001Y >> we're good. >> Lonnie, are you ready? >> Yes. >> Okay. Um then I'm going to call the meeting to order. Today's August 12th, 2025, 7:07 p.m. Uh Lonnie, if you could call the role. >> Sure. Johnson here. Ross Dven here. Here. Morris absent. Perez here. Tim >> here, >> Harris >> here. >> Meeting calls for ordering 772. >> Okay, then we are going to start with a public hearing. Uh if someone could read the motion on the physical education waiver, >> it's number five, right? >> Am I looking at this other order? Yeah, number five. Okay. Move that the board of education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 open a public hearing on the district's physical education request. >> Second >> Morris absent Perez >> here. Uh yes. >> Oh, sorry. Yes.
002Sorry. Yes. >> Sperlock. >> Yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Carney, >> yes. >> Okay. >> We have no public comment. public comment. Okay. Then can someone read the motion? >> I move that the board of education of park district school district 97 close the public hearing on district school education week request. >> Second absent Perez. >> Yes. >> Rosen. >> Yes. >> Spurlock. >> Yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Motion to close. >> Okay. Okay, up next we have regular public comment uh for Jennifer Roads. Hello, I'm Jennifer Roots and I'm the health teacher at Brooks Middle School and I have a long history of teaching um special education. I speak as a member of the OPTA and I'm happy to be given the chance to
003speak about the proposed schedule change. I know you already heard about the importance of PE and health class time at the last board meeting and I couldn't have said it any more eloquently than they did. I'm also really touched by the positive recognition that many of you had about the health classes at Brooks. What I wanted to follow up on is perhaps a misconception that students will still receive the same amount of education. Since there will be less time to quickly cover all the topics than done with the past 75 minute classes, there will indeed be lessons and entire units that'll be cut from the curriculum that only allows for 50-minute classes. I met with eighth grade students at the end of the year to get their feedback on what to prune for the sixth,
004seventh, and eighth grade curriculum. If reducing health class time and extending math and ELA time would be beneficial, then we wouldn't have an argument. However, if we're looking to improve the achievement gap in targeted groups that are often comprised of students with a history of trauma or a neuro divergent, then extended class time isn't the remedy. I'll use math class example. Let's say the teacher cues the attention of each student and maintains that attention at the whiteboard while, you know, contorting herself and um, you know, showing this multi-step equation and all different color markers. Now it's time for the students to practice the steps back at their desk. Neurode divergent students and those with a history of a trauma are less likely to process that information in the same way as typical students. Here's what
005happens. While looking at the whiteboard, they are able to, you know, make sense of that in the moment. When the student looks down at the paper, it's simple similar to a mental etch. It is erased when they're shifting from one viewpoint of a plane to another plane. Even though the notes are steer still clearly displayed on the board, it's mentally taxing for many of the students to visually hold multiple steps while moving their gaze from one plane to another. If the student asked the teacher to repeat the steps, she might review what she wrote or demonstrate another method to solve the equation depending on how finite it is. Again, the pairing of verbal and visual information might not process at the same speed and are easily erased when looking down. And you've seen this at
006home when you've helped with a math assignment. You might know how to solve that math problem and like your back in the day sort of way and you show that to your child and they're like that's not how the teacher does it. you push your frustration to the side and you watch, you know, the video that the teacher published or, you know, a Khan Academy one or one from the publisher and while you and your child are both watching it, you're taking notes in this new way to solve the same problem, get the same answer, but you're able to view, hear, and write the notes because your prefrontal cortex that works with your executive functioning is fully developed. And when you show your child the notes on the table next to you and point to
007each step, now your child begins to grasp the concept that was visually presented on the same plane. It's more tangible now to their visual working memory. You might say that with an extended class period, the teacher could circulate the classroom and provide the same sort of instruction. However, in a large classroom, even one that fosters a culture of error, middle school students who may already feel less than may still be reluctant to ask for clarification where others can easily overhear their confusion. Now, there are additional classes that are comprised of struggling students where another teacher who's also present in the regular classroom remediates the lesson in a smaller group. However, those same students reviewing those same information on the board are now frustrated because they still don't get it. And perhaps the compliant student will
008allow the teacher to work with her at her desk and learn it on the same plane. Perhaps the teacher can convince the student with cloud to get assistance so he can maintain eligibility in sports and then other students will be willing to receive additional help in the classroom that has fewer students, more physical space where worries about making a mistake are less audible. So, it's smaller class size with students of all abilities receiving universal design and that's the true benefit that makes a positive impact for those experiencing an achievement gap, not extended class time. In ELA class, that's taking guided notes from the board experiences the same troubles for those who have a visual processing and auditory information. As for health class, you can add more students to my room. they might fit. Um, and
009they'll be fine with the content I teach because it's rarely multi-step. And my ELELLL students, they have real-time subtitles on the bottom of the slides that capture everyone's, you know, information in the language in which they speak. So lastly, if I thought extended class time for other courses would reduce the achievement gap, I'd be interested in giving it a try, while sadly knowing that shorter class time means less mental health techniques presented to those same students who struggle emotionally and aren't able to focus as well. As a very seasoned teachers taught special ed to teens, I know that smaller class sizes are the answer to this case. Thank you for your consideration in this 11th hour decision. >> Thank you. Um that brings us to superintendent overview. So we have a just a few slides
010today. So, um, wanted to begin here with, um, uh, you may have noticed that I sent out, uh, with the Friday, uh, message to the staff and community this picture of my myself having some summer fun with my niece. Uh, and I asked u members of our community to send in their pictures. So, I got some and got some permission to share. So, I'm going to walk through some of those to start us off tonight. Um, so here is Karen Fog. She's our teacher at BI and she's here at the Chicago Pride parade with her son. Then we've got um Amy. Amy is a teacher at Whittier and you can see her here enjoying the summer with her daughter and her husband at their favorite spot in Door County. Here's Summer Butler. Summer is our
011student support specialist at BI. She took her daughter and her mom to Ghana. Um and you can read here what she says. It was amazing. years ago, I had family members take an ancestry DNA t test to research our ancestry. We have lineage to Madagascar and West Africa. It was great to visit the homeland for us and we hope to continue visiting more countries that our ancestry is connected to. So this beautiful picture of her with her daughter and her mom. Um and then here's Mary Kelly. Um I was in Italy and she was in Italy Italy. We did not see each other there, but um here's her enjoying um the fountain there on a on a hot summer day. Um and then we have this one. Katherine Peacock uh is our teacher at Brooks
012and she attended a fullbrite in Uruguay this summer. So you can see her interacting with students and there were some other great pictures with uh students but I don't know that we have permission to share them. So we have this one where you can see only the back of the student but she did meet um and engage with students. Uh, Anelie here uh is a teacher at Whittier and she was hanging out with her family there uh in um Lake Ontario, the shores there in Toronto. I've got a couple more here. Here's Judy Fzen. So Judy's parents celebrated 70 years together and she said a 100 people came to an open house including friends from when they were in college together. So, she said that her dad is 92 and her uh and her mom
013is 89. And um so, congratulations to them. That's a pretty big deal. And then finally, this um video is from uh oops, this video is from an unidentified member of the team >> uh who scuba dives. I do not have permission to disclose who it was, but check this out. So, our staff members scuba diving like right here. Wow. I think that turtle's trying to get away. >> And then off it goes. So, very cool. So, lots of uh cool stuff happening uh this summer. Um and so, thanks to everyone who sent those in and for those that gave permission to share those tonight. So, uh last time we met in June, we mentioned that we'll be, you know, working to refine our transformation goals. So, we have those four goals with the sub goals
014underneath and we've got teams organized to uh run these goals and this will be the frame um for how we organize our work this year. I thought I wanted to tell you just um the reason you can't see this is because it is still in draft form, but coming soon is a new digital goal book. What you'll see is that the goal book that you see that little circle up there, it has a little bit about us D97. And then it also has um for each of the goals kind of a spread with some language and a story. Um and then there are a couple of what's called pacers which is a twopage spread. So, one is on the middle school redesign and then this is the next 16 pages total. One will be on
015the portrait. So, again, still in draft and we're working on uh some of these pieces, but you'll see that coming forward uh very soon. And then we also have some new animated comms tools. So, got a little clip here just to give you a sense of it. So, want to kind of start to use some new tools I think. Uh is that Are you going to play that one, Michael? >> Yep. >> Okay. So you can see it's just about a 60 seconds of a clip to give you a sense of what we're thinking about. >> Well-rounded growth in eight key dimensions. Career Explorer connects learning to future possibilities. Change agent builds civic responsibility and environmental awareness. Creative dreamer fosters innovation and collaboration. Digital navigator encourages safe informed tech use. Financially savvy develops realworld money
016skills. Global connector values diversity and global understanding. Holistically well prioritizes self-awareness and well-being. Powered by literacy promotes critical thinking through reading and communication. We've started aligning learning standards to the portrait dimensions and working with community partners to do the same in out of school programs so that students experience the portrait everywhere they grow. So that's a little flavor of what's coming. Um and so excited about our teams um you know putting together the vision for that. We're also working on some different ways to show how we're organized. So this is um an example of an interactive uh org chart. We're going to have a traditional org chart, different ways to see how we're organized. So, Michael's going to help navigate. Uh here's what we mean by interactive org chart. So, if you click on core
017instruction, for example, um you can click into it and then you'll see like we have the central office and the schools fit under that core instruction. If you click on central office, you can see our picture of our team and then you'll be able to go deeper and see what do individual people do and what's the you know the function of the department. So if you scroll back out um you can explore all of the different areas. So the idea here is that again the collective interests of the Oak Park community at the top, our democratically elected board of education uh you know governing through our policies, a superintendent, we have the portrait. If you click on the portrait, you'll be able to, you know, go to that web page and learn some more and
018again kind of keep exploring um by kind of uh clicking into this prey. And then if you go back out, Michael, um there's of course you can find out about the board of education. Um so we'll show you that we do need um an updated picture. You'll see when we click on you, we see meet the board, for example, and we see this picture. So, we need to get an updated one. But, uh, the idea being that you can explore the organization this way. And then, like I said, there'll be other ways so you can kind of go deeper into what are these different roles and what do people do. So, that's on our docin. We're excited about um these different ways of communicating who we are and what we do using new visual tools.
