July Board of Education Meeting

001Good evening. I call the board of education to July 7th. Mrs. Morsy here. Mrs. Bowwinsky here. Mr. Panis here. Dr. Long here. Mrs. Mlan present. Mr. Nordmark here. Mrs. Peters present. Mrs. Mory 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. At each regular and special open meeting, members of the public and district employees may comment on or ask questions of the board of education. If you would like to address the board, please complete the pink form and give it to Mrs. O'Donnell, our reporting secretary. All right, moving along. We have communications. Yeah, just a couple of quick updates. Um first of all folks at home watching their emails for two important uh connected announcements. One

002that uh the school fees registration fees uh should be paid during the month of July to u avoid the additional penalty cost. And so we'll be sending out reminders for that, email reminders to all enrolled families uh this week and then the beginning of next week uh families should watch for a transportation communication so that they can confirm uh their route and their community stop. So those will be going out we think Monday of next week. Um, also, uh, we have, uh, seen in the news some language around the federal government holding or withholding funds from some of the federal grants. And so, um, just to give a little bit of kind of background and perspective on that for us, um, we're in, uh, unchartered waters. Um the dollars have been allocated by Congress to

003fund the title what are called title grants. Title one, title 2, three, four. Um so the money has been allocated. So the department of education issued a statement not saying that they're withholding the funds like withholding as in you're not going to get them. They said they're holding the funds while they determine whether or not the activities of the grants meet their expectations. So the plus side the good news uh title one which is our service to at risk students and idea special education both have been allocated and we've written grants for those and we anticipate receiving all of those currently. Title two which is professional development for uh teaching staff. Title three, which is limited English proficiency and immigrant um students um have not been alloc have not been awarded. So we have a

004zero in that column right now. Um that equates to about $84,000 in funding, federal funding. Uh should that remain a zero. Um the that's for two and three combined. That's for two and three combined. Okay. So is that a little lower than we were originally? Um the allocated amount but then not awarded. Well, so 84,000 is what we would imagine we would get if and when those funds are released. So again, there's been no indication of whether they're going to release those funds ever. um if they're going to release those funds at the end of the week. We really have no idea. We also don't know how the states will react to that. Some states may supplement what the federal government would have provided since these are legally required services. Um, but the thing to

005keep in mind about all of our grants is that they're written in such a way that it is supplemental, not in place of the district's responsibility. So they fund things that are really beneficial to have but not required to have. So for example, the teacher professional development um we offer teachers to go to workshops and we can reimburse them monies when they go to those workshops. Um we can pay them when they participate in professional development activities. So those are not federally required actions. So we don't build the budget until we have the grant dollars. So, as of now, we would say we just aren't sending anyone to workshops. So, it's different than some of our other grants where we have to expend money first and then we get reimbursed for it. These are dollars

006that we had hoped to get, but if we're not going to get them, then we won't expend those dollars. So, it's a it's a loss in terms of programming and service and supports, but it's not a cost to the district. We're not going to have to make up $84,000 by making cuts elsewhere. We may choose to make some choices to fund some of the things that we would have here, but then there would be other similar kinds of projects that we we would not fund. For example, our bilingual parent action uh committee, BPAC, uh we run we're uh five events throughout the year. Um those are standalone events. We fund those events. Um, we would likely not fund standalone events, but rather include BPAC activities at our heritage night, at our um, family fest and

007some of the other literacy nights and math science nights so that we meet the requirement of having BPAC events, but involve them or integrate them into um, some of the other events that we have so that we're not expending dollars that we don't have in the budget. The other variable with state grants or with the federal grants is that they actually run um through August. Craig, is that right? Yeah. Through the end of end of August of the following year. So often times, as the board may recall, we do an initial grant presentation, which we'll do in probably in October, and then we do a second one in the spring because we get a second allocation either from folks that didn't spend their money or didn't spend all of it. And we have those additional

008funds that roll over and then we make grant amendments. So it's still quite possible that some allocation if not all of what we would have normally received we will receive but until we know we don't build a budget for these funds. So there are of course are also legal actions uh that that folks are taking because um it obviously uh in many districts might impact uh direct instruction to students. for us, we don't use the funds in that way. So, we're safe in terms of harm, but hurting uh in terms of loss of revenue to do some of the things that we would normally do. So, we'll keep everybody apprised of that. But, um is and I don't know the answer to this, that's why I'm asking. Um is this an eitheror game? they they

009will either lease them or not or will they pick and choose and say we have no we have no that I mean it's a great question we have we really have no idea we don't know if um as I said there's an option for the state to step in and say um you know we believe that this these services should be provided so the state somehow is going to fill that or you may get a proration of that they decide that certain types of programs are not acceptable under the their direction um in which case they likely wouldn't release those funds. So the even the language around them holding the money rather than withholding the money is a new uh situation that everyone is dealing with. He's like, "Well, what does holding the money mean

010if not withholding?" No, no, no. We're not withholding money because the money's been allocating been allocated. We're just holding it hostage. So, you know, Yeah. And and this is obviously nationwide. So, um for our district again, uh our federal reliance on federal dollars is really small uh compared to to many others. So the impact to us, you know, obviously with as tight a budget as we run, everything is impactful, but um not nearly as much as other districts that are more heavily Can I just clarify, Brian, because you asked a question with regard to the numbers that were discussed in finance and I think at the time we were including it was a higher number, but we were also including the carryover amounts that we get allocated, but it's in May that we get those.

