Board of Education Meeting | April 20, 2026

001Good evening, everyone. We're going to try and start our meeting at 7:30. So, we already called our meeting to order. Thank you. Uh but for right now, for verbal attendance to board members starting furthest to my left, please state your name for the record. Vassilios Soupos. Eva Giulio. Scott Nelson. Alex Kamelovich. Julie Moon. James Dolan. Jessica Pritzker. All right. Welcome. So, we already started and went into executive session, and come out of executive session. We're going to move to our approval section. I'd like to ask for a motion and a second to approve the agenda. So moved, Giulio. Second, Moon. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Now, we ask for a motion and a second to approve the March 16th regular and executive session minutes. So moved. Seconded, Pritzker. Gabby, may I

002have a roll call? Soupos? >> Aye. Pritzker? Aye. Kamelovich? >> Aye. Giulio? Aye. Dolan? Aye. Nelson? Aye. Moon? Aye. Motion carries. Now, we'll move on to our communication section, Dr. Deli. Thank you very much. Good evening to everyone in attendance tonight. I do have a few uh items I'd like to cover in my section of the report. First is that just a reminder that registration for the 2026-27 school year opened on uh April Fools' Day. Uh families can take advantage of the early bird discount through June 3rd, um or the last day. So, registering or re-registering your child, uh please know, helps us in our plans for creating the necessary staffing that we need for the fall. So, please do take the time to do that. If you've already done it, we very much appreciate

003it. It helps us in our planning uh for the next school year. Also, this is uh volunteer appreciation week. This may actually be volunteer appreciation day, uh but in recognition of this day, uh I'd like to to share a profound thank you to the many individuals who generously give of their time, their talents, their emotional energy, and care and support to students and staff across this district. Whether you help in classrooms, support events, partner with local agencies in our community, assist staff, uh or otherwise uplift in the community, we appreciate the time and the energy that you spend doing that. So, thank you. And uh finally, we do have an IASB leader recognition. The Illinois Association of School Boards has recognized our school board president, Mr. Scott Nelson, uh for the time and dedication he

004has devoted to learning and leadership, as well for service to the public education in the community and related services that are here in Glenview. Uh as an established board leader, Mr. Nelson has earned over 200 points through service hours across line uh nine learning domains that ISB uh tracks. And so, we congratulate Scott on your well-deserved recognition. And if you don't need to prove it, but if you need to, there's a pin that comes along with it. THANKS. >> [applause] >> THAT'S ALL I HAVE. THANK YOU. THANK YOU, DR. DELI. NOW, we've come to our audience comment section. This is the first opportunity for audience comments. Anyone wishing to address the board can submit a comment card available at the check-in table and give it to the executive director of communications and strategic planning. Right

005over here, Rebecca. The executive director will call community members who submit cards forward. They will be asked to introduce themselves and describe their relationship to the district. Please keep your comments to 3 minutes or less. And as a reminder, each participation period, which we have two, will be limited to 45 minutes. Please note that the board will be taking notes, but we will be in a listening mode only, and an appropriate response will be given in a timely manner. We ask that you submit one comment per opportunity. Thank you. Rebecca, do we have any comments? We do. The first one is Elena Zygmont. Thank you. Hello, my name is Elena Zygmont, and I am the mother of three students at District 34. I want to express my deepest gratitude to Dr. Deli, uh the school

006board, and its administrators. I also want to extend my heartfelt thanks to the collaborative spirit of our teachers, associates, and families of Glenview. The very spirit was the driving force behind our decision to move here in 2022. Our three children have been attending Glenview schools since elementary. This fall, our oldest will be entering high school. Throughout their educational journey, we have encountered both challenges and successes. Our successes have been evident in the remarkable growth and progress of our our children have made in an inclusive setting. This growth has been observed in various parts of their schools, including general education, the arts, and the after-school programming. Glenview's inclusive spirit and community approach have provided a multifaceted and enriching learning experience for our children. When faced with challenges, collaboration has been shared the shared guiding principle. For

007instance, in elementary school, my youngest child's team all made sure to certify themselves in a specific medical preparedness, guaranteeing my child's participation in field trips and extracurriculars. Additionally, multiple general educational teachers worked together to create an inclusive environment that fosters my children's growth and development. My children have formed a diversive group of friendships that astound me. Witnessing our children and their peers fostering a spirit of strength and support for one another is the reason why my family has and will remain firmly rooted here. I urge the board to continue to prioritize policies and fund what strengthens this community. Inclusion practices, co-teaching models, access to specialist with training provided to all D34 staff and families that will equip them for effective strategies and support. Continuing to work together will strengthen our community. Thank you for your

008time and your commitment to all our learners. Thank you FOR YOUR COMMENTS. >> [applause] >> THE NEXT IS AARON >> RE- REBECCA, can I uh I just asked everybody perhaps not to clap or anything since we're trying to get through all the speakers, and we don't want to uh allow that too much time to be just clapping and cheering and stuff. Thank you. The next is Aaron Friedman. Okay. Good evening. I'm Aaron Friedman. My daughter's a third grader at Hoffman Elementary School. My wife and I chose Glenview because of District 34. We believe in the district. We know everyone in this room shares one goal, to empower students to reach their full potential. Tonight, I also want to represent over 600 other District 34 parents. We want change. We want to make sure technology is

009working for our kids, not against them. Our kids are spending more and more time learning on screens. We know how we got here, COVID. But we are closer to 2030 than we are 2020, and the research has arrived. Dr. Jared Cooney Horvath testified before the United States Senate 3 months ago. He said this is the first generation in modern history to show a decline in cognitive performance, a decline. He testified, quote, frequent in-class computer use correlates with significantly lower math and science performance. He also goes on to say, "Most recent US data confirm that even modest daily digital exposure is associated with lower reading comprehension." Students are distracted and disregulated the more time they spend on screens. In fact, students are off-task for up to 38 minutes of every hour on classroom devices. Digital platforms

010are gamifying education. Kids remember their score, not the content. And yet, District 34's iPad Handbook says that iPads should be, quote, seamlessly integrated, quote, into the curriculum, quote, anytime, any place, end quote. That philosophy made sense in 2011. It doesn't anymore. This concern, and Wilmette, is global, national, and local. Globally, 79 countries now restrict devices in schools. In Illinois, the Senate just passed a bell-to-bell phone ban. Locally, parents in Wilmette, Evanston, and Oak Park have developed similar petitions with thousands of signatures. And now that same concern, and Wilmette, is here in District 34. In just 11 days, I started a petition. More than 600 District 34 parents signed it. We are not against technology. We want to eliminate unnecessary screen time. And we want to make sure that every device-based activity is clearly better than

011the alternative. Let me give you four examples from the petition. One, kindergarten through second graders don't need an iPad. The research is unambiguous. Young children learn through hands-on, human-led instruction. Two, for grades 3 through 8, a 30-minute daily screen time limit because increased classroom exposure is generally associated with weaker outcomes. In fact, when a district in North Carolina reduced screen time, they had a 26% drop in behavioral incidents. Three, bell-to-bell ban on phones, including during lunch. Let's lead. Let's not wait for the state to force us. Four, pen and paper for writing math and reading. Kids remember more when they write by hand and retain more when they read on paper. Tonight, over 600 District 34 parents are asking for one thing, change. Don't let another school year go by without a new policy. Our

0124,000 students don't have time, and neither does my third-grade daughter. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments. Thank you for your comments. The next is Kathleen Bakhtiari. Yeah. Good evening. I'm Kathleen Bakhtiari and a parent of a third and fourth grade student in Hoffman Elementary. I'm representing a broader group of families concerned about increasing behavioral disruptions in our elementary classrooms. This evening, you'll hear from other parents speaking about related concerns, including safety, accountability, loss of learning, and leadership. My focus tonight is on two areas, communication and the strength of our support systems. We are not here to blame individuals or demonize groups of children. We are here to collaborate because we are concerned the system is not consistently working for students, educators, or families. This year, including in my daughter's third-grade classroom, children experienced

013repeated, significant disruptions to the learning environment, including evacuations and relocations. These situations arise from a variety of factors, and regardless of cause, the impact on the classroom is significant. In many cases, parents are not proactively informed when these disruptions occur. We often learn about them from our children and follow up for confirmation. Right now, communication is inconsistent. Parents may receive prompt notification for minor individual incidents, but not when an entire classroom is impacted for an extended period. That gap matters. We know that there are communications about class evacuations at Springman, and we believe it can serve as a model across our elementary schools. This is not about sharing confidential details. It is about acknowledging when the learning environment has been meaningfully disrupted and ensuring parents are informed partners with the school. Separately, this connects to

014a broader question about how we ensure all students and educators are appropriately supported. My own child receives special education services here. We are a neurodivergent family, and we strongly believe in inclusion. But inclusion models in schools work best when it is properly resourced with sufficient staffing, specialized support, and clear systems. As the district transitions away from the True North Cooperative, we're asking for transparency about how that capacity in our walls will be built. What we're hearing from educators and families is that current supports are already stretched. When systems are under-resourced, the strain does not disappear. It shows up in classrooms and affects everyone. So tonight, I'm asking the board to take two actions. First, establish a stakeholder task force to review communication best practices across our schools and develop a consistent district-wide communication framework. Second,

015present a clear staffing plan to support all students during the transition away from True North Co-op. We believe in this district. Our shared goal is simple, supported classrooms, proactive communication, and systems that work for all students and staff. That's your time. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Thank you. The next is Rick Matthews. Good. Okay. Then the next is Nicole Straight. Good evening. My name is Nicole Straight, and I'm a Henking Hoffman parent. I'm here tonight to represent our schools' community of parents in their concern over safety issues impacting the staff and students. We want you to be aware that families have reported children coming home with physical injuries sustained at school. There are also reports of teachers being injured during classroom disruptions, and at least one incident report involving an injury to a

016teacher that may have been inaccurately classified, or characterized, rather. As a result of violence in the classroom and disruptions caused by extended classroom evacuations and lockdowns, problems that are spanning both schools and impacting multiple grades, we are observing what may be signs of hypervigilance, anxiety, and school aversion in children across our community. We believe these warrant investigation and are concerned that safety may be too narrowly defined at an administrative level. Children cannot learn when they don't feel safe anymore than our amazing staff can teach when they do not. We hold test scores and academic benchmarks over them without acknowledging that their primary need for safety is not first being met. We recognize what you are hearing from us tonight is a lot. So much so that it almost feels improbable. The path of least resistance

017would be to ignore this since you weren't personally affected. I know. I stood at this same crossroads this week and faced that very temptation. It would be easy to write these off as anomalies strung together by hyperbolic parents. Unfortunately, the difficult truth before us is that we are facing a pattern that isn't brought on by just one student, not impacting one class, one grade, or even one school. This is a systemic problem that requires quick action, deep investigation, process change, and resource allocation or even addition. The load in front of you is heavy. But we plead for your action, and we promise our support. I stand before you not as a parent relaying one incident, but rather as a representative of a group of your most involved parents. We are the ones who volunteer in

018the schools on a daily basis. We chaperone the field trips. We sit on the PTA boards, and we support our school staff and teachers throughout the year. I also stand before you representing the parents and teachers who will not share their personal experiences or even to even attend tonight's meeting due to fear of retaliation. These aren't rumors we've heard through our children. These are situations this group has first-hand knowledge of. Please, don't accept pacifying answers as a solution to this matter. Our children's safety is depending upon you. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you for your comments. >> [applause] >> The next is Pat Milzer. Good evening. I am a father of students at Henking and Hoffman, and I'm here to talk about how families can feel that there is no accountability or

019consequences when your child is in a classroom in which a student is regularly causing learning disruptions, evacuations, and physical and emotional harm to other students. My children are not currently experiencing this in their current classrooms today, but I have experienced this at both schools. And what's clear is that we need supportive solutions that promote accountability. I like so much of what I see in the schools. All of my kids' teachers have been excellent. I see the passion and I see the success. And I see how children can be subjected to harm, fear, anxiety, and regular disruptions to the school day. When this happens, kids are in crisis and they are not learning. Then their internal fear clocks reset as they anxiously await the next incident. Fortunately, parents are talking more and more about their experiences.

