001August 13th, 2025, first day of school, 6 pm here at Frederick Frederick School in the Falcon Room. Call to order. Roll call, please. >> Mac >> here. >> Braden absent. >> Nash ab here. Miller absent. And >> here. >> Okay, we do have a quum. Please join me for the pledge. Okay. Thank you. I need a motion to approve this evening's agenda to get us started, please. >> I'll move. >> I'll second. >> Okay. >> Mac, >> Iman. Hi. >> Hi. >> Okay, thank you. I don't believe we have any public comments since I walked in. Okay, so we're going to hand it over to performance services for the solar power energy updates. Good evening. There we go. Thank you again for having me. Uh, for those that don't know, my name is Kurt. I'm
002the business development manager for services. I recognize a lot of faces and see some new ones as well. So, even hair color me. Um, so Chris has been asking me for a while to get this uh going and we uh it takes our internal team because they're not looking on a daily basis a little bit of time to gather information. So I know we had uh talked about doing this once before. Appreciate you waiting until towards the end of August so we had enough time to make sure we we got you the information and kind of see where things are at. Got it. Perfect. All right. Uh so again, four schools. Recap the system sizes. We were uh you know 2.3 megawatts which is absolutely awesome between the four buildings. still one of the largest
003uh school installations which is great and I think what we'll see there's some things to explain but overall we're still very positive. So we've had $200,000 again cost reduction in utility bills. I believe you guys are one of the districts as well that had a a spike and best thing about solar when you have a spike you don't feel the pain because you're already producing solar. didn't have solar would have been much bigger impact was good. Middle school was good. Park was good. Had some issues at such a large system overall production. kind of what those are manufacturing issue but get into a little but even with the system would have been would have well exceeded the numbers this year if was This just kind of shows you based on the base rate where everything's
004at how much your putting solar 28% reduction cost This just shows with some of the weather again. We had a lot of clouds. Everybody rememb This is going to kind of be your breakdown of where we're at. So we are above and beyond what we thought in demand. Just so everyone knows demand your demand charges just shift to a different. So everybody has a peak demand charge and that's when you pay a premium for electricity because you're producing solar. sunniest days of the year, your peak demand day shifts. Because of that, your rate you pay for that demand is way less. So, it was hard and still is hard even this don't put a lot of demand savings into projects. So, it's hard to predict. This is a great example to show you above. So,
005that made up for some of the other issues, especially at a lot of again over $200,000 in savings, which was about 98%. How we got there a little different how we thought we would, but overall we're getting to the savings. This is just a little So you benefited almostion of savings between energy and combat rebate and the received you maxed out your collected all those. Great job on that still have to produce solar continue before you make any switches but in this case maxowed to again,000 or more district 28%. That's a real number. That was a fixed loss cost as far as the inverter goes. So I was actually able to get some more information. We have a solar name basically is the one that's out there spearheading issues and problems. The problem is we
006don't know what we don't know. So we didn't know as long as they were unless somebody lets us know Jose and rel. So he's familiar with George. George was able to replace a couple inverters and they actually got those are all covered under warranty. Five or six more that were replaced with parts also covered underranty. There's some more that need be replaced that they're aware of. I believe you guys have hired Al service and they can help in this regard as well. But positive is that Solar Edge, which was the company we're using, is standing by their warranty program. They know that there was some issues that they had some of these and so they're actually uh put together kind of a rebate program that will going to try to as much as they can
007differ something we don't monitor it on a daily basis but if there's more issues still active us'll make sure it was highest Overall again I want to say that the system is doing a great job in that way. These inverter issues are on site like installation. It wasn't even installation. It's just component parts which forunately for solar is a huge factor. That's what DC been out here quite a bit questions. Is the problem? >> We haven't seen it yet. They have been checking them. We're obviously going to keep monitoring it now that we know that this is the first problem of any So it was somewhat of a shock because we have George can't say for sure but again we're watching now we know you said that at the beginning you mentioned the 2.3 megawatt.
