Proviso Township District 209 BOE Regular Meeting - 1/13/26

001[clears throat] Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> Good evening board. My name is Johnny Jenkins. I'm the head track coach at Advisor West. This is my 24th year. I'm alumni as well. Um I came and talked about the facility usage and I just gave the board and everybody pictures of the Mondo. Just give y'all a little history. Mondo is a super X. The one we got at the Viso is very uh expensive. Um it's a super X Mondo track. Um and I just want Proviso um to we got one of the world one of the best indoor facilities in the country for high school. No school got nine lanes in the middle, nine lanes on the outside. Um, and I just want y'all to read that. But I came to say if we got the

002best facility, let's take care of it like it's the best. Um, I had numerous kids win state from Proviso East. I coached nine years there and now I'm at Proviso where I graduated from. I just had a kid win state last year. Out of 22 kids, 19 month went to college. Out of 22 seniors, um I've been down state every year. I've been coaching. So, I'm just trying to build this. I don't know how long I'm going be coaching, but I'm just trying to build. This is not for a stipen because we the lowest paid coaches in the conference at Provise OS. You all look at us and say, "Why the programs ain't winning?" I can't talk about myself cuz I am. I'm I'm being successful, but to my colleagues, it's a struggle because if

003the feeder programs that's feeding Proviso West can't get in or having problems getting in, that's hurting us. Proviso Bills just won the N went down to Florida. None of them kids come to Proviso West and East. So that mess up. Some of them are basketball players. Some of them are track runners. I don't get that. I get the kids been home. They never did track. M Nelson, they never did track. Came out in one state in two months. This, you know, I just need you all help. And with the facility, we got club that's using the facility. It's so many kids in the club. It's 200 kids in there. And four of them go to Proviso West. Two girls, two boys. None go to Proviso East at all. Proviso East got their own chart club.

004Uh I got Mark Jones here tonight. And it's hard. It's hard for other coaches. >> Thank you. >> Uh, do we have any recognitions tonight? >> We have uh several. >> Uh, I first want to start with um, principal hull. Um, he has several students that he wants to recognize, but I also had requested that he also recognized some staff that did some heroic actions as well to keep our students safe at an incident that happened off school grounds. And so, without thinking, they ran into action, ran through busy intersections to help u tamper down a situation that could have gotten much worse. So, I'll turn it over to Principal Hall to recognize those staff members. All right. So, I'll start with staff. Good evening, board. >> Good evening, everyone. Uh, good evening pirates sitting

005behind me and the parents that came to support their children this evening. In December, as Mr. Mo said, we had an off-campus event that happened, but we did respond to it and we wanted to recognize even though it was not on school grounds, uh, it did involve some provisaly students and some provisal township high school students. And so they responded to it uh even though it was off campus because we just wanted to ensure the safety of all the students. So I'd like to call up uh Officer Patterson, Officer Jones, Liza Green, Eric Dodson, Destiny Carol, Frank Perani, Mr. Garcia, and Mr. Lawrence. Please come up. [applause] >> [applause] >> They're out there on the front line every day making sure that and all of the students recognize all of them. >> So, um they

006they're present, their presence is felt, their presence is needed, and I want to thank all of you for your sacrifices on campus to support our kids. >> THANK YOU. [applause] ALL RIGHT. NOW, I'D LIKE TO CALL UP A special group of students. Uh they're all sitting here. Most of them are here. Uh we invited their parents and we started with assemblies yesterday. We had four grade level assemblies and I notified the kids even though we've been talking about it u for a week or so. Uh we're starting the awards season for the class of 2026. [clears throat] And so what's getting ready to come up now is our top 25 students as of our last rankings. They came out over the semester. They've been in provis for seven semesters. They're all graduating or have already

007graduated because we have some December graduates that are part of this group as well. They're ranked in the top 25. They are not all pencil students. These are provisal e students mixed in with hamster students and I'm going to call them up by rank as as it stands now cuz it still may change. So, I I made sure they understood that. We had that conversation and they're competitive and I'm glad that they're competitive because they're not settling. >> And you know, I joke around with number four because she harassed me all about trying to get to number three and essentially she trying to catch you at number two. All right, so we're going to get started. Uh right now as it stands now, Kamar Sheilei is ranked number one in the class of 2026 with

008a GPA of 4.564. [applause] >> Okay. Rank number two is Essence [snorts] Neil. [applause] Stop being embarass. Never take a picture without a mother. So mom standing there. Come on. [laughter] >> This is every awards assembly. All right. >> [applause] >> Come on in. >> I I don't know. I think I got about 15 here. So, I I have some more call. >> Yeah, let's take them all together. >> Okay. Elizabeth here. [applause] >> Oh yeah. >> Hopefully it still is. Mario Poss. [applause] This is number 3.5. She not settling for four. [applause] Rodriguez, [applause] Adrian Zomega, [applause] Karina Moreno, >> [applause] >> MOM, YOU WANT TO COME UP? >> Not really. Graduation. >> [applause] >> Hey, Sus Morales. [applause] Miss Bridges, I really should have you up here. You need to start working on

009these names. I've been saying them for four years. LE [applause] Zahane Evans, [applause] MARIAH ROBERTS [applause] APPLAUSE. >> [clears throat] >> He was Sanchez, [applause] [snorts] Dar Madano, [applause] Diamond Cull. [applause] Julie Barno, [applause] >> I al [applause] [laughter] >> [laughter] >> Miguel. [applause] Couple more. Couple more. Angel Aso, [applause] Mauricio Cordillo, [applause] Alexander Rivera, [applause] Kimberly Rome, [applause] Janelle Krenshaw, [applause] [clears throat] Michael Woods, [applause] Octavio Orbano, >> [applause] >> Last but not least, Michelangelo Topper. [applause] [snorts] >> Come on. Come on in. >> Come on, Michael. >> Run. part of part of what we worked on yesterday also have the students here and then we'll get them up here and not being rational because that it took a lot to get them to uh just get up on the stage yesterday when I

010called [laughter] >> one two three >> [applause] [cheering] >> Yeah. Graduation. >> Finally, this last summer, we hosted the class of 1975 for their 50th uh class reunion. And they came they stopped by school. They wanted to to thank uh Mr. Mohel uh for allowing the class of 75 to come back and provide le to celebrate their 50th year reunion. So they stopped by and they gave us some certificates. So the certificates read certificate of appreciation presented to uh Rodney Hall, Mr. Mol U Aaron Patterson and DeAndre Horn in appreciation of your professional professionalism which has already advanced the quality of of the Proviso East class of 1975 50th reunion. Your dedication and leadership have helped make our class reunion nothing but the best. Professor Whis High School, class of 1975, 50th class reunion, October

01111th, 2025. So, they just wanted to recognize uh everyone that contributed and supported their 50th class reunion. We also had the class of 70 that came in as well because they missed their 50th due to co. So, we had both classes there uh simultaneously. So, we celebrated uh both classes. So, I just wanted to recognize the whole classes and uh thank you guys for allowing them to uh come in. Um I know LT does not get any recognition and I know that uh we just heard some things about building usage. I will say that you know we try to support everybody and there are a lot of usages that come in because I know how many I have to say uh no to because you know the thing we try to do is to protect

012the the facilities and to make sure that our teams are not being displaced. And so I know the issues that uh Jeremy and and some of the coaches are facing over there at uh Provis West and we're going to all work together to just try to support the community, but we also want to support our team. So just wanted to add that. Thank you. [applause] >> Next we have Principal Christian from Provis. >> [applause] >> Good evening everyone. >> All right, we have two students we would just like to honor tonight and the first one is Crystal Carrasco. Crystal, you want to come up? [applause] Second one is Kevin. Kevin, can you come up? [applause] So, we wanted to speak um about Crystal first to talk about just who she is as a student and

