001Okay, we'll call at 6 o'clock. We'll call the meeting of the uh Tuesday, September 28th, 2021. Our only meeting this month. How about that? First time. Um of the Granite City School District Board to order. Roll call, please. There. Stacy here. Vinnie here. Penogal here. Curran here. None here. McMasters here. WSM here. Forbes here. Okay. At this time we stand for the pledge of allegiance followed by the invitation by pastor Williams with United Methodist Church. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Let us pray. Oh God, we are living through unprecedented times. And Lord, what a stressfilled months and over a year now it has been. Lord, each of us are full
002of anxiety and fear. And Lord, it leads all of us to do things and say things and act in ways that are unbecoming of the human race. And so Lord, tonight as we gather as a district, Lord, I pray that your wisdom would fall aresh on each and every one of us. That we would wipe our minds and our hearts of all the negativity. and that we would continue to ask this question. What is the very best thing that we can do for the students of the Granite City School District? Lord, may that question guide us and lead us as we seek to educate and to form and to shape the students of this district. And Lord, I pray for the administration. I pray for this school board. I pray for the students and the
003staff. I pray for the parents of this district that we would continue to find ways to work together. Lord, we are better together than we are divided and separate. So Lord, grant us a sense of peace. Grant us the knowledge that we are all in this together. That we all want want what is best for the children. And Lord, we pray that you would be in our midst. That you would be the one who guides and leads and who offers this sense of peace and unity. So Lord again I ask your blessing upon the meeting this evening that your wisdom and compassion and concern and that your overall love for all of humankind that it would be present in all that is spoken and the actions that are taken and again that we do it
004all with a heart for what is best for the students and Lord we ask it all in the name of your son Jesus Amen. Amen. Very good. Uh public comment. I don't think we have anybody register ahead of time. Is there anybody here to give public comment [Music] tonight? All right. Hearing none, we'll move to the approval of the minutes of the August 24th, 2021 board of education meeting. So move second. Thank you. I wasn't sure together in such a long time, you know. Motion a second. Roll call. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMast Stacy I that takes us to uh consent agenda um items here on the consent agenda and we can pull anything out there if we want to talk about any I would like to mention so incredibly blessed
005for our district to have such supporting community members and I mean that completely sincerely every year times when you least expected people in the community and really help us out at uh we can't use drinking fountains in our schools with the regulations. So, we have retrofitted most of them with bottle fillers, but then we had to buy bottles for our kids and they were decent ones up to $2 a piece and was 6,000 students. So, I mentioned that sort of off-handedly to my friend at US field. They said, "Well, we can provide." So that was amazing uh to to have them step forward and do that. Robin Samson in the HR department really spearheaded the whole thing like Kevin approved it and the help of a lot of people all there too and also the
006US skill workers um collect money too um for school supplies. We really really had a lot of things and they allowed us to ask you know what some of the schools wanted. We got a lot of things that were specific to needs of each school compasses and thank you like a little all kinds of things including like t-shirts and clothes and just all socks and things that kids need that we don't always and then we had FedEx deliver school supplies to restoration shirts told us about free hand sewn that they have. We were able to go with that. Uh the man Jerick gave a huge donation to the boys golf club team. Uh Jenn Johnson Road General Baptist Church gave us a huge amount of school supplies and a particular woman from that church even
007helped to purchase t-shirts for Kathy Arusio's um life skills kids at Prager. Um when they're out at the playground, I was going to say this, she asked for shirts that were oversized that they could wear over their clothes because a lot of times it's hard to pick our kids out and they have special needs. We need to get them so they can identify them. So, I thought that was really cool that we were able to buy those for her whole class from that gift, too. Um, and then the esports, which is booming here. Um, the J uh Jay David and Kim Coslin gave money for that as well as street sign also gave money towards that as well. So, I just wanted to just mention how many people uh really came forward and it happens
008all the time and we really really appreciate and I know our students just Yep. Appreciate that. And almost $10,000 worth of donations there that come from non taxpayers direct. That's right. With that, uh, any motion for the consent agend. Currin. I. None. I. McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Lif. Hi. Uh item 8A uh resend retentance. Mr. President, the board administration is prepared to make recommendations or holding discussion for executive session. The following retirements are recommended for approval. Rhonda Dit Cafe GCS cafe 123125. Carolyn Mius grade teacher Griggsby and the 2425 school year. and Stratton Principal Gri22. So second roll call, please. Currin, hi. None. I McMasters. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. I item 8B retirement and recommendations. Mr. President of the board, the administration is prepared to make recommendations or hold the in discussion
009in the executive session. It is recommended that the following retirement school will resignations be accepted. Karen Topel, fourth grade teacher Mitchell, retirement end of 2425 school year. Mary Waldman Cafe Wilson, retirement 8826. Carol, sixth grade teacher Grizzky, retirement end of the 2526 school year. Don Ham, social studies teacher high school retirement at the end of 2526 school year. Don Strat, principal be retirement December 22nd, 2020. So second roll call, please. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. Hi. Can we ask a quick question? Um, so since John will be retiring in a few months, I don't know when you can't talk. I just wonder are we like hiring to replace a little bit? Can I ask that now? We're kind of in the middle just turn. We can talk about
010it. All right. Thank you. We just So we're kind of like Yeah, we're doing that right now. We definitely have to have some, right? I know we have several very experienced subs but I don't know if that was around probably both. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That's all right. That's great. Item 8 C is request for release of absence. Mr. President, the board has recommended that the following links be approved. Markoff, math teacher, official math teacher high school, effective 81821 to 1121. Petrillo, assistant principal high school 921 to 11:242. Paul Kim, custodian with the high school 9721 to 11:3021. Joyce Church professional high school 10121 322 Erica Stone teacher Wilson Angel 1021 123121 Robert 6th grade teacher 9221 to 52822 Kelsey Jarvis 10 721 1230 21 Alison speech about 1082132 second. [Music] I have a motion
011to second. Any additional discussion call? McMasters. I Stacy I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I Wilmsar. Hi. Item 8 is request to extend the use of Mr. President for discussion session. It is recommend for the following extension be approved personal pre21 124 second roll call please. Stacy Hi, Vinnie. Hi, Kenobyl. Hi, Curran. Hi, Nun. I McMasters. Hi. Item 8E, employment of groups to be monitored for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board, the administration is prepared to make recommendations or for discussion in executive session. The data sheet for the full time, the recommended approval is for Richard Daws for the GR intermediate position. Second Stacy. Yes. And roll call, please. Vinnie, hi. Canal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Stacey. Hi. Hi. Item 8F. Employment of certified classified substitutes for the 2122
012school year. Administration is prepared to make recommendations to hold for discussion. Executive session. It is recommended the following applicants be board approved as substitutes for the 2122 school year. Certified Abigail Baker, Doug Morris, and Kathy Neil. Classified Rene Brantley, Donald O'Brien, Mark Griffin, Heather Thomas, Laura Burmer, Christina Jerger, and pending paperwork. We still have Jada Baker and Mart. This is the most we have. So move. Second. Thank you. Very good. Roll call, please. Kenogal. I. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. I. Item 8G. Granite City High School extracurricular resignations for the 21.22 school year. The administration. Mr. President, the board is prepared to make recommendations or hold for discussion in executive session. We recommended that the following extracurricular resation be accepted. Mr. George Keran, GCHS assistant wrestling coach. So moved. Second. Second.