011So what what Don is talking about is just the initial allocations for the fiscal year, not the additional carryover, the total at the end of the year because we wouldn't budget for that now, right? The carryover that we would get in a second wave, right, would be a higher dollar amount if we if we were to get those. But those are usually written in as amendments or kind of to back back fill. So, not great news, but um and and I would say on the news, if you heard the news, there was a lot of talk about um after school programs being cut. After school programs is one way that a lot of districts serve at risk kids and there is a grant, a portion of the grant that is for safe schools. though many

012districts will do afterare as an additional not required but a nice thing to be able to offer. So the language around the grants for whatever reason when it came out of the blocks on the news was all about afterchool programs. I'm like well it's more than after school programs it's teacher professional development and uh multilinguage multilanguage students or bilingual students as well. So we will have to keep an eye on that and we'll keep the board apprised. Uh again we have our presentation on grants on our proforma calendar for October. So we'll as we're building the budget you'll see those initial allocations uh the placeholders and then uh we'll have a more detailed report in October. Thank you. Sure. Uh the other thing that we do uh three times a year at the end of

013every trimester, so our trimester ended in June uh for the last fiscal year. Happy new year by the way to everyone in July. Um is I create just uh an update of our strategic plan for the current school year. So this wraps up the 2425 school year. It's just a summary of some of the activities that we have been targeting throughout the year under each of the four goal areas. Um, and then on the last page, we had our year-to-ate revenues and expenditures. Uh, as of April 2025, we're still not closed out of even May yet in terms of the financials. But um just to give a quick snapshot again we do that after each trimester give that to the board and I put it in the school scene and post it on the website

014just uh again it's a lot of details about a lot of the good work that's been happening. Um but our strategic plan really does drive our decision- making and our actions and so always want to keep everybody kind of dialed into what we've been doing in those regards. And that's what I had for communications. Uh, next up is committee reports, uh, buildings and sites. Do you guys have anything to share? I know you didn't meet, but anything to share some work finance. Uh Bren um last week went through uh spent a good amount of time as Don shared on the title two title three uh funds. Amy for clarification just to make sure I got my notes right. But for everybody in here the budget that we have currently that we just finished up. Yeah.

015Did it was it accounting on any of those grants or is that all going to be budgeted andor accounted for? we may or may not be receiving in the next fiscal year. What what Don is referring to is grant revenue for fiscal 26. Correct. Right. So, just clarify, not the year end here. That's correct. Um we we finished the year ahead of budget. We talked about that. Not a ton, but a little bit. So, not deficit spending this year uh or past the prior year. We talked about the land swap and uh it's gone through approval by the Arlington Heights Board. Now, there's a few, we'll say, housekeeping and paper items that need to get squared away um on both sides. We've got uh budget planning coming up for 26 uh here shortly. So, uh

016the it'll arrive to the board in August, right? And then uh shared and published in September, right? Time frame approved or based on approval. And then uh we talked a review of a draft of the financing calendar uh briefly and then there's some sped expenses coming to the board for approval. I think I got everything. Sound good? Yeah. Yeah. I mean I think just like as you had said at the beginning the uh just you know closing out the 25 would probably be about the same time that we're getting to 26, right? so that we really see those final numbers that uh that we anticipate right showing be as budgets. Thank you. Uh NSSEO Carol uh NSSO did does not have a July meeting but um there's still things going on. uh the the um

017as I've reported before the there's ongoing work forming the strategic plan and as part of that uh there's a superintendence council that uh was formed and that um made up of the member district superintendent. They are meeting monthly with Dr. to just go over issues as they come up at NSSO and to um look at items that are coming up for review u in front in front of the governing board. So, as kind of as part of this, um, I Don and Chris and myself will be meeting monthly to go over what was discussed at the superintendent council and to look at items that are on the agenda for the governing board. um just to make sure that we're properly informed and that we're voting in in you know with our um benefit um for

018things that come up. Uh the major things that will be coming up uh NSO will be reviewing the articles of agreement. Um the superintendent's council is looking at that and associ cabinet is the board is and there will be a meeting in September. The board meeting in September will include not just the governing board but the superintendent and um to start that pro process. Um not sure how that will go but Yeah, I think it's just trying to formalize a a governance structure that has two tiers to it. So, that's not how the bylaws are currently written. Um, so as part of the strategic plan, this vision or direction for a two-tiered governance model came forth. So, we're trying to put some meaning behind it rather than just the conceptual. And then we have to

019figure out how to specifically word it in the bylaws or the articles of agreement. And and there's there's just some cleanup to is, you know, it's it's a document that's over 10 years old and uh I don't think we've visited it very often. So there's just some general cleanup that needs to happen there. Um let's see what else. Also, let's see. ESY at NSSO is finished and so now the HVAC work at HERK is in full tilt. Uh they are interviewing still to fill some positions for the coming year. Uh also the uh governing board and the superintendent council will be looking at the minor lease. That lease is expires in at the end of not next year but the following year. So uh we'll be looking at that andio is uh going to contract

020with a uh what do you uh facilities yeah consulting consultant like requirements consultant to determine what what they need what NSSO needs and does minor fill that role or you know will they look at something else? Uh what else? That's also tied into the broader uh facilities review. So they're looking not only at programming needs and what spaces do we currently have in terms of physical spaces, but then within those spaces, what work needs to be done. So it's again, it's a couple of layers of investigating that should be done uh the first third of this coming school year. and uh contract negotiations for uh with certified staff will start this early this coming school year. So that that contract expires at the end of the coming school year. So I think I think I

