001hi we've already opened our meeting and participa in executive session but I'd like to also once again Ask for veral attendance of board members starting furthest to my left please state your name for the record vasilio suos Scott Nelson Jim bstark Julie Moon James Dolan Alex kevich all right thanks everybody for coming and we are now going to move right away to our public hearing we will now enter our public hearing meeting for verbal attendance of board Mee starting furthest to my left state your name once moreo suus Scott Nelson Jim bomark Julie Moon James Dolan Alex cich thanks now we are in our public hearing for special education comprehensive plan we have a total of three opportunities for public comment tonight the first opportunity will be during the public hearing on the district's draft
002special education comprehensive plan which we are about to convene if you wish to make a comment about the district's draft special education comprehensive plan please make it during the audience comments portions of the hearing if you wish to make a comment about some other matter unrelated to the public hearing you may do so during one of the two audience comments portions of our regular meeting which will begin at the conclusion of the public hearing this public hearing convened by the Board of Education of glun viw School District 34 regarding the draft comprehensive plan right here to educate students with disabilities once a district is a hand alone special education entity upon its withdrawal from True North educational Cooperative 804 at this time I'll turn over the hearing to do to Dr Dane Deli superintendent and
003assistant superintendent ceris to provide information updates on a draft comprehensive plan Dr Deli thank you Mr Nelson welcome everyone who's here uh this evening and who may be viewing from from afar uh I do have some slides that I'd like to share uh both by way of reminder and and information for all of our interested audience members do you want to Quee that up thank you so as part of our public hearing we wanted to uh follow the uh slides here and share some information with you U just a quick review this topic has been a part of many board meetings over many months uh so simply we wanted to reiterate the fact that we have had a relationship with the true north educational cooperative for many years our Revolution as a school district has
004really allowed us to uh improve upon our capacity to serve students in their home district and to the greatest extent possible in their home schools we have talked about the financial impact of our current relationship with true north and our interest in ending our membership ship relationship with the Cooperative uh We've also updated progress along the way you can see the many different uh board meetings that we have uh spanned uh over quite some time now it's important to also review that we have taken the time not only because it's best practice uh but in accordance with the Articles of agreement of True North to really look at our internal capacity and our ability as a school district to serve our children and we have been doing so since 2018 very deliberately just some examples
005we have added staff in our buildings including assistant principles occupational therapists physical therapists coaches uh other staff members parent Community facilitators uh there's a strong focus on strengthening our systems for all students integrating and comprehensive systems our instructional life skills program PR school for all social and academic Readiness our sore program increased Community Partnerships and increased professional development offerings have all been a part of the initiative that has been taking place for several years now we're very proud of our work we also conducted a an external evaluation of our programming in the district so we hired an outside consultant to come in as a third party and an objective third-party evaluator of the programs and services that we offer children and families in our school district some highlights from that include Glen viw District 34
006has the organization and structure to maintain a system of support that meets the needs of students with diverse learning needs specifically those identified as eligible for an IEP or a Section 504 plan various programmatic options exist for Learners with complex needs and a full array of related services and support services are available some numbers that we'd like to share these are not new we've shared this in in previous uh board meetings and other Communications District 34 currently has zero students that are enrolled in True North programming our special education coaching services that are accessed through True North again zero so we're not using that service we have no students currently placed in The Cooperative we are however required to pay indirect fees to True North that are approximately $540,000 that number only increases over time
007so you can see in that chart on the bottom that it's very realistic to think that minimally a 3 and 1 12% increase plus would be applied to chose any subsequent years of membership for those who've been following our efforts here this timeline looks very familiar this depicts simply the last 12 months of activity around this initiative uh this includes board meetings Communications that have been had uh other public statements that have been made proclamations board resolutions and the alike are all outlined in this this slide so next steps uh member districts um now this needed to happen by February 16th I think our last board meeting was the 18th so the the deadline actually fell just a couple of days before our last meeting member districts were required to bring District 34's resolution and
008petition to withdraw to their respective board meetings uh they had 60 days in which to uh conduct a vote so that was concluded a unanimous vote by the member districts was required in order to authorize our withdrawal from The Cooperative that was not obtained the the final votes as we understand them were 13 school districts voted in the affirmative to allow us to withdraw from The Cooperative four districts voted no uh which which ends you know that particular pathway that we were uh pursuing uh we're here uh also then on the 18th the school board approved a resolution authorizing the appeal of True North withdrawal petition disapproval decision so we did that at our last uh school board meeting and on um March 18th we're we're here this evening holding a public hearing on our
009comprehensive plan to educate students with disabilities and our next step would be to appeal to the main Township Trustees of schools and so there'll be further work that is done on uh making application for that once we get through uh this evening's meeting so with that I believe Kristen you would like to speak a little bit to all of the work you know and I should say thank you to you to your team there have been a whole host of people who have been working very hard over several months compiling this comprehensive plan that is now a part of a requirement through the state but I'll let you speak to that part I also want to thank our parents and students and staff for helping us to find out that this is the path we
010need to be on thank you both and so we are here tonight to talk about our draft special education comprehensive plan um over the past several months as mentioned by Dr Deli we've been working very hard on the development of our comprehensive plan um and although it's a required part of this process proc it was really helpful um in self-reflection and taking time to examine our system so there was really a lot of positive that came out of this too um the goal of the plan is clear we have to answer the question can we demonstrate the ability to provide a free and appropriate public education for a wide range of students with disabilities that's what the plan is about um so the final draft plan is available tonight for viewing at our back table
011president Nelson also has a copy of it there on his table and it is available at the district office and has been all month please um everyone is welcome to view that and give feedback we really value um our your feedback so for the development of the plan we are Guided by some requirements that are embedded in the Illinois administrative code and also relevant portions of the individuals with disabilities Education Act so that guided our plan but the plan is much more comprehensive than that it's about 600 pages and as you can see from the two binders and um I want to just kind of give you an overarching view of some of the requirements that are embedded in the plan so one of the requirements is that we have to talk about applicable State
012policies and procedures we have quite a few um procedures and policies that address special ed programming in the district so when you go to that section of the plan it will include things like what are our policies and procedures for child find in determining if students need to be brought forth for um a suspected dis ability what are our policies regarding our EV evaluation process what is our IEP programming how do we provide extended school year if that's what is needed to provide a free appropriate public education what is our process to ensure that we are servicing all students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment so that's embedded in both state policies and relevant portions of idea we also have to show through our draft plan A Continuum of program options for all students
013with disabilities this is probably in my opinion one of the most important parts of the draft plan it's a really important section because it describes our programming in District and support that we can um access if a student has needs beyond what our district can provide and so in that part of the plan you'll see our program options on our Continuum we provide consultative services as part of an the IP process we provide direct resource support we provide direct instructional support and we also have specialized programs as Dr Deli had mentioned our instructional life skills program and our so sore program are part of our district programming the the comprehensive plan also describes our Partnerships with private therapeutic day schools in the area and ensures that we have a full Continuum of services for our
014students with disabilities and that parents have input into the educational planning process so please if you're able to review our comprehensive plan that's a really important part of the plan um another part probably not as riveting is our special education forms we are required to be compliant with um with law in terms of our special education forms so you'll see through our IP process that all of our um forms are compliant with law so that's some of the overarching content of our plan but it's much more as I mentioned and so in the plan you'll see um an overview of our administrative structure you'll see a lot of St statistical documentation including how many children do we serve with IEPs what disabilities by category are represented in our district what is the presence of qualified
