001Uh, welcome. Um, we were just in executive session. We already called the meeting to order, but for verbal attendance of board members starting furthest to my left, please state your name for the record. >> Basilio, >> Eva Gillio, >> Scott Nelson, >> Alex Kemlovich, >> Julie Moon, >> James Dolan, >> Jessica Pritsker. >> Okay, welcome. Now, we're going to move to our approval section. I would like to ask for a motion and a second to approve the agenda. So move Tim >> second Julio. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? The motion carries. Next I'd like to ask for a motion and a second to approve the September 15th executive regular and public hearing minutes. >> So moved. Dolan. >> Second. Pritsker. >> Gabby. May I have a roll call? >> Moon.
002>> I. >> Camelich. >> I. >> Julio. I. >> Nelson. >> Hi. >> Pritsker. >> I. >> Supos. Hi. >> Dolan. I >> motion carries. Next, we'll come to our superintendent comments. >> Thank you. Good evening, everyone. I do have a few celebratory uh comments I'd like to make this evening. First, uh last week was principal appreciation week and we are very grateful to have a dedicated team of educators who support our students, families, and staff in our all of our school buildings. Our principles lead with vision, compassion, and a deep commitment to every student's success. Uh each day they balance countless responsibilities. Uh some of which of course include supporting teachers, engaging with families, creating a safe and welcoming environment for all, advocating for children, and bringing our strategic plan to life. And they
003actually have lives outside of work and families that they go home to. And so balancing all of those responsibilities is really pretty amazing. Um so to all of our principles, our assistant principles who lead our buildings, thank you very much for all of your hard work and for your caring. That's our theme this year is as simple as it sounds. Caring and they display that every day. What's everyone looking at that I can't see? >> Pictures of the principles. Oh, perfect. >> Smiling at >> Thank you, Becca. Uh, next, you will recall the Those Who Excel Award. So, it's that time again. The Illinois State Board of Education annually sponsors the Those Who Excel and the Teacher of the Year program to honor educators who have made significant contributions to our schools. And the following
004educators were nominated this year. Marie Chang Pisano, who's a reading math intervention associate at Glen Grove, uh was nominated in the educational service personnel category. Megan Chin, assistant principal for student services at Springman was nominated in the administrator category. Uh D. Syski, uh teacher at AIA, was nominated for Isby's teacher of the year award. and Chrissy Herald, instructional innovation specialist at AIA, was nominated in the student support personnel category. And we recently were able to surprise uh some of our staff members and congratulate them on their nomination in person. Uh but we do have one more special announcement that we'd like to make and that is that our school board president, Scott Nelson, has been nominated in the community volunteer category. >> Thank you. >> And Mr. Nelson, we thank you very much for your
005board leadership and for all that you've done in so many capacities for this community. So, thank you for that. >> Thank you. >> Awesome. >> I don't know what you're going to do with those. >> Yeah. Take them home. >> How about a picture >> with my water bottle? Perfect. >> I like the balloons. I'll get short. >> Thanks. >> Nice backdrop for you. Uh, next and over the weekend we had uh representatives from Glen View School District 34's multilingual team led by Raquel Kim, our assistant superintendent for uh multilingual services and members of the Mongolian BPAC were invited to all present at the research institute of Mongolia conference at the Mongolian embassy, excuse me, embassy in Washington DC. Maybe on quue there are some pictures behind me for your viewing pleasure. Um uh Dr.