020Common themes emerge that you hear from speakers tonight. One theme is this: Harmful actions and learning disruptions are allowed to not only exist, but thrive. In instances I have experienced, the harm only stopped because the school year ended or a child was moved to another classroom. This structure does not solve the issue as children continue to be subjected to the trauma of evacuations, lockdowns, harmful objects being thrown at kids, and students being hit, kicked, forcefully grabbed, cornered against walls, and pulled out of their chairs. These are the stories parents hear from their children. It's quite something for a kindergartner to come home and explain the difference between the two emergency buttons in the classroom. And they know one button means one administrator will come to the classroom, and the other button means four staff members

021are coming to remove a child. This is kindergarten. The youngest children in this district can be scared to come to school, and we know it because that's what they tell us. It's also quite something for a third-grade girl to come home and tell her parents the details of being physically and emotionally harassed by a boy. We reported these incidents so many times I ran out of parental guidance to give her. Because usually if a girl faces unwanted touching and fear, you would just remove her from the environment. But this is her school. I ask this board to establish protocols that bring accountability to these moments and enforce existing policies to allow educational time to happen as planned and keep students safe. I imagine the solution is a mix of holistic restorative solutions that support individuals

022and groups and consequences to demonstrate that there are unacceptable behaviors. I'll conclude by saying I note that there's a policy 660 curriculum content, and I believe it's being proposed to change in a way that deletes language stating character education must be taught including respect, responsibility, fairness, caring, trustworthiness. >> that's your time. I'll I'll conclude with this. Let's ensure that every child has the support, safety, rules, and consequences that they need to create the thoughts, words, actions, and habits that will build the foundation for their future. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. >> [applause] >> The next is John C. Cholousky. I apologize if I was >> Cholousky's good. Thank you. Hi board. Hi board. Am I good? Good evening. I'm a parent of a student in the district and a concerned Glenview citizen. Pat

023mentioned the buttons in the classroom that get pressed when a teacher needs help. These buttons get used on a regular basis, sometimes multiple times per day for safety and behavior reasons. This happens at Lyon, at Henking, at Westbrook. All eight buildings, all grade levels, classrooms get regularly disrupted for 45 minutes to an hour-long stretches. Here's some of what we're hearing. A child described evacuation procedures as lockdown drills requiring the entire class to evacuate to the library or other rooms. These aren't drills, and as a parent, I'm not getting notified. This doesn't feel right. Another incident. An adult was kicked by a student, fell, injured other students. This was reported as an assault, allegedly later revised by leadership as an accident. This is not an accident, this is battery. The events aren't only safety-related, there are

024frequent disturbances to the learning environment that are being normalized and minimized. I feel like parents are being gaslit. Here's a few examples. A misbehaving or bullying kid might be removed from the class for 15 minutes, taken outside, given a snack, sent right back into the room on the verge of dysregulation. Kids running away, kids bullying other kids, a kid inside a tent in the back of the room. A teacher was called the N-word by a student with little to no consequences. I'm not looking to demonize any students or educators. This isn't about the kids with IEPs. This is the environment that leadership is tolerating until those IEPs are created or aid is provided. This is about the staff and supporting them. We have heard from teachers and staff newer teachers are crying on school buses

025considering resignation. Older teachers apathetic that nothing will change, fearing retaliation, taking early retirement to avoid PTSD trauma. At least two staff took FMLA for mental health issues this year. Teacher absenteeism is high. We saw that in the report card. Most concerning, they're being asked by leadership to not fill out incident reports and not notify parents. So, what can you do? Good news is you have all the resources at your disposal to address safety and behavior issues without spending a single dollar. You just need the will and the leadership to enforce the policies that this board has already consented to. I would collect better behavior data and use that in the strategic plan. The District 34 report card has zero data on the discipline metric. Review class sizes, staffing levels and ratios, add support staff to

026every room or lower the class size. District 34 has notably higher class sizes than all the feeder schools. Review instructional time. Certified teachers should be teaching, not playing the role of an aid dealing with repeat behavior issues because a kid didn't qualify for IEP and leadership action and leadership wouldn't act on the consequences. I would also implore the board to get out of the building, hold open listening sessions with teachers and parents across the district. I did, I felt like a Me Too movement. It wasn't good. Lastly, today's the 20th anniversary of Columbine. Most shooters are the kids who were bullied, not those who bully. We can't wait until fall to take action. We need to address safety and behavior now. We owe it to our kids and our community to act. And that's your

027time. >> [applause] >> Thank you for your comments. The next is M.J. Colson. Uh thank you for the opportunity to speak to you. I um I sat where you are sitting uh back in '98 and '99. I was a school board member in District 34. I greatly appreciate the time and the effort that you put into the role that you play on top of the professional jobs that each one of you have. I was also a park commissioner for 12 years in Glenview. I was on the Farm and Sports Field Steering Committee. I'm involved with OLPH in the Women's Guild. And I I love Glenview. And it breaks my heart to hear the stories I just heard. So, what I I would like to speak to you about is from a board member to a

028board member. Get out there and get your own data points. I did it with uh when I was on the school board, I did it when I was on the park board. I find that when individuals move to higher levels in organizations, they get less of the information they really need to have. And you need to have first-hand information, your own. See it and hear it. Look at the people who are here tonight. Is this how all of your board members are at your board meetings are attended? I understand that's not the case. This is an urgent situation, and it requires action. One of the things that was just mentioned was a listening um session. We've done that in the park district, and we did it before with uh District 34. Get in front of

029the parents for more than 3 minutes speaking time. Hear more voices, hear more stories so you can make good decisions about what needs to be done in this incredible district to keep the students, the teachers safe. So, that they can learn. So, that they can flourish. This is an incredible community, and as you can see, the teachers and the parents are committed to it. We need you to reach out to the community and give them a vehicle to talk to you one-to-one. Not just through an email, not just through, you know, some sort of a 3-minute session or something. Please make available listening sessions between you and the community, as well as getting into the schools during the day when the students are there, talk with the teachers, talk with the parents outside the school.

030You will be amazed what you learn, and they'll be your data points to make good decisions so that this community can continue to be a safe and uh outstanding pillar on the North Shore for education and safety for the children. Thank you for your time and for your volunteerism. >> [applause] >> The next is Lorena Isaza. I'm Floria Villareal Chapa. I'm the Hispanic Community Coordinator for the district, and I'll be interpreting for Lorena. Good evening. My name is Lorena Isaza, and I'm mother of two sons, one 12 years old and the other nine. I've taught Juan and Joel that children with special needs are children with different abilities, but they are still children. At home, I talk to them about empathy, respect, and serving others. For my children, children with special needs are not a

031risk to be around. On the contrary, through their innocence, my children have seen them as fun, sensitive, and happy superheroes who, with love, tenderness, and kindness, can be together with everyone in their own time. My children understand that there are children who are different, not just those with disabilities, but this teaches them to share, help, care for, value, and be grateful, and that everyone can be together. Teaching values is essential, but they need to learn about that starting at the home. Thank you for your comments. >> [applause] >> And the last that I have currently for first opportunity for public comment is Greg Friend. Good evening. >> [clears throat] >> My name is Greg Friend. I'm a Henking parent and D34 alum. Uh my comment feels admittedly a bit out of place given the intensity

032of the comments before me, all of which I largely agree with. I think we need to do a better job with bussing. Uh this is something that has not happened once or twice, but has become a repeated pattern in our neighborhood. Our bus is anywhere from 12 minutes early to 15 minutes late. Uh we have missed the bus more than a handful of times as we are walking up to it because it is so early. That is both unacceptable given that we have multiple people at our stop and that we have practices like canceling school for snow days because it is too cold for our kids to wait outside, but the remaining days of the year, we don't seem to care. My push to y'all is simple, which is as we have concerns about where

033technology budgets are being allocated, I would urge you to consider allocating some of those funds to something like a bus tracker with a parent-facing app that would alert us and make it far more easy for us to understand when things are late instead of getting a text 20 minutes after we've already been at the drop-off point. That's it. Thank you. Thanks for your comments. Is that all the comments at this point? >> That's all I have. All right. Now we'll move on to our consent agenda, consideration of resolutions. I have the 26019 personnel report, the 26020 payroll warrants, and the 26021 vendor warrants. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented? So moved. Suposs. Moon, second. Gabby, may I have a roll call vote? Pritzker? Aye. Kamelavich? >>

034Aye. Giulio? Aye. Dolan? Aye. Nelson? Aye. Moon? Aye. Suposs? Aye. Motion carries. Now we'll go to our consideration of other resolutions. We have the 26022 K through 3 phonics resource adoption presentation. Dr. Silverman? Thank you so much. I am super excited to share [clears throat] with you tonight. Sorry, I'm using my outside voice, but uh we'll use my microphone voice. Okay. So, I'm going to call my colleagues. Uh they [clears throat] have some sharing to do with us and fire up the presentation. So, if you just give me a quick minute here, I appreciate it. So, as they uh speak for their slides, I'll have my colleagues introduce themselves. So, to begin with, we're talking about kindergarten through third grade and our phonics resource adoption experience. >> [clears throat] >> And to jump right in,