013Roll call, please. Curran. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. [Music] Canal. Hi. Wack. Hi. Item 8H. Granite City High School extracurriculars for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board administration is prepared to make recommendations or hope for discussion in executive session. The administration is recommending the list of extracurricular for the 2122 school. Neot motion. Roll call please. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. I. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. I. Item eight. I k Junior High School extracurriculars for the 2122 school year. Administration. Mr. President, the board is prepared to make recommendations to hold for discussion in executive session. District administration is recommending the following extracurricular be approved for the 2122 school year. Mr. Tol, assistant cross country coach. Second. Roll call, please. McMasters. Hi, Stacy. Hi. Vinnie, I Curran. Hi. None. Immers.
014Hi. Item 8J, elementary extracurriculars for the 2122 school year. President, the board administration has prepared to make recommendations for discussion and executive session. District administration is then recommending the list of extracurricular for the 2122 school listed. So move second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Casey, I. Vinnie, hi. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. None. I McMast I item HP approval of volunteers for the 2122 school year the board of the administration to make recommendations or hold the discussion in session then the administration respectfully request board approval of the following volunteer for the 2122 school year Bradley baseball and Ed Bradley also for GCHS So move second. Give it to pretty quiet over there. Very good. And we appreciate Bradley stepping up. Roll call please. Vinnie. Hi Kenogal. Hi Curran. Hi Nun. I McMasters Stacy. Hi Wils. Hi.
015Sorry. Can I interrupt just one second? I'm sorry. Um on the previous one the extracurriculars for the elementary just for those listening can we just what the extracurricular they are all first quarter lunch I know we know that but and we did that if you want to know we did that for we added extra lunch to help with the social distancing so we can move some of the children for that so that was the why it's first quarter maybe promise I'll be studying Robert it's a good point and thank you for bring item 8 L is employment of title one aid for the 2122 school year. Mr. President, the board administration is prepared to make recommendations or hope for discussion in executive session. The administration respectfully requests board approval for the following applicant to serve
016at Wilson 12 center for the 2122 school year. The submission of the required paper title move second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Canal. Hi Curran. Hi Nun. I McMasters Stacy. I Vinnie. Hi W. Hi. Item nine. There is no old business tonight. Item number 10A is the viewing plan for the 2122 year. Okay. Mr. President and board. Uh this is something required for us to file every year. This year for more reasons than others is that the remote learning any kind of form like during climate weather has to be approved. learning plan for the regional office of education. So I turned a lot of this over to Mr. Steve Matis and Liz Nebert and I think Steve is here to explain a little bit of it just to give you an overview and approval is
017recommended again. Steve are you there? Yep. Good evening. So what the e-learning plan does is as the superintendent already stated, it gives us another option in lie of a traditional emergency day which is most commonly known as a snow day. Um what this plan does is it allows us an opportunity it the state asks us to speak out of all the things that we've done so far to address the needs of our students and how we'll deliver e-learning to make sure that all students are able to engage with a day if we decide to call it. Um traditional snow days will probably be an example of where we would execute a plan like this. the emergency day where we shut down school totally and kids don't engage remotely is still an option. Some situations that
018might warrant that would be something like a tornado that would cause large parts of our community to lose power. This is more something that uh where people still have power but maybe travel is treacherous or it could be something like if the building has a gas leak. Uh the details in the plan just basically tell how we will notify parents what we've done to provide them the opportunity to learn remotely. Um all things that we have done in the co era to make sure that we are able for our students to engage in remote learning last year and they did a lot of work on it pretty specific. It works well for any type of something happens where they provides us with that remote living option. performing. I think it's the only positive that come
019out of co because I remember when the school was closed the whole district and we had the dust clean up the high school we just stopped there's really a benefit that we don't lose probably the most positive thing doesn't help in that where you don't have you know if we miss days you push the school out farther they had haven't they had issues in the past where like a tournament like was for an athletic an athletics tournament was the date was changed because school was cancelled and uh I don't know I I think that was brought up originally when we last passed I think I think your point is Tylen if if they're not there at school that day are they allowed to play sports uh and participate in sports that day for a game
020or something like that is that essentially what yeah but I think there was stuff with like when graduation moved or big events can get moved because of the way you know you extend everything. I don't think athletics though like I'll look all that it up for you but it's more for like if we were to have an outbreak at a school too. Well, we the good thing is every student kindergarten now has um more touchable screens and they have them at school but everybody else has their problem with them and still taking home. So it allows them, you know, to to be able to do that and um to their teachers will be required to do more as well, but I'll look into what you're talking to Bill's point. I think it's a few good
