001So move second >> here. >> Corner >> here. >> Leoo >> here. >> Isa >> here. >> Rtor >> here. >> Johnson >> here. Brown >> here. Okay, we're back in open session and we'll just get started with the pledge of allegiance. So if everybody would just join me in the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance 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. >> Okay, we've got uh quite a bit on the agenda this evening. Uh today is the tax hearing. So, we'll uh we'll go to our our tax levy and uh review and approve and and and vote on that. Uh we've also got a lot of uh facility projects to go over
002this evening. We got the security upgrades out in Milbour. Um we've got the parking lot for the south campus to talk about. And then our track is uh is up for replacement. So uh we'll talk about those facility projects. And then uh lastly, we've got some uh discussions to have about our border treatment, which is usually uh in February, kind of towards the tail end of February, but we'll we'll talk about that and see what works for everybody. Uh but before we begin, before we go in this into the uh levy, we've got student recognition to uh debate. So, >> thank you, Mr. Brown. Um I'm going to ask for come on up here. Uh we're going to congratulate once again Alyssa Aubberine who competed at the IHSA swimming and diving meet on November 14th
003and 15th in Westmont, Illinois. Alyssa placed second in state in a 200 yard freestyle, >> third in state in a 100 yard freestyle. Last year as a junior, Alyssa was third in both those events. In her sophomore year, she was second in 200 sixth in 100 freestyle. So her she's had a very illustrious career and she is going on to bigger and better things next year. Going to swim at Arizona State. Congratulations. Parents get some pictures with you. Brown. So, we'll come up here. >> You guys getting ready? >> Ready? One, two, three. Arizona State like >> All right. So, we we'll we're going to step out of the regular board meeting and and go into a special meeting. So, we're going to make a motion to temporarily adjourn the regular meeting of the board
004to hold our 2025 tax levy hearing. >> So, move second. >> All in favor? >> I motion carries. Uh, so we are now in our tax le. >> Okay. Good evening everyone. I'll just provide some highlights of the levy. The levy has been posted for just over a month. Uh, all of the details are in the levy packet that was presented last month and also discussed uh a little bit about it throughout the past month in finance committee. So, just to reiterate um when we think about these asks for a levy, we're asking for how many dollars we need to operate effectively. So, it's worth revisiting this slide with the and I know that you see this slide a lot with the evidence-based funding adequacy target. Again, this is a target that is determined by
005the Illinois State Board of Education and is researchbased and it says that Okalen Township High School is only at 73% of the funding or revenue that it needs to adequately educate its students. So that's close to a $10 million deficit. And what we need, the rationale of our need outside of what ISBY tells us and the EVF includes a variety of things. I just want to highlight some of them. They're all in that packet. Um, first, over over the past two years, we've looked at between four and 5% salary increases each year. That's the the gist of our the majority of of our spending, especially in our education fund. Um, we've also had growing special education, alternative and intervention programming. We've done a lot more with social emotional learnings in past years. We've had increased
006security needs and are rising to meet those needs. The landscape for textbooks have changed where we no longer have a book that remains up to date enough. We have now a tech component that subscription base that needs to be renewed every few years. As we discussed at the PAC meeting last week and we've been discussing since last February, we have some dire facility needs. Um, and 100% of our operation and maintenance fund comes from our local property taxes with the exception of $50,000 that we can get from the state maintenance grant. Last year, we experienced a 12% increase in our health insurance premiums. And we don't see a lot of hope. This is not just us. This is happening everywhere. But we anticipate that we'll continue to see increases with health insurance costs. And then
007we got that vehicle fleet rotation going so that we don't end up like we were several years ago where all of our vehicles were becoming unusable all at the same time. And that's something we're building into the budget every year. This slide shows school district tax rates. On the left you will see tax rates that are capped per statute. They're in all of our operating funds. For example, education with that special education and lease purchase that's used primarily for tech. Our building fund has a max rate. Our transportation fund has a max rate. Our working cash or savings account fund has a max rate. And our health life safety all have max rates. We have not increased that rate and have been at the maximum for the past 20 plus years. Where there is latitude
008in the levy is with debt service. However, that's prescribed to us because whatever bonds we have to pay, the county tells us this is what you need to levy to pay your bond schedule. IMRF and social security are required percentages of salaries that we have to pay every payroll uh towards the retirement funds of our nonTRS employees. We levy for that based on the percentage that's set by the federal government and by IMRF for those salaries. And then liability, that's our tort liability insurance, things like security. We levy what we need there. And as you know, we've had increased security needs. And I'll show you how those rates change here in just a moment. The comparison from tax levy year 24, that's what we were looking at last year at this time, to what we're
009asking in 2025 on the right, is as follows. Last year, our total levy that we asked for was 25,564,000. What we actually had extended, which is typically and always lower than what we asked for, was 25,146,3 47. Our ask this year is about $2.7 million more than last year's levy. So we're looking at 27,77, excuse me, $776,000. So the increase over last year is 8.653%. And over the actual extension, it's an increase of 10.5%. I will say this again later, but it should be noted that we're not asking for a 8.6 or 10.5% increase in the tax rate. The assessor's office indicated that our EAP is going to go up between 9 and 11%. So you'll see the tax rate is expected to stay pretty steady. It may rise two to three cents. We don't
010set the tax rate. We ask for dollars and then the tax rate is set. Yes. So that's just based on increasing property values in the community, right? >> Correct. If there's if there's EAB and you're a homeowner, uh, if your EAB increased, that's your property value being increased. Yes. Looking here, our current rate that we're operating under this year is 2.0557. The estimated rate, and again, this is a little bit of an educated guess. We don't know what the actual tax rate is going to be yet, but on our ask that tax rate would probably be again knowing there'll still be some minor changes to EAB before things are finalized. 2.0854 next year. That's still the second lowest tax rate that would be extended to our taxpayer since Milbourne opened. You can see where the
011differences are. They're in debt service. Again, that's prescribed to us. So, we don't have a choice what we levy for debt service. IMRF social security you see a slight decrease and in liability tort you see just over a one cent increase. So again that difference is between two and three cents per $100 of EAV. >> So if I if I'm reading that correct yeah >> the projected tax rate increases it's increasing by 1% from last year. Is that correct? It's increasing by two to three cents per $100. So the rate may increase two to three%. >> Percentage percent. >> A percentage of >> correct? Yes. >> Yeah. >> Yes. The way this is determined and Mr. Brown alluded to this a little bit earlier. Um the EAB is the assessed value. So that's oneird of