019And so, then I thought um I'll give you a quick uh overview of some of the things uh just a highlight over for each of the goal areas. You know, we're about to kick off institute day. So um our gold one team has you know organized institute days and all of the information is going to be on a Google site that um the staff can go back to the same link every time. So lots of innovative and great things that our goal one group is um is you know driving this year. And then um oh started the video. Here's uh here's you know we have every the board just got your middle school connections t-shirts and um what you see here is our Julian and Brook staff and um Nick and April jump in and
020Louise if you want to say anything else here but um before middle school connections you got to get the staff kind of synced up and teamwork. So what you see is our um Brooks and Julian staff working together. So take a look their team work here. >> Boom boom clap clap clap clap boom boom boom clap clap clap boom boom boom. >> So um you know I was uh talking to Luis, what should we put on this slide? and he said, you know, it's about joy and the staff needs to get connected first so that the students can get connected. So, um really exciting things happening at uh middle school connections and you'll hear more about that from our middle school team at a um at a fall update about uh about middle school redesign.
021Um on goal three here, um a lot of work happening around our uh resources and what you see here is a picture of a member of our team, Paul Duda, who was meeting last spring with students around the device refresh. And now our team is implementing that device refresh. So a lot of work happening over the summer around our, you know, operational uh systems that need to be humming so that our schools can focus on teaching and learning. And then in goal four, um I'm actually going to pull this up. You know what? Um I don't have it up, but I have a great um language that Marvin sent me. So with the portrait of an Oak Park 8th grade graduate, we're really excited to have Ebony working with Marvin. and Adam is going to
022be coming up in a few minutes, but um Marvin went to New Moms and kind of represented the portrait and engaging around even though it's a portrait about when kids graduate 8th grade, it's also about what's happening in early childhood. So, how do we get what's the portrait of a rising kindergartener? So, we're really excited. And here's what Marvin um wrote. He said, "When we think about the whole journey of the portrait of an eighth grade graduate, we focus on community partnerships, and one of those partnerships is with new moms, which works to build relationships and support moms so they don't feel like they're alone. Through our portrait lens, we have connected with new moms to encourage and offer D97 support. We participated in the new mom's barbecue, spoke with the moms, the staff, the
023coaches, the directors, and D97 students to help navigate the upcoming year for our students who will follow the portrait of an eighth grade graduate pathway all the way to success. So, that was uh something that happened not too long ago. So, we'll hear from Ebony in just a little while. And so, uh that's our last standard slide. And we always want to welcome anyone to uh share feedback. So, at this point, all of these great things, of course, um they run on money. And so, um that's our next presentation. I'm gonna invite up um Rob Grossy um who is our uh consultant that works regularly with the board. And uh very very excited to welcome uh Dr. Crystal Loy who is our new chief financial officer. [Applause] So, good evening everybody. Um tonight um we'll
024be presenting um the the tenative budget but also talk briefly about the um unodudited results for the fiscal year that just ended. Uh Crystal and I and the team have uh spent a lot of time uh putting together the budget kind of deciphering what happened during the previous year and um we're we're pleased to do this presentation because it's pretty good news. Uh so so first of all in terms of the timetable of the budget uh the the the board of education's uh reviewing the budget and uh we'll be calling uh for hearing on September 16th. Uh by August 15th a notice is going to go into the newspaper calling for the public hearing on September 16th. Uh on August 26th, we have a meeting scheduled with Fork to discuss the budget to get their
025thoughts, opinions, recommendations prior to the board um rendering its final decision in September. And then on September 16th, uh that's when we'll have the public hearing and the board will approve the budget and Chris will have it filed with the state board of education. Uh, one of the things that we always like to point out, and I think district 97 does a great job, as good as any, uh, school district, of recognizing that every major decision is connected. So, um the budget uh that that we're doing in September, the tax levy that we're doing in November, December, um the summer projects and fork and fact are going to be involved in recommendations regarding that. And then the staff planning, developing staffing, which obviously is a main driver of the budget. So, all those decisions are
026connected. It's all the same dollars. Um so so each of the decisions is uh connected. So preliminary results. So uh going into the fiscal year, this is cash basis. The audit is acrruel basis. So the timing is off sometimes a bit, but the numbers are generally the same minus some journal entries. But we started the year with about $44.2 million in the bank. Total revenues were 129.7 million. Total expenditures were 122.1 million. We ended the fiscal year with $51.8 million in the bank. Uh key takeaways from this chart is that the district accomplished three things. Number one, it's achieved a balanced budget for the eighth consecutive year. That's that's quite an achievement and it's um it's through some tough decisions that the board has made during that time and kind of adhering to those decisions
027and kind of closely watching everything through the board by the administration. Uh the district invested a little over $2 million in capital during the year and then the district uh increased its fund balances by $7.6 million. increasing fund balance reserves is a very important um desire or objective of fort uh and we'll talk about this in a future slide but the district has a 3 to six month target which is great that you have a minimum and maximum target and uh the consensus of fork is to try to get fund balances on the higher end of that 3 to six months given potential headwinds that schools will be facing over the next several uh comparing the the fiscal results to the uh budget in aggregate uh the district uh received $3.2 million more than it
028budgeted on the revenue side. Uh which means that we ended up about 2 and a.5% higher than the budget. Uh so and uh so we're pleased with that and and when we put the budget together uh we don't purposely set it up so that it outperforms it's a it's a 50% probability better or worse uh when we put it together. So we're pleased that we did outperform or receive more money on the revenue side that we anticipated. On the expenditure side, uh the total expenditure expenditures were budgeted at a little over 122 million and we ended up, excuse me, the budget was 126 million. We ended up spending 122 million. So we came in $4 million under budget. Uh so total expenditures were 3.2% under budget, but part of that if you look at capital
029outlay, it's just the timing of projects, which I don't which I don't think should be factored in either way. So, if you do take out the ca the timing of the capital outlay, take that out of the equation, we still finished $1,670,000 um under budget in terms of non-c capital expenditures. So, $1,670,000 under budget on expenditures and $3.2 million um over budget on revenues. That combination allowed us to increase uh to to exceed our expectations by about $7 million in aggregate. In terms of historical fund balance, this is a chart that is closely watched by Fork and I know uh we we show this graph at every levy decision and every budget decision, but you could see how the district has done really a phenomenal job of staying within its targeted number. So the green
030the little those green boxes are bond proceeds, referendum bonds that were sold that were that the funds weren't spent yet. So really focusing on the blue. Uh you could see that we've stayed within that range consistently uh since the referendum. And you could see now that we're now we're starting to not only have we've been investing in capital, but we starting to get our fund balance reserves closer to that six-month target. Um, I do want to point out one of the things that we do is we we do track um data to to our comp districts. And even though we're getting closer to our higher end of fund balance reserves, we still are below where other schools are uh within our comp districts. And we ended the year with about 155 days worth of reserves.