021things that have come out, right? Um I I very much appreciate the detail provided. Just one off the wall question because that's who I am. Is there still flexibility or for your discretion to call a good oldfashioned snow day like it's beautiful white fluffy snow to go out and play or No, I I put them in days as remote days. I mean, we might be able to um but I've already counted them as attendance days and we would have to add at the end. Yeah. But yeah, I know there is some some sad parts about that as well. I understand. Thank you. No problem. And if everybody's in favor here, we will need a motion. So move. Second. Thank you, Steve. Any Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Matis. Appreciate it. Any additional discussion? Call
022Kern. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Canal. I think uh item 10B is on the budget. Um and we will need to a a motion and a second and then a vote to temporarily adjourn the board of education meeting so that we can open a public hearing for submit. Second. Second. And roll call please. None. I McMasters. Stacy. Hi. Vinnie. Hi. Kenogal. Hi. Curran. Hi. Wilms. Hi. And at this point the public hearing is open and I'd ask Z if you would please. So good evening. Good evening. I'm going to let Mr. Mitchell get this all set up here. Um if any of you want to follow along on your Chromebooks, I emailed you a copy of the presentation. It might be a little easier to see. Um, this budget is probably
023a little better than last year's budget. There was quite a bit of uncertainty in last year's budget. This one feels a little better to me. Although there is always need for uncertainty in school district finance. It always changes basically by the month. So, real quick overview. It was working. I got you. I got you. Go. Next slide, please. We had a $2 million increase in evidence-based funding this year. Last year, we were held flat, so we're still playing catch-up. We'd like to get eventually get those $2 million made up to us. as the legislature had talked about. Um, we kind of budget and futurecast on that money. So, at some point, we would love to see the budget at the Illinois State Board of Education pop up a little bit, dump a little more money
024in to eventually bring us back up to where that money is in our formula. Uh, we also saw a $4 million increase in corporate personal property replacement tax. Um, this is a moving target every year. Um, and just because they tell you you're going to get it, doesn't necessarily mean you're going to get it. So, where last year they had projected a about $4 million decrease, we are now looking at a $4 million increase. We got some of it last year. It is a I really don't believe it until June 30th when I see all the money in the bank, although the first couple payments have been pretty on par with what they said. Um, we have $8 million of additional CARES grant money to use this year. That's the SR2 funds. Uh, we are
025using that again for student and staff devices for remote learning, COVID supplies, and retaining educational staff. We have held on to a lot of staff with some declining enrollment uh in order to keep class sizes low and to make sure we could provide additional supports where needed after school through uh online enrichment all that programs. We have quite a bit of that going on. We're also using it to cover some of our increased nursing costs that we're having. Uh we need nursing help now. I know we need bus drivers. We also need nursing help. And we also have some extended school year stuff with summer school. We did an extra session of summer school. We will probably do the same thing next year, I would imagine. Uh a lot more cost for summer school on
026that, but we felt it was very valuable to starting to make up some of the learning loss that we might have had. Uh we had competitive wage adjustments to keep pace with minimum wage and minimum teacher salary increases. Um, we need to do this in order to maintain our competitive advantage or build a competitive advantage because as you can see by the bus driver shortage and everything else, we are fighting just like everybody else for staff. Um, we have a roof at Coolage being replaced. That was a million-doll project. We had the drive at Coolage replaced. That was a $250,000 project. We are looking to upgrade the HVAC at Griggsby next year. that will be used with SR2 funds. That's probably about a $2.8 million project. We'll completely redo all the HVAC in that building.
027Uh we added a CO recovery coordinator, used SR2 funds for that. We saw a 5% increase in health insurance. That was pretty good. Uh we were kind of happy with that. We saw a 7% increase last year. Um hopefully we can get another five or 6% increase next year and we'll be in even better shape. Uh we have some network infrastructure upgrades. The core switch is probably 10 or 11 years old at the high school and we have dumped a ton more work on it. Um with all the remote learning and all the devices um the the backbone and infrastructure of our network need a pretty serious upgrade. Um, we have put some money in for a traffic solution at Griggsby if uh if that's what the architects decide is the best traffic flow situation.
028And then obviously we have some expanded summer school and after school programs with Esther 2. There's some other stuff in there. We've got some money for supplies and materials, additional CO cleaning supplies. It's kind of become the catch-all for anything that was unexpected or arose from COVID, which has been very nice because it hasn't affected our normal everyday operating budget. Go ahead and hit the next slide. Did it work that time? It did. Winner. Um, revenue by fund. This is just a quick overview slide. You can see most of the revenue goes into fund 10 and fund 20. The rest of them are just there. Um, fund 40 is moving is probably the third highest. Uh, that's pretty good. Debt service is down there and 90 is 90 and 70 and 80 are down there.