006Saul Erden Erdin, excuse me, a Mongolian book expert and librarian at the Library of Congress had specifically requested that District 34 share its journey in uplifting Mongolian multilingual learners, including the development and implementation of our afterchool Mongolian language program, which fosters both home language maintenance and cultural identity. Uh I am incredibly proud. We should all be incredibly pr uh proud of the recognition for our school district and for the administrative leaders, staff members and parent community drivers for their hard work and dedication to our students and families. So we congratulate them all as well. We got some great picks. They were hot off the press right this uh just this morning. Finally, uh, in recognition of Augmentative and Alternative Communication Awareness Month, also known as AAC, we would like to recognize how our district's work
007with AAC aligns with our strategic plan goals of belonging and well-being, creativity and innovation, and collaboration and community. AAC provides tools and strategies that allow individuals with complex communication needs to share their voices and fully participate in school life. We are proud to support over 80 AAC users across our school district. Thanks to the generous support of the Glen View Education Foundation, communication boards are now available on every school playground, helping all students communicate and connect through shared language. Through our core vocabulary initiative, staff, students, and families learn and model one focus word each month, both in classrooms and at home. The more we all model AAC, the more we foster a culture of inclusion, creativity, and connection where every voice is heard. Think about the power of a communicative uh system like that, particularly
008on a playground and and the power in that. So, we just wanted to call that out in recognition of AAC awareness month. Those are my comments this evening. >> Thank you, Dr. Deli. Now, we're at our audience comments. 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. 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 at three minutes or less and know that the board will be taking notes and will be in listening mode only and an appropriate response will be given in a timely manner. We ask that
009you submit one comment per opportunity. Rebecca, do we have any comments? >> We have one from Mr. Tarowski. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Uh thank you for uh tonight. Uh my name is Michael Tarowski. I am a district 34 parent. I have a sixth grader at Springman. Um, and it is wonderful to hear many of the accomplishments. Unfortunately, I'm here to kind of burst that bubble a little bit. Um, ladies and gentlemen, this is a textbook. This is not I have a sixth grader who there are no textbooks at Springman and I don't know about it and my wife and I are completely um embarrassed. We are shocked. Um we are I I believe that we are depriving our children of the ability to have their assignments simply. You go to chapter one, you
010read it, you get to the the pleasure of opening your own book. You get to when I was a kid back in 19 oh 7576, we got to actually use paper and you could you could cover your p your books. You could decorate them however you wanted and you could understand what your assignments were. And I believe that this the district also needs to kind of reinforce to teachers what a syllabus is. A syllabus is basically just a clear roadmap for students and for parents to understand what they're covering week in and week out. I have no clue what is what my son is supposed to have done, what he's doing. Uh I've seen missed assignments and I I'll reach out to the teacher. Oh, it's a technical error or missed assignments and I'll reach
011out. Oh, that was in done in class. Then I asked them, well, how can that be a missed assignment? Um, but I do again feel that we are shortch changing our students from not providing them with textbooks if they request them. Um, every single every single teacher looked at me like I was speaking Greek when I asked for a textbook for my student. And especially because we're gen dealing with a generation right now that is dealing with screen addiction. Um, and I I completely understand that we're new generation of students and how they are going to use technology, but I'm dealing with a with a spectrum uh son who is already dealing with screen addiction at home. Um, and there's no way for people of my generation and many many of you of the same
012generation to figure out how to navigate this uh study sync or whatever else they're using to figure out our assignments completed. What when do they have quizzes? When do they have tests? That would be very simply to have a simple syllabus that says week one we're doing chapter one. Week two we're doing chapter two. Week three, we're doing chapter three. Week four, we're going to do a quiz or slash test on chapter one through three. Easy enough. Or the assignment comes home. He does it. I know what's going on. I know what he needs to do. I can say to him, you know what? You need to do this first before you can do FaceTime or or Fortnite or Roblox or whatever. Um but the way the system is is now I have no clue
013what assignments need to be done. Um it is very difficult for me to um speak to my teachers, my son's teachers about it because they want him to take ownership unfortunately because of his spectrum. >> Sorry to interrupt. You're over three minutes. I'll just ask you to wrap up your thoughts. >> Thank you. We will have another opportunity for comment later. Thank you. Next we go to our consideration of resolutions. We have the 2566 personnel report, the 2567 payroll warrants, the 2568 vendor warrants, and the 2569 renewal of facility use contract with use services for on-site counseling. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda as presented? Movement. >> Second. Dolan. >> Gibby. May I have a roll call? >> Chemale. >> I. >> Gilio. >> I. >> Nelson. >>
014I. >> Pritsker. >> I. >> Supos. >> Hi. >> Dolan. >> I. >> Moon. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. Now we'll go to our consideration of other resolutions, discussion, and action. We have the 257070 resignation agreement. Is there a motion and a or any discussion? >> May I ask for a motion and a second to approve the resignation agreement for Eric Miller as presented in executive session? >> So moved. Camelich. >> Second. Pritsker. >> GB. May I have a roll call? >> Gileio. >> I. >> Nelson. >> I. >> Pritsker. >> I. >> Supos. >> Dolan. >> I. >> Moon. >> I. >> Chemage. >> I. Motion carries. Now we have the 2571 approve the contract for our interim CSBO. Dr. Deli, do you want to >> I do have a couple comments. Thank you.