013what she does. Um and Crystal number one by all of her teachers has maintained superb academic honesty. She has achieved a lot of academic goals. She has consistency. She's in a dual in our dual enrollment program Triton. She has all A's and what is really proud she has not had any tardies to class. That's amazing. [applause] over there and she will be one of our possible school citizens of the year um nominees where we have to nominate that first one. Right now Crystal has a 3.7 GPA. We want to honor Crystal and everything that she's done for us and provides a wet. So thank you Crystal for doing amazing things. [applause] Um they have already received some um things from us at our school. And then um Kevin also is um his teachers talk about

014him being not only a good role model but a great role model. Um Kevin has high academics. His math teacher referred him to honors with a 3.8 GPA in the 11th grade. And Kevin um does something special for his teachers. When he first got to the school a couple months after he's walked around and given gifts to some of his teachers that have made a profound impact on him and he's nothing short of an amazing human being. So, we wanted to feature both Crystal and Kevin for doing amazing things in our community and being amazing students and also some of them to teach me Spanish. So, I'm I'm excited about that because they help me and they don't teach me the bad words. [laughter] So, we wanted to honor Crystal and Kevin for being amazing

015students and making our school better. So, thank you. [applause] >> Thank you, Principal Christian. And last, we have great >> principal Sanchez from KSA. [applause] >> Let's bring them back. Principal Christian, can we bring them back up and we'll take a picture with the board. I [laughter] >> Yeah, I can get everybody. >> One, two, three. One more. Okay. [applause and cheering] >> One more time. stand. [clears throat] >> Okay. [laughter] Got it. Got it. Um, so really quick, I want to give some updates um in terms of what we've been doing at PSA for student recognition. Um, we had 140 students with perfect attendance semester 1. [applause] And then I'm really excited about this one. We established honor roll for students. We had over 200 students with a 3.7 unweighted GPA. Each student will

016receive a bumper sticker which will be mailed out to parents. Um and a certificate as well. And then we're going to call all 200 up right now. [laughter] Um and then in addition to that um on a monthly basis we recognize a Python of the month student and a Python of the month uh teacher uh who embody our motto driven by excellence rather than kindness. Our student for this month is Emmanuel Areola. A little bit about Emmanuel. Um when I first started Emanuel was the first was one of the first students who greeted me and really showed me around. um he was one of two students who was in charge of putting together Latino assembly. And two days before the assembly, something happened in our community where um an individual unfortunately lost uh their lives

017due to some unfortunate circumstances. Emmanuel took upon himself to recognize and acknowledge what was happening in our community. And um before beginning each assembly, he took a moment to talk to our community, make them feel safe um and acknowledge uh the beautiful culture that's within PSA. Um he truly embodies our motto and um I want to thank you, man, for all everything he's done at PSA. Um he's a senior. He's about to graduate. He's also a manager at uh Dairy Queen. So come up, please. [applause] >> [applause] >> And our faculty python of the month is Miss Gina Parker. Miss Gina Parker also embodies her model. Uh she is a a teacher who is a student centered, always looking to improve our student experience. She has our driver's ed program and is always solutiondriven. Um

018I'm going to go ahead and turn it over to Mr. Cowell. He's our social studies department chair and he is the one who will be speaking on our school of the month. [applause] We appreciate the opportunity to celebrate some phenomenal students and we'll start with our freshmen. After a long discussion unable to whittle it down to one of the two students, we're going to present two ninth graders. Um our first ninth grader is uh Deson Deshawn Brown. Um nominated by Mr. Nyquist. Um Mr. Nyquist has said that um he is unfailingly polite. He participates in class conversations offering many insights and asks interesting questions. He comes to class ready to learn and displays a desire to learn. In short, he works with a scholar's love. I'll read for the other freshman student, Adrien Carrera Kones.

019And in the words of an equally excellent teacher who he shares a room with, Alex's mommy says that he is a standout nth grade student who consistently puts forth his best effort in social studies. He comes to class prepared, fully engaged, and ready to participate in meaningful discussion. Adrien approaches his work thoughtfully and thoroughly, always demonstrating strong work ethic and genuine curiosity about our content. He's respectful to peers and teachers alike and maintains a positive, mature attitude every day. His dedication, engagement, and commitment to excellent truly embody the values of our department. [applause] Um, I'll be sharing about our 10th grade nominee. Um, I had the pleasure of having Samantha Scarret in my black history class in the fall. Um, and I have a lot to say about Sammy, but um, I summed it up

020by talking about her approach that she brings to life. Um, she has a genuine cur curiosity. Um, and she brings that to the classroom, the content that we learn about, but also to her relationships with her peers and teachers. She cares deeply about the quality of her work, her role as a student, and her school community. Sammy is a well-rounded person. She's involved in her community and church um in athletics, and she's a dedicated student. I believe that her approach to life will take her farm and sustain her when challenges arise. [applause] Good evening. Um, I'll be sharing on our 11th grade nominee, um, Christian Beone. She was nominated by myself and her research teacher, Miss A. Um, I wrote that Christian is an exemplary US history student. She consistently exceeds expectations and cont and

021contributes thoughtful responses in class. Christian is always one of the first students to raise their hand and is always eager to learn. Her work, especially projects, showcases the abilities necessary to being a successful social studies student. In addition to being a model student, Christian is a great person. She is involved, respectful to all, works well with others, and is very creative. And then her research teacher had to say that Christian is a standout junior who consistently demonstrates leadership and intellectual curiosity in her research class. She is always a leader in class, setting a strong example for her peers through her preparation, engagement, and confidence. During a recent Socratic seminar, Christian stepped up by guiding discussion, respectfully challenging ideas, and ensuring that multiple voices were heard. She also distinguishes herself through her research, regularly asking insightful,

022thoughtful, thoughtprovoking questions that show deep critical thinking and a genuine interest in understanding complex social studies or social issues. [applause] Um, for our 12th grade nominee, um, I have the pleasure of having Mia Jackson. Um, I believe that she's a leader in every sense of the word. um in the classroom. She comes to class ready to learn and sets an example for other students. Um she asks a lot of higher level questions. Um she's willing to share during class discussions. Um and she helps her peers without being asked. She has a strong sense of self that grounds her in her work and her knowledge of who she is and the values that she holds prepare her for the next chapter in her journey, college. She also balances school with extracurricular activities. specifically basketball. In addition

023to being a leader in the classroom, she's a leader on the court. Being a student athlete is tough, but you wouldn't know that from how well she conducts herself in all areas of her life. [snorts] [applause] Lastly, to add to that, Makier thrived in my classroom as indicated by wowing impressive score on the A push exam. Following the praise offered by Miss Ireland, I would attribute MK's success to her thoughtful and reflective demeanor and beyond any of these academic measures. I very much appreciate her kindness. M is both a model student and an outstanding young adult. She really represents the best that our professor community has to offer and this department recognizes Mach as well as the other students. Please come up and take this well-deserved honor. [applause] CONGRATULATIONS. >> CONGRATULATIONS. >> [applause] >> THANK

024YOU. All right. One, two, three. One more. Okay. Thank you all. CONGRATUL [applause] >> [cough] >> Thank you all for coming. Thank you. Have a good night. [applause] >> That That's all for recognition. >> That is all for recognition. Thank you very much. >> Thank you, principles. move on to reports of communications from the board president which tonight is going to be um some brief shareouts from our IASB triple I conference that we attended in November. So, I know a few board members had slides. Do you want to go? >> I'm just Should we go down the road? >> Oh, you're first. >> I'm first. >> Well, good evening everyone. >> My name is David Okmpo. I am um going to present on the five sessions that I attended uh while at the conference. Uh