015Personnel to support our students with disabilities the plan describes our financial resources the number of related service staff who you'll hear from in our presentation later um we have to make sure we have a robust continuous support to service our students um Dr Deli mentioned that in addition to the comprehensive plan that we developed we also um use a third party Dr Christine sepel to also get sort of her view are we competent to service our our students and she gave us very favorable reviews in all areas that we do indeed have the supports necessary to um have our own programming and so that's kind of an overarching I wish I could go through all 600 Pages the plan is available for public viewing if you have time tonight I will stay as late as
016anyone needs me to stay and it's also available at the district office we really want feedback because that's what helps us grow so all feedback is appreciated good all right now we're going to move along to audience comments this is within our public hearing an opportunity for audience comments regarding the special education comprehensive plan 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 themselves and describe their relationship to the district please keep your comments at 3 minutes or less and please know the board will be taking notes but we will be in a listening mode only and an appropriate
017response will be given in a timely manner we also ask you only submit one comment per opportunity Rebecca do we have any comments we have several comments and just to clarify for those in the audience we're starting with our public comment for the public hearing and then we'll move to the other public comments once our board meeting begins so the first one is Dan basos thank you guys uh my name is uh Dan vasos I'm a former educator uh administrator uh I left public education due to the birth of my son uh my son is a six-year-old boy who's incredibly talented uh loves to read loves playing basketball and he just so happens to have Down syndrome that does not define who he is as a person um so that's kind of why I lead
018with a lot of the things I said about him we specifically being a former glenm resident specifically chose to move back home to my hometown due to the inclusive nature and the inclusive of desire to educate children like my son who I call have unique abilities rather than disabilities um in an educational setting that best fits their needs and I think after coming in last week and reviewing the plan with Kristen um just seeing the comprehensive plan that the district laid out for six years right I don't consider it like an an off-ramp I consider it an onramp onramp and everything was done very purposefully um to include kids such as my son and his other friends in general education classrooms which is is should be commendable to the district kids learn best in their
019home school and it's not just good for kids like my son but it's great for everyone in the classroom it's great for everyone in the school and it's great for everyone in the community when you set the bar high in education and you challenge kids in their home school in general education classrooms with the supports they're going to thrive they're going to thrive they're going to they may never reach the Pinnacle right but they're going to fall somewhere in between and the district has demonstrated that this is something they believe in and I commend the work that you guys have done right you guys clearly talked to every stakeholder possible Right made it crystal clear that this is something that you believe in and I believe firmly in the decision you guys are making As
020Leaders um and you guys have included parents stakeholders and everyone in this process so uh I'm in full support of educating all kids in their home school thank you you thank you very much for your comment next up we have Penelope herado hello everyone uh my name is Penelope herado I have two girls in the ILS program yali who is 10 about to be 11 and jolon who is is nine we have been um since yali started school uh started with nssed and now that they are both in their home school it has definitely been a change um in scenarios as far as yali being able to make connections not only with her peers but also with the community and me as a parent being able to be involved with both of my girls education
021um I'm also the bpack the Spanish vpac president because of that reason I wanted to make sure that um Everybody in the community felt included and I think that you guys are doing an amazing job at just making sure that all of our kids feel included not only in the school but also in the community so um I'm loving the fact that you guys are wanting to just keep all of our kids in their schools and their home schools thank you very much for your comments and next we have Shannon hartinger good evening my name is Shannon hardinger and I'm a physical therapist here in District 34 um I've been a school-based physical therapist for 19 years now I believe um I started my career with nssed true north um and for much of my
022career I was in and out of schools every day and sometimes going to see a student for 30 minutes and then leaving um and when the opportunity presented itself to um become full-time in District 34 I jumped on it and I jumped on it because for the last part of my time at True North I was placed here in Glen View and it was kind of the first time where I felt um that I was a little bit more than a physical therapist I truly felt like an educator I felt like I was part of so many Dynamic teams and that's grown tremendously in the last 3 years um you know I've seen all the things the district has done to build build capacity to support all Learners and I think the best thing for
023me is that I get to have an impact on all of the kids in our district not just the ones on my case load and that wasn't possible before um there's so many opportunities for coaching I feel like I am a coach I also coach soccer but I feel like I get to bring that part of my life into the schools by coaching teachers and coaching teams working with parents um and everyone just so that we can support all of our students um no matter what their unique ability is and um so I am in full support of this and thank you for your time thank you coach shanon she coached my daughter and sck and finally the last card I have for a public comment for our public hearing is Karen hitzman good evening
024everyone my name is Karen hitzman and I'm a former parent of District 34 for the past six years I have worked as the District parent and community facilitat Ator I'm here tonight to express my full support of District 34 withdrawing from True North I've been involved with the district since 2009 and have had the unique opportunity to utilize the services of true north and to experience the evolution of inclusion in District 34 I have a 19-year-old son Joey with Sarah paly when he first arrived in the district as a preschooler he was receiving Physical Therapy occupational therapy and assisted technology services from then nssed at the as the district began providing these Services inhouse I immediately noticed a strong and very positive shift in access to services and in the continuity of the support he
025was receiving specifically it became much easier to address the day-to-day issues confronting my son's ability to access the academic environment for example if he was having issues with his hand braces afos wheelchair it was much easier for the OT or the PT at the school to make the adjustments at necessary previously the school had to contact to North make an appointment to schedule the service or adjustment and then wait for the service appointment a process that often would take more than a week as the true north therapists provided services at many other schools when the shift to in-house Services was made these issues were addressed immediately with little to no impact on my son's day-to-day access to academics another important benefit to having our own staff provide Therapy Services and assist of tech support is
026is the continuity of service providers when Joey was a student the provision of his Therapy Services was inconsistent at times there was a bit of a revolving door providers for example he could lose a therapist midyear and have to have a sub or replacement to provide the services he was used to receiving as Prov also providers would change uh yearly almost and there was always quite a learning curve um to get to the place where he was with the new therapist in my opinion these issues caused either a stagnation of growth or a delay in the growth until the replacement therapist was up to speed as District 34 began providing these Services internally these issues were essentially eliminated and our students have had the benefit of a cohesive and accessible team during the past six
027years as my work with the district continues I've seen incredible cohesiveness and the seamless provision of services to our students all members of the student all of our members of the student team are aligned with the District 34 culture and are readily accessible to address problems as they arise on a final note I feel compelled to mention that District 34's commitment to inclusion truly changed my own child's life and I attribute his success in college to this dedication to inclusion the inclusive culture at District 34 truly Fosters a mindset of collaboration and adapt adaptation to our students that can carry them into adulthood preparing them for the diverse work environments in our communities in some I'd like to reiterate my support of District 3 4 is withdrawal from true north thank you very much Karen
028do we have any more comments thank you for the comments superintendent Deli assistant superintendent CER you have anything you have to add any closing comments not at this time all right does any board member have any comments I just thank everybody for coming out and and um you know for sharing uh and also thank you to all the team members for putting that together the comprehensive plan is indeed comprehensive and um listening to the personal experiences really solidifies everything so thank you for that all of you I was just going to say it's interesting that we call it a plan because whenever I hear plan it makes it sound like something you have you know you're about to do but in reality this is like a recap and a summation of what we've been doing
029and it's kind of like the Char on top just to put it in writing so just I think it's important to highlight that that it's something that's been in the works and being implemented already I this is my sixth year on the board and it's so fun seeing us get to the path that we've started a long time ago so let's keep working because the work continues we're not there yet so thank you very much all right if that's enough at this time we'll close a public hearing on a draft special education comprehensive plan may have a motion and a second to adjourn to public hearing so moved second bombstar uh all those in favor I I any opposed no motion carries we are going back to our regular meeting thanks all right we'll move