021got Thank you. Tracy, did you have something you wanted to talk about for buildings and sites? Sorry, I didn't issue. No, I didn't speak up. That's my fault. Um, we did we had a um uh we I lost my page. Um there's been some custodial work this summer. Um they've been doing some window washing and some lunch table inspections. The hallways have been cleaned and buffed. The Mac gym has been refinished. Um they've been working on the low Chris has been working on the low volt voltage cabling. The Gretzky building I think is complete. Mac is about half done. Ross and Sullivan is going to be that's going to be done in September uh summer of 26 and then Eisenhower may be scheduled for the 2627 school year. The roof has been looked at. No

022signs of any deficiencies there. Um, Prospect Heights Park District has updated their electrical and their fencing and their scoreboard has been completed. Yeah. The baseball organization. The baseball organization. Um, the landscaping restoration is done following some sort of final inspection. Um, the striping in the parking lot has been taken care of and done. We have selected our official Oh, it's coming. Yeah, that's mid August. August done. Sorry, hide my You're fine. Yeah, the bid the bid is finished and we're just waiting on scheduling. Um the organic life contract has been finalized. Um they're looking at class furniture for Svin and um Ro Svin Garden is finally coming. The garden boxes have been ordered all covered by the PTO donation. So, thank you to the PTO and um Gavin and his team has been helping out

023a lot with landscaping. So, we thank you to him again. Yeah, Gavini is getting his Eagle Scout. So, he is working with the district on that. And that's all I have to report. Awesome. Thank you. All right. Does anybody need the consent agenda split? I don't we were on top here last time. Bren, you need to split or we can I just All right, great. We'll just keep it as is then. Can I get a motion for the consent agenda? Move to approve the consent agenda that Oh, it includes um the special and regular meetings from June 12th, the personnel report, tuition reimbursement report, and the second reading of press policy 118. I'll second. Awesome. Uh moved by Spencer, second by Marilyn. Can I get a roll call, please? Mrs. Morsy, yes. Mrs. Bowwinsky, yes.

024Mr. Gdanis, yes. Dr. Long, yes. Mrs. Mlan, yes. Mr. Nordmark, abstain. Mrs. Peters, yes. Motion carries 601. Next up is the financial report. I think Maryland, you had that this month. That was um uh so I went through it. Everything looks good. I love we got a refund. That made me even happier. So fun to see revenue coming in as we the bill. So uh that was great. So um I move to approve uh this uh past period's financial report. Can I get a second? Moved by Marilyn, second by Spencer. Roll call, please. Mrs. Morsy, yes. Mrs. Botwinsky, yes. Mr. Gordon, yes. Dr. Long, yes. Mrs. Mlan, yes. Mr. Nordmark, yes. Mrs. Peters, yes. Motion carries 70. Next up is the superintendence report. Christian, if you could pull that up. Thank you. As the board

025knows, we've been having ongoing conversations uh over the past number of years, but certainly uh since our last failed referendum attempt in April. And so, um, we're presenting tonight kind of a summary of those investigations and and, um, the documentation we have, uh, will again be something we'll we can share, uh, with the public. Um and the commitment to all of these bullet points. Every time I share, we just had another meeting last week with the community forum talk about the challenge that um boards of education have is that you're addressing today's problems and thinking 20 years down the line and and those are complex and complicated issues. um because what might look like we need today uh can change and projecting where we'll need to be in the future is is a part of

026that calculation as well. So, uh, if you go to the next slide, uh, following that unsuccessful referendum, we still identified a number of needs that the district has to address, full day kindergarten, safety enhancements, facility projects uh, at MacArthur and other long-term uh, facility and financial planning uh, including our efforts to rightsize our strategic our fund balance through some strategic planning uh and budget reductions. So in previous um presentations we go into great detail. These are also on the website so folks can investigate them. But as part of this process uh we investigated um a smaller solution at Eisenhower since our last uh referendum. uh mobile units, options for moving early childhood to MacArthur, leasing possibilities. We looked at funding options without a referendum. That would be a no tax increase. Uh we looked at

027referendum funding options uh and have a a long range uh vision for those opportunities. Uh that would result in tax increase. Uh we've been investigating our existing debt capacity, how much uh we can borrow or refinance and uh again continued discussions about long range facility and capital project needs throughout this time. Uh the board has given direction to administration to articulate those needs uh articulate our prioritized safety and facility thoughts. We've been investigating and identifying a no tax impact opportunity uh for that would fund construction costs. Uh we've investigated uh the impact on future borrowing capacity for the board. We've looked at when th that borrowing would be available in terms of timeline. Uh we've identified construction cost estimates for various project scopes. We've been looking at operational cost estimates as um anything we were

028to do now without referendum dollars would be an impact to our operational uh and current budget and uh and then articulate the design of the timeline for design bidding construction. So um these uh are spelled out in the next few slides. So, the board has seen this before. As we look at the bare minimum essential needs for full day K, four classroom spaces, two additional teachers, one FTE, which is a collection of lots of small additions of time um for specialists, and about a $50,000 operational expense. Uh that's uh what would we would need to provide full day given our current um facility uh or given our current needs. It gives us no room for expansion, gives us no room for additional projects. It's just for um meeting full day K. And then as we

