001e e and Mr dowy we are ready good evening and welcome to the district 225 Board of Education meeting Madame secretary would you please read the role Mr dowy here Mr glowaki here miss Mullen Beck Mr O'Hara here miss Sean here Mr shine pres Dr seberg here six members present item two on our agenda is a motion to approve the agenda for the meeting so moved second all in favor I opposed motion carries so good evening everyone uh glad everyone's here for this tonight's meeting we welcome you uh I know we're about to head into spring break it's an exciting time finally get the chance to refresh remind everyone there is an election coming up on April 1st uh for our board as well as many other Municipal bodies in our area uh this evening
002we have a lighter agenda than usual we have our typical opening items of the board and superintendent reports and recognitions we have our community comment and our consent agenda and then we have only one item tonight on our regular agenda which is the administration's recommendation for a true north withdrawal uh we do have closed session tonight and we just make people aware that this is when we go into confidential session on confidential items we try to do everything we possibly can in public for uh uh keeping transparency uh but sometimes we do have to go uh into a close session for confidential items like employment and students and litigation and security um and then we'll come back sometimes in our Open Session to act uh on them tonight we do have one item on which
003we may be acting I now move to item three on our agenda which are board and superintendent reports and recognitions Dr John thank you Mr dowy uh go real quickly one thing we uh sent out to families today was a reminder we need our families to participate in the five essential survey uh just to to throw down a little competition uh we need a 20% threshold in order to get the data from a particular school and today we crossed the threshold so that we will be receiving the data from Glenbrook South but we need about a good 50 more families maybe closer to 100 from Glenbrook North uh so we can get that data that data is absolutely essential as we use it for our engagement efforts our communication efforts with our community uh so
004we ask those parents to go through their email from 2 o'clock today we timed it so it was perfect for the Carline uh go back to 2 o'cl today find that email and please complete the survey because it is valuable it is something that's very important to us uh with that said I'm going to forgo the rest of my comments we have Mr Casey Wright associate principal at Glen South who is representing Dr georgees Mr Casey I mean Mr Wright actually Mrs Hughes has a few uh students here that she's going to introduce first and then we'll transition to Mr Tri on me thank you I am pleased to be recognizing our students who placed at the state competition for speech um tonight so can I please have Maya gersin and Via gavu up to
005the the podium please all right so um I receiv received some comments from their coach Mrs Ila um and we actually just came from a really neat event that I'll show a picture of from the gbn speech showcase just this afternoon so they are fresh off of performing for an audience of uh staff members and students and families so Maya is a four-time sectional finalist and a three-time state qualifier she was state champion and speaking last year as a junior and finaled again as a senior in the same event she qualified to State this year in multiple events radio and informative speaking and won the recent District tournament in informative speaking to qualify to Nationals this is actually the second year she's been the district champion and National qualifier in informative speaking and we are
006hoping for great things from her from this last chance at a national placing at the state competition she placed fifth in um what's the official title of the radio radio speaking yes and that was the event that we saw this afternoon it was really remarkable uh via joined the team as a sophomore and although she's had less years of experience than other seniors she's demonstrated an accelerated pace of growth over the past three seasons during her second year competing she qualified to both state and Nationals in extemporaneous speaking as a senior she qualified and final that state in impromptu speaking and although she will not be able to participate at Nationals this year due to other post-graduation conflicts she is a force to be reckoned with as the queen of speaking on the spot which
007I can attest to today she was given a prompt of three different uh Proverbs to choose from and had two minutes of preparation and delivered an entire was it six minutes or eight six minute speech it was really great um as co- captains of the team they have been exemplary leaders role modeling both the disciplined pursuit of Excellence as well as a positive spirit of fun they've always prioritized supporting others clocking in hours of volunteer peer coaching and novice mentoring but also managed to do so without sacrificing their own success we are so lucky to have such rare quality student leaders come through gbns program so congratulations to Maya and vaa then do you want us to do our picture now or after debate after debate after debate okay all right so we'll have you
008take a seat and now I'd like to welcome up here um Ethan camp and Joe Rosen blot and Coach Greenstein to celebrate their state championship win in debate recently it's an awesome trophy um and it was made by our gbn engineering yes this was made by the gbn engineering club by the way just fun fact about the trophy so Ethan and Joe have spent the year researching and debating the National High School policy debate topic about intellectual property rights to give some idea of the work involved the amount of research and argument writing it takes for most debate students to compete at the highest level equates to what is needed to write a graduate level Master's thesis their state championship is truly a special accomplishment because they are both Juniors Illinois is always one of
009the most competitive debate states in the country and it's been almost 25 years since a junior junior Duo has won the Illinois State debate tournament debate tournaments involve a lot of realtime strategy and tactics in elimination debates there's a coin flip to determine which side each team is gbn won the coin flip for the state finals so we got to choose our side Ethan and Joe were so prepared that even though the other team said that they would read a brand new argument if they were affirmative Ethan and Joe still flipped negative allowing their opponent to choose a specific topic the debate in the finals would be about without Ethan and Joe knowing it ahead of time this is a very risky and atypical choice but one that the entire gbn debate coaching staff supported
