, Albert Pace, Charlie Sao, and Nquille Patel. And we also learned that our coach Ryan Duel was named varsity CSL coach of the year and our coach Wilhelm was named JV CSL coach of the year. And the final note in athletics is as a result of our girls badmitten team winning their third straight sectional title, they will be competing in their state tournament
011on Saturday in Decal under the direction of coach Kim. In activities, we want to say congratulations to our students who traveled to the DECA International Competition in Orlando, including a special note to the three students who earned top honors. Uh noted I ICDC glass is how they phrase it. Uh Lauren Rachelson won third place in business finance Siri and Nathan Stubnitzky and Josh Khan won second place in integrated marketing campaign product which is their second year in a row earning ICDC glass and we are excited about prom this weekend at the Chvy Chase Country Club in Wheeling and our theme is a night in the city. Thank you Miss Hughes. So over at Glen Brook South um things are going incredibly well wrapping up the spring season. I had the joy this afternoon of watching
012the cross town baseball game between GBS and GBN. So, we are eagerly awaiting the score to that game. Does anybody know? Does anybody know? Anybody? Ah, not yet. Okay, we'll find out soon. Um, uh, in athletics, our boys gymnastics also qualified five athletes for the state meet which will be held on Saturday in Hoffman Estates. So, Charlie Richards on parallel bars, high bar and rings, Alex Goldberg on rings, floor and high bar, Luke Taylor on rings, Matthew Shik on high bar, Jamon Choy uh tied for first on the pummel horse, and they have all qualified for state. So, incredibly proud of our boys gymnastics team. Um different sectionals. So, our bad mitten team also won our sectionals. So, we will be joining GBN at state uh in Deca. Uh and our boys track and field
013uh actually won the Titan invite that we hosted last weekend. Um so it's a great time for all spring sports. We're starting to approach uh the end of the season and all the postseason um stretches. So we're very excited to see how our Titans will do. Uh in academics, I'd really like to share um some phenomenal news that yet another year the Project Lead the Way program at Glenberrook South High School has earned a distinguished high school award. Um this achievement came from our focus including awareness and inclusiveness particularly for underrepresented populations in engineering programming. The team shared extensive extensive outreach with partnerships and building experiences for students from center schools clubs at Glen Brook South Boy Scouts badge work badge workshops hour of code workshops and multiple community workshops with the Gleniew public library.
014Um we also partnered with Glen View got Steam Club um led by our female engineers and scientists. Uh all in all these experiences and more have led our Titan students and our programming to be um a leader in the local engineering uh and mentoring um Project Lead the Way community and therefore we earn the award of being an a distinguished high school. Uh associated also with our career and teched department and our math departments. Uh, the tiny house was officially sold. Um, it was purchased by a 2010 GBS alum, Andrew Montes Curus. Uh, it's a very unique amount. He bought it for 22,225. Um, so this tiny house project, as you see, it was built by our geometry and construction class. Uh this is a course where students simult simultaneously learn geometry and construction science
015in an application bas based setting. It's an extraordinary program. We are incredibly proud of our students um for building such a beautiful tiny home that one of our fellow Titans will enjoy um on their land up in uh the upper peninsula. Uh in activities, Wow Wow Wow Chicago. Um it was an absolutely uh phenomenal musical this year. The kids did a great job. Everything from costumes, set, the music, the score, all of it. Um incredibly proud of our district 225 students and the quality of performance that they provide the community year after year after year. Um last week we also celebrated spring fling. Uh this is our last full week heading into uh these endofear activities where we enjoyed food trucks, lots of good sunshine and the pie in the face contest. Um this weekend
016Glen Brook South is also having prom at Prince Stripes and our theme is the Great Gatsby. Um over in the arts, similar to what Miss Hughes said, every concert is wrapping up end of year. So all of our music programs, band, choir, orchestra, all of them uh are starting this week and next. And then finally, last week was teacher appreciation week. Uh we are incredibly blessed in district 225 to have tremendous teachers and staff, and I am eternally grateful for their passion, their brilliance, and the sacrifice they make for our students and community. I would also like to thank our GBS parents association for hosting an absolutely amazing lunchon from Denios and all the support that Denios offered to make that lunchon possible for our teachers and staff. It was a really beautiful day. Uh
017and I'm grateful for everyone involved. So with that back over Thank you clicker. Yeah, he took it away from me. Uh thank you Mrs. Malbachu. That is it for our reports for today. Okay. Um, do any board members have reports they'd like to share? All right. And then Sandy, um, I attended the the play, the musical, and I thought it was just incredible, incredible talent, incredible production. Um, I've seen a lot of these, and um, everything was like like perfect. It was like a professional professional performance, light, sound, acting, queuing, and having the orchestra, band, orchestra up on the stage, I thought was a really clever, um, you know, piece of theater. Um, it was nice that, you know, they got a little more recognition than coming up out of the pit at the end