012market value for personal homes. Um county and post multipliers, any new construction tips are things that we do not receive money for. Um and then of course there are several exemptions that are offered to property owners as well. The tax rate of the school, which is what I just discussed on the last slide, is determined by the dollars levied for the school and the rate cap. I went over our operating funds, those those uh those rates can only go so high and we've been at those rates. Those rates will not increase because they cannot increase. So that's where we see that difference between the dollars we asked for and usually getting less um because of those caps. We don't get every dollar that we ask for. Highlights on this year's levy. As I mentioned before,
013the EAB growth was estimated to be between 9 and 11% for this tax year. We estimated a 12% increase to cover any growth increases. Typically, there are some increases after we get that initial estimate. We get that in the spring and a lot changes before we get to November when we're preparing the levy. The property tax rate generated is expected, as I mentioned, to be between two and three cents per $100 for your 2025 property taxes. And during the last seven years, the rate generated by OTHS part of the levy has decreased a total of 22.3 cents per $100 in EA. So while we will see that 2 to three cent likely see that 2 to 3 cent increase this year you look at the past seven years we've been very responsible to our taxpayers
014this is the second lowest rate we've had since Milurn opened approximately I talked about exemptions a little bit approximately 17% of our total EAV is exempted due to the disabled veterans property tax exemption So what that does is it further limits the revenue that we receive in those capped funds, our operating funds, but then it kind of it it doesn't kind of it shifts the burden to the remaining taxpayers to for the areas of tort liability for debt service um and for IMRF social security because those are dollars the district must collect in order to pay our payroll taxes, in order to adequately protect the school and in order pay our bonds off. Um to give you an idea of what that 17% looks like, um that is represents $250 million in EAB is exempted
015by the disabled veterans grant, I'm sorry, disabled veterans exemption and that's about $3.6 million in revenue for the district. So, um, two years ago, there was a statewide program piloted to help make those communities like ours that, uh, have a lot of veterans living in them, um, make them more whole so that we're not losing revenue for our schools just because veterans choose to live in our community and because we're close to the base. So we were for one year uh reimbured just over a million dollars which was that year 50% of the revenue that was lost from that exemption. Statute is still there for it. However, they haven't appropriated funds for it since that one year. So we are working with other area districts now to advocate for that same relief um since we
016are disproportionately impacted by the disabled veterans grant. So again, we want the exemption to stay there for the disabled veterans, but we want the state to help make sure that it doesn't punish the area school districts with a loss of revenue that happen to be near faces or have lots of veterans population. We'll be continuing this throughout the next year or so. We just had a meeting um on it last week uh with other area superintendent and again seeing what we can do to advocate because um that is substantial amount of revenue that we right now are not receiving. Um the levy request this year would increase our revenues if we received it in total, which we likely won't, by $2.7 million. That would not bring us up to being beyond a tier one school.
017Uh but it would help. Okay, it will help. And we continue to hope that EDF is funded and that we get a little bit more this year. If you remember, we got 540,000 as compared to the 1.4 million we had in previous years because Chicago public also became a tier one school. Um we're hopeful that EBF will continue to be funded. Um and the idea is as EBF is funded, less schools are tier one and that has happened. We work we continue to be tier one. Um but tier one still gets the majority of that tier funding. So it in theory we should be receiving more tier funding if we if we didn't have that Chicago public here this year but we should be getting more tier funding year after year to help us catch
018up faster. Wait >> yeah that increase that assumes that's based on the 12% EA increase that is estimated >> that is based on around a 10%. I kind of went in the middle of what we actually >> have you not that it would be but have you random what that would be if it was zero because our rate is going up but if it was a zero EAB increase >> I have not >> okay I didn't I'm assuming it would be somewhat increased because our r's gone up two cents of per $100 but >> yes but we would be we would expect that to go up you're saying if EA did not go up >> EAB held at zero what would our increase be >> it might not be >> it would be it would
019be a lot higher Because because we still we still have to >> our our levy only went up three cents on the $100, right? EA, we can't control EAB, >> right? Absolutely. >> EAB remains flat. What's our increase is what I'm getting. >> I did not calculate it. >> It's not 2.7. We know that. >> If EAB didn't go up, disabled veterans exceptions continue to go up. So, it might actually be negative percentage is what you're getting. Well, I see when you're balancing those two. No, I haven't run that number. Sorry. >> I'm sorry. >> I think you're right, though. >> Yeah. I'm saying the go is how the impact. >> Yeah, it's it's because we we've had consistent EA growth for the last four years. Significant. We have really healthy EA growth. This might
020be the last year that we see that kind of growth. >> The fact that exemptions are growing too. So when we do become flat, we will probably notice that. >> Exactly. That's what I was trying to I see >> because we had high the past couple years VA growth. When that flattens off it >> and the exemptions continue to grow, >> it doesn't hit 10% what's the impact to us. >> Um then the last thing that I have for you and this is just required for a truth and taxation hearing is that we have to share the fund balance. This is the same slide that I shared with you when we reviewed the budget earlier this year. These are our operating funds, a beginning fund balance in our operating funds in total, 22 million. We
021do expect it to end around 20 million. Again, hoping we do better than budget, but if we landed right on budget, we're looking at about a $2 million deficit in our operating funds this year. And in our other funds, debt service IMRF social security um capital projects tort and health life safety beginning fund balance was 6.5 million ending of 5.4 You can see where we're going up or coming down. That IMRF coming down is with intention because uh we had a fund balance that was high enough to where we don't need we don't need to overvy. We know exactly outside of some salary breathing room. We know exactly what that percentage is and we uh we had too much in that fund 50 which is your IRS social security fund. So that deficit's on purpose
022to be responsible to our taxpayers. Um and then health life safety. These are all the projects that we've been doing primarily HVAC projects and roofing projects. Um as we've talked about in facilities, our health life safety and again if you if you uh you approve that roof project, our health life safety funds um are depleted. We still likely have need for those projects or projects that could be approved as health life safety coming up in the next few years. However, um we get about $600 to $700,000 annually for health, life, safety. Um most of our projects have been over a million dollars. Uh those projects can also be completed through fund 20, which again is 100% funded by local property taxes. So we do have some limitations with just when we look at our um