035we cannot have this experience without our incredible pilot tiers. Piloting is a tremendous amount of work, >> [clears throat] >> time, energy. I have immense gratitude to our pilot teachers, all listed on the screen here. I'm eternally grateful. They've changed their lessons, their flows of the day and the week. So, thank you so much to them. And then tonight, some of our instructional coaches, uh they're an amazing team. I couldn't ask for a better group. Uh just absolutely exceptional. The love and care they provide to our teachers and our kids is second to none. And when I get to work together with them and all of our staff as an example, it's absolutely outstanding. So, [clears throat] thank you so much. I'm going to kind of keep moving on here to get [clears throat] to

036the good stuff, which is about the curriculum resource and the instructional model. We did have a goal. It's listed up on the screen, and that's to implement the resource uh for next year. And really what we're talking about here is systematic, evidence-based instruction. And that's [clears throat] what we're going to be able to demonstrate to you this evening with the use of this new resource, and we're talking about foundational reading skills. Uh Brian always likes when I talk about our littlest learners, and that's what we're honing in on tonight, our littlest learners, so when they become our biggest learners, they have all of the necessary skills and foundational opportunities to be fluent and capable readers, maximizing their potential as they move into the high school level. As we look at our strategic plan, while it

037the goal itself talks about creativity and innovation, and really we're about foundational skills here. And with the onset of things like AI, I do believe you still, no matter what, even with the best AI in the world, need your foundational skills. And that begins with what we're going to share with you tonight in terms of our resource and instructional model. As you zero in though on the objectives, we then talk about achievement and maximizing the potential of our children. And in really, again, that's the intersection between that creativity and innovation, foundational skills, and output from our children. I'm going to turn this over now to Ms. Hoffer, and she's going to share. It's fine. Um So, up here, we've brought this to you before um when we look at our literacy in District 34, we

038follow the intentional literacy framework, which is furthest to the left, and you can think of those as like the modes to teaching. If you looked at a teacher's schedule, it would say reading workshop, writing workshop, word works. Those are all the modes within that we teach within. And then over on the right-hand side, um if you're in education, you have probably heard of the simple view of reading or Scarborough's rope, and this is the active view of reading. It is updated on the sciences of reading by Nell Duke and Kelly Cartwright, and it includes other components that we look at that we need um to help students become skilled readers. And so, you may be new to the self-regulation piece, which is in the green, and then um all of the pieces in the middle

039um come together to create a skilled reader. And we really wanted to break down what we looked at when we were looking at for our phonics program. And when we talk about foundational skills, we're talking about print concepts, phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, and morphology. And those terms can be conflated, and we don't want them to be. We want teachers to know and students to know what they're learning. We want it to be explicit and systematic, and all of these pieces are what we need in those foundational skills. And you think morphology, well, that even happens in kindergarten. Once they learn that letters have sounds, and we can now decode the word cat, we add S to it. Now we've changed the meaning of the word to a plural noun. So, morphology even starts at that

040kindergarten level. And Gretchen's going to speak to how that looks when we move into the third grade level. Hi, Gretchen Schiltz, and I'm representing intermediate. I am the coach at Hoffman School. And for our third graders, our third grade teachers are very excited to be included in the littles that Dr. Silverman was referring to in that this is a K through 3 um adoption process that we were looking at. Our third grade standards include decoding multisyllabic words, and also include morphology. The This is really important for our third graders as they're transitioning from those foundational skills into more complex text. Um for two reasons. One is applying what they've learned with those foundational skills, and the other one is also those more technical terms that come with prefixes and suffixes, Greek and Latin roots. In

041those words, there's a potential in learning those and having those more explicitly taught for that to exponentially increase their vocabulary as they get all of their content text um more in science and social studies as they are growing older. On another note, too, with the second to third grade inclusion in this program, our third grade teachers are also very excited that they have an opportunity to use the same curriculum to do that application in the more complex texts as they're getting older, and to be able to continue that learning from second to third grade as kids are transitioning into a different kind of text and for different reasons, that this will give them the skills to practice what they've learned in K through 2, and then also set them up to do more complex text

042in grades 4 and 5. So, we started these conversations even before the Illinois Conference of Literacy Plan came out, but when this came out, it truly it wanted um systems to be aligned across the district, and um it provided us a lens to look at our current resources, see where we were doing really well, and see where we needed to make improvements. And the plan um gives guidance to educators and districts on evidence-based practices um in teaching literacy, assessing progress, and promoting equity and literacy access. Um it does give local autonomy to districts on what programs they choose to use. It's just more alignment of like evidence-based research on like what we're expecting to be taught in our schools. Um and it also allowed us to revisit the common core standards and look at grade

043levels of like, let's go back to what's expected at every grade level. So, when we are looking at resources, we're looking we looked for that alignment as well. Hi there. I'm the coach over at Hinkley. It's so nice to see everybody. Uh Yeah, I said Barry Shinsky. Did I not? Barry Shin- Sorry, Barry Shinsky from Hinkley as the coach. Um we just want to share with you some local research around um these are all the programs that we were looking to prior to piloting. And it was such a great process for all of us to go through, and a great learning one at that. We were able to actually go into a variety of schools around the area and see how they're implementing, see what those specific lessons look like. Um we went into a

044vocal West to check out the program that they're using, and then as a follow-up, we were able to sit down with some of those teachers and learn more and more about it. So, it was a great hands-on opportunity, learning opportunity for us. And it was also nice to kind of see the materials and see it live in action and have those conversations. Um we were also able to um head into District 30 and go into Westgate and kind of watch uh K12 lesson over there, too. So, it was a really nice opportunity for us to just go through that process while we were learning about all those programs. Hi, I'm Mandy Freer. I'm the uh literacy coach over at Westbrook. Um this is just sort of the the long timeline of how we developed the

045plan that we did. Um we presented to you guys last spring. Um what we did is we uh each of us as coaches uh together and individually um researched and collected resources that are well-known, well-established um within the literacy community, and have a lot of evidence behind them. What we did is we collected all of those programs, collected all of the items and everything that we needed to inform teachers. And together we created a rubric using the Illinois Literacy Plan so that teachers could use that knowledge to assess each program and give us their feedback. So, last spring we collected that feedback from teachers, and we selected the two programs that we moved forward with. We chose to move forward with um the Bridge to Reading by Michael Heggerty, um a newer phonics program, and

046we also uh looked at Really Great Readings uh publishing company, which has a multitude of of programs. Each grade level has its own name. So, these are all the ones that we looked at uh together, and then we were we chose uh based on teacher feedback um the two that we would pilot this year. So, I'm going to talk about the decision-making process. Uh we have hundreds and had hundreds and hundreds of data points, and it was a holistic approach. And as you can see by these four categories, so teacher and coach [clears throat] feedback, alignment, student data, and then the implementation process. Some of it was based on the pilot and direct experience that we had with our own children, our classrooms, our teachers, sort of kicking the tires and delivering the instructional model.

047Others were outside factors. There are companies or organizations that analyze curricula, will provide the research, different viewpoints, different types of uh educational settings. So, we did a lot of reading, a lot of research, uh a lot of understanding. In terms of the student data, we ran both an effect size study uh just to look at the potential effect of the pilot versus the non-pilot experience children were having. And then we also looked at just straight-up percental gro- uh percentile growth in the pilot against the pilot to just compare and contrast different lenses and different ways to see the data uh from a fall to winter growth metric uh using our um generalized outcome measures, AIMSweb and NWEA MAP. The implementation process, uh we did provide professional development at the beginning of the pilot, and I

048had the pleasure of seeing both of those being delivered. Uh tried to gain a sense of what that would look like when we bring this to the district and scale across our six schools and multiple classrooms, multiple teachers, looking for fidelity, looking for reliability, looking for consistency. The balance that we're looking for in terms of professional development between the methodology, the pedagogy, the research, and then the actual application of the program itself, the teachability of it. So, that's what was brought into that sort of lens. >> [clears throat] >> And then you can see the list of alignment factors. So, all of this amalgamated together into uh not an exact mathematical formula, but uh a decision that we feel, again, will make the greatest impact on our children, will maximize their potential, those foundational reading

049skills as prioritized as they can be within our daily and weekly instruction. And leading that up to the decision, which is Really Great Reading. Um and I'm going to have We have show and tell. This show and tell I need back, though, because uh I think our teachers are actually teaching with these stuff. >> classrooms. Um I'd love to leave things with you all, but these uh will run into trouble because the teacher will be like, "Where's my manual?" tomorrow. Well, Vasilios took them home last time. And I use them all the time now, so Yeah. So, as we pass these around, uh Mandy's going to sort of describe the different levels and the different experiences children will have with these materials. Okay, I will try to give a brief overview. Um so, those of

050you, you'll notice that there are different names on the each of the books and the um boxes. So, the boxes are the students uh uh student kits is what we call them. But, kindergarten is countdown, first grade is blast, second grade doesn't fit the space theme and is HD Word, and then third grade is orbit. Um so, this year for piloting uh for full transparency, we piloted countdown, blast, and HD Word. We did not pilot orbit. Um we knew that third grade did not have a previous phonics program, and so with consultation um with the publisher and thinking about what our third grade teachers needed, we uh made the decision to pilot HD Word in both second and third grade. Thinking that would be the most supportive for our third grade teachers and our third

051grade students. What we learned in our process um was through teacher feedback is that HD Word was still too simple. So, we opted to go with a third grade program, which is orbit, which is much more heavy in morphology, still touching on those phonics multisyllabic words, but also having hitting heavy into that vocabulary morphology. So, um countdown and blast, the kindergarten and first grade programs, um each of those students will receive one-to-one kits. So, the kits that you see in front of you, each student will use those in the phonics lessons, as well as the phonics workbooks. Phonics workbooks. Um countdown and blast also has a handwriting component that we will be adopting as well. And what this is is it's much more than just letter formation. Um it goes directly into that encoding, which

052is sort of the fancy way for writing. Um but what it does is it's it's the application of the phonics skills that they're learning when they're reading. It's their it's the um expository [clears throat] piece of of writing. So, the handwriting is is letter formation. It um is OT. It it directly works on fine motor skills, um and then builds into that encoding. It also brings in grammar and syntax. So, students are learning to encode and write complete sentences. In kindergarten, they're learning what a noun is, what a verb is, and how that complete sentence looks, while also using their phonics knowledge. Um HD Word is not We're not attaching the um handwriting component to HD Word because um it goes into cursive writing. And our district has adopted a third grade um cursive writing

053program that the teachers are very happy with. And so, we made the decision to um leave handwriting off at second grade. However, teachers will have the um availability to to see the um all of the pieces for print review if they want to review those with students in second grade. Um so, each of the stu- each of the countdown, blast, and HD Word come with student kits that students will work with, um as well as a workbook. And then orbit, that third grade program, has a workbook, as well as what are called syllaboards, which are boards that are for each syllable. So, it's really a term, I swear. Um and then all of those do have a an online component of practice that students can use up to 10 minutes a day. Um it is