018of a show and, you know, down they go. So, kudos to everybody involved. It was really an a just an awesome production. So, thanks. Excellent. Any other reports from the board? Okay, that takes us to item four, recognition of community visitors. Although I understand we do not have anyone signed up this evening to speak. Um, that's okay. You can always give us a call, send us an email. Don't have to come to a meeting if that's not something you want to do. But we certainly appreciate those people who do come to let us know what's on their mind. Um so maybe next next meeting. Uh that takes us then to item number five, our consent agenda, which is modified as Dr. John's had indicated. Can we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? I
019move to approve the consent agenda with the modification that Dr. John suggested. Second. Any discussion? Any discussion? Mr. Downing? Yes. Mr. Glowaki? Yes. Mr. O'Hara? Yes. Mr. Shine? Yes. Dr. Steinberg? Yes. Miss Mullenbeck? Yes. Six members voting yes. Moving on then to our discussion agenda. The first item is 6.1 is the award of bookstore services bid for fiscal years 2526 2627 and 2728. Thank you for this for this agenda item. I'm going to ask Dr. Pat to join us. Uh we have some changes ahead that we're going to make with the bookstore that we're excited about. Dr. tech. Sure. Hello. We have two very active bookstores, one at Glenberg North and one at Glenberg South. And the bookstores are really the central hub for all of our instructional materials. So, the bookstore staff work with
020publishers to get the best prices. Um, they obtain free teaching material. They manage our large dig digital textbook licenses. and they also distribute all of the materials to our students um before classes start in the fall. We have been outsourcing the bookstores since 2008. We started with a contract with Flet bookstore and most recently we've been with Beck's bookstore. We do have one year left in our contract. However, with the rising contract costs and also change in management, we decided to terminate that contract and instead do a request for proposal. So we went through the process where we published an ad in the paper and we received two proposals. Um the request for proposal basically asked um each of the vendors to provide a pricing model assuming they would provide us with three full-time employees.
021And so essentially we have one employee at Glenrook North, one at Glenre South and one that kind of floats in between. Um, we received two proposals, one from Beex Bookstore, our current provider, and also one from Educare Systems and Management. We reviewed the proposals. We invited the vendors in to come present their proposals, do a Q&A with us. And at the end of the day, we are recommending Educare Systems. We feel they will do a fantastic job with our bookstores. Um, they have experience with the publishers, with managing digital textbooks, with collecting burser functions, things of that nature. Um, and they also will save us about $220,000 in the first year. So, we are recommending that we move forward with that contract. It would be a three-year contract with an option to renew um for
022two additional one-year terms. So, this is something I'm happy to answer questions tonight and then we would be putting it on the consent agenda May 27th. Um, Mr. Glowaki, did you have any questions for Mr. Downing? No. Yes. Yes. Okay. Do you have a a sense of why the the price gap is so large? Usually in a bidding situation, you're kind of at par plus or minus and this is a pretty substantial delta, right? It's our understanding as we really, you know, dug into this that one of the vendors just has a very different model with their with their overhead. they were a larger company that had historically served a lot of, you know, various universities and college markets. Um, that market has really shrunk on them and instead now they're just serving high schools,
023but they still have a lot of overhead. And so that overhead is now being passed on to a smaller group of clients quite frankly where the newer company is really, you know, they're being very aggressive because they want to get our name, they want to get out there. um they do have a proven track record and really their price is covering you know the three employees plus a little bit of overhead and then their technology costs. So they gave us you know a pretty detailed price breakout so we could see what they were paying the employees were very comfortable that they're matching if not exceeding what the current employees are making. the employees. We used to run our own bookstore years ago, right? Yes. So then when Beexs came in, did they keep our employees
024like like in the kitchen? I know that in food service they they kept most of our employees, not Beex, but but you know, conceptually Quest. Yeah. No, when Flet came in years ago, they they brought in their new staff. We actually we had opportunities for our staff in other areas of our of our building. And so they moved, they stayed with Glenbrook but not in the bookstore. So we don't have any kind of issue with employees. No, there are no non-competes right now and the the proposed vendor will be reaching out to some of the employees at BEX to see if they want to stay on. Thank you. do have a question and do you have an idea of what's I don't even know how to ask this question I'm sorry but library bookstores have