015Uh, as the board is aware, we have a need for a temporary administrative leadership for our business services department. And I'm very pleased to share that Dr. Michael Zelich, who is here with us at the table this evening, has agreed to serve as interim assistant superintendent for business services on a temporary basis not to exceed 120 days. As a retired chief school business official, uh TRS limits his work days. Uh but Mike and I will work together very carefully to see that his time is very well spent with us in the most efficient and impactful manner as possible. Dr. Zelik is a veteran and wellrespected school business official with over 25 years of experience. Just before retiring, Mike was with Grace Lake High School District for 17 years and has most recently served on an
016interim basis in Markwart District 15 and uh just before that in Apticus Trip School District 102. So I confidently recommend to the board the approval of Dr. Zelik's interim contract to the board. Any other questions or discussion? If not, I'd like to ask for a motion and a second to approve the contract for interim CSBO as presented. >> So move Julio. >> Second. Dolan. >> Gabby. May I have a roll call? >> Pritsker. >> I. >> Supos. >> Dolan. >> I. >> Moon. >> Hi. >> Kemale. >> I. >> Nelson. >> Hi. >> Gilio. >> I. >> Motion carries. Welcome aboard. I would also like to now designate interim CSBO as treasurer. Can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution to appoint Mike Zelich as the treasurer of district 34? >>
017So moved. Pritzkar >> Gabby. May I have a roll call vote? >> Supos. >> Dolan. Hi. >> Moon. I >> Kemale Levage. >> Hi. >> Nelson. I >> Julio. I >> Pritsker. >> Hi. >> Motion carries. Now you're the treasurer. Enough. >> Yep. Now we have the TW Now we get to have your presentations. We have the 2573 resolution directing a transfer of funds from working cash fund to the operations and maintenance fund in anticipation of the collection of taxes taxes levied by the district for such purposes for the year 2024 and such monies so transferred to be re reimbursed from such taxes upon their collection. Dr. Celich, so you've got actually two resolutions that you'll be um we're asking for you to approve. The resolution for the working cash transfer is up into O
018andM actually helps us have more room for the tax anticipation warrants and the amount of money that we can receive through those. So that this is a uh the first step before we can actually do the tax anticipation warrants. Any questions on that? >> I just want to make sure we point out to anybody watching that the reason we have to do this work tonight is because Cook County is failing to do their job and get us the money that we are tax our taxpayers are paying. Correct. The assessor's office needs to start working with the board of review. >> Can I have a motion in a second to approve the resolution as presented? >> So moved. Chemove >> second. Moon. >> Gbby. May I have a roll call vote? >> Dolan. >> I. >>
019Moon. >> I. >> Kemale Levage. >> I. >> Nelson. >> I. >> Julio. >> I. >> Pritsker. >> I. >> Subupos. >> Motion carries. And the followup is the 2574 resolution authorizing the issuance of not to exceed 4,19,000 taxable tax anticipation warrants in anticipation of the collection of taxes levied for the year 2024 for bond and interest purposes and authorizing the sale of said warrants to the purchaser thereof. Dr. Zel, you want to explain that a little bit? We've talked about tax warrants. Yes. over the last couple of years, but never had to use them. But now it's come to a point where the county is so delayed. >> Yes, the the county is very delayed. Um, and right now the anticipation is what I keep hearing is the end of December, but now I'm
020also hearing that could potentially go into January as well. Uh, so this this issuance would actually carry us through January at this point in time. This is the max amount amount that we can actually borrow for tax anticipation warrants. Um, so this is the the recommendation we'd like to make to to approve the tax anticipation warrants. Um, we will be sharing a timeline on when the issuance will take place. Probably sometime in November when they will go ahead and sell them. Uh, we're looking at hopefully some other school districts uh having interest in in uh, you know, g loan loaning us the money. Um, unfortunately uh, Glenbrook does not allow us to borrow from them. that their policy does not allow us. We did check on that as well because if we could have kept
021that local, we would have really liked to have done that. >> The uh in a complicating factor here, right, Mike, is that we we have a bond and interest payment that's due December 1st. >> Yes. >> In the amount of 8 million and some dollars, >> correct? >> Uh and so, uh this along with the action that you just took helps us bridge what we assume will be a short-term basis. Uh the idea here would would to pay back immediately and in full the loan amount of this bridge um immediately upon receiving the the receipt of the tax payments which is still in question. By now we would have received I believe two uh payments. >> Two if not three. >> Yeah. Two if not three. So that's how far behind they are. >> And
022they would have been large sums obviously. We usually collect at least twice a year and now we haven't collected anything this year. And >> I I I'm very disappointed in the county right now. I mean, we are actually a somewhat good school district. >> There are school districts that are really on the bind right now and they're making us spend money we could be putting in the classroom. It's disappointing. >> Yes. >> Can I have a motion in a second to approve the resolution as presented? So moved. Dolan. >> Second. Julio. >> Gabby. May I have a roll call? >> Moon. >> I. >> Chemalevage. >> I. >> Nelson. >> I. >> Gilio. >> Hi. >> Pritsker. >> I. >> Supos. >> Dolan. >> I. Uh. Motion carries. Now we're in our discussion section. We
023have the 2025 tax levy information. Dr. Zelic again. Are you >> Yeah, we're just going to put the presentation up there. >> Becca, you're driving, correct? >> Yeah. >> Oh, yeah. Okay, great. >> Yeah. So, um this is going to look a little different than what you've seen in the past. Um again, very short period of time to put this together, but I I think this information is probably a little bit more clear. Uh I tried to keep it, you know, short and simple as well. Uh and uh as we go through it, I'll kind of explain some of the changes that we've made as we go through the process. So the first thing you'll see is you know uh I always start with a a budgeting calendar. So it's a 2526 budgeting planning calendar.