010because of their belief in Ethan and Joe in their free time Ethan tutors and engages in nonprofit work and Joe is an avid chess player one of gbns best they both value all of the hard work and contributions of their gbn debate teammates that make Winning State possible so congratulations to our all right so we're going to do a quick picture we're going to go in the middle so we'll start with debate you can hold the TR okay congratulations again congratulations congratulations [Music] as we're getting set for the continued updates on the buildings I just want to point out how remarkable it is to have students get recognitions like the four did tonight I coached for years never had a state medalist and let alone a state champion and it really is remarkable uh Dr
011Greenstein uh how many state champions have you brought home I think 12 12 so um that's a rarity like I said it's rare to have one but to 12 and it shows the the hard work of our students and I think the appreciation for the dynasty that's been created and the wanting to contribute and grow and make that program all the greater same with speech really really special programs that we should all be very proud of it is it is quite rare uh it shows the support that we get from our schools for our kids and uh the level of Excellence they work so hard to attain so we thank them and certainly admire them for it all right now I'll turn to Mr Wright and he'll walk us through the updates at Glenbrook South
012no way you change it again I'm gonna blame that on Miss Hughes okay that's fine I'll take it um so we are pleased to announce um our new instructional VI instructional supervisor of MTH for next year who is replacing Dr vasilopoulos Who has been promoted to associate principal of teaching and learning um and so I I'm pleased to announce Mrs Kim Johnson who will be our next is of math um unfortunately she's not able to be here today but I did just want to say a couple nice things about um her her uh leadership and what we're excited for her to join us so Miss Johnson joins Glenbrook North from greylake North High School where she dedicated over 20 years as a teacher and department chair throughout her 10 years played a pivotal role in
013leading curriculum development and instructional initiatives focusing on standards alignment Innovative grading practices and reassessment procedures Mrs Johnson also spearheaded professional development programs mentoring Educators and best practices and effectively integrating technology into instruction her efforts led to the expansion of course offerings including geometry with programming geometry and construction dual credit quantitative literacy and data science these additions provided students with meaningful opportunities to explore math in Practical and engaging ways Miss Johnson holds a Bachelor of Science and secondary math education from the from U ofi and a master of educational Administration from National Lewis we are thrilled to welcome her and uh I'm sorry that she was not able to be with us tonight but she will be a great addition to us at glum Brook north and now now I'm really done now you can now
014all right I'll start with some updates from South so rehearsals are well underway at the Glenbrook South for the 56th annual Musical Chicago teen Edition 87 cast members along with a robust pit band of top student musicians from Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South are joining forces to put together what will be proved to be a memorable theatrical performance for the Northbrook and Glen viw communities tickets are on sale now at curb 8.com science olympi goes to States so this week there were quite a few celebrations from science physics Olympiad a big congratulations to freshman Roland Hugh who advanced to the National Physics Exam which will be taken next month in April congratulations to our science alipate team who earned a bid to State they took home several medals at regionals and are excited to compete
015at the University of Illinois on April 12th science independent research students are also headed to State a big congratulations to our science independent research students seven students receed the highest designation at regionals and will be competing at the Illinois Junior Academy of Science state competition at the University of Illinois in early May a special congratulations to Caitlyn Jen picture here who won the Leonardo da Vinci creativity award for her research project we have six students who are competing at this year's IHS art competition on Sunday April 13th their work is displayed at Bridgeport Bridgeport Art Center in Chicago now until Sunday April 13th so that's really cool we had a successful event at the business Professionals of America BPA State leadership conference several National qualifiers two newly elected state officers in the GBS chapter we
016had a winner of the professional cup which is awarded to the outstanding chapter in community service marketing and public relations safety awareness environmental action and Special Olympics fundraising this is the eighth consecutive year of winning this trophy thank you thank you Mr Wright now Mrs Hughes all right so this Wednesday at 7:30 um we will be hosting at gbn the gso concert which I just wanted to highlight is going is a really neat performance that will feature conero soloist performances including a marima um conero that I learned so I'm excited about that as well as American pieces in preparation for their tour to Washington DC over break so we hope you'll join us at the CPA on Wednesday and also in arts our senior art show opened last week Thursday in the Library featuring The
017portfolios of our senior Arts students and the show will be up through the 21st so please stop by the gbn library if you haven't yet seen this display of amazing student work last Friday our math department celebrated Pi Day um and we uh have a great of activities in the math Resource Center again this year with many piie focused activities for students to engage with including writing p c which was my favorite which was a uh Riff on ha coup poetry but instead of doing the Hau R uh syllables it was a 314 poem in honor of Pi so I I I'm very much appreciated the P cus um students received tickets and collected stamps for the activities that they completed and thank you to our parents Association who exchanged those tickets and stamps for