030along to our approval section we have the approval of our agenda can I have a motion and second to approve the agenda so moved bomb Stark second moon all those in favor I I any opposed motion carries now we have the approval of the February 18th regular and executive session minutes may have a motion in a second to approve the regular and executive session minutes so moved kovich second Dolan Gabby Mana roll call supose Moon hi Dolan hi Nelson hi kovich hi bstark hi motion carries now we have our communication section Dr Deli yes thank you uh we have some special guests in our audience this evening that uh we are here to recognize this evening um and it's the uh those who Excel Awards the Illinois State Board of Education sponsors the those who
031Excel and the teacher of the year program to honor Educators who have made significant contributions to our state's public and non-public Elementary and Secondary Schools District 34 is thrilled to recognize three individuals this evening who were nominated applied and recognized at the state level for the 2425 school year so it I have three names and uh just a couple of comments I'm going to mention on each person I would just like for right now the individual to stand while I'm speaking so that we can see who you are and get eyes on you and then when I'm through we'll have everyone come up and take a picture and we have a certificate to give and my understanding too is um uh we're going to give you an opportunity to go into our swag store and
032select something of of your choosing as a uh as a thank you and our sense of uh Pride expression first Amy Frederick Amy just want to stand up so we can get eyes on you looks like you have company which I'm thrilled about uh Amy Frederick is a student services coordinator at AA was nominated in the administrator category and received an award of meritorious service during our meeting tonight you will also see uh Amy's name appear for approval as Hoffman's new assistant principal for student services Amy we're very proud of you congratulations [Applause] next Marcelo yunda Spanish El teacher at AA and Marcelo was recognized in the early career educator category and received an award of meritorious service as well Marcella [Applause] also Penelope herado our bpac president who you heard from a little earlier
033was recognized in the community volunteer category and received an award of special recognition Penelope congratulations uh before we get you up here I just want to also mention we had three additional members who were nominated in some other categories Lisa Hoy third grade teacher at Pleasant Ridge was nominated in the teacher of the year category um Mary Spina ILS education associate at AA was nominated in the Education Services Personnel category and Adrien Hofer instructional coach at Lian was nominated in the student support Personnel category so for our award winners can you come up to the front for a picture okay thank you for that and now uh we have a presentation that we'd like to share with you we're very excited to have some of our colleagues and others here uh to help us the
034presentation is reading uh I'm sorry ready body learning minds and Kristen would you have a few introductory statements to make sure um we'll tee up the PowerPoint and it is with pleasure Dr Deli that we share information about some of the Innovative programming that's happening here at our district I'm going to invite the team up to the table so that they can introduce themselves It's a good-looking team and we'll start with Shannon with introductions and your role in The District sure um hi Shannon hard injur physical therapist Rachel Hern occupational therapist Haley garula school psychologist and Patrick Hoff principal at Westbrook so we are indeed excited to share information tonight about ready body learning minds and this um program in is a really true example of programming that breaks down the silos and integrates all
035aspects of teaching and learning um it began as a gef grant if you want to forward through to that slide and um a gef grant that was awarded in the spring so that's how it's started and then it includes our student services team and it really shows how involved they are Beyond um just servicing individual students that they're really part of our system our responsive system it involves one curriculum Innovation and most importantly um as you'll see it shows kids engaged in their learning and although we're early in the implementation we're already seeing longer lasting effects throughout the school day and I'm going to um turn it over to Natalie to talk a little bit about strategic plan alignment thank you ready Bodies Learning minds or rblm as we have been calling it because it's
036a mouthful is a great example of the many ways you will our strategic plan in action in our schools um as you saw on the first Slide the objective of the program is to cultivate the complete child which directly aligns with our district vision of creating learning opportunities to develop the whole child the presentation as it gets going you'll also notice that the program aligns with many of the goals in the Strategic plan two of the goals that we've highlighted here are building that sense of belonging and well-being with our students and also um creativity and Innovation and really fostering agency inspiring engagement and achievement for our youngest Learners so I will turn it over to our lovely Team Awesome thank you Natalie um so what is ready Bodies Learning Minds um we'll say rblm
037probably for the rest of the presentation as Natalie said it's a mouthful um we like to say that we're in our rblm era for any Taylor Swift fans out there um because really this is something um that we've really embodied at um especially at Westbrook this year year with some of our preschool Learners um ready bodies is a series of fun and play-based movement activities that are designed to build a strong foundation for Learning and we are going to start by showing just a short short video um of ready bodies in action all right your turn is all finished time okay [Music] thank you um so ready Bodies Learning Minds is a comprehensive approach to understanding how sensory integration and motor control drives learning and therefore really the performance of our children one thing to
038note is this is not a program that we developed um Rachel will talk a little bit later about how the program was developed um this is a program and curriculum that we are adopting um and also tweaking and making a little bit more of ours as we kind of navigate the process in today's world um so just want to note that it is not something that we developed um we want to give full credit to the developers of the program um it's something that we are implementing so it is a program designed for all students and I think that's the beauty of this program is that any student can participate in this program we have students as young as three in our preschool program we've worked in this program with students as old its second
039grade this thus far but really the the possibilities are open to anyone um and it really has specific exercises and activities um really to Target all the different systems of a child um the base of the program focuses on primitive reflexes we'll talk a little bit more about those as we go um there's a lot of science behind those we're not going to spend a ton of time talking about that today but I think it is important to know that there is um there are exercises that students do um if students have not integrated their primitive reflexes these exercises will help to do that um but in addition even if students um primitive reflexes are integrated they are still great activities for a lot of different reasons which we'll explain and I think one of
040the things we focus on is that we really want to teach students how to move their bodies so that they are learning how not to move their bodies when it's time to learn um so so far the implementation um in preschool we do the full motor lab which we'll talk a little bit more about um one time a week under under the direction of myself and our preschool occupational therapist um we have weekly motor groups so all of our preschool classes um our am and our PM sections they all come into the motor lab they go through the entire program in a 30 minute block um and that occurs one time per week in our kindergarten classes um all of the classes were taught the key exercises across our um three primary buildings hanking lion
041and Westbrook um and we've started to integrate the stations within in PE class so um our PE teachers have started to integrate not only the key exercises but also some of the different stations um with using the equipment that we have here and we've done a lot of building based professional development this is where the coaching hat goes on um we've done several trainings on ready bodies and looked to do more we're really focusing obviously on the roll out this year but talking about what the program is and then really getting into the why behind it and connecting it to academic growth and success all right so you can be asking why would we do rblm um can't we just do exercises and can't they just go to PE class but what this program has
042really worked on is designing um purposeful and intense movements um that have good intent for it and so if you look at the graphic of a building there's the scaffolding and the locomoter is the scaffolding but all those other pieces help bring up that cognition in the middle um and so that's really why rbl is important and different than just the PE curriculum um and then just to go over the history a little bit like Shannon said this was developed in the 80s uh down in West Texas um by a physical therapist who um simed what we were just talking about was spread across many many many rural districts and really wanted to look at how she could impact all of the students that she was working across all these districts I mean covering hundreds
043of square miles and it what she was Finding in the 80s car seats started and that developed container babies babies that were sitting in a in a position or in a a bowl for a long time and wasn't learning they weren't learning to move and then this also emphasis play and then what she started doing as she was rolling out these exercises across the district she was working in they started to see a correlation in kindergarten Readiness and academic skills and started to look more and more at the research of is it more than just a correlation um and today the pandemic kind of did that same thing with these container babies these kids are on screens they're on tablets um and really not doing as much emphasis of play um and we're still feeling