054not required. It is not a requirement in any capacity, but it is a chance to practice the direct skills that they're learning during their phonics lesson with their teachers. So, every grade will have a >> have Every grade will have a consumable that the students will be using. Yes. And the price includes that for all the implementation. Yes. All right. Speaking of implementation, here's the plan. It's [clears throat] pretty straightforward. We're looking at August 18th as our institute day. Uh I appreciate that extra day. Here's an example of how we're going to be spending it with our kindergarten through third grade teachers. Um and we expect to launch the full implementation of the program on that particular institute day at the beginning of the year. We will [clears throat] then also have coaching opportunities throughout

055the year. Really, we need to try release time. I know with substitutes and that challenge, but we're always putting it out there where we can have maybe 90 minutes to 2 hours or a half a day with a group of teachers. We're strategic about it, but that time is so valuable. And we we give it a go. And and and hopefully it all works out. It's always the release time for the teachers. And then job embedded in terms of team time, our coaches will push in, they'll co-teach, they'll be team teaching, it will be walk-throughs, observations, uh just a plethora of opportunities to support starting in the '26-'27 school year and then moving on. So, the recommendation for this evening, and what we're asking of you, is the adoption and purchase of Really Great Phonics

056for kindergarten through third grade. This is [clears throat] a very rough number. Um Basically, it's going to boil down to the student counts in the classrooms and all that, but it's around $300,000 for a 3-year commitment to begin with. The expectation, certainly like with all of our resources, will be longer than 3 years, but to start in this sort of framework, and also in terms of the affordability, this is what we've planned for. And uh I'm so grateful to you all and appreciative of the increase in curriculum funds. This is an example of how we're expending them. You provided it over the last couple of years in preparation for these types of plans. It does include the consumables, the manipulatives. Uh Alex, I saw you enjoying that uh tile kit. Uh those bad boys are

057expensive. Uh they're awesome. And we need one for every child in kindergarten and first grade. Um so, we only buy those once, hopefully, unless they, you know, um explode in the air or something like that. But, um >> [clears throat] >> that first year is going to be a little bit more in terms of buying the the non-consumable manipulatives. And there is an online subscription for children as well for practice. Um so, that would be the consumable and online yearly, and then the teacher materials and online subscriptions. That's sort of the generalized purchasing uh over the next 3 years. So, with that, uh I open up to thoughts, questions, and appreciate your time. Anybody have any questions? I have a comment. Uh first, I just want to say thank you for your thoughtful process and

058engaging all the teachers. I also really appreciate that you're doing a K-3 consideration, even though our schools are kind of arbitrarily cut off K-2, but you're thinking about the full learner continuum in the early years. So, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness there. Um my my really question here is just um you mentioned the professional development. What do you foresee as um kind of the uptake of this? Uh do you foresee any like my kids are in school now, and they are learning phonics, whether it was part of that or, you know, they are doing science of reading. So, um curious if you think this will be a major overhaul, or is it really a shift? I'll start, but the coaches are uh the experts. Um we indeed have been teaching phonics uh since the onset

059of our framework that Adrienne described at the beginning of the presentation. This brings some of that science to it and some of that more explicit nature and systematic approach. We have amazing teachers. Uh our pilot teachers are just an example of the adaptability and how they I I think, I hope. I saw about 17 different classrooms uh and the delivery of this. I got to say it was like natural. Uh the um expertise right away almost instantly that they they felt. Um now, it's not going to be for every room, but I think the adjustment's going to be fairly um quick. Um Maybe not I mean, it's easy for me to say easy, but uh what do you all say? I would say one really positive piece of program is that it's embedded professional learning.

060So, although Matt spoke to um having release time, like the teachers, when they've been teaching, they say, "Oh my gosh, like I'm revisiting things that I like have been learned in college and my master's programs, but I'm now like saying it to kids, cuz kids need to know phonemes, graphemes, syllables." And so, that piece of it has been such a positive feedback from teachers that it was a change, but it was a positive change and felt doable cuz it's embedded in your teaching and you're teaching kids, and then they're using the language. So, that was one really positive change that I think we'll see across the board. I also want to add that the language is very explicit in this program, which is awesome. And across K123, the and we're seeing it throughout the pilot

061process, but the way that the lesson is organized, right? And day one, day two, day three, all of those things, it'll be so great next year to see like the kids are going to be like, "Oh my gosh, I know what's on day two." cuz they know what to expect. So, that structure is so organized in a very systematic way, and that's like a huge bonus of the program also, cuz you can see their excitement now when they're learning it, and then they'll be able to apply that much more so next year, which is awesome. I'm sorry, I just wanted to say after sitting through the Ed Code presentation and listening to a lot of the teachers that piloted, um they were really thrilled with a lot of the educational materials that came with, with

062like the slideshows, um that they can kind of just like use with their students. And I also really appreciate that there were workbooks, like paper workbooks, so that we really establish that reading-writing connection. James, I'll just make a Yeah. Thank you, Jessica. Uh one comment, and really it's to Dr. Silverman. We've had uh during my tenure on the board, a fun set of pilots converted into programming. And given all the data that we have, it would be really good for us to be able to look at some level of normalized control outcome once we move from that pilot phase into getting a couple years, whether it's the you know, science program when we put that in, the math program, the reading program. I'm noting that there has been a fair bit of change over the

063last few years to adapt the curriculum and teaching methods to student needs and growth to show the success of those initiatives. So, just a broad comment for future data analysis. Thank you. Anybody have any other questions or comments? Thank you for 15 slides only, too. I just wanted to share. I forgot to say that every classroom would get will get a decodable library of books. Oh, every classroom? >> like that was very important. Yes. All right. If we don't have any more questions or comments, do you Vasilios or I'd like to ask for a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented. So moved, Gillio. Second, Camelovic. Gabby, may I have a roll call vote? Camelovic? Aye. Gillio? Aye. Dolan? Aye. [music] Nelson? Aye. Moon? Aye. Subos? Aye. Pritzker? Aye. Motion carries. Next,

064we have the 26023 board policy 6:170 parent and family engagement update. Raquel? Thank you. Good evening, board members. Tonight, we are seeking approval for an update to board policy 6:170, which governs our title one programs. As a reminder, title one funds are critical resources that allow us to supplement instructional services for our less resource students. To keep this funding secure, we must periodically align our local policies with the evolving requirements of the Every Student Succeeds Act or ESSA. The four big changes to this policy are seeking parent input to help shape academic goals for our students, hosting a yearly meeting to find and fix barriers that prevent families from participating, committing 1% of our title one budget specifically for family engagement activities, and developing clear checklists for our school principals so that they can handle

065required notices such as the title one compact. Your approval for these updates to board policy 6:170 ensures that district 34 remains in full compliance with state and federal mandates. Thank you. Can I just say so the this has come through press or did you guys have to generate this? >> would have come through press in February with the bulk of the policies that you did approve, but ISBE came in late with a change to title one and it affected the consolidated district plan. So, there were changes to that plan with the addition of a parent engagement tab or section and that did not get approved through press until March and then we are required to for you to review and vote on, you know, considering to adopt this update in order for us to move

066to submitting our consolidated district plan along with any other federal grants that will come afterwards. Does anyone have any questions on the plan? The only one question, is this something to be retroactively compliant to meet priorly previously awarded grants or is this for future grants? >> This is for grants allocated in 2026-2027 and beyond unless they make more changes. Okay. All right. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved, Moon. Second, Pritzker. Gabby, may I have a roll call vote? Gillio? Aye. Dolan? Aye. Nelson? Aye. Moon? Aye. Subos? Aye. Pritzker? Aye. Camelovic? Aye. Motion carries. Now, we have our 26024 consolidated district plan, which now that we've approved the family engagement policy, we can move forward with, correct? Yes, yes. So, this is the annual experience we

067all have. >> [clears throat] >> I appreciate my teaching and learning colleagues. It's just a brief 64-page document, but it is the gateway to all of our federal and state funding and it is essential that we are accurate and we fulfill all the obligations like Raquel just shared in terms of policy, procedures. And then there are commitments and there are legal requirements that we fill out and adhere to explain to the board of state board of ed. We lay out as best as possible our plans for the upcoming school year in terms of professional development, supporting our families, curricular experiences, supporting teachers. It's a it's a massive lens on what we do in the district by design. The beauty of it is you fill this monster out and then we have freedom to move right

068into the grants themselves. We don't have to do each one of these for every single grant. So, that's great. This consolidated district plan can also be edited and changed and just as an example, to bring in this particular school year, we're piloting very small level some financial literacy work and in order to funnel channel that into one of the grants, we made a little bit of a change and it's now included in this year's district consolidated grant in preparation for this coming year. So, they they kind of ebb and flow. It's a little bit challenging in April to think that far, but but we do our best. So, with that, if you would approve this district consolidated plan tonight and then we could submit it tomorrow, wait for ISBE to return it to us with

069some kind of fun change that they're looking to see, but ultimately when it's approved, we will then receive our grant funding and start writing our grants. And I just want to I want to recall in the past you used to have to do this individually for each individual grant, correct? >> Yes. So, even though this is a cumbersome large project, in the long run it's just better off. Yes, absolutely. Any other questions or comments? All right. Can I ask for a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved, Camelovic. Second, Subos. Gabby, may I have a roll call vote? Dolan? Aye. Nelson? Aye. Moon? Aye. Subos? Aye. Pritzker? Aye. Camelovic? Aye. Gillio? Aye. Motion carries. Now, we have the 26025 natural gas. Steven Michael. I'll let Steve introduce our guest and

070take us through the presentation. Thanks. I just want to ask if we could price this the next time the straight is open. I'll let Becky handle that [laughter] one. So, so tonight I come before the board to ask for authorization to enter into a natural gas contract. Our current contract expires June 30th of this year and with me tonight, the district has chosen Michael and I have chosen to use an energy consultant to move forward because of the volatility in the commodities market and everything that's going on internationally. So, with me tonight is Becky Thompson. She has a little presentation for you. She's with Danny Energy and I'll let Becky take it over from here. All right, thank you. Thank you for having me tonight. It's a pleasure to be here. I know you're all

071thrilled to talk about the exciting world of energy. So, I will try not to to bore you too much, but as we all know, energy has been in the news quite a bit and for good reason. Um, a little bit about me, I as Steve introduced me, I'm a third-party energy consultant and so I work with about 60 school districts in the area. I've been doing this for over a decade. Um, is this Oh, you got me? Okay. All right. You're throwing me out there. It's okay. I thought you were controlling it. So, we are we're a third party that we represent um, school districts on their behalf. For those who have not maybe been through this process before, in the state of Illinois, electricity and natural gas are what we call deregulated. And what