018ice cream toppings and prizes for our students and they also donated a lot of their time um in our activities I mentioned last week that today was The Cannonball contest and while I did not jump into the pool I did have the opportunity to judge and it was wonderful uh uh we had uh 16 different contestants including a staff member coach Georgia kagus coach Gio and our senior student Hubert gibbets had a Final Duel but at the end Hubert emerged Victorious with a double backflip that was unparalleled it was really in a chicken suit so it was all um it was a great great event um and our food drive has been collecting cans I think we're up over 2,000 cans so far we have um Can collections throughout the rest of this week as
019well as donations and one last shout out as I mentioned to our speech students they did have their gbn speech showcase um we had our two recoges as well as other students who had qualified for State many of whom will be competing at Nationals this year and they were just incredible and I do want to do uh anab bashed please fill out your five Essentials survey Not only was it in your email it's on a text and on social media so you can find it anywhere you go to get us over the last two% for gbn thank you Mrs Hughes Mr dowy that's it for this part of the agenda thank you Dr Johns and uh Mr wri Mrs Hughes uh for all those presentations it's great to hear the incredible array of accomplishment and
020excellence and growth across our district for anything you want to contribute tonight just quick steber thank you um I guess we were all invited a few of us got to attend last night pace of Ramadan sponsored by the Glenbrook Muslim civic association so we normally get to see people on the podium but this was an invitation to share culture to share an evening was great they're not here today but I wanted to express my appreciation and and of course gratitude and and an interesting thing that hopefully happens everywhere with these people talking about getting involved so just to Echo what you said earlier we have elections starting today I think people can vote so hopefully as many people as they can can go to the voting vots or whatever vote thank you D St others
021I I was just gonna Echo it was with all the Civic uh activities taking place and everything uh it's been wonderful to hear from parents and uh alumni of the district and just all the great things that they remember about what the district does and has done for their families terrific uh thank you very much um item four in our agenda is recognition of community visitors this is an up to 30 minute period of our meeting which we always appreciate speakers who sign up in advance are allowed up to two minutes to speak we ask you respect that Mark and conclude your remarks within two minutes uh please give your name and address as well as your connection to the district uh they are not required but they help us with followup uh we remind
022people of a number of items Mr chain would you please sit down until you're recognized sorry we remind people of a number of items the P Board does not respond at this point uh we do listen carefully please keep in mind that we maintain confidentiality and privacy do not discuss individual employees or students as part of that please note the board does not control the topics raised with a sub of public comment we remind speakers uh that they should direct their comments to the board and should relate to District business this is is not a political Forum we remind speakers that their comments are not automatically protected by any immunity or other legal protection and we ask everyone to maintain Civility and respect this evening per our rules we have one speaker who has signed
023up uh Mr Chang will recognize you now uh you have two minutes hi I'm Julian Chang of Glenview um thank you dis Park District board sorry District board for having me uh allowing me to speak yesterday I had the privilege of meeting with fellow District 225 candidates for the League of Women Voters Forum attending a GBS ba basketball banquet and joining the ifar dinner hosted by the Muslim civic association where board members skip shine and Marcelo steenburg were in attendance thank you both for fostering a spirit of community however I must address that blatant disregard for ethical campaign practices despite clear North Brook library rules prohibiting campaign materials board vice president glowaki board member O'Hara uh caucus candidates hope and Downing distributed materials inside the Library this violates Library policy Illinois election law and public
024trust Illinois Law explicitly prohibits campaigning on government property and violations can lead to criminal P penalties Mr glowaki and Mr O'Hara you ask voters to trust you Chang I'm going to ask you and you can hold that at 59 seconds um to direct your comments to board business not political business I'm going to ask you to stick to board business this is board business this is ethical concerns about existing board members sir you can recommence but I emphasize this is about board business not about campaigns or political purposes sure sure when I asked to uh increase communication um I was told uh by your board members I'm not your answering service we not friends that is not leadership it is obstruction board members should welcome Community engagement not belittle those working to improve belonging meanwhile
025this ethical concerns of having my name crossed off was was very uh hurtful uh while while claiming to have a nurture and inclusive and safe School environment there's a serious concern about Fair rule enforcement a board member's children attend Glen Brook north be despite their residents outside the designated attendance area south of Willow Road in Glen View many families apply for inter building transfers or denied why was this person granted an exception does the board believe it is above the rules or there are special rules for board members I formally request transparency on the total number of interb building transfers request and their approval status the justification for any special treatment received by board members District 225 must uphold the highest ethical standards we need leaders who serve the the community respect others and Foster