023our annual levy and and revenue streams on what we're able to achieve in that regard. And I'm ready to pass it over to you, Mr. Brown, for public comment. >> Yes. So, at this time, we'll open it up to the public if uh anybody from the public would like to address the board at this time. Um um if not, then we will kind of move out of this uh tax le hearing and go back into our board meeting. So, going to make a motion to close the hearing on tax le second. All in favor? >> I. Okay. Motion carries. And then uh we're going to reconvene now in the regular meeting of the board of education. >> We'll do one >> here. Richtor >> here. >> here. >> Corners >> here. >> Johnson here. Brown
024>> here. >> Okay. Okay. So, we'll move into administrative reports. Um, >> all right. So, Dr. Shaker, >> um, I just wanted to follow up. Uh, last week we had our facilities uh, focused PTAC meeting and then pushed out the video from that meeting and communication out to um, stakeholders. Um, we got 42 responses on the initial survey which was at the end of the presentation at the meeting and then I created a separate survey adding the piece that was missing from the first one which I think was the two separate high schools piece um that and that was a survey that was sent out to everyone with a video of the recording and we have now 262 responses there. So we'll have some pretty good feedback to review as we go into facilities uh
025discussions at retreat in February. So, just wanted to share that and thank our community for their involvement and for providing that feedback and input and interest. It was really great. >> I thought you did a great job. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> That's all I >> All right. Good evening everybody. Um, tonight I just want to kind of recap what we talked about at our education committee meeting this month, uh, by sharing some updates to the Illinois school report card system and sharing some updates on some programs that we're working on towards our educational committee goals. So, um, I reviewed our school report card at our last board meeting. Um, went over our overall rating and the the eight indicators that go into that. The day after our last board meeting, uh, ISBY was
026actually here at the building, uh, presenting some changes they're going to do for the system starting the 2526 school year. The changes are not final. They were basically in a sharing and taking comment, uh, phase. Uh, but they expect them to be approved and our current school year that we're in would be the first year using the new system. So, I just wanted to give you kind of a high level overview of what the changes look like. In ad committee, we went into great detail, but here we'll just uh kind of get the the brief summary. So, the report card is being redesigned for 2526 and there were some major complaints about the previous system. The biggest being that the exemplary rating was a moving target that only the top 10% of schools could get.
027And if you got better as a school, other schools maybe got slightly better, you could still miss. And that's exactly what happened to us. our our scores improved but other schools improved slightly more than that and the 10% target moved and we missed it. Um and so that was one of the biggest complaints across the state um and they are looking to change that. Um another major complaint is that that commendable range is 85% of the schools in the state. So if you are at the very top of commendable like OTHS you look very different than a school at the very bottom the sixth percentile of the state is also the same rating as you. So they're looking to expand the the rating possibilities. So the redesign in summary will have no index scores. The
028index score is that 90.7 out of 100. So that those are gone. Um there will be no moving target for exemplary. They will tell you exactly what you have to do to get it. Um there are no weighted metrics. Our weights were here with our eight metrics with grad rate being 50%. They're no longer weighted metrics. uh they are reducing it from eight to six metrics and I'll go through those six here in a second and there are now five levels of performance that are more evenly spread um with exemplary at the top commendable and then there's a couple of new ones in the middle to split that giant commendable range up. So >> the new system like I said has six indicators they use. There are three that are considered core indicators and three
029considered elevating indicators. The way I think of it is core indicators are your your main three things you're doing and you're elevating are what I would call bonus points. Elevating indicators cannot hurt your score. They can only boost you and move your score up. So the core indicators will be proficiency, growth, and grad rate for high schools. And the elevating indicators will be English learner progress, attendance, and climate survey completion. There's no weighted metrics anymore. So there's not a percentage assigned to each of these. The rule is if you get an exemplary on one of the three on the top row, your overall score is exemplary. If you get commendable on all three of those, you'd be commendable. But if you got two exemplaries on the bottom, you'd be boosted to exemplary. So there's now
030instead of a weight with just a math formula, there's now a a system of rules. If you get this, then your rating is this. If you get this and your rating is this. So it's it's more complicated to explain, but they think it's more simple um because you can kind of focus hyperfocus on things. So >> what's the climate survey? Climate survey is that five essential survey that students and parents take every year and teachers they count the student survey towards that >> and it's just a completion rate. It's not a it's not like a result of the survey. >> So this makes it significantly easier >> yes >> to be an exemplary. >> It does and I'll go over the I have a slide on the impact. Basically it tripled the amount of high
031schools that would be exemplary from 70 to 200. >> That is so disappointing. So yes, um they made it too easy. >> So here are the indicators and they have basically they told you exactly what you need to score in each of these to get the exemplary commendable rating. Um the the major changes to these um I'll go through each one composite proficiency. In the past they only looked for a high school in your junior year SAT or ACT. They are now looking at our nth grade ACT, our 10th grade ACT, and our 11th grade ACT scores. Combining those all together, giving us one proficiency number. So 60% of our students are proficient in academics, and that'll be the only number you get. So it's a combined rating. >> Is it rated the same across
032all grades? >> One student. >> Yep. >> Really? >> One student has three test scores and they all go into the >> into the pile. >> Yes. Um so that's new for us. We'll have to um the nth and tth grade tests were practiced before. Now they account for its accountability. Um, the next indicator is >> one thing about that, I think that kind of hurts us being a high school district because I mean, we're going to work closer with our um, districts in the area coming in, but we have no control of those ninth graders coming into us on what type of level of education that they're getting. We think they are in our area. However, I think that hurts high school districts um with you know having no control about nth grade on
033track before because that was difficult for that same reason. >> Yes. So they've uh that is more challenging for a high school district and I think maybe to balance that they added the growth component for high schools which is new. Elementary districts have been using growth um in their report card but we haven't. So growth is a measure of the students increase in score on their standardized test over the years and they can compare your eighth grade to your ninth grade score. So u even if it's a different test so they have a system with it's based on percentiles. Um and we need to learn more about this one because it's brand new to us. So um I can't even tell you what our growth would have been last year because we don't have that