029looked at prioritized needs for safety, uh the parking lot expansion at Eisenhower, the east lot would be a top priority and uh the window siding and doors project at MacArthur uh is one that has been on our radar for a while and um is scheduled for uh getting its repair. So the next slide talks about the financing options. The variables here are on the far left column. How much c could we borrow? Uh thinking of it like a home equity loan, borrowing against our current capacity, paying off what we currently owe and then stretching that new debt out. Um the term of that debt is in the third column ranges from 10 to 30 years. The earliest window is the variable of when would we be able to borrow money again um without refinancing or

030without uh referendum but just purely what is money is available to us as a board in future years that ranges from 2032 to and then the capacity uh when we hit that window how much we would be able to borrow. And that ranges from uh 2.4 million up to 10 uh.2 million depending on the length and and when that window happens. So, we've updated this a number of times just again in response to some investigations and trying to find what we hope will be the best fit of available funding window for borrowing and available borrowing capacity at that time. As we've looked at all the different scopes of projects, we've narrowed it down to a u approximate $13 million construction cost that we would uh be able to fund by refinancing that debt with no

031tax impact to the residents. Uh that would give us four classrooms for sure, a potential for five depending on how bids come in. We'd be looking at uh reduction of to seven offices from 11. Would still allow us to relocate the main office. Uh provide a multi-purpose room that would be smaller and not uh a FEMA shelter because we drop under the square foot requirement. Uh very limited library renovation in this just likely some doors. Uh we removed the play activity the act the activity area in the hallway and then we have a potential for a conference room that could also double as an OTP space. Um, and in this model, we'd be looking at uh needing about 310,000 to cover the staffing and uh programming costs down from 1.1 million. Is that a new

032drawing? Uh, I think that is the updated drawing drawing that we had gotten last week. Okay. So, yeah, that is new. Yeah, it's the four four classrooms without the uh activity area and the OT area. Yeah, cuz I see cuz I see a conference room is gone and then the library is updated. Thank you. No, that's great. Yep. When we think about what was the final square footage of that one? Did they give an updated? It's on the drawing. Uh I believe it's 13. This this one right here is prop 13800 13,800 ft. Cool. Thank you. In terms of other capital projects, um the Eisenhower parking lot, both east and west, um in the projected cost for the Eisenhower edition, the east parking lot is included, but if we were going to not move forward

033with anything at Eisenhower, just to do the two lots is just under 3 million estimated. The MacArthur project is estimated at 1.8. Um, we have not seen formal updates on that for a year or so. So, we would need to to obviously firm all of that up before it goes out to bid. Uh, our restroom renovations is next on our capital projects list. It's approximately 500,000 per site, about 2 million. Uh the main campus here uh paving replacement, not just kind of the band-aid patching here and there, but the full campus looks to be about a million dollars. And also on our project list, roofing repair, replacement, flooring repair placement, those are things that we always monitor. There are no identified needs at this time, but that remains uh you know obviously something we pay

034close attention to. Uh we repair when we need to um replace when we can and defer when we have to. And so we've been doing uh mostly repairs on roof and uh deferring floor repair and replacement. So those are the just some of the capital project needs. Board has also then looked at the operational impact. Again without new revenue uh the costs for staffing consumable um utility costs would all have to come from our existing operating funds. So that um started as an initial ask of 1.2 million. that would have given us room for uh some expanded offerings, some additional staff. So, not moving forward with new staff um has required us to significantly reduce the scope of that solution. Um so, we're down to about 310 estimated in a reduction and our goal for

035meeting that on the next slide please. is uh equates to approximately um 4 FTE $65,000 roughly one FTE salary and benefits. So the um budget is really very tight as you all know. So we're not really able to cut without cutting staffing somewhere. And so our strategies for doing that would be to hold the staffing plan flat, replacing necessary retirees one to one uh rather than one for two or two for one. Uh annual enrollment uh is what always drives our staffing. And so we're looking at um a few larger bubbles moving less, larger bubbles of students moving out and some smaller classes um enrolling. And that would gives us the ability to decrease section size uh to cover at least two of those FTE. And we also have been fortunate that we have maintained

036um pretty clear lines of support staff working in one uh location in order for us to meet some of those support staff needs. That one FTE would likely come from additional uh responsibilities for existing staff that would have to travel to Eisenhower or travel to other buildings to allow for some shuffling of responsibility. And we would be targeting one FTE for operational funding out of um some kind of program reduction. Uh we would look to do that as far away from uh direct classroom instruction as possible, but um we look at all of our programs every year. Uh and so as there are uh less needs in some areas, we may be able to see reductions uh in staffing to match that. So that's the at least the current vision for how we would address

037uh the 310,000 or thereabouts. Uh lastly, these timelines that we're looking at. Uh should the board adopt the debt certificate resolution tonight, um we would uh begin that process. Uh we would have the sale in August. Uh public hearing in August on the second set of bonds. We have to which which bonds do we one set of bonds we have to sell now to then refund and then we have to issue the second set of bonds. Debt certificates come first and then we sell the funding and then refunding bonds to pay off the existing and then issue the new. So August 13, 14, 15, that gives us a 30-day petition period. September, able to sell those bonds. Uh late September, uh we would sell the funding and refunding bonds and then close in early October.