072does that mean? It means that while you have Nicor and ComEd that bring you your energy supply, they own all the infrastructure, they're who you call if there's a gas leak or a power outage. The commodity itself can be traded on the open market, kind of like corn or soybeans. And the benefit to a school district in taking taking part in this is budget stability. And in times especially like now where there's a lot of volatility, a lot of unknown, just getting pricing directly from the utility is usually reactive. So, if we have a winter weather event where the you know, temperatures are sub-zero for elongated periods of time, the spot market can go pretty exponentially high. And that brings on a lot of risk for someone who has a finite budget such as a

073public school district. So, purchasing energy, you can fix the rate for a long period of time. So, a way to think about this is like if you had a 500-gallon drum of diesel fuel that you paid $3 a gallon for, no matter what the gas the diesel is at the pump, how it changes, you were paying $3 a gallon. So, you can plan for that, you can but excuse me, budget for that and it eliminates any of the volatility in the marketplace. Same thing with natural gas. So, that's what I'm here to do this evening. Uh so, I have this really fun graph for you to see all of these squiggly lines. And what this is is it's a history of natural gas prices going back about 20 years. And why am I showing you

074this today? Even though what we are going to be discussing and potentially voting on is about the futures market, buying today what you will use in the future, looking back at where we've been how helps us kind of um illuminate what are the risk for a public school district in times like where we're at today if you don't have a fixed price contract in place. And we look back historically, though weather has um some impacts on short-term pricing, over the long-term it's really geopolitical and economic events that really drive those prices. And you can see those spikes that we've identified there. So, obviously the housing market crash in 2008, prices went to over a dollar 50 a therm. Um which doesn't mean anything except if I share the context that your average rate right now

075is about 40 cents a therm. So, when we talk about potential risk of the market going crazy, that could mean one of your largest operating expenditures tripling in the matter of mere weeks or months. And that's the current environment that we're in today. So, if we go on to the next, uh so where are you at today? Um as Steve mentioned, your current contract expires in June. And uh Steve has done an incredible job over the past few years of managing this expenditure, uh buying in the summertime when gas is traditionally cheaper, putting it into storage, and then pulling it from it over the winter. This served you especially well um in January with Excuse me, when other districts were paying about $2 a therm during that really cold spell, you still paid the same

076average about 40 cents a therm. And so, over the last 12 months you've only paid 36 cents a therm. You were uh one of the very the districts to benefit from having this strategy in place, whereas other districts got about a $200,000 gas bill for the month of January. So, kudos to Steve. Um however, the market of last year is not the market of where we're at today. And uh so, that's why we're here to maybe look at a different type of process. So, the next couple of slides, they're going to be a little energy nerdy. Um I'm just going to give you a heads-up on that. We're going to talk about a couple of different uh natural gas products. And when we talk about products, that means which pieces of the supply are we

077fixing? And which pieces are going to continue to be variable on the open market? That's really what energy buying boils down to is this is an insurance policy for your utilities purchase. So, are you getting a liability only, or are you going comprehensive using the same insurance analogy? So, if we go to this first slide, and this is comparable to what you have currently. I don't know if you can see those numbers, they're kind of tiny. Uh but we went out to market, we went out to gas suppliers, and uh gave them the same set of parameters across the board, and asked them to send us their responses so that we could evaluate, review, and talk with district administration, and look at what those impacts would be to your bottom line. So, when we do

078a one-for-one of an apples-to-apples of what you had previously against what you have potentially going forward, um you can see that if we're just looking at index pricing, meaning it's just the market is what it is. The rate changes every month, it's going to be variable, it's going to have that bit of reactiveness to the current events. Um and then there's the adder for those services, the transaction costs. Uh so, comparably to what you had previously, it is a savings with what we see in the marketplace right now. Um however, what this does not allow you to do is um really lock in any of the volumes to protect during those extreme weather winter weather events like you had in January. It does leave the door open for a little bit of risk from a

079perspective of budgeting. And given that we're expecting the market to continue to increase, there's far greater upside risk in the marketplace today. Don't think that this is necessarily the best option for you to continue even though it has served you well in the past. So, if we go to this next slide, yes. All right. Currently we're in a back to what backwardization in the futures market right now. Is it is Direct Energy the only one pricing that in that slide before? So, future months are cheaper than Right. current months, right? >> Right. So, as far as that that goes, is Direct Energy in the last slide the only one showing backwardization? Is everybody else seems to be more expensive. So, what we're seeing here is just the adder for the index. So, this isn't representative

080of the real-time market that would show the backwardization. >> adder to the index. >> the risk. Yeah, so you see the pricing go up as the other suppliers show there. And so, the price actually goes down with um Direct Energy as well. It goes up, excuse me, because the adder is negative in their example. So, the adder becomes less of a negative, so their price also goes up. And that's just because the suppliers you're transferring the risk from you as a school district to the supplier over that term. The longer the term, the more risk that they're taking on. Uh but to put this in context of what your actual supply cost is, this is less than 1% of what your supply cost is. Um And I have a slide to kind of show the

081whole picture here in just a moment. >> Sorry, I didn't mean to >> No, oh no, not at all. It was a great question. Uh so, when we think of natural gas, if you think of um what And I'm sorry to get so much in the weeds. Uh but if you think of it like a pie chart, uh you have the NYMEX, which is the gas that trades on the open market, and then you have the basis. It takes gas to move gas and the price that it originates from at the Henry Hub in Louisiana versus the price that it is at the Chicago city gate where you use it. The difference between the two price points is what we refer to as the basis, the difference in the two. What's unique about right now

082is that one of the respondents is actually showing a negative basis, which means that the more gas that you consume, the less that your um the cheaper that your your invoice will be as a result in that month. And that is because the price that it is originating in Louisiana is more than what it is at the Chicago city gate. So, by the time that it gets to us and what it trades here, um there is a negative differential. So, this is why this product is what I would be recommending tonight and is part of the board resolution. That is a necessary part of your gas. There's no way to get out of paying for it. On the previous product, you would just be paying for it real-time in each month. I am suggesting or

083recommending that you fix that cost now that you can get it at a negative or or very small amount uh for a long period of time because that is counterintuitive to the way that the market typically operates. Um and so, that would establish a bit of risk management for the school district, especially if you went with the longer term. Additionally, with this specific product, it allows for what's called 100% swing. So, traditionally with natural gas, any volumes that you would burn in a month would be a contracted volume that they expect you to use in any given month. Okay? They look at your past history and they say, "Each January we think you used this much." Any variability above or below that would be either sold or bought back at the open market. Clearing everyone

084out. Is everyone still Okay. Um With this product, it actually allows you to have 100% variability in those contracted monthly volumes. Above or below would be at the same contracted rate and the same basis price. And why this is important is I give that example of what happened in January. You would be paying the same contracted rate rather than the um exponentially higher spot market rates. Um and given that the risk is far greater on the upside of the market right now, I think that this product would serve you quite well. The premium for this product is less than about $2,000 a year. So, I think that the the dollar amount for that additional insurance policy is well worth its weight in gold. So, what does all of this mean? We can >> one quick

085question just on swing. Yeah. I'm not a commodities trader. Is it basically like rollover minutes for singular like 25 years ago where if you don't use the minutes, you can use them next month? Or is it something else? Okay. >> So, it's more like um it's more like getting unlimited talk to text kind of thing, right? So, instead of paying per contracted quantity, and then like if you had um a prepaid cell phone card for the same example, you had 500 minutes, after 500 minutes you would pay for every minute that you would use. That was example one product. In this example, it's unlimited minutes. So, you're not buying anything additionally on the spot market >> going on the spot market when it's super high. 500 to 1,000, then 1,001. Right. You would have to

086you would have to literally double your daily usage every day for the entire month cuz it balances out at the end of the month. So, it would have to be an extreme circumstance of And in that case, it was likely not a wind a weather event. It's likely you doubled the size of your district. And um so, it's not just even at the account level, it would be at the entire district level in your contract with the supplier. >> like an insurance policy, so it takes you for that cost, it sounds really good to me. >> Yeah, this is the product that we recommend for I would say about 97% of the school districts that I work with um have this product because these polar vortexes and things seem to be happening more frequently. Um

087so, it has saved several districts to the tune of six digits or more um by just having that small extra premium up front. Additionally, what this allows the district to do is then lock in layers of that commodity on the NYMEX at the straight NYMEX price. You can watch it on the market, you can see where it's at. And it allows you to be much more proactive with that. Um the resolution is built as such that allows the district to uh fix volumes up to 100%. So, the idea would be to get to as close uh to the 100% as the district is comfortable to eliminate any open risk that's available in the market, allow that fixed price, but it also allows you the flexibility of buying in layers if you so choose. Can we

088Can we resell that extra 100%? You cannot. Good question though. Okay, so that was really really deep. I told you that it was going to be. Any questions from that or we can go to the next slide and this kind of shows you the full picture. All of this is is backstory, right? How does this impact you? What is the bottom line? So these were the top three respondents, one being the first being your incumbent and then the two low bids, Constellation and Direct Energy. The dollar for dollar cost impact again, the NGI adder in discussions with district administration maybe not the route to go currently. So the analysis is based off of that basis plus NYMEX that we just described, that winter protection model that includes that 100% variability. So you can see the

089dollar cost impact annual cost impact for each of those with Direct Energy's rates that we refreshed on Friday mornings market open. Compared to what I have seen and and some of these discussions with other districts, you're looking at a 6 to $20,000 annual cost impact from what you had previously. I think that these numbers are still pretty conservative versus what we're expecting to see in the market. The EIA, which is the federal branch of government or federal organization that looks at all of the different wells that are opening up, LNG plants, ports that are happening, everything that's taking place and then they put out a short-term energy outlook and they are predicting that for this winter prices will likely be 60 to 70 cents per therm. So having the ability to lock in at about

09040 cents a therm right now is a cost avoidance measure and a risk mitigation. Is there any force majeure language in the contract? >> Yes. So what would that entail for them to declare force majeure? I've never seen it occur in Illinois. Typically, the only places that we've seen it occur is like in Texas during winter storm Yuri in 2022 when gas deliveries had to stop because the gas pipelines were frozen or if there's a hurricane that completely wipes out infrastructure. It's force majeure is basically act of God kind of language. It's the only time that we've seen it enacted where the supplier is not able to deliver that natural gas and in those instances they just reserve the right to terminate the contract. So then we'd be stuck at the spot market at that

091opportunity. Okay. But it's an all it's an all in contracts, right? >> Right, it's in every single contract. They will not remove it and quite honestly for for where we're located within the country in an instance where there's force majeure, you're likely not getting gas because there's infrastructure damage from Nicor, so you may not even be getting gas from the utility. So not necessarily paying spot market price, you may just not have gas. >> Right. >> [laughter] >> Right. Right. Are you recommending a 24-month? In our discussions, we were talking as high as far out as a 48-month. So I believe the board resolution is for a rate not to exceed a 48-month term. Given that right now the risk in the marketplace is not short-term. Yes, we are seeing everyone obviously is hearing about

092what's happening in Qatar in the Middle East infrastructure damage to 20% of the global energy trade, but that was just another layer of complication in an already complicated story. We are seeing an impact to the energy world at levels never seen before outside of the Industrial Revolution. The integration of AI and these data centers coming online is impacting energy um to a point where Illinois may be at risk of blackouts in the foreseeable future if we do not have more supply come on to meet the demand. And we use natural gas to make electricity. 40% of all electricity in the United States is generated with natural gas. So as the demands for electricity double or go, you know, 50% higher in the next four to five years, which is current projections we're going to need

093natural gas to meet that demand. So the further complication of the Middle East where Europe and other continents are now potentially building out trade deals with the United States to purchase our liquefied natural gas. We think of Econ 101, what happens when our demand goes through the roof but our supply remains rather stagnant. And so that's really why we talk about that upside risk. So with those thoughts in mind and when we look at the differential in the pricing being very very minuscule between terms, my recommendation would be to go as long as the board is comfortable at this moment as a cost mitigation technique. I mean, yeah, I I'm comfortable with the 48-month. You know, I'm a commodity trader. I won't trade natural gas. It's way too volatile. Yeah, it's been an interesting year.