008>> Yes. >> Is that that you said that's that's higher than you normally see in other installations or it's a it's >> um that's >> it's still one of the largest. Yes. >> Well, we in the in the county or >> Oh, definitely in the county. I mean, Grace Lake High School is doing the same Those are all those grounds large grounds. You had a combination of both. I'm saying you're still one of the largest state. Now, we're not counting some of the community. >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good to see everybody. All right, that brings us to the board reports section of our agenda. I'll start down this way this time, but this is >> I just wanted to welcome everybody back to a new school year. I'm looking forward to
009being part of the process right from the start. >> I will second comments. Welcome back everybody. >> Am I allowed to say? >> Yeah. >> Welcome back everybody. Uh just remember for those that are driving through the subdivisions to watch kids. >> Well, I might as well wrap it up and just welcome back everybody as well for the first day of school. I enjoyed being the only time that I've been able to come to the opening uh event with the teachers and the staff. Uh was it yesterday? Yesterday. Uh so it was really nice. That probably won't happen again because normally I should be starting at the same time and we'll go back to that next week and next year. But it was really really nice to be there and see everybody and have a
010chance to listen to everybody. And so welcome back and have a wonderful year. >> And I will hand it over to Dr. Griffin for the superintendent report. >> Thank you Dr. Well, I don't want to bury the lead. So, as we know, indeed, it was the first hit school today. We'll talk about that in a moment. We're going to kind of go chronologically um with some events that we've had recently. So, I'll hand this over to Mrs. Block to talk about new staff orientation. Thanks. So, good evening. We did have new staff orientation last week. Uh we had approximately 40 new certified staff members that attended. Uh we held it for three days and really the overall theme was just setting the stage for success. Um our staff worked really hard to be able to
011um prepare for it and support it. Uh I want to thank Jamie Parker, our teacher on special assignment who helped to um prepare that and have everything ready down to every detail. um as well as our instructional coaches who came on Wednesday last week to provide uh differentiated support for staff and help them get ready to be to walk into their buildings and be with students today. And then also the mentors, our mentors came on day one and helped to provide just some additional support oneonone uh not only here at Frederick, which is where we met, but also when they went back to their buildings for the afternoon. So it was a great three days and set everyone up to be able to be prepared for today. >> Indeed, it did. Uh that was followed
012by two institute days. Um day one was at the schools and it started with preparation time and the um new student supply drop off event which we've gotten some really nice feedback on and then having building meetings. Um and then day two we began as Dr. mentioned all together. Uh over at Park Campus, we had a keynote speaker, Mr. Robert Hinchliff. He's a principal and author. He spoke a lot about focus. His focus was on relationships and about seeing um the perspectives of other people. Um thank you very much Dr. Mack for a very moving welcome speech. Actually had some staff members who didn't know you comment about that today. Um was really wonderful. And the afternoon was divided into many different professional development opportunities and meetings so that all of our staff members were
013uh scheduled into something that would be meaningful for their work. Thank you so much to Miss Spleck for the incredible organization that got that going along with bringing our keynote speaker to us. Um there was a lot of professional development regarding our new math resources. So many of our teachers were scheduled into learning more about that. Um, I had the pleasure of spending most of my afternoon with Amber Bogan, our new director of multilingual services. Hi, Amber. Um, and the multilingual department, talking about the year ahead, and there was just a really high level of excitement in the room. And all of that led to today, which was indeed the first day of school. It was truly spectacular. The weather cooperated such a spate of high temperatures today was, you know, was quite warm but
014reasonable. Um, the air conditioning was working. I shouldn't even say it out loud. But the end of the day, I looked at someone and said, "Air was good today. Air conditioning was great. Um, it was a smooth start and it was captured by Leslie Armstrong." We have, um, a little video to show you. I think Leslie, you told me it was called two days and two minutes. Two weeks. That makes more sense. This is more than two days. Okay. Two weeks and two minutes. You're gonna I want to just point out today was opening day of school and half of these photos are from today. So, think about that. Sit back, relax, and enjoy these two weeks. Hey hey hey. Hey, daddy. Hey daddy, hey Dying hey. Ah, yes. That's a lot of joy. It