025but before I begin, I'd like to express my gratitude to the IASB um committee that granted me a scholarship to attend the conference. >> All expenses were not paid. Well, they were paid to a certain extent. I mean, I you know, I couldn't live large while downtown, but uh I was a I was able to uh get some get a perm and enjoy downtown, so it was nice and truly grateful for the experience. But uh I'll run down the list. I'll be brief. So the dual language program implementation it piqu my interest because uh within proviso we have a foundation or feeder district that um is known as the Washington dual language academy in Maywood and so I thought what is how feasible would it be for proviso to adopt that model. Now uh obviously

026we would need a lot of input from the board before we even investigate you know such a endeavor and if there is an appetite from the community but what caught my interest is that there are model districts nearby such as North Berwin Wood that have implemented this and successfully and studies show that uh implementing it helps academically. bilingual students perform better academically again studies have shown but um eventually I'd like to ask the board is there an appetite maybe you know we don't have to answer now but is there an appetite to investigate this further you know put it put a pin in it you know for further discussion the next thing is understanding school school improvement plans uh while attending that session I learned that school improvement plans are not strategic plans. Those are

027two distinct ideas. So, a school improvement plan, also known as a SIP, takes about three to five years to implement. Uh what Kish is working on, you're working on a strategic plan that's more long-term, right? So, within a strategic plan, you'll have I may be wrong here, but you may have several SIPs, right? One for West, East, and PMSA. Uh the way it works is that uh at a high level you determine your goal from [clears throat] there you determine the strategy. So goal strategy and then objectives. So a strategy may be I know Chris you just talked about freshman on track. So each maybe each school may have a different freshman on track uh metric and so that could be a a goal freshman on track x% strategy would then dictate the objectives by

0282029 we'll have freshman on track at x% and then we start l determining what the tactics are how do we get there right so goal strategy objectives and tactics and uh at the conference ISBY Illinois as state board of education said that their website is full of resources for district not only district improvement but also school improvement. So I'd like for us you know as a board to start investigating a bit more and obviously through the leadership of Chris to explore what the SIPs would be uh just more effectively communicate that to the community. Uh the next thing is prepping for construction. I know Miss Molinaro has a more indepth view on this session. I I didn't realize that we both attended the same session, but um the reason why this piqu my interest was

029that um that $40 million sports complex, right, that's on the horizon and we need ideas on how to approach it. Uh what I got out of this session was um engagement with the community. So, social media presence, uh, keeping, uh, constant updates, video updates and whatnot. Getting the students involved in groundbreaking ceremony, that's key. I I heard about micro internships, getting the students involved in um some of the parts of the not only the planning, but the execution of the construction. Um, it would they they recommended having a dedicated team, key stakeholders, right? So that would include admin, some staff, community members to be a part of that team. And I I I am very excited for what's to come as we prepare for that multi-million dollar sports complex. Uh the next one is a

030board's purpose connecting connecting with a greater impact. So this one was presented by district 155. Uh, one thing that I noted here, uh, was a common thread I saw at the at the conference was a lot of these school districts were consolidated. So, by consolidated, they're like prek through 12, right? We're different because we're not that, right? We're 9 through 12, but the the ideas still apply. And so some of the ideas that I got were uh in order for board members to connect more with staff, have like a school board member day where we're all maybe not all of us present, but like we take turns rotating that we're all present so that we can connect with staff, students, admin have an orientation process for new new board members. I know that when the

031the four new board members that joined there was a learning curve and I'm hopeful that maybe we can establish some norms and practices so that it when new board members arrive it's a smoother process. Um one of the things that also piqued my interest were micro internships. Again that's a reoccurring theme. So board members said that that they collaborated with local business partners and provided micro internships. So when I think of micro internships, I think like something a semester long. And so that would be more for juniors, rising juniors and seniors. Um getting feedback, implementing ways of getting feedback from students on courses. I think that's key. I I don't know how often we ask students for feedback on courses like did they like the course, what could have been better, what could have changed,

032etc. And then also feedback from students on policy issues. I know that we are we will hopefully get a student bo uh student board member soon and that will be key to get feedback on those areas from that student board member. And the last thing is uh implementing a steam program. So this one was more focused on elementary schools. Uh this particular presenter was from an elementary school but the the the practice still applies to us. So they leverage grants from the state uh partnerships with NIT partnerships with com ed uh and um Nyore to build a a program around steam. So for those of you that are unaware, Steam is as science, uh technology, engineering, art, and mathematics if I'm not mistaken. Um and what they did was with the elementary school they had

033through the grant they were able to offer an afterchool program where they would bust the students to Northern Illinois University and they would teach them about robotics and have fun immersive games so that they could you know so that students could learn to grow to love the sciences and technology and whatnot. So all in all it was a very beneficial uh opportunity. This was my second time attending. I hope to attend another time uh this upcoming November. And I feel that every time that I attend, I learn something new. So hopefully we can uh take some time and emphasize and and see how we can apply these within the district. So those are my updates. Thank you. >> Thank you. Hello everyone. Uh it was uh my first time of course along with uh three

034of us was our first time going to this and it was really quite an event. Um I was able to go uh to the Thursday workshop uh which is the first slide that I have and it was uh with uh Miss Barberham uh Miss Smith uh Mrs. uh Hixon and uh Mr. Ashkov was uh all in attendance on the Thursday before. Um next. Yep. So it was called the power of us storytelling for just for just and joyful schools. So I have an experience personally with oral history and having um done an oral history review in my humanities class. Um and this was pretty much uh exactly that. So the organization is called Voice of Witness. Um, and uh, they're a nonforprofit that amplifies stories uh, fighting against injustice. And oral history is an opportunity

035to uh, democratize storytelling and humanize history by sharing first person stories. Um, at the end I have some references of uh, links, oral history links that I encountered in my class that I shared with everybody. Um the next slide shows that there are some really key findings in academic skills uh regarding communication skills. Next slide. Uh communication skills, reading and writing skills as well as uh critical thinking skills. So all things that um you know we look to improve in our district uh as well as having a lasting impact uh regarding the skills learned um and how they regularly use this information in their lives now as well as um broaden their perspective on social justice issues and help develop connection with new people as well as a positive impact in their lives. So overall

036um it got me to the Illinois report card data which is on the next slide of what our equity journey continuum is and the very top one is from 2022 I believe right 22 23 24 Yep 22 and then the two with the red circles are 23 and 24 where you see that we have a large gap in our equity continuum. Um and in 2025, the larger slide on the right is basically showing specifically with our student learning um that we're still have a moderate grab, but not quite where we were in 22, which was more mid-range. So, um I hope that we can continue to open up this space um to heal and lessen and reduce the gap that we have in equity. Um, and it tied hand inhand with a a class that

037I took on Friday. Um, so we lose diversity at every step in the educator pipeline. So this was building strong P K to22 partnerships with higher educations. But they talked a lot about the diversity and how um on the left is our uh student population and uh with the arrow on the right is the de uh demographics of our teachers. So being able to increase student teaching opportunities here at Proviso, partnering with more colleges, looking for par uh professional toteer pipeline, having grow your own incentives so that students uh want to come back to proviso to teach. Um and then deepening partnerships with sororities and fraternities. And there is an education uh educators rising annual conference in April um that I have uh some information and links about at the end as well. And then

038the next slide is just our student uh teacher demographics and what they look like currently per the um student uh Illinois student report card data. So that was uh Friday. Uh and then uh later on on Friday I went to a communicating changes to assessment and accountability. So this is the information from the state card the the Illinois report card. Um and something that I just want to highlight is that we're not lowering the standard or level or that this is what was communicated levels set a bar that was too high. So the three there's three core strengths uh that are critical to student student outcomes on the top and then the three on the bottom are called elevating and this will be changed for the October of 2026. So they can raise performance and