025changed a lot and we moved to a model with some electronic books students use notebooks uh Chromebooks and there's less supplies moving around the whole industry has changed so aside from early on on the year where everybody needs everything and maybe in between semesters when everybody comes and needs something else. How much workload is in between like I you know I can get the difference on pricing on the two bits because probably the amount of work as you said universities these days most bookstores are a small room that it's used early on in the semester and then they have shop stores where they sell everything else. So what what is our kind of balance of work? Yeah. So, you're absolutely right. Their peak time is really in the summers. And so, that's why with this
026outsourced agreement, we really only wanted the vendor to bid on three employees because in the summer months, we want to be more aggressive using student workers. Years ago, the vendor would bring in their own staff to help out during the summer. Now, we use student workers in the summer. So, we run the whole material distribution process, the Chromebook distribution process, all with student workers. So during the school year really the goal is just to have you know one employee at each site with a floater. And so during the school year their volume you know gets larger with just um collecting student fees. You know they collect the the main student fee is online but during the year they'll be like prom tickets and other tickets that they're selling um field trip collection things like that.
027So you will have people coming in and out. the first month of school, there will be textbook exchanges if people are switching courses, um, that type of thing. And then also, we've moved all of the Chromebook support to the bookstore. So, as students, you know, basic things, if they're needing a charger or they're needing to get a loaner for the day or their screen cracked, the bookstore handles all of that volume as well. Thank you. Mhm. Is there any other discussion? So, this will be coming back on the 27th. Thank you. Okay, that takes us to item 6.2, approval to make available the 2425 fiscal year amended budget and to schedule a public hearing on the 2425 amended budget. and that is going to be Dr. Grall. So each year the school district goes through
028a budget cycle process. We begin in July with the passing of the tentative budget or the presentation of the tentative budget, forgive me. Then the board formally takes action to approve a final budget in September. Uh and that same budget is submitted to the Illinois State Board of Education as the district's official uh best estimate of revenue and expenditures. As we go throughout the year, um, different things, uh, become more clear. For example, a lot of our state and federal grants are not actually approved until late September, October, sometimes even November. Uh, and so those aren't included in the original final budget. Uh, and then there's also some adjustments that happen throughout the year as staffing is finalized. Uh, other personnel expenses, uh, naturally are incurred. And so prior to the end of each fiscal
029year, we present an amended budget. The technical um reason for that, and this was discussed by the finance committee uh just earlier today, is that in order to ensure an audit that does not um have concerns expressed on it, it's important that our um our estimated revenues and expenditures are as accurate as possible. And so one of the uh process that we go through is we develop an amended budget. Uh it's presented in May, but the board doesn't actually formally approve it until June. And that uh big delay there is really because whenever you're presenting a formal budget that ultimately is filed with the Illinois State Board of Education, uh we need to make it available for public inspection for any community member to review it and then to have an opportunity to ask questions
030during a designated portion of the board meeting known as a public hearing. And so with that kind of uh precursor in terms of the overall budget process and and why uh we're here tonight with amended budget, I want to turn to the district's treasurer, Vicky Tarver, who will walk you through the memo that's been uh shared. In particular, two tables that outlines where we are today compared to where we were a year ago today and then also the changes that will be reflected in the updated budget document. Miss Tarver. Hello. So, I begin the process every year by taking a look at where we are this year compared to last year at the same time. So, if you look at chart A, you'll see that um our total direct receipts. Last year at this time,
031we were 95.39% collected, whereas this year we're 93.06. So, this informs me that there's a slight dip in what we received this year as compared to last year. So looking into that, we discovered that there is a state categorical program that is behind on its payments and so I need to adjust the budget to account for that. If we look down at the expenditures, last year at this time we were 73.65 dispersed. This year we're at 71.30. Again, a difference there. So looking into that, a lot of that is just timing differences. Um, a lot of that has to do with capital projects that have not started yet where last year at this time we were already paying some bills on some capital projects we had scheduled last year. Is there any questions on chart