029They they are in good shape. All those funds are in good shape. We're starting to recover from our fund 90. Our fund balance is starting to recover. I'll cover some of that with the audit and the tax levy as we get to it. It's a little ahead of schedule because we don't have the audit done yet. But fund 90 for we we drained it on the high school with the flood and the ceiling. Um we're starting to get a little insurance money back. That's our health life safety. For lay people watching at home, could you give a quick overview of what different funds mean? 10 is the education fund. 20 is operations and maintenance. Uh 30 is debt service. That's where we pay our bonds. 40 is transportation. 50 is IMRF, Social Security, and uh
030FICA. uh 60 is our capital projects fund. If we passed a referendum to build a school or something like that, we would put that money in the capital fund from debt service, we'd move it to we don't have that right now. 70 is working cash. That is basically our savings account. Uh 80 is tort that goes for insurance and uh attorney's fees, liabilities, and 90 is health life safety. That's kind of our our improvement fund. I call it my insurance plan. So when the ceiling collapsed, we didn't have to take from the general fund or something that may have affected kids. We had that fund. We had a little safety net to where we could get that project done. Thank you. Expenditure by fund. As you can see, most of the expenditures pretty much follow
031the revenues. You can see fund 10, 20, 30, 40, 50. They are all balanced. The light blue line is last year's budget. The dark blue line is the actual and the yellow line is this year's budget. So you can see that there's quite a bit of increase. We actually came in slightly under budget last year. Uh there was some contributing factors to that. one, we did not have some of the subs we normally do because of remote learning and there was just some a little less expense. We we did pretty good through the pandemic. Um, and transportation is was down quite a bit. So, I will explain more of that in just a minute when we get into fund balances. Um but uh transportation, we're going to see a little decrease in revenue coming up
032because our reimbursement from the state is going to run a little short because we didn't expend as much as we had before. So I'll it's okay. I anticipate it. But those are expenditures. Obviously again we will have a balanced budget. You can see here last year we kind of projected that we were going to be a little the blue line is revenue and the gold line is expenditures. This year we're back to having a balanced budget in our operating funds which is good. Um it gives us a little cushion and a little comfort and ability to handle any type of eyeball situation that arises. It's also allowed us to get some of the facility upgrades done with the roof at Coolage and the uh HVAC projects. Even though that's Esser money, we were able to
033do a roof at Mitchell. We did a roof at Prather. We did HBAC at Prather. We've knocked out some capital improvement projects while we've had some decent cash flow and some fund balances. So, we have done pretty well. This is a breakdown of fund 10's revenue. Um you can see that the light blue line is last year. The dark blue line is this year. Uh local property went up a little bit. Um we we saw an increase in EAV which gave us a little increase in our local property. Uh CPPRT I pretty much erased it from the ED fund last year. Um we put we got to add a little bit of CPPRT back into the ED fund this year. So you can see that that revenue line went up. Let me see if I
034can exact explain C CPPRT. CPPRT is corporate personal property replacement tax. It is something that we get from the state. It is based upon revenues of corporate personal property. It was done I want to say in the late '7s 78. 78 to the year I was born. That's what I was trying to say. Um, and it basically they made some changes and they gave us that revenue stream. And I'm sorry I don't know the complete history off the top of my head, but we now get CPPRT. We are a very taxrich CPPR district. We get a lot of CPPRT money compared to other districts. But it also gives us one more variable that fluctuates. It it it's one more thing that fluctuates. Uh local other that remained about the same. Uh state EBF, you can
035see that it went up. That's the $2 million increase. Uh other state remained about the same. Our cate that's categoricals for special ed and other uh and uh prek and all that. Most of that remained about equal. Um, state birth to three, that's right there, that remained the same and state other remained about the same. Federal went down a little. That is cafeteria revenue. Our cafeteria revenue because we don't have everybody here and serving all our lunches has gone down a hair. Um, kind of anticipated. Uh, federal title ticked up a little bit. Federal idea ticked up a little bit. And this federal other is basically esser. So that's where you see that big increase. Fund 20 revenue, same thing. Property taxes, we got a little bit more off the levy. CPPRT, we we put
036a good majority of that corporate personal property replacement tax in there to handle some projects. Um and then again the SR2 funds are quite a big chunk of the overall budget in uh the operations and maintenance fund 40. Same thing, a little bit more property taxes. We dumped a little more corporate personal property replacement tax in to cover the increase that we were assuming we were going to have uh local state about the same. And we put some ESRE funds in to CPPR to oh wait a minute didn't move that time. Authority sorry CPPRT we added some money in local property taxes. Uh state a you can see here is the regular ed and special ed. Uh you can see a decrease in revenue for this year. That is because the expenses were down for
037last year. We usually spend we had been spending about $5 million. We spent about $3.8 million in transportation with CO. So what's going to happen is when those expenses come back, our revenue will lag a year because we get paid. We'll get paid for this year next year. So, one of these years we're going to chew up that extra million dollars of fund balance in there while the state writes itself with reimbursements. Fund 10 expenditures. The 100s are salaries. The 200s are benefits. The 300s are purchase services. 400s are supplies and materials. 500s are capital outlay. 600s are dues and fees, but it's basically tuition. Um 700s are non- capital expenditures. Think of um computers, network switches. Think of stuff in about the $1,000 range. And then you could see the total um that is
038the expenditures. Little increase in salaries, little increase in benefits. Everything else is pretty similar to last year because we had a lot of the same COVID purchases from the year before. Um the same uh amount of Chromebooks, stuff like that. Uh 600 tuition is about the same. Everything else is about equal, but that's just a good overview of where it's spent. Most of it is salaries and benefits. Fund 20, same thing. 100 salaries and benefits. uh a little uptick in uh purchase services and supplies and materials or about like last year just simply because of COVID uh extra cleaning supplies. Um 500s this is our capital outlay. We've added a couple extra projects this year with the uh Esser fund. So you can see that that that budget is moving up quite a bit as