039not lower it. So, it was really good information on just understanding what is changing, why it's changing, and they felt like this slide was a nice little snapshot of if it was replacing something or why it was redesigned. And uh I know freshman uh or yeah, freshman grade on track is on here in within growth. Um so I would assume that we would still connect on that metric here in house but that metric will be folded into uh a core uh strength within student outcomes. So um it was really interesting to learn a little bit about it and then of course our first general session with Bernice fly girl armor which was pretty amazing on Saturday. There was a lot. Um, [laughter] and you probably didn't see me, uh, David at the construction one because

040we were a little bit late coming back from lunch [laughter] after a a ride with Dr. Hill and Miss Morris. Um so I'll just echo what you said which uh is pretty much right like share regular video updates let students be a part of the project consider the CTE portion uh and mentorship especially in jobs and constructions and they did talk about a solar project that they had that um uh that they were utilizing um board self-evaluation. So, um, we're coming up on our annual, uh, or our one-year mark as, uh, board members for us new ones. And so, um, we're going to be doing the workshop or completing the workshop. And so, that was pretty much just and then, uh, having two-way community, uh, chats with, uh, more engagement with board members and seeing

041what the community wants. Uh, the next one, I know Dr. Hill was in this one and this one was really um interesting and I used Google notebook this week for a couple of uh things. So, and I guess the most important thing is that it's not going away. We uh need to lean in and understand it more and have some training and education around it. Um have the students be involved. uh start with board use and and right how do we use it as teachers as parents as students um and maybe have some professional development around it and I know that there was a parent university uh mentioned um the most important thing is that uh there will be a uh AI plan adoption within the strategic plan and there is more information uh from

042ISBY coming out regarding techn tech guidance by 71 and that strategic plan will uh have that information in it. Did I get that right? You did. >> Okay. Um Sunday was pretty simple, legally stumped. It was just a bunch of lawyers as answering questions. Um and I think that's it. So the final thoughts I had were just um you know democratizing democratize storytelling and uh humanize our district history and uplift unheard voices student voices um and broaden perspectives on social justice and the world. Um reducing that sto student learning and the uh learning uh conditions gap to minimal. uh trying to find out how we can gather real time student teacher feedback. Um I know Mr. Okmpo mentioned that like I don't know how how what that looks like but how do we do that

043from student and teacher on courses on classes etc. um and increase uh student diversity uh getting our alum to come back. [gasps] Deepening existing partnerships with colleges and educators um in uh local sororities that we've partnered with previously. Um just being aware of the changes in the report card uh understanding what we have coming up for our sports complex of course and then our own selfboard self-evaluation. uh getting those guidelines in for AI. Uh and then we talked about uh having a meeting signin sheet and or announcement to greet and acknowledge other uh public officials who may join us. And then in the vendor section, I have some information. There were three uh vendors that really stood out. Um and so I have that information that I can share with staff that um could be

044of use. And the last two pages are just basically references uh and links to the oral history projects that I was made aware of and um additional information. >> So yeah, it was really great. I can't wait to go again. So thank you. [applause] >> Howdy. Um, Will Fischer, board member, went to the conference. Uh, next slide, please. [laughter] I'm going to primarily talk about the delegate assembly. I went to other sessions, but because this concerns our constitution and voting and other policy changes at the state level, this is only what I'm going to focus on. So, for those of you who don't know, at the IASB, the Illinois Association of School Boards Conference, every school district in Illinois sends one official voting delegate to something called the Delegate Assembly. I was our uh delegate

045representative for the assembly. Each district gets one vote, no matter how big or how small. Votes taken there become IASB's official position statements, which guide what advocate uh advocates for in Springfield on behalf of public schools across the state. Next slide, please. Uh so this year delegates voted on three big things and for the camera I don't know I'm referencing the 2025 resolution resol not resolutions resolutions excuse me committee report is publicly available. Um so first we approved 10 changes to the IASB's constitution which controls how the IASB operates and how statewide education policies develop. Second, we voted on one statewide policy funding resolution that affects every district in Illinois, which is school bus safety funding. And third, we elected IASB's president and vice president for the coming year. Next slide, please. [snorts] So many

046of the constitutional changes were about making IASB more democratic and accountable. One major change made clear that only elected school board uh elected school boards get to vote in the delegate assembly, not vendors or outside groups. Delegates also decided not to move to email voting because ISB wanted to preserve debate participation and transparency. We also strengthened how statewide policies are created requiring real board votes before proposals can move forward adding uh and added clear emergency rules so ISV can act legally during crisis. Um this promp was prompted because of co finally ISV adopted new standards uh excuse me new statewide position on school bus safety funding. Illinois now requires seat belts on new buses starting in 2031 but the law provided no funding. Uh so IASB is now pushing for state grants flexibility for small

047districts and options that protect student safety without forcing districts to cut classroom programs. And so all of that being said, what does this mean for provid specifically? So this matters for us because these ISB positions shape the bills and funding formulas that impact our district. So whether it's transportation costs, safety mandates, or how local boards keep control over decisions, this is one of the main ways our district has a voice in state education policy. And I wanted the community to to know how I voted in your name. So thank you very much. And that's all I have to say. Okay. I attended um I'm Morris of course, but I attended the um Friday evening, Saturday, and Sunday morning. My Friday, I actually took the superintendent evaluation. um I would say class so to speak. Um

048and Saturday I also did um what will spring 2026 finance bring for school finance staying steady school boards and high stakes investigations. Um and then I also took how student voice and community engagement leads to success. So, I'm going to only focus on two and the one um the first one is the um annual superintendent evaluation. Um I felt this was important for me as a first-time board member and understanding um as our board our superintendent was getting ready for the evaluation, understanding what my role was um in this evaluation. And even though um the presenter in this particular class was trying to sell a program um I I didn't focus on the selling part. I wanted to focus on what um his program basically was getting us to understand and that's more so be

049transparent with our superintendent, be honest. Um, and I learned actually a lot of communities don't evaluate just a superintendent. It's something that goes kind of overlooked and they go year to year with no clear expectations. Um, so that was one of the things they focus on heavily is making clear um, goals and being transparent with those goals um, and visiting those goals throughout the year the same way is done with other staff to do the same. um as a board uh for our superintendent to check in um with him and see if there's anything that he needs from us also. Um and then the next one I want to talk about is how student voice and community engagement leads success. In that particular um session, we broke up into groups and in those groups um

050you kind of did like a ground robbing where you get to talk about different topics. One of the things that seem to be very common is community engagement is low in a lot of communities. Um and a lot of board members are not even seeking community or student engagement or their voice. um students are being left out of key things that shape their education and how they learn. Um I noticed that um we're actually on a better path than a lot of districts whether we may realize it or not. Definitely when it comes to um the [clears throat] student voice and community engagement, we have work to do, but we're definitely on a good path. and hearing um the community is more than just um sitting in a seat. It's actually being a part of

051the community and being actually active within the community, not just in the school, but in other um events that's going on um in the community. Also, a lot of the districts that um was speaking, they're board members. I believe Molly said it or um Mr. PMPO stud um they have like K through 12 um and we don't so in their communities and their towns are a lot smaller and they the population is a lot lower. So we have way more communities to engage with. Um, but I still felt that what they reviewed is how important it is for us to um, as a board to make sure we're bringing the information and what's happening throughout the community so we can stay involved and actually hear from the people who voted uh, voted us in. So,

052that was one thing um, that I definitely took heavily um, to heart. And with that, I'm also deciding to make sure this year the um community engagement starts back up as the board member. So, I'll be heading that up this year. Um and the goal is to actually start this month and have a meeting every month reaching out to the community. And I desire so if there's anyone out there, I want to reach out to each community and take a different community with each session so that we can hear. to um from everyone. Everyone will be invited. So um that's for the most part what I had. Oh my last day, Sunday, they had a session that was just for new board members. So they pretty much brought us in and gave us basically a