038And in terms of our design process, these are all sort of anticipated. We would look uh to begin right away with um our partners uh our architects and uh construction folks to re-engage in the design document process. Uh the board has already invested in that process. So we're at least 50% of the way there. Um so we'll be able to build upon that and continue to um work with MWRD, City of Prospect Heights, Kameed to bring that to uh 100% design by late fall or early winter. At the same time in the fall, we would review the MacArthur project. um and plan on putting that out to bid in late fall um in winter. We would likely be ready to go to bid for the Eisenhower project with construction beginning on both of those in

039spring and summer of next year 26. August, uh, we would have the MacArthur project finished and then in the fall of next year, uh, after we've received all bids and know that we're, um, safe from change orders or any unexpected costs on those two top priority projects. Uh, we would look at project needs and develop timeline and bid for uh, any of the other capital projects. um because we do have uh a three-year window to name and a five-year window to complete construction under these uh this these bonds. So, we will would address option one and two, the Eisenhower and the MacArthur windows, and then circle back and see where we're at. Uh this gives us a goal of uh opening uh the Eisenhower uh with the new addition in August of meeting the timeline

040and um uh and the and the mandate. Uh so the summary the administrative recommendation is for us to proceed with the bond sale tonight. Um, we're estimating uh four classroom configuration uh with the east parking lot only. We again put that out to bid. We'll have to see how those bids come in. Uh we would recommend moving forward with MacArthur window siding and then after those two projects are bid and up and running. uh look at the other whether it be restrooms, paving, flooring, roofing as prioritized to uh spend whatever balance of the borrowed funds we have. That also then gives us until um the beginning of August of the 2728 school year to identify the operational staffing cuts. Um so we would be able to take a very thoughtful and targeted uh approach to

041identifying some sustainable reductions um so that we can maintain that uh over the life of the program. So that is a very brief summary of what has been few months of investigating and lots of conversations. Um you have any questions for any of the admin team? We're happy to answer any questions or the $13 million. Are we pretty confident about that to take action on both bullet items to be within what we're approving? That's that's the current estimates that we have from uh from Nicholas and Associates 13 to 13 million 2 million and then the potential for two. Okay. Thank you. Does anybody else have any questions? If there are no questions, is there a motion on the floor? You know, I just want to make a couple comments about this. Yes. Um so for

04218 years I have been on the board of education with many different boards, many different administrations and um always with a tight budget and low reserves. And for the bulk of the past 18 years, um, we have always thoughtfully looked at debt, um, whether it be bonds or debt certificates, trying to make sure that the current administration, the current board did not tie the hands of future boards and future administrations. I believe um what has been proposed to us will um strap us or tie our hands for roughly 12 years. Is that about right? 20 38 37. So I'll call it 12 years. Um so so I have that issue. Um which makes me unable to uh vote yes for issuing these death certificates this evening. Um, I also don't feel a 100% sure that

043the community wants full day kindergarten because of their past three no votes on referendums or if they're just against having property taxes increased or if it's combination of both. They've heard from so many people so many different thoughts on it. Um, and I am, you know, sad that we didn't do a um, statistically sound survey just to get a feel um, after this third failed referendum. What is the problem? What is holding people back from voting for it? Um I am also uh uncomfortable with doing this and then knowing that um we really have a need to still pass an operational referendum to support all the operational costs are going to go along with um this building and you know we're talking about all these cuts and how many more cuts are we going to

044have to make to um staff and programming in the future. Um there is still a waiver option out there. we don't quite know what that is still and I understand that. Um so I feel um that we are somewhat rushing into this decision to um do what we are proposing to do this evening. I also do not like the thought of spending $300,000 um the cost to recall the outstanding debt and recalling that outstanding debt at the cost of $300,000 that is at a lower interest rate than the new debt that we're going to be issuing which is at a higher interest rate. So it's several hundred,000 to me of waste dollars. Um, I feel that we are bypassing the referendum process because we've had three failed votes on this and not really getting voter

045approval because again, we've had three failed votes on this. Um, therefore lacking transparency and accountability accountability to the taxpayers that are the same people that vote us into office and that have voted down the referendum three times. I feel that issuing the debt certificates will strain our overall borrowing capacity for the next 12 years as well as um looming future financing options. And so I just want to say that. So I appreciate you letting me speak this evening. Um but that is my background is finance and I just um cannot vote yes for this this evening and I just want to explain myself before I take the vote. Thank you. That's it. Anyone else have anything? I just would say that like I, you know, we've kind of had a lot of discussions about this

046since April. And I just like genuinely appreciate like all the work that has gone into, you know, kind of putting these numbers together and all the time and Amy that you spent that we spent with Liz and everybody attending finance. And so, you know, I think that uh like this solution is so much better than what we originally talking about in April. Like I just, you know, I think a step back, right? Like be glad about that. you know, I I don't I'm not going to beat a dead horse just, you know, I agree with the concept of this and the and the majority of what we're planning to do, but I just the aspects of this that I think that are kind of smaller discrete projects are stuff that shouldn't be in a 30-year

047bond. But like again, I appreciate the dialogue of this. I I think that this is a much better proposal than what we were starting with. And uh and I like I I think that there were so many different ways we could have gone. I think that you know the fact that there's that that we do have a majority moving forward with this is is is a place to start from, right? But you know and I think that Mary Lynn talked about the the operational thing part of this. I know that we've all talked about this, but this this has to be part of a bigger strategic plan, right? that we have to be really clear about, you know, how we spend money that's potentially left over. Like I was glad to see that you kind