031the tenative budget. Do you do anything? >> So, so the tenative budget. So, so the major uh goal is to continue to generate balanced budgets and sustained uh fund balances within the 36 points target while maintaining excellent programs for students uh and implementing our inclusion inclusive uh vision as outlined in board policy 712 ensuring educational and racial uh equity. Um so uh the uh this is something that um is a driver obviously when we're making these decisions and it becomes more relevant when fund balances are tough and we have to make tough decisions but but we're a we're able to accomplish all those objectives with this budget. So so uh in terms of the budget 79% of your money comes from real estate taxes. uh you're a school district that does not get a lot
032of money from the state and federal government and as a result of that unfortunately you have to rely on uh real estate taxes to help fund your fund your programs. Um and since that number grows by inflation, inflation is the major uh variable that impacts revenue growth. In fact, the four major drivers of your budget this year and generally are inflation levels. Because we're in a a tax capp, Cook County, uh we could only raise increase uh real estate tax revenues by uh CPI. Uh new taxable property, we're allowed to generate additional taxes revenues from new taxable property. uncertainty in federal grant which is still an uncertainty um but it's getting a little clearer at least for this fiscal year and then corporate personal property taxes which have been kind of a crazy fluctuation uh
033CPI uh which capped out at 5% that's the max for the 2024 and 25 uh fiscal year is down to 3.4% 4% uh and then will go down to 2.9% in the following year. So, the growth in real estate taxes will be slowing over the next several years. In terms of new property, uh last year the district had $12.5 million in new property. We're estimating $10 million of new property in this budget and the which is third of a million dollars of market value because EAB is one-third of market value and the generally every $10 million of new taxable property generates about $400,000. The $10 million will generate about $400,000 in new additional revenues for the school district. corporate personal property taxes. Uh normally it's it's it's not a relevant thing, but the state of
034Illinois made a huge mistake in 22 and 23, which inflated those numbers significantly. And since that time, they've been clawing that money back. When we put the budget together, we assumed a 7% decrease based on conversations with the Department of Revenue. We did learn today that the new estimate is a 2% increase. So for the final budget, that number will increase slightly. Uh in terms of evidence-based funding, um the this just shows that it's not relevant to your school. The the you don't get growth in this revenue source. Some schools I work with, it's their main driver of growth. It's obviously not for your district. in every year except for one year they implemented $300,000 a little bit more in a couple years of new money through the formula. Your district gets about $100,000 of
035it. You did drop from tier four to tier three this year. So instead of getting 5,000, you get 100, but you're right at the you're right at the bubble. So it'll never be a major driver of revenue growth in your district. uh budgeted revenues. We're anticipating real estate taxes to grow by just under $3 million and much of that increase uh to be eaten up by decreases in real estate taxes and uh state grants and federal grants. So in aggregate we're projecting revenues to go up 44 $98,000 which is b which is a 0.3% increase in revenues on the expenditure side. Just like most school districts, all school districts, salaries and benefits drive your uh uh expenses. 75% of your district's expenses are salaries and benefits. Major drivers, collective bargaining, staffing, and programming levels, and
036capital projects. So, some of So, a lot of your expenses, we know uh there's still contracts being negotiated, but your main contract was settled last year, so we have a good handle on that increase. But salary crescent so salary expenses are projected to increase based on collective bargaining agreements various units non non uh nonrepresented staff and then staffing changes. Employee benefits are projected to increase 5 and a half%. Oh and and the aggregate increase is about 4% on salaries. Uh significant increases in software purchases. Uh there's a we'll talk about that in a second. And utility costs. Uh schools aren't getting hit as everybody getting hard with expected increases. The co-ops are saying up like 30 to 40%. Uh districts budgeted $4 million in capital uh projects at this moment in time to address major
037capital needs this budget cycle. Uh so you could see that salaries going up about 4%. It's a little over $3 million. Employee benefits going up about 900,000. uh supplies and materials, $1.2 million. Uh capital equipment, one and a half million because we're going to be uh spending $4 million in capital projects versus a little over two. Uh the the the supplies, there's a a major software purchase. Um Dr. Shaw, maybe you help me out on that. Or sorry, Crystal >> Amplify. So that's that's put in the budget. That was not in the budget last year. Um and so those are the main changes. In aggregate, we're projecting expenditures to grow by $7 million, 7.1, which um excluding the capital is a 4.5% increase. So the good news is we go into we finished last year
038better than anticipated. We were able to increase our fund balance reserves, but with revenues projected to increase only 498,000 and expenses projected increase a little over 7 million. Um that surplus is is likely going to shrink. Uh in terms of uh a breakdown by fund uh in aggregate 40 51.8 million to start this year, 130.2 2 million in revenues, 129.2 in expenses. We're projecting fund balances to end with 72 52.7 million. Key takeaway is that we're projecting to realize a $4.9 million non- capital surplus, which is great. $4 million of that surplus is budgeted to be allocated towards capital investment and the remaining 900,000 will be used to continue to increase fund balance reserves. Uh so you could see fund balance reserves will go up slightly but it still will represent 155 days of reserves
039because the the amount of expenses you spend per day goes up a little bit because the budget is going up and uh that's that's essentially where we're at right now and uh where we think we're going to be. [Applause] >> Kevin, >> um thank you. This is really helpful. Um I'm I'm trying to put some of the different numbers that you shared um trying to sort of make them make sense. So our revenue is going up 0.3%. Our expense or our expenses are going up 4.5%. >> But our cash reserve balance will stay the same. Can can you just >> I think you explained that already but can you >> Sure. Absolutely. So, so last year is it because of the surplus from last year that >> Yeah. So you you had a certain if
040if you exclude one >> if you exclude the the capital part of last year >> your revenues exceeded your expenditures by >> 26 or >> but no but by more than that by by um uh your revenues were almost 130 million and your expenses were 125 million. 124. So basically you had a $7 million surplus >> and that's and when you factor that in with those other two. >> Yes. And and and now the natural surplus is $4 million. >> Got it. Okay. >> So yeah. So so so the surplus has got smaller but it's still surplus. >> Got it. Okay. So the that's helpful. And the the followup question I have is assuming that we can't count on a surplus every year, right? Like we're estimating as well we can that costs and expenses
041are going to that you know that the budget we estimate is going to be the actual budget. Is this coming year in your opinion like is it critical for us to figure out how we more kind of uh I don't know in a more planned way address the fact that our revenues and expenses are not growing at the same rate. I yeah I I I think that that that's really been for all the I mean the last several years uh you know the decisions that that we've been talking about whe whether it was collective bargaining whether it was capital projects it was always under the under the lens of you know we have money in the bank right now 155 days is solid relative to your to your policy and everything like that. We're still
042incurring a surplus but but in the back of our minds we know that $7 million surplus goes to $4 million. what you know and it's it's going to likely keep shrinking if revenue growth continues to shrink. So if CPI keeps going down which is what drives your revenues >> right so so CPI right now year-over-year is about 2.6 6 2.7% came out today. Um, and it's projected to get a little bit lower before the end of the year. Now, all of a sudden, if your revenues are growing at 2%. You know, and your expenditures grow at more than 2% mathematically, we're going to get a little bit worse. Yeah. So, so making the decisions now, which may seem like little decisions, but just to bend the curve a little bit on some of these things,
043all of a sudden, you'll like you'll never regret that because because the schools that don't think that far in advance and are making decisions saying, "We got 155 $155 million of fund balance reserves, $7 million thing. We could just go crazy." Then they don't do. So, so it's it's it's I've been with the district for for for several years and and I and I and I love working here and I I feel like I'm getting a I got a real good flavor for everything. I I anticipate the questions going forward are going to be along the lines of um whether we want to uh issue debt to pay for future capital projects, for example, to maintain fund balance reserves. um and and and and what are there things that we could tweak in the budget
044to still without impacting student learning maybe to develop some efficiencies, things like that. So all those conversations, you know, having them now will avoid you having to make bigger decisions down the road. >> Thanks. So, I'm just going to throw in as a reminder for folks who may be listening and not as deeply familiar with the budget, can you once again just do a quick Why do we have that range on the surf on the fun balance? Because it's interesting and I think really important. >> Yeah, it is. There's there's very few districts that I work with that have a a minimum and a maximum. They all seem to have a minimum. They all do have a minimum because the press policy by from the schoolboard association, you know, the standard language is a minimum.