053kind of overview of the training that we had to take online and what our role is. I did notice um in that training that I'm trying to find a way to say this. Um we vote based on what is needed for the entire community and not just our personal agenda or focus. Um and that was something they pushed heavily that you're making sure that you're voting not just on what you personally think but what benefits the entire community all students um overall. So that was about it. I thank you guys definitely for allowing us to go. I learned a lot and I mean next year I will definitely have [laughter] >> [applause] >> Um, good evening everyone. My name is Ebony Nikki Smith. Most call me Nikki. Um, as Randre will and Molly have already

054said, this was our first um conference. It was very exciting and we learned a lot. Um, it was very busy. a session uh every day for four days. But I um grateful for the opportunity. Uh the the sessions that I selected were center were centered around policy, legislation, intergovernmental collaboration and advocacy. I intentionally chose sessions that focus on how school boards engage beyond the boardroom and how we build relationships and advocate for our districts at the state and federal level. One session that stood out was the legislative and Izzy insights. This was moderated by Illinois State Superintendent Dr. Tony Sanders along with members of the Illinois Senate and House Education Committees. This session provided an overview of recent legislative activity and offered insight into education issues lawmakers are already discussing as we look ahead to

0552026. Some of the key issues highlighted included ongoing funding and budget pressures, student safety and accountability, and the responsible use of technology and artificial intelligence in schools, particularly as it relates to student privacy and learning outcomes. This discussion made it clear that these issues will continue to shape policy decisions over the next year and beyond. I also attended sessions focused on ISV advocacy days in Springfield and Washington DC. This emphasized the importance of in-person advocacy. Legislators shared that hearing directly from school board members helped them better understand how policies impact students, staff, and communities at the local level. As part of this focus on advocacy, I also signed up to serve as a ISBY advocate, which will allow me to stay informed on legislative updates and advocacy opportunities and share that relevant information with the

056board. A major takeaway from the conference was that advocacy is not a one-time event. It's about relationship building, consistent communication, and helping policy makers connect legislation to real experience in our schools. Overall, the conference reinforced the importance of staying connected, informed, and engaged as a board. I'm grateful for the opportunity to bring these insights back as we continue working together to support our students and communities. [applause] Um, so this was my third year attending triple I and it was this time I kind of focused on leadership, communication, and governance. Uh, I always these campuses incredibly refreshing because it's a new learning opportunity and it helps at least me focus on what we're doing as a board and why we're doing it, right? It kind of like helps you refocus. Um I think you'll notice after

057everybody's spoken that we were as a board very collaborative about what sessions we took, right? We talked to each other >> and we tried to cover as much ground as possible. I mean, there's probably there's hundreds of sessions to choose from, but between the seven of us, we really covered a huge amount of information um that we all kind of bring back together and share. So, um one of the sessions I attended was called the art of schoolboarding. And I thought that was interesting because I'm like, okay, sounds a little like hippie- dippy, you know, but it actually ended up being really valuable and kind of reaffirming some of those um like things that we all know but sometimes need reminders about. So this session explored school governance as an art and not a science.

058So it emphasized the importance of clearly defined roles and adherence to the chain of command and not just for the board to understand or the superintendent to understand but for parents, community, staff, teachers like in all levels. Um the key takeaway was that the strong governance depends on respecting the distinction between management and oversight. This is not only important for the school board but for parents, students and community. The superintendent serves as the manager responsible for the day-to-day operations, personnel, implementation of strategy, and a schoolboard's role is governance, setting direction, establishing policy, ensuring accountability, and safeguarding the mission of our schools rather than managing and intervening in operational matters. Best practice requires that concerns, questions, feedback follow the established chain of command and board members should be open to hearing and listening to all of

059our stakeholders, our students, our staff, our community because that helps us maintain awareness and trust. Um, however, listening does not mean problem solving um from a board member or directing any action outside of those proper channels. When boards step outside of that chain, even with good intentions, it can undermine good leadership, create confusion, and weaken effectiveness. Um, one of the slides that they showed was that if you break the chain of command, you break the trust, and then you have to kind of rebuild that trust with people. Um, so the session reinforced that clarity, discipline, and mutual trust are essential. When boards govern well and superintendent manage effectively, the school is better positioned for stability, alignment, and long-term success. Um, one of the follow-up sessions to that was based on school boarding that makes a

060difference. And that conversation focused on how boards can be true drivers of impact rather than just simply oversight bodies that high functioning boards consistently center their work around the mission, sustainability, and the student outcomes. Uh, this board, like Molly mentioned, will be doing a self-evaluation in the coming months to reflect. So that's kind of it kind of played into that a little bit. which is great and we look forward to Mr. Mohip's upcoming strategic plan. So, as a board team, we can all work together to formulate official board goals. Um, across all of the sessions that I attended, there's several themes that emerged consistently. The storytelling and voice matter at every level of the school community. Leadership requires courage, clarity, and willingness to engage in hard conversations. Governance and culture are deeply interconnected. and equity

061is a shared responsibility that must be reflected in both daily practices and strategic decisions. Um, another important reflections in the conference was the value of board members engaging in continued learning together. Conferences like triple I provide critical opportunities for growth, reflection, renewal and the governance work we do. Because all of our members of this schoolboard attended, they create a shared experience and a common language that can strengthen how we work together and how we move forward. Um, equally valuable was the opportunity to connect with board members from other districts across the state. Engaging in conversations with peers reinforced that many challenges and concerns we face are not unique to our district. Hearing how other boards are navigating similar issues helps normalize our experience, right? It's not like oh proviso. It's like okay this is happening

062everywhere. Um but it allows us to get to spark new ideas, create a sense of connection that we are not alone in this work. Uh I also attended the board president's roundt session which was especially impactful. That discussion highlighted how many of our concerns are shared statewide. Regardless of whether our districts are urban or rural, we all have similar issues. and being able to kind of do a board where everybody just shouted out what they want to talk about as like a board president and then we just kind of broke into different tables and it was definitely not long enough because you wanted to hit every table but you only had time for little conversation. Um but it also kind of highlighted the benefit of collaboration across different school districts and the importance of learning

063from one another's perspectives, strategies and experiences. Uh these opportunities for connection and shared learning strengthen the governance of school boards and remind us that effective board service is ongoing uh process of growth. Uh the sessions challenged me to think about how we communicate between each other between as a board with Mr. Oopic with our deputies, our staff, um, and also how we lead and how we can govern with greater intentionality. Moving forward, the opportunity lies in translating these little ideas into action. We're all sharing insights with leadership and different boards. We can identify a small number of very meaningful changes and continue to reflect on how our practices align with our mission. So ultimately the conference reinforced that strong schools are built through relationships, trust and a shared commitment to doing the work together. And

064I think the seven of us all had a lot of fun and it was a lot of sessions. I feel like we were together for four days but we barely saw each other. [laughter] So that's all I have. >> Thank you. [applause] Well, it wasn't the only You were not the only seven that were there. We had our me and the deputies also attended and now we're each going to take about 10 minutes to go through our [laughter] um but in the interest of time I there are some things I just want to highlight. Um most of you know this information because we put in weekly updates, but for the community that's listening, there's some things I just want to highlight. First, we had a tremendous um holiday tour, right? I thought that it was

065wellrun. I thought it was well organized and what I really appreciated was the administrators coming together, giving up their time to help and volunteer their time to help us run a successful tournament, but also to our board members, many of you who um who volunteered and volunteered several times. Um some of you were there the entire time. So, uh I really appreciate all of you because we could not have done that without you. And as I showed in the weekly update, we saved a significant amount of money compared to where we were last year to a tune of around $65,000. And we're able to run this tournament for less than 30. So we know the goal next year is to keep those fiscal restraints in place, but also increase participation and and bring some uh