024It's a working copy. It's kind of gives the expected date um activity and then who's responsible for it. I know it might be a little tough to see, but uh I tried to shrink it up as much as I can, but it's just a guide that we can go through as we go through this process. And the levy obviously is is the number one. So, uh again, I'm not going to go into the great details on this. We'll go into this more as we get into probably January with the budgeting process, uh as as we kind of continue the process. The other thing I've changed up here too is that um just giving you a very brief and you know high level levy adoption timeline. I I know that normally it seems like you would
025have adopted the levy at this board meeting. uh with the time constraints and everything else, we we kind of bumped it a natural uh levy timeline is that intent to levy in November uh established the hearing and then also uh in December having the you know board approve the levy itself. So that's kind of been the normal process with a lot of districts. So it was kind of strange for me to see that in October really kind of nothing in October, I'm sorry, November, but then bringing it to to December. So, so this is I pulled this from uh the uh state form for the budget just kind of give you again executive summary of uh what it's looking like as far as your beginning fund balances and this is just operating up here. Your
026revenues, your expenditures, and then surplus or deficit. And uh it is looking like a $1.7 million deficit in the operating funds only. Um so then carrying it down these are your restricted funds. Same thing your beginning fund balances, revenues, expenditures. Uh the difference you can see where the you know with capital projects that's a natural to happen as you're doing the projects you're spending it down. So uh the biggest thing that we do worry about is u right here the the debt service. So again, you're working cash which will transfer and again just a high level. Uh one of the things that caught my eye as well is that uh 41% fund balance. Um it it's starting to go downhill and it it really 50% or more probably should be where you should be sitting
027at. So, if this budget ends up to where it does, you know, come in without a deficit, you most likely will be able to go up a little bit in a couple percents, but uh you want to be able to kind of get into that, you know, mode to where we we've got to stop spending down the fund balance. And I know that I looked at the um uh presentation for the budget and the whole, you know, fund balance reduction plan. You're not even close to where you have to even have a plan in place for, you know, doing the reduction. So and then CPI that's right now that's about the only thing we know for a whole calculation for the levy. Uh normally even in Cook County we would have had the assessments we
028would have known what new construction was but even they are so far behind. Uh you know I'm used to getting like if I when I was up in Lake County we were getting that information in August. So, so the recommendation levy recommendation is going to be um obviously you know increase the levy to enable the district to maintain a balanced budget. Obviously this this current budget is not but that's the goal that you want to get to existing property uh is going to go up by about 20%. Uh that's about that's what I'm hearing from uh you know Liz Hennessy uh from Raymond James and then also PMA our financial adviserss as well and then $50 million in uh new construction. So those these are the pieces that we'll use when you take a look
029at the calculation sheets that you'll see. So the district is going to request you know five 5.48 48 to capture the new property. Also have flexibility between the funds to be able to move what I always call pennies between them and I'll show you that in a minute. We're anticip anticipating receiving about um 3.42% at CPI again is 2.9. Debt service will increase uh a little bit by you know 0.52. The county clerk actually does set that rate force for the outstanding bond. So that's really kind of an estimate. So the the overall increase is about 4.9%. So this worksheet, I know this is a lot of information, but I just wanted to show you what kind of work goes into kind of building this out. So here's the current levy amount, meaning the current
030year for the monies that we haven't received for the second installment. Again, this is just another calculation, but as we carry across the maximum allowable, so uh that's that's a important part there for us as far as what we can ask for. So when we kind of go through these, you know, um this information, this is just like the uh tax extension worksheet. And then it also shows our rate and that's what our our operating rate will be and then our overall rate with the bonds. Oh, I'm going to go back here. The important piece on this actually um spreadsheet is this part. This is this is from PMA and I've used this for for years. And what they do um is that if you capture everything, you know, for your tax cap, it will
031give you the the 99 to, you know, 98% and saying that you did capture all of the dollars that are available to us through the levy process. This one is actually the calculations and where we've got the recommendation from. So again, here's prior year at the 60 million, the extension of the 63 million, and I added 1% um to the ED fund just to bring it up to where we can get to the 5.48%. But here's the important thing is that um you've got a fund balance in social security and IMRF that's almost $2 million. you can't use those dollars for anything else. So that's not showing here, but it would show on the budget worksheet that I I started with. So I want to reduce that by 15% to actually deficit spend intentionally in