045Your district has a maximum and it it's it's it's it's very unique because it's not only just a polic some some districts you work at, they don't even know what the policy is. Your district, that's the guiding principle to your decisions. So, historically, when you got to the point where you were below three months or were getting below three months, that's when you were that's when you made a decision to go to referendum um because because now now all of a sudden we're below our range. What do we need to do to get back in our range to to adhere to our policy? And that's that's more normal. The other side of it is is that when you start to get above your range, then you have levers such as which you've implemented um three
046years in a row, three or four years in a row is that okay, now we're getting over our range. We still have some non-referendum bonds that are outstanding. Let's provide some tax. >> We didn't we didn't abate because we were over our range, though. We abated because we didn't think that that method of how they were adjusting the tax. I'm sorry to interrupt. But we never that's not why we baited. We never went over our range. So we never abaded. >> You did go over, but but it was but it was it was part of the the the >> reason that we have the top number is because the high school got let their fund balance grow very big and we saw how negatively that was received by the community. So we decided to have
047the top number. >> But and and there have been decisions about the recapture levy. there's been decisions around that that there was more comfort in making those decisions looking at where you are relative to the range. >> So it's kind of a guiding piece. We have those moments of it was inspired I think by the high school but also it gives us a guiding point of saying at this point we should be considering things like the abatement and >> yeah the abatement came up because the we did that >> I have a question sort of along those lines. I have seen where our fund balance has been, but I don't know that I've ever seen it at that sixmonth max. Have we ever achieved that since we've been implementing this policy? >> No, >> I
048didn't think so. >> Except for referendum year, I guess. >> You you >> Oh, no. That was >> in 2019. You got right after 3 month >> but but you but >> was when was referendum? >> Mhm. >> That wasn't referendum. That was when the tax districts came when we when the they expired the >> the tip. >> When did we go to referendum? >> 2017. >> Okay. >> Yeah. Right. >> But you don't collect on the first on the year you go. >> You go. Yeah. >> It comes in the future years. In the future year, the 19th. >> Just curious. >> Yeah. And I know that um uh Crystal's uh joined us a couple of weeks, what, three weeks ago now? And so we haven't had a fork meeting yet, but um um
049Rob, you know, I do think maybe to talk a little bit about we have heard at fork in the context of a less predictable, more volatile factors. There has been kind of a recurring theme like maybe we need to look at the three to six month policy window just because I think there are there is a kind of a and you can tell me if you agree with this there does seem to be a voice in that space or some concern that um it may be too tight of a window to be at six months when things are bouncing around and unpredictable as they are. I think when you take that in tandem with some of the the lift around our capital projects that we anticipate and some of the deferred maintenance um I do
050think there could be a conversation for the board to have around um that 3 to six month window and if it maybe even temporarily needs to be um reviewed. I don't know what you think of that. >> No. Yeah, that that that definitely there's definitely a lot of voice in the in the ink around that and and you know there are there are districts I mean it's also it's also a guide right so so so some some school districts are probably at fund balances that they're higher than they would normally be but they but but they but they would say we have a lot of major capital or we have we have a lot of anticipation so we're not going to do anything about it so and and and probably it's going to be, you
051know, with the with the likely challenges going forward, it's going to be tough to get over that 180 days to have that option. But, but with that being said, you know, the the definitely um the consensus as I hear it from Fork is that um having a more secure fund balance is something that should at least be considered. >> Yeah. on some of those factors that have come up. Certainly the tariffs, the potential risk on otherwise stable federal funds. Um and then potential all kinds of things around pension shift conversations that are always looming. So just that those are the kind of factors that are they just seem to be a little louder than they have been in the past. >> The biggest monetary the biggest challenge to your district I mean your district does
052not get a lot of money from the federal government. It will certainly impact your district. One of the biggest things that could impact your district if we get back to uh the years where inflation was 7/10 of 1% there was three years in a row when inflate two or three I think three where inflation was under 1%. So so if that happens now inflation is bad on a person you know often times on a personal but for for your school district in terms of in terms of resource growth that's a that's a an important driver. >> Can I ask just a clarifying question? So you had a pie chart. Can you go back to the pie chart with like >> on the revenue? >> Yeah, the expense and revenue. >> Yeah. So this breakdown of
053it. So this is more for folks that are less familiar with a lot of the the information and terminology that's being used. So in looking at this, I know oftent times we'll say like you know uh the concern is salaries and benefits, right? which is always where like the conversation then shifts to like where cuts will be potentially take place when there are tough decisions to make. But I did wonder from like a planning perspective usually when you're doing your projected budget for the year then the idea is that each department you know an entity in our district has given you kind of a tentative expenditure for how they're going to use a variety of things from supplies to capital. Correct? So it's like predictive. Um I guess my wonder and maybe just a comment
054for the sake of like transparency too is I think one of the things just from having been employed here and thinking about the resources. I mean we're a resourcerich district in terms of like we get the highest quality training, we get the best, you know, materials, etc., etc. I think when we're, you know, like trying to like wrangle a budget or or talk about where we're going to tighten the the strings to me would be like homegrown promotions, you know, not seeking outside candidates, you know, outside. If we're thinking about how people are getting their um, you know, national board certification, there's a financial benefit there. you know, how are we promoting those people to have better opportunities here rather than like hiring a new expensive person outside of district? Just a thought. And again,
055these are just comments from someone with less of the jargon um knowledge than others. Um the other one is homegrown talent when it comes to professional development. I think oftent times we will go to things, we will send people to conferences. I oftentimes am like I'm so glad that my district can support me in going to a conference but also there's so many other ways that you know people can be supported. I say that rather than lose staff because what I've often and again I know that decision hasn't been made but I just wanted to throw this out there that often times the challenge is you know it's going to be classroom teachers and then that's going to impact class sizes and that's also a concern for community members. So for me, it's looking at
056where we tighten things when it comes to how we're spending on professional development. Are we using our experts here within the district? There are so many people with PhDs, um, masters, double masters, and I can't remember a time when I was working here, had a doctorate, and was asked to present or talk about something. I'm not suggesting that I would have been the expert in the room, but I could have done it for free, you know, and just to grow as a professional. And I think oftent times, I'm not speaking for anybody in the union, but there are just people that want to grow. So that's a thought. Um, and then also that nationally benefits and health insurance costs is going up for everybody. So when I think about benefit numbers, you know, how much
057of that is impacted by what's going on in regards to like healthcare. So I do want to go back to like thinking about people, their job security, and our community members. So that's why I'm bringing that up. So thank you. Um, one thing that's kind of a hopefully an outlier, uh, but is on the horizon, uh, I've seen a couple emails, uh, with articles about like school choice, which I have huge issues with. Um, but that potential, I mean, I don't see Illinois signing on to any of those stuff, but that would obviously have a huge financial impact. Um, obviously we saw >> one for private schools. >> Yeah. Yeah. So like right now um if you go to a private school the money like the school would potentially lose the monies that went to
058the district with enough enough kids lost but now here they're actually talking about taking those dollars straight to a private school and that causes me concern uh because obviously we saw during co people did exactly that um and so I'm just if we see that on a larger scale I don't see that I mean it it tends to be more of like a conservative agenda. Um because a lot of it's about funding religious schools. Um, but I'm just curious like if that's just on the horizon of consideration in terms of like these notions of like holding on to money and like the potential large like the big sc there's a lot of questions about what's going to happen in our country in general in the next several years. But I do think about like in
059academic spaces there's a well and not even academic spaces in educational spaces people are talking a lot about like the constant defunding and deterioration of public education as a whole. Um, and so I do think about like how do we as a district prepare for that? I feel like being in a more progressive state uh that tends to be more like against school choice and things like that. School choice all language. Um, but I do think about like what are the financial impacts for people who, you know, like public school is supposed to be equitable, right? But at the end of the day, anyone who has more means can choose to pick a private education. Um, and having worked in like community schools in Chicago where, you know, like the neighborhood school is a school