039compared to the year before. And then the 700s over here are about the same. 40. We contract our bus service. So, we budgeted last year for expenditures here. We came in here, we moved it back up this year as we were unsure of what we were going to face. So, we had a pretty normal budget based upon what we expected last year. We'll see where it ends up. We may end up lower than that based upon lack of bus drivers. um 400s down here is just basically fuel for the buses. We buy our own fuel and you can see that the budget increase slightly um over last year for expenditures. Um this is the historical surplus and deficit um in 1415. The blue is the projected, the red is the actual. Um you can see
040how we progressed through last year. Now, we projected a $3.8 million deficit. We expected that uh really to be about a 1.6 or 1.8 because we were planning on spending some fund balance down um that we had accumulated to do some roofs and stuff like that from the year. It worked out that we ended up about plus 5 million. Uh, a lot of that was ESSER funds in there that went to cover some current projects we had and also handled some uh, expenses that we were able to write off to it. We also got an additional $4 million of CPPRT last year. They told us we were going to get seven. We got 11. So, um, it picked up late in the year. Um, it allowed us to get a little more fund balance so
041we could take on the whole Koolage roof project at once and also start looking at uh a couple future roof projects as well and get the drive it done and a few other projects. Um, also in there is about $1.5 million of transportation um reimbursements that will be spent when we flip back. So, some of that is Yeah, hold on. Our uh our staff is not seeing your presentation, so give me a second here. So, we need to fix that. Thank you, Kristen. So, Last year you're probably looking at about a $3.5 million surplus. Um, which was really good. Um, this year we're projecting a about a $1.6 million operating fund surplus. Um, although like I said with CPPRT, you're never quite sure. Um, sorry. Moving on. Can you advance me? Is that right? So,
042perfect. Um, when you see these fund balances, also please remember we I will present on our financial profile score and at at the audit meeting or at the tax levy, we still do not have the amount of cash on hand for Isby's guidelines. We that is the only thing we're negligent in in our financial profile score. We're a 3.9 out of four. They would like 100 days of cash on hand. We had not been there yet. I personally would like to get about 6 months of cash on hand. That means we could operate without any funds, meet our obligations for 6 months. I would really like to achieve that level. We're getting close to that to where we can be reactive and not super re where we get a year to fix something before we
043had to like panic or do mass layoffs or we could work our way out of it without, you know, catastrophic cuts to programs. And so it would really behoove us to get to that level of fund balance to where we met the state minimum requirements. Um I items for consideration. I always kind of go over some of my I had a whole bunch last year. I'm a little more comfortable this year. Although I will say staffing staffing staffing. I I am I am getting nervous about fully staffing buildings. I'm getting nervous about everybody from the bus driver to the superintendent. I I'm nervous that we can even attract competitive people, not because of anything other than they're just not there. We don't they're just not here. Um there are teacher shortages, there's bus driver shortages,
044there's custodian shortages there. We have no subs. Um so that is just my concern. Um infrastructure concerns capital improvements. Um we've been working with Eric. We've been making really good ground on knocking out some projects up modernizing our buildings, getting some things fixed that have needed to be fixed. Um I think we're going to basically tuck point the entire high school or anything that needed it. bring that one up because some of that was in disrepair. We've done a roof at Koolage, a roof at Praer, a roof at Mitchell. Um we're hoping to do a roof at Griggsby um or Frohart, whichever one he says is next. Um so I the infrastructure seemingly is going pretty well. Uh onetoone sustainability. Um we have been now that we have Chromebooks everywhere, we have to keep them.
045That is all coming from Esser funds at the moment. So, we're going to have to recycle them. Um, they're probably good for about four years and then they've probably reached their useful life. Um, so one to one sustainability and then scaling back after CARES and avoiding a financial cliff. We've had we've been able to fix a lot of problems with staff and getting staff. At some point, we're probably going to have to figure out what our staffing levels should be postco and start working towards those um based upon enrollment figures, reasonable class sizes, stuff like that. I think that is coming. Next and then I have I will entertain questions. I feel much better this year than I did last year. I was sweating last year. And we will open it up for comment, public
046comment here from the board or from anybody in the audience. Any questions for that? I'll start off. I just want to say so all of these things done this year, all these projects you talked about, we have no additional debt, which I think is a huge thing. Um, and yes, I I agree we need to get to that point where we got that rainy day have enough money in the bank to continue to operate. Um, and I know you're chipping away at that and getting there, but to take on all these projects that got done this year without taking on any additional debt, I think huge credit to the the staff here. We're doing our best. Zach, what what is can you explain to the board what is the overall debt load for the district
047currently? We have right around $7 million of debt outstanding which is very low for most school districts. Yeah, we are about three tax levies, three to four tax levies from being completely the 2023 levy is the last of our bonded inde. Yeah. And I think what we have the ability to go up to what is our debt limit? What's the st ceiling on that perhaps? It's well over 100, isn't it? 100 million. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. That for buildings, uh, it's it's different for capital or for working cash, but for major improvements, building stuff like that, the dead limit is pretty high. Yeah. I think for 7 million for a district, any district, but a district our size is incredible at this point. questions or comments? I mean, I just want to echo a lot of
048what Dennis said to have a balanced budget after everything that has happened the last couple years and some of the projects that we've been able to knock off with building in the grounds. Like, you know, you're not going to get a parade thrown for tuck pointing a building, but we're knocking off some super important stuff that has been needed to be done and maintaining a balanced budget. So, yeah, kudos to you and to Eric and everyone else involved. It ultimately save money in the future. Oh my gosh. If we approach that cliff and then have a bunch of roofs to replace, that's going to be a problem. Yeah. Listen, roofs are leaking affect all the stuff inside. The administrative staff down here really have a lot to do with this. I manage the budget and
049work with them. They are very good at making sure things are in budget and asking and saying, "Hey, can we afford this or what do you think?" It is a team effort down here. And it's not just me. It is everybody that works down here. Good team effort. Last chance. Any comments? All right. At this point, I will enter. Thank you, Zach. Appreciate it. At this point, I'll entertain a motion to uh reconvene the regular board meeting. So move. Second. And roll call, please. Stacy, I. Vinnie. Hi, Kenogal. Hi, Curran. Hi, Nun. I McMastire I. And we're back in regular board meeting, regular session. Um, and at this point, I will entertain a motion to approve the 2122 school district budget resolution. So, move second. Any discussion? And roll call, please. McMasters. Hi. Stacy, I