044those effects of Co today in our classrooms and so this is really getting these kids learning how to move their bodies so the components of rblm as we've T touched on a little bit are the four key exercises um as you can see our superhero popcorn giraffe and rocking horse these are exercises that can be done anywhere we could all actually do them right now if you want um but we won't make you do that but they're very simple exercises um some we call it superhero instead of Superman but these are things you may have seen when you're doing your own workouts but very simple exercises that can be done anywhere um we had some preschool students who started doing them on the playground one day um which is great we want to see that
045obviously they're learning and and having little exercise class outside um but then really what we're here to talk about is the motor lab and um that is a very intentional task Orient and it it's like circuit training um for kids and the it really again like we just talked about targets all of the systems of a child um so here's a little bit more information about our key exercises all right so you can see these are the graphics and these are the graphics that we use within the classroom um and at this point all of the classroom teachers are doing these uh we as the therapists and the rbl team are not implementing them the classroom teachers are doing it and it looks at if anyone's ever done yoga or Matt Pilates it's very similar
046it's look taking one set of muscles and making sure that they work on the extra the other set of muscles but these really help um kids break out of the non uh like the reflexes that they might not be able to do for example just really quick a baby when they go to reach their hand goes out like this when they look if a kid goes to write and they still have that reflex it's going to be very hard for them to write because this hand is out here um and so these these positions help these kids learn how to move their body and break through that reflex and I think even as I mentioned earlier for kids whose reflexes might be integrated if you look at some of the targets of these exercises we're
047really looking at building proximal stability we hear a lot about core strength its connection to postural control its connection to motor control and so I think we the teachers feel excited about also targeting those activities or those areas so that students are just a bit stronger if they're stronger proximately they're going to be able to do things with their hands which includes right um so our lab is set up um in very much a circuit form um we each of the different colors rep represents a different system that we're targeting um as you can see I put an example of one of our weeks um so for instance our tactile station includes this really awesome tactile tunnel um which we talk to the kids is like crawling through peanut butter or it's crawling through um
048kind of like a lyro vest but um the kids love it um it's better than crawling just through a regular tunnel it's giving their bodies a lot of input um we have some kids who explore the tunnel but by the end of it most of the kids are going all the way through it we've had many of our adults and teachers try it as well so it'll be here if anyone would like to um one thing that's always out in our motor lab are the vestibular boards and um I kind of put one out here it is a spinning board um and just really it's something that's always out um the students have an opportunity to spin themselves if a student is unable to spin themselves we can help facilitate that what's really cool to
049watch is that students may have a hard time being able to push to spin themselves when they start but now they're more independent in doing so um and then just a couple different like activities as you saw in the video as well we work a lot on balance um we work a lot on and or sorry I hand foot coordination um and again just really looking at all of these different activities and how they're targeting all those different systems the students in our motor lab spend 2 minutes at each station and they're in small groups um we've got visuals so these visuals if you want to hold those up um we've created these on our program that the district has called lesson picks and so we've kind of taken the exercises and adapted them um
050each group has a paint stick with all of the different stations so they know where they're rotating um it's been really fun to watch their independence in navigating through the motor lab but um we've got a lot of supports um we've also our Associates and our teachers are so engaged during these activities as well and it's just been a really awesome way to support all of our Learners so our overall goal of the learning lab or the motor lab is to help students be ready to learn when they come into the classroom after doing it one time or even after overtime going to the motor lab over and over um it's helping them to navigate their environment it's helping to improve handwriting um like you said we teach them to move so that they know
051how not to move when that's need so they're sitting still they're paying attention their engagement and communication is increasing um another goal is to stimulate their sensory system um building that structure so that they are able to um G gain those academic skills and then improve their ability to control themselves self-regulation is really kind of the core of what we're we're aiming for here and as Haley mentioned the sensory systems that we are impacted and this is really where I think the difference between just doing you know PE curriculum versus this program is comes into play so the sensory systems we're dealing with a lot at school right now classrooms are not quiet and and still and so there's a lot of integration of the sensory inputs that are needed and rblm helps that so
052tactile is that sense of touch we use that a lot for writing vestibular system it is our movement system um this is when kids are moving around a lot in their seats um this gives them that ability to help sit still um by being able to move like that it also helps with written stuff too like copying um standing in line even proprioceptive is your GPS marker it's you knowing where you are in space and how far away you are from someone um this really helps with the kids uh navigate the school day it helps with using enough pressure when they're writing or cutting um it also is very important for that visual motor foundation for math uh visual just that is your visual stuff understanding the left to the right reading and writing we
053use our visual system all day long at school same with auditory um this helps kids filter out that background noise so that they're able to attend by doing these purposeful activities throughout the lab with each of our stations um we create a slide that looks like this that we send to our teachers and our teams um so it really gives them an overview of what the activity is and then I think really so that we can connect it back to the classroom we always like to include what the focus is and why we're doing that like we talked about it's intentional so what we're trying to gain by having them crawl through this crazy tunnel um so we wanted to just mention um we've worked a lot with our PE teachers we've worked a lot
054with different um teachers within our building and this is some of the feedback that they've shared yeah so we're not going to read through all of the examples but in PE our teachers are seeing that doing this routine is helping students participate it's helping their socialization their self- regul regulation and that they're really engaged and focused when they're doing this and then in preschool we're seeing that students are excited to do this that again that focus and regulation is increasing um and then it helps them to be more independent because they're learning how to follow a routine and then finally in another preschool classroom they're seeing that students are able to sit and engage in an academic activity for longer periods of time helping them to access their education in a moment Patrick will talk
055about some of the hard data but I think one of the things that we're seeing observationally um is here um you know thinking about the routines so just thinking about like all the routines that our students have throughout the day this is one way that they're getting practiced with moving to different activities um on a time understanding like we at preschool we always say hands on top that means stop and so the kids are understanding that expectation um it's really been a great opportunity for some small group learning um even with our littlest friends in preschool we've seen a lot of like leadership opportunities coming out um Independence has been a really big one um we love the social we love the chitchat that happens sometimes it might deter them from doing an exercise but
056we love seeing those social connections um the kids are always helping each other which is great um for math they're working on their counting is there counting reps of different activities um it is helping because there is some teacher Direction here so it is kind of helping students understand that sometimes there might be teacher-directed activities um that they have to follow through with and then of course one of the biggest things is just seeing their participation has just been really awesome to watch and I think too just going back a little bit the team is represented here just with a small core piece but the team is much broader than we can fit at this table it's all of our kindergarten teachers it's really all of the administrators across the primary building things in preschool
057um and some of the growth areas too is just not only what we just shared but just the professional development that's taken place in such a short amount of time really not having this plan in place prior to the start of the year and coming to this point where we're not presenting and talking about all of the growth that we're seeing we've we've we've grown so much in such a short amount of time and it's all built on the excitement of this is what our students need um and this is what our teachers want and that buy in is really coming from the ground up and we're really starting to see it so well I have the joy of sharing some of the boring data um it really is more than just what we can
058present on a screen you really have to feel it you have to see it you just have to know um and be a part of it and I think the leadership that you've seen from this team it goes above and beyond um but please know it's not just this team it's far greater um with the support of our district as well but in preschool we really look at teaching strategies gold it's observational data that teachers collect on students and really um we collect on a variety of different domains really 26 I've just pulled a few but you can see that really this is just a part of the comprehensive plan right we know that this is a need and this does fill that need but it's so much more than what's going on with routines