032IMRF and Social Security, but then I want to add back in $650,000 into working cash, which has not had a levy for quite some time. And we want to build that fund up so that if we run into the situation again to where uh you know we have to borrow we might be able to just do it internally if we can cover that you know amount if we have the fund balance as well. So I'm I'm going to I know I've got at the end questions but I'm going to stop here to see if anybody has any questions on this. So you're saying we have a surplus in our retirement funds, but we can't touch that right now. We couldn't even borrow it from oursel. Correct. >> Correct. >> So this is a way going
033forward for us to maybe anticipate not issuing tax anticipation warrants in the future. >> It will take some time, but yes. >> Yeah. I like going down this road personally. I hope everybody else is good with this. This is a this is a good way for us to get better working cash >> and IMRF and and social security should be almost a break even. You want some fund balance in there obviously in case we get a delay or whatever the case is, but the the fund balance is just sitting there. So I think moving it to another spot um I think is pretty critical. >> Can I ask one other quick question? Sorry. On the prior sheet, >> what was what is an example of the county loss percentage? Like I understand that we have
034it at zero right now, but what are what is what are the factors that simulate some level of loss? Like are we not capturing the full value of the assets or what is that in there? What that adjustment factor for? >> Yeah, it it's actually already built in here um into the model and you could add more if you wanted to here. Um mainly the loss in cost is actually for your bond and interest so that you can make your bond payments without any issue. I want to say the collection rate has been about 90 989 to 99% from what I've seen so far. So well we also have the true up every year too now that we can take and we've been we pass that every year. >> Yeah. >> So I like to
035think of it as a 100% collection. >> My question is the actual percent change of the EAV. >> Yes. I think around here it's closer to 32% Northfield Township. So I I would like to bump that up to 35% in the calculation and see where we come with that. >> I Yeah, actually I actually did that and um yeah, we can do it. It's not going to it's it's not >> if we're already over 5% in the ask and we're holding a truth and taxation hearing. I don't mind. I just don't want to miss out on any EAV. >> Sure. If that makes sense. >> It does. Um so basically Oops, wrong one. Sorry. I know mine went up 40%. Okay. So, right here, what'll happen if I bump up the 20%. It'll change the
036rate >> lower, right? >> Lower. Correct. So, you're still going to get the same money, but I can do it. So, >> I'd like to do that. I want everyone to know that we have the lowest tax rate in the township. >> It is low. It is low. So, I'll make that adjustment. And that's why I'd like to have this, you know, be able to have this presentation now, have this conversation now, so that when we get into November that we'd be able to go ahead and actually present what, you know, really represents the district. So, this was my first stab at it for like I think four days or whatever the case is. >> No, it it was it was uh nice to look at. Thank you. I you know, we we asked the
037community for a operating rate referenda and it did not pass and I want everyone to know that our situation is exactly the same. >> Yep. We have struggling uh assets right now that we aren't able to our fund balance is just getting too low as you pointed out. Yes. So from those spreadsheets it brings us to what you'll see as the cert certificate of tax levy uh which is automatically populated. And so we'll have that for you for the intent to levy uh for November. I'll also have uh all of the you know paperwork and everything else that needs to go along with that as well that the board would need to approve for the intent and then establishing the hearing. And that's my presentation. >> My only other question then is have we received
038any signal to suggest that we are going to get any additional information or the things that were typically delivered from the county before our next meeting? like is this is this going to change before November or we feel like this is pretty my gut is saying no. >> Okay. >> I'm not hearing there's any reason to think that it's going to change. >> Well, and then and if something does happen just because the board approved the resolution uh for to that we don't have to borrow if we don't need it. So, we have that opportunity to just you know Yes. Yeah. Anything else? Uh, I think that's good. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Thanks for jumping right in. >> Yeah. >> Well, after two months of, you know, getting into a retired
039routine, this actually helped me. >> Thank you. >> Thanks. Next, we have a fall 2025 institute day reflection. Dr. Silverman. >> Yes. Thank you. And company. >> And company for sure. The teaching learning team. I am trying to find the There it is. This fires up. Sorry for the delay. Here we go. All right. So, we wanted to share with you our full day institute work from September 26. It was a Friday. Uh I'm super excited because our very first starting point is the alignment with the strategic plan and we lived this and when we were this the staff was awesome. Um any session we went into the commitment to their growth. Uh the opportunity to think of educating and teaching and learning with our children in different ways was so clearly evident. there was
040a lot of passion exhibited. Uh it was just it was a great day and so we felt um this uh opportunity to share with you all and the public because it is a full day and students are not here and some of this learning just needs extended periods of time for teachers to collaborate and have time with either a specific content area or theme or even a professional development provider. And really in terms of strategic plan um the the first one uh in terms of academic achievement and we're going to hone in a little bit on that this evening. Engagement uh also you're going to see that in the adult learning and how that would then sort of play out within our educational model. And then the last part and is indeed about professional learning