048of have that delayed until fall of 26. I would make it even later because we're going to get that 10-year facility plan in early 2027. And if there's and you know hopefully there's money left over from this and then at that point then you can really say like hey should this be bathrooms or do we have right you know do we have a geothermal pump that's going to cost a million dollars right do do we have HVAC at that point because I think that it's it's important right that if if this is what we're doing today to kind of if there's funds left over right to have them allocated and spent on strategic stuff right and uh and stuff that's really important hard for the future of the district. Thank you. And initially in the

049last conversation I was in line with what many of you oh what the proposal was to to do the bond issue. But just in the last few weeks, to your point, we've been on the board the same amount of time, there have been things over the years that come up that weren't expected. There have been um just just this full day kindergarten, you know, mandates that, you know, we have to do that we don't have funding for. And it just really makes me nervous to to commit that much um and not really have much wiggle room for 12 years. I'm I'm not for this at this point. Does anybody else have any thoughts before we move to a vote? If no other thoughts than a motion, I'll move to approve the resolution providing the issuance

050and sale of not to exceed 16,550,000 of debt certificates to alter, repair, and equip school buildings and facilities. I have a motion by Spencer. Do I have a second? I'll second. Second by Tracy. Can I get a a vote, please? Mrs. Morsy, yes. Mrs. Bowwinsky, no. Mr. Gradanis, no. Dr. Long, yes. Mrs. Mlan, yes. Mr. Nordmark, yes. Mrs. Peters, no. Motion carries 43. I just want to thank you all for your thoughtfulness and conversation. It it was it taught me a lot. Like I think it was very good and like you said, Brian, I think we really need to be strategic in what we do and and talk about what our continued plans are. So I've learned a lot over the last couple of months from all of you. So I really appreciate Yeah. You

051know what? I don't know the best way to do that. I mean, that's even something maybe we could start in finance, but it's it just feels like there's multi multiple parts to this, right? Where it's, you know, making sure that the spend here is that we're really cautious about how we spend this and then understanding the priorities for the money that's left over at the same time, right? Like like we we have to have an operational referendum, too. And like and I think that the board and the admin need to commit to that. And if we're going to do that in the spring of 20 states, right? like we have to start thinking about what that's going to be. I don't know the spring of 26 is a good idea based on our history but

052like but I think but like the board and the admin have to commit to that to say hey we want to move forward with this let's start talking about what the options are. I agree with you Brian and I think part of the conversations that we've all right have had with all of you is that like one we can continue to go in that direction. Obviously future boards will vote different way right like we can say that it's important to us that we have the conversations about future referendums but again that's a board's decision to put that on there. So I think that's really important that we continue to have those conversations. I also think that we have a construction committee that we are thoughtful about that and we meet regularly with with the administrative

053team to make sure we're staying on track with what finance wants and what buildings and sites and all of those things. Um and that we are, you know, good stewards of the money that we are borrowing and that we're not just, you know, so I think we have to work on the how we publicize this in the in the optics of this. Yeah. Just in talking to some of the retired people on my neighborhood, this is not going to sit well with many of them. So, and I think there's risks with there's definitely risks. I don't think anyone of us here doesn't think that there's risks with this with locking up our funds for an extended period of time. We've tried multiple different avenues to try and solve this state mandate that was out of

054our control. Um we've tried different things. So many of us have been on so many of the board members have been on the board for a long time and tried different things prior to me getting here that haven't been successful. And I think that there hasn't been a solution. there hasn't been a solution by previous boards going way way way back way way way back and you know how do we meet a state mandate um you know we we've tried different actions and hasn't come to fruition I think we'll see how this we're left with not a lot of options well it segus nicely into strategic plan the strategic plan which um there are two documents that are included in the board packet and will also be published in the on the website and in

055the school scene that um do articulate that multiaceted multi-prong approach toward strategic uh approach to all of our district issues. Um the first is the document from um ECRIS that is available on our uh it's an interactive website um our key performance indicators our strategic plan and the these are called um this the different strategies where we've completed over the years things you'll see them at 100% uh where they're brand new you'll see them obviously at zero and they're everywhere in between many of our goals span multiple years. Um so uh that's why uh you'll see some different dates. You'll see the individual with whom the buck stops on on the front page. I think Chris's name comes up quite a bit later. Um and so um on this more summary sheet um where we

056have our four goal areas uh I want to thank uh the board for your participation last month in great giving input into that. I want to thank our PHEA team, our uh district improvement team representatives from all of the schools and all the departments um and our leadership team. Uh we've had about four months worth of conversations reiterating and refining uh what we're trying to articulate in the plan is both the ongoing work um the standard kind of you just have to do it because it's the next school year kind of work as well as some of the new initiatives and some of the new approaches um that we'll be taking. And so I'm not going to highlight all of them um but would encourage folks to to kind of take a look through that.