059and expectations and just really great teaching that's happening everywhere I think the Buy in from kindergarten teachers really about intentional movement break inside of the classroom and starting their morning meetings each day with some of these core exercises to really meet those needs um goes Far and Beyond really what we can capture in numbers but the numbers uh certainly help and really what's next is we want to just continue to build on the excitement again this was such a short timeline this year for the implementation and I can't say enough about these individuals just taking leadership um because the impact they're having is far beyond case loads it's far beyond on just the students that they're kind of working with individually it really is impacting three buildings in a preschool program um it it's pretty
060vast and it's wide and it's only happened in a short amount of time so really what are we looking for we're looking for um continued implementation probably at a broader scope as we go into next year um we're looking at expanding just some of the teacher training some of the why why are we doing this um it's a pretty intense training that everyone that's been involved has gone through it takes hours of training to just understand some of that science that we went into and why are we doing this and some of the impacts that it's had um we want to continue to F you know monitor student outcomes maybe at a little bit more detailed level that's just one of the things that we haven't been able to do in this short time of
061implementation and then really we've been talking with all of our PE teachers and minimally we're going to incorporate it into kindergarten PE um about once a week depending kind of on how units fall for next year um but a lot of that is the summer planning and some of the planning that really takes place in the next month about building schedules and allocating space and having some of that training that's done over the course of the summer to have that full implementation that comes next year but again I can't say enough about um the individuals that are here and just the support that we've had uh to implement across all three buildings thank you does anyone have any questions or comments I have a comment first of all thank you for the presentation um I
062think as adults sometimes we forget that kids don't learn the same ways we do we expect them to sit still right to me this is one of the few things that I've seen that I wouldn't even need qualitative data to see if it succeeds it makes intuitive sense to me that kids need to have purposeful movements to learn not just run around the gym right um I wouldn't mind seeing something like this happen in intermediate schools I mean even at that age I as you know I'm at the schools all the time I watch kids explain something and their pacing they they have a hard time controlling their movements or they're not aware of them so this is great work it makes a lot of sense um and my last question is who's wearing the
063mascot then I was the panda no I was the lion I was the lion I have a lot of bloopers I can show you don't worry I was gonna say the outakes are hidden um thank you I think um we one when we first wrote the grant we wrote it preschool through 2 grade I think we realized that was a Monumental task so we scaled it back and only wrote it for preschool and kindergarten but I think now that we've hit the ground running um we can think about how to expand in the future so thank you I was just going to say it looks like a lot of fun so it's awesome to see that it's actually having a lot of benefit not just fun but fun is also helping to learn so thank
064you all for even exploring this as a pilot and look forward to hearing about how the expanded implementation success goes as we start to Branch out thank you anyone's welcome to join us Wednesdays all day I was just about to say that you know you're always inv always invited take me up on that opportunity yes we will put you to work though thank you so wait uh you guys wrote a grant for this program so you actually believed in it and it's actually showing that it works so I'd also like to thank the GF for sponsoring first year uh we always talk about the GF as our R&D and we got a lot of members on the board here who were probably presidents of GF if I recall so we love to partner with them
065and we love to see that it's working too so thanks for everything you done I hope you could implement this even into upper grades thank you I could use this we'll be here anytime okay thank you thank you all right now we're at our audience comments this is the first opportunity for audience comments in our regular meeting anyone wishing to address the board can submit a comment card available at the checking table and give it to the executive director of communications and strategic planning the executive director will call community members who submit cards forward and they'll be asked to introduce themselves and describe their relationship to the district please keep your comments at 3 minutes or less and know that the board will be taking notes but be in listening mode only an appropriate response
066will be given in a timely manner we ask you submit one comment per opportunity Rebecca do we have any comments we do have several comments the first is John Carlile good evening uh members of the board Dr Deli and staff uh my name is John Carlile I'm a resident um I have two parents in or sorry two children in the district one at Glen grve and the other at Westbrook um my first comment tonight is related to an action item on your agenda for your consideration and it's the approval of the alltown um general transportation contract I'd like to start by providing a few anecdotes um just here from 2025 the first was Monday January 6th uh the Glen Grove serving bus was very very late in the morning in the afternoon called alltown directly
067on both of those days and was told in the morning that the reason they were late is that they neglected to start the buses over the long holiday break and that they were having equipment problems starting up um and they apologized but they were still over 20 minutes late the student did get to school the afternoon was worse though uh after the bus was a few minutes late called all town to figure out what was going on uh to learn that they tracked the vehicle and at the time it was by Niles West High School on Oakton this was uh well after school dismissal time and after uh you know the drop off time so with the that particular vehicle that far away um my daughter was not going to be coming home anytime soon
068so she and everybody on that route just waited at school for well over a half hour before they were brought home so this is a vehicle that wasn't even in the right suburb here's a second story uh Thursday of last week March 13th uh also the route to Glen Grove this is the morning route was ultimately um more than a half hour late and that was after you know we're standing out there we called all Town standing at the stop and they say it'll be there in four to five minutes a notification text did go out uh which we appreciate warning of a significant delay on the route but we had already been standing out there for several minutes and I I don't want to over criticize staff on this I believe that they they
069didn't hear from alltown that there was a problem until um you know after the problem was out of control so past the point of um of us being able to get a timely notification luckily um at that stop in the morning there's another student and a parent who wait with us so they were able to walk my uh third grader to school and I could go back in the house get my kindergartener ready to get on her bus which comes in an hour uh and that BR brings me to my third point which is that we actually do have a lovely experience um with the bus driver um who takes our K Garden to Westbrook very reliable very kind absolutely no issues so I want to be fair and just say that my family's um
070experience with alltown is quite mixed um but with that I think there are ways to hold them um more accountable um then I I my impression is the district is currently holding them accountable so I want to make a couple of suggestions the first is to in every instance not some instance but every instance enforce the penalties in terms of the contract um when there's documented lateness whether that originates from a direct complaint like those that I've given or perhaps in a data- driven manner where where we're tracking where vehicles are at various scheduled time points along their routes there is a provision in the contract that allows for this and I think it's very very important that it be enforced and that it uh is evident from invoices that if they're obtained by the
071public through foa or any other way um that those um uh penalties are being docked off what we what we pay them and then to speak to a a data driven uh in transparent solution I there are tools available and ways to present um in the field of Transportation uh a vendor performance I understand SCH interrupt at over three minutes so we'll just ask you to wrap up when okay I'll just be SU to say that I understand it's different than say public buses but um uh publishing a a dashboard or a regular report on the home page for District transportation I think would be very helpful of course throw out bad weather days I want to be you know reasonable and there are exua circumstances but um uh there could be some more information
072available there I believe um that would hold um this vendor accountable thank you for your comments thank you I do have uh can I roll right into the second thank you yes um so this is on a uh more General theme not specific to alltown um but just on contract Awards and my understanding of the custom of uh the flow of of how a contract is awarded and that there's a discussion item one month and then an action item in the following month discussion item is posted online with an agend or um you know a staff memo um some background and then uh the actual award month um there's less information usually just the the ordinance of resolution for approval um I do appreciate um Mr Miller being responsive this week and kind of explaining
073um some questions I had about a particular procurement and award um but I'd like to make a couple of suggestions for ways to provide additional information on contract Awards the first would be when publishing U materials for a meeting to include the full bid package or the contract terms um in their final form and to do that for both the discussion item and the and the action item uh so it's a little easier to find further I would recommend that in the actual staff memo there be some kind of breakdown on biders for contract Awards um I've come to learn that some rules have changed I don't know the intricacies but there's may be a a change under state law um for not having to always take the lowest bidder I actually think that's great