041to support innovation and culture responsive practices and instruction. So when you look at the uh what we did uh these were the key topics and themes and support areas. The 30 the number 30 comes from AM and PM sessions. We had multiple um opportunities for teachers to have pretty much half-day experiences uh along with our associates and other support staff. So that's where the number comes in. And so it was a full day a lot of action and um incredible engagement engagement from our staff. So yeah, and you saw before uh all the list of items that we have. We're going to highlight just a few of those, you know, right now. And just to reiterate the importance of that day, it is a full day that students aren't here. And so if you've in
042the business world, in the um public sector here in education, professional development is often met with um you know, skepticism at times. Like is what's it going to value? What are we going to get out of it? What's what's it going to um bring to me as a teacher? How am I going to take that information back? I have to say our reflections meeting with teachers. Matt and I are going to be super excited about what's developed and the people that developed the the professional development, it has been the reflections with those that participated that has really brought to light um what took place. So one of the areas that we did is all staff members had an experience with AI and we all have been familiar with AI to some level as a society
043good and bad. Some of us have used it a lot and some people have been more resistant or not understanding it. So really what it was designed to do was to create a foundation for what people understood about AI. knowing that we have a full um spectrum of individuals using or not using or even knowing what it is to really help teachers get a foundation for what is the resource, what does it do, how um is it valuable, how is it maybe a little intimidating. What we like to compare it to is if you were teaching or working in the mid 90s when the internet came out, it's the same fear in society for a new piece. That was when the internet came and people were like this is going to ruin everything and it
044has created a lot of advantages. It's also created a lot of challenges and back then it was plagiarism and people using their you know device more. we're dealing with the same things now and how do we help teachers understand and so the AI was really focused on a product that we use um and how they can use that product to make their life easier to help simplify some of the tasks that they do for the eventual conversation to be in the future. How do we help support students in a world where they have access to AI? Because we know especially at the high school or if you have a college age student or if you have somebody who's working in the prof people are using it some very appropriately and some maybe not as um
045in alignment with maybe the way it should be used and how do we help kids understand or um even our staff understand how kids are going to benefit from it and what are the challenges that we face with that. So, we provided it was a two-hour training again, just foundation um opportunity that went on in every school. Went very well. >> Thank you. >> I went a lot longer than I thought I was. Sorry. >> We love this stuff. Sorry, we're always keep it brief, but you know what? >> That was brief for me. >> So, the the big um sort of roundabout explanation here. The next category is and we use it's a digital resource in in kindergarten through 8th grade in particular. We honed in our kindergarten through fifth grade teachers and we
046really wanted to set a foundational training. We've been using the resource for years and we've never had a formalized training almost similar to AI to ensure everybody has that consistency. So what you're looking at it's it's kind of strange uh piece but um children in typically over the years have been using the resource as an opportunity for additional practice to reinforce different types of skills they learn in the classroom from their teachers and associates and other people. And so that green bar is our typical usage. That's practice usage and it's hundreds of thousands of questions children interact with and it monitors it's a very elaborate system. So the other colors which we're going to monitor over the year are more teacherdriven or teacherdirected engagement type activities that we actually learn from in the professional development.
047So putting a child using uh EXL with our children in terms of practice that that's an awesome opportunity and we utilize that extremely well and we had for years those other opportunities like group jams that was something that we learned about and that's something that would be done in the classroom with our students and more of a structured learning experience. So over the course of this year, uh we're going to monitor to actually hone in on those objectives from the um uh strategic plan to look at the achievement impact and and so that's sometimes difficult to do with professional learning is to try to loop it back to actual achievement and and so that that's a factor that we're going to monitor with in 68 specifically when they weren't um in their AI session. There
048was a lot of interdisciplinary work with reading and writing and that has been a theme for 68 for two years now and it has yielded some just outstanding uh connections between social studies, literature, science, ELA. Um there's the collaboration amongst the staff has been outstanding and so this was some carryover and then some more development and collaboration in terms of uh in the simplistic sense writing about content and that was the theme that they that they um experienced in terms of professional development. the other three categories. So the PE standards, we really try to provide contentbased experiences for um teachers that are outside of maybe a home room or social studies or science or math. And so in terms of physical education and our physical education teachers, we brought in an outside professional development provider.