026Real communication not know those who manipulate the system and intimidate Challengers thank you thank you Mr Chang we have no other speakers uh for our our meeting this evening uh so we will move to item five in our agenda which is our consent agenda Dr John's are there any adjustments in that agenda no changes to the consent agenda okay I'll entertain a motion so moved second any questions or comments on the agenda and the consent agenda hearing none Mr glowaki yes Mr O'Hara yes Miss Sean yes Mr shine yes Dr Steinberg yes Mr dowy yes six members voting yes we now move to item six in our agenda which is a discussion action part of the agenda uh we have one item this evening it regards the withdrawal from True North educational Cooperative 804 Dr
027Johnson thank you Mr dowy tonight we're going to discuss the question of withdrawal from the true north special ed Cooperative this is a matter that we have put to considerable thought over several years glenberg High School District 225 was a founding member of the special education Cooperative currently known as true north and for decades the partnership has been mutually beneficial since the late 1950s early 60s True North has served 18 school districts across Northern Cook County and Lake County operating under the legislative intent that special education cooperatives provides specialized facilities and services that individuals could not individual districts could not otherwise offer while also reducing costs through shared programming in recent years the continued cost of True North has risen while our ability to provide the same services that we use from True North has
028developed as a result the administration is recommending the withdrawal from True North I want to frame our discussion the recommendation to withdrawal from True North around the concepts of providing excellent District 225 education opportunities to all of our students to the greatest extent possible in our own programs and in our own community at the same time we have the need to be good Financial stewards for the taxpayers of District 225 who provide us with their resources in order to educate the students of our district district 225 for recent years for several years we've had discussions at this table about the increasing cost of our continued membership in True North to address those costs in 2022 we conducted a study of True North TLS and our transition program and realized that we could offer the same
029quality services as true north more fully include our students into our district 225 programs offer community-based learning a community- based learning environment and reduce our expenses by bringing all of our programs under our own umbrella District 225 has systematically brought its special education services under direct District oversight strengthening its capacity and expertise to ensure High quality services while maximizing student inclusion except for a couple of students we plan to have nearly all of our services provided directly by District 225 staff next year in our own facilities by the start of 2026-27 we'll have no students in True North programs ultimately District 225 no longer requires Cooperative membership to provide excellent specialized Services as it now has the infrastructure personnel and Financial resour resources to independently meet student needs where we have needs such as residential
030placements we have long established public and private Partners throughout the state and Nation nonetheless the cost of membership in True North Still Remains very high setting aside the remaining tuition and services District 225 will pay approximately $625,000 next year in membership fees alone added to this expense is an estimated $120,000 for capital projects for the next several years District 225 has actively engaged in discussions and advocacy efforts to address the rising costs associated with the true north educational Cooperative yet the costs have risen as the district navigates increased budgetary pressures and the rising uncertainty of federal and state education funding we have an obligation to proactively prioritize the efficient use of our financial resources to ensure responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars while maintaining the highest quality of special ed services the administration recommends withdrawing from
031the true north educational Cooperative there are various iterations of the process to withdraw from this membership in consultation with our various steam General councel Jus petara we are recommending the process outlined in Illinois school code section g which is which I have uh which is a process that we carry out directly with the state few about a month ago I brought forward the uh methods for withdrawal that are currently stipulated in the Articles of agreement we believe that the statute is both a better fit more adequately addresses the legal considerations that come into play and certainly meet our needs for withdrawal so therefore is recommended that the Board of Education approve the resolution to withdraw from the true north educational Cooperative following the public hearing that we'll hold in our next meeting on on April
03214th and we have tentatively set the timeline for withdrawal as the summer of 2027 we feel that this is adequate time more than adequate time for True North to make the necessary budgetary steps to do to address our departure uh I'm available for any questions I'm here for questions but I also have Mr petara if there's any questions in terms of the process or the different legal steps that we may have to take thank you for the summary and thank you for the comprehensive memorandum and all the work that's been done and considering this Mr Peta thank you for your assistance and guidance as always uh just procedurally there will be a public hearing on the 14th of April and that will be the night that we are looking to vote uh if that is
033uh what the board uh wishes to do but that that'll be on the agenda at least at this point uh I want to go around the table and see any questions at this point uh we do have some time before our next meeting I think we have four weeks so there additional time if other questions come up uh this is an important decision um and we as always are first and foremost focused on our students uh with their needs particularly uh those who have the special needs that have been served by True North for many years and are served also in our schools uh and working with those families as as Dr johnes points out uh that is something that is absolutely foremost here and I believe my understanding is the district is prepared to