074I'm glad to hear that the district has some flexibility in awarding contracts on qualifications experience technology and other things but you know look no further to some Municipal units of government like the village of glenv you can look in their staff MOS you will see at least a table that breaks down who bid what was the amount of the ab bid all of that stuff it's there it's easy to find um I did watch last month's meeting there was some discussion of a contract board did ask a couple of questions of staff I feel like there could have been some more detail that was that came out of that meeting somehow whether in a written material or maybe in that discussion and so um doing something like that um would be really helpful I believe
075for the public and for the taxpayers to know what's going on thank you thank you very much for your comments and additionally we have Chrissy Felton sorry no problem oh I see um good evening my name is Chrissy Felton and I'm the parent of a fifth grader at Pleasant Ridge and a first grader at lion um I'm also very passionate about a moov mement called wait until 8th um and I've been helping to spread this message around Glen View for about the last 6 months um first I want to give just a very brief explanation on what this is because I think that um everyone may not be familiar and um I also think there's some misconceptions out there about it um so basically by taking the wait until 8th pledge um parents commit to
076waiting until at least the end of 8th grade to get their child a smartphone um The Pledge is not asking parents to not get get their child a device at all there's plenty of alternative devices watches things like that um we're focused on not getting a smartphone spe smartphone specifically iPhone Android those kind of things that have internet social media all that kind of thing um we're basically you know kind of encouraging parents to do this just because of all the recent data that's come out about the harmful effects that these devices are having on our kids mentally academically and socially um so for those of you with older kids I'm sure many of you felt pressure um to get your child a phone because you know everyone had them and all my friends have
077an iPhone and you know it's it's really hard to be the one parent that's holding out on this um and so that's why this pledge is so powerful because if a group of parents take the pledge together um it's just a lot easier to hold out as a group um you know if your if your child's friends all don't have a either than no one's being left out um so the reason I'm here tonight is because um I just kind of wanted to express some frustration with um The District's current policy on um the way we can inform parents about this pledge um so my understanding of it is that we're not allowed to have like a standalone table at school events to inform parents about it um and the principles from what I've been
078told cannot like include information on it in like a school newsletter and um I do understand that um the district doesn't want to make parents feel that they're telling them what to do in their own homes like I I'm a longtime teacher and I get there's like a line that you don't want to cross there um but we're we're really not asking the district to cross that line we just want help with informing parents that this even exists um and so basically um you know we just want parents to know that if they are interested in um holding out on a smartphone that they won't be alone um there are 330 families in the district who have signed this pledge so it's a pretty sizable number and we just want parents to know that they
079wouldn't be alone um and so I know that like there's um coming up there's kindergarten information night's coming up there's um uh the book fair is coming up Spring Book Fairs and so what I'm requesting is that we would be able to have an information table there just to discuss this with parents and Spread spread the word about it basically um and I really also think that um we wanted to request that just a short blur be allowed to be included in either like a school newsletter or a district newsletter um just telling parents that this is even happening that it's out there um I've been told one of the reasons that we haven't been able to do this in the past interrupt your over three so if you want to wrap up yes I
080will wrap up um I've just I've been told that we haven't been allowed to do this because we're considered like an outside organization um but we're really not an organization we're just like a small group of parents using like Grassroots methods to get the word out about this and we just could really use the district's help um so finally just to wrap up um you know given that smartphones um you know delaying them really supports the mental health of students their academics their relation ship building it it really just feels like this pledge is something that the district should be informing parents about um again we're not asking the district to like explicitly encourage parents to take this pledge I understand that that crosses a line um we're just asking for help informing parents that
081it's out there um 330 families it's it's a pretty sizable number and it's growing and so we just feel that it's the responsibility of the district to let families know that this is happening in our district and we could use your help that's it thanks thank you thanks for your comments tonight all right next we'll move to our cassen agenda we have the consideration of resolutions 25009 Personnel report the 2510 payroll warrants the 2511 vendor warrants and the 25012 Press issue 117 board policy update can I have a motion in a second to approve because I have a question okay would you like to take one off the consent or no I was I had a question about one of the press items and I don't expect anyone to know know the answer but it'
082be kind of cool if we looked into it sure there was one of the changes it this was in the summary he said made it so that you didn't have to go to a referendum to build uh space build or require space for a kindergarten uh if you wanted have a kindergarten did you and then also offered some changes to debt uh service for similar um I don't know if it was for that purpose or more generally and I was just I I think it's too late for us but I'm always interested like if they've loosened things on do service if there's something we can use you know to our advantage in the future from a flexibility standpoint I don't know if anyone knew anymore about what what that change was well I I mean
083the change coincides with mandated full day kindergarten programming um what I've often thought about and Eric you and I should probably talk a little bit more about this is to just inquire about maybe the retroactivity if there's anything if there's any movement or something that that allows us to re regain uh Debt Service or whatever it may be I think is is worth pursuing anything anyway come anytime it comes up it's worth taking just or at least asking someone like I don't know if Elizabeth be the right person like would this affect us materially is this a tool we could use in the future you Rec call which policy it was in in press or was this in press right yeah it was in the summary I couldn't find the actual details of the change
084to the language I know which one you're referring to I I'm not going to remember the number it's early in the the summary thing and I assumed it was because of all the screaming and yelling over the full day kindergarten yeah I'm sure it's a lot of districts that don't have ability to actually issue debt but they have to build buildings within the next two years so yeah I just I wanted to bring it up and see if we could investigate just a touch to see if there's something we could use in the future or even retroactively I me I'm all for that yeah but let's approve the policies we could do it tot all right may I have a motion in a second to approve the consent so moved second Dolan um can I
085have a roll call Gabby Moon I Dolan hi Nelson hi kovich hi bombstar hi suos motion carries yeah Eric ask Liz or something I mean that'd be great if we could get some more D set yeah I have a feeling those were put in place for the districts that maybe they didn't want to force to go off a referendum and forced to jump through these hoops and get yeah there unintended consequences that's right look um next we have our consideration of other resolutions discussion and action section we have the 25013 2025 2028 general education Transportation contract Eric yeah we put this on here just in case there were any additional questions or comments but um I don't have any further information at this time does anyone else have any comments or questions if not I'll
086ask for a motion in a second to approve the resolution is presented so moved Dolan Gabby may have a roll call Dolan hi Nelson hi kenl Lovich hi bomark hi supose Moon I uh motion carries next we have the 25014 2025 20 26 special education Transportation contract extension that's right same goes for this one uh also long-standing relationship now with the Safeway and this is a one-year extension as we reviewed last month can I ask a question uh how long is this extension been like from our original contract uh I'd have to look but I want to say um say 2018 is that what it says okay April 2018 was the original the initial yeah so this is this will be like the eth year seventh year yeah okay all right may I have a
087motion in a second to approve the resolution as present please so moved kovich second moon Gabby may have a roll call vote Nelson hi kovich hi bstark hi suos Moon hi Dolan I motion carries uh now we have the 2515 2025 2026 Staffing allocations so these are the same total uh FTE that was presented to the board in February for both certified and support staff some small alterations to where things are listed just due to the details around the preschool for all Grant and then the board also has the administrative staffing recommendations which are the same as this year any questions or comment I just want to make a point that if we get like a bunch more kids our staffing allocations will change correct it could sure we we would respond thanks can I
088have a motion in a second to approve the resolution is presented so move bombstar second Dolan uh Gabby Moka supose Nelson hi kovich hi Bomar hi Moon hi do wi all motion carries we have the 2516 action to honorably dismiss and reassign a part-time teacher Kevin we have a uh retiring GAA president and this necessitates on movement of of a part-time staff into a full-time role can I have a motion a second to approve resolution is presented so move Moon second bombstar gby may have a roll call kovich hi bstark hi suos Moon hi Dolan hi Nelson motion carries now we have the 2517 Panorama contract um this is a renewal contract for our Universal screening for social emotional learning that we conduct three times a year with students it helps us build um our