057I will say that uh just a couple of the key highlights. I think our key curricular focus for next year will be social emotional learning as well as our specials and exploratory programs. Those are on a seven-year cycle. And so those are up. Those are not always new curriculum, but a new a commitment to some training to some new potential new materials. Um, and this will also give us uh the opportunity to focus on career pathways specifically uh steam programming across the district uh and then digital literacy across the district. So those are the big um curricular investigations for the next year. Um we have a focused uh increased articulation of accelerated and gifted and enrichment programming. Um so that we are uh refining and reviewing our our current processes. U you know do we

058end up does that end up going into the curriculum cycle at all or is that definitely like a standalone process? It's a standalone pro because it's a process that is applied by student need layered and then the curriculum serves those needs. So we don't we talk about the kids first and what the kids needs are and then we look at what programs or services would be most beneficial. Um, we've been doing a lot of work in the special education world, um, about improving and increasing student voice in their IEP meetings and in their transition meetings. We want our students to be build that capacity to be able to speak to their own needs. So, um, we're looking forward to that, uh, continuing that. um under teaching, learning and um innovation, that's where we focus our

059attention more so toward teachers. And here we're looking at uh long-term kind of goals of succession planning, looking for opportunities to develop leadership within our uh ranks. And so we're having a leadership summit for our team facilitators this year. Amy and Chris are facilitating a She Leads uh book study and um again continuing to look at um the ways that we can support and enhance uh our teachers experiences. We're very excited about our arcade theme. You'll see a lot of arcade themed things this year. Um, our instructional coaches have been working to develop a gamified PE professional development where everybody in the district, custodians, secretaries, all of us, admin, classroom teachers, all support staff, everybody um will be assigned to a team and you will work collaboratively. And as you participate in professional learning opportunities,

060if you're leading professional learning opportunities, you'll earn points for your team. And so there'll be a way for us to kind of monitor that. Um, so we're very excited about that. Broadly speaking, our professional development this year and next year will be focused around the work of Tony Frontier teaching with clarity which helps us to identify uh what is most important for kids to know. How do we make sure that we're teaching that consistently? How do we make sure that what we're assessing measures what's most important? And then how do we make sure that our reporting mechanisms actually make sense and reflect what's most important. So uh oversimplifying it calling it standards based because that has a lot of connotations uh to it. But the big picture is we need to make sure that every

061student who comes through our system has a guaranteed viable curriculum that we know what's most important. we get consistent experiences in classrooms and that we support our teams and teachers as they collaborate to develop common assessments and common reporting mechanisms. Family community partnership is our third goal. You'll see us using a new tool this year, uh, S'more. We hope that that will enhance readership, uh, of our newsletters and building newsletters that is, um, automatically can be set up to be automatically translated into a variety of languages, which was one of the main uh, fallback shortfalls of the existing plan. Um we're looking at um some opportunities again that reflect on whole child feedback. We know that assessments are important and so tests and performance in classes and grades and those kinds of things are obviously

062important. But what we hear uh and what we worry about more so as parents when you go into that meeting uh you want to know that your kids doing okay. How are they socially? How are they behaving? How are they connecting? How are they fitting in? Um, are they good people? You know, the character kinds of questions. And, uh, our reporting mechanisms are really pretty onedimensional. It's grades and tests. And so, we're looking at a way that provides grades and test information, sure, but also goals, uh, their, uh, determination, their grit, their ability to work through uh, challenges and issues. So, we'll be working on that over the next uh two years. I wonder if that too like is almost like a PD thing too because you're right like that's like when I go to

063those meetings which are only but one or two more. Yeah. Right. Have a couple more next year. But like that's what I want to know even more so than the academic stuff because you can see the academic stuff but to help but like to have teachers of you even be more proactive about it to kind of say like you know that these are some my observations because it's typically that those are the questions that I end up asking right when you walk into those meetings with teachers. I mean a more traditional model asks how's my kid doing compared to everybody else. And so, um, when I was a student and I would receive a C or less, um, it happened quite a bit, quite a bit back in the day. Uh, that only told my

064parents that I was falling behind. it didn't really tell them where my strengths were, where my skill sets were, where uh over time I would be able to catch up. And and the ability to measure everybody on the same timeline is unrealistic. We're all unique people. And so what one third grader can do is going to be different than another third grader. Will they get there exactly at the same day? Of course not. But are they making progress toward their own growth, toward their own goals? That's that's where we want to really investigate an individual student compared to him or herself and where are they a year after where they were last year and are they growing and are they developing and what skills do they have and where are their strengths and where are

065their needs for support and so that sort of individualized reporting is what we've come to expect in lots of other areas of our life. Um, you know, you go to the bank, they don't give you a report card that says how your savings are doing compared to somebody else's. Uh, but you have a financial profile and you kind of know how you're doing compared to your goals. I still hear that I talk a lot. Yeah. Well, we all have we again we all have strengths uh and needs. That hasn't changed. Um, we do have uh a goal under that community relations and engagement uh regarding operational needs and cost reductions. We're going to have to tell that story of why uh why this solution, why now, what the plan is for uh sustained finances. Um

066we're going to have to investigate opportunities for uh revenue as well. So that's there under 3.5 in our community relations kind of goal. And then obviously in facilities and fiscal financial management, um it's it's there in multiple places. the development of the bid process, the selection, the choices that we're making, um what we uh can fund, um what we need to defer, how we're going to prioritize, and most importantly, I think right off the bat in 4.1, develop and articulate that plan for sustainable financing. How can we do this over time? There's a lot of, you know, Amy's like a like a duck on the pond. right? Like at the top you're very calm. You're very calm above the water, but underwater you're pedaling like crazy and there's a lot that's going on. Um, and

067so it's not a bad analogy. A swan swan. You're right. It's calm and you know on the surface but underwater lots of lots of things happening. Yeah. So keep going and dance and dance. Articulating that plan is is going to be really important. We also have um some new uh safety uh plans that we're putting in place. will be implementing a new guest visitor management system at all of the schools when parents come in and uh check in. There will be a selfch check-in and a photo required uh that allows us to screen folks differently just to make sure that everybody who's coming into the facilities have uh appropriate ability to be there and reason to be there. Is is that going to be in place in August? Yes. Chris says yes. Yeah, this is

068strongly going to be done. Yeah. Uh Chris has also been been really involved in achieving what's known as the trusted learning environment endorsement, a TLE. That is uh certification that our cyber infrastructure is in place and that we have uh the protections and the guardrails and the supports and learning going on about how to live in a digital world appropriately. And so we're almost uh we're almost to that endorsement. You will certainly hear about it when we when we cross that threshold. Chris needs to go to a conference to present his fishing emails. Yes, cuz he he always catches he almost catches he's almost caught me. He's caught I drove to a bar. I work in cyber security and I drove to a bar thinking there was actually like is there a party for Christmas?