015was a very joyful day. And Leslie, I know you put to be continued because you're planning to add many photos. shared with me. Mrs. Armstrong shared all of the events she's planning to attend this week. So, lots more to come. That'll all get posted on our website. Right. It was a great day. And lastly, for the superintendence report, I don't know if you heard, but your superintendent is indeed retiring and so I am handing this over to Dr. Woke to um give a little update on the superintendent search. >> So, I was trying to figure out how to intro that. Um >> You're welcome. Thanks. Um because I didn't want to say like hey as we excited about the first day of school, it's also Dr. Clickman's last first day of school as she uh
016starts her last year uh as a superintendent with our district. Um and we wish her the best, but we'll save that for later. Um so what I what I'm here to talk about today is next year. Um we just began the school year this year, but um everything that we working for is actually to uh um happen this year, but we'll have a new superintendent next year because of it. Um so earlier today, uh we were on a phone call with BWP, the consulting firm that we've um gone with to conduct our superintendent search. Um we did some planning and uh working with them, we will start uh some of the focus groups on Thursday, September 4th. What that will be is they'll be on site and conducting focus groups with many different stakeholders. Uh
017there will be some smaller groups. But uh what I really wanted to share tonight is that uh we want to get out that at 3:45 we will have an all staff focus group. Um details to come. We're going to put the agenda together so that everybody knows. Um but on at 3:45 on Thursday the 4, September 4th, uh we'll have a all staff focus group. And then later that evening at 6:30 here in the Falcon Room, um we will have a community focus group as well. Um again, more details to follow. Um and then uh the week of September 8th, we will be sharing a survey with our community to seek feedback from the community along with the focus groups. Any questions about that? All righty. Then that's it for the superintendent report. >> Congratulations
018on your last birthday first day. >> Y we should we should have cake all year long is what we should have year-long celebration. That's right. too. All right. I need a motion to approve this evening's consent agenda, please. Including the personnel addendum that was shared with us earlier. Any comments or questions? >> I hi >> and hi. Okay, thank you very much. We have a couple of action items here to go through. Uh, need a motion. The first one, need a motion to approve the resolution for the hazardous road conditions, which is what we do here. >> Okay. >> Weedman, >> Matt, >> I >> and Herson. >> Motion passes. And secondly, I need a motion to approve the 2025 2026 miscellaneous and substitute wage rates that were presented. >> I'll move >> I and
019I. >> Okay, motion carries. All right. Um, on to funding update. I'll hand it over to Mr. Wellman. All right. Uh, good evening, members of the board. Tonight I'll be providing an update on several recent developments in state and federal funding that directly impact our fiscal year 2026 budget planning. We cover three areas. Federal title funding uh the evidence based funding tier allocation and changes related to Senate Bill 366. So as always I want to ground our discussion on mission empowering learners creating equity and cultivating community. Funding decisions are a major way that we make sure this mission is achievable. presentation connects directly to strategic plan goal three finance goal as well as an aligning alignment with policy our operating fund policy here's the agenda we're just going to go straight into title funding okay
020so on June 30th the house administration temporarily impounded $6.8 previously approved federal allocation funding affecting key programs like title 2 professional development, title 3 for English language learners, title 4 and enrichment and after school programs as of the week of July 28th successfully education successfully advocated for the release of these funds and grant applications will be open talk a little bit about that because we have one that's just actually open today. Um again, title one C migration education, title 2 A, title 3 A and title 4 A. So we're monitoring the front windows closely um so we can maximize our eligibility. As of today, title 2 was released to us to totaling 92,00 92167. Uh that includes a carryover as our 70,000. So this year is 7060 with this year. U title three is open
021for application. So we're seeing the the changes thumbs up. Um that's good for us because we had in the previous discussions a few weeks ago talked about that received that's what we were hearing from the federal level. So good news good news. um fiscal year 26 uh evidence base when the allocation was released on August 1st uh CCSD remains a tier one district with 72% just want to pinpoint that that 72% adequacy does not show as of next year start to see the benefit of that which will probably target but as of right now we remain in tier one. So uh for comparison the fiscal FY25 tier increase was that number there was 1852400 and our tier increase for this year is147,5 which is a 38% reduction in allocation and that's $78.65 million. So we