066you know, more top talent to the to the tournament. I will say though, we did have some phenomenal athletes um that were there. For those of you that were able to watch the East St. Louis team play, um the High Park Academy team play, I mean, every team had some really some some some great standout athletes, but you know, especially from East St. Louis, I do think some of those athletes will be watching and following as they go into college and possibly into professional basketball. So, it's an exciting opportunity and so I again appreciate everybody and one, I'm glad it's past us, but two, uh we're working towards the next program already. that we've already debriefed. We're having conversations. We're reaching out to schools and we're just thinking about ways we can make this tournament

067stronger. Um something that Molly talked about or sorry board member Molinaro was around um some of the data points that they were talking about um as you were at the conference and freshman on track being something that you know we pay special attention to, but it's not just our freshmen that we're monitoring, it's all of our students. And so I have been celebrating the fact that um our fresh on track rates have risen over the last few years from 61% to currently districtwide we're at 87%. Um and that's due in part to the three gentlemen that are to my left and the work that our principles do to lead their staff. um >> two and a two and a half I don't know where um but the work they do and and it's not just

068our principles clearly because they're not teaching any classes um but they're ensuring that there's high quality instruction every single day for every child in our school district. So, when I look at our freshman on track numbers, looking at Proviso East, we're at 80.75. That's where we ended uh first semester, which is a significant improvement from where we were last year. But when I look at sophomore on track, we're at 84%. Uh our juniors are at 83% and our seniors are at 92.9%. So, great job Supervisor [applause] West, Proviso East. I'm sorry, I'm getting ahead of myself cuz I want to also celebrate Provisal West who has a freshman on track rate of 87.9. [applause] >> The sophomore on track is even stronger. It's actually the strongest in all of their years at 92.9%. [applause] Junior

069on track is at 88.34% and senior on track is at 91.1%. So, great job. [applause] Christians, assistant principles, deans, department chairs, teachers, students, families, everyone really truly coming together to make sure we're we're catching our students before they fail. And when they are failing, we're we're providing opportunities for them to to make up that not only that credit, but more importantly, the skill. Um, and then looking at freshman on track at PMSA, while has always been strong, we're still seeing increases there. Their freshman on track is at the highest we've seen with at 97.6% 6% of students on track. [applause] Sophomore is at the sophomores are at 99% of students on track. Not to be outdone by the juniors who are at 100% of juniors are on track and their seniors are at 99.18%. So

070again, tremendous work [applause] that our schools are doing and as I said our fresh on track right now is 87%. I keep harping on this because this is one this is one of the main drivers to show where our graduation rates should go. So, as we are at 87%, I still want to push that. You guys know me well enough to know that I'm never really that satisfied. Um, I do want to celebrate this incredible work, but I want to keep pushing us into the 90s. Um, it it really does help and part of this is a lot of the work that we've done to build MTSS systems, multiple tiered support systems within our schools. Um Dr. Kermas and Dr. Macintosh have really been leading this charge. We're having meetings on a weekly basis to

071talk about our students grades, attendance, and and behaviors. If you look, I think it was yesterday, there was a report that came out from the Chicago public schools that talked about, especially at middle and high schools, the importance of attendance. And so seeing where we are in attendance uh across the board, we're um Proviso East right now is at 89.6, Proviso West is at 90.2 and PMSA is at 94.7. So those are some, you know, significantly higher rates than where we've been. We want to be able to keep those rates so that all of our schools end the year um within the 90 percentile for attendance. So we are keeping a close track on that where it's something that we look at every day. We talk about every week and then we're building plans for

072our students that are off track. And then finally on attendance um I just again want to highlight principal principal Christian um and also the provisal west team when we looked at the state report card um we were leaders in the state right so when we looked at similar schools which would mean public schools non-chartered there's about 1,300 schools in the state of Illinois when we looked at the amount of chronic absentee reductions there was a 20 point reduction in proviso west last year we outperformed all but four schools in the entire state. When we looked at chronic pregnancy, we had a 27% or decrease which outperformed every single school in the state. AND SO [applause] bravo to that team, to the teachers, to families. It's [clears throat] it's great that we're able to be on

073that list to say that we've been able to reduce chronic absenteeism and chronic truency. But the the fact still remains is the reason that we're able to do that is because we did have some of the highest rates in the state, right? Not the highest, but some of the highest. And so, uh, we're going to continue to to to move down, continue to have every opportunity to try and and move these rates down. Um, we're still hovering around 50% of our students. That's where we ended last year that we're chronically chewing. Right now, we have about 35% of our students districtwide. um that are trending towards being offered, which means we still have an opportunity to catch them. Obviously, some students are over that 18-day threshold, but for those that aren't, you know, it's not

074that we haven't been working with them. We continue to work with them again through our MTSS team and then also through our partnership with PLCA where we have four case managers from each school. And so, you know, we did have a great relationship with um with the bishop who recently passed. Hopefully, some of you were able to celebrate him in some way, but you know, he was at the forefront of trying to support the work that we were doing and that work is going to continue in his absence. We'll still continue this and actually double down um increasing from four case managers last year to eight this year. And so we're we're making sure that those case managers have the space and time to really work with our students that are at home. So we

075expect to see greater things happen. Um moving on, I want >> Oh, sorry audience. But moving on, it will be Dr. Hill with our update on finances. [clears throat] Good evening everyone. Um, as of December, the midpoint of the fiscal year, six months, the district has received approximately $42.6 million in revenue. This only represents about 33% of our expected annual revenue for the year. And this is primarily due to the delays in the local tax distributions. Um they are anticipated but they have not yet all been received. As of today we received about 40% of what we were expected to receive. So we are tracking this um daily weekly. We're in constant communications with the town treasures office. uh many districts in West Hook and North Cook, you know, are getting together talking about resolutions

076as it relates to um the issues. Many are going to the state um level to talk about this as well. And as it relates to our expenditures, we are approximately 55.8 million um that we have expended thus far, which is about 46% of our adopted budget. and we are on track appropriately based on our operational needs. Are there any questions as it relates to the treasures report? Um, next up we have the bill list. Are there any questions pertaining to the bill list? Um when you take a look at the dental list, we just really focus on our day-to-day operations, transportation, food service, um because we have not yet received the bulk of that tax revenue, but we're just only paying the most important um vendors um at this point. >> That's incur late fees

077from doing that. >> We have been in communication with them and the bills are not 30 days yet. they're not now at towards the end of January we will be sending out um going back to paying the bills but again we're like $16 million you know in the hope and it's expected and so vendors most of our vendors are here in Illinois so they are familiar with you know the tax situation >> and so to you know credit to Dr. Hill and the team that the work that she's done over the years to be able to build up those reserves. Because of that, we were able to kind of make it through this uh somewhat of a self-inflicted emergency by Cook County. Um there were a lot of districts that were not there were districts

078in Cook County that went to tax warrants, meaning they had to take high interest loans just to pay their teachers. We did do a spending freeze here, however, um because we had no idea when we were going to be able to get our funding. And I know um there is still the concern like we know that money is starting to flow but there is still the concern for next time. >> Yes. And our is going through January. >> So we are in good shape to the work that this board has done and the previous board to make sure that we had that health reserve. Had we not have that we would have been you know incurring you know going to tax warrants selling investments early and increasing those you know and taking on penalties from

079that. So we have been on the both of us have been on separate meetings sometimes on the same meetings talking to other superintendents and others um some legislative groups around around the county and they've been collected information just hundreds of millions in missed income or fees that have been paid. So it is like nothing I've ever seen before and and hopefully nothing we ever have to experience again. >> All because the system doesn't work right. Is that essentially what I read? >> So that concludes superintendent report. Moving [clears throat] on to information items. Um so much of this you've heard before. Um this one was not presented at the committee the whole and this is just our typical purchase that we do every year. Um Mike Swanson would would normally be doing this. He's not

080in the district today. Um, but this is our yearly um expense cost to to provide additional laptops for our for our schools. Um, we're not able to buy 5,000 computers every single year, right? So, we do this in in a yearly installment. So, this year be looking to purchase about 1,400 student laptops. It's also time for about 150 staff laptops. He does have the um the cost was last year about $700 to $8,000. We're still negotiating prices right now. So, we're not at the point now where we're bringing an actual number to you. Um, at the next committee of the whole, we'll have hopefully we should have final polls for you and then we'll be able to present that. Are there any questions? >> Do we expect a large increase? >> Um, >> yes. Okay.