050Vinnie, I Curran. Hi. None. I Wilmire. Hi. Thanks again, Zach. Appreciate that. You need the Thank you. Uh item 10 C is the Granite City School District number nine and the city of Granite City joint proposal to apply for safe routes to school funding from the Illinois Department of Transportation. Uh yes, I'm thrilled to have Mayor Parkinson and Miss Paul Hub here tonight. They uh kind of approached us with she's been working for the city. Am I okay to Heidi granted money and she put it back and so they came to us with this particular one which is very timely safe to school in the middle of trying to get kids to walk and ride their bikes down to some schools that they don't have bus transportation to. So it becomes an even more vital
051grant in this particular time. So, we really are happy to be working with you on this because it's really necessary. And I'm gonna hand it over to the two of them to decide because they're mostly uh handling this. She's writing it. There's a map we're going to pull up on the screen behind you too for some ideas we have on what to do and let them explain a little bit. Thanks for being here. Yes. So, um thanks to Paula for finding this uh this grant for us. Uh everybody knows the catastrophe we've had at Griggsby recently and u the city wanted to help out. U I think things have subsided out there and things are a little bit better, but uh in the process of looking at the at the the traffic issues out there,
052we saw a need for sidewalks that um it wasn't safe for kids to be walking. So u upon this grant and what we're looking at is the map and of of the Griggsby. And I'm a little lost where you're at there, Chris. She kind of lost me on it, but uh where is the fountain? Um where is Grace? Okay, so um really the path that we're looking at for the sidewalk would come straight down Carill here towards the Legacy Golf Course. It would then go around the building and up through the parking area off of Pontoon Road. It would allow kids when they come out of school to have a sidewalk to walk on as they're going to their parents' cars as they're being picked up uh in the afternoon or dropped off in the
053morning. But it would just basically follow that path all the way down here. Uh it's quite a bit of sidewalk. It would go all the way up towards Pontig Road on the Cargill side as well and would then drop all the way down to the entrance to the golf course. Um the first entrance to the golf course past the the farmhouse. Um we think it's a safer way for the kids to be able to walk or ride their bike to and from school. It also allows parents a better distance for their kids to get to their car safely and it will eliminate some of the traffic problems in the area. And as the kids leave the school on the uh the back side of the school, they'll be able to walk to their their cars
054safely without having to zigzag between cars. So, we're glad that we can help in partnership with the school. That's what good government does. So, it's perfect timing. Thank you very much. Right now, and just know that Grizzby has no sidewalk. They have no way to get from crunching road or anywhere on a sidewalk. There was a parking lot and no sidewalk. So this is the best timing you can ever have to. So we're appreciative there's a large amount and we have to put that how we've had a school out there this long and not having sidewalks is beyond me. But it's time for for us to fix that. So proactiveness, right? Correct. I think that a lot of it came to light from on my behalf when I was involved with the traffic situation and
055saw all the teachers out there, the administrative people here in the building over there. We had a train going by that blocked the flow of traffic not only on 162 but across the tracks of Carill. It was a mess, but everybody was so cool. Parents, everybody in the car were very nice. There was courtesy, you know, but there was definitely a problem because the kids had to stand in the grass, be kept away from the street so that when their parents came by, they identified themselves and their child were given the permission to get in the car. But it was a major thing, but it was done so well and handled so well by our our staff and the parents picked them up. We just appreciate you for for bringing that to our attention and
056allow us to be a part of it. the resolution is in here and we'll just have to be signed. So when we when we apply what's the timeline for like considering it so we didn't find out about it until Wednesday before last. It's due this Thursday. We will find out within two months two to three probably sooner. And and I have to mention that the partnership has been very good. We've received lots of information from Mr. Stratton, Officer Maui, and Superintendent K. Um, and the the full grant is 300 right at 300,000 and you have to match funds. So the 250 comes from them and 2525 from both so that there's vestment investment from both groups. 25 grand from the city and 25 from the district. Now will these be rather large wide sidewalks for
057the kids? They'll be ADA compliant. Absolutely. So they're they're pretty large. I remember this for six feet. Yeah, that's that's um they used to call it safe school. Is it still called safe school? Okay. Because I know the Mitchell area was trying to get something going there when years ago. Thank you so much, Mayor Parkinson. Paula, thank you. And I'm going to leave. I'm going to go try to watch your soccer team play. So, thank you. Appreciate it. Byebye. And we will need a motion on this. Second. We cut you out. Sorry. It's okay. Any additional discussion? Roll call, please. Vinnie, I. Kenogal. I none I McMasters Stacy I item uh 10B uh Linda you wanted to talk about reviewing this yes uh I I am recommending to the board uh that we as individual
058members along with our superintendent review the uh current board uh committees We've had many of us have served on these committees for quite a while and uh and I think with uh the conditions today uh especially in a in a post-pandemic period uh we find we find that some of them may not be appropriate at this time. uh we might find that they are designated to meet we want to ask ourselves if they're designated to meet the present needs of our community and our district. Some of some or all of them may need revisions, omissions, additional language and especially clarification of purpose. uh we need to state and agree on goals of our committees with the help of our educational leader and what improvements we are looking for. What do we want those improvements to
059look like? What resources will we need to use or aid to aid us in understanding how we reach the goals we set and what deadline if any do we set for accomplishing our committee goals? I mean, I I know when I was on committees, I really didn't know the background for them as well until we asked uh Tom to send us the uh the description and policy. So, I gave everybody that committee committee board's uh copy. So, and you can see that they have cons they have special committees. Uh these are usually uh the purpose is to uh get uh some kind of special uh job done and then dissolve the committee uh when it when it's time to give a report. Uh, an example would be uh something like the student advisory advisor committee