032A? Nope. So, if you look at chart B, this chart will show you what the original budget was compared to what the amended budget was and highlight the differences between the two. So you'll notice under the revenue on the special ed categorical programs that budget has been reduced by 371%. That is accounting for that state categorical payment that is behind. Um we decided to take it out of the budget because when we do receive the money it will probably be outside of the audit window. So it'll end up being recorded in next year's budget rather than acred back to this year's. Um because of that uh this was money that we were anticipating to fund our transportation fund. I have included an additional transfer from working cash into our transfer um our transportation fund in
033this amended budget so we can ensure that at the end of the fiscal year we do not end up with a negative fund balance in transportation. So that's been added to the overall amended budget. On the expenditure side, um there has been some minor changes in a lot of the areas. The the most significant changes are just between capital and non- capital. This is something that occurs every year when we budget. Sometimes we don't know if something's going to come in over that threshold and we have to record it as capitalized outlay or if it's going to come in under the u under the threshold and we would record it as non- capital. So at this time of the year, I kind of can go through that and better estimate how it's come through and
034what we still have remaining. So that's the biggest change there. Um salaries decrease slightly. Um every year I do build into the budget monies for retirement um enhancements when the retirement notices are given. Also lane changes um staffing changes. Um at the final budget time, most of the staffing is done. like 99% of it is done, but there is still usually a few positions that have not been filled. So, I budget um accordingly and then sometimes they come in lower. Uh there's some changes in the insurance and wellness and retirement. That's based on a calculation error on my part from the final budget. Um nothing significant there. And overall, uh the changes are very minor. Is there any questions on chart B? I would offer from a workflow perspective um what we typically do with
035large reports such as the tenative, the final or the amended budget is we present it first to our finance committee. We're very fortunate to have three of our board members on the finance committee including Mr. Glowaki, Mr. Shine, and Dr. Steinberg. Um, and so wanted to provide an opportunity to the members of the committee to see if there were any additional thoughts they wanted to share from our conversation earlier today. Um, thank you for all the work you did on all this. This is remarkable and stuff to be this close. I know we've got some challenges with the property taxes uh going forward and stuff, but it's always a challenge forecasting anything. So, very impressive. Thank you. Um, we also talked about this statutory requirement to um file this and have the and have the
036hearing we're going to have. So it's not it it might appear that it's optional and the changes are relatively small but what was explained was because there are changes and this will go to the auditor it then requires us to have the budget hearing because this will go to the state as a final. If we weren't doing that, we wouldn't have to go through, even though we are not in the range of over 10% on either expenditures or revenues in aggregate, we still have to go through the process of the the budget hearing. Yes. So, tonight all we're asking the board is to approve us making the budget available to the public, meaning that we can publish it on the website tomorrow and then also scheduling that public hearing for the board meeting. Um, have
037the date here on June 23rd. RJ, I have a I just had a quick question. You said non- capitalized outlay on uh the chart B. Yes. 7,000. That was for transportation. Is that what you're talking about? No. Um, anything over a $2,500 for an individual item we put under capital outlay. Anything under $2,500 for an individual item goes into non-cap. So sometimes when we're planning what we're going to be spending for the year, like whether it's cameras or technology, we don't always know what the bids are going to come back at. Understood. I'm sorry I couldn't be at the meeting today graduation, but um the other funds are it's on both sides on expenditures and and and revenue. And you said the main difference was this two million on the transfer side. Where are these
038transfers that we make from our other fund? It's coming from working cash into transportation. Okay. All right. And then are we going to give it back? We can next year. We can um I did modify our tax levy to um levy more in the transportation fund, but because the tax levy year and our fiscal years don't line up, we're not really going to realize that change until next fiscal year. So I think we would probably wait it out till the end of next fiscal year. So I can project how that fund balance is going to end and then perhaps in 2627 move back the additional funds. Thank you. You also mentioned that because we didn't get from the state around $2 million, we had to move some of these funds. But we're getting that money.
039We're assuming we are getting that money back. Yes. For next year. Yes. We're just we're unsure that we will get it within that audit window. And rather than taking a chance, I want to transfer the money so we don't have the possibility of ending up with a negative fund balance in our transportation fund. All right. Thank you. Thanks. Any other discussion? In that case, uh we'll need a motion to approve making available the 2425 fiscal year amended budget and scheduling a hearing on the 2425 amended budget on June 23rd. Are we having two separate motions? What do you do one? So let's move I move to approve to make available the 2425 amended budget and schedule a sorry I lost the date June 23rd the schedule public hearing for June 23rd second any discussion Mr.