049um they just did sort of um an update and a refresh on standards and then practiced them in terms of um engagement in uh physical education activities, lessons, differentiation. So it was a full day and um and you can see they use the national health education standards which Illinois is built on those. Similarly for our fine arts staff um the power of story PD was delivered um by an outside professional development writer in terms of the expertise in fine arts and storytelling and uh it it was uh just an a very creative experience for our fine arts staff and was really connected to their discipline even within the fine arts. So for music, drama, art um those different um opportunities. The last piece there, uh, as you know, we have a phonics pilot occurring. Those
050are the two programs, Burge to reading and really great reading. And, um, we just did some additional check-in PD and opportunities to further explore and, um, develop the phonics pilot itself as we're actually delivering it right now in real time. And so in addition, I would say overwhelmingly um everyone went to the AI session. All of what Matt and Brian talked about were wellreceived across the board, but we also um had the pleasure of offering additional student services um specialized strands that I want to highlight a few. One of which is Dr. John Frampton. Um he is a co-founder and clinical psychologist at a neighboring clinic called Formative Psychological Services. You may have heard of it. He is a fan favorite. he does come and train our psyches, school psychologists and social works quite a
051bit. And he did a session on there's a theme here on technology and really um talking to them about a tiered approach to school-based um supports in supporting healthy technology use. And so what Brian had mentioned the benefits and the challenges and how as a clinical team can we support that in a tiered model. And so that was very wellreceived for those that attended. We also had a session for our student services associates through Infinitech. You might remember that name. Every spring we have the AAC award winners come to board meetings that to show exemplary use of their AAC devices and they came and talked to our associates about the link between behavior and communication. We all know behavior is communication and how we respond to behavior will either escalate or deescalate behavior. And so
052our associates were able to kind of learn some fundamentals about how the intersection between behavior and communication occurs in the school. We also had an outside provider Illinois SLD support project SLD specific learning disability. That's a federally funded um grant program through ISBY. They came and talked to um our student services team about assessment and turning assessment into intervention. We know that we are data rich, but what we do with the data makes the difference for students and how we use that data and assessment, our assessment tools to inform instruction and produce positive outcomes for kids. So, those were all very wellreceived. I know um Dr. Silverman is going to go over some feedback, but all of these sessions I highlighted because um participants said, "When are they coming back?" So, we're already kind of
053talking about what could be the next step. So, >> so we collect thousands of pieces of data relative to every single session that we provide. Um, teachers complete through frontline uh standardized feedback form and it's actually a requirement for them to receive the uh continuing education credit units. They need to do the evaluation. So we re it's it's a it's a decent process and we receive a lot of information. It's qualitative and quantitative. Um it's the narrative information is something that the teaching and learning team will take actually a lot of time because it's comments and we codify them, distill them. Um for tonight I I I just couldn't hone in um in a cohesive manner. Um but I'm happy to share if if you want to see or review that information but um it's
054specific uh feedback that a teacher has open narrative format to provide us with and it's it's as useful as anything where we can rate. So for tonight and for the purpose we thought it was most powerful to really come back to the notion that the professional growth or student growth uh will will be impacted. That's why we're doing the professional development. And then is equally as important and something that we've been talking about for years is uh social emotional growth. So this really made me feel uh connected to the day and to the feedback where all sessions had a 85% uh agreement and strongly agreement rating in those two categories in terms of a positive um feedback element. the the area for growth and and this is fairly consistent is choice. Sometimes we make a
055decision where again we want to set a foundation like it in um AI or the EXL example and and we all need to do experience to ensure that there's consistency, reliability, validity in the professional development and the purpose of it. choice. Uh we just we will always be thinking about that. Sometimes within the sessions we try to provide choice but it's just not always possible when we're thinking about the purpose and the outcomes of the PD or the program where it is something like that but we understand staff appreciate choice. They want choice and we try and and sometimes we just we aren't able to fulfill that interest by them. So that was uh a less than 85% degree factor. And with that um any questions? And we appreciate your time. We appreciate this day.