034information. But we'll just have to study this one before and this will be a baseline year on this one. Um, grad rate is staying the same. 93% is exemplary as it was before. Um, E progress is now a bonus indicator. It can only help you. And they've also lowered the threshold for exemplary. Um, previously you had to get 100% growth in EL students to get exemplary. Now it's 50%. Attendance was switched from a previously it was chronic absenteeism which was an inverse indicator. you want to be low and they're switching that they're reversing the definition to now attendance meaning students who have attended 90% of the school year instead of students who are absent 10%. So you want to be high now. It's the same thing. There's negative positive. And then uh lastly, climate survey
035is unchanged. That is the percent of students that complete the survey. And 95% is still the target. So those are the six. Uh we will we have a team of chairs and teachers that are going to dig into these deeper um throughout the year, especially that growth one. Um, and then the composite proficiency will be big because that'll be involving far more teachers in the the prep for these tests, which was typically a junior year focus. You incorporate ACT prep into your into your curriculum, but this will be now a three-year process. So, that'll be a big change, too. >> So, you know, on the change, and I get chased the metrics, but this seems to be like a participation metal now. You know that's >> everybody gets a trophy. >> Yeah, everyone gets a
036trophy and I hate that. I I not that I hate there's times foration I I I believe in it in certain things. I don't believe in it for education outcomes, >> right? >> And so how are we going to make sure we're focused on being the best high school district in the state because this no longer does that. This what I what I'm going to be so excited when you guys come back and say we're exemplary. I will be excited for that accomplishment, but I care more about us actually being the best district in the state. >> And that's the exact conversation we had in the ED committee about how we have to now set we have our KPIs in that committee and those become our higher standards. We have to set those as what
037we care about and possibly exempt or just become something. So James, we're not changing our standards and what we're looking at in our KPIs and the percentage that we've set for our goals. That will continue on for us. So we don't we and we all feel at least in the education committee, we felt the same way you did about how this has changed. I do want to know because Heather brought up a good point. Is there I know they're they're making decisions as we speak now um about this, but is there any way with them changing it like this to still go back and say we would like to have an index? >> Um they are it's basically public comment season right now for them. So you can submit I did already submit to their
038website my thoughts which were that it's make it too easy. Um and so it's still open until mid January I think. >> Okay. Because um What what it doesn't allow us to do is to look at the schools in our area. So for instance, if one school gets 70% and we get we don't know if they get 70%, we get 95% but we're all exemporary. It makes a big difference where you're at, what you're rating on the exemplary and there's no way to tell that difference anymore. >> Those index scores helped us find schools that we can look at and see. >> It's insane. Success is a moving target. And and that's that's it takes that away. >> That is true. You want to be the best, you have to beat other people. >> Yeah.
039What I did like about this though is that it does give you targets. Actually, if you can go back one slide to where you had the percentages, >> that's where I think the part of the problem is because if you look at, you know, 75% gets you exemplary. That to me is an A. It should be 90. You know what I mean? And just in my good old simple brain. So that's it's how they're rating it. I like the one thing I like about this is you are graded upon yourself and how well you've done and it it it tracks the student and how well the individual students are progressing in that growth. And I like that concept of it because we need to be it does go student by student not just the snapshot
040of just juniors because each year juniors are different. So I like that. I like the fact that we can look at it and say, "Okay, where do we need to focus if we're having issues with our proficiency or issues with our grad rate? Where can we focus that we can actually get a a decent rating?" You know, I like that it tells us what we need to do. And it's not no matter how hard you work, if somebody else just happened to have done better because they don't have the English language progress, English learner progress, and so they don't have that in their rating. So, they automatically are higher. That's how it >> and and that is one of the things just real quick that I asked Ethan to look at because uh Edwardsville and
041Mosca were exemplary and we were not >> huh >> there were a lot more than that >> they were >> well I'm just using them but the the reason why I think we didn't get it and and they did not that they are not great schools too because they didn't have the English learning category which was >> um which was not counted for them. So that brought us down in the English learning category where they didn't even get a percentage uh wise looking in that area because they didn't have enough students. >> I I remember hearing in education that this is just one metric, you know, one measure and and I I hope we keep that mentality. >> Yeah. >> Because, you know, I think we're me measuring things broader than this. We're looking at
042students that may not go to college or be on a college track and try to, you know, progress their ability to be successful leaving college. So, I I think it's important that we define our own success. This is just one measure. Um, but we have to look at our whole student body and uh, you know, figure out what what what's important for being a successful school. But, we're already doing that. I hope we keep doing that. and uh you know keep driving that KPI performance and improvements as as we're already doing. >> So I just wanted to share um what our overall summit designation would have been using the new rules. Uh we would have I don't have growth because that's not available but we would have had one exemplary on the top which would
043have made your overall rating exemplary. Um and so we saw it it did increase the amount of high schools that received it or would have. So just a couple summary points these are not As of today, they're still taking comments on these. Um, and you can submit them on the ESB website. Um, an exemplary school is a school with at least one out of three on the top row exemplary and nothing rated in the very bottom of the red. Um, which would be very hard to do. Uh, more schools will be rated exemplary. Using the data from the previous school year, it would have gone up from 70 high schools to 200. So, tripled the number of high schools rated exemplary. Um, bad rate, although it's not weighted at 50%, is still the most important
044because it is the easiest of the three on the top row. So, it's still the most important measure for sure. The two metrics that we performed the lowest on are now elevating, meaning they can't hurt us. They can only boost our score if we do well in them. That's the EL learner progress and the attendance piece, the chronic absenteeism, now called consistent attendance. Um, Um, the proficiency metric is updated to also include nth and tth graders, not just practice. It will count. The growth is going to require training because we've never done it at the high school level before. Um, we can talk to our elementary districts who have been doing it for years and figure out how they track it. And then uh we will continue using ed committee KPIs to measure our progress.