040Glowaki yes Mr. O'Hara yes Mr. Shine yes Dr. Steinberg yes Mr. Downing. Yes. Miss Mullenbeck. Yes. Six members voting yes. Thank you. Thank you, Vicki. That brings us to the last item. I'm sorry. It's not the last item. It's 6.3. We also have a 6.4. Item 6.3 is uh coming from Dr. John's. Oh, I'm sorry. Getting the hang of this. Um an update regarding the withdrawal from True North. Thank you. This will be a brief update. As you know, uh we recently approved the process to begin the withdrawal process from uh True North. Uh since then, per state law, we have distributed the petitions for withdrawal and the cover letter to each of the member district superintendent and their school boards. We've included a copy each to Dr. Schneider, superintendent of True North, and um
041the True North leadership council president. Uh, additionally, we distributed a resolution sheet to each district as well in which they can record the votes and report back to us in True North. If for whatever reason we can't get one, if it gets lost the paperwork, we can always uh glean that information from their board minutes. On Thursday night, I'm happy to report Glen Co. DI Elementary District 35 uh discussed the petition and voted in favor of our petition to withdraw. So, we've got one out of 17. Um the rest are scheduled this week and next. Uh unfortunately one district because they have such a lighter schedule, they have fewer meetings than we do don't have their next board meeting until June 3rd. So the superintendent called me and asked for the extension of two days
042and I went ahead and granted it to them. Uh what we did tell the districts is the other districts if they're unable to vote by June 1, we will regard those votes in the affirmative as in agreeing with uh the position to let us withdraw. Uh in late April, uh this is an interesting side note. In late April, our council just Petara received outreach from an attorney representing True North. The attorney asked to meet with some questions. Justin indicated. I will also clear my schedule to facilitate the earliest possible meetings and we haven't heard back from that attorney. Uh since then, we've learned that True North has moved to a different law firm. Uh law lawyer from this second law firm reached out to Justin as well. He also said he was interested in speaking
043with her and she has not replied. Um so as a side kind of a on a parallel note, Dr. Dr. Steinberg, our new uh representative of True North, was at the meeting of True North's leadership council last week. Uh you may want to go into some more detail, but what we've learned as he reported to me that other districts have reported interest in withdrawing as well. Uh that dissolution of the cooperative was discussed and that a new attorney is going to conduct a meeting about dissolution uh with the member superintendent on I've since learned Wednesday, May 21st. Um, and there's some dissatisfaction about our interest in leaving u, particularly in that we're taking the statutory approach which would enable us to leave in one year as opposed to the articles of agreement approach which would
044take two years. By the way, we're paying about $700,000 for each year. So, Dr. Steinberg, did I do you have any additional detail you want to add? Yes. And but your description was perfect. I just want to it was my first time but something that I noticed is that we're having multiple conversations at the same time. So to be fair with the other districts we're all represented at that pl at the meeting people find out about these things at the meeting then they have to report to their boards when they go to the board meetings and then things happen in the middle. So I expect that there's a lot of conversations because as as we are in here if I will come here and say we need to vote on this district that decided to
045do something and 28 things happen in between and by the time I go back to true north so I think we are doing what we supposed to do and we are on the right track but I expect that there may be questions coming from you are getting them but there may be questions if you know anybody you know some of the districts are a feeder district so if you know board members from a feeder district there may be questions coming that And that's it for my update. There's any questions. Okay, that moves us to item 6.4, which is the last item on the discussion agenda, contracts over 35,000. Earlier today, we took an opportunity in the finance committee just to discuss uh our workflow and and our standards for ensuring that as we're reviewing and
046considering expenditures that we're following a consistent process. Um earlier this fiscal year, uh I believe it was right around August, if not September, um we made a decision to create a new consent agenda item uh known as contracts over $35,000. That number is important for two reasons. one, um, Illinois school code requires any contracts over a certain dollar threshold, which does happen to be 35,000, to be approved, um, by the board of education through a roll call vote. Um, the second reason is our board policy stipulates that the administration's uh, for lack of a better term, signature authority uh, is limited to expenditures below 35,000. So we create this memo um outline everything from software license agreements, small purchases um as well as larger purchases that are more routine in nature. Uh in our committee