094>> [laughter] >> But just for context of it, the the US is liquid natural gas net exporter, correct? >> Yes. So we have a stable domestic supply that we trade on the global market. Yes. >> So there may be a change in trade dynamics that at least insulates our supply access just because of pure domestic supply. While that's correct today, by 2027 there are 10 liquefied natural gas ports that have not yet come online that are expected to open between Canada, US and Mexico. How many are online right now? Two or three? No, it's It's a bigger. >> It's larger. Okay. I don't know the exact number off the top of my head. So the pricing that we're seeing is largely reflective of everything that's known today. So you're right, this is why we're having

095a conversation about 40 cent gas even though at the gas pump we're paying what, 40% higher than we were 8 weeks ago. Um what this does not include is the trade deals that are not yet established like I just mentioned. So Europe was buying natural gas from Qatar. They've already had infrastructure damage and have already released that it's going to take 3 to 5 years to build that up. They need to buy that natural gas from somewhere that is stable so that they also do not have natural gas or electricity needs in the future. These LNG trade deals are typically 10 to 20 years in length and those are being worked out as we speak and so that's the forward risk that we see in the market. Additionally though the supply I I think that

096we can't underestimate the supply needs from I'm not worried about electricity. the electricity generation. Cuz we can't build I those plants other The fastest build for electricity is natural gas. I think there's going to be some policy constraints around it, but that's a different conversation to have. Um okay. You probably didn't think you're going to come and have a geopolitical conversation about supply tonight, did you? Um But this is great. >> No, that's That's exactly what I expect. That's been about the the last 18 months. Awesome. All right, well great. [laughter] No, and that's that's where we're at. I mean, no one knows exactly what's going to happen. If I told you this is where prices are going to be a year from now, then you should call me on that because no one knows.

097But it is my job as a consultant to evaluate to evaluate the risk and and what we see of the upside risk now you know, when I'm on these these calls with the chief economist at Constellation New Energy, one of a large global supplier who is perplexed that we are not seeing the outer years build in more more of this risk. They're really identifying this timeline right now as an opportunity that may not exist in the future. We saw this with the Russia-Ukraine in in 2022. When it first happened When the pipeline exploded? Well, there was a there was a there was a knee-jerk reaction in the market and the market went up and then it came back down immediately and everyone went, "Whoo, okay, we're good." Then it slowly started to creep up for

098the next 11 months or so. And so that could be the position that we're in here. We just we don't know. There's just a significant amount of upside risk. So the longer term is recommended as a basically a buying opportunity and a hedge against the supply demand that we constraints or or imbalance that we anticipate in the future driven by all the unknowns. Correct. And that yields cost savings to the district as a consequence of locking the contract in Correct. >> today. Okay. Yep. Thank you. That's an excellent way of putting it. The Nicor cost to compare for example is about 48 cents this month before these other factors are built into place. So it's already a cost saving measure immediately. Everybody else have any other questions? Okay. Uh Go ahead. I want to thank

099Steve for apparently saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars over the past few years. He did. >> [laughter] >> We've never had this in-depth of a conversation about natural gas. >> I They asked me to just keep it high level and I I don't know that I did a great job of that. So I appreciate your patience. You did. I got you to use the word the word backward as a hedge. >> You did. I'm very proud of you for that. You've made Scott's night. >> [laughter] >> I love talking about this. Any other questions or thoughts? Can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved, Dolan. Second, Gillio. Gabby, may have a roll call. Nelson? Aye. Moon? Aye. Supaw? Aye. Pritzker? Aye. Kimmelavich? >> Aye. Gillio? Aye.

100Dolan? Aye. Motion carries. All right. Thank you so much. >> Let us know which way we're going. Yep. Next we have the 26026 resolution appointing a new registrar and paying agent for the outstanding bonds of the district. Michael. Good evening. As part of our withdrawal from the treasury, this is just another portion of that. The uh office was the paying agent for all of our bonds. Because we're no longer associated with them and because of the fact that they would not have any access to go ahead and make those payments, we now are going ahead and and engaging a different bond agent. We're going with Amalgamated Bank. There was a bid process that was conducted by Raymond James um on behalf of us and we're recommending that Amalgamated become our new bond paying agent for

101all of our issuances except for one that is with JP Morgan Chase and they will continue to be um the bond paying it we will directly pay them based on those bonds. Any questions? Can I have a motion and a second to approve resolution as presented? So moved, Kamelavich. Second, Pritzker. Gabby, may have a roll call? Moon. Aye. Suposs. Aye. Pritzker. Aye. Kamelavich. Aye. Giglio. Aye. Dolan. Aye. Nelson. Aye. Motion carries. Now we have the 26027 resolution to appoint the IMRF authorized agent. In effort to get us back on track speed-wise, we will go through this one. Um IMRF agent uh was previously Eric. Mike Zelek became the agent and now since I'm in the role, uh appointing me to go ahead and conduct those issues with IMRF that are required uh through the finance

102office. Any questions? Can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved, Pritzker. Second, Dolan. Gabby, may have a roll call? Suposs. Aye. Pritzker. Aye. Kamelavich. >> Aye. Giglio. Aye. Dolan. Aye. Nelson. Aye. Moon. Aye. Motion carries. Now I have the 26028 2026-2027 leadership staffing recommendation. Mr. Durkin. Thank you. Uh this this recommendation for leadership staffing for the 26-27 school year reflects the same overall leadership staffing level as the current year with the one change being a role uh switch in the business services department as previously explained to the board. Thanks. Any questions? Can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved, Moon. >> Second, Suposs. Gabby, may have a roll call? Pritzker. Aye. Kamelavich. Aye. Giglio. Aye. Dolan. Aye. Nelson. Aye.

103Moon. Aye. Suposs. Aye. Motion carries. Now I have the 26029 resolution for honorable dismissal. And this is just part two of the change I described in the business services department. Any questions? May I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved, Dolan. Second, Giglio. Gabby, may have a roll call? Kamelavich. Aye. Giglio. Aye. Dolan. Aye. Nelson. Aye. Moon. Aye. Suposs. Aye. Pritzker. Aye. Motion carries. And the final one is the 26031 resolution authorizing participation in property tax proceedings. There's one more. >> Oh, I skipped one. 26030 resolution authorizing payment of bills. I didn't want to do that. Yeah, let's skip that. >> [laughter] >> If only it was that easy. Um the the district currently makes one check run a month and in absence of that check run, we

104are forced to use the imprest account, uh sometimes incur late fees, uh seek permission for payments that would otherwise be able to be made if we had a resolution such as this. The bill payment resolution calls for two regular payments per month. Uh that way we have two check runs. It allows us not to have the build-up. It allows us to go ahead and pay all bills on time. Most importantly, not use an imprest account which auditors disfavor greatly. Um it also allows us if there's a special check run needed, uh to go ahead and make that run and within the resolution, it calls for uh supervision by the by the board, uh one at le- at least one appointed agent to review that bill list each time each month, uh so that that way

105there is a check and balance on those payments that are going out. So we ask that this be done so that we don't need to use the imprest account so that we can make timely payment of bills and also um kind of reduce the load on our accounts payable department instead of one time per month, allowing it to go throughout the month. And currently, I believe Dr. Dolan is our board rep to approve those. >> Yes. And you will continue doing that. Any other questions? Uh may I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution as presented? >> So moved, Kamelavich. Second, Pritzker. Gabby, may have a roll call? Giglio. Aye. Dolan. Aye. Nelson. Aye. Moon. Aye. Suposs. Aye. Pritzker. Aye. Kamelavich. Aye. Uh motion carries. Now we have the 26031 resolution authorizing

106participation in property tax proceedings. So the district has traditionally used John Izzo for its property tax appeals. In speaking with District 225, uh both of us are looking to move in a different direction based upon some firm changes that are coming as well as just overall representation that we're comfortable with with Franczek Radelet as our firm. Um we would continue to go ahead and cost share with District 225. Uh we also feel that um based upon some other work that they've done with the district, it just is a synergy that gets provided uh on law firm basis. And this I want to remind everyone this is our work when uh when when we have to go in front of like the board. So our property people that are trying to lower their Yes. Yeah, either

107in the court system which Franczek has a system where they actually review uh the cases that are filed in court. Many people won't know that you can file a property tax appeal on the litigation side versus the administrative law side. So this protects us on both sides. This is for all uh items moving forward because this is our triennial year, but it also allows us the ability if we want to go ahead and switch over early on the other cases to do that as well. Great. And I do want to remind everyone that we do not have a large commercial base, so this doesn't really affect us as much as other school districts. >> Absolutely. Okay. Are there any uh questions or comments? Can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution

108as presented? So moved, Giglio. Second, Moon. Gabby, may have a roll call vote? Dolan. Aye. Nelson. Aye. Moon. Aye. Suposs. Aye. Pritzker. Aye. Kamelavich. Aye. Giglio. Aye. Motion carries. Now we're at our discussion section where we talk [clears throat] about board meeting dates. Did everybody review the document? I did. Any thoughts or questions or we >> have a question. What >> Good. >> Can you remind me uh why the Tuesday ones are on Tuesday? So, we had a lot of community input sometimes that parents wanted to be able to attend 225 board meetings and 34 board meetings and we tended to run into the same dates. So some of those are because of that and some of those are because of possible conflicts with days off of school or holidays. Does that help? Thank you.