060where everybody has to go, you can't go somewhere quoteunquote better. Like you see what happens to schools that become underresourced, understaffed, all these things. So I'm just wondering if like I guess it's more of a theoretical question but if we're kind of keeping these things in mind and thinking about our financial health is like the larger political you know context in which we are um and kind of again I think Dr. Shaw speaking to your point about like whether we do want to start like watching um our money in terms of like where we can save or holding on to maybe more than the six-month figure. Um, so it wasn't really a question. >> No, but but but you bring up a great point and and you know we we do five year we do
061projections usually 60 within 60 days after the audit's completed and a big part of that and and and the projections will be under three scenarios. Realistic realistic worst case realistic best case. right now the realistic worst case doesn't consider things like that >> but but then but then there's a worst case you know you know if you do the bell curve the 5% sides >> um >> but but I believe for the younger people in this room there's going to be some major things that are going to happen you know the state of Illinois has a huge financial crisis and right before co people forget but all the conversations around schools were consolidation pension share that died with CO because there's a lot of ESSER money about $8 billion that flowed through the state and
062there's really been no conversations about that. I fully anticipate I don't know how it plays out but those conversations will happen. They don't in my mind they don't fall into a realistic worst case scenario yet but maybe next year or two years they will. Yeah, I know we I mean and I'll just end with this, but like when I we talk about like worst case scenario, I almost feel like it's like worst case scenario number one, number two, like it just feels like these are all the doors that could open. And so just I don't I don't know. I mean, obviously I don't want to be like a too much too much of a jeans, but I do I guess want to note like we have to watch some of these policies that are coming
063through because they are going to have a impact on us. I think especially when we kind of have all that stuff looming in the context, the other thing that's really important is to think make sure that we're thinking about the resources as time, people, money, and technology, not just money. And so I think to what you were saying, Becky, it's like that's the right time to make sure we're nurturing our existing investments. So for example, uh, national board teachers, we have the game changers national board teachers initiative that we're like working to roll out right now. again like kind of unleashing the power of teachers and that investment in in in our people that are already here. I think you talked about um you know uh co you know coaching and investing in that clarity
064of the work and getting excited about getting better at what we do you know so that they're we have a culture around uh performance and clarity. Um the other thing is when you're talking about um PD to your point um the best PD is learning from each other. So, how are we creating systems and and uh cultures where, you know, we're doing that high collective efficacy work kind of embedded in our job um because that's what really gets to student outcome. So, I think it's a really good time to do the kinds of things you're talking about. >> Absolutely. I will say one other comment and again this is maybe just a thought um was I think we've throughout the summer or over the course of several years something that we did during co and
065I don't know if it was right before co we went onetoone in terms of technology for kids including kids K2 and so the conversation has also I think in the community been about do kids you know under the age of you 07 need an iPad. >> That's controversial because I know a lot of teaching and a lot of apps are available for kids to take home and it it gives access to the internet at home for continued learning. I know we've benefited from it, but I've also been on the side of it where like I need to hide it because it's offering too much technology for uh children at that age. So I do get the sense that that is another expenditure and I always often wonder about how we can come together on those
066types of conversations about like people that are pushing for less technology and you can still be innovative but not necessarily have an iPad at home between the ages that we're talking about 5 to seven. So that's one area I push back a little bit on, not completely, but to just be thoughtful about because um there are families and we did learn this during the pandemic >> who do rely on that not just for their child but kind of more holistically for the family for access for internet. So we just Yeah. So just be careful in not just >> going in and saying okay to technology just be thoughtful about it if we're looking at >> yeah I think that's possible. I think the challenge is trying to balance like what we're asking kids to learn
067because they still have access to YouTube during the school day because it's used as such a tool but it allows kids to be exposed to things that they don't need to be exposed to. So >> all right any other questions? >> Awesome. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you >> and welcome. Thank you. Thank you. I am super excited to be here and I do want to thank Rob. I know he's been a extremely valuable partner to the community. So I appreciate all that you've done to onboard me my three weeks here. I I I appreciate you very much. >> Um okay then. Oh, you have your she's like why is she still here? No, I wasn't sure if that was like an FYI or if you're new. No, no, no. >> Uh I'll
068be quick about it. Um, I just wanted to let you know that the financials, this is draft form, but the goal was trying to present some reporting that was provided a little bit more transparency, a little more often. Um, in addition to what I provided, I would also like to make sure that we have a space for unexpected expenditures as as as that was mentioned. Um, and any deviations from the budget should be brought to to the board's attention in a very timely fashion. Um, I would say also what I'd like to do is quarterly reviews. So, um, while you have the month-to-month, I think it's important to look at the quarterly trends because, you know, just based on the conversation we just had, it's always worthwhile to start looking before we're in a position
069where we have to do something more extreme. And we should be looking at areas that touch students the least. So, when we're looking at things, the first thing I look at is operational efficiencies. And I do think there's, you know, opportunity to to look at that and see how we could stay and maintain the elevated standard that we have while also just being more efficient. And that's an operation, it's in instruction, it's in just overall efficiencies. Um, also and finally I is I think with the quarterly reviews, I think we also want to bring in the pattern of as you mentioned earlier scenarios. What is our best case? What is our worst case? so that we're looking at those opportunities ahead of time and figuring out in real time how that is impacting us before
070we get to a point where we have to make a bigger decision. So, happy to answer any questions. Um, and it's it's a work in progress. It's evolving. I want to bring you what you want to see. >> Thank you. >> No, we appreciate Thank you so much. So much. >> All right. Um then we will move to transformation goal updates. So we have Dr. Ebony Loftton coming up for an update on goal 4 A and 4B. This is we learn everywhere. So a portrait early childhood. Hello. Hello. Hello. So, we're excited to um give a bit of a look back into what happened this summer, but also um highlighting just how the portrait is living and breathing um in our spaces along with some quick highlights for early childhood and um all the things
071that we're doing there as well. So, um just a quick reminder, we've seen these that we're focused on goal transformation goal four um which really focuses on um the portrait and also um how we're supporting early childhood education and our equity imperative there. So, we do have a small but team and really excited to um welcome Marvin um to the team. He is now the community learning and entrepreneurialism coordinator after spending a long time at Lincoln and obviously the great Michelle Sudac who spent um a ton of time working in the early childhood space. So I'm excited for um the work of the team and just a reminder that we are in the um community learning and entrepreneurialism space. We're really focused on out of school time access how we partner with our community and
072um early childhood. And then thinking about our why, um I really love this picture because um it's a picture of the Lincoln um hiphop assembly that Marvin kind of spearheaded this last spring. Um, but when we're talking about our project coming to life, um, and what a creative dreamer could look like, this is really a chance for students to learn about something they may not have been, um, completely exposed to, but also thinking about the fact that, um, when we think about teaching and learning, it doesn't just happen in school and in classrooms, but it really happens all around us. Um, after school, before school. Um, and each of those experiences is really key and making sure that the portrait serves as a framework to kind of guide um, all of the work that we're
073doing. So really excited about what we've done and what we're going to learn and and grow into. Um so really quick in terms of agenda, I'm just going to provide some summer updates. Um a quick update about club sports and music and then um just tee up some things that we're thinking about for early learning. So um love our portrait. Really excited about it. But just a quick reminder of our dimensions. And then we we've also shared this slide previously, but um we spent a lot of this past year thinking about um talking to our our eighth grade students to kind of see where they were um migrating to in terms of the portrait, but also really aligning the portrait inventions to learning standards. So now we have um that standards align document and that
074standards align work has happened and then really thinking about how our community partnerships can help to grow the work. Um so we've also grown some collaborations with some key community partners. Um, and we'll talk about that in just a second when we talk about the summer work. And for next this year, um, we're looking at really kind of those portrait signature expense experiences much like the hip hop assembly. Um, but also building a youth advisory council. Um, and thinking about how family learning plays into really kind of building the portrait as a whole. So, um, going into summer, um, we did get a write up in the Wednesday journal. Super excited about that. So, we do have um eight district programs in the summer. Um we served almost a thousand students um and also employed