081You know, I think it just depends on where we're getting our computers from and what is also happening in our political climate. We do expect there to be some increase to some of the tariffs that [clears throat] >> and we work with a vendor like Dell to >> We do I don't know the name of the vendor, but I know one has several that he works with. Okay. >> Um and we do that to get best pricing. >> And then the older lap Oh, sorry. The older laptops, are they like donated or how are they recycled? >> Um, that is a good question. I know that we have recycled some. We've been able to recycle some. What we also are looking to do is see if we can give them to students or sell them

082to students for dollars as life cycle because you know a lot of times these people have been using these same four years. Really after four years you really don't have >> Yeah. Sell them for a dollar. Yeah. >> Yep. So he's looked at that. looked at recycle. >> It might be more than recycling. >> Yeah, because I know we've recycled much older equipment than in the past. Any other questions? >> Moving on, Liz. Dr. Alvarez will talk about the sports complex and our how we are advertising for targets. >> It's okay. We we did um advertise in December. It was late December when we sent it out for um any of the firms who were interested in being our architects. We received approximately like 26 firms reached out saying that they were very much interested.

083Um from there I then developed an RFQ which is the uh what you have with you there to request for qualifications in architectural services. Um Mr. Taylor and Mr. Mohip reviewed it as well to look at it. Um there is an aggressive timeline there. Uh so tomorrow the RFQ will be issued be sent out. February 6 will be the last day for any of the um once I send it send it out to all 26 who were interested um to see if they have any questions regarding the RFQ. So they have till February 6th. February 13th is the deadline for this submission. Oh, I also need to mention that um Mr. Douches re look at this as well too. So then we had legal eyes on this. Um February 18th is our uh like looking

084at a successful short list and unsuccessful firms to be notified. we will move into the week of February 23rd to do first rounds for a short list of firms to start interviewing and then the week of March 2nd looking at our final top three to then start interviewing them. Um March 10th would be the committee recommends something for uh affirm for the board and then on the 24th would be the board making an action. But my request here is that I do need one or two people from the board to be part of this committee. Um, as we start looking at firms and keeping in mind that starting on February 13th, submissions will be coming in and gives us only a short window to start creating a a short list and um getting rid of

085those who are not interested so that we can send out those emails. So, um, let me know >> you need to know which two board members that I imagine >> the sooner the better >> because this goes out tomorrow, but hopefully by um first week of February or so to committee members to be part of that um and and then we'll go from there. >> I have a question. Um, given that this is such a huge project and we received 26 firms that are interested, is is that pretty standard or were you guys expecting more interest or >> I was expecting less actually. I was I was a little surprised to see so many without the RFQ. >> Well, I did go around the conference and anybody who was an architect or an engineer, I

086was like, we got a big project coming. Mr. [laughter] Compo and I >> Right. >> So all of us were So yeah, that's probably why we were working. We were working. >> There were two firms at the town hall as well. Two architectural firms that showed up at the town hall. >> Um so I guess that day I thought there would be more. Um but the advertisement worked. >> Yeah. Yeah, >> but I you know I do think 26 is a solid representation of of the community. >> Um because not not every architecture company will work with schools, >> right? And so having 26 to choose from, you know, and you know, and with this RFQ process, they're going to have to also show us, >> you know, what work they've done specific to these

087types of projects in schools. So I think we will be able to have, you know, I think we'll I'm confident that we will be able to find the right architecture for for us. And the fact is if we go through this process and we don't there's nothing saying that we must choose one. We can go back out but you know with 26 people responding like it had been five. I'd be really worried >> with 26 that's a solid representation. >> And Dr. Alves what is the would the meetings for the committee be in the daytime evening time? I just want to make sure that the two board members are available >> probably during the working hours but [clears throat] I mean we could always adjust this. I just want to make sure that the expectations

088are set that if you're one of the two that you attend every meeting. >> Y >> and would the meetings be once a month? >> It's it's such a an aggressive timeline. >> So it it'll be we'll be done in March. So >> honest honestly it's going to be a matter of a meeting to look at all of the firms and then select those and then say which ones and then another meetings to say um you know to be part of the interviews. So it'll be during the weeks of February 23rd and March 2nd >> um or to you know kind of delegate who will be in those interviews and making sure if you can't make it like making sure these questions get asked. >> Okay. >> Yeah. And we are trying to be aggressive

089because if we you know this could turn into a four-year project >> and we want to we don't want that right. We want we know that it's it's granted funded by the state. There's a limited amount of time for us to access these funds. We don't want the political funding to change. >> So we want to start we want to start at least getting stakes in as quickly as >> and just so the board's aware and Dr. Alvarez has this in the document, but at this stage until you pick a firm, right, price is not a part of it. >> So, it's all about their qualifications, who can do the best work. Only once you select a firm to engage in negotiations that come about. So, keep that in mind if you're on the committee

090as well. >> Any other questions? >> All right, moving on. I know Alex is going to talk about this. I just want to frontload it by saying I'm extremely excited that we have designated February tw February 12th of 2027 to be a day that we are going to be able to do a townshipwide professional development opportunity for our schools. So the majority of foundational schools have agreed to the state. They're still working through it, but they know that this is the date that we're that we are landing on and the majority of them have also committed to that. Obviously, it still needs to go to their boards. Um, but the the idea around it and some of the changes that we've made to this since the last time we presented it to you is to

091is to get that February 12th date so we can start this provisal wide proviso township wide K12 event. So we're really excited about that. Alex, thank you. As stated, we did have our final meeting January 8th. So that was two days after our last time that we met on January 6th for the committee of the whole. There were just a couple of changes from from input. Uh one of which was a swap from so if you have your prior calendar but it's we had an institute day April 23rd of 2027. That institute day as Mr. Ro mentioned has been moved to February 12th of 2027. uh and that is in conjunction of of why of doing a provider of township as a whole uh institute day. We're very excited about that. Uh the other item

092you'll see is uh restoring or bring uh bring your parent to school day. So you'll see that on October 2nd of 2026 on their calendar. Uh committee members emphasized the importance of that of that day. So there was there was talk about it but uh we did end up bringing that back onto the calendar. Uh it is noted to a special thanks to our committee members. So in the audience right now is Miss Mikuel Stoodto. Not in attendance right now is Miss Jennifer Stampore, Miss Lauren Dei, Miss Anita Scupus, and Mr. Rodney Hull. So again, thank you to those members uh of your participation in that. Uh the other final changes, we did end up moving Casmmer Pilaski Day, uh I don't know if it was on that last one, but I made a note

093here from March 1st to February 26th. uh that's why you'll see up on the slide deck a note that we will have to have a public hearing on that since we are moving that day. It's one of the designated holidays from the state. And then lastly, there was a a lot of talk from the board around our institute day at the start of the second semester particularly for the 2728 uh calendar. We did end up keeping that institute day. After much discussion uh that we had around this with committee members, staff advocated strongly to keep that day to ensure a smooth start of the second semester, setting its value for instructional planning and just kind of easing into that second semester and how how much positive feedback they received from members. This does have a

094particular challenge for that 2728 calendar where we noted that students aren't returning back to school until Wednesday. We did explore that Monday uh there is noted as a holiday on your calendar. So it's that Monday in January of 2028. We do need that calendar there. Uh that date there due to the SEIU contract. That contract states that if a one of those holidays, I think there's there's 10 15 holidays in that contract falls on a holiday, falls on a weekend, I'm sorry, that then the holidays recognized on the Monday or Friday depending on where it falls and how it falls. So be willing to hear any more discussion. It is still information item if there's any other uh items that you noted, but since last we met, those were the uh updates that we made.