045We will have to hold higher standards than one out of three is good enough. So we'll have to do that. So um any other questions on school report card changes? You can do comments on this if you want to. I have already some of our chairs have also saying the same thing. So will we have access to data that will tell us what the top 10% 5% high school districts are how they're performing to measure ourselves against? Is that is that going to impact our ability to assess our performance against other schools? No, they'll still release every year they release a giant Excel file with every high school and every score on every metric and they'll continue to do that. Um it'll just be harder to sort it because there won't be an index score.
046We can still do it. We have to do up each of the individual six pieces. Uh so last thing I wanted to do quickly tonight is just to share some updates on programs that we're doing towards our education committee goals. I'm not going to go through our goals, but we have five goals in the areas of academic achievement and school culture. And we have two teams that are working this year on moving those goals and meeting those goals through the continuous improvement process. We have the academic excellence team which is a team of department chairs working on the education goals and we have a Panther Connects team working on the school culture goals. They're both doing the same process. We're researching, coming up with new plans, proposing them, piling them, implementing them. So that's the
047process. Um so I just wanted to share some things we're going to be doing upcoming soon. Uh the A means quarterly and they picked four topics to work on this year. Four big topics that seem to have come up uh all the time. AI is one, professional learning communities is another. Feeder district articulation and nth grade transition programs are the four topics we picked for this year. Um we have an AI committee that was formed with 14 volunteer members. Uh 12 teachers, uh one IMC assistant and one administrator, that's me. Um we are working on a staff AI guide book and we are working on a plan for our February institute day to be focused on AI um so that teachers who have no knowledge of it at all can get some training on it.
048Um and so that's coming soon from that committee next two months. Uh we also from this committee are looking at other high schools that have professional learning communities uh which is a way to take your academic department and make it more collaborative um and to work on bigger projects in curriculum. And so we are sending a team up to Stevenson High School in the Chicago suburbs to learn about their PLC program they created originally um in the late 80s and they've been consulting with other schools ever since then to spread it. Um, we are working on improving our articulation with our theater districts. On January 5th, we'll have a meeting uh with eth and ninth grade teachers over at Milbour to talk about student placement and curriculum. Every teacher of English, math, social studies, and
049science from the eighth and nth grade level from all our theater districts will be there. Um, so that'll be great. Um, we did this a very small bit of this last year and it was we got very good results. Uh one example, our science department said we have had almost no movement at the freshman level of students being placed too high and having to drop down to to the from honors to regular because of these discussions. So that's the goal of these is to to improve our placement so our students are right where they should be and be successful. Um 8th grade parent night will have an updated format that's going to be on uh January 14th. It will be a presentation from admin counseling and department chairs to talk about pathways within our departments.
050Um basically have students start thinking about their four-year plan right now. And then uh freshman orientation is currently in progress planning for that to happen early in the summer. And then lastly, the Panther Connects team which is on the school culture side. Um they are the team that is funded by Adobia grant. Um and they're the implementation team of teachers that work on that. The first semester they planned two advisory activities that were schoolwide. Um students really loved them. They went really well. And the idea is now we want students to take that over. So in semester 2 we've got a group of students formed to help plan future advisory activities to make advisory more interactive and competitive. Um and we want it to be studentled. So semester 2 we're starting that. And that is
051all for tonight. >> Thank you. Uh finances next. Good evening. I will present be presenting financial financials for the month of November. Um in November for revenues, we um have $1.6 million in revenues. Sorry, which is 61% of the annual budget compared to $1.4 million um in November 2024 which is 68% of the budget and the percent the percentage is primarily the difference is due to the timing of tax distributions and also the increase in the revenue for the budget in November 25 and we did receive our last tax distribution in December of on the expense side expenses in November um or 66.7 million which is 37% of the annual budget compared to $8.2 million which is 42% of the budget in November of 2024. And that difference is primarily due to the timing of
052bond payments. Um in November of 24 all bond payments were made and in November this year um there was 1.66 million in bond payments that are paid in December. So when you're comparing those two, that's the difference um for expenses for November. >> Any questions? >> Thank you. Well, good evening everybody. Uh we're spreading some good holiday cheer here. We're going to start off tonight uh with OTS good cheer. Um, starting back at Thanksgiving time, just some real good news here and some real activities that that some of our uh, sponsors, some of our teams have engaged in our community. Uh, the OTS wrestling team, they delivered 20 meals to families in the OTHS community for Thanksgiving. And you can see how they were dressed up there. Little action picture of them. Our social workers
053also delivered 10 uh families meals during Thanksgiving time thanks to food boxes that were donated by uh Sean Kelly. Sean uh helps out with a lot of our photography at our sporting events. Okay. Also, Coach Monroe, one of our football coaches, and then Operation Top Shelf, uh which is a group from First Baptist Church. So, uh 10 families got food thanks to them. And then for the Christmas time here, uh, found police department, including of course our SRO's Tom Peninsky and Jared Krug. They took nine OTS students shopping at Academy Sports on Thursday, December 11th. So, a good partnership with a foul police department and our SO SRO's here. Oh, here's some pictures of our good SRO's who are not they're at the basketball game uh supervising the basketball game this evening. So that's why
054they are not here. Well, this year as well, uh, OTHS social workers, our teachers, staff, administrators are going to take 20 OTS students uh, shopping this week, I believe on Thursday. This is made possible through the generosity of our staff here at OTHS. Of course, our school board members who donate money for the family for uh family for families fund. A team of OTS staff are going to take these students shopping for coats, gloves, shoes, socks, and gift cards due to the generosity of of our OTHS colleagues in our community. And of course, a very special thanks goes to Miss Caitlyn Miller and Mr. Dan Cox, who are the ones who really are instrumental in organizing this amazing program that helps 20 of our students have a brighter Christmas here. And you can't see this