034meet those needs uh as well as we possibly can uh with that I'm going to ask uh board members if they have any questions or comments at this point start with Miss sein um and this this may be uh a question that several of the board members have but um can you explain how this particular statute differs from the path that we were following sure previously and and I guess that uh why we like didn't pursue that initially we I'll start with the end first um we we had um spent our time looking at the articles of agreement which specifies two Pathways out I guess I'm not starting with the second part first the two Pathways to to withdraw the first pathway is what we saw District 34 take the pathway is considered consensual which
035means there's this period of time in which the other districts um are apprised of the withdrawal petition uh and they each vote and that takes a period of time and we learned that the vote was four against and 13 in favor uh then the other pathway is a consensual pathway and that particular pathway has additional requirements beyond the state law uh the first is there's the timeline is protracted it's longer than the state timeline the second part is there has to be a comprehensive study that's not listed in the state law and then there has to be the period of review and comment from the other parties in in the Cooperative so as we saw the what District 34 was going through we saw that that is a lengthy process an extremely timeconsuming process and
036one with with maybe not a clear outcome and so going back through the different Pathways that are available to us we went back to the statute that this statute by the way is is very confusing and has two separate Pathways within the statute for withdrawal we pick the one that is the best fit for us and after discussions that's where we we landed with the section g statute which means we still have to put forward our resolution for the other districts to vote on it they can reject it and we'll turn this around right away uh after the 14th if they reject it then we can appeal and we would appeal to the um intermediate service center of the what was formerly the Roe okay that's helpful um and I guess we'll um Justin Be
037walking through like some of the details about this and how what we should expect as a board and as a district well Justin's going to walk us through with us with us through the whole process okay um some of the things that we could anticipate um we can't anticipate because there's not a great deal of other examples of this happening um so in in our particular case um the other R sorry the other cooperatives where people have tried to withdraw had their own set of Articles of agreement that may or may not have coincided with the state law in the ways that ours doesn't so there's not a lot of examples out there for us to get a sense of what's Happening we can certainly if if we see litigation on the horizon this is
038something we'd have further conversation about in close session okay thank you Dr St yeah two comments and a question or request and this doesn't seem seem to be consensual this is like unanimous right if everybody has to agree so that that's not what at least me is consensus and and and just a comment and I'm sorry I let you answer but I don't know when we started that clearly was before your time and I don't know if it was even Dr before Dr gel's time but maybe that makes us rethink Every Time We join any Consortium or something because the exit doesn't yeah doesn't seem to be a traditional consortion where either you bring specific reasons that enable you to live like seems to be part number two or there's some meaningful discussion here and
039a large body to find unanimity on is kind of a zero some game if somebody leaves there's some repercussion on the members that stay so I'm sorry if we have to go that way but it seems like the rotes are pushing us to go that way and my question close to what m SE was saying it's I believe in the long term we're going to benefit from going forward with the administration recommendation I think for clarity if this is going to involve legal fees which we may end up going there you we will have to be transparent about it and and also we have to make an effort to explain and I'm getting ahead of the game that even though these fees may look large in the large picture may not be as large as
040they look because this is you just mentioned $625,000 per year so two more years three more years four more years these things keep accumulating and it seems like we are I shouldn't say it seems we are doing a good job of replacing the services within the district and we are paying for these services within the district so you have my full support thank you Dr seinberg um one thing I do want to mention because I don't want it to be forgotten in our conversations um there are aside from legal fees that we may incur uh we still will likely be responsible for outstanding debts that were incurred by True North while we were members so there there's some dollars substantial dollars behind this but I do believe that if you take the the membership fees
041and the um the the growth fees the $120,000 for Capital outlay we're talking three4 of a million dollars and it adds up first of all in one year that's lot of money but he put that across five years 10 years we're talking a really considerable sum that we could direct back to our students where I think our tax I know our taxpayers want that money to be directed to our students where right now we're essentially putting it to into a fund being used elsewhere so thank you for your support I me say one more thing I just remember I was going to say earlier if I'm not wrong when we this is a different thing but goes to a specific point when we did the Broadband initiative that save us a lot of money and
042we were the first district going alone after it worked we offer that benefit to other districts so not to we say that our district wants to play alone we just find the better solution and maybe down the road our better solution could help other people as well I just if this thing goes into are we just leaving because we want to play on our own rules so we we are going to be because we want to be fiscally responsible because we think we are doing something good and maybe we create a more that people could follow down the road not uh fortunately we have really close relationships with our feeder districts and and local high school districts in our area and um there are opportunities where we can share services that would be mutually beneficial