07553 teachers. And we'll give more information about that when I come back for summer um in October. But just a quick rundown of our programs. We had oops summer robotics camp, access to algebra, middle school math review, extended school year, summer foundational camp, multilingual summer booth, summer music camp, middle school explore, and we continued our partnership with the park district. So again, we really wanted to highlight some of the um partnerships that we experienced this summer addition to our programming. So um we continued our this is our our second year working with Titan where we really focused on that career explorer dimension. So you'll see kids going to Ruby Field and kind of learning about the back end of how that works. So not just kind of players on the field, but how does America's
076favorite pastime actually um exist in terms of those backend and behind the scenes roles? um the same with the Field Museum and they also had to a chance to experience college for kids. So those majors included engineering, animation, they came up with their own businesses and use business math and then had some time in recreation as well. We also had a great time with Oak Park Ed Foundation. So they actually had a Friday takeover um with our middle school program. So their first um Friday they went actually downtown to the Perkins and well architecture firm um who and they are responsible for actually building the CRC across the street. Um the second Friday was kind of a H.B.CU focus. So they had two um speakers um Edwin Holmes and Alderman Greg Ree Mitchell who actually
077spoke about the H.B.CU experience. They're both graduates of Gramling but also what it means to change your mind in terms of of a career. So they started off thinking that they were going to do something else and ended up in a different space. So just kind of making sure that you're as you're thinking about that career exploration that there's flexibility and and you have that ability to change from time to time. And then finally um they extracted strawberry DNA with um Samantha Fischer who was a research scientist at UIC on their final Friday. Um we have cherished our um partnership with park the park district and WSSR and that continued as well this year really focusing on it holistically well dimension. So WSS um consistently partners with ESY and then um I think we've seen
078before how the park district has embedded the portrait in their work as well and we were able to really expand that partnership with them um in that way. We have also had a long-standing partnership with the Oak Park public library. So, um when thinking about that powered by literacy dimension, um they were able to come into our ESY classrooms and bring the book bike and really get kids excited about um their summer learning summer titles. Um for the first time this year, we um actually had a volleyball camp. So, we're focusing on um those cut sports and making sure that kids in the earlier grades um have access to cut sports. Um so the Oak Park River Forest Community Foundation um established an endowment where we're able to actually um support a funding of a
079volleyball clinic for our fifth graders. So we had some um past volleyball players from the high school um and eighth grade come over and really support our fifth graders so that when they get ready for tryyouts, they have some experience with um all of the things that go into the volleyball the skills. Um, we've also continued our partnership with Friday Night Place. Um, and we met them at at Triton and supported their program there and um, with Yumba with their summer empowerment program where we focused on transitioning students from fifth to sixth grade and from 8th grade to the high school. And then looking at club sports and music, this is a bit of a retrospective. So, um, this year we had 125 different clubs, um, sports or music programs that ran, um, across all
080schools. And so, what we started to do for the first time was kind of look at that through the lens of the portrait to see which dimensions, um, were being covered and which ones weren't. Um, so holistically, while the largest kind of alignment, but we do have some areas of opportunity when it comes to um, clubs and activities that support career exploration as well as digital navigation. the global connector are financially savvy. So, this just helped us kind of see where it is that we need to make sure that we're focused in terms of supporting student interest and providing those dimensions um as support and ebony on this slide if you just area that you're about to go over. I think what's really important too is that um there's this is work where we haven't
081sh had a like a spotlight on what does this look like, who is accessing the programs, what's actually happening under the hood. And so this is new work to say what's happening in our clubs and out of school time and who's accessing those partnerships. These are the ways that we're getting at like the root cause of inequity which is around access. And so you'll hear that in everything that Ebony is framing is it's about um who has access and who doesn't and how are we making sure we put our investments there. >> Y um and that kind of leads us right into the next slide. Um so we've done some analysis around um this is again last year's clubs activities and sports participants um to figure out when we look at race and ethnicity and
082also gender demographics we seem to be um closely aligned. So there is some differences. So sometimes kids in different areas um were more interested in sports versus clubs, but overall um there seems to be um a mirroring of our overall district demographics. Um where we have areas for opportunity are really with students with IEPs, our English learners, and students who are eligible for free and reduced lunch. Um so there's slightly less um likelihood to participate in clubs and also in sports. So that's something that we want to make sure that we're focusing on um in every area. So, um, part of the volleyball clinic is kind of thinking about that. Also, we're thinking about, um, an elementary, um, basketball league. So, just wanted to make sure that kids have access. Um, and so, last year
083we looked at kind of club sports as a whole, and this year we did break them out and then we'll continue to get smaller and smaller so we can really identify which clubs, which sports we need to focus on in terms of making sure that our equity imperative lives and breathes in those spaces. And then finally um early learning. So this year was the first year um and thanks to Michael Rosa and Nivia the whole um team that we were able to add some additional questions to our registration process for our incoming kindergarteners. Um so one of the questions that we asked and this was actually a charge of the CC um equity subcommittee was trying to figure out what the barriers were in terms of access to child care. So of the 398 um
084families that registered about 13.6% of them stated that they did have some trouble finding child care. And when we dug into that 13.6% um it looked like the top three barriers really were around program availability and also cost. So, we're really excited to kind of bring some of this data back um to the team to kind of think through how our equity policy and imperative lives um in in the early childhood space and how we can make sure that those programs are more accessible to students because we know of the importance of early childhood, especially as a springboard into kindergarten. Um and finally, um what we're thinking about in terms of how we start to expand our impact is expanding those courses. so much like that. Um things that we've been doing that really kind
085of excite um children and teachers around the portrait. Want to make sure that we're kind of building those for every school. We're also excited about the youth advisory council that will start with our middle schools. Um also we love that we have these community partners and we want to make sure that we're deepening those and also widening. So excited about the new partnership with new moms and that um uh alignment with Whittier and also making sure with um early childhood that we're centering our equity policy and then in our club sports and activity spaces also making sure that we are standing up that imperative >> questions. I just have a quick comment or >> I just have uh two quick questions. Um I guess I'll there one. What has been the biggest benefit? And then
086how are you measuring like what do you look to to say like this has been successful like we met our goal. This is like what we wanted to do >> and across all of the >> Mhm. >> Um I think for me um is it accessible and are students really enjoying that space? So I think what we really look to in terms of student voice is their feedback, but also is everyone does everyone have access to those these opportunities? Um and also which dimension of the portrait are we perhaps missing? What do we need to think about in terms of providing more experiences? But it really is about um are we making those successful and our students um really experiencing that joy and learning from those. And now that we have those standards align, that
087standards alignment, I think the next phase of that is thinking about how that interplays with um what that means as well. >> That also be my next question like do you feel like there's a space to connect this to academics? Because I think like as a parent I'm like yes it sounds good but how does this impact academics? >> Yeah, mine actually does tie into what Sheree was just saying. Um, University of California, Irvine is one of the leaders in the out of school research as you're not aiming because of course you know this, but one of the pieces they've shown nationally like studying out of school programs is the efficacy in after school out of school time being used to improve in school academics. And so I one of my comments is I just
088really want to say I this is so important and it can really seem like it's not connected but it very much is >> which does lead me in though to my other comment as you're moving forward on this. It's not enough for kids to maybe know these things are there >> that really need to be looking at families as well and understanding again to Shere's point how does you know math club fit into things? how like some things you can see, hey, if I do a sport, I could get it. If college, I could get a scholarship. There's a kind of direct relationship beyond just the physical activity that's, you know, empowering and awesome. Um, some clubs are just not understood, you know, about where they are depending on what background you're coming from, right?