055very well, but uh last Wednesday our band performed, and this is an actual picture here, um at in the dome uh from 5 to 8:00 with our feeder schools. It was a great night. Uh the band performed as well as our feeder districts. a very crowded, busy night, a lot of anxious families. Dr. Shaffford was one of them um who was out in the crowd there as a parent. And so just a real good night of good Christmas music and holiday cheer amongst our band members. And of course, this is led by Dr. Gustin Hines, Mr. Murphy, Mr. Mr. Roose, who our band directors go through a tremendous amount of work to organize this great event. Okay, what do we have coming up here? Well, starting tomorrow, we have our final exams beginning. Uh tomorrow,
056we have our first hour, second, and third hour exams. Uh on Thursday, December 18th, our 7th hour, our sixth hour, and our early bird exam. And then on Friday the 19th, uh our fourth and fifth hour exams. And that of course ends our our semester. But it doesn't end because then on January 5th, well, we're back. Okay, we're back on January 5th. Uh I was going to talk about some things here in a minute, but we have our teacher institute on the 5th and of course first day for students is going to be on January 6th. Now throughout our break though there's lots of events that so if we get bored uh we can go watch our basketball team at the Collins way Collinsville holiday tournament. That's from December 27th through the 29th. Our first
057game on the schedule is December 27th at 10 a.m. versus Patville. And it depends if we win or lose. Of course, we're going to win. We move on and advance. Our girls basketball team is at Mscuda on December 23rd and then December 27th and 28th. Their first game is against the winner of Modern Day and Bevel West on December 23rd at 6 p.m. Our girls wrestling is going to be in Jacksonville on December 27th for a meet. Our boys wrestling is going to be in Granite City for a two-day tournament. It's a big one down in Granite City. Our boys bowling uh is at Highland on December 29th. Our girls bowling is off until January. Same with our boys swimming team. Uh and then cheerleading has a competition in Juliet on December 21st and our
058Golden Girls on January 3rd compete in Denver. So, lots of things happening during the break time. And lastly, our enrollment. uh comparing it from today to last year at this time we have a total today as of today of 258 students. Okay, that is 33 less than last year at the same time which is kind of interesting. Um so there's 623 total students at the Milurn campus and there's 1,885 here at the Smile campus. Any questions? >> How many total? >> There's 25 Thank you. >> Okay, so uh committee reports are next. Um we've got communication committee. I don't think there was a meeting >> January 13 education update. >> Education update. I I have nothing else to add. Um kind of went over everything that we discussed at the education committee. >> Thank you.
059That was a good >> meeting facilities. Mr. Richtor, >> uh we met last Tuesday. Uh my reports attached. However, there are a couple things I'd like to add. I have some good news for a change. >> Uh, as you know, uh, Tom Goodrich has submitted insurance, uh, for our hail damage on, uh, our air conditioning, uh, units on this building. And, uh, we got a significant amount of money in that regard that we can use as we see fit. So, uh, what we've done is, uh, we've decided to put with everything that's pending now as far as future expansion, what have you, we put off the work that we have planned coming up for this summer off a year. So, and then another good news item is the, as you know, we've had a problem
060with a couple of our rooms. Uh, as far as uh what we thought was mold issue and what have you, had an expert come out and does not believe it's uh anything to do with the building, that it's strictly to do with the uh HVAC system. So, uh, we're in the process of, uh, getting that, uh, hopefully re rectified for good. So, and then our next meeting is, uh, June the 13th at 3:00. >> I'm a nice there's three projects for the board to review, right? That's correct. >> All right. uh finance committee. We had we did have a meeting uh this month. Uh Mr. Huff. >> Yeah. So, we we actually had our meeting last last night. Um it was a really very interesting meeting where we discussed how to better utilize our funds
061and how to uh invest them into safe interest bearing in uh instruments to create extra revenue for the district. We had a presentation from PTMA uh which is our what we call it a a fund manager. >> Yeah. And they work with 600 of the 800 districts in the state of Illinois. >> Yeah. So they specialize in this type of house financing. Right. and and really very interesting presentation on uh on how to do what we're looking to do and we're going Shalita is going to execute that strategy and hopefully more to come uh in in January, but I think it's a great opportunity for the district and uh I thank Shalita for putting that together. It was was fantastic. So uh and I'll just move right on to personnel. A little bit of a
062shorter update. We did have a meeting yesterday All of it was in close session actually. So I don't have much update for the public other than we did have a close session update um discussing topics uh such as performance evaluations and negotiations. >> Uh M you uh you had a policy meeting recently as well. >> We did after a hiatus from July. We finally had a policy meeting because there were updates, press updates, and there are quite a few press updates, but um for my fellow board members, there's 28 for the first reading. However, um there's no substantive changes. They're all just minor updates and changing the changing the dates. No real substantive updates there. There's more still to go through and our next uh policy meeting will be the 6th of January at 4
063p.m. >> and I can roll into special committee with PEC. >> Perfect. >> That works great. So we did have a PC meeting the majority of it was focused on our facilities discussion although Dr. Shaker went off with a lot of updates what we've done academically and I did appreciate that update as well. facilities, great discussion. I think the community members that showed up and I thought it was a great idea to break into the small groups. So, we were able to get feedback in small groups um top three from each small group. So, I think we will actually get a lot more feedback and discussion and back and forth that way, which will roll into into our decision. Um if we definitely want to make an informed decision as we move forward between the
064survey and one ones and such like that, we're getting some really good idea of what the community wants. So, thank you Dr. putting that together and thank you community members. You've already done the survey. I think it's still out there. You still want to do the survey as well. We just uh recently drove to Chicago for conference. >> Just had our conference at the members who were there. actually warm. It's freezing, but it's actually pretty um the actually IB is looking to count. Um they're bringing more um trainings out to the districts and they're they're wanting to get more involved with us, helping us to talk to each other. So, you're going to see some changes there. Our next quarterly meetings are are just around the corner. meeting is going to be February or March