047meeting we discussed an example being Chromebooks. Every year we go through a bid process for Chromebooks and we put them on and it's kind of one of those normal uh cycle items. Um, as we normize our process, um, our goal is to make sure that larger purchases that are not routine in nature, but kind of one-offs or larger purchases, uh, goes first through our finance committee to have a discussion there and then finance will help inform if it should be more of a standalone item for the board to consider. Um, and we we work through that. Um, with that said, one of the items that uh we wanted to bring forward for the board to discuss and not just take action on through consent is a replacement of our vehicle fleet uh for our maintenance
048department. Um, and also our lawn care equipment. Uh, so our our tractors and mowers and things of that nature. Uh, Dr. Pac worked with Mr. Wright and Mrs. Bonner uh at our schools as well as our buildings and grounds departments um to identify what their needs are. um these particular expenditures that I'm referring to were planned for next fiscal year as part of our budget and um the reason why it was presented sooner um is just the challenges that we face with respect to supply and demand uh and increasing costs as they relate to steel vehicles and things of that nature. Um, with that said, we did try in the memo to highlight um the illustrations of the condition of our equipment. Um, we we it's not just mismatched doors and things of that nature
049is that if you look at the condition of our our trucks, um, we're at a point where um there are holes in the floorboards that are only worsening over time. And from a a lawn care perspective, we have very few operating mowers. Um, to share a little more insight in this and then also to answer any questions. Again, since it's a larger purchase, I want to invite Dr. Pat and Miss Bonner up and they'll give a a little overview for you. Okay. As R.J. mentioned, we have a grounds crew at both Glenberg North and Glenberg South. and the grounds crew are responsible for the majority of landscaping, athletic field maintenance, snow plowing, salting, um, etc. And so to effectively perform all of this work, they need a working fleet of vehicles. And this is quite
050honestly a fleet of vehicles that have been reprioritized over the years. And it's a fleet that we've been able to do that with because the equipment, it really rarely leaves our campus. If it does, it goes to Home Depot or it goes to another one of our buildings. that's not used for curricular purposes. It's obviously not used to transport students. And so we've been able to, you know, really get by for the last several years. Um, but now it is important equipment. It's necessary equipment and it is at the age where we really do need to replace the fleet. Um, last year, if you recall, we replaced the fleet of drivered vehicles and also all of our mini activity buses. And at that time we had planned in our budget for fiscal year 26 which
051is next fiscal year to address the large maintenance fleet that we have and put that all on the same cycle. And so to start that process we went through um a bidding process which we're required to do and put an ad in the paper and opened bids. Um all of the tractor equipment is John Deere and so that we were able to purchase all of that off of a state contract that had already gone through the bidding process. And then for all of the trucks that we're purchasing, those are all Ford vehicles. And so we went through the bidding process where we sent it to four different dealerships and we're recommending that we award the bid to um Reedman Ford. Um so with that, we're here to answer any questions that you have. We would
052put this back on consent on May 27th. Mr. O'Hara, did you have any questions? I guess I just love the fact you guys are being proactive about this as you look ahead and say this this stuff could be 20% more next year. Let's get it done this year. So I I like that. Thank you. I've driven one of those mini buses. They were overdue. He's in favor. I don't recall seeing the bidding uh results previously and everything, but was can you refresh my memory? Was hybrids considered given all our work on solar that we're doing in BET being more EV efficient and everything here? Was that an option? I don't I think for the price point they were trying to stay with and just how little the vehicles are are getting used. I don't I
053don't know what options they looked at, but we can look up on that one. I do know that that was a big question. Um I was well educated uh by others in terms of the art of snow plowing. um everything from the type of vehicle you need in order to push the amount of snow and the fact that that vehicle has to be continuously going uh of which only a gas uh uh well that's why the hybrid was one move that I know a lot of groups and neighboring schools have moved into especially since they're not being used so often for tooling around and doing quick things the electricity helps and helps with our overall mission but then when you have the heavier duty work. You've got that. And then uh I heard also that