089So, I just want to throw that in there as an important consideration. >> Yeah. And awareness, I think, is a big piece because I think when you walk into a middle school and you're even as a sixth grader and you have all of these experiences, where's my experience? Where do I see myself? And where do we actually have all of those kind of lined up for kids to kind of taste different things? Because absolutely, if you are good at a certain thing, you want to make sure that there's a space for that, but also how do you explore something that you may not have been, you know, exposed to yet. So, I think that's the work too is is the awareness and also the connection to the standards. Are we going in a circle or
090are we Is it >> I can't even I'm just waiting when um so I know that sometimes our summer programming and I know this was focused on middle school, not elementary. We had like a tapering off of attendance. >> I'm curious, did our is our enrollment strong? And then did people attend every day? Did they attend on Fridays? Right. Did they did they stick with it? So I can tell you from the program that I was closest to. Um yes, but we'll have that information for October 28. But the cool thing that we did see is that um I think our efforts resulted in increased participation from year-over-year. So um like access to algebra doubled in terms of participation. We saw an increase in participants for middle school explore. So I think we did see
091that. But we'll have a chance to look at all of the um attendance data too. We just wrapped music camp not too long ago, but I'll be coming back with that for sure to answer that question. I was mentioning earlier, I don't think you were here yet. I was saying that I appreciated an email that came from like core instruction. So, I don't know if that was drafted by your team. Um, and like it said exactly what programs my kids were eligible for and they were personalized. So, yes, you could miss the email, but the nice thing also was that in Dina um in Oak Park and also I think River Forest the registration for park district programming is like that window that you all sent it around. So, I think there was that sense
092of like if you're making plans, try to plan along the lines of what are some available programs in the district versus what's available um in the park district. So, timing was great. The personalized email was great. I think um the only other pieces that came up I know for some ELLL families there was you know concern about taking public transportation just during the summer this year just because of like >> immigration issues and fear over over those pieces. So I I know of a few families that said I was signed up they were going and then we pulled them out because we were not feeling safe. Um, and then I think one of the other kind of nice things and again you're going to present probably on this program but you know I have a
093personal experience with this the foundations one and that one um was awesome because I believe it was Monday through Friday and it was obviously certified teachers and again it's that homegrown talent talent also employing our teachers during the summer. I'm sure they appreciate that. And then the hours were great. So it was like a half day. That one I think really worked because I didn't have to find an alternative child care plan. Um, and so that was just from a parent perspective something that I could really appreciate those hours, but I also know there's a cost to funding that. So, well, thank you. And we've really worked hard to make sure that um we're communicating and we can always do a better job in case that. So, this year we also talked to teachers to
094make sure that they had those touches and they were knowledgeable about summer program. So, I'm glad to see that. Yeah, that was helpful. >> I don't have a question, but I just wanted to express my appreciation for doing things like the volleyball camp. Um, it's been interesting having my daughter go into ninth grade and looking at high school sports and what she feels very like uncertain that she can do. And I've had so many conversations with parents about like if your kid hasn't been doing this sport like volleyball in particular for girls by like sixth grade like you're not going to make it. And so even like one of my friends's kids like was going to try out for volleyball then she went to the clinic and she was like no like it's too much
095you know and so I think about like how many kids don't have opportunities to do sports and then I think >> I think some of the sports like cross country which are very accessible and are not cut are massive and then that actually causes a problem because then a lot of those kids can't do the meets because there's only certain number of slots. So, um I do appreciate looking at like what kind of the big picture of like what kids have access to and that how that can impact them kind of in the in the future as well. So, >> yeah, we're excited about that. I think because it the volleyball camp was really successful. We had about um 40 kids sign up, but then even with the basketball um clinic that's coming up for
096elementary, just kind of getting those skills in. >> Yeah. >> Um so, thanks for that. I just want to say I really appreciated that too the that you're bringing it down into elementary um in part just because again as Jung was saying there's been a lot of recent articles on the money that is in you know K 12 sports and it does limit access so I really appreciate the thoughtfulness on taking a look at that. >> Thank you. I just have one more ask and then I promise it um will receive like participation numbers because I know that every year like there's like we're talking about cost and I know that as nationally we're worried about funding and things like that. So will we be able to see like this is how this program um
097you know just in case we have limited resources and we have to make hard decisions will we be able to see like this is the participation for this program these are the outcomes for each of the programs so like uh Friday was it Friday night like I always call it Friday night lights >> Friday night place >> yes I was thinking about that movie Friday night lights it's not football um and then Yima and all those Okay, great. Yeah, so we have asked them um to kind of compile those numbers and so um she we're likely going to um use the same process that we used last year in terms of being an RFP to kind of see how um what programs are most responsive but we will have the data from last year to
098to support that. >> Thank you. >> Absolutely. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you. Do you want to take the word? >> No, you got it. >> All right, then that brings us to the consent agenda. >> I move the board of education park approve the consent agenda as presented. >> Second. >> Carney, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Perez, >> yes. >> Moore, >> yes. >> Spurlock, >> yes. >> Rosman, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. Motion passed. >> Brings us to personnel. Someone could read the first motion. >> I move the board of education move the settlement agreement between Gina Harris and the board of education park elementary school district 97. >> Second. >> Moore. >> Yes. >> Perez. >> Yes. >> Rost. >> Yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Johnson,
099>> yes. >> Motion passed. Appointment of district treasurer. I'm honor roll. I move that the board of education adopt the resolution appointing Dr. Crystal Roy as district 97 treasurer and approve the school board school treasurer bond. >> Second Johnson. >> Yes. >> Rossman. >> Yes. >> Spurlock. >> Yes. >> Moore. >> Yes. >> Perez. >> Yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Carmen, >> yes. >> Motion passed. >> Okay, that brings us to discussion and action. First up, we have the approval of the physical education waiver. Is there any discussion? >> Make a motion. >> Yeah. Board of Education Park Elementary School District 97 approve the physical education waiver request to be submitted. Second >> more. >> Yes. >> Perez. >> No, but I had talked about that at an earlier time. >> Rosen. >> Yes.