069I got invite. I mean, he was smart enough not to click the link. True. He did not RSVP. He just showed up. Just went straight to the bar. But but I've seen several more come true. Like, wow, that's pretty clever. I can I'm not surprised if he touches people every time. What I hear is Brian's the only friend I have wanted to celebrate. Showed up. And it wasn't even your birth month, right? No, it was. It was. Oh, was it? Right. I knew it was it was actually close to his birthday. Yeah. He actually wasn't even a real place either. It was like a random warehouse. A fake advertisement. Yeah. It was a real bar. No, there was that was a real bar. Was it? Yeah. Right off of like Wolf Road. Oh, it's a

070real Someday Chris will take you there for real. Such a hobby. Yeah. And the last one I want to point out, uh Tracy mentioned too, we we are excited about moving forward with our food service provider, Organic Life. Uh I think parents and kids will see uh new variety of both offerings, some changes in the types of foods that we've been getting, the level of interactive information that families uh and students will receive. So, uh we're really excited about that. So, it will be uh a very busy year like they all are, but we're very excited um to move continue to move forward and um these um goals give us our our road map for the year. Be prepared if you attend anything with Chris to Great. Yeah, just be prepared. And if there are

071more than one addition talking that's a good one quick on that too. I like that. I like that. Um do we have a motion or any conversation about the strategic plan before we That was very Yeah. Um any motion? Sure. I'll move to approve the strategic plan goals for 2526 as presented. Uh second. I'll second. Moved by Spencer, seconded by Tracy. Roll call, please. Or vote, please. Mrs. Morsy, yes. Mrs. Bowwinsky, yes. Mr. Gordonis, yes. Dr. Long, yes. Mrs. Mlan, yes. Mr. Nordmark, yes. Mrs. Peters, yes. Uh, motion carries 70. Uh, next act item is also an action item. And it ties to I was supposed to say I apologize. It ties to goal 4.1 enhancing spaces to support collaborative learning experiences. This is the contract for um some furniture for the strive classroom that

072is being built uh or that is being established at MacArthur and for Sullivan some pieces at Sulliv. Hey in finance you guys had talked about the rationale for some of that stuff at Sullivan. this probably give the quick 30 seconds for that. Yeah, real quick. So, some of the um the components that we're purchasing for the existing Sullivan space um include uh lockable storage units um in sometimes in the event of a child going into crisis. Um we want to make sure that those student materials are secure and can be easily rolled out of the classroom um so that they're not tipped or or disrupted some other way. And then um and then the teachers learning center is new as well. Just that teacher workspace. Anything else, Chris, on that? No. And we're duplicating some

073of that same furniture just from our experience. Yeah. Um the past 2 years and what we've needed in the solvent classroom over to the classroom at MacArthur. So, some of the same sensory tools, um kind of like a calming corner and things like that. So, some of those same things. But yeah, I love this. We discussed this I think at the workshop, right? Tying our Yeah. Putting the putting the action item tied to the to the strategic goal. That's great. Thanks for doing that. I was just thinking I love it, too. Like we know exactly what we're tying down. Oh, very good. Um, awesome. Do I have a motion for the furniture? I'll move to approve the purchase of classroom furniture for the Strive program in the total amount of $19,024. Second. Sorry. I'm sorry.

074She paused a little bit. Sorry, there was a breath. That was moved by Carol, seconded by Bren. [Laughter] Can I get a roll call, please? Yes. Mrs. Bowwinsky? Yes. Mr. Gordon? Yes. Dr. Long? Yes. Mrs. McClaney? Yes. Mr. Normar? Yes. Mrs. Peters? Yes. Awesome. Motion carries 70. Do we have any old business? Nothing. Um, new business. Carol, you got to do that. So, right. Hours and hours. So tedious. This is like seven and a half minutes. Yep. That's about it. Yeah. Uh, I move that the executive session minutes for January 9th, February 13th, March 13th, and May 10th of 2025 be made available for public inspection as they no longer require confidential treatment. and that the executive session recordings dated uh 18 months and older. The last 18 months or older to be destroyed. Moved

075by Carol. Do I have a second? Second. Second by Brian. Can I get a vote, please? Mrs. Morsy, yes. Mrs. Bowwinsky, yes. Mr. Gordonis, yes. Dr. Long, yes. Mrs. Mcclan, yes. Mr. Nordv. Yes. Mrs. Peters. Yes. Thanks, Carol. Motion carried. Awesome. Can I get a motion to adjurnn? Whoa, Becky, you fast. I know. Wow. So moved. Moved by Spencer. Do I have a second? A second. Second by Mary Lynn. All in favor? I. Any opposed? We are adjourned at 8:19