095>> Thank you. I appreciate you checking in. >> Thank you. That's what I thought it was. Right. >> Yeah. >> Any other questions? >> Moving on to summer school. >> Right. Summer school, as we referenced in our committee of the whole uh meeting on January 6th, uh just a week ago. Much of this is is still the same. I did uh include an updated uh listing of of the postings there. I think the only minor change that we did put on there, we did remove the facilitators. Uh this was a a position that uh we held that often would be a union member that would take on like a pseudo admin role. Uh we we did remove that. There's talk since we do have the four additional deans and we do have our assistant principles

096and principles that that duty would be shifting over to an administrator uh role. Uh so that was uh one change that was made. A couple notes if those that are listening or in the audience that weren't here on January 6th, uh we are shifting freshman uh credit recovery to an in-person live instruction model. So, I do want to make sure that we note that uh we analyze that semester 1 freshman data across all three campuses and we were uh trying to decide how many staff members to allocate based specifically on our semester 1 failures. So, report cards went out. Parents and families should have that. If they haven't received the USPS report card yet, that should be arriving shortly as well. So, paying particular attention to those numbers, knowing that our principles are each working

097very hard with their building administrative teams to recover any possible credits and working with teachers and working with students. Uh, but noting that that is the model that we're going to shift to, particularly for our freshmen. We also noted that we do have a credit recovery task force going on right now. We just had the third meeting uh last week uh hearing from a company called Edenum. Uh so we've heard from three companies now. Egenuity who is our current partner as one of them subject and edmentum. So that committee under the leadership of Dr. over here is uh taking a look at uh our credit recovery program and trying to analyze whether or not we want to stay with the current program or not. So taking that slowly to see whether or not that will

098impact summer or how that works but expect something to come soon as far as a recommendation to Mr. terminal if what we will do and how that will impact summer school and if we'll have enough time to make a shift if there is a recommended shift and how that looks for summer because it is a couple months away and it does it does take a little time of prep and and syncing and makeing all our data and everything is is all set for student wearing. Any questions? Next we have SAS um our renewal for SAS. I have Angela um Angela here who can answer any questions. I don't think she needs to run through all of these slides. Um we did it is highest rated one of the highest rating on ed reports. We shared

099information about Ed reports and why we believe it's a solid tool to use. It's also something that our teachers believed in and chose for our renewals to continue this program. But Angela's here to answer any questions you may have. No, >> no. >> Teacher and student approved. Good for me. [laughter] >> All right. So, thank you. >> Thank you. >> Next, we have Dr. Kerman. I don't know if we spend a lot of time talking about the EMS project, but if there any questions about that, she's here. You get all the points. Jen, >> I don't have any questions. >> This was for our Sunday. >> Yeah. request action on this next month. If you have any any questions later [snorts] >> and this also is presented at the whole this is our academic approach

100for CT prep something have been doing over the years. Um are there any questions about our approach here? Wonderful. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So, that brings our We actually are not doing that audit. That brings our information items to a close and then [clears throat] up next our approval items. We're happy to speak through any of these approval items. As you as a reminder, we talked about these through our weekly updates in our committees as a whole in our regular board of education meetings. But again, if there are any final questions before you do the vote, we're happy to answer. >> Perfect. Are board members ready for approval? >> Yes. Item 13. I have a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation for Baker Hill to conduct a systematic and independent examination of the district's books,

101account statutory records, documents, and vouchers as presented. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Uh any questions? Smith, please call. Miss Malino. >> Hi. >> Mrs. Hixon absent. Mr. O' Campell. >> Hi. >> Miss Morris absent. Dr. Fischer. >> Hi. >> Miss Barbin. >> I. >> Miss Smith. I motion car. >> Item 14. May have a motion to approve revised board of education policy 260. Board member removed from office as presented. >> So second, >> please call. >> Miss Malino. >> I miss. Mr. Campbell. >> Hi, >> Miss Morris. Absent. Dr. Fisher. >> Hi, >> Miss Barberham. >> Hi, >> Miss Smith. I motion carried. >> Item 15. May I have a motion to approve revise board of education policy 2155, student representatives elected to the board of education as presented. So, >> second call, please.

102>> Miss Melano, >> I. >> Mrs. Hixon, absent. >> Mr. Campbell, >> hi. Miss Morris absent. Dr. Fisher. >> Hi. >> Miss Barbraham. >> Hi. >> Miss Smith. I motion. >> Item 16. I have a motion to approve press plus issue 120 and all policy and administrative procedure additions, deletions, revisions, and edits contained therein as presented. >> So move. >> Second. >> Please call the role. >> Miss Melano. >> I. >> Mr. Tixson absent. Mr. O'N. >> Hi. Miss Morris absent. Dr. Fisher >> hi. >> Miss Barberhead. >> I miss Smith. I motion carries. >> May I have a motion to direct the administration to collaborate with the real food collective to apply for the USDA farm to school grant as presented? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Please call. M. Malin. >> I. Mrs.

103Nixon. Absent. >> Mr. O'N. >> Hi. >> Mr. Morris. Absent. Dr. Fischer. >> Hi. >> Miss Barbin. Hi. Smith I motion carried. >> Item 18. May I have a motion to approve May I have a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation for the purchase of 20 real care baby simulators and a secure charging and storage cart for proviso west early childhood program in the amount of $37476.40 as presented. >> So moved. >> Please call the role. Miss Melano. >> Hi. >> Miss Dixon absent. Mr. Campbell. >> Hi. >> Miss Morris. Absent. Dr. Fischer. >> Hi. >> Min. >> I Smith. Motion carried. Item 18. May I have a motion to approve the superintendent's recommendation to utilize one one $100,160 in grant funds for summer curriculum wring work to be paid to selected staff members via

104stipens who participate in that work as presented. >> So moved. Second, >> please call the role. >> Miss Melanero, >> I Mrs. Hickman, absent. Mr. O' Cample, >> I. >> Miss Morris, absent. Dr. Fisher, >> hi. >> Miss Barbin, >> I miss I. Motion carries. >> Item 20. May I have a motion to adopt the minutes of the December 9th, 2025 board meeting? >> So, second, >> please call RO. >> Miss Malinero. >> Hi. >> Miss Hicken, absent. Mr. Pample. >> Hi, >> Miss Morris. Dr. Fisher. >> Hi, Miss Smith. Motion carried. >> Item 21. May I have a motion to approve the bill as submitted to the board and dated January 13th, 2026 in the amount of 7,870,447.35. >> So move. >> Second, please call the roll. Miss, >> absent. >> Mr. Hi, Miss

105Hi. Miss Baron >> I miss I motion carries. >> Item 22. May I have a motion to approve the January 13th, 2026 personnel report including the hiring, resignation, separations, typen positions and le of absences as presented. >> So moved >> second miss >> I miss Pixon absent. Mr. Okampi >> Miss Morris absent Dr. Fer. Hi, Mrs. Smith. Motion carry. Miss Smith, can you please read the foyer reports into the record between December 5th, 2025 and January 8th, 2026? There have been eight foyer requests received by the district. Those foyer requests were submitted by Rachel Espazito, Owen Wayne, Max Bennington, Travis Tahar, and Sherry Reed. Five of those requests have been fully responded to by the district in accordance with the Illinois Freedom of Information Act and three are in process due to their time of

106submitt. >> Thank you. Was there any old business? >> New business. May I have a motion to adjourn? >> Move. Second. All in favor? I >> Thank you.