065is around the corner. But um we're actually trying as to get our districts talking to each other, perhaps leverage some of the ideas, but also leverage the buying power where we can district >> and Heather, you play the role as director for the southwestern region for ISB, correct? >> Um I understand you're taking on another responsibility re recently. you tell us a little bit about it and congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Um I was elected actually as an alternate onto the executive committee for IAS. So there's the the small group of six of us on the executive committee for IAS to drive that. So we'll get some of the southern part of the state representation there as we respond to what our board members need to better serve the districts. >> So congratulations
066and thanks for taking that role. helping us influence the the Chicago crowd. >> Thank you. >> Um, best is next. Uh, Miss Johnson, do you want to update on best? There there were no meetings last month. So, the 26th of January is at D90 at 4M. >> Thank you. And then my question too is something maybe we should bring up at the next best meeting, but last April we had a best retreat where all the districts and feeder districts got together. Um we kind of worked on issues between the districts and I think the superintendents walked away with uh synergies you know from those activities. I guess maybe a question for is it for another meeting. Maybe a question from the superintendants. The actions you walked away with. Are those at a point where you
067need new actions or you know are we anyway I think it's time to ask and think about whether you know that action activity we had last year is something that should be done or >> we normally have a retreat but we were having a retreat every year. That's something that >> right there. >> Okay. Yeah. Well, that was because we were in transition. Yeah. So, I think that last meeting that I November, they the superintendent did meet. So, they will owe us a update at that meeting. see how they feel about >> and then city Mr. director I think there's a city meeting coming up >> that is correct February 5th >> February 5th yeah so it's been a while I think >> management changes within the city I think the city administrative is a
068new we have a new administrator. So I think they were delaying kind of get him on board and get get all the changes made. >> The superintendent have been having meetings with the new city administrator also >> just us as well in addition to this larger committee. >> Any updates to make on those discussions? >> Um no uh just we talked a lot about the disabled veterans grant. I'm sorry I keep saying grant disabled veterans exemption and kind of and then primarily talking about the facilities things going on with the cities and the schools. We did inquire the last one about the pavement sharing projects and that is not feasible with anything the city has going on right now. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> All right. Sounds good. Um so public comment comes next if
069there's anybody that would like to address the board at this time. Uh if not, we'll move on to the consent agenda. So I'll make a motion to approve the consent agenda items in their entirety, including but not limited to prior meeting minutes, financial reports, payment of bills, freedom of information act request, and disposal of obsolete equipment. >> So move second >> I'm sorry. >> Hi >> Richtor. >> Hi as I all right and then there was no old business to discuss so we'll just move on to the new business first is the appointment sheet so I'll make a motion to approve the appointment compensation discipline performance dismissal personnel items is presented >> so move >> second >> corners I >> hi I >> Johnson I >> Huff >> I Next we have some contractors to
070pay for work that they've already done. Um so make a motion to approve the pay applications for construction projects as listed in the >> not second. Is >> I >> Victor, >> hi >> Johnson. I H >> I >> Brown. >> Hi. >> All right. Next are some of the facility projects we were kind of making reference to. The first is a security upgrade at Milburn. Um so make a motion to approve Milburn security upgrades in the amount of $85,000 as recommended by the facilities committee. >> So moved. >> Second. >> And is this what they screwed up last year? This is what they screwed up last year. The the architect that took action on it without my knowledge or your knowledge for that matter. And uh that's you heard me ch out in the
071meeting last year at this time. And uh everything's cop static now as far as all that goes. But needless to say, this uh bid came in at the amount that we originally were envisioning rather than all the plates. >> Okay. So the scope got refined. That is >> correct. What we needed over, >> right? >> Um one question on this I guess is uh >> you know the potential projects moving forward. I guess these upgrades fit into all of those. >> Well, as we believe it does. We don't envision anything uh that would affect that area. to that >> we had discussion facilities that discuss you don't want to spend money and then have to redo everything while she mentions that I'd like to take the opportunity to thank my fellow board members that are
072taking interest in facilities and coming out to meetings Appreciate it. >> Um, okay. So, motion's out. Uh, can we get a roll call? >> Lloo. >> Hi, >> Eison. >> Hi, >> Rector. >> Hi, >> Johnson. I >> Hub. >> Hi, >> Coners. >> Hi, >> Brown. >> Hi. Um, okay. So, next is our parking lot at the South Campus needs resurfacing. So, I'll make a motion to approve the South Campus parking resurfacing in the amount of $215,000 as recommended by the facilities. >> So, moved second. >> Any discussion? >> Yeah. Yeah. How often do you get this? >> Sometime this is a larger project because if you remember we did looked at the pictures of this, it was truly like pebbles and gravel. So, it depends. I'm going to use the wrong terminology. help
073me if you know any broken up is what it comes >> right because sometimes you just >> sometimes you go through the large scale project which is what this is and sometimes you just have to do a coating or something construction talk >> it's more than just sealing it >> thank you sealing that was what I was looking for >> just covered with black top I think they're taking off >> and repaving and that's why it's so expensive so by us repaving And it it should last >> it should last uh at least 10 to 15 years I would have heavy on >> as long as we keep the maintenance up on it otherwise sealing it every few years >> and that property value regardless what goes on the master plan value adding longterm value
074of the property >> I just a great roll. >> Is >> I >> RTOR >> I >> Johnson I >> Huff >> Hi >> Corners. >> Hi >> Loo. >> Hi >> Brown. >> I All right. Next is our track um which has been some time since uh we've resurfaced and replaced our tracks. So I'll make a motion to approve the track replacement by Byron and Jones in the amount of 50,000 as recommended by the facilities committee. >> So move second >> discussion. >> You said it's been some time. >> How long? >> 18 years. It's a 14 year track and it's been 18 years. The other improvements did not include the track. >> And I think when this was pitched to the facilities committee two months ago, it was it was a bigger number.