109Okay. Okay. Any other discussion? And you know the new president can take care of all those too. Next we have our financial update. No, I don't Yeah, we do. Yes. Thank you very much. Um the reason we're presenting this tonight is again as we move from the treasurer and we go ahead and look at the ways to be more transparent in the overall um presentation of information to the public, to the board, uh to have more discussion as to the direction of the district, just looking at providing a different report than has occurred in the past. Uh and that report has been informational in nature. Sorry. So, as we get it queued up, first night uh opening jitters, I guess. >> [laughter] >> Um so best practice would have the board uh of education approving

110the following: the payroll warrants which it currently does, vendor warrants, and a treasurer report. Um currently, you get a monthly budget report that has a lot of um detailed information in dollars, but not a lot of graphic information that can kind of display the district's current financial state uh in a way that's understandable, not just to the board, but to the public as well. So by adding this treasurer's report, we'll provide that information for revenues, expenses, fund balances. It allow for that transparency uh and progress to be re- reviewed through the year uh both on just a a monthly basis as well as a year on projection basis that will start about midway through the year when it starts to have some value. And so that will also allow us to do some quarterly reporting

111so that you can see a three-year look back on how each quarter progresses as well as a year to date through those times. So, in starting with our uh revenue projections, uh this is one of the examples of a graphic that you will see typically. And we do want feedback so that if there is other information that you'd like, that we can provide that. Uh this is something that can be fluid based upon some new software that we're utilizing which used to be uh a Forecast 5 product. They've now been bought by Frontline. So this is part of their budget management analytics. So this tells you for the third quarter what our local revenue is, state revenue, federal revenue. What you see in that local revenue is 35.6% of the anticipated budget we received in

112property taxes. As we all know, the property taxes have been a major shortfall this year based upon the timing of payments. If we go to the next slide, we'll get to see the revenue summary in a year-to-date. You can see that from total revenues we're not in a bad place, but we are in a dip because of what you see in the middle of the local revenues. We are well below where we should be at this point of the year again because of that fall installment that didn't get really released until really January. I will tell you when you see next month's report, you will see a big uptick. They did start to release the spring installment earlier than everybody anticipated given the problems with the software implementation. So, we are only about 8 and

1131/2 million dollars under where we anticipated to be based upon April payments, but those aren't reflected here because this is our quarter through March 31st. One of the keys is nobody knows what has actually been paid in property tax refunds to date. We don't believe there's been anything. But we wouldn't know that because all of the reports that used to provide that distribution information are currently eliminated. That's partially because of the new software and partially because the portal that they anticipated to be up and running isn't quite there yet. So, can I just want to talk about this because this is from the county. So, we're not sure what they collected, we're not sure what they sent us is correct, and we're not sure what we're going to get in the future. So, that's correct.

114We do know that we've received more money than anticipated based upon our normal collections for levy year 24. Levy year 25 has just started. We haven't even seen a data report. We haven't seen anything that would verify total dollars yet. And again, they haven't had a distribution report since Halloween. So, there has been no information as to what actually is collected for the April payments that we've received. We've at least now started to be told these are for levy year 25 and prior years, which means individuals that paid their levy year 24 late are included in some of these distributions. And then there could be people from 22, 23. That's a lag that typically exists. And then again, we don't know Yeah, we don't know refunds from levy year 24, and we don't know levy

115year 25 where we even are within the PTAB board and process. There's been decisions, but no final numbers released on refunds. >> And could you please remind everybody the percent of local taxes that go towards our budget? >> It's roughly 87%. >> 87%? Thank you. >> So, the good news is we have money, the bad news is we don't know if they're going to be asking for anything back or just reducing future distributions, which could be in the fall that I think Dr. Delhi shared with you. They just came out earlier this week and said the August bills, which typically come out on August 1st, are not scheduled to be out on time either. So, this is where we're at now. I will say based upon our cash flow, and we're having a meeting Thursday

116to keep updating that, we're in a place that we don't need tax anticipation warrants anytime soon. However, if that fall distribution leaks into December again or January, it's a topic that will be revisited. So, but overall as far as our revenues year-to-date, we're in a pretty good place. Again, what we need to look at is property tax collections. There are some state revenues that are lagging, although it's nothing that's a major concern to us. And we are slightly ahead on our federal revenues, but that's all timing of grant purchases and and items like that. So, as we go to expenses, what we look at is something that I don't think is a surprise to anybody based upon the district's really It's been a very level budget process. I think now that we're past construction, now

117that we're past the fluctuation in COVID dollars and other revenues that were coming, we're starting to see some balance. Um when you see the salaries and benefits, this is a progression that is not concerning at all because this is based upon the typical increases we see through the staff that we have. And the last couple of years have not seen the number of retirements where when you replace the teachers that retire, it gives you a little bit of reset on dollars. But because the retirements in the last couple of years have been low, we've got a steady increase, but it's an increase that's not troubling at all. And again, for the third quarter, and this is third quarter, 24.35% of budget for a single quarter, you'd expect to be about 25%. So, we're in good

118shape. The budget was calculated in a way that has us on salaries and benefits being in the right place. Our purchase services are higher overall. This has to do with some late construction payments that were made in the quarter based upon bills that came through between January and March. Nothing concerning because that is built into the budget, but I wanted to note that yes, that is higher than years past, but based upon late summer construction projects that were going on. And then supplies and materials, as you can see, are almost dead on from the previous year in this quarter. So, again, trending in the right spot. And with a school district, most purchases of supplies and materials you're now after that third quarter basically done except end of year grant spending because again, everything's supposed

119to be purchased within that year. So, we're really in a good spot with regard to third quarter expenses. And then this is the summary for the year-to-date. Like I said earlier, salaries and benefits are tracking as expected. We're really in and I That's why the graph at the top and the different pictures that we get of the budget that are explained in many different ways through this reporting software really do provide a picture to really any level of person that that is looking at the budget to be able to look and see where we are at and get a good picture of that top level, what are 10 our top 10 expenses. We get to see expenses by object, salaries, benefits, purchase services, supplies, which are main ones. So, really being able to see again,

120salaries and benefits are in a good place. Again, purchase services right where we'd expect them to be once you go ahead and look at it within what was budgeted for the year. And then looking at supplies, school supplies are something we're tracking as we look at the first year of the purchase process that we that we implemented and trying to make sure that as we go forward, the needs are met of the staff and students and that we are tracking in a way that's sustainable on that type of program. Now for the fun part. Um fund balances, when we look at fund balances on a third quarter basis, again, you would think it's alarming based upon the green representing where we're at this year compared to previous years in the third quarter. But remember, we

121were well below the property tax collection rate for the third quarter. And yet in April, we've already collected 25 million dollars in taxes. Only have about 8.5 million left that we anticipate collecting. Again, not accounting for refunds, but at least we are on track to hit the mark that we expected. When we see this report on the the year-to-date or monthly basis next month, you will see us really catching up. We also had construction previous years, too, right? So, there was probably more money in the fund balance till we paid those bills. Yeah. And and we'll see on the next slide where fund balance is projected out at the end of the year. And so, right now this is based on projections of what we've done year-to-date. Prior graphs like this would just show you

122an overall look. This is based on as we get to the end of March, these are actual numbers. And the projections moving forward are based upon what's occurred and what is anticipated because of that lag in collection. Again, this chart next month will show a totally different picture because we're catching up. And one of the beauties of the software that we're utilizing is that as you get past December in your your expenses for the year really start to take shape, we'll be able to project out pretty close to 100% accuracy assuming there's no major shifts that are unexpected where we're going to be at at the end of the year, which then helps our budget forecasting and long-range planning for future years. And then looking at projections overall, this is the top right and lower

123left are the traditional slides that you might see in a long-range plan. This actually shows us based upon where we are year-to-date a more accurate picture. And one of the interesting things about this is when you look at the lower left, that's through February. When you look at the upper right, it's through March. Now, our unfavorable variance appears to have gotten larger, but that is again because of property tax collections. So, then when you go up to the upper left with revenue, this is why the timing of revenue matters and why the the the tax process is so important to a district like 34 because of the amount of local funds that we get. So, you see that if you look at the budget, our local funds were expected to be about 85 and a

124half million at this point. The local funds currently projected because they they haven't captured April in these are about 20 22.0 million to 22 million dollars less. Now, when you think about it, when you hear the numbers that we've had, this does project a surplus for the year. And so, this is why the projection model is so important as you look to the expenditures then and see we're coming in pretty close to exactly where we thought we'd be and even under in some cases. And that's where this will allow us to make some decisions in real time that we might not have made otherwise cuz we really didn't know until expenses got to the end of the year. So, this financial software is a huge benefit for us to make some decisions both in current

125year and well as well as looking out for future years. Michael, quick um quick question. And I think your comment is well placed in a couple different areas, but it's one thing to have a plan, it's another thing to have the money in the bank. Right. And I guess I'm saying this for the audience as much as anything. Uh you know, we've been talking about this issue for several months now. Um if there are any other things that we can do to facilitate, you know, county activation or otherwise, um we'd certainly encourage, you know, the community to be aware of it, but also it really reinforces how important the tax reconciliation process and distributions are for the functioning of public school districts like District 34. So, visually seeing it makes it much more impactful. So,

126thank you for putting this together. No problem. And thank you for approving the resolution last month regarding holding the county accountable for this. Uh I was in some conversations in the last week with uh some CSBOs in in the area uh to talk through what we can do to try and get some answers as to one the interest that was really collected from the holding of the taxes, what was done with that interest, how that impacts the the losses that we felt by having to issue the TAWs and by interest loss that that we got from lost revenues uh that would have been in the investments we made. And so, that was one part of it, but the next part of it is trying to get the county to let us know when that portal

127is going to be open so we can start really honestly budgeting for next year cuz otherwise, we are kind of making some assumptions that we're going to have to be conservative on in order to make sure we don't get caught uh overestimating what our revenues will be. Um so, we are really in the process of trying to figure out the way to do that. The superintendent group has a strong lobby doing that, but we figured to attack it from two different um vantage points would be important. And maybe we get the attention of the county, but I do think it it as you said, Dr. Dolan, that the public will have a big role in this as well because it's not appropriate for their dollars not to be distributed on time and be used by

128the taxing bodies as opposed to the county reclaiming those in interest revenue. And then, looking through some information last month, our auditors were here. Uh and I think we kind of glossed over it was a a very the report was more based on some of the findings um in making sure that going forward we had the right staff in place and that they delivered some of the news, but we thought this was some information we gave to C-CAG and that would be important for the board to see as well. And uh as we go through the next couple months, we'll start to try and provide you more of a snapshot into the actual audit findings to do a deeper dive. But just so that you look at this, this shows the final uh 2025 audit

129calculations. The the biggest thing that we see here, and this is all above the line type stuff, the total receipts were were greater than the total expenditures. After that, we made transfers because we needed to do construction projects, we needed to fund other items. And the key is when you look throughout the the list of funds, we had a surplus. One of the things that as we talk through future budgets and future needs of the district that is important to see is this historical property tax collection. And we've really been put into a nice position uh since the Glenview came back onto the property tax rolls because that allowed us a $397 million boost new property which amounted to a $25 million additional um receipt from our levy. That's important because the next 2 years