089responsive system addressing those needs and so this again is a renewal we've been very happy with um the service does anyone have any questions or comments it's a three-year contract it is a three-year contract not a perear calculation this is total contract value yeah this is y if no comments or questions can I have a motion and a second to approve the resolution is presented so moved Doan second bombstar G me m have a roll call vote Moon I Dolan hi Nelson hi kovich hi bomster hi suos motion carries now we have the 2518 electricity bid Steve good evening um I'll be asking the uh board shortly uh to approve uh a new electricity contract our current three-year contract is set to expire uh back in February we uh an invitation was sent out on
090uh on our behalf by symmetry uh which is our electricity broker and at that time we received uh four uh companies four companies quoted us on 12 24 and 36 month contracts um we actually got a refreshed pricing this morning at that time a was the lowest and they were actually again the lowest this morning um so I would recommend the board approve a 36-month contract with a for electric services does anyone have any questions or comments uh just on the bottom where it says capacity will be passed through like how big of a price charge is that i' I've been is that like a big issue going on right now with capacity it is a very big issue that's going on right now so um PGM which is the governing agency that ComEd Falls
091underneath it went out for auction back in the fall right before the elections and because of all the uncertainty um the capacity pricing went way High um extremely elevated everyone's saying it was a fluke thing but that's being passed on everybody that uses comat including us at home unfortunately um so the contract for 36 month the first year it's been being passed on year two and three we're not locking into the capacity charge um because at the advice of our broker um they're assuming that the the capacity charge will go down as soon as it goes down this fall we can lock in for year two and three I'm just trying to get a sense of the relative magnitude these are what six and a 6.7 cents per kilowatt hour how much is the capacity
092charge relative to the capacity charge based on our usage for the year is 115,000 is that just this year that's just this year do you have any uh institutional knowledge what it's been in the past like um I do do not have that number what it's been in the past it's been significantly lower um I can get some paperwork on it if you U like for me to pass on some paperwork because typically that's just something you can lock in but because it's so price so high right now this is like a new way to approach it is to let it float kind of for the and let it maybe lock it in later once it comes back down is that correct that's what the suggestion is to you know wait till it comes down
093they go they go out in the fall for the next year so when they go off for auction this upcoming fall the price capacity price goes down we can lock in for year two and three at that time and everyone's having this issue with capacity correct everybody that has comad will be having this issue and they're our supplier right I mean generally the correct well comat is the distributor right they also distri they also have a distribution charge but this capacity charge is different than that right this yeah this is uh by P pjm which is the governing agency that ComEd falls under so they pass it on to comad and P comad passes on to all their customers I see how that works and the pass through that would be the same price no
094matter which bidder we chose here correct well actually yeah it probably be a little higher with the other biders that were slightly higher A's capacity charge was the lowest also because it's probably based on the rate you're paying to okay that sounds like that'd be an important piece too like to know because that's correct not so this quote doesn't include the capacity charge this is just the no that quote does not include the capacity charge but it is 0.13 less than our prev previous uh three-year contract per per kilowatt hour so there's some good news but you're saying a you're the recommended provider also has the lowest capacity pass through charge correct so okay got well we look forward to definitely hearing that the capacity charges are lower and perhaps maybe negotiate a contract for
095the extension I will do that when when we find out that number in to fall I'll bring it to you guys any other questions or comments I mean these are the vagaries of commercial electricity correct pardon this is commercial electricity this is how it's priced that's it and interestingly you get a lower price by locking in longer yeah because of the can Tango or whatever that is okay I'm not even sure what we use to generate it around here nuclear gas oil um all right is there any more questions or I'm good the recommend can we have a motion in a second to approve the electricity bed is uh presented for a three-year contract with AUP so moved kovich second bbstar Gabby may I have a roll call supose Moon hi Dolan hi Nelson hi
096kovage hi bomark hi motion carries now we have the 259 roof installation contract okay at this time I'd like to call up Justin Reed from the Garland group so um we're actually nearing the end of our referendum phases and the last phase of work this summer is re-roof and recoding at six of our schools um Garland group has been our Roofing consultant for past six or seven years and um we use them uh to purchase the material and labor through the Amia Co-op uh similar to what we did when we did at T is roof a couple years ago um so the contract they hold the contract with the roofer what I'm asking tonight is the board approve the contract between District 34 and the Garland group for all the roofing work to be done
097this summer any questions this so this is the Su of referendum work correct this is referendum work okay because I remember like the AA roof wasn't necessarily referenda work it was but that was an emergency because it corre corre we just moved it up we had to yes all right any uh questions or comments if not I ask for a motion in a second to approve the resolution is presented Scott I just have one question J so with the scope of the work are there any risks that we need to be aware of prior to the summer given like there's probably going to be some sensitivities do we have materials do we have any timing issues that we need to navigate across any of the schools as we finish phase four um or is that
098kind of all baked into what our plan is so that there's no issues with everything starting up in the fall on the ascribed date yeah I mean I I don't know of any issues with material um if there's any lead time issues I Justin might be able to answer that a little better no we're all set we're locked in but uh everything's readily available and all pricing and everything's locked in and we've gone over the schedule with the contractor and they're able to meet it all right well they're they're probably up next so we'll see if they can confirm that all right yeah thank you all right I will ask for a motion in a second to approve the resolution is presented so moved M sterk second kovich Gibby may I have a roll call
099Dolan hi Nelson hi Kim Lovich hi Bomar hi supose Moon I motion carries thank you thank you next we have our discussion section we have our in fund transfer from the Ed fund to the O andm fund thank you and if I can call my associates up Mr Dave Torres Mr Troy Kerr from FGM and Davis from Nicholas just as a reminder this is about in fund transfers but it's also about looking to the finish line for all of the uh referendum approved construction work and so I will touch um on some some number number aspects in in terms of what we're looking at and uh for the final estimated construction cost and some transfers these guys are going to help fill in some of the gaps as it Rel to their area so again
100for this agenda item we're ultimately asking the board for two transfers um the first is from the Ed fund to onm anytime you take money from the Ed fund to onm or Transportation it's one time non reoccurring and you have to hold a hearing so as a part of this agenda item we're asking the board to approve the resolution which sets a hearing for next month so next month we'll ask for a vote on both of these transfers so um yeah Ed to omm for 8.5 million and then a second one so that 8.5 million comes from the sits in omm for just a minute until we move on to the next uh transfer agenda item and that'll take the full 11 million from omm to capital projects to finish up both the roof work
101and uh the roof work and the additional monies that we needed to wrap the project up here I have the original cost estimate of 55 million and what the board's contribution was the target at the time the board asked us to uh to try and an nail when things in the economy were good before the pandemic hit and now what we're saying is our total estimated project cost 1665 minus 2 million in Grants and rebates and things like that bringing our total net cost to 1645 which has a board contribution of 36.3 million now a little bit about what led to that overage and uh what we've seen over the last phase and maybe year and a half or so since we last approached this board with uh the last round of bids that that
102you guys approved sure good evening uh for those that don't know me Dave Torres with Nicholas and Associates uh you know just kind of recapping all of the referendum work um as most people know at uh at this table you know the initial budget was established before the pandemic and so when the pandemic hit we really felt the impact as we approached kind of phases two and three of the project so we had uh several project issuances along the way uh first project issuance we did well um second project issuance was postco so we were really uh feeling that impact and then as a result had to make some pretty significant uh pivots as it pertains to design um and really really you know looking at this in terms of the complexity of the series
103of projects you know there's just a lot of things that have to be taken into consideration when you look at the cost of construction over the last uh five years it's no secret um that we experienced a lot of changes in the market um and then anytime on these type of projects when you have uh really intense interior renovation projects um you know unforeseen conditions we're tearing buildings apart we never know what we're going to find so we do carry you know some contingencies in our projects but we can never fully uh know exactly what we're going to encounter and I know specifically on a handful of these jobs uh we had some pretty major unforeseen conditions uh structural in nature that really had some larger impacts um to the project in terms of total
104dollars spent uh in addition to that um kind of going down this list here uh some value added scope uh as we talked through each phase of these projects I mean we did some budgetting along the way uh but the consideration of what scope was to be included was part of our regular conversation and updates uh to the board uh throughout the process so you know we had at the time uh when we had redesigned springman uh we had created an alternate for the cafeteria to raise the floor and that was you know about a 1.1 1.2 million ad uh but we uh decided as a group that that was going to be the best fit for the space and uh so that's kind of how we moved forward so that was an example of