075I think work went into that to assess what was being proposed to us and quoted to us and I believe we identified that what we were being offered we didn't really need and it wasn't exactly what we wanted so you know that that dropped >> it was originally between5 and $600,000 the original material it's a more economical material >> and it's worth being noted that this was request I think we discussed about two years ago we discussed We've already held off for two years and all of the other local high schools have already done within the time frame that it should be. So, so we're just behind >> is this a summer project? >> Yeah, we we discussed >> potential, you know, construction projects for the schools. Um we felt like felt in the meeting
076that the risk is pretty low that uh you know any of the future plans is going to impact the pack. >> Okay. >> All right. So, roll call. >> Richtor. >> Hi. >> Johnson. >> I Hop. >> Hi. >> Hers. >> Hi. >> Is >> I >> Brown? >> I. >> Next is our tax levy. So I'll make a motion to approve the 2025 tax levy resolution and certificate of levy for high school >> district 203 move >> second call >> I >> corner >> I >> Johnson I ground >> I um next is board member expenses so I'll make a motion to approve board member expenses. I I just have a question. Beth, do your expenses have to be on this sheet? >> No, it's not an administrator. >> They are. >> No, there's
077one because that you guys the Uber. >> Oh, yeah. I a board member was with me in that transportation. I know what you're asking about. That's why my charges there because I was also transporting board. >> Okay. Yeah. I was wondering too because it was only like $20. >> It didn't make any sense. Yeah, that that was an Uber ride um from the convention center >> and a board member benefited from it and that's why that's on here. >> Okay, perfect. Thank you. >> And I think mine is highlighted because my lodging expense was erroneously uh charged I believe. >> They didn't tell me where they just sent me it out. >> You guys not their cookies or what? Did you guys vote? >> So, can we get a roll? >> Hi, >> Corners. >>
078Hi, >> I >> Vtor. Hi, >> Johnson. >> I >> All right. And next we got tentative graduate graduates for 25. So, motion to approve tentative December 2025 graduates using previous roll. So second. >> All in favor? >> I oppose. That motion carries >> okay. So, uh, next will be a discussion, but border retreat. So, what's happened over the last three years is we've had the border retreat the, uh, weekend after President's Day. Um, we did that 23, 24, 25. Um, 21 and 22, I think 21 we were in March. In 22, we did a shorter meeting in January and then another shorter meeting in February. So I there's no set standard for what we do. We have been kind of consistent with it over the past three years. Um but we need to kind
079of start talking about what date if we wanted to carry suit and do kind of what we've done the past three years it would be the 21st of February >> February. Does that make a difference? >> That's in the evening. So we should be fine. No, because there's no conflict time wise. >> There's nothing going on with that show during the day. >> Usually, yeah, but we usually schedule 4 4:30. So, definitely should be up. >> Anybody else >> concerned with the 21st? Does that work for everybody? >> Right. Or, you know, this is an all day thing. We can also topic wise >> move around appropriately. Yeah. >> Okay. >> So, I think Dennis is still >> okay. Blake, are you >> You're good. James, good. >> I'm good. >> Is always my first
080priority. >> Okay. We also at this point usually talk about like what do we want to discuss at the uh at the retreat to uh try to give the rest of the team time to prepare. Um so last year there's if you look at the agenda they there's a list we kind of followed our committee format and uh I think we've done that in some of the years past. I I don't know what what what are what are thoughts on um topics, agenda topics for the board retreat. >> I like the committee format. >> I think it works really well. >> And we and we need to revisit the goals anyway. >> I mean, just to make sure they shouldn't be changing, but making sure they're still aligned with what we, you know, want to
081do. >> Yep. And then another thing I would say too is and I think you know last year went well with that is You know what I'm looking for in this type of meeting is not necessarily a summary of what's been done in the past, but where we want to go directionally and how the health the board can help enable that, right? Um, so, you know, some backward looking information is fine, but I know I've caught >> I mean, two years ago, we were really focused on our alternative programming and we were planning forward for that. I would say this year, the majority of our time will be spent on this finance and facilities marriage. >> Yeah. for the longterm planning. You know, that that's going to be the most of the meeting, but of
082course, you know, talking about maybe some really highlighted levels in the other areas, too. >> Well, I don't I don't want to miss any of Ethan's great statistical work on the education stuff, though. >> Oh, absolutely. That'd be included as well. >> Committee structure and we'll kind of talk through as an admin team how how we think we need to wait that you know, um, you know, typically a a committee like policy, it is not going to require an hour of discussion. Um, unless there was some sort of really large policy change, which which there isn't. You know, obviously in facilities and finance, we have large discussions. Um, in education, that's what we do. So, of course, we're going to have discussions centered around that as well. >> Yeah. For me, I'd like to make
083sure we're keeping it at the more the strategic level. Um, I agree with you completely. You know, if there's a time strategy or overarching goals to change or change direction. This is where we should be talking about it, >> right? >> Kind of setting that those changes in place so that you know when you guys go into the summer months and you're really working on your initiatives, you know, there's a clear clear direction, clear path, right? >> Everybody good? All right. So, the 21st is is going to be the date. Um I think usually it's 8 a.m. to four >> to four. So we'll just we'll just try to carry the same timeline unless for some reason there's some need I think with the frolics I would suggest if if we do need more time
084we maybe try to find another day other than making eight hours. So all right um and then last is just a consideration of board policies. Uh so as Heather mentioned we went through quite a few this month. Um, next month we'll see them again for review and approval and then I think next month you'll probably have a whole lot more policies to review for the first time also because after >> that's still a lot. It is a lot >> but it was all like she said it was all footnotes changes. So policies themselves really maybe a word here and a word there for the most part. the paragraph from one section to another section. >> Well, you haven't seen anything since July. >> Since July. >> So, somebody was sitting on >> somebody spent their
085summer going through a Yes. >> Um, so last is other business. Were there any uh submissions or pieces of business to discuss that didn't make it to the agenda? >> If not, our next board meeting is uh January 22nd. Um in that meeting we usually cover the uh final approval list for for December graduates also the preliminary draft for the calendar. So it's kind of get a look at what the calendar I I think we're still meeting with the other districts. Right. >> We are so we've been in touch our calendar committee meeting is our initial meeting is this Thursday. So we'll have discussions then we go back to the other districts and work towards that alignment. And what I've communicated with the other soups is the goal of board um what you just mentioned.
086So the board will consider in January approve in February. That's what the soups have communicated with each other. So we just need our individual committees working together and then we need to meld all those ideas together to where we're aligned. >> Yeah, it was tedious to go back and forth and work with the other districts. >> We have to as a parent with kids in both districts. >> It matters. Appreciate that. Donna, you had asked about midterm graduates. We had 27 last year compared to 39 this year. >> All right. Uh and then upcoming dates. Uh we've got final exams this week. We've got winter break coming up, teacher institute in January and then no school on March day. And with that, I'll make a motion to adjourn the regular meeting of the board of
087education. >> So move. >> All in favor? >> I meeting >> happy holidays.