130were followed by 5% increases. So, it's put us in a position where I think so long as we have sustainable budgeting and we're forecasting for the appropriate contingencies in the future that we can really operate the program that the board has set out to do um and make sure that we meet the needs. And if we ever need to ask for anything, it's going to be a targeted ask based upon a specific need. But these are numbers that we're going to continue to watch over the next couple years to see where exactly we fall so that we know the appropriate budget marks that we want to hit as well as if there's a need for additional cash, where that is in a very specific line item rather than a blanket ask. I do want to

131point out that the village did have a unique TIF and we did have make whole payments. So, that extra 25 million that was in the budget isn't a total extra 25 million. And then, we were fortuitous that that came online right before two CPI years of 5%. >> Very very fortuitous. And then, in summary, just looking at what we're going to accomplish through the new reporting, I think it's enhanced transparency that I think is not only valuable to the board, but to the public. Uh we'll have a deeper knowledge for decision-making. Uh real-time calculations will allow for that flexibility to be done either in current year or for future projects. And then, we're going to look to really expand what you get on a monthly basis, quarterly, year-end, information that's pertinent so that we can

132make those decisions in out years, talk about long-range projections. As you know, typically your last couple years a long-range projection looks disastrous. With the new projection model, we'll be able to start to correct that cuz we'll know in real time as we're making those projections what the year end was, but we'll also be able to project with higher accuracy salaries, benefits, some of the supplies, items like that. Uh so, moving forward, you'll still approve payroll and vendor warrants. You will approve a financial a monthly financial report. You won't get that former financial report that was just a a chart with a lot of numbers. I know that probably is confusing to some. Uh and then, any feedback that you have, please provide. We are more than willing to kind of make this a work in

133progress until you're happy with the information that you're getting. Thank you. >> Does anybody have any questions or thoughts? Well, I'll go first this time. I just I want to go back and talk about the county a little bit. You know, we talked about that and about it, you know, being a potentially significant problem. And I think it's important if you if you live in Glenview, and I think most of us do, it seems a little bit incongruous um because you know, all of the other taxing districts in the area don't really have that problem. Uh District 225 sits on a surplus. The park district sits on a surplus. The village sits on a surplus. Most of the surrounding school districts sit on a surplus. District 34 doesn't, and there's very clear historical reasons for

134that that go back 25 and 30 years. And if anyone's interested, I'm happy to deal detail them. Um they're very specific and they're they're very clear. Um but we're in a building right now that was built. One of them is that when this building was built, a referendum was passed to build the building, and a referendum was not passed to operate the building. So, for 25 years, we've operated eight schools on a budget for seven. And rather decisions made in the 1990s that have constrained our ability to operate um financially. So, this is why the Cook County thing is super important. We don't have um we don't have a lot of flex. And you know, as Michael has pointed out, you know, that that causes some challenges. But the silver lining here is that what

135we've also shown uh in past meetings is that we the District 34 uh produces outcomes that are as good if not better than comparable school districts with a third less tax dollars per per pupil. So, we we have done a really good job over those 25 30 years to maximize every dollar that we do bring in. Uh unfortunately, when Cook County does its thing, it leaves us in in a and we're actually we're paying money that we don't have to spend because Cook County is screwing up and you know, it's a completely predictable screw up and avoidable screw up. Um pivoting off of that just real quick, I also want to mention we did have a meeting of the Citizens Finance Advisory Committee at the end of March where Michael did share a bunch of

136these slides that were very warmly received by the group of financial financially oriented citizens who are on that committee including people who are controllers FP&A directors for large corporations and they they were I was very impressed with Michael. They asked a bunch of very tough very technical questions which I kind of spaced out on a bit to be honest but he was able to answer all of them really well. I do think with this kind of view going forward especially since now we've gone past construction we've gotten past the TIF we'll be in a better place to manage this going forward and hopefully the county can figure out its problems and will be able to you know be really predictable. So, thanks. Did you want to Are you good? All right. Any other questions? Looking

137forward to uh more readable reports with more timely data that we can actually adjust on the fly. And I will tell you now that we're out of the treasure their reconciliation process is even though our board meetings are the third Monday of the month by the time they pulled apart the bank accounts reporting was just lagging behind. We'll now be up to the the prior month in all our reports. Good. All right. Thanks. If you have anything you want to say let them know. Okay. Now we're back to our audience comments. This is the second opportunity for audience comments. Anyone wishing to address the board can submit a comment card available at the check-in table and give it to the executive director of communications and strategic planning. The executive director will call community members who

138submit cards forward. They'll be asked to introduce themselves and describe their relationship to the district. Please keep your comments at 3 minutes or less and as a reminder each period this one also will be limited to 45 minutes. Please note the board will be taking notes and we will be in listening mode only and an appropriate response will be given in a timely manner. We ask that you submit one comment per opportunity so if you already spoke and if it's a different comment that'd be great. Thank you. Do we have any comments Rebecca? We do. The first is Whitney Langus. Thank you. Okay. Thanks Whitney. Then the next is Penelope Hurtado. Okay. Thank you. Good evening uh members of the board. My name is Penelope Hurtado and I am a proud mom of two neurodivergent

139girls as well as the president of the district Spanish Bipac. I am here today to speak about something that has that is deeply personal to me inclusion. Inclusion is not just a policy or a checkbox. It's commitment to seeing every child as capable valuable and worthy of belonging. It means creating classrooms where differences are not just accepted but respected and supported and I want to start by saying thank you. Thank you for the steps this district has already taken to move towards more inclusive environments for all students. Because of inclusion my children and so many others have had the opportunities to learn grow and build relationships alongside their peers. They are not separated or defined by their differences. They are part of a community that matter and that matters more to me than words can

140fully express. They say it takes a village to raise a child and I truly believe that. I am grateful to be part of a community like like the village of Glenview and District 34 where we are working together families educators and leadership to move forward in building that village. It's not perfect but there is effort. There is progress and there is shared commitment to doing better for all children. But while we've made progress we also know there is still work to do. Inclusion is not something we achieve once. It's something we must continuously strengthen and it requires training collaboration accountability and willingness to listen to families and students. As we move forward I ask that we stay committed to grow but also that we remain firm in one important truth. We cannot take steps backward.

141Our children deserve forward progress. They deserve systems that evolve with them not ones that limit them. Inclusion benefits everyone. It teaches empathy patience and understanding. It prepares all students not just those with difference with differences for the real world. So again thank you for what has been done and I urge you to continue to building on that foundation. Our children are continuing on it. Thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> Thank you for your comment. The next is Brian Brehart. Excuse me. I'm going to take the comfy chair. I might you guys can take it. Good evening. As stated my name is Brian Brehart. I have been a Glenview resident my entire life. I have gone to District 34 schools for the first uh of my existence. Um I've been I've go back so

142far we were the first class to split schools. When I started I was going to go to Westbrook my whole time. While I was at Westbrook we started a program. The program was called Count Me In. It was started by the man whose name adorns this school. In Count Me In we learned to appreciate those who have abilities that are different than ours. We appreciated people who had hard of hearing who were blind who did had learning disabilities who had physical disabilities. Now we were so into this we even had a song. I won't sing it for you. But the first line is sing Count Me In friends. Now today I have seen parents come dressed in suits and heels and having passionate arguments about things that are concerning. We should be concerned about physical

143safety of our children and physical safety of our teachers and the assistants and the aids. That is not what's debating here. What's I'm concerned about is what wasn't said. I heard suggestions about communication. I heard suggestions about having a one-to-one session or I don't remember what it was called. These are good. But I'm worried what wasn't said. And because it wasn't said we won't comment on it. But I would caution this board when they make their decisions and their deliberations they use the wisdom of Solomon and don't lose the lessons we learned in Count Me In. Make sure we can still continue to sing Count Me In friends. And that's it. Thank you for your comments. And the next is Anna Sienkowski. I hope I said that right. Can I stand up? I've been sitting

144all day. It's one of those days. Can you uh just lift it up so there's people online too. Thank you. My name is Anna Sienkowski and I live in the district and have a child here. Um I just want to say I like to see more camera and security in our schools just in general um so that if there are situations in the school we can get a clearer picture of what's going on to support the teachers but also the students and everybody else cuz it's really hard to get an answer from a 6-year-old and also a teacher that it's a 1 to 20 or 1 to 25 ratio and they're focusing with another child or or so forth and and can't give that. Um also instead of Wednesdays of late arrival can we can

145we do like Monday late arrival or early release on Friday? This would help parents quite a bit and I'm sure you guys too. Um in addition the drop-off we I know we have like 10 minutes for drop-off and 10 minutes for pickup somehow extending that window to 15 minutes and keeping it at consistent time. Obviously things happen in the school but having 15 minutes and a hard start and stop. Also making institution days on holidays like Columbus Day and Flag Day co-mingle. Uh this year we had Columbus Day but then that Friday we had school off and it makes it really hard for working parents especially both families or families with both two income, take off work. Um ESL classes I learned, at least in Hanken, for the kindergarten programs are no longer there and

146I, being a Polish immigrant, having that resource when I came to Glenview 30 some years ago, we'll just leave it at that. Um it was a huge resource for us and I see the strain that teachers are are having because I sat in the classroom and and watched my son to understand what was happening and so forth. I think that's something that was taken away. Kids that are multilingual need those resources to be submerged in, but also need the resources to be able to turn around and learn with the same language. Lastly, I just want to make note that things start at home and parents also need to take responsibility for their kids. And the school as well, um supporting each other, schools and parents. Trust though has to be earned. But I want to

147remind the district that our tax dollars for the school is somewhere between roughly math 20 to 40,000 that we're paying in our tax dollars and correct me if I'm wrong. Private school when my kids went, cuz I got three others, was 10 to 15. I'm not seeing the value in the difference of it. What I am seeing is though that there's a huge transition in the kindergarten to three trans uh environment and we need to allocate more funding in regards to resources like to Mr. Like eighth like Mr. Sam, Mrs. Shinsky, Mrs. Danielle and do less podium style lecturing electronics and more hands-on. Let's look at some of the structures of our education how they were in the past and what worked because some of the electronics isn't benefiting our children. Thank you. Thank you

148for your comments. And that's all I got. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for everybody coming tonight. I hope you enjoyed watching our meeting, too. Uh next we have our report section. We have the four-year report and the monthly budget report. Are there any questions? I'm assuming the monthly budget report will look different next next one. And if there's no other business? Well, what about the lost and found, Scott? What about the lost and found, Chance? Just if anybody has anybody at the Tierra Oh, that's right. lost and found, just check it on your way out. >> [laughter] >> It's a good idea. There's a lot of one shoes over there. All right, if there's no other business, we are adjourned. Thank you.