043without the additional cost so I do think there's an opportunity for us to find other Pathways this isn't just about us wanting like you mentioned not about us playing our own rules it it's finding the most costeffective strategy to provide excellent services for our kids thank you Dr Steinberg and and I do think that one point we as we go through the laying out the cost which you've laid out some already but we'll keep track of all the costs and we we believe there will be some savings uh but as always we're keeping the center of this having our students in our schools getting the services in our own schools uh and that would keep that in favor Mr shine yes um in the interim between now and the next um board meeting could you
044resend and I think we we've had the memo that explains the number of students involved uh costs when it was true north and then costs uh as we've brought it in house and the number of personnel that matches that so because we're we're we right now we and our discussion for today we're looking at the 725,000 which is completely a sunk cost there's no service provided for that amount um but of course we're spending quite a bit of money uh to service the students and so if we could just kind of get an accounting so we and and I know we've done this so forgive me I should have gone through the effort to try and dig it up but um you just sometime between now in the next meeting that would be really helpful
045um do you guys know offand how many students we we are sending to third party providers currently um I will pull up the spreadsheet um but it's approximately um 50 to um 60 really okay let me let me spin that then were we must I would have to assume maybe that's an error that we were sending students to third-party providers prior even when we were full True North correct so it's really I'm kind of so I'd like to to know that but like kind of what's the Delta how much increase well yeah because you know there's been a shift and I I think we are told we are able to handle and deliver these services but I think it's reasonable to assume there's some things we can't provide as well and um some analysis has
046showed that sending to third parties is actually less costly than sending them to True North I think and the reimbursement may be better so that's a piece of this too there's there's Medicaid well there was maybe there isn't anymore reimbursement for uh some of these students so I don't it's just like a lot of moving pieces there so let me let me just answer a few things and I'm really quickly maximizing my spreadsheet you know what it's okay if if you if you send it to us I these are questions that I don't need an answer right now I don't want to put you on the spot no certainly so just from a and forgive me it's good that I'm doing this real quick um the number so for every student who is placed outside
047of the school district there's a there's a contract that needs to be signed and so my roster shows 31 students that we have active not 50 or 6 not 50 31 um in terms of the number of students to Delta we have students in a true north program right now in particular our TLS transition program that will be concluding their educational experiences they will we refer to as age out near the age of 22 um we have between five and eight students that will be in that category next year and in will they all age out next year they are all scheduled to age out anyone who won't be aging out will be just coming to our new program that we're building at 1200 shurmer uh at the new facility um we then also have
048approximately um I'll use number three students that attend Northshore Academy right now um as part of their IEP um so these are students who have been placed due to other reasons that we can't serve them at glamber off campus uh and that therapeutic Day School was uh the ideal setting based on their IEP team's decision um so Allin we'll say 10 to 11 students is what we anticipate next year um I think an important element to remember and we don't talk about this often um True North welcomes in um non-member districts to utilize services that if they have available capacity available seats um you can still send your children there you just pay a sear charge for a non-member because you're not paying the membership fee so it's not to say that we wouldn't if
049if uh for example Northshore Academy is an appropriate setting doesn't mean that we wouldn't utilize them but there are many other uh options that we would also Avail ourselves to okay that actually answered one of my questions and then um in a in a in the arena of self-reflection are there after having brought all of these Services inhouse now do we look at some of those or any of those and say well maybe that was a you know maybe a little too much these you know we're serving these 300 really well and here are 20 students that we need to maybe rethink it um I me because you are looking at a Specialists and maybe they're available maybe they're not um I mean will it would it look the same that's that's a great question
050um just offer some very highlevel uh perspective um if you look at the staff that we have hired as we've brought in the TLs program whether it be transition or whether it be um our uh Program House currently at glamber North and glamber South the Personnel required are special education teachers social workers psychologists nurses occupational therapists physical therapist Vision um all of these individuals with the exception of otpt and vision we already have experience recruiting training and acclimating to our environment um so I'm not worried from a Personnel standpoint that we would have the Personnel we need in particular uh Dr John's mentioned sharing services between High School Districts or Elementary districts the otpt the the real specialist where you may not need a 1.0 FTE but you need a0 five or a point8 that's
051the ideal world where we might look at shared services and we've already started some of those conversations um still every program that we have we are continually reviewing and making sure that we are hearing from our teachers we're hearing from our parents and we're we're monitoring student growth to see if there achieving their their goals and I know um I may may I'll transition over to Dr John's um our special education audit uh that's that's scheduled I thank you Dr graell is a is a good example of our commitment to continual Improvement earlier this spring the board approved bringing in the district Management Group to conduct an audit of our special education programs that's an organization out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education the Harvard Business School who um actually did the the same