060where I know Zach and I took maybe three or four days to do that and to give the uh to give our our opinion on on a wonderful selection matt and also um maybe the attendance at the IASB that's a one two people can go and uh Um there there's a really uh it's a great meeting division meeting uh but it only is that one opportunity. So there's things that uh the special special meetings can there are also the standing committees uh and these are created for an indefinite uh term such as a policy committee. Now some committees will have structure that will will take years to complete and will and will uh and will be adjustments to those strategies will be pro possibly be taking uh several several times to arrange. So the use
061of data will aid in that and and accomplish the best outcome. So, I'm recommending that we take a look at it, all of us, and and see if there's some changes we need to make for the benefit of the community and the district. Appreciate that, Linda. So, Linda and I talked a couple of weeks ago, and she's right. There's probably a total of I'm just going to guess 25 committees, and that's just a wild guess, but yeah. Uh, a lot of those don't meet. A lot of those probably have not met in years. Um, so it's time to take a look from a consolidation perspective if nothing else. I guess one question, uh, Mr. Skoolie, are there is there anything out there that you're aware of, um, school code or otherwise, with a minimum number
062of committees or certain committees that need to be in place? Well, yeah, you can see the legal reference on two colon 150, the 105 ILCS 510 2014. Yeah, that's and then the 14 5 those are the uh citations to I think the parent teacher advisory committee and the behavioral interventions committee. There are certain committees yes that there have to we have to have I can certainly citations and present that to superintendent for the ones that we legally are required to have. You know I got to hand it to Linda for bringing this up and and I'm not going to throw more work at you unless you're really ready for it. Uh, but I think maybe the policy committee, uh, kind of maybe taking a first blush at this, just starting to to take a deep
063dive into these committees, what should be there, what shouldn't be there, I think that's probably the closest we have to a review committee for this, right? And and if you're willing to take that on, Linda, and and kind of really look at that and come back with a recommendation to the full board at some point here, I think uh think would be good, unless there's other thoughts from the board here. And we can give it a good start by just kind of going through one by one some of these and comparing some of one of them with some of them with the others. Sometimes you can combine uh committees together and make something brand new that might be much more effective than they were individually. So we'll see what we can find out. I think
064if you took that on Lind and were willing to spearhead that for example if there's a committee that has two members and an alternate you could contact them and maybe for a short period decide outline their committee and then move on to another with the members are in that committee and sort of define do we need them don't need them or one of the want to adjust yeah I think some of them some of them are very vague and could be read in any direction so that's one of the things we want to do is pinpoint what we need from those committees for this school district and and define those needs. You could be the new committee on committees. I have been thinking that in my head, Bill. [Music] I don't know that we need
065a motion on that. Tom, do we need to send it to the Any other discussion on this item, though? I appreciate your leadership on this. Fantastic. Thank you. Time to take a look at it. That's for sure. All right. Uh, thank you again, Linda. Appreciate that. Item 10E. Um, Erica, you want to talk about attendance centers? Yes. So speaking of committees, I am on the attendance center committee and I feel quite confident that once we do the audit of our committees and determine what we act and what we keep and what we you know whatever the attendance center committee will probably remain and the work that we need to do is crucial. I think um you know in education we always say good practices are constantly have like a cycle of re-evaluation to check in
066and see is the program you're offering or the procedures that you're doing is it still holding up and serving the needs of our of our community of our children and it's time to revisit I wouldn't even say revisit but Talon and I are ready to activate our committee on attendance centers um many people refer to our schools as neighborhood schools. Talon and I and I think other people would probably agree we we don't want to really define them as neighborhood schools because we want to be as forthcoming and transparent with that as possible. We are going to get to a point where we have actual neighborhood schools. So, we're talking about, you know, like attendance center that has a vibe to it, too. But Tal and I were talking um you know in preparation for
067tonight and we decided we really just want to be talking about redistricting our schools and the feasibility of that. And so the first step in that process is to make sure that we're being really thoughtful and purposeful in what we're doing. We don't want to rush any decisions. We want everything to be data driven by an abundance of data from an abundance of stakeholders. Those are community members, families, students, district staff, principles, teachers. We want to hear how things are currently going, how things could be. Um, and so we want to create a very purposeful plan to do that. Um, obviously we welcome input from everyone, but um, we felt like for a while this is something that's due to happen anyway. you know, it's time again, like in a cycle of occurrences after so
068many years, you want to re-evaluate and do a check-in to make sure that we are being the best financial stewards for our district and also providing the best program and schooling for our children and our families and our teachers as well. So, um yeah, I think we're just ready to get to work. Honestly, I was just kind of giving you guys I don't know if we do anything official with that. Um, one sort of internal goal that Tal and I have set for ourselves is we would like to have a plan for a plan. You know, we're a very meta tonight. We're, you know, committee for a committee, a plan for a plan. So, by next board meeting, and that's quite ambitious, but we would like to have a general project plan in terms of
069these are the steps we'd like to take to research, gather data, talk to various stakeholders. Then another phase would be you know going over all of that data evaluating analyzing and then ultimately with the end goal and the third phase or I guess a third phase would be designing a plan an actual plan like do we make any changes do we stick with what we have etc and then the fourth phase would be implementation and then like any great curricular plan and cycle you start all over again in a few years you know you like constantly check in and see but um I think it's quite timely um you know with the bus circumstances that definitely has been a challenge for us as we see and um you know through no fault to anyone but
070it's shown some vulnerabilities this year you know and again we just it's it's incumbent upon us to make sure that we're providing the best learning environments for our kids. That was my discussion on it. Start thinking about it. Yep. It's good to to go through this process. Good to evaluate how we're doing um and and to honestly keep that fresh. So, thank you for taking that on as well. Appreciate that. We're looking forward to it. Thank you. I will say that I think that you're right when you talk about those phases. I do want people to know those aren't necessarily fast. I think that to do it well, we need to, like you said, plan evaluate. I think I really we need to move that way but we need to to take it very purposefully.