022were not expecting 1.8 We didn't expect this leaves us a gap about $450,000. So why was this why we got this reduction? The main reason is because the CPS the Chicago public school system has last year. As I previously explained, the tier one gets it gets allocated. [Music] So the difference of moving CPSion totalion talk about 50 million 300 million goes to the propertate. In June 2024, Senate Bill 36066 amended the children with disabilities article of the school. The change expanded state reimbursement to include public special education which were previously. So this was something that were involved in this area for a long time to have equal treatment and that's what equal amount of private and public in terms of their treatment. While this enhances fairness does not include instead the costs have been covered
023from the existing mandated for us. So moving forward as they get back to still going to hold the public hearing on September And I think this plays into really understand. So that pool of money is probably so we can receive the same amount of money. Unfortunately though have growth and expenditures each year. So we are spending more but the money isn't growing. That means that's something that's not the state. So that's number one. Um so Governor Pritker signed talking about screens for kids. Is that one that you're talking about fall >> or is that going to be something that we might see something? >> It could. >> So, this is a perfect example of legislation that gets passed with all great intentions and then the budget gets formulated and if it doesn't have if it
024didn't have it, mandate. If it does, it obviously would be a funed mandate. I am not aware of any specific funding about that, but I'm aware of the >> Heather, are you aware of it either? >> Okay. I wasn't aware of any specific funding that came with it. >> I I don't think that it comes with funding specifically. What I think it comes with is a free tool to use. So, at the moment, we're not looking at it being something that will cost us, but of course that remains to be seen. >> Comments or questions? >> Thank you, Mr. W. >> Thank you. We're moving right along. We have no new business on our agenda tonight. So, we can just sit here in silence and elongate the meeting if you'd like or move on to
025topics for new agenda items. Now, we're on September 3rd, we have summer facilities update and summer technology projects update. So, I think we'll have some more photos for you to see. uh on September 3rd. September 17th will be the first of the new kinds of meetings that our board has asked for where we're spending most of a board meeting on a finance topic. So September 17th um we will have um an update from W. We'll do a financing update from Raymond James. We'll do the public hearing for the fiscal year 2526 budget. We'll do the proposed timeline for the 26 levy um that evening. We also will be having oh yeah we'll also start that that before we have that meeting we'll have a policy committee meeting. So we will also tack policies on to
026that meeting as well just a first look at policies. Unfortunately, the way the year will run, we won't be able to have um a meeting that is completely devoid of other topics, but hopefully we'll be able to go through those policies quickly. So, that's it for September 17th. Um on to October 15th, we'll do another policy committee meeting if we need it, if we haven't gone through everything on the 17th of September. Um October 15th will be our first visit from our GMS students. We have our way of the panther students coming that evening to do some presentation and then to sit a board table and again we'll have policies. Um and that is what I have for you so far to the fall. >> Wonderful. Thank you Dr. Lman. >> Uh do we have
027any public comments that snuck in? Okay. We do have a closed session this evening so we're going to end the regular meeting here. So everybody, congratulations on your first day back at school and enjoy a 33 minute board meeting and go home and relax and prepare for the rest of the week. And we do I do need a motion to enter into close session this evening for the following purposes. Public Act 5 Illinois CS120C1 the appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees of the public body or legal counsel for the public body including hearing testimony on a complaint lodged against an employee of the public body or against legal counsel for the public body to determine its validity and public act 5 Illinois CS120 C2 collective negotiating matters between the public body
028and its employees or their representatives or deliberations concerning salary schedules for one or more classes of employees. A motion. >> Okay. >> H >> I and we >> Okay, great. And we do not anticipate any further business taking place after the close session. So we will adjourn directly from there. Good night everybody. Get some rest. Have a great day tomorrow. We'll take a five minute break.