056It's absolutely invaluable and so meaningful to our staff. >> Any questions? >> You guys work on this in Edo, too. You're they have a preview of what they're going to be able to work with, correct? >> Yeah. So, tomorrow if you want to see this again, some of us will >> Thank you. >> All right. Thank you very much. Next, we have the press issue 119. >> Yeah. I'll just say quickly, this is our first uh iteration of this. You will see in here that the changes that are being suggest Well, some of these are just recommended for review. Others have changes that I put in the very minor category. Um, you'll have another opportunity to review these before we adopt them at our next meeting. >> Okay. And any questions on the press issue?
057Next, we have the ISB delegate assembly annual item for discussion. And uh, Dane, it's got you in here, but I just want to mention Vasilios, you're going to be our rep like you have in the past. I sent an email to everybody with the resolutions and it looks like they're really just trying to change their constitution this year. It's actually only one resolution that I saw about busing. Is that correct? >> Yes, I think so. Yeah. >> So, I'm I'm in support of it. I hope everybody else it seems to be more streamlined for our organization. >> We trust you, Vicilios. >> Thank you. Any other questions about the delegate assembly? And now we have the true north update. Dr. Delhi. >> Well, we do have uh you know there some updates that are probably
058too many to enumerate, but I think the biggest one is that there are new articles of agreement that are being entertained by the uh cooperative and they're going to be uh voted on soon. So I don't know if as the board rep if you had certain things that you wanted to highlight but it it has been a work in progress uh although it has come together quickly. >> Yeah I would like to just add that I uh we as a board are going to you know uh state our uh intentions as to withdrawal or stain uh le withdrawal or stayain next month they are going to be voting on a new articles of agreement. uh they're pretty drastically different than the organization that's been run. Um I appreciate all the hard work that's gone into
059it. The uh general consensus is to move towards a reorganization versus a disillusion. Um but that actually is something they're going to be voting on next month also. So this next uh six weeks is when everyone gets to talk to the rest of their boards and see which way they want to go on on this. Uh we've been very consistent throughout the whole process on on where we stand and what we want to do and I believe nothing has changed since they've change this. >> Right. And with our official approval now uh from Isby um June 30th is our last day associated with the uh the cooperative. >> All right. Any other questions on the cooperative? Just to confirm, there's nothing negative in these newly drafted articles that would put our withdrawal in either conflict
060or at risk uh with the reorganization approach that they've proposed. >> Uh actually, I believe the new articles have have some added language that our attorney helped us get in there that actually uh protects us as a school district as we go through this withdrawal process. And uh I was pleased that uh they were willing to listen to us as we possibly just walk out the door. They also consider us a catalyst to everything that's happening. All right. Next is our audience comments. This is a second opportunity for audience comments. Anyone wishing to address a 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 submit cards forward. They will be asked to introduce
061themselves and describe their relationship to the district. Please keep your comments at three minutes or less. And please note the board will be taking notes, but we will be in listening mode only and an appropriate response will be given in a timely manner. We also ask that you submit one comment per opportunity. Rebecca, do we have any comments? >> Mr. Tarowski would like to take advantage of the second comment. >> Yeah, we want everyone else to be able to hear you, too. >> Thank you. Thank you. And again, I'm Michael Tarowski and I'm a parent of a district 34 student at uh Springman. He's in sixth grade. Um, and having volunteered for the the uh recent book fair, I don't know whose decision it is, but I think it's highly recommended that who uh next
062year before uh we district 34 works with Scholastic that they uh kind of go through the book quality that is being offered to our students. Um, this is a uh book that my son picked up that was uh was between sixth and eighth graders could pick this up. And I would consider this probably be a second or third grade book. Uh, this this book I I've had over probably 40 years. This is something I picked up from sixth grade uh my book fair and I still have it today. It's the side of paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald. So, um I just re would recommend that whoever's decision it is to work with Scholastic to uh to before you renew a contract to with them or another vendor to try to figure out what the quality
063books that are being given to our students at the book fairs. Um I do think that our students should aspire to more than comic books and second grade reading when they're in sixth grade. And this was not even in a uh pile for second uh English language learners that I could understand that perhaps if your native language is not English that maybe you would you need a uh uh lower uh vocabulary book. But I do I think that uh sixth and eighth graders should have an opportunity if they're not able to go to because I've walked also through the the LRC at uh Springman and I see a lot of manga and a lot of books that I would consider uh far less uh aspiring for sixth to eighth graders. Thank you very much. >>
064Thank you Mr. Tarowski. Next we have our report section. We have the number one foyer report. Any questions for Rebecca? And we have the number two monthly budget report. Any questions on the budget report? Any other business? If not we are adjourned.