071Yeah. What we don't want is a snap judgment. Exactly. Fallout from that. Absolutely. Any additional comments on that? Erica I remember when they the board did this uh it was probably met with mixed reviews in the community but I think there was a pretty much a fullcourt press from admin that it had a lot of benefits for children's education first of all. Secondly, teacher collaboration times that would be amazing uh economic savings where the district was in hard and we we knew that after any program is in three or four years, it should be evaluated whether it it's a good idea or a bad idea. And I would like to hear maybe some kind of survey coming out of either teachers how they're feeling about it. Y uh often I hear teachers do not like
072it yet there all this amazing collaboration time. On the other hand, uh I don't know if it's the vocal minority or or the majority. So I would like to hear how the teachers respond. I would like to hear was there much savings that we realized or not realized. Yeah. And in this time of busing, it doesn't matter maybe what we want to do or not. If more people can walk, that may be the only way we can do it. But, uh, I really appreciate you taking this on, too. It's time to evaluate it and, uh, it may still be a legitimate way to do this, but I've heard of districts that have done it and also gone back. And, and that's always a little discouraging, but ultimately if it's a better result, then we say
073this is better, we move on. And so, I really do appreciate you doing this, too. And well needed now at this time. Thank you. And I think a lot of us have, you know, like me personally as a mother, you know, I live right behind Wilson school, so I love the idea of that. But ultimately, this is a feasibility study. This is a costbenefit analysis. You know, I'll throw out all those terms, but it really is. And so Tal and I are approaching this. We're trying, you know, like it really is from a neutral base. We're putting our own personal feelings aside, and it's really to look at what what are the facts, what the facts say, and what the data say, and the stakeholders again, teachers, families, administrators, building administrators, and again, I think
074it's important to involve children as well. I mean, I work in an elementary school. You can get a lot of interesting ideas from a kindergartener even. I mean, I'm not going to give them a Google form, but you know, like there's a lot that you can can learn and we want to try to gather as much data as possible. So that's where that time will take because we want everyone to have a voice and we want to do it as efficiently as pro possible but also as thoughtfully and thoroughly as possible because these have very real consequences in the lives of children, the budget of our schools, you know, the function and operations of our schools. So it's something that he and I feel very strongly. I keep talking for you. Feel free to Yeah.
075Well, I I kind of I just want to reiterate what you said about how we can't really go back to the neighborhood schools model that everybody is in love with because we don't have that many schools and people aren't keen on paying more money to build a few of them and do we even have enough population to justify something like that. So, it is a it is a matter of looking at it like uh you know which grades do we put in each school and and is there a hybrid model and whatever. It's just that, you know, you know, I think we can probably come to some kind of an agreement that would make some folks happier than than uh the current layout depending on what the data shows us. But it's it's not going
076to be that true return to oh my, you know, meing house didn't even have buses at one time, you know, that kind of a thing. Uh because it's just it's it can't be that way. Um but I it's going to be interesting to get into the weeds and see what all that data tells us and what any surveys tell us and and interviews and all of that. So, I'm looking forward to it. And this is something like and this is something I know people have very strong feelings very different ways on. I want to be very clear and probably reiterate it like a hundred times talent. We're not making any promises that it's going to have a certain outcome, right? All we can promise is that we want to engage everyone in a really thoughtful
077data analysis and and make a good decision that what we all truly believe is the best interest of our kids. I I think what you're saying, Eric, is we're embarking on a journey here. We don't know what the end product looks like or what that end thing looks like, but we'll find out along the way. And and honestly, it's it's for the the best educational experience for each of the children that are out there. And to be open about it, we'll let Exactly. Whatever the decision is made, decisions, it's more than one decision, but whatever is made, we'll let everybody know why. Absolutely. Well, but I'm just going to say, too, that uh I'm hoping that uh your committee will be able to kind of update the board from time to time. Yeah. You know,
078when it's when it's when you have something that you want to share with us as you're progressing. And I will do the same thing with my committee. Good. so that we can keep the board and the public aware of what is how we're progressing and maybe we have to step back sometimes take a look at something that just didn't work out real well. So, but that's part of the process. So, thank you so much. Thanks. Appreciate that. Uh no action needed on that item. Uh item 11 A through G. Uh item A you want to talk about FOYA? Yeah, just we've received two foyer requests under the freedom two requests under the freedom information act during the period of August 24th through September 21st, 2021. The first request was received on September 2nd from Carla
079Barrett requested the following information. Request for disseminating information regarding health and safety of the general public's act money. How is it spent and what stipulations were attached? Second request was received on September 27th from Linda Andreas requested the following information. Please provide all sexual 12 PDF electron copy grant city school district and mass county including copies of all lesson plans copies of books and videos. Please also provide all state requirements for sex together with the copies and suggestions books videos etc. These requests are handed by the administration also with some help from our attorney as well. Fantastic. Appreciate you doing that. items 8B through 8G. Um there activity fund statements, balance sheet statement, bank reconciliation statement, memorial fund statement, and the July activity account statement as well as the August activity account statement. Um that
080is there for information. Do not need a an approval on those. Um and I think that takes us up to executive session. And I don't believe we have anything on executive session tonight. Very good. We do have uh approval of the executive session minutes from August 24th, 21, 2021. So move. Second. Motion and a second. Roll call, please. Stacy, I. Vinnie, I. Kenogal. I. Currin. Hi. None. I McMasters. Hi. Wire. Hi. And uh the next item setting of the agenda for the October 26th meeting, Board of Education meeting. I talked to Max before the meeting um and he's going to have a a report for us hopefully just like Kaylee did um last year. Some type of report getting feedback from students and his own feedback as well. And awesome. I'm going to show up
081to that meeting then the robotics team we were talking about. I talked to Miss doing something short because they built this giant robot. In case anyone doesn't know, really fast, the band got great grand champions at where was the uh Eastern Eastern Eastern Illinois this weekend with the help of the robotics team who built a Does it have a name? Ava. Ava new um and every time I see her, she gets better. She turns color, she moves faster, she's been performing with the band, which is really neat. The uh movement they're doing, I think it's called Elm Machina. Xmachina. Xmachina. It's from a movie. Yeah. Right. And it's a futuristic theme. So, if you haven't been out to see uh the band perform this with the robot, it's absolutely amazing. So, homecoming games coming up.
082I encourage everyone to go out and watch if you can and the game obviously. We're really proud of them. I wanted to give a shot. Appreciate that. I didn't I didn't see that written down the robot in there. So, I'm glad this was brought up. It's pretty cool. Very good. Um, at that I will take a motion to adjourn. So move. Second. A second. and we are at 7:17 p.m.