105kind of a value add and decision that was made uh during the design in the in the bidding timeline in addition to that uh we had some added scope uh along the way there were some toilet rooms uh that weren't necessarily part of the original design but we added them here at uh or not here but at springman uh in addition along each uh at each Milestone at each project issuance we kind of projected where we would end up as part of the next bit issuance and so you know specifically with some of the roofing projects uh you know we kind of projected out what we thought uh would be required to complete all the roofing work we did learn that due to some code requirements what we had thought um there was going to
106be some additional installation requirements at lion that you know maybe Troy can talk a little bit more about but that you know was another million dollars or so that was added uh to the overall project cost that wasn't necessarily anticipated uh during the last update additionally uh increase in Furniture costs and this kind of goes along the lines with one of the other slides that we have uh but um if you want to go ahead and and move that along um that second bullet point uh material commodity price increases there's a lot of words on this slide and a lot of numbers so I won't go through all of it uh but in general from an estimating standpoint you know back in 2019 2020 when we looked at interior renovation costs uh we we utiliz
107at a high level you know $1 to $250 a square foot for high medium and low or heavy light and medium renovation uh and then for new construction which is your your building additions uh new schools Etc we were using uh 300 to$ 350 square foot number uh now in 2024 and in 2025 you know those numbers have increased you know by 40 to 60% with the renovation costs and 30 to 35% uh for new constructions so this is just again feeling the impact uh initially in 22 and 23 but then seeing it uh sustained I mean cost of construction is still high uh we have seen some fluctuation in the material and commodity prices but again the biggest uh increases were kind of seen and felt in that 2022 and 2023 so you can
108kind of see some of that here in the trends uh that I've we've identified uh between you know copper Lumber and steel uh this is just kind of a a graph that shows some of our uh price per square foot as it pertains to similar projects uh that we've bid over the years some of them are specific to full day kindergarten but primarily focused uh you know on those addition projects uh that were completed at the four buildings but you can see you know based on the timeline um you know back in 2019 and 2020 we saw much lower uh cost per square foot for all-in uh which is inclusive of the hard building costs the design costs all the fees and everything and we've just seen a really significant increase overall uh between years
10922 and 23 and 24 uh some of these projects have started to level off but they're still much higher than the initial uh budget that was established before the pandemic yeah so to Dave's point you know I think when you look back at where we started in 2019 when we were planning for the referendum and we were looking into the crystal ball and trying to predict what all of this stuff was going to cost and what this work was going to look like we were playing with a different set of assumptions than than what ended up happening during the course of it but all told I think we had a lot of success so just a couple of things to look at you know some of the transformative changes that have happened to the buildings
110particularly springman over the course of that 5year period period I think are some decisions that were made by the board that are really going to have an enormous impact on the district for a long time to come so it's Dave specifically mentioned the cafeteria at springman I think is one of the gems of that transformative process thanks any questions or comments so just two more slides uh as a reminder of of everything we just went over and and the overage from what we initially had thought just a reminder that based on the board's action in terms of moving quickly and taking advantage of historically low interest rates reminder is that based on what we had initially said estimated by by Liz Hennessy at the end of at the end of the day uh we ended
111up saving about 37 million to the community in interest and I think that uh that reminder good right about now when a couple extra dollars are being included to to going toward uh wrapping this project up so again initial funding that needed is 11 million um in CA projection I think we said 8.5 coming from fund balance what's actually coming from Ed fund balances 6 million and then we've got 5 million coming from the current year budget we do think that we're going to underutilize 2.5 million in special projects from omm that we will pick up next year and uh cumulatively in the Ed fund as of right now and reflected in your current year project Direction report 2.5 million from the Ed fund so a little bit less of a hit to the fund
112balance if you will than we had thought which is always a good thing so the total of the transfers will come out to 34 million and again just to bring it all back uh what we're asking the board to approve have a hearing for and approve next month these two transfers that you see on your screen tonight and these would be two separate resolutions correct yes and I want to remind everybody that when we Levy we always Levy more into the Ed fund and because it gives us more flexibility for teaching in the long run correct that's right we've done this before in the past we have I also want to point out that when Dave was here in 2019 and we were talking about this what was your contingency percentage back then was it
113about 15% so we had initially carried about 5% per project and then but we asked you to cut it down correct to about two and a half right so the contingency that you presented would have covered a lot of this overage correct but the board felt like we wanted to take advantage of some efficiencies we saw in the economy before Co hit remember that Jim well I mean you guys did a pretty good job I appreciate all the work I'll say more than pretty good well if you could find five million bucks for us it'd be great okay any other questions we'll see this again next month I just want to make a comment like there's a lot of this is is very complex right at the end of the day this is a multi-year
114project multiple facilities the transformation that has been that you can experience across all of the schools is frankly remarkable as somebody who went through several of those schools growing up um to suggest that five years ago we'd be within 10% and oh there's a global supply chain disruption with the pandemic and yes we had to make some choices about some of the ambition that was in the original plan but we also took advantage of some of the financial instruments that we had to enable some savings and still have an excellent product at the end um I think it really goes to everybody involved from the administration to to you and all of your teams the board um that we're only having a conversation about an additional transfer at this magnitude and not a much more
115you know grave situation in terms of how we would be able to finish this project so I just I want to make that comment I think it's pretty remarkable where we are um it's not a small number it's not an insignificant appreciation for what has been asked of but was also supported by our community um and it's good to see that we're still being good stewards uh all the way through to the Finish Line well said James all right thanks very much you guys I this is probably one of the last few times you'll be here right I there's an open invite though H you'll be back you'll be back show it show thank you so much it's been great working with you we are at our second opportunity for audience comments anyone wishing to
116address a board can submit a comment card available at the check and 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 3 minutes or less and know 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 Rebecca do we have any comments we have one uh John Carlile thank you thank you good evening again uh John Carlile uh resident uh children who are students at Westbrook and Glen Grove um I'll be brief I'd like to thank the representatives of firms who have business with the district who
117were here tonight either because they were approved for a new contract um or they are are you know there's an important financial decision that is being made that pertains to them I think that's good practice good business glad to see that um but I'll point out that not everyone who was awarded a contract had a representative here tonight one of those firms uh we've been a we have been a customer of there since I believe 2014 um it doesn't instill the greatest confidence um in me uh or for me that this firm um feels held accountable it doesn't send a great message thank you thank you very much all right next we are going to our report section we have the number one foyer report number two referendum expense report number three construction change order
118report the number four current year Financial projections and the number five following meeting agenda does anybody have any questions on the reports any other business oh go ahead I have something to share oh I can't wait so I was really lucky a couple weeks ago to get invited to help judge the uh fifth grade debate you were you there yeah um and and the the subject of the debate was whether or not the this was at Hoffman whether or not uh the students there should have uh homework and I just want to say I want to uh give some kudos to the team there they it was great it was really wonderful the kids were really well prepared and they did rebuttal like on the fly like with they cited stuff in the reut I
119was like people at work sometimes can't do that so um and then I I also want to report at the end uh they they first pulled the students and no homework won overwhelmingly among the students and then they pulled the panel who were all adults except for one young gentleman who's a student at springman and uh the panel voted for homework so uh perhaps no changes to policy yet but I just wanted to call out the the school for doing a great job and it was a ton of fun and I'm really happy I was able to go thanks for going Alex also pleas great oh I guess I want to report that uh we I went I attended the iasb north cook divisional meeting and uh we were awarded uh the Schoolboard governance award
120again for another two years so congratulations for all of us for doing our uh work and that's our we've done this now for twice so we got to do it again thanks any other other business no if not we're adjourned