054the extra batteries that the hybrid have help in the snowplowing arena because it's heavier vehicle. So yeah, if you wouldn't mind uh updating us and just making a note. Appreciate that. Dr. Ste, what you have a question? Thank you. And what part of our budget this what bucket of the budget this comes from? Because it's not from capital expenditures. I really it is from building maintenance by what this is a one-time expenditure. So how does impact to a regular budget of building maintenance? Yeah. So I'll I'll kind of take that one. Um from a specific line um this expenditure could be found in one of two places in the budget. And this is for next year's budget. It would either be in the operations and maintenance fund in a capitalized equipment line or in the
055capital projects fund in a uh capital uh a capitalized expenditure line. Um each year we have large type purchases. So we we referenced the buses. Um we've referenced the uh driver vehicles which uh were incorporated into uh last and this year's budget. um this placeholder in our budget for those large cycles is filling a capacity that uh in last fiscal year uh primarily was the replacement of all staff laptops. Um and so each year we have a little more than a million of those large purchases and so it's filling that same capacity. Right. Thank you. Mr. Downey, did you have any questions? No. Anything else? Mr. lacking um the one thing that I would ask just so that we have a public record. I think typically when we get um bids that's all memorialized in
056a document where you can look and see these are the four biders or whomever and in this particular document it just shows the winning bid is right. I thought we noted that in there. So we actually only received one bid. We tried to proactively get them from dealerships and we only received one bid. I thought I heard you say you got four bits. We sent it to We sent it to you solicited four. I see. Okay. Wow. Okay. Um well, in that case, I guess the memo's perfect. Yeah. No, actually, you are going to come back with the information that Mr. Gwaki requested regarding um uh the options and we willing history. Okay. Um and then other than that, we would add this to the consent agenda for May 12th. Yes. Okay. May 27th. Yep.
057Oh, I'm sorry. May 27th. Today's May 12th. Sorry about that. Okay. And that's all we had on that topic. Okay. Thank you. And I believe that brings us to the end of our discussion agenda. Um, so it was wow meeting. Um, I'm going to jinx us. Sorry. Um, we had some uh great reports today from the principles at at GBN and GBS. We got to take a look at uh the mockup of the new transition services facility. Bye guys. Um, and I think that's that's all that's all she wrote. Um this at this point um item eight on the agenda possible topics for future board meetings. Does any board member have a topic that they would like to suggest? If you don't want to bring it up now, you certainly have be happy to take
058your emails or phone calls or to me or Dr. Johns or Dr. Brell. Miss Malenbeck, I had one item just an important reminder. I sent a calendar invite out. Yes, we have officially scheduled our board governance training. The board governance training is where we bring in a representative from the Illinois Association of School Boards and they will walk us through a board uh self-evaluation. We'll talk about norms, standards, things of that nature. And uh I know we plan after that meeting uh to do a report out so that there's awareness of kind of uh all the good topics we discussed. That is scheduled in August on a Saturday. And of course, I did not have that. Thank you. Um we did schedule it for 8:00 a.m. to get started. um that might be a little
059more flexible closer to 8:30, but we will likely go through 12 noon. So, just uh be aware of that. It's it should be on your calendars, but if you want to copy that over to your uh personal calendars, it's a good placeholder. It was the the best time we could get the majority of board members present. I do want to point out um that that is the same week as our return of staff on Tuesday, August 12th uh for the first Glenber day and the first day of school is Thursday, August 14th. So that's a busy week um but a great opportunity for us to come together and have good conversation. Okay. Okay. Would anyone else like to raise anything before we close out of our regular meeting? All right. In that case, I will
060I think I need a motion to go to closed. Is that correct? Ah, okay. So um close session is uh let's see conducted in order to consider the appointment employment appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity. the placement of individual students in special education programs and other matters relating to individual students. And litigation when an action against, affecting, or on behalf of the particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative tribunal, or when the public body finds that an action is probable or imminent, in which case the basis for
061the finding shall be recorded and entered into the minutes of the closed meeting. Those are sections 2C1, 10, and 11 of the open meeting act. So moved. Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Okay. Um shall we reconvene at 8:00 or do we need that much time? It'll be and Miss Mullenback, we're back at 8:37 p.m. Okay. I do you want to move? We have So, no, I think we have a motion um from Dr. Steinberg. I move to approve the early graduation request at presented in close session. Second. Who second? Miss Smith. Mr. O'Hara. Yes. Mr. Shine. Yes. Dr. Steinberg. Yes. Mr. Downing. Yes. Mr. Glowaki. Yes. Miss Mullenbeck. Yes. Six members voting yes. Okay. And then we just need a motion to adjurnn. I move to adjurnn. Second. All in favor?
062I I adjourned at 8:37 p.m. Done.