052study for district 28 and they found that very beneficial so that's a way of of taking another look as as you know going back to they think the teacher contract from 2018 the board has put considerable resources into strengthening our special education program and this is a way for us to to step back and study to see is the outcome of all those additional resources did they land the way to give us the be best impact that we can get and so we'll have that study we start uh late spring and we'll go on through much of next fall it's it's a very intricate study a time element to it um lots of interviews of staff that sort of thing that's on the horizon the the down and dirty part will be in the early
053fall thank you thank you and and what's all keep in mind these all great points not just the financial transparency but also we we never get complacent we we'll be evolving we'll be dynamic we're going to try best to serve our students in all these Arenas so it's important for us we're not going to have a perfect formula and we're going keep getting better all the time Mr O'Hara uh yeah thank you um I guess personally I like it it feels like or at least how I looked at it you know nor the the whole True North thing felt like something where we put these children away from us in a way I mean they weren't here um and it's almost like we're not responsible then and and I feel like we are responsible I
054mean that that's our job so pulling them back in since we're big enough and can do it I think that's the right way to go um I guess my question more for for Justin um the agreement that true north had was kind of a poison pill you know because one one single District could could kabash the whole thing so the the statute does supersede the agreement is that your understanding um I I would really like to discuss litigation strategy in close session okay we we can do that I wasn't sure if that'd be here or okay so I'll ask you that later yes um and so we're going to do audits regularly on a going forward basis I think Skip has some really good points you know we're doing the audit now for them um
055because it's required is this something we're going to do on a I don't know annual semiannual biannual whatever it is however so the decision to use the DM group actually precedes our decision to come forward tonight to to offer the withdrawal from True North it it really is U as as Mr dowy said commitment to continual Improvement and and as I said we've we've put so many resources in the special ed over the years we want to make sure that we have it all where we want it to be and then get a vision for continual growth down the road at the same time it coincides with Mr Kum Dr Kum coming on board we wanted equip him with uh here's the situation analysis of the the organization for you right so he can get
056a as strong a start as possible um so beyond that um what is required for this statute is different from this is one of the differences between the Articles of agreement withdrawal process and the school code the school code requires us to produce a comprehensive plan well we already put the plan in place it's operating every day so we just have to document that and and there's some particulars that we have to address for the comprehensive plan the study though that is is something we'll have to do every so many years down the road to make sure that our particular needs that our students are exhibiting match up with our resources and the program that we have in in place and some of that is Administrative work done on a regular basis some of it
057is periodic reviews okay so so you're saying this is something we'll we'll have a plan to keep going yeah one time this is this first one is is a massive study and and I'm not sure that you're going to want to do one that big as frequently but maybe break it down into smaller pieces and say let's take a look at this program let's take a look at this program and we also have that on an ongoing basis every year when we talk about our sectioning and Staffing you know how are our programs going that sort of thing and the usual accountability that's part of both this the school sorry the state accountability measures but also our own analysis when we do our data reviews every fall okay thank you no it's very thank you
058for raising these points this it's very important that we keep our eyes on this and as we know this is not only among our most vulnerable populations if not our most vulnerable populations uh but it's incredibly important uh there growing population we have more and more needs if you look at the trajectory I believe over the last several years that continues to grow so it's that much more important to keep our eyes on it and as we grow and and be honest with ourselves transparent and keep getting better so thanks for the points Mr Kaki some of these may be for tied to litigation strategies so I try to be mindful of that you can correct me if that ties into that we'll take that enclosed uh but I guess in terms of one thing
059if you could clarify though as part of the 50 or 60 contractual Arrangements we have outside the district currently with students True North would continue to be an option regardless of which strategy we take if well it's not a guaranteed option so one of the advantages of membership is you have a guaranteed placement and and so we'd lose that guarantee as we gain $750,000 a year the reality though is that there's other partners in the area that we can turn to I talked to a superintendent today who said I'll take everybody you got at a feet and so and that and that is the normal you know they would take their base price just as a a point of of example True North charges a a premium of 25% over what we would currently pay
060so if a district who's not a member um pay would pay the let's just spitball 55 55,000 for tuition and then attack on the 25% SE charges for being a non-member in our case there's a lot of sear charge fees before we'd reach what our what our membership costs and like I said there there's other providers that are very close to us in some cases quite close to us that we could meet those same needs with um and and potentially at a cost Advantage particularly if we start to partner and say we have a pattern of services that we need support with work with other districts RJ talk Dr gel talked about OTS and PTs that's a way where you're really talking about minutes of need not full FTE of need so again it's we're