100>> Sper. >> Um, I wasn't here at the last. I'm abstaining. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Car, >> yes. brings us to intergovernmental agreement with West 40. I move the board of education approve the intergovernmental agreement with West 40 intermediate service center number two. Conduct a physical security assessment across all 10 schools in the district administration building not to exceed $13,000. >> Second. >> I'm sorry. I'm going to second. >> Thank you. >> Carney. >> Yes. >> Kim. Yes. >> Perez. >> Yes. >> Moore. >> Yes. >> Spurlock. >> Yes. >> Ross driven. >> Yes. >> Her Johnson. >> Yes. >> Plan is next. >> I actually do have a quick comment for that one before >> I have a question too. >> Okay. >> Um you go ahead with your
101question. >> No, go ahead. >> Oh, okay. Uh quick comment is just can um someone actually touch base with the Iring PTO on this because I think they had some questions about what the plan was. Um so I'm just gonna flag that. >> Yeah. So I can answer that. Uh so I've been talking with Susan for the last ever came up and some conversations that we had before that. So she's in the loop. I will let her know depending on whatever comes up today. Uh but they were also as when I presented they'll they were on the f first phase to do it before coming to the asking the board to go above the $25,000. So most of those rooms if not all of them were already done at Irving. Uh so we prioritize the
102the rooms that are most need. So those two buildings are Lincoln the first phase. The rest are um don't have the exact number, but like six or seven buildings that would take us over 25,000. That's what we're asking for the ability to go up to those numbers. >> Thank you. >> So, it's called an interim cooling plan, but do we have to do this again next year? >> Um, it's not planned. So, part of this is >> all right. trying to figure out is this temporary like one time cost or >> some of the rooms that didn't have anything in like any type of a portable or type of some of the different types of units that are in there to cool. So we looked at those rooms and those are locations too. I mean
103I did a number of times where I was going in doing temperature checks rooms when it's hot days cooler days all of those things to really prioritize that. Uh but the reason for the interim is we want to let the master facilities plan and that was the conversation that heard asked that last time and maybe a few of you too. Um so we want to let that process go and also then determine is there other direction for the longer longer type of plan. These are things that will last for a period of time we continue to maintain them to last through this year next year and and beyond that to at least see where the master facilities plans determined. These are not those unit events that were done as part of the referendum. So those
104are your ideal scenario and ideal solution if we were to get that direction to do that up the second and first floors. Um and that's where we can continue to provide like here's the data that we're seeing from these classrooms. But I did walk second first floors multiple times to see what that looks like. >> Right. But you did that also in the beginning of a like I think it's important that we collect the data after school starts >> for sure. How many days are Yeah. >> Yeah. There was a day it was uh in the afternoon it was 94 with 107 field. >> Um I did it at those times in multiple buildings to kind of determine what what is actually worse than others. And then I did use some third floor rooms that
105had those unit events and what does that look like compared to that. So >> yeah, during the referendum the conversation I think that they said there's an average of like a maximum of 10 days, right? because we start in August 20th, you have off on Labor Day and like the weekends and it the temperature drops fairly quickly into the school year >> and so um I think it's important that we see how many days of actual school attendance so we know about that investment >> like balancing that investment. >> It's not trending for the better. >> Oh well that's true. >> Some of the rooms too were rooms that weren't used in the past so they moved people around. So that's where a couple of these rooms came into play where they're like they're used
106way more or they're going to have full classes in there. >> And if we wanted to be hot, we'd all go to move to Florida. We wouldn't move to Chicago. So I would we live here so we don't be hot. >> I'm not a fan of being hot. So I support it, but I just want to make sure that in the summer when it's really hot, you kind of forget how quickly it cools off. And to answer that question too, this is not having Irving foot any of that build for these things. That's what we're looking at as a district. Like those classrooms is a space that we feel like is important for us to do that and let's what are other things that they need to do because it would be fair to ask
107them to do it and have other buildings not to have that or that. So >> that's why I was asking because you actually have a plan on here. So I just want to make sure that you all were communicating if you are. So that's great. Thank you. and it was just that the PTO had fundraised and were were suggesting that they would cover the cost at some point. >> So now they can use it on something else. >> I I can appreciate that as a pair. >> Y motion. I move that the board of education of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 approved December 2025 cooling plan with DJ Sweeney electrical contracting in the amount not to exceed $45,000. >> Second Moore, >> yes. >> Perez, >> yes. >> Rostman, >> yes. >> Spurlock, >>
108yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Her Johnson, >> yes. >> Connie, >> yes. >> Motion, yes. >> Uh, that brings us to approval of depositories. I move board of education district 97 authorize the school treasurer Dr. Crystal Loy to be added as an authorized sign on all district bank accounts and depositors. Second >> Carney, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Rosa, >> yes. >> Johnson, >> yes. >> Motion pass. >> Okay. Then that brings us to board comments or board remarks. >> Thank you, John, for stepping in as I attended a welcoming huskys night. I did not cry when I dropped him off, but I did cry in the car. I just want to give a huge shout out to the township. They did an amazing back to school event. Um, right. I think
109it was last week. Um, and so the manager, I think his name is Elgen, came up to me. Tim Thomas and Dominic who runs girls on rise. It was an amazing space. There were so many families. It was nice to see people from like all the schools. Um, so many little kids. We had dentists that were there giving out freebies, um backpacks, um there were haircuts, there were hairstyles being done. And so such an amazing event for our um district. And so just super super excited and thankful for the partnership with the township. Um, so I I wasn't able to attend some of the events, the events that we were kicking off and I was just thinking kind of just historically I know we used to before the first board me board meeting we used
110to invite all the new and teachers and we like had a little kind of pre-board meeting time and also for retirement I feel like we did that and I think we've moved a couple of our events into the daytime and maybe it came out of co and more people working from home and I can't speak for other board members but as we go back to the office and stuff. I think it would be great if we consider times when we can add a community event like that where we can the board can interact with teachers to back up into a time frame that's like right at the end of the school day for the teachers in the beginning of our board meeting so more of us can attend. Um I felt like I was missing
111out on meeting the new teachers this year. I'm sure they survive, but it was um it was nice to kind of have that bridge between their school day or their first day of, you know, setting up their classrooms, something like that. Um, but other than that, I I do feel like the communication and the excitement around school starting has been very positive. Thank you to everyone that's worked really hard to make that happen. >> Yeah, it was really nice to meet some of the new teachers. Um, one of my kids, prek teachers who was at ABC Toontown, which is a partnership with the collaboration. She's now at Whittier. So, that was like a full circle moment to see her. And um, yeah, it was a really nice event. And thank you Jack and Nancy for
112also coming. So, it was really nice, but it was >> Venus. >> Did I say what you said? >> Oh, Venus and >> I don't want to take anyone's credit >> for coming. I had to like leave so quickly, but it was a really nice >> like I understand how she did. >> Y look alike. >> Um, I never y >> And um my my board comment is in reference to something that you had done the last time we met in the public. um meeting which was to check on your neighbors because that's still very relevant. >> Um and a lot of our kids are coming back to school with a lot of like unknowns whether it's a financial thing or whether it's family um dealing with deportation or whether um you know they're dealing
113with you know relatives that are on the other side of the ocean dealing with um all sorts of things that are are really scary um and some things that are happening here. So, I just remember you had done that and I just think that to honor like our community members, that was a really nice thing you said. So, I just wanted to make sure it was said again for those that are listening at home. >> Thank you, Becky. All right. >> Okay. Um, sorry. Uh, then we come to board assignments. Um, >> fact PT I know a lot of things. summer. >> Yeah. Uh so maybe people who've had any updates. >> Do you have any reports? They >> I have two. Um so excellent. We're good. Um I have one for IG uh which
114is just that um we did have meeting and we are looking at the mission and values because it's been around for a while. So we're just going to take a look at updating those pieces. So expect a survey uh both here and other other boards um just to take a look at the why we have IGV and what its purposes um and just refine that and then with collaboration for early childhood CEC just a heads up that D200 and D97 are looking at submitting an ISP uh Illinois association of school boards presentation next year. Uh this was inspired. We had a talk uh about kind of like what is CDC and how did you get all these government agencies together to work on it uh with some uh state and governmental organizations and with local
115childcare resources like the day day nursery. Um and one of the things that they brought up was it would be really nice to have other communities see for example why would a high school care about this? Um and it is you know to Dr. WTO's presentation earlier, early child care is um important to the full educational breadth of student learning. And so um looking forward to seeing if we can share that with other districts at the IASB convention. Um no one else. Okay, then that brings us to the next meeting which is September 16th. Uh just want to preview the agenda and see if there you have any questions, if there's anything you would like added at this time. Obviously, there's still time before the meeting, but >> we actually have a couple of edits
116here. Um we'll do a transformation goal overview uh on the 16th and then uh we'd like to bring forward a focus on school improvement and core instruction. overall or a specific school >> overall. Okay. And that middle school um update will be um the first meeting in October so that we can do kind of the schedule as well as the smart connect. Remember we had that and the board asked for kind of an implementation update and we'll also do a look back on the middle school connections. Um I know that we have a few like new curriculum resources this year curriculum resources. Um I was and was there work on the summer. Is there any is it worthwhile to when are we going to be talking about those? Do we talk about them later in
117the year after they've been going or before the year starts based on what planning was done in the summer? >> So maybe what we can do is we do have kind of a draft plan that all of the goal groups have put together. you can look at that and make sure that you know it makes sense when those presentations but there is a whole annual plan for uh presentations align to the transformation goals. >> I was kind of thinking like J like January so six months that give us good information hopefully. >> Yep. Uh if I have a motion to adjurnn because we're going to move to close session though close session. >> Oh yeah. So >> don't you have to adjourn this? I guess you don't have to. >> No, because we have to
118come back into I move that we move into close session for appointment employment compensation discipline performance or dismissal of specific employees collective negotiating matters as related to individual students litigation of an action against public. Okay. Um, Connie, >> yes. >> Her Johnson, >> yes. >> Kim, >> yes. >> Spurwa, >> yes. >> Ros, >> yes. >> Perez, >> yes. Moore, >> yes. Motion to go back into executive close session at 8:45.