061looking for the best Services based on a case-by Case basis we have a number of options and True North would still be one of those options again depending on the circumstances and everything and working with the families we would certainly not look away from working with them certainly now we're trying to provide uh True North with a long Runway to address this change uh summer of 2027 is a long ways away uh and and a lot of action can take place during that time we want to continue providing excellent special ed services for students who have those needs as we always have uh at the same time we have to be fiscally responsible to our taxpayers and and to pay $750,000 a year I I needed the term thank you Mr shine it's a sunk
062cost it's just gone uh we can provide great services with those resources we can add to our great resources our great services with those resources so that's what we're looking toward uh in at no way do we see this as a diminishment or we're not doing this just to to try to take something away from students who are receiving special ed services we see this as a way to augment what we're currently doing okay um the other question I had I guess was in relation to bringing the St there's so many benefits at least what from having students in our environment and we actually recently heard at a true north discussion a keynote that they had about keeping people in the community and how it helps on both sides you know the students as well
063as the students are benefiting from the services and the students that are in the classrooms that are working so you know that it's I'm glad we're evaluating this and looking at our options and seeing what's best for the children thank you that's one of the things that makes me so proud of our of our development that we made at 1200 shmer to add in an 8,000 squ foot facility for our transition program because instead of having to go up to Highland Park to get their education or transition students can stay in their own town and if they live in Glen viw there's easy easy easy transportation to get to that facility uh they can get jobs in their own Community they can be seen and interact in their own Community I think it is a
064benefit to the community as well and so thanks for pointing that out that's something I'm very proud of that we've been able to do I think it is is a holistic good for this community thank you so thank you all uh for the comments and all these are extremely important points uh doing everything for these our students and their families uh and really for our whole Community to bring people home and be part of our district uh with their own facilities is that much more special Mr Kaki point out we had a speaker the other night at the true north board meeting he was speaking to that very Point uh so we are to remind people going to come back on the 14th I I know we've asked some additional information to be gathered to
065be shared with the board as well as information as we go forward uh this is a big transition uh and it's an important transition uh for our district so uh we'll look forward to working together with the administration as as we go forward with this uh come back on the 14th any questions beyond that uh please do uh raise on Administration with me and I'll pass them along that is our discussion and action agenda for the evening uh item seven on our agenda is a summary of the meeting uh we began by honoring our individual uh Speech events uh uh students uh who came uh but after many different victories at the I think the sectional and state levels over the years uh our GL North debate team uh two Juniors for the first time
066in many many years our Varsity state champions We also heard about our new is for mathematics uh I think it's Kim Johnson Miss Johnson uh we had our uh also our reports about the Musical Chicago which is coming and the students are working and the staff with them so hard on uh accomplishments with the Science Olympiad independent research uh display of our art uh business Professionals of America success our coming up gso concert uh just an incredible array of opportunity and students taking advantage those opportunities to expand their Horizons well beyond the classroom which is very exciting to us always we also had uh Pi Day come up and I think it was uh um was it Pou day I think which very clar I got that right um and the C Ball contest maybe
067next next year Mr he you will join the festivities and do a special backflip um but just an encouragement and finally of course we did have the plea for participating in the five cenal Mr shine okay right fair enough um we uh also approved our consent agenda without change before that we had one Community visitor Mr Chang who joined us and spoke about various items including Communications um and uh some of our enforcement of policies uh with respect to our regular agenda we had one item which is the uh first discussion of the withdrawal of true north from True North educational Cooperative 804 uh that will we come back on the 14th for further discussion public hearing and uh potentially a vote item eight on our agenda possible topics for future meetings if you have
068any please do raise them with me or Dr John's item nine is closed session we do have closed session this evening I will entertain a motion to consider litigation when an action against affecting or on behalf of the public particular public body has been filed and is pending before a court or administrative trial or when the public body finds that an action is probable imminent in which case the basis for the finy shall be recorded and entered into the meetings minutes of the closed meeting pursuant to sections 2c2 and 11 of the open meetings act so moved second all in favor any opposed motion carries we'll go to recess for 5 minutes and recommence at 8:00 e e e and Mr dowy we are back at 9:03 p.m. go back in Open Session item 10
069possible action regarding topics discussed and close session item 10.1 is dismissal of a probationary non-licensed employee I'll entertain a motion Mr kwaki I moveed that the board approve the dismissal of Mr Morris for the reasons discussed and closed effective March 17 2025 second any discussion on the motion hearing none Mr O'Hara yes Miss sein yes Mr shine yes Dr Steinberg Mr glowaki yes Mr dowy yes five members voting yes item 11 and uh move take a motion for adjournment so moved second all in favor I I any opposed motion carries thank you we're adjourned adjourned